Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy
After the event, I talked with founder Sunny Cervantes about why she started the book club, how it works, and what's up next.
On the origins:
The book club started with a post on the East Village Neighbors NYC Facebook page. Someone had posted asking about a local neighborhood book club. The post eventually became a long thread with many people asking about the same thing: if anyone had leads.I got tired of waiting, so I created a book club for the East Village. Jenny Allen told me to open a page on Bookclubs.com, and from there, we had our first meeting last year [on March 9].
The book club didn't have a space when I created it. Then, I remembered that Abby Ehmann had just opened Hekate Cafe and Elixir Lounge, and I asked her if I could have the book club there, and we’ve been there ever since.
On the club's goal:
The goal of the book club is not only to encourage and foster a love of reading but also so neighbors can meet each other and develop a relationship to strengthen the community. We now have members from Chelsea, the Lower East Side and even the Upper East Side. We currently have 328 members!We meet on the first Monday of every month. Usually, eight to 12 members join the monthly meetings, depending on the book we discuss. We don't have virtual events; we prefer them to be in person so that we can meet our neighbors.
We also plan to include other activities outside our monthly meetings, like an author’s night to highlight local writers and a summer picnic in our local community gardens.
On the next chapter:
Our next book for the March 6 meetup is "Crying in H Mart" by Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast. I don't choose the books; members recommend them and then vote. The only one I've chosen personally was our first book, John Carreyrou's "Bad Blood," the story of Elizabeth Holmes. After that, the members decided on every book that we discussed.
You can join the book club here.
