Book Club Selection Poll May

[Vanquisher]

Please tell me what book you would like to read first. I hope this is enough to choose from, and that these are good selections.

I will run this poll for a while, and once we have a winner I will let you know this period's book selection. I will also send out (post) an e-vite for the end of July to discuss our selection along with some recipes!

If you have a specific reason for being in favor of a book, please post. Also, if you have a specific reason why you would not like to see a particular book selected, please voice your concerns so that others can see.

We will need a host for September and November. Please volunteer for one of these times. First come first serve. I hope we get a good turnout!

[Sheherezade]

I'll host November. I look forward to reading by the fire again next Fall. (Right now, Spring/end of school/birthdays madness has me overwhelmed. )

[Sheherezade]

For the uninformed (like me!) :

A bit about Angry Housewives

Landvik makes her contribution to the female-friends-sharing-life's-ups-and-downs genre with this saga of suburban Minneapolis housewives who form a book discussion group and found a friendship that spans 30 years. So dysfunctional and dramatic are their lives, so witty and wise are these women, Landvik could just as easily have titled the book Divine Secrets of the Uffda Sisterhood. Thrown together by a harsh winter storm, the women band together to weather the emotional upheavals such long-lasting friendships are bound to encounter. There's fearful Faith, burdened by a secret past; meek Merit, whose marriage harbors secrets literally too painful to reveal; audacious Audrey, whose sexual appetites are far from secret; sassy Slip, protesting social injustices great and small; and kindhearted Kari, a widow longing for someone to end her loneliness. While the group's book selections often mirror what's happening in their lives or the world around them, Landvik's ladies endure the best and worst of times together (and recommend some great reads along the way). --Carol Haggas

Me and Emma:

The title characters in Me & Emma are very nearly photographic opposites--8-year-old Carrie, the raven-haired narrator, is timid and introverted, while her little sister Emma is a tow-headed powerhouse with no sense of fear. The girls live in a terrible situation: they depend on an unstable mother that has never recovered from her husband’s murder, their stepfather beats them regularly, and they must forage on their own for food.
Stop here and you have a story told many times before, as fiction and nonfiction in tales like Ellen Foster, or I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings --stories in which a young girl reveals the horrors of her childhood. Me & Emma differentiates itself with a spectacular finish, shocking the reader and turning the entire story on its head. Through several twists and turns the reader learns that things are not quite the way our narrator led us to believe and everything crescendos in a way that (like all good thrillers) immediately makes you want to go back and read the whole book again from the start. --Victoria Griffith --

and Cider House Rules:

How can anyone not love a book that simultaneously tells a deeply moving and compelling story AND explore the abortion debate with humor and evenhandedness? John Irving is my favorite author and while A PRAYER FOR OWEN MEANY is my favorite Irving title, THE CIDER HOUSE RULES is right up there. I love how deeply Irving knows these characters and how gradually he reveals their quirks and idiosyncracies. He knows and loves them so much, the reader can't help but love the ether-imbibing Dr. Larch and his surrogate son, the orphan Homer Wells. Irving is a consummate storyteller.

All great choices Heidi! I want to read them all.

[SueC]

Good choices Heidi, I went with Me & Emma, though I want to read Cider House Rules as well. I've already read AHEB, which I enjoyed. I'd read it again, if that is the one that is picked, though. It's been a year or so since I read it so it's a little foggy.

[Tenacious_D]

Absolutely love John Irving Novels so I would have to go with Cider House Rules.

[Gwendolyn]

I would steer away from Cider House Rules...only because I worked on the play, and kinda ruins the mystique of fiction to sit through it night after night, but maybe a few years later it might be cool to try out the book...

I voted Me and Emma, out of curiosity...great selection all the way around.

[mommax3]

Me & Emma sounds good to me, too. I have read the Landvik one, and liked it enough to read everything else she has written that I could find. Cider House Rules sounds good, too, but I am more intrigued by the blurb about Me & Emma.

Sally

I voted for me & emma b/c I've read the other two. I love John Irving though. AHEB took me awhile to work through, but I eventually got there.

[Meenah]

I also voted for "Me & Emma" because I have read Cider House.

[Vanquisher]

The voting is really tight! Anyone else have a vote or say?

Guess I picked well! 8)

[Vanquisher]

Does anyone else want to vote?

It looks like it is going to be the Cider House Rules. I will hold off final decision for a few days.

If you haven't voted yet and would like a say or to participate, please do.