In 2025, my IRL book club met seven times.
.png){kind=spacer}
In chronological order:
The Chelsea Girls by Fiona Davis - This was universally liked by my book club peeps. Unfortunately, because of that, the discussion was pretty minimal. I'm not sure I'd recommend it for a book club if you want to actually talk about the book.
Cocaine Blues by Kerry Greenwood - Split verdict at book club. Two of us were not enamored with it and three people were obsessed. It's not a book for everyone, but it is for some.
The Women of Chateau Lafayette by Stephanie Dray - Too long; too many POVs that weren't distinct enough. We did learn about the French Revolution, so that was something, I guess.
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley - I missed book club, so I don't know how it went over, but I loved it.
Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman - Mostly liked by book club folks. One person has gone on to read all the books in the series. Not the best discussion.
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro - No one loved it, but we had a great discussion about it. I think I'd recommend it for a book club.
The Peculiar Garden of Harriet Hunt by Chelsea Iversen - I don't know friends. This was dark. There were divergent views on it, so there was some discussion. Beware of the violence in this one going in, though.
*****************
I have been thinking about that cool custom book ornament a lot and next year I might buy an ornament for all my book club peeps with our books of the year. That's a nice way to celebrate book club. You can even get a tag that has Book Club with the year on it.
*****************
Have you read any of these? If you're part of a book club, what book sparked a good discussion?
Oh that would be a lovely gift for your book club friends! I had Klara and the Sun out from the library when I lived in Calgary but I never started it - probably too big of a TBR - and ended up just taking it back. I haven't picked it up since. I am part of a book club but I think I told you before, these ladies are all about self-help books. It's not my thing but I do like the social aspect of it.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'm not sure I could handle if our book club read self-help. There's a lady who keeps trying to recommend memoirs and I keep telling her we only read fiction because I'm nervous that a memoir would be a gateway into other types of non-fiction and it's a slippery slope until we're all reading The Artist's Way.
DeleteI haven't read any of these, but The Ministry of Time has been hanging out on my TBR forever. I definitely want to read it soon.
ReplyDeleteIt felt like two different books to me. I loved it.
DeleteI have read (and enjoyed) The Ministry of Time. I hadn’t considered that a book that everyone enjoyed might make it less successful as a book club book. Honestly, I’ve never belonged to an IRL book club. Interesting!
ReplyDeleteFinding a good book club book is actually kind of hard. If we all like a book, we tend to not have much to say about it. Sometimes books we don't LOVE, but have interesting themes, are the better books. It can also be fun to have a polarizing book where some people like it and some don't because then it can get spicy.
DeleteHaven't read any of these... BUT I want that ornament!! Added it to my wish list for next year.
ReplyDeleteI desperately want that ornament. I'm trying to figure out how to make it happen.
DeleteI read The Ministry of Time,Cocaine Blues, Klara. I've heard really good thing about Dungeon Crawler Carl; it's going on my hold list at the library. Not interested in The Chelsea girls or Women one. I promised myself I'll read Wuthering Heights over break- making my hs son read it with me to broaden his exposure. So an in-house book club! the CBBC is the only one I've ever participated in- Blue Castle is gold star from me, and Joy Luck Club was probably good for me to read.
ReplyDeleteI listened to Dungeon Crawler Carl - the audiobook is beloved. I am not sure if I truly recommend it or not. If you're not a videogame person, it might not hit right.
DeleteI have only read Klara and the Sun, and I liked it a lot!
ReplyDeleteI thought it brought up some interesting themes, but I'm not sure I'd say I liked it.
DeleteI DNF'd The Ministry of Time but I know many loved it and I was an outlier. I haven't read any of these other books, though! We had sort of an off year for book club books. We had too much non-fiction and those sometimes do not spark good conversations. I loathed my selection (Range) even though it had a high rating on goodreads. I would have DNF'd it if it wasn't for book club. I was so bored. 2 people liked it but they listened to the audiobook. That said, the best book of the year was "All the Living and the Dead" which I think you have also read. It was universally loved AND it prompted a fascinating discussion about death. We are so fun, obviously. I missed the bookclub discussion of "The Women" by Kristin Hannah but that was another popular book that sparked great conversations.
ReplyDeleteI bet "All the Living and the Dead" was a good discussion. I still think of the lady who did midwifery for stillbirths regularly. What a crazy sad job. We don't do non-fiction at our book club and I'm grateful for that. Things might get too serious if we did. We also tend to wait on super popular books because they can be hard to get at the library and we don't want book club to be expensive.
DeleteI keep wavering on The Ministry of Time. Should I read it or shouldn't I? Might be time for me to revisit it and read a few preview pages again.
ReplyDeleteThat ornament! I'm becoming obsessed with it, and we really have no space for it on the tree. It would have to displace something else, but I'd probably be okay with sending another ornament down to the minors.
Also, thank you so much for the Christmas card! I love it so much, and the kindness and generosity behind it means more to me than you could know.
I'm obsessed with the ornament, too. I think I'm going to somehow figure out how to make all bloggers post their top ten books and then if I get them in the Secret SANta draw next year, I'll get them an ornament of their favorite books!
DeleteI loved Ministry of Time - one of my favorite books I read last year. Klara and the Sun was just bizarre and I felt like I never got under it's skin. I keep saying I like Ishiguro, but really I loved When We Were Orphans, and really liked The Buried Giant and the rest of his oeuvre leaves me kind of cold. So maybe I should stop saying I like Ishiguro. Maybe loving one book isn't enough to say you are a fan of an author?
ReplyDeleteI'd definitely say that loving one book does not make you a true fan. But you can be a fan of the book still!
DeleteI've only read The Ministry of Time. I loved it, but I wouldn't have put it on our book club list because my book club was kind of snotty about science fiction. Dungeon Crawler Carl is suddenly everywhere in my world and I am intrigued. I loved The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go, have not read this Ishiguro. One of the most spirited discussion my book club ever did was surrounding Patrick Radden Keeffe's Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland - spirited as in there were almost fights. I usually tried to pick something pretty dense that I thought could be argued for and against.
ReplyDeleteMy problem with the book ornament in that I am rather shallow was that picking all the books for one year didn't necessarily leave me with the most aesthetically pleasing colours, so I picked books from my daughter's entire Goodreads list to get a good mix of colour and design.
My book club is not snotty at all. We have read vampire romances, the Napoleonic war with dragons, and Dungeon Crawler Carl. I don't know if we've ever had a spirited discussion about a book where people had actual fights. Sometimes we disagree about the quality of a book (someone in my book club tried to defend The Luminaries), but it's all civil. Maybe it's because we steer away from non-fiction.
DeleteI think the problem with putting book club picks in there is that I really didn't like some of the books! Who wants to be reminded of books you didn't like every year?
I love the book ornament idea. I've not read any of these books. This was last year but our book group really liked and had a very good conversation about The Warmth of Other Suns.
ReplyDelete