Living the Sweet Life: The Book Club for 2021


By Alisa Murray
www.AlisaMurray.com
Nationally recognized
portrait artist and
award-winning
columnist.

Hey there Sweet Lifers! In honor of Dr. Seuss, March is our National Reading Month, and for many of you, this is old news. This year I launched my Book Club and have created my list of some pretty amazing reads. I love books as you can tell from my library, and I have always got something on my nightside table.

One of the many things my mother did prior to her untimely death – also the anniversary of which is acknowledged this month – was to start the Junior Great Book Club when I was little. There in the old elementary school that Brian and I attended is a small bookcase engraved in her memory stocked full of classics as it has been for the past 42 years.

Speaking of classics and books, how many of you were required to read anything or everything by Walt Whitman? In my searching for the best books for the club, I came across a book about him, and I have become intrigued with him, his life and his works – so much so that I asked Brian to find a documentary on him.  The documentary started out with a walk in the woods and poetry to which Brian promptly said, “Ah, hmmm I am going to bed now!”

Turns out I had to read a lot of British Literature in school and had never really heard much or studied the “Great Ame-rican Poet.” So, I have added this little dive into his life and works as I have only stumbled upon it and would be remiss not to at least mention this splendid new find.

Alisa Murray and William.

My 2021 Book Club Reading List:

1.   South of the Buttonwood Tree by Heather Webber

2.   Think Like A Monk by Jay Shetty

3.   Writers and Lovers by Lily King

4.   Let Love Rule by Lenny Kravitz with David Ritz

5.   The Sentinel by Lee and Andrew Child

6.   Fanocracy by David Meerman Scott and Reiko Scott

7.   The Best of Me by David Sedaris

8.   Near Dark by Brad Thor

9.   Perestroika in Paris by Jane Smiley

10. Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

11. Afterlife by Julia Alvarez

12. Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey

The one for good measure is Ask by Ryan Levesque, and the extra one I mentioned is What Is the Grass? by Mark Doty.

Don’t worry if you do not get to them all this year.  If I keep going to the book store, I will be right there with you!  I have created a Book Club group at Alisa Murray’s “Living the Sweet Life” – The Lifestyle on Facebook.  If you are so inclined, please to join us.

Take Care of You and Others!

Alisa