A Drop-in Book Club

That’s right, this is a book club. I realize that this may be entirely a club unto myself, but it will give me good practice to be the next Oprah in concise lit analysis skills and be incentive for continuing to educate my mind outside of work as I start a new, daunting long-term job. You all are welcome to join and contribute. It’s like drop-in soccer at the Y, only with books. And not at the Y.

Also, if there’s enough local (LA) interest, you guys can come over for monthly chats and treats. We could expand the blog to Skypes and vlogs and GIFs and other hip and happening storytelling forms. Keep that in mind, too.

I want to cover a wide spectrum of reading materials, both for the benefit my eccentric interests as well as your own. I’m taking an open poll on a book with which to start: if no one votes, I’ll pick one and start posting and you can jump in as you fancy. Here’s what I’m considering at the moment. Addenda welcome, always.

Say You’re One of Them – Uwem Akpan

Dear Life – Alice Munro

Bless Me, Ultima – Rudolfo Anaya

Sailor Twain – Mark Siegal

The Fault in Our Stars and/or Looking for Alaska – John Green

Are you Smart Enough to Work at Google? – William Poundstone

The Presidents’ Club – Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duff

Jim the Boy – Tony Earley

Cutting for Stone – Abraham Verghese

Unbroken – Laura Hillenbrand

True at First Light – Ernest Hemingway

The Poisonwood Bible – Barbara Kingsolver

Tortilla Flat – John Steinbeck

I am Malala – Malala Yousafzai, Christina Lamb

David and Goliath – Malcolm Gladwell

The Goldfinch – Donna Tartt

The Dog Stars – Peter Heller

Even Cowgirls Get the Blues – Tom Robbins

I’m posting here, on an ancient WordPress blog I created and never used. I’m in the process of learning code and also deciding whether I want to start a whole new blog for this project. So we’ll see.

About the subtitle: “Lotos-eaters” or “Lotus-Eaters” is from Tennyson, and has fascinated me since I was a child and read a snippet of it as quoted by Laura Ingalls Wilder in one of her “Little House” books.

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