Oooo! Thanks for sharing, @Anne_Glasgow! What a great list. Many of those are on my TBR as well. The two I’ve read are The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny and North Woods (which was phenomenal). I’m hoping to get to Flesh, Audition and Endling yet this month.
We have around 42 books waiting in the wings that we will pull numbers out of a hat for the following year. We used to vote on books, but it took too much time to tally and then if there were ties we had to vote AGAIN. We also figured if someone recommended the book, it is worth giving it a go. And…that way no one was slighted or upset that their book didn’t make the cut.
So that’s how we decided to list all books, assign them numbers, and pull numbers out of a hat.
My group had a longstanding process of nominating titles, pitching them to the group, then voting. It ended up with the person doing the best presentation always getting their books chosen. During covid I offered to accept written nominations which were dropped into a spreadsheet and then voted on via a Google ballot. It took the salesmanship out of the equation so now the books are chosen on their own merits rather than on personalities and presentation skills. It also gives us another meeting to read and discuss a book rather than listening to a bunch of descriptions and trying to make an informed decision. People seem to appreciate the convenience and efficiency of this new method.
I have a copy of Good Material that I’m very willing to share. It is paperback but in very good condition. (I don’t mind paying for the mailing costs since sending via Media Mail is reasonable.)
Very, very late reply but here is a list of my book club’s choices for 2026. We just discussed the Lion Women of Tehran and all of us enjoyed it very much.
The Queen’s Musician by Martha Jean Johnson
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
The Puma Years: A Memoir by Laura Coleman
Second Glance: A Novel by Jodi Picoult
The Dickens Boy by Thomas Keneally
Claire McCardell: the Designer Who Set Women Free. By Elizabeth Dickinson
The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali
The Book Club for Troublesome Women by Marie Bostwick.
Thursday Night Murder Club (or other books) By Richard Osman
My book club does it monthly, we rotate turns. The member is responsible for providing 3 choices and the questions used for discussion at the meeting. It works well for us, each of us has their favorite genres and that provides lots of new reading experiences. We only had one compliant and that was to our token male. Too many war themed books, please rethink our choices please. And he did. I personally try to provide a variety of books making sure to include non fiction as one of my choices.
We used to vote on books, but it took too much time to tally and then if there were ties we had to vote AGAIN. We also figured if someone recommended the book, it is worth giving it a go. And…that way no one was slighted or upset that their book didn’t make the cut.