May Roundup: Recommendations from the Badass Women's Book Club
Happy May! So excited to share all these awesome recommendations with you! Check out what your fellow Badass Women’s Book Club members have been reading, watching, doing and listening to!
What We’re Reading…
Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud and the Last Trial of Harper Lee by Casey Cep. The Badass Women really seem to love true crime (stay tuned for some recommendations on those books coming soon!) and this one reads like a super extended episode of “Law and Order” with equal attention to the crimes and Lee herself. Bonus for any readers in the Northern Virginia area – the author will be at Bards Alley Bookstore on May 30th. More info here. If you can’t see the author in person you can check out this interview with her, courtesy of the NYT Book Review.
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist and Our Lives Revealed by Lori Gottlieb. For someone like me whose favorite daily read is the newspaper’s advice column, this was a must-read! You’ll definitely want to check it out before Eva Longoria turns it into a series on ABC!
All the 2020 candidate biographies. Not! (Srsly, I don’t have that much time! But a book club in Iowa apparently does!) The Iowa 2020 Book Club plans to read all the candidate biographies and talk to each author. Ambitious! (But maybe also a responsible Iowa caucus voter plan?!) In the meantime, I am eager to check out Vote Her In: Your Guide to Electing Our First Woman President, a new book by Rebecca Sive. I loved Sive’s earlier book, Every Day is Election Day: A Woman’s Guide to Winning Any Office, from the PTA to the White House.
What We’re Watching…
Knock Down the House, a Netflix film that follows the true story of four women who ran for Congress in the 2018 midterms. All the election energy reminded me of our October book, Charlotte Walsh Likes to Win. If you enjoyed that book you’ll be excited to know that it’s being turned into an Amazon series starring Julia Roberts!
Speaking of elections, can you believe the movie Election (starring Reese Witherspoon and Matthew Broderick) is twenty years old this year? The movie remains a favorite of mine so I really enjoyed this ode to the endearing badass-ness of Tracey Flick.
“Dead to Me”, a new series on Netflix that stars Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini. The premise – two women who meet at a grief support group and become friends – did not initially seem intriguing. But a BAWBC member suggested this review and I was hooked! The show definitely delivers with an intricately woven plot line of deep pain, a budding friendship, and a (not-so) subtle mystery. I also enjoyed this podcast interview with the two stars – especially their tips on handling rejection (turns out that’s something even successful actors know something about!).
What We’re Doing…
Bossing Up! I was excited to host a recent discussion with Emilie Airies, author of the new book Bossed Up: A Grown Woman’s Guide to Getting Your Sh*t Together. The book has lots of great personal and professional advice for how to be the leader of your own life. Emilie has several more stops on her tour – check here to see if she’s coming to a community near you!
Checking out all the graduation photos! (How did these kids grow up so fast???) College, high school, law school, or kindergarten - I love giving books for graduation gifts! I pulled some of my favorites together in this guide. (Spoiler alert – I’m giving lots of copies of Abby Wambaugh’s Wolfpack)
What We’re Listening to…
This TED talk by Nora McInerny, author of No Happy Endings and the host of the podcast Terrible, Thanks for Asking. It’s an honest (and surprisingly uplifting) look at loss and coping. If this topic is of interest to you (and/or someone you care about who is struggling with these issues) I highly recommend checking out The Widowed Parent Podcast by one of our own Badass Women’s Book Club members, Jenny Lisk. Jenny’s turning her grief into action and bringing resources, experts and advice to those who are single parenting after the loss of a spouse.
More about battling imposter syndrome with this podcast interview of Sarah Goldberg who plays Sally on HBO’s “Barry”. (I love that show, FYI. But my favorite character is not a badass woman – it’s the lovable Chechen mobster, NoHo Hank. I’d like to think he’s a badass woman ally, despite his obvious resentment of badass Burmese crime boss, Esther).
What’s Coming Up…
Our June book is Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity and Love by Dani Shapiro. You can get your copy here.
I’m always interested in what you’re reading, watching, doing and listening to! Feel free to drop me a line at hello@badasswomensbookclub.com.
Until next time…keeping being a badass!