AHLEBC 2017 Round Up

Happy New Year fellow readers!

Before we get started with 2018, I wanted us to take a look back at our year of reading in 2017 via our voting in December (which was done via email and during our annual holiday / December meet up).

Here are the results from Lori's email:

Remember, our voting systems was a little unorthodox, for example, you could have more than one favorite, but we are not a rule following book club. We do things our way, baby! :-)

My Brilliant Friend Fav: 7 Liked: 4 No one thought this book was meh or hated it.

Thank Who Mistook his Wife... Liked: 5 Meh: 3 No one's favorite and no one hated it.

One Thousand White Women Liked: 6 Meh: 1 Hated: 1 No one's favorite.

When the Emperor was Divine Fav: 1 Liked: 6 Meh: 4 No one hated it.

The Bridge of San Luis Rey Fav: 1 Liked: 3 Meh: 5 No one hated this book.

Olive Kitteridge Fav: 4 Liked: 6 No one thought this book was meh or hated it.

Being Mortal Fav: 2 Liked: 8 Meh: 11 No one hated it.

Frankenstein Liked: 4 Meh: 3 Hated: 3 No one's favorite.

Euphoria Liked: 5 Meh: 4 Hated: 1 No one's favorite.

Orphan train Liked: 10 Meh: 2 No one's favorite and no one hated it.

A Man Called Ove Fav: 2 Liked: 7 Meh: 2 Hated: 2

So...

Favorite book: My Brilliant Friend Least Favorite: Frankenstein Most Liked: Orphan Train Most Meh: Being Mortal

Thanks for voting!

Speaking of "rules" - along with input from those who attended the annual holiday / December meet up, Lori and I have come to the decision (for lack of a better word) that we're bringing the bookclub back to its' roots in some ways to make it more inclusive for all who attend, and less "to-do" pressure for Lori, who has been our fearless and faithful leader though thick & thin, but as can happen with us all, needs to have less on-hands time with the bookclub now, as I have needed these last couple of years.

So in that spirit, here are the new old "rules" for 2018 and beyond:

-If you pick a book that gets chosen as a monthly selection, You are responsible for facilitating the month your book is assigned to.
-If you are unable to do so, please let Lori and myself know ASAP (or hit "reply all" to the latest email from us) so that we can go from there and someone can volunteer to facilitate in their place.
-(Emergencies are the obvious exception here, so in this case those who attend that month will carry on and discuss the book sans facilitator).

-If you are facilitating, that month you bring the snacks.
-If you're unable to do so, or would like everyone to try and bring something as well, please let the group know by hitting "reply all" to the latest email from us. This way those who are able to bring something can do so.
-(There are paper goods at the library already - if Lori or I aren't there, just ask the librarians).
-Lori will continue to bring the electric kettle and tea.

As a reminder: If you pick a book that is not on the Monmouth County Bookclub Library List, all will be done to try and locate enough copies of that book throughout the system, however, we cannot guarantee that there will be enough system wide and therefore we may ask you to pick a back-up title in case.

In closing, here is our 2017 annual Holiday / December meet up group photo!

Here's to another great year of reading together!
-Jo

January 2015: The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd + 2014 Holiday Party Recap!

From the 2014 Viking/Penguin hardcover edition: "Hetty “Handful” Grimke, an urban slave in early nineteenth century Charleston, yearns for life beyond the suffocating walls that enclose her within the wealthy Grimke household. The Grimkes’ daughter, Sarah, has known from an early age she is meant to do something large in the world, but she is hemmed in by the limits imposed on women.

Sue Monk Kidd’s sweeping new novel is set in motion on Sarah’s eleventh birthday in 1803, when she is given ownership of ten-year-old Handful, who is to be her waiting maid. We follow their remarkable journeys over the next thirty-five years, as both strive for a life of their own, dramatically shaping each other’s destinies and forming a complex relationship marked by guilt, defiance, estrangement, and the uneasy ways of love.

As the stories build to a riveting climax, Handful will endure loss and sorrow, finding courage and a sense of self in the process. Sarah will experience crushed hopes, betrayal, unrequited love, and ostracism before leaving Charleston to find her place alongside her fearless younger sister, Angelina, as one of the early pioneers in the abolition and women’s rights movements.

Inspired in part by the historical figure of Sarah Grimke, Kidd goes beyond the record to flesh out the rich interior lives of all of her characters, both real and invented, including Handful’s cunning mother, Charlotte, who courts danger in search for something better, and Charlotte’s lover, Denmark Vesey, a charismatic free black man who is planning insurrection."

We will meet to discuss The Invention of Wings on Thursday, January 29, 2015, at 7pm at the Atlantic Highlands Branch of the Monmouth County Library located at 100 First Avenue (inside Borough Hall) in Atlantic Highlands.

Looking ahead, here is the list of books for 2015 (starting with February):

Feb - Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
March - Where'd You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple
April - Pavilion of Women by Pearl S. Buck
May - The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
June - One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
July - Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
August - Founding Brothers by Joseph Ellis
Sep - Middletown, America by Gail Sheehy
Oct - Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Nov/Dec - The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri

Now it's time for our Holiday Party Wrap-Up from 12/4/14!

Here are the results for the most and the least favorite books we read in 2014:

Favorite - The Light between Oceans
Runner up - The City of Ember
Least favorite - The Prince

And here are some photos from our Seabiscuit chat and Holiday Party:

Photo credits: Lori M.

Photo credits: Jo W.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Here's a virtual sparkling cider toast to a healthy and Happy New Year for 2015 and here's to another year filled with more great discussions!

2nd Annual Holiday Party Round-Up!

(Scroll down to activate slideshow and view our Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down Round-Up of our 2013 selections).


(In order of the months we read them):
The Immortal Life of Henrietta lacks by Rebecca Skloot (Winner of our favorite book of the year)
Thumbs Up - 9 votes
Meh - 1 vote
Thumbs Down - 0 votes

A Year By the Sea by Joan Anderson (Winner of the book we could take or leave)
Thumbs Up - 1 vote
Meh - 7 votes
Thumbs Down - 1 vote

Samaritan by Richard Price
Thumbs Up - 3 votes
Meh - 5 votes
Thumbs Down - 0 votes

March by Geraldine Brooks
Thumbs Up - 5 votes
Meh - 3 votes
Thumbs Down - 2 votes

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Thumbs Up - 4 votes
Meh - 5 votes
Thumbs Down - 2 votes

Out of Mao's Shadow by Philip Pan
Thumbs Up - 7 votes
Meh - 1 vote
Thumbs Down - 0 votes

The Emperor's Children by Claire Messud
Thumbs Up - 0 votes
Meh - 4 votes
Thumbs Down - 5 votes

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Thumbs Up - 8 votes
Meh - 4 votes
Thumbs Down - 0

Outliers, the Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
Thumbs Up - 2
Meh- 7
Thumbs Down - 0

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
Thumbs Up - 8
Meh - 2
Thumbs Down - 0

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde (Winner, or loser, of our least favorite book)
Thumbs Up - 3
Meh - 2
Thumbs Down - 8

Thanks to everyone who came out for our 2nd Holiday Party this year and we missed everyone who couldn't make it!

Best wishes to everyone for a healthy and Happy New Year! See you on January 30th.

Nov/Dec 2013: The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

From the Penguin Book paperback edition:

"Welcome to a surreal version of Great Britain, circa 1985, where time travel is routine, cloning is a reality (dodos are the resurrected pet of choice), and literature is taken very, very seriously. England is a virtual police state where an aunt can get lost (literally) in a Wordsworth poem, militants Baconians heckle performances of Hamlet, and forging Byronic verse is a punishable offense. All this is business as usual for Thursday Next, renowned Special Operative in literary detection, until someone begins kidnapping characters from works of literature. When Jane Eyre is plucked from the pages of Bronte's novel, Thursday must track down the villain and enter the novel herself to avert a heinous act of literary homicide."

Visit the author's website by clicking here.  (Spoilers may be possible).

We will meet to discuss The Eyre Affair on Thursday, December 5th (because the last Thursday of November is Thanksgiving) at 7pm at the Atlantic Highlands branch of the Monmouth County Library located at 100 First Avenue (inside Borough Hall). 

We will also have our second annual holiday party on Thursday, December 5th! We will vote on our favorite and least favorite books from this year, and we will have a book exchange. Bring as many books as you like. If you don't have any to give away, that's okay too. You can tell us a little bit about the book or just put it/them on the table for whoever would like to take it home. If a book is unclaimed, you can take it back or it will be put on the free cart in the library.

Lori and Elita will bring some sort of beverage and snack (probably sweet). If you'd like to bring something to share, that would be fantastic! Ann donated several strings of Christmas lights to the library and we  hope to put them up again for our party. If you have anything suggestions for our celebration, please e-mail Lori at ahlebc@gmail.com.

The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lack, January 2013 + Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down: A Year Of Reading In Review (*Updated 3/28/13)

Our first selection of 2013 is the nonfiction book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. 

From the BroadwayPaperbacks/Publisher: "Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor black tobacco farmer whose cells - taken without her knowledge in 1951 - became one of the most important tools in medicine, vital for developing the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping, and more. Henrietta's cells have been bought and sold by the billions, yet she remains virtually unknown, and her family can't afford health insurance. This phenomenal New York Times bestseller tells a riveting story of the collision between ethics, race, and medicine; of scientific discovery and faith healing; and of a daughter consumed with questions about the mother she never knew."

For information on author Rebecca Skloot, visit her website by clicking here.

You can also visit the Henrietta Lacks Foundation website by clicking here.

We'll meet to discuss The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks on Thursday, January 31, 2013, at 7pm at the Atlantic Highlands Branch of the Monmouth County Library located inside Borough Hall on 100 First Avenue, Atlantic Highlands. 

Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down: 2012, A Year Of Reading In Review
On Thursday, December 27, 2012, the Atlantic Highlands Evening Bookclub held our first annual Holiday party during which we voted on our favorite and least favorite reads of 2012! 

Here is Lori's great wrap of the party:
"We had a great time at the party and we missed everybody who couldn't make it! In fact we had so much fun, we're thinking of turning it into an annual event. Thank you to everyone who brought food and drink. We were there so long, we closed the place! I have to apologize to Faye and Val for making them stay late the next time I see them. I've attached a picture from the meeting. Unfortunately, Jo left before it was taken. All the books found new homes except for one and I'll bring it to the next meeting to see if anyone wants it.

We voted on our favorite and least favorite books and here are the results:
Favorite was A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. (Everyone give it a thumbs up. Not one person gave it a "meh" or a thumbs down).
Least favorite was Brazzaville Beach by William Boyd. (No one gave it a thumbs up).

Now the break-down of all the other books we read in 2012 (members who didn't read that particular book didn't vote):
The Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigani: 4 yes, 1 meh, 1 no
Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare: 2 yes, 1 no
The Woman Who Walked Into Doors by Roddy Doyle: 3 yes, 1 no
The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom: 2 yes, 3 no
My Antonia by Willa Cather: 3 yes, 2 no
Lucia, Lucia by Adriana Trigani: 1 yes, 2 meh, 2 no
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson 5 yes, 1 no (Guess who voted no?)
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett: 3 yes, 2 no
The Particular Sadness of the Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender: 5 yes, 2 meh
SantaLand Diaries by David Sedaris: 2 yes, 1 meh, 4 no

Jo is going to post this on the blog. Please feel free to vote and or leave comments.

During the evening, we discussed the difference between young adult fiction and adult fiction. I said the big difference is that there aren't any subplots (for the most part, I'm sure some do). After the meeting, I remembered a few other differences. One is obvious I can't believe I didn't remember it! The protagonist is usually a teenager or young adult. Another difference is when it comes to describing characters and things, adult fiction can go on for a page sometimes more. Not so with YA literature. No self respecting teenager is going to put up with two pages describing wallpaper. So the reader gets the basic idea, but not every detail. Hey, all you YA readers out there; let me know if I've forgotten anything else."

For those who read with us in 2012, but weren't at the party, please feel free to cast your vote in the comments below for the books you liked (yes/thumbs up), didn't like (no/thumbs down) or were in the middle about (meh). 

We've also had some great discussion going on via email about the differences between Young Adult (YA) fiction and adult fiction, please feel free to continue the discussion here in the comments below or add your thoughts if you haven't done so!

Best wishes for 2013 and here's to another fascinating year of reading together!

*Update 3/28/13: To view the NYT's article "The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks, The Sequel" by Rebecca Skloot, please click here.