Book Clubs

My sister-in-law and I are beginning a children's book club for us and our children to last through the summer. Our first pick is Holes by Louis Sachar. I am really excited about this because as a kid, I didn't take advantage of the wealth of possiblilities in literature that I should have. I have always loved to read, but my immature choices are something I totally regret about my childhood. I started off, of course, with typical girls' fare such as Sweet Valley Twins, Sweet Valley High and The Babysitters Club. Oh, of course I read the classics when assigned to in school. I also read all the Judy Blume and Beverly Cleary books. However, my regular choices were the stupid, and sometimes immoral choices offered to many young readers these days. I was hugely into Christoper Pike in my pre-adolescent years, then moving on to Stephen King and Dean Koontz (back when he still used his middle initial in his name) by the time I was eleven years old! I had never even read the Anne of Green Gables series until 4 years ago, along with Jane Eyre and Little Women! I know, horror of horrors. These latter three are now on the list of my absolute favorites.

So, I am making up for lost time. After Holes, I think we plan on reading A Wrinkle in Time, which I have fortunately read (I'm not a complete literary savage), and we will determine future reads as the weeks come.

My sister-in-law is working towards becoming a teacher with her emphasis in English Literature, and has been opening up these children's classics throughout the past year or two. Fortunately, her children have been introduced to proper literary choices for kids, so my neices and nephews are excitedly joining us in this venture. We also have some children of other family and friends' joining us, as well as one other mom.

I also think it would be neat to have movie nights with some of the movies made from the books we read, but only the worthy ones. I hear Holes was a good adaptation. Does anyone know how A Wrinkle in Time fared? I can just imagine me and my two female companions surrounded by a group of children under twelve beneath fleece blankets with bowls of popcorn interspersed throughout the group. Sounds like fun to me.

Meanwhile, I am continuing with my book club that I have belonged to for about 4 years now with the local chapter of the MOMS Club that I belong to. There's five of us ladies in it currently, whom I adore and will probably always be reading with throughout my life. Our current selection is The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, which I am so far loving. It is a murder mystery as seen through the eyes of an autistic boy. It is an easy read, but following the boy's line of thinking can be quite tiring at times. We also read The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants this month. We like to read books that have been turned into movies in order to have an excuse for a movie-night out with the girls (and dinner of course). We are still waiting on Shopgirl to be released, as we read that book almost 2 years ago in anticipation of the movie. Anyway, our book club is a mixture of treasure and trash, depending on our mood. It is a most casual book club with much variety, and perfectly suited to my tastes and mood swings in reagrds to reading.