January discussion

The Chosen was discussed at Cami's last evening. Those in attendance were Cami, DeDe, Renae, Betty, Ruth and Amanda. If you were not able to attend, you can listen to the discussion here. Next month's book group will be at DeDe's. You can find the February book in the left sidebar.

next week: The Chosen, and more

I've heard many positives about the book choice for January. Here are three—

Sue said (in a comment a couple posts ago):

I read The Chosen and several other books by Chaim Potok years ago, and learned a lot. I also heard him speak to a small group about another project he was a part of - a new (in the 80's) translation of the Old Testament by a group of prominent Jewish scholars. I have a copy of one of the three sections they published. It was an interesting process - they agreed upon the correct translation by consensus.

Cami said it's one of her favorites she reads regularly in a rotation of her favorites.

Hillary, a member of another book group said:

The Chosen...has to be one of my all-time favorite books. Have you ever read My Name is Asher Lev, also by Chaim Potok? That’s my other favorite Potok novel.

• If anyone has a copy of The Chosen they could lend Mary Steinmeyer, she is looking for a copy. She would also like to carpool with someone to Cami's as she doesn't drive at night.

Other notes—

• It would be great if we could get a volunteer to host at least the next group meeting at each discussion. It would help with the dispersing the location via the RS news/emails, instead of having it often be TBA.

• I've picked up some book recommendations from friends and family, friends of friends and another book group recently. I've added them under the tab other good books. I didn't take time to look up many of the authors yet, but even have an even larger pool to glean from for the second half of the year. Feel free to comment on this post with more suggestions, or email them using the address in the left side bar. 

• I checked a book out from the library entitled A Year of Reading: A Month-by-Month Guide to Classics and Crown-Pleasers for You or Your Book Group by Elisabeth Ellington and Jane Freimiller. Even though it's a non-fiction written a decade ago, I think it has much good material. The authors have suggested five books a month for an entire year. You could actually have ideas for five years from this book. They classify them in five categories. Here's an example from the book for September "Back to School":

Crowd-Pleaser (category)—Bee Season by Myla Goldbert

Classic—Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Challenge—Moo by Jane Smiley

Memoir—Dangerous Minds (previously published as My Posse Don't Do Homework) by LouAnn Johnson

Potluck—The Power of Their Ideas: Lessons for America from a Small School in Harlem by Deborah Meier

On last suggestion from the book. One book group decides book every 6 months. They each bring three selections and 'vote'. May might be a good time to make our book selections through November. Then we have time to get books from the library, trade, purchase or borrow.

• Dulsanna has a hold on the Pageturners To Go bag of 10 copies of the February book selection. Let her know if you'd like one.

Happy Reading!

January book group

Cami will host the book discussion for January!