After a first year with a few great book choices, we really hit our groove in the next year of the Pennlyn Reads Book Club! It’s hard to pick a favorite year, but this one does contain a few of my all time favorite books!
The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway. So, full disclosure – we decided to do a ‘classic’ to keep things interesting. That was a GROUP decision. I narrowed it down to a few, including this book and a Jane Austen book, we voted, people said they didn’t have a preference, and I picked Hemingway. TSAR is a novel about the ‘lost generation’ following WWI, and is set in Paris and Spain, with a key element being the bullfights in Pamplona, and it’s one of the most classic novels in all of American literature. …and everyone HATED it! I mean, they were good sports, everyone read it, and we tried to talk about it, but it was rough! I (former English teacher), of course, loved it, as this was my second time reading it (the first time was when I was in college and picked it up as a ‘beach read’), and I wanted to talk about the symbolism and historical references, and people just weren’t having it. We made the best of the meeting, and we laughed a lot, but we definitely won’t be doing a Hemingway novel, or probably another classic like this, anytime soon! (I still recommend it!!)
The Light Between Oceans, by M. L. Stedman. This is a good one. It actually made it onto my ‘favorite books’ list. Post WWI, set in Australia, great characters that are complex and brought up a lot of discussion, and a pretty HUGE moral dilemma. This book also has one of the saddest, most poignant scenes I’ve EVER read. People have a tough time with one of the main character’s decisions, but I think – especially after reading that one part – you can’t help but understand where she’s coming from. Email me if you’ve read it – I’m dying to talk about this book again!
The Woman in Cabin 10, by Ruth Ware. After the emotionally A Light Between Oceans, this was a fun read. It’s a pretty fast-paced thriller that has a good story behind it and it keeps you guessing. Definitely a good Halloween read!
Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon. So, after Ernest Hemingway, this is the book I get the most sh*t for selecting. I’m pretty sure we had a few options, and somehow we picked this (I’m pretty sure that was because of the steamy scenes that we heard about, and a few people had seen the cable adaptation). It’s a time-travel of novel, that’s set in 18th century Scotland . There’s a love triangle of sorts, and a lot of magic. It seems kind of ‘out there’ but the story flows and really draws you in. I REALLY liked Outlander, and I actually am partially through the second book in the series, but it was a tough read for a lot of people, mainly because of the detail and the length. The descriptions are a bit much if you’re not into that kind of thing (I am definitely into that kind of thing), and it’s just a really long and complex story, but I really loved the setting, and the story, and the little mysteries, and the magic. It’s fantastic! There are still a few things I’m dying to figure out and I’m looking forward to finishing this next book.
Commonwealth, by Ann Patchett. In this novel, Patchett addresses a topic that is really relatable to a lot of people – divorce, remarriage, blended families, and the stress and turmoil that sometimes comes from it. There’s a lot of ‘reality’ in this book. The characters are very real people, and while you probably won’t like all of them, it’s hard to find one that you don’t identify with in some way. As would be expected, she does a great job of working through the intricacies of those familial situations, and the beauty of the (sometimes unlikely) relationships shines through. We all agreed – this was a really good read.
Reconstructing Amelia, by Kimberly McCreight. In this book, a mother tries to get to the bottom of her daughter’s apparent suicide, finding out some shocking things in the process. Many people in our group are mothers, and it was really interesting hearing their perspectives, for sure. This was also a really special meeting, as we Skype-d with the author, thanks to my cousin who works in publishing! We learned about her thought and writing process, and it was great getting that behind-the-scenes.
The Perfume Collector by Kathleen Tessaro. This was another book that I came across in the local bookshop’s employee recommendations. After a heavy topic in Amelia, it was fabulous to read this story, filled with family secrets, trips to Paris, and stories from another time. It’s an extra special thing if you love perfume – especially French perfume – like I do. You’ll love reading about the process behind the creation of perfumes, and I’m now dying to visit Grasse in France to visit the perfume-flower fields!! We met in a French restaurant that really made this book experience complete!
Difficult Women, by Roxanne Gay. This was a tough read for all of us, and not a favorite. This collection of essays has amazing reviews, and deals with very real topics from a raw, feminist perspective, and it is generally a good, important book. It just wasn’t the right book for our group. Reading this book helped solidify our ‘contemporary fiction’ focus.
All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr. I can’t say enough about how much I love this book. There was a lot of buzz surrounding it for good reason – it won the Pulitzer for fiction in 2015, among several other awards, and it is easy to tell, even from the first few pages, that it is an amazing work of literature. With this book we’ve observed the birth of a new classic. It is the story about a young French girl and a young German boy whose paths intertwine during the WWII Nazi invasion of France. St. Malo – a tiny, walled city on the coast in Normandy – is also a key element in the story and sort of a character itself. Thanks to Doerr, St. Malo is high on my list of travel destinations! What a unique, special place. This book is incredibly detailed, gentle yet impactful, and unbelievably beautiful. The plot’s slowly rising action unfolds in thin layers, with a few separate storylines tying together perfectly in the end. I remember closing the book after I read the final page, and just taking a deep breath and sitting there for a while. This book leaves a lasting impression.