Book Club

Welcome to our Book Club & Podcast: Jennifer Marohasy with Abby Begeta.

Reading is one of the most practical ways we can come to know ourselves—and our own prejudices—a little better!

By stepping into other lives, histories, and cultures, we gain a clearer view of the assumptions we carry, and the worlds often, otherwise, entirely hidden to us.

Abby and Jenn are beginning 2027 with two books that invite exactly that kind of awareness:

1. Going to Tehran: Why America Must Accept the Islamic Republic of Iran by Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett. Drawing on their experience as former U.S. officials, the Leveretts challenge decades of policy orthodoxy and argue for serious engagement with Iran as it actually is, rather than as it is often caricatured.
2. Wifedom: Mrs Orwell’s Invisible Life by Anna Funder. This hybrid of biography, criticism, and personal reflection recovers the life and contributions of Eileen O’Shaughnessy (Blair), George Orwell’s first wife—revealing how much of her story was written out and what that erasure says about partnership, gender, and literary history.

Together these books open conversations about other cultures, hidden contributions, political narratives, and the stories we tell (or fail to tell) about ourselves and others.

Abby and Jenn look forward to reading and discussing these books with you in early 2027.

More information to come about which book first, and which day in February 2027 for the first meeting.

In the meantime, get reading, if you want to participate and send in questions to bookclub@jennifermarohasy.com .