About The Denver Book Club

DENVER BOOK CLUB MEETUP GROUP

We are a diverse collection of people from around the Denver area who share a common love of good books. Our tastes are as varied as our lives. You are welcome to join our growing community of book lovers.

We are a commercial free zone, which means we do not read the newest books, we do not have authors coming to sell books, and we do not allow commercial announcements of any kind on our mailing list. We only read books available in libraries and used book stores.

When you join, please use your last name (or at least the first initial of your last name), so we can distinguish you from any others who share your first name. Similarly, please post a photo of yourself (not your pet), so we can greet you warmly at meetings. Thanks.

All Members - Please Read: Mailing List and Message Board Agreements

How Our Book Selections are Made

The Denver Book Club alternates book selections from month to month between Fiction and Non-Fiction. Books are nominated by the book club members by e-mailing a club organizer or posting a nomination on the Message Board (use the menu to the left for links). One of the organizers will then add the nomination to the Polls section. For fairness, members may nominate only one book per category per month.

At any given time, we have two polls open (fiction and non-fiction). Members then cast a vote for one of the nominated books. Nominations can be sent at any time and will be added to the appropriate poll. A poll is closed on the 15th of the month two months prior to the meeting when we will discuss the book. That gives everyone 8-9 weeks to read a selected book. An e-mail is sent out announcing the selected book. The two "runner up" books are carried over to the next poll.

For economic fairness, we only nominate and select books available in libraries and used book stores, a policy set early by a group vote. Within this wide boundary, nominations are pretty much wide open. (Well, actually, we voted not to read pornography -- although Henry Miller's classic, Tropic of Cancer, did "push the envelope.")

Comments about nominations or selections may be posted on the Message Board. We do not discuss books on the mailing list, which is reserved for club announcements and logistics.

We rely on democratic processes. We trust that any books our members do not want to read will not get enough votes to be selected. Members who do not like a selected book are encouraged to attend our monthly meeting and criticize the work, which makes our dialog far more lively and usually more rewarding. Another option is to nominate a different or an opposing book, and our group votes will decide the matter. The tastes of the membership, which has a natural ebb and flow, determines our selections.

We're all about enjoying fun and interesting conversations together, treating one another with respect, opening our minds to the views of others, juggling our mental blocks, and above all else -- making new friends.

Authors and Publicists, CLICK HERE before contacting the club organizers.

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Links to Amazon.com web pages for current nominations:
Fiction Nominations
Nonfiction Nominations

These are the books we have selected since the Denver Book Club began:

2010
January - The Great Influenza, by John M. Barry

2009
November - The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson.
October - Why Men Are the Way They Are, by Warren Farrell
September - To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee.
August - American Lion: Andrew Jackson in The White House, by Jon Meacham
July - Life of Pi by Yann Martel
June - I Will Not Die an Unlived Life: Reclaiming Purpose and Passion by Dawna Markova
May - Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: A Novel by Jonathan Safran Foer
March/April - The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin by H.W. Brands
February - One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
January - When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris

2008
November/December - Middlesex: A Novel by Jeffrey Eugenides
October - The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream by Barack Obama
August/September - The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
July - Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace by Greg Mortenson and David Relin
June - A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
May - The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan
April - Water for Elephants: A Novel by Sara Gruen
March - Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life by Steve Martin
February - The Road by Cormac McCarthy
January - Mastery of Love by Don Miguel Ruiz

2007
November - Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
October - Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson
September - Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller
August - Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcom Gladwell
July - Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
June - The Abolition of Man by CS Lewis
May - House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III
April - Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson
March - The Tortilla Curtain by T. Coraghessan Boyle

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AUTHORS AND PUBLICISTS, Click Here