In the Texas Book Club, a book club from Texas Monthly and the Texas Book Festival, we’re looking forward to enjoying the turn of spring (reading on the porch is back!) and wrapping last month’s pick: Lot, by Bryan Washington. If you’ve been reading along, be sure to drop your final thoughts on Lot in our Facebook group or Instagram broadcast channel.

In March, we’ll be reading The Liars’ Club, by Texan author Mary Karr. The first of three acclaimed memoirs, The Liars’ Club recounts Karr’s chaotic childhood in an East Texas oil town and her relationship with her dysfunctional parents—Karr’s father was an alcoholic oil-refinery worker, and her mother struggled with mental health issues and depressive episodes. The memoir is especially noteworthy for its honest depiction of Karr’s own sexual abuse, and how as a very young girl, she was left to navigate a traumatic secret.

Karr grew up in Groves, a refinery town of less than 20,000 people in southeast Texas, before she hightailed it out of the state when she was seventeen; she only occasionally looked back. The Liars’ Club was published in 1995 and introduced Karr’s deeply authentic voice and arresting prose to the Texas literary world, where she’s remained a must-read ever since. Karr went on to write two more memoirs, Cherry, about coming of age in Leechfield, and Lit, about her sobriety journey throughout adulthood. She later added The Art of Memoir, detailing her memoir-writing process.

Below is a suggested reading schedule.

Week 1 (March 1–8)
Chapters 1–4

Week 2 (March 9–15)
Chapter 5–8

Week 3 (March 16–22)
Chapters 9–13

Week 4 (March 23–31)
Chapters 14–15

If you aren’t yet a member of the Texas Book Club, you can become one by joining our Instagram broadcast channel or Facebook group. Make sure to grab a copy of The Liars’ Club—whether it be from a beloved independent bookstore, your local library, or online—and remember, you’re not reading this one alone.

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