It’s that time of year again: book voting time! I just checked and it was actually all the way back in November 2014 that we lasted voted on a “year’s worth” of books for the AWC book group. And we’re not actually done with those books…we still have two to read and discuss, one in early March and one in mid-April (stupid Satanic Verses, which I didn’t vote for and hated and was really aggravated that it got voted in and guess what, I am hosting that one. And I refuse to read it again. So there).
Once again we have a list of 36 books and this time we are voting for 8 (one less than last time). We have always been asked to recommend 3-5 books but this year one woman recommended TEN after claiming that she wasn’t told how many to do. *rolls eyes*
I seem to be in a bit of a book slump at the moment…haven’t gotten motivated to read anything new and am churning rather slowly through some old fantasy series re-reads. Maybe this list will give me some ideas. I just looked at the last list and saw that I still haven’t read a couple of the books that I recommended! There! Motivation!
Here’s the new list, in case you’re interested or looking for something to read!
Key: blue=recommended/voted for by me. green=voted for by me. yellow=already read
1. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
2. The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America by Eric Larsson
3. Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline
4. Make Your Home Among Strangers by Jennine Capo Crucet
5. The Expatriates by Janice Y.K. Lee
6. Cherries in Winter: My Family’s Recipe for Hope in Hard Times by Suzan Colón
7. The Book of Speculation: A Novel by Erika Swyler
8. The Summer Without Men by Siri Hustvedt
9. My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
10. Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling
11. Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll
12. Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan
13. Your Voice in My Head by Emma Forrest
14. Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
15. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot by David Shafer
16. The Witches: Salem 1692 by Stacy Schiff
17. Fear of Dying by Erica Jong
18. Purity by Jonathan Franzen
19. The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
20. Paradise Lost by John Milton
21. Stars Go Blue by Laura Pritchett
22. We Are Called to Rise by Laura McBride
23. Benediction by Kent Haruf
24. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
25. Beyond the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo
26. Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver
27. The Lemon Tree by Sandy Tolan
28. Being Mortal by Atul Gawande
29. Bruno, Chief of Police by Martin Walker
30. Die Wise by Stephen Jenkinson
31. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
32. How I Lost You by Jenny Blackhurst
33. A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler
34. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
35. Steve Jobs by Walter Isacsson
36. How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran
Whew!!
Paradise Lost? Really? Also: my bets for this year. Moran’s book or Mindy Kaling’s will get voted in, and at least 1 other that I’ve already read. Every year, Kingsolver is on the list and we’ve already read 2 books by her! Come on, people! Also, THREE of the books are about death and dying. Is book group getting old and worried about what aging means? … hrm.
In other news, the “mole” on my back is a common liver-spot type that is nothing to worry about but the skin doctor froze it off for me (along with 2 other small ones) and she said I had no other signs of any issues. So that’s nice.
In other not so nice news, the car ran itself into a tree today despite my best attempts to stop it happening. Scary, shocking and geez it happened SO FAST. Thankfully I was just turning into a parking space, and was only about 2 feet from the tree. The accelerator stuck somehow and suddenly I was speeding at the tree and the car was grinding against it and despite stomping on the brake it wouldn’t stop, until I finally managed to get the car into Park mode. %¤&/#”!! It’s still driveable, but I don’t know how bad the damage actually is, other than cosmetic, which is bad enough by itself. Just what we didn’t need: yet another unexpected expense. At least Anders couldn’t be mad at me, because he ran his car into a rock in a parking lot just a couple of weeks ago. So both our cars are dented (and his is in for an electrical problem for the third time because no one can figure out what is wrong) and my neck and shoulders hurt like hell. *suck*