Calling All Book Clubs!

I love book clubs!  I believe there are few things better than sitting down with a group of friends and discussing a book.  And the ensuing conversations are as varied as the books we read. Sometimes we love the book and the conversation is over in just a few minutes.  There just isn’t much to say when everyone loves a book.  There is lots of smiling and nodding, but that’s about it. Then we move on to discussing kids and eating delicious food. Sometimes we hate the book, and we spend all evening picking it apart. Like a group of savage editors, we criticize the unreasonable plot and underdeveloped characters. Sometimes only one of us likes it and she works really hard to gently show the group why they should love this book.  Oh, I wouldn’t miss my book clubs for anything! (Yep, I belong to more than one.  Hey, a group that reads books, talks, and eats!  My family is surprised I don’t have one to go to every night of the week!)

Book clubs choose their monthly selections in a variety of different ways.  Sometimes there is a hot new book, and everyone is dying to read it.  We either download those to our electronic readers or someone places a quick Amazon order.  In some clubs, a selection is made and we each run to our home library and hope that the book is on shelf.  Some clubs allow the host or hostess to offer a small selection and the group decides from that selection.  One of my clubs chooses this way, and we do so a couple months in advance so that we can PIB the selection through our library.  If you ask me, Patron Initiated Book Club is the best as I don’t have to pay for the book and I don’t have to worry about being the first to get it from my library.

In order to PIB a selection, a LVDL patron fills out a request form.  The form is available on our website or you can stop by the Adult Reference desk.  It takes about two weeks to process the request as the books are coming from multiple libraries.  There is a limit of ten books and the patron can check out the bag for up to 6 weeks.

However, there is another type of PIB at LVDL and that is our Book Club Bags.  These are titles Lake Villa District Library already owns.  Each bag comes with ten copies of the title, discussion questions, an author biography, and tips for leading a discussion.  Patrons can check out the bag for up to 6 weeks.   We have just recently expanded our collection!  Check out the titles you and your friends could be reading!

Our Book Club in Bag Selections Part 1 (or otherwise known as the first 13 of our alphabetical listing)

Check out these titles next time you and your friends are looking for a good read! Technically you are supposed to be able to read this blog in sixty seconds, so I gave you my personal two second review for each book.  If I were you, I would do a little research on your own as I do seem to like everything. *Titles new to our collection.

Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood

The story is about the notorious 1843 murders of Thomas Kinnear and his housekeeper Nancy Montgomery.  It is a fictionalized account of a real crime.  Fabulous read!

At Weddings and Wakes by Alice McDermott

“Aren’t you glad that you only have to see your relatives at weddings and wakes?” says a teenager to her younger cousins. A wonderful novel about three generations of  Irish Americans.

 Atonement by Ian EcEwan

A precocious thirteen year old writer accuses her sister’s lover of a crime he did not commit.  Even better than the movie!

Back When We Were Grownups by Anne Tyler

The opening line reads “Once upon a time there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person.”  Need I say any more?

*Before I go to Sleep by SJ Watson

This is a gripping psychological thriller about an amnesiac who discovers inconsistencies in her husband’s stories.  You will not set down this book until you are finished!

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

This is a brilliant novel about a pair of twins and their surrogate parents. It is one of my all-time favorites.

*Defending Jacob by William Landay

You are sure to enjoy this legal and psychological thriller in which a respected A.D.A.’s son is arrested for the crime he is currently preparing to argue.  Every reader will ask the same question: How far would you go to protect your child?

Desirable Daughters by Bharati Mukerjee

In this coming of age novel, three Calcutta-born sisters create a story rich in ancestry and memories.

*Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

A fabulous novel about the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II told through the perspective of a son of Chinese immigrants.  A rare find, indeed!

*Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonsen

A gentle read about a retired widower who finds love again.

Run by Ann Patchett

This is a novel about a multi-racial adoptive family, a car accident and issues of the past that come to haunt the family.

Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

This novel tells both the little known story of the rounding up and mobilization of Jews for deportation done by the French authorities in 1942 and the present day story of the main character, Julia Jarmond, a transplanted American, married to a Frenchman whose family may have benefitted from the travesty.