NEPM Book Club
Do you love to read? So do we! Join us for the NEPM Book Club — a quarterly virtual meet-up dedicated to bringing readers together to chat about new, diverse and interesting fiction.
Our next meeting will be Thursday, Oct. 29 at 7 p.m. We'll be reading "Somewhere Soft to Land" by Kai Alonté.
The NEPM Book Club is sponsored by Cooper's Corner and State Street Deli & Fruit Store, Whalen Insurance, Curran & Keegan Financial, Broadside Bookshop and UMass Five Credit Union.
ABOUT THE NOVEL
In this crackling portrayal of friendship in peril, a young woman’s world is upended when a tragedy in her best friend’s life tests the boundaries of their sisterhood — a sharp and compelling debut novel from a Ghanaian American writer.
Dzifa has always felt a bit off. Maybe it’s the family baggage, or maybe it’s just how she’s wired. Depleted by cycles of burnout, she lives in a perpetual state of bracing: for another lost job, another lost home, another piece of evidence she isn’t doing being right. If it weren’t for the encouragement — and occasional overstepping — of her magnetic best friend, Tatiana, Dzifa doesn’t know if she’d have made it as far as she has. Despite their differences, the two women share a desire to be their authentic selves, and to shed the grip of the respectability politics they’ve been taught should govern their lives.
Just as each begins to find her way, the sudden passing of Tatiana’s child upends everything. Dzifa rushes to Tatiana’s hometown to help her friend prepare for the funeral. But when she arrives, Dzifa is immersed in an unsettling conflict between two diametrically opposed families, one of whom seems intent on seeding doubt about Tatiana’s capacity as a mother. When Tatiana asks her for the ultimate favor, Dzifa must choose between loyalty at the expense of her own well-being and authenticity at the expense of her most valued friendship.
A riveting exploration of sisterhood, what it means to mother and be mothered, and what it means to be well, "Somewhere Soft to Land" reckons with the sometimes funny, sometimes fraught friendship between women with divergent ideologies, aspirations, personalities, and paths.
MEET THE BOOK CLUB HOST
Erin O’Neill is a dedicated bibliophile and NEPM’s director of digital engagement. A lifelong obsessive reader and lover of stories, Erin hosts and organizes NEPM Book Club meetings — and comes up with discussion questions!
GET THE BOOK
Need to get your copy of the latest Book Club selection? Please consider buying from one of our local NEPM Book Club partners.
Broadside Bookshop in Northampton »
Massive Bookshop, an online bookseller in Greenfield »
Olive Tree Books-n-Voices in Springfield »
Or, pick up "Somewhere Soft to Land" from your local library.
UPCOMING MEETINGS
NEPM Book Club members can help select books for us to read. Do you have a favorite novel? Is there a piece of fiction that’s on your to-read list? Email your suggestions to bookclub@nepm.org!