About Thought Crimes Book Club
Thought Crimes Book Club is a monthly reading group for people who enjoy thinking, arguing, and reading books that don’t insult their intelligence.
It is not a romance book club.
It is not a BookTok book club.
And it is not a place for ideological preaching or compulsory consensus.
This is a space for grown ups who enjoy reading fiction and are capable of discussion that assumes we can disagree without falling apart.
How it works
One book per month
Each month has a theme
I curate a shortlist of books that fit that theme
Members vote on what we read
Then we discuss in the comments, and occasionally live
There are no homework assignments.
No required interpretations.
No expectation that everyone will like the book.
You don’t have to agree with me or with each other.
You do need to be able to argue in good faith and actually read the book.
What kind of books we read
The selections are designed to be:
Discussion-friendly
Intellectually challenging without being academic
Worth arguing about
Genres rotate. Some months are fiction, some non-fiction.
Some books will be enjoyable. Others will be uncomfortable.
2026 themes are:
Banned & censored books (fiction or non-fiction)
Fiction published in the last 12 months
Non-fiction: psychology & cognition
New Zealand authors (fiction or non-fiction)
Gothic / horror fiction (not Stephen King)
Mainstream fiction favourites
Memoir & biography
Fiction written more than 100 years ago
Fiction about justice & morality
Non-fiction on revolutions
Members’ choice (you vote for the theme)
Who this is for
Thought Crimes Book Club is for:
Men and women
Any age
Any background
You don’t need a literature degree.
You don’t need the “right” politics.
You just need to:
Read the book
Think for yourself
Disagree without losing the plot
Why it exists
Discussing books you loved is fun, but debating books you didn’t love is often just as interesting.
This book club exists because I want to discuss books and many of my readers over on my Thought Crimes Substack are readers too.
Subscription
The Book Club lives on a separate Substack so it doesn’t clutter the main Thought Crimes feed.
Substack sets a minimum price of US$5 per month or US$30 per year, which covers the cost of running the club and my time curating, reading, and moderating discussions.
Join us
If this sounds like your kind of thing, you’re very welcome.
Subscribe here:
https://thoughtcrimesbookclub.substack.com/subscribe
Come prepared to read, think, and dissent.
Ani xx
