Book Buddy Updates 7/28-8/2
Book Buds:
hi! Sorry this weekly note is coming for you a little late!
Here’s the lowdown for this week:
The next book club is August 17 (Monday) at 7pm. We’re reading Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood. Here’s the publisher’s blurb about it:
“Shortlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize, a novel about forgiveness, grief, and what it means to be good, from the award-winning author of The Weekend and The Natural Way of Things. Burnt out and in need of retreat, a middle-aged woman leaves Sydney to return to the place she grew up, taking refuge in a small religious community hidden away on the stark plains of rural Australia. She doesn’t believe in God, or know what prayer is, and finds herself living this strange, reclusive existence almost by accident.
But disquiet interrupts this secluded life with three visitations. First comes a terrible mouse plague, each day signaling a new battle against the rising infestation. Second is the return of the skeletal remains of a sister who disappeared decades before, presumed murdered. And finally, a troubling visitor plunges the narrator further back into her past.
Meditative, moving, and finely observed, Stone Yard Devotional is a seminal novel from a writer of rare power, exploring what it means to retreat from the world, the true nature of forgiveness, and the sustained effect of grief on the human soul.”
I really hope to see you there!
BOOK BUDDY WEEKEND IS HAPPENING!
And soon! Just two and half weeks to go! Our August Book Buddies IRL party invitations have gone out. Please RSVP when you can if you haven’t already! https://book-buddies-2026-summer-party-41828.minted.us/
You can register for the August 8 retreat using this link. BOOKBUDDY10 is the code that gets you 10% off!
Feedback Group Submission Schedules!
IRL Group Wednesdays @ beautyland 6:30-8:30: The next meeting is August 5. Chris and Paul have floor time with pages due on July 31 or sometime that weekend.
Noon Crew Thursdays 12pm - 1:30: The next meeting is August 6, and the floor time is up in the air. Ezra may have pages and if not, Sara might swap in or we’ll have a craft discussion!
Weirdlings Wednesdays 12pm - 1:30: We’ll meet again on August 5. Elizabeth has the floor, pages are due July 29.
Kool Kids Thursdays at 7pm - 8:30: Our next meeting is July 30. Kristin and Rebecca have pages in.
OG Crew Thursdays at 7:30pm - 9: The next meeting is August 6 and Kristina has the floor with pages due July 30.
Saturday besties 12:30pm - 2: The next meeting is August 1! Ali and Nora have the floor. Pages due asap.
Gen Writing Prompt for this Week
July 28 and August 1, 2026
Fresh Perspective
Right now I’m reading Heather Abel’s book, The Emilys, which is set in Northampton. One thing that is notable about the novel is its hyper specificity around naming specific locations in the valley, so it’s a fun read for folks that live here. But for our purposes, this week, what’s interesting to me is her POV choices. The narrative strategy is a little hodge-podge. We have one central first person narrator, Eve, but then a few accessory close third person narrators including one section narrated by a tick. It’s kind of exhilarating to be told a story through so many lenses, and I thought we might practice some of that with this week’s prompt.
Begin a new piece in the genre of your choice that uses a multifaceted or unusual narrator. Some choices:
Tell the story via one first person POV and a secondary voice in close third
Tell the story through the perspective of something nonhuman but alive: a dog, a bug, a plant
Tell the story through the perspective of something nonhuman and not alive: a chair, a house
Tell the story through the perspective of a collective — a swarm of bees, a colony of ants, a herd of bison, a brainwashed group of humans, a field of flowers
Tell the story through the perspective of an alien, a god attached to any organized religion, the earth itself.
Your bestie -
Kate
