Looking Ahead to 2015

Here are our themes and some possible book choices for the next 6 month period.  We hope to decide on books at our October meeting so come prepared because it is a great book and we do not want to use up all our discussion time on this.  If the October meeting is small (less than 5), we will leave the decision making till November.

This is simply our list from 2014 (minus the books we actually read)... if you have an additional suggestion, please add it.  If you remember that we discussed one of these books and definitely decided that we were not interested, please add a comment about which one and why and I will remove it from the list to save us time on decision making.  Thanks!!

• January - Change Your World... an inspirational book that could be a biography or autobiography
• hostess: Amanda K

         - some options include:

• Between Gods by Alison Pick... one woman's discovery that she is really Jewish and how she struggles to make sense of her heritage, faith and family in the midst of depression
• 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) 
• I Know Why the Caged Birds Sing by Maya Angelou.. as joyous and painful, as mysterious and memorable, as childhood itself. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings captures the longing of lonely children, the brute insult of bigotry, and the wonder of words that can make the world right. Maya Angelou's debut memoir, first published in 1969, is a modern American classic beloved worldwide.
• 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)
• I Hate to Leave this Beautiful Place by Howard Norman (a memoir)
• Queen of the Air by Dean N Jensen (a biography that may inspire a new fitness routine for 2014?!)
• An Invisible Thread (reminds me of Same Kind of Different As Me)
• Some Assembly Required (a true story of a woman's first grandson and how he changes her life)

         

• February - Be My Valentine...  In Feb 2012-2014, we had a couples book club meeting on a Friday in mid-February and picked something that we felt quite sure that the guys would enjoy too -along with a full meal - appetizers, dinner and dessert- and this went over really well.  
• hostess: Shelagh

        - some options include:

• The Orenda by Joseph Boyden.. Canadian history, big adventure, amazing author
• A House in the Sky by Amanda Lindhout (for the girls) and The Price of Life by Nigel Brennan (for the guys)... his and hers versions of their experience of being kidnapped in Somalia
• here are a few manly book club lists to appeal to our guys: for men, top 100 for men,   popular men's books
• here's one techies and "nerds" would find fascinating...What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Answers by Randall Munroe. 
• Do you or your hubby love Duck Dynasty?  How about this one?

        

• March - Reader's Choice... we usually give the hostess first dibs here, although anyone with a favorite that they are itching to read with us could step up here.
• hostess: Danielle

          - here a master list of favorite book club picks to inspire us!

        

• April - NEW The Lastest Buzz ... one the most talked about novels of the year; any genre or age level as long as there is some buzz around the book lately
• hostess: Tessa

         - here's the NYT best-seller list to get us started
         - some options include:

• The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion (a funny, heart-warming romantic novel that happens to be on sale everywhere right now.:-))
• And the Mountains Echoed by Kahled Hosseini (a multigenerational story from the author of A Thousand Splendid Suns)
• The 100 Year Old Man Who... by Jonas Jonasson (sounds like a hilarious read!) or a similar type old-man-journey tale: The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce

• May - Forgotten Favorites... a classic children's novel; sometimes we push the boundaries on "classic" and read the hottest new book for Middle Graders instead
• hostess: Karen

         - some options include:

• The Reluctant Dragon by Kenneth Grahame... another classic with a subtext about the wonder of reading and writing books
• The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster.. a classic, a laugh-a-minute, clever story
• Wonder by RJ Palacio.. a new-release for the 13-17 crowd.  My 11 year old cried.. and loved it, followed up with some great conversation.
• 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher... a modern classic for teens dealing with the after math of a suicide
• The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate... a Newbery Medal winner; written as a gorilla's journey.  So well written!
• Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool... a Newbery Medal Winner; Abeline discovers secrets that change her view of her father and herself; and she changes the town she's visiting too

• June - Short and Sweet... a short story collection for this busy month; read only a few stories or the whole book.
• hostess: June

         - some options include:

• a collection from Morley Callahan (such as this)
• The Complete Stories by Flannery O'Connor... there are 31 stories arranged chronologically, but we could pick and choose.  
• The Roseate Spoonbill of Happiness by Marilyn Gear Pilling. 
• here's a helpful list