Goodreads Choice Awards Book Club discussion

I love this idea!!
1 August 2013 - 1 August 2014 <-- well, i missed my deadline but I'm still keeping track :)

Completed 24/26 - updated 24-May-2024

A-The Art of Fielding - Chad Harbach - finished 20 March 2014 - 1 star
B-Bared to You - 3 stars - I liked it - don't judge me :D
C-The Casual Vacancy - JK Rowling – finished January 2015 - 3 stars - I liked it - it took me a long time to get through!
D-Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President - Candice Mallard - finished 12 October 2013 - 5 stars
E-Entwined with You – Sylvia Day – finished 26 February 2015 - 2 stars
F-Forever Amish - Kate Lloyd - finished 22 June 2014 - 2 stars
G-Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn - finished 2 September 2013 - 2.5 stars
H-Happy, Happy, Happy - Phil Robertson - finished 28 March 2014 - 5 stars
I-Insurgent - Veronica Roth - finished 1 September 2013 - 3 stars
J-The Joy Luck Club - Amy Tan - finished 6 April 2014 - 2 stars
K-Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot – O'Reilly – finished 11 October 2015 - 4 stars, I really liked it
L-Living Dead in Dallas - Charlaine Harris - finished 20 August 2013 - 4 stars
M-Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories - Agatha Christie - finished 8 November 2014 - 4 stars
N-Neverhome: A Novel - Laird Hunt - finished 11 June 2014 - 3.5 stars
O-Once A Cowboy - Linda Warren - finished 15 January 2014 - 2 stars
P-Practical Magic - Alice Hoffman - read 10 August 2013 - 3.5 stars
Q-Queenie - read 24-May-2024 - 2 stars
R-Red Queen – Victoria Aveyard – finished 16 January 2016 – 3 stars my review
S-Sarah's Key - Tatiana de Rosnay - finished 5 August 2013 - 3.5 stars
T-The Texan's Little Secret 3 stars quick and easy
U-The Untouchable Earl f. 3 July 2017 - 4 stars
V-Victoria: A Veil of Seduction – Carmen Gerakos – finished 15 April 2016 – 1 star
W-The Walking Dead, Vol. 01: Days Gone Bye - Robert Kirkman - finished 10 February 2014 - 4 stars
X-Xingu (There are only 3 books that start with X that look remotely interesting)
Y-Yes Please – Amy Poehler – finished 28 April 2015 – 4 stars
Z-Zorro-Isabel Allende

I created my list from book clubs (Literazzi and Goodreads Choice), my bookshelf, and the book 501 Must-Read Books. The alphabetical list of books in the index really helped...



My original list:
(view spoiler)[
A - The Art of Fielding
B - The Book Thief
C - The Casual Vacancy
D - Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President
E - The Engineer of Human Souls
F - the Fatal Shore
G - Gone Girl
H - Heat Wave
I - It
J - The Joy Luck Club - Amy Tan - finished 6 April 2014 - 2 stars
K - King Solomon's Mines & Allan Quatermain - Haggard
L - Light Between Oceans
M - My Beloved World-Sonia Sotomayor
N - Northhanger Abbey
O – Orange is the New Black
P – Prodigal Summer
Q - Quiet as a Nun - Antonia Fraser
R - Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier
S - Sarah's Key
T - A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith
U – Uncle Tom's Cabin
V - Vanity Fair-Thackeray
W – The Winter of Our Discontent
X - Xingu
Y - A Year in the World: Journeys of a Passionate Traveller
Z - Zorro-Isabel Allende
(hide spoiler)]

Your list looks really interesting, it maybe a next source for my TBR :), Welcome to the challenge, Charlie, and have a great time reading :)

I've read Casual Vacancy, but I wasn't pleased with it, I suppose this is one of the books that you either love or hate... I loved The Night Circus, though, I rated it five stars. Xingu is a very good short story, I have on my challenge list as well.

Nice list Charlie! Thanks for the link too. I'll have to check out the 501 Must-Read Books.

As far as book choice goes, it completely depends on your taste. I liked the Casual Vacancy, even though it definitely shows the dark side of all the characters. I also liked the Night Circus, but didn't love it as a lot of people did. It was very well written, but to me not very exciting. I think that if you like descriptive writing and can picture it in your head or feel it, then you'll love it. But if you prefer action or emotion to detail, then I'm not so sure.

I can't wait to see what you think of King Solomon's Mines. I've wanted to read that for years and never gotten around to it.

Also, "It" is really creepy for your first King novel! Hope you enjoy it! I love King's writing.

Update: read Practical Magic instead of Prodigal Summer, so I switched it out in the list.

It wasn't intentional, but I picked it up yesterday morning and didn't put it down until I was done :)

I do that all the time. I had Jurassic Park for J, then started reading Joyland this week and used that instead.

I thought about putting Joyland on here too, but decided I didn't want that to be my first Stephen King experience (I don't know why) - but it's definitely on my TBR list. Jurassic Park is, also.

I think that Joyland is not a typical King book, I would like to start with it either. I think it's really good, exceptionally well-written, but still not a typical piece for him :)

Can our list be by the author's last name instead of the title?
(i.e. Arthur, Kay; Bonhoeffer, Detrich, etc.)

I'm about 25% into Joyland and it's not his creepy kind of story (at least not yet). I'm enjoying it though. I just happened to be reading it for a book club, so I changed my "J".

Annetta - You can do your A-Z Challenge however you want. We've set it up so that you can make it as difficult or as easy as you like.

The guidelines (with some suggestions for difficult letters) can be found here:
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...

And if you'd like to join, you can set up your own thread here:
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/group_...

edit 28 August 2013:

Changed my "D" from Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candace Millard to
Divergent by Veronica Roth. I still plan to read Destiny of the Republic, but I'm reading Divergent along with this group right now, so it seemed more appropriate.

Also, adding the book covers along the bottom as I've seen others do.

edit 1 September 2013:

Finished Divergent a few days ago - 3.5 stars. Review here.

I've read a few other books that I decided not to change my list for: Insurgent, Living Dead in Dallas, and Club Dead, because for some reason, I think they're too mass market to count as literature. Ugh, I'm a book snob. But they are my guilty pleasure :)

Charlie wrote: "Ugh, I'm a book snob. But they are my guilty pleasure :) "

This made me laugh Charlie. Just as long as you enjoy the book does it really matter? :)

Nice list Charlie :-)

Literature becomes known because it is read by the masses; if it isn't enjoyed it doesn't get discussed or read or added to great literature lists :-)

Also, food for thought: does great literature become less great once it is read by many? (I don't know but I don't think it does.)

I think that's the definition of a "hipster" right? Once it becomes popular, it's not as cool. Not that I am a hipster - I think that's ludicrous. BUT, when something becomes popular, I feel less personal ownership of it, and love it a little less. (This applies more often to music for me)

I do believe that popularity is not a display of worth - twilight, for example: insanely popular, even I read it a few times, but I think the writing (and plot, and character development...) is awful. Also, think of books like Atlas Shrugged or War and Peace. These are regarded as fantastic literature, but they aren't popular. Very few people read them nowadays, comparatively.

My feeling of "mass market" versus "true literature" is how I feel after reading it - do I feel smarter, or more cultured? That certainly was not the case with Divergent or Twilight, but yes Lynn, I still enjoyed it :)

There's nothing like enjoying a good read :-)

Nothing like it in the world!

Update:

Alas, I must eat my own words. I had enjoyed my mass market junk ten times as much as the novel Gone Girl, which I just finished. I don't know if I have ever disliked a character this much. Well... Bella and Anastasia come to mind. But they're the same character, right? So Amy Dunne in Gone Girl is #2. I just could NOT bring myself to like this book. I think everyone in my real-life book club (Literazzi) really loved it though, so it will be an interesting meeting next Wednesday.

What should I read next??

This group read Gone Girl as a group read back in January Charlie, the thread is here if you're interested in what we had to say :) http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...

Lynn wrote: "This group read Gone Girl as a group read back in January Charlie, the thread is here if you're interested in what we had to say :) http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1......"

Thanks Lynn! I'll use some of these questions and talking points for our meeting :)

Update June 5 2014
I haven't updated since September (!) but I'm still only up to 11 books (why do all of the books I pick randomly have to start with the same letters? I've actually read 22 books since I started this!)

Living Dead in Dallas
Insurgent - replaced It by Stephen King, I ended up buying The Stand, so that will probably be my first Stephen King book
Destiny of the Republic - FANTASTIC BOOK
Once a Cowboy - see how I've given up on "literature" only for this list? this was a terrible romance novel, took a couple hours to read
The Walking Dead, Vol 1
The Art of Fielding - probably the worst book I've read since Twilight
Happy, Happy, Happy - I LOVED this book. It was really a great commentary on family values and overcoming adversity.
The Joy Luck Club - NOT a fan!

My original plan with this list was to make me step outside the box a bit - I had classics, rarities, and suggested books. Now, I'm just using it to try to get through more of my TBR-own pile!

Currently reading Neverhome (my first ARC!) and The Casual Vacancy

I always have the same problem...my books all start with the same letters. Hope you find some great books to fill in the letters you still need!

Update, now 12/26

Finished Neverhome, an Advance Reader Copy from NetGalley. I liked that not everything was revealed right away. The author kept surprising me all the way to the end.

Changed my "U" to The Unmaking by my friend Alanna Faison. Check it out!

13/26

Finished a different F, Forever Amish (replaced The Fatal Shore: The Epic of Australia's Founding) only 2 stars for this one. It's a free download on NetGalley

HALFWAY DONE

I love this idea. I'm not sure how well I would do with it but I'm definitely going to keep it in mind. I was a little surprised to see you didn't like the Joy Luck club. Was there something about it you didn't like or it just didn't capture your interest. chuckles and holds up my secret hipster card too.

Joy Luck Club was very flat to me - there was no peak, or climax, to the story(ies). Only a few of the stories were interesting to me. They were supposed to be connected to each other, but it wasn't obvious enough. If I wanted to remember which went with who, I would have to take notes! I'm all for cultures that are different than mine, and don't mind short stories, but this book didn't do it for me at all.

I was thinking about my secret hipster card yesterday on the drive home from work. Why in the heck did I move to a city where everyone else wants to be?!? Los Angeles is irritating that way sometimes.

Give it a try! Just don't give yourself a crazy deadline :)

14/26!

Switched my "M" to Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories, although I also read Miracles Happen: The Life and Timeless Principles of the Founder of Mary Kay Inc.

Loved them both!

Starting The Ocean at the End of the Lane today

18/26 - Didn't like the Casual Vacancy except for the last fifty pages made up for it. The rest of them were easy one- or two- nighters.

Maybe I'll ahve this finished by August 2015! Who knows? :)

August 2017! HA!
only need 3 more