South Shore Readers discussion

What books would you like the group to read in 2015? Post your ideas here. We will vote at the meetings.

****Authors: Please try to avoid the temptation to do self-promotion in this thread. ****

General guidelines: book should be available in paperback and be under 400 pages.

See all of our past book club reads here: https://www.goodreads.com/group/books...

In the next post in this topic, I've copied over some of the books from the 2014 list. I've left off any books that have been on the list for more than a year. If you'd like me to re-add any of the books that were dropped, simply re-suggest it!

See the 2014 version of this topic here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Our selections for the year are....

January:Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
February: The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henriquez
March: Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
April: A Train in Winter: An Extraordinary Story of Women, Friendship, and Resistance in Occupied France by Caroline Moorehead
May: A Room with a View by E.M. Forster
June: The Vacationers by Emma Straub
July: The Spectacular Now by Tim Tharp
August: The World's Strongest Librarian: A Memoir of Tourette's, Faith, Strength, and the Power of Family by Josh Hanagarne
September: Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
October:Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist
November: You Deserve a Drink: Boozy Misadventures and Tales of Debauchery by Mamrie Hart

Here's our current list. I will try to keep it up to date as more suggestions are mad.




CONTEMPORARY FICTION

Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson

Painter of Silence by Georgina Harding

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (perhaps a little long at 477 pages)

A Spell of Winter by Helen Dunmore

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

The Bear by Claire Cameron

The Dogs of Littlefield by Suzanne Berne

A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra

The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
Love Anthony by Lisa Genova

The Sweetness of Forgetting by Kristin Harmel

Mermaid in Chelsea Creek by Michelle Tea


ON THE SPOOKY/CREEPY SIDE
Affinity by Sarah Waters
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist


OLD SCHOOL LITERATURE (well, 10 years or older)
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon

Requiem for a Dream

Persuasion by Jane Austen



NON-FICTION
To the End of June: The Intimate Life of American Foster Care by Cris Beam

Come Back: A Mother and Daughter's Journey Through Hell and Back by Claire Fontaine

Slackjaw by Jim Knipfel

What I Was Doing While You Were Breeding by Kristin Newman

The Witness Wore Red: The 19th Wife Who Brought Polygamous Cult Leaders to Justice by Rebecca Musser

Men We Reaped: A Memoir by Jesmyn Ward

Moms Who Drink and Swear: True Tales of Loving My Kids While Losing My Mind

I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai

Knocking on Heaven's Door: The Path to a Better Way of Death by Katy Butler

Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson

Life from Scratch: A Memoir of Food, Family, and Forgiveness by Sasha Martin

LONGER READS (500+ pages)

The Given Day by Dennis Lehane (720 pages)

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace (1079 pages)

Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham ( 684 pages)



Bleak House by Charles Dickens (1017 pages)

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (581 pages)

The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (667 pages)

The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo (614 pages)

Les Miserables

Middlemarch

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption

The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra

Gillespie and I by Jane Harris (504 pages)

All the Light We Cannot See

I'd like to add Life after Life by Kate Atkinson por favor

Yes! I've been wanting to read that one as well.

Some other books I've been meaning to read:

Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson

Painter of Silence by Georgina Harding

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (perhaps a little long at 477 pages)

A Spell of Winter by Helen Dunmore

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

The Bear by Claire Cameron

The Dogs of Littlefield by Suzanne Berne

The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett

For a longer read:
Gillespie and I by Jane Harris (504 pages)

I would love to read "eight girls taking pictures" by Whitney Otto.

Ok, my apologies for offending anyone (especially those of you who don't really know me) but I couldn't resist suggesting this one:




We could use it for our "memoir" or "non-fiction" book on the Challenge!

Which book? Nothing showed up in your comment

Which book? Nothing showed up in your comment

Ugh-sorry. The cover shows on my computer but not my phone-it must not work on the mobile version. It's Double Header My Life with Two Penises by Diphallic Dude!

Ha! That's amazing!

haha! Maybe that one would draw a crowd to the meeting.

It's available for free on the kindle lending library. I have to read it.

We picked our books for February and March...

February: The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henriquez
March: Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty


Keep the ideas coming for our picks for the rest of the year!

at our next meeting we will pick the books for April and maybe May. If you have any suggestions, post them here!

Some more ideas:

A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra

Joanie mentioned this one at the last meeting. It looks good!: We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy FowlerKaren Joy Fowler

For the classic romance category in the challenge:
A Room with a View by E.M. Forster
Persuasion by Jane Austen

for non fiction:
Knocking on Heaven's Door: The Path to a Better Way of Death by Katy Butler

Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson

Persuasion is my favorite Jane Austen.

Can we add Life from Scratch A Memoir of Food Family and Forgiveness by Sasha Martin to the Non-fiction list?

That sounds like something I'd love to read!

Our April book is A Train in Winter: An Extraordinary Story of Women, Friendship, and Resistance in Occupied France by Caroline Moorehead. For those also doing the reading challenge, this book could be used for a few different categories such as Non-fiction or a book that made you cry, or a book set in a foreign land

Alright, I can't be there on Sunday, but we need to pick our May book.

I vote for something on the lighter side after this month's book. No Nazi death camps, please!

The last Sunday in May is the 31st. It might be patio weather too!

Light and fluffy + patio = ideal May book club

Yes-no more concentration camps please!!!

Yes-no more concentration camps please!!!

Ugh-sorry for the double post. On my phone

That always happens to me on my phone. But I will interpret your double post as REALLY not wanting another concentration camp book.

Some additional ideas: (pulled from NPR's list of best books of 2014)

How to Build a Girl by Caitlin Moran

Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi

An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine

The Bees by Laline Paull

2 A.M. at The Cat's Pajamas by Marie-Helene Bertino

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

Stone Mattress: Nine Tales by Margaret Atwood

I found this on a list called "Best light-hearted literature." I'm thinking they use the word "literature" very loosely, but it does look funny.
Tales of Sex & Suburban Lunacy

From the same list, but seems a bit less chick-lit:
Somewhere Upriver
Dark Chatter

These are totally chick-lit but look pretty funny:
Love and the Art of War
Where'd You Go, Bernadette

I would say yes to Margaret Atwood. Of course she is hardly fluffy.

Remember we need a book set in HS and a love triangle

I like Somewhere Upriver too.

I've heard "Where'd You Go, Bernadette" is fabulous.

It really is strange how many of the books on our list involve Nazis and/or WWII. I'd like to add The Spectacular Now to the list of possibilities. It seems at least lighter than most of what's currently on the list.

I was just reading about this on a list of YA books to read after "The Fault in Our Stars"

That sounds good to me. And it sounds like it probably doesn't have Nazis in it. Bonus!

Vanity Fair magazine has just informed me that Saul Bellow is "the most lauded novelist in American history." Has anyone ever read any of his work? He's too modern for me to have read any in high school, but not modern enough for me to pick it up on my own.

I read Herzog in junior high but really don't remember much.

and our next two books are...

June: The Vacationers by Emma Straub
July: The Spectacular Now by Tim Tharp

Did you guys know about this?!?! Christopher's Diary:Secrets of Foxworth Might be time to revive the Trashy Bookclub!

Damn, the link won't work. I'll retry from the laptop later

Okay, hopefully this will work.Christopher's Diary: Secrets of Foxworth


I think it's the diary Christopher kept while they were in the attic!!!! Pure genius!

Must.read.that!

I second!

So, we had a long heated discussion yesterday to determine what our next book would be. the two finalists were:
-The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult
-The World's Strongest Librarian: A Memoir of Tourette's, Faith, Strength, and the Power of Family

Stay tuned to see which one was selected!

Well I've read one and I'm almost done for the other-go me!

The non Piccoult book was our pick. :)

Very happy to hear. Not enough booze in a bottle for a picoult/nazi combination.

Gee, I never would have guessed Jodi lost in that competition!

I just finished The World's Strongest Librarian, it's quick.

Thinking about books for October. Here are some lists of the "scariest books ever"

9 Books Scarier Than Any Horror Movie
http://mashable.com/2013/10/14/scary-...

11 of the Scariest Books of All Time
http://www.refinery29.com/best-scary-...

The 50 Scariest Books of All Time
http://flavorwire.com/419194/the-50-s...

I just read Salem's Lot and would love to read more horror...I never really read much in the genre before. I'll look through the links and post some that sound interesting to me!