10:30:00 PM

The San Mateo County Pride Center and Peninsula Family Service co-host the LGBTQ+ Book Club in partnership with San Mateo County Libraries.

Participants can expect to read both classic and contemporary books in an array of genres that feature LGBTQ+ characters and/or are written by LGBTQ+ writers. It’s open to everyone ages 18+, with folks 50+ strongly encouraged to attend!

This group meets on the first Wednesday of the month from 4:30-6:00 PM on Zoom.

This months book selection: Less by Andrew Sean Greer

A love story, a satire of the American abroad, a rumination on time and the human heart, by an author The New York Times has hailed as “inspired, lyrical,” “elegiac,” “ingenious,” as well as “too sappy by half,” Less shows a writer at the peak of his talents raising the curtain on our shared human comedy.

Please use this link to register: tinyurl.com/smcpc-bookclub

Join us for July book club where we will discuss Hijab Butch Blues by Lamya H
 
Plot:
When fourteen-year-old Lamya H realizes she has a crush on her teacher—her female teacher—she covers up her attraction, an attraction she can’t yet name, by playing up her roles as overachiever and class clown. 
 
Born in South Asia, she moved to the Middle East at a young age and has spent years feeling out of place, like her own desires and dreams don’t matter, and it’s easier to hide in plain sight. To disappear. But one day in Quran class, she reads a passage about Maryam that changes everything: When Maryam learned that she was pregnant, she insisted no man had touched her. Could Maryam, uninterested in men, be . . . like Lamya?
 
From that moment on, Lamya makes sense of her struggles and triumphs by comparing her experiences with some of the most famous stories in the Quran. She juxtaposes her coming out with Musa liberating his people from the pharoah; asks if Allah, who is neither male nor female, might instead be nonbinary; and, drawing on the faith and hope Nuh needed to construct his ark, begins to build a life of her own—ultimately finding that the answer to her lifelong quest for community and belonging lies in owning her identity as a queer, devout Muslim immigrant.

This searingly intimate memoir in essays, spanning Lamya’s childhood to her arrival in the United States for college through early-adult life in New York City, tells a universal story of courage, trust, and love, celebrating what it means to be a seeker and an architect of one’s own life.

 
Content warnings: TBD

This group meets monthly on the first Wednesday from 4:30-6:00 PM PST & is a hybrid meeting. 
 
Participants have the option of Zoom. It’s open to everyone ages 18+, with folks 50+ strongly encouraged to attend!
 
Thank you to our partners at Peninsula Family Service & San Mateo County Libraries for co-hosting this group with us!
 
Register using this link - tinyurl.com/smcpcbookclub
 
If you would like more information about the Pride Center's peer support groups, please contact Ishani (They/Xem) at [email protected] or 650-554-1234 (text ok)