Let’s just say it’s hard, if not impossible, to get into my book group. When we moved to town, it took me three years to get an invitation. It’s not that I didn’t try. I did. There were no openings.
But, I did have one qualification in my favor: I live within the four block radius that new members could come from. Ten years later, I’ve trusted these dozen or so women to guide my reading, share their stories, treat me to sumptuous home-baked delicacies and invite me to an annual outdoor evening of Shakespeare.
Where do we get our reads? Members bring suggestions, we talk to our local independent book store and some of us [usually not me] are kind enough to read the book before sharing the title. Maybe that’s why most of the reads are worthwhile. It also helps to have a dedicated leader who organizes and communicates our reads and activities. Enjoy and remember to add your suggestions to this list.
Thanks to Becky McCray for suggesting this list go out and to Liz Strauss for hosting great books open mic night and for recommending Richard Peck’s A Long Way From Chicago.
My Book Group’s Current Reading List
E.L. Doctorow’s The March : Salon.com’s review and NPR interview with Doctorow
2006 PEN/Faulkner award for fiction; realistic account of Sherman’s march
Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky : New York Times Review
novel/journal about German-occupied France in 1940s, written by a women who would die in Auschwitz in 1942, discovered in late 1990s
Echo Maker by Richard Powers : New York Times Review
Head trauma car accident in Nebraska at time of the sandhill crane migration
Innocent traitor: a novel of Lady Jane Grey by Alison Weir : Interview with Alison Weir
Queen of England for 9 days
Katherine by Anya Seton : Gnook’s collective reader reviews
14th century England love story
Seeing by Jose Saramago : Slate’s Review
Written by the author of Blindness
O Pioneers! by Willa Cather : Download the ebook
Written in 1913: woman, Swedish immigrant, inherits family farm in Nebraska
The Road by Cormac McCarthy : Wikipedia Entry
2006 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, post-apocalypse
Mr. Sebastian and the Negro Magician by Daniel Wallace : Author’s site
“a circus picaresque that barnstorms its way through the 1950s American South” – Publishers Weekly
We got the idea to read book recommended by writers we like; these two from Ann Patchett made the list.
So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell : Washington Post Review
1920's Illinois farm, short 135 pages
Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathanael West : Brother’s Judd reader’s guide
1933 - man writing advice column
Books I Often Recommend
The New Rules of Marketing & PR by David Meerman Scott
Persuasion: The Art of Getting What You Want by Dave Lakhani
When God Winks: How the Power of Coincidence Guides Your Life by SQuire Rushnell
What Books Do You Recommend?
What books are on your “must-read” list?
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10 thoughts on “Sharing Stories: Book Group Suggestions”
Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky – This is great book but very sad. i hate war :/ I’ve been in Auschwitz in last year and I will not forgot, what I’ve seen there. take a look at my website url, I was on auschwitz tour with that company.
Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky – This is great book but very sad. i hate war :/ I’ve been in Auschwitz in last year and I will not forgot, what I’ve seen there. take a look at my website url, I was on auschwitz tour with that company.
Uplifting in that we have a record of the time. Without the book, these details would be lost. Nemirovksy’s daughter almost donated the manuscript before looking at it and discovering the novels-50 years after it was written. What a gift to those of us who read the book. Everything about it is heartbreaking and haunting. Yet, many of the characters are so beautiful. Our book group enjoyed this one; it stays with you. Thanks for the tour link.
Uplifting in that we have a record of the time. Without the book, these details would be lost. Nemirovksy’s daughter almost donated the manuscript before looking at it and discovering the novels-50 years after it was written. What a gift to those of us who read the book. Everything about it is heartbreaking and haunting. Yet, many of the characters are so beautiful. Our book group enjoyed this one; it stays with you. Thanks for the tour link.
I waant to to thank ?ou for this wonderful read!! I certainly loved every little bit
of it. I have got you book marked to check out
new stuff you ?ost…
I waant to to thank ?ou for this wonderful read!! I certainly loved every little bit
of it. I have got you book marked to check out
new stuff you ?ost…