Bookish, Book Lists |
I terribly miss meeting my book club and hanging out with friends, thanks to 2020, again! But that has not stopped us from reading books together as a club (and then argue over a Zoom meet) and buddy reads. Since we discovered several gems this year, here is my list of best books for your books club.
Best books for your book club
I am sure these book suggestions would keep the conversations coming, during your book club meets.
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say.
Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved.
When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life–until the unthinkable happens.
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
No one’s ever told Eleanor that life should be better than fine
Meet Eleanor Oliphant: she struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she’s thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding unnecessary human contact, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy.
But everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond, the bumbling and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office. When she and Raymond together save Sammy, an elderly gentleman who has fallen, the three rescue one another from the lives of isolation that they had been living. Ultimately, it is Raymond’s big heart that will help Eleanor find the way to repair her own profoundly damaged one. If she does, she’ll learn that she, too, is capable of finding friendship—and even love—after all.
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.
Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.
But what Starr does—or does not—say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
Two half-sisters, Effia and Esi, are born into different villages in eighteenth-century Ghana. Effia is married off to an Englishman and lives in comfort in the palatial rooms of Cape Coast Castle. Unbeknownst to Effia, her sister, Esi, is imprisoned beneath her in the castle’s dungeons, sold with thousands of others into the Gold Coast’s booming slave trade, and shipped off to America, where her children and grandchildren will be raised in slavery. One thread of
Homegoing follows Effia’s descendants through centuries of warfare in Ghana, as the Fante and Asante nations wrestle with the slave trade and British colonization. The other thread follows Esi and her children into America. From the plantations of the South to the Civil War and the Great Migration, from the coal mines of Pratt City, Alabama, to the jazz clubs and dope houses of twentieth-century Harlem, right up through the present day, Homegoing makes history visceral, and captures, with singular and stunning immediacy, how the memory of captivity came to be inscribed in the soul of a nation.
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is planned–from the layout of the winding roads, to the colors of the houses, to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules.
Enter Mia Warren–an enigmatic artist and single mother–who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenaged daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the mother-daughter pair. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past and a disregard for the status quo that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community.
When old family friends of the Richardsons attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town–and puts Mia and Elena on opposing sides. Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Elena is determined to uncover the secrets in Mia’s past. But her obsession will come at unexpected and devastating costs.
Educated by Tara Westover
Tara Westover was 17 the first time she set foot in a classroom. Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, she prepared for the end of the world by stockpiling home-canned peaches and sleeping with her “head-for-the-hills bag”. In the summer she stewed herbs for her mother, a midwife and healer, and in the winter she salvaged in her father’s junkyard.
Her father forbade hospitals, so Tara never saw a doctor or nurse. Gashes and concussions, even burns from explosions, were all treated at home with herbalism. The family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education and no one to intervene when one of Tara’s older brothers became violent.
Then, lacking any formal education, Tara began to educate herself. She taught herself enough mathematics and grammar to be admitted to Brigham Young University, where she studied history, learning for the first time about important world events like the Holocaust and the civil rights movement. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge. Only then would she wonder if she’d traveled too far, if there was still a way home.
Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson
As the book opens in 2001, it is the evening of sixteen-year-old Melody’s coming of age ceremony in her grandparents’ Brooklyn brownstone. Watched lovingly by her relatives and friends, making her entrance to the music of Prince, she wears a special custom-made dress. But the event is not without poignancy. Sixteen years earlier, that very dress was measured and sewn for a different wearer: Melody’s mother, for her own ceremony– a celebration that ultimately never took place.
Unfurling the history of Melody’s parents and grandparents to show how they all arrived at this moment, Woodson considers not just their ambitions and successes but also the costs, the tolls they’ve paid for striving to overcome expectations and escape the pull of history.
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
The Bell Jar chronicles the crack-up of Esther Greenwood: brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, and successful, but slowly going under—maybe for the last time. Sylvia Plath masterfully draws the reader into Esther’s breakdown with such intensity that Esther’s insanity becomes completely real and even rational, as probable and accessible an experience as going to the movies.
Such deep penetration into the dark and harrowing corners of the psyche is an extraordinary accomplishment and has made The Bell Jar a haunting American classic.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she’s never met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written inside a book by Charles Lamb…
As Juliet and her new correspondent exchange letters, Juliet is drawn into the world of this man and his friends—and what a wonderfully eccentric world it is. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society—born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi when its members were discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island—boasts a charming, funny, deeply human cast of characters, from pig farmers to phrenologists, literature lovers all.
Juliet begins a remarkable correspondence with the society’s members, learning about their island, their taste in books, and the impact the recent German occupation has had on their lives. Captivated by their stories, she sets sail for Guernsey, and what she finds will change her forever.
Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Everyone knows Daisy Jones & The Six: The band’s album Aurora came to define the rock ‘n’ roll era of the late seventies, and an entire generation of girls wanted to grow up to be Daisy. But no one knows the reason behind the group’s split on the night of their final concert at Chicago Stadium on July 12, 1979 . . . until now.
Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it’s the rock ‘n’ roll she loves most. By the time she’s twenty, her voice is getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do crazy things.
Also getting noticed is The Six, a band led by the brooding Billy Dunne. On the eve of their first tour, his girlfriend Camila finds out she’s pregnant, and with the pressure of impending fatherhood and fame, Billy goes a little wild on the road. Daisy and Billy cross paths when a producer realizes that the key to supercharged success is to put the two together. What happens next will become the stuff of legend.
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Quizzes & Tags |
I recently came across the Book Blogger tag on Bookwyrming Thoughts‘ blog and I loved the questions. So here I am answering the Book Blogger Tag, which apparently is ancient. But better late than never right?
Book Blogger tag
I am gonna take this chance to talk about the things that happen behind the screen of this blog. And this tag is a good way to keep off my slump that might be around the corner now. Let us get on with it shall we?
How many times do you check your email every day?
I check my mail box twice a day, or less. But I also view them on my mobile notifications as they come in. Unless it is very important I do not respond right away.
I just wanted to mention this, I do not respond to review requests unless I am interested to review it. And looking at the number of unread mail I have currently, I definitely need a better system.
How many times a day do you go on Goodreads?
I don’t use Goodreads as much as I used to, a few years ago. I still go on to the site to post my reading updates as soon as I finish a book and to post my reviews.
That comes to almost twice a week, at the best.
How long does it take to you to edit your posts?
I recently updated my site’s theme, mainly to address this.
It took me way longer to edit my posts and do those formatting than I liked. So now I have made it much more simpler.
And also I love the Gutenberg editor as it makes the formatting much simpler, especially from other apps like Notion or Evernote.
Answering the question, it takes me anywhere from 10 to 45 minutes to get a written post up and live on the website.
What kind of laptop do you use?
I am currently using HP laptop, which is lighter, faster and definitely easy to use. But it is definitely an upgrade from 5+ years old Dell I used to have. It doesn’t hurt that this one has a touch screen and Tablet mode.
How often do you check your Twitter?
To be honest, I spend about 15 minutes or so almost daily on Twitter for MY BLOG. But I spend a LOT more time on book twitter during the day and while commuting (at least before the Covid virus lock downs).
I love Twitter, but it is also (one of) my big time sucker(s)!
Why do you use Blogger, WordPress, etc?
As much as I loved Blogger and customizing it, I took a call to move to self hosted WordPress in 2017 and it has been one of the best decisions I have ever made.
I use(d) everything that I learnt from Blogger – HTML, CSS and generally keeping the blogging system (kind of) organized and I am loving it.
Are you good at keeping up with your reviews, tags, etc?
sure, I have a spreadsheet (among the many) to keep a tab of the books I have read and I want to review. And I fairly have it under control – yay me!
Not so great at this but I catch up with them eventually. I can attribute it safely to the fact that I write up a very few tag posts and since they are far and between, many of the tags disappear and forgotten.
How many times a week do you post?
Generally I post four times a week on my blog.
- Sunday – Weekly/Monthly wrap up posts
- Monday – Book reviews
- Wednesday – How to/Discussion posts
- Friday – Recommendations/Listicles
I also a few guest bloggers posting on topics like Indie publishing, author recommendations and Friday Flyaway.
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Have you ever done the Book Blogger tag before? If you have not, or want to do it again, feel free to answer these questions here or on your blog. Let us talk.
Quotable quotes |
It is the year 2020, and I still know some people, including women, who are not comfortable calling themselves feminists, because some how they identify women power means male bashing. Here are some inspiring quotes about women power from strong women that might change your opinion!
Inspiring feminist quotes about women power and women
If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman.
Margaret Thatcher
Don’t let anyone speak for you, and don’t rely on others to fight for you.
Michelle Obama
The question isn’t who’s going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.
Ayn Rand
It’s not my responsibility to be beautiful. I’m not alive for that purpose. My existence is not about how desirable you find me.
Warsan Shire
And really, how insulting is it that to suggest that the best thing women can do is raise other people to do incredible things? I’m betting some of those women would like to do great things of their own.
Jessica Valenti, Why Have Kids?
A woman is like a tea bag you never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water.
Eleanor Roosevelt
I hate to hear you talk about all women as if they were fine ladies instead of rational creatures. None of us want to be in calm waters all our lives.
Jane Austen, Persuasion
I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat.
Rebecca West
Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them.
Margaret Atwood
Whatever women do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily, this is not difficult.
Charlotte Whitton
What is feminism? Simply the belief that women should be as free as men, however nuts, dim, deluded, badly dressed, fat, receding, lazy and smug they might be. Are you a feminist? Of course you are.
Caitlin Moran, How to be a woman.
The history of men’s opposition to women’s emancipation is more interesting perhaps than the story of that emancipation itself.
Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own
No woman can call herself free who does not control her own body.
Margaret Sanger
My mother told me to be a lady. And for her, that meant be your own person, be independent.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Woman’s degradation is in man’s idea of his sexual rights. Our religion, laws, customs, are all founded on the belief that woman was made for man.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Of course I am not worried about intimidating men. The type of man who will be intimidated by me is exactly the type of man I have no interest in.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Feminism isn’t about making women stronger. Women are already strong, it’s about changing the way the world perceives that strength.
G.D. Anderson
I think being a woman is like being Irish… Everyone says you’re important and nice, but you take second place all the time.
Iris Murdoch
I’m tough, ambitious, and I know exactly what I want. If that makes me a bitch, okay.
Madonna
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What are your favorite quote about women power and feminism? Do you have a quote from strong inspiring women? Let me know in the comments!