The book club and a list...
January 20, 2010
I‘ve talked a bit about book clubs. I believe that if you want to find out how you’re doing, you ought to listen to the folks who read your book — folks who read. Hanging out with writers is fun but really, you’ll just drink a lot and get into trouble. So, I’ve been going to book clubs and listening…Went to one last Saturday…a group that’s been together for roughly ten years. Now, most book clubs are women. Most are predominantly women. I have been to an all-guy book club and it was really good. But over the years, I’ve found that most are comprised of women. The club on Saturday, was comprised of couples. And an incrdible full-course meal was served!!!! The conversation and questions were insightful and lively. These were really bright readers. The Louster and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Now, I always ask what they’ve been reading and on Satuday, I got a list. I’m going to share that list with you…so you can see what this club has been doing, and maybe so you can do an informal comparison to your book club. Anyway, I’d like to know how you’re doing with your own reading…What were your top three reads from last year?
The unofficial name for my Saturday book club is Cheryl Mahaffy’s Book Club — because Cheryl is the one who asked me to sit in. (By the way, I’ve read 23 of the 75 books on this list)
Fugitive Pieces — Anne Michaels,
Waiting — Ha Jin,
No Great Mischief — Alistair MacLeod,
Lambs of God — Marele Day,
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin — Louis de Bernieres,
Stones From the River — Ursula Hegi,
Atonement— Ian MacEwan,
Stone Angel — Margaret Laurence,
Peace Like a River — Leif Enger,
The Constant Gardener — John Le Carre,
One Hundred Years of Solitude — Garcia Marquez,
Revelation — Flannery O’Connor,
White Oleander — Janet Fitch,
Life of Pi — Yann Martel,
Fury — Salman Rushdie,
The Polished Hoe — Austin Clarke,
The Shadow of the Sun — Rysgard Kapuscinski,
A Tourist’s Guide to Glengarry — Ian McGillis,
The Last Crossing — Guy Vander Haeghe,
Family Matters — Rohinton Mistry,
Prodigal Summer — Barbara Kingsolver,
The Stone Carvers — Jane Urquart,
Breathing Lessons — Anne Tyler,
Scent of Eucalyptus — Daniel Coleman,
Truth and Bright Water — Thomas King,
The Seed and the Sower — Laurens Van der Post,
Unless — Carol Shields,
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter — Carson McCullers,
How Green Was My Valley — Richard Llewellyn,
The Kite Runner — Khaled Hossenin,
The Birth of Venus — Sarah Dunant,
Gilead — Marilynne Robinson,
Saturday — Ian MacEwan,
A Complicated Kindness — Miriam Toews,
Peace Shall Destroy Many — Rudy Wiebe,
Blood of the Lamb — Peter De Vries,
I Heard the Owl Call My Name — Margaret Craven,
The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios and Other Stories — Yann Martel,
Under the Banner of Heaven — Jon Krakauer,
The Time In Between — David Bergen,
Acts of Faith — Philip Caputo,
Water for Elephants — Sara Gruen,
All the Pretty Horses — Cormack McCarthy,
The Bookseller of Kabul — Asne Seirstad,
Headhunters — Timothy Findlay,
Of This Earth — Rudy Wiebe,
Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures — Vincent Lam,
Places in Between — Rory Stewart,
What the Body Remembers — Shauna Singh Baldwin,
The Secret River — Kate Grenville,
Three Day Road — Joseph Boyden,
Middlesex — Jeffrey Eugenides,
Ragged Islands — Don Hannah,
Huckleberry Finn — Mark Twain,
Sweetness in the Belly — Camilla Gibb,
To Kill a Mockingbird — Harper Lee,
The Golden Compass — Philip Pullman,
King Leary — Paul Quarrington,
Late Nights on Air — Elizabeth Hay,
King Leopold’s Ghost — Adam Hochschild,
Cloudstreet — Tim Winton,
The River Why — David James Duncan,
Tiger Claw — Shauna Singh Baldwin,
The Book Of Negroes — Lawrence Hill,
East of Eden — John Steinbeck,
The Outlanders — Gil Adamson,
Home — Marilynne Robertson,
Friend of My Youth— Alice Monroe,
Cutting for Stone — Abraham Verghese,
This Much I Know Is True — Wally Lamb, and
Waiting for Columbus — Thomas Trofimuk.
2 Comments
1. rubis had this to say: Jan 28, 2010 ~ 18:42 ~ #
Good on you for putting your book in there Mr T.
Hey, question for you about light bulbs. Why don’t they burn out when you are actually using them? Why the “flick and die” syndrome? I knew a woman whose husband died and after a year she was in a dark house – didn’t trust herself to do “his” job… that’s more sad than your lady who mistook the cardboard man in Superstore for a real guy. I think we are all a little broken and wounded. Am reading McCarthy’s, The Road, and every page makes me weep. Makes me want to run out and help someone, anyone… maybe I should start with myself.
Keep your stick on the ice, love Rubis