So, last night we had our first neighbourhood book club meeting. It was a blast. When Karen, Susan and I first talked about it a few months back we had no idea how many neighbours would be interested. Even though we come from a very small neighbourhood/community (3 streets, less than 40 households), it turned out that quite a few of them were readers. While a few people had other commitments, there were 13 of us at the meeting! How cool is that?
Rather than all read the same book, we thought we'd try something a little different in that we'd just get together and talk about books. Our favourites and not-so-favourites were all game. No pressure, no staying up until 3am the previous night trying to finish the assigned book.
We ate, drank and talked about books. There were lots of recommendations and I had trouble keeping up with them all. I managed to scribble a few of them down, though. Some people even brought books to share or talk about. That was awesome! Lots of different books with lots of different tastes, although I was secretly pleased that there were at least a few mystery lovers, like me.
Besides telling the group about this blog, I recommended two books:
The Day the Falls Stood Still by Cathy Buchanan. To see my review, click on the link. To start reading, there's a link near the bottom of the review that will take you to the HarperCollins Canada website. I also told the group how gracious and approachable Cathy is. She really is wonderful. I can't wait for her next book.
Room by Emma Donoghue. I haven't written my review yet, but this book is unbelievable. To start reading, click on the link. I hope to post my review within a week.
I wish now I had taken a picture of us all so I could have posted it here. Someone remind me for next time!
Well, that's it for now. If you were at the meeting last night, thanks so much for stopping by. I still have most of the books that I've reviewed here, so let me know if you'd like to borrow one or two of them and I can bring them to the next meeting. See you next month!
It sounds like you had a great turnout! All book clubs are run differently and you just need to do what is right for everyone in your group. I hope you have many meetings to come!
ReplyDeleteVery nice! Amazing that you had such a high turnout from only a few streets.
ReplyDeleteWe're having our RL book club tonight (discussing Tortilla Curtain by T. C. Boyle). Good fun!
I actually belong to two book clubs and I enjoy them both. One is at work; we meet over lunch hour in the cafeteria. The other is at my local library. I've been going to that one for at least 6 years.
ReplyDeleteThe thing I like about book clubs is that you read books you never would have thought about reading. My work bookclub chose The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason for October. I had never heard of it but it was wonderful.
Enjoy your group.
Thanks everyone. We had a lot of fun. Next time we'll have to figure out a way so that everyone gets a chance to talk about their favourite books or whatever they want to talk about.
ReplyDelete