Recently in Book Club Category

The Read for Fun (US) book club will meet this Friday (October 21) during lunch in the Loeb Room. The book is I Am Number Four, and those who have already read that can read the sequel, The Power of Six. Both books are on our e-readers and in print too.

The Lower School Guys Read club is reading Son of Neptune which was released on October 4.  We'll meet next Wednesday (October 26) in the Loeb Room during Lower School lunch.  This is the second book in Rick Riordan's second series of action adventures based on Greek and Roman mythology, and we have it on our e-readers and in hard copy.

The US Read for Fun group will meet September 23 in the Loeb Room for lunch.  One book has been nominated so far:  I Am Number Four.  There are also several new series out and doubtless some other nominations will come forth. 

The LS Guys Read group will meet on September 28 during LS lunch, and there will be an interesting discussion about all the series that have added titles over the summer.  Check the new library newsletter for updates on when some other books are appearing.

Mrs. Crosby and Mr. Reese have big plans for their groups this year, too. Check with them to find out!

School is up and running, and our library has seen a transformation over the summer, with new lights, ceilings, carpet, and reference shelves.  We plan to add more furniture over the next two summers and remodel the computer classroom, but the biggest effort is over, and it's been well received by the community. 

Book clubs will be starting in September, and we encourage anyone who is interested to join and attend.  New installments of several series are out, and some major authors have published new books, so be thinking about what you'd like to read!

The LS and US book clubs both met on Wednesday, April 20.  The Lower School group discussed Incarceron by Catherine Fisher.  Several had already read the sequel, Sapphique, and I plan to read it soon.  Of all the series books we've read recently, to me this one has the most satisfying mythology and psychology, although there were times when it was hard to understand, before some of the plot secrets are revealed.

The US club met and discussed Dark Life and also recapped Incarceron and Sapphique.  The author of Dark Life, Kat Falls, says that she wrote the book with her son in mind, since he loves the ocean, the X-Men, and the wild west.  She combined elements of these systems into the rollicking story, and it was well-received by the group.  The sequel will be out next fall.

The book clubs will probably get together to go to a movie at the end of school--two that are coming out are the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie and Thor.  I'll send out emails in May to figure out which, when, and where.

We saw a lot of action today:  both book clubs met, we looked at our new e-readers, had a channel 13 TV crew film the US group using the e-readers, looked at the Volunteer State Book Awards ballot, talked about our books, and picked new books for next month. Whew.

The US club talked about Incarceron, which had some similarities to The Maze Runner and Hunger Games, but took on its own mythology and philosophy.  The sequel, Sapphique, also sounds good based on the review of a couple of members.  For next month, we chose Dark Life by Kat Falls, a book about an undersea bastion of civilization where some sinister events are occurring.  Unfortunately, I can't find an e-book version (Scholastic needs to get on board!), so I'll get extra copies and have a couple at the front desk so they can be checked out over spring break.

The LS group went over Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment and got a preview of the other books in the series from one guy who has read them all several times.  We chose Incarceron, which some of the group had already started reading, for April.  The Maximum Ride series and Incarceron are on the Sony e-readers but not available yet on the Nook, and we have the regular books also. 

Hope everyone has a great spring break, and happy reading! 

We had a good meeting today, with a lot of discussion about our book, Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick. The consensus was that it was a good decision to take on a realistic but funny fiction book for a change, and several of us are planning to read the sequel, After Ever After.

James Patterson has come out with a new book in the Maximum Ride series entitled Angel, so we decided to read the first book in the series, called Maximum Ride: the Angel Experiment.  Our next meeting will be in March, but we'll need to meet on the 23rd, since the 16th falls during Spring Break. 

We revealed our new e-reader project.  We now have two Nooks and two Sony Readers, and our book should be available on both (probably).  We have two copies of the selection as well, so everyone should have a chance to read it in plenty of time.

We met this week to discuss Guards! Guards! by Sir Terry Pratchett.  One of us has read lots of Terry Pratchett books and almost has this one memorized; one had read the book and thought it was brilliant; another person was still reading it; another had started it but couldn't get into it; and another was still planning to read it sometime but hadn't started it.  This pattern is not unusual in the book clubs I've been associated with.  I'm in a book club at my church, and sometimes I don't read the book, but I still attend the meeting because I know I'll find out more about it by hearing other people talk about it.  There's always variety in how much the members have read and in whether they liked it or not.

I thought it would be fun to play a few 2-minute selections from the audiobook version of this one since the reader does a great job and sounds like the Monty Python troupe a lot of the time.  Everyone enjoyed hearing about the dragons, Carrot (our naive hero who may be king some day), and Wonse, the pale wise guy who gets killed when Carrot literally "throws the book" at him.  I wouldn't be surprised if some of us get motivated to read the whole book after hearing it read.  We ran out of time before we could pick our next book, so I've sent an email to all members so they can vote on next month's selection.   

P.S.  The book has been voted on and chosen:  Incarceron by Catherine Fisher.  It will be interesting to compare it with other dystopian books we've read, such as Maze Runner.