UPDATED 11/25/23
For December, we're having our annual Winter Party (see below for info on the party)! We'll also be discussing two books we've selected that fall under the YA Winter Books theme, plus continuing our readalong of the "Graceling Realm" series, by discussing book 4, "Winterkeep."
For the Winter Party:
We'll be doing a gift exchange! Here's how it works. (YOU DO NOT HAVE TO PARTICIPATE IN THE GIFT EXCHANGE. YOU CAN STILL COME TO THE WINTER PARTY, WHETHER OR NOT YOU PARTICIPATE IN THE GIFT EXCHANGE.)
1. Get a copy of a book you read recently that you loved, that we did NOT read in book club. This can be a used copy, but please make sure it's in good condition. Books also do not have to be YA.
2. Wrap the book.
3. On the outside, on a sticky note or on the wrapping paper, etc., write a few words about the book, "Blind Date with a Book"-style. For example, if I brought "The Hunger Games," I would write something like, "YA Dystopian, Strong Female Protagonist, Published 2008, first book in a trilogy." You don't want people to know exactly what the book is, you just want to entice them into selecting your book.
4. Bring the book to the Winter Party. We'll open them White-Elephant style, where we draw numbers, and people can open a book, or steal a book that has already been opened. Then you'll leave with a new book, hand-selected by one of your friends in book club!
Here are the books we'll be discussing at this meeting. Hope to see you there!
"The Winter Duke" by Claire Eliza Bartlett
An enchanted tale of intrigue where a duke's daughter is the only survivor of a magical curse.
When Ekata's brother is finally named heir, there will be nothing to keep her at home in Kylma Above with her murderous family. Not her books or science experiments, not her family's icy castle atop a frozen lake, not even the tantalizingly close Kylma Below, a mesmerizing underwater kingdom that provides her family with magic. But just as escape is within reach, her parents and twelve siblings fall under a strange sleeping sickness.
In the space of a single night, Ekata inherits the title of duke, her brother's warrior bride, and ever-encroaching challengers from without—and within—her own ministry. Nothing has prepared Ekata for diplomacy, for war, for love...or for a crown she has never wanted. If Kylma Above is to survive, Ekata must seize her family's power. And if Ekata is to survive, she must quickly decide how she will wield it.
Part Sleeping Beauty, part Anastasia, with a thrilling political mystery, The Winter Duke is a spellbinding story about choosing what's right in the face of danger.
"One Way or Another" by Kara McDowell
Sliding Doors meets To All the Boys I've Loved Before in a sweet, smart holiday romance about a girl who decides to stop letting her anxiety stand in the way of true love.
The average person makes 35,000 decisions every single day. That's about 34,999 too many for Paige Collins, who lives in debilitating fear of making the wrong choice. The simple act of picking an art elective is enough to send her into a spiral of what-ifs. What if she's destined to be a famous ceramicist but wastes her talent in drama club? What if there's a carbon monoxide leak in the ceramics studio and everyone drops dead? (Grim, but possible!)
That's why when Paige is presented with two last-minute options for Christmas vacation, she's paralyzed by indecision. Should she go with her best friend (and longtime crush) Fitz to his family's romantic mountain cabin? Or should she accompany her mom to New York, a city Paige has spent her whole life dreaming about?
Just when it seems like Paige will crack from the pressure of choosing, fate steps in -- in the form of a slippery grocery store floor -- and Paige's life splits into two very different parallel paths. One path leads to New York where Paige falls for the city . . . and the charms of her unexpected tour guide. The other leads to the mountains where Paige might finally get her chance with Fitz . . . until her anxiety threatens to ruin everything.
However, before Paige gets her happy ending in either destiny, she'll have to face the truth about her struggle with anxiety -- and learn that you don't have to be "perfect" to deserve true love.
"Winterkeep" by Kristin Cashore
I'm not including a synopsis here in case of spoilers.
