Welcome to the Velshi Band Book Club. I'm MSNBC's Ali Valshi.

Let's start today's meeting with some words from the enduring American novelist

Nathaniel Hawthorne. The year is 1855 and a frustrated Hawthorne vents to his publisher in a letter,

quote, America is now wholly given over to a damned mob of scribbling women, and I should have no

chance of success while the public taste

is occupied with their trash, and I should be ashamed of myself if I did succeed, end quote.

Today's episode explores and celebrates those scribbling women and their trash, two powerful

books written by women for women.

168 years later, the words might be different than what Hawthorne wrote, but the disdain

for heteronormative women-centric literature is still entirely prevalent and unrelenting.

Chick-lit, as the genre was rudely dubbed in the 90s, dismisses

these novels as frivolous and light, devoid of serious topics, characters, or explorations,

with that light little title. These books aren't literature. They're just chick-lit.

Plot-wise, these books generally center around a major setback

or a moment of trauma and then a move forward, success for our leading lady in love or work or

self-growth. Despite the variation in story, these books are rooted in accessing love, joy,

companionship, and self-examination. In the pages of these books,

women are allowed to want and then actually get those things. On this episode of the Velshi

Band Book Club, we're opening two books with strong messages, strong female characters, and even

stronger authors, the beloved Meg Cabot on her book, Ready female characters, and even stronger authors, the beloved Meg

Cabot on her book, Ready or Not, and the award-winning Lori Halse Anderson on her book, Speak.

Let's start with Ready or Not.

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