Here are the books we're reading for the first 6 months this year:
January: "Out of My Mind" By: Sharon Draper
February: "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" By: Mary Ann Shaffer
March: “When You Reach Me” By: Rebecca Stead
April: "Tuesday's With Morrie" By: Mitch Album
May: "The 13th Tale" By: Diane Setterfield
June: When Breath Becomes Air" By: Paul Kalantihi
All of the people in the book club are from my ward. I posted about the idea on a playgroup page for young sisters in the ward. Something that has been hard for me is not picking what books we read. I have tried to give other people within the book club a chance to choose. It has been good for me to read books I wouldn't necessarily pick. Everyone has such different tastes in books.
We only have books picked through June. I'm still trying to decide what I want to do after that. There are a couple of other books people recommended, but I'm not really a fan. I want people to know that I'm open to their ideas, but I also don't want to read a lengthy LDS fiction novel. That being said, I chose "Out of My Mind" and hosted the January meeting at my house. I thought it would be a good book to start with because it's a quick, easy read and has a powerful message.
Food is obviously a big part of book club. I made sugar cookies and had marshmallow frosting with fruit, for mini fruit pizzas. I also made 7 layer dip.
What we have done at our first 2 meetings is have questions in a bowl and each person takes one. We use the questions as a guide for our discussion. I like this method because it allows everyone to participate in the conversation and read their question. (Whoever hosts decides how to do it, but this is what we've done for the first two months.) My mom is in a book club and she gave me this idea. It's so great because people who are less likely to speak up, have a chance to.
I loved "The Guernsey and Potato Peel Pie Society" which we discussed at our February meeting and it's becoming a movie! We are going to go see it as a book club together when it comes out. I can hardly wait! This is one of my all-time favorite books.
Something I want to remember for future book clubs is to discuss right off the bat peoples comfort levels. Do people only want to read books that are rated G? I didn't bring this up and then swearing came up. We have decided as a group to only read books that are "PG-13." People can only suggest a book that they have read before, so they know the content.
All in all, this has been a very positive experience for me. I love to discuss a good book and several people have mentioned loving the social outlet. Most of us have young babies at home and like to have some girl time out. My only problem is that I've been reading so much that sometimes I mix up the book we read for book club with another one. I love reading and escaping with the characters into a new universe.
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