August Book a Day overview

Here is the complete list of all the books I’ve covered in this year’s August Book a Day countdown. All the books I’ve posted about were books I’ve read for a book club reading. I used this opportunity to evaluate my book club experience for the last four years. These are only some of the books from the long list of books I’ve read for the book club and the whole list is a lot longer since for the last few years I was a part of more than one book reading groups.

1. Book a Day – Middlesex
2. Book a Day – Blindness
3. Book a Day – Bonjour tristesse
4. Book a Day – Unterstadt
5. Book a Day – Frankenstein
6. Book a Day – The Uncommon Reader
7. Book a Day – Little Women
8. Book a Day – Soumission
9. Book a Day – Lord of the Flies
10. Book a Day – Women Who Run With the Wolves
11. Book a Day – Norwegian Wood
12. Book a Day – A Christmas Carol
13. Book a Day – Steppenwolf
14. Book a Day – Factotum
15. Book a Day – The Shadow of The Wind
16. Book a Day – Cosmétique de l’ennemi
17. Book a Day – La Dame aux Camélias
18. Book a Day – Tess of the D’Urbervilles
19. Book a Day – Cat’s Cradle
20. Book a Day – The Elegance of the Hedgehog
21. Book a Day – A Brief History of Time
22. Book a Day – A Mercy
23. Book a Day – The Turn of the Screw
24. Book a Day – Mrs Dalloway
25. Book a Day – Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
26. Book a Day – The Circle
27. Book a Day – Therese Raquin
28. Book a Day – And the Mountains Echoed
29. Book a Day – To Kill a Mockingbird
30. Book a Day – Bizarij
31. Book a Day – A Doll’s House

I will soon have to make a short pause from my book club activities due to some work related obligations. While most of these books I would not pick for myself I’m glad I had the opportunity to read them and discuss them in good company. Book club groups are a treasure and a source of good friends and good books. I deeply recommend this experience to every reader out there!

Book a Day – A Doll’s House

Book a Day I read because of my reading club – August 2018

I decided to finish my August Book a Day journey with one rather recent book my book club read – A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen. This was our book for May this year. We try to be careful with books that are required reading in schools. Those are not always available when students need them.

We were very active during our meeting and debated on life choices women face regarding family and work. Expectations and realities crashed. At one point we even dubbed Nora, the main character, a gold digger! This book stuck out as one of the most thought inspiring for me from all the recent book club reading choices.

The reason I picked this book to talk about last is the sense of promise and possibility it made me feel at the end. I decidedly enjoyed reading this book and found it to be very optimistic. This stuck out even more when we discussed how the book was received trough the years.

Book a Day – Bizarij

Book a Day I read because of my reading club – August 2018

Bizarij by Jasna Horvat was the book I read for my very first book club meeting. I do not read Croatian authors often and this was an excellent opportunity to pick up the slack. The title of the book translates into “bizarre” and it deals with some little known historical details and quirks of real people from the past. I wanted to fit in so I made an effort with this book.

I was pleasantly surprised with the topic. It is a string of chapters where each is based on an actual person or time in the history of my hometown Osijek. I feel like I need to point out that the first time Osijek was mentioned in historical documents was over 800 years ago. We also have a lot of old local historical sites from the times of ancient Rome and the city of Mursa that used to be here.

And just little to the east there are excavations that date around 3000 years BC. A lot of interesting history to learn about indeed. We were all kinda shamed for all the things we did not really know about. The author Jasna Horvat tends to dip all of her books with themes inspired with history and real past events.

The Excavations of Roman city of Mursa in the park in front of the city hospital in Osijek

I remember it was a meeting at the start of October in 2015. It was also a first meeting for one other book club member I later got really close to. I have fond memories of this book and my introduction to the book club.

Book a Day – To Kill a Mockingbird

Book a Day I read because of my reading club – August 2018

One of the book we read in April 2015 was To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. At the time the author had only recently published another book with the title: Go Set a Watchman. These books are connected by plot but I’m still somewhat confused as to which book was supposed to be the first one chronologically.

While the book was mostly easy to read the themes were quite serious and relevant today so we had no choice but to get a lot of cookies and sweets while we were busy debating. The topic we were especially reflecting on were the parenting skills of the main character.

I found come characters endearing but I was not pleased with the tone of the book. It reminded me of style of Mark Twain which I don’t like. While the book has a certain value it was not one I enjoyed reading.

Book a Day – And the Mountains Echoed

Book a Day I read because of my reading club – August 2018

I enjoy it when readers from my book club suggest a book by an author I have not read. This way I have a reason to venture out of my reading comfort zone more. And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini was a book we read for May 2016.

I read the Croatian translation and was actually pleased with it. The story was bittersweet as is much of the authors opus as I’ve learned at our meeting. The tale twisting on how our choices affect us and those close to us was something we all agreed was expertly written.

There was much sadness and tragedy in the book but there was hope also. Our thought on the book were mostly positive but some readers who are fans of the author decidedly commented that this was not his most representative work.

 

Book a Day – Therese Raquin

Book a Day I read because of my reading club – August 2018

Our group read Therese Raquin by Emile Zola last year in April. Apparently April was a very busy month and there were only a few of us attending the meeting. My thoughts from Monthly reading review can be found HERE.

While we all agreed that the book was kinda depressing some of us were more pleased by the choice than others. We even went into some lengths and came up with our own alternate endings.

While I am in no way a fan of Emile Zola works I’m glad we went with this choice and not Germinal. I am also pleased to have gotten trough another book I missed out on in high school.

Book a Day – The Circle

Book a Day I read because of my reading club – August 2018

When I went back and found out that my book club read The Circle by Dave Eggers way back in October 2015 I was more than a little surprised. We did read it before we knew anything about the movie adaptation and one other group in our book club read it again after that.

The Circle is an excellent book for discussion and I loved how it was written. There are many thought provoking ideas any book club can tackle in this book. It is one of the rare books I enjoyed reading in Croatian translation as well. I remember wanting to go back and make a review afterwards but I did not find time right after reading and latter it slipped my mind entirely.

I still did not watch the movie either even though I was interested about it when I heard it was made. I would like to recommend this book for everyone since it speak about the topic that is very current and real for many who can’t seem to find a balance using mass media platforms and apps. I like how it reminded of some of the older SF masterpieces.

Book a Day – Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe

Book a Day I read because of my reading club – August 2018

There are types of books that I’m sorry we can’t read more of in our book club and I wrote about Book Club Issues before. I do wish we could read more feel good books as I like to call them. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg was a book I heard many good things about but would probably never picked it up if not for the book club.

There were parts of this book I enjoyed very much. The themes vary from everyday life in some other times, up to the issues that are very much relevant today. Some parts of the book  made me angry and upset and I liked being motivated for book club discussion.

I don’t remember watching the movie but it would be very interesting to see some of the issues from the book and how they were translated to movie media. For many of the ideas that come naturally in real life there are certain parts from the book that would not go over so easy in terms of censure and propriety. Good discussion book!

Book a Day – Mrs Dalloway

Book a Day I read because of my reading club – August 2018

Finally a book I actually made a REVIEW on! Our group pick for reading something by Virginia Woolf was Mrs Dalloway. This was in November last year. In my memory it has stayed a complex novel about what it meant to be a woman and a wife.

While some other book club picks gave me grief, this, while it took much more time than anticipated, was a book that kinda clicked with me. I was probably in the right mindset and the time was right for me to read this book.

At our meeting we reflected on the happiness being the ability to find treasure in small things in life and being able to feel content with what you do have. These are the skills I used to think are in contrast to ambition and desire to achieve bigger goals. I’m a bit less judgemental as of late.

Book a Day – The Turn of the Screw

Book a Day I read because of my reading club – August 2018

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James was a book I did not like or enjoy reading. Book club read it in Februray 2017. The book and the meeting both were not all that memorable to be honest. I find all this strange since for the genre alone I should have liked this book. I made a short note on Goodreads about the book:

I felt like the author wanted to write a novel that was modern at that time – ghost story and just threw few ideas on the paper without making an effort.
The whole story just felt boring and out of balance.
There were numerous character and motives that could hold story of their own but as it is this novel felt like a waste of time…

What I’m referencing here is the bad experience that I had with Bram Stoker. While his Dracula is good; some of his other works were very decadent and probably made for caprice of the times. Lair of the White Worm was a terrible read for me. It is interesting form the point of view of the times it was written in but it does not reach more than that.

I don’t remember being this hard on books before joining a book club. Maybe it was because I did more research and choosing of the books I’m picking up to read as opposed to reading other people’s choices. I rarely ever like posting negative comments without something positive thrown in be it at least something concerning a physical atributes of the book.