What we're about
This is an in-person book club for those living in and near Longmont, Colorado, who love to read and to discuss what they have read. We meet the first and third Saturday each month.
Our club reads mostly historical or contemporary fiction. However, we do occasionally read lighter books, nonfiction, science fiction/fantasy, and classics.
We read one "Big Book" each year, usually in the first couple of months, followed by regular-length books for the remainder of the year. We also choose an "Author of the Year" and read a handful of books by that author over the course of the year.
We try to not read books until after they've been out a while or are widely available at the library or in paperback so it is easier for everyone to access a copy of the book.
All members are encouraged to submit books to read. Those books are then put into a poll for members to vote for what they are most interested in reading.
Thank you for your interest!
Upcoming events (4+)
If you'd like to share an introduction to this book, please let Jennifer L or Gerty know. (You don't have to lead the whole discussion, just share some interesting details about the author or topic at the beginning.)
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From Wikipedia: Cold Comfort Farm is a comic novel by English author Stella Gibbons, published in 1932. It parodies the romanticized, sometimes doom-laden accounts of rural life popular at the time, by writers such as Mary Webb.
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Following the death of her parents, the book's heroine, Flora Poste, finds she is possessed "of every art and grace save that of earning her own living". She decides to take advantage of the fact that "no limits are set, either by society or one's own conscience, to the amount one may impose on one's relatives", and settles on visiting her distant relatives at the isolated Cold Comfort Farm in the fictional village of Howling in Sussex. The inhabitants of the farm – Aunt Ada Doom, the Starkadders, and their extended family and workers – feel obliged to take her in to atone for an unspecified wrong once done to her father.
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As is typical in a certain genre of romantic 19th-century and early 20th-century literature, each of the farm's inhabitants has some long-festering emotional problem caused by ignorance, hatred, or fear, and the farm is badly run. Flora, being a level-headed, urban woman in the dandy tradition, determines that she must apply modern common sense to their problems and help them adapt to the 20th century – bringing metropolitan values into the sticks.
- Sue D.
- Michael D.
- Leslie
- 9 attendees
If you'd like to share an introduction to this book, please let Jennifer L or Gerty know. (You don't have to lead the whole discussion, just share some interesting details about the author or topic at the beginning.)
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From Wikipedia: Klara and the Sun is the eighth novel by the Nobel Prize-winning British writer Kazuo Ishiguro, published in March 2021.
Set in the U.S. in an unspecified future, the book is told from the point of view of Klara, a solar-powered AF (Artificial Friend), who is chosen by Josie, a sickly child, to be her companion.
The novel is set in a dystopian future in which some children are genetically engineered ("lifted") for enhanced academic ability. As schooling is provided entirely at home by on-screen tutors, opportunities for socialization are limited and parents who can afford it often buy their children androids as companions. The book is narrated by one such Artificial Friend (AF) called Klara. Although Klara is exceptionally intelligent and observant, her knowledge of the world is limited.
From the window of the store in which she is for sale, Klara learns about the world outside and watches the sun, which she always refers to as "he" and treats as a living entity. As a solar-powered AF, the sun's nourishment is of great importance to her.
The novel was longlisted for the 2021 Booker Prize.
- Jennifer L.
- deborah p.
- Sue D.
- 5 attendees
No Meetup on Sept. 3. Enjoy your Labor Day holiday weekend.
- Jennifer L.
- 1 attendee
If you'd like to share an introduction to this book, please let Jennifer L or Gerty know. (You don't have to lead the whole discussion, just share some interesting details about the author or topic at the beginning.)
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This will be our third book by Author of the Year Margaret Atwood. We'll discuss this book and see what common themes we find between it, Cat's Eye (March) and The Blind Assassin (June).
From Wikipedia: The novel is described as a "wickedly funny and deeply disturbing novel about a near future in which the lawful are locked up and the lawless roam free."
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Living in their car, surviving on tips, Charmaine and Stan are in a desperate state. So, when they see an advertisement for Consilience, a ‘social experiment’ offering stable jobs and a home of their own, they sign up immediately. All they have to do in return for suburban paradise is give up their freedom every second month – swapping their home for a prison cell. At first, all is well. But then, unknown to each other, Stan and Charmaine develop passionate obsessions with their ‘Alternates,’ the couple that occupies their house when they are in prison. Soon the pressures of conformity, mistrust, guilt and sexual desire begin to take over.
- Jennifer L.
- Leslie
- Gerty B
- 6 attendees
Past events (232)
- Jennifer L.
- deborah p.
- Gerty B
- 7 attendees
