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Book ClubsGauging interest for potential book clubs
On some of the other recent threads here, I mentioned a couple books I want to read and would be open to facilitating a book club for.
Please comment on this post which of the books you're interested in and can commit to reading. Any comments or questions about how the book club will operate are also welcome. If at least three other women want to read and discuss the book(s), expect the book club to start in February.
I'll decide on a finalized schedule and let participants know after seeing how many other women are interested in each book. If there's enough interest in both books, the book clubs will run separately.
description from bookshop.org "Ursula K. LeGuin meets The Road in a post-apocalyptic modern classic of female friendship and intimacy.
Deep underground, thirty-nine women live imprisoned in a cage. Watched over by guards, the women have no memory of how they got there, no notion of time, and only a vague recollection of their lives before.
As the burn of electric light merges day into night and numberless years pass, a young girl--the fortieth prisoner--sits alone and outcast in the corner. Soon she will show herself to be the key to the others' escape and survival in the strange world that awaits them above ground."
description from bookshop.org "What kind of mother abandons her child? During the pandemic, trapped at home with young children and struggling to find creative space to write, journalist Begoña Gómez Urzaiz became fixated on artistic women who overcame both society's condemnation and their own maternal guilt to leave their children--at will or due to economic or other circumstances.
The Abandoners is sharp, at times slyly humorous, and always deeply empathetic. Using famous examples such as Ingrid Bergman, Muriel Spark, Doris Lessing, and Maria Montessori as well as fictional ones like Anna Karenina and the many roles of Meryl Streep, and interrogating modern trends like "momfluencers," Gómez Urzaiz reveals what our judgement of these women tells us about our judgement of all women."
If you message me when you make book club posts I can sticky the post to make it more findable in the circle.
I just wanted to hop on and say I 100% recommend ‘I who have never known men’. I read it a month ago and it’s a very good book and I think would be appreciated by others on Ovarit as it is very female focussed.
thanks! if you'd like to participate in the discussion of the book once the book club begins, feel free to join even though you've already read it
I got my hands on the original, French-language text of IWHNKM (Moi qui n'ai pas connu les hommes). I think I'll read that version and We can see whether anything in the forthcoming discussion was lost in translation 😀
Sounds fun! I love a dystopian novel so 1st appeals more - have added it to my list regardless of book club :)
so far, these are the women interested in reading I Who Have Never Known Men
@opals @dietcokeaddict @regularfeminist (?) @nomenarewomen (already read) @lipsy (?) @starlight_chaser @tiredofeverything @metal_detector
these are the women interested in reading The Abandoners: On Mothers and Monsters
@compassionategoddess @lipsy (?) @regularfeminist @starlight_chaser (maybe?)
@metal_detector - you didn't specify which book(s) you are interested in
if I got anything wrong here, please reply to this comment with any corrections.
There's enough interest in I Who Have Never Known Men, so that book club will start on February 5. Looking at the page count, it's on the shorter side at under 200 pages. What do you think about splitting the book in half and discussing the first half on Feb 5 and the second half on Feb 12? Or would you prefer to discuss the entire book at once, on Feb 5?
thanks to input from @nomenarewomen, I've decided that we will discuss the whole book on February 5. I will post a new, separate thread for that discussion. So you can start reading I Who Have Never Known Men now in preparation for Feb 5.
What do you think about splitting the book in half
Depends on whether there's anywhere halfwayish through the book that offers both /1/ a logically sensible stopping point in the narrative, and /2/ enough perspective on the overall story arc to allow coherent discussion of it.
Some stories I've read—especially ones that repeatedly scene-cut between different narrators—have plenty of these potential waypoints; others have had such a seamless narrative that I couldn't bear the thought of slamming the book shut partway through and cliffhanger-ing for a whole week.
@nomenarewomen, You read the book not that long ago—Do You remember whether there were any feasible stopping points?
yeah, I was going to ask @nomenarewomen about that but you beat me to it! I haven't gotten a chance to look at the book yet and see if it has a good midway point like you mentioned. it also depends on the writing style, since some books are fairly quick reads but others are more dense and take longer, even if the page counts are similar.
it might be that this one is short and quick enough that it's more suitable to discuss the whole book at once, but I'm not sure at this point.
Hiya, so the book has three main sections: the part where the women are in the cage pp.1-55, the part
thanks for the insight! based on that, it looks like it's better to discuss the entire book at once, so that's what will happen for this book club.
I am interested in both books, but not sure I will be able to read them for the bookclub- I am a slow reader.
if you'd like to get a head start on reading, feel free to do so. currently, it looks like there's enough interest for *I Who Have Never Known Men," so I will be facilitating a book club for that one.
as for The Abandoners, I'm not sure if there'll be enough interest in that one, but I'm going to wait a few more days and see if there's anyone else interested in that one.
I'm interested in reading I Who Have Never Known Men, by Jacqueline Harpman.
Not so sure about the second one just yet.
I'd be interested in either one. (I might only have time for one if You run both of them.)
I am interested
are you interested in both books, or just one of them? if only one, which one?
Do we need to sign up or can we just participate in the thread when it's posted? I'm interested in IWHNKM
you don't have to officially sign up here, I just wanted to get an idea of how many people were interested in each book.
since I've confirmed that I'll be facilitating a book club for IWHNKM, you (or anyone else who sees this) can just participate once the thread is posted.
newest update - February 2, 2025
Hello again everyone, I'm here with a reminder that our discussion about I Who Have Never Known Men will start in a few days on February 5.
If you haven't finished reading yet, please try and get that done in preparation for the discussion. I will make a new post for the book's discussion. You don't have to comment immediately once the post is up on the 5th, but please try to join the discussion in a timely manner so it will be easier for everyone to discuss the book with each other.
I'm looking forwards to discussing this book with you all! @opals @dietcokeaddict @regularfeminist @nomenarewomen @lipsy @starlight_chaser @tiredofeverything @metal_detector
Oh my, I thought we were only supposed to start reading in February!