Monday, December 31, 2012

Book suggestions?

Hi!  Welcome to the Wednesday Book Club!

Here's the idea:  we will pick beloved books that we want to share.  They should be fiction, good for discussions, and available in paperback so that they are easy for readers to obtain.

So -- please suggest a book you love!

We will work out some kind of schedule.

This will be fun!

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ETA:  Hopefully, suggestions will also be available at the library; I expect they should also be available in Kindle for those so inclined.  As we think about scheduling, it would be best to give a few weeks lead time for a discussion, no?

20 comments:

  1. Many thanks to Liz for setting up this shiny new website!

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  2. Venetia by Georgette Heyer. Nice cozy story based during the Regency era, and written in the style of Jane Austen. So delicious!

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    1. Georgette Heyer was a contemporary of Agatha Christie. She wrote mysteries, too!

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  3. Folly, by Laurie R. King. A fascinating story of a middle-aged woman more or less rebuilding herself. (It is described as "chilling," and parts are; but I think of this book as affirming.)

    Or, A Monstrous Regiment of Women, by the same author; this is part of her Mary Russell series, in which Ms. Russell collaborates with Sherlock Holmes (while studying theology on the side).

    This author is a wonderful writer, and all her work has layers. Page-turners, to me! Apologies for suggesting two -- maybe we should go with Monstrous Regiment, since it is available in a smaller paperback, and if you like it, there are more in the series.

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  4. I just went to see the movie, and was thinking I should re-read Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. It's available free online.

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  5. Great suggestions so far!

    I did a review of (most of) the books I read in 2012 and I came up with two that I think would make for good WBC material.

    [Lol! In my first career in the lab, WBC meant white blood cell. Here - Wednesday Book Club]

    The first book is What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty. The book is set in Australia and begins with Alice waking up on the gym floor having lost a decade of her life. It's a great look at the possibilities of a "do-over" in life.

    My second suggestion is Calling Invisible Women by Jeanne Ray. This one was fascinating. It features a women in her 50s who begins to feel invisible in a figurative sense, but discovers she is literally invisible as well.

    How will we ever decide??

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  6. I'm chiming in with Sandcastle Girls, by Chris Bohjalian. It's about the Armenian genocide, among other issues. Happier than I just made it sound.

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  7. My feeling is we shouldn't decide, let's read them all. One per month until we've gone through everyone's suggestions nd then we ask for more.

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  8. So please, everyone, limit yourself to one choice, and save your next one for the second time through.

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  9. I like that idea Liz. If you would like to remove one of mine - I suggest we save Calling Invisible Women for next time around.

    What Alice Forgot is my choice for this round.

    Yay!!!!

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  10. I'd like to propose an alternative -- that we toss out lots of suggestions, take some votes about what goes first, and perhaps schedule 2 Wednesdays monthly for particular books that caught votes?

    With the idea that we will not all end up reading everything, but I think it is hard to get a dedicated group going if people feel stuck with books that don't strike a chord. And once the discussion gets going, maybe new readers will be attracted to an offering. Just my 2 cents.

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  11. I like the idea of lots of suggestions but I don't want to have to manage voting, or any of the other overhead that comes with more than just reading each person's best-beloved, and then going on to the next...and the next....and the next...and then asking for more when we're done.

    Because, quite frankly, I'm too stressed to manage anything more than that.

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  12. Soooo happy to be able to join you all here!
    I'll read almost anything--except not into horror (but do love cozy mysteries).
    Laurie R. King is one of my absolute favorite authors!
    So, Monstrous Regiment of Women is one I love--but it is part of a series, and we might want to consider starting instead with the first in the series, which I believe is Beekeeper's Apprentice.
    (just a thought).
    Can't wait to get started!

    :) Neighbor Lady

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  13. Also, I haven't read Water for Elephants, and have been wanting to.
    --Neighbor lady

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  14. I'm wondering if we can share the workload a bit.

    Perhaps we can do a bit of emailing/fb messaging between the volunteers who have committed to help with posting etc. We'll decide on a list of books and then let the person who suggested the book step in for that month to be the facilitator/leader.

    I don't think we need a structured line of commenting or questioning, but I'm open to that if it's preferred by others. Some books have excellent book club questions included. These could be good discussion-starters (though I don't think we will lack for interesting discussion!)

    Thoughts?

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  15. Another book came to mind-- Wild by Cheryl Strayed, about her hiking of a pacific coast trail, and its impact on her life. Haven't read it yet, but am planning to.

    As to Sue's suggestions, I am open to anything, but won't be able to do email/fb. But, as to whether a specific line of questions is needed here, I am generally in the "loose discussion" school of thought, because one of my favorite things about these kinds of discussions is when they go in unexpected directions....
    Just my two cents....
    :)Neighbor Lady

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  16. Sorry NL - we could just ad easily put the list together here!

    How about the order they're in already? That keeps it simple....

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  17. As long as it is posted here in the end, it's all good!!! :)
    --NL

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  18. Just finished reading Native Tongue. Oh. My. God. I haven't stayed up til 3 in the morning reading for at least 6 months. That was AWESOME.

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