Friday, December 12, 2008

For more fun with Chabon...

Google street names, plazas, hotels, etc and learn about the history of European Jews...

Example: L.L. Zamenhof (Zamenhof Hotel: where Landsman lives and Shpilman was killed).

From wikipedia:
Zamenhof was born on December 15, 1859 in the town of Białystok (now in Poland, then part of the Russian Empire) to parents of Lithuanian Jewish descent. He considered his native language to be his father's Russian (or perhaps Belarusian, which was not considered distinct from Russian at the time and which appears to have had a strong influence on Esperanto phonology), though he also spoke his mother's Yiddish; as he grew older, he spoke more Polish, and that became the native language of his children.[1] His father was a German teacher, and he also spoke that fluently. Later he learned French, Latin, Greek, Hebrew and English, and had an interest in Italian, Spanish and Lithuanian.

In addition to the Yiddish-speaking Jewish majority, the population of Białystok was made up of three other ethnic groups: Poles, Germans, and Belarusians. Zamenhof was saddened and frustrated by the many quarrels between these groups. He supposed that the main reason for the hate and prejudice lay in mutual misunderstanding, caused by the lack of one common language that would play the role of a neutral communication tool between people of different ethnic and linguistic backgrounds.

Others I found were the founder of the World Zionist Union, and Janusz Korczak, the pen name of Henryk Goldszmit (July 22, 1877August 1942) was a Polish-Jewish children's author, pediatrician, and child pedagogue, known as Pan Doktor (Mr Doctor).


Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Monday, December 1, 2008

NYT 100 notables

The New York Times recognized the grave mistake it made last year in not publishing the 100 notable books of the year. Thx to E for sending the link to this year's list!

We will pick books in December: consider looking up a few reviews of books that sound promising so we can avoid the Absurdistans and The Emperor's Children of the 2006 NYT list.

Update: NYT article on 10 notable books of 2008. Note that there is yet another article about New Yorkers post 9/11.

Sunday, November 30, 2008

A Salman Rushdie book for February?

Salman Rushdie will be this spring's speaker at the March lecture. What are thoughts on reading one of his books in February? Several people mentioned Midnight's Children as a good one.

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Michael Chabon's Yiddish Policeman's Union

December 21, 4:00, meet in the usual place.

Hope to see you all there.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

More on Gilead

I'm still reading Gilead. I'm not sure why, except Elvira and Connie's defense of the book inspired me to give it more of a chance - or at least to finish it!

So in that spirit, (and in the spirit of Thanksgiving, my being very grateful to have a group of intelligent women with whom to discuss books) I thought I would share some of what I found. (Oh Google, lovely Google.) Page numbers reference my book, published by Picador.

(p. 140)
http://www.babylon.com/definition/moriturus/English

or even closer (it seems to me)http://www.proz.com/kudoz/latin_to_english/art_literary/55143-moriturus.html

(from p. 166)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutatis_mutandis

(from p. 175)http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ipsissima%20verba

I'll send more as I make my way through the book (or I'll stop if you'd prefer).

Monday, October 20, 2008

October and Close Range

Will meet the usual place, 4:00, Sunday the 26th, for Close Range by Annie Proulx.

Saturday, September 13, 2008

An amusing rubric for choosing a book

Questions that will help you decide if the book goes into your to-read-pile. I liked it...

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Don Kurtz is a go for September 21!

Chuchgoers, usual time and place.

Hope to see you all there.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Suggestions for future books from Ann

Little Heathens

Three cups of Tea

Dave Eggers (gave a great TED talk)

Something by Ann Patchett

Lamb: The gospel according to Biff (Moore)

One Buttock Playing TED talk

Monday, August 11, 2008

Based on a true story

Three Day Road is loosely based on a real sniper from WWI.

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Three Day Road

Sorry to miss out on the Old Filth discussion. I had been running on fumes, and was even low on those! I've started Three Day Road, and I'm completely engrossed. Wouldn't have thought I needed to read another WWI novel, but this one comes from the unexpected point of view of - um - Native Canadians?? Not sure what is PC here. At any rate, a good read so far, imho.

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Old Filth, Sunday July 27, 4 pm, usual place

As usual, hope to see you all there.

I did check on Old Filth: it has universally good reviews on Amazon. No guarantees, but at least it does not have the love/hate dichotomy reviews of Absurdistan.

Filth is an acronym: Failed in London, try Hong Kong.

Let us know what you think as you go along.

Absurdistan: So sorry

What was the NYT thinking to put this on the notable list for 2006? Must have been a bad year.

It could have been good, but was mostly just gross. Sorry, everybody. Better luck net month with Old Filth.

Sunday, June 1, 2008

Absurdistan

Sunday June 22, 4 pm, usual place, unless somebody has a different idea.

Hope to see you all there.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

The emperor's children

Nobody was there who was willing to defend this book, so we had a gleeful time bashing away at this book. No likeable characters, glacial pace, predictable plot, and full self-congratulatory New Yorkers (9 room apartment!)

Margaret, we miss you!

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Scheduling problem

Because of a band concert, we will meet the 25th at 3. Usual place.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Movie Night

Are we going to do a movie in June or July (August will likely be Don Kurtz)?

We forgot to talk about that last time, so think about it for Sunday.

And Emperor's Children is on the 3 for 2 table at Barnes and Noble, along with several other worthy reads.

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Bury the Chains

I'm just getting started (ready for chapter 4, King Sugar), but I'm hooked. I would be further along, but I've been buried under some reading for my classes. Now that I'm caught up, I'm planning to spend the rest of this afternoon buried in the Hochschild. (get it? buried?)

One of the surest signs that I love a book is the frequency with which I interrupt whatever my husband is doing to force him to let me read him a passage. That's already happening a lot with this book - to the point that I've promised to stop and let him read it for himself when I'm finished.

This from a person who has spent most of her life shunning books about history. Who'd have thought? This book club must be warping my brain. (I now count John Adams as one of my all-time faves.)

Early results on Bury the Chains...

Fascinating book, so far...

mmm is half way through, Ann is done. Interesting blend of history and analysis.

mmm: Ravin' faves

Highlights, but just my opinion...

Some of these are pretty intense (Song of the Exile, Birdsong, Cold Mountain, to name a few)

1776 — McCullough
Suite Francaise — Nemirovsky
Under the banner of heaven — Krakauer

The Toughest Indian in the World — Alexie
Saturday — McEwan
The Great Gatsby — F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Children — Edith Wharton
The Kite Runner — Hosseini
Birdsong — Sebastian Faulks

A Prayer for Owen Meany — John Irving
Empire Falls — Richard Russo
How to be good — Nick Hornby

Ghost Soldiers — Hampton Sides
John Adams — David McCullough
Tennis Partner — Abraham Verghese

Song of the Exile — Kiana Davenport
Seabiscuit — Laura Hillenbrand
Cold Mountain — Charles Frazier

House of Mirth — Edith Wharton
Persuasion — Jane Austen
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay — Michael Chabon

Song of the Lark — Willa Cather
Century's Son — Robert Boswell

mmm: Just good reads

I just liked these... (But not yet in the Ravin' faves category.) Includes perhaps a little overlap with airplane books.

About a boy — Hornby
1776 — McCullough
Seven types of ambiguity — Perlman

As I lay dying — Faulkner
Face of an Angel — Denise Chavez (Author included!)
Reading Lolita in Tehran — Nafisi

Their eyes were watching god — Hurston
Saturday — McEwan
A short history of tractors in Ukranian — Lewycka

Century's Son — Robert Boswell (Author included!)
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter — Carson McCullers
Stiff — Mary Roach

The Great Gatsby — F. Scott Fitzgerald
Family Matters — Rohington Mistry
The Children — Edith Wharton

Cities of the plain — Cormac McCarthy
Birdsong — Sebastian Faulks
Middlesex — Jeffrey Eugenides

Vanity Fair — William Makepeace Thackeray
South of the Big 4 — Don Kurtz (Author included!)
My losing season — Pat Conroy

The little friend — Donna Tartt
Blessings — Anna Quindlen
The sweet short dream of Eduardo Gutierrez — Jimmy Breslin

John Adams — David McCullough
Tennis Partner — Abraham Verghese
The Stranger — Albert Camus

The Corrections — Joseph Franzen
Loving Pedro Infante — Denise Chavez (Author included!)
Me talk pretty one day — David Sedaris

Corelli's Mandolin — Louis de Berni貥s
Snow Falling on Cedars — David Guterson
The Pick Up — Nadine Gordimer

mmm: Airplane books

You know, airplane books: engaging, not heavy but not too light, good to pass onto strangers...

On Beauty — Zadie Smith
The Song of Names — Lebrecht
Reading Lolita in Tehran — Nafisi

Sammy & Juliana in Hollywood — Saenz
Saturday — McEwan
A short history of tractors in Ukranian — Lewycka

White Teeth — Zadie Smith
This Side of Brightness — Colum McCann
God Is My Broker — Brother Ty with Christopher Buckley

The story of Lucy Gault — William Trevor
The demon in the freezer — Richard Preston
Life of Pi — Martel

Dude, Where's my country — Michael Moore
My losing season — Pat Conroy
Blues lessons — Robert Hellenga

Red Tent — Anita Diamante
The Sixteen Pleasures — Robert Hellenga
Pillars of the Earth — Ken Follett

My dream of you — Nuala O'Faolain
Girl with a Pearl Earring — Tracy Chevalier

Monday, March 17, 2008

Running with Scissors ... Burroughs

My notes for this book say "What is there to not love? Child abuse, neglect, and rape; drug and alcohol abuse; parental irresponsibility..."

When Burrough's parents divorce early in the book, Augusten lives first with his mother then with his mother's crazed psychologist in his anything-goes home. There he experiences first hand the delights of living with id-driven people pretending to be enlightened. This book was disturbing. All humor fled long before the main character started getting sexually abused by the psychiatrist's adopted son.

The book was initially labeled a memoir but a lawsuit from people who remember events differently settled that the book could not be marketed that way.

This is a good book for a book club; the discussion was rich and varied. One woman declared that life is too short and gave up after the first episode of child rape (not a bad choice). Another claimed it an entertaining piece of fiction. But the explanation I liked best was this:

Burroughs claimed that he wrote constantly as an adolescent. If true, that would have given him rich material to mine for a memoir. However, these writings would have been written from the perspective of a rather emotional teenager, with a teenager's unique perspective. Burroughs does do a good job of capturing an adolescent voice, but his veracity as a memoirist is questionable. Burrough's inclusion of dialogue 25 years after events clearly demonstrates his willingness to invent. While this is not unusual for a memoir, it is problematic.

About a boy...Hornby

Will, a rich, self-involved do-nothing Londoner meets Marcus, a 12-year old who needs to grow up as badly as Will does.

Nick Hornby brings them together with his usual dry delivery and insight. During the course of this book, Hornby skewers parental manipulation, provincialism, stereotypical males (irresponsible, emotionally stunted), stereotypical females (bitter divorcees, overly emotional), and anything else that gets in his way. The part on parental logic (about 4 pages) I actually read aloud to my 18-year old son (we were in a car, so he couldn't get away).

The debate at book club was:
  1. Is there an equivalent of chick lit for men?
  2. Would this be it?
If there is a genre of dude lit, I am not certain what it would be, but I am pretty certain this is not it. High fidelity or Fever pitch, maybe, but not About a boy. Rather, this book, plays into the female fantasy that emotionally unavailable men just need the right stimulus to become warm fuzzy types.

The other thing that stops this from being dude lit is that this is really a small story, about a small circle of people and their small lives. Nobody here is living on a large stage, scaling mountains, curing cancer, or tackling crocodiles.

I admit to having a great fondness for all Nick Hornby's books that I have read so far. This is a quick enjoyable book, full of insightful passages and humor.