Introducing: Cosmos Book Club Substack Newsletter

We're back in action!

Happy Lunar New Year and Year of the Tiger to all those who celebrate!

For folks who are new, hi there, and thanks for being here! My name is Ina and I've been running the Cosmos Book Club since 2020. Previously, Carolyn held the helm and started the whole thing. We’re affiliated with The Cosmos, an organization run by Karen and Cassandra that creates community-centered content and experiences for Asian women in America (support their GoFundMe here).

Now that we’re fully in 2022 in the Gregorian and lunar calendar, it’s about time that the Cosmos Book Club debuted on Substack. Thank you all for your patience and understanding as the Book Club went into a hibernation period this past holiday season — which really should be from Thanksgiving to the Lunar New Year — it was an intentional time off to relax, recharge, and reflect. And from this period we emerged refreshed and ready for a year of reading ahead of us.

Last year, we had read some good books, organized two book giveaways, had five virtual gatherings (including one in partnership with AAWW), hosted a backyard book swap, and did an experimental reading group where we read ‘The Loneliest Americans’ together with some 80+ folks and asked tough questions. THANK YOU all for showing up and supporting us — we couldn’t have done this without you.

This year, I want to continue what we were able to accomplish last year, be more intentional about the books we read. I want our events and content to inspire you all to discover what reading means to you. I want to expand the genres we read to include sci-fi and poetry (as examples), include authors from all Asian cultures, include a wide range of narratives (YA? Romance? Thriller? Open to suggestions), and showcase new authors and seasoned writers alike. I also want us to all have fun — I’m aware that in the past we’ve often read brilliant books that explore generational and family trauma and those can be a bit heavy, especially as we enter *deep breath* the third year of the pandemic.

And with the opening of Yu and Me Book, the first female-owned Asian-American bookstore in NYC located in historical Manhattan Chinatown, we’re hoping to organize some in-person events as well.

What do you want to see the Cosmos Book Club do? What books are you excited to read this year? Drop us a note and share your thoughts, we’d love to hear from you all.

We also have good content queued up for you — please enjoy these micro-reviews by our community members, Lauren Brooks, and Nichole Zhao. I’ve also re-published past micro-reviews and author Q&As, so give them a read if you missed them from before. If you’re interested in writing a review for us, please fill out this form.

Micro Review: Daphne Palasi Andreades's 'Brown Girls'

Micro Review: Pik-Shuen Fung’s 'Ghost Forest'

As for me, I’ll keep trying to read 52 books this year (inspired by community member Nicole Zhu, who talks about her #52Books52Week experience and her favorite books of 2021).

I’m personally excited to dive into the following:

• Fiona and Jane, by Jean Chen Ho

• The School For Good Mothers, by Jessamine Chan

• Intimacies, by Katie Kitamura

• Beautiful Country, by Qian Julie Wang

• Disorientation, by Elaine Hsieh Chou (pre-order for March 22)

• To Paradise, by Hanya Yanagihara (anyone 👀 the discourse around this? 🍵)

If you need some inspiration, author R.O. Kwon has a good list of books by women of color that are coming out in 2022.

*Note: Book links are connected to Yu and Me Books’ BookShop affiliate page. If you purchase a book from there, you'll be supporting them.

Until next time, happy reading!

Ina

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*If you’ve already received a version of this email, please bear with me as I figure out how to use Substack — thank you for your patience.