First, Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. day! I hope you are able to celebrate what he stood for and take some time off today for some peaceful reflection and relaxation. If you are working today, hang in there! And thanks for working hard!
I just started a new book with my book club. We are reading a nonfiction title: 24/6: The Power of Unplugging One Day a Week by Tiffany Shlain. Our book club members brought a few book ideas to the table and we decided on this one as a group. I am not good at keeping up with the book club’s reading schedule, but I’m going to try. I actually got kicked out (not in a mean way) of my best friends’ book club because I couldn’t finish the books on time. They follow the Reese Witherspoon recommended books with her bookclub Hello Sunshine. I only liked a few of the ones I did read, so it was hard to stay motivated. I also do a lot of reading for work, so I think I was reading more than any of my friends and just couldn’t read that one extra book by the meeting date. Excuses, excuses…I know. 🙂
I have also had the privilege of speaking to a book club about the job I do as a literary agent. They had me come to a meeting and asked me questions about my role. It was fun to share with them!
Are you in a book club? If so, how does your club decide what to read? Do you read mostly fiction or nonfiction or a mix of both?
What are some of your favorite book club reads from the past? Or, if you aren’t in a book club, can you recommend that you think a book club would enjoy? Feel free to plug your own book if you think it is something a group of readers could read together and discuss.
I can’t wait to see your recommendations!
Have a wonderful day!
Surviving the Threat of Social Media Nuclear Meltdown
Stephanie Rische from Tyndale had an online book club that I really enjoyed, but she has stopped. I’m hoping that she will continue in the future. She alternated fiction with non-fiction and while I enjoyed Big Magic I think my favorite non-fiction was The Road Back To You as it gave me an incredible tool for writing characters and a great amount of insight into myself and how I can get work with other personalities better. Seeing our unique strengths and weaknesses is so valuable. I also liked A Monster Calls, but The Road Back To You was my favorite. My best friend and I have to swap books for our birthdays, which are a day apart. I hardly ever read literary and she hardly ever reads genre fiction and so it is good for us to get out of our comfort zones once a year.
We read Big Magic last year! Great book. And I’ll need to check out The Road Back to You! Thanks!
Book clubs sound so very cool,
but they’re not for such as me;
I’d be set up for ridicule
because I have ADHD
and can never read a book
from beginning to the end;
I’ll open it and take a look,
and then attention starts to bend
after some bright wayward course
that leads me on to other places
like some young and tameless horse
who’s lacking in equestrian graces
but running wide across the world
chasing butterfly and squirrel.
Actually, my “Blessed Are The Pure Of Heart” WAS read by a book club. That may have been the highlight of my writing caree…ooh, look, a CARDINAL!
I don’t understand book cubs. When I read a book I expect to finish it in, at most, a few days. How can people only read a chapter or so and discuss it before moving on to finish the book? And, if they read the whole book at once, won’t they have moved on and read others between meetings?
Janet, those are good questions! My book club reads one book per month. I usually read four books at a time, but in different genres (one fiction, one theological, one writing related, and one secular non-fiction). So that lets me space out the reading. Also, I sometimes hold off starting my book club’s selection until a couple weeks before so it’ll still be fresh in my mind.
Most of the time people have moved on to other books. The group just discusses a book once a month.
Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day! I had to respond with my favorite book club read this year – Diane Chamberlain’s Big Lies in a Small Town. I’ve been reviewing books on my website/blog and after dozens of books I’ve chosen in addition to our book club selection, that one is hands down my personal favorite. I have participated in a professional book club that really balances my opportunity to read from a wide variety of current literature. Hopefully, one of my own books will make that list one day – I’m waiting on a full manuscript request now.
Love your blog!
I do not belong to a book club and have never had the opportunity to be part of one. But, for Christmas this year, I got a nonfiction book for my sisters and me to read and discuss. (Note: I read very little nonfiction because I am a fiction fan.) The book is Difficult Conversations With a Black Man, by Emmanuel Acho. I love his YouTube videos on this same subject and thought this would be eye opening for us and make a great topic for discussion. Now to actually read the book. 🙂
Sounds fun to read a book with your sisters!
Hi Rachel
Your group may be interested in my double-award winning indie historical fiction novel, Madam in Silk. It has book group questions at the end and local book clubs have enjoyed reading it here in Elk Grove. Based on a true story. I am a retired English teacher of 27 years, an editor and small press publisher. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Madam+in+Silk&ref=nb_sb_noss_2
I am also available for a Zoom book talk with your group with advance notice.
All best,
Gini
Thanks for the recommendation! My current club is doing non-fiction only, but I bet some other blog readers are happy to have this info for their groups. Also great that you are willing to do zoom book chats with groups!
My book club usually reads non-fiction, but we switch to fiction when anyone’s schedule is tight. For fiction, we all love Cynthia Ruchti’s books, anything by C.S. Lewis, and classics such as “The Iliad” and “Paradise Lost.” For non-fiction, we are reading Peter Williams’s “Can We Trust the Gospels?” right now. We recently read “Another Gospel?” by Alisa Childers, “Immortal” by Clay Jones, and “Mama Bear Apologetics” by Hillary Morgan Ferrer–all excellent books I highly recommend. We choose our next book after we finish discussing the previous book. I often share what 3 or 4 books I plan to read in the next month to see if any interest the others. If not, we look at our Amazon wish lists.
Such a nice topic. I am the webmaster of a “book circle”l that consists of 20 chapters (book clubs) ranging from Christian, mystery, historical fiction, cookbooks (Food for Thought), and non-fiction. There are nearly 200 members and each chapter is heading by a “Presider.” They have used Zoom, Google, and meeting in the park (six feet apart) to keep their groups together. The President is working on getting more author visits (thanks to Zoom) because our annual dinner (we decorate tables in honor of our #1 favorite book) is not COVID friendly. Books are chosen in the chapter. Usually (pre-covid) the host or hostess selected chose the book. Some meet all year round and others are “snow birds” and only meet when they’re not up north. Just thought you would find this information interesting. Have a great day reading…. Oh! The Book Circle has been around for over twenty years. It’s a community thing (Solivita – a gated community).
Nice! I love the title “book circle.” It sounds so inviting!
I belong to two book groups, and WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING and DAISY JONES AND THE SIX were universal favorites! I’ve also led discussion groups in person and on Zoom for both of my own novels–FOLLOW THE LEADER (a dangerously charismatic teenager, her aging hippie grandmother, a 50 year old secret, and blackmail) and THINGS (a former military brat/current college advisor with hoarding issues. Clean romantic elements). Thanks for asking and for your always interesting posts!