The Bookies

After moving back to Edmonton last year one of the first things I did was put out some feelers to see who would be interested in joining a book club. I was in a book club in Calgary for around 4-5 years and loved every minute of it. Well, maybe not EVERY minute of it as one of the original members wanted to read the autobiography of Traci Lords and I wasn't super pumped about that. Luckily she bailed after the first month so I never ended up having to stand in line at Chapters with that in my hands!

Anyway, I was very lucky to find 5 other women who were interested in being in a book club so we formed 'The Bookies' (sounds kind of cool sometimes to say 'I'm going to see my Bookies'). Anyway, we've been meeting for the past year and have uncovered some gems (i.e. Water For Elephants) and also some duds (Ulysses - I suffered through that book and will never, ever touch it again. BUT I finished it so gave myself a certificate to commemorate that achievement).

In our book club we meet in October or November and pick all the books we're going to read for the following year. Being the practical person I am I like to read ahead so that if I get really busy one month I don't have to scramble to meet the deadline. We also skip meeting in December and July as those months tend to be really busy or people are travelling.  Because people have extra time to read that means we slot the larger books for January and August. We also try to slip at least 1 classic book in but last year we read 4 (not that I would count Ulysses as a classic but some schmo did so I included that in the count) so this year we only went with 2 older more classic books, The Princess Bride and The Third Policeman.

Anyway, the Bookies got together last night and hashed out a new list for 2011. Here's the official
Bookies 2011 Book Club Selections, in order we're going to read them:

The Princess Bride – William Goldman  (then we're going to get together to watch the movie afterwards!)
The Room – Emma Donaghue
Half Broke Horses – Jeannette Walls
The Zookeepers Wife – Diane Ackerman
The Shack – William P. Young
The Third Policeman – Flann O’Brien
Blood Meridian – Cormac Mccarthy
Ape House – Sara Gruen
The Art of Racing in the Rain – Garth Stein
Still Alice – Lisa Genova

If any of you have read any of the above books and would like to make a comment if you like it or hated it feel free to add your thoughts, we like to know what we're getting into ;) Also feel free to read along with us and post your comments on a monthly basis when you see me add my book review.