This year my book club is celebrating 35 years of good reading.  We met together this evening in our yearly dinner party where we each bring suggestions for next year’s reading.  I have really missed these friends.  It’s good to be back with them.  I learned this week that it’s my turn this year to be our president.  This is a group of well-read capable women.  We’ve been together through thick and thin.

After our dinner at the Riverside Country Club, we went to work, with our book suggestions.  Each person can recommend up to 5 books to be considered by the selection committee (the previous year’s officers).  You are allowed 5 minutes total to present your suggestions.  Not everyone comes with 5.  I always come with 5, and usually a couple extra just in case one of mine has been suggested by someone else.

As I thought about my suggestions for our coming year, I looked back in my Goodreads account and searched through the 110 books I read while we were in Africa to pick the ones I thought would be best for our group to discuss.  These are the 5 star favorites I brought:

Someone Knows my Name by Lawrence Hill
The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler’s Ghettos by Judy Batalion
The Trees by Conrad Richter (first in a trilogy)
Gods and Kings by Lynn Austin (first in a set of 5 Old Testament historical fiction novels)
The Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

Next month we’ll get our reading list for the next year.  Oh, the possibilities!!