Book Choices for November 2011 - May 2012

It's that time again.  I thought since we have a raft of newbies on board, we could wait till October to choose new books for the next few months.  Here are some ideas to get us rolling...


October 2011 - Fright Night
       - we have already chosen Dracula by Bram Stoker
        - host: Kate


November 2011 -  Reader's Choice 
        - The Help by Kathryn Stockett 
        - we checked out this book at the Sept meeting and decided to go ahead with this one.  Costco has it for a good deal or you may need to get on the wait list at the library right away in order to have it read by early Nov.  :-)
           - host: Karen


December 2011 - Library Kit?
        - nice and easy for a busy time of year.  Kate posted the complete list of kits available from the Hamilton Public Library - click on "HPL Book club kits" in the side bar to see that list.  Have a look and see if any strike your fancy. 
       - alternatively, we could do a cookbook (The Pioneer Woman Cooks, Jamie Oliver's Kitchen or Meals in Minutes and Nigel Slater's The Kitchen Diaries for example).. and then we could make a recipe from the book to share? 
        - host: Chandra


* We have talked a number of time about doing a his/hers book club meeting where we invite our husbands to join us in reading and then come along to the meeting too.  Any interest in that this winter?  Maybe in January or February?  Any ideas about what book to read together?


January 2012 - Change your World
       - host: Michelle
      - we try to read a biography or autobiography here.  Suggestions?

•  I'm no big Oprah fan, but there is no denying that she is a major influence in North American culture today.  Since she's finished her regular show there are several books about her life out - any interest in that?On that same theme, we could also read:
• Life and Death in Shanghai by Nien Cheng (the true story of one woman's sufferings during the Cultural Revolution in China... see review in July 2010) 
• Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson (about building schools to educate women in Afganistan)... this book is also interesting in that it has been widely discredited
• Night by Elie Wiesel (a classic memoir about one teen's struggle to come to terms with guilt and God after surviving the death camps in WWII)
• The Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore (the true story of an unlikely friendship between an international art dealer and a modern day slave)
• other suggestions?

February 2012 - Be My Valentine
     - host: Tessa

• we have one book left here: Emma by Jane Austen
• we could also chose another Austen book?

Other options include:

• The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks
• Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• The Summer Before the Dark by Doris Lessing
• The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
• other suggestions?

March 2012 - The Classics
          - host: Kate
         - we still had The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper on our hit list. 
Other options include....

• One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
• Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
• The Invisible Man by HG Wells
• Les Miserable by Victor Hugo
• any other classic you've always thought you should read but never got around to yet....

April 2012 - Reader's choice
             - host: Tanya
             - Anyone want to be in charge of this month?  you choose the book and take care of discussion questions and a menu


May 2012 - Forgotten Favorites 
       - host: Erin
      - we still have Anne of Green Gables on our hit list.  Other suggestions?  You can check out this master list of children's classics here.