A couple of months ago, a colleague of mine told me she wanted to start a book club. I immediately jumped to that idea and we started looking for people to join us. We quickly found 5 more booklovers and so it happened… that on a cold, grey, wet and windy January afternoon, the 7 of us came together for the kick off of our book club! Now the reason why I joined this book club is, that it will really encourage me to read more. I love reading, but the last years I haven’t read all that much… 3 or 4 books a year maybe. A couple of years ago I made it one of my New Year’s resolutions to read one book every two months… I got to three that year… And 2 years ago my daughter and I would read all Jane Austen novels in one year… she succeeded and I failed… big time!

So actually this book club is a bit of a blessing in disguise. It will definitely motivate me to read more… but I will certainly have to go up a gear or two! For our bookclub meetings, we will read 7 books… and I just can’t wait to get going!

How did we decide on the books we will read?

During our first meeting, which was last Saturday, we decided which books we will be reading the coming year. To make that decision, everyone of us brought 3 books we wanted to read or re-read. We all promoted our three books and from each bookclub member one book was chosen.

Which selection did I put forward?

‘Wild Swans: Three daughters from China’ – Jung Chang:

I have read this book nearly 25 years ago. It’s a family chronicle, based on a true story. Reading this book really taught me a thing or two about the Chinese history of the 20th century as the story starts in 1909 and ends in 1978.

The reason why I put up this book is, that I have been meaning to re-read it, but I never came around to do it. The question is… will I like it as much as I liked it 25 years ago?!

‘Evening class’ – Maeve Binchy

There had to be a Maeve Binchy in my selection and here you can read why! She has such a natural way of writing. She really takes you into the story. She has this fantastic way of describing her characters and you just connect with each and everyone of them.

Evening class is a perfect example… it’s about a bunch of people joining an Italian evening class. In each chapter another character is put forward and every character has his or her own contribution to the story. Love it!

‘All the light we cannot see’ – Anthony Doerr

The blind Marie-Laure, lives in Paris with her father who works at the Museum of Natural History. At the age of twelve they need to flee to Saint-Malo. Werner, who grows up in an German orphanage, is a technical wonder. Because of his intelligence he is accepted into an academy for Hitler youth. The stories of Marie-Laure and Werner eventually come together in August 1944 in Saint-Malo.

During the festive season I treated myself to this book, the 2015 Pulitzer-prize winner (fiction) and I have not regretted it! I loved reading this story which is so well written! It is divided into little chapters, which makes it very easy and quick to read.

The writer, Anthony Doerr, takes you on a journey to Paris, Saint-Malo and the orphanage and academy in Germany. He has a very fine way of writing. It is so imaginitive and detailed… I can definitely recommend reading it!

Which books will we read during the next year?

After we all had our say about our three books, we voted for these 7 books to read:

• ‘Not without you’ – Alan and Irene Brogan
• ‘The life-changing magic of tidying up’ – Marie Kondo
• ‘Afterwards’ – Rosamund Lupton
• ‘Gone girl’ – Gillian Flynn
• ‘All the light we cannot see’ – Anthony Doerr (this book was chosen from my selection)
• ‘And the mountains echoed’ – Khaled Hosseini
• ‘The shadow of the wind’ – Carlos Ruiz Zafon

To which book do I look forward to most to read?

I shall put this differently… the book I am least looking forward to reading is ‘Shadow of the wind’, but actually all of the books appeal to me to be honest!

I think we did a really good job in finding different types of books… and secretely I hope that ‘the life-changing magic of tidying up’ will work it’s magic in my life as well 😀

How will our book club actually ‘work’?

The next year we will have regular book club meetings during which we will discuss one of above mentioned books. These meetings will take place in one of our homes. The host will take care of the catering as of course our bookclub meetings go hand in hand with some lovely drinks and sweet or savoury snacks.

The person whose book we will be discussing will prepare a couple of questions concerning the book we have read, just to get the conversation going… but I think we won’t have any problem there 🙂

The book club on my blog

And of course you will be able to follow my book club adventures here on ‘the good, the fab and the lovely’!

After every bookclub meeting, I will fill you in on how we did, which book we discussed, what questions we handled and of course which snacks we ate 😀

I am so looking forward to all these adventures I will be reading and I will certainly take you with me on that ride!

Love, Kathleen