The winners of last night’s planning meeting for “grown-up” book club are as follows:
| Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society | Mary Ann Schaffer |
| and Annie Barrows | |
| The Elegance of the Hedgehog | Muriel Barberry |
| Alison Anderson | |
| My Life in France | Julia Child |
| The Maytrees | Annie Dillard |
| Mrs. Dalloway | Virginia Woolf |
| The Space Between Us | Thirty Umriger |
| Hunger Games | Suzanne Collins |
| The Black Book of Secrets | FE Higggins |
| Distant Land of My Father | Bo Caldwell |
| (and for over achievers or fast readers) | |
| Last Chinese Chef | Nicole Mones |
| The Help | Kathryn Stockett |
| The Middle Place | Kelly Corrigan |
| My Stroke of Insight | Jill Bolte Taylor |
| Last Town on Earth | Thomas Mullen |
| pick from recommended | |
| Peony in Love | Lisa See |
| Anti-Intellectualism in American Life | Richard Hofstadter |
I had been looking forward to this evening for quite a while and started doing by “research” for suggestions this past July. Everyone in the group brings a suggestion (or two or three) and then we hash it out. Some books are clear ‘winners’ if more than one person brought the book as a suggestion. We also get recommendations from the owner and the manager of the local book store for consideration. We try to always have one classic, one non-fiction, and one young adult book, in addition to fiction titles. There are a few members who can always be counted on to bring non-fiction recommendations as well as a few who love the classics. I’m one of two who inhale young adult, so it’s always fun to compare notes as well as getting our friends to read some of our YA favorites. Hunger Games was an easy pick for both of us.
I had brought the three titles in bold and have been holding off on reading Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society in hopes that it would make this year’s list (sometimes if too many people have already read a title, it can eliminate a book from ‘the running’.
The classic is always the hardest for me with non-fiction coming in a close second. I still haven’t made it through a classic in three years. It doesn’t help that the non-fiction month usually overlaps when I am reading YA books like a fiend before Newbery announcements. I’m not making any bets that I will make it to Virginia Woolf, but maybe if I can buy it on I-tunes and listen to it in the car.
The group expanded as many brought a friend and we were able to make decisions in record time this year. Big thanks to Susan for hosting and organizing. We wouldn’t all be the varied readers we are without your organization.
Thanks for bringing The Elegance of the Hedgehog — looks intriguing and I’m excited that it’s a translation — I don’t think we’ve read many translations . . .
Also looked up the Black Book of Secrets today — several starred reviews — so that should be fun. And I’m not sure I’ll make it through Virginia Woolf either . . . but I’ll try. This group is good for getting me to fill in gaps in my reading (of which there are many!)
Thanks for the post. I’m going to take some of these ideas to my book club. We are reading The Help this month. It was absolutely my favorite book that I read this summer and suggested we all read it for book club. I also read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society and loved it. I like the idea of reading a classic, nonfiction, and young adult novel. All of us in the group are teachers in different grade levels, and we all have different taste in books. I agree that book clubs give us the opportunity to read books we might not ordinarily read.