BIC book club!

[prettyinpa]

Some of us here have expressed an interest in a book club, myself, @mermadelove, @LCResz, @ZombieMetroAnt, @Mcakes. If you'd be interested in joining, reply below. My initial thought was to mail the books around but if it means that some people can't participate, then I'm all for dropping that requirement. I'd love this to be a place where we nominate our favorite book and others can read it and comment. Something fun for the new year!  ETA: the booklist:

1. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng (16)
1. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie (16)
3. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (13)
4. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (11)
4. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (11)
4. Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie (11)
7. Exit West by Mohsin Hamid (10)
7. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (10)
7. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (10) Discussion begins 8-13.
7. The Wedding Dress by Rachel Hauck (10) Discussion begin 9-2.
11. The Fault in our Stars by John Green (9) Time to discuss 9-26
11. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (9) Now discussing below.
11. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (9)
11. What Happened by Hilary Clinton (9) Now discussing below.
11. Fall of Giants by Ken Follett (9) Start reading now.
11. The Woman on the Orient Express by Lindsay Ashford (9)
11. milk and honey by Rupi Kaur (9)
18. A Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (8)
18. Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty (8)
18. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (8)
18. Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell (8)
18. Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence (8)
18. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen (8)
18. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (8)
18. The Paper Magician by Charlie Holmberg (8)
18. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien (8)
18. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo (8)
18. Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman (8)
18. The White Queen by Phillipa Gregory (8)

Participants in spoiler

Spoiler

Participants:

PrettyinPA

AlexaSteph

Beadshopgirl

LCResz

Kim888

SoBeautiful

Fatimamummy

ZombieMetroAnt

PalomaFoster

k617

bakeamuffin
Susubee
Skcfan
Lazybeautybeast
SpaceLlama
greeneyedgirl107

Mermadelove
Mcakes
Aaliaa
Serenely
Myinsidevoice
MissPuff
juliehnguyen
lmi82
Knowledgebeauty
Titian06
quspork
darlyndar
KellW
misscg
EuniceO
Elles117
ClassicallyFab
ShiraBT
melanito
Heylady14
ChicagoEngineer
Imightneedthis
PrettyPaint
rachface2921

[itsfi]

@jaaayp, my spoilers for this one just listed some quotes I liked from the book and/or ones that made me think. No plot or ending spoilers.

[jaaayp]

I'll still not spoil and come back this post to see if we twinsie on the quotes @itsfi 🤭😂

[itsfi]

That's a good plan @jaaayp! I love a good quote so I like to post them (and try to pick the ones that don't give things away). It'll be great to hear your thoughts on this one when you are done with the book.

[Mellmars1185]

Oooh, @itsfi you read it! I hope you enjoyed it...or at least gave you something to think about. It definitely did for myself. I love your cookie!! It would definitely be a nice rewardbfor finishing a book!

[itsfi]

I did enjoy the book @Mellmars1185, was rooting for her to find her way. The storyline, her thoughts, and the things that came from her interactions with people were very thought-provoking.

lol, when I saw that cookie, my immediate thought was of this thread. I had to get it, and to snap a photo of it with a book. 

[blackkitty2014]

Just finished these 2. @itsfi @hooked me up with The Last Thing He Told Me. It’s a fast read.  Haven’t seen the movie but I can tell Jennifer Garner would be good in it. 👌  need to start Fourth Wing which I checked out before The Last Thing He Told Me. I have to say I am intimidated by the book length 😂🤣 Wish me luck friends 

[itsfi]

Wow, you went through that quick @blackkitty2014! Do you think you’ll watch the show? 

[blackkitty2014]

@itsfi @I don’t have Apple TV. But I will definitely watch the show when I have access to it. Looks liked a great cast. Good book recommendation 🥰😘👍 

[itsfi]

This and the previous book I read are shows on Apple TV @blackkitty2014 but I’m not sure if I want to get Apple TV. I just don’t think I’ll have time to watch either. Maybe another time.

Glad you liked the book. Not to spoil it, but 

Spoiler Alert (sorta, but not plot wise)

Spoiler

it made me teary at the end. 

[blackkitty2014]

I feel the same way @itsfi . I was secretly wishing for happy reunion but it has to be that way I guess

[ChrissyCon]

i LOVE this. You absolutely have to add Helen Oyeyemi to the list. every single book of hers is fantastic but maybe start with What is Not Yours is Not Yours. It's her collection of short stories and I cannot overestimate how perfect her writing and storytelling is. Also, A Full Sea by Chamg Rae Lee is like nothing i've ever read. in the best way

[itsfi]

The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave  

This is the first book I finished in 2024. I'm off track for meeting my goal of at least one book per month, but I'm up for trying to catch up and get back on track. I technically started reading this book on Thanksgiving Day. Went through 35 pages after dinner was served, guests went home, and dishes were done. Then, the book sat for a good long while; until I picked it back up earlier this week, to be exact, and ended up finishing the remaining 271 pages in a day. This one is a quick read, and given as I came back to it 3 months later, it's one you can set aside (by choice or it just happening) and come back to easily, without really missing a beat. 

Photo credit: Target

Spoiler

Parts of the story take place in the Bay Area and makes reference to places that I've actually been to, which was a nice treat. Compared to the last book I read for leisure, there were less passages or quotes that made me chuckle; maybe one? There were, however, several that made me think on them or that moved me, even after I finished the book, including the following: 

"Einstein said, 'So far as the theories of mathematics are about reality, they are not certain; so far as they are certain, they are not about reality.' ... It basically means, we don't know sh*t about anything."

"How do you explain it when you find in someone what you've been waiting for your whole life? Do you call it fate? It feels lazy to call it fate. It's more like finding your way home - where home is a place you secretly hoped for, a place you imagined, but where''d you'd never before been. Home. When you weren't sure you'd ever get to have one."

"This is the thing about good and evil. They aren't so far apart - and they often start from the same valiant place of wanting something to be different."

[KrissySM]

I enjoyed The Last Thing He Told Me. The show wasn’t bad either! i felt like they stuck pretty close to the book. 

[itsfi]

I love hearing that @KrissySM - that the show stayed close, or fairly close, to the book. 💗

[blackkitty2014]

Oh this sounds interesting @itsfi. I bookmark this 😘

[itsfi]

It's one of those books that you can just breeze through @blackkitty2014. Evidently, it was adapted into a 7-episode TV series, starring Jennifer Garner. On Apple TV. 

[blackkitty2014]

Just finished John Grisham Camino Island

it’s an interesting ending but I like it. I’m reading CJ Box Shadows Reel. I have lots of books to catch up

[itsfi]

Oh, I need to get back to reading some of his novels @blackkitty2014 - going to take a look at which ones I haven't read yet; I'm sure by now there are a lot. I saw that he has another book coming out in June that takes place in the same setting as this book - do you think you'll pick up the next one?

[blackkitty2014]

I eventually will @itsfi . For some dumb reason I thought the whole series was out. Camino Island is a quick read. Camino Ghost is a short one as well. I own both.  I probably go through Camino Ghost real fast. My problem is I read John Grisham years and years ago so some was blurry and I’m not sure which ones I read back in the day so I pick up his most recent books and go backwards 🤣😂

[itsfi]

Hahahaha! I love it @blackkitty2014 - reading a series backwards. Yeah, for a while Grisham was putting out books with some frequency and most of them seemed to have a movie based on it. 

[WinglessOne]

I’ve mostly been rereading old faves, but this month I’ll finally read: 

The Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy by Liu Cixin.

It’s been on my list for a long time, and I wanted to read at least the first novel before watching Tencent’s 2023 TV adaption (I always like to read a novel before watching its TV/movie adaption), but wound up doing neither thing. Now that Netflix will release their own TV adaption, I really gotta start these books. 😅 I’ve been told the novels get into China’s Cultural Revolution, which I assume was heavily censored out of Tencent’s live-action series but might remain in Netflix’s—though Netflix’s trailer makes it look like they took a more global approach to the story. It’ll be very interesting to watch both TV series. But I won’t do that til I’ve read the source material.