BOOK CLUB IS BACK!

Yeah, that's right....we're back! The latest book is going to be The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht, one of my new favorites. The meeting will be held at Seabury on Saturday, September 24th at 3:00 pm. The location will be changing around a lot, and since this one isn't held at a cafe/restaurant, I'm bringing cookies for everyone. Here's the book summary:

I'm really excited to get the book club back and running again. More updates to come :)

Enjoy!

Until next year!

Hey everyone!

So, the About a Boy book club meeting was the last one for this school year! It's been amazing experience doing this, and I'll be continuing next year. I probably won't be updating much over the next several months, though I may post occasionally about what I'm reading over the summer. If you read anything you like this summer please let me know--I'm happy to take suggestions.

Thanks, and until then,

Laura

Temporary location

Hello!

So, the temporary location of the next book club has been confirmed: Casanova's Deli. The table in the back will be reserved, and I think it'll be a nice place to have it. The date and time are still the same, so see you then!

Book Five!

Hey there!

I'm super behind on posting, but just wanted to post up here that the next book is About A Boy by Nick Hornby. It's incredibly funny--Hornby's a British author, and I love the dry wittiness of British humor. It's a great read--short, light but actually very serious under the humor. I really enjoyed reading it, and I have a feeling that others will as well. The meeting will be held on April 16th at 3:00.

Unfortunately, the Borders on Dairy Road will be closing within the next couple months, so this blog is probably going to have to get a name change and the club relocated. For now I'm thinking Seabury as the place to host it--if another bookstore (Barns and Noble? I've heard it might be them) is put inside the Borders building it'll probably go there. It looks like this book club can still be held at Borders, but it may be the last one there.

Enough of this, however...go read!

See you then!

Laura

Tomorrow's the day!

Hey there!

So the book club meets tomorrow at a new time, 3:00! It's going to be a really great meeting; I can't wait to see everyone there!

See you tomorrow!

Laura :)

Book #4!

Hey everyone!

The last meeting went really really well, a lot of people showed up and it was a great discussion. Thanks to everyone who came!

So here it is, book #4! It's The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls. It's an absolutely amazing memoir about her life, growing up with an alcoholic father and an artist mother, both free-spirited people with a total disregard for giving their kids a normal life. The stories she tells are crazy, funny, sad and sometimes horrifying, but she never complains once. Her love for her parents, strange and even neglectful as they were, is obvious, and it's such an incredible book.

The meeting is February 26th at 3:00!

See you there!

Laura

Oops! Sorry I'm a bit late! Here it is...book #3!

The book is I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak (as I said earlier) and the meeting is going to be on Saturday, January 15 (2011!) at 2:00 pm.

I know I say how excited I am for every book, but seriously, I'm really excited for this one. I, being a book nerd who loves to re-read books, have actually read this several times, and I love it. It's hilarious, beautiful, mysterious and touching. And it's SHORT. I'm really pleased with the reaction so far to this book, a lot of people seem especially interested, as it is a book that can appeal to a wide range of people, especially teenagers. (The length helps too). I'm stoked to see the turnout and reaction to this, so get reading!

Love,

Laura

Yay!

Why am I excited? Well, the meeting yesterday went great! More people showed up than I expected, and the conversation was good, which totally made my day :) I'm also very excited about the next book, Markus Zusak's I Am the Messenger which I think a lot of people are going to enjoy. I'll post more about it later.

Until then,

Laura

It's really quite simple, actually....

YOU
MUST
READ
THIS
BOOK

That's right, Cutting for Stone is one of the best books I've read in a while. I just finished it today, and I was absolutely blown away. It was one of those books that you sneak glances at to read even when you have no time, simply because it's such a great read. You still have time to start it if you want to come to book club, I'm hoping to have a better turnout this time!

Seriously, read this book.

Now. (Please)

--Laura

P.S. Oh yeah....read it. Did I mention that?

Well, are you reading yet?

You SHOULD be....for a variety of reasons:

1) The book is absolutely amazing
2) There's a month left until the meeting, and it is a bit long
3) It's engaging, compelling and extremely interesting
4) You should at least start reading so that you can be there
5) The book is fantastic
6) You need to be there (there perhaps might be cookies)
7) If you don't go, you kinda suck
8) The book is seriously good
9) Cookies (I feel this point needs repeating), conversation and extra credit (where applies for the last one)

Need I say more? Amazing people are going to be there...and you know that you, person reading this, are one of those people.

Be there. You have a month. Now read!

--Laura

Announcing Book #2....

Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese! I'm excited about this one; I've heard some amazing things about this book. Although I thought I was only going to select books that I'd already read, I got such great feedback whenever I heard this book mentioned that I knew it would be a good choice. I'm a bit over a hundred pages in right now and I'm really enjoying it. It's a long book, but it seems to go by quickly. The medical aspect of the book is particularly interesting, and I'm already engrossed. The meeting will be Saturday, Novemeber 20 at 2:00 pm. Get reading!

--Laura

First meeting!

We had the very first meeting today, and I had a fantastic time. The turnout was pretty low (only the amazing Ms. Davis and Ms. Pirsch showed up) but we had a great discussion. I'll be working out the next book and meeting very soon, and hopefully I'll work it out so that extra credit could be an option. (Yay for bribery!) You'll be hearing more soon!

--Laura

GET EXCITED!

Yeah, that's right! Guess what's going down tomorrow? Oh, only the very first meeting of the Borders Young Adult Book Club! It's going to be really really fun, I'm super excited about this! See you then!

--Laura

One week to go!

Hey everyone!

One week to go until the very first meeting on October 2nd at 2:00! Hope to see you there, it's going to be great!

--Laura

And the first book is......(drum roll, please!)

......The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon! It's one of my all-time favorite books and an incredible read that quite fulfills my desire for my first book to be an amazing one. I've planned the meeting for Saturday, October 2nd at 2:00 pm. I'll be announcing the book early next week. I'm so excited! It's an incredible book, everyone should read it! (On a random note, I've never seen the cover picture I have posted, but it's the coolest one I've seen for the book) So, what's this excellent, amazing, fantastic book about? See below! (I've edited it a bit in case of spoilers):



"At the first light of dawn in postwar Barcelona, a bookseller leads his motherless son to a mysterious crypt called the Cemetery of Forgotten Books. This labyrinthine sanctuary houses the books that have lost their owners, books that are no longer remembered by anyone. It is here that ten-year-old Daniel Sempere pulls a single book-The Shadow of the Wind-off of the dusty shelves to adopt as his own. With one fateful turn of a page, he begins an adventure that will unravel another man's tragedy and solve a mystery that has already taken many lives and will shape his entire future.

When Daniel speaks with Gustavo Barceló, a local booktrader, to find out more about his new treasure, word begins to spread that he has uncovered a long-sought rarity, perhaps the only copy of any of Julián Carax's works in existence. Soon after, a mysterious stranger whom Daniel recognizes as Laín Coubert, the leather-masked, cigarette-smoking devil from Carax's novel, propositions Daniel, offering to buy the book from him for an astronomical price. Daniel refuses, in spite of the man's thinly veiled threats. With the help of his bookselling friends, Daniel discovers that Laín Coubert has cut a swath of destruction through two countries, methodically searching for and destroying all of Carax's books while erasing every trace of Carax's life.

Daniel is swept up in unraveling the great mystery of the author's short but wretched life, an epic of two Barcelona families devastated by a secret no one could have guessed. Only when a woman is brutally murdered for trying to reveal the truth, and Fermín is framed for the crime, does Daniel begin to understand that the threat to his life is very real. And what begins as a young bibliophile's hobby turns into a diabolical murder mystery that, if Daniel is not careful, may write his own tragic ending."

--from http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides3/shadow_of_wind1.asp

Home sweet home!

Why, hello there! Guess who's back on island? Well, me...the new Book Club girl. I've brought a few friends in tow, from England, Italy, and Spain--new books! I'm really excited to be back and get things going! I'm already starting to think about possible options for my first book (yikes, pressure!) and I want to choose a really really good one. (Being in Barcelona and re-reading an old favorite for the zillionth time may have inspired me to make a very predictable choice....). So I'll be mulling and debating by myself and also getting some advice from my amazing advisers at school (mainly Ms. Davis and Ms. Pirsch). I plan on making calls and getting things together, beginning in the next few days, so that when school starts up I'll already be ahead on this. I'm planning on making announcements in several assemblies to get interest up and encourage more people to come, including more of the Middle School. I can't wait to get going; you'll be hearing more from me soon!

Laura

P.S. Like the new blog template? I love it; I saw it and just couldn't resist! :)

And so the crown has been passed...(the new girl says hi)

Hi there, everyone and anyone who's reading this....

The wonderful Sararose has turned this blog and the leadership of the Borders Young Adult Book Club over to me (Laura) to run for my remaining two years at Seabury. Needless to say, I am so incredibly excited to start this. I hope I can somehow fill Sararose's shoes, as she was great, and a million thanks to her for getting this off the ground and so well established...it sure makes my life a lot easier. I just wanted to say hello and take over things, I probably won't be updating this until after summer vacation, as I'm going to be away. I'm sure I'm going to read tons of books over the break and get quite a few suggestions, so I'm really excited to see what the first book under my reign will be. If you have any ideas, feel free to email me or contact me on Facebook. See you later!

Last Meeting Under My Reign

So my final day has come.

At 3 today, I will hand over this website to a fellow reading fanatic and friend. I know she will do great with this book club, maybe better.

I will be keeping in touch. And COMMENTING! And i will definitely try to read all the books she chooses for you guys to read. I am now becoming a member and not a leader. But happily in a way. I am going on to different things and I know the Book Club will be in good hands.

Well, who's ready for the discussion on Middlesex!

Lets hope I am, I did write a 10 page analytical paper on it...

See you guys at 2! (For the last time :( )

Sararose

Everything is Decided!

Finally, our next meeting time has been decided.

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Saturday May 22, 2010
2:00 pm
Big Borders

Also, after this meeting, I will be bowing down and handing over the book club to Laura Mayron. She's enthusiastic and loves reading more than I do. She's very eager to start and I'm almost convinced to just give it to her now.
Well, both Laura and I will be there, hope to see all of you.

STOP!

Please stop reading that book! I thought I would never have to do this, but I'm changing our book. Please stop reading Snow and pick up Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides.
This bring me to an interesting topic on how books pick their readers, which I may elaborate at our meeting. I was really excited to read this book, it sounded great. But as started it, I just couldn't get into it. I found the aspect of the suicide girls interesting, but the political views it was influenced by is not my forte.

So, I move on Middlesex. I apologize if this inconveniences anyone.
If you want, if you're really enjoying Snow, then you can continue with it and we can compare and contrast it to Middlesex. That should be interesting. Let me know.

I still haven't picked a date. I gotta look at that school calendar, make sure everyone can come.
Hope you enjoy the new book.