Thank you to the person who recommended my novel, THE LITTLE BRIDE. I just wanted to let interested readers know that a) it came straight out in paperback, to make it easier for book clubs to read! and b) I'm happy to skype or call in to your group if you're interested in a q&a with the author. More info at my website www.thelittlebride.com. And thanks!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kristin Lavransdatter, by Sigrid Undset. Get the modern translation, which has a black cover and all three parts of the trilogy in one book.

It won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1929, I think. It is the story of a marriage in medieval Norway. I have read it dozens of times, and get more out of it every time I read it. Reviewers have said only Brothers Karamazov could rival its study of human nature.

The first few chapters start a little slow, with Kristin's childhood, but then the action is unrelenting, soul-rending, and so real. You will BE Kristin, but you will want to shake her, too.

I will give it to each of my daughters when they are 16, so they can understand love, what marriage is like, what it is like to be a woman. You get to live someone else's life, all her mistakes, and it will haunt you.

Sounds terrific, and I put it on hold at my library. They asked which volume I wanted, so I went with 1, so is it a series?

It is a trilogy, but the modern translation has all three installments in one volume:

http://www.norway.org/ARCHIVE/culture/literature/nunnally/

The first book ends with Kristin's marriage, the second is when she is young and raising children, and the third is from when her children are growing up until her death of the plague.

I actually love the old-fashioned, original translation (it's kind of Shakespearean), but the modern translation makes it a very fast read.

Anonymous wrote:Kristin Lavransdatter, by Sigrid Undset. Get the modern translation, which has a black cover and all three parts of the trilogy in one book.

It won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1929, I think. It is the story of a marriage in medieval Norway. I have read it dozens of times, and get more out of it every time I read it. Reviewers have said only Brothers Karamazov could rival its study of human nature.

The first few chapters start a little slow, with Kristin's childhood, but then the action is unrelenting, soul-rending, and so real. You will BE Kristin, but you will want to shake her, too.

I will give it to each of my daughters when they are 16, so they can understand love, what marriage is like, what it is like to be a woman. You get to live someone else's life, all her mistakes, and it will haunt you.

Sounds terrific, and I put it on hold at my library. They asked which volume I wanted, so I went with 1, so is it a series?

*Miracle*

Run
Daughter of Fortune
Zorro
Animal Vegetable Miricle

Unbroken was awesome!

Unbroken. Everyone in my book club LOVED it.

If everyone in your group liked Water for Elephants (which was practically written for book clubs), you could try another by the same author-- Ape House. It's set in the present day (loses one book club point for that) but has a theme (animal testing) which is good for discussion. Sure to bring out some differing opinions and spark some new thoughts.

The Glass Castle. Quick read, and can inspire some really interesting discussion.

Loving Frank - good read. And oddly, I now have a strong desire to go see a Frank Lloyd Wright house.

It's a rare treasure to find a historically imagined novel that is at once fully versed in the facts and unafraid of weaving those truths into a story that dares to explore the unanswered questions. Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah Cheney's love story is--as many early reviews of Loving Frank have noted--little-known and often dismissed as scandal. In Nancy Horan's skillful hands, however, what you get is two fully realized people, entirely, irrepressibly, in love. Together, Frank and Mamah are a wholly modern portrait, and while you can easily imagine them in the here and now, it's their presence in the world of early 20th century America that shades how authentic and, ultimately, tragic their story is. Mamah's bright, earnest spirit is particularly tender in the context of her time and place, which afforded her little opportunity to realize the intellectual life for which she yearned. Loving Frank is a remarkable literary achievement, tenderly acute and even-handed in even the most heartbreaking moments, and an auspicious debut from a writer to watch

Kristin Lavransdatter, by Sigrid Undset. Get the modern translation, which has a black cover and all three parts of the trilogy in one book.

It won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1929, I think. It is the story of a marriage in medieval Norway. I have read it dozens of times, and get more out of it every time I read it. Reviewers have said only Brothers Karamazov could rival its study of human nature.

The first few chapters start a little slow, with Kristin's childhood, but then the action is unrelenting, soul-rending, and so real. You will BE Kristin, but you will want to shake her, too.

I will give it to each of my daughters when they are 16, so they can understand love, what marriage is like, what it is like to be a woman. You get to live someone else's life, all her mistakes, and it will haunt you.

My book group loved A Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, which is not a new book and is odd.

Room!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
We just had a great discussion of The Weight of Heaven by Thrity Umrigar.

I'll second this. I just finished it and am making my DH read it. Really great book.

Great! I have read all of her books. Check out The Space Between Us.

These Hidden Things

It's a good, quick read and I was dying to talk it out with someone. I think there are questions at the end to use for a book club.