September 2026 Book Club: Girls Can Kiss Now: Essays by Jill Gutowitz

Our September read is a 2022 essay collection Girls Can Kiss Now by Jill Gutowitz (227 pages/7 hours).. Book club member Jophi wants all of us to read this collection of essays about pop and lesbian culture with pithy lists which was a Goodreads Reader’s Choice nominee for humor. In these honest examinations of identity, desire, and self-worth, Jill explores perhaps the most monumental cultural shift of our lifetimes: the mainstreaming of lesbian culture. Dusting off her own personal traumas and artifacts of her not-so-distant youth she examines how pop culture acts as a fun house mirror reflecting and refracting our values—always teaching, distracting, disappointing, and revealing us. Girls Can Kiss Now is a fresh and intoxicating blend of personal stories, sharp observations, and laugh-out-loud humor. This timely collection of essays helps us make sense of our collective pop-culture past even as it points the way toward a joyous, uproarious, near—and very queer—future. Social half-hour starts at 6:30 and the book discussion starts around 7:00. We will be inside in the usual room. It's inside, past the bar, up the stairs, left through the door, and past the restrooms. Ask at the bar for directions. Second Line should have a food truck or food offerings out there. Second Line asks that you not bring in any outside drink, even non-alcoholic ones. Please support Second Line, a place that gives us a space to meet for free. We also recommend that you bring your own chair because it will be more comfortable than the ones Second Line provides.