What did you think Funkyart? It got good reviews - but I haven't watched it. I like Paul Giamatti a lot.

Our book club has a beyond-voracious reader in it so now we just let her pick most of our books.

Far from the Maddening Crowd New movie from old Thomas Hardy book

https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B013DS8DL8?ie=UTF8&keywords=far%20from%20the%20madding%20crowd&qid=1442939371&ref_=sr_1_1&s=movies-tv&sr=1-1

I do think it's hard to find both a book and movie that none of the group has read/seen... and then in the 4 star range! I am adding to my list with a few that might be outside the ring of what most people have seen/read.. with some justification for reading something (slightly) below 4 stars.

I suggested Everything is Illuminated because it was quirky enough that it wasn't in the mainstream-- but definitely discussion worthy!

Not sure how widely seen The Reader was but I loved the book by Bernhard Schlink 3.7 on good reads but I suspect it's lowered by some content deemed offensive to some (sexual relationship of a teenager with an older woman- this is not a spoiler to the overall story). It is on a number of "best books" lists

Hideous Kinky by Esther Freud (great granddaughter of sigmund) has 3.47 stars but it is an especially interesting read because it's narrated from the pov of a 5 yr old girl. It is likely to spark conversation on many levels. Reviews are all over the place .. The 9th review in my list by "Kathy" sums up my thinking when suggesting it for a reading group.

It is total coincidence that two of my recommendations have been adapted into movies starring Kate Winslet!

Edited to make a few corrections and complete an open ended sentence.

Robo, i had it playing in the background as I did some other tasks. I enjoyed it but I wouldn't say it was a great movie or one I'd necessarily pass along as a recommendation. I thought Paul Giamotti was perfectly casted as the unattractive, flawed man who you have to love. I didn't read the book but expected more of Dustin Hoffman in a similar role as the father. and of the relationship with his son.

Are you only considering books/movies primarily aimed at adults? If not, maybe:

How to Train Your Dragon (the movie is only loosely based on the book)

The Invention of Hugo Cabret/Hugo

I haven't read all the posts, so my suggestion may be old hat, but what about Jane Austen books? There are several good movies out (perhaps you can choose a version not many have seen) of Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and there are several versions of Emma about and a pretty good Mansfield Park. Your fellow readers may not have read Austen in years and may never have seen the better movies made of her books. I took a course at Oxford on Jane Austen's books in film, and it is really very interesting how those characters with such rich inner lives (and the narration that goes with it) are treated in film to give one the same impression.

Yeah, I am almost sorry I asked, Funky, because it is a kind of crazy quest; good movies and books ... that were overlooked. Makes me think foreign titles might be the way to go!

Right now my list is: Still Alive, The Painted Veil, and now I am thinking about "Remains of the Day" and "We Need to Talk about Kevin".

Most of the other (great) suggestions I have read and/or seen, or else they are very, very old. IMHO many of the "great" old movies look pretty lame today. Not to spark a controversy, but I think the quality of films has really been elevated in the past few decades.

I recently re-read and loved Carson McCullers' The Heart is a Lonely Hunter and the movie gets 4-5 stars (I haven't seen it, but I seldom have seen any movies) but it's not available on instant view. You might check your library for a copy, or it's not expensive on Amazon and they'll get it to you fast.

Maybe something that isn't pure fiction, like Into the Wild?

It's been mentioned already but our October book club pick is The Martian; we're doing lunch then a matinee showing I think. Last I checked the Kindle version is only $8.99--and the movie is getting good pre-release buzz so why not just go with something new instead of old?

Well, that's a catch-22. If they are modern, they're more likely to have been seen, so if they're older, they're more likely to have been missed. But if you're dismissing them on age a priori, you're cutting your potential targets by a lot. Of course, I would heartily disagree...IMO, some of the old movies are still some of the best. (Just watched a very funny film with Glenn Ford called The Gazebo from 1959.)

Beasts of the Southern Wild....

Love of Seven Dolls....

The Thorn Birds (made for TV movie)...very popular in the 80s when it came out.

the martian is a good idea! and guaranteed no one has seen it yet...

out of those you have on your list, 'we need to talk about kevin' is the one that i would probably most want to read and see...

I like all of the options on your short list... I too was thinking something foreign (southeast asia, in particular) but I didnt come up with anything that i thought hadn't been read/seen.

There are some old classics that I think stand up to modern movies-- but they tend to be iconic films that most, if not everyone, has seen or read. I even ran it by my bff who is also a reader (and we worked at a movie theater together many lives ago) and we didnt come up with anything new that fit the criteria.

However, it did get us talking about starting our own book/cooking club!

Murder on the Orient Express.

Another book/movie combo my book club did is Canadian classic Whale Music by Paul Quarrington which is kinda based on Brian Wilson. The only problem is the movie is pure vintage low-budget Canada, coincidentally directed by same guy who did Barney's Version. E.g. "sunny California" is clearly wintry Vancouver and the faux Beach Boys music is a scream. The book is a sweet, funny, quick read.

Discussion around the Martian is what made us think of finding a book where we can watch the movie too. But that movie won't be out in time, and we don't want to go to a theatre anyway, we are having brunch and a movie at a member's home.

I have put four suggestions out for the vote now. Polls close at 8pm EST, LOL.

Funky, starting my book club was my best move probably ever. Five years, 60 books, three weddings, three babies in! :) I hope we are still meeting in another 30.

Funky, if you are cooking, I will be in your book club, too!

Well, we'll have to get some younger participants if we wanna have babies and weddings .. though I suppose anything can happen!

Aww sweet of you, Mtn! I had a pang of guilt as I sat down to read your post with a bowl of TJ's minestrone from a CAN! haha. I definitely cook better and more creatively for a crowd than I do for one.

I need to learn how others run their book clubs and how best to incorporate food/cooking (without that driving the reading selections). I'll start a new thread for this after I do a little research.

I'll just write out our origin story here. In 2010 a very "golfy" friend of my in-laws asked me what kind of hobbies I had. At the time I moderated a local punk music message board but I didn't think that would fly with her so I had to pawn her off with mumbling about being a big reader. I started to think that I'd like to have a more organized hobby, so I asked my friends that I knew were readers if they'd like to form a club.

Each of us invited a few friends and we had an inaugural meeting where we democratically decided on the rules of the club. We decided that we would continue to feature the books prominently, unlike some book clubs which rapidly turn into wine clubs, but that it would be a low pressure club where if you were too busy to read the book that month you would still be welcome as long as you didn't mind spoilers.

We meet on weekday evenings and we do potluck snacks. Again it's a lowpressure club so if someone doesn't have a snack to bring that's okay. I think the potluck has honestly been a key to our success, particularly since we also decided that it wasn't obligatory to host as some of our members have small apartments. A handful of us host but with the potluck aspect it is easy to do so. Originally we had over 20 members which was way too many. Our first meetings were madness! But there were a lot of people who just wouldn't read the books consistently and drifted away. Now we are down to a very loyal cadre of eight (two have moved away) and I'd like to get us back up to about ten but the other gals are so loyal they don't want to add anyone.

With an eye to finances and therefore taking advantage of sales, we pick our books about 12-16 at a time so we are set well into 2016 now and we tend to eschew hot new releases. We organize meetings through Facebook. We do rate each book out of five. I think our lowest rated so far was Gone Girl (2.1) but our most hated was A Disorder Peculiar to the Country which we read prior to ratings.

I find the best books for our club aren't overly intellectual (we did For Whom the Bell Tolls and only two of us liked it, me incl) but spark a great discussion. For example, We Need to Talk About Kevin was amazing because we had so many discussions about psychopathy, parenting and family dynamics, even though personally I didn't love the book. Two of our best-loved books were our first, Book of Negroes, and Middlesex.

I have suggested switching up formats, for example, each reading a different biography of a famous woman, but the gals love reading the same book... 12 months a year! We have a holiday party and do a novella in December. We have an anniversary dinner each March. We have gone to a few author talks (Joseph Boyden, David Sedaris) and had one author do a teleconference with us which was amazing (Lauren Davis for Our Daily Bread, which is more or less about a family from Nova Scotia).

I find to get good readers you may have to go outside your immediate friends circle. There are so many people out there who like the idea of reading but won't make time for it consistently.

I joined an existing bookclub that was theoretically part of that an elementary school parent's association. I don't have any kids in that school anymore and neither do most members. The person who ran the club chose the books, simple as that. People would take turns hosting in their homes, and serve light snacks usually.

When the person running the club went back to her practice full time, I volunteered to run it. I do not choose books unilaterally, but I do control it pretty tightly because I don't want to read junk and waste my time.

I suggest at least two books each time, and we vote. Anyone who hosts also gets the privelege of suggesting a book for the day they host, but it is put up to a vote against a book I select as well (without disclosing who suggested what). It feels as though the voting and the hosting priveleges give people enough input to buy in, but OTOH we don't waste hours choosing books and we don't have a dictat.

A few years ago someone asked if they could do a "tea" when they hosted, and now our meeting has evolved from snacks to a meal (brunch). No one seems to mind that obligation. We do allow members to host at our local library, where there is a lovely, private meeting room with a kitchen.

I have been to one meeting with 20 people. We have about 15 members now, and at any given time probably 8 or 9 attend. People sort of pop in and out, probably only 3 of us make all of the meetings.

Mtn, does your club ever or often accept new members?

OHHH! I was going to suggest Shawshank Redemption but it was suggested upstream. And, then I thought of IT. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day. Great Book, Great Movie. Really interesting compare/contrast about what got featured in the film and what got left out.

BTW one of my most favorite offbeat quirky films is The Spitfire Grill, I had always assumed it was based on a book but its not- its an originl screenplay. So recommend to anyone to watch, it sometimes comes up on Netflix, I think it might be off this month.

Second aside, when the 'new' Willy Wonka movie came out my, at the time library- shout out to the South Salem NY Library- had a event for youths. You had to read the book and then they watched the original Gene Wilder and the new release Johnny Depp and had lengthy conversations, My son still talks about what great dialogue they had. PS- Huge Roald Dahl fan and the movie of "The Witches" featuring Olympia Dukakis is a family memory. We read all Dahl's books but this particular movie was started and stopped a couple of times before we could get through it . There is a particular scene in which the cinematography is Hitchcockesque and my kids, when they were young would cry out 'Stop. I cant take it. I need in the way it is in my head this is too scary"

Robo, yes,we do accept new members... to date only friends of the group. We often lose participants as their children age and the Moms go back to work, so if we didn't accept new members we'd shrink.

robo-- how was David Sedaris to listen to?? some of his books are the absolute funniest I have ever read ... I had tears in my eyes through at least half of 'me talk pretty one day'.

Busybee...he was awesome!! Really funny and charmingly self deprecating as you might imagine. My book party pals stayed behind to talk to him (we had done Santaland Diaries as our December book) and he disparaged the name of our book club (at that time, As the Page Turns) and laughed in a grossed out way at my friend's dirty joke (he was collecting them to liven up the tour). I'll just say it involved Cinderella, a ball, and sound effects. The signing lineup was long and he still stopped to talk to every fan and stayed well past midnight.

Mtn, makes sense! All our members work and both our moms are working moms which I really respect. they both came right back to book club when the babies were born, too! Along with the babies. It means however that we often have to juggle schedules.

Thank you for sharing your experiences Mtn and Robo! I like both approaches though they are very different.

I like the idea of choosing books democratically but that's what killed one of the online book clubs I started many years ago. I don't necessarily want to make the selections but I think I'd like to have some guidelines. I read a wide range of books-- not all of them 4-star reviews-- but there are some authors and genres I just don't enjoy. I'll have to put some thought
into it.

Is it much of a struggle to come up with selections that the group has not already read? I have to think about how to set it up and if I want to formally weave in a cooking/dining component or let it develop organically. I don't think I want to have the food component drive book selections.. but rather have the book selection inspire foods and flavors.

I want to add that i think your recommendation to go outside your normal circle of friends is wise. The one thing I really valued in one of my prior reading groups was the fact that it included women of different ages.. and from different backgrounds. I think it made the discussions much more interesting.

Are your book club members all women-- or are they mixed? One of my groups had a few men but they eventually stopped participating.

I find staying away from nytimes best sellers works well for avoiding duplication. Although duplication isn't always terrible… Sometimes people enjoy discussing a book they've already read, as it's nice to have someone to discuss it with.

We often try to relate the food to the book, if only tangentially in some cases.

We would be happy to include men, though given that we meet on weekdays over brunch .... While kids are in school ... Not viable for most men. Because of our beginnings we are mostly Moms with middle schoolers or younger .... But that's not by design.

For ours, We had two men but they stopped coming. It is now a very female group and I have a hard time picturing a guy in it (ps we didn't choose super girly books or anything that might have driven the guys away).

we choose books more or less democratically but veto cheesy suggestions (one member nominated Pride and Prejudice and Zombies multiple times). We tend to stick to critically acclaimed stuff e.g. Giller or Booker prize winners. We often do graphic or YA in July or August just to keep it lighter for summer, but still high quality like Alison Bechdel's graphic memoir Fun Home. Our super voracious reader holds off on reading stuff she thinks would be good for book club and brings a list on book choosing day (a meeting once a year where we nominate things to read).

I think it's important to remember not everyone is going to love every book and it is some of our most despised or controversial books that have given rise to the best discussions.

I think I've written this elsewhere, but our book club decided to only read books we can all get at the library. So they are usually best sellers that have gone through the initial frenzy of hundreds of holds, but there are still enough copies for all of us to reserve. After a while, the library downsizes the # of copies they have, so there aren't enough. They also will use interlibrary loan to get more copies from other library systems, but we haven't done that yet. We take turns selecting the books; some members just announce what it will be, some others give us a choice. We nixed any science fiction because only one of us likes it; one slipped in one time and all of us hated it. The person who chooses the book provides the wine and snacks. We meet at a community room one of our members has access to in her gated community, which works well for us.

Met up with my friend (and had wine by the creek on a beautiful fall afternoon!) and contemplated our book club plan. The more we talked about it, the more we realized we preferred doing a cook/book club. I will share details in another post when we're a little further along but I think we have some exciting ideas (including field trips!)

We already have a group of women who gather to cook christmas cookies so we'll start there -- now we need to decide a good number to start with!

Just had an exciting announcement last night...another book club baby on the way!!!

One True Thing, by Anna Quindlen, particularly if this is a group of mothers. Movie of the same name.

I am curious.. which option won the vote, Mtn?

Oly, our library has "book club in a bag." You check out a tote bag containing 10 or whatever number copies of the book along with a discussion guide. They have a surprisingly nice selection.

that sounds like so much fun, funky!

Funkyart, please do post about your cook/book club when you've come up with your plan. That sounds like a fun & different idea.

I have a friend who started a documentary film club. The member all watch the film at the meeting, then discuss it---sometimes with a Skype link to the director or producer of the film. There is an annual subscription (about $100 I believe) and I think they meet about four times a year. The movies are an hour or so long, so it's a doable evening. The person who started it was friends with many people in the documentary film business through Sundance, and the film person would like to start this in other cities. I would love to duplicate it here but some of our book club members will only get their books from the library, so the subscription wouldn't fly.

I will definitely follow up with a new thread either later today or in the next day or so-- I am working through a few details right now. I thought it sounded fun and interesting-- and unique. Nope. Cook book clubs are actually "a thing"! I am not surprised but I just wasn't aware.

KSWL.. that sounds really interesting! The indie movie theater here has (or had) a film club. I believe the Ritz theaters in Phila has one also. I never joined but it did sound interesting. Funny you mentioned that a yearly fee wouldn't fly there. I was contemplating fees as well. I have opted to forgo a yearly fee -- but some events will include a fee. Again, I'll share more in a new post.

Didn't read all the ideas, but A Walk in the Woods (4.05 rating) is supposed to be a wonderful book and the movie has just come out.

There is also My Talks with Dean Spanley by Edward Plunkett (Lord Dunsany-3.86 rating) and the film (on Netflix) stars Peter O'Toole and Bryan Brown.

ETA the ratings since that is one of your criteria.

My son and I visited the south this summer, one of the stops being Savannah, Ga, where we toured several historical homes, one being the Mercer-Williams home. A movie was made in 1997 based on the book 'Murder in the Garden of Good and Evil' having taken place in the mansion. It was directed by Clint Eastwood, and the only two stars I was familiar with were Kevin Spacey and John Cusack. I bought the book( had never seen the movie)and found it to be quite interesting, but only from the standpoint of the history given on Savanah, more than the storyline itself~I have a strange fascination with the south anyway.

I don't know the 'star rating' of the book, but it was a very easy read, not heavy in the slightest, and am sure many would find it interesting from it's bit of insight into the ways Savannah was and still is.

Memoirs of a Geisha. Fantastic book, fantastic movie!

If you like Memoirs of a Geisha try Raise the Red Lantern.

Thanks again everyone. Funky, "Still Alice"won. I think it's a good movie but I suspect the book's ratings reflect strong interest in the topic rather than quality prose. The movie does seem pretty good.

I saw a nice movie last night; Learning to Drive? Ben Kingsley.

Still Alice is an excellent movie, although more a fairytale version of life with Alzheimer's than the usual reality, as its subject is specifically early onset of the disease and the family is wealthy and well-educated.

My mother and I saw the movie together. She is the sole survivor of nine siblings and lost several sisters to Alzheimer's. One of my aunts was in a locked facility for more than twenty years. We agreed after seeing Still Alice that it presented an impressively sanitized version of the disease.

KSWL,

I bought the book yesterday and finished it today. While I don't think I would read another of the author's books, I have to say the story of "Still Alice" was compelling, and while some of the writing was decidedly amateurish it is not awful. I think, though, that the main draw is that the subject of the book and the protagonist is something a lot of readers will identify with.

As for the movie, I won't be seeing that for a few weeks, but the NY'er and NYTimes reviews also said the film sort of flinched rather than being as authentic as it could be.

Funny aside, I learned the word "anomia' reading the (2009) book today. It means when you cannot find a word. I recently taught my kids the word "aphasia" and now they tease me that I have aphasia all the time. Anyway, i learned the related word "anomia", and mentioned it to DH over lunch.

Then at 5:17pm my DD1 gets her "word of the day" email from Dictionary.com. And the word is ... anomia! Bizarre.

This is probably off base as it's not a movie but a series. However , the Outlander books are fantastic historical fiction. The books and the series have some juicy sex scenes which may not apeal to some though.

I know I'm late to the party, but for future ideas of this nature, I strongly recommend The Hours.