Are you an avid reader, a returning reader or wanting to get into reading for the first time? Then our new book club is for you!
Join us at Coffee #1 in Portswood on the fourth Thursday of the month for a welcoming, casual space to discuss books with other trans+ folx. Coffee #1 is open late just for us and their usual selection of delicious drinks and cakes will be available to purchase.
Books are chosen by attendees and are not limited by genre or topic. If you have a book you want to read with us, just tell us! We are happy to hear your suggestions.
Our Next Read: Her Majesty's Royal Coven By Juno Dawson
If you look hard enough at old photographs, we're there in the background: healers in the trenches; Suffragettes; Bletchley Park oracles; land girls and resistance fighters. Why is it we help in times of crisis? We have a gift. We are stronger than Mundanes, plain and simple.
At the dawn of their adolescence, on the eve of the summer solstice, four young girls--Helena, Leonie, Niamh and Elle--took the oath to join Her Majesty's Royal Coven, established by Queen Elizabeth I as a covert government department. Now, decades later, the witch community is still reeling from a civil war and Helena is now the reigning High Priestess of the organization. Yet Helena is the only one of her friend group still enmeshed in the stale bureaucracy of HMRC. Elle is trying to pretend she's a normal housewife, and Niamh has become a country vet, using her powers to heal sick animals. In what Helena perceives as the deepest betrayal, Leonie has defected to start her own more inclusive and intersectional coven, Diaspora. And now Helena has a bigger problem. A young warlock of extraordinary capabilities has been captured by authorities and seems to threaten the very existence of HMRC. With conflicting beliefs over the best course of action, the four friends must decide where their loyalties lie: with preserving tradition, or doing what is right.
Juno Dawson explores gender and the corrupting nature of power in a delightful and provocative story of magic and matriarchy, friendship and feminism. Dealing with all the aspects of contemporary womanhood, as well as being phenomenally powerful witches, Niamh, Helena, Leonie and Elle may have grown apart but they will always be bound by the sisterhood of the coven.
(Blurb taken from Goodreads)
Please note: Some content warnings have been flagged for this book (Abortion, Animal death, Violence, Transphobia, Misgendering (continuous throughout), Racism, Gore) If you are concerned about any of these, please take the time to research before reading. This also may not be a definitive list.
Past Books
October: The Miseducation of Cameron Post By Emily M. Danforth
September: Maurice - E.M. Forster
August: Disappoint Me - Nicola Dinan
July: Fun Home - Alison Bechdel
June: Our Wives Under the Sea - Julia Armfield
May: The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet - Becky Chambers
April: Butter - Asako Yuzuki
March: The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K LeGuin
February: Carmilla - Sheridan Le Fanu