Best Books

The Clinton Library has hosted a monthly book club for over a year. I find it interesting that nearly every month there are one or two participants who love a book, and one or two who hate the book and don't bother to read all of it because they just couldn't get into it. The rest of the group falls in the middle. They perhaps enjoyed the read, but would not go on to read other books by the author, nor would they recommend it to others. Books that I loved and recommended were not necessarily loved by others. I loved Lisa See's Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult.

The one title that our book group read that seemed to have universal appeal was The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. This is a memoir that takes you into the life of a family that lives on the edge. Intelligence and knowledge is valued, but daily needs are often unmet.

We just read and discussed No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith. Most of the group enjoyed the stories about Africa, but we found little to discuss. One of the challenges of choosing book discussion titles is to find books with universal appeal and interesting things to talk about. If anyone has great titles that you would recommend, I'd love to hear from you!