2009 was declared the year of the book and I decided to adjust my own involvement accordingly by joining a book club (BC). My membership in book club was rather pointedly insisted upon by me to my friend, Maggie, a longtime membership holder. The other two members of our club are Leah and Amy and we are all relationship-ed. Meaning our talks can meander to (mice and) men, school (JMU Alums represent), good food and naturally literature. In our Inaugural meeting we determined our list of books for the year, leaving December with an interesting project: choose a book of your own liking and share it with the BC.

So that you're in the loop, I've included our list of books below. Some were re-introduced to the 2009 list because they had not completed the full reading list in 2008, while others were suggested by various members of the club.

There is a solidarity to be found in communal reading, along with a distinct hesitation. When you find that others profess the same reaction to a characterization or a lingering image, there is comfort that the world you have created while reading the book remains intact and even validated. However, sharing your emotional response to book out loud or finding a dissimilar experience among your peers can be...well, disconcerting.

This promises to be a year of good novels that will undoubtedly reawaken my passion for the art of reading.

1. The Reader - Bernhard Schlink
2. The Second Virago Book of Fairy Tales - Angela Carter
3. The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan Kundera
4. To the Lighthouse - Virginia Woolfe
5. The Satanic Verses - Salman Rushdie
6. Free Choice
7. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Jonathan Safran Foer
8. Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
9. I Love You Beth Cooper - Larry Doyle
10. A Moveable Feast - Ernest Hemingway
11. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
12. Free Choice