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Discussible Choices: What Are You Reading? |
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Congratulations to Elizabeth and The Culture Club for winning the random drawings for this month’s Discussible Book Choice! We enjoy hearing from book club members who share with everyone the book choices that made for lively discussions.. Please let us know what about the book contributed to your great discussion – you may win a book-related prize for every member of your reading group! “The Light of Evening by Edna O'Brien sparked a four-hour discussion of everything from immigration to our own writing proclivities. More than any other book so far it gave us solidarity with some critics whose thoughts on the book mirrored on own. This was so intellectually affirming for our little group! O'Brien is an author none had read previously but who now feels like a something of a spiritual sister.” More Discussible Book Choices “Our group decided to read The Giver by Lois Lowry to commemorate Banned Book Month this past September. Although the book is written for young adults we dove right into discussions filled with ideas of utopian societies, individuality, and even war – just to name a few topics. Everyone who has read the book will know that the ending is open to interpretation (which I don't want to spoil for anyone), and we were shocked that two of our members had come to completely different conclusions than the rest. We are a 12-member group, and that meeting had so many side discussions that we couldn't hear each other! We talked well into the evening, and the book really gave us an opportunity to learn so much more about each other.” “We just read and discussed Sarah's Key. Everyone in our group just loved it! Very haunting and poignant. We'd highly recommend it!” “We read Bound by Sally Gunning. It inspired quite a lively discussion. The choice of the main character at the end of the story brought a lot of comments.” “Our book club has been meeting for ten years. The book in which we had the most diverse and interesting discussion was Exile by Richard North Patterson.” “We had a great discussion on Lahiri's The Namesake. The setting took us between the U.S. and India, and the very human issues that arise had us discussing the importance of our own names, relationships, fate, love, multi-culturalism, and more. This beautifully-written novel will stay with us for a long time!” “Alice I Have Been, a debut novel by Melanie Benjamin, examines the life of Alice Liddell, the real-life inspiration to Lewis Carroll's famed classic Alice in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking Glass. The story follows a young Alice and her relationship to the author through their subsequent and mysterious estrangement and then onward to her adult life. Benjamin successfully re-creates Alice's world and allows us to witness her struggle with her alter identity. This is a very thoughtful and remarkably well-researched story - I was captured by Alice's narrative from the first page and remained engaged until the end. I was equally impressed by Benjamin's website, which takes you into the world of Alice, the Oxford campus, as well as Charles Dodgson (known more famously as Lewis Carroll). A reading guide is reportedly in the works, and I can see this book becoming a reading group favorite as a very highly discussable book. A myriad of topics are available here: Victorian standards vs. today and child exploitation to name a couple and not to mention - a huge discussion regarding the nature of Charles Dodgson and Alice's Liddell's relationship. (There might even be a compare / contrast with other more modern day artists and their questionable relationships with young children.) Watch for this book in January of 2010!” “The Double Bind was a great book but a very hard read for some of our members because of the details included. All members thought book was well written. Heart breaking story.” “One of our favorite books to discuss was Savannah Blues by Mary Kay Andrews. We liked the fact that it was a southern-based book and that there was comedy sprinkled throughout the book. We liked dissecting her reasons for doing/acting the way she did. It was an enjoyable read.” “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer Annie Barrows.” “Two of the most engaging book discussions were: Empire Falls by Richard Russo and Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee. Empire Falls provided such flawed characters who defied redemption even when given the opportunity. Miles Roby and Francine Whiting provided much of the grist. It was also a fun read. We all are flawed in some way, and that topic was discussed as well; which character did we identify with? Hoots of laughter and somber moments when some felt their flaws were integral to their character.” “One month I picked Rabbit Run by Updike by John Updike as our book, and boy did it cause some interesting and fun conversations. Whether we liked the book or not, we all thought the time-period fascinating and what it meant for women at that time. And what we all thought was fascinating was the fact that while we hated that Rabbit was running from his responsibilities and family...we wanted to keep on reading. It was kind of addicting. Like watching a car crash. Horrible, but you watch it anyway. It was a great conversation book.” “We liked two books by the same author - Maryann McFadden. We read the The Richest Season and her newest book So Happy Together. The theme of family is found throughout her books, and this resonated with most of our group. So Happy Together is about the sandwich generation, and that was something our group identified with as mothers, daughters, and grandmothers. We had the pleasure of having Maryann come to both of our discussions about the group - she is a delight.”
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