Room by Emma Donoghue

For our Mother’s Day episode of the Drunk Guys Book Club Podcast, the drunk guys read Room by Emma Donoghue.  Because it’s mother’s day, we taste a selection of drinks from Small Town Brewery including Not Your Father’s Root Beer, Not Your Father’s Fruit Punch, Not Your Father’s Ginger Ale, Not Your Mother’s Strawberry Rhubarb, and Not Your Mother’s Apple Pie.  We also drink Mikkeller’s Orange Yuzu Glad I said Porter.

The Drunk Guys Book Club Podcast can be found on on iTunes, Google PlayStitcher, PlayerFM and where ever fine podcasts can be found.  If you’re drunk enough to enjoy the Podcast, please give us a rating. To save time, just round up to five stars.  Also, please follow us on TwitterInstagramFacebook, YouTube, and Pinterest.  There’s no excuse to miss another Drunk Guys episode, announcement, or typo!

Join us next week when we visit Finback Brewery and discuss Moby Dick by Herman Melville.

It’s not too late to join our reading challenge – for help read how to read 100 books a year.  Maybe consider some sci-fi books and Drunk Guy approved discussion questions.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (Pulitzer Prize 1961)

For Episode 41 of the Drunk Guy Book Club Podcast, the Drunk Guys ponder Harper Lee’s perennial prize-winning classic, To Kill a Mockingbird.  Is this book still worth reading? Is there a book more widely read?  How can this book get you out of Jury Duty? Find out, and more!  The drunk guys also ponder White Rascal by Avery, Yellow Belly by Omnipollo, Old Engine Oil by Harviestoun, Black by Mikkeller, and Where You Stand by Bronx Brewery.

The Drunk Guys Book Club Podcast can be found on on iTunes, Google PlayStitcher, PlayerFM and where ever fine podcasts can be found.  If you’re drunk enough to enjoy the Podcast, please give us a rating. To save time, just round up to five stars.  Also, please follow us on TwitterInstagramFacebook, YouTube, and Pinterest.  There’s no excuse to miss another Drunk Guys episode, announcement, or typo!

Join us next week as we read Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy.

It’s not too late to join our reading challenge – for help read how to read 100 books a year.  Maybe consider some sci-fi books and Drunk Guy approved discussion questions.

 

 

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

For Episode 34 of the Drunk Guys Book Club Podcast, Drunk Guys Mike, Nate, and Jimmy try to make sense of A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle.  What probably didn’t help was drinking Stone Inevitable Adventure, Eviltwin Even More Jesus and Even More Coco Jesus, Dogfish Head Fort, Magic Hat Heart of Darkness, Paradox Pilsner, Burial Beer The Prayer.

The Drunk Guys Book Club Podcast can be found on on iTunes, Google PlayStitcher, PlayerFM and where ever fine podcasts can be found.  If you’re drunk enough to enjoy the Podcast, please give us a rating. To save time, just round up to five stars.  Also, please follow us on TwitterInstagramFacebook, YouTube, and Pinterest.  There’s no excuse to miss another Drunk Guys episode, announcement, or typo!

Join us next week as we read Armada by Ernest Cline and are joined by Dave from Dave’s Nerd Compendium Podcast!

It’s not too late to join our reading challenge – for help read how to read 100 books a year.  Maybe consider some sci-fi books and Drunk Guy approved discussion questions.

The Giver by Lois Lowry

In Episode 33 of the Drunk Guys Book Club Podcast, the Drunk Guys give it their best shot for The Giver by Lois Lowry.  We also give a bunch of color-themed beers a try including Purple Haze, Double Red, Choklate Oranj, Delirium Red, and Velvets are Blue.

The Drunk Guys Book Club Podcast can be found on on iTunes, Google PlayStitcher, PlayerFM and where ever fine podcasts can be found.  If you’re drunk enough to enjoy the Podcast, please give us a rating. To save time, just round up to five stars.  Also, please follow us on TwitterInstagramFacebook, YouTube, and Pinterest.  There’s no excuse to miss another Drunk Guys episode, announcement, or typo!

Join us next week as we read A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle.

It’s not too late to join our reading challenge – for help read how to read 100 books a year.  Maybe consider some sci-fi books and Drunk Guy approved discussion questions.

Fifty Shades of Grey by EL James

In Episode 30 of the Drunk Guys Book Club Podcast, in honor of Valentines Day the Drunks Guys read Fifty Shades of Grey by EL James.  Yes, really.  And yes, this is our raunchiest and most ridiculous episode yet.  To lubricate discussion, the Drunk Guys taste fifty shades of beer, including Tell me I’m Pretty, Nobody Loves Me, Brutal by Rogue Nation, Eviltwin Wet Dream, Barrier Daddy Warbucks, Revolution Fistmas, Anchor Blood Orange Blond, Jopen Sin and Remorse, and Gossip.

The Drunk Guys Book Club Podcast can be found on on iTunes, Google PlayStitcher, PlayerFM and where ever fine podcasts can be found.  If you’re drunk enough to enjoy the Podcast, please give us a rating. To save time, just round up to five stars.  Also, please follow us on TwitterInstagramFacebook, YouTube, and Pinterest.  There’s no excuse to miss another Drunk Guys episode, announcement, or typo!

Join us next week when we read Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer.

Also, check out our articles about science fiction book club discussion questions  and how to read 100 books a year.

How to Read 100 Books This Year – The 2018 Reading Challenge

Do you want to read more books?  Of course, everyone does.  Don’t be one of the 40% of people (and 100% of current US Presidents) who doesn’t read a single book after high school or college.  One of the best ways to motivate yourself to read is to give yourself a goal.  Make it your New Year’s Resolution.  You can lose weight next year.

Every year, each of us at the Drunk Guys Book Club challenge ourselves to read 100 books a year. And we’re drunk.  If we can do it, you can do it.  We’re here to help you.

Gold = 100 books (2 books per week)

Silver = 75 books (1.5 books per week)

Bronze = 50 books (1 book per week)

Stone = 25 books (1 book every 2 weeks)

Wood = 10 Books (a little under 1 book per month)

Paper = 5 Books (a little under 1 book every 2 months)

Trump = 0 books (0 books per lifetime)

Step 1:  Make a Reading Challenge on Goodreads

Join Goodreads, make a 2018 Reading Challenge for yourself, and add drunkguysbookclub as a friend.  The Goodreads reading challenge will keep track of the books you’re reading and tell you if you’re on track, ahead, or behind schedule.  This makes your reading challenge a SMART goal (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Results-focused, and Time-bound).  Tell us about your 2018 Reading Challenge goal on Goodreads, @drunkguysbc (twitter) or send an email to drunkguysbookclub@gmail.com.

Step 2: Find Books

It’s not just the size or your reading goal that matters, but also how you use it.

  1. Don’t JUST read the classics or serious books.  These are often dense and difficult, and you should read them, but space them out with easy/fun/short books.  You’ll find you will get a lot more read this way.
  2. Plan some time in your weekly schedule for when you’re going to read.  The Drunk Guys get a lot of their reading done on the subway to and from work. Maybe plan to read before bed every night.  Or make the most out of your time on the throne.
  3. Listen to Audiobooks as well as reading.  Audiobooks are great if you’re driving, at the gym, doing chores, or otherwise need your eyes for something else.  Not all books work as audiobooks, but most do.  Drunk Guy Mike thinks listening to audiobooks is cheating, but he’s drunk.  So fuck him.
  4. If you start a book but aren’t into it, put it down and start something else.  You can always go back to it later.  Drunk Guy Mike disagrees on this, too.  See above.
  5. Reward yourself with a beer every time you finish a book. Or a chapter.  Or page.  Or word.
  6. Spice up the variety in your reading with a genre checklist.  Its a great way to make yourself look for authors/genres you wouldn’t normally read.   We all have our preferences in genre and tend to stick to them pretty strongly. But there are plenty of entertaining books that you’ll miss out on if you slavishly stick to the styles and authors you know.

The Drunk Guys Book Club Reading Challenge Genre Checklist

Read AT LEAST ONE from each of the following categories:

Category A Few Recommendations
Literary Fiction The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay Michael Chabon

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Junot Daiz

Science Fiction The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams

Ender’s Game Orson Scott Card

Fantasy  American Gods Neil Gaiman

The Once and Future King TH White

Historical Fiction  The Alienist Caleb Carr

The Underground Railroad Colson Whitehead

Mystery/Thriller  The Snowman Jo Nesbo
Dystopia 1984 George Orwell

The Handmaid’s Tale Margaret Atwood

Young Adult (YA) Ready Player One Ernest Cline

The Fault in our Stars John Green

Comedy  Fool Christopher Moore
Pulitzer Winner  The Sympathizer Viet Thanh Nguyen

All the Light we Cannot See Anthony Doerr

A Confederacy of Dunces John Kennedy Toole

Booker Winner  The Sellout Paul Beatty
A Book You Should Have Read in High School, But Didn’t The Catcher in the Rye JD Salinger

To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee

Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen

History Devil in the White City Erik Larson
Biography Unbroken Laura Hillenbrand

Hamilton Ron Chernow

Science Packing for Mars Mary Roach

What If? Randall Monroe

New Release  The Winds of Winter (hopefully) hurry the fuck up, George RR Martin
Graphic Novel Watchmen by Alan Moore
19th Century Novel A Christmas Carol Charles Dickens
18th Century Novel Gulliver’s Travels Jonathan Swift
Series Oryx and Crake Margaret Atwood

 Step 3: Hit Amazon or Your Local Library

Step 4: Listen to the Drunk Guys Book Club Podcast

New episodes every Tuesday on  iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, and where ever fine podcasts can be found.  If you’re drunk enough to enjoy the Podcast, please give us a rating.

Also, please follow us on twitter and pinterest.

 

Science Fiction Book Club: Discussion Questions and Sci-Fi Book Recommendations

Science Fiction Book Club Discussion Questions and SF Book Recommendations

Sci-fi books are awesome for book clubs.  They’re exciting, thought provoking, and some of the most important books of our time.  One key to a fun book club is alcohol, but the other is to get good discussion going.  Good discussion takes a little planning.  Luckily, the Drunk Guys Book Club is here to help you come up with questions.  The pan-galactic gargle blasters are your own responsibility.

The key to good discussions are questions that don’t have just one right answer.  Let people build on each other’s ideas, make connections, or even disagree and debate.

Here are some general questions that would work for most any sci-fi book:

  • What does this book say about science and technology and its effects on today’s society or the future?
  • What issues does this book raise or what predictions does this book make?
  • Is there anything the author definitely got right or definitely got wrong?  Like what?
  • How did this book influence today’s society or pop culture?  (Or was the book influenced by today’s pop culture?)
  • Is the purpose of the book to be optimistic about the future or to serve as a warning?
  • Would you make this book required reading?  Why or why not?

Questions for “classic” science fiction:

(Fahrenheit 451, anything by Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein, Philip K. Dick, etc)

  • Why is this book considered a classic?  Does it deserve to be?
  • Has the book aged well?  What elements hold up and which don’t?
  • Why is this book important or what is its most important idea?
  • What earlier books influenced this one?
  • How did this book influence later books?

Questions for dystopian sci-fi:

(1984, Brave New World, The Handmaid’s Tale, etc.)

  • What makes this world a dystopia?  What went wrong?
  • What real or hypothetical historical events might have been the inspiration for this book?  (The Nazi 3rd Reich, Stalin’s Soviet Union, etc.)
  • How possible is it that something like the dystopian world in the book could happen in real life?  What can/should be done to stop it?

Great thought-provoking books for a Science Fiction Book Club:

  • Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
  • 1984 by George Orwell
  • The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
  • A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
  • Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
  • The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
  • Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
  • Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
  • Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
  • Dune by Frank Herbert
  • Neuromancer by Williams Gibson
  • Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein
  • The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
  • A Canticle for Leibowitz  by Walter M Miller

You can listen to us drunkenly discuss some of these questions and more on the podcast here: The Handmaid’s Tale (Episode 2), Fahrenheit 451 (Episode 3), 1984 (Episode 14), A Clockwork Orange (Episode 22 ), Ready Player One (Episode 9), Hitchhiker’s Guide (Episode 24)

Check out new episodes about books of all genres on the Drunk Guys Book Club Podcast every Tuesday on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher, PlayerFM, Overcast, and where ever fine podcasts can be found.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by JK Rowling

In Episode 19 of the Drunk Guys Book Club Podcast, the Drunk Guys talk about Harry Potter Part Deux: The Chamber of Secrets by JK Rowling.   Is Hogwarts the most dangerous place on earth?  Why is this place still open?  Why is Dumbledore such a bad headmaster?  While talking, we drink Snake Dog IPA by Flying Dog and Warlock by Southern Tier.

Join us next week when we read The Fault in Our Stars by John Green.

The Drunk Guys Book Club Podcast can be found on on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, and where ever fine podcasts can be found.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling

For episode 4 of The Drunk Guys Book Club Podcast we read the somewhat famous Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling.  What makes this book so special?  Who should read this book and when?  Why hating on Harry Potter is not cool.  All those and more, along with a discussion of adult reading habits paired with some serious brews from Dogfish Head, Flying Dog and Stone in this week’s episode.

Episode 4

The Drunk Guys Book Club Podcast can be found on on iTunes, Google PlayStitcher, PlayerFM and where ever fine podcasts can be found.  If you’re drunk enough to enjoy the Podcast, please give us a rating. To save time, just round up to five stars.  Also, please follow us on TwitterInstagramFacebook, YouTube, and Pinterest.  There’s no excuse to miss another Drunk Guys episode, announcement, or typo!

Join us next week when we read Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck.

Looking for more fantasy books to read?  Check out our article on the best fantasy series for a book club here.

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