December...something?

Are we having a December get-together (book-related or not)? I will have cd's to give out in the next couple weeks, so if we don't get together as a group, and you want this year's compilation, either send me your mailing address or contact me about meeting up individually for coffee or a movie...whatever.

Hope you're all doing well,

Christine :D

Sorry!

I'm lame. The next meeting is the 21st - we can host at our place if no one else is interested. The skank room mate is gone, we have another couch, and we got a vacuum! Oh, and my cat no longer puffs up and hisses at everyone. Life is good.

We picked the Jeeves stories by P.G. Wodehouse. Amy recommends Carry on Jeeves which is a collection of short stories and has the first meeting of Jeeves and Wooster.

Oct. meeting

At Kat's on October 17th. Email if you need the address.

Hellllooooo

We are going to be reading High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes- apparently it's a little like Lord of the Flies on a boat with some pirates. Unfortunately, Johnny Depp does not make an appearance. Right now, no date set but the place will probably be Katherine's.

October Meeting

Hey Mary-
What book are we reading for October?

Time and place

Sept 12th - Steve's place - 4 o'clock.

Next book

Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth. No date set yet - I was thinking maybe the second weekend in Sept?

Promises, promises.

Yesterday was my last day at CTB. I'm sad that the place is closing, but only because I don't get to see everyone everyday. Thankfully, there is Facebook and our meetings. And maybe this means more time to actually read, which I haven't done much of lately.

So, what has everyone picked? Sorry, D., did I forget Kipling's Kim?

I'm waiting on my copy of August, English in the mail. Here's the blurb by the New York Review of Books:

Agastya Sen, known to friends by the English name August, is a child of the Indian elite. His friends go to Yale and Harvard. August himself has just landed a prize government job. The job takes him to Madna, “the hottest town in India,” deep in the sticks. There he finds himself surrounded by incompetents and cranks, time wasters, bureaucrats, and crazies. What to do? Get stoned, shirk work, collapse in the heat, stare at the ceiling. Dealing with the locals turns out to be a lot easier for August than living with himself. English, August is a comic masterpiece from contemporary India. Like A Confederacy of Dunces and The Catcher in the Rye, it is both an inspired and hilarious satire and a timeless story of self-discovery.

Date

Amy confirmed - August 8th, if that works for everybody. I'll send the address closer to the meeting date.

Ideas

Someone suggested the Kama Sutra for Steve, but I say no! No pictures allowed, please, he-he.

Here are some suggestions so far:

1. Passage to India

2. God of Small Things - by Arundhati Roy - short and wonderful!

3. White Tiger - by Aravind Adiga - winner of the Booker Prize

4. Q & A - Vikas Swarup - basis for Slumdog Millionaire

5. The Namesake or Interpreter of Maladies - both by Jhumpa Lahiri

6. Anything by Salman Rushdie - three time winner of Booker - Satanic Verses, Midnight's Children, etc.

7. Anything by VS Naipal

8. Blue Boy by Rakesh Satyal

9. Taj by Sandra Wilson

10. Breathless in Bombay

11. A Fine Balance by R. Mistry - another personal favorite of mine

12. August, English: An Indian Story

Incredible India

Next month we are going to do something a little bit different. The hardest part about the book club seems to be picking the next book, so we've decided to pick a theme, instead: India. The options are open - fiction, or nonfiction, just as long as you stick with the subject. I have some suggestions and will try to 'review' some of them (really, I'm just going to steal from wikipedia) over the next few weeks. If you have something to add to the list - feel free to post.

A date has not been set but it will be at Amy and Trevor's house. Trevor makes an ass-kickin' curry so bring some kind of Indian food, too. Or maybe some witch hazel, ha-ha.

I'll post the list in a separate entry.

It's on!

Finally. The next meeting is set for July 11th at Steve's place at 4:00. We'll be reading Monsters of Templeton - which, if you haven't read it yet, is one of my favorites books in a long time. Hope to see everyone soon!

See you in July!

The meeting is canceled for June.  Hope to see everyone soon, though!

Change of plans again

I need suggestions on when and where to move the meeting. June/Summer seems to be a busy time for everybody. If you don't want to broadcast your life here, just drop me an email so we can try to work with people's plans. 

Thanks!

Before I forget

Next meeting - June 13th - Ellyn's. The book is World Made by Hand by James Howard Kunstler.

Check out the book's website. See everybody there. 

Hellooooo...

What is everybody bringing to Kat's? 

i went a little crazy

Except for Being Written, I haven't really been reading anything at all, but I went slightly nuts and got 5 new books this week. 

 

I just started reading The Witch's Trinity by Erika Mailman. It's weird and disturbing and I keep having to put it down because she's another author obsessed with bodily functions. It's set in 1507 in a starving village in Germany. Everything is a sign of divine punishment and a new priest arrives to find  and burn the 'witch' responsible. Reading this I had the same feeling as when I read/tried to read Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet; the modern tone doesn't really mesh well with the subject matter.

Other picks in a nutshell:

The Outlander/Gil Adamson - 1903 - woman kills her husband, takes off into the wilderness, trailed by brothers-in-law - compared to Cold Mountain and early Cormac McCarthy

The Tenderness of Wolves/Stef Penney - 1867- Northern Territory- People says "Think Cold Mountain - only colder... Mystery, romance, and really bad weather - just try putting this one down."  Yep, there's obviously a theme here. 

Dreamers of the Day/Mary Doria Russell- 1921 - Egypt - 40 year old school teacher from Ohio arrives just as the modern Middle East is taking shape.

The Secret of Lost Things/ Sheridan Hay - coming of age in a emporium of used and rare books in New York. 

Anybody interested in borrowing any of these? I'll probably just end up reading a smutty romance novel anyway. 

 

Being Written

The next get-together is April 18th, 4:00. We are reading Being Written by William Conescu, Christine's pick.  There are some used copies on amazon.com for $0.99. Sweet.

I feel like I should take minutes for our missing peeps (We miss you, Nicole). To sum it up: we actually didn't talk about the book. We ate apple pie, fruit cream pie, pig pickin' cake, taco salad, pizza (Steve rocks!), lumpia, cookies, and beer.  Oh, and there was a scary Led Zeppelin movie on in the background that would have been better if I was as high as the makers of the film were. Scott did some awesome impressions of his dirty neighbors and Randy showed up. 

Saturday's Birthday Bash

We've moved to Scott Bruckman's house, instead of Katherine's.  I'll send everyone the address in a separate email since Steve is the only one allowed to stalk him. 

 There are three birthdays this time - Christine, Marcus, and Nicole- so hopefully everyone is able to show up.

"Eeek! It's the Hound of Baskerville!" *Thud*

I don't know if anyone else saw this story, but I thought it was interesting reading, in light of Sir Charles Baskerville. Basically, it's a doctor saying it's very possible to be literally scared to death.



http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/OnCall/Story?id=2614635&page=1

Christine

PS--Once again, i tried to turn that into a link and got an error message. If you just type "scared to death" into google, you should find the story pretty quick.

Just for Steve.

I forgot to tell you Happy Valentine's Day. I like my toddler picture better.

March Madness

We are meeting at Katherine's on March 14th at 4:00 - reading Hound of the Baskervilles. It's short, woo-hoo. 

And aren't there three birthdays, too? Hmmmm....I call dibs on bringing the dessert. 

here is what i think

Book Club is HOT

It looks like there may be quite a crowd at Steve's on Saturday, so byo chair if you can.  As always, Steve will serve his specialty "gourmet" pizza (yum); maybe the rest of us should try to coordinate what we add to the menu so we don't all end up bringing the same thing.  Oh, and I don't mean to imply that anybody has to bring anything, necessarily.  The pleasure of your company is always sufficient (and you don't even have to have read the book!).  I'll bring dessert (probably something chocolate).  Anybody else?  

Help.

Is there anybody that can bring some more chairs to Steve's? 

A Good Day

What a spectacularly unsexy cover for the audiotape performed by Jeremy Irons (!!!!). Sorry, Vlad. (Katherine, wanna go halfsies on this one?)

I don't know what was wrong with me when I started to read this the first time, years ago, and thought it was dry and boring. It was the annotated version, so now I must agree with Nicole; footnotes suck. 

                                           ****

Why is it a good day, a good weekend? 

Today, I found a group for knitters who also love K-dramas. What genius thought of that?

Saturday, I got some new delicious yarn. Anybody need any mittens or slippers or hats? I'm taking orders, since I never finish projects unless I give them away.  

Tomorrow, a new president! 

 

Shameless Self-Promotion! :D

Bwah ha ha! You will regret the day you gave me the power to post! I'm just shamelessly promoting my reviews of "American Idol" for IGN.com which can be found easiest, I think, here: http://tv.ign.com/index/reviews.html I will be reviewing each and every episode from now until May.

P.S. I tried to make that address into a link and couldn't do it.

Go See "Slumdog Millionaire"!

Exhilarating! Clever! Moving! Funny! Go see it, you won't regret it!

Damon wins again.

I've just started listening to Christine's 2008 Mix and so far I'm loving it. Basically, she won me over just by including the Kings of Leon on it, but I'm really loving the Falling in Love in a Coffee Shop song. What a great one for snuggling under a pile of blankets on a chilly winter's day.  

Last night was one of my favorites (maybe it was the wine) but it was great to see everybody again and to have some newbies attend. Thanks Ellyn again for letting us use you lovely home!

For the next meeting, we'll be moving back downtown to Steve's apartment Feb 7th @ 4:00. The read is Damon's pick of Lolita. Enjoy and hope to see everyone there.