The HuffPost Book Club Begins Today With 'The Tiger's Wife'

Happy New Year everybody, and welcome to the start of The Huffington Post Book Club!

This year, we're going to be reading together ten remarkable books, from a wide variety of genres and styles. We're going to be discussing the books' narratives, as well as sharing how and where we're reading, and how the story interacts with our everyday lives, memories and ideas.

Basically, it's going to be great.

Today marks the start of our first title, The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht. It featured in 19 "Best Books Of 2011" lists, including our own, and was nominated for a National Book Award - making Ms Obreht the youngest ever NBA nominee.

If you don't have a copy, it's not too late! Click here to buy one from our partner for this month, St. Mark's Bookshop in New York, or click here to search for your nearest independent bookstore on Indiebound. Digital copies are also available.

If you do have a copy, start reading it today. We're going to be reading and discussing about 100 pages a week, from today until February 3rd - of course, you can read at whatever pace makes most sense to you.

We want to hear from you as you read. Leave thoughts and comments right on the Book Club page, where you'll find our discussions and further links about each book.

Also please do tweet your thoughts as you read with the hashtag #hpbookclub, and/or share your reflections on our Facebook page. We'll be sending weekly assignments we'd love for you to take part in, and here's our first:

Take a photo of where you are reading the book, and tell us about it. You can upload your images here.

If you'd like to blog your personal reflections on the story as you read, email us at [e-mail] and tell us why. A few selected readers will get their own login to post their thoughts as they read. We'll feature the best contributions on our page.

Also, you can sign up to weekly emails by entering your address on the right-hand side of the Book Club homepage.

Any questions, drop us a line. Now get reading.

Love,

Andrew, Zoë, Maddie and Annemarie

Also on HuffPost:

Comments

[wcsleet]

07:57 PM on 02/10/2012

How do I get consideration on the Book Club for my innovative diet/health improvement book, Scaleless Dieting? I don't have celebrity appeal, but I was obese and dying a painful death. The practices contained in this book, so far, has given me 8 years of life that I would have never seen following the current market of "best sellers" and fads. There is no better gift that you can offer anyone than the gift of better health and I am committed to share my positive experiences to those in desperate need, as I was. This fabulous book can be previewed and downloaded on Amazon. Scaleless Dieting has been so well thought out, that it is beyond any reasonable criticism. Check it out for yourself, be objective and recommend it to a friend. Everyone who has tried Scaleless Dieting loves it, I am humbled by the lives that I have saved so far.

[ndipietra]

02:40 PM on 01/11/2012

Can you please tell me what the next book is, I have already read The Tiger's Wife. Enjoying the comments from other readers, I loved the book, particularly being of Balkan heritage.
Thanks, Natalia

[Steamboater]

01:26 PM on 01/10/2012

Has the conversation on "The Tiger's Wife begun yet? I got the book in the mail just yesterday and started reading it and got up to the first 65 pages or so. Lucked out too and got it for only about $9.00 at Ebay on a BUY IT NOW and with shipping. Can't wait to get back to reading more later. The author is only 26 and she writes like a seasoned writer. Just beautiful. I'll just wait to talk more about it when everyone else does.

[Blarg]

11:09 PM on 01/05/2012

Will there be cake?

[CountLeo]

10:36 PM on 01/05/2012

I'm going to take a moment and be just a bit of a curmudgeon.

I really like the idea of a HP book club. I like to talk to people about books. I like to read books. Mostly Russian and French classics but one purpose of a book club is to read something new. Iexpect that in reading a book together we can learn to see different views and get new insights.

If you don't like this book - if you've read it and hate it or you whish the HP chose another one or if you only read Finnish versions of sixteenth century Japanese poetry - go post somewhere else. I don't really care. I come here to see what people are thinking about as they read The Tiger's Wife along with me. If this is just too much of a stretch for you find some other way to whine to Arianna and convince her that you have the perfect book for the next time around.

Thanks for not posting.

[AnotherIADem]

12:25 AM on 01/06/2012

This is an article about the book club. The comments here are about the book club. The choice of books is integral to the book club. This is exactly what is supposed to be posted here. There are separate links for discussion of the book itself... but whether people comment here or there, if they have read this book and did not like it, they should say so. If you are most interested in "what people are thinking as they read 'The Tiger's Wife' along with me", then go to where people seedling just that: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/02/huffpost-book-club-the-tigers-wife_n_1180054.html?ref=book-club#comments

[CountLeo]

12:28 AM on 01/06/2012

Never mind.

[AnotherIADem]

01:15 AM on 01/06/2012

seedling? sorry, iPad autocorrect strikes again.
replace with 'are doing'

[AnotherIADem]

08:29 PM on 01/05/2012

How about a non-fiction book club for those of us who are bored silly by fiction? I think the Huff-Po universe is big enough for several parallel clubs.

[CountLeo]

06:07 PM on 01/05/2012

A hundred pages in and I am so happy that I ignored many of the reviews and decided to jump on board. My family comes from Eastern Europe and I'm a sucker for anything from anywhere near those parts. I keep picking the book up to give it my best book club read - how is the theme carried along? how are the characters developed? how do the plots intertwine? - and then, forty pages later, I look up and was so engrossed in the story that I forgot the academics.

Maybe I will change my mind for but now I am loving Obreht's first offering.

[sabelmouse]

01:33 PM on 01/06/2012

the reviews are quite mixed. luckily my library has it.

[Annemarie Dooling]

11:09 PM on 01/06/2012

I'm glad you like it! Can't wait to hear your full thoughts.

[proggirl]

04:42 PM on 01/05/2012

I am grateful to HP for two things.
First, they are sending business to an indy bookstore.
Second, they still have a page dedicated to books.

[hubertandsusan]

02:00 PM on 01/05/2012

And...who would this book be written by..Elin Nordigren ???????????????????//

[scorpian777]

04:21 PM on 01/05/2012

Please smarten up It's not about Tiger Woods!!!!!

[erinbliss]

04:46 PM on 01/05/2012

LOL!!

[Melvin Reed]

01:53 PM on 01/05/2012

Let me recommend a book no one has heard of...yet! Relentless Self-Righteousness. Read the first chapter, it will tell you something interesting. Finish it and it will change your life...not to mention give you a better understanding of today's politics.

[CountLeo]

05:59 PM on 01/05/2012

That's what I call relentless self-promotion. Why clog the book club page with your adverts?

[trjones87]

12:43 PM on 01/05/2012

The negativity in the comments is astounding. For one, if you don't like or agree with the selection then you don't have to participate. And two, going to a library is pretty much common sense so I don't see why HuffPo would need to advocate that. Clearly they are trying to help out Indie bookstores, which is a great idea in and of itself.

And third, making sure that each book is available in "ALL e-reader" formats is pushing it. Especially since a lot of books are cheaper in their physical form than in their digital.

Lots of whining on here. Can't we all just read a book, if you so choose to do so, and enjoy an online community that supports discussion and interaction amongst readers?

[threnodymarch]

03:57 PM on 01/05/2012

Oh my god, thank you. I couldn't believe some of the posts, too. If you don't want to read the book, don't read the book. Why do people have to come here and make derogatory remarks towards the creators of this book club? It promotes reading and indie stores. They can't please everyone; why don't people realize that? They're doing a really good job - it's barely off the ground and already people insist on perpetuating a snarky vibe. F & F!

[erinbliss]

04:48 PM on 01/05/2012

The posts of which you speak are probably from people who don't read very much or very often. I just want to know if we'll have wine and snacks afterward!

[threnodymarch]

11:53 AM on 01/06/2012

Wine is definitely a must. :]

[Annemarie Dooling]

11:12 PM on 01/06/2012

Hi guys. We hear you regarding the weird comments. We're going to be keeping a sharp eye out, while allowing everyone to speak their mind *about the book* and I hope you'll stay and read with us!

[Bodeswell]

01:20 AM on 01/05/2012

The Huffpost book club is what? Go? That looks pretty illiterate for a start.

[True Built Home]

12:40 AM on 01/05/2012

Who has time to read a book? Put down ur iphone somber the thought of why u are disfuctional and needs drugs to sleep and drugs to live. If u could read, u will cherish life in a new muse.

[proggirl]

04:41 PM on 01/05/2012

The ability to spell out the word "you" is also a sing of literacy.

[Caryn Banker]

06:21 PM on 01/05/2012

"sign". LOL, see that's why I rarely correct other people's misspellings or typos or text-ese; because I invariably make one myself in the correction! ;))

[Ganeshani]

08:25 PM on 01/04/2012

Who has time to read a book? We are all far too busy reading meaningless articles and posting useless comments on HP.

[threnodymarch]

11:38 AM on 01/05/2012

Speak for yourself. Plenty of people can comment on websites and read books.

[Ganeshani]

02:10 PM on 01/05/2012

I was speaking for myself. Guess you didn't quite get the joke. ( :

[micahrain]

06:17 PM on 01/04/2012

What a great idea! Looking forward to joining my first book club. Thanks Huff Post!