Nooroongji Book Club
Hey bookworms! Join us for the Nooroongji Book Club, where we'll explore hidden literary gems in a cozy bookstore setting after hours.
Select date and time
Location
After hours entrance to the Net Loft is through the EAST(Alimentaria) side door only.
1666 Johnston Street Net Loft building, Granville Island Vancouver, BC V6H 3S2 CanadaRefund Policy
Agenda
6:00 PM - 6:30 PM
Doors open, set-up, and mingling
6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
Discussion begins
8:00 PM - 8:30 PM
Next book selection and wind-down
About this event
Join us for an intimate evening with fellow readers. The theme of our books will vary by month, always with a mind to forwarding uncommon international works that will nourish and enrich our understanding of the world and each other.
On November 29th we will gather to discuss Ryder by Djuna Barnes:
From the author of Nightwood, Djuna Barnes has written a book that is all that she was, and must still be vulgar, beautiful, defiant, witty, poetic, and a little mad.
Told as through a kaleidoscope, the chronicle of the Ryder family is a bawdy tale of eccentricity and anarchy; through sparkling detours and pastiche, cult author Djuna Barnes spins an audacious, intricate story of sexuality, power, and praxis.
It was a sweet spring morning, once upon a time, many, many, many years ago, when the two women, Amelia de Grier and Kate-Careless, went, as nature would have it (there being nothing new under the sun), upon their four feet to do up the dirty mess, and damn their infinitesimal-lime-squirting-never-stop-for-consideration-of-a woman cloacae (and she with the backache and the varicose veins climbing her legs), or whatever-you-call-the-backsides-of-a-pigeon, and to look into the matter of the eggs and casualties.
—An excerpt
Our book club costs $5 + fees. Come prepared to engage in lively intellectual discussions, exchange recommendations, and meet fellow booklovers. Let's dive deep into the world of hidden and international literary gems together. See you there!
Djuna Barnes in New York, October 1914
“I’m not a lesbian, I just loved Thelma.” What did the modernist author Djuna Barnes mean by this? And why has this quote – in which the elderly Barnes managed to sound both closeted and confessional – become one of her best-known statements?
Barnes’s refusal to turn her love for the silverpoint artist Thelma Wood into a signifier of her identity has sometimes frustrated readers who seek to celebrate her as a major lesbian voice in 20th-century literature, while others have seized upon her statement to undermine attempts to “claim” Barnes as a lesbian writer.
Past Nooroongji Book Club Picks:
Nov 2023: The Guest Cat, by Takashi Hiraide
Dec 2023: The Wall, by Marlen Haushofer
Jan 2024: Difficult Loves, by Italo Calvino
Feb 2024: All Your Children, Scattered, by Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse
Mar 2024: Kim Ji Young Born 1982, by Cho Nam Joo
Apr 2024: The Inhumans and Other Stories, Edited by Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay
May 2024: Her Body and Other Parties, by Carmen Maria Machado
Jun 2024: How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, by Mohsin Hamid
Jul 2024: Victory City, by Salman Rushdie
Aug 2024: An Apprenticeship, Or The Book of Pleasures, by Clarice Lispector
Sept 2024: The Love of Singular Men, by Victor Heringer
October 2024: Coexistence, by Billy-Ray Belcourt
Frequently asked questions
You can get a refund up to 1 day before the event! Eventbrite's fee may not be refundable.
Because space is limited, we cannot accommodate unregistered guests. Each ticket = entry for one person.
We usually have a little something-something. We're keeping this book club alcohol-free. There is a filtered water fountain in the building. Feel free to bring noshables for yourself or to share if you'd like!
No, but if you show your book club registration at our checkout counter you will receive 10% off our next book club book.
Absolutely. You are most welcome to join us.
We've found our discussions most enriching when everyone has read or at least made some progress on the books we read. Please consider checking out the Nooroongji Social Club instead!
Not firmly, but recommended for adults. Follow us for future events open to children and teens!
Hang tight! We will announce the following month's book after each meeting.