Hey friends—today I’m delighted to welcome our MMD Book Club community manager Ginger Horton to the blog to share what’s happening in the MMD Book Club this summer. While the focus of today’s post is on our summer Book Club selections, we do briefly touch on what else we have in store for this summer. Another big perk MMD Book Club members receive is our 2023 Summer Reading Guide and live Unboxing access. Read on to find out if this sounds like a happy place for you this summer! – Anne
I’ll never forget the first time Anne announced the Modern Mrs Darcy Book Club. I knew I was traveling a lot that summer, but I could not sign up fast enough. For one thing, I’d read Anne’s blog for years and years, feeling like I had a friend out there through this “lifestyle blog for nerds.” But I also wanted to be a part of whatever special thing she was creating. I don’t think I even knew any words like “content” or “tastemakers” or “support creatives” but I had a sense through the blog comments and WSIRN guests that this Modern Mrs Darcy world drew a special kind of bookish person.
And boy did we have fun that summer! I remember logging hours and hours of reading—long, languid summer days meant sneaking in more minutes of reading from a short but abundant-feeling curated book list. Sometimes I’d finish up right before the author talk. Sometimes I wouldn’t and I’d log on to the chat from a family member’s house, or once on my phone from the passenger seat on a road trip, and then be inspired to pick up that book I now just had to read because the author was so great.
But what was really special were the conversations we had online with each other, and the friendships that formed because of that group. I’d never before met people who read quite as voraciously as I did. Not long after, I met up with half a dozen of those women at an informal bookish get-together (at Anne’s house!), and we’ve been friends ever since, taking road trips together, seeing each other through graduations and moves, marriages and divorces, holiday packages sent across state lines. And so much book talk.
But that’s a story for another day.
Our MMD Book Club summer lineup
The MMD Book Club is now in its seventh (!!) year. We do some things differently now than we did that first summer—like our dedicated member site and brand new app—but our community remains focused on community, classes, and conversations centered around the books we love. Typically we read one book a month (with an optional flight pick), but this summer will be similar to that first summer where we read five books from June to August. This year we’ll be reading six books in three months. So that’s two author (or translator) events each in June, July, and August.
May
- Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
June
- Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld
- The Secret Book of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan Henry
July
- No Two Persons by Erica Bauermeister
- The Postcard by Anne Berest, translated by Tina Kover
August
- Banyan Moon by Thao Thai
- The Late Mrs Willoughby by Claudia Gray
In the MMD Book Club, you don’t need to read the book to participate! Author chats are one part of what we do in Book Club; we seek to give you options for your reading life, not assignments. These chats will be spoiler-free, like they would be at a literary festival or bookstore talk: we’d love for you to join us whether you’ve read the book, intend to read the book but haven’t yet, or want to learn more about writing and publishing (or just hang out with your book pals) without reading that particular title. These book discussions are also only a slice of what we do in Book Club.
Anne and Ginger would love to welcome you to Book Club!
More in store for this summer
In Book Club we say we’re learning to read better, together, and to that end we gather for classes, community, and conversation. We like to say Book Club is a buffet: take what you’d like and leave the rest, knowing you can always come back for more!
When you join, you’ll get an invite to our summer lineup of author chat above, plus events like Genius Moves for the Reading Life, our annual Best Book of Summer event, our week of watch parties and readalongs, Austen in August, meetups to chat with fellow members about the Summer Reading Guide books, and a members-only Readers’ Weekend.
Members also have access to our full library of past events like our Book School sessions, Book Journaling for Book Lovers, 25 Things Readers Should Know About Publishing, 1 Hour to a Better #Bookstagram, and 50+ past chats with authors including Emily Henry, Fredrik Backman, Tayari Jones, Brendan Slocumb, and more. Our new and free app makes participation even easier.
Anne, Ginger, and Shannan, together for Readers’ Weekend 2022. We host this weekend online for all our members, but we got to host together in person from the same screen last year, with a local in-person meetup for our nearby members!
Get set for summer
If “accessibly nerdy” education, tons of bookish chatter, and author talks galore sound good to you, come join us for our fun upcoming season in MMD Book Club!
And a reminder: this year our MMD Summer Reading Guide is a free perk for our Book Club members, along with our live Summer Reading Guide Unboxing event on May 18th. If you’re inclined to give Book Club a try, now is a great time to do so!
We’d love to have you join us. Click here to get started, and choose the option that works best for you: monthly, quarterly, or annual. We’ll see you in Book Club!
About the author
Ginger Horton is our Book Club Community Manager here at MMD. Her go-to genres are literary fiction and classics. You can find Ginger on Instagram posting as herself @gthorton or in the MMD Book Club account @MMDBookClub
30 comments
I needed this nudge to join the MMD Book Club! I am really looking forward to this summer!
Love it! We can’t wait to have you with us for a really good summer, Adrienne.
Are the book club events always in the evening, US time? 📚💛
Because we have members all over the world we switch up the times: we’d like as many readers as possible to have a shot at being able to come live sometimes! Most of our author chats are held at 1pm or 7pm Eastern time; our additional club and community events vary a bit more for day and time. We post a full schedule on our site so you know what’s happening when.
Are the book club events archived so we can watch later if we can’t make the scheduled time?
Yes! Attending live is fun, but more than half of our members watch events on their own schedule, because we record all our classes, author talks, and community events.
Is there anyway to give these book club selections a rating for more sensitive readers? I enjoy books with tough subjects , but so often they are drowning in strong language and/or open door scenes. I read and loved Take My Hand.
Glenda, we have a blog post coming next week on this very topic! One of the things I like most about Book Club (and also about our live Summer Reading Guide Unboxing) is that I can speak with my voice about the content and tone of each title, and answer sometimes very specific questions about a book’s contents. I also like how our chat is always humming with thoughts from fellow readers who have read the book and can share from their own experience.
This was a good nudge. I think I will join this summer with intention to stay with it for the whole summer. It will help define my summer months nicely.
We’re excited you’re interested in giving it a try!
Looking forward to reading some good books this summer that I wouldn’t have chosen to read without your nudge! I love the author chats and replays. Thank you!
I am so inspired and excited to read these Summer selections.
I’ll be putting them on my library wait lists!!
It may be worth noting that summer is the one time where we often lean into new releases! The rest of the year we read books that are much easier to get from the library, and we give readers plenty of notice so they can plan their holds.
Is the summer reading guide no longer free?
That is correct. I share the details and the thought process behind that decision in this recent blog post: https://modernmrsdarcy.com/the-2023-summer-reading-guide-is-coming/
Do we have “forever access” to past events once we’re members? Like June’s author chats are always available because you paid that month…Or is access only for the period you paid for? Like in August, if I’m not a member anymore, I can’t watch June anymore? I’m not sure if I’m making sense here…but I didn’t see an FAQ on your site.
Allison, our full and extensive library is open to our current members as long as they are members.
Oh my goodness – we are going to have the most amazing summer of reading yet!! Can’t wait!
We’re excited about what’s in store!
Trying to decide if I should do Patreon or MMD book club to get the SRG this year. Is there a post that explains the difference of these two options? Thanks so much!
Susanne, we explain some of the difference on this page: https://modernmrsdarcy.com/srg
For a more in-depth conversation, we just released a bonus episode this morning in which our MMD Book Club community manager Ginger Horton and I discuss the difference between Patreon and MMD Book Club. We just made that episode publicly available so you can listen now. It’s right here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/82111654
I hope this is helpful!
Thank you so much! Very helpful!
I might have missed this information. How many members are in the Book Club?
Thanks for the explanation of the difference between your two communities. I now want to join both! If I sign up for both to see which fits me best, how hard is it to cancel the one that might not be the best match for me? Also, I have more time in the summer so both might fit for now but maybe not all year for me.
Diana, I’m so glad the explanation helped. It’s easy to cancel at any time. My one recommendation is if you’re thinking you might cancel soonish, sign up for monthly instead of annual. 🙂
after thinking about it for a while, i’m in! Are there any in person events for book club members?
Lesli, we don’t have any firm plans for “official” in person events this summer, but our members do hold informal meetups across the country after connecting in our forums.
Is there a way to print the “Summer Author Chat” calendar that is posted above?
I would love to have a paper copy of the schedule.
I suppose you could print it as though it was a photo?
I wasn’t clear from the MMD Book club page…if you join book club, does that price include the book or do we have to buy the books in addition to the fee? Thank you!