Oprah's Book Club at Goodreads discussion

How did we not have this here until now? Anyway, welcome. Please introduce yourself.

Hey, Karey! Since I'm new, I thought you might have done this already. :) Thanks! So I guess I will start off...

My name is Kristen, and I live in Southern Illinois. I have lived here all of my life, except for a short time in California while my hubby was in the Marine Corp when we first married. We have been married for 13 years and counting. We have three little girls; 9, 7, and 4 years old. They keep us hopping! I'm a SAHM as well as an aspiring writer. Along with reading & writing in my spare time, I love to make my own beaded jewelry. Peace & Love, Kristen

Hello Karey, I am Ruby Morris, live in Tx. have been for more then 30 years, the mother of 4 adult daughters 10 grandchildren and 4 G.grand children.Retired from teaching Headstart.
The Lord took back my husband in the year of 2001 and I write most of my time. I self publih, a choice in life; now writing a novel.God love's you, so do I.
Ruby

I guess I'll introduce myself, too. Hi all, I'm Karey Shane. I grew up in the Rocky Mountain region and moved back several years ago after raising my three children in New Orleans, Montréal, then Vermont. For them, Vermont is home. My husband and I have a combined family of seven children and when I married him, I became an instant grandmother. Whew! I love languages and travel (I raised my children with French as our home language), gardening, hiking with our dog Wyatt, making homemade lotions, purses, mittens, and my soul's desire is to fulfill the measure of my creation by doing God's will, as schmaltzy as that sounds.

Good Morning!

I'm Debbie Ricci and I live in Western NY. I have 3 adult children in college (22,20,18)and my baby is 13. At 41, I will be entering graduate school this fall to earn a MSW. My eventual goal is to work with/counsel adolescents. It's exciting transitioning into this new phase of my life. After years of raising children, I'm not sure I know HOW to live as an adult with the freedom of choices. Silly, I know.
I'm really looking forward to participating in the book club and getting to know all of you!

Hey Everyone,
So far I am the only one from North Carolina. I am 48 and just graduated from Appalachian State University and received my BSW. I am looking for work in a department of social services. I love reading. I have 3 grown children, 4 grandchildren, 1 granddaughter who died of SIDS, a new grandson due this week and 4 step grandchildren. I am married for the second time and we have 8 dogs. I look forward to being a part of the group.

Hi Candy welcome to the discussion and the love for books.

Hi Candy! Welcome :)

Hi-
I am an Idaho native. I work as a middle school librarian, so if you have any outstanding books to recommend, please let me know. I have been married for 34 years and have been blessed with 3 grandchildren. I look forward to sharing good book reads with everyone.

Hello and welcome Ann! A good place to start for middle school ages is the Goodreads group Wild Things: YA Grown Up. It's for adults who like YA but it gives a good idea of what's out there. My husband and I just drove his mother up to Idaho for her sister's 90th birthday. Beautiful country!

Hi, I've been in this group for a while. I live in Evanston, a close suburb of Chicago, and have two adult children and three grandchildren. I'm a social worker who works with the poor and disabled. Three years ago, I finished writing a book, Dancing On My One Ugly Toe Around the Rim Of Hell with one of my former clients about the trauma that she survived and the healing power of therapy and trust. Today I began a blog about issues pertaining to it. You can find it at http://Storiesofhealingrecoveryandcou.... I'd appreciate your comments after you've checked it out. Take care everyone. Peace.Lisa Sachs

Hey Everyone!

My name is Kate, and I'm kind of in-between states at this point. I go to school in Iowa, but I'm graduating in a week and if all goes well will be in Michigan for a year or two. I'm getting married in July, and hope to figure things out from there :). I got really excited when I found this club, because I've actually been studying Oprah's Book Club for about four months now for an Independent Study. Can't wait to see where this goes!

Hi Everyone!

I've been in this group for a while but I never introduced myself. I'm 26, live in Utah, and I have 2 kids (3 and 1). I started reading Oprah's book club picks when she picked A New Earth. I was excited by the web series that she did. It got me interested in reading books that she had selected in the past. I love reading YA and the classics, too.

Hi Jessica, It's nice to meet you.

Thanks for joining me as a moderator!

what is the moderator supposed to do in this context?

Hi Everyone :-) I'm Chioma. I'm Nigerian living in Nigeria. I love books, music and photography. I have a dog,Teddy, who's pregnant:-) I have 2 brothers and 2 sisters. Its really nice to meet y'all...

Hi, It's nice to meet you, too.

Welcome!

hi :) i am ragawi from Kuwait (somewhere in the Middle East between Iraq and Saudi Arabia ) oprah was introduced to me when i was 12 yrz old (i think it was 2003 when it was first aired on free tv here) mom would watch the show and i'd watch it with her too ,
I am 19 now studying accounting :D

Hi Ragawi, welcome to Goodreads. Studying accounting that is good. I'm looking for an accountant. Smile. Take care

Linda

Hi everyone, I am Cyndi. I have had this application for a while now, but i never really was active. Now i will : ) I've read some books from O's book club, so thought i'd join the group here, and look forward to read more.

Hello everyone! My name is Ashley. I am new to the group, as well as to this website. So far I love it. I have never been part of any book club but always read anything that has Oprah's stamp of approval! :) Nice to meet everyone!

Hi Cyndi and Ashley! Welcome. It's great to have you!

Hello! I'm Sarah and totally new to book clubs and online groups, but I'm super excited to give it a try, meet some new friends and, of course, read some great books. In the last four years I've truly become a reader...I absolutely love it and I'm so thrilled about all that reading has added to my life. I have always wanted to truly get into reading the books on Oprah's list and feel like this is a great opportunity to do just that and it comes with bonuses-friends, fun, great chats and so on. So, thanks for having me and nice to meet all of you!

Hello Sarah! Nice to meet you as well.

For all the new members, we are reading Oprah's newest pick right now Freedom. Please feel free to join in the discussion. All the threads for past books that we have read as a group are still open so if you read any of them in the future, feel free to join in those, too!

I just checked at my library. There are 72 people ahead of me. I reserved the book, but who knows when I'll get it.

Same here. I'm number 15 at the library, but they only have one copy. I might have to buy it digitally (no more real books for me - they don't fit in my apartment anymore!)

My library has 10 copies so I guess I should get the book before you. I haven't read any books digitally yet.

I'm "Elisabeth713". I live on the North Side of Chicago, near Lincoln Square and Ravenswood. I retired early and work part-time in the Youth section at a public library. Usually I read current events, sociology,history, biography and multi-cultural literature. I've read all of Franzen's books and began Freedom the first day it was sold at retail. My recommendation is to take it slow, take notes, and just skim through the parts that you find distasteful. There are very deep thoughts in the book overall. I'm rereading it now, just focusing on the introspective sections and trying to understand Patty in greater depth. I prefer the printed book to digital, especially for an author who took this much effort over such a long period of time.

Hi, my name is Emily...
I live in Sydney Australia..
I love to read...this is my first oprah book club read at the same time as everyone else...So i am very excited..Looking forward to it all!!...I haven't started reading Freedom yet, as I am reading another book at the moment...So I will have to hurry lol...xx

Hi, my name is Adhityani but I go by the nick Dhitri. I live halfway across the world from most of you here - Canberra, Australia. I am new to goodreads.com and online book discussion forums, so please bear with me!

I am a postgrad student in environmental studies and I do a lot of academic reading, so my idea of relaxing is to pick up a good novel and immerse myself in the story! I have been an avid fiction reader all my life and dream of publishing my own works one day. I happen to read a lot of Oprah's book club selection so I thought it would be great to be able to connect with people who have read the same books. Looking forward to some interesting discussions!

Hi Elizabeth,

I totally agree with you on going slow and taking notes when reading "Freedom". I just finished reading freedom (on my e-reader) and I checked my notes: I made up to 100 notes in total! The book is very deep, it filled the space in my head so much that I abandoned everything else just to get to the end of the book. I'll save more comments for a dedicated thread on this subject!

Dhitri, there is a dedicated thread for this book! It's under the folder "Book Discussions" and it's called "Freedom by Johnathan Franzen: Newest pick!"

If you want to discuss the books details, please post the word SPOILER at the top of your post for those that haven't finished reading it yet. Welcome to the group! I can't wait to hear what you thought of it.

Hi Everyone

I'm Vernon - currently re-settling into the UK having spent some time in France. Whilst in France my wife and I joined a Book club and enjoyed reading and discussing a new book each month. Now we're back in the UK we haven't yet found a Book club, hence the desire to join something on line. This group could provide the right stimulus to read and develop. I like the idea of reading Frantzen's "Freedom" having already read "Corrections" twice and liked it so much.

I have a background in literature having taught at School/College level for many years. I'm now retired and considering what to recollect and put on paper for the grandchildren. I'd hate for them not to know the inner me................

Hi, folks, I had to come here and say hello after the recent Franzen appearance on Oprah. I welcome comments on this:

http://michaelcogdill.wordpress.com/2...

Hi Michael, I just read your blog and it was interesting. I have read "Freedom" and enjoyed it more than "The Corrections" although I feel it still needs some work on understanding people. I also have a blog. It's a combination discussion on social issues and recipes. Please check it out on http://recipesforabetterworld.blogspo....

Lisa, my deepest thanks, and I agree with you on Franzen. As a novelist, I work at exploring both depths of humanity -- the evil and the good. E-Blogger was down when I tried to see your blog, but I love the title and look forward to taking a look. The warmest peace to you! More soon,
m

Hello! Joined up yesterday or today. I have read a lot of Oprah's picks over the years--but I don't watch or much enjoy her show. I don't generally read along with the show. But I have found good books by authors I never would have tried otherwise.

Dree wrote: "Hello! Joined up yesterday or today. I have read a lot of Oprah's picks over the years--but I don't watch or much enjoy her show. I don't generally read along with the show. But I have found good b..."

Welcome to this group. Like you, I do not watch Oprah. The only time I ever watched was on You Tube for the complete interview with Jonathan Franzen a few weeks ago. However, I do feel she has made a remarkable contribution in terms of getting people reading again. On my commuter train I notice so many people of all ages just totally absorbed in reading - and reading actual books, not the ereaders. There are quite a few books I never would have thought of reading but have placed on my list due to recommendations from people on this site. Do you live in California? I used to live north of San Francisco, but now am back home in Chicago. Best wishes.

Lisa, I am from the Bay Area, but haven't lived there in (gasp!) 20 years. We're in LA now. Wet wet wet LA!

Hi everyone! My name is Erin and I live in Texas. I'm married and have 2 boys, 4 and 2. I teach special ed, but I'm finishing up a masters in educational diagnostics. I'm a fanatical reader, what little free time I have is devoted to books. To be totally honest, not a huge Oprah fan, but I've read several books off her book list and have been impressed with her choices!

Hello everyone. I live in rural Australia (commonly referred to as 'the outback' by those who live elsewhere), raising beef cattle. I have enjoyed quite a few of Oprah's picks over the years, but still have lots to go, so am looking forward to the group's discussions.

Hi, my name is Stephanie and I live in Connecticut. I've only been a Goodreads member for a short time, but I love to read!!!

Hi I'm Kirstie, from Manchester in the UK. I've just joined GR but love the community already and can't wait to get started of some of the reading ideas I've already been given!

Hi to all the new members! Welcome to the group!

Lesley wrote: "Hello everyone. I live in rural Australia (commonly referred to as 'the outback' by those who live elsewhere), raising beef cattle. I have enjoyed quite a few of Oprah's picks over the years, but s..."

Lesley, I live in Canberra, nice to see a fellow Aussie in the group :) Welcome!

Hello to fellow readers from California (near Palm Springs).
I am retired and enjoying my retirement library, as well as adding to the TBR shelves ....thanks to discussions on Goodreads.
I like to read most genre and have acquired all of the OPRAH books. I am hoping this group will challenge me to include at least one a month in my reading schedule.
Looking forward to great reads and discussions.

Great to have you Shirley!

Hello,
I am a stay at home mom to two beautiful childern . I am from New Jersey. I love reading, I have loved books since before I could read.