The Stacks Book Club - July 2024
Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
Our July book pick is the 1993 speculative fiction, post-apocalyptic novel Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler, one of the most legendary voices in science fiction. The story is set in July 2024 (aka right TF now) on an Earth that’s been ravaged by climate change and wealth inequality. We follow displaced empath Lauren Olamina as she sets out on her journey North and meets all kinds of travelers along her way. While the world around her has fallen apart, she imagines a whole new religion built on change and interplanetary exploration. Since its release, the novel has won many awards and been adapted into a graphic novel and an opera; it’s cultural significance still reverberates today.
If you want to read with us this month, here are some key dates to The Stacks Book Club read of Parable of the Sower.
July 3rd  -- The Stacks Episode announcing our guest for Parable of the Sower episode
July 31st  -- The Stacks Book Club Episode of Parable of the Sower
August 6th at 5pm PT -- The Stacks Virtual Book Club meetup to discuss the book. To participate you will need to join The Stacks Pack on Patreon. There, you’ll have inside access to the show, access to the Discord community, plus more.
LA’s Black owned indie bookstore Reparations Club offers you 10% off your copy of Parable of the Sower using the code STACKS10 at checkout!
(Or get your copy of our July book on Bookshop.org or Amazon.)
I am really looking forward to reading this classic with all of you as we live through the future dystopia Octavia Butler imagined for us all.
I love this book I’m so excited you picked this (not a spoiler, but she is the first writer of dystopian fiction who actually makes comment about periods… very small but something women deal with that is so often overlooked by writers and films).