March and April Books

March's book: Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry. (Did anyone else know that Barry wrote books, not just columns?! I just found out and am excited to read this book... I've heard good things!) It's the 1st in a series of 3 books. It's supposed to be like a prequel to Peter Pan.

April's book: Born to Run, by Christopher McDougall.

Book for February

For the month of February, we're reading:

"The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows.

Cheers! (Thanks Carly for the suggestion)

January/February book

Is it too late in January to assign a book? We can do this book for the months of January/February, if we want. Opinions?

Book is: Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder (Hannah Swensen Mystery, Book 1) by Joanne Fluke.

It looks cute and not a long, heavy read. Just what I need, since I feel marred in baby/delivery books. So fun for me :)

Book for December

If anyone wants to get a jump on December's book, it will be:
The Paper Bag Christmas by Kevin Alan Milne

(Nobody's read it, have they?)

November's book

Thanks for all the comments. Since no one has read it, we're going with Prayers for Sale by Sandra Dallas. A lady in my ward loved it, so hopefully it's good!

September's book assingment

Alright we're going with Carly's suggestion. We'll be reading Dreamhunter by Elizabeth Knox. It's a 2-book series. The second book is Dreamquake. They both come recommended by Stephenie Meyer, so they must be good :)

And thanks everyone for the well-wishes!

June & July's book

For the month of June we will be reading Ever by Gail Carson Levine. I suppose it would qualify as "light" reading -- and it looks really good. Levine wrote one of my all-time favorite books (Ella Enchanted) so I am definitely looking forward to reading another one of her books.

I figured as long as I was posting, I might as well mention what we'll reading for July. We're going to do The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman. It's a real-life story from WW2 - see link here - it looks very interesting.

If anyone has a book they are dying to read, feel free to make a suggestion. Happy reading!!

May's book

For the month of May, we're going to be reading:
The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry

Books for March & April

I know some of us are still reading The Shack (including me) but I thought I'd post the books for March and April, so people can get themselves on the library waiting lists (assuming, of course, that your library has a waiting list for these books...)

For March, we're going to be reading A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini.
For April, we're going to be reading The Girl Who Could Fly by Victoria Forester.

I don't anticipate there being a wait for A Thousand Splendid Suns, but you never know. I know some of us are already on the waiting list for The Girl Who Could Fly, so the rest of you can check it out and see if you need to get yourself on the waiting list.

These are just general timeframes. If you find yourself with The Girl Who Could Fly sometime in March, don't let that stop you from reading it :)

January's book #2

Since it seems that some of us are going to have a long wait to get our hands on The Shack, I am proposing a book to read in the interim. That book is:
A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck

I just put a hold request for it at my local library, and I'm the only one on the list ... so I am hoping that the demand for this book isn't as great as The Shack ... let me know if y'all manage to get your hands on a copy. Thanks :)

January's book

Sheesh, can it really be January 2009? Where did all the time go?

Thanks to everyone who read Christmas Jars. I loved all the commentary! And yes, I totally think that it's awesome that the author himself wrote a comment on Carly's post. Totally awesome!

For the month of January, we're going to be reading:
The Shack, by William P. Young

I've been hearing some interesting things about this book ... and from what I've read about it, I think it will make a very good book club book - with some interesting topics for discussion. The author's website is: http://theshackbook.com/index.html if you want more info on him. Sounds like he had a very interesting childhood.

Thanks again everyone for making this little online book club a success. Happy 2009!

Book for December

Well, as of right now, there are no comments on The Secret Life of Bees (including no comment from yours truly, though I did finish the book). I know that the holiday season gets really busy for everyone, but we're still going to do a book for the month of December, albeit a short and easy read. The book is:
Christmas Jars by Jason F Wright

If you read The Secret Life of Bees (either this time around, or sometime in the past) go and make a comment. The post isn't going anywhere, so we've got lots of time for some discussion.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

Book for November

Our book for November is:
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd.

I read this book a long time ago and I remember basically nothing. I do remember it was good ... and it had bees in it ... other than that, I'm drawing a blank. I think it will be a good one to discuss amongst ourselves. Happy reading!!

Book for October

For the month of October, we are going to be reading:
Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon.

I've been wanting to read it for a while, and I know it's been read by other book clubs. Does anyone have a problem with this book?

Oh and in case no one noticed, I've added the "labels" function to our book blog. I've gone back and edited most of the posts to include labels, but I haven't done all of them ... so if I missed one one of your posts (don't take it personally) then feel free to go back and add a label to a past post. This will make it much easier to search back through the posts on similar topics. Labels are pretty self explanatory, but if you have questions, let me know. Keep in mind that if I use "Stephenie Meyer" as my label and you use "Stephenie" it will be under different sections. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but keep it in mind. Happy reading!

Book for August

Well, since no one but Carly responded when I asked what book we wanted to be reading for August (see here) ... besides Breaking Dawn, of course ... and I figured it's going to be a very busy month for pretty much everyone ... I've decided we are going to do Eragon. I'm reading it anyways and I'd love to have some people to discuss it with. So if you want to join in, then get your hands on Eragon ... if not, then take the month off and we'll find something else to read for next month, when everything might be a little calmer for everyone (here's to hoping, anyways). If anyone is reading this and thinking to yourself "hey, I don't want to read Eragon, but I really do want to read ____" then say something. I'm game for another book, if someone has something in mind. Cory & I are driving down to Boston and up to Maine in a few weeks, and I'm lucky enough that I can read in the car and not get sick ... so I'll be needing some reading material. Again, just leave a comment if you have a suggestion. Happy August!! :)

Books for August

I can't believe it's already August! Seriously, where did July go?!?! Or June, for that matter. It's time again to pick a new book for the month of August, and I want some feedback. Of course, we are going to be reading Breaking Dawn (the 4th installment of the Twilight series). That really goes almost without saying. Ü Personally, I am hoping for lots and lots of discussion. I want in-depth discussion of all the details, plot-by-plot analysis ... then hopefully it will salve my thirst for all things Twilight and I can go back to being a somewhat normal person. Ü

In the meantime, do you guys want to read any other book for the month of August? Just Breaking Dawn? Another one also? I have a couple of ideas for other books, but I'd love some input. Me, I am going to be reading the Eragon series over again, and I'd love to have some company, if anyone else has time for another big book (well, 2 and soon to be 3 big books). Thoughts? Suggestions?

July's books

I know the month of July is going to be crazy-busy for the Bingham household, and I am guessing it’s going to be similarly busy for most of you guys. Nevertheless, we are going to add 1 more book for the month of July. The “deadline” for Screwtape Letters was supposed to be the end of June … but no biggie. I’m not done with it either, since it does take some time to digest (and I can’t wait for the discussion, since there are so many things in there to think about!) Anyways … I digress. Since it’s going to be a busy month, we will extend the deadline for Screwtape Letters into July.

For the month of July, we will be reading:
The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen (her website is here)

If we get through both of these books in the month of July, then we can add another one into the mix. But for now, we’ll do these two.

For those of you who think they want another series: for the months of July & August, I am going to be re-reading the Inheritance Series. It’s a series of books written by a kid named Christopher Paolini (http://alagaesia.com/index.php). He was home-schooled and wrote the first book in the series at age 15. The first book is named Eragon, the second book is Eldest, and the third book is due out September 20th (named Brisinger). I read them all a while ago and I have forgotten pretty much most of what happens in the books – thus I am re-reading the first 2 so I will be ready for Brisinger. If anyone is looking for a bigger book to read this summer, I invite you to read Eragon with me. I’m not going to make any of them official book club books, since I think they’re too big, there’s going to be 3 books soon, and summer is just too busy for so many people. However, if I am wrong and you are interested in reading them, then I would love to have discussion about these books. I liked them the first time around, and I would love to discuss them with anyone who has read them, or is interested in reading them.

Happy reading and happy July!

p.s. if anyone knows of any other people who would be interested in joining our book club, let me know and I can send them an invite. The more the merrier!

June's books

We're going to do 2 books for the month of June. Like last time, you can read one, both or none (but if you read none then you are a slacker ;)

The books are:
Star Girl by Jerry Spinelli
Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis

Even if you have read them before, you are welcome to read them again. Or if you don't want to read them again, you are welcome to add your thoughts to the posts once other people finish the books - that way you can be a part of the discussions that take place.

Star Girl is a very light-hearted read (not to mention a small book). The Screwtape Letters are Christian satire, and are not hard reading - but do provoke lots of interesting thoughts. I think we will enjoy both books. Happy reading!

May's books

Greetings all! Awesome posts for Beloved (Carly and Michelle) – thank you!! It looks like not that many people read Beloved - I don't know if it was too hard of a book or just poor timing since everyone was really busy - so - for the month of May we are going to read something easier and more light-hearted. I've picked 2 books - you can read one, none, or both – it’s totally up to you.

Book one – Princess Academy by Shannon Hale. She is an author that I really like and I think a lot of you will enjoy her books. You can read about the book here:

http://www.squeetus.com/stage/books_academy.html

And try not to be turned off by the description – I got one of her other books from the library (Goose Girl) on a recommendation – but when I read the book’s teaser I decided I didn’t want to read the book – it sounded too fanciful for my tastes. I eventually gave in and read it (mostly because I had nothing else to read and I was sooo bored). Now I am happy to say that I loved it and promptly went out and got the other 2 books to complete the series. So … give this one a try. You might like it. And I think it has the potential to lead to some good discussion.

Book two – The Host by Stephenie Meyer. This book is being released on May 6^th. You can read about the book here:

http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/thehost.html

I am going to be useless at work all day, I’m sure, then as soon as it’s 4:00 I’m running to the nearest bookstore to purchase this book. I read the excerpt for the book that it teases on her website and I was hooked. Normally I don’t do sci-fi … but it’s Stephenie! And to be honest – it looks really good. I would love to have a discussion about the book when I’m done – that’s why I am inviting all of you to read it with me.

We'll try to have the books done by the end of the month - around May 26th or so to allow time for discussion. As always, the "deadline" is a fluid concept, so if we need to adjust the date, we can.

Happy reading to all! And happy spring, too! I love this time of the year!

Next book

Our next book assignment is going to be Beloved. It’s written by Toni Morrison. You’ll have until Monday March 31st to finish it – then the discussion can begin. I’m hoping we get a lot of discussion -– this one is a 1987 Pulitzer Prize winner and was voted by the New York Times as the best works of American fiction of the past 25 years. It’s written by an African-American woman and the theme of the book revolves around slavery. It looks good – and it looks like it will be one that will prompt a lot of stimulating conversation on the blog.

Speaking of the blog –- there is no discussion going on from finishing Angels and Demons. I know that everyone is very busy … but the idea of the book club is to read a book, then discuss it … in our case, by posting something on the blog. So please go in and write something about Angles & Demons. I don’t think everyone is checking the blog nearly enough -– try to check it once a week (or so) for updates, etc. And write some stuff! You can post your feelings about Angels and Demons over the next few weeks, while you are getting started into reading Beloved.

Happy reading!! Thanks everyone!!

~Sarah