Despite the number of great titles our Book Baggers group has read in the past, there is definitely no shortage of new books we’d like to tackle next. Our group recently held our December meeting and didn’t talk about one single book – we talked about a LOT of them! We set about compiling a list of all of our suggestions while enjoying some cookies and other tasty treats. Even with my trusty whiteboard and marker in tow, I struggled to fit all of our ideas on the board!
Our book suggestions definitely covered a wide range of topics and time periods. Some of us suggested old favorites, while others mentioned books they were eager to read. There were a couple of things to keep in mind as we whittled the list down. We decided we wanted a mix of contemporary books along with some older classics. The group also wanted to make sure we read a few non-fiction titles.
Once we voted on our top choices, we set about devising a schedule – also a bit of a task! Some things were easy to decide, like reading “Bless Me, Ultima” for March – it’s the selection for the Big Read and the library will be offering lots of additional related programming. There is definitely still time to start reading our previously chosen January selection of “Moby Dick” but our first brand new selection of 2012 will be “Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet.” We’ll be discussing that at our February meeting. You can always check out the upcoming schedule as well as books we’ve read in the past at our JMRL Wiki page, but here is also a list of our upcoming books:
February: Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet – Jamie Ford (2009)
March: Bless Me, Ultima – Rudolfo A. Anaya (1972)
April: People of the Book – Geraldine Brooks (2008)
May: Infidel – Ayaan Hirsi Ali (2007) non-fiction
June: The Good Priest’s Son – Reynolds Price (2006)
July: The Hare with Amber Eyes – Edmund de Waal (2011) non-fiction
August: The Daughter of Time – Josephine Tey (1951)
September: Tropic of Cancer – Henry Miller (1934)
October: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks – Rebecca Skloot (2011) non-fiction
November: We the Drowned – Carsten Jensen (2011)
[no December selection – meet to pick books for 2013]
January 2013: Bleak House – Charles Dickens (1853)