Moar Books?
June 16, 2016 8:59 PM - Subscribe

Hello historical fiction book clubbies! We have just two books left ... do we want to keep going? If so, what do you want to read?

I forgot to post the June 1 book (The Many Lives and Secret Sorrows of Josephine B) because I got distracted by life stuff, so I'm going to move it to August 1. It's really good and you should definitely read it!

Our July read is "Forever Amber" which is a fantastic summer read and reads really fast -- or as I described it before, "the story of orphaned Amber St. Clare sleeping her way to the top of English society in a 900-page romp through the Restoration that was both the best-selling and most-banned novel of the 1940s in the US. The Australian government banned the book with the claim that, β€œThe Almighty did not give people eyes to read that rubbish.” Massachusetts helpfully listed its reasons for banning the novel as pornography: β€œ70 references to sexual intercourse, 39 illegitimate pregnancies, 7 abortions, and 10 descriptions of women undressing in front of men.” It is a perfect summer beach read." If that doesn't sell you I don't know what will!

Anyway, to continue past August we need some more books! And I'd like to know what you guys would like to read, as my well is a bit dry. And should we go to every other month books?
posted by Eyebrows McGee to Historical Fiction Book Club (4 comments total)
 
I have not been involved in the book club thus far so forgive me if this book has been covered, but I recently read The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah and really enjoyed it.
posted by amro at 6:58 AM on June 18, 2016


I'm pro-more-books!

I just got Some Sing, Some Cry, which follows members of a black family from emancipation through the present. It's by Ntozake Shange, who also wrote for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf.

I'd also suggest Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Adichie - about the Biafran war.

Regeneration by Pat Baker? Plague of Doves or something else by Louise Erdich?
posted by ChuraChura at 6:11 AM on June 26, 2016


So glad you got distracted in June, EM, so did I. I read The Many Lives and Secret Sorrows of Josephine B last year, unfortunately it was a loaner and I returned it. Today I got an email from a second-hand bookseller and Josephine B was listed, which prompted me to check FanFare to at least read the discussion I thought I'd missed. So now I'll buy it and re-read for August. I thank you, and no doubt so would my bookseller.

Seconding Regeneration by Pat Barker for future FanFaring.
posted by valetta at 9:19 PM on June 29, 2016


I enjoyed Snow Flower & the Secret Fan.

Not sure how I ended up in a 2-year old thread just now but yay, I'm going to add to my to-do list to check out those books ChuraChura recommends when I get back to the states.
posted by aniola at 4:40 PM on April 1, 2018


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