Come in and find something to read.
The Reading Room is where we talk about books. Browse what Hazel, Blanche, and the other women are reading, find their recommendations and reviews, or discover something you might want to read next. The shelves reflect their different tastes, so you never quite know what you’ll find.
The Book Club selection
The circle meets on the first of every month. The first selection is announced with Episode One, chosen by Hazel, with Blanche’s position noted. Come and read alongside the Hot Old Ladies.
Join the Hot Old Ladies Book ClubHazel Reads Three
Three new novels an episode, and a verdict on each: one to read, one that divides the room, and now and then one to skip. Hazel reads them so you don’t have to read all three. New episodes land twice a month.
Read Hazel’s verdictsMeet the readers
Whose reading life would you like to spend an afternoon with?
Fifty years of reading, teaching, and evaluating, and a note on every title. She reads the Russians because they are right about people, and almost nothing else is. Sit with Hazel and you leave with the list you did not know you needed.
She reads the way she collects, by instinct and encounter rather than method. Her notes are not verdicts, they are records of what happened. Objects that outlast their makers, and the books that explain a room before you walk into it.
Nobody at work has seen this list. The gap between what she reads alone and what stays on her desk is the whole of her, magical realism at the night table and the art world under the lamp.
She has never understood the difference between education and enjoyment, and some of these books have sand in them. The places she has been, and the women she borrowed courage from.
She rode rodeo in Mexico before she ran the house on Gramercy Park. Horses, Mexico, and a house kept correctly, which she will tell you are the same subject.
French and past seventy, she reads and does not discuss it with everyone. Colette and Sagan and Modiano, the books she considers worth mentioning and the ones she would rather not.
She has argued with Hazel about Dostoevsky since 1986 and neither has moved a degree. Her shelf is that argument made visible, the books she teaches with and the one she ends every course on.
She wrote decisions for forty years that could not be appealed on grounds of imprecision, and she reads the same way. These are the books she considers worth the weight of a recommendation, which she does not give lightly.
The youngest of the circle, who reads the way she filmed, looking hardest at the thing everyone else has agreed to stop looking at. She arrives slightly late and leaves exactly on time, and no one has worked out how.
She says one thing, very quietly, that ends the argument. She reads with the focused quiet of a woman thinking about something else entirely, and she is usually right about the thing she is thinking about.
A cream lynx point with blue eyes who holds the senior research post by occupation and has never been asked to justify it. He does not use the Reading Room. Things arrive. His approvals have reasons, and the reasons are his own.
Now choose a shelf, and it opens below.
Eleven reading lives, each on its own shelf, and the current book club selection. This is the destination the people were inviting you toward.
Hazel McGuire’s Shelf
She has been reading, teaching, and evaluating for fifty years. These are her lists. She has notes on all of them.
“I read the Russians because they are right about people, and almost nothing else is.”
“These are the books I recommend when someone tells me they are not really a fiction person.”
Blanche Fox’s Shelf
She reads the way she collects, by instinct and encounter rather than by method. Her notes are not verdicts. They are records of what happened.
Books about things that outlast their makers, and what it costs to keep them.
Claire Fox’s Shelf
Nobody who knows her at work has seen this list. The gap between the two shelves below is almost the whole of her.
What Claire reads alone. She does not discuss it. She leaves these on the night table and says nothing about them.
What stays on the desk. She refers to these. She argues with them. Some she agrees with, and finds that more unsettling.
Ana Fiala’s Shelf
Ana has never understood the difference between education and enjoyment. Some of these books have sand in them. She has never kept a reading journal. She has kept, without meaning to, a record.
Luisa Ortega’s Shelf
Luisa rode rodeo in Mexico before she ran the household on Gramercy Park. Horses. Mexico. A house kept correctly. These are not separate subjects. They are the same subject.
Annette Fontaine’s Shelf
Annette reads. She does not discuss it with everyone. These are the books she considers worth mentioning, and the ones she would prefer not to mention but which are on the list regardless.
Dorothy Achebe’s Shelf
She has argued with Hazel about Dostoevsky since 1986. Neither of them has changed their position by a degree. Her shelf is the argument made visible.
Forty years of world literature, and the lines she draws between its cultures, languages, and traditions.
Vivienne Marsh’s Shelf
She has been writing decisions that could not be appealed on grounds of imprecision for forty years. She reads the same way. These are the books she considers worth the weight of a recommendation, which she does not give lightly.
Ruth Steinberg’s Shelf
Sixty-nine, the youngest of the circle, retired from a career in documentary film that produced four pictures Hazel considers essential and two she considers overrated. She reads the way she filmed, looking hardest at the thing everyone else has agreed to stop looking at.
Margot Bellamy’s Shelf
Seventy-five, retired gallerist. She says one thing, very quietly, that ends the argument, and the circle has relied on this for decades without discussing it. She reads with the focused quiet of a woman thinking about something else entirely, and she is usually right about the thing she is thinking about.
Herbert’s Approved Reading
Herbert is a cream lynx point with blue eyes. He holds the senior research position at the Lab by occupation and has never been asked to justify this. The following titles have received his approval. His reasons are his own.
Herbert does not use the Reading Room. He does not purchase things. Things arrive. This is the correct relationship between a Senior Research Associate and the material world.
Current Book Club Selection
The OLYL Book Club meets on the first of every month. The selection arrives with discussion questions written in Hazel’s voice, a reading journal page to print, and a Bookshop link. The list is owned, direct, and populated entirely by people who already have the habit of reading.
Selection announced at launch
The first selection will be announced with the release of Episode One. It will be chosen by Hazel. Blanche will have a position on it. The audience will be invited to join the argument.
Join the Hot Old Ladies Book ClubThe relationship comes first. The book club comes second.
Browse the shelves. Find a character whose reading matches yours. Then, when you are ready, join the community. The monthly kit arrives on the first of every month: a title, discussion questions in Hazel’s voice, and a reading journal page to print.
Join the Hot Old Ladies Book ClubWe partner with Bookshop.org. If you choose to purchase a book through one of our links, we may receive a small commission while helping support independent bookstores. We only recommend books we’d gladly put into our own library.