If you’re a long haul Magpie, you might remember a short-lived in-person book club I hosted in Sheep Meadow in Central Park (and occasionally at the apartments of my glittering and fabulous creative friends, Inslee and Alison) in 2018. The conversations were rich; the friendships ran deep. We one time had the author of the book we were reading call in to the book club, and I still get butterflies thinking about it. It was stitched-together and informal — picnic blankets, paper cups of rose, a famous author crackling through my speaker phone while bikers whizzed by — but also one of those lighting-in-a-bottle arrangements you couldn’t recreate if you tried, with thoughtful readers from all different fields and backgrounds showing up robed in fascinating readings of the texts we’d chosen. I occasionally receive emails from these book club members and we always wax poetic about those nights in the field, and the earnestness with which everyone approached the books and the discourses around them.
I want to recreate elements of that experience, but for more Magpies — and I want to start simple, with the hope that this will evolve into something greater and more rich as time goes on. For now, let’s pick a book and try to read it by the 15th of the following month. I’ll be sharing thoughts, reading questions, conversation prompts as we make our way through, and you can arrive in the comments on the 15th ready to discuss. My thought is that some of you might use this cadence for your own in-person gatherings, too — and I can help by providing reading questions, possible menus, playlists, and other fun add-ons. Sort of a book club in a box vibe?
As I get more organized, I have lots of ambitious thoughts. Can we interview the authors here? Can we do a big Zoom conversation at some point? Can I find a well-read gal / celebrity and unpack the book with her on camera? Can we create our own rating systems? Etc etc etc! Suggestions and ideas welcome, as always.
For this month’s book club, we are reading Charlotte McConaghy’s Wild Dark Shore, which I would describe as a literary suspense.
Book jacket copy:
“A family on a remote island. A mysterious woman washed ashore. A rising storm on the horizon.
Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny island not far from Antarctica. Home to the world’s largest seed bank, Shearwater was once full of researchers, but with sea levels rising, the Salts are now its final inhabitants. Until, during the worst storm the island has ever seen, a woman mysteriously washes ashore.”
I am one quarter in and deeply impressed. The writing is poetic and rich, and I am enjoying the genre throttle: it feels at points like allegory, but reads like a juicy and compelling thriller. I know many Magpies have read and raved about this as one of the best books of 2025. You’ve got to join me!
1) what you’re reading right now;
2) what’s next in your TBR pile;
3) how you’d describe yourself as a reader, in AIM handle format, and feel free to be playful or serious — examples might be: repeatreader, hockeysmutgal233, oneofthemarchgirls, etc! Mine would be badbookgirl15 — the 15 is a wink to my actual erstwhile AIM handle, SmileyJen15, because I was 15 when I created it. LOL. More on being a bad book girl here, and below, via my Instagram account!
Post-Scripts.
+You can buy your own bad book girl hat here!
+Version 2.0 of anything is a good thing.
+My most popular book review. I cannot believe how many people have found this post on the Internet. You know what’s funny? Sometimes I’ve cheekily joked about how un-useful an advanced degree in literature is (of course I really believe it’s essential to my way of being), but the fact that — across all my thousands of posts — a book review has garnered the most interest from the outside world sort of makes a powerful point. Like, maybe I did learn something there. Thank you, Georgetown University.
+If you could go back to school, what would you study?
Shopping Break.
+I have a few events coming up next week and just did a big order at Shopbop to simplify. I’ll do a try-on and share next week in a blog post? I ordered these linen pants and this matching top, this butter-yellow SEA blouse, this Alemais mini, and this skirt. Shopbop makes returns so incredibly easy…
+I wore this under-$150 dress to cocktails with friends this week! So into crochet right now! A Magpie reader saw me wearing this (seen here) and shared that J. Crew Factory has a very similar style out now for under $60!
+My favorite counter spray. I have several of the scents and I think my favorite is Mayfair, with Doheny Drive as a close second. This is silly to write but using it gives me a Nancy Meyers kitchen vibe.
+Speaking of home care, a Magpie reader alerted me to the fact that our favorite vacuum is 20% off! We have had ours since our early NYC days and are obsessed with it. My mom bought one on my rec and loves it, too.
+It’s a butter yellow summer. I ordered these VB jeans. I own them in brown, too, and they are SO good. Rigid denim, fyi — take your true size if you are wearing mainly for events/occasion. For everyday wear, I’d go a size up and have them fit a little more loosely.
+Yellow denim looks for less here and here.
+One thought on styling the yellow jeans: a fun little white top like this (or this — $29!, this, this), this sandals (look for less here), a raffia tote, and fun earrings (look for less here).
+Sweetest girls’ sandals — omg.
+Monogrammable pique tissue box covers! Such a chic little bathroom / nightstand upgrade. They also have pique shower curtains — a Matouk vibe but less $.
+Inslee’s new ladybug prints are so charming.
+Love a bold statement pant — these and these are FUN.
+Just restocked my son’s boxer-briefs — these were so cute! (I also keep waiting for a restock on these ones from Quince.)
+Speaking of Quince: new summer colors in their woven bag (the sage is sooo good) and a great summer staple for a woman in a more traditional work environment. Meanwhile, doesn’t this feel like want you want to throw on while barefoot and sipping iced tea this summer?
+Drooling over this vase.
+Pretty summer lingerie.
+This lip liner in the color desert rose is one of my favorite beauty products. The consistency!! Glides on so easily and such a gorgeous everyday color — your lips but better.
+ICYMI: some of the Dorsey paracord necklaces are available for pre-order again!
This post may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase through the links above, I may receive compensation.
So excited for book club!
I’m reading We Were the Lucky Ones, which is fascinating and great storytelling, but I feel like I’m reading it as the peeking emoji bc I’m not sure I’m up for reading about WWII atrocities right now!
Next up – possibly The Blue Hour, or maybe something like an Agatha Christie if I need comfort reading after Lucky Ones.
I’ll make my reader AIM handle PlaceHold98 after my fav button on the library website 😉 Speaking of which – can I humbly request a backlist title for book club from time to time, for those of us who mainly use the library and are languishing on the holds list for new books like WDS?
Currently reading “This Strange Eventful Hostory” by Claire Messud
TBR pile is so long don’t think I will ever finish it in my lifetime because I keep adding to it. “Wild Dark Shores” , “ Rebel Empresses”
FreeLibraryWhore16
CWbookstorefestival16
Readseverything16
(1) Reading “Why We Sleep” – haven’t gotten to the answer yet, ha!
(2) Next will be Wild Dark Shore !
(3) xodarkntwistyxo – the dark and twisty because I do find myself gravitating toward more serious/dark novels and then also love a good twisty thriller. The xo because (1) it’s a nod to my own AIM screen name (xomolls711xo) and (2) because I love an Emily Henry etc. every once in a while!
>Current Read: The Colony Club – a cute historical fiction about a female architect in NYC at the turn of the century.
>Next Read: Iron Lake by William Kent Krueger
>PaperCopyPlease13 – My preference is always for the physical copy of a book, and 13 is my lucky number
My current read is Wish You Were Here by Jess K Hardy, Next in my tbr pile is One Golden Summer.
I am currently reading The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton. It won the Booker Prize a while back. I’m reading it because I read her more recent Birnam Wood and loved it. The Luminaries is very interesting, I’ve never read anything like it. But it is a doorstopper and hard to keep up with all the plot threads. I just finished The Favorites which is sort of like Daisy Jones and the Six set in the world of Olympic Ice Dancing – extremely fun read.
Next I want to read Careless People, the memoir from a woman who worked at Facebook, which I’ve heard is wild.
AMI handle: half&halfreader (half serious reads, half ‘bad’ books)
I’m skipping Wild Dark Shore because I am frankly not up for anything with apocalyptic-adjacent themes at this point. But I love the idea of a Magpie book club and will catch the next one!
Hi Mia! I also loved Birnam Wood – it was so different. But I couldn’t get into The Luminaries for some reason. Please report back on your thoughts once you’re finished, I might take another crack at it.
Now joining and reading Wild Dark Shore.
Next The God Of The Woods.
SO excited for this Book Club :))))))
1) what you’re reading right now;
Show Don’t Tell, Curtis Sittenfeld
2) what’s next in your TBR pile;
The Griffith Sisters, Jennifer Weiner
Boyfriend Material
3) how you’d describe yourself as a reader, in AIM handle format
@bannedbookgirl22
1) what you’re reading right now; The Bright Years (Oh soooooo good!) and The Great Believers
2) I really want to read The Missing Half and The Safari, will see what my mood is!
3) My AIM handle would be : IReadBooksInBars
Current read: Onyx Storm
Next in my TBR: At the whim of my library hold list (I “gave up” buying books for myself several years ago and it’s felt so liberating!). Hopefully WDS or another thriller/mystery book. I also have a few historical fiction titles that I’ve been patiently waiting to become available.
AIM Handle: Probably something like ratherbereading09
1) Sunrise on the Reaping (Hunger Games)
2) The Safari, What if I Never Get Over You, Great Big Beautiful Life, This Book Will Bury Me, Mad House, Here One Moment
3) kindledevotee
So excited by the idea of a book club, Jen! I read Wild, Dark, Shore on your recommendation and have so many thoughts still! Also consider myself a bad book girlie myself. Can’t wait to join!
I am reading Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
Next in my TBR is The In-Between by Hadley Vlahos, RN
Me as a reader in AIM handle format:
wishingiwasaprofessorofenglishlit
I just read this book and loved it! Love the book club idea!!