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Welcome to Mocha Girls Read book club. Mocha Girls Read is a book club for Black women who love to read, want to read more and meet like-minded women. We are here to inspire women to read, share literature, fellowship, and encourage others in the joy of reading. We meet monthly in 14 cities across the US. We are an eclectic group of women and so are our reading selections. We don’t limit our reading to release dates, gender, race, or genre. So glad you’re here!
It’s time to vote for our November 2026 Monthly Book Selection! 📚🇨🇳
The theme for November is Historical China, featuring historical fiction that takes us into China’s past through unforgettable stories, characters, and experiences.
As we continue our 2026 Around the World reading journey, November takes us to China to explore its rich history and culture through literature.
Take a look at the nominated books and vote for the ones you would like to read next with the Mocha Girls.
Remember, you can vote for up to three (3) books.
Voting starts Monday, October 12, 2026, and ends Sunday, October 18, 2026, at 11 pm.
The winner will be announced on Monday, October 19, 2026.
We cannot wait to see which book the Mocha Girls choose for November!
🧭 Don’t Forget Your MGR 2026 Reader’s Passport!
As part of our 2026 Around the World theme, we created a fun Reader’s Passport to help you track your reading journey. Each month, you will “stamp” your passport with the country or culture we are exploring and jot down your thoughts about the book.
You can print your passport or fill it out digitally, whatever fits your reading style best. 💫
Mocha Girls, it’s that time again! We’re officially opening nominations for our November Monthly Book Selection, and this month our AROUND THE WORLD reading journey is taking us to China’s past. 🇨🇳📚
This process helps ensure we read across genres, discover new authors, and center stories that keep us engaged and excited each month.
🌍 November Theme: Historical China
For November, we want historical fiction books that are set in China.
From imperial courts and rural villages to generations of family stories, we’re looking for novels that bring China’s past to life. Friendship, romance, political intrigue, resilience, and change are all welcome. If it’s historical fiction and set in China, it fits the theme!
These are examples to get you started. We’d love to see which other books you discover!
📖 How the Nomination Process Works
Each member may submit ONE book nomination.
Nominated books must fit the Historical China theme: historical fiction set in China.
The book must be available in both physical and ebook formats.
The book must be one we have not already read. Check Our Library before nominating.
If the book is part of a series, it must be book #1.
✈️ Grab Your MGR Reader’s Passport!
Keep your 2026 reading journey going with the MGR Reader’s Passport, your way to track our global reading adventure all year long.
As we travel from country to country through books, collect your stamps and celebrate just how far your bookshelf takes you this year.
China is our next stop! 🇨🇳
Ready to Nominate?
Leave your book nomination in the comment section below, including the title and author.
💛 Note: Some of the book links on our site are Amazon affiliate links. When you use them, Mocha Girls Read earns a small commission at no extra cost to you. Your support helps us fund our giveaways and community programs. Thank you for reading and sharing with us! 📚✨
Welcome to the Scaredy CatGiveawayHop hosted by Mama The Fox and Mom Does Reviews. This hop runs from 9:00 AM ET on October 1, 2026 through 11:59 PM ET on October 15, 2026. The winner will be selected on October 16, 2026.
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Mocha Girls Read is pleased to offer the following prize:
One (1) print copy of Little Movements by Lauren Morrow.
To enter, use the giveaway link found below. This giveaway is open to residents of the United States. Void where prohibited by law. (Please check your SPAM/Junk email folder periodically so that you can respond to “you’ve won” emails from the author/publisher/Mocha Girls Read.)
A “lyrical debut” (USA Today) about a Black woman who is finally given a chance to pursue her dream of becoming a renowned choreographer, only to find that it comes at a tremendous personal cost
“Lauren Morrow’s smart, incisive and hilarious debut is an ode to the creative process and to people everywhere who feel the pull to take a risk and try something new.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune
LONGLISTED FOR THE VCU CABELL FIRST NOVELIST AWARD • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE FALL:People, Oprah Daily,Los Angeles Times,USA Today,Woman’s World,Christian Science Monitor, Bustle
Layla Smart was raised by her pragmatic Midwestern mother to dream medium. But all Layla’s ever wanted is a career in dance, which requires dreaming big. So when she receives a prestigious offer to be the choreographer-in-residence at Briar House, an arts program in rural Vermont, she leaves behind Brooklyn, her job, her friends, and her husband to pursue it.
Navigating Briar House and the small, white town that surrounds it proves difficult—Layla wants to create art for art’s sake and resist tokenization, but the institution’s director keeps encouraging Layla to dig deep into her people’s history. Still, the mental and physical demands of dancing spark a sharp, unexpected sense of joy, bringing into focus the years she’d distanced herself from her true calling for the sake of her marriage and maintaining the status quo.
Just as she begins to see her life more clearly, she discovers a betrayal that proves the cracks in her marriage were deeper than she ever could have known. Then Briar House’s dangerously problematic past comes to light. And Layla discovers she’s pregnant. Suddenly, dreaming medium sounds a lot more appealing.
Poignant, propulsive, and darkly funny, Little Movements is a novel about self-discovery, about what we must endure—or let go of—in order to realize our dreams.
This giveaway is open to residents of the United States. NOTE: Any entry not providing all requested information will be disqualified! All entries from non-US residents will be disqualified. Void where prohibited by law.
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Mama the Fox, Mom Does Reviews, and all participating blogs are not held responsible for sponsors who fail to fulfill their prize obligations.
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Please visit these other Scaredy CatGiveawayHop participants for more chances to win!
Our 2026 global theme, AROUND THE WORLD, continues this month with a literary journey to Italy.
This month, we are exploring a story that unfolds in Italy, moving across more than a century as it examines art, migration, race, identity, and belonging.
We are thrilled to announce that The Color Line by Igiaba Scego has been selected as our official October 2026 Monthly Book Selection.
It was the middle of the nineteenth century when Lafanu Brown audaciously decided to become an artist. In the wake of the American Civil War, life was especially tough for Black women, but she didn’t let that stop her. The daughter of a Native American woman and an African-Haitian man, Lafanu had the rare opportunity to study, travel, and follow her dreams, thanks to her indomitable spirit, but not without facing intolerance and violence. Now, in 1887, living in Rome as one of the city’s most established painters, she is ready to tell her fiancé about her difficult life, which began in a poor family forty years earlier. In 2019, an Italian art curator of Somali origin is desperately trying to bring to Europe her younger cousin, who is only sixteen and has already tried to reach Italy on a long, treacherous journey. While organizing an art exhibition that will combine the paintings of Lafanu Brown with the artworks of young migrants, the curator becomes more and more obsessed with the life and secrets of the nineteenth-century painter. Weaving together these two vibrant voices, Igiaba Scego has crafted a powerful exploration of what it means to be “other,” to be a woman, and particularly a Black woman, in a foreign country, yesterday and today.
photo from Hope Road
Igiaba Scego is an Italian writer and journalist who was born in Rome in 1974 to Somali parents. She holds a PhD in education focused on postcolonial subjects and has conducted extensive academic work in Italy and internationally.
Her writing explores Italian and Somali histories and identities, colonial memory, migration, racism, and belonging. Through her fiction, nonfiction, and journalism, Scego has examined the connections between Italy and Africa as well as the experiences of the African diaspora in Italy.
Her works include Beyond Babylon, Adua, and La mia casa è dove sono. The latter received Italy’s Mondello Prize, while La linea del colore, published in English as The Color Line, received the Premio Napoli.
Join the Discussion
Find your nearest Mocha Girls Read chapterand join the discussion. Come ready to connect, reflect, and share space with a community of Black women who love to read.
Each month, you will experience a new story through our Monthly Book Selections and discussions. By the end of the year, your passport will reflect a full journey of literary exploration from around the world.
