2015 Radical Reads

If you're looking for the 2015 Radically Bookish reading list - here it is!

February 13 - Tayana's choice: A Mercy by Toni Morrison
March 20 - Heather's choice: A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
April 24 - Leslie's choice: The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters 
May 15 - Theresa's choice: The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henriquez
June 13 - Kjirsten's choice: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
July 24 - Robin's choice: 'Serial' NPR podcaset
August 14 - Amy's choice: Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
September 11 - Meghan's choice: A Fall of Marigolds by Susan Meissner
October 16 - Alayna's choice: The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman 
November 13 - Julie's choice: Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson

Also-rans and tea summary still to come...

Book List Love

Sharing the book recommendations that came in from friends, in case you love book recs as much as I do!

Jen B - Bel Canto, Interpreter of Maladies, The Bad Girl, Walk in the Woods

Tiffany - Mists of Avalon

Tim W - 'The Circle' by Dave Eggers, The Alchemist

Laura C - Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, Round House by Louise Erdrich, Out Stealing Horses

Revel G - Being There

Jessica W - Dog Stars, Aristotle and dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, Serena, and Goldfinch

Sheila B - The Stonecutter

Joyce K - Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, Caleb's Crossing, To Kill a Mockingbird

Bryn B - Time Traveler's Guide to Elizabethan England

Catherine H - Sarah's key, Every Last One, Ten Year Nap, Onward Toward What We're Going Toward, In One Person by John Irving

Jen B - Any of Louise Erdrich's books

Jacob C - Siddartha by Herman Hesse

Andi S - Mists of Avalon - a long one but so good. The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood. Glass Castle, Jeanette Walls

Beth S - Susan Wiggs. The Lakeshore Chronicles

Aspen J - Pope Joan, Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence hill, Between Shades of Grey by Ruta Sepetys, Hotel On the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

Karen K - Tenth of December, Orphan Master's Son, Sense of an Ending, Goldfinch, The Secret History, Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Sarah M - at least 5 books by Tomi Ungerer then watch Far Out isn't Far Enough, Everything Begins and Ends at the Kentucky Club, We Need New Names: A Novel, A Discovery of Witches: A Novel (All Souls Trilogy)

Noreen G - I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb

Kelly R - Language of Flowers

Christine P - The Way of the Happy Woman: Living the Best Year of Your Life by Sara Avant Stover

Jen C - Wild, Goldfinch, Peace Like a River

Erin B - The immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, The Dinner

Renee' R -  The Husband's Secret, Where'd you go Bernadette, Wonder

How People Read

Originally discovered this passage in a Methods Reading class, but with help from the Google, learned it's from How to Speak How to Listen, Mortimer J. Adler:

How People Read

When they are in love and are reading a love letter, they read for all they are worth. They read every word three ways; they read between the lines and in the margins; they read the whole in terms of the parts and each part in terms of the whole; they grow sensitive to context and ambiguity, to insinuation and implication; they perceive the color of words, the odor of phrases and the weight of sentences. They may even take the punctuation into account. Then, if never before or after, they read.

2014 Broncos Game …ahem, Book Club Tea!

Escaping (most of) the orange that flooded downtown Denver, we Radically relaxed at a corner table with a Royal tea. While we missed a few items (what did you think of Gone Girl? What was your first favorite book? Comment below!), we did manage to squeeze in the important items:

1. Amy made it - and shared her pick before leaving for P!nk
2. 2014 dates and book selections 
3. Seven interpretations of the bill
4. A worth-every-penny champagne toast, followed by sandwiches, scones with Devonshire cream, and sweet delights all washed down with tea. 
5. A Broncos WIN!

And so….for 2014 the schedule is:

January - High Tea the Brown Palace
    The Big Reveal: books for 2014
February - Leslie's pick:
    Longbourn by Jo Baker
     Also ran: Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage: Stories Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage: Stories
March 14 - Robin's pick - Start looking for your snowshoes, and get training for the shot ski! (can you say photo op??) We'll be discussing this one after a full-moon snowshoe outing at Echo Lake:
    The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
     Also ran: Zeitoun by Dave Eggers
April 25 - Heather's pick:
    Life after Life by Kate Atkinson
     Also ran:
    The Language of Flowers
      The Ocean at the End of the Lane
May 16 - Alayna's pick:
    Looking for Alaska by John Green
June 27 - Kjirsten's pick:
    The Secret History by Donna Tarrt
     Also ran:
     Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things that Happened
July - 
    Summer fun! Your own private, YA month?
August 22 - Theresa's pick:
    The Goldfinch by Donna Tarrt
September 19 - Erica's pick:
    The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer
October 24 - Julie's pick:
    Stoner by John Edward Williams
     Also ran:
    A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
    Sarah's Key by Tatia de Rosnay
November 21 - Amy's pick:
    Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
December - Start researching for 2015!

The Great Gatsby

Somehow we missed Gatsby. Had he better things to do? No matter, we had a fantastic evening celebrating Prohibition and the roaring 20s!

A few shots from The Green Russell

2013 Book Club Tea

Let 2013 begin!

Thanks to Theresa for setting up tea at the Oak and Berries Tea Room. 

Radical Profiles to be uploaded soon, but for now, let's publish this year's book selections:

March 1 - at Leslie's or the speakeasy

    The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

March 22 - at Julie's

    Left to Tell by Immaculee Ilibagiza

April 26 - at Erica's

    The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore

May 24 - at Alayna's or DMDM

    Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson

June 28 - at Kristen's

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

    SKIPPING JULY--HAVE FUN WITH THE BEACH READS

August 23 - at Amy's

    End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe

September 27 - at Theresa's

    The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

October 25 - at Jade's

    Little Princes: One Man's Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal by Conor Grennan

November 22 - at Heather's

    The Hummingbird's Daughter by Luis Alberto Urrea

December TBD - at Kjirsten's

    Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

12 - Bossypants

What a way to cap a year of great reading and enduring friendships: 
Bossy humor, cheesy goodness, and the revelation of how bad a bottle of cheap wine can be after two years of traveling the Radical Bookclub circuit. 

New life, in 2013, for the bottle and new reads for the Radicals! 

Santé!