#DWord Book Club
Disability Network Southwest Michigan is excited to partner with Kalamazoo Public Library to launch the #DWord Book Club—a book club dedicated to promoting access, connection, disability pride, and spreading the message that Disability is not a bad word.
Join us for an opportunity to engage in respectful, thought-provoking discussions of books by and about people with disabilities, uplifting lived experiences from across the Disability Community and creating space for meaningful conversation and connection.
All are welcome—whether you’re new to disability-focused literature or a longtime reader. This is a cost-free group; readers are not required to have a library card to participate. To ensure accessibility for all, each book is available in print, digital, and audiobook formats through the Kalamazoo Public Library.
#DWord Book Club Meeting Details
- Wednesday, May 20 from 6:00-7:30 PM – Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
- Wednesday, August 19 from 6:00-7:30 PM – I Will Die on This Hill: Autistic Adults, Autism Parents, and the Children Who Deserve a Better World by Meghan Ashburn & Jules Edwards
- Wednesday, November 18 from 6:00-7:30 PM – So Lucky by Nicola Griffith
Accommodations
Accommodations can be provided upon request to (269) 553-7944 or follow this link to email Jade W. at Kalamazoo Public Library.
Venue
CEN/Boardroom at Kalamazoo Public Library, located at 315 S. Rose St, Kalamazoo, MI 49007. Registration is not required.
Book Selection
May’s book selection is Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata.
About: The English-language debut of one of Japan’s most talented contemporary writers, selling over 650,000 copies there, Convenience Store Woman is the heartwarming and surprising story of thirty-six-year-old Tokyo resident Keiko Furukura.
Keiko has never fit in, neither in her family, nor in school, but when at the age of eighteen she begins working at the Hiiromachi branch of “Smile Mart,” she finds peace and purpose in her life. In the store, unlike anywhere else, she understands the rules of social interaction—many are laid out line by line in the store’s manual—and she does her best to copy the dress, mannerisms, and speech of her colleagues, playing the part of a “normal” person excellently, more or less.
Managers come and go, but Keiko stays at the store for eighteen years. It’s almost hard to tell where the store ends and she begins. Keiko is very happy, but the people close to her, from her family to her coworkers, increasingly pressure her to find a husband, and to start a proper career, prompting her to take desperate action…
A brilliant depiction of an unusual psyche and a world hidden from view, Convenience Store Woman is an ironic and sharp-eyed look at contemporary work culture and the pressures to conform, as well as a charming and completely fresh portrait of an unforgettable heroine.
Sayaka Murata is the author of many books, including Convenience Store Woman, winner of Japan’s most prestigious literary prize, the Akutagawa Prize. She continues to work part-time in a convenience store, which inspired this novel. Murata has been named a Freeman’s “Future of New Writing” author, and her work has appeared in Granta and elsewhere. In 2016, Vogue Japan selected her as a Woman of the Year.
Disability Network and Kalamazoo Public Library staff sharing about the #DWord Book Club on the Morning Mix with Fox 17.