South Shore Readers discussion

Have any ideas of books you would like the club to read? If so, post them here! We will vote on them at our meetings to pick a new book (people can also bring other suggestions to meetings)

General Guidelines: book should be available in paperback, book should be no longer than about 400 pages

See last years thread for this here: http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...

Well...admittedly I don't have the best track record with suggesting books for book club. But 2011 will be different! I can feel it! And I've heard all good things about Breakfast with Buddha. It looks pretty funny and is available in paperback.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/73...

i'd like to read "last night in twisted river" by john irving. i just checked, and it is avail in paperback.

Compiling your two suggestions and adding a few...

Breakfast with Buddha by Roland Merullo

Last Night in Twisted River by John Irving

The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder

How about



The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts

Kieron Smith, boy by James Kelman

Cost: A Novel by Roxana Robinson

Cost looks great...always love the co-existence of heroin addiction and alzheimer's

Yes, it has been on my list for awhile. Figured I would suggest it here.

Another one, just out in paperback...

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

I've been wanting to read that one, so glad it's finally in paperback!

a visit from the goon squad sounds lovely.

I keep forgetting to suggest Moloka'i, it's been on my list for awhile.

Moloka'i sounds good! Here are a few more recently released paperbacks:


The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli

Since someone mentioned him in another thread, how about
A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments

I am clearly losing my mind. I went to add The Kitchen House to by "to-read" list and lo and behold, it was already there! Apparently I added it in April of 2010. Scary!

I keep on picking up "Henrietta Lacks" at the airport but not buying it. I would love to make that a book club book at some point.

It's available in Paperback, though a bit longer than 400 pages. "The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak.

Welcome to the group, Jackie! And thanks for the suggestion. The Book Thief is a great book. :)

No problem.

After this month's meeting we are all out of book selections! So if you have any ideas for our September or beyond book, please post away! we can review the list and select our future reads at our next meeting. :)

OK, I'm not going to lie. All of these suggestions are the result of my friend Ellen's Cambridge-based book club. These are the books they read (that we haven't read) in 2010 and 2011. I'd be down for just about any of these, even the ones that I've marked as rather dubious for my taste.

The Optimist's Daughter

The Witches of Eastwick

Wait Till Next Year
(I'm not so sure about this one. I don't generally read autobiographies.)

Moloka'i

In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex

Netherland
(Sounds kind of depressing.)

Broken: A Love Story
(Sounds like a Lifetime movie)

Homer & Langley

The Finkler Question

Speaking of John Updike, I never got around to reading his Rabbit, Run and I happen to have Brazil at home. You know, in case it comes up.

There isn't much on my "To Read" list that I didn't steal from other book club members, but here are the few:
Raising Demons

The Friends of Eddie Coyle

Invisible Monsters

A friend of mine recently recommended Russian Winter

Russian Winter

On Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Russian-Winter-...

This was on my "to read" list. :)

A couple more to add to the pile:
The Magicians
Seductive Poison: A Jonestown Survivor's Story of Life and Death in the People's Temple
Lit: A Memoir

I have both Seductive Poison and Lit and home and have been wanting to read both. Also I think Left Neglected is out in paperback now. It's by Lisa Genova who also wrote Still Alice

I won't be at book club 8/28-let me know what's up next!

I'm going to start compiling these into one list here so it is easy to reference at the next meeting... (i've thrown a few classics into the mix as well)

FICTION
Moloka'i by Alan Brennert

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

Homer & Langley by E.L. Doctorow

Left Neglected by Lisa Genova

The Magicians by Lev Grossman

The Friends of Eddie Coyle by George V. Higgins

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson


The Finkler Questionby Howard Jacobson


Russian Winter by Daphne Kalotay

Netherland by Joseph O'Neill

Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli

Dracula by Bram Stoker

Rabbit, Run by John Updike

Brazil by John Updike

The Witches of Eastwick by John Updike

The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak



NON-FICTION
Raising Demons by Shirley Jackson

Lit: A Memoir by Mary Karr

Seductive Poison: A Jonestown Survivor's Story of Life and Death in the People's Temple by Deborah Layton


The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts by Maxine Hong Kingston

Wait Till Next Year by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder

In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick


A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments by David Foster Wallace

Consider the Lobster: And Other Essays by David Foster Wallace

You forgot Left Neglected by Lisa Genova! (Unless you left it off on purpose because you think it sucks in which case never mind!)

Dracula and Frankenstein got me thinking about Halloween reads. How about

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

or

House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski

oops. I will add those later... I didn't mean to miss anything, goodreads started freaking out on me so I was afraid to continue editing.

When will we know about the next book choice?

Those who attend the next meeting on Monday September 5th will vote on the next book(s). It will be posted here sometime Monday afternoon.

Great, thanks! I'm hoping to be able to attend the October meeting!

Next 4 books have been selected!

September 25th meeting: Moloka'i by Alan Brennert



October 30th meeting: going for a monsterish read to get in the mood for the Halloween season!

Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk



November 27th meeting:

The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman



Not having a December meeting due to business of holidays and giving us more time to read a longer book for January....

January 29 2012 meeting:

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

I wanted to suggest "The Lotus Eaters" to the list... got that in paperback about a month ago and haven't read it yet, I think it looks really good =0)

You have quite a few good books on your list there, Scott. A few of them are actually previous selections for this book club (In the Woods, Her Fearful Symmetry) and I've read a bunch of the others.

Lisa-- Lotus Eaters does look like an interesting book.

All-- we should probably start shaping this list up to start an "Ideas for 2012 Book Club Choices" topic. So if there are any books mentioned in this topic that you still would like to read please mention them here and sometime over the next month or so we can create the 2012 topic and seed it with the "best of" remainders from this one!

This just came out in hardcover but when it comes out in paperback, I'd like to read

Nancy, that's on my to-read shelf too.

Of as yet unselected books on our list in this thread, the ones I would be interested in seeing stay on our possible choices list for 2012 are:

Left Neglected by Lisa Genova

The Magicians by Lev Grossman

The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli

Rabbit, Run by John Updike

The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty

Raising Demons by Shirley Jackson

Lit: A Memoir by Mary Karr

Seductive Poison: A Jonestown Survivor's Story of Life and Death in the People's Temple by Deborah Layton

Consider the Lobster: And Other Essays by David Foster Wallace

Half Broke Horses – Jeannette Walls

Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day – Winifred Watson