Hello hello! It’s the longest month of the year (IMO), and I hope yours is going well, or at least pretty okay, so far. I’m writing to let you know that we are re-launching Talk Vomit’s book club next month (!!). It will look a bit different than years past, but we’re hoping that’s for the better.
The tl;dr:
We’re reading Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata, which is available for purchase here.
From the Bookshop description:
Convenience Store Woman is the heartwarming and surprising story of thirty-six-year-old Tokyo resident Keiko Furukura. Keiko has never fit in, neither in her family, nor in school, but when at the age of eighteen she begins working at the Hiiromachi branch of "Smile Mart," she finds peace and purpose in her life. In the store, unlike anywhere else, she understands the rules of social interaction--many are laid out line by line in the store's manual--and she does her best to copy the dress, mannerisms, and speech of her colleagues, playing the part of a "normal" person excellently, more or less. Managers come and go, but Keiko stays at the store for eighteen years. It's almost hard to tell where the store ends and she begins. Keiko is very happy, but the people close to her, from her family to her coworkers, increasingly pressure her to find a husband, and to start a proper career, prompting her to take desperate action...
We’ll be meeting at 8 p.m. on February 16 (a Thursday), and everyone is invited. Also, it’s free. The meeting will include a chat thread on Substack and a live Zoom. If you decide to join us, you don’t have to participate in both; that’s up to you! Feel free to bring snacks, bevs, your cats, your boyfriend, or your mom!
And since we’re here, I’ll add an evergreen reminder that we are open to submissions ahead of our April 1 print and online edition.
That’s all. Happy Friday. Toodles!