Maps and Legends

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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.