Speed Reading Book Club

February 3, 2024
Shadowshaper by Daniel José Elder 

Sierra Santiago planned an easy summer of making art and hanging with her friends. But then a corpse crashes the first party of the season. Her stroke-ridden grandfather starts apologizing over and over. And when the murals in her neighborhood begin to weep real tears . . . Well, something more sinister than the usual Brooklyn ruckus is going on.
Content warnings: Death, Sexism, Racial Slurs, Violence, Stalking, and Grief
Connected exhibition(s): Current Speed: Angel Otero / Leslie Martinez  & The Bitter and the Sweet: Kentucky Sugar Chests, Enslavement, and the Transatlantic World 1790-1865 

February 24, 2024
The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams

Elderly Mukesh Patel has become a hermit since the death of his wife. Naina was an avid reader, a passion Mukesh never shared. Happening upon a library copy of The Time Traveler’s Wife that she’d forgotten to return, he starts to read it and finds himself entranced. Teenager Aleisha is not a reader and is completely bored with her summer job as a library clerk. While she’s checking in books, a piece of paper falls out of one. Titled “JUST IN CASE YOU NEED IT,” it’s a list of eight classic books, beginning with To Kill a Mockingbird. With nothing else to do, she decides to read all the books on the list. Aleisha shares the list with Mukesh, who soon begins to use the library as an escape from his too-quiet home.
Content Warning: Mental Illness, Suicide, Grief
Connected exhibition: India: South Asian Paintings from the San Diego Museum of Art:The Throne, the Chase, The Heart AND The Elephant in the Room

March 23, 2024
The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi

Escaping from an abusive marriage, seventeen-year-old Lakshmi makes her way alone to the vibrant 1950s pink city of Jaipur. There she becomes the most highly requested henna artist—and confidante—to the wealthy women of the upper class. But trusted with the secrets of the wealthy, she can never reveal her own…
Content Warning: Abortion, Miscarriage, Domestic Abuse, Death of a Parent, Infertility

May 25, 2024
The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich

Thomas Wazhashk is the night watchman at the jewel bearing plant, the first factory located near the Turtle Mountain Reservation in rural North Dakota. He is also a Chippewa Council member who is trying to understand the consequences of a new “emancipation” bill on its way to the floor of the United States Congress. It is 1953 and he and the other council members know the bill isn’t about freedom; Congress is fed up with Indians. The bill is a “termination” that threatens the rights of Native Americans to their land and their very identity. How can the government abandon treaties made in good faith with Native Americans “for as long as the grasses shall grow, and the rivers run”?
Content Warning: Racism, Sexual Assault, Trafficking, Alcoholism
Connected Exhibition: Native American Gallery

June 29, 2024
Pet by Akwaeke Emezi

There are no monsters anymore, or so the children in Lucille are taught. Jam and her best friend, Redemption, have grown up with the lesson that the city is safe for everyone. But when Jam meets Pet, a creature who some might call monstrous but, in reality, is anything but, she must reconsider what she’s been told. Pet has emerged from one of her mother’s paintings to hunt a true monster — and the shadow of something grim lurks in Redemption’s house. Jam must fight not only to protect her best friend, but also uncover the truth, and the answer to the question — How do you save the world from monsters if no one will admit they exist?
Content Warning: Child Abuse, Violence
Connected Exhibition: Louisville’s Black Avant Garde: William M. Duffy, June 28, 2024 – September 29, 2024
This session will be virtual, contact Karen Gillenwater at kgillenwater@speedmuseum.org

July 27, 2024
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is planned—from the layout of the winding roads, to the colors of the houses, to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules.
Content Warning: Abortion, Infertility, Miscarriage, Racism, Postpartum Depression, Child Abandonment

September 28, 2024
The Power by Naomi Alderman

In The Power, the world is a recognizable place: there’s a rich Nigerian boy who lounges around the family pool; a foster kid whose religious parents hide their true nature; an ambitious American politician; and a tough London girl from a tricky family. But then a vital new force takes root and flourishes, causing their lives to converge with devastating effects. Teenage girls now have immense physical power: they can cause agonizing pain and even death. And, with this small twist of nature, the world drastically resets.
Content Warning: Sexual Violence

November 23, 2024
Ayiti by Roxane Gay

Clever and haunting by turns, Ayiti explores the Haitian diaspora experience. A married couple seeking boat passage to America prepares to leave their homeland. A mother takes a foreign soldier into her home as a boarder, and into her bed. And a woman conceives a daughter on the bank of a river while fleeing a horrific massacre, a daughter who later moves to America for a new life but is perpetually haunted by the mysterious scent of blood. Wise, fanciful, and daring, Ayiti is the book that put Roxane Gay on the map and now, with two previously uncollected stories, confirms her singular vision.
Content Warning: Homophobia, Sexual Content
Connected Exhibition: Current Speed: Kathia St. Hilaire Fall 2024 – Spring 2025