Happy Valentines Day to all who celebrate, and a happy Wednesday to everyone else! This month’s book club featured recommendations from romance, historical fiction, horror, mystery, fantasy, magical realism, self-help, and biography. For a full list of all the books we’ve talked about in book club, check out our goodreads page here.
Ms. Melinson kicked off the meeting discussing her current read: Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo, which is a multi-generational story of a magically gifted family. She brought up two books for those disinclined towards the romance genre: The Forest of Hands and Teeth, which is a zombie horror novel, and City of Thieves, a tragic and hilarious war fiction novel set in WWII. In addition, she recommended her favorite books with a romance element, The Night Circus and The Starless Sea, both fantasy novels by Erin Morgenstern.
On the topic of books with romance, Ms. Z-S recommended Stardust by Neil Gaiman, which is the romantasy she picks up whenever she finds herself in a reading slump. She also brought the book club’s attention to Last Night at the Telegraph Club, which is a queer historical romance set in San Francisco’s Chinatown during the Red Scare, and The Infinity Particle, a science fiction graphic novel about a budding romance between a scientist and an artificial intelligence personal assistant.
Jess has been reading Twisted Hate by Ana Huang, the third installment in an enemies-to-lovers romance series that she can’t put down. Juliana is in the process of reading The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Jordyn mentioned that she is reading through our complete Sherlock Holmes collection one bit at a time on any day she forgets to bring a book from home.
Ms. Perla just finished up America Ferrera’s America Like Me, a biography collection of first-person stories from famous people about growing up between cultures. She is also reading The Searcher, a mystery novel by Tana French, and re-visiting Where You Go is Not Who You’ll Be, which is what she describes as the guiding light for college counseling here at Country Day.
Several students mentioned titles they look forward to reading, but haven’t cracked open quite yet. Rachel finally ordered A Princess Bride, heralded by some as the greatest love story ever told. She loves the movie (is it possible not to?) and also enjoyed the audiobook, so she’s excited to get started on the physical copy. Suketa wants to read Tiny Habits, a self-help book all about how small changes in your life can have big impacts. Jordyn just picked up Vagabonds! because it contains one of her favorite tropes, that of found family. Hopefully the mid-winter break will give all of us the opportunity to tear through our teetering TBR piles.
Books & Bytes 