This Ain't No Jane Austen Book Club

Absolutely True Diary..., February 2012

2012-02-03T09:18:00.000-08:00

Marriage Plot, January 2012

2012-01-01T09:18:00.000-08:00

Wonderstruck, Dec. 2011

2011-12-01T09:26:00.000-08:00

The main book was Brian Selznick's Wonderstruck.

Some book club members read associated material that influenced the book, like Deaf Like Me and Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonders.

A Visit from the Goon Squad

2011-09-28T10:49:00.000-07:00

Crossing California, by Adam Langer

2011-08-16T10:09:00.000-07:00

September selection:

July: We The Living

2011-08-15T20:30:00.001-07:00

Our July book was We the Living, by Ayn Rand.
We had quite a spread, comrades!

June: Moonwalking with Einstein

2011-03-27T20:08:00.000-07:00

April: Poetry Month

2011-03-27T20:06:00.000-07:00

Poetry magazine! From the Poetry Foundation...

March: The Hunger Games

2011-03-27T20:05:00.000-07:00

January Selection: Super Sad True Love Story

2010-12-11T09:01:00.000-08:00

And here's one of those newfangled book trailers (it's really funny!):

The Satanic Verses

2010-09-22T18:39:00.000-07:00

November selection:
We chose it in honor of Banned Book Week (September 25−October 2, 2010).

Funniest thing to happen at Catcher in the Rye meeting: charming host B claimed she had "plenty of wine - two bottles." Oh, boy, did we laugh about that!

The Catcher in the Rye

2010-08-17T20:03:00.000-07:00

Sept. 10th, phonies!

Feed Poll

2010-08-05T06:37:00.001-07:00

June Selection

2010-06-15T18:19:00.000-07:00

Feed, by M.T. Anderson.

2 Year Review

2010-06-15T15:14:00.001-07:00

We recently celebrated the 2 year anniversary of Book Club! Isn't that exciting? I made a poll to see which books and which discussions folks enjoyed the most. (you'll prob. need to click on the images to enlarge and read.) As you can see, loving the book is not a prerequisite for loving the discussion.

May Selection

2010-05-07T18:15:00.000-07:00

Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town, by Nick Reding.

March Selection

2010-03-26T18:13:00.000-07:00

Breathe, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat

Generation A

2010-02-22T20:02:00.000-08:00

Had a really fun book club for Generation A - most folks agreed the book was quite enjoyable to read if not very challenging. Here's the quote the apparently inspired the title:

"Now you young twerps want a new name for your generation? Probably not, you just want jobs, right? Well, the media do us all such tremendous favors when they call you Generation X, right? Two clicks from the very end of the alphabet. I hereby declare you Generation A, as much at the beginning of a series of astonishing triumphs and failures as Adam and Eve were so long ago."
—Kurt Vonnegut
Syracuse University commencement address
May 8, 1994

Finally took some pictures of the conversation - here are a few cute pics!

We choose two books to read next. First a book by Haitian author Edwidge Danticat: Breath, Eyes, Memory. BTW, there's an article by Danticat in the New Yorker about the earthquake that is really beautiful. And the following month we have another non-fiction selection: Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town

January 2010

2009-11-18T19:12:00.000-08:00

The next book we've chosen to read is Why Beautiful People Have More Daughters: From Dating, Shopping, and Praying to Going to War and Becoming a Billionaire-- Two Evolutionary Psychologists Explain Why We Do What We Do . How's that for a title?

Olive Kitteridge

2009-10-14T19:37:00.000-07:00

The next book chosen is Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout. It won the Pulitzer in 2009 and is recently out in paperback.

K's sister C's book club happens to be reading the same book - will our "sister book club" say hello and tell us what they thought?

A High Wind in Jamaica

2009-08-25T19:53:00.000-07:00

The next selection is Richard Hughes' A High Wind in Jamaica.

It's got PIRATES!

I first heard about it in this review on NPR (careful, it's kind of spoiler-y)

Check out that cover art by Chicago artist Henry Darger!

Brief Interviews with Hideous Men

2009-08-25T19:52:00.000-07:00

August selection.

I, Robot

2009-06-08T20:33:00.001-07:00

I, Robot is one of the books suggested for our next book club. I, Robot is a collection of short stories originally published in 1950 by Isaac Asimov. It is composed of nine stories:

"Robbie"
"Runaround"
"Reason"
"Catch that Rabbit"
"Liar!"
"Little Lost Robot"
"Escape!"
"Evidence"
"The Evitable Conflict"

and is the place where Asimov introduced his famous "Three Laws of Robotics". (Can you name them?)

The other book is a TBD romance novel to be chosen by C.S. It's mostly for funsies, but C.S. is going to share a paper analyzing this popular type of fiction!

Book Club Guidelines

2009-06-08T20:24:00.000-07:00

Some good advise is that you should set rules for your book club at the very beginning. We didn't do that, but, we're not much for rules. But, we did settle on the following guidelines:

Membership is currently closed. Sorry, teeming throngs, but, at around 8-10ish folks, our book club is just right. We're afraid any more will stretch our living rooms and our conversation too much. If we loose a member, we'll talk about adding a new one.
Guests. Guests are allowed if the guest-bringer has the permission of the host. The guest-bringer has the responsibility of telling the guest that they are not, in fact, a member.
Hosting. Hosting is not required by members, but, anyone is welcome to host.
Choosing Books. Books are suggested by members and then agreed upon in a consensus. We don't have a real method for this, but all members are welcome to suggest books.
Reading the Book. Obviously reading the book is a prerequisite for attending. If you haven't finished the last chapter because you ran out of time, that's ok - but, the purpose is to read and discuss the book of the month.

We can always revisit these if anyone wants to! Thanks, everyone!

For your amusement, I include these other uptight book club rules:
Book Club Rules and Standards (When you speak, please state your name.)
The Reading Club (show zero tolerance for inappropriate behaviour)
Barely Literate Book Club (Spouses and significant others who are not book club members may sit quietly in the back)

Ok! The next book!

2009-05-04T20:32:00.000-07:00

Actually, the next book shall be Atmospheric Disturbances by Rivka Galchen - suggested by our own K.H. It looks really interesting:

Imagine what it might be like to realize that the person you love is, in fact, not the person you love but a doppelgänger: or, what Leo Liebenstein coolly terms a "simulacrum" of his wife Rema at the outset of Atmospheric Disturbances. David Byrne's infamous cry that "this is not my beautiful wife" seems the most likely response, but Leo's reaction to this sea change takes unpredictable and dazzlingly plotted turns in the story that follows.

Next Book?

2009-04-28T19:33:00.000-07:00

The last book club to discuss Chabon's book was lots of fun. Thanks for hosting, M.! The next proposed book is the new Pulitzer winner for fiction: Olive Kitteridge, by Elizabeth Strout. Because no one had heard of it outside of this Pulitzer Nerd, please feel free to do a little research to see if it's something you're interested in reading. Here's a review from the NYT, but it was this review on NPR by Melissa Bank that really sold me - outside of, you know, winning the Pulitzer.

Other suggestions were Joan Didion's book of essays, After Henry, something by R. Bradbury (Dandelion Wine, Fahrenheit 451?) or Let the Right One In, by John Ajvide Lindqvist and Ebba Segerberg. Feel free to leave your suggestions in comments or vote on the side - but let's decide soon for the next club meeting: May 29th!

Maps and Legends

2009-03-29T12:11:00.000-07:00

The next book for 'club is Maps and Legends, suggested by our own G.Z. It's a book of essays by Michael Chabon on (what else) books and genre writing, which sounds like the perfect follow-up to uber-genre noir novel The Big Sleep.

From Booklist:

Chabon declares, “I read for entertainment, and I write to entertain. Period.” But of course there’s much more to his vivid and mischievous literary manifesto in 16 parts than that. A writer of prodigious literary gifts, Chabon brings the velocity, verve, and emotional richness intrinsic to the best of short stories to his exceptionally canny and stirring essays. Musing over the various literary traditions he riffs on in his many-faceted novels, he concludes, “All novels are sequels; influence is bliss.” Chabon zestfully praises the many allures of genre fiction and celebrates writers, among them Vonnegut and Byatt, who infuse their fiction with “the Trickster spirit of genre-bending and stylistic play.”

February Recap!

2009-03-01T17:08:00.000-08:00

This weekend we discussed The History of Love, by Nicole Krauss. The book got a mixed review, but, as usual, we had a great conversation. I have a review on Bookish, and, please, y'all should feel free to post your own in a new entry or comments!

There seemed to be a convergence of the minds that our next book should be a "hard-boiled detective story" - and thus we somewhat collaboratively agreed that we'll read The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler next, ya see? It's the first in his Philip Marlowe series. Date: March 27th! Tip: I notice they have quite a few cheap copies on Amazon used.

Payback/History of Love

2009-01-19T18:01:00.001-08:00

The book club for Payback was very successful! Everyone spare one seemed to really enjoy reading the book, and our lone objector was coming around by the end of our meeting (due to our enthusiasm or just peer pressure, I'm not sure...).

Next up is Nicole Krauss's The History of Love. Here's an interesting article on Krauss from NY Magazine... From the WaPo:

Even in moments of startling peculiarity, [Krauss] touches the most common elements of the heart. For Leo, obsessed with his death but struggling to be noticed, and for Alma, ready to grow up but arrested by her mother's grief, the persistence of love drives them to an astonishing connection. In the final pages, the fractured stories of The History of Love fall together like a desperate embrace.

Payback in Kind

2008-12-29T12:39:00.000-08:00

Through the wonders of the internets, this lowly book club blog was found by someone at the publishers of Margaret Atwood's new book - who very kindly has sent us signed copies of the book for our members! Isn't that just the most amazing thing you've ever heard? I can't wait to distribute everyone's books! Thank you, Julie at Anansi Publishers! This is such a nice gift!

The Wondrous Book Club

2008-12-07T09:00:00.000-08:00

Oh, wow - finally 7 books into our club we've hit a book everyone liked! You might call it lazy, but when I'm looking for a solid, I go straight to the Pulitzer Prize winners, baby. This month we read Junot Díaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. As always, we had a rousing discussion about the book, marvelling about the story-telling, the history, the incredible writing style of Junot Díaz, the parts that, you know, made us laugh and the parts that made us cry.

I wrote a longish review over on Bookish and D writes a brief one on DeBordian Perruque.

The next book we'll read for mid-January is Margaret Atwood's Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth. From Publisher's Weekly:

...a weird but wonderful mélange of personal reminiscences, literary walkabout, moral preachment, timely political argument, economic history and theological query, all bound together with wry wit and careful though casual-seeming research. Every debt comes with a date on which payment is due, Atwood observes on this conversational stroll, from the homely and familiar notion of fairness and notion of equivalent values in Kingsley's Water Babies to the thornier connection between debt and sin, memory and redemption in Aeschylus's Eumenides.

Homage to Catalonia

2008-11-30T16:52:00.000-08:00

Our November selection was Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell. We had a great discussion, learned a lot about the Spanish Civil War, disagreed over whether or not the book made us fall asleep and even admired some images of Spanish propaganda posters. We did all agree that his description of getting shot in the neck was priceless. I've already returned my copy to the library as I write this, but, as I recall, he wrote something like, "The experience of being shot is an interesting one and worth going into a little bit..."

The December book (coming soon!) is Junot Diaz's The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.

Willful Readers

2008-09-16T20:31:00.001-07:00

The book club meeting to discuss Willful Creatures, by Aimee Bender, was so much fun. The very charming hosts informed me that the six participants cleaned off something like 5 bottles of wine and a couple of beers, but it wasn't just this book club's patent drunkenness that fueled the good conversation - oh no. Our little crowd was almost evenly split between those who loved it and those who felt suicidal after reading. It was interesting listening to why folks felt they way they did and which stories appealed or upset the most. Turns out charming hosts don't read silently, to themselves, like animals, but aloud, 18th century-style. They recommend listening to Bender with the ears - so if you want to hear the author herself, here you go.

Next up!

2008-08-09T15:33:00.000-07:00

The next book we read will be Willful Creatures by Aimee Bender. It's suggested by G. I'm really excited because Bender's An Invisible Sign of My Own is one of my personal faves.

The October selection is The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz. Book clubbers with busy scheds might want to get a headstart because it's rather long. It won the Pulitzer this year, so... it's probably pretty good.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Vol. 1

2008-08-03T19:24:00.001-07:00

Oh boy! We had our biggest turn-out yet at the book club meeting to discuss The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Vol. 1 - including a special type of member little-seen at book clubs across the nation (from what I understand): men.

Those who think graphic novels are little more than adventure comics might be surprised by The League's copious literary references. Turns out so were about half of the attendees, for whom the (sometimes) obscure references passed right by (myself included). So, there was a lot of talk about 18th and 19th century British literature and influence, and the changes that have occurred across gender, cultural and racial lines, and how various people experienced reading a parody of some of those issues today. Once again, despite whether people liked or disliked the book, we had a really terrific conversation and (at least I) learned a lot.

Naturally, we also spent an obligatory amount of time talking about how terrible the Sean Connery movie was.

More than one person showed up with notes and lists of references - it's an interesting graphic novel because it can been read on a lot of different levels - it can be read at face value - an adventure, or it can be a real jumping-off point to learn/explore other (mostly) British literature, or it can be scoured for clues and references.

Read D's review on his website, DeBordian Perruque, or my review on Bookish.

League of Extraordinary Readers

2008-07-06T15:20:00.000-07:00

Our last meeting, to discuss Infidel, by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, involved a spirited conversation about religion, politics and gender roles around the world. I wrote my own review of the book on my regular book blog, but I won't put them here because they are not representative of everyone's views. But do check it out for link what Hirsi Ali's doing now and to view the video she made with Theo van Gogh. The book club is turning out just the way I'd hoped - a time and place where nice people can discuss, for example, what it means to be a conservative in Holland vs. the US, whilst drinking some fine wine and having a great time!

The next book is nominated by C.: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Vol. 1 by Alan Moore. Member's who haven't had time to read our multi-hundred page selections thus far might be able to squeeze in this graphic novel!

Name that book club!

2008-06-04T20:09:00.000-07:00

Feel free to suggest names for the book club - so far there are just a few ideas.

K suggests The Foul Weather Readers (because both times we've met so far the weather has been awful, and so have the books! But, we still managed to have a lot of fun!)

G suggested Fantastic Four (if I recall correctly) because so far we've had a (fantastic) group of four gals.

Oh, I also have another esoteric idea if we can agree on a common author - turns out in the 19th c, groups of women called themselves Janeites, after Jane Austen. So, I thought maybe we could be the Sedarisites or the Atwoodites, or something like that...

Leave your ideas in comments!

The next book is Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali and we'll meet on June 27th! From Amazon: Readers with an eye on European politics will recognize Ali as the Somali-born member of the Dutch parliament who faced death threats after collaborating on a film about domestic violence against Muslim women with controversial director Theo van Gogh (who was himself assassinated). Even before then, her attacks on Islamic culture as "brutal, bigoted, [and] fixated on controlling women" had generated much controversy. In this suspenseful account of her life and her internal struggle with her Muslim faith, she discusses how these views were shaped by her experiences amid the political chaos of Somalia and other African nations, where she was subjected to genital mutilation and later forced into an unwanted marriage. While in transit to her husband in Canada, she decided to seek asylum in the Netherlands, where she marveled at the polite policemen and government bureaucrats.

Running with Scissors

2008-05-30T19:44:00.000-07:00

Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs was largely panned by all in attendance at the latest book club meeting. Despite high hopes and not a bad review out there, for the most part we found the book dull, terribly written, and kind of whiny.

Your thoughts?

Twilight

2008-04-25T19:25:00.000-07:00

Twilight was the first book we discussed at our newly created book club. It's by Stephanie Meyer, and a YA book. Most agreed that the book was terribly in many ways - misogyonist, melodramatic, silly, poorly written, even boring - and yet, most of us went on to read the second and even the third book of the series. Why this strange hold over us?

Me? I broke free!

Welcome!

2008-04-01T19:33:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the (as yet unnamed) book club blog site! Thanks to the powers of the internets, this site will provide not only a forum for those lucky members of the elite, intellectual, stimulating, wine-guzzling book club but, indeed, just about anyone who's interested.