From WBEZ Chicago, I'm Greta Johnson, and this is The Nerd At Book Club, it's just

like a regular book club, except you don't have to share your snacks.

It is the month of May, and our book this month is Eidra Novi's novel Take What You Need.

It alternates points of view between Jean, a woman who welves giant sculptures in her

rural Pennsylvania living room, and Leah, Jean's estranged former stepdaughter.

When the story opens, we know Jean has died, and Leah is back in her hometown to see Jean's

part. As the book goes on, we learn Jean and Leah had a pretty serious falling out a couple

of years before the story starts, partly because of Elliott, who is Jean's disenfranchised

neighbor. That's all I'm going to say for now because this is going to be a spoilery conversation,

so here is your spoiler warning. If you haven't read the book and you don't want to know what happens,

go listen to my interview with the author in the feed. If you have read the book or you are

game for spoilers, anyway, welcome. I am so excited to introduce you to this month's

panelist. With us this month, we have the author of Fellowship Point, Alice, Elliott Dark, Alice,

hello. Hi there. How are you? Awesome. We also have Clavis Nantetta. She is the author of

Neruda on the park. Clavis, hello. Hi, I'm so happy to be here. I love this book.

Yay. Okay. So yeah, what stood out to you about it? Well, I mean, I really just love the dynamic

between these two women. I think Jean is a character for the ages. Yes. She is so complicated.

She is so funny. I felt that, you know, her imagination and the way that she interacted with

these other artists from the past through books was really inspiring. And the mango man,

so I mean, I kept imagining these cultures in my mind and just thinking how bold it is to

witness this woman that's creating from scrap yards and, you know, she's creating this work

from the margins in every aspect. And I just, I just loved her as a character. Oh, I love that

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