Thursday, September 9, 2010

So Many Books, So Little Time

Today my book club met to pick some books for the next few months. We have taken the summer off and I know that I am ready to be back reading some new books.

The photo below is my fancy tablescape after the fact. I just piled up the books I had on hand, a few pumpkin candles, and there you have it! We had apple cake and coffee and fresh fruit. Pretty simple, just the way I like it.

I have been a member of a book club for about 25 years and I think the best part is the way it has introduced me to many books I would never have read otherwise. The group that I began with 25 years ago in Kansas is still going strong and I love getting their reading list every September. I try to keep up with their reading too. We lived in Kansas for about 20 years, but it was 3 different houses with a move in between each time. Both times I returned to my book club they would mention a different book, as we so often do in conversation, and so often I hadn't heard of it, or read it. It was always said "Oh, we read that while you were gone." Well, it got to be a joke, as they could never have read that many books in the time I was away. Now, with the ease of computers, they can send me their list...........problem solved!!

Our group was formed last fall by me. I had hoped that there would be a book club in our neighborhood when I moved here 3 years ago, but no such luck. I joined the local women's club group for 1 year, but it didn't really work for me. I do better with smaller groups I guess. So I finally decided to try to form one and we had about 6 participants last year. Today there were 6 of us and I so hope we can make this work. We picked 4 books for October through January.

Shanghai Girls by Lisa See
The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

{couldn't figure out how to underline....is that basic or what?}

I have read The Glass Castle and The Book Thief. Both were very good, so I won't mind rereading them.

Any one else have a great book to recommend? We are always on the hunt!


5 comments:

Debbie said...

I think I'd like to join a book club. There is one in my hometown caled GRITS (Girls Reading in the South) It's just for women, and several of the members are over 95 years old. My sister went to their last one and enjoyed it. I wish that I lived just a little closer because it ran late into the evening.

I should ask her the name of the book that they read last. All I remember was that it had something to do with a woman living on an Island off the coast of South Carolina and taking care of sea turtles. That wasn't the primary plot, but it was interwoven.

TLEB said...

I don't have any books to recommend, since most of the books I read come from you! Pass them this way when you are done if you want! :)

jessica said...

Wow, can't wait to borrow the books when you're done with them!

Justabeachkat said...

I haven't read any of those so thanks for the recommendations.

I just finished The Help. Loved it!

Hugs,
Kat

Rettabug said...

Your book club sounds just like mine that I left behind in FL, Sue! I miss gathering with them each month & they, too, took the summer off.
Thanks for sharing your upcoming selections. I will forward them to our 'selection committee'. ;-)

Regarding underlining:

Before the words you want underlined, put this < using the letter "u"> . After the words you want underlined, put the same thing only put in the slash mark in front of the u, like this /letter "u" goes here> I didn't put the first forward pointing arrow into this one, as I feared it would just underline the whole sentence. Hope this is clear & i hope blogger will let me post this. It will probably scream at me.

Email me via my blog if you need further clarification.