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.