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:
Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lhari
Mudbound by Hillary Jordan
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
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:
I've read The Help and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I tried to read Mudbound but couldn't get into it but should it be chosen for the RARI book I'd be happy to give another go. Of the two I have read, I'd recommend The Help far and away over the other but that's not to say I didn't enjoy it.
Thanks for list of books. I haven't read any of them but will be checking them out. My wife says thanks to,
I haven't ready any of them either but I did read Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake and loved it. And I'm a big fan of Chris Bohjalian. I've enjoyed every one of his books that I've read.
I just bought Unaccustomed Earth (on the Kindle, which I'm loving!), I'll let you know what I think when I'm done!
How cool that you're on this committee! That sounds like fun. I've heard good things about many of these books but haven't read any myself yet. I really liked The Namesake by Lahiri and Double Blind by Bohjalian, though. I'll be interested to hear what wins!
Sue
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