Novel Ideas Book Club
The Novel Ideas Book Club is a UU-style, open-to-all gathering & discussion group of bibliophiles who appreciate a wide genre of reads, from history to true crime.
You do not have to be an NIBC member to join in our discussions. We invite all readers to take part at 7 PM on the fourth Wednesday of the month, on the 3rd floor.
UPCOMING BOOK DISCUSSIONS
April 24th (@7 PM on the 3rd floor):
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
272 pages – The award-winning, best-selling author of Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel returns with a novel of art, time travel, love, and plague that takes the reader from Vancouver Island in 1912 to a dark colony on the moon five hundred years later, unfurling a story of humanity across centuries and space.
One of the Best Books of the Year: The New York Times, NPR, GoodReads
“One of [Mandel’s] finest novels and one of her most satisfying forays into the arena of speculative fiction yet.” —The New York Times
May 22nd (@7 PM on the 3rd floor):
“Klara and the Sun” by Kazuo Ishiguro
320 pages – Set in the U.S. in an unspecified future, the book is told from the point of view of Klara, a solar-powered AF (Artificial Friend), who is chosen by Josie, a sickly child, to be her companion. Josie’s schooling is provided entirely at home by on-screen tutors, opportunities for socialization are limited and parents who can afford it often buy their children androids as companions.
June 26th (@7 PM on the 3rd floor):
320 pages – Drawing on Maggie O’Farrell’s long-term fascination with the little-known story behind Shakespeare’s most enigmatic play, Hamnet is a luminous portrait of a marriage, at its heart the loss of a beloved child.
Warwickshire in the 1580s. Agnes is a woman as feared as she is sought after for her unusual gifts. She settles with her husband in Henley Street, Stratford, and has three children: a daughter, Susanna, and then twins, Hamnet and Judith. The boy, Hamnet, died in 1596, aged eleven. Four years or so later, the husband writes a play called Hamlet.
Award-winning author Maggie O’Farrell’s new novel breathes full-blooded life into the story of a loss usually consigned to literary footnotes, and provides an unforgettable vindication of Agnes, a woman intriguingly absent from history.
LAST READ:
In February, we read “The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store” by James McBride.
The book was published in 2023. From the author of Deacon King Kong and National Book Award winner The Good Lord Bird comes a gorgeous novel about a small town and the bonds of community that are formed between marginalized groups in order to survive.
NIBC is a UU-style, open-to-all gathering & discussion group of bibliophiles who appreciate a wide genre of reads, from history to true crime. They meet at 6 p.m. on the fourth Wednesday of each month.
Contact: Jannie Marvel. Email: at nibc@c-vuu.org
And for more book talk, try out the Facebook group CVUU’s Bookworms. It’s a private group on Facebook, set up in January 2020 to share news of CVUU’s two book clubs, The Novel Ideas Book Club and the CVUU Book Lovers.
JOIN OUR FACEBOOK GROUP!
If book clubs are not your thing, but books are, you do not have to be a member of either book club to join the group! The page is chock-full of book talk and fellowship outside of scheduled reads and news of meetups.
Find them on Facebook and request to join by clicking here: CVUU’S BOOKWORMS