This summer I will be hosting the bookclub at my house, so I have been scouring the library system's catalog to find books I like. Unfortunately, the books I choose need to have at least 10 copies in the library in order for me to use them. That is becoming a problem.
I wanted to pick Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, but there is only one copy in the city system and one in the county. It's the story of three men who stumble onto a Utopian society that is all women who have evolved to asexual reproduction and have never seen men. Very interesting reading. It follows the saying "If there weren't any men on this earth there'd be a lot of fat, happy women and no crime."
My next choice was a Dutch book I read called Daalder's Chocolates by Philibert Schogt. It's about a Dutch boy born to a musical family who takes off to France to learn to be a chocolatier. He moves to Canada, opens a small chocolate shop and is forced out of business by a mega-mart. It wasn't that great of a book and the library only has one copy. Apparently there isn't much patience for stubborn Dutch people. Go figure.
A book I really liked was The Peaceable Kingdom by Ardyth Kennelly, which I found in my ex-husband's grandfather's attic. It's out of print and the library doesn't have it at all. It's a novel written from the perspective of a second wife in a Mormon polygamous marriage. It's a cute history without all the drama of current polygamy.
So I'm faced with the option of choosing a book that I haven't read with many copies in the library. The problem with that is that I may be getting myself into something I'm not prepared for. One of the ladies in my book group did just that. Without reading it beforehand, she chose In the Company of the Courtesan by Sarah Dunant. I asked her about how the book ended recently, because after starting the book, it got to be a bit more than the PG-13 rating I'm used to in the books I read. She said, "Once I realized her pimp was a dwarf, I knew I was in trouble." I thought that made it interesting, but I didn't finish the book.
I have list after list of books other people enjoyed, but I have to find one I have read and liked that the library system likes too. Wish me luck....
4 comments:
Oh, the stress! Picking a book, then cleaning the house, and then figuring out what to make for dessert.
Is it my fault I somehow never learned the definition of "courtesan"?
"The Bin Ladens" has 23 copies in just the county alone. I have one of them, so now it's 22.
Ben
I feel your pain. Notice I'm not on the rotation this year and it's so nice to not have the stress of picking something. And now I have something for next year.
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