Book Clubs

Presently reading

     It's only three weeks into May, but I am already on my fifth book for the month!  I go through periods where my reading is ravenous, and other times when it is practically anorexic.  I have always enjoyed reading - my father once told me that I taught myself to read - not bad for someone whose first word was "duck" (I assume it was the bird and not a warning to look out).  I am presently in two book clubs but am also a "silent partner" in another book club.  The Toronto book club has been going for more than 15 years and has seen many members come and go.  I hosted the very first meeting and, mistakenly, picked a favourite book, Mr. Palomar by Italo Calvino.  It was not well-received, but I have learned that it is sometimes better to pick a book that not everyone likes as it generates more interesting discussion.  Nothing is more dull than everyone agreeing how much they liked a book because after about fifteen minutes, there's nothing more to talk about.  My Toronto book club is full of sarcastic, witty and intelligent people who always manage to have a good laugh but who also are full of interesting insights.  We usually meet on the last Thursday of them month at the host's abode (or a reasonable facsimile) where wine, snacks and sometimes dinner is served.  This month, BS (how appropriate!) is presenting "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins.  I read it in under 24 hours, it was that entertaining!

  My local book club is smaller and is run a little differently.  The presenter doesn't necessarily host the book club and because it is mostly made up of people with kids, there is more emphasis on wine and less on food (very telling that!).  The presenter also does some background research on the author and book.  It has only been going for just over a year now and there is a summer hiatus.  It usually occurs on a Monday evening, that has wandered all over the calendar.  This month, we are doing "Half-Blood Blues" by Esi Edugyan and "The Sisters Brothers" by Patrick deWitt.  Both were nominated for the same awards, so the presenter, LP, thought it would be interesting to read them both.  I read each one in under a week and can't honestly say which I preferred.  One is a story of jazz musicians caught up in the rise of Nazism in Berlin and Paris in the late 1930's whereas the other is a dark but often amusing Western about two brothers who are hired to kill someone.

     CC is also in a book club, a "Men's book club", which happens to feature the husbands of some of my local book club members.  Although I am not a member per se, I often read the books because they are lying around when I am looking for something else to read.  They do a lot of non-fiction, which I find to be a pleasant change and, often, very informative.  Good non-fiction reads like fiction in my humble opinion.  They read "The Ghost Map" by Steven Johnson last month and I read it very quickly as I found it to be very engaging, a scientific what-dunnit.  I was then scrambling for more to read and came across "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson, a book CC had read for his book club many months ago.  It is full of many interesting facts about inventions of the time (the 1890's) and is a fascinating story about two men, one who brought fame to Chicago with the World's fair of 1893, and the other who brought infamy as a serial-killer.