Thursday Quotables: Girl Runner

Posted in Thursday Quotables by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Welcome back to Thursday Quotables! This weekly feature is the place to highlight a great quote, line, or passage discovered during your reading each week. Whether it’s something funny, startling, gut-wrenching, or just really beautifully written, Thursday Quotables is where my favorite lines of the week will be, and you’re invited to join in!

Girl Runner by Carrie Snyder
(published February 3, 2015)

A 105-year-old woman looks back on her life…

I’ve known my body well enough to recognize its limits, and this chair is only the most recent diminishment in a long descending line. You never run again like you run as a child: without pain. Later, you reach a point at which you’ve run the fastest you will ever run — the pinnacle that goes unrecognized at the time. I remember whispering the word indestructible as I ran or as I approached a great grief, but I only chanted it because I knew I wasn’t. I never ran because I was strong, if you see what I’m saying. It wasn’t strength that made me a runner, it was the desire to be strong.

I ran for courage. Still do, if only in my mind.

What lines made you laugh, cry, or gasp this week? Do tell!

If you’d like to participate in Thursday Quotables, it’s really simple:

Write a Thursday Quotables post on your blog. Try to pick something from whatever you’re reading now. And please be sure to include a link back to Bookshelf Fantasies in your post (http://www.bookshelffantasies.com), if you’d be so kind!
Leave your link in the comments — or, if you have a quote to share but not a blog post, you can leave your quote in the comments too!
Visit other linked blogs to view their Thursday Quotables, and have fun!

4Feb2015

Book Review: War of the Wives by Tamar Cohen

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Selena and her husband have been happily married for close to thirty years and have three children. Lottie and her husband have been married for seventeen years and have one teen-aged daughter. Both women wish their husband could be home more often, but understand that his demanding job is important to him. Both look forward to the moment when he walks back in the door after his latest business trip to Dubai.

And both show up as the newly bereaved widow when Simon Busfield is laid to rest after a fatal drowning.

Yes, Simon was a busy guy. He lived in London with Selena in a beautiful, posh home, keeping Selena in fashionable clothing and expensive getaways to their house in Tuscany. Simon also lived with Lottie in a smaller flat, after living with her in Dubai for most of their marriage. Wife #1 knew nothing of wife #2, and vice versa. But an untimely death lets out all the secrets, and to say that chaos ensues is an understatement.

I’ll be honest: My first thought upon reading the synopsis was “Hmm. Sounds like a Lifetime movie.” I’m pleased to say that War of the Wives is a lot more than that.

In War of the Wives, author Tamar Cohen skillfully gives each wife a voice that’s distinct and true. We often get both women’s viewpoints on the same situation, and it’s enlightening to see how two people can interpret a statement or gesture so very differently. In what must be a very difficult feat, the author creates two sympathetic characters, almost daring us to take sides. And the truth is, it’s really impossible. Neither woman is culpable. Lottie didn’t know she was sleeping with a married man. Neither intentionally set out to steal the other’s husband. The guilty party here is Simon, but he’s no longer around to blame, so of course it’s the women who have to pick up the pieces.

There’s plenty of pain and remorse, doubts and anger. Both women remember Simon as a loving husband and father. Was one life a lie? Can Simon be faulted for loving both of his families so much that he couldn’t give either up? (Of course he can! Selfish beast.)

Selena and Lottie are wrecked not just emotionally, but financially too. The homes, the lifestyles, the luxuries all have to go. The legalities and taxes and mortgages are so intertwined that neither woman can walk away from the other, and so they have to navigate their post-Simon lives together, hating it every step of the way.

I do feel that the title of the book is a bit misleading. When I first saw the title War of the Wives, I expected cat fights, public scenes of bitchiness, scheming and nastiness. But that’s not what happens. The book ultimately is less about two women battling each other and more about them figuring out how their lives took such wrong turns and how to rebuild.

There’s a mystery here too: Simon died under suspicious circumstances — did he really just fall into the river, or did he commit suicide? Or was he pushed? Just what sort of shady business dealings was he involved in? Who keeps sending Selena all these random spam texts and emails? Who broke into Lottie’s flat? It all comes together by the end, and it definitely was not what I expected… which is a very good thing.

I love a book that keeps me guessing, that gives me plenty of clues but none that make an outcome obvious. The inner lives of Selena and Lottie are fascinating to read about, and I was invested in both women, their struggles to rebuild, to be good mothers, and to stand on their own two feet. Because they really were the victims of their husband’s deceptions, it’s easy to relate to both women and want both to find happiness and get a fresh start.

War of the Wives is a compulsively readable novel with a dark streak amidst the scenes of domesticity. I enjoyed the writing, the characters, and the unexpected plot twists. Author Tamar Cohen does a great job of taking a melodramatic, seemingly made-for-TV set-up and giving it an original spin that keeps the reader guessing.

Final note: Tamar Cohen is a new-to-me author, but I’ve now heard from other bloggers that she has some other can’t-miss books as well — and I’m looking forward to checking them out!

_________________________________________

The details:

Title: War of the Wives
Author: Tamar Cohen
Publisher: Mira
Publication date: January 27, 2015 (originally published in UK in 2012)
Length: 384 pages
Genre: Adult contemporary fiction
Source: Review copy courtesy of Mira via NetGalley

3Feb2015

Blog Tour & Book Review: Girl Runner by Carrie Snyder

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

I’m delighted to be participating in the blog tour celebrating the release of an inspiring new novel: Girl Runner by Carrie Snyder.

Girl Runner is the story of Aganetha Smart, a Canadian farm girl who gains a brief moment in the spotlight when she wins gold for Canada running the 800 meter race in the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics.

When we first meeting Aganetha, however, she is 105 years old, living in a hazy dream-state in a nursing home, alone and forgotten by the world, having outlived her entire family and anyone who ever knew her. With the unexpected arrival of a young man and woman, Aganetha finds herself bundled up for a supposed family visit with these two strangers, who proceed to drive her to her family’s old farm.

As she travels the familiar roads, Aggie’s thoughts return to her early days. Bit by bit, we learn of her family’s tumultuous past, the sibling love and tensions that featured throughout her life, and that small period of time in which Aggie was a star.

From early childhood, Aggie ran so fast she was practically flying, and her need to run is a core piece of her soul. In fact, as she tells us through her fractured memories, Aggie kept running until midway through her 90s, when a final family tragedy seems to have sapped her of her drive to run once and for all.

Through Aggie’s reminiscences, we gain a picture of what life was like for young women in Canada in the 1920s, with a heady mix of independence in the big city, the glory of being selected for the national Olympic team, and the pain of love gone wrong and friendship betrayed.

As we move further into the story, Aggie reveals secrets upon secrets, until the deepest, darkest mystery of her lonely life is finally unearthed. Through her memories, we get a glimpse of the life of a strong woman who achieved great things yet never had what she most wanted.

Girl Runner is a moving story that seems simple at the outset, yet eventually moves into the complicated territory of a large family with criss-crossing needs, deceptions, joys, and shames. Each new memory unravels yet another thread in the mystery of Aganetha’s life and helps us understand how she lived so long and yet ended up so lost and alone.

I did find the time jumps somewhat distracting. The story bounces between modern-day Aggie, wheelchair bound in the nursing home, and her memories of the past — but her memories come in a jumble, not chronologically. I suppose this makes sense, in that we’re seeing the events of the past as they resurface in this very old woman’s confused mind — so of course, it’s not linear and neatly spelled out.

While this approach works in finally revealing the full story by the end of the book, it does make it a bit challenging for the reader to unknot the storylines and put together the pieces into a coherent, logical picture.

However, it’s worth sticking it out. While the narrative jumps take some getting used to, once the story hits its stride, it flows nicely and quickly. By the end, I couldn’t stop reading. I just had to know what really happened and how it all fit together.

Told in language that’s brisk but personal, Girl Runner is an intriguing family story as well as a tribute to pioneering girl athletes and the obstacles along their path to glory. Despite its long time arc, spanning about 90 years, Girl Runner is less than 300 pages in length. It’s not a long book, but it is deep and emotional, and I recommend it to anyone who might enjoy an historical novel built around a strong, enigmatic woman.

About the Author:

Carrie Snyder’s Girl Runner is shortlisted for the 2014 Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize. Her previous book, The Juliet Stories, was shortlisted for the prestigious Governor General’s Literary Award and named one of the Globe and Mail‘s Top 100 Books of the Year. Her first book, the short story collection Hair Hat, was shortlisted for the Danuta Gleed Award for Short Fiction. A mother of four, Carrie lives with her family in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.

Find out more about Carrie at her website, and follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

_________________________________________

The details:

Title: Girl Runner
Author: Carrie Snyder
Publisher: Harper
Publication date: February 3, 2015
Length: 288 pages
Genre: Adult fiction (contemporary/historical)
Source: Review copy courtesy of TLC Book Tours

For further information, stop by TLC Book Tours to view other blog tour hosts.

2Feb2015

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books I Can’t Believe I Haven’t Read

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is “Top Ten Books I Can’t Believe I Haven’t Read From X Genre” (choosing whatever genre fits best) — but since I prefer to jump around rather than read a ton of books just from one genre, I thought I’d jump between genres for this list as well.

So, ten books that I probably should have read ages ago:

From childhood:

1) Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery

2) Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh

Young adult:

3) The Beka Cooper series by Tamora Pierce

Horror:

4) The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub

Classics:

5) Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

6) The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper

7) Middlemarch by George Eliot

Sci-fi/fantasy:

8) The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch

9) The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov

10) The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin

What books are on your list this week? Please share your links!

If you enjoyed this post, please consider following Bookshelf Fantasies! And don’t forget to check out my regular weekly feature, Thursday Quotables. Happy reading!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Do you host a book blog meme? Do you participate in a meme that you really, really love? I’m building a Book Blog Meme Directory, and need your help! If you know of a great meme to include — or if you host one yourself — please drop me a note on my Contact page and I’ll be sure to add your info!

2Feb2015

The Monday Check-In ~ 2/2/2015

Posted in The Monday Check-In by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

My Monday tradition, including a look back and a look ahead — what I read last week, what new books came my way, and what books are keeping me busy right now. Plus a smattering of other stuff too.

What did I read last week?

Silver Bay by Jojo Moyes: My review is here.

Girl Runner by Carrie Snyder: I’m participating in the blog tour for this new release — my post will be up tomorrow!

Marly’s Ghost by David Levithan: My review is here.

And in graphic novels:

Zombies Calling by Faith Erin Hicks: This is the second week in a row that I’ve read a graphic novel by Faith Erin Hicks. Guys, she’s amazing. Go read her stuff!

Off-line:

I’m still dealing with back issues, and after trips to my doctor, a chiropractor, and an acupuncturist, I’m not sure that I see any real improvement. Sigh. It just takes time, but I’m not a very patient patient.

And in book-related news, I was really shocked and saddened to hear that one of my favorite independent bookstores will be closing at the end of next month. Such a loss for the city! You can read about it here, if you’re interested.

Elsewhere on the blog:

I wrote a post about following other blogs and how to keep up with them all. You can read it here. I’m really loving all the insightful comments on the topic!

Fresh Catch:

Didn’t buy any books, didn’t borrow any books. How unusual!:

What will I be reading during the coming week?

Currently in my hands:

I have two very different books demanding my attention this week, War of the Wives by Tamar Cohen and Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. I love going from one type of read to something completely different.

Now playing via audiobook:

I decided to do a Mercy Thompson reread via audiobook, and have just gotten started with Moon Called, the first book in the series by Patricia Briggs.

Reading with my kiddo:

The Expeditioners and the Secret of King Triton’s Lair by S. S. Taylor: My son and I are really enjoying the story, the illustrations, and the crazy clues in this steam-punk adventure story.

Book club reading:

Classic read: The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy. (One chapter per week)

A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon: Reading and discussing two chapters per week, from now through the end of 2015!

OBC Book of the Month for February: The Light in the Ruins by Chris Bohjalian. The discussion opens February 18th.

Want to join any of the group reads? Let me know and I’ll provide the links!

So many book, so little time…

31Jan2015

Book Review: Marly’s Ghost by David Levithan

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

If you ask me, David Levithan can pretty much do no wrong. I’ve now read at least a handful of books either written or co-written by this author, and I’ve love just about all of them.

I recently came across a review of Marly’s Ghost over at Chrissi Reads, and my curiosity was immediately piqued.

Marly’s Ghost was originally published in 2005, but it looks like a new edition is being published in the UK by Egmont Publishing.

This slim novel is a retelling of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, and it’s a retelling in the truest sense of the word. The original story doesn’t just provide a launching pad for a new idea; instead, Marly’s Ghost faithfully follows the original, practically scene by scene, but transposes it into a modern love story that’s both incredibly sad and unexpectedly uplifting.

In Marly’s Ghost, Ben is bitterly mourning the death of his beloved girlfriend Marly, who died four months earlier after a long and painful battle with cancer. Marly was the center of Ben’s world, and without her, he sees no point in anything. He pushes away his friends, sees only bleakness in everything around him, and has a special sort of derision for Valentine’s Day. Marly’s death, to Ben, is proof that love is a crock. It can’t last, it only breaks you when it’s gone, and it can’t be worth pursuing if it only leads to pain.

On the eve of Valentine’s Day, when Ben has once again cruelly rebuffed his best friend’s attempts to connect and has needlessly lashed out at a couple in the early stages of love, he retreats to his room to surround himself with his loss and seek isolation. But his isolation is shattered when Marly’s ghost appears, weighed down by chains forged from a charm bracelet containing every memento of their time together. Ben’s grief is holding her and not letting her find peace. Marly warns Ben that he will be visited by three spirits… and, well, if you’ve ever read or seen a production of A Christmas Carol, you have a pretty good idea of what’s to come.

Ben is visited by the spirits of Valentine’s Day past, present, and future, and each shows Ben a piece of himself and illuminates his effect on those around him. Above all else, Marly wanted Ben to promise not to give up, and the spirits have come to hold him to his promise.

This slim novel brought me to tears at various points. It’s a terribly sad story of loss and suffering, made worse by the characters’ young ages, and yet it’s a pleasure to read as well. David Levithan refers to this book as a “remix” of A Christmas Carol, and that’s an apt description. He sticks to the basics of the original story, but turns it into something new and emotionally rich. The modern-day characters fit easily into the framework of the classic story, and Ben’s transformation from bitterness to hope is believable and lovely.

The book is further enhanced by black and white illustrations by the masterful Brian Selznick, who models his drawings on the illustrations found in the original edition of A Christmas Carol.

I recommend this book highly, for fans of the author and illustrator, for those who love A Christmas Carol, or for anyone who enjoys a well-written, honest look at love and loss. I borrowed this book from the library, but I think I need to own a copy for myself! Marly’s Ghost, along with David Levithan’s The Lover’s Dictionary, proves that in the hands of a gifted author, good things really do come in small packages.

With thanks to Chrissi for inspiring me to track down a copy of this book!

_________________________________________

The details:

Title: Marly’s Ghost
Author: David Levithan
Publisher: Penguin
Publication date: Originally published 2005
Length: 208 pages
Genre: Young adult fiction
Source: Library

30Jan2015

Following, following back, and keeping up

Posted in Blogging by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

When I first started blogging — almost three years ago! — I really had no idea what I was getting into. I was focused only on the “me” parts: I’d write my book reviews and other content, and people would read what I wrote.

Ha! I really knew nothing about blogging, obviously.

Readers don’t magically appear. It’s all about connections. If I want people to visit my blog, I need to reach out and connect with other bloggers. It’s a back and forth — you comment on my posts, I comment on yours; I visit your blog, you stop by mine.

It’s not a quid pro quo, really, just simple networking and connection. We all want visits and views, but people have to know we exist in the first place in order to come for a visit.

Over the years, my circle of favorite blogs has grown and grown. Here’s the challenge: How do I find time to cultivate and nurture my own blog when so much online time is devoted to visiting and reading other people’s blogs?

If people follow my blog, I tend to follow back. (Side note: If you’ve followed me and I haven’t followed back, it’s probably an oversight, so let me know!)

For WordPress blogs, new posts show up in my reader, and I can opt in to receive daily or weekly email alerts. For non-WordPress blogs, I tend to subscribe by email for ones that I really don’t want to miss, or else I’ll follow via Bloglovin’ or Twitter. (Twitter is least effective for me, as I’m not on all that much and I miss a lot).

At this point, with all the blogs I follow, it’s an enormous task to try to read everything every day. I get about 20 – 25 daily emails about new posts. My Bloglovin’ feed is huge, and so is my WordPress reader feed. There just isn’t enough time in a day for me to read all the new posts and still have time for reading books and writing my own blog posts.

I’ve been trying to prune a bit lately, so I’m trying to make sure I’m not following the same blogs on WordPress and on Bloglovin’, for starters. For WordPress blogs that I interact with less frequently, I’m starting to turn off the email alerts. I can still read new posts in my WordPress reader, but that way, the daily list of emails with blog updates will hopefully be a bit more manageable. Plus, there are some blogs that feel like priorities to me — people who share similar tastes with me, or write pieces that I find particularly engaging, or those who I’ve developed a virtual friendship and rapport with — and those are the ones I want to see in my email inbox each day. When I get email alerts for all the blogs, it’s hard to separate out the ones that I really want to read from the ones that I might read if there’s time.

Meanwhile, I’m still thinking about the whole following back thing. If someone is nice enough to follow me, I really appreciate it, and I feel like following back is the right thing to do. And yet, if I see that their blog is focused on a genre that I never read and that our book tastes have no common ground, I’m less likely to actually read their posts.

What’s your approach to following? Do you automatically follow back when someone new follows you? And do you actually read your blog feeds every day? How do you manage to keep up?

I’d love to hear how others handle the challenge of keeping up with other bloggers. Please share your thoughts!

29Jan2015

Book Review: Silver Bay by Jojo Moyes

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Silver Bay is an older work by bestselling author Jojo Moyes, originally published in 2007 and re-released in the US in fall of 2014. And while Silver Bay is perhaps not quite as tear-inducing as Me Before You, it certainly fits in with the author’s talent for portraying unusual relationships full of tragedy and redemption.

Silver Bay is a sleepy little coastal town in Australia, known for its harbor full of marine life, its ramshackle old hotels, and its whale-watching expeditions. Liza and her daughter Hannah live in Liza’s aunt Kathleen’s inn, which has been in her family for over 70 years. Liza keeps to herself, takes tourists out on her boat, and socializes each evening on the front porch of the inn with the other “whale chasers”.

But then Englishman Mike Dormer shows up on a secret mission, exploring Silver Bay as a possible development site for a luxury resort. Mike’s job is to secure the location and smooth out any local resistance to the plan so that his wheeler-dealer boss can pin down the venture capitalists’ money and make boatloads of money himself. Mike doesn’t count on the connection he starts to feel for the small town, the local folks, and most especially, for Liza herself.

But Liza has her own secrets too, and she’s not looking for love or anything like it. What’s more, when the truth about Mike’s mission comes to light, Liza, Kathleen, and all of the Silver Bay people feel betrayed by Mike… but his own beliefs have been shaken as well. Ultimately, it’s up to Mike to reverse the damage done and try to save not just the town, but the friendships that have come to matter so much to him.

I found the beginning of Silver Bay a bit slow. The book has multiple narrators, and after a brief introduction told by Kathleen, we spend the first long chapter of the book looking through the eyes of 10-year-old Hannah. This did not feel like a wise choice to me; it’s a book for adults, and the child viewpoint was by necessity somewhat weak and narrow. Once Mike is introduced, the story opens up in scope, and as I got a bit further into it, I was hooked.

The storyline itself isn’t particularly unique. I feel like I’ve seen the basic footprint of the story in other books or movies: Small town, outside big business coming to ruin things, quirky locals banding together to fight the good fight, etc. The love story too proceeds along mostly predictable lines. Of course, Mike falls in love with Liza. Of course, her secret, tragic past keeps her from being able to open up. Of course, Mike’s business dealings threaten all of the relationships he’s built.

All that being said, there’s a lot going for Silver Bay as well. There are some truly delightful supporting characters, especially tough old Aunt Kathleen and her would-be beau Nino, fellow whale-chasers Greg, Yoshi, and Lance, and even Liza’s daughter Hannah, who ultimately takes a big hand in helping to save the town.

What would a Jojo Moyes book be without a tragedy? Yes, the secret from Liza’s past that eventually comes to light is awful and terribly sad… and yes, I did get a bit teary in the final third of the book. The author does a masterful job of giving just enough hints along the way to let us know that the secret is a doozy, and once revealed, it’s impossible not to feel for Liza and her sad story.

Again, I saw the ending coming from about a mile away, but that’s okay. Having a pretty good idea of how it would all work out didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the book. It’s a quick read, and after the first several chapters, it’s a book that will pull you in and make you care.

This isn’t my favorite Jojo Moyes book, but it’s a good choice for fans who’ve read all of her more recent novels and want more.

Interested in this author? Check out my reviews of other books by Jojo Moyes:
The Girl You Left Behind
One Plus One
The Ship of Brides
Me Before You
The Last Letter From Your Lover

_________________________________________

The details:

Title: Silver Bay
Author: Jojo Moyes
Publisher: Penguin Books
Publication date: Originally published in UK in 2007
Length: 338 pages
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Library

29Jan2015

Thursday Quotables: The Darkest Part of the Forest

Posted in Thursday Quotables by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Welcome back to Thursday Quotables! This weekly feature is the place to highlight a great quote, line, or passage discovered during your reading each week. Whether it’s something funny, startling, gut-wrenching, or just really beautifully written, Thursday Quotables is where my favorite lines of the week will be, and you’re invited to join in!

The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black
(published January 13, 2015)

First, the opening paragraph:

Down a path worn into the woods, past a stream and a hollowed-out log full of pill bugs and termites, was a glass coffin. It rested right on the ground, and in it slept a boy with horns on his head and ears as pointed as knives.

And later:

Back then, it hadn’t seemed weird to Hazel to have the same imaginary boyfriend as her brother.

They were in love with him because he was a prince and a faerie and magical and you were supposed to love princes and faeries and magic people. They loved him the way they’d loved Beast the first time he swept Belle around the dance floor in her yellow dress. They loved him as they loved the Eleventh Doctor with his bow tie and his flippy hair and the Tenth Doctor with his mad laugh. They loved him as they loved lead singers of bands and actors in movies, loved him in such a way that their shared love brought them closer together.

It wasn’t like he was real. It wasn’t like he could love them back. It wasn’t like he’d ever have to choose.

Except now he’d woken. That changed everything.

What lines made you laugh, cry, or gasp this week? Do tell!

If you’d like to participate in Thursday Quotables, it’s really simple:

Write a Thursday Quotables post on your blog. Try to pick something from whatever you’re reading now. And please be sure to include a link back to Bookshelf Fantasies in your post (http://www.bookshelffantasies.com), if you’d be so kind!
Leave your link in the comments — or, if you have a quote to share but not a blog post, you can leave your quote in the comments too!
Visit other linked blogs to view their Thursday Quotables, and have fun!

26Jan2015

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books I’d Love To Read With A Book Club

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is about books we’d like to read with a book club. I don’t belong to a traditional book club, with face-to-face get-togethers (and a few bottles of wine), although I do have an online group with a monthly book discussion. I’ll write more about why I’m not currently in a book club at another time. For now, I’m going to highlight ten books that I’d love to read with a book club — if only I had one.

For me, the best book club books are ones that generate some controversy or have interesting angles or twists to discuss — or books that are worth reading, but for whatever reason aren’t books that I’m likely to pick up without some outside prompting. So if I had a group to share with, I’d pick:

For in-depth analysis and discussion:

1) One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez: I know I need to read this eventually, but the one time I started it, I got distracted about midway through and never felt compelled to finish. I’d love to have this as a book group read so that I’d stay on track, as well as having a resource for discussing all of the symbolism and patterns that I might not fully explore on my own.

2) Great Expectations by Charles Dickens: A Tale of Two Cities is one of my favorite books of all times, but I’m embarrassed to admit that it’s the only Dickens I’ve read, and I really should fix that. I’ve been talking about reading Great Expectations for years. A book group deadline would definitely help, and I’ve also found that it’s really great to read classics with a group, taking the time to really think about the different elements and not just rushing through for the sake of getting to the end.

3) The Bone People by Keri Hulme: This is supposed to be THE book to read about New Zealand, and I really want to read it… but I just find it kind of off-putting whenever I actually consider starting it. I think a group discussion would help me focus and would also help me appreciate it more.

For the incentive needed to actually read these books:

(It’s not that I’m not interested — I just never seem to be in the mood.)

4) We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler: I think I’ll read this book eventually, and I even have a copy. I just need some prodding to get started.

5) Winter’s Tale by Mark Helprin: Or really, anything by Mark Helprin. I’ve read some short stories, but his books are just so huge that they seem daunting. I just need that book group nudge to get going, I think.

6) Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich: I’ve read later works by Louise Erdrich, but would like to read some of her earlier books as well. I don’t often make time for older books, so a bit of book group inspiration might be a good push in the right direction.

7) Enduring Love or Saturday by Ian McEwan: I’ve read a few of his books, and I always feel like I should read more, but I never seem to be in the mood to actually do it.

8) A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki: Another one that feels like an important book to read, but every time I take it out from the library, I end up returning it unread.

And finally, a couple of choices that I think would just be really fun to read with a group:

9) I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith: I’ll read it on my own one of these days, but think it would be fun to have a group to share it with.

And, last but not least…

10) The Harry Potter series! When one of my online book friends mentioned recently that she’d never read the Harry Potter books, I tried really hard to get the group interested in a Harry Potter read-along! I still think it’s a brilliant idea, and I’m going to try again in a few months. I’ve read the series so many times, but I love the thought of reading it all over again with a group of book-loving friends, examining the series from new and different angles, and just basking in the enjoyment of spending time in that world again.

So what books would you want to read with a book group?

Share your link, and I’ll come check out your list.

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