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