The House of God, by Samuel Shem

We have a book number 12!

We will begin reading The House of God, by Samuel Shem immediately.

Let's shoot for a December 17-ish end date.


Hope to see you all in a bit for the Catching Fire and Mockingjay chat! We'll be testing with Google+ Hangout for this chat.

Chat 10/11 and Book 12

The Catching Fire and Mockingjay chat will be Wednesday at 7:30 PST, please make it at your convenience, it will go until about 9 PST.

As for book 12, cast your vote:

A Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void, by Mary Roach

B 11/11/63, by Stephen King

C The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood

D Blue Nights, by Joan Didion

E The House of God, by Samuel Shem

Catching Fire, Mockingjay, and Choosing Our Next Book

Tallyho, Still Thinkers!

To accomodate everyone's schedules, we're going to postpone our chat on Catching Fire and Mockingjay.  Our proposal: the evening of next Monday, November 14th.  Please post your availability for that evening, and propose alternate dates/times if that will not work for you.

In light of the fact that we are a sophisticated group of multitaskers, we also wanted to start our conversation about choosing our next book, which is technically Book 12.  Congratulations for all of the reading we have accomplished, and thank you for your participation!

Just think: that is so many books, you could bake a dozen cupcakes, and decorate each one differently to represent all of the books we have read.  Of course, the twelfth cupcake would be as of yet unfrosted, because we don't yet know what we're reading, so...

Also in the comments, please post your suggestions for our next book!  Without your input, our metaphorical twelfth cupcake will be forlorn and devoid of sprinkles.

Catching Fire and Mockingjay Chat

Our chat for Catching Fire and Mockingjay will be this weekend!

Let us know your availablility below so we can agree on a time and date. Please check back regularly for updates.

Hunger Games, chat in 15 minutes

The Hunger Games chat is at 8pm PST tonight.

If you can't make it, don't worry because there will be more. Although it has not been officially voted on, I think we might wrap up the series over the next couple months.

Hope you can join us!

Hunger Games

Hello friends,

September is falling into October so rapidly, it seems unreal. Since October is just around the corner, I wanted to see how everyone is doing with Hunger Games. Will you be ready chat the first week of October or do you need more time?

I have finished the book, so I would love if we could arrange a chat for the weekend of October 8. Please let me know what your status is, besides where you are in the book if you are reading it, it would also be nice to know if you are sitting this one out? I'd like to know how many people are still interested in the club because that will greatly influence how we choose our next book.

Let me know your status on the book soon, and if you can make a chat for the weekend of October 8. We can settle on date and time at a later date.

Thanks!

Hunger Games

Since I didn't get much input on book selection, I went ahead and chose a book for us based on Amanda's suggestions, and based on what my 8th graders are gonna read (selfish, I know).

Hunger Games is our next read, it should be really interesting and I've heard it is a fast read. Let's shoot for a mid-October discussion date, but depending on where people are in the book as September closes, I may push it back. Stay tuned, and let me know your availability.

Book Nine, suggestions

It is now time to start thinking about what book we'll read next.

We welcome all suggestions, they can be new or old recommendations. Post your suggestions by Wednesday evening and we will narrow the options down to 4-5 choices to vote on beginning Thursday. Final decision will be made Sunday based on the feedback you provide.

Just an FYI- We are looking at an early October chat. That is subject to change based on book length.

Book Eight Chat, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

We had our chat for Rebecca Skloot's The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, this afternoon. Check out the discussion and stay tuned for the next book.

HeLa Chat details

Next chat is scheduled for this weekend.

Let us know which time you prefer:
Saturday 3pm PST
Sunday 3pm PST

I would like to allot plenty of time for discussion as I believe there is much to discuss with this book, so keep that in mind.

I used 3pm as a suggested time, but am willing to switch to a later time if that works better for everyone (keep in mind the 3-hour time difference from EST and PST)

Book Eight: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

After the overwhelming response, we have voted on a new book: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot.

We are looking at having our chat the weekend of August 26-28, so you best be going to Borders ASAP to pick up the book on close-out sale, or download the e-book this weekend.

Leave your availability in the comments section, and if you haven't already given feedback on the book club, do so here.

Book Eight: Pick Your Winner

We are now ready for Book Eight, yay! I know I haven't posted the chat for The Devil in the White City, and I apologize. Google and I have been fighting recently so the chat needs to be copy and pasted from a few chat windows and then I must edit my "argh"s and "Facebook chat is better than you, G-chat!" remarks that really don't pertain to the chat.

So, in the meantime, lets move onto choosing the next book.

Since we went more quickly through Book Seven, and not everyone was able to participate, I thought it might be good to choose from our other Book Seven contenders.

So here are the choices:
1) We Need to Talk About Kevin, by Lionel Shriver
2) The Immortal Life of Henrietta Locks, by Rebecca Skloot
3) City of Thieves, by David Benioff
Cast your vote by Wednesday.

Also, give me some feedback on how the pace of the last book went. Did we spend not enough time reading it? Too much time reading it? Let me know how we can make this book club better. It has been over a year now, lets work on ways to make this experience more enjoyable.

Book Seven: Chat Details

I'll be on today (7/17) at 4pm PST to chat if anyone can make it.

If you are not able to make it, let me know (by leaving a comment on this post) if next Sunday (7/24) at 4pm works.

Book Seven: Devil In The White City

Devil in the White City by Erik Larson is our next read!

If your favorite didn't make the pick this time, just remember that we will be finishing this book around July 17 (leave your availability in the comment section) so we'll be starting a new book soon.

Book Seven: Make Your Vote Count

Time for YOU to help decide what our next book will be.

Something to consider when making your vote...
Since it sounds like a lot of people had time to spare after finishing the last book, I'm deciding to give us less time to read this next book, and thus I think our chat for book seven will be around July 17. I hope this way we'll have time to explore more books together, and our chats will occur when the material is still fresh in our minds.

Now, let's vote. You know the drill. In the comment section list your picks for book seven in order of how excited you are to read them. I narrowed the list down to four based on feedback in the chat and on the site.

1) Devil in the White City, by Erik Larson
2) We Need to Talk About Kevin, by Lionel Shriver
3) The Immortal Life of Henrietta Locks, by Rebecca Skloot
4) City of Thieves, by David Benioff

Vote by Saturday!!! Book choice will be announced late Saturday or Sunday so be ready to dive right into it.

Book Seven: Make Your Recommendations!

Well, gang, it's time to choose our seventh book!  Post ideas in the comments section by Wednesday, and then we'll put it to a vote.

Here are some of the ideas that came up towards the end of our most recent chat:

• Possession, by A.S. Byatt
• Devil in the White City, by Erik Larson
• The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
• The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
• We Need to Talk About Kevin, by Lionel Shriver
• Bossypants, by Tina Fey
• A novel by Philip K. Dick
• Genres: science fiction, fantasy, mystery, non-fiction

Across the Universe Chat Transcript

Thanks to everyone who was able to participate in our most recent chat!  I love how we are able to have a fruitful discussion about such a diverse selection of books.

Read on for the full transcript our our chat, and look out for a second post shortly to solicit recommendations for our next book selection!

Reminder: Across The Universe Chat

We are 9 days away from our "June 24ish" end date for Across The Universe, I just want to check in to and make sure everyone will be ready for it.

Since we haven't decided an exact date and or time, I'm gonna suggest a few for the weekend of the 24th and wait for your feedback.

Our last two chats have been on Sunday evenings, so I'll propose (1) Sunday June 26 at 5pm PST, and then for some variety (2) Thursday June 23 at 7pm PST or (3) Saturday June 25 at 9am PST.

Of course you are always welcome to suggest a different time, and we'll determine what works best for the majority.

Across the Universe

We have a winner after a brief standoff, book six shall be Across the Universe, by Beth Revis.

Let's get the book and begin reading next week. The book is 416 pages, are people ok with a June 24ish end date?

Post your thoughts and availability in the comments section.

Book Six: Let's Vote!

Thanks for the book suggestions, gang.  We have some delightful options, and now it's time to vote!  Please comment to rank your choices by Monday evening, and then we'll settle a reading schedule.

1. Across the Universe, by Beth Revis
2. Delirium, by Lauren Oliver
3. Déjà Dead, by Kathy Reichs
4. Bossypants, by Tina Fey
5. Packing for Mars, by Mary Roach
6. The Dogs of Babel, by Carolyn Parkhurst

Book 6

It is time to pick a new book, yay!

As always, you decide what we read next. Post your suggestions by this Friday (Friday the 13!), and voting will commence over the weekend.

To begin, here are the books that were in the running for book 5:

1. Across the Universe, Beth Revis
2. Delirium, Lauren Oliver

Of course, if you have new recommendations please let us know in the comments section.

A Time To Kill, chat dialogue

We had our chat for Grisham's first novel, A Time To Kill, Sunday evening. Check out the discussion and stay tuned for the next book.

Reminder: A Time to Kill Chat Tomorrow

Our next chat, on John Grisham's A Time to Kill, is scheduled for tomorrow (Sunday, May 8th) at 5 pm Pacific (8 pm Eastern).  I am looking forward to this chat because the book raises a wide variety of issues.  Do you have any questions for discussion that you want to make sure we bring up tomorrow?  Feel free to post them in the comments to this post.  If you haven't finished the book yet, be forewarned that the comments to this post may contain spoilers.

A Time To Kill, chat

This is late notice, sorry. I just realized that after you all posted your availability, I didn't actually give a time to meet. Based on the responses, I'd say Sunday offers the greatest availability.

How does Sunday at 5pm PST sound?

I know it is short notice so if I don't hear enough positive responses to that in this short notice, then I propose moving it to next weekend for the same time. Let me know if either of those times works for you. If Saturday or Friday of next weekend work better, that is another option.

A Time To Kill

We have our new book! John Grisham's novel, A Time To Kill, just beat out Lauren Oliver's, Delirium. It was a good race, but we can only have one winner.

So, pick up a copy of the 672 light-read as soon as possible so we can begin our first mystery-thriller. I'm excited to see how we explore this new genre. Please try to pick up a copy of the book and begin this weekend or early next week.

How does an April 29 end date sound to people? I want to make sure we have adequate time to finish. This is a bit longer than our previous reads, but I'm hoping it'll prove to be a fast read.

So post your availablility for a chat the weekend of April 29.

Book 5

Since there hasn't been much feedback regarding book 5, I've decided to just go ahead and pick a few of the recent suggestions.

1. A Time To Kill, John Grisham
2. Across the Universe, Beth Revis
3. Delirium, Lauren Oliver

Sorry I waited longer to post these choices, I was hoping more people would contribute.

Please rank these choices by tomorrow evening, 3/21. We'll pick a book then, have until Friday to buy it and then start reading next weekend.

Book 5

It's time for a new book, finally!!!!!

Our last read, Shakespeare's Kitchen, did not warrant much praise and overall left people pretty dissatisfied. Before we leave Shakespeare's Kitchen completely, here is a NYTimes article about the book and one of Lore Segal's other books, Her First American, which is actually when the character of Ilka is introduced. Interesting to think that maybe we'd view that character differently if we had met her earlier in a previous book.

Now to decide on Book #5.
Let's start new. You are welcome to suggest a book from our previous lists or suggest something totally new and different. I feel a need to get re-motivated to read so I am open to all suggestions, whether they be thought-provoking or total guilty pleasures, let's have some fun.

Post suggestions below in the comments by 3/17. We'll then compile a list and voting will commence that day and conclude 3/20.

Rescheduled Chat

Since it appears the majority of us have not finished the book, I have decided to re-schedule a chat.

How does March 13th at 7pm work for everyone?

Reminder: Chat

It is almost time for us to discuss Shakespeare's Kitchen. I have heard some mixed reviews from some of you, so I think we'll have plenty to talk about in the next.

Just a reminder our chat is coming up Thursday February 17 at 7pm PST.

If you'll be participating please let me know.

Shakespeare's Kitchen

I don't know about y'all, but finding this book was not easy. I tried to check it out at the library, but it wasn't there. Since time was running out, I went to the bookstore, but they didn't have it either. I finally succombed to amazon.com.

Hopefully everyone has a copy and has started reading. Let's chat Thursday February 17 at 7pm PST, let us know if that works for you.

Book #4 Shakespeare’s Kitchen

Our next read shall be, Shakespeare’s Kitchen by Lore Segal. The book is 240 pages. We'll have until Friday to get the book and take 3-weeks to read. Next chat will be
the weekend of February 19. Please post availability for the 17-21 and we'll settle on a time by 1/28.

Book #4, voting

In order to keep the choices for voting purposes down to 4-5 books, I have narrowed down the selection to the following books:

a) A Room With a View - E.M. Forster
b) The Tipping Point - Malcolm Gladwell
c) Shakespeare’s Kitchen, Lore Segal
d) Babylon Revisited: And Other Stories, F. Scott Fitzgerald
e) Son of Hamas, Mosab Hassan Yousef

Remember to vote by Friday at 3pm PST. As with the last book, order your preferences (1-5). The final choice will be based on how the books score overall based on a point system of 1-5 assigned to rankings (a ranking of 1 has a point value of 5, etc.).

Book #4

As we close one book, we open another!

The current book options are:

a) A Room With a View - E.M. Forster
b) The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson
c) The Tipping Point - Malcolm Gladwell

If you want to add any book to that list, submit your suggestions by Tuesday (1/18) 5pm. Voting will commence Tuesday evening after all the suggestions have been compiled, and Book #4 will announced Friday.

Machine of Death- Chat Stew

We have finished another book together, woohoo! Get ready for the next book, post to vote coming later today. For now, below is the transcript for our Machine of Death chat. It was our biggest chat, yet, and we covered a lot! Even if you haven't finished or started the Machine of Death, you should check out the discussion.

Machine of Death- Chat

It sounds like many of you are really enjoying the book, I'm glad to hear that.

Just want to remind you all that the chat is this Sunday, January 16 at 3pm PST. Please make sure that either Amanda or I have your screen name to invite you to the chat, and RSVP here if you plan to partake in the discussion.

Via Amanda, here are some things to think about for the discussion: "I'm curious to hear what you thought of the format of this book, as a collection of stories that sometimes conflict in their explanations. Which version of the story did you like the best, in terms of the circumstances of when/where one gets tested? The role of government? Cause of death as freedom versus entrapment? Focus on young people in so many of the stories? The role of irony, and the inherent ambiguity of words? Just some thoughts for our pending discussion..."

Looking forward to Sunday.

Machine of Death- good or bad?

I'm enjoying the book so far and I hope everyone else who is able to read it feels the same.

For this first discussion, anyone can respond regardless of whether you are reading the book or not. What I'd like to know is how you feel about having a machine that can tell you how you will die? Do you feel strongly that said machine would cause more harm than good, or are you apathetic? Are there advantages to knowing ahead of time how you will die, or will knowing prevent you from fully experiencing and enjoying life? Share your thoughts and opinions.

For those who are not sure what a "Machine of Death" is, it as a machine that can tell how an individual will die. The machine can give some vague cause of death like "love," or can give something more detailed like "torn apart and devoured by lions." However, the machine does not provide any time or date for when said death will occur. An individual who is said to die by "crack" might stay away from the drug only to die when a crack in the sidewalk causes him/her to stumble and crack his/her head open.