Writing this, we’re already one and a half years into book club but we didn’t stick to every single month so let’s just talk about the 12 first books we discussed. Also saying in advance, that there’s no clear system in us picking those. Our club consists of 7 booklovers from the EU and US, all of us are readers, writers, working with texts in different formats and jobs. We all read different genres but are interested in pretty much any kind of literature which makes us pretty openminded for whatever “is thrown at us” in the upcoming month.  And without all of the different tastes, we would probably never have read as many varied versions of literature as we did in the end:

BOOK ONE – This is how you lose the time War - Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
Really hyped online, which was probably why it started showing up everywhere. It’s quite a “short” book, only 209 pages and tells the story of two rival agents who start corresponding after one finds a letter the other wrote. Within a slightly dystopian, dying world the two start to communicate and enemies turn into something more.
This book does not show a full-on romance in the classical sense but a slow checking in of two minds clicking. Interesting background elements when it came to how the world is presented and playing into the story. We liked the main characters and the idea, but after the book was as hyped as it seemed, we all expected more when it came to the depth of the world and the language.

BOOK TWO – On Writing – Stephen King
Completely different and with a hands-on mentality this book is a different kind of autobiography AND manual of an exceptional writer. Telling us his life story plus backgrounds of how he works, got into writing and reading and how he afforded to live, Stephen King shows how his whole life was accompanied by the passion for letters. Did not expect this to be as informative and helpful as it truly was. I think all of us took valuable lessons from reading this, like never giving up on writing even when it’s a shitty day or you’re not content with what you’re producing. Or closing a door when working and not letting anyone disturb you. I took way more tips from this, you’ll find a better overview on my full post from a few weeks ago (bookclub menu :) ).

BOOK THREE – The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau Banks - E. Lockhart
A YA-novel set in an academy with different characters playing games against each other. All of it is narrated by the witty and outgoing Frankie who falls in love with a boy who turns out not to be what he seems. We had a lot of fun reading this; great conversations, Frankie being clearly too smart for the others and her own good, cool school-/academia-vibes, well plotted and told. You’ll enjoy this if you like riddles, a love story on the side, great main character development and fun details, that keep reappearing throughout the plot.

BOOK FOUR – Conversations on love – Natasha Lunn
Non-fiction, but told in a way that you can read it quite well without getting lost. Natasha Lunn talks about different kinds of love in this book; how to maintain friendships, relationships, family-connections. A lot of insights from several authors with research or psychological backgrounds to understand, how and why we love. How loss can be worked with, even overcome. Why we get heartbroken, why some of us love “faster.” We all agreed that the “loss”-section was a tough one to read because we all find ourselves in there but there were a lot of valuable sights in this book and it would truly make a great present for men and women who are interested in stats and relationship development in general.

BOOK FIVE – City of thieves – David Benioff
Probably our agreed favourite book in the first year. Simply because you cannot NOT love the two main characters in this story. Two young men meet during the Nazis siege in Leningrad and are ordered to get everything that’s needed for a birthday cake (for a colonels daughter). As it’s extremely difficult to get any eggs in a nearly destroyed city and country, the two embark on a mission to find the eggs and be freed of the prison they’d been put into before the order. What sounds funny and kind of absurd is actually a really great tale of two people seeing the worst things together, becoming friends and fighting for being “alive” in a country where nothing is to gain anymore. Before you think; my god, if it’s this dark, why should I read it? You should simply because the main characters, one jokster, one insecure, are so easy to like, fun to be around despite the situation and the humour in this is 10/10. 

BOOK SIX – Lolly Willowes – Sylvia Townsend Warner
The only classic we picked up this year and definitely with a twist you could have seen coming but the realization hit surprisingly late. Lolly, a bit of a spinster and not fitting the norm of what is expected of the woman in the 19th century, decides to break free from the social norms and her strict – and slightly controlling family – and moves to the countryside. There she starts living in a cottage with a cat she doesn’t even want at first and starts feeling “connections” with the nature around here. This book has a lot of wonderful an unexpected descriptions lulling you in until you don’t really notice anymore what’s just description or truly plot development. Enjoyed reading from a different century, a different expectation, a different language. And the ending was wonderful.

BOOK SEVEN – Anxious People – Fredrik Backman
First, can we call it that?, thriller we read in the group. A bank robber who clearly doesn’t have his shit together in robbing that bank. A ton of people sitting in an apartment above said bank to do a viewing, all of them fighting constantly about who will move into the apartment. None of them seem to actually care that the bank is being robbed, even as the bank robber appears at the door step. This whole set-up is fun enough but once you get into the characters and all of their backgrounds leading them to that point in time, you’ll find it hard to put the book down. Laced with humour, an unexpected backstory, a ton of twists and fast-paced language, I really enjoyed this. Especially Zora. If you know, you know.

BOOK EIGHT – Our missing hearts – Celeste Ng
A world where everything seems to be controlled, until it slowly starts to unravel. A boy who grew up without knowing much about his mother, only that she didn’t fit the new regime of “preserving American Culture” since she had an Asian background and wrote about it. That is until he finds a scrap of paper that suddenly changes the boy’s views on the world and takes him on a journey to find out more about the world and what it was like before the new regime took over. 
Well thought out, focused on character development, dystopian, you really catch feelings for the character and his family whilst reading it. Not always the easiest prose, I’d say. Celeste Ng has a special way of writing, and I think you’ll either like it a lot or might be overwhelmed.

BOOK NINE – How to get filthy rich in rising Asia – Mohsin Hamid

Surprisingly lovely book with two characters meeting each other again and again during the course of their life time. Both of them coming from the poor areas in India, they fall for each other early on without anything truly happening between them. As a reader we really want to make them work and they do, just not in the way we thought they would. You’re learning a lot about class, social status, the working conditions and expected norms in India, without drowning in them or missing out on the love story. I would recommend this book, if you look for something deep, not full on sexual, something with good and easy language, something smart without being overbearingly so.

BOOK TEN – The unbearable lightness of being – Milan Kundera
Very deep dive into relationships and the world view in Prague, around 1960/70.  Honestly, to summarize this would do the book no justice since there’s too much character movement and too many things intertwining in the plot. Let’s break it down in saying the story accompanies three lifes. Tomas, a surgeon, very highly thought of by society and a womanizer, his wife Tereza, who he loves madly but not madly enough to have only her and Sabina, his mistress and an artist who is thriving to make herself known. All of them try their best to live to their fullest abilities and still, life and love seems to be getting in the way constantly. The way I write this can only seem shallow compared to the rich story and prose given. So if you’re looking into something all encompassing, historical and focused on character-development, this might be yours.

BOOK ELEVEN – Shakespeare Undead – Lori Handeland
The funniest read of the year and probably the one with the least thought-out prose – which you can easily ignore when you dive into Shakespeare turning into a Vampire and fighting an army of zombies. In between his battles he falls madly in love with a huntress and they have some weirdly intense sexual encounters and try to end the zombie-war together. Honestly, I laughed my ass off from the dialogues, the plot and the idea in itself. Cannot recommend anything more, if you need something fun at the end of the day.

BOOK TWELVE – We are watching Eliza Bright – A.E.Osworth
A tech world thriller with a main character who has a leading role in her workplace in the beginning and starts standing up to the males in her environment. Eliza is well known in her company as a video game coder, when she starts to face work place harassment by her male colleagues. Since the company doesn’t listen and isn’t taking action, Eliza decides to publish her story via a journalist  on the internet which starts a shitstorm and a whole new movement, in which she has to fight those who can’t accept her standing up for herself. 
Super interesting background, tech-details but not too many, a couple of twists and unexpected scenes (we could battle here if all of them were 100 % necessary). Overall something different, with fast pace and we all enjoyed how the main character turned out!

Your turn: Which one of those would you read?