Literary Rebel - Midtown Book Group

Bibliophiles Among Us? Indeed.

The Midtown Book Group, sponsored by the Midtown Neighbors' Association, was established at Barnes & Noble/Georgia Tech in September 2006. The group meets on the 2nd Wednesday of every month at 8:00 p.m. to discuss and enjoy great literature. We have a terrific, mixed group of Midtown neighbors and book lovers who participate for always-lively conversation, with typically 10 - 15 attending each month. Group members are young (mid-20s) and old(er); male and female; professionals, professors, students and work-at-home moms; house people and condo dwellers. All are welcome.

This very diverse group enjoys award-winning fiction, especially from the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, Nobel and Man Booker Prize lists. We have participated annually in the National Endowment for the Arts program, The Big Read, with The Literary Center at the Margaret Mitchell House. We often read new and different titles, in many genres, based on critical acclaim or member recommendations. We discuss monthly themes and book suggestions at each meeting and then vote in an online poll to make the selections up to three months in advance. 

Over six years, we've read winners & losers, stinkers & the sublime (Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie was both!); books we all loved, books we all hated, and every combination in-between. Three years ago, the group began rating each book at the monthly meeting. Ratings are based on a 5-star scale, with 5 being the highest. Individual ratings are purely subjective and personal (no rules), and the group average becomes the "official" Midtown Book Group Rating.

The complete list of Books We Have Read, with Midtown Book Group ratings, is updated each month and can be referenced here:  Midtown Book Group - Books We Have Read.

Although we meet at Barnes & Noble/Georgia Tech during the school year, during the summer months, from May through August, we meet at alternate locations in Midtown.   

Next up: Midtown Book Group - August 2012

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot:

"Doctors took her cells without asking. Those cells never died.  They launched a medical revolution and a multimillion-dollar industry. More than twenty years later, her children found out. Their lives would never be the same."

Date: Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Time: 7:00* p.m. to 10:00 p.m.

Note & Location: We are starting an hour earlier than usual in August to allow extra time for a special event/field trip to "visit Henrietta" (officially: HeLa cells), followed by book group discussion, in the Molecular Science & Engineering Building at Georgia Tech.  

For details & more information, please visit Midtown Book Group on Yahoo!Groups. Midtown Book Group welcomes new members and visitors!