About The Book Club:

Welcome to The Poder Circle Book Club—a quarterly, themed book club that aims to spark and facilitate important discussion around our shared experiences, our unique stories, and the issues that affect our comunidad. As Poderistas, we want to show the world that libros by Latinas matter—that our words have Poder. As people, we come from a long tradition of storytellers whose words have sparked movements. We honor that tradition by uplifting Latina voices, deepening our understanding of the Latinx experience, facilitating discussion, and inspiring action through words with impact. 

 

What To Expect:

There is no cost to join, all you have to do is subscribe to The Poder Circle Book Club list! Once signed up, you’ll receive:

  • bi-monthly Poder Circle Book Club emails
  • Exclusive Poder Circle Book Club content
  • Invitations to private events including virtual discussions with authors & the Poder Circle community
  • Quarterly discussion guides
  • Plus surprise appearances, giveaways y más

The theme of The Poder Circle Book Club is:

The Power of Belonging

This quarter, the Poder Circle Book Club is all about The Power of Belonging.

For so many of us, belonging is layered. It lives in our accents, our last names, our family stories, and the spaces where we’ve had to prove we deserve to be. It shapes how we understand home, even when home has never felt simple.

Belonging can mean navigating mixed-status families, holding pride alongside pain, or confronting the myths we’ve been told about who counts as American. It asks us to look honestly at race, power, and the systems that decide who is welcomed and who is questioned. At its core, belonging is about dignity. It’s about claiming our place without apology.

Join us as we read a story that invites us to rethink what citizenship and identity really mean. One page at a time, we’ll reflect on how we define home, how we build community, and how we affirm that our presence, our histories, and our voices matter.

The Featured Selection

As we explore the theme of The Power of Belonging, we can’t think of a better book to read together than:

About Citizenship: Notes on an American Myth

In this one-of-a-kind book, Daisy Hernández fiercely interrogates one of the most complicated subjects of contemporary life and politics: citizenship. Braiding memoir, history, and cultural criticism, she exposes the truths and lies of how we define ourselves as a country and a people. Turning to her own family’s stories—her mother arrived from Colombia, while her father was a political refugee from Castro’s Cuba—Hernández shows how the very idea of citizenship is a myth, one of the stories we tell ourselves about the American soul and psyche.

Reframing our understanding of what it means to be an American, Citizenship: Notes on an American Myth is an urgent and necessary account of the laws, customs, and language we use to include and exclude, especially those who come from Latin America. With her scholar’s mind and memoirist’s gift for narrative, Hernández weaves a story both personal and national, while reckoning with our country’s ongoing debate about who belongs and providing fresh ways of thinking about citizenship. At once bracing, fearless, and tender, Citizenship is a powerful portrait of one family’s experiences in the borderlands of citizenship and an honest illumination of the country in which we live.

About the author Daisy Hernández Daisy Hernández is the author of The Kissing Bug, winner of the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award and the inaugural title for the National Book Foundation’s Science + Literature Program. Her memoir, A Cup of Water Under My Bed, won Lambda Literary’s Dr. Betty Berzon Emerging Writer Award and was a Publishing Triangle Award finalist. She co-edited the classic feminist anthology Colonize This! and is an associate professor of creative writing at Northwestern University. Learn More
“How did ‘Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free’ turn upside down to where we are today? Everyone needs to read this book, citizens and non-citizens alike. Brilliant!” — Sandra Cisneros, author of The House on Mango Street

Accessibility

We understand that times are tough for many and joining a book club is sometimes not within your budget. Poderistas wants to ensure we can make The Poder Circle Book Club accessible to amigas who have a financial need. To honor this, we have reserved a limited amount of books that are available on a first-come, first-served basis for those who have a need. Please email hola@poderistas.com with the email subject ‘Book Club Accessibility’ to request a copy. In your email, please include your name, mailing information, and the book you’re interested in.

Deep Dive

After reading our featured book, keep exploring the Poder Circle quarterly theme of The Power of Belonging with a curated selection of works created by Latinas coming soon!