2013 Book Club

It’s no secret on this blog that I love to read. I don’t always do a good job of reporting back on what I’m reading but I do try to always have my nose in a book – except in September when fall TV starts and I need to vet all the new shows … Anyways, my friend Alison keeps me accountable as she reads even more than me! In the past, we tried to decide on a book of the month, which you might remember from here, but that quickly fell to the wayside when our busy lives caught up to us. We want to change that and what better time to do it than with the new year? So, without further ado, I invite you to join us on our 2013 Book Club journey! Feel free to pick and choose which ones you want to join in on, or even read all of them, but hopefully this will help us read more in 2013 than we did in 2012.

The best part about this book club is that we want to span multiple genres and types of books, which is why we’ve decided on a theme for each month. Some are contextual, like a love story in February for Valentine’s day, while others are making sure that we’re reading the classics as much as the contemporary works. This is the list that we came up with:

• January: Best of 2012, because there were so many good books this past year and we’re just chomping at the bit for reasons to read them
• February: A love story
• March: Non-fiction
• April: Classic – no reason to not brush up on your literary must-reads
• May: Summer, to get everyone pumped for the warm weather
• June: Essays. This was one of those different genres that we felt like we should include
• July: History, to get us in the mood for the Fourth of July
• August: Education, because even though we’re not going back to school, we like to pretend like we are
• September: Sports – football season! M-I-Z!
• October: Thriller – boo!
• November: Our favorite books, since we’re thankful for friendship
• December: The holidays! Because of Kwanza, Hanukkah and Christmas – duh

These are obviously not set in stone but give us a good guide as to what to expect for the coming 12 months. What do you think? Is there a genre that we missed? Any books that you recommend?

As for our January BOTM (pronounced “bottom”), we decided to go with “Beautiful Ruins” by Jess Walter. It made three of the most popular “Best Books of 2012” lists and seemed like the perfect note to start the year on. Spanning two continents and fifty years, this novel mixes the glitz of Hollywood with the rustic charm of Coastal Italy to create a novel that is hailed by NPR’s Fresh Air program as a “literary miracle.” Does that not get you excited or what?

Check back at the end of the month to read our thoughts, share your own impressions and get the DL on our pick for February. Happy reading!