Author: melodygchu@gmail.com

The Princeton Alumni Weekly Book Club is reading Mathey Girls! If you’re a Princeton alum, join the book club at paw.princeton.edu.

Someone on Threads recently asked authors what their favorite type of book events are, and my answer is book clubs. I love chatting with readers who have read the book, hearing their thoughts, and answering their questions. The PAW Book Club takes the format of a podcast interview covering questions sent in my readers. PAW Book Club members have until September 9th to send in their questions.

I’m beyond pleased by the fact that Mathey Girls is the first self-published book to be chosen by the PAW Book Club. Please reach out (melody@melodychuauthor.com) if you’d like to me join your book club in person in Northeast Ohio or online!

I had a great time participating in the first ever Phictly Global Digital Festival! In the morning I did a live reading and discussion with April from Phictly, and in the afternoon did a joint author talk with Jane Hartsock on building friendship from writing. You can see from the screen grabs below that Jane and I had lots of fun (too much fun?) chatting about our almost entirely Zoom/WhatsApp writerly friendship.

The sessions will remain available on the Phictly app for a week or so after the festival. Thanks Phictly team for bringing readers and authors together!

I had a great time meeting with the Déjà Vu Book Club! This book club has been going for fifteen years, which is amazing, and it was such a pleasure to chat about Mathey Girls.

We had a lengthy discussion about some of the cultural aspects of the novel. Fortunately, we had a range of Chinese diasporic voices to give their perspective on the complicated issues of 20th century Chinese history and immigration to the US.

My friend Pauline highlighted one aspect of Mathey Girls I hadn’t specifically considered: the friendship in the novel shows how longstanding friend groups actually grow stronger over time. A lot of depictions of college-age friendships are from a lens of nostalgia, but in Mathey Girls (and in my real life), these friendships grow so much deeper as we live out our lives and find our individual paths.

Thank you to Irene for hosting (and Irene’s husband for taking the picture!). And thanks again to the book club members for reading and sharing your views.

If you’d like me to join your book club, please reach out! Email me at melody@melodychuauthor.com. I’m happy to Northeast Ohio book clubs in person, or non-local book clubs via Zoom.

I had the honor of participating in two different events at Princeton Reunions 2026. The Princeton Women’s Network book talk “We Roar Together” was a fantastic experience. I chatted with April Chou ’96 about longstanding friendships, the many paths women’s lives take, belonging and not belonging at Princeton, and more. The energy in the room was warm and welcoming and magical, which resulted in the following exchange during the Q&A:

Alumna 1: “Have you ever considered turning Mathey Girls into a movie? I think it’d be a great movie!”

Me: “Ha ha ha thank you! Honestly I have never considered this as a self-pub debut author, it’s kind of beyond the scope of my dreams for the novel. But if you know anyone who’s a movie producer, feel free to share the book with them!”

Alumna 2 (the immediately following audience member with a question): “Hi! I”m a movie producer!”

For even more magic, check out my instagram post about Chuck’s and my chance encounter with one of the original Mathey Girls here, which happened the morning of the PWN event.

Mathey Girls has been selected for the fall Princeton Alumni Weekly Book Club. This is something I never would have imagined when I published the novel last year, and I’m astounded and grateful. It’s the first time PAW has selected a self-published book for the Book Club!

Past PAW Book Club selections include novels by Katie Kitamura, Jodi Picoult, Jennifer Weiner, and other esteemed writers. There are so many amazing alumni-authored books! I’m beyond honored that Mathey Girls is joining that company.

I had a great time discussing Mathey Girls with the Smith College Club of Cleveland Book Club! Our discussion ranged from my writing and publishing process, to sibling psychology, to differing cultural perspectives in Taiwan, Malaysia, and mainland China, and so much more. I learned about Smith’s houses, which sound similar to Princeton’s residential colleges except that they house undergrads from all four years. I’m guessing the house system contributed to the sense of sisterhood and camaraderie evident in this book club.

Thank you, Cleveland Smithies, for offering new perspectives to me as an author. I’m grateful to have had the chance to get to hear your thoughts. Thanks in particular to my friend YM who suggested Mathey Girls for discussion.

Please reach out if you select Mathey Girls for your book club! I’d love to join the conversation.

I had an amazing time meeting with members of the Princeton Club of Chicago for my very first Mathey Girls event outside of Northeast Ohio. The event was co-sponsored by the Princeton Women’s Network and the Asian American Alumni Association of Princeton (A4P). Thanks to everyone who came out for such a warm, supportive gathering (in a very cool venue). It was lovely seeing old friends and meeting new ones.❤️🐅🐅🐅❤️

I also got to visit one of my favorite places in the whole world, the Chicago Cultural Center. Originally a library, it’s an ode to books and learning, filled with beautiful glass mosaics in marble and a huge Tiffany’s stained glass dome. It’s breathtaking and I’m really moved when I’m there. I love it so much. If you go to Chicago check it out (it’s free and across the street from the Bean and so so awesome). Here’s a reel I made about my visit.

I had a lovely discussion with the Princeton Women’s Network Princeton Area Book Club over Zoom! I was only able to join for about half an hour but in that time, we were able to chat about writing, publishing, and which aspects of Mathey Girls were based on my personal experience. Thank you to the book club members for the insightful questions, and thanks to Diane H. for inviting me to join.

I love chatting with book clubs; if your book club wants to read Mathey Girls I would be happy to dial in (or stop by if it’s in the Cleveland area).

HUGE thank you to A4P (Asian American Alumni Association of Princeton) for selecting Mathey Girls for its very first book club!!

I loved chatting with fellow Tigers, alums from ‘79 to ‘22, about the novel. We discussed cross-generational experiences at Princeton; expectations in Asian American families; how amazing the Princeton Chinese language program is; the difference between being Asian American and being into Asian studies, and much more. It was a very personal discussion, and I came away with greater insight into myself as a writer (and, honestly, a human being).

As I told the group, I’ve been blown away by the reception for Mathey Girls. I never would have expected that my novel would be chosen for A4P book club (and definitely not its first!). I’m so grateful.

The SH Reading book club was formed during the pandemic by my dear friend Lorie. I didn’t know her before I joined the group via Facebook, and I didn’t really get to know her until she asked if anyone wanted to read a novel she was working on. We ended up swapping manuscripts and the rest is history. She is one of two author friends who inspired me to publish Mathey Girls on my own, and helped with proofreading the final draft (any remaining errors are of course my own).

When I was looking for beta readers for Mathey Girls, I reached out to the other members of the book club, and three women offered to give feedback. This was hugely helpful, to have discerning readers who didn’t know me in real life read the draft and provide comments.

Fast forward two years (!!) later: we got to discuss Mathey Girls as an official book club selection! I’m truly grateful for the support and feedback each of the women in this photo offered. This book club reads some really great books (The Safekeep, James, Martyr!, etc) and we always have a very interesting and intelligent discussion. To have these sharp readers turn their insight and wisdom towards Mathey Girls was an honor.

Okay okay they don’t actually call themselves the Stradley Girls BUT they did become friends as freshmen at OSU’s Stradley Hall more than two decades ago! Just like the Mathey Girls, these women have kept in touch as they have gone on their very different life journeys. It was so fun to get to know them and chat about the book and the enduring value of long friendships. As I said to the group, there are so few people in our lives now who knew and loved our 20-year old selves. We may not even have loved our 20-year old selves! But our friends we met at the time did; they knew our worth and continue to love us because of, and in spite of, whatever young women we were at the time. I’m so glad that Mathey Girls was an occasion for these women to get together and catch up—thank you Stradley Girls for inviting me!

Another great book club discussion! Thank you to Judy J. for hosting. We were a small group, which was great for in-depth discussion on what we are each drawn to in the books we read and our personal friendship experiences.

I had an amazing discussion with the Solon Roxbury-Orchard PTA book club. We chatted all things Mathey Girls for over 3 hours!!

To the group present that night: thank you all for your enthusiasm, insight, and humor, and for uncovering depths of Mathey Girls that I had never consciously understood as an author. Special thanks to Abby M. for hosting!

I was honored to join my first Mathey Girls book club discussion, hosted by my friend Mara. It was lovely to meet so many new readers, who brought their keen insight and thoughtful questions. We were so excited to talk about the book that we didn’t remember to take a group picture until a number of the attendees had left, but I’m so grateful to everyone who came and shared their thoughts.