The next SCS Book Club selection is… a tie? With all votes in, we have a tie between Amy Richards’ Opting In and local author Matt O’Brien’s My Week at the Blue Angel. So, let’s have a run-off! Voting ends Wednesday to make the call between the two books!

Here’s the short synopsis of each:

• My Week at the Blue Angel: And Other Stories from the Storm Drains, and Trailer Parks of Las Vegas by Matthew O’Brien (literary non-fiction): This one, a brand new collection of short stories by a local author, offers the quasi-hybrid choice between fiction and non-fiction. They are true stories, but O’Brien delivers them in the style of literary non-fiction (think Hunter S. Thompson). (Full disclosure: Matt and I worked together at Las Vegas CityLife, where he wrote stories that became the genesis for this book.)
• Opting In: Having a Child Without Losing Yourself by Amy Richards (non-fiction): True, I had this on the list last time, too. This is my overt feminist agenda at work. I just have to have at least one book that allows for a direct conversation about feminism (and in this case, motherhood, too). This book confronts the idea that educated, middle-class women are “opting out” of their careers to have babies. It also looks at other parenting issues including the gendering of childhood, the biological clock, the role of fathers and dispelling myths about the “right” childbirth experience.

Vote now!