Peyton Place - December CC Book Club Selection

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Thanks for pointing out some of the positive points. I’m glad to have read Peyton Place, since such a well known title. But it was chock full of dark characters and story lines.

I was glad that my next book (“When We Believed in Mermaids”, for a zoom book club) had more bright spots. It was a book told in eyes of two sisters (alternating chapters), with them both flipping back and forth between current time and their difficult childhood. We all commented that some of the current scenes seemed more like a romance travel adventure / romance, and the study questions even asked us to rate it for “cheesy-ness”. But the mixture did make it more of a page-turner.

I am glad to have read both books. And each one of them reminded me that despite our minor mistakes along the way… my husband and I really were pretty decent parents.

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I’m also very glad I read Peyton Place. I learned a lot and came to a greater appreciation of the book (and of the town I live in :grin:).

We can start choosing our February selection at any time!

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I really really want to read North and South - Elizabeth Gaskell - with this book club, partly because I know @Mary13 has mentioned it over the years as one of her all-time favorite books. I’m not sure I’ll read it on my own. I also saw it listed as a “romance for book clubs that don’t read romances” which makes it sound perfect for a Feb. discussion. (If this sounds like I’m attempting a “sales job” here, I admit I am.)

I started to list a couple other books but the waitlist for both is daunting, so never mind. (North and South has no waitlist.)

Truthfully, I’m in somewhat of a reading slump and have few ideas. I like the idea of something with a touch of romance for Feb., which we’ve done in the past. Winter months inside don’t need a book that adds darkness.

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I tried listening to it, and dropped it, it took too much concentration. (I’m not really a fan of audiobooks.) I’d be willing to read it. I have somehow gotten on a jag of reading rather steamy queer fantasy novels, which have been fun, but not book club material!

A few things on my want to read list:
Border Districts by Gerald Murnane

The Yield by Tara June Winch

I’m currently reading Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

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If we want to do a nonfiction, I highly recommend The Woman They Could Not Silence by Kate Moore. It’s the true story of a woman, Elizabeth Packard, who was committed to an insane asylum in around 1860 by her husband because – well, you know: Opinionated Wife. She worked hard and finally got the laws changed.

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I’ll throw back out Daisy Jones and the Six, also coming out soon as a mini series on Amazon Prime.

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Thanks all for commentary about Peyton place, even though I didn’t read it, ( the first few chapters ) I now know the significance and controversy surrounding this novel. I learned a lot.

Wish I had some book suggestions, been in a reading slump, listened to my first ever audio book, Ali Wentworth, reading her book, Ali’s Well that Ends Well, good for laughs not for discussion.

Louise Penny’s new book, A World of Curiosities “ interests me, but new and hard to get.

I haven’t read these - so can’t recommend
Lucy By the Sea - Elizabeth Strout
French Braid - Anne Tyler
What Writers Read: 35 Writers on their Favorite Book - Pandora Sykes
Lessons in Chemistry Bonnie Garmus
Ocean state - Stewart O Nan
Finding freedom In the Lost Kitchen - Erin French

Not recommending any of those,
just glanced at my Goodreads Want to read list and jotted some down.

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Looks like we’re all in a slump.

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Well, let’s un-slump ourselves!

I would read North and South at the drop of a hat. I’ll put it on the list, although fair warning: Being a Victorian novel, it’s not a quick, breezy read. However, it’s far easier than Middlemarch – more like a Dickens novel, except female-centric. I do love it.

We’ve talked about Lessons in Chemistry, so let’s add that, and I’ll put @VeryHappy’s non-fiction recommendation on the list as well. I’ve read Daisy Jones and the Six, but would happily re-read. I’ll add @mathmom’s suggestions, too.

Is anyone in the Book of the Month club? My kids give me a subscription every year and my daughter also has a membership. As a result, we’ve built this huge–mostly unread!–library. You know how it goes: So many books, so little time.

Here is a photo of our BOTM bookshelf. Of all these titles, I have only read Leave the World Behind, All the Light We Cannot See, This Tender Land, Little Fires Everywhere, Outlawed, and The Lincoln Highway.

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That leaves 23 possibilities for me, to my secret shame (no longer a secret). Anything look interesting?

Here are three from the shelf I want to read soon: Tru Biz by Sara Novic, Half Sick of Shadows by Laura Sebastian and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin (author of The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, which we read here).

So we have:

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Border Districts by Gerald Murnane
The Yield by Tara Winch
The Woman They Could Not Silence by Kate Moore
Tru Biz by Sara Novic
Half Sick of Shadows by Laura Sebastian
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

…Plus the 20 others gathering dust in my livingroom.

I’m sure we can find something to get excited about! Observations? Concerns? Vetos? Other suggestions?

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Any of those books are fine with me.

Although I’m in a slight slump this week, I’m proud to say I’ve read 98 books this year (and will get to goal of 100 for the year; mostly fiction). From that list above, I’ve read True Biz (for a Zoom book club), Lessons in Chemistry, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow (lurking on Mary’s shelf). I liked all three and would happily discuss them with the CC pals.

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I would vote for *“The Woman they could not Silence” or “Lessons in Chemistry”. Our library has both, with “The Woman they could not Silence” in our library, the other is one of the satellite sites. There is no copy of “North and South”. We live in the south and there are lot of books about the South, but not that one!!!

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I loved Lessons in Chemistry , but I don’t really want to reread it, though there’s plenty to discuss. On Mary’s shelf I think I thought Malibu Rising looked like fun. Possibly The Cartographers, but it’s quite new. North and South is available on Overdrive through our library, but it only comes up if you search by author, not title. Possibly The Cartographers, but it’s quite new. Our library seems to have lots of copies and the eBook on Overdrive.

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North and South is free online. I checked on Project Gutenberg but I’m sure other options exist also.

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I’m happy with just about any of these but I’ve read Lessons in Chemistry twice already ('cause I really liked it!) and am discussing it with a virtual book club in February.

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It won’t come as a surprise to anyone re my number 1 choice:

  1. North and South - Elizabeth Gaskell

It’s probably my number 2 and 3 choice as well. Thinking that’s inappropriate, here goes:

  1. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. I’ve been wanting to read this one, and I’m number 1 on the waitlist. Can’t answer as to ease for others. I do know the waitlist isn’t as long as the one for Lessons in Chemistry.

  2. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. Happy enough to read it and can get it easily since I’ve been on the waitlist for ever. It may not be so easy for others. Anyway, I think @mathmom gave what I consider a soft veto.

or

  1. Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid. I’ve read it but have absolutely no problem with it as a choice for the Feb. discussion. (I may not read or listen to it again; on the other hand, I may. It depends on this blasted reading slump.)

I’m hesitant about The Woman They Could Not Silence by Kate Moore. NoveList describes the tone as disturbing, impassioned, sobering. I’m not sure I want to spend January disturbed or even impassioned or sobered. Note that I say sobered rather than sober (though I have no problem with sober either. Cheers :wine_glass:.) Consider this a soft veto that may morph into a hard one.

Edit: @Mary13, I forgot to add Half Sick of Shadows. Consider it also a number 3 choice.

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On @Mary13’s book shelf, I’ve read:

Infinite Country (Low page count and good discussion material therein)

All the Light We Cannot See

This Tender Land (We read and discussed this one.)

Malibu Rising

The Cartographers

The Lincoln Highway (We read and discussed this one also.)

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  1. I have already purchased Lessons in Chemistry, so I would be more than happy to read it with this group.

  2. Daisy Jones and the Six

  3. North and South I thought I had read this long ago, but It was a different author and a different north and south location.

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I’ll remove the soft vetoes – we have so many other choices.

As @ignatius said, North and South is available for free, in Kindle format among others. You can find the free version at a number of different sites, including Amazon.

I notice we lost @HImom this round, possibly due to Peyton Place content (as we all sort of know one another’s tastes at this point!). @HImom, wherever you are: If we do read North and South, I can promise you that it’s as clean as they come, and not violent or depressing. Just good people trying to make it through hard times.

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Border Districts by Gerald Murnane
The Yield by Tara Winch
Tru Biz by Sara Novic
Half Sick of Shadows by Laura Sebastian
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

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If you’re talking about the Civil War novel by John Jakes…UGH. I thought that book was awful. No connection at all to Gaskell’s 1854 North and South set in England.

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I’m sort of inclined to read North and South. It’s Mary’s favorite book! I have to like it!