If you haven’t heard, Bookmans Midtown host a monthly book club in their totally-not-haunted-but-possibly-haunted basement. It’s the Bookmans Backroom Book Club! In this bibliophile meet up, members receive an employee discount on reading material AND nosh on free grub at meetings. Sounds like a pretty rad time, right? Our little super squad has already read three books together and to say we have some thoughts is a severe understatement. Some books we liked. Some books we loathed. Others completely blew us away! Want to know which works of fiction earned top spot? Check out our complete ranking below!

 

In 3rd place! The Book of Joan by Lidia Yuknavitch

Holy guacamole did this book leave us with some feelings. To our surprise, none of really dug this book. In all fairness, we still love this author. Many of us had read Yuknavitche’s other novels and loved her writing however… The Book of Joan simply did not grab us. Taking place in near-future when war and climate change have turned Earth’s surface into a battleground fand drawing inspiration from Joan of Arc, The Book of Joan fuses together the stories of two women living very different lives but fighting for a single cause. An interesting story to be sure, but unfortunately, the consensus was that it did not deliver. Who knows, we might totally be in the minority here.

Have you read The Book of Joan? If so what did you think?

And 2nd! Crooked Little Vein by Warren Ellis

Oh man, what a hilarious ride! Meet Private Detective Mike Mcgill, a poor sap who somehow always finds himself in awkward craptastic situations where he is consistently the butt of the joke. Add in intermittent sentence-long chapters, some of the most cringe-worthy situations, and a manic pixie dream girl so obvious it almost feels like a parody, and you’ve got the essence of Crooked Little Vein. I mean, her name is Trix for Zeus’ sake!

Crooked Little Vein is utterly enjoyable but also firmly NSFW. Regardless, if you love hilarious detective novels full of government conspiracies and plenty of uncomfortable predicaments involving obscure fetishes, then by golly, pick up a copy of Crooked Little Vein!

Numer Uno!!!! All-Star Superman by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely

To keep things interesting, we decided to incorporate a complete comic book story into our reading list. Boy, are we glad we did! Enter All-Star Superman, a 12-issue series sure to turn even the most snobbish bibliophile into an avid comic fan. Morrison Quitely did us the favor of summarizing the big guy’s origin to a single page (so awesome!), and from there, the saga took off.

With well-known characters like Lex Luther, Lois Lane, and Jimmy Olsen and new peeps like Dr. Leo Quintum, All-Star Superman has the perfect mixture of new and classic stories and characters. Not to mention that we LOVED Superman’s nonchalant mentions of Batman and Robin. Whether you’re new to the world of comics or regular comic book Casanova, we highly recommend this tome.

Bookmans Backroom Bookclub meets third Thursdays at Bookmans Midtown.  To join, email Bookclubs@Bookmans.com.

Read along in January with Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. We can tell you that the Bookmans Backroom Book Club is anxious to dive into this run away hit before the movie hits theaters in 2018! We’ve even made the promise to explore any and all pop culture references in the book that are new to us for extra fun.

Bookmans is your store to explore. If you are interested in an item mentioned here call your local store and one of our staff members will be happy to assist you.