The Bent Pages

The Bent Pages book club (Grande Cache, AB) was started in 1999 and we have been going strong every since. We are a group of 9 women who get together on the second Wednesday of each month to discuss the current book, socialize, and enjoy various branches of discussion, wherever they may lead . . .

We meet 9 months of the year, excluding December, July and August. Last year, however, we did gather in December at one of the local restaurants to enjoy a dinner out and to discuss Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine. Each May we draw months for the next year's schedule. The person who chooses September (for example) is the host that month and must choose a book to be read and discussed for that month. Hosts have the choice of entertaining in their homes and supplying appetizers and dessert or entertaining in a restaurant of their choice. If they choose the restaurant route, they are responsible for purchasing appetizers for the group. Members buy their own beverages and desserts. Schedules are distributed in June or early July so members know and are able read book selections over the summer. If a member does not finish a book, they are fined a loonie and those who do not even start the book are fined a toonie.

We begin our book club discussion with the host telling us why she chose the book . . .

The Bent Pages Top 11 Books

1999- 2004

A Fine Balance-Rohinton Mistry
The Red Tent-Anita Diamant
The Education of Little Tree-Forrest Carter
Outlander-Diana Gabaldon
Pope Joan-Donna Woolfolk Cross
Angela's Ashes-Frank McCourt
The Lovely Bones-Alice Sebold
Peyton Place-Grace Metalious
The Skystone-Jack Whyte
East of Eden-John Steinbeck
Open House-Elizabeth Berg

Compilation of Book Club Selections

Year 1 (1999 - 2000)

An Isolated Incident - Susan R. Sloan
While I Was Gone - Sue Miller
The Notebook - Nicholas Sparks
Outlander - Diana Gabaldon
Watership Down - Richard George Adams
A Wreath for the Bride - Lillian O'Donnell
The House Gun - Nadine Gordimer
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - J.K. Rowling

Year 2 (2000 - 2001)

Snow Falling on Cedars - David Guterson
The Pilot's Wife - Anita Shreve
Angela's Ashes - Frank McCourt
The Education of Little Tree - Forrest Carter
Egalia's Daughters - Gerd Brantenberg
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil - John Berendt
The Alibi - Sandra Brown
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
Into Thin Air - Jon Krakauer

Year 3 (2001 - 2002)

Open House - Elizabeth Berg
Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
House of Dreams - Pauline Gedge
The Skystone - Jack Whyte
The Celestine Prophecy - James Redfield
Where the Heart Is - Billie Letts
Lady of Hay - Barbara Erskine
Pope Joan - Donna Woolfolk Cross
The Last Time They Met - Anita Shreve

Year 4 (2002 - 2003)

A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
Into the Wilderness - Sara Donati
Peyton Place - Grace Metalious
Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason - Helen Fielding
Animal Dreams - Barbara Kingsolver
The Red Tent - Anita Diamant
Good in Bed - Jennifer Wiener
Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood - Rebecca Wells
Crow Lake - Mary Lawson

Year 5 (2003 - 2004)

A Great Deliverance - Elizabeth George
Right Church, Wrong Pew - Walter Stewart
The Fourth Hand - John Irving
East of Eden - John Steinbeck
The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
Life of Pi - Yann Martel
The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
Drowning Ruth - Christina Schwarz
Little Women - Louisa May Alcott

Year 6 (2004 - 2005)

The Last Crossing - Guy Vanderhaeghe
Shout Down the Moon - Lisa Tucker
The Wife Tree - Dorothy Speak
Timeline - Michael Crichton
Angels & demons - Dan Brown
The Joy Luck Club - Amy Tan
The Five People You Meet in Heaven - Mitch Albom
The DaVinci Code - Dan Brown
and Daughter of the Empire - Raymond E. Feist

Year 7: 2005 - 2006

Paula ...by Isabel Allende
The Time Traveler's Wife ...by Audrey Niffeneggerv
London ...by Edward Rutherford
The Secret Life of Bees ...by Sue Monk Kidd
The Kite Runner ...by Khaled Hosseini
Sweetwater Creek ...by Anne River Siddons
Rebecca ...by Daphne Du Maurier
A Complicated Kindness ...by Miriam Toews
Random Passage ...by Bernice Morgan
Movies: Hotel Rwanda & Crash

Year 8: 2006 - 2007

Standing Together ...by Linda Goyette
The Tin Box ...Holly Kennedy
The Red Queen ...by Margaret Drabble
Ice Bound ...by Dr. Jerri Nielson
Girl With A Pearl Earring ...by Tracy Chevalier
The Glass Castle ... by Jeannette Walls
What the Body Remembers ...by Shauna Singh Baldwin
A Million Little Pieces ...by James Frey
Movies: Water & Hank Williams First Nation
The Poisonwood Bible ...by Barbara Kingsolver

Year 9: 2007 - 2008

Freakonomics ...by Steven D. Levitt
The curious incident of the dog in the night-time ... by Mark Haddon
Suite Francaise ... by Irene Nemirovsky
The Other Side of the Bridge ... by Mary Lawson
Nineteen Minutes ... by Jodi Picoult
Alias Grace ... by Margaret Atwood
The Attack ... by Yasmina Khadra
Tuesdays with Morrie ... by Mitch Albom
Before Green Gables ... by Budge Wilson
Movie: Blood Diamond

Year 10: 2008 - 2009

Promise Not to Tell by Jennifer McMahon
Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
Plain Truth by Jodi Piccoult
Deep End of the Ocean by Jacqueline Mitchard
The Satanic Verses by Solmon Rushdie
The Birth House by Ami McKay
The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards
The Sixteenth Round: From Number 1 Contender to #45472 by Rubin Carter
The cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini