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Book Clubs
Whether you're drawn to the rich textures of magical realism or the gripping depth of historical fiction, you're in the right place. Our book clubs are open, affirming spaces for readers of all backgrounds—especially BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ folks—to connect, reflect, and vibe over powerful stories.
Grab a coffee, bring a friend (or come solo!), and join us as we gather around books that move us, challenge us, and bring us closer together. Come as you are—whether you’ve finished the book or just cracked it open.
Coming soon:
Walking Book Club + Spanish Book Club
Magical Realism
Book Club
Sunday, March 1st | 12–1:30 PM
Cooperative Coffee Shop | 210 Haywood Rd
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Join us for a conversation around Ayanna Lloyd Banwo’s debut novel, When We Were Birds, steeped in Caribbean folklore, grief, and the fragile beauty of love. Set in contemporary Trinidad, When We Were Birds is the kind of book that feels quiet and powerful at the same time, pulling you into a world where the living and the dead are never very far apart.
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Darwin is mourning his mother and just trying to get by in a city that hasn’t been kind to him. Yejide has inherited a spiritual calling that ties her to guiding souls into the afterlife, even though she wants something different for herself. When they meet, their connection is tender, intense, and complicated by the weight of tradition, loss, and destiny.
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Rooted in Caribbean folklore and rich atmosphere, When We Were Birds explores what it means to choose love when everything else says you shouldn’t. It’s a story about holding grief, honoring ancestors, and finding moments of softness in hard places.
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Historical Fiction
Book Club
Friday, February 20 | 5–6:30 PM
Battlecat Beverly Hills | 885 Tunnel Road
Join us for a discussion of Sister, Mother, Warrior, a sweeping historical novel inspired by real women whose courage and leadership helped shape the Haitian Revolution—the most successful Black uprising in history. Vanessa Riley masterfully centers women’s power, resilience, and resistance in a story that is as emotionally rich as it is historically vital.
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Born in West Africa, Abdaraya Toya—known as Gran Toya, was one of the legendary minos, elite women warriors consecrated to the King of Dahomey. Betrayed, kidnapped, and sold into slavery, she is carried to the French colony of Saint Domingue, where she becomes a healer, leader, and mother figure among the enslaved. Fierce and unyielding, Toya stands at the forefront of the rebellion, helping raise and shape Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who would become one of the revolution’s central figures.
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Marie-Claire Bonheur, a free woman of color raised with privilege, moves through a different world—one shaped by charity, love, and complicated choices within a deeply unjust society. Her life becomes entwined with Dessalines through passion, motherhood, and survival, even as war erupts between the French, Spanish, and the enslaved people of Saint Domingue.
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When Toya and Marie-Claire finally meet, their lives and legacies converge. Despite their differences, both women play pivotal roles in the fight for liberation and independence. Sister, Mother, Warrior is both an intimate love story and a powerful reclamation of history—honoring the strength, intelligence, and sacrifice of women whose stories have too often been left untold.
Spanish book
pick
La Bruja de lo Salvaje
Raquel Vasquez Gilliland
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La Bruja de lo Salvaje by Raquel Vasquez Gilliland is a lush, magical tale of family, folklore, and the wild power of womanhood.
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Sage Flores has spent eight years running from her family—and from the “gifts” that have haunted her since the death of her younger sister, Sky. But when she’s finally pulled back to her hometown, Sage slips into her old life like a worn, comforting sweater. She returns to her job at the Cranberry Rose Company, using her ability to communicate with plants to uncover rare heritage specimens hidden in the nearby lands.
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What should be a simple task becomes complicated when she’s paired with Tennessee Reyes, the boy who broke her heart in high school and the man she’s never quite stopped loving. As they work side by side, old tenderness begins to bloom again, and new feelings take root—despite Sage’s insistence that she doesn’t have time for romance. After all, she’s juggling rare botanical mysteries, a dead sister who still brings her coffee, and another whose anger literally sparks lightning across the sky.
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Interwoven with mythology, romance, and a fierce connection to the land, La Bruja de lo Salvaje is a story of grief, growth, and reclaiming one’s power. Being with Tenn feels like standing in a summer thunderstorm—charged, dangerous, and utterly inevitable.
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