Welcome to Book Club

A little over two years ago, I blogged about the book club I’d been participating in for 16 months. Since I have continued in that book club, I thought maybe it was time for an update. Our little club has read and discussed 26 more books, and I have confirmed some things about myself as a reader.

• I am very willing to suspend disbelief if the author is able to pull me into their fictional world.
• I am a forgiving reader. It takes a lot for me to truly dislike a book.
• When discussing a book, I can do a lot of nodding, agreeing with other people’s reasons for liking or not liking a book, and yet it doesn’t change my mind. What I felt is what I felt.
• Which brings me to, I am a “feeling” reader. I want a story to make me feel. I don’t analyze a story with my brain (although I can). I react with my heart.

That got me to thinking about my own writing. While many writers say something like, “I see the story in my mind, like a movie,” I always say, “I feel the story in my gut.” Which must mean I both read and write for all the feels.

My book club reads general market books (we are all Christian writers). In today’s world, that often means fast-forwarding through foul language and/or sex scenes, and I have become even more appreciative of those general market writers who can bring me into their worlds without all the things I find objectionable. Writers, even Christian writers, need to read widely. We learn as we read just as we learn as we live. In the world but not of it.

I won’t share all 26 titles we’ve read since my last post. Instead, I’m going to share the books that I rated 4 stars and above. Remember, however, that these books could have language or other reasons they might not be for you:

• The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center (4🌟)
• Finding Dorothy by Elizabeth Letts (4.5🌟)
• The Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt (5🌟)
• My Friends by Fredrik Backman (5🌟)
• Twice by Mitch Albom (4.5🌟)
• The Borrowed Life of Fredrick Fife by Anna Johnston (5🌟)
• The Correspondent by Virginia Evans (4.5⭐️)

When not reading for book club, I prefer Christian fiction, both historical and contemporary. And even though Christian fiction is only about 10% (maybe even less) the size of the general market, there are so many wonderful books and authors to choose from.

As we’ve probably all said before and probably all will say again, So many books, so little time.

~robin