Starting A Book Club (Katie)

Do You Book Club? (Katie)

Have you ever been part of a book club? It's something I've never honestly considered until a few weeks ago. My sister recommended a movie to me (which I loved), and it featured a book club. The club looked so fun and interesting, and it left me wishing I could be friends with those people. The idea percolated for a while, and this weekend my sister and I decided we were going to do it--we were going to start a book club!

Full disclosure, this is supposed to be a Story Snippets post. If you came here looking for bits of a story, I do apologize. I'm just so stoked for the book club to begin I thought I'd share about our process instead.

If you've ever been part of a book club I would LOVE to hear what you do for your club. Is it in person or online? Do you stick to one genre? How many people are involved?

Our club will feature a few things:

* Online using Facebook groups and messenger

* A few members to start out, but we will be hoping to grow

* Open to almost all genres because we want to keep ourselves open to learning new things

* Reading one book a month, chatting about it via the FB group, and doing a video chat at the end of the month to discuss our overarching thoughts

The club will officially start on July 1, 2020. We will be reading an inspirational women's fiction book. I'll be honest, this isn't typically my go-to genre...but like I said, we all read different things and want to stay open minded!

My recommendation for an upcoming book was The Gold-Son by Carrie Anne Noble, and it was well received so I'm looking forward to that month!

Again, if you're part of a book club I'd love to hear all about it! We don't really know what we're doing, but winging it is always fun. We could use your tips!

Top 3 Summer Reads (Lizzie)

Ever since the days when we had summers off, the summer reading list has been an important part of every reader's literary life. So today, I'm sharing some of my summer reads. I've discovered that reading is essential if I want to be able to write, so I've had to become very serious about taking the time to read, even though I'm not "out of school" for the summer. Not that I mind have a valid excuse to read. :)

I'm attacking my TBR pile as well as a new release and and re-read. So here are so my summer reads from the spec fiction section of my shelves.

1) Mark of the Raven by Morgan Busse

I've been looking forward to reading this fantasy adventure, and it's next on my TBR pile. You can check out Lauricia's review of it here.

2) The Hero's Guide to Saving the Kingdom (and Storming the Castle and Being an Outlaw) by Christopher Healy

I recently finished this hilarious middle grade series telling the true story of the the Princes Charming and their adventures and romances. A fun, clever series. You can read Julie's review of it here.

3) Spark by J.M. Hackman

This book by J.M. Hackman has been on my TBR pile a while. I've read and loved her short stories, so I'm excited to read her full-length story. You can read about it from the author herself here.

Also being a lover of historical fiction, I have a few of those on my summer list as well. I just finished and loved (as I expected I would) Karen Witemeyer's More Than Words Can Say  and look forward to Tessa Afshar's Thief of Corinth. Karen Witemeyer's books have wonderful, deep characters, great examples of healthy relationships (something too often difficult to find in romance novels), a beautiful romance, and humor. I've only read Tessa Afshar's Pearl in the Sand, but if this new one is like her debut, then it will also have deep characters, important life lessons portrayed in a way that touches you without being preachy, and wonderful Biblical history brought to life.

I also would like to re-read C.J. Brightley's The Lord of Dreams, which Laurie reviewed here and Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, because one should always have a Jane Austen novel open.

What are you summer reads? Have you read any of these?