Ok, can anyone in the Morridor back me up on this? What's with grown-ass women reading YA lit and WWII books in book clubs? Seriously, if they're not reading the next Twilight garbage, they're reading "Sarah's Key" or "The Inkeepers Wife" (I just made that one up)

I have a theory- they read BAD WWII novels because it was the last time in American history that a conflict was black and white. There were good guys (us) and bad guys (nazis), and since their sheeple minds can't handle any morally gray areas. (Notice the novels never have to do with Hiroshima, a decidedly more nuanced event)

I alway knew I didn't fit in with their book club culture because I read books that were, you know, good.

Amazing.

My mother, who is active Mormon, often has to step into her book club and offer more "adult minded" selections.

I think I might join my local book club and suggest "Asses to Angels" Actually a good book but with foul language and about a spirited women who got out of abuse and now is her own self and happy.She was born during WWII so it would be sort of in compliance. Gail L. Black a very interesting Lady.

I made the mistake of joining an all mormon ladies book club. I was new in the area and thought it would be a good way to get to know people outside of the walls of church. Wrong.

I made a book suggestion (The secret life of bees)and we read it. The majority of the women said they stopped reading because they didn't like the language. OK. Whatever. Apparently they haven't read some of the greatest literature ever written.

Their next choice was......Black Beauty.....A book I read in third grade. I couldn't make myself read such dumbed down stuff. Really? Black Beauty? These were women in their 60's to 80's. They didn't want to go beyond 3rd grade. That spoke volumes. I never went to that book club again.

It wasn't until later that I learned I was the only one in the room with an education beyond high school. There wasn't going to be any thing that challenged their thinking or knowledge. They were perfectly happy being little girls their entire life.

I went to one once where the book was the first of a series if young adult fantasy and only one woman had read so she spent A HALF HOUR going over the plot (I'm sorry, it was really long, se kept saying). Everyone was dead-eyed the whole time. Just like sacrament meeting! Ha!

I knew a lady in her 40s, single school teacher, who was careful to keep her self "pure" make that virginal, that would only read light romance novels...the kind that are honorable and end in a kiss.
Okay, I detest two dimensional bodice rippers. They're dumb.
But I do like all kinds of interesting books, from Anne McCaffery, Roberta Gellis, to Mitchner, Robin Cook, and John Gresham.

One of the most interesting reads came from our Bishop. He'd loaned a book to my husband, when my hubby was through, I, on a whim, read the book before returning it.

Can you imagine it? The plot was about some terroists who set off a dirty bomb in the stadium in Denver. Because of the cloud cover and the cold, the satelite didn't read how "hot" the bomb was. The concrete contained the bomb so the whole city wasn't blasted. It also was a 'dud' because the terroist killed the German scientist before he had armed and told them about the bomb, which had a two trigger system.
The whole book was about all the armed forces trying to figure out who did it and who they should strike at, if at all.

Half way through the book, The Oklahoma City bomb happened! Gave me extra chills....The book? The Sum of All Fears by Tom Clancy.

So I bet the little old ladies wouldn't like that one!

I was in one of those clubs "sponsored" by Deseret Book years ago. Where they would give you three choices of books that DB sells, not necessarily religious but usually so. Then you'd vote on the one you all wanted to read and go into DB to buy it. You'd give them the registered number of your book club and get something like 25% off. It was a good deal, if you are into preapproved reading material.

Anyway, some of the women got bored and decided to go off script one month. You could skip a month but if you didn't use your club number at Deseret Book at least every other month, you lost your registration/discount for your club. But the women decided to skip a month and read The Kite Runner. Then they spent the whole discussion apologizing for it and saying they didn't really realize what it was like. Actually, it's the only book I remembered reading, even though I didn't like it. A little action goes a long ways.

Think of Mormon women as stuck at a junior high level of emotional and intellectual development and you will completely understand their choice of reading material. There may be a few exceptions, but the rank and file of "sisters" are hopelessly developmentally delayed in these areas. They call it childlike faith or some such nonsense.

We had a very good book club for a while. It included some non-Mormons in the neighborhood. We could choose any books we wanted, and Frost Books would order extras, and give us a discount. We had a member of Mensa, two PhD's, several school teachers. There were a few non-college graduates, but that didn't make them stupid.

We got a new stake presidency, and the Stake President was married to the Mensa woman. He laid down the law, that our book club could read only Mormon generated literature. Some of us were angry about this, and protested that the Stake had no jurisdiction over a private club. They replied with some Mormon church policy that "meeting in groups outside of church" was wicked. The non-Mormons, of course, left, and about half of us followed, and we started our own book club. The Mormon readers club dwindled out, probably because they got bored. I still wonder if the husbands of those very intelligent Mormon women thought that the non-Mormon women were a bad influence on them. We never chose any controversial or depressing books, and no romance novels (I think those are for teen-agers.) Yes, the Mormon book group read all of "The Work and The Glory" and "Twilight" books.