Books are love letters (or apologies) passed between us, adding a layer of conversation beyond our spoken words.”
― Donalyn Miller, The Book Whisperer: Awakening the Inner Reader in Every Child
I started a book club over ten years ago and although members have come and gone over the years
there has been a core of five that have suffered and celebrated life events over the magic of prose.
Our group is now made up of 10 and we’ve become a bit of an institution of sorts. I am often asked “what is your book club reading this year?” and so I thought I’d share our entire list with all of you who are curious.
How did we come up with this eclectic array of titles?
Simple.
We all meet in September with books that we’ve read and loved,
or want to read but haven’t had time,
or have heard about and are curious….
or are scared to read alone for fear of frustration.
Then we are all given 10 votes (with the intention of meeting 9 or 10 times throughout the year) and we can put out ten votes on the books we so choose; one vote on ten books, or two votes on five books ….
I once wanted to read certain specific book so badly I put my entire ten votes on that one book! (much to the chagrin of several members…but they humoured me.)
This year we have everything from true crime to young adult, science fiction to literary classics. We also have an honourable mention list for those titles who didn’t quite make the cut.
Enjoy! And let me know if you’ve read any of these. What did you think? Which is your favourite?
2013/14 Book Club Reading List
The Winners
October: Ender’s Game – Orson Scott Card @ Leanne’s house Oct. 23
November: The Purchase – Linda Spalding
December: Persuasion – Jane Austen and
Life After Life – Kate Atkinson
January: Z: A novel of Zelda Fitzgerald – Therese Anne Fowler
February: Unwind – Neal Shusterman
March: Helter Skelter – Vincent Bugliosi
April: A Trick of the Light – Louise Penny
May: Cutting for Stone – Abraham Verghese
June: The Forgotten Garden – Kate Morton
Honourable Mentions
Pure – Julianna Baggott
Two Solitudes
The Orphan Master’s Son – Adam Johnson
Police – Jo Nesbo
The Empress Dowager Cixi – Jung Chang
The Lion Seeker – Kenneth Bonert
Reconstructing Amelia
The Absolutist
Love in the Time of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Arcadia – Lauren Groff
The Winter Palace – Eva Stachniak
The Lollipop Shoes – Joanne Harris
And the Mountains Echoed – Khaled Husseini
The Language of Flowers – Vanessa Diffenbaugh
The Little Giant of Aberdeen County – Tiffany Baker
The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
Light Between Oceans – M.L. Stedman
The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared – Jonas Jonasson
The Juggler’s Children – Carolyn Abraham
Game of Thrones
Ink And Spine 