<p>I vote for Gilead as well.</p>
<p>I agree with both MommaJ and CBB - I’d prefer a newer release, but in paperback (less expensive, more available, and easier for poolside reading ;)) How about we try to find a paperback released within the last year? I think Still Alice, Sarah’s Key, Outliers, The Empty Nest and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society would all fit those requirements.</p>
<p>Dreamers of the Day would also fit that bill. I just finished reading it and would love to have it on the list.</p>
<p>I read the Kite Runner when it came out, not sure I’m willing to read again but it would be a book that is easily available in a library. That one is not really my idea of a summer read anyway. </p>
<p>I tried to read Gilead over the winter but it started out pretty slow and I had some other choices so took it back to the library. But, am willing to give it another go if that’s the choice.</p>
<p>Just one more suggestion - The Shack. A slim book that’s really popular at my library.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the great input! </p>
<p>This is the updated list of nominees, which I am about to slice:</p>
<p>The Secret History (Donna Tarttt)
Tam Lin (Pamela Dean)
Still Alice (Lisa Genova)
The Help (Kathryn Stockett)
Sarah’s Key (Tatiana de Rosnay)
Mean Little deaf Queer (Terry Galloway)
Outliers (Malcolm Gladwell)
The Empty Nest (Karen Stabiner)
The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
Forgetfulness (or other selections) (Billy Collins)
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (M.A. Shaffer, A. Barrows)
Gilead (Marilynne Robinson)
I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
Dreamers of the Day (Mary Doria Russell)
The Shack (William P. Young) </p>
<p>In general, this is what has been requested:</p>
<p>1) no college-related books
2) no books of excessive length
3) books that fall into summer reading genre, i.e., somewhat light
4) relatively new release
5) relatively inexpensive paperback</p>
<p>Based on #1, I am eliminating The Secret History and Tam Lin from the list.
Based on #2 (and 3), I am eliminating I Know This Much is True.
Based on #3 (and 4), I am eliminating The Kite Runner and The Shack (ultimately redemptive story, but I just can’t read about a daughter being brutally murdered).
Based on #4, I am eliminating Gilead and The Empty Nest.
Based on #5, I am eliminating The Help, Mean Little deaf Queer, and Outliers.</p>
<p>And finally, although I dearly love Billy Collins, I am removing his Poetry Selections from the list out of respect for those suffering from metrophobia.</p>
<p>So that leaves us with:</p>
<p>The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (M.A. Shaffer, A. Barrows)
Dreamers of the Day (Mary Doria Russell)
Still Alice (Lisa Genova)
Sarah’s Key (Tatiana de Rosnay)</p>
<p>For June, based on several posters’ comments, I vote for The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Is that o.k. with everyone?</p>
<p>Any comments on the remaining choices for July and August?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>That sounds good to me, mominva! I am leaning toward the 15th for the June start discussion date, but I’m flexible. Any thoughts?</p>
<p>Mary13 -" I’m not sure how this will work in the CC forum. I figure we can just make up the rules as we go."</p>
<p>LOL, you are the right one for Reading Club leader. Three selections for the upcoming months is a great idea, more likely to attract those who can look forward to something if the first selection isn’t high on their lists. </p>
<p>Hey, don’t feel obligated to release that final mathematical formula,
I am sure most of us expect your vote to count twice, (or more) ;)</p>
<p>Perhaps this will help -</p>
<p>Dreamers of the Day
From Publishers Weekly
Russell’s enjoyable latest historical is told in the exuberant, posthumous voice (yes, it’s narrated from the afterlife) of Agnes Shanklin, a 38-year-old schoolteacher from Cedar Glen, a town near Cleveland, Ohio. After the influenza epidemic of 1919 strikes down Agnes’s family, a childless and unmarried Agnes settles the family estate, acquires financial independence and adopts an affable dachshund named Rosie. Accompanied by Rosie, Agnes travels to Cairo during the Cairo Peace Conference, where she befriends Winston Churchill and Lawrence of Arabia among other historical heavy hitters. She also falls in love with the charismatic Karl Weilbacher, a German spy whose interest in Agnes may have less to do with romance than Agnes will allow herself to believe. Agnes’s travelogues, while marvelously detailed, distract from the increasingly tense romantic play between Agnes and Karl. When a more worldly-wise Agnes returns home, her life—first as an investor wrecked by the Depression and then a librarian until her death in 1957—remains low-keyed. Though the bizarre, whimsical ending doesn’t quite gel, Russell (The Sparrow; A Thread of Grace) has created an instantly likable heroine whose unlikely adventures will keep readers hooked to the end. (Mar.) </p>
<p>Still Alice
From Publishers Weekly
Neuroscientist and debut novelist Genova mines years of experience in her field to craft a realistic portrait of early onset Alzheimer’s disease. Alice Howland has a career not unlike Genova’s—she’s an esteemed psychology professor at Harvard, living a comfortable life in Cambridge with her husband, John, arguing about the usual (making quality time together, their daughter’s move to L.A.) when the first symptoms of Alzheimer’s begin to emerge. First, Alice can’t find her Blackberry, then she becomes hopelessly disoriented in her own town. Alice is shocked to be diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s (she had suspected a brain tumor or menopause), after which her life begins steadily to unravel. She loses track of rooms in her home, resigns from Harvard and eventually cannot recognize her own children. The brutal facts of Alzheimer’s are heartbreaking, and it’s impossible not to feel for Alice and her loved ones, but Genova’s prose style is clumsy and her dialogue heavy-handed. This novel will appeal to those dealing with the disease and may prove helpful, but beyond the heartbreaking record of illness there’s little here to remember</p>
<p>Sarah’s Key
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. De Rosnay’s U.S. debut fictionalizes the 1942 Paris roundups and deportations, in which thousands of Jewish families were arrested, held at the V</p>
<p>After reading the reviews from SouthJerseyChessMom, I would vote no to Still Alice, due to the “Genova’s prose style is clumsy and her dialogue heavy-handed” comment. Plus, it sounds too sad for me right now.</p>
<p>I agree. Still Alice sounds a little too sad for summer. Either one of the other two would be fine with me.</p>
<p>Iv’e read The Sparrow by Russell and liked it very much.
[ReadingGroupGuides.com</a> - The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell](<a href=“http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides_S/sparrow1.asp]ReadingGroupGuides.com”>The Sparrow | ReadingGroupGuides.com)</p>
<p>I vote for her latest.</p>
<p>While I admit one of the best parts of book group are the snacks and the wine- 
( as well as the stories we come up with)</p>
<p>I think this is a great idea.</p>
<p>Yay!!! I love this idea, so count me in. I’ll read almost anything, but lately I’ve been reading only memoir about cooking and travel. I’ll list a few here for future reference, but here is what I’m starting as soon as I get it:</p>
<p>I’m Down Mishna Wolf </p>
<p>Mishna Wolff grew up in a poor black neighborhood with her single father, a white man who truly believed he was black. “He strutted around with a short perm, a Cosby-esqe sweater, gold chains and a Kangol—telling jokes like Redd Fox, and giving advice like Jesse Jackson. You couldn’t tell my father he was white. Believe me, I tried,” writes Wolff. And so from early childhood on, her father began his crusade to make his white daughter Down. </p>
<pre><code> Unfortunately, Mishna didn’t quite fit in with the neighborhood kids: she couldn’t dance, she couldn’t sing, she couldn’t double dutch and she was the worst player on her all-black basketball team. She was shy, uncool and painfully white. And yet when she was suddenly sent to a rich white school, she found she was too “black” to fit in with her white classmates.
I’m Down is a hip, hysterical and at the same time beautiful memoir that will have you howling with laughter, recommending it to friends and questioning what it means to be black and white in America.
</code></pre>
<p>“Deftly and hilariously delineates the American drama of race and class for one little girl.” --Kirkus Reviews</p>
<p>Another great summer read is A Girl Named Zippy by Haven Kimmel</p>
<p>Books on my summer reading list:</p>
<p>Things I’ve Been Silent About Azar Nafisi
Nose Down Eyes Up Merril Markoe
Angels and Ages: A Short Book About Darwin, Lincoln, and Modern Life Adam Gopnick
Losing Mum and Pup Christopher Buckley</p>
<p>And lastly, this was my favorite book from last summer. It’s big, but it’s a fast read and it is a fascinating window into the music world. I loved how it put the development of these women’s music into the larger context of the changes in the world. It’s now in paperback.</p>
<p>Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon–and the Journey of a Generation by Sheila Weller</p>
<p>I have read several books on the suggested list. While the subject of “Sarah’s Key” sounds heavy it is actually an easy read. It could fit the bill as summer reading.</p>
<p>Based on the above, I am eliminating Still Alice. (It was the line that “the brutal facts of Alzheimer’s are heartbreaking” that got to me.)</p>
<p>Final selection:</p>
<p>June: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (M.A. Shaffer, A. Barrows)
July: Dreamers of the Day (Mary Doria Russell)
August: Sarah’s Key (Tatiana de Rosnay)</p>
<p>Per mominva’s suggestion, I’ll start a new thread with the name of the June selection, then do it again for July and August.</p>
<p>Helenback, thanks for the future book suggestions! Maybe next summer (I am optimistic :)), we can include a non-fiction title.</p>
<p>Mary13 – it all sounds good to me! Thanks for leading this and being decisive! 
</p>
<p>So, we’ll begin a cyber discussion of “Guernsey” when?</p>
<p>CBBBlinker, I’m shooting for June 15th. Hope that works for everyone:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/722812-cc-june-summer-book-club-selection.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/722812-cc-june-summer-book-club-selection.html</a></p>
<p>emeraldkity4, nothing says we can’t sip wine and eat cheese at the computer!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Oh yeh – I’m all over that! (Hopefully the wine and cheese won’t, in turn, be all over my computer!!!)</p>
<p>I’m in…see ya’all on the 15th…</p>
<p>also, I have People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks on my summer list if anyone wants to do a September addition…</p>
<p>I am in too for June… though our HS graduation is the 14th with Proj Grad that night… maybe we could do Tuesday the 16th for discussion to give us an extra day to recoup? </p>
<p>thanks Mary for really driving this to done!! you excel in initiative and I echo the comments about your decisiveness… </p>
<p>love the choice of book for June… I have picked it up twice in the stores… but put it down as I was reading other things at the time…</p>