I thought I'd start a thread dedicated to books we want to consider for next year. This is inspired by Merty's suggestion of "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle."

When my turn to host was coming up, I was not sure about what everyone wanted to read. This would be a place to track our interest for future reads.

Suggestions welcome!!!

Great idea LeeAnn and Merty! I love to think about what books to read. More later...

That is a great idea, LeeAnn and Pam, because I am always going to booksense, barnes and noble or amazon checking out the bestseller lists and seeing what is "new" to read, don't know why I do that as I have a overstuffed bookshelf, but I love the "buzz" on a new book. I immediatley read Water for Elephants and Suite Francaise when they came out and I totally LOVED these books so that's why I am a new book geek. It seems like I'm always looking for a book that totally sweeps me away with a great story, setting or characters like my beloved Pillars and Atonement so thanks for starting this and I will be keeping my eyes out for any new book buzz in the upcoming months!

I kind of like the idea of doing a book now and then that is a 'group choice', especially w/ all the positive comments about Edgar Sawtelle.

That's great, Mar! I also thought it would be useful for someone who is trying to figure out what book to host for her month. When mine was coming up, I wasn't sure what everyone would be interested in. Something like this might be helpful!

This might be interesting?


Where the River Ends
by Charles Martin

He was a fishing guide and struggling artist. She was the beautiful only child of a powerful senator. Yet once Doss Michaels and Abigail Grace Coleman met, they each felt they’d found their true soul mate.

But 10 years into their marriage, when Abbie faces a life-threatening illness, the couple steals away in the middle of the night to embark upon a 130-mile trip down the St. Mary’s River --- a voyage Doss promised Abbie in the early days of their courtship.

I loved Drowning Ruth.

So Long at the Fair
by Christina Schwarz

As in Drowning Ruth, Christina Schwarz weaves past and present into a richly textured portrait of the secrets and deceptions that simmer beneath everyday life in a small Midwestern town. With page-turning intensity and in prose at once lush and precise, she beautifully conjures the emotional labyrinth of a marriage on the brink of collapse and proves that no matter how hard we work to stifle them, the secrets of the past refuse to be ignored.

How about Wally Lamb? Author of "I Know This Much is True" and "She's Come Undone" has a new book coming out this November! It's titled, "The Hour I First Believed: A Novel."

About the book;
"When 47-year-old high school teacher Caelum Quirk and his younger wife Maureen, a school nurse, move to Littleton, Colorado, they both get jobs at Columbine High School. In April, 1999, Caelum returns home to Three Rivers, Connecticut, to be with his aunt who has just had a stroke. But Maureen finds herself in the school library at Columbine, cowering in a cabinet and expecting to be killed, as two vengeful students go on a carefully premeditated, murderous rampage.
Miraculously, she survives, but at a cost; she is unable to recover from the trauma. Caelum and Maureen flee Colorado and return to an illusion of safety at the Quirk family farm in Three Rivers. But the effects of chaos are not so easily put right, and further tragedy ensues.

While Maureen fights to regain her sanity, Caelum discovers a cache of old diaries, letters, and newspaper clippings in an upstairs bedroom of his family’s house. The intriguing story they recount spans five generations of Quirk family ancestors, from the Civil War to Caelum’s own troubled childhood. Piece by piece, Caelum reconstructs the lives of the women and men whose legacy he bears. Unimaginable secrets emerge; long buried fear, anger, guilt, and grief rise to the surface. As Caelum grapples with unexpected and confounding revelations from the past, he also struggles to fashion a future out of the ashes of tragedy. His personal quest for meaning and faith becomes a mythic journey that is at the same time quintessentially contemporary--and American.

THE HOUR I FIRST BELIEVED is a profound and challenging work of fiction. And Wally Lamb proves himself a virtuoso storyteller, assembling a variety of voices and an ensemble of characters rich enough to evoke all of humanity."

LeeAnn,at first I was like ,I don't want to read something about shooting sprees,but leave it to you to find something that looks like a good read. Sounds good.

Pam,

Publisher's Weekly calls this book a disappointment! Will have to wait to see what others say about it. Just my opinion anyway. Her second book was not that good but Drowning Ruth was outstanding, I read it twice! And I don't do that often.

quote:

Originally posted by Pam:
I loved Drowning Ruth.

So Long at the Fair
by Christina Schwarz

As in Drowning Ruth, Christina Schwarz weaves past and present into a richly textured portrait of the secrets and deceptions that simmer beneath everyday life in a small Midwestern town. With page-turning intensity and in prose at once lush and precise, she beautifully conjures the emotional labyrinth of a marriage on the brink of collapse and proves that no matter how hard we work to stifle them, the secrets of the past refuse to be ignored.

quote:

How about Wally Lamb? Author of "I Know This Much is True" and "She's Come Undone" has a new book coming out this November! It's titled, "The Hour I First Believed: A Novel."

I love Wally Lamb! I'd be open to try his new one..

quote:

Publisher's Weekly calls this book a disappointment!

That's too bad! It looked like it had potential.

HOW TO TALK TO A WIDOWER


AUTHOR: Jonathan Tropper

SUMMARY: "Beautifully crafted", "Fantastically funny." "Compulsively readable." Jonathan Tropper has earned wild acclaim—and comparisons to Nick Hornby and Tom Perrotta—for his biting humor and insightful portrayals of families in crisis and men behaving badly.

Now the acclaimed author of The Book of Joe and Everything Changes tackles love, lust, and lost in the suburbs—in a stunning novel that is by turns heartfelt and riotously funny.

Doug Parker is a widower at age twenty-nine, and in his quiet suburban town, that makes him something of a celebrity—the object of sympathy, curiosity, and, in some cases, unbridled desire. But Doug has other things on his mind. First there's his sixteen year-old stepson, Russ: a once-sweet kid who now is getting into increasingly serious trouble on a daily basis. Then there are Doug's sisters: his bossy twin, Clair, who's just left her husband and moved in with Doug, determined to rouse him from his grieving stupor. And Debbie, who's engaged to Doug's ex-best friend and manically determined to pull off the perfect wedding at any cost.

Soon Doug's entire nuclear family is in his face. And when he starts dipping his toes into the shark-infested waters of the second-time around dating scene, it isn't long before his new life is spinning hopelessly out of control, cutting a harrowing and often hilarious swath of sexual missteps and escalating chaos across the suburban landscape.

"HOW TO TALK TO A WIDOWER
AUTHOR: Jonathan Tropper"

Pam, this looks really good. I checked it out on Amazon and looked at the other books he has written. They look great too! "The Book of Joe" seems really interesting!!

We could use a comedy.