We may earn a commission through product links on this page. But we only recommend stuff we love.

A+ Read a Fucking Book Club Q&A with Sarah Thankam Mathews

feature photo by Dondre Stuetley

a graphic for A+ read a fucking book club. Q&A with Sarah Thankam Mathews. Monday September 26th 5pm PST / 8pm EST A+ Pop-Up Discord Server. Features the author's photo and All this Could Be Different book cover. The author is a South Asian woman with long dark hair wearing a red and black boldly patterned top and orange earrings. She is looking at the viewer. The cover of all this could be different features a painting of a crowded room of a diverse array of people all interacting, drinking, talking, sitting, standing, leaning on each other. It is very colorful.

Hello book wyrms, book dragons and all manner of book serpents! Welcome to September and the SECOND iteration of A+ Read a Fucking Book Club. Are you thrilled? I’m thrilled!

This time, we’re reading All This Could Be Different by Sarah Thankam Mathews, a book our Managing Editor Kayla called “so good I dreaded finishing it.” So, I’m hopeful that knowing we’ll have a Q&A with the author will help comfort us as we turn the final pages.

The details:

How do I read All This Could Be Different?

You can buy it from Bookshop to support Autostraddle and indie bookstores, or plan to get a copy from your local library! It’s also available as an audiobook on libro.fm, which also supports indie bookstores.

How do I get on the pop-up Discord?

First, you’ll need to make sure you’re an A+ member! A+ members support everything Autostraddle does, and they get all kinds of bonus content as thanks — now including access to the A+ Read a Fucking Book Club!

This post will re-appear on the day of the event, behind the A+ paywall, with the link and join widget, about fifteen minutes before it starts at 4:45pm PST, so that A+ members can join.

When is this again?

It’s taking place on Monday, September 26, so you have several weeks to dig into the book! It’s happening from 5pm PST to 6:30pm PST. Times in some other zones are as follows:

  • 8 – 9:30pm, Eastern Standard Time
  • 1am – 2:30am, London, UK
  • 2am – 3:30am, Berlin, Germany
  • 8am – 9:30am, Tuesday, September 27, Hong Kong
  • 9am – 10:30am, Tuesday, September 27, Australian Central Time

What if I can’t make it? The time doesn’t work for me :(

I’m sorry (especially if this is in the middle of the night where you are)! This is always so hard. We have to host most events within times that are reasonable for the team working them and the author participating. However, I will publish the transcript the following week behind the A+ paywall, so you will still be able to catch up on the chat!

P.S. If you’re in Europe (truly being hit the hardest by the time zone situation here) or anywhere else where this is straight up in the middle of the night for you, and you have a question you’d love to see asked, you can email me at nico[at]autostraddle.com with the subject line BOOK CLUB QUESTION and I’ll collect them all and ask them on your behalf, and then the transcript will be available the following week for you to check out! I know it’s not a perfect solution, but when it comes to events with live humans who go to sleep at night within their respective time zones, it’s the best we can do right now.

What will the event be like?

It will be a text-based Q&A within Discord. I (Nico) will be there to moderate / help with flow. Basically, read the book (or as much as you can), bring your questions for the author, and ask those questions in the chat! Sarah will be there to talk with everyone and can you tell I’m excited? I’m excited!

Accessibility

We want Autostraddle events to be as accessible as possible and we opted to go with a text-based chatting format via Discord in large part because it was one of the most accessible ways to hold this virtual event, not just in terms of audio/visual accessibility, but also because we know it can be hard to ask a question out loud or know when to jump into a conversation. We hope this helps things go as smoothly as is possible for a virtual event. That said, if there are accommodations that would make it easier for you to attend this event, please reach out to me at nico[at]autostraddle.com to let me know. Also, here’s a link to a guide on using Discord with a screen reader. 

Before you go! Autostraddle runs on the reader support of our AF+ Members. If this article meant something to you today — if it informed you or made you smile or feel seen, will you consider joining AF and supporting the people who make this queer media site possible?

Join AF+!

Nico

Nico Hall is a Team Writer for Autostraddle (formerly Autostraddle's A+ and Fundraising Director and For Them's Membership and Editorial Ops person.) They write nonfiction both creative — and the more straightforward variety, too, as well as fiction. They are currently at work on a secret longform project. Nico is also haunted. You can find them on Twitter and Instagram. Here's their website, too.

Nico has written 237 articles for us.

20 Comments

  1. HECK YES

    this book has been stuck in my brain since i read it and i need to talk about it with people who are NOT in my brain.

    and thank you for setting this up, nico you amazing human!!

  2. I’m #23 on my library waitlist for this book, but they have 10 copies, so I’m hoping I’ll have read the book in time.

    This may be the thing that inspires me to actually learn how to use discord.

    • i use exactly zero social media platforms, and even i could figure it out reasonably easily!

      all my digits crossed for you getting the book expeditiously 🤗🤞

  3. I guess it’s a good thing that these books keep having wait lists at my library. Hoping it’ll come in time 🤞

    • I have actually been surprised at how few copies of this one libraries have, but getting on that wait list lets your librarians know that they need to get more! (Which we love for the author.)

  4. I really hope there’ll be an A+ book club event at some point in the future that’s not at 3:30am for me :’) Is there anything like that planned at all? I’m planning to read the book anyway and if I have any questions for the author I will send them to you Nico!

    • For book club, we’re going book by book and author by author. At this time, no, but I also only have one more of these planned for through the end of the year. Right now, we tend to pick times that are after work hours in the US and Canada because that is more convenient for most of our readers, just like, by the numbers. But that doesn’t mean we won’t have authors from other time zones or virtual events in general at different times!

  5. hehehehehe there is a decent time difference between the US and Australia, but I’m pretty sure Monday, September 26 in the US is not Wednesday, July 27 in HK and Australia 😉

  6. I haven’t read the book yet, but after reading the summary I feel weary. I thought we learned our lesson about messing with girls named Marina?? 🫠

  7. I’m so excited for this! As a born and raised Milwaukeean, I apologize in advance for all the inevitable yelling about BelAir and La Cage.

Comments are closed.