Sharing Stories: Book Group Suggestions

stackofbooks 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 Comments

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

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