Yes, I joined a book club. As a writer, I also love to read. Reading is highly recommended for writers by well-known authors. Especially if you read their books. Just kidding!
I found a Wednesday morning writing group, as I said last week, and one of the members of that group told me about the book club. Meet-up is the place where all the great stuff is listed and once I heard about the group, I went on there to join. Now I get all the alerts and the polls for voting for the next book we will all read.
I love this group because they read science fiction and fantasy, switching every month. At the end of the year, we will have read 6 new sci-fi and 6 new fantasy books. My goal is to slip in as many romances as possible, but don’t tell them.
I’m also thrilled that the group was reading a sci-fi book the month I joined. My husband was willing to read it and attend with me. We didn’t finish it in time for the meeting, but we had enough read to keep up with the conversation.
We read Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee, an amazing bit of writing and story craft. Breaking rules seems to be this author’s best skill, leaving so much to the reader’s imagination. Like one of the club members said, His rule is Don’t Tell and Don’t Show, either.
Next month we are reading Wylding Hall by Elizabeth Hand. Mike’s already finished it and was more impressed than he expected to be. I’ll start it soon, but I need a Romance break. I think I should also mention that the meetings are held at various breweries around the north county. That helped me to get Mike to the first meeting. Books and Beer is a great combination. And really intelligent conversation.
I voted for the September book, which will be a science fiction selection. I want to read almost all of the candidate novels, but Zeroes by Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan, and Deborah Biancotti, caught my interest and held it as I read blurbs on Goodreads for the selections.
But the winner looks like it will be All Systems Red by Martha Wells, first in the Murderbot series. It’s almost impossible to find a book that’s not first in a series. Ninefox Gambit has a sequel that I want to read, Raven Stratagem, Book 2 in the Machineries of Empire series.
The other nominations are, listed in my order of preference:
Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson
Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
Have you read any of these? No Spoilers, but let me know if you liked it and if you agree with my ranking in the comments. I have to say that I love I, Robot, but have read it too many times to vote for it in this situation. Thanks for reading, I’ll be back on Sunday.
