online reading circle

virtual reading + community group

About

ORC is a book club/social group that meets every Sunday 1pm PDT on zoom. Members are mostly Cal students/alum + friends of friends not affiliated with Cal. It was started in April 2020 by Shuge and has been active ever since. Shuge is a fourth year at Cal. Her core values are community, creativity and play.

ORC's objectives are
To encourage members to read new and different literary worksTo have fun digging deeper into the text with friendsTo spark new friendships between individuals

We've read

  • Spring '20: Calypso; Man Tiger; The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories

  • Summer '20: Kindred; Girl, Woman, Other

  • Fall '20: Slouching Towards Bethlehem; I'm Thinking Of Ending Things

  • Winter '20: Pachinko

  • Spring '21: How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy; There There

  • Summer '21: Howls Moving Castle; Klara and the Sun; Mob Psycho 100

  • Fall '21: Twilight, The Overstory

  • Spring '22: Murder on the Orient Express

FAQ

How do we pick what we read?
Members propose and vote!

What does being a part of the community look like
Low stakes, join whenever you can/wantWeekly Sunday meetings (1pm Pacific Time) that alternate between book discussion and socialsChill reading pace, we read at the group’s pace (50-100pages per week)Been operating on zoom throughout the pandemic, discussions will stay on zoomOpportunity to meet people both from Cal and outside of Cal!
What kind of socials have we done?
(Mostly over zoom)
Karaoke, Catan, NYT Crossword Puzzle, Google Puzzle (took 4 hours), Movie nights, Candlelit dinner, Stern Grove concert, Great America Trip, personalized jeopardy, tarot reading, jackbox, show n tell x improv, avalon, secret santa...

What people say about orc:

"When we played Catan that one time in the spring! It was coincidentally right after my plans to play Catan with two of my college friends fell through for the third time and I was really disappointed and lonely - doing the same thing with book club people kinda felt like a tiny sign from the universe that everything would be ok :)"

"The most wholesome zoom ever"

"Really great people; ready to be engaged (way more engaged than a lot of English class discussions I’ve seen); they choose super cool books too!"

Joining

Email [email protected] stating you want to join ORC. See you soon.

For Spring '22, our kick off meeting will be 1/23/22.