Tawanda book group choice for April

[boxofdelights]

Tawanda book group has been going for 25 years. We don't actually discuss the book as much as we used to, but we have a book almost every month, and we get together to eat and talk. The host each month picks the book.

I feel like this book group doesn't really like my choices, but it also could be that I always want to discuss the book more than anyone else does. I try to pick short interesting books; I never pick SF any more; I do look at various "book group pick" lists. When I ask the other members to help me choose, they say, "You get to pick whatever you want! You are in control!"

I've got two ideas for my turn this year. I'd definitely pick The Mother Of All Questions except that I chose Solnit's Hope in the Dark last year. We do like talking about politics. We sometimes like to talk about death and grieving. One of our members just lost both her mother and her brother to the flu.

Poll #19520 April book group choice

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 7

View Respondents

What book should I choose for my book group?

View Answers

H is for Hawk, by Helen Macdonald
5 (71.4%)

The Mother of All Questions, by Rebecca Solnit
1 (14.3%)

Something else which I will describe in a comment
1 (14.3%)

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

That's scary about the flu taking two people in the same family.

My morbid mind goes immediately to Wickett's Remedy by Myla Goldberg. It's set in Boston during the Spanish Flu pandemic, and it's also about nursing, patent medicine, women's roles, immigration.

Brian Fries' graphic novel about grief, Mom's Cancer, might be relevant (or might drown you all in tears).

It's also available online:
http://www.momscancer.com/

[boxofdelights]

Yeah. Probably neither of them was in robust health; her mother was in her eighties and her brother had been an addict for his entire adult life. Still. Thanks for the recs!

[siderea]

Re death and dying: A lot of people have recommended to me Atul Gawande's Being Mortal. I'm a big fan of his writing, but haven't read that one yet, partially because I was going to cadge my sweetie's copy, and he's not managed to make himself finish it in a year+.

[boxofdelights]

We read that last year. Very good to read, though it didn't help me bring up any end-of-life issues with my mother. Very good discussion at book group, too.

[jesse_the_k]

Superb book, although I kept wanting to shout at Gawande, "There's a social model of disability, it might be worth finding out about it."