Booked Book Club Highlights Black Authors, Hosts Unique Meetups in Charlotte

With the backdrop of fog settling low over the Queen City skyline on a temperate March morning, a group of about five people gathered beside a pavilion at Independence Park in the Elizabeth neighborhood fervently discussing a book called Capone, part of an urban fiction series written by Jahquel J.

One woman wearing leggings, sneakers, a bright pink weighted vest and a white T-shirt that read “Booked Book Club” displayed a sign saying the same. As the size of the group grew from a paltry five to a boisterous 20, the woman introduced herself as Alisha Gaines, the founder of Booked Book Club, which puts a twist on the traditional book club model.

This particular Saturday morning, the group was meeting as not just a book club but a walking audiobook club. Attendees were invited to walk at their own pace around Independence Park and listen to an audiobook of their choosing.

Gaines told Queen City Nerve she got the idea from a book club in Atlanta and said she hadn’t seen anything like it in Charlotte yet.

“Okay, we can still get our steps in and still meet other people,” she said. “A lot of people that have book clubs meet once a month and that’s it, right? I really wanted to create something that people will enjoy, and I’m like, ‘Okay, let’s try this audiobook walk.’”

Independence Park was familiar to Gaines and seemed the perfect place for the club’s kickoff walk. Between the murals, the chalk drawings on the sidewalks and the distinct scent of the Bradford pear trees in bloom (love them or hate them), the park screamed of spring and fresh starts.

When Gaines told the group, “Let’s go ahead and get our steps in,” everyone started their smart watches and did exactly that for the next hour.

A book community rooted in Black literature

The audiobook walking club event was just one example of the different types of public meetups Booked Book Club hosts. Gaines also recently hosted a silent reading club, which is an event where a group of people bring their own books and they all read together silently.

“I just want to create something that’s for us, for people to actually come together and read, get new book besties, know that they’re not just by themselves,” she said.

But building a community is about more than just reading and talking about books; it’s also about being inclusive of Black authors. A goal of hers in running Booked Book Club is to highlight as many Black authors as she can.

“I feel like we’re forgotten about,” she said. “So I just wanted to highlight that. And granted, yes, I know there’s fiction and nonfiction, but sometimes we need to get away from the self-help books and just let our mind go.

“There’s so many Black authors out there that are starting out, and they’re just trying to get their name out there,” she continued. “So why not help? And read. I mean, yes, you know, Jahquel J., Ashley Antoinette, but there’s also other local authors as well. So we don’t discriminate on whether it’s an indie or national author, but we just want to make sure that we highlight our culture and bring awareness to all these authors.”

Early in March, Gaines attended the Front Paige Media Book Fair at Olde Mecklenburg Brewery and, while enamored to be visiting her first book fair as an adult, she noticed a lack of Black authors and vendors, despite plenty of Black readers in attendance.

“[The book fair] was so dope,” she said. “Unfortunately, I was like, I didn’t see us really represented there … We were there supporting, right? Definitely want to make sure that we cater to that audience as well.”

The club’s Facebook group has members who range across ethnicities, but her priority remains to highlight Black books and authors. She’s vocal about it so that no one feels blindsided when they try to participate in the online discussions.

“You know ahead of time, and if you’re open to learning more, then we welcome you,” she said.

Though she doesn’t have a date locked in for the next walking audiobook meetup or silent reading club, she’s aiming to host the public events monthly. She is currently curating “Blind Date with a Book” sets that will include bookmarks and other bookish items like stickers, tote bags and T-shirts that she plans to sell.

The Booked Book Club’s next event is a trip to the Book Warehouse Outlet in Easley, South Carolina on March 28, which sold out shortly before this issue went to print.

Gaines’ long-term goal is to open a brick-and-mortar bookstore, but the first year of Booked Book Club is primarily about networking and building her base before she begins to consider the complexities of opening a business.

“We’re still for the community,” she said. “We still want to grow. There’s not really a big book community here as far as I see, so hopefully we can go ahead and change that.”

How audiobooks reignited Gaines’ love of reading

Audiobooks have been around in different forms for many decades, beginning with the establishment of a recording studio by The American Foundation for the Blind, which recorded books being read aloud to be sold on vinyl records, in 1932.

While the medium has enjoyed a renaissance in the era of smartphones and podcasting, some purists insist that listening to books doesn’t “count” as reading. Putting aside the ableism implied in such an argument, for Gaines, the medium reconnected her with a hobby she had neglected over time.

She was an avid reader in high school, with all the free time that age entails, reading whatever she could get her hands on.

“Of course, back in the day, I was reading books I wasn’t supposed to, like many of us,” she said, citing Sister Souljah’s The Coldest Winter Ever as an example.

As an adult with a full-time job and a side gig in real estate, Gaines isn’t often able to sit down and read physical books. Once she discovered audiobooks, it made reading more accessible to her.

“I’m always on the go, I’m always moving here and there,” she said. “I have a 9 to 5 as an accountant, I’m also a realtor, and it’s just – I needed to somewhat slow down a bit, but not too much. So that’s why I do audiobooks, because I can still get them to go and listen instead of me sitting there to read.”

That’s what got her started listening to audiobooks, but in the process, she’s found the medium offers a more immersive experience, allowing her to “envision the story” through narration.

Listening to Broadway actress Imani Parks narrate Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson made her cry, she said.

“I think that’s probably the first book where I had dropped a tear. Like, my heart dropped,” Gaines recalled.

Other favorite narrators include Wesley Siobhan, Midnite Michael and Winston James. These narrators bring the story to life for Gaines, who finds herself crushing on fictional characters the way fans of movies and TV do.

“Cappadonna is bae. Menace is bae. Ethic is bae,” she said, listing off characters from her recent reads. “I have a new bae every book.”

The cliffhanger in Capone, the first book in Jahquel J’s Delgato Family series, got her thinking about a book club. The story consumed her to the point where she needed to talk about it with someone. Gaines’ sister is also a reader but the two don’t quite share the same literary interests.

“I read a little of the ‘hood books, the urban fiction, Black romance, and stuff like that,” she said. “So I was like, ‘You know, I really want somebody to talk books with.’ So I just created my own community.”

She started trying to find her tribe in January, putting out feelers to see who might be interested in creating a club. More than 60 people signed up through an interest form she put online and the first in-person club meeting attracted about 20 people.

Read more: Books on the House Increases Reading Accessibility in Charlotte (2025)

After that, she decided to cap the club to keep the regular in-person meetings intimate while still hosting public events here and there to ensure anyone can get involved.

“Even though these people were not able to join the book club, I still want this community,” she said. “There’s still room for you. There’s still space for you. We still want everybody to feel wanted and appreciated. Like, you’re not forgotten, basically. I know I can’t please everybody, but I’m trying my best.”