We actually had 15 authors come to the RBC this year (yes, I know there are only 12 months in a year). We've got so many authors who either volunteer to come or say yes to our request, that it's hard to keep to just one per month. Here's what we had this year:
January - The Oracle of Stamboul, Michael David Lukas (literary fiction)*
February - The Scribe, Elizabeth Hunter (fantasy)
March - A Killing at Cotton Hill, Terry Shames (mystery)
April - If You Were There, Susan Sherman (historical fiction)
May - Mother, Daughter, Me, Katie Hafner (memoir)
June - The Illuminated Kingdom, Alina Sayre (middle grade fantasy)
July - Here There Be Dragons, Jeff Rosenplot (dark fiction)
July - Kissing Frogs, Rich Amooi (romantic comedy)
August - Pure & Sinful, Killian McRae (paranormal)
September - Everything We Keep, Kerry Lonsdale (literary fiction)
October - VietnamEazy, Trami Nguyen Cron (literary fiction)
October - Circumstantial Evidence, Sheldon Siegel (mystery)
November - The Weight of Him, Ethel Rohan (literary fiction)
December - Soulless, Gail Carriger (steampunk)
December - Own It, Elisabeth Barrett (romance)
Last year we had 5 different genres. This year it was 11! It's true that we had 3 more authors/books in 2017 than 2016. But, still, 11 out of 15 demonstrates a pretty darn good variety of genres. That is definitely one of the best aspects of the RBC, IMHO.
We tried something different this year. We actually had a book exchange. Have you ever been to one of those? I've been to several at Kepler's. And they are really cool. Everybody brings one of their favorite books to give away. Each person gives a brief synopsis of his/her book. Then everybody draws a number. #1 picks a book. It can be stolen by somebody who follows that person. But it can only be stolen once. If you lose your 1st choice, you get to go again. Your 2nd choice can't be stolen. Anyway, obviously everybody ends up with a book. Bottom line? It was a pretty big flop. We only had a handful of people there. We probably won't do it again. But we are definitely not opposed to trying new things. If anybody has any ideas for other RBC-related events, feel free to chime in.
And, finally, here are the authors scheduled for 2018, so far:
January 14 - Dating Bender, Christina Julian (romance)
January 24 - Dark Associations, Marie Sutro (mystery)
February 21 - Sweet Spot, Amy Ettinger (ice cream memoir)
March 14 - Freedom Child, Chandra Lee Ingram (literary fiction)
March 28 - Underground River, Martha Conway (historical fiction)
March 28 - The Last Billable Hour, Susan Wolfe (murder mystery)
April 25 - The McGlincy Killings, Tobin Gilman (non-fiction murder mystery)
May 23 - Silver Lies, Ann Parker (historical mystery)
*Michael was our very 1st author when we started back in January, 2014, at Village House of Books in Los Gatos. We moved to Recycle Books (hence, the RBC - Recycle Book Club) in Campbell in September of 2014. So we decided to have Michael at our 3-year anniversary of the book club. And just like the 1st time, all of our members liked The Oracle of Stamboul a whole lot.
I read Everything We Keep and The Weight of Him - both good reads. Haven't been in a book exchange but it sounds like fun.
ReplyDeleteDid you know that Lonsdale has Everything We Left Behind as a sequel to Everything We Keep? A 3rd, and final, sequel comes out next summer.
DeleteBoth Lonsdale and Rohan were very interesting authors to listen to.
Yes, I also read Everything We Left Behind (the "he said" partner to the "she said" first book. I liked it and look forward to the third!
DeleteWhat a wonderful book club - I'm jealous!
ReplyDeleteYou would be amazed at how anxious authors are to connect with readers. You might want to reach out to some of them in your area and see if they are interested in attending one of your book club meetings. The only downside is if your members only want to read books by well-known authors. Many of them are too busy to attend. But we still do get nationally-known authors on occasion.
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