Our ward (although it is not a ward book club, but is made up of mostly women from the ward) has had a book club since about the time we moved in. We had a collection of women that all had some type of background in literature (major/minor in college etc), so it was a very structured book club. I'll admit I was a complainer. I never liked classics so when they decided that we would only read classics, I was not happy... I know shocking (I should note- classics were picked, because we never had a problem with.. is this okay for us and also because everyone was on a tight budget so if we were going to buy books- people wanted to buy books they would want in their house forever). However, over the course of 3 years I learned to really enjoy classics and after some time the "Classics Only" rule was lightened slightly and I was a little disappointed. I know- although I was pleased that I got to suggest my all time favorite book (I would name my kid after the main character if Adam would agree): Here Be Dragons (ahh Llewelyn). Sorry-I digress.. so- when the bulk of the original book club members moved, our book club began to falter. We started to pick.. okay books and we totally gave up on the presentation part of the discussion. So basically book club became -- eveyone late, talk about the book for 5 minutes, socialize for the next 1 1/2 hours. Obviously we lost sight of the goal- to read and discuss books.
So- being the pot stirrer (is that a word?) that I am, I sent out a mass email to try and bring everyone back in. Which- thankfully I was vindicated and found there were a lot of people out there with the same opinion. So- we came together and each suggested several books which we voted on and put together a list for the next 8 months. The most interesting part- we did not have any non-fiction books in the last 3 years, but we now have 5 months worth of nonfiction (this is obviously going to be tweaked.. who are we kidding). So- the point of this blog- I have just read our first "Reorganized book club" book. It was very interesting. It is called The Wedding by Dorothy West. The girl that recommended the book actually just finished her masters in contemporary literature.. I think. She has made so many great recommendations for current literature. The interesting thing about this book is according to the description, the book was published when the author was about 90 years old. I am interested in finding out more about her tomorrow at book club. I really enjoyed the book and thought it was a great first pick to revitalize our little group. I am interested in the discussion we will have tomorrow and really hope everyone comes prepared.
So I wanted to ask- do you have a book club and what are some of the books y'all are reading? How do you pick your books? Have you had any issues with picking books that have been controversial due to their content? (This hasn't been an issue for us-- except for The Kite Runner. The book is fabulous, but you have to know what you are getting into.)
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So would it be Lulu and Lele? I like it. Sorry, I should be in bed. Have no book club, wish I did, could if I hadn't gotten so lazy and quit going to mine. Perhaps I would have kept going if we had picked better books. It was hit and miss. I too got frustrated with the gab for 55 minutes and talk about book for 5. And of course I was gabbing too. Okay, now I've been the first to comment on yours AND Kristi's site. That's just pathetic! I'm going to go read a book!
I've been in my book club for almost 7 years now. It started big (13 women) and we've whittled it down to the 6 of us who are truly dedicated and not easily offended. (We had a major controversy back when we were still the big group over a book I picked called The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood. I'm still scarred from that night's blow up and seriously think I experienced a panic attack.)
Now we are a very happy group of 6 and have no trouble talking about the book and talking about our lives. It's the best of all groups. We usually bring suggestions that we've heard about or been wanting to read and then we decide what sounds good to everyone. We usually do this 3 months at a time because we like picking books so much we got bummed out when we chose for 6 months to a year in advance. We're reading Gilead for this month, I'll have to email you a list of all the books we've read because I can't remember them off hand.
I don't want to dominate your comments, but I just found a list of some of the books we've read so I thought I'd just type them up real quick for you.
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
Blind Assasin by Margaret Atwood
Empire Falls by Richard Russo
An Equal Music by Vikram Seth
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
Cane River by Lalita Tademy
Atonement by Ian McEwan
Fall On Your Knees by Ann-Marie Macdonald
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
The Pact by Jodi Picoult
The Probable Future by Alice Hoffman
The Patron Saint of Liars by Ann Patchett
Eat Cake by Jeanne Ray
Jewel by Bret Lott
In The Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarex
These Is My Words by Nancy Turner
My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult
I, Elizabeth by Rosalind Miles
Out of all of these books I really didn't like the Jodi Picoult books very much. I won't read her books anymore (I don't like the way she writes). I actually donated my copies of her books to the library because I didn't even want them on my bookshelves.
We both have books on the brain, I posted about books too. The Hours was kind of controversial, we went together to see the movie too and one of the women hate, hate HATED it and she was very mad that we would read something so subversive and negative about motherhood. Some books, a good many in fact are really good and also happen to have a piece of sexual content. I guess I can just read and go on, we have one really conservative girl in our group who is really good and if she gets to a part like that she puts the book down, where I am always like "If I'm offended in 100 more pages", plus I am not easily offended. We have done:Dive from Clauson's Pier, The Color of Water, all of Jennifer Weiner's books, The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters, Time Traveler's wife, and one by the Message in a Bottle guy, Nicholas Sparks, but I swore off him so I didn't read it. We choose about 4 months in advance, we spend a good amount of time talking about the book depending on who is there. Speaking of which, I have to finish my book that my famulous and thoughtful friend sent me, since we meet tomorrow night.
I had a great book club in Oregon, but now the only one we have is through the church, and they pretty much only read church books. I actually called my friend the other day to remember some of the books, The Giver and Ms. Julia speaks her mind were two of my favorite.
I wish I could put together a book club, but I think it would be seen as the "rebellious" group.
You think that is funny Amy. Wait.. our kids names are Lulu, Lucia (Lucy), William (Liam), and Llewelyn (Llewl). I am sooo not the person to name my kids with all the first initials (if you are.. great) so it cracks me up that this is what has happened.
Girls- fabulous book recommendations. I am so excited to add them to the list.
The first book club I was in was in Seattle. It wasn't officially a ward book club, just made up of some women from the ward. I was concerned that we would only read LDS fiction and I wasn't interested in that, but it wasn't that kind of book club. It was great -- the women were all so different, the books were often things I wouldn't have chosen but ended up really liking. We were all either in school or had husbands in school and had young children. We met in the daytime and brought the kids, who would all play together while we ate lunch and discussed.
Now I'm in the best book club ever, thanks to Jill for inviting me! I've been in it for almost 5 years. Like Jill said, we used to have issues with people being offended, but now that we've got it down to our little "Renegade" group, that's not a problem. We don't tend to get offended easily. I can normally just skip over something that might be unseemly, or I can see the overall benefit to the book so I just move on. I can only think of two books I had to stop reading for that reason.
I hope your book club can be revived to its former self! Mine is my lifeline. I think women need each other so much.
here's another book we read that I loved: My Grandfather's Blessings by Rachel Naomi Remen, MD.
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