Fall '11 Book Club

Each season I will list ten books. You will pick one, read it, review it and snail mail the review to your partner. I’ll pick genres/themes for each season, and try to include a variety. This time the theme is BOARDING SCHOOL. The reason for the large choice list is this: if you get a few chapters in and think “Errrr”, then you can pick another book and have another go. You do need to read the whole book for this swap, but like I said, you have plenty of choices. Remember that the point of this is to read books/genres/authors that you otherwise wouldn’t, even if you have to grit your teeth and bear it. You may pick a book you’ve read before, but that kind of defeats the object, right? But, yes, you can do this.

Fall is back to school time, and I know it can be a busy time for many of us. To keep with a back to school theme and maybe make the reading a little easier, the theme this time is boarding school books, most of which are YA (and there are some paranormals for those of you who want something a little spooky this time of year). The list below includes of books that take place in boarding schools.

Here’s the list :

1. Fallen by Lauren Kate

2. Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

3. A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett

4. The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger

5. Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld

6. Looking for Alaska by John Green

7. Marked by P.C. & Kristin Cast

8. A Separate Peace by John Knowles

9. Princess Academy by Shannon Hale

10. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Your review should be about one side of printer paper. You should include the following points and anything else you wish:

• Which book you picked and why.

• What the book is about – you can copy out the synopsis if you want.

• What you thought of the book (eg. Would you recommend this book? Would you read it again? Would you read more from that author? Or from the same genre? Is it the type of thing you like, or is it totally new for you? Why or why not would you read more like it? etc.)