Thursday, January 21, 2010

Book Club Exchange - Stacie of Sincerely Stacie

Welcome to Book Club Exchange, a regular feature on Booking Mama which highlights anything and everything book club-related! Today, I'd like to welcome Stacie from Sincerely Stacie. She is stopping by today to share some information about her book club with us. I always enjoy learning about other groups, and I especially love seeing what other ones have read!

I live in a small rural community in Iowa with a population of about 700. A group of moms decided to start a book club the summer of 2005. It began with just few moms and then a few left and some new ones started. We are now a solid group of 10 moms ranging in age from their 20’s – 40’s. We are a group of SAHM, a librarian, teachers, business owners, and professionals. We meet once a month on Monday nights, taking turns hosting in our homes. There is always great food and beverages and two of our younger members bring their babies for the rest of us to get our baby fix! Because we live in such a small community, our children are in the same classrooms, sports activities, and we go to church together. We share each others achievements as well as struggles and I consider them family. I don’t know what I would do without my book club gals. We used to just be the Mom’s Book Club, but we are now the Van Horne Literary Society, renamed after reading The Guernsey and Literary Potato Peel Pie Society.

Our book choices used to come from the privilege of hosting book club that month. But, then we got out of that habit. Now we take recommendations from members as well as our librarian and I, who keep up on all the books that other book clubs are buzzing about. Since we do an interlibrary loan, we usually can’t read books that have just been published. They usually have to be out for a year or so before we can request them from other libraries to get enough for each member. We were fortunate to win a phone discussion with Joshua Henkin, author of Matrimony which was fun for our group, especially one of our members who is an aspiring writer!


Some of our favorite reads and most memorable discussions were: Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons, The Red Tent, My Sister’s Keeper, The Secret Life of Bees, Change Me Into Zeus’ Daughter, The Glass Castle, The Kite Runner, Life of Pi, Water for Elephants, The Next Thing On My List, and This I Know for Sure. As you can see from our list, we read mostly fiction. Sometimes we need a light (fluff) read and other times we dive in to something heavy. There are definitely books on this list that I never would have read if it wasn’t for book club!

Our book club reads:


Divine Secrets of Ya Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells

Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons by Lorna Landvick

The Red Tent by Anita Diamont

The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown

Crow Lake by Mary Lawson

My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult

Shoot the Moon by Billie Letts

Back Roads by Tawnie O’Dell

The Five People you Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

Best Friends by Martha Moody

Goodnight Nobody by Jennifer Weiner

A Year By the Sea by Joan Anderson

Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult

Change Me Into Zeus’ Daughter by Barbara Robinette Moss

The Shop on Blossom Street by Debbie Macomber

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

The Work of Wolves by Kent Meyers

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larsen

Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris

The Dive From Claussen’s Pier by Ann Packer

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

The #1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough

Welcome to Temptation by Jennifer Cruisie

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

The Year of Fog by Michelle Richmond

The Next Thing on My List by Jill Smolinski

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

Down River by John Hart

The Last Summer (of You and Me) by Ann Brasheres

This I Know for Sure by Wally Lamb

The Shack by William P Young

Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah

Here on Earth by Alice Hoffman

Matrimony by Joshua Henkin

Twilight by Stephanie Meyer

Perfume by Patrick Suskind

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah

Still Alice by Lisa Genova

Loving Frank by Nancy Horan

Seduce Me by Carly Phillips
The Christmas Sweater by Glenn Beck

The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry


*****
Stacie is a former social worker, current SAHM of 3. Her youngest will be entering kindergarten in the fall, and is wondering what the future holds for her now after 10 years of being at home. She loves reading, playing the piano, baking, and playing board games with her family. She is blessed with a wonderful life and likes to share her thoughts and daily snippets of life along with a few book and product reviews on her blog, Sincerely Stacie. She wants to thanks to all the other book bloggers who have introduced her to so many wonderful books.

A huge thanks to Stacie for sharing some information about her book club with us. If you are interested in participating in a future Book Club Exchange, please contact me at bookingmama(at)gmail(dot)com.

9 comments:

Sandy Nawrot said...

I just love this feature. This book club has certainly read a load of good books. I'm also impressed at the number of members and the fact that they are so well-organized. My club could use a few of these lessons!

bermudaonion said...

Stacie's book club sounds wonderful! I bet everyone knows each other really well in a town of 700 people!

Beth F said...

Wow, they have read some great books. I can't imagine how hard it would be to track down books for everyone.

Stacie said...

Thanks so much for featuring us, Julie. Thanks Sandy for your comments. I know not all book clubs are like mine and I feel blessed to be a part of it. And yes, we all know each other very well! :)

Jo-Jo said...

I recognize a few of those books from titles I have read with my book club. It's so fun to compare book club lists! It's fun to see that Angry Housewives was a great discussion to their group because that is the one that helped to start my club. Thanks for sharing with us Stacie!

Sherrie said...

Hi!
I have read and reviewed The Westing Game - Ellen Raskin for the Shelf Discovery Challenge. It is posted at my place, Just Books. Have a great day!

Sherrie
Just Books
http://sherriesbooks.blogspot.com/2010/01/review-westing-game.html

Gerbera Daisy Diaries said...

Another great contribution from another great book club!! Thank's for sharing, Stacie!

Amused said...

What a great post! I love to see that you all are coming together and enjoying reading (and getting your baby fix!). Sounds like such fun!

Serena said...

wow her book club read all of those?! great guest post.