Last night's shindig at Jenny and Dan's is probably the largest turnout we've ever had, and I'm happy to report we had several new faces as well! Jenny and Dan hosted Jem, Ashley, Katie, Kate, Leigh Ann, Kelli, Jenn, Christopher, Liz, Nelson, John, Anna, Amanda, Gus, Gwen, Noemi, Christy, Vincent, Magnus, Ava, and myself - and I'm probably leaving off a name or two, if not three (please let me know so I can add you).
I had a blast, and I think I can safely say that was the general consensus of the crowd. Jenny and Dan not only served up some yummy appetizers, they fed us all a hearty and delicious homemade chili, too, and provided pumpkins for us all to carve. Anna, Nelson, John, Gus, and Dan all carved some great ones, and the rest of us got to munch on Jenny's tasty toasted pumpkin seeds!
Katie will host November's meeting and she's selected The Wind Done Gone by Alice Randall, a short novel that is a retelling of Gone with the Wind from a slave's perspective. Sounds like an interesting read, and it's only 224 pages!
Which brings me to book club business - poll results! The results are in and the option to read novellas and short stories just barely edged out the option to read longer books every other month. It seems we're pretty evenly split over this since only one vote separated the two.
Therefore, I have a suggestion. What got this whole topic started was the fact that so many people do not read the book each month, and it was suggested that perhaps that is because the books are too long and folks simply don't have time. I can relate to that since I work full time and am in grad school part time. However, I also feel that no matter what, there will always be people each month who don't read the book for whatever reason. Personally, I'm OK with that since our club is really 2 parts social club and 1 part book club. Truth be told, I think most of us would agree that book club is a great reason to get together once a month, meet new folks, talk about all kinds of stuff, just generally enjoy each other, and hey, if we can read the book, too, that's just gravy! So, with that said, what do you guys think of this: Instead of making a new rule that we will only read novellas and short stories, let's just try to stick with books that are on the short side, say about 400 pages or less? I think most folks should be able to finish that in a month, and we can stick to our tradition of reading novellas during November and December since those months are so hectic for all. I'm not gonna do another poll, just let me know what you think - love it, hate it, good, bad, or ugly!
