Random House Book Club Forum April 26th

Random House representative Ron Shoop will be presenting book club recommendations April 26th at 6:30 at the Ygnacio Valley library.

I went to this last year (click the label link below) and thought it was a relatively ok experience. The presentations of new books are well done, informative, and at times entertaining. Although, he did give some REALLY bad advice on the Thomas Steinbeck novel In the Shadow of the Cypress which was a horrible use of paper and ink.

There was also a raffle at the end. I was hoping that the winner would be able to have a pick of books. While that was not the case, I (the winner) did get a bag of books. This was pretty nice, although only one of the books looked interesting, I wound up giving all of the books a way (which was not a easy task I assure you). By the way, I'm pretty sure the only reason I won the raffle was because I was the last person to put my card in.

Regardless of all the shortcomings, I do intend on attending this event and recommend that you do as well.

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner

Tonight was the Book Club Forum hosted by Random House at the Pleasant Hill Library. During this 90 minute event a representative from Random House spoke about several newly released books by the publishing company. I thought the presenter did a great job of creating interest in all of the books without giving away any spoilers. The books that caught my eye (ear?) are the following:

Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada

In The Shadow of the Cypress by Thomas Steinbeck (John's son)

The Devil's Company by David Liss

Nose Down, Eyes Up by Merrill Markoe

American Rust by Philipp Meyer

The Vagrants by Yiyun Li

Conversations with Mr. Prain by Joan Taylor

I am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced by Najood Ali and Delphine Minoui

and

The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud by Ben Sherwood

These are books that I think would be great for book club discussions or just personal reading.

At the end of the night there was a raffle for a bag of advanced uncorrected proof books. Guess who won? That's right, your humble blogger. Don't worry I plan on sharing the wealth at our next book club meeting.

Random House holds two of these forums every year. One at the Orinda Library in February and one in Pleasant Hill in June.

By the way, one thing I couldn't help noticing from the forum that I was the only male in the room (besides the presenters) and the only person under 40 (maybe 50) in the room. This is perhaps a topic for another post.