The NYC Sunday Brainy Book Club

Read a good book. Meet new and interesting people who've read it too. Feed your brain...and your stomach.

For a list of our past reads, please see the calendar or the photo album. Our focus is on finding worthwhile literature and still covering a variety of eras, countries and fiction (and once in a while, non fiction) genres. We try to find books that are a manageable length (200-350 pages) and that make us think.

(Our members are well-educated, but note that the majority of us do not have english/literature degrees. We are just smart people who like a good book and meeting new friends.)

We sit in smaller groups at the restaurants - usually 4-8 people per table, so that everyone can participate in a friendly, pressure-free environment and get to know the others at their table.

Helpful hints:

As we continue to grow, keeping a manageable size and a good balance of old and new members is important to us...which is why we ask you to please fill out the profile questions in order to be fairly considered for membership. (We also require current, identifiable photos for all members in order to join, and to be maintained thereafter).

Our policies are now found at the "Pages" link, and are enforced.

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Meetup

Featured Meetup

March Brunch - Death With Interruptions (Jose Saramago)
- Sun Mar 11
  12:15 PM
- RSVP 4 spots
  left
- 16 attending
- 0 comments
RSVP deadline:

Mar 8, 2012 12:00 PM
Needs a location

Coming soon!
Saramago is another author that has been on my list for a while - and we've never done a Portuguese book in our 5+ years of this group. I'm told his writing style may take a few chapters to get used to, but since he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1998 I think we should do it! Even the reviewers seem to diverge on what the most... Learn more

Hosted by: rachel (Organizer)
Meetup
April Brunch - Season of Migration to the North (Tayeb Salih)
- Sun Apr 15
  12:15 PM
- → RSVP
- 4 attending
- 14 spots left
- 0 comments
RSVP deadline:

Apr 11, 2012 12:00 PM
Needs a location

Coming soon!
So as much as I wanted to pick an American or British book for April, this little 140 page novel from the former Sudan spoke the loudest to me and won out. Selected in... Learn more

Hosted by: rachel (Organizer)
Meetup
May Brunch - A Death in the Family (James Agee)
- Sun May 20
  12:15 PM
- RSVPs not open yet
- 1 attending
- 17 spots left
- 0 comments
Sign-ups open:

Mar 4, 2012 9:00 AM
Needs a location

Coming soon!
A Death in the Family won James Agee a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1958. The novel was included on Time's 2005 list of the 100 best English-language novels... Learn more

Hosted by: rachel (Organizer)
Meetup
June Dinner - Little Infamies (Panos Karnezis)
- Sun Jun 24
  6:15 PM
- RSVPs not open yet
- 1 attending
- 17 spots left
- 0 comments
Sign-ups open:

Apr 8, 2012 8:45 AM
Needs a location

Coming soon!
Let's start the summer with some widely praised (see below) black dramedy from Greece. The book is made up of short stories that all take place in the same village. "... Learn more

Hosted by: rachel (Organizer)

Recent Meetups

February 12 at 12:15 PM, 7 NYC Brainy Readers attended
February Brunch - My Life as a Fake (Peter Carey)
They rated it 5.002 (2 ratings)

Prize-winning Australian author Peter Carey's name keeps popping up on my radar, but many of his books are sadly a little too long for our group. This one, shortlisted... Learn more
January 8 at 12:15 PM, 11 NYC Brainy Readers attended
January Brunch - Something Wicked This Way Comes (Ray Bradbury)
They rated it 4.002 (2 ratings)

“
I had a really good time this month. ...

—rachel

“
Book was actually a lot more complex than initially thought. Loved the discussion.

—Johan Martin
December 11, 2011 at 12:15 PM, 8 NYC Brainy Readers attended
December Brunch - The Power and the Glory (Graham Greene)
They rated it 5.001 (1 ratings)

"How does good spoil, and how can bad be redeemed? In his penetrating novel The Power and the Glory, Graham Greene explores corruption and atonement through a priest and... Learn more
November 13, 2011 at 12:15 PM, 7 NYC Brainy Readers attended
November Brunch - The Book of Laughter and Forgetting (Milan Kundera)
They rated it 5.001 (1 ratings)

"In one of the finer modern ironies of the life-imitates-art sort, the country that Kundera seemed to be writing about when he talked about Czechoslovakia is, thanks to... Learn more
October 16, 2011 at 12:15 PM, 9 NYC Brainy Readers attended
October Brunch - Cranford (Elizabeth Gaskell)
They rated it 4.001 (1 ratings)

"Cranford is a humorous account of a nineteenth-century English village dominated by a group of genteel but modestly circumstanced women. By eschewing the conventional... Learn more

See all past Meetups

What's new

New Member

Dennis Badenhop joined
Yesterday at 11:46 PM

"Hi, I'm Dennis, PhD student from Berlin, who is going to live in NY for a while. Hoping to meet new people around here and eager to add some literary spice to my dry dealings with contemporary analytical philosophy."
New Member

Anthony Macchiarulo joined
Wednesday at 5:20 PM

"Hi, like most of you I also am an avid reader, but mostly non-fiction. Hence, the reason I would like to join this group"
New Member

rachel joined
Wednesday at 11:48 AM

"I'd love to be part of a brainy club that reallly tears into a book and it's themes. I'm a certified nerd via American Mensa and my affinity for quiz shows."
New comment

Edward Rosenfeld commented on February Brunch - My Life as a Fake (Peter Carey)
February 11 at 10:42 AM

"Hi Will be there. Really enjoyed the book. Look forward to your opinions."

Read more…
New comment

rachel commented on February Brunch - My Life as a Fake (Peter Carey)
February 10 at 7:45 PM

"Hi all - just a reminder that the deadline to confirm is Saturday at noon. So far I only have 5 (including me) confirmed for Sundays meetup. Stay warm and hope to hear from you soon!! Thanks to all for your help."

Read more…
New comment

rachel commented on February Brunch - My Life as a Fake (Peter Carey)
February 4 at 10:46 PM

"Hi guys - hope you're all enjoying the book!..."

Read more…
New Member

Jessica Creane joined
February 1 at 12:20 PM

"Hi, I'm Jessica, I'm a Stage Director/Fitness Instructor/Avid reader in need of intellectual stimulation."
New Member

Brittany joined
January 30 at 11:01 AM

"Hello! I've just newly adapted to the city after moving here four months ago and would love the opportunity to read some great books and discuss them with some new, wonderful people."
New Discussion

rachel started Brainy readers, there's still room to join us in February and/or March!
January 17 at 3:37 PM

"Hello Brainy Readers!..."

Read more…
New Member

Edward Rosenfeld joined
January 17 at 3:31 PM

"Hi, I am an avid reader. I read both fiction and non-fiction. At the moment I am reading a book on the History of Debt by Anthropologist and anarchist David Graeber."