5 Books for November 2026
5 Books...
📚 Book club read: The Women Could Fly by Megan Giddings. | I’m so excited to read this one. I mean, when you Google it the first thing that comes up is “A dystopian novel where women have to marry by the age of 28 to be watched by their husbands in case they are witches...” SIGN ME UP!
📚 In the middle of reading: God is a Black Woman by Christena Cleveland (again, I know, what can I say...) just...I encourage you to read every word she’s ever written.
📚 Just finished: Yin Yang Love Song by Lauren Kung Jessen | This was such a fun read. The main character is a Chinese American woman whose family is under a curse where they can never find lasting love. It has elements of traditional Chinese medicine because her job is to heal heartbreak through teas, foods, and acupuncture, etc. I loved that aspect of this book!
📚 Seasonal Read: Has anyone read Season of the Witch: A Psychiatrist’s Case for Magic by Ellen Vora? Call me intrigued...it’s on my Libby waiting for me to start!
📚 Timely recommendation: The Instigators by Atima Omara | Post-midterms, we gotta keep giving Black women their flowers. Omara argues that Black women have always been the ones actually building a democracy for all of us, and that the rest of us have a lot to learn from how they do it. Consider this my “follow the women who know what they’re doing” pick.
What are you reading? Have you read any of these? I'd love to hear back from you; just hit reply!
December’s Circle: Mary’s Protest Song
Monday, December 14 · 5 pm PT / 7 pm CT / 8 pm ET · for paid subscribers and the Gifts of the Mother Advent group
Most of us grew up with a quiet Mary, eyes down, nothing to say. But in Luke 1, a pregnant young woman walks to the hill country to find her cousin Elizabeth, and once Elizabeth blesses her, Mary sings about God pulling the powerful off their thrones and filling the hungry with good things. The day after the Sunday of Joy, we’ll gather in her company, read from Christena Cleveland’s encounter with the Black Madonna, and write our own songs of reversal. Bring a candle (pink if you have one) and a journal.
Faithfully Dissident Book Club
Paid subscribers are reading The Women Could Fly by Megan Giddings this month and meeting November 20 at 12pm pt / 3pm et. Can't make the call? Most of our conversation happens in the WhatsApp group, all month long. Paid subscribers: email me to get the WhatsApp link and calendar invite if you want to join
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