The Unofficial Official Hairpin 3.0 Book Club: White Girls

In last week’s open thread, esteemed blogress Jazmine Hughes said, and I quote, “I’ve got White Girls by Hilton Als on my nightstand just WAITING for me.” AND THEN, in the comments, esteemed commentress isabelle bleu said, and I continue to quote, “I’ve got White Girls on my nightstand too, just awaiting the requisite couple of hours to dive in and get a good head start on the book. Anyone else reading this? I do so love a Read-Along!” AND THEN, I looked to my very own nightstand, and I realized I also had a copy of White Girls sitting there, calling out, and I quote, “Read me, Anna! I’m waiting for you!”

“This gives me an idea,” I thought to myself. “I should go have some onion rings for dinner!”

Later, after eating the onion rings (they were great), I had another idea: White Girls should be the next pick for the Unofficial Official Hairpin 3.0 Book Club.

I know what you’re thinking: didn’t we already read White Girls this month? Hahaha, but seriously. Hilton Als is a critic at the New Yorker, and White Girls is his collection of essays that, according to this description, “hairpin [!!!!!!!!] between critique and meditation, fiction and nonfiction, high culture and low, the theoretical and the deeply personal” JUST LIKE MY DIARY!!

The fine folks at McSweeney’s are offering a coupon code for Hairpin readers if you buy the paperback copy through their website. Just use the code HAIRPIN at checkout for 15% off. The code will work through April 6.

Let’s meet back here April 15th for a followup. There have been a lot of brilliant things written about this book already, so I am trying to plan something special for this. (Unless that plan falls through, in which case haha funny joke it will just be a regular discussion post.)