The Mizahar Book Club!

[Caelum]

I’m down with any genre you select, Ely. Guys? Maybe we can make an effort not to be genre snobs. It’d be cool if, as a book club full of writers, we could actually branch out of our preferred reading pockets and read something altogether new because, I mean, haven’t you heard? There isn’t a genre incapable of being written well by the right person. And, well, there’s a lot of bad writers out there too. Books clubs steer away from them as a rule.

[Gossamer]

I've been staying out of this because... well... I hate book clubs. Why? For the very reason this thread is starting to demonstrate. "Let's not read...." and "Can we only read PG 13...." and "I hate (Insert genre)." I really really really hate it when people diss a genre of books without having ever read any or having only read one or two that have turned them off to the topic. To me, that is the most offensive narrow minded thing ever.

I often say I can't stand anime as a style of visual entertainment.. But I've watched a LOT of it before coming to that conclusion... over years. It's just not my cup of tea.

So is excluding books for content, theme, or specific scenes in my opinion is a crime. PG-13 technically can't have any swearing, cussing, bloodshed, sex, etc. And by saying that, you've just excluded most of the books on the planet. For example, Lord of the Flies - a book read in almost every middle school ever - has a scene where a pig is graphically killed and its head is put on a pike. And this book is considered a literary classic, if you like it or not, and definitely doesn't fit the classification of PG-13.

I won't be participating in this book club.

Sure, it's a good idea, but I don't like bashing books in any way shape or form or even running into the genre prejudice that we find out there in the world. Each genre has incredible books. Even rated books that are somewhere in the neighborhood of R have been critically acclaimed. The Color Purple which is a multiple award winning book and went on to be an academy award winning movie opens with a scene of molestation.

I just can't stomach the high horses people. Honestly.

[Elsa Marin]

I'd put my two cents in, but Goss and Caelum already said it all and more eloquently than I ever would.

[Nyxie Nadira Draer]

Hey, I understand and agree with the fact that being picky about content/theme/scenes/genres is entirely pointless (and a even tad annoying), given the plethora of well-written books out there in the world.

People are going to be picky nonetheless, since we've all got our own preferences. The point of a book club, as Caelum said, is to "branch out of our preferred reading pockets". There's no guarantee that you're going to like the book that gets chosen.

But the point is more than just getting out of your comfort zone. It's also to promote critical thinking, discussion, debates, and analyses. We get to read actively. As writers, we would seriously benefit from having discussions that would enrich our understanding of elements in a well-written story; elements that we would otherwise passively skip over when we're just reading for fun.

Basically, if we're serious about starting this club, then we'd be better off being open-minded to reading whatever is chosen.

[Elysium]

I had a feeling we would inevitably run aground of this.

I want to establish that this book club will not be exclusively PG-13. I trust that we're all adults here, in one sense or another. If you can't handle mature content, then please do not join this club.

Now, while we've been jokingly throwing around the title "dictator," I would like to make it clear up front that if you don't like a particular genre on a particular month, you are in no way obligated to read it. But likewise, I would prefer it if you didn't ruin it for everyone else. This is more or less a cautionary statement. I don't want this to devolve into squabbling over preference. As it has been said before, this is so everyone can branch out of their comfort zone, myself included. While I don't typically read books in the romance genre, I would be willing to give it a try. And remember guys: I pick the genre, not the book.

My challenge to everyone is to uncover the greatest novel they can. You might surprise yourself in the process of broadening your horizons.

[Shane Wallsly]

I feel kind of like a melon after my last comment. I'll read whatever is selected.

[Sira]

I'm definitely interested in this, plus if the right genre's pop up I can nominate my uncle's novels and try to get him some more readers.

[Gideon]

Trying new things is fun, guys!

I'll toss this one out there since I've passed it in my travels and it seemed like it would have been entertaining had it not been for the books I already held in hand and the cash I was in short supply of at the time.

"Outlander" by Diana Gabaldon

[Aurorah]

To be honest, the only romance books I've enjoyed reading are by John Green or by Gayle Forman.

Also, dystopian stories usually end up having some threads of romance woven into them. E.g. Hunger Games, Divergent...

I wouldn't mind doing romance as the first genre as sometimes I actually do enjoy it

[Matthew]

I love the idea of a romance theme. I think a lot of people assume what exactly a romance novel is going to be, but don't go out and look at some of the gems in the romance genre. I personally have little experience in romance, only what little research I did for Matthew. I would like to give it a shot though. Intrigued by the idea of reading romance- And I assumed most romance novels involved a barechested Fabio or a healthily-chested woman- I went and researched a bit. I mean, look at some of the gems I would readily suggest for reading in February. As She Climbed Across the Table : Alice Coombs is a particle physicist, and she and her colleagues have created a void, a hole in the universe, that they have taken to calling Lack. But Lack is a nullity with taste—tastes; it absorbs a pomegranate, light bulbs, an argyle sock; it disdains a bow tie, an ice ax, and a scrambled duck egg. To Alice, this selectivity translates as an irresistible personality. To Philip, Alice's ex-boyfriend, it makes Lack an unbeatable rival, for how can he win Alice back from something that has no flaws—because it has no qualities? Being Dead : Lying in the sand dunes of Baritone Bay are the bodies of a middle-aged couple. Celice and Joseph, in their mid-50s and married for more than 30 years, are returning to the seacoast where they met as students. Instead, they are battered to death by a thief with a chunk of granite. Their corpses lie undiscovered and rotting for a week, prey to sand crabs, flies, and gulls. Yet there remains something touching about the scene, with Joseph's hand curving lightly around his wife's leg, "quietly resting; flesh on flesh; dead, but not departed yet." "Their bodies had expired, but anyone could tell—just look at them—that Joseph and Celice were still devoted. For while his hand was touching her, curved round her shin, the couple seemed to have achieved that peace the world denies, a period of grace, defying even murder. Anyone who found them there, so wickedly disfigured, would nevertheless be bound to see that something of their love had survived the death of cells. The corpses were surrendered to the weather and the earth, but they were still a man and wife, quietly resting; flesh on flesh; dead, but not departed yet." From that moment forward, Being Dead becomes less about murder and more about death. Alternating chapters move back in time from the murder in hourly and two-hourly increments. As the narrative moves backward, we see Celice and Joseph make the small decisions about their day that will lead them inexorably towards their own deaths. In other chapters the narrative moves forward. Celice and Joseph are on vacation and nobody misses them until they do not return. Thus, it is six days before their bodies are found. Crace describes in minute detail their gradual return to the land with the help of crabs, birds, and the numerous insects that attack the body and gently and not so gently prepare it for the dust-to-dust phase of death. Like Water for Chocolate : The youngest daughter of a well-born rancher, Tita has always known her destiny: to remain single and care for her aging mother. When she falls in love, her mother quickly scotches the liaison and tyrannically dictates that Tita's sister Rosaura must marry the luckless suitor, Pedro, in her place. But Tita has one weapon left--her cooking. Esquivel mischievously appropriates the techniques of magical realism to make Tita's contact with food sensual, instinctual and often explosive. Forced to make the cake for her sister's wedding, Tita pours her emotions into the task; each guest who samples a piece bursts into tears. Esquivel does a splendid job of describing the frustration, love and hope expressed through the most domestic and feminine of arts, family cooking, suggesting by implication the limited options available to Mexican women of this period. Tita's unrequited love for Pedro survives the Mexican Revolution the births of Rosaura and Pedro's children, even a proposal of marriage from an eligible doctor. In a poignant conclusion, Tita manages to break the bonds of tradition, if not for herself, then for future generations. Some of those are weird, some dark, some interesting. That last one has each chapter named after a different month of the year, and contains the recipe for an actual Mexican dish. The ingredients for the recipe are interwoven into the language that describes various events in Tita's life. In my mind, they broaden the genre of romance in pretty cool ways. I don't know if my time would allow me to commit to a club, but I do enjoy the idea, and would try to keep up with the reading selections.