Traditionally, in October, National Book Month, I have posted about “haunting books”—books that have stayed with me after I read them. This month, I thought I’d focus on what I’ve been forced to read because of my participation in various book clubs.
Left to my own devices, I would probably read mostly popular fiction—thrillers and mysteries, time travel and romance novels. With an occasional literary bestseller thrown into the mix. And, of course, I read many of the books written by my writer friends and critique partners.
In addition to what I choose to read on my own, I am in three book clubs at the moment—one with friends and former work colleagues, one at my church, and one alumni online reading group. (I was in another alumni online group, but that folded a couple of years ago.) It is through these book clubs that my reading perspective has been broadened. Generally, I enjoy following friends’ recommendations on what to read, but occasionally my book clubs have hit a dud.
These groups all read eclectic selections, albeit with different bents. The rest of this post looks at my work-related book club—the group I call the Best Book Club Ever. This is a group of busy women, so we meet ad hoc, usually about six to eight times a year. The pandemic has made us more regular in our meetings and attendance, so far only over Zoom, though we’ve been trying to find a convenient date for a socially distanced in-person meeting.
We’ve been together for about ten years now, and we’ve read well over fifty books. We don’t spend much time talking about the book, but we have selected some great reads.
My work colleagues tend to read books of women’s fiction as well as books with somewhat literary bent. But we also have read a smattering of mysteries, some nonfiction, and occasionally a member demands lighter fare. We’ve read several books about women from diverse cultures, which have been educational as well as enjoyable.
But one amusing miss came from a recommendation in our first or second year. As we were brainstorming at one meeting for books to read, someone said, “There’s this book with ‘whistler” in the title that I’ve wanted to read.” She pulled out her phone and searched. “Here it is. The Whistler, by Ondjaki.’” The book wasn’t available as an ebook, so we all dutifully bought a copy and began to read. It was weird, and I hated it.
Before we met again, our group received an email from the member who had recommended the book. She wrote,
“I have now determined that I suggested the WRONG BOOK! The one my friend said was good was Whistling Season (okay, so it is not even that close to what I recalled). Anyway, I have tried reading the (wrong) book and it is very odd so if you have not purchased it yet or you have not started and are feeling guilty then my recommendation would be to blow it off and we can all just chat . . .”
The Whistling Season is by Ivan Doig. I’ve read it, and it is very good. (In fact, I think the Best Book Club Ever read it later, in an effort to erase Obdjaki’s book from our minds.) All of Ivan Doig’s books about small-town life on the Montana prairie are excellent reads full of intriguing characters. Nothing at all like Ondjaki’s magical realism about a whistling stranger who bewitches his listeners.
Some of my favorite books chosen for the Best Book Club Ever over the years (in alphabetical order by author) are
- A Man Called Ove. by Fredrick Backman
- Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn
- Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, by Jamie Ford
- Persepolis: Story of a Childhood, by Marjane Satrapi
- Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race, by Margot Lee Shetterly
- Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, by Helen Simonson
- A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles
- The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls
I’ve blogged about many of these books in earlier posts.
This past year, some of the books we’ve read are Becoming, by Michelle Obama (a candid and refreshing look at her life thus far which I really enjoyed), The Friend, by Sigrid Nunez (about a woman and a dog and a dead man, which I didn’t particularly care for, other than the scenes with the dog), The Day the World Came to Town, by Jim DeFede (about how Canadians in Gander, Newfoundland, took in passengers from the flights grounded there after 9/11—I loved learning the logistics of how the small town managed this crisis with compassion), and Pachinko, by Min Jin Lee (a family saga about Koreans living in Japan, which was a great story, though the writing was uneven).
We are currently reading The Transit of Venus, by Shirley Hazzard. There’s a good story buried in the novel, but the author is too entranced with her own writing. Some of the passages are beautiful, but as a reader I get bogged down—I just want to know what happens. We meet soon. It will be interesting to see what other members of the group thought of this book.
Are you in a book club? What type of books does your group read?
[…] wrote in my last post about one of my book clubs, the one I call the Best Book Club Ever. But I am also in two other book […]