September's Selection Meeting

Dear Book Clubbers,

Last week’s selection meeting to choose our books for the coming year was very successful.  Thanks, Barb, for hosting this important gathering again this year.  Also thanks to all those who brought goodies and ideas.

We were pleased to welcome Lynda and Marsha to our group and look forward to seeing them at future meetings.  

We discussed trying to make the lengthy classic into something that more people could get through and also relocating it to a different time of year (perhaps late March or early April) so that we weren’t reading something so heavy over the summer.  We concluded that maybe focusing on a “classic” and choosing something a bit shorter might make this meeting a little more appealing to more members.  In order to accomplish this, we decided to wait until March/April 2013 for our next lengthy classic and to have a special meeting to discuss the “50 Shades”, book one or the whole trilogy. 

Below are the books we chose this year.  We could need as many as 9 picks, but only chose 7 (not counting 50 Shades) because we are anticipating taking some picks back from the co-ed list once the guys make their 2013 selection. 

Selected Books for 2013:

•                The Kitchen House: A Novel by Kathleen Grissom

•                Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan

•                The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

•                Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

•                The Bolter by Frances Osborne

•                Objects of My Affection: A Novel by Jill Smolinski

•                Shoot the Moon by Billie Letts (October 2012 Selection)

•                50 Shades of Grey by EL James ("Special" August 2013 Selection)

Other recommended books, not selected:

•                Guilty Wives by James Patterson

•                The Known World by Edward P. Jones

•                Girls Like Us:  Carol King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon -- And the Journey of a Generation by Sheila Weller and Susan Ericksen Grissom

•                Quiet:  The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain

•                Something Red by Jennifer Gilmore

•                One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd by Jim Fergus

Options for the 2013 Co-Ed Meeting:

•                Thunderstruck or In the Garden of Beasts:  Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin by Erik Larson

•                Touching the Void: The True Story of One Man's Miraculous Survival by Joe Simpson

•                People of the Book: A Novel by Geraldine Brooks

•                Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

•                The Invisible Man & The Time Machine by HG Wells

•                A “musician biography" such as:

• Fire and Rain:  The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, James Taylor, CSNY, and the Lost Story of 1970 by David Browne
• Baby, Let's Play House:  Elvis Presley & the Women Who Loved Him by Alanna Nash
• Michael Jackson: The Magic, the Madness, the Whole Story by J. Randy Taraborelli
• Life by Keith Richards

Our next meeting is still to discuss The Shoemaker’s Wife by Adriana Trigiani at 7 PM on Thursday, September 27^th at Beth’s house.  Please let Beth know if you will be attending.  Snack volunteers for that night are Grace and Carol for appetizers: Elisabeth, Barb and Jennifer for desserts and Karla (plus leftovers) for wine.  Please note that this meeting is on a Thursday night.

In October, we will meet on Wednesday, October 24^th.  Because of the quick turn around, we selected Shoot the Moon by Billie Letts, which is a relatively short read.  We did not select a hostess or leader for that night, but will do that at next week’s meeting.

The date of the co-ed meeting has not been completely set yet, but will probably be the last week of November or the first week of December.  We will also try to finalize that next week.

Also, we passed around a volunteer sheet for what you would be willing to do in the coming year.  We are still short on people to “steer” discussions.  Remember that you just have to be prepared with a few questions/topics to kick off and sustain our usually lively discourse. Please consider whether you would be willing to do this to take the pressure off those who act as the “leader” on a regular basis. 

Also, remember that Jill keeps all the key info about our book club in order in amazing fashion at crbc.blogspot.com.  You can find tons of info about what we have read in the last 14 years and what is coming up, as well as favorite club recipes and much, much more. 

I think that is it for now.  Hope to see many of you at Beth’s next week.

Jan