book club selections :: 2011-2012
Yesterday was Book Selection Night for my book club. We like to set our schedule for the full year, beginning in the summer. We have found this method helpful (instead of choosing books month-to-month), so that we can put our books on hold at the library or read ahead if we’d like (You know, in all our free time that we have raising little children, cooking, cleaning, and showering bi-monthly).
Each person in our group gets to choose at least one book that they would like us to read. For the remaining months, we throw book titles in a bowl and draw.
I am really excited about our book selections for the upcoming year, and I’m just as excited about spending time every month with the wonderfully fun group of women who share my love of good books (and desserts, of course!). I had no idea starting a book club would be this fun and rewarding! I wholeheartedly recommend starting or joining a book club if you are not in one already.
Here is our book list if you’d like to take a look. Have any of you read one (or more) of these books before?
June: An Experiment in Criticism, C.S. Lewis.
July: Crossing to Safety, Wallace Stegner
August: Moon Over Manifest, Clare Vanderpool
September: I Dared to Call Him Father, Bilquis Sheikh
October: Night, EIie Wiesel
November: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, Shaffer & Barrows
December: Uncle Tom’s Cabin Harriet Beecher Stowe
January: Uncle Tom’s Cabin (cont.) Harriet Beecher Stowe
February: Notes from a Tilt-A-Whirl, N.D. Wilson
March: The Zookeeper’s Wife, Diane Ackerman
April: Freedom, Jonathan Franzen
May: The Book Thief, Markus Zusak
When I retire, I would like to join your book club! Could I be a long distance member?
I’ll join it with you, Sandy!
By the way, Jenny, I’ve only read Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
I’ve read 2.5 of those books
(Nights, Potato Peel and about half of Crossing to Safety)
I want to read Night again. Good reminder.
I’m adding a bunch of these to my Nook wish list!!
Thanks for sharing this list, Jenny! As a lover of WWII history, I really enjoyed Elie Wiesel’s book; it was very raw and thought-provoking.
I’ve read Night, Notes from the Tilt-a-Whirl, An Experiment in Criticism, and Uncle Tom’s Cabin. I loved them all, although Uncle Tom’s Cabin is a difficult read. It’s a good starting point for a discussion of race relations in America and the role (both good and bad) that Evangelicals have played in that struggle.
I’m reading Night right now with my sixth grade class and they have been stunned by the simplicity of the language but the power of the story. It’s brought about lots of conversations about Wiesel’s relationship with God.
I’m excited to read through these and have already purchased most of the books! I thought it was funny that we randomly chose so many books involving the Holocaust (Night, Potato Peel, Book Thief, Zookeeper’s Wife, and Sarah’s Key this month). I love reading about that period in history.
I didn’t care for “The zookeeper’s wife”. It seemed to drag. but I really enjoyed “The Book Thief” the beginning is a little weird as Death is the narrator but then it really took off. I also loved the Guernsey.. book. Other good world war two books are, Those who saved us, 22 Britannia road, The postmistress.
Enjoy