Welcome to year three of The Diverse Baseline reading challenge - we hope the end of 2025 and the beginning of 2026 treats you gently.
January Prompts
The official StoryGraph challenge is hosted on StoryGraph & you can always find everything you need on our carrd: thediversebaseline.carrd.co
We can’t wait to see what yall read for this month’s prompts:
About substance use disorders by a racialized author
About sports by a racialized author
Fiction by a Central American author
Bookish Millennials Book Club
Synchronous Virtual Meeting
Thank you to Lucia, Andrew, and Katelyn for joining our seventh book club meeting to discuss Salvacion by Sandra Proudman.
We will be meeting on Saturday, January 31st at 12pm Pacific Time to discuss Rez Ball by Byron Graves, which Brittany is reading for the January prompt: “about sports by a racialized author”
Links to purchase:
Public StoryGraph Readalongs
Can’t join book club, but still want to discuss this month’s prompts with TDB community members? Join a public StoryGraph readalong instead!
About substance use disorders: When Crack Was King: A People’s History of a Misunderstood Era by Donovan X. Ramsey
About sports: Rez Ball by Byron Graves
Fiction by a Central American author: Men of Maize by Miguel Ángel Asturias with Gerald Martin (Translator)
Discord Housekeeping
The #bookish-millennials-book-club channel is meant for general book club chitchat and voting/polls of future book club choices.
The #book-club-forums are created by Brittany each month, and include links to the book club and readalong on StoryGraph, along with affiliate links to purchase the books, and the synchronous Discord video call event if applicable. These individual forums are an option for you to post thoughts on the books in case you aren’t joining on StoryGraph.
The #book-club-video-calls voice channel is where we meet synchronously each month to discuss the book of the month.
Let Brittany know if you ever have questions about book club. We hope to see you join a call, readalong, or chat in the forum soon!
Review Boost
Community Care
Here are a few community care initiatives that we’d like to highlight this month:
Trans Santa — Deliver gifts to trans youth in need, safely and anonymously.
Momentum for Health - Momentum for Health provides complete, personalized behavioral health care for adults in Santa Clara County.
Book Mutual Aid list — these bookstagrammers are in need of mutual aid, and would appreciate anything you can spare.
Recommendations
We have recommendation lists on libro.fm and bookshop.org. If you would like highly recommended books from us, check out our links and support local/indie bookstores in the process (if it’s an accessible option for you).
About the hosts
Brittany is a reader from the San Francisco Bay Area. She hosts the SF Bay Area chapter of Cassie’s Walking Club on Strava, Steamy Lit Reading Rainbow Book Club, and the Bookish Millennials Book Club. She can be found on substack, instagram, storygraph, bluesky, and has resources here.
Margherita is a reader and indie author from Italy. Xe can be found on instagram and substack. Xyr author website (pen name) with xyr books and editorial services can be found here.
Mylynn is a reader from Guam/Arizona. She can be found in the kitchen after midnight like the gremlin she is and also on instagram, storygraph, and more here.