Book Club 2015- Time for Book Suggestions!

Welp, 2014 is wrapping up and you know what that mean- it's time to start thinking of 2015 books for Bon's Book Club.  Before we dive into 2015, though, let's recap what we read this year!

January: The Husband's Secret by Liane Mortiary. Discussion here.

February:  I am Malala by Malala Yousafzai. Discussion here.

March: Divergent by Veronica Roth. Discussion here.

April:  Night Circus by Eric Morgenstern.  Discussion here.

May:  The Light Between Oceans. Discussion here.

June:  Matilda by Roald Dahl. Discussion here.

July:  In Cold Blood  by Truman Capote. Discussion here.

August:  Brain on Fire:  My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan. Discussion here.

September:  Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell. Discussion here.

October:  Z by Therese Ann Fowler. Discussion here.

My favorite books of the year:  Z and In Cold Blood (Also, I am really enjoying Wonder which was November's book but has now been moved to January's book for 2015.)
Least favorite books of the year: Night Circus, Divergent, Eleanor and Park
Books I learned the most from: I am Malala and Brain on Fire

2014 got off to a really rough start for book club.  I did not enjoy the first four books, and I only really loved two of the books. My three favorite books that I read this year were not book club books. (Seabiscuit, Bringing up Bebe, and Me Before You). I am hoping 2015 brings in a better book crop!  So let's get to it, shall we? We've got twelve months ahead of us and there are books that need reading!

There are some things I really like about book club the way it is now and some things that I am going to try to change to make it better.  I love that the books are voted on and chosen in advance.  This year I am going to choose three and have you all vote for the rest.  We will have book club the THIRD THURSDAY of each month.

The biggest change for 2015 is that I am going to be asking for co-hosts for each month's book discussion.  That will mean that one of you will read the book, give questions for the book one week before the discussion, and post the main discussion on my blog as well as on your own blog.  I will add my two cents and respond to what you said in your discussion, but one of you will be the head honcho for the discussion. You will also be active with me in responding to comments in the discussion. I love book club so much, but I just can't keep up with reading the book, thinking of the questions, and leading the discussion every month.  This way lots of you will get a chance to be more involved, and hopefully it will send some traffic over to your blog and you can make new book/ blog friends.  Not a bad deal, huh?

One other small change- no December book!  It's just impossible. January and February's book of 2015 are already chosen because they are the books we were supposed to read in November and December- Wonder and My Story: The Elizabeth Smart Story.

So, what we need now is to decide on what books we are going to read for 2015.  We need books for March through November- nine books!  I will choose three and you will vote for the other six.  Throw your suggestions out in the comments on this post or you can also comment on facebook or twitter and those will be added into the mix too.  On Monday of next week we will vote.  Here are last year's finalists if you need help getting your book wheels turning. (Suggestions should be 400 pages or less and should be pg or pg-13ish in their content.)

Y'all ready to get book clubbed?

Ever since the idea popped in my head two days ago to do a blogging book club I have thought of nothing else.

Okay, that's a lie.  I've thought about a lot of other things like why does it snow so much, how do all my clothes get dirty so fast, ice cream with or without hot fudge?  BUT what I was trying to say is that I'm excited for the idea of a blog book club. Crazy excited. When I first threw the idea out there to the masses in blog land I was almost positive I would get one meager comment back saying, "Uh... yah, I might participate if I have absolutely nothing going on, but you know.  Don't count on it."  I was floored when so many intelligent, thoughtful women replied back, "Freak yah!  Let's get this online book club going!"  And so we shall, ladies!

At first I thought about starting the book club in June when I'm on break and have time to breathe but then I thought for a second and just decided that was one of the stupidest ideas I've had for awhile.  Who wants to wait until June?  Let's get this going now!  February, watch your butts, we're coming for you!

The coolest way to do the book club is definitely to have its members choose the books.  Looks like we've got some decisions to make!  Everybody who wants to can leave a comment on this post suggesting a book(s) that they would want to read for a book club. At the beginning of next week, when we've gotten a good list of books, I will do a blog post with the list of all the potential book club books.  Every reader can then vote for their three favorite books.  But only three.  Don't get greedy with your votes, y'hear?  The top eleven voted books will be our reads for 2013- one book for each month February through December.  Sounds easy enough, right?!?

A couple of things to think about when suggesting books.

a.  Keep it PG-13...ish...  This one's hard to put a strict rule on, but just use your judgment. I am pretty comfortable with the levels of what I read, but so that we can reach as wide an audience as possible let's refrain from heaps of f words and graphic sex scenes.  What I'm trying to say is no trash.  There's a difference in books that may have difficult scenes but have great purpose to them and just plain dirty nonsense.  We don't want none of that.  Sorry, Fifty Shades.  You're for private book clubs that are definitely much spicier than this one. (And yes, I just called Fifty Shades dirty nonsense.  I'm awaiting the blogger outcry.)

b.  Book suggestions should be a good mix between scholarly and entertaining.  I love Shakesepare,  but we're not going to be reading Macbeth around here.  Too tough to hack alone.  On the reverse side, I don't want to read Twilight.  What we want is a good mi- something that will challenge us intellectually but not bore us to tears.

c.  Not too long.  We're only going to have a month to read each book, so I would say not to attempt anything that is more than 400 pages or so.  We don't want to kill ourselves off here.

And now, to start the suggesting off, here are some of my "suggestions"- books I think would be oodles of fun to read and discuss online with smart, sassy women like yourselves.

1. Life of Pi- Loved the movie, been dying to read the book.
2. Glass Castle- Read this probably 8 years ago, a memoir about a child growing up in poverty.  Fast read and thought provoking.
3. A Thousand Spendid Suns- One of my all time faves about repressed women in Afghanistan.  Spicy!
4. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close- I heard the movie was super lame, but I love the book.  Very unique way of writing it and told from the viewpoint of a very thoughtful eight year old.
5. The Fault in Our Stars- All I know is I've seen it on a lot of best of lists and I am dying to read it. Apparently it has something to do with cancer and it will make you bawl your eyes out.
6. The God of Small Things  I really know nothing about this book except for that I have heard it was good.
7. Gone Girl-  Again, I have heard it mentioned a lot, but don't know what it is about at all.
8. The Help- One of my favorite books ever.  I would read it again in a heartbeat if this book club forced me to it.
9. Room- I haven't read it, but it's about a lady who is locked up with her kid for a bunch of years.  Or something similar?
10. Sense and Sensibility.  Or some other Jane Austen book.  I haven't attempted Jane Austen since high school.  I hated her then, but am looking to give her a second chance.
11. Five People you Meet in Heaven- By Mitch Albom, who wrote Tuesdays with Morrie.  One of the feel good types of book.
12. We Need to Talk about Kevin- I like the title.

Now it's your turn!   Throw out a couple of suggestions.  And if you like somebody else's suggestion, second it!  The more nods one book gets the more likely that it'll be on the list to choose from for our book club.

Eee gats!, isn't this exciting?  And yes, I'm finding a way to work Eee, gats! into my daily writing escapades.  BE PROUD OF ME, PEOPLE!