Book Club for Writers
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Virtual Book Club
December 2020 Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell I can’t recall reading any other book with such consistently beautiful writing throughout. —Sarah Barnett I thought the characters were vivid and loved the enormous attention to concrete detail about their lives. —Sherry Chappelle Any serious reader struggles to find the well-researched book that also reflects true creativity. Maggie O’Farrell delivers on all counts... —John Fischer For writers, there is so much to learn from O’Farrell’s incredible descriptions, use of research, and lists. —Karen Schneiderman Read the digital discussion by clicking on the link below. |
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| Hamnet Discussion Dec 2020 |
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Virtual Book Club
August 2020 Long Bright River by Liz Moore Many Guild members have been reading Long Bright River by Liz Moore (and so far, the responses from both men and women have been great). So we thought we'd try another online book discussion for August. Read the digital discussion by clicking on the link below. 
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Virtual Book Club
May 2020 Writers & Lovers by Lily King With the Guild's in-person book club on hiatus, we decided to try something new. Thirteen RBWG writers, including four moderators, weigh in on characters and backstory in Writers & Lovers (and whether non-writers will appreciate the book). The answers are wise, generous, and personal. Read the digital discussion by clicking on the link below.
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In-Person Book Club On Hiatus
How does the Book Club for Writers differ from other book clubs? For starters, the group doesn’t so much discuss the book as dissect it. Members want to discover what it is about the writing itself that makes the book work or, in some cases, not work. Also, we consider how we can “borrow” the author’s techniques for our own writing. Disagreements abound and are always part of the fun, as is the food. For example, we downed grilled cheese sandwiches during our discussion of In the Deep Midwinter, in which the characters indulge in 1950s comfort food. The Writers’ Book Club A writer is a reader moved to emulation |
If you don’t have the time to read, you don’t have the time or the tools to write |
Books We Have Read Since April 2009
NONFICTION
The Recovering by Leslie Jamison
Inheritance by Dani Shapiro
Educated by Tara Westover.
Draw Your Weapons, Sarah Sentilles
Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson. (Rehoboth Reads chosen book)
The Empathy Exams, Leslie Jamison (creative nonfiction)
The Boys in the Boat, Daniel James Brown (August 2016)
I Could Tell you Stories: Sojourns in the Land of Memory.Before Night Falls, Patricia Hampl,
Winter Journal, Paul Auster
For the Time Being, Annie Dillard
She’s Not There, Jennifer Finley-Boylan
The Big Sea. Langston Hughes
Local Wonders, Ted Kooser
Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott
Everybody Was so Young: The Love Story of Gerald and Sara Murphy, Amanda Viall
The Suicide Index, Joan Wickersham
Four Seasons in Rome: On Twins, Insomnia, and the Biggest Funeral in the History of the World. Anthony Doerr
Wild. Cheryl Strayed
Let Me Finish, Richard Angell
In the Garden of the Beasts, Erik Larsen
POETRY
Bright Dead Things, by Ada Limon
Delights and Shadows by Ted Kooser
Here, Bullet by Brian Turner
Necessary Light by Patricia Fargnoli
This Bed Our Bodies Shaped by April Lindner
Kettle Bottom by Diane Gilliam Fisher
Fast Animal by Tim Siebles
They by Sue Ellen Thompson,
SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS
Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage by Alice Munro
We Live in Water, Jess Walters
The Queen of the Tambourine, Jane Gardam
The Things They Carried, Tim O’ Brien
A Good Man is Hard to Find, Flannary O’ Connor
Olive Kitteridge, Elizabeth Strout
We Live in Water, Jess Walters (July 2016)
Angel On My Chest, Leslie Pietrzyk (March 2016)
NOVELS
Virgil Wander by Leif Enger
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
Being Dead is No Excuse: The Official Southern Ladies Guide to Hosting the Perfect Funeral by Gayden Metcalfew and Charlotte Hays
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngson
Do Not Become Alarmed by Maile Meloy
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owen
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston.
The Hundred Year House by Rebecca Makkai.
Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler
Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, Nick Flynn
The Green Road, Anne Enright
My Antonia, Willa Cather
The Speed of Light, ELizabeth ROsner
How Starbucks Saved my Life, Michael Gates
Silver Girl, Leslie Pietrzyk
Me Before You, Jo Jo Moyes.
The Turner House, Angela Flournoy.
The Animals, Christian Kiefer
Station 11, Emily St. John Mandel.
A Spool of Blue Thread, Anne Tyler.
Everyone Brave Is Forgiven, Chris Cleeve
State of Wonder, Ann Patchett
Mayhem. Robert Janes
To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf
Transatlantic, Colum McCann (2016)
The Association of Small Bombs, Karan Kahajan
Vanessa and her Sister, Priya Parmor
Last Night at the Lobster, Stewart O’ Nan (May 2016)
Worth Dying For, Lee Child,
Euphoria, Lily King.
All the Light We Cannot See,Anthony Doerr.
Trans-Sister Radio, Chris Bohjahan.
Peter Heller, The Dog Stars
An Officer and a Spy
Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood
The Sweet Hereafter, Russell Banks
The School of Essential Ingredients, Erica Bauermeister,
City of Light, Lauren Belfer
Kindred, Olivia Butler
The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros
In the Deep Mid-Winter, Robert Clark
Little Bee, Chris Cleve
A Yellow Raft in Blue Water, Michael Dorris
The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
Offshore, Penelope Fitzgerald
In the Woods, Tana French
Hide, Lisa Gardner
The Maltese Falcon, Dashiell Hammett
A Lazarus Project Aleksandar Hemon
And the Mountains Echoed, Khaled Hosseini
Someone Else’s Love Story, Joshilyn Jackson
The Dead, James Joyce
A Short History of Tractors in Ukraine, Marina Lewycka
I’d Know You Anywhere, Laura Lippman
Martin Dressler, Steven Milhauser
The Husband’s Secret, Liane Moriarity
The Paris Wife, Paula McCain
The Giant’s House, Elizabeth McCracken
Fugitive Pieces, Anne Michaels
The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje
Skin of the Lion, Michael Ondaatje
The Cats Table, Michael Ondaatje
Lark and Termite, Jayne Anne Phillips
The Shipping News, Annie Proulx
Every Last One, Anna Quindlan
Look Again, Lisa Scottoline
Rules of Civility, Amor Towles
Crossing to Safety, Wallage Stegner
Beautiful Ruins, Jess Walter
The Passion, Jeanette Winterson
Revolutionary Road, Richard Yates
Evening, Susan Minot
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, Milan Kunder
PLAYS
The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams
NONFICTION
The Recovering by Leslie Jamison
Inheritance by Dani Shapiro
Educated by Tara Westover.
Draw Your Weapons, Sarah Sentilles
Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson. (Rehoboth Reads chosen book)
The Empathy Exams, Leslie Jamison (creative nonfiction)
The Boys in the Boat, Daniel James Brown (August 2016)
I Could Tell you Stories: Sojourns in the Land of Memory.Before Night Falls, Patricia Hampl,
Winter Journal, Paul Auster
For the Time Being, Annie Dillard
She’s Not There, Jennifer Finley-Boylan
The Big Sea. Langston Hughes
Local Wonders, Ted Kooser
Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott
Everybody Was so Young: The Love Story of Gerald and Sara Murphy, Amanda Viall
The Suicide Index, Joan Wickersham
Four Seasons in Rome: On Twins, Insomnia, and the Biggest Funeral in the History of the World. Anthony Doerr
Wild. Cheryl Strayed
Let Me Finish, Richard Angell
In the Garden of the Beasts, Erik Larsen
POETRY
Bright Dead Things, by Ada Limon
Delights and Shadows by Ted Kooser
Here, Bullet by Brian Turner
Necessary Light by Patricia Fargnoli
This Bed Our Bodies Shaped by April Lindner
Kettle Bottom by Diane Gilliam Fisher
Fast Animal by Tim Siebles
They by Sue Ellen Thompson,
SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS
Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage by Alice Munro
We Live in Water, Jess Walters
The Queen of the Tambourine, Jane Gardam
The Things They Carried, Tim O’ Brien
A Good Man is Hard to Find, Flannary O’ Connor
Olive Kitteridge, Elizabeth Strout
We Live in Water, Jess Walters (July 2016)
Angel On My Chest, Leslie Pietrzyk (March 2016)
NOVELS
Virgil Wander by Leif Enger
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
Being Dead is No Excuse: The Official Southern Ladies Guide to Hosting the Perfect Funeral by Gayden Metcalfew and Charlotte Hays
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngson
Do Not Become Alarmed by Maile Meloy
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owen
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston.
The Hundred Year House by Rebecca Makkai.
Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler
Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, Nick Flynn
The Green Road, Anne Enright
My Antonia, Willa Cather
The Speed of Light, ELizabeth ROsner
How Starbucks Saved my Life, Michael Gates
Silver Girl, Leslie Pietrzyk
Me Before You, Jo Jo Moyes.
The Turner House, Angela Flournoy.
The Animals, Christian Kiefer
Station 11, Emily St. John Mandel.
A Spool of Blue Thread, Anne Tyler.
Everyone Brave Is Forgiven, Chris Cleeve
State of Wonder, Ann Patchett
Mayhem. Robert Janes
To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf
Transatlantic, Colum McCann (2016)
The Association of Small Bombs, Karan Kahajan
Vanessa and her Sister, Priya Parmor
Last Night at the Lobster, Stewart O’ Nan (May 2016)
Worth Dying For, Lee Child,
Euphoria, Lily King.
All the Light We Cannot See,Anthony Doerr.
Trans-Sister Radio, Chris Bohjahan.
Peter Heller, The Dog Stars
An Officer and a Spy
Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood
The Sweet Hereafter, Russell Banks
The School of Essential Ingredients, Erica Bauermeister,
City of Light, Lauren Belfer
Kindred, Olivia Butler
The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros
In the Deep Mid-Winter, Robert Clark
Little Bee, Chris Cleve
A Yellow Raft in Blue Water, Michael Dorris
The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
Offshore, Penelope Fitzgerald
In the Woods, Tana French
Hide, Lisa Gardner
The Maltese Falcon, Dashiell Hammett
A Lazarus Project Aleksandar Hemon
And the Mountains Echoed, Khaled Hosseini
Someone Else’s Love Story, Joshilyn Jackson
The Dead, James Joyce
A Short History of Tractors in Ukraine, Marina Lewycka
I’d Know You Anywhere, Laura Lippman
Martin Dressler, Steven Milhauser
The Husband’s Secret, Liane Moriarity
The Paris Wife, Paula McCain
The Giant’s House, Elizabeth McCracken
Fugitive Pieces, Anne Michaels
The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje
Skin of the Lion, Michael Ondaatje
The Cats Table, Michael Ondaatje
Lark and Termite, Jayne Anne Phillips
The Shipping News, Annie Proulx
Every Last One, Anna Quindlan
Look Again, Lisa Scottoline
Rules of Civility, Amor Towles
Crossing to Safety, Wallage Stegner
Beautiful Ruins, Jess Walter
The Passion, Jeanette Winterson
Revolutionary Road, Richard Yates
Evening, Susan Minot
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, Milan Kunder
PLAYS
The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams
Copyright © Rehoboth Beach Writers Guild
