Arlington Common Book Club
Book Club Coordinator
Robert “Rheo” Aieta retired to “quality of life” Vermont after a 40-year career as a vocational rehabilitation consultant on the West Coast. During his youth, Robert asked for many conversations to be repeated and he progressed from one to two hearing aids at the same time the record industry went from hi-fi to stereo, so he was given the nickname “Stereo” which has evolved to “Rheo”. He enjoys living in Arlington but misses being part of a local book club. Rheo can be reached at rheo@comcast.com or (360) 529-1450.
Format
Initial book for discussion will be The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe. The first meetings will be to discuss the book club format.
participants will be invited to recommend three books by email. At our next meeting, we can discuss the recommendations and explain our suggestions. Everyone can also research book reviews online. All selections will be then tabulated for voting to choose the books for the next six to twelve months. Picking several books months in advance will allow for more flexibility with purchasing and reading the books than month-to-month selection.
This will be a multi-genre book club, including fiction, non-fiction, biographical, and educational books. The next page includes a sampling of books selected by the voting process when Rheo participated in a previous book club.
When
Second Thursday of the month, at noon, beginning on May 12th.
If there is sufficient interest, an evening alternate time will be considered for the same book titles.
Mask wearing will be optional
Potential Book Titles
Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towle
The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World
By The Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, and Douglas Carlton Abrams.
All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
Final Gifts by Maggie Callahan and Patricia Kelley
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson
The Postmistress by Sarah Blake
Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
Dear Life by Alice Munro
Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline.
The Japanese Lover by Isabel Allende
Sighing Woman Tea by Mark Seiler
In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom by Yeonmi Park
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich
The Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett by Annie Lyons
Breathe: A Letter to My Sons by Imani Perry
Clock Dance by Anne Tyler
The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Street
A Pilgrimage to Eternity by Timothy Egan
The Girl Who Wrote in Silk by Kelli Estes
The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng.
The Overstory by Richard Powers
Strangers in Their Own Land by Arlie Russell Hochschild
The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker
The Library Book by Susan Orlean
To the Bright Edge of the World by Eowyn Ivey
Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the Spy Who
Helped Win WW ll by Sonia Purnell
Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
The Sea Runners by Ivan Doig
Educated by Tara Westover
Found: A Life in Mountain Rescue by Bree Loewen
Any Human Heart by William Boyd
The Woman Who Smashed Codes by Jason Fagone
Last Bus to Wisdom by Ivan Doig
Clementine by Sonia Purnell
My Notorious life: A Novel by Kate Manning.
Journey of Souls: Case Studies of Lives Between Lives by Michael Newton, Ph.D.