Hoi!
My name is Sanne,
Welcome to my channel.
I am celebrating something really exciting.
I'm filming with the day before so the actual day of celebration is very close for me.
But today when you're watching this is the release date of my Book Club Journal
It's finally here.
I have a bunch of copies at my house,
which feels very surreal as well because for the longest time there was only one copy in
existence.
So from today on you should be able to find this possibly at your local Waterstones,
maybe your local bookshop,
but otherwise you'll be able to find it online as well and to celebrate.
I thought it would be fun to recommend to you.
How many books do I have?
Six books that I think you should read next with your Book Club And I also want to
explain what I think makes a good Book club book
first of all,
in case you don't know yet.
The Book Club Journal is a guided journal,
so it has space for you to write down your thoughts and questions.
Obviously you can also use this if you're not in a book club and you just want to document your reading.
But this is what it looks like on the inside and there's lots of promise to get you thinking and to kind
of come up with questions and their spaces to fill out things that I think are good to
remember when you are having a book club discussion.
It was really fun trying to get the specifics of this right and like filling it out over and over again
and seeing what spaces you would need,
including a full page to just put all your notes and questions.
It also comes with a section in the front where I share my tips for like digital book
clubs,
how to best get the conversation going.
But in the back there are 20 themed reading lists with book club suggestions.
So all the books I am talking about today are also featured in
those reading lists and actually I'll tell you which reading list they're all part of.
Also I just want to mention if you are getting a copy of the Book Club Journal and you're sharing any
photos with it,
please tag me as I'd love to see them.
I think #bookclubjournal is already in use.
So I'm using #booksandquillsjournal. It has already been out in the US
For about a month.
So I've already seen some great photos of people cozying up with their adorable
cats while they're filling out the journal.
I've seen it come into bookshops in the UK aswell.
So giant thanks to everyone so far that's already shared.
Alright,
what makes for a good Book Club Book?
I have some strong and not so strong opinions about this.
I think when you have a book club I think it is really important to consider all
the members of your book club and make sure you're creating a welcoming space,
Make sure you're setting yourself up for a good conversation.
That might be certain topics that they don't feel comfortable talking about.
You should also consider budget.
So maybe picking a book that's available in the library or where you can get a cheaper ebook
rather than maybe picking a brand new hardback release also,
I think in general it's nice if a book club book is like,
I don't know if easy read is the best word for it.
Like it can still be a longer book but not something that you think people are going to
be absolutely struggling through unless that is the vibe of your Book Club,
in which case go for it.
I love picking books that either bring up a really interesting topic of discussion
books that when you first read them just really like light something
inside of you that made you really excited and made you want to talk to other people about it.
Obviously anything that's tied into a current cultural moment,
whether it's related to what is in the news or a book to film adaptation that's
just come out and potentially something that's either tying into something
new that you were discovering or something that feels a bit more nostalgic and takes you
back.
And with that in mind,
I have selected the following,
the first one I think is an absolute no brainer.
It is Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
Now I know this one is already extremely popular and this is on the short books for busy
readers list,
although it also falls very firmly into the translated fiction category.
Of course,
it's translated from japanese by Ginny Tapley Takemori.
It's about a woman,
I think she's in her thirties who has worked in a convenience store for her whole life and that
convenience store is pretty much her life and it's about that life getting slightly shaken
up and changing.
It's always described as funny and I think it is funny and like This
weird kind of like blunt,
bizarre way,
but there's also definitely some more serious and sad stuff.
It's 160 pages.
It feels quite unique and I think this is a lovely one to discuss with people I've
actually talked to many people about this yet,
so I would love to.
And it's also,
I would say potentially partly comparison title that I know is very popular
is Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine and it has some similar vibes
to that, I'd say.
Next up a classic.
Now, I know this might not be for every book club,
you kind of have to agree whether you want to dip into classics or not,
and also this copy that I have makes this book look absolutely massive,
but it's Emma by Jane Austen,
I was gonna say,
oh, this is one of my favorite Jane Austen novels,
but I think I like most of them,
that's just a few that I like a bit less,
but I think it's such a fun,
interesting story in case you don't know by now,
it's about a teenage girl who is living an incredibly privileged life in the regency era.
She thinks she's always right,
she loves matchmaking,
she's made a few successful matches,
but in this she is going into a new adventure of meddling into people's
life that is not ending well,
she's like a comedy of errors and it's also about her growing up,
but I just absolutely adore the story and of course the latest
incredible adaptation is a great jumping off point for this as well.
Whenever there is a film adaptation of the book that you're reading at Book Club,
I think at least half of the conversation is going to be about that from experience,
and you can also possibly incorporate that into the Book Club,
watch the film after or before,
depending on whether people are really keen to get into the book or they want to be led into it a bit
more.
That's recommendation number two,
Sometimes it's nice to pick kind of obscure books that you haven't heard about before,
but very often to get people excited to read the book.
Sometimes it helps if it's a title that they have heard about before and it's kind of been on there to
read list for a while.
So next there is the Song of Achilles.
I just got this new copy in because I'm a part of the Life's Library Book Club and this
is the the next read that comes with a nice introductory letter.
Anyway, I've already read this book for Book Club that I organized.
We had it at the pages of what was the,
is it Pages of Cheshire,
the one that was just off Brick Lane,
which I think is no longer there.
But I met up with a lovely group of people there,
all of whom watch my channel and we had such a fun discussion and just to prove the point,
we did talk about the film Troy for quite a long time during that discussion.
This book is a retelling of the story of Achilles and Patroclus and it's by
Madeline Miller.
It's the story of friendship,
of love of war and it's also one that people have been crying over a lot on BookTok recently.
this edition has like portraits of the characters in the back.
I do love kind of like a student edition that has like
author bios and Q and A's and extra stuff in the back.
I don't always seek out this information,
but if it's in the book then I love to talk about it and kind of incorporate it into the discussion.
I tend to read a lot of sad books,
dystopian books.
I'm just drawn to sadness.
I watch a lot of romantic comedies but when it comes to books
I tend to pick on the sad side.
So I tried to add in some more fun ones for the back of the journal as well as for this
video with that in mind,
I picked My Sister The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite.
This one is on the reading list,
murder,
mysteries,
and secret societies.
That's it.
And even though this is kind of like funny short readable,
it obviously has some dark bits and as you might be able to tell from the cover and it
is about two sisters and one of the sisters keeps killing her boyfriends
and the other sister has to come in and rescue her.
I think I might leave it at that for the description.
The next one is one of my probably favorite books of all time.
I was so drawn in by this,
but this does come with a bit of a warning.
like you might need to figure out if this is appropriate for your book club.
But it is Educated by Tara Westover.
It is a memoir that,
to me reads like fiction in the way it's written,
but also in the material that's in it.
It's about a young girl growing up in rural America and her family is preparing for the end of the
world and they are,
they're kind of off the grid conspiracy theories,
they don't have birth certificates,
there's a lot of sort of abuse going on and it is about Tara
slowly making her way out of that world and then getting an education going to Harvard,
going to Cambridge.
I've also seen her speak live at the Lush Book Club.
I was just so,
so intrigued by this.
I thought it was beautifully written so much to discuss.
Um so yeah,
put that on the list as well.
That's on the memoirs list.
So the next book was on the reading list in the journal called discussing the news through fiction.
So the idea is that it's fiction books that contain topics or events that are related to things
that have been in the news for the last few years.
It is Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid,
I bought this during the first lockdown and read it during the first lockdown and it's not something
I would have gravitated towards so much automatically,
but it was recommended by a bunch of friends and I'm really glad I picked it up.
It's about a young woman in her twenties called Mira.
She babysits for a wealthy white family.
And one night she has to take the taller that she babysits to a supermarket because there's situation
going on in the house and a woman accuses her of having
kidnapped the child.
Of course, that gets out of hand and it's filmed and I thought that the book would be entirely about this
event and in a way it kind of is but it definitely delves into a lot of different
things as well,
especially the relationship between the mother that she's babysitting for
and herself.
And actually discussed this with a book club last week with a bunch of my friends and we just had
so many topics to cover.
It was really,
really interesting.
The back of this confuses me because it's very much described as a twisty page turner,
but then also like a beautiful story and I guess it is both,
but I think the strength lies more in the like interpersonal relationships rather than like the twists.
So, those are some books that I think you could read next with your Book Club.
I'm very curious to know if you are part of a Book club,
what is the most successful book Club book that you've read
and which almost the least successful like it just didn't work out in the conversation.
I've been to so many other authors launch parties I was hoping I could have on myself but obviously pandemic wise,
that is not happening.
But for now,
thank you so much for being here and sharing this with me.
I think I'm gonna do a Q&A
on instagram stories in case you have any questions about this.
Big thanks to the publisher Octopus who I worked very closely on this with and the
illustrator as well.
who did the beautiful cover drawings and also the really nice illustrations
on the inside.
I think I'm gonna go for a nice walk to celebrate.
All right,
I will talk to you soon.
Doei!