Last night we had our selection meeting where we nominate and vote on 12 new titles for the upcoming year. It is always such a lively and laughter-filled evening and I come home jazzed--a slew of "extra" titles to add to my personal reading list.
I just love how this group gets me to read things I wouldn't ordinarily pick up, they make me think and evaluate more deeply, and though Christians, we are still quite diverse in our backgrounds and perspectives. And I love that.
I'm listing these by the month in which they will be discussed, along with a brief description.
Let me know if you've read any of these and what you think! (No spoilers though, please.)
MARCH
The Ditch Digger's Daughters by Yvonne S Thorton
(Memoir; the importance of education, hard work and family values)
APRIL
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
(Classic; 1890's, morality, narcissism, the soul)
MAY
Brat Farrar by Josephine Tey
(Mystery; British, impostor, inheritance)
JUNE
An Invisible Thread by Laura Schroff and Alex Tresniowski
(Non-fiction; busy sales executive meets 11 yr. old panhandler)
JULY
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
(Young Adult Fiction; German girl and her foster parents, books, hiding Jewish man, surviving WWII)
AUGUST
In The Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner
(Autobiographical Fiction; 7 yr. old girl, coming of age, Cambodian civil war)
SEPTEMBER
The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
(Fiction; foster care, San Francisco, the meaning of flowers)
OCTOBER
The Girl With No Name: The Incredible Story of a Child Raised by Monkeys by Lynne Barrett-Lee and Marina Chapman
(Biography; child trafficking, human-animal relationships, Colombia)
NOVEMBER
Still Alice by Lisa Genova
(Fiction; college professor, early onset of Alzheimer's)
DECEMBER
Crazy Busy by Kevin DeYoung
(Christian Living; getting to the root of busyness)
JANUARY
One Light Still Shines: My Life Beyond the Shadow of the Amish Schoolhouse Shooting by Maria Monville
(Memoir; wife of Nickle Mines shooter, God's redemptive love)
FEBRUARY
Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo
(Nonfiction; society and culture, urban poverty, India)
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And just because we debated long and hard over this one, (but no one had read it), anyone have anything to say about Watership Down by Richard Adams? All we know is that it is 520 pages, and an adventure fantasy about rabbits. :)
Let's just say some of us were seriously intrigued by that description, and others of us were laughing hysterically!
