<p>Currently reading “Never Let Me Go” by Kazuo Ishiguro (also wrote “The Remains of the Day”). An amazing writer. Love love love it so far. Theme centers around a social issue that would probably spark discussion in a book club.</p>
<p>On the recommendation of posters in this forum, tried Cormac McCarthy and Tim O’Brien. Am working my way through McCarthy’s Border Trilogy. Absolutely loved “All the Pretty Horses” and will read the other two although they didn’t get as good reviews. Reading McCarthy is like getting a lesson in what good writing is all about; can’t remember when I’ve enjoyed “discovering” a writer more. Definitely looking forward to reading “Blood Meridian.” Enjoyed O’Brien but found the book borderline-forgettable: “In the Lake of the Woods.” Probably not his best and will try “Going After Cacciato” next.</p>
<p>One reason for the similarity of book club lists may be the existence of online resources like <a href=“http://www.readinggroupguides.com%5B/url%5D”>www.readinggroupguides.com</a>. There are discussion guides and questions for many books, suggestions on books as well as pointers on how to form and organize a book club of your own. </p>
<p>Book club picks do tend to have a few things in common overall. For one thing, some of our members read <em>many</em> books during the month and some are hard pressed to finish even the one. Anyway, to gain maximum participation from our members, we try to limit our selections to books that are 300 pages or less, although we’ve made many exceptions to this over the years. But the main criteria we use is that the book be discussable. Jodi Picoult’s books, for example would certainly create a discussion and bring out many opinions, depending on the diversity of the group.</p>
<p>Kiterunner was one of our group’s all time favorites. We all really liked the Other Boleyn Girl as well. One Thousand White Women was met by mixed reviews by our club. Many liked it a lot. Some felt it petered out or didn’t hold their interest. That was a crazy month for me and I never finished it - but I’m planning to. I’ve also heard very positive reviews of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. I’m “amazon-ing” (googling for books!) many of the other books mentioned on this thread - many sound great!</p>
<p>I loved “All The Pretty Horses”, too. It’s probably my favorite American book of the past 20 years. But I didn’t like the other books in the trilogy anywhere near as much. They’re much wordier, and a lot less perfect. And I’ve been about 1/3 of the way through Blood Meridian since August. (My daughter and her friends like that one best, though.)</p>
<p>I did like In The Lake Of The Woods.</p>
<p>All of this reminds me to recommend one of my absolutely, positively favorite books ever, that very few people have read (and that is only about 150 pages long, so it doesn’t take a lot of time to read): William Maxwell’s So Long, See You Tomorrow. Maxwell was the fiction editor of the New Yorker under William Shawn. He wrote very sparingly, mostly personal memoirs and autobiographical short stories. So Long, See You Tomorrow, which he published in his 70s, is his masterpiece. The narrator, who in all respects corresponds to Maxwell, remembers a boyhood friendship that he struck up when he was 11 or so, and his betrayal of that friendship a few years later. As an old man he tries to reconstruct, via psychotherapy and historical research, what happened to his friend, and to himself, what drew them together and pushed them apart. In the process, he tells the stories of his mother’s death and his father’s remarriage, and of a love triangle among farmers that had cast a shadow over the other boy’s life.</p>
<p>I read Elder Rage recently. I recommend it to everyone. It is about experiences with parents w/Alzheimers. I read it is a book of the month selection, somehow I missed it there. I bought mine from B&N. Had I known sooner I would have bought it from the author’s website. She self published the book. I see lots of denial when it comes to parent’s conditions, the book gives hope if there is early diagnosis.
Just finished that one last day book-didn’t get it.</p>
<p>My book club will be reading Orhan Pamuk’s “My Name is Red” for our next meeting. Wonderful book! My whole family loved Louis de Berniere’s “Birds without Wings” and “The Historian” by Elizabeth Kostova.</p>
<p>My favorite this past summer: The Librarians of Alexandria, A Tale of Two Sisters Written by Alessandra Lavagnino. It is translated from the Italian and covers a family saga from 1870 to the end of World War II. I couldn’t put it down. My favorite this fall was nonfiction: Mayflower, a Story of Community, Courage and War by Nathaniel Philbrick.</p>