book club slacker and the 2012-2013 reading list

Some of you may have noticed that I haven't been making my regular book club and online book club posts. I have lots of excuses for why I haven't kept up with my book club reading (or made it via Skype to any of my Buffalo book club meetings since I moved), but suffice it to say that I feel horribly guilty about it and I hope to rectify the situation soon.

In the meantime, I do have the new reading list for Buffalo book club to share.

January 2012: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
February 2012: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
March 2012: Room by Emma Donoghue
April 2012: The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World by Michael Pollan
May 2012: Our Cancer Year by Harvey Pekar
June 2012: City of Thieves by David Benioff
July 2012: A Game of Thrones by George RR Martin
August 2012: The Fortune Quilt by Lani Diane Rich
September 2012: Arctic Chill by Arnaldur Indridason
October 2012: The Strictest School in the World: Being the Tale of a Clever Girl, a Rubber Boy and a Collection of Flying Machines, Mostly Broken by Howard Whitehouse
November 2012: Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation by Steven Johnson
December 2012: The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

January 2013: The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain
February 2013: Bossypants by Tina Fey
March 2013: The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown
April 2013: Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
May 2013: The Professor's Daughter by Joann Sfar and Emmanuel Guibert
June 2013: Muhammad: A Story of the Last Prophet by Deepak Chopra
July 2013: Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell
August 2013: Comfort Food by Kate Jacobs
September 2013: The Garden of Finzi-Continis by Giorgio Bassani
October 2013: The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl by Barry Lyga
November 2013: Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde
December 2013: A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

book clubbing in January

I first read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo last summer (see post). I'd been wanting to read the other books in the trilogy, but I held off since I knew we'd be discussing Dragon Tattoo this month.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

I'm happy to report that Dragon Tattoo was generally well-liked (it even lured someone who isn't a regular to our meeting). It also led to a pretty fully discussion. We talked about:

• the two main characters and how we felt about them
• what we do and don't know about Lisabeth's past
• Mikael's je-ne-sais-quoi appeal
• the Swedish movie and the casting decisions made for the American version
• the novel's pacing and length
• the two storylines
• how we felt about the ending of the novel
• why the author referred to his characters by their last names
• Mikael's relationship to Erika
• the relative merits of listening to the audio version of the novel
• the novel's title and why it was chosen (the original Swedish title translates as "Men Who Hate Women")
• and why we thought the novel was so popular

among other things. What was particularly nice was that one of our book club members had been an exchange student to Sweden. She was able to give us some insight into Swedish culture.

book clubbing in December

The title of the library book club's December selection is a bit of a mouthful.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

In the wake of WWII, London journalist Juliet Ashton receives an intriguing letter from the current owner of a book that was once part of her personal library: The Selected Essays of Elia by Charles Lamb. Dawsey Adams, a farmer from Guernsey, mentions belonging to a group intriguingly named "the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" that was formed during the war. When Juliet is asked to write an article about "the philosophical value of reading," she thinks that the Society might provide some fodder for her story. Through Dawsey, Juliet is introduced to other members of the Society, who pen missives to her about themselves, their reading interests, Guernsey, and the Occupation as diverse as the individuals themselves.

While I tend to enjoy both historical fiction and epistolary novels, I have to admit that I wasn't really looking forward to reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I'd heard from so many different people how good it was that I was afraid it wouldn't live up to the hype. And, while the novel and I had a bit of a rocky start (Charles Lamb? I've never read Charles Lamb), I found that the longer I spent with the story, the more compelling it became.

Juliet is charming, cheeky, and wholly real. When Amelia Maugery (one of the founding members of the Society) questions Juliet's intentions in writing about the Society, Juliet responds:

Since you ask to know something about me, I have asked the Reverend Simon Simpless [...] to write to you. He has known me since I was a child and is fond of me. I have asked Lady Bella Taunton to provide a reference for me too. We were fire wardens together during the Blitz and she wholeheartedly dislikes me. Between the two of them, you may get a fair picture of my character. (35-36)

Absolutely perfect.

The novel's secondary characters are also well-wrought. The letter-writers each have a distinctive voice and even those who do not write leave a very clear impression (though I have to admit that nearly all of us book clubbers thought Dawsey was older than he actually was).

I think The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is one of those books that will stick with you. I think I will not "say" anymore for fear of accidentally including spoilers in babble. Suffice it to say that I think you should read this book if you haven't already.

Bitter is the New Black

Bitter is the New Black by Jen Lancaster

The book's subtitle--Confessions of a Condescending, Egomaniacal, Self-Centered Smartass, Or, Why You Should Never Carry a Prada Bag to the Unemployment Office--should give any potential reader at least a taste of what the narrative will be like. Lancaster's books always seem to have these crazy subtitles that are very her (as they say).

Bitter is the New Black was the November selection for the library book club. It's Lancaster's first book, a memoir about being laid off from her cushy sales job and how the experience changed her life. One of the things she does under her unemployment is start a blog. That blog, which no longer exists, kept her from getting at least one of the jobs she applied for, but it eventually led to finding a literary agent and publishing Bitter is the New Black. (her current blog is Jennsylvania)

Lancaster is very smart and very snarky. She has no illusions about herself and is very open about her various faults. At the beginning of Bitter is the New Black (before her layoff) I wasn't sure I was going to like Lancaster because her overcritical overconfidence really turned me off (more than her fashion obsession or her attitude toward money). Over the course of the book, though, she becomes much more sympathetic because she mellows (the wind was definitely knocked out of her sails) and we as readers get to know her better.

Everyone seemed to like the book even though a couple of us didn't manage to finish it in time for the meeting. We all agreed that Lancaster's boyfriend-turned-husband is a saint for putting up with her (one of the times that I appreciated Lancaster's excess of chutzpah was when she wouldn't take no for an answer when Fletch needed something). We also found her trip to the convention center to pick up a friend's registration packet for the Chicago marathon to be the most revealing episode recounted in the book.

It seems to me that this book should be getting a lot of attention right now with so many people struggling with unemployment. Even though readers may not always be able to relate to Lancaster, Bitter is the New Black is a good reminder that others have gone and are going through the same situation.

I have a copy of her third book, Such a Pretty Fat (One Narcissist's Quest to Discover If Her Life Makes Her Ass Look Big, or Why Pie Is Not the Answer), and I plan to read it sooner rather than later.

book clubbing in June (1 of 2)

Graphic novel month for the library book club...

Castle Waiting by Linda Medley

We read the first collection of Linda Medley's Eisner Award-winning comic-book series, Castle Waiting. I had to rush through it a bit as I didn't get my hands on a copy until last Monday (book club meeting was on Wednesday), but I enjoyed it nevertheless. And, I'm happy to report that the general consensus of book club members was positive as well.

Castle Waiting begins with a retelling of Sleeping Beauty. After the princess awakes, she runs off with her prince leaving her castle waiting for new tenants. The castle becomes well-known as a refuge and the series follows the stories of the individuals who find their home in it.

Castle Waiting is full of literary references both overt and subtle. As I was reading I kept thinking that I wasn't catching everything making me think that the volume could stand up to many rereadings.

The collected volume ends at a bit of a weird place, leaving it unbalanced as a stand-alone: far too of the narrative is spent on the backstory of one of the characters. That being said, full backstories of the other characters should be forthcoming in the next volume.

I was intrigued by the order of bearded nuns (apparently this idea has some basis in history) and by Lady Jain (I really wanted to know more about her and how she came to be in the situation she was in). I loved the little hobgoblins that infested the castle (especially the one that looks after the baby).

My biggest complaint had to do with the format. The pages were shrunk down to fit into a binding that looks very much like one of the Series of Unfortunate Events books (evident from the image I chose for this post). Our resident graphic novel expert brought his copies of the Castle Waiting comics and flipping through them I realized just how much the reduced page and panel size changed the experience of reading the story.

book clubbing in May

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane was one of the books I was most looking forward to reading this book club cycle. I like historical fiction and tend to enjoy books that have both a contemporary and historical storyline. Witchcraft during the Colonial period is something that's fascinated me since elementary school when I read The Witch of Blackbird Pond and Tituba of Salem Village. I'd heard lots of good things about Physick Book so I was absolutely sure that I'd love it. Unfortunately I was disappointed in it. While I found it to be a quick and compelling read, I was frustrated by gaps in the plot and (more than anything else) how the author handled the contemporary protagonist. I can't get into more detail without including spoilers, but I felt like the author copped out. Physick Book had so much potential and the fact that it didn't live up to that potential was my biggest disappointment.

We did, however, have a really great discussion at book club. I-liked-the-book-but... seemed to be the general consensus of the book clubbers (though, of course, the degree of like varied from person to person). Though it is interesting to note that those who listed to the audio book seemed to have a better impression of the novel that those who read paper or e-book copies.

We discussed (among other things):

• the way the author portrays libraries and librarians in the novel
• the relationship between Connie and her mother
• whether we found Connie to be a sympathetic character or not (as well as strange aspects of her character)
• the lack of significant depth to the historical narratives and the disconnect between that lack of depth and the fact that the author is a scholar of Colonial New England
• how we felt the author's editor failed her
• the disjointedness of the historical narratives
• the actions of some of individual characters
• how much we'd guessed or suspected about the story's ending as we were reading the novel
• why the contemporary portion of the novel was set in 1991 (and the anachronisms we noticed)

Physick Book is Howe's first book. I'll be interested to see how she develops as a writer.

bookclubbing in April (1 of 2)

Under the Sabers by Tanya Biank

Subtitled "The Unwritten Code of Army Wives", Under the Sabers looks at the culture of Army spouses by focusing specifically on the lives of four women whose husbands are stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina.

Author Tanya Biank is a journalist and Army brat who reveals only at the end of the book that she too is an Army wife. Under the Sabers was inspired by a rash of spousal murders involving individuals stationed at Fort Bragg. Those murders made Biank want to look more closely at the relationships between military men and their wives (was there something inherent in army life that could have led to the murders?). While Under the Sabers is not about the murders, its action takes place during that same time period and Biank does incorporate them into the book (one of the main characters is one of the murder victims and the other murders are mentioned when they occur).

They way Biank writes about the characters (characters probably isn't the best word as the individuals whose lives are chronicled in Under the Sabers are real, live people, but it'll do) makes it very easy for readers to become invested in them (I got teary-eyed when one of the husbands died in action even though I knew it was coming). That being said, it's hard to tell how true-to-life the depictions are. That Biank treats the murdered woman with the same level of detail as the other women despite never having talked to her makes one wonder just how much of what Biank wrote is "real". Also how much were the stories sanitized in order to get buy-in from the individual women (whose real names are used in the book)?

Only one member of the group had seen the Lifetime television show inspired by the book (Army Wives) and only after reading Under the Sabers. She reported that the characters seemed to be inspired by the individuals in the books, but that in the tv show they are all friends.

During our discussion we found ourselves straying from the book and talking more generally about military life and culture as experienced by us or those close to us. The one part of the book that we dwelt on the most was the death of Gary Shane (son of one of the four women). We understood that the death itself was inexplicable, but we were curious about what Biank wasn't saying about Gary Shane's family.

book clubbing in March

Fantasy this month for book club!

Blue Girl by Charles de Lint

When Imogene, her mother, and her brother move to Newford, she decides to reinvent herself — this time she won't go looking for trouble.
She quickly gets to know two very different people. Maxine is a "good girl," following a strict life plan. Imogene helps Maxine loosen up and break a few rules, and in turn Maxine keeps her on the straight and narrow.
Imogene's other new friend is a little more unusual. His name is Adrian. He is a ghost. Adrian was killed when he jumped off the high school roof in 1998, and hasn't left since. He has a huge crush on her — so much so that he wants her to see the fairies that also haunt the school. The fairies invade Imogene's dreams, blurring the line between the unreal and the real. When her imaginary childhood friend Pelly actually manifests, Imogene knows something is terribly wrong. With Maxine, Adrian, and Pelly's help, Imogene challenges the dark forces of Faery.

I was really pleased when Blue Girl ended up on our reading list for book club. I've been reading de Lint since middle/high school (though I have to admit that it's been a while since I cracked one of his books open) and I've had a copy of Blue Girl sitting on my shelf since Russell bought it off my wishlist a couple of years ago.

Blue Girl got mixed reviews from the book club members, though I am happy to report that at least two of the book club members expressed interest in reading more de Lint. I liked Blue Girl, but I have to say that I thought that the ending was a bit anticlimactic.

During our meeting we discussed

• fantasy as a genre and urban fantasy as a subgenre (and I did a horrible job of explaining how urban fantasy has changed over time),
• what makes a YA/teen novel,
• whether we related more to the teenage characters or to their mothers,
• how we felt about the mothers (both in terms of their authenticity and whether we agreed with their outlooks),
• the nature of the faeries in novel, specifically the brownies/house faeries and how they were similar to house elves in the Harry Potter books,
• why Imogene has such difficulties believing in faeries when Adrian first tells her about them,
• the nature and role of angels in Blue Girl and how different it is from how angels are normally portrayed,
• how the various characters developed over the course of the novel,
• whether there was a happy ending for Adrian, and
• how we felt about certain decisions that Imogene makes during the course of the story, among other things.

The Night Villa

We discussed The Night Villa by Carol Goodman at our book club meeting yesterday. I've read quite a few of Goodman's other novels--The Drowning Tree, The Ghost Orchid, The Lake of Dead Languages, and The Seduction of Water--and I love how atmospheric they are.

The eruption of Italy’s Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79 buried a city and its people, including their treasures and secrets. Classics professor Sophie Chase travels to the beautiful island of Capri in to unravel the secrets of one unusual household, immersing herself in a culture simultaneously fascinating and frightening.

Beneath layers of volcanic ash lies the Villa della Notte, home to first-century nobles who engaged in pagan rituals and a slave girl named Iusta whose life may have ended during the eruption—or may have helped to alter the course of Italy’s religious history. As Sophie and her team piece together Iusta’s story, they unearth a subterranean labyrinth and a set of invaluable antique documents believed lost to the ages. But for both women, suspicion, fear, and danger lurk in the tunnels and chambers beneath the estate. As Iusta races to escape Vesuvius’s impending fury, Sophie rushes to uncover what happened to Iusta before all traces of her life disappear—or are erased.

With parallel modern/historical storylines and some unexpected twists, The Night Villa provided lots to discuss: the role and treatment of women during the Classical period, how difficult it was to figure out who the "bad" and "good" guys were during the story (I'll admit that I didn't suspect the real informer), the role of religion in the story, why certain characters acted the way that they did, the portrayal of the ancient manuscript deciphering and translation (and how authentic it was), how we left about the opening of the novel and whether that scene was really necessary, our take on Phineas (the Roman traveler whose scroll the team has uncovered), the ancient cult and its rites, etc.

One of the most interesting things to me was the Pythagorean cult (Tetractys), that features predominantly in the current-day portion of the book. After finishing The Night Villa, I did a little research because I wondered whether the Tetractys was a real cult. It's not, which makes Goodman's imagining of it all the more wonderful.

The book starts out with a bang, then proceeds agonizingly slowly, picking up once Sophie is in Italy. I can't say that I loved The Night Villa, but it's definitely interesting and I have recommended it to at least one classicist in my life.

For another take on The Night Villa, see this blog post by another one of our book club members.

book clubbing in December

My book club met a bit early this month because of the holidays.
Our selection for December was The Princess Bride and I have to say that I was surprised how many people in our group hadn't read the book or seen the movie. Of course, I'm the youngest member of the book club, but still. I hadn't read the book before this month, but I've seen the movie many times.

The Princess Bride by William Goldman

The subtitle of The Princess Bride is "S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure; The 'Good Parts' Version" and in the novel carries on the ruse that he's abridging a classic and the text is full of his commentary on the original work. Usually I have no problem with kind of literary device, but I have to admit that Goldman's digressions really started to annoy me after a while. I have the 25th anniversary edition and I didn't even bother to finish the special "Buttercup's Baby" section at the end because of it (full disclosure: I was sick and so probably more easily irritated than usual).

In any case, book club: like I mentioned above, there were a number of people who were unfamiliar with The Princess Bride. Reactions were really all over the board: some loved it, some disliked it, and some were neither here nor there. We talked about fantasy in general, Goldman's writing style, what we did/did not like about the story, and the differences between the novel and the movie (as well as casting choices).

The Princess Bride is really the perfect jumping-off point for a discussion about movie adaptations because Goldman and director Rob Reiner were able to stay so true to the original.

On a side note, while writing up this post I came across something that referred to The Princess Bride as a Ruritanian romance. I'd never heard that term before so I set out to investigate it. Apparently the term refers to a story set in a fictional country (like Goldman's Florin). British author Anthony Hope (1863-1933) created Ruritania, a fictional country in central Europe, as a setting for The Prisoner of Zenda and two other books.

book clubbing in October

Box Office Poison by Alex Robinson

I wasn't sure how Box Office Poison would go over with the book club considering the fact that we universally disliked our last graphic novel selection (Why I Hate Saturn, see post) and the amount of naked man flesh in Box Office Poison, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that almost everyone at least kind of liked it.

Originally published serially, Box Office Poison is a 600+ page behemoth of a graphic novel. Readers can easily plow through it, but I really do think it would be easier to appreciate if read in installments.

On his blog Robinson shares quite a bit of commentary on
Box Office Poison, which makes for very interesting reading. I think an annotated version of Box Office Poison would be fantastic because there's just so much that readers might not catch as they are reading it.

During our discussion we talked about which characters we liked and disliked, the storyline about Irving Flavor and what it told us about the comic industry, the various characters' happy and not-so-happy endings, the two homeless girls and what their role was in the story arc, Box Office Poison's target audience, and the similarities between Eddie and Robinson (at least how they are drawn), among other things.

future book club selections, 2010-2011

January 2010: The Night Villa by Carol Goodman

February 2010: Moral Disorder by Margaret Atwood

March 2010: The Blue Girl by Charles de Lint

April 2010: Under the Sabers by Tanya Biank

May 2010: The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe

June 2010: Castle Waiting by Linda Medley

July 2010: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

August 2010: One Fifth Avenue by Candace Bushnell

September 2010: Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

October 2010: Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale

November 2010: Bitter is the New Black: Confessions of a Condescending, Egomaniacal, Self-Centered Smartass, Or, Why You Should Never Carry a Prada Bag to the Unemployment Office by Jen Lancaster

December 2010: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

January 2011: Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

February 2011: The Day the Falls Stood Still by Cathy Marie Buchanan

March 2011: The Host by Stephenie Meyer

April 2011: Wings of the Dove by Henry James

May 2011: The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--And How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World by Steven Johnson

June 2011: Blankets by Craig Thompson

July 2011: Jane Austen, pick your favorite title
Sense and Sensibility (1811), Mansfield Park (1814), Emma (1815), Northanger Abbey (1817, posthumous), Persuasion (1817, posthumous)

August 2011: A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

September 2011: Buffalo Gal by Laura Pederson

October 2011: Feeling Sorry for Celia by Jaclyn Moriarty

November 2011: The Shop of Blossom Street by Debbie Macomber

December 2011: The Falls by Joyce Carol Oates

For information about how books are selected for our book club, see this post.

book clubbing in September

A non-fiction month for our book club. On the table: Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel

We had a small group this month and I'm sure that's because a number of people didn't want to come because they hadn't finished the book. I'll admit right now that I didn't finish the book either. I started too late and ran out of time.

Subtitled "A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love," Dava Sobel's Galileo's Daughter uses letters that Galileo's oldest daughter Virginia (Sr. Marie Celeste) wrote to him from the convent in which she was cloistered to tell the story of their relationship.

To some extent I believe that the book's title is a bit of false advertising. The book really isn't about Galileo's daughter (this may be because of the lack of information about Virginia). It's about Galileo himself and his relationship with his family. The book opens with a letter from Virginia to her father, but then it takes one hundred pages before she appears as a player again. In the meantime, the narrative is focused on Galileo. There is discussion of his relationship to the children's mother, their births, and his attempts to get Virginia and her sister placed in a convent as wards, but other than that the girls don't appear much at all.

Apparently in the second half of the book, the narrative is more evenly focused (with more frequent appearances of Virginia's letters), but I didn't get far enough to see that for myself. At this point I don't feel like I need to finish the book. I've placed it in Russell's to-be-read pile because I think that he'll like it, interested as he is in Galileo, astronomy, history of science, and the Catholic church.

book club voting lists (4 of 4)

This post explains what the lists are all about...

World Literature

1. Arctic Chill by Arnaldur Indridason (Iceland)
2. Blindness by Jose Saramago (Portugal)
3. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz (Dominican Republic)
4. Farming of Bones by Edwige Dandicat (Haiti)
5. The Garden of Finzi-Continis by Giorgio Bassani (Italy)
6. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie(Nigeria)
7. The History of Danish Dreams by Peter Hoeg (Denmark)
8. The Pakistani Bride by Bapsi Sidhwa (Pakistan)
9. Snow by Orhan Pamuk (Turkey)
10. The Thief and the Dogs by Naguib Mahfouz (Egypt)
11. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (Afghanistan)
12. Waiting by Han Jin (China)
13. Wild Meat and the Belly Burgers by Lois-Ann Yamanaka (Hawaii)

Young Adult

1. The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl by Barry Lyga
2. Bad Kitty by Michele Jaffe
3. The Black Tattoo by Sam Enthoven
4. Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale
5. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
6. Feeling Sorry for Celia by Jaclyn Moriarty
7. Going Bovine by Libba Bray
8. I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak
9. Sovay by Celia Rees
10. Strictest School in the World, The: Being the Tale of a Clever Girl, a Rubber Boy and a Collection of Flying Machines, Mostly Broken by Howard Whitehouse
11. Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

Special Month: Your Choice by Author X
(voters will pick their top two)

• Jane Austen
• Ernest Hemingway
• Henry James
• Toni Morrison
• Joyce Carol Oates
• Jodi Picoult

Special Month: Margaret Atwood
She's be speaking at the University at Buffalo on March 3, 2010, so we'll read her in February in preparation
(voters will pick their top two)

• Edible Woman (1969)
• The Handmaid's Tale (1985)
• The Robber Bride (1993)
• Surfacing (1972)
• The Year of the Flood (2009)

I'll post our reading list for 2010-2011 as soon as the results are in...

book club voting lists (3 of 4)

This post explains what the lists are all about...

Mystery/Thriller/Horror

1. Booked to Die by John Dunning
2. A Carrion Death by Michael Stanley (Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip)
3. Case Histories by Kate Atkinson
4. The Constant Gardener by John le Carre
5. The Devil's Feather by Minette Walters
6. Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell
7. Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
8. The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters by Gordon Dahlquist
9. Grave Sight (Harper Connelly Mysteries, Book 1) by Charlaine Harris
10. Haunted Ground by Erin Hart
11. An Innocent Client by Scott Pratt
12. The Night Villa by Carol Goodman
13. One for the Money (Stephanie Plum, Book 1) by Janet Evanovich
14. Pandora by Anne Rice
15. Prime Time by Hank Phillippi Ryan
16. Smilla's Sense of Snow by Peter Hoeg
17. Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz
18. Snow Storms in a Hot Climate by Sarah Dunant
19. Sunshine by Robin McKinley
20. We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

SciFi and Fantasy

1. Arrows of the Queen by Mercedes Lackey
2. Blue Girl by Charles de Lint
3. Dragonflight (Dragonriders of Pern, Book 1) by Anne McCaffrey
4. Changing Planes by Ursula Le Guin
5. Excession by Iain M Banks
6. Grass by Sheri Tepper
7. The Host by Stephenie Meyer
8. Master of the Five Magics by Lyndon Hardy
9. Midnight Robber by Nalo Hopkinson
10. The Serpent's Shadow by Mercedes Lackey
11. Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde
12. Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman
13. The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
14. The Unincorporated Man by Dani Kollin and Eytan Kollin
15. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

Women's Fiction

1. Addition by Toni Jordan
2. Comfort Food by Kate Jacobs
3. Everyone Worth Knowing by Lauren Weisberger
4. The Fortune Quilt by Lani Diane Rich
5. The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles
6. The Linnet Bird by Linda Holeman
7. Lord of Fire by Gaelen Foley
8. One Fifth Avenue by Candace Bushnell
9. Patty Jane's House of Curl by Lorna Landvik
10. The Shop on Blossom Street by Debbie Macomber
11. Star Gazing by Linda Gillard
12. Sullivan's Island by Dorthea Benton Frank
13. Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella
14. Thanks for the Memories by Cecilia Ahern
15. Woman's World by Graham Rawle

book club voting lists (2 of 4)

This post explains what the lists are all about...

General Nonfiction:

1. The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World by Michael Pollan
2. City on the Edge: Buffalo, New York, 1900-present by Mark Goldman
3. Confederates in the Attic by Tony Horwitz
4. The Devil's Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea
5. Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron
6. The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World by Steven Johnson
7. The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness, and Greed by John Vaillant
8. The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann
9. Once Upon a Quinceañera: Coming of Age in the USA by Julia Alvarrez
10. Outcasts United: A Refugee Team, an American Town by Warren St. John
11. The Platypus and the Mermaid: And Other Figments of the Classifying Imagination by Harriet Ritvo
12. Rumspringa: To Be or Not to Be Amish by Tom Shachtman
13. The Science of Sherlock Holmes by E.J. Wagner
14. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
15. Under the Sabers: The Unwritten Code Of Army Wives by Tanya Biank

Graphic Novels:

1. American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
2. Blankets by Craig Thompson
3. Castle Waiting by Linda Medley
4. A Drifting Life by Yoshihiro Tatsumi
5. Kings in Disguise by James Vance and Dan Burr
6. The Lagoon by Lilli Carré
7. Laika by Nick Abadzis
8. Our Cancer Year by Harvey Pekar
9. Pride of Baghdad by Brian K. Vaughan, Niko Henrichon
10. The Professor's Daughter by Joann Sfar and Emmanuel Guibert
11. Strangers in Paradise by Terry Moore

Historical Fiction:

1. Beneath a Marble Sky by John Shors
2. The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory
3. The Day the Falls Stood Still by Cathy Marie Buchanan
4. In the Beauty of the Lilies by John Updike
5. The Master by Colm Toibin
6. Peony in Love by Lisa See
7. The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe
8. Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross
9. The Remedy by Michelle Lovric
10. Remembering Babylon by David Malouf
11. Tears of Pearl by Tasha Alexander

book club voting lists (1 of 4)

This post explains what the lists are all about...

Biographies & Memoirs:

1. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver
2. Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction by David Sheff
3. Bitter is the New Black: Confessions of a Condescending, Egomaniacal, Self-Centered Smartass, Or, Why You Should Never Carry A Prada Bag to the Unemployment Office by Jen Lancaster
4. Buffalo Gal by Laura Pedersen
5. The Caliph's House: A Year in Casablanca by Tahir Shah
6. Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert
7. Feeding a Yen: Savoring Local Specialties, from Kansas City to Cuzco by Calvin Trillin
8. Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
9. Letter to My Daughter by Maya Angelou
10. She's Not There: A Life in Two Genders by Jennifer Finney Boylan
11. Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines by Nic Sheff

Classics and Contemporary Classics:

1. 1984 by George Orwell
2. Beloved by Toni Morrison
3. The Book of Salt by Monique Truong
4. Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote
5. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
6. Hamlet
7. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
8. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
9. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
10. Wings of the Dove by Henry James

General Fiction (non-genre):

1. The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
2. Astrid & Veronika by Linda Olsson
3. The Beach House by Mary Alice Monroe
4. Buffalo Lockjaw by Greg Ames
5. The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
6. Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn
7. Eureka by Jim Lehrer
8. The Falls by Joyce Carol Oates
9. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
10. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
11. Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich
12. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
13. People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
14. Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult
15. Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
16. Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi
17. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski
18. Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum
19. Trans-Sister Radio by Chris Bohjalian
20. The Various Flavors of Coffee by Anthony Capella
21. We Need to Talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver

Creating a Reading List

People always wonder how we choose the books we read for book club. My book club is a bit different than most. While we do have a group of regulars the club is open to everyone who works in the library. We make an effort to read from a number of different genres to encourage people who might only want to read their favorite genres to join us for a meeting or two. We also allow everyone to help us choose the books we read. Here's how:

We begin with a list of categories. The categories vary a bit from round to round. These are the eleven categories we're using this time:
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Classics and Contemporary Classics
- General Fiction (non-genre)
- General Nonfiction
- Graphic Novels
- Historical Fiction
- Mystery/Thriller/Horror
- SciFi and Fantasy
- Women's Fiction (formerly romance)
- World Literature (formerly literary fiction)
- Young Adult
This round we're trying out a couple of new things as well. We're devoting February 2010 to Margaret Atwood since she'll be speaking on campus at the beginning of March as part of the UB Distinguished Speakers series. Another month we plan to focus on an author rather than on a book; everyone can read whatever title most interests them and we'll see where the discussion leads.

Regular book club members are invited to suggest titles. I take all the suggestions and use them to create voting lists, fleshing out various sections if they are looking a bit bare. We aim for 10-20 options per category.

I set up an online voting mechanism and for each category voters (any library staff member is eligible) are encouraged to select up to five titles they'd like to read. They can also mark their top choice for each category. I use the top-choice votes to give weight to titles in case of a tie.

This is all a bit of a production, but each time we vote I can use the results to schedule two years worth of meetings. Oh, and I find the whole thing quite fun, despite the work it entails.

Since we're just about to start the voting for this round of book club selections, I thought I might share our voting lists over the course of the week. If anyone has any strong feelings about books we should or should not pick, I'd love to hear about them in the comments.

Check back tomorrow for the first installment.

book clubbing in August

I'd been looking forward to this month's book club discussion for quite some time. Pride and Prejudice was our August selection, but we also decided to allow any of the many P&P spin-offs to add to our discussion.

Those who've read my recent posts will know that I read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith and First Impressions by Marilyn Sachs in preparation for our meeting. Other spin-offs read by members included The Man Who Loved Jane Austen by Sally Smith O'Rourke,¹ Pamela Aidan's Darcy novels,² the new P&P comics (art by Hugo Petrus).³ Additionally most of us had read Austenland for our discussion last fall (see post).

We had a great discussion about Pride and Prejudice itself (one of our members had never read Austen before, assuming he wouldn't like it, and his reaction to it was wonderful), societal differences and entail,⁴ the collective obsession with P&P (or is it Mr. Darcy?), the inanity of certain spin-offs,⁴ why we think other spin-offs like Bride and Prejudice work so well, what Austen novels the newly converted should read next,⁵ class issues, whether Elizabeth is typical of a woman of her station (she has a modern sensibility for sure, but were many of her contemporaries more like Charlotte), and the reason for the recent obsession with zombies, among other things.

All in all it was an absolutely fantastic meeting with a varied and engaging discussion.

1. I've read this one, but it looks like I never posted about it on the blog. I'll pull together some thoughts and write a post soonish.
2. An Assembly Such As This, Duty and Desire, and These Three Remain. They come highly recommended by the reader.
3. I only flipped through a few issues, but they look fantastic (isn't the image I included in this post compelling?). I can't wait until they are collected in book form.
4. What a perfect word to feature. entail, in the context of Austen's writing, refers to the settlement of the succession of a landed estate, so that it cannot be bequeathed at pleasure by any one possessor. Mr. Bennet as entail of Longbourn (presumably the entail was set up in an ancestor's will) has free use of the estate during his life, but no control over what happens to the estate upon his death.
5. Sense and Sensbility or Emma depending on mood and inclination.

book clubbing in July

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

We had another great discussion this month with Diane Setterfield's debut The Thirteenth Tale. Well-written and very literary, the book is like a gift to readers.

I have to admit, though, that I didn't enjoy The Thirteenth Tale quite as much as I thought I would. It is very atmospheric and, if I had to put my finger on it, I'd say that I just wasn't in the right mood for a gothic novel. That isn't to say, of course, that I don't think it was a fantastic book. In fact, my only complaint about the book is really a combined grouse about The Thirteenth Tale and Bad Twin (review) and it has to do with the way the two novels mythologize twins, but (without specifying) focus exclusively on identical twins.

My favorite passage from The Thirteenth Tale is this:

Dr. Clifton came. He listened to my heart and asked me lots of questions. "Insomnia? Irregular sleep? Nightmares?"
I nodded three times.
"I thought so."
He took a thermometer and instructed me to place it under my tongue, then rose and strode to the window. With his back to me, he asked, "And what do you read?"
With the thermometer in my mouth I could not reply.
"Wuthering Heights--you've read that?"
"Mm-hmm."
"And Jane Eyre?"
"Mm."
"Sense and Sensibility?"
"Hm-m."
He turned and looked gravely at me. "And I suppose you've read these books more than once?"
I nodded and he frowned.
"Read and reread? Many times?"
Once more I nodded, and his frown deepened.
"Since childhood?"
I was baffled by his questions, but compelled by the gravity of his gaze, nodded once again. [...]
"You are suffering from an ailment that afflicts ladies of romantic imagination. Symptoms include fainting, weariness, loss of appetite, low spirits. While on one level the crisis can be ascribed to wandering about in the freezing rain without the benefit of waterproofing, the deeper cause is more likely to be found in some emotional trauma [...]" [...]
"Treatment is not complicated: eat, rest and take this..."--he made quick notes on a pad, tore out a page and placed it on my bedside table--"and the weakness and fatigue will be gone in a few days." [...]
I reached for the prescription. In a vigorous scrawl, he had inked: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes. Take ten pages, twice a day, till end of course. (301-303)

I simply adore the idea of a literary ailment and a doctor sensitive enough to diagnose it, especially when it plays so well into the self- parody typical of the gothic genre.