Why Are We Reading That?!

This book group has been in existence for at least a couple decades. Thanks to Sue Ann, we're now more organized and have a year-long reading list. The last few years the selection committee has been Sue Ann, Kay, Lyn, Judy, and I think Pam put her two cents worth in too. Anyone is welcome to join the selection group. We are always open to recommendations and try to have at least one evening each year where we can share books that we've enjoyed. We'd also like to use this blog for that purpose.

When we meet to select books for the year, we try to find books from all different genres. We also try to preread all the books with RS standards in mind. You know how you watch a movie and think it's great, then when a friend asks if there was anything in it that wouldn't be inappropriate for a youth, and you have to rack your brain for any innuendo, or violence, or comment that might have been fine for you and your friends, but not for the youth? Sometimes you have to watch the movie again with special sensors. That's what we do with our book list. Someone has usually already read the book and liked it, but then we have to put it through the RS sensors. In the past there have been a few slip-ups. Most recently we read The Maltease Falcon along with the rest of Boise. Many of us loved the book and the writing, but the language was rough and probably not in line with "out of the best books" from the Doctrine in Covenants. In years past we used Terry Stoddard as our censor guide. We wanted to pick books that we would all feel comfortable discussing with her. (Then just before they moved, Terry confessed to liking a little hot romance.)

Some of you may wonder why your favorite books don't ever make the list. (See the previous paragraph.) For me, one of my favorites is The Kite Runner. It won't ever make it through our RS sensors, but it's still a book I'd recommend to all of you - just not as a RS book. We can use this blog for recommendations and reviews of books that won't ever make the RS list, but are still worthwhile. I guess we just want to error on the side of squeaky clean whenever possible. There are sooooo many good books to read. We should be able to find 11 books a year that fall into the "out of the best books" category without reading only church books.

This year we chose two books, A Girl Named Zippy and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, that we read or reread and found that we didn't feel good about putting them on the list. I'm not sure what the issue was with The Immortal Life (check with Lyn), but I reread A Girl Named Zippy and in the end had to veto it. It's a delightful book; a memoir of a young girl in 1965. It brought back memories and made me laugh out loud many times. I hope you all read it. I'll write a review about it later, and lend anyone my copy. I kept telling myself that the few swear words were okay, but then there were a few more, and a few more (less than 10 in the whole book), and a crude remark, and finally I just didn't want the responsibility of putting it on the list. I thought there would be a squeaky clean RS book that could take it's place. (I still want everyone to read it though.)