Book Drives New York

Sept Classic: The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

I will grab a table before the start time (feel free to get us one if you're there first). This was the first book ever assigned when I began high school. I was much different back then, so I barely skimmed it and don't remember anything. Here's the synopsis: Fleeing the crooks at Pencey Prep, he pinballs around New York City seeking solace in fleeting encounters—shooting the bull with strangers in dive hotels, wandering alone round Central Park, getting beaten up by pimps and cut down by erstwhile girlfriends. The city is beautiful and terrible, in all its neon loneliness and seedy glamour, its mingled sense of possibility and emptiness. Holden passes through it like a ghost, thinking always of his kid sister Phoebe, the only person who really understands him, and his determination to escape the phonies and find a life of true meaning. *The Catcher in the Rye* is an all-time classic in coming-of-age literature- an elegy to teenage alienation, capturing the deeply human need for connection and the bewildering sense of loss as we leave childhood behind.

Bookworms at Melting Cups (Queens) 📚🪱🪱

The bookworms are back at Melting Cups for the tail end of summer. Join us on **Sunday morning** **(10 am)** at **[Melting Cups Café](https://www.meltingcups.com/)** Arrive, grab a drink ☕️, pastry 🥐 or both, and settle in the art gallery area (back) where the comfy couches are. Around 10:15 a.m., we’ll have casual introductions sharing what books we are reading. 📖🤓 We’ll wrap up by noon when the café gets busier. We'll try to keep this a recurring event through the Fall. If you want to host or co-host let us know!

Harlem Shuffle discussion

We will discuss *Harlem Shuffle* by Colson Whitehead on Wed., Aug. 26 at 7 p.m. at Nick's Bistro, 104-20 Metropolitan Ave, Forest Hills, NY 11375. It's on the southwest corner of 72nd Ave. It's a 20-minute walk (thru a lovely neighborhood) south from Queens Blvd. (closest subway station is 71st/Continental on the E/F/M/R trains). The Q23 bus from that subway station drops off three blocks away. You can preview the menu at https://nicksbistro.com/forest-hills-forest-hills-nick-s-bistro-food-menu

Tough Guy Book Club - New York NY

Join us for the New York Chapter of Tough Guy Book Club. You can find out this month's book here [https://toughguybookclub.com/books](https://toughguybookclub.com/books?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAYnJpZBExcTVleWRsd0ZYSWdqZXV4QXNydGMGYXBwX2lkEDIyMjAzOTE3ODgyMDA4OTIAAR5aL8E3xpn05czDIaY5kEiHH3oABs4hICFLOrNXUsW-0gY5HePBTW1ni0SYzw_aem_qNxAzG9ij-sVr5-Rf8Uw3Q) If you have the chance, try to pick up the book and read a couple of pages before the night. If you haven’t, come anyway, no one gives a damn. We are not your boss. If you got one, make sure to bring your copy of the books down, it’ll help you talk about bits of it, we suggest underlining stuff that sticks out to you as important. Also like all months, we will be announcing next month’s book at the meeting and handing them out to those of you who were wise enough to pre-order last month. See you there. Want to know more about Tough Guy Book Club? Read this - [http://toughguybookclub.com/about-us](http://toughguybookclub.com/about-us?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAYnJpZBExcTVleWRsd0ZYSWdqZXV4QXNydGMGYXBwX2lkEDIyMjAzOTE3ODgyMDA4OTIAAR5QrDxxQmsaiuIfgbomTP4b6948UogKCm9U4Dudq5-VU_8aUx5RnTiUjO_R1Q_aem_n5AIic3b6NMTZ5TUJGTLkw)

August Book Club!

On Monday, August 31st we’ll meet to discuss My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante! 👭🇮🇹 Can read as much of the book as you'd like! 📚 We'll bring Italian snacks to share! You're also welcome to brings snacks but it's not necessary! (We often end up with lots lol) We’ll meet at 6:30pm and we’ll meet inside Romer’s Hell’s Kitchen. Once you get there, take a right til you get to The Study (1st floor office / lounge area) https://maps.app.goo.gl/aRx7Kzjx6y8pUAN3 Please reach out with any questions! Looking forward to seeing you!

Manhattan Smutty Book Club - Guarded by the Snake

The book for this month is Guarded by the Snake by Layla Fae. She stole her way into my cold, serpent heart like a thief in the night. The tiny human hires me to shield her from the vengeance of a powerful organization. There’s nothing wrong with that, except she stole from them, got caught, and now I have to clean up her mess. Add to that her incessant chatter, and I’m in for the most unpleasant job in my career. Until her enemies bring out the big guns, turning the irksome protection assignment into a lethal fight for survival. Necessity pushes my principal closer and closer—too close for comfort. Forced to hide in small spaces, her skin rubbing against my scales, her warm breath on my face, my exasperation gives way to lust. It’s just physical attraction, I tell myself. All I want is to bury my two spikes in her tight body and feel her writhing under me in pleasure. Nothing more than that. Because it’s impossible I could want her–the annoying, ballsy little thief who makes the sun shine with a smile. One thing is certain: this is no longer just a job. I’ll butcher everyone who wants to hurt her. Monster Security Agency is the most elite bodyguard service in the world. These monster bodyguards are lethal, powerful, and determined to protect their clients at all costs. They shouldn't fall in love with their principals, but if they do? Things are bound to explode. Here come spicy, romantic, and action-packed tales by your favorite paranormal and monster romance authors: Cassie Alexander, Layla Fae, and Cara Wylde. Dive into the world of the Monster Security Agency. Please join us at Cornerstone Tavern, 961 2nd Ave, New York, NY (51st and 2nd) for great conversation, laughs, and friendship. Look for our signs, and listen for the laughter. We are often in the back of Cornerstone behind the curtain, which is actually a different restaurant called the Stags Head. We start at 7pm, but feel free to come early before happy hour ends at 7. People usually start to drift in by 6:30pm.

Book Club

\#\# Details **IF YOU RECIEVE AN EMAIL OFFERING TO SHOWCASE YOUR BOOK, PLEASE DO NOT ENGAGE. IT IS NOT FROM WARM AND COZY BOOKCLUB AND IS A SCAM** \*\*THE BOOK YOU SHOULD HAVE FINISHED READING BY THIS MONTH IS The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood.\*\* **LINK IN THE DESCRIPTION!** **PLEASE NOTE: THIS EVENT IS ADVERTISED ON MULTIPLE PAGES, THERE WILL BE MORE PEOPLE THERE.** Hello everyone, Ready to rediscover the joy of reading or diversify your bookshelf? Look no further! We gather once a month on Zoom to explore a wide array of genres, exchange perspectives, and foster connections through our shared love of literature. The idea is to read one book a month (up to 400 pages). There will be the opportunity to discuss how you have found the book at our monthly online event. All book lovers are welcome to join us on this enriching journey. You need to login into a Zoom account to join the event. To join the event, please click here: [https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83080762071?pwd=cWZjNEhzTlVJcmdQclpyT1dMYWtkZz09](https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83080762071?pwd=cWZjNEhzTlVJcmdQclpyT1dMYWtkZz09) Meeting ID: 830 8076 2071 Passcode:909864

Read N’ Wuk! The Bookish Picnic Experience

Book to be discussed: “Flesh” by David Szalay

"Teenaged István lives with his mother in a quiet apartment complex in Hungary. Shy and new in town, he is a stranger to the social rituals practiced by his classmates and is soon isolated, drawn instead into a series of events that leave him forever a stranger to peers, his mother, and himself. In the years that follow, István is born along by the goodwill, or self-interest, of strangers, charting a rocky yet upward trajectory that lands him further from his childhood, and the defining events that abruptly ended it, than he could possibly have imagined. A collection of intimate moments over the course of decades, *Flesh* chronicles a man at odds with himself—estranged from and by the circumstances and demands of a life not entirely under his control and the roles that he is asked to play. Shadowed by the specter of past tragedy and the apathy of modernity, the tension between István and all that alienates him hurtles forward until sudden tragedy again throws life as he knows it in jeopardy. 'Spare and detached on the page, lush in resonance beyond it' (NPR), *Flesh* traces the imperceptible but indelible contours of unresolved trauma and its aftermath amid the precarity and violence of an ever-globalizing Europe with incisive insight, unyielding pathos, and startling humanity." — [goodreads.com](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/214152261-flesh?ref=nav_sb_ss_1_14) After the meeting, we head over to Julius' (one of the oldest operating gay bars in NYC) to chat about things other than books. Julius' is at 159 West 10th Street (on the corner of Waverly Place, about a block from the library). www.juliusbarny.com

The Wax Child by Olga Ravn

LONGLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE 2026 In seventeenth-century Denmark, Christenze Kruckow, an unmarried noblewoman, is accused of witchcraft. She and several other women are rumored to be possessed by the Devil, who has come to them in the form of a tall headless man who gives them dark powers: they can steal people's happiness, they have performed unchristian acts, and they can cause pestilence or death. They are all in danger of the stake. The Wax Child, narrated by a wax doll created by Christenze Kruckow, is an unsettling horror story about brutality and power, nature and witchcraft, set in the fragile communities of premodern Europe. Deeply researched and steeped in visceral, atmospheric detail, The Wax Child is based on a series of real witchcraft trials that took place in Northern Jutland in the seventeenth century. Full of lush storytelling and alarmingly rich imagination, Olga Ravn also weaves in quotes from original sources such as letters, magical spells and manuals, court documents, and Scandinavian grimoires.

The Archaeology of Knowledge by Foucault Week 2

Are there any proper facts which belong to the subject of epistemology? Or are we simply learning the language and way of life which has been invented and passed down to us? In The Archaeology of Knowledge by Michel Foucault we find a careful analysis of the hidden assumptions which form the bedrock on which we build the rest of our lives. By challenging these foundations Foucault invites us to discourse analysis and genealogy as a way of re-imagining what the future could look like. As is often the experience in philosophy, a tension between freedom and weightlessness is cultivated as we ask how we should live on a foundation we did not choose. Participants should read the entire reading before attending this in person meeting. We will read pages 56-117 for the second week. I will be reading from this version [here](https://www.amazon.com/Realism-Human-Face-Hilary-Putnam/dp/0674749456). For questions please send me a message or post to meetup. Best, Brian

The Emperor's Soul by Brandon Sanderson *Bonus Book*

**Regarding location - Google will may say that the Hugh is closed, but it is not. We will meet inside the food court and there will be sign holders on the table with the book cover on it.** From Good Reads: A heretic thief is the empire’s only hope in this fascinating tale that inhabits the same world as the popular novel, *Elantris*. Shai is a Forger, a foreigner who can flawlessly copy and re-create any item by rewriting its history with skillful magic. Condemned to death after trying to steal the emperor’s scepter, she is given one opportunity to save herself. Though her skill as a Forger is considered an abomination by her captors, Shai will attempt to create a new soul for the emperor, who is almost dead. Probing deeply into his life, she discovers Emperor Ashravan’s truest nature—and the opportunity to exploit it. Her only possible ally is one who is truly loyal to the emperor, but councilor Gaotona must overcome his prejudices to understand that Shai’s forgery is as much artistry as it is deception. Brimming with magic and political intrigue, this deftly woven fantasy delves into the essence of a living spirit.