what books has your book club done?

New book club - just four friends who met through school. So far we have done:

• The kite runner (did not like it)
• The poisonwood bible (my choice)

Next i think we are going to do Vera Britten's autobiography.

I think because we are good friends we are keen to do some more challenging stuff definitely veto on Richard & Judy bookclub

PT you are very sweet.

Actually atm my whole house is in one room (table, sideborad, computer, sofa, TV) as the front room is Being Done (ie builders have finished but we need to decoarte).

Maybe when it's finished I could host but yes, some people would have to sit on the floor. That's fine tho.

Trouble is all the other meetings have been in people's lovely homes. Mine is just full of jigsaws and playmobil and piles of crap DH won't throw away

This month:
Beloved by Toni Morrison.

Previously:
Stone Diaries and Republic of Love by Carol Shields
Small Island
Brick Lane
Ukranian Tractors one
Biog Lizzie Siddal (pre-raphaelite model)
Oranges are not the Only Fruit
The Book Group
Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood
Beyond Black
When we were Grown Ups
Fear of Flying
Tipping the Velvet (prob some more I can't remember!)

We are just doing

A Prayer for Owen Meany

Have done

Time Travellers Wife
Cocoaine Nights
Fotunes Rock
The 5 People You Meet in Heaven
Shadow of the Wind
To Kill a Mocking Bird

can't think of any more

people in book groups are too polite to comment on others' scabby gaffs

crikey jingo, you can sit on the floor can you not? How many's in your book group?!

Thanks Lio - no not in Herts unfortunately
Will ask a librarian tho'...
And will look up the MN book group too
Thank you!

I worry about the hosting at my house thing too. That's what our group did and they all live in perfect interior designed mansions. I don't even have enough chairs for them to sit down!

I'm sure your house is not too dumpy to have people round.

(Although I haven't hosted either, because my place is too small.)

OOh PT that's an idea. We have in fact only been meeting since the autumn time I think but that would be nice in June, would it not.

My house is tooooooo dumpy to have people round buy maybe I can host in a beer garden

You could move to a pub in the summer, Clary - we were in one the other day that's gone smoke-free already and it was great!

We get a takeaway each bookgroup. We generally chat to start, then discuss the book once the food arrives. Wine also involved, of course.

hotcrossbunny ask a librarian - they might have one and not put up a notice about it (ours does). I guess you're not in North Herts? Our group could do with one more member

Ooh how do you discuss it in a pub?

The good thing about a house is that we take lots of yummy food and the booze is cheap.

Don't like pubs - too smoky (lol must be getting old)

well each time someone chooses a book and then hosts.

So I need to have a house fit to host in before choosing.

What if everyone hated my choice? That would be quite funny.

I am known in my group for not liking the choices lol.

We have done
Shadow of the Wind (OK-ish but annoying)
Posession (liked it 15 yrs ago but not now)
The Golden Gate (Vikram Seth novel in verse, hated it)
A novel by a local author (he was good but it was only OK)
Moondust (so badly written I couldn't finish it)
The Yellow Wallpaper (short story from 100 yrs ago, quite liked that one)

DT I like what you have done better! Lio I love Anne Tyler and Maggie Ofarrall. Could I really suggest Anne Tyler? I thought it might be a bit lightweight (= pleasant to read lol)

Haven't spotted anything at the library... Whenever I meet other mums at the park/toddlers etc So far when I've mentioned looking for a bookgroup, I seem to be met with a blank look as if I'm mad!
I hoped there would be some sort of register or something of bookgroups in my area but I guess they are usually pretty informal affairs... Will keep looking...

hotcrossbunny where do you live? Have you got a nice local library?

How do you go about finding a book group? I joined one but didn't really click with them... Now I'd like to give it another go, but haven't noticed any adverts for one.
We read:

The Kite Runner
Rebecca
The Island
Time Travellers Wife

Can't remember the rest!

I am part of a new group formed of North Herts mumsnetters and we are on our fourth read:

My lover's lover - Maggie O'Farrell
Breathing Lessons - Anne Tyler
Girl with a Pearl Earring - Tracey Chevalier
Middle Age: A Romance - Joyce Carole Oates

Some from the other group I am in:
Life of Pi
the Tractors in Ukraine one
Lord of the Flies
Lucky Jim
Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Vile Bodies
Scoop (Evelyn Waugh)
Music and Silence
Vernon God Little
Poisonwood Bible
The Accidental Tourist
As I lay Dying
Mendel's Dwarf
The Green Knight
The Sorrow of War

Have deliberately not recommended or otherwise

DImpledthighs - we do a bizzare book-choosing system too - everyone puts in one/more suggestions (we sometimes agree a theme - eg. 'classics', romance for valentines meet, something festive/short for Christmas!) - then we narrow it down by discussion, then vote - sometimes with 1 vote each, sometimes 2/3 votes. It usually takes us longer to choose a book than to discuss the last one

That's what we do, Pointydog - and we have read, among others:
The Historian (my fave, I think)
Last King of Scotland (for next week)
The Kite Runner (for next month)
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
Black Swann Green
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time
Skellig
Snow Falling on Cedars
Enchanted April (which I hated, but may have been an abridged version, as it was the library's large print copy!)
Saturday