The Empress Book Club
Fellow Empresses,
Welcome to The Empress Book Club... our subscriber-only literary cabal!
How this Book Club Works
Our goal will be to read or listen to six books per year from the rapidly emerging midlife literary canon—all with an eye toward growing it.
These may include novels, essays, memoirs, science, mythopoetics, self-help, etc.
Every two months, we’ll select each new book by poll. It’s interesting to see where the larger readership is trending—so we may keep this polling open for a time.
Barring extraordinary circumstances, you should expect to hear thoughts, questions, and reflections on the chosen book via email twice a month. Feel free to comment at your convenience—or save it for the author's Zoom. We’re easy.
Per author availability, we’ll try to book author Zoom discussions at the end of our reading periods. For maximum participation, we’ll aim for weekend afternoons, PST but it will depend on the author’s schedule.
Recordings of live Zoom sessions with authors will be available for those not able to attend the sessions will be made available the following day.
As we all know, women’s book clubs exist everywhere you look, but building a meaningful canon of literature that aids in women’s midlife and menopausal journeys is truly the niche of this one—primarily because these are topics that were unfortunately never covered in Our Bodies, Ourselves and we should be creating a resource for younger women so that their paths are ultimately easier.
To that end, our inaugural book is a fun one… KILLERS OF A CERTAIN AGE by Deanna Raybourn.
You can read a sample here. You can listen to an audio sample here.
To Purchase:
About the Book
Older women often feel invisible, but sometimes that’s their secret weapon.
They’ve spent their lives as the deadliest assassins in a clandestine international organization, but now that they're sixty years old, four women friends can’t just retire – it’s kill or be killed in this action-packed thriller by New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award-nominated author Deanna Raybourn.
Billie, Mary Alice, Helen, and Natalie have worked for the Museum, an elite network of assassins, for forty years. Now their talents are considered old-school and no one appreciates what they have to offer in an age that relies more on technology than people skills.
When the foursome is sent on an all-expenses-paid vacation to mark their retirement, they are targeted by one of their own. Only the Board, the top-level members of the Museum, can order the termination of field agents, and the women realize they’ve been marked for death.
Now to get out alive they have to turn against their own organization, relying on experience and each other to get the job done, knowing that working together is the secret to their survival. They’re about to teach the Board what it really means to be a woman—and a killer—of a certain age.
About Deanna Raybourn
New York Times and USA Today bestselling novelist Deanna Raybourn is a 6th-generation native Texan. She graduated with a double major in English and history from the University of Texas at San Antonio. Married to her college sweetheart and the mother of one, Raybourn makes her home in Virginia. Her novels have been nominated for numerous awards including the Edgar, two RT Reviewers’ Choice awards, the Agatha, two Dilys Winns, and a Last Laugh. She launched a new Victorian mystery series with the 2015 release of A CURIOUS BEGINNING, featuring intrepid butterfly-hunter and amateur sleuth, Veronica Speedwell. Veronica’s second adventure is A PERILOUS UNDERTAKING (January 2017), and book three, A TREACHEROUS CURSE, was published in 2018 and nominated for the Edgar Award. A DANGEROUS COLLABORATION was released in 2019, and A MURDEROUS RELATION appeared in 2020 and AN UNEXPECTED PERIL was published in March 2021. The latest Veronica Speedwell adventure, AN IMPOSSIBLE IMPOSTOR, will be published in February 2022. Deanna’s first contemporary novel featuring four female assassins who must band together to take out their nemesis as they prepare for retirement, KILLERS OF A CERTAIN AGE, is out now.
You can find her social media links, blog, contests, and upcoming appearances at deannaraybourn.com.
To watch a fantastic interview with Deanna on A Mighty Blaze, click here.
We’ll be reaching out to see if she can join us for a chat on Zoom, so stay tuned!
I’m only a few chapters in, but so far… the identity collapse is highly relatable and the pace is brisk!
Hope you’ll join us! And remember… reading keeps you Wise AF!
Yours in Grandeur,
*As an Amazon Associate, The Empress may earn from certain purchases, at no cost to you.