The Millennialish Book Club

This title is the first choice among our book club members in our latest future selections poll! This coming-of-age Gothic-mystery historical noir love-story (yes, it's been described as all that) set in 1945 Barcelona became an international sensation and a continuous best-seller since its 2001 publication. Perfect for bookworms who like books about books and a little humor along the way, this novel has something for everybody. And that's illustrated by its very impressive 4.3/5 Goodreads overall rating among 655,000 readers...alongside almost two dozen international literary awards. If you enjoy our selection, it has several sequels.

From Goodreads:

Barcelona, 1945: A city slowly heals from its war wounds, and Daniel, an antiquarian book dealer's son who mourns the loss of his mother, finds solace in a mysterious book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, by one Julian Carax. But when he sets out to find the author's other works, he makes a shocking discovery: someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book Carax has written. In fact, Daniel may have the last of Carax's books in existence. Soon Daniel's seemingly innocent quest opens a door into one of Barcelona's darkest secrets--an epic story of murder, madness, and doomed love.

The silver medal winner in our most recent future-selections poll is by Amor Towles, an author we've spent time with before when we read his Rules of Civility shortly before lockdowns--to generally favorable opinion among our book club. It's a ubiquitous book at the moment, found in most bookstores, libraries, and must-read lists since its April publication.

This is a rare selection for us in that we don't do many short story collections--albeit, this book has a novella in the mix. One of these stories is a continuation of Rules of Civility, but it's said that you don't have to read RoC in order to enjoy the tale. At any rate, with a variety of plots, character casts, and settings, we should have plenty to talk about at our table this month!

From Goodreads:

From the bestselling author of The Lincoln Highway, A Gentleman in Moscow, and Rules of Civility, a richly detailed and sharply drawn collection of stories set in New York and Los Angeles.

The millions of readers of Amor Towles are in for a treat as he shares some of his shorter six stories set in New York City and a novella in Los Angeles. The New York stories, most of which are set around the turn of the millennium, take up everything from the death-defying acrobatics of the male ego, to the fateful consequences of brief encounters, and the delicate mechanics of compromise which operate at the heart of modern marriages.

In Towles’s novel, Rules of Civility, the indomitable Evelyn Ross leaves New York City in September, 1938, with the intention of returning home to Indiana. But as her train pulls into Chicago, where her parents are waiting, she instead extends her ticket to Los Angeles. Told from seven points of view, “Eve in Hollywood” describes how Eve crafts a new future for herself—and others—in the midst of Hollywood’s golden age.

Throughout the stories, two characters often find themselves sitting across a table for two where the direction of their futures may hinge upon what they say to each other next.

Written with his signature wit, humor, and sophistication, Table for Two is another glittering addition to Towles’s canon of stylish and transporting historical fiction.

Our 10th annual holiday book grab-bag is upon us! A whole decade of these? Wow! This is our most popular meeting of the year, and everyone always has fun with this.

Here's how it works:

1. Bring a gift-wrapped copy of a fiction or narrative non-fiction book that is under 500 pages that the book club hasn't read in a couple years, and that you enjoyed reading and want to share with someone else. New or gently-used. Your own copy or you can buy another one.
2. We'll put all the books in a big bag.
3. We'll all pick numbers, and then starting with 1 we'll each pull out a wrapped book.
4. We'll unwrap them all at the same time. If you want to trade (like you've already read the book you picked), find someone to swap with. Then we each show the group what we received.
5. You'll read it and bring your new book--it's yours--with you to our January meeting and let us know what you think of it!

See you then for the bookish holiday fun!