The two book clubs I lead, one at the library where I work and one at my church, have chosen their first set of books for 2010. For each group, I put together a list of possible book selections, using my own recommendations as well as suggestions from members of the group. I compile the list into a document showing the cover, title, author, number of pages and a short synopsis for each book. Then, at one of our meetings (typically two months prior to the end of the current selection) the members vote for their top choices via secret ballot. The books with the most votes are the ones we read and discuss.

For my library book club, The Page Turners, we mainly read fiction, although we have opened it up to nonfiction titles. We choose our selections quarterly, so right now we have January, February and March’s books set, and will vote in February for April, May and June’s books. The only restriction I have is that the books should be available in paperback (either trade or mass market) so that members who choose to purchase their books do not have to invest in a hardcover. The book club began about a year and a half ago and right now we are averaging about 8-10 people per month, although it took several months to work up to that number. Here are our upcoming books:

January: Beach Music by Pat Conroy

I’ve never read anything by Pat Conroy before, but since we live just a few hours from Charleston, where many of his books are situated, he is a particularly popular author here in the South. His latest novel, South of Broad, was published in the summer of 2009 and quickly became one of the library’s most requested books. Several members suggested putting that title, or something by Pat Conroy, on the list. Since South of Broad isn’t due to come out in trade paperback until May, I opted for one of his other books, Beach Music.

Now, for some reason, I was under the mistaken assumption that Pat Conroy’s books were light, regional fiction, ala Fannie Flagg or Ann B. Ross, which is why I had ignored them up to this point. My book club members were quick to point out the error of my thinking, and now that I’ve started reading Beach Music, I see how wrong I was. I’ll have a post about this one later this month.

February: The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

One of the book club members suggested this title, and since I enjoyed it so much when I read it a couple years’ back, I was delighted when it was chosen as one of our books. Even though it’s not a ‘happy’ book, I think it will be an interesting departure from our usual type of book, which leans more towards literary fiction. We did read a murder mystery, The Likeness, last quarter, which was generally well-liked among the group members, so perhaps we’ll have more suspenseful reads in the mix going forward.

Since I’ve already read The Thirteenth Tale, I’m not sure if I’ll reread it or just skim through to refresh my memory. But I am really curious to hear my book club members’ reactions to it.

March: Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

Even though I haven’t read this book yet, it was on my TBR list and I’d heard great things about it, so I’d planned to put it on the list as a possible selection. Another member also suggested it and I was happy to see it chosen by the group for one of our 2010 books.

Rather than a traditional novel, Olive Kitteridge is apparently more a series of inter-related stories featuring the eponymous Olive, a retired school teacher in a small coastal Maine town, in varying degrees. In that sense, it reminds me of Anita Diamant’s The Last Days of Dogtown, which I very much enjoyed. The Maine setting, so similar to my own upbringing, also appeals to me. So I have high hopes for this one and am looking forward to reading it.

My church book club, the Women’s Reading Circle, has been going strong since I first put forth the idea of creating one, soon after my husband and I started attending our church, St. Andrew’s in the Pines. We started meeting once a month in October 2007 and our first book was Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love. As you can guess from the book club’s name, we are comprised of women, and we range in age from 30-somethings to 80-somethings, and average about a dozen or so members. We vote on books biannually, and read a mixture of fiction and non-fiction, loosely based around the idea that the books should contain some kind of spiritual element or theme. Our past books have included People of the Book, Chosen by a Horse, Leaving Church, and Riding in the Shadows of Saints, just to name a few. Here are the books we chose to read and discuss for the first half of 2010:

January: Same Kind of Different As Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore

This book actually appeared on our list of possible books once before, but didn’t get enough votes the first time round. It was suggested again for this latest vote and this time, got enough votes to become one of our selections in 2010.

I have to be honest and say I am not looking forward to reading this one. The subject matter and apparent writing style just don’t appeal to me, even though I’ve had several people who’ve said they really enjoyed it. I don’t know … I’m kind of going into it with low expectations so maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised. What will be nice about our January meeting regardless of whether I like the book or not is that my dear friend and fellow bibliophile, Susan, will be visiting us along with her husband and darling daughter and so she is going to read the book as well and come to book club with me.

February: The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory

It’s probably stretching our ’spiritual element or theme’ parameter to include this one in our rotation, but The Other Boleyn Girl, in addition to greed, lust and power, does address the issue of Henry VIII’s split from the Roman Catholic church and the formation of the Church of England, to which our particular denomination, the Episcopal Church, does belong. It was suggested by one of the book club members after our priest mentioned the book to her, and since Philippa Gregory is one of my favorite authors for escapist-type historical fiction (i.e. emphasis on the fictional aspect), and I also love reading about Anne Boleyn, I was fine with including it on the list. Since I’ve read this one (albeit years ago), and am familiar with the story, etc., I’ll probably just watch the movie adaptation (again). Hmmm … or maybe that could be one of my ‘Read the Book, See the Movie’ Challenge selections. I’ll see how heavy my reading load is in February before I decide.

March: The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs

This is another book I’ve read – it was actually one of my favorite books of 2008. I’ve since mentioned it several times during our book club meetings, and finally decided I should just go ahead and offer it as one of our options, which I did, and it got enough votes to be included in our reading list.

It’s irreverent without being insulting and manages to be both entertaining and enlightening. I will probably just skim through it beforehand rather than rereading it, though. But I will be curious to hear what the rest of the book club thinks and if they found it as enjoyable as I did.

April: Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

I’ve owned an unread copy of Gilead for a couple years now. Even still, I was excited to meet the author at last year’s National Book Festival, and actually got a copy of the book signed by her, too. See, this is me behind the umbrella with book in hand. I think Ms. Robinson is making some comment about the downpour that was taking place:

May: In the Eye of the Storm by Gene Robinson

Many people, regardless of their religious persuasion, are aware of the furor that erupted over the election of this openly gay man to be the Bishop for the Episopal Diocese of New Hampshire in 2003. It hits very close to home since not only are we an Episcopal church, but our parish split in 2007, just months before we began attending. Although apparently issues had been simmering for quite awhile, the Right Reverend V. Gene Robinson was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back, and a sizeable portion of St. Andrew’s voted to leave the Episcopal Church and join with the Anglican Church of Nigeria. It’s a painful and challenging time in our parish’s history, many of the book club members were members of the church during that time, and so I imagine our discussion of this book will be an emotional one.

June: The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff

I read The 19th Wife back in 2009 and really enjoyed it, so when another book club member suggested it, I was happy to include it. And since I’ve already read it, it gives me another freebie month where I have the option to just skim the book – and let’s be honest, in all likelihood, that’s what I’ll be doing with all these books I’ve read before.

One thing I like about having this as a book club pick is that it provides me the opportunity to bring in some things for a sort of ’show and tell’ which is always fun. I am going to do a bit of research into the real 19th Wife, Ann Eliza, and hopefully will have some photos and a few tidbits to share with the group. Also, we’ve read a personal memoir written by a contemporary Mormon woman, so it will be interesting to get the historical, albeit fictionalized, perspective.

So those are the books I’ll be discussing with my book clubs over the coming months. What about those of you in book clubs, what will you be reading?