Sunday Salon: January book club recap

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My book club met this week to discuss One for the Money (my review) and Cleopatra, which I managed to read all of 6 pages of (I do want to read it, but I'm thinking of doing a chapter a week read-a-long after A People's Read-a-long is over because it is a dense book.) We had some nice discussions at a local coffee house. I most enjoyed the Cleopatra discussion, even though I had not read most of it. One interesting tidbit: we all agreed we'd never thought of Cleopatra as a mother before, but we were surprised it hadn't occurred to us that she had children.

As is often the case, we spend as much time talking about what else we're reading and what we want to read for next time as we do the books selected. We had so much fun this time, in fact, that we picked three books for March!
  • Room by Emma Donoghue (my review): Room was my favorite read of 2010, so I'm thrilled someone else suggested it. 
  • Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda (my review): I suggested Secret Daughter because I adored it when I read it last year, but more importantly, I think the other group members will really enjoy it. I'm eager to discuss this one too.
  • Running Away to Home: Our Family's Journey to Croatia in Search of Who We Are, Where We Came From, and What Really Matters by Jennifer Wilson: Jennifer Wilson is a Des Moines author, and as the descriptive subtitle lets you know, this family decides to take a family sabbatical to Croatia. There's certainly the local factor that intrigues me, but I'm also fascinated by taking a family sabbatical. I confess to thinking of travel as something I loved when I was single, continue to love to do with Mr. Nomadreader, but I can't imagine traveling in that way once we have a child. I'm looking forward to sharing in their journey.
Look for my review of Running Away to Home in March. Until then, happy reading!


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Comments

  1. AndiJanuary 29, 2012 at 11:18 AM

    I think you're a member of the most motivated book group I've ever heard of! Three books is impressive, and it sounds like the discussion was/is great!

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  2. JennyJanuary 29, 2012 at 5:19 PM

    I love Secrer Dayghter too! I have yet to write my review and read it a while ago, but I do remember that there was a lot to talk about!

    ReplyDelete
  3. ZibileeJanuary 29, 2012 at 6:22 PM

    Room was such an amazing book, and I am so glad that your club will be reading it, and I have to agree with Andi, your book club is so ambitious and cool! I had to leave one book club because the girls never read the book, and then they would get mad at me because the conversations about the book weren't detailed enough! I had no response to that whatsoever. I am in a much better club now, and we often get the chance to chat with authors, so it's all good!

    ReplyDelete
  4. AudraJanuary 30, 2012 at 11:02 AM

    Running Away from Home sounds fascinating -- I'm not always interested in travel memoirs but that one has an interesting hook!

    ReplyDelete
  5. TiJanuary 30, 2012 at 12:17 PM

    Funny, I never knew that Cleopatra had children. I love meeting at coffeehouses. We meet at the library which is usually very ho-hum since we can't really bring food in, etc.

    ReplyDelete

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