Fort McMurray Book Club

Growing and Changing

2009-09-15T19:00:00.000-07:00

We're teaming up with the Fort McMurray Public Library! The library is starting a book club program, which you'll see advertised in the coming weeks. The concept and structure of the club won't change, not unless members want it too, but we'll be meeting at the new library and hopefully will be attracting more members. So come to the inaugural meeting on October 7th, bring ideas and enthusiasm, and encourage others to join! If you have any questions for me you can comment here. The librarian organizing the book club program is Sara House, and you can contact here at Sara.House@fmpl.ca or 780-743-7036.

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone, old and new, on October 7th at the library!

New Website for Fort McMurray

2009-07-13T19:41:00.000-07:00

Here is the (temporary) website for Arts and Culture in Wood Buffalo. Check it out to see what's going on in our community!

September meeting: Alias Grace

2009-07-05T19:41:00.000-07:00

How's everyone doing? We've decided to postpone our next meeting until September, to allow everyone plenty of time to read our next book. But come even if you didn't! Sophie selected Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood. Our next meeting is tentatively scheduled for Wednesday, September 9th at 7:30 pm at Amy's house. Let me know here if you can't make it and want to suggest a different day or time. Happy reading and enjoy the summer!

New tool for finding books

2009-06-13T20:54:00.000-07:00

Book Seer is a search engine that will offer recommendations based on a book title or author name. It's the same function as Amazon, but if you don't use Amazon you can try this.

Book Swap

2009-06-12T21:43:00.001-07:00

The Fort McMurray Public Library will be hosting a book swap at its new location at Macdonald Island on Saturday, June 14th, from 11 am to 3 pm. Come enjoy and support the library!

June meeting: Fluke

2009-05-27T20:37:00.000-07:00

How's everyone out there? I hope we can all make it to our next meeting, which is tentatively scheduled for Wednesday June 24th at 7:30 pm. We'll be reading Fluke by Christopher Moore. The location is Amy's townhouse, unit 5101 at 200 Lougheed Drive in Timberlea. Rescheduling etc can be arranged on this post. Happy reading, see you in June!

May meeting: The Winter Vault

2009-04-29T19:44:00.000-07:00

The field season is upon us, but for those who have time our book for May is Anne Michaels's new novel The Winter Vault. Coles in the mall has it in stock for a change! The next meeting is tentatively scheduled for May 27th, but please let me know here if you have a conflict and it can be rescheduled. I hope to see you all in one month!

April meeting: Any Known Blood

2009-03-26T21:01:00.000-07:00

Our book for April is Nicole's selection, Any Known Blood by Lawrence Hill. We'll be meeting on Wednesday April 29th at 7:30 pm at my home, townhouse 5101 at 200 Lougheed Drive (between Loutit and Leitner Gate) to discuss this book. It's long, so get reading and I hope we'll see you all in one month!

As always please leave a comment here if you want to arrange a ride to the meeting or borrow or lend a book.

Where to Find Books

2009-03-22T09:34:00.000-07:00

Where can you find copies of the books we're reading? You can borrow from other members; for example my copy of 'Rabbit, Run' is available to borrow and it's short, so you could finish it in time for Thursday's meeting. That only gets us so far, though, so where else?
Obviously everyone knows to access the Fort McMurray Public Library. I've been putting links to Amazon on the posts; here you can not only order new or used copies of the books, but read reviews of them.
Another website I just found is BookMooch. You can offer up your own books to give away, and earn points for doing so. For every three books you give away you earn enough points to choose a book for yourself. The only cost is the price of mailing books. The neat thing here is that you can also give your points to charitable organizations.
Does anyone else have any sources of books they'd like to share?

March Meeting: Rabbit, Run

2009-02-26T20:18:00.000-08:00

As we wait for spring to arrive, let's read Rabbit, Run to honour the recent passing of John Updike. The next meeting is tentatively scheduled for 7:30 pm on Thursday, March 26th at Amy's house. The address is unit 5101 at 200 Lougheed Drive; look for the row of townhouses between Loutit and Leiner Gate.

Anyone wishing to suggest alternate dates or meeting places, arrange to borrow or lend a copy of the book, or offer or request a ride to the meeting can do so in comments to this post. Everyone is welcome, so I hope I'll see you in one month!

February Meeting: No Great Mischief

2009-01-20T21:01:00.000-08:00

Hello 2009! Our next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, February 26 at 7:30 pm. The location is #5101 at 200 Lougheed Drive in Timberlea (look for the row of townhouses between Loutit and Leiner Gate).
The book to be discussed is my selection, No Great Mischief by Alistair Macleod.
As always, please leave a comment on this post if you wish to borrow or lend a copy of the book, notify us if you're unable to come, or arrange a ride. Happy reading!

January Meeting: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle

2008-11-20T22:06:00.000-08:00

Did everyone enjoy The Day of the Jackal? Due to the upcoming holiday season we'll skip our December meeting and focus on a long book to read. Our next meeting will be 7:30 pm on Tuesday, January 20th, at Barry and Helen's home. The address is 163 Barber Drive in Timberlea. We'll be discussing Tracy's pick, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski. Anyone wishing to RSVP, request a ride to the meeting, or arrange to borrow the book can do so in comments to this post. Have a Merry Christmas and see you in 2009!

November meeting: The Day of the Jackal

2008-10-07T22:03:00.000-07:00

Thanks to those who came over for our latest book club meeting! I hope we'll see everyone at 7:30 pm on Thursday, November 20th to discuss The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth. We'll meet at Tracy Simmons' house; please RSVP by email at tracysimmons@shaw.ca or by phone at 780-715-0877. Get reading!

October meeting: Red Azalea

2008-09-05T18:56:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! Our next meeting will be held at my house on Tuesday, October 7th at 7:30 pm. My address is 200 Lougheed Drive, townhouse 5101. We'll be discussing Jodi's pick, Red Azalea by Anchee Min. See you then!

Third meeting: Three Cups of Tea

2008-07-30T21:50:00.000-07:00

Hello again! Our third meeting is scheduled for after the long weekend this time, so hopefully everyone will be back in town and have had time to catch up on their reading. This month's book is Helen's pick, Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. The library has given us permission to meet there in future but Jodie Klippenstine has offered her home for our next meeting. I hope we'll see everyone on Thursday, September 4 at 7:30 pm!

Book recommendations

2008-06-26T21:19:00.000-07:00

My original idea was that we could take turns choosing which book to read each month, but we should all agree on the selection. (For example, I put my foot down at Dan Brown's novels). There are some members who don't know which book to pick either. You can find reading lists on Amazon or similar websites. On this post we can toss out ideas of books to read and discuss the choices. It would be nice if those selecting books could choose something they haven't read more than once (if at all!) and that the rest of us haven't read.

I've already chosen a book, but two suggestions I'd make for future reads are Confederacy of Dunces and House of Leaves. What are your ideas?

Logistics: Meeting times and places

2008-06-25T22:02:00.000-07:00

So far we've met at a restaurant, which makes for good food but poor conversation because it's noisy, and next week we'll meet at Barry and Helen Duncan's home. Does anyone have any ideas for future meeting places? Two ideas I can look into are Keyano College, who may allow us to use a room there, and Coco Joe's. I looked into two other coffee shops in town and their hours aren't good for us, and I don't recall that the library has a room where we can talk without disturbing others.

The second issue is meeting dates and times. So far we're meeting in the evening on the last Wednesday of each month, Wednesday being a day I chose at random. How is that for everyone? At the first meeting everyone agreed to this, but of course there were people would couldn't make it! I do think it must be weekdays because so many people leave town on weekends, but how does everyone feel about Wednesdays? Is there some other day of the week that works better?

Please put input in comments to this post.

Second meeting: Life of Pi

2008-06-25T21:56:00.001-07:00

Our second meeting will be at the home of Barry and Helen Duncan at 163 Barber Drive. On Wednesday, July 30 at 7 pm we'll meet to discuss Refah's pick, Life of Pi by Yann Martel.

Those wishing to borrow, lend or arrange to purchase copies of the book from other club members can post comments to this post.

Arrangements for bringing drinks and snacks can also be made in comments on this post. Duncans, please tell us what you would like us to bring.

I hope we see you all there!

First meeting: The Road

2008-06-24T18:55:00.000-07:00

The first meeting will be at Earl's at 6:30 pm on Wednesday, June 25th. The book under discussion will be The Road by Cormac McCarthy. The book was my choice, so next time someone else will take a turn picking the book - I'd recommend something a bit cheerier, as it doesn't get any grimmer than The Road.

Introduction

2008-06-24T18:53:00.000-07:00

Hello! This is the website for the Fort McMurray Book Club. We started this club in June 2008 and everyone is welcome. The goal is an informal book club that will meet approximately once a month, with members taking turns choosing which books to read. We'll be covering a range of modern and classic fiction with some non-fiction.

This website is for members to keep in touch and keep track of meetings. If you're interested in joining us you can just leave a comment on the post for the upcoming meeting, or contact me at aheidman@ualberta.net . Or just show up at the meeting!