I digress though on my joy. As awkward as our start is, once people get tin the swing of a good book discussion, I really enjoy it. Even if I haven't read the book, like when I've had happy hour with colleagues that are voracious readers and audible listeners, I love hearing how people analyze characters and plots. Monday night DD2 went to a book discussion/author visit to make up for a school conflict with another class. I would have liked to go as going to more discussion, lectures, talks etc. is on my goal list this year. I love a good discussion about movies or television shows as well, but books are different. People have different imaginations of how they picture scenes, how they interpret the authors intent.
Whether or not this book club is trial, or will become a regular group is still unknown. We've had a winter that has forced fits and restarts. I feel like one of the women would be a great coffee meet-up friend. My sister and daughter are always game for a good book and a discussion, so that can continue even if the full group fizzles out. I've asked for book recommendations before, so keep them coming if you add to your list. Books and then talking about them is one of my simple joys in life.
I'll be an online "bookie" if you like. Problem is, I tend to read obscure books, not popular titles. I get tired of waiting for the more popular titles, browse the library, check something out, get hooked, and forget what I was waiting for to begin with.
ReplyDeleteI'm all for older books as well. I have some favorite authors, Elizabeth Ogilvie for one, that I will buy old editions of her books as they are so obscure, but I love her writing style and the Maine setting her books take place in.
DeleteI enjoyed the book club I was in for about a year, but it fizzled out (they had been together many years before I joined). We took turns hosting it in our home, which made it more relaxing to me, than in a restaurant or coffee shop. A Man Called Ove was one of our books. I enjoyed that book.
ReplyDeleteI think this will work better-moving to a home, but I think I'll have to do most of the hosting as two have young families, my sister lives quite a ways out of town, and I don't want to put that on my daughter, though she may like to.
DeleteI would recommend Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. I loved the way she writes, loved the beginning, hated the middle of the book, then found I really did enjoy the last third of it. We read it for bookclub this month.
ReplyDeleteI'm feeling a lot of the recommendations on this string. Being able to talk about books is mind candy!
DeleteOh my goodness, where to start with books! If you like Ove I loved the 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Walked Away. It was really silly but appealed to me. I'm not reading as much as I used to when I was at work but I want to get back to it. I've just finished The Humans and want to re-read Larkrise to Candleford. It's very oldie worldy set in olden day Midlands (near where I grew up). Also Cider with Rosie! if you like that kind of olden stuff. AND I have to read All Creatures Great and Small. Have watched the series over and over but have never read the book. My goodness I'm salivating at the thought of it.
ReplyDeleteI love people who are so exited about books that can talk about them as yo have described! Love it!
DeleteThe best book groups are those that are social, and not just about the book IMO. My group meets at the same house monthly and doesnt rotate but we rotate bro going snacks. We talk about the book for no more than 45 mins and then we socialize...and that's often the best part. You might see if there is a local independent bookstore that allows beverages? Most libraries have book club kitsch that you can check out for a month. You may want to go online and look at that? Where The Crawdads sing, The Dry by Jane Harper, Plainsong
ReplyDeleteI think we are moving to house meetings. Thanks for your take on the clubs as we normalize.
DeleteUncanny. Several summers ago I remembered a book I read as a teen, "Blueberry Summer," but couldn't remember the author. Google to the rescue, and I read the "Bennet Island" series which I requested from the library. Rosemary Stolz was another older author I read as a teen--my older sister had her books which had been in publication for several years when she received them. It was fun to read circa 1959 YA fiction in the early 80's!
ReplyDeleteI own all the Bennet's Island Series-some are needing replacement they are pretty dog eared. The first book in the series, blanking on the name, is haunting in the description of how Joanna lost the life she knew, but then sets up how she reclaimed an Island culture that had all but died. I read a lot about the island communities of Maine-something so foreign to my life it might as well be a foreign country, but that's what books do for us!
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