Our next theme is eponymous heroines.

Cherchez la femme!

Classic Novels and Plays
Anna Karenina (Leo Tolstoy)
Emma (Jane Austen)
Hedda Gabler (Ibsen)
Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë)
Lysistrata (Aristophanes)
Madame Bovary (Flaubert)
Manon Lescaut (Prévost)
Medea (Euripides)
Moll Flanders (Daniel Defoe)
Nana (Émile Zola)
Tess of the D’Urbervilles (Thomas Hardy)

Children’s Literature
Mary Poppins (P. L. Travers)
Coraline (Neil Gaiman)
Pippi Longstocking (Astrid Lindgren)
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll)

Twentieth and Twenty-First Century
Bridget Jones's Diary (Helen Fielding)
Carrie (Stephen King)
The French Lieutenant’s Woman (John Fowles)
Lolita (Nabokov)
My Ántonia (Willa Cather)
Olive Kitteridge (Elizabeth Strout)
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (Muriel Spark)
Rebecca (Daphne du Maurier)
Sister Carrie (Theodore Dreiser)
Sophie’s Choice (William Styron)

Rebecca's cheating! She's not the heroine!

That's a great theme, though,

And man, $12.99 for a brand-new book is great incentive to think about a Kindle.

Mostly the themes revolve around the “should-read” books I decided I need to read this year (for example, Don Quixote and My Antonia for the above lists).

So we will do “Classic Boys Adventures” to force me to get through The Count of Monte Cristo and "Dystopian Novels" for The Handmaid’s Tale, and "Russian Roulette" for War and Peace. There's also “Water, Water, Everywhere" and then I'm going to propose "Classic Horror" in October.

I love that idea for a book club. It makes me want to start one up again.

Rebecca's cheating! She's not the heroine!

True, but I think that very point will be great for discussion. I really hope someone reads it.

The great thing about focusing on the classics was that even if someone hadn't read a particular book for the salon, they could talk about it and add to the discussion because they had read it in the past.

For quests, I cribbed some notes from Joseph Campbell and we discussed the hero's journey and whether our book fit the classic mythology model, etc.

I really like the idea for the book club, megan. How often are you meeting?

Well, the original idea was once a month, but since so many people picked longish books, we're thinking that might be too often.

What we decided after our first meeting (where everyone was really thrilled with the discussion) was that we would continue with quests next time but pick our next topic (so we had a bit more time to read).

So, for next time, some people are finishing their quest book, some are reading a second shorter quest book, but others are starting on longer eponymous heroines (Jane Eyre and Anna Karenina I believe).

Note: This is a work thing, so we just head out for drinks after work so it's easy to coordinate.

Wow, so you like, read things? And talk to people? Socially? People who don't exist on the internet? Oh, brave new world.

force me to get through The Count of Monte Cristo

t weep it shouldn't take force to get through The Count. Ah, Msr. de Nortier, how cunning you are even though you can't talk.

it shouldn't take force to get through The Count

I am reading the unabridged novel in the original French. At 1400 pages, it's by far the longest thing on my should-reads list.