Annie started book club a few years ago. Five women of varying ages, but we all have a taste for international and cultural themes. The first year we met at Open Book on Washington Ave in Minneapolis. Lately we've been meeting at our homes. In June we're inviting two more friends to join us.
Some of my favorites include A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry, Bel Canto by Anne Patchett, and Virgin Blue by Tracy Chevalier. A Fine Balance was a bit dark but I loved it. On the lighter end is one for July: Children of God Go Bowling, by Shannon Olson.
Here are our Picks:
2004
January - Anne - Nine parts of desire : the hidden world of Islamic women / Geraldine Brooks.
February - Sarah - Paradise by Toni Morrison
March - Donna - DaVinci Code by Dan Brown
April - Sarah - The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
May - An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears at Anne's - this got pushed to June - 691 pages; suddenly everyone was "busy" in May
June - Fingerpost - at Suzie's
July - Children of God Go Bowling by Shannon Olson at Donna's?
August - Body and Soul by Frank Conroy at Annie's?
2003
January - Donna - Life of Pi Yann Martel
February - Suzie - The Color of Water James McBride
May- Annie - Death Comes to the Archbishop
June: Sarah - Bondswoman's Narrative by Hannah Crafts, edited by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
[July ?]- Girl with a Pearl Earring - Tracy Chevalier
[August ?] My Forbidden Face - Latifa
September - Donna - Oryx and Crake
October - Roberta - The Spell of the Sensuous
November - Susan – Virgin Blue Tracy Chevalier
2002
April Annie: Postville - Stephen Bloom
May Donna: A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
June Suzie: Bonesetter's Daughter - Amy Tan
July Roberta: The Heartsong of Charging Elk - James Welch
August Sarah: The Interpreter of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri
September Sarah - The Shipping News Annie Proulx
October Roberta - Two Old Women Velma Wallis
November Anne - Bel Canto Anne Patchett
More - no date listed:
Undaunted courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the opening of the American West / Stephen E. Ambrose.
Here's the list of "other" books - not chosen but probably good one and all:
The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell
Color: A Natural History of the Pallette by Victoria Finlay
Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons by Lorna Lanvik
158 Pound Marriage by John Irving
The Cape Ann by Faith Sullivan
The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse by Louise Erdrich
Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith
A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Waiting for Snow in Havana by Carlos Eire
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie
Here's how we choose our books:
Every five months or so:
Each person brings several titles she is interested in. She describes each one briefly, and if she has a copy she passes that around and we informally chat about why it might be a good choice. Finally we vote on it and the person who suggested the title becomes the discussion leader. That's not as formal as it sounds. Usually it means gathering a bit of background information on the author and perhaps the theme. I'm a slow reader and I admit it, I like visual stuff, so I try to dig up relevant photos or artwork, if it makes sense. Did that for Girl with a Pearl Earring - brought some art books on Vermeer's painting - and brought a great national Geographic title about Lewis & Clark when we were reading Undaunted Courage. I think it was this one:
Lewis & Clark : voyage of discovery / Stephen E. Ambrose ; [photographs by] Sam Abell. Washington, DC : National Geographic Society, c1998.
Latifa. My forbidden face : growing up under the Taliban : a young woman's story / Latifa with the collaboration of Ch ek eha Hachemi ; translated by Lisa Appignanesi. London : Virago, 2002
Posted by s-gang at June 9, 2004 12:20 PM