Last August, I decided to start my very own book club. I’d never been in a book club before, but I love to read, and I thought what better excuse for a night out with my girlfriends and some good wine once a month. At our first meeting, we sat around the table eating and drinking, and each person brought a few book suggestions. An important side note here is that our book club consisted of 16 women that have traveled the world extensively as part of the diplomatic community. Collectively we’ve lived in Barbados, Brazil, China, Indonesia, Israel, Pakistan, Russia, South Africa, Turkey, the US, and we all ended up together in Zambia. Therefore, we all bring unique perspectives to whatever we’re reading.
Our very first book was Wild by Cheryl Strayed. Right off the bat, this book made me want to go hiking! I started looking up hiking supplies and routes along the Appalachian Trail (she hikes the Pacific Coast Trail in the book). No way I could do it on my own like she did, but I would totally be down for a 7-day hike with the hubs. The story of a young woman who hit a rough patch in life (loss of a parent, divorce, drug use, etc) and decided to just say screw it and throw herself all in to her new adventure was seriously inspiring. This book was also made into a movie starring Reese Witherspoon in 2015, but you should definitely read the book first.
One Thousand White Women by Jim Fergus was our next pick. Some people in our group actually missed the fact that it was fiction and thought it was a true story until halfway through our discussion. It certainly reads like nonfiction and seems plausible enough that it could have happened. The premise is that Native Americans were promised 1000 white women by the US government as a way to integrate the two cultures. The author was among the first group of women to be “delivered” and the story follows the experiences of the women with a wide variety of characters with each reacting to their situation differently. Some embrace their new culture and new husbands, others reject it and continuously fight to convert the Natives to their own ideals. It was a book outside my usual Mystery/Thriller genre, and it was definitely a nice change. Bonus – I just realized there is a sequel to this book!
Our third book, Born a Crime by Trevor Noah, was a great read. Just in general, Trevor Noah (host of The Daily Show) is amazing. My only regret is that I wish I had listened to the audiobook instead since he narrates it himself. Trevor was a mischievous little boy born to a black mother and white father, a relationship that was illegal at the time. The way he talks about racial issues in South Africa when he was growing up is so similar to segregation in the US in the 60’s that it’s crazy to think that his experiences were happening in the 1980’s and 90’s. If you don’t know much about apartheid in South Africa, you should definitely pick up this book and get some insight into an important part of world history.
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng had so many interesting, complex characters. This book is on a lot of 2017/2018 book club lists, and I can see why as it provided a lot of great talking points. It’s very much a “grass is always greener on the other side” type of story. We did agree that we all felt like we were left hanging a little bit at the end though. Maybe their could be a sequel coming in the future!
Another “Fire” book, but with a completely different plot line…American Fire by Monica Hesse. This book recounts the true story of an arsonist couple that gripped Virginia’s Eastern Shore in 2012-2013. I love true crime novels/shows, (I’m a confessed Dateline addict) and this was an incredibly interesting story. One of our book club members was from the effected area, so it added a personal element to our discussions. Although I’ve never been to the Eastern Shore, I found the characters and scenarios easily relatable, and it was easy to get drawn into the story and forget that these events actually did happen in real life. The only downside for me personally was that you were told from the beginning who the arsonists were. I would’ve preferred to be left in the dark and figure it out along with the detectives and townspeople as the story developed. But, I guess since the case had already been solved, anyone with prior knowledge of this national story would’ve known from the beginning anyway.
Alexandra Fuller’s Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight was a title that we had tossed around a few times and finally decided to read about 5 months in. And no, I still don’t understand the title. This one was very interesting to a group of people living in Zambia since it is set in this region, but I’m not sure how much other people would relate to it. It definitely was interesting to see the behavior of the family unit and how they handled their living situation. It also gave good insight into the racial tensions between white Zimbabweans/Zambians and blacks. Many parts of the book came off as blatantly racist, but we all actually really liked that she didn’t try to sugar coat her past and gave an honest account of her upbringing. If I’m being honest, my favorite part was the candid family photos at the beginning of each chapter.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society was a book that I had never heard of, so I really had zero expectations going in. I was shocked by how much I really liked it. I really enjoyed that the entire book was composed of letters from one character to another, which made the pages seem to fly by. The letters describe the day-to-day life under German occupation in 1946 and give great insight into how the war effected this small group of friends and their community. The characters are incredibly likeable, although it did get a little confusing at the beginning when so many new characters were being introduced. Bonus – It’s now a Netflix movie!!
The Good Daughter by Karin Slaughter was one of my suggestions to the club since we hadn’t read any murder mysteries, which are my absolute fav! I’ve read other books by Slaughter and was excited to discuss this genre with friends. However, the first scene in the book is incredibly graphic, and I was immediately concerned that the group was going to think that I was some sort of psycho for choosing this one. That same graphic scene repeats itself over and over again throughout the book, so you learn to skim over it, but each time a little bit more information is revealed about what really happened. The characters are really well-developed, and the family dynamics will really draw you in.
Bonus Book: Market Mojo was written by one of our own book club members, Kathy Goins. It’s not necessarily your typical book club book, so we chose to add it as an optional choice over our holiday break. Kathy’s writing style was both informative and humorous, and I’m so happy that I gave it a chance. You felt like you were really learning the basics of the stock market and yet it was very enjoyable.
If you’re not already a member of a book club, I highly recommend joining one. If that’s not your thing, at least now you’ve got a few more books to add to your reading list.