The Ruby is excited to host Graphic Lit Book Club! Whether you’re a graphic novel and graphic memoir enthusiast, you’ve always hoped to dive into the world of long-form graphic narratives, or you’re just looking for your next great read, we’re thrilled to have a space for discussing graphic literature in a cozy book club setting.
Co-hosted by Rubies Zareen Choudhury and Rebecca Rubenstein, Graphic Lit Book Club will meet from 6:00 - 7:30 pm, with light snacks and tea provided.
For our September gathering, we’ll be reading and chatting about Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir by Tessa Hulls, "[a]n astonishing, deeply moving graphic memoir about three generations of Chinese women, exploring love, grief, exile, and identity."
In an exciting update, author Tessa Hulls will be joining our conversation over Zoom! The first 30-45 minutes will be reserved for in-person discussion within the group, then Tessa will Zoom into the meeting to meet the group, talk about her process, and answer any questions we may have.
Read more about the book below, and snag your copy from a local comic book shop, an independent bookstore, or even your local library. You can also hop into the #graphic-lit-book-club channel on The Ruby Discord to see if anyone has a copy to lend out. For anyone unable to attend (or who wants to talk about all things graphic lit in between meetings), we’ll be keeping the conversation flowing on Discord.
A non-member femme or non-binary friend may join if they are hosted by a Ruby member. For non-members, we hope you feel the warmth of our space and community and also recognize the trust through which we are sharing space. Please help us keep the space clean, safe, and comfortable so that it can remain a sanctuary for artists and writers.
About Feeding Ghosts (from the Macmillan website):
"In her evocative, genre-defying graphic memoir, Tessa Hulls tells the story of three generations of women in her family: her Chinese grandmother, Sun Yi; her mother, Rose; and herself.
Sun Yi was a Shanghai journalist caught in the political crosshairs of the 1949 Communist victory. After eight years of government harassment, she fled to Hong Kong with her daughter. Upon arrival, Sun Yi wrote a bestselling memoir about her persecution and survival, used the proceeds to put Rose in an elite boarding school—and promptly had a breakdown that left her committed to a mental institution. Rose eventually came to the United States on a scholarship and brought Sun Yi to live with her.
Tessa watched her mother care for Sun Yi, both of them struggling under the weight of Sun Yi's unexamined trauma and mental illness. Vowing to escape her mother’s smothering fear, Tessa left home and traveled to the farthest-flung corners of the globe (Antarctica). But at the age of thirty, it starts to feel less like freedom and more like running away, and she returns home to face the history that shaped her family.
Extensively researched and gorgeously rendered, Feeding Ghosts is Hulls’s homecoming, a vivid journey into the beating heart of one family, set against the dark backdrop of Chinese history. By turns fascinating and heartbreaking, inventive and poignant, Feeding Ghosts exposes the fear and trauma that haunt generations, and the love that holds them together."