Welcome to the Club

What is the Killjoy Book Club?

• Jane reads a book

• Jane tells her friends what book she’s reading in case they also want to read it

• Jane gathers her friends together, and forces them to discuss the book with her

Why Killjoy? Do you just read books about murder and being sad?

• Jane likes Sara Ahmed, who writes about feminist killjoys and institutional killjoys: people who expose problems and therefore pose problems

• On that note — broadly speaking, Jane currently reads a lot of —

  • non-fiction, often but not always written by academics (often, coincidentally, by women of colour)

  • essay collections (critical theory, but make it bite-sized)

  • monographs (big chunky books about a single topic or research project)

  • qualitative / conceptual / theoretical / fluffy idea books (she’s not really a quantitative research kind of gal, sorry)

  • books about intersectionality, social difference, feminism, anti-racism, decolonisation, social policy, fucked-up institutions, etc.

• Jane does enjoy listening to so-bad-it’s-good mystery-thriller fiction, but there’s probably other book clubs for that. She’d describe the mood of her books as more angry than sad, but at least a little bit life-affirming … ?

Who is the KBC for? What if I’m lazy / have no time to read / feel intimidated / would probably listen more than contribute?

• Jane reads as a baby academic, but also as a policy worker, activist, lived expertise advocate in the community sector, and human. She hopes you don’t feel like you also have to be writing a doctoral thesis to join her. If anything, KBC should feel like a space that bridges academic and non-academic worlds.

• Jane has tutored first-year university students before — who are very good at promising to read things, and then not even opening the files. She won’t be mad if you rock up to chat about a book that you haven’t finished. KBC should feel like reading and learning together, and we all do that at different paces.

• Jane reads things she isn’t an expert in, which means she often won’t quite understand them until she’s had a chance to digest. She won’t care if you attempt to read but struggle, or need a little bit more guidance. She’ll likely use this newsletter to share initial thoughts, resources, steering questions, etc.

• Jane is based in Naarm, but Zoom exists, and she loves a coffee when she’s in different cities. She hasn’t worked out how best to run a nation-wide book club yet, but she’ll play with a few different options …