For July’s M.M. Book Club, we’re partnering with Room to Read, a nonprofit with the mission of creating a world free from illiteracy and gender inequality. 100% of ticket sales from our July 21st event with Alka Joshi will go directly to Room to Read.

At age 62, Alka Joshi published her first novel, The Henna Artist, which immediately became a New York Times bestseller and Reese Witherspoon Bookclub pick. She now follows it up with the sequel, The Secret Keeper of Jaipur, which exposes corruption and black market dealings in 1969 India. Lakshmi, the herbalist in The Henna Artist, sends her protégé, Malik, to intern at the Jaipur palace, while taking his new love, a young widow, under her wing in Shimla. When the royal cinema in Jaipur collapses on opening night, Malik sets out to uncover the graft. The novel affirms that seeking truth is a wholly worthwhile endeavor.

In her highly-anticipated memoir, Ashley C. Ford recounts how she navigated her childhood as an impoverished Black girl in Indiana, her father’s incarceration, and the family secrets that have broken and healed her in equal measure. “When the book ended, I only wanted more,” says Roxane Gay.

From Michelle Zauner, the musician behind Japanese Breakfast and author of the 2018 New Yorker essay that inspired this book, comes a memoir about food, identity, and her Korean heritage in the wake of losing her mother. “A profound, timely exploration of terminal illness, culture, and shared experience,” writes the San Francisco Chronicle. 

“Clearheaded and full of heart, But You’re Still So Young offers a gentle indictment of a broken system and also a soothing message: Nobody’s got it all figured out.” —Vogue, Best Books of 2021.