I should add that Homecoming is pretty intense. Not a light cheery book. (That never stopped me, but I know that’s not what we’re collectively going for this time.)
Uplifting book – to me, anyway: Fellowship Point by Alice Elliott Dark.
Or How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water by Angie Cruz.
We read and discussed Fellowship Point Dec. 2023. I liked it also and recommended it to my IRL Book Club.
It might be time - after our next book has been picked - for @Mary13 to list all the books we’ve read. It’s impressive.
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Ha ha, I was gonna say, “Oooh, I read Fellowship Point!” Yeah 
Oops. I found it just by looking over my list of recently read books. My bad.
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Yes, just like Disney movies.
We had a large number of suggestions—which is wonderful! But I needed to pare down the list into something workable. I looked up everything that was suggested and read samples.
First, I eliminated choices that didn’t fall into the upbeat category, or that had triggers: The Amazon description of The Garden of Small Beginnings, for example, is as follows:
Lilian Girvan has been a single mother for three years—ever since her husband died in a car accident. One mental breakdown and some random suicidal thoughts later, she’s just starting to get the hang of this widow thing.
Nah.
Next, I eliminated choices that were too upbeat, fearful that light romances or humorous essays would not generate enough material for discussion.
And then I eliminated books that had reviews only from places like PureWow and Chatelaine, but not a single mainstream newspaper. (Book snob, guilty as charged.)
And finally, I eliminated anything narrated by cats.
I tried to find a middle ground and came up with these five varied choices, hopefully something for everyone: a traditional classic, a modern classic, two contemporary fiction, and one non-fiction:
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Armin (1928)
Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns (1984)
How to Read a Book by Monica Wood
The Story of Arthur Truluv by Elizabeth Berg
Dispatches from Pluto: Lost and Found in the Mississippi Delta by Richard Grant
If there are any hard vetoes, let me know. If not. I’ll set these up for Ranked Choice Voting and send a link.
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I want to note that I started reading the Amazon sample of The Garden of Small Beginnings and it was very funny and not at all triggering or depressing. I too had been put off by that bit of description but it’s no worse than the book that starts with the person who was in prison for killing someone for drunk driving and the spouse of the deceased.
I guess I didn’t dip far enough into How to Read a Book, but I just read the descriptions of the characters and I see what you mean. I’ll take that as a soft veto, which leaves us with four:
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Armin (1928)
Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns (1984)
The Story of Arthur Truluv by Elizabeth Berg
Dispatches from Pluto: Lost and Found in the Mississippi Delta by Richard Grant
We can either vote with four or choose some other titles if there are additional vetoes!
Good choices. FYI: The Enchanted April can be read free through Project Gutenberg.
Umm … Toby, Blossom, Ginger, Polly, and Opie want to register their disappointment in what they consider anti-cat bias. Discussion has ensued as to whether or not I should look for a more inclusive book club. I’ve tried to assure one and all that you mean no harm.
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Just read a little about each book. They all look good. I noticed that The Enchanted April is 176 pages. A very quick read The Story of Arthur TruLuv is 272 pages, also pretty quick.
so much cat bashing going on these days!
Yes, need a “friends of felines “ reading group
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I’m ready to vote!
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This will be interesting. Usually, I think I have a clue about what the top contenders are, but I have absolutely no idea which way this will go.
I’ll post the ever-changing results link in a bit, after the voting is underway.
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I’m at an event and won’t have time to look at the choices until this afternoon.
I reluctantly voted. Other than first choice I could have rearranged my votes any which way and been just as happy. I’m actually interested in reading all of them. So I admit to having voted with an eye to fostering discussion.
@mathmom, voting shall remain open until tonight (or tomorrow or whenever … 
)!
They all look so good that I wish we could all of them!!!
I’ll vote later today after catching up with summaries of those. Thank you, @Mary13 !
I’d also like to put in a last fond word for How to Read a Book. I think many here would enjoy it. True, one of the characters was imprisoned for a drunken driving accident that killed a woman – that is central to the plot! But the way that character develops, and the relationships that form, are what make the book happy and even heartwarming.
(There are cats, but they are just regular cats who live in a bookstore, not talking cats or anything. There is a talking gray parrot, however!)
Well, I’ll quit rambling on, but I hope somebody else will also try and enjoy that book!
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Here’s the still-changing results thread, provided because it’s fun to watch the purple bars go back and forth … but remember, it’s completely meaningless at this point. If you look at the raw data, it’s essentially a tie as regards votes for first place and even one more person’s vote could change the entire order. We usually have around 12-15 voters, so a ways to go yet: Election Results
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