Harpur Edge Book Club

Each year a text written by a Harpur College alumna/us or faculty member is selected and read and discussed by a group of students.

Spring 2025 - Unlucky Mel by Aggeliki Pelekidis

Summary

In Unlucky Mel, PhD candidate Melody Hollings is in the final year of her creative writing program in upstate New York. Her dream life of landing the perfect academic job somewhere far away from her small hometown and publishing her first novel is so close to becoming a reality. But first she has to finish writing that book. Oh, and graduate. To do both, she needs her good friend Ben to reciprocate all the help she's given him over the years on his writing.

But when Mel's widowed father starts acting strangely, she is thrown. After chalking it up to a dramatic attempt to manipulate her into moving back in with him, she discovers that he really is suffering from dementia. Now she'll need to stay local to care for him. Her dream is dying and her best option is to win a postgraduation fellowship through her alma mater.

Despite all the upheaval in Mel's life, rather than helping her, Ben turns on her in a shocking betrayal. For the first time, Mel has a nemesis! The stress of caring for her father, teaching too many students, and living with so much uncertainty over her future escalates Mel's desire for retribution—until one night, she discovers an opportunity to ruin Ben's reputation.

Unlucky Mel is a smart, funny debut in which Pelekidis explores the lengths we're willing to go to in order to even the score and the ways in which women are often expected to sacrifice their professional ambitions for the men in their lives.

How to participate

Harpur College students are eligible to participate in the Harpur Edge Book Club.

Book Club participants will receive a FREE copy of the selected text, lunch/snacks at meetings, and the opportunity to engage with the author.

Eligibility:

Open to Harpur College students to register
Participants must be able to attend an introductory meeting and the Q & A with the author.
- Meeting #1: Tuesday, February 25 (1-2pm) or Wednesday, February 26 (3-4pm)
  - Receive your copy of the text, engage in preparation discussion
  - Snacks provided
- Meeting #2: Friday, April 11 from 1-230pm
  - Meet the author and discussion
  - Lunch and Snacks provided

How to join:

Sign-up on B-Engaged by Sunday, February 23. Space is limited.

Previous Harpur Edge Book Club selections:

Spring 2023: Made in China: A Memoir of Love and Labor by Anna Qu ('06)
Spring 2022: The Sonic Color Line: Race and the Cultural Politics of Listening by Jennifer Lynn Stoever
Fall 2020: The Weeping Time: Memory and the Largest Slave Auction in American History by Anne C. Bailey
Spring 2019: Morning Altars: A 7 Step Practice to Nourish Your Spirit Through Nature, Art and Ritual. by Day Schildkret ‘00
Fall 2018: The Feminist Revolution: The Struggle for Women's Liberation by Bonnie Morris ‘MA ’85, PhD ’88 and D-M Wither
Fall 2017: Find Your Whistle by Chris Ullman ’86
Spring 2016: Haunted Halls: Ghostlore of American College Campuses by Distinguished Service Professor Libby Tucker
Fall 2015: The Boston Girl by Anita Diamant MA'75
Spring 2015: The Laws of Gravity by Liz Rosenberg

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