We belong to a book club at our church. The club has been around since 2010. We have read quite a few interesting books. Below you will see the full list of ones chosen, and the ones nominated but not chosen.
One of the limiting factors is which books get chosen, besides which ones the group votes as interesting, is availability. We are currently linked to the library for our copies. If the library doesn’t have it, we won’t be reading it. That means that most indie published works are out. Anything that is more than a couple of years old is probably out. Even seasoned classics may be out.
Which means that a previously published author in persona non grata. An excellent author like Christopher Stasheff will never be read by our book club.
Betsy and I have a passing blog acquaintance with several currently published authors — we might even be able to convince one or two of them to do a teleconference about their book at a book club discussion — but even with such a potential for actual author feedback at our book club, the likelihood of getting their work chosen and on the book club reading list is practically nil. Why? Because they aren’t published by one of the major publishing houses, hence aren’t purchased by the library, hence aren’t available for the book club. Never mind that these authors have sales that are better for some of their works than the ones purchased by the library.
So that is my thought on books, publishing, and gatekeepers. Now, if anyone is interested, below is what we have read, or have scheduled to read, and many of the books that weren’t chosen.
| Title | Author | Nominated | Read |
| The Shack | William P. Young | 2/1/2010 | |
| A Skeleton in God’s Closet | Paul Maier | 3/1/2010 | |
| The Poisonwood Bible | Barbara Kingsolver | March 2010 | 5/20/2010 |
| Three Cups of Tea | Greg Mortenson | March 2010 | 6/1/2010 |
| The Red Tent | Anita Diamant | March 2010 | 7/31/2010 |
| The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society | Mary Ann Shaffer | 8/28/2010 | |
| Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal | Christopher Moore | 9/25/2010 | |
| The Case for Christ: A Journalists’s Personal Investigation of the Evidence for jesus | Lee Stobel | 10/30/2010 | |
| The Honor of the Queen | David Weber | 12/4/2010 | |
| The Book Thief | Marcus Zusak | 1/8/2011 | |
| Moloka’i | Alan Brennert | Sept 2010 | 2/12/2011 |
| Abraham: A Journey to the Heart of Three Faiths | Bruce Feiler | Sept 2010 | 3/12/2011 |
| The Alchemist | Paulo Coelho | Sept 2010 | 4/9/2011 |
| The Help | Kathryn Stockett | Sept 2010 | 5/14/2011 |
| Their Eyes Were Watching God | Zora Neale Hurston | Sept 2010 | 6/11/2011 |
| Angels and Demons | Dan Brown | Sept 2010 | 7/9/2011 |
| The Elephant’s Journey | Jose Saramago | August 2011 | 8/13/2011 |
| The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks | Rebecca Skloot | August 2011 | 10/1/2011 |
| The Imperfectionists | Tom Rachman | August 2011 | 11/1/2011 |
| The Autobiography of Santa Claus, by Jeff Guinn | Jeff Guinn | August 2011 | 12/10/2011 |
| The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid | Bill Bryson | August 2011 | 1/14/2012 |
| The Screwtape Letters | C. S. Lewis | August 2011 | 2/11/2012 |
| Bloody Crimes: The Chase for Jefferson Davis and the Death Pageant for Lincoln’s Corpse | James L. Swanson | August 2011 | 3/10/2012 |
| Nemesis | Philip Roth | August 2011 | 4/14/2012 |
| Running the Books: The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian | Avi Steinberg | August 2011 | 5/12/2012 |
| Follow the River | James Alexander Thom | August 2011 | 6/9/2012 |
| The Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President | Candice Millard | May 2012 | 7/14/2012 |
| Caleb’s Crossing | Geraldine Brooks | May 2012 | 8/11/2012 |
| The Girl in the Blue Beret | Bobbie Ann Mason | May 2012 | 10/13/2012 |
| The Prophet | Kahlil Gibran | May 2012 | 11/10/2012 |
| An Amish Christmas: A Novel | Cynthia Keller | May 2012 | 12/8/2012 |
| Honolulu | Alan Brennert | May 2012 | 1/12/2013 |
| The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey | Candice Millard | May 2012 | 2/9/2013 |
| Ella Minnow Pea | Mark Dunn | May 2012 | 3/9/2013 |
| Extraordinary Ordinary People | Condoleezza Rice | May 2012 | 4/13/2013 |
| The Forgotten Garden | Kate Morton | May 2012 | 5/11/2013 |
| The Disappearing Spoon : and Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements | Sam Kean | May 2012 | 6/8/2013 |
| Signing Their Lives Away: The Fame and Misfortune of the Men who Signed the Declaration of Independence | Denise Kiernan | April 2013 | 7/13/2013 |
| The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal and the Real Count of Monte Cristo | Tom Reiss | April 2013 | 8/10/2013 |
| Cronkite | Douglas Brinkley | April 2013 | 9/14/2013 |
| Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West | Stephen E. Ambrose | April 2013 | 10/12/2013 |
| The End of Your Life Book Club | Will Schwalbe | April 2013 | 11/9/2013 |
| A Dog’s Purpose: A Novel for Humans | W. Bruce Cameron | April 2013 | 12/14/2013 |
| Living to Tell the Tale | Gabriel Garcia Marquez | April 2013 | 1/11/2014 |
| Life of Pi: a novel | Yann Martel | April 2013 | 2/8/2014 |
| Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer | Tracy Kidder | April 2013 | 3/8/2014 |
| The Glass Castle | Jeannette Walls | April 2013 | 4/12/2014 |
| The Murder of the Century: The Gilded Age Crime That Scandalized a City & Sparked the Tabloid Wars | Paul Collins | April 2013 | 5/10/2014 |
| Unbroken, A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption | Laura Hillenbrand | April 2013 | 6/14/2014 |
| Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague | Geraldine Brooks | April 2013 | 7/12/2014 |
| Have a Little Faith: A True Story | Mitch Albom | March 2010 | Not picked |
| Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust | Immaculee Ilibagiza | March 2010 | Not picked |
| Redeeming Love | Francine Rivers | March 2010 | Not picked |
| The Five People You Meet in Heaven | Mitch Albom | March 2010 | Not picked |
| The Last Lecture | Randy Pausch | March 2010 | Not picked |
| Do Hard Things: A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations | Alex Harris, Brett Harris, Chuck Norris | Sept 2010 | Not picked |
| Every Last One | Anna Quindlen | Sept 2010 | Not picked |
| Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch | Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman | Sept 2010 | Not picked |
| Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India | William Dalrymple | Sept 2010 | Not picked |
| Same Kind of Different As Me: A Modern-Day Slave, an International Art Dealer, and the Unlikely Woman Who Bound Them Together | Ron Hall and Denver Moore | Sept 2010 | Not picked |
| Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan | Greg Mortenson | Sept 2010 | Not picked |
| The Elephant’s Journey | Jose Saramago | Sept 2010 | Not picked |
| The Fruit of Her Hands: The Story of Shira of Ashkenaz | Michelle Cameron | Sept 2010 | Not picked |
| The Hunger Games | Suzanne Collins | Sept 2010 | Not picked |
| The Last Centurion | John Ringo | Sept 2010 | Not picked |
| The Pillars of the Earth | Ken Follett | Sept 2010 | Not picked |
| America’s Four Gods: What We Say about God–and What That Says about Us | Paul Froese | August 2011 | Not picked |
| Do Hard Things: A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations | Alex Harris, Brett Harris, Chuck Norris | August 2011 | Not picked |
| Every Last One | Anna Quindlen | August 2011 | Not picked |
| Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch | Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman | August 2011 | Not picked |
| Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet | Jamie Ford | August 2011 | Not picked |
| Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India | William Dalrymple | August 2011 | Not picked |
| Olive Kitteridge | Elizabeth Strout | August 2011 | Not picked |
| People of the Book | Geraldine Brooks | August 2011 | Not picked |
| Skippy Dies | Paul Murray | August 2011 | Not picked |
| Spiritual Envy: An Agnostic’s Quest | Michael Krasny | August 2011 | Not picked |
| The Elegance of the Hedgehog | Muriel Barbery | August 2011 | Not picked |
| The Great Divorce | C. S. Lewis | August 2011 | Not picked |
| The Man Who Invented the Computer: The Biography of John Atanasoff, Digital Pioneer | Jane Smiley | August 2011 | Not picked |
| The Memory Keeper’s Daughter | Kim Edwards | August 2011 | Not picked |
| The Pillars of the Earth | Ken Follett | August 2011 | Not picked |
| 1632 | Eric Flint | April 2012 | Not picked |
| Blue Like Jazz | Donald Miller | April 2012 | Not picked |
| East of Eden | John Steinbeck | April 2012 | Not picked |
| Ethan of Athos | Lois McMaster Bujold | April 2012 | Not picked |
| God on the Dock | C. S. Lewis | April 2012 | Not picked |
| Mudbound | Hillary Jordan | April 2012 | Not picked |
| The Art of Racing in the Rain | Garth Stein | April 2012 | Not picked |
| The Discarded Image | C.S. Lewis | April 2012 | Not picked |
| The Mind of the Maker | C.S. Lewis | April 2012 | Not picked |
| The Sojourn | Andrew Krivak | April 2012 | Not picked |
| The Story of Stuff: The Impact of Overconsumption on the Planet, Our Communities, Our Health-And How We Can Make It Better | Annie Leonard | April 2012 | Not picked |
| Till We Have Faces | C. S. Lewis | April 2012 | Not picked |
| We the Animals | Justin Torres | April 2012 | Not picked |
| What it is Like to Go to War | Karl Marlantes | April 2012 | Not picked |
| Wonderstruck | Brian Selznich | April 2012 | Not picked |
| Dear Me: A Letter to My Sixteen-Year-Old Self | Joseph Galliano | May 2012 | Not picked |
| How Mrs. Claus Saved Christmas | Jeff Guinn | May 2012 | Not picked |
| In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin | Erik Larson | May 2012 | Not picked |
| My Stroke of Insight | Jill Bolte Taylor | May 2012 | Not picked |
| Orthodoxy | G. K. Chesterton | May 2012 | Not picked |
| Searching for God Knows What | Donald Miller | May 2012 | Not picked |
| State of Wonder | Ann Patchett | May 2012 | Not picked |
| The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn | Mark Twain | May 2012 | Not picked |
| The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth: Popularity, Quirk Theory, and Why Outsiders Thrive after High School | Alexandra Robbins | May 2012 | Not picked |
| The Good Earth | Pearl Buck | May 2012 | Not picked |
| The Hunger Games | Suzanne Collins | May 2012 | Not picked |
| The Outliers | Malcolm Gladwell | May 2012 | Not picked |
| The Sense of an Ending | Julian Barnes | May 2012 | Not picked |
| To Kill a Mockingbird | Harper Lee | May 2012 | Not picked |
| Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity | Katherine Boo | April 2013 | Not picked |
| Calico Joe | John Grisham | April 2013 | Not picked |
| Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter | Tom Franklin | April 2013 | Not picked |
| Ender’s Game | Orson Scott Card | April 2013 | Not picked |
| Gone Girl | Gillian Flynn | April 2013 | Not picked |
| Home | Toni Morrison | April 2013 | Not picked |
| Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore | Robin Sloan | April 2013 | Not picked |
| The Fault in our Stars | John Greene | April 2013 | Not picked |
| The Orchardist | Amanda Coplin | April 2013 | Not picked |
| The Time Keeper | Mitch Albom | April 2013 | Not picked |
| These is My Words: the Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901: Arizona Territories | Nancy Turner | April 2013 | Not picked |
| Thieves in High Places: They’ve Stolen Our Country and It’s Time to Take it Back | Jim Hightower | April 2013 | Not picked |
| Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail | Cheryl Strayed | April 2013 | Not picked |
At The Rainbow 