Book Clubs and Reading Challenges...

First, some super exciting news: it looks like I’m going to be joining a face-to-face book club! Two friends of mine recently decided they want to start one, and I pretty much invited myself to join them. The first book we’ll be reading is The Birth House by Ami McKay (which I’ve actually already read, but I don’t mind rereading it). I think the second book they’ve picked might be The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. If this gets off the ground, I’m planning to suggest we read Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen next!

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I also recently discovered the 2011 “The Women of Science Fiction” Book Club at Dreams and Speculation, which I’m officially joining via this post. Of the 13 selected books, the only one I own and haven’t read is The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin. I’m also interested in rereading both Doomsday Book by Connie Willis and The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. In addition, my local library has copies of Cordelia’s Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold, China Mountain Zhang by Maureen McHugh and Remnant Population by Elizabeth Moon. Finally, I'd also really like to read Mappa Mundi by Justina Robson and the bonus book, Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree, Jr. It’s probably unrealistic to think I’ll read more than six books for this club, and even that’s a lot, so I’ll have to pare down this list at some point!

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I’m also officially joining the Memorable Memoir Reading Challenge hosted by Melissa at The Betty and Boo Chronicles. I’ve already read two memoirs for this challenge (Devotion: A Memoir by Dani Shapiro and Let’s Take the Long Way Home: A Memoir of Friendship by Gail Caldwell, both of which were great books)—I just need to review them! Other books I might read for this challenge include:

• An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination by Elizabeth McCracken
• First Comes Love, Then Comes Malaria by Eve Brown-Waite
• Nice Recovery by Susan Juby
• Special Exits: A Graphic Memoir by Joyce Farmer
• The Merry Recluse: A Life in Essays by Caroline Knapp
• Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven: A Memoir by Susan Jane Gilman

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Finally, I’m taking the plunge and joining the Readers Imbibing Peril (R.I.P.) V Challenge hosted by Carl at Stainless Steel Droppings at the Peril the Second level, which means reading two books in the following genres: Mystery, Suspense, Thriller, Dark Fantasy, Gothic, Horror or Supernatural. My plan is to read at least two of the following four books:

• Life Sentences by Laura Lippman
  
• The Singer’s Gun by Emily St. John Mandel
• The Sister by Poppy Adams
• The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale

Have you read any of the books I plan on reading? Are there any you would particularly recommend (or disrecommend)? Do you have any advice for a first-time book clubber?