Tag Archives: Book Discussion

Q & T Community Book Club – April Meeting

What is it?

This a virtual book club that meets to discuss writing from different genres written by and/or about LGBTQ+ people. This is a space book club for open discussion, literary analysis, political discourse, and chatting centering on exciting contemporary and older books. The book list is still in formation (share your book recommendations by joining), however, we will be reading literary fiction, history, fantasy, sci-fi, romance, and more.

This is a Q & T program run through Word Up Community Bookshop/Librería Comunitaria and facilitated by Memphis Washington.

REGISTER HERE

We’ll send you the zoom information once you are signed up!

Schedule

When: Every last Tuesday of the Month @ 7pm

Where: Zoom (register to receive the link)

Each book is discussed once in a monthly session.

April Meeting Information:

When & Where: Tuesday, April 25th at 7pm on Zoom

ReadingWhat Happened to Ruthy Ramirez by Claire Jimenez

Facilitators: Memphis Washington

Discussion Questions & Topics (more details to come)

  • What do you think of the reality TV show parts (Catfight)?
  • How does each character’s experience of being a mother and/or a daughter affect their perspective of what happened to Ruthy?
  • Discuss the ways that each woman attempts to heal, and protect themselves.

These are only meant to start the conversation. There may be some special conversations or activities for this month! Also, please come up with your own questions and bookmark passages you might want to discuss! Content warnings below the “About the Author Section”

 

About What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez


A powerful debut novel that’s “hilarious, heartbreaking, and ass-kicking” (Jamie Ford), of a Puerto Rican family in Staten Island who discovers their long‑missing sister is potentially alive and cast on a reality TV show, and they set out to bring her home.

The Ramirez women of Staten Island orbit around absence. When thirteen‑year‑old middle child Ruthy disappeared after track practice without a trace, it left the family scarred and scrambling. One night, twelve years later, oldest sister Jessica spots a woman on her TV screen in Catfight, a raunchy reality show. She rushes to tell her younger sister, Nina: This woman’s hair is dyed red, and she calls herself Ruby, but the beauty mark under her left eye is instantly recognizable. Could it be Ruthy, after all this time?

The years since Ruthy’s disappearance haven’t been easy on the Ramirez family. It’s 2008, and their mother, Dolores, still struggles with the loss, Jessica juggles a newborn baby with her hospital job, and Nina, after four successful years at college, has returned home to medical school rejections and is forced to work in the mall folding tiny bedazzled thongs at the lingerie store.

After seeing maybe‑Ruthy on their screen, Jessica and Nina hatch a plan to drive to where the show is filmed in search of their long‑lost sister. When Dolores catches wind of their scheme, she insists on joining, along with her pot-stirring holy roller best friend, Irene. What follows is a family road trip and reckoning that will force the Ramirez women to finally face the past and look toward a future—with or without Ruthy in it.

What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez is a vivid family portrait, in all its shattered reality, exploring the familial bonds between women and cycles of generational violence, colonialism, race, and silence, replete with snark, resentment, tenderness, and, of course, love.

About the Author

Claire Jiménez is a Puerto Rican writer who grew up in Brooklyn and Staten Island. She is the author of the short story collection Staten Island Stories, which received the 2019 Hornblower Award for a first book from the New York Society Library and was named a finalist for the International Latino Book Awards, a New York Public Library Favorite Book about New York, and Best Latino Book of 2019 by NBC News. She received her MFA from Vanderbilt University and her PhD from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. In 2020, she cofounded the Puerto Rican Literature Project, a digital archive. Currently she is an Assistant Professor of English and African American Studies at the University of South Carolina. Her fiction, essays, and reviews have appeared in RemezclaAfroHispanic ReviewPANKThe Rumpus, and Eater, among other publications. What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez is her debut novel.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please share them with Memphis at QNTCommunity@gmail.com


Content Warnings: explicit language, violence, discussion of bodily fluids, racism, misogyny, alcohol and drug usage

Q & T Community Book Club – March Meeting

This a virtual book club that meets to discuss writing from different genres written by and/or about LGBTQ+ people. This is a space book club for open discussion, literary analysis, political discourse, and chatting centering on exciting contemporary and older books. The book list is still in formation (share your book recommendations by joining), however, we will be reading literary fiction, history, fantasy, sci-fi, romance, and more.

This is a Q & T program run through Word Up Community Bookshop/Librería Comunitaria and facilitated by Memphis Washington.

REGISTER HERE

We’ll send you the zoom information once you are signed up!

Schedule

When: Every last Tuesday of the Month @ 7pm

Where: Zoom (register to receive the link)

Each book is discussed once in a monthly session.

March Meeting Information:

When & Where: Tuesday, March 28th at 7pm on Zoom

ReadingWash Day Diaries by Jamila Rowser, illustrated by Robyn Smith

Facilitators: TJ Alexander (local author) and Memphis Washington

Discussion Questions & Topics:

  • What are the ways that you take care of yourself? How do you take care of others? Who takes care of you?
  • What do you think about the way the characters interact with their friends?
  • What does community protection look like?

These are only meant to start the conversation. Please come up with your own questions and bookmark passages you might want to discuss! Content warnings below the “About the Author Section”

About Wash Day Diaries 

From writer Jamila Rowser and artist Robyn Smith comes a captivating graphic novel love letter to the beauty and endurance of Black women, their friendships, and their hair.

Wash Day Diaries tells the story of four best friends—Kim, Tanisha, Davene, and Cookie—through five connected short story comics that follow these young women through the ups and downs of their daily lives in the Bronx.

The book takes its title from the wash day experience shared by Black women everywhere of setting aside all plans and responsibilities for a full day of washing, conditioning, and nourishing their hair. Each short story uses hair routines as a window into these four characters’ everyday lives and how they care for each other.

Jamila Rowser and Robyn Smith originally kickstarted their critically acclaimed, award-winning slice of life mini comic, Wash Day, inspired by Rowser’s own wash day ritual and their shared desire to see more comics featuring the daily lived experiences of young Black women. Wash Day Diaries includes an updated, full color version of this original comic—which follows Kim, a 26-year-old woman living in the Bronx—as the book’s first chapter and expands into a graphic novel with short stories about these vibrant and relatable new characters.

In expanding the story of Kim and her friends, the authors pay tribute to Black sisterhood through portraits of shared, yet deeply personal experiences of Black hair care. From self-care to spilling the tea at an hours-long salon appointment to healing family rifts, the stories are brought to life through beautifully drawn characters and different color palettes reflecting the mood in each story.

At times touching, quiet, triumphant, and laugh out loud funny, the stories of Wash Day Diaries pay a loving tribute to Black joy and the resilience of Black women.

About the Author and Illustrator

Jamila Rowser is a Black, Puerto Rican, and Dominican award-winning writer who enjoys creating comics for Black women. She also publishes comics by and for women of color and non-binary people of color through Black Josei Press. Jamila was featured, along with Robyn Smith, in Adweek’s 2021 Creative 100 as a creator to follow. Jamila lives in Miami but reps the Bronx. You can find her detangling her hair, reading manga, and doting on her two cats Sage and Sapphire.

Robyn Smith is a Jamaican cartoonist known for illustrating DC Comics’ Nubia: Real One (written by L.L. McKinney) and her mini-comic The Saddest Angriest Black Girl in Town. She has an MFA from the Center for Cartoon Studies and has worked on comics for College Humor and The Nib. She loves cake and cats and holds onto dreams of returning home to the ocean.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please share them with Memphis at QNTCommunity@gmail.com


Content Warnings: depression, ableism, dementia, queerphobia, a stalking/abusive ex, alcohol and marijuana usage