Nerd Girls Book Club

April 2020 Welcome and Book Club Pick

April 01, 2020

By Catherine

Does anyone else feel like they might have fallen asleep reading I am Legend after eating way too much late night pizza? The world is such a mess. For those of us with anxiety, every day is a new kind of challenge, and for those of us without it, our empathy has never been higher. For me, I have been alternating my reading between the very serious Educated and the very fantasy House of Earth and Blood. Books offer that familiar, typically comforting escape for when the real world is just… too much.

This month, we’re embracing dystopia (for better or worse) by reading Kim Ligget’s The Grace Year. We’ll also chat about book problems, and which reads we love despite their wrinkles. Then, Jane will deep dive into Celeste Ng’s Little Fires Everywhere. Speaking of, have you seen Kerry Washington as Mia in the Hulu series yet? She’s amazing!.

Read along with our April book club pick, The Grace Year, and as always, join the discussion on Facebook and follow us on Instagram @nerdgirlsbookclub!

April Book Club Pick

A cover of the grace year, with the quote, "It feels like freedom, but we know it's a lie. This is how they break us. They take everything away, our very dignity, and anything we get in return feels like a gift."

From Macmillan

No one speaks of the grace year. It’s forbidden.

In Garner County, girls are told they have the power to lure grown men from their beds, to drive women mad with jealousy. They believe their very skin emits a powerful aphrodisiac, the potent essence of youth, of a girl on the edge of womanhood. That’s why they’re banished for their sixteenth year, to release their magic into the wild so they can return purified and ready for marriage. But not all of them will make it home alive.

Sixteen-year-old Tierney James dreams of a better life—a society that doesn’t pit friend against friend or woman against woman, but as her own grace year draws near, she quickly realizes that it’s not just the brutal elements they must fear. It’s not even the poachers in the woods, men who are waiting for a chance to grab one of the girls in order to make a fortune on the black market. Their greatest threat may very well be each other.

With sharp prose and gritty realism, The Grace Year examines the complex and sometimes twisted relationships between girls, the women they eventually become, and the difficult decisions they make in-between.

Keep safe out there,

The Nerd Girls