Welcome to the Club: How a Year of Obsessive Joining Saved My Life
Ada Calhoun
May 2027 · Penguin Random House Audio
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infoThis book will become available on May 18, 2027. You will not be charged until it is released.
About this audiobook
From the New York Times bestselling author of Why We Can’t Sleep—and following in the footsteps of Bowling Alone and Passages—a generation-defining guide to building community and connection beyond the algorithms
Ada Calhoun found herself suddenly aimless after a life spent hustling thanks to a series of major, yet common, life changes: Her son left for college, she got divorced, and her father passed away. After so many years of caring for and centering others, she was now blessed (or saddled) with more time and autonomy than she could handle. What was she supposed to do? In a culture that teaches us to defer pleasure, glorify productivity, and prioritize our obligations to others and our work, is it possible to rewire our instincts when it comes to connection and success?
In the spirit of so many other seekers, including Gretchen Rubin and Robert Putnam, Calhoun transformed her question into a quest and project, one that, coincidentally, dovetails with subjects grabbing national headlines: Are we living through a loneliness epidemic? In the age of social media, how do we forge in-person connection and community?
The answer to our contemporary dilemmas could be a squarely twentieth-century solution: clubs.
So Calhoun spent a year saying yes to as many clubs as she could find—mah-jongg groups, Daughters of the American Revolution, LARPing, book clubs, and so many more—and throwing herself headlong into their histories and sociological underpinnings. In diving into dozens of different “third spaces,” Ada provides a twenty-first-century map to navigating age-old sociological and psychological challenges like weathering life transitions, resisting isolation and inertia, and building a social safety net. Every generation must face the question of “What now?” It’s our turn, and Ada Calhoun knows the way.
Ada Calhoun found herself suddenly aimless after a life spent hustling thanks to a series of major, yet common, life changes: Her son left for college, she got divorced, and her father passed away. After so many years of caring for and centering others, she was now blessed (or saddled) with more time and autonomy than she could handle. What was she supposed to do? In a culture that teaches us to defer pleasure, glorify productivity, and prioritize our obligations to others and our work, is it possible to rewire our instincts when it comes to connection and success?
In the spirit of so many other seekers, including Gretchen Rubin and Robert Putnam, Calhoun transformed her question into a quest and project, one that, coincidentally, dovetails with subjects grabbing national headlines: Are we living through a loneliness epidemic? In the age of social media, how do we forge in-person connection and community?
The answer to our contemporary dilemmas could be a squarely twentieth-century solution: clubs.
So Calhoun spent a year saying yes to as many clubs as she could find—mah-jongg groups, Daughters of the American Revolution, LARPing, book clubs, and so many more—and throwing herself headlong into their histories and sociological underpinnings. In diving into dozens of different “third spaces,” Ada provides a twenty-first-century map to navigating age-old sociological and psychological challenges like weathering life transitions, resisting isolation and inertia, and building a social safety net. Every generation must face the question of “What now?” It’s our turn, and Ada Calhoun knows the way.
From the New York Times bestselling author of Why We Can’t Sleep—and following in the footsteps of Bowling Alone and Passages—a generation-defining guide to building community and connection beyond the algorithms
Ada Calhoun found herself suddenly aimless after a life spent hustling thanks to a ...
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About the author
The New York Times-bestselling author of generational manifesto Why We Can’t Sleep, Andrew Carnegie Medal-longlisted memoir Also a Poet, Time 100 Must-Read novel Crush, and cult classic St. Marks Is Dead, Ada Calhoun will gladly stay after the meeting to put away the chairs.
The New York Times-bestselling author of generational manifesto Why We Can’t Sleep, Andrew Carnegie Medal-longlisted memoir Also a Poet, Time 100 Must-Read novel Crush, and cult classic St. Marks Is Dead, Ada Calhoun will gladly stay after the meeting to put away the chairs.
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