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Saturday, August 22, 2009

Reading Across Rhode Island Nominations

On Wednesday I attended a meeting of the Reading Across Rhode Island (RARI) nominating committee. This was the second meeting held by the committee to determine what book will be chosen as the RARI book for 2010 (I missed the first meeting because I was on vacation). At this meeting we decided which of the 29 books still up for consideration would be "short listed" for the RARI nomination. So far I have read 5 of the 7 books that made the cut and I think that any of them would make a fine RARI choice. (Of course, I do have my favorites!) I thought it might be nice to share the short list with all of you and you can decide for yourselves what you think of the possible choices. I'd love to hear your thoughts. It might be fun to see if the majority of bookworms agree with the choice that the committee makes. (And I can make sure to let the committee know what all of you think!)
The nominees for the 2010 RARI book are:

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
Skeletons at the Feast by Chris Bohjalian
The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann
The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent

In case you are wondering, the two books that I have yet to read are: Skeletons at the Feast and The Heretic's Daughter. And I'll be sure to give you my honest opinion of all these books AFTER the committee makes it final selection. But in the meantime, I'd love to hear what you think of these titles. Have you read any of them? Did you love them? Hate them? And most importantly, which one do you think would make the best choice as the 2010 Reading Across Rhode Island book? I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Image from the Reading Across Rhode Island website


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5 comments:

  1. MadgeAugust 22, 2009 at 4:45 PM

    I absolutely loved both "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" and "The Help." I am an avid listener of audio books while I commute to work. Both of these books were exceptional stories with superb narrators. If you can get ahold of the audio versions, do it! You won't want to get out of your car.

    I would give a hearty thumbs up to either of these choices for RARI 2010.

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  2. PamAugust 23, 2009 at 5:09 PM

    Hi Madge!

    Thanks so much for commenting on my blog! I was beginning to feel as though I was talking to myself. Thanks too for your RARI input. I will be sure to mention this at that next meeting. I'm on the edge of my seat to see what book the committee will choose.

    I haven't done much with audio books, but lately I've been hearing more and more people talk about them (you included) and just yesterday I ordered a book from my "to be read" list as an audio and I'm going to try listening to it in my car. Most of my trips are pretty short (less than 20 minutes), so I'm not sure how that's going to work, but I'm anxious to give it a try. I'll let you know what I think.

    Thanks again for your awesome comment! See you at book club on Wednesday night.

    Happy reading,

    Pam

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  3. MadgeSeptember 9, 2009 at 7:30 PM

    I just finished reading "Unaccustomed Earth". The stories were very good, although I am usually not a fan of short stories. A couple of the stories stayed with me, while a couple were somewhat forgettable. I liked this book, but I am still rooting for Guernsey!

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  4. MadgeSeptember 9, 2009 at 7:33 PM

    Pam asked first... but now the RARI blog also wants our input on the "short list" Did I leave a comment or two? Of course I did!

    http://ribook.blogspot.com/

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  5. PamSeptember 10, 2009 at 1:40 PM

    Madge - Glad you enjoyed Unaccustomed Earth. Like you, I'm not a big short story fan, but these I really liked. I read them a while ago, so none of them are very fresh in my mind (I have a mind like a sieve when it comes to the plots of books), but I do remember loving Lahiri's writing style.

    As for the Guernsey book, you are not alone in your love for this book. I had a strong sense from the RARI committee that this book was well loved by those who read it and came away thinking it had more than a fighting chance to be the 2010 selection. We'll know soon, I hope. Our next meeting is 9/23. Stay tuned for more information.

    Thanks too to mentioning the RARI blog. I will be posting more about it soon - in an effort to get more input from RI readers.

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