Well, it’s July… and we’ve got tons to talk about this month!
First of all, yours truly (el presidente) became a Goodreads Librarian. No big deal. I also figured out that the UBC anniversary is October 3rd, so this coming October will be our third anniversary! A celebratory party is order, obviously. I also found a really old Excel document revealing that our first meeting had nine members and six of which are still in book club (although one of them is leaving us soon… more on that later).
I also finally wrote a much-requested series of book club “how to” posts – how to start a book club, how to run a book club meeting, and how to make your book club successful. This comes as a great time since we have an Atlantic Chapter and Colorado Chapter potentially starting up! UBC goes international, y’all…
Moving on to something more sentimental… we stumbled upon this amazing article in the Washington Post about a book club – just like ours -that has been going strong for 50 years. I laughed, cried and thanked my lucky stars for my amazing book club girls! They’ve read 600 books! Incredible.
We also want to say a massive thank you to all our readers. Since we started this little blog in October (around our two-year anniversary), our readership has exponentially increased. Thank you thank you thank you!
Now that all that jazz is out of the way… let’s get to the point of this post – our new book pick! We met at The Buzz on Bank Street last night to discuss Kristy’s pick, Me Before You. It was our 33rd meeting, but it was our first at a restaurant/bar (we always meet at a member’s house). Thankfully it worked out pretty well!
Kristy will post a recap of our discussion and thoughts on Me Before You shortly, but in the mean time you can all get excited for July’s book – Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov!
You might recall the above photo and the post where I bid farewell to Sian in January. Well… she’s the girl who cried wolf, because she moved back to Ottawa, if only temporarily. Now we’re sending her off again (for real this time), to Dalhousie Law School in Halifax. We thought it appropriate that she pick a book before she left us. This is her third pick (because she’s a founding member), having previously chosen The Many Lives and Secret Sorrows of Josephine B. and The Sense of an Ending. She has a great book-picking track record, and plans to team up with Brigitte to start the Atlantic Chapters of the UBC.
As for the Colorado Chapter I mentioned, unfortunately another member is off to conquer bigger and better things – Niamh is moving to Colorado for grad school. We’ll miss her dearly but are hoping she’ll read along with us!
That’s all for this month! What are you reading this summer?
Alexandra Reid
Alyssa Fowler
Sarah Manley
Brigitte Hartt
Brittany Hinds
Catherine Kitts
Denise Schroeder
Erin Hopkin
Julia Kent
Kristy Conners
Mary Anne Carter
Miranda D'Aiuto
Meghan Brown
Kristina Alexandra
Sian Laing
whitneybeaver
Yael Berger
Yvonne Langen
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Lolita is a wonderful choice for July – I’ve just read and reviewed it myself. (My own, twisted logic tells me it’s a summer read, and therefore now is the perfect time to read it). Very much looking forward to hearing what y’all think about it. If you’d like to read my own thoughts on the book, they’re here, although I can’t promise they make any real sense 🙂 Anyway, enjoy Lolita this month – it’s one of my favourites.
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Matthew, a lot of us are finding it really hard to get through… you have to think about every sentence! It’s not exactly an easy, summer read, is it?
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Ha, no it’s not an easy read any time of the year (although still a sumptuous one, I think).
Here was my own warped reasoning for deciding it was a summer read:
There are two reasons that this is a summer read for me. Firstly, I always read it in summer, which I think we’ll all agree is reason enough for it now to be associated, universally, with sunny days from this day forward. And secondly, and perhaps more convincingly, the iconic images from the book, for me, are the early passages with little Lo frolicking in her back yard, and ‘seducing’ Humbert in the heavy summer heat before being dispatched to that most American of institutions, the Summer Camp.
From my July reading plan: http://www.bibliofreak.net/2013/06/reading-plan-july-2013.html
Is it just the prose you’re struggling with at the moment?
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Haha, good reasons indeed!!!
Yes, I think most of the members are having trouble with the prose. Which is unfortunate. A few are going to cheat and watch the movie. I hear it’s good – have you seen it?
Normally, at our meetings, we only have a couple girls who didn’t get a chance to read/finish the month’s book. I fear our meeting on August 10th will have quite a few girls admitting they didn’t get through Lolita!
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That is a shame – it’s gorgeously written, but I do agree, is a commitment on the reader’s part. Which film? I’ve seen the Kubrick version, which was ok, but didn’t quite capture the book for me. Still a really good film in and of itself though. Peter Sellers is great as Quilty.
I always advocate finishing a book, although I don’t think ‘Lolita’ becomes any easier to read, and the plot is not the most important part of the book, so knowing where the story goes might not be reason enough to keep going.
Do drop by my review, and let me know what you thought of the book when you’ve finished – I’m always interested to hear what worked or didn’t for other people. 🙂
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