Next meeting = January 23, recommended books

It was just terrific talk with Tony Nelson about Bound. Speaking to authors always takes interpretation to a new level, but I think authors who are also teachers are the best ones to talk with. They not just excel in their craft, but they are practiced at talking about it.

Lots of recommendations of books from Tony Nelson (ones she likes to teach):

• Revolutionary Road (Richard Yates)
  
• War and Peace (Leo Tolstoy)
• Heart of Darkness (Joseph Conrad)
• Passage to India (E.M. Forester)
• So long, see you tomorrow (William Maxwell): One reviewer called this "a small, perfect book."

Bring your copies of the NYT review of books for 2010 if you have it to the January meeting, as we need to pick books!!

March, 2011

March of 2011 will be our 10th anniversary meeting. Pretty cool, eh? Thanks to all the readers, whether you have been with us since the beginning or for only a few meetings. It has been a pleasure reading with you.

I actually still remember the discussion about our first book, Corelli's Mandolin. Somebody made the scene about the Italians singing on the beach in the privvy's much more vivid, and that is all it takes to cement a book in my mind for a decade. Corelli was not our best book by far, but a good one to start with. What I really like about having a book club is that even books that are not that memorable become noteworthy from our discussions.

Recommendations from September 19

• October 24 for next meeting
• November 21 for the one after that, then December 12.
• December 12: The Elegance of the Hedgehog
• Move The way we live now to January
• March: Too close to the falls: Catherine Gildiner
• April: Read a book you should have read (D reading Absalom, Absalom; I'm reading Lord of the Flies, other suggestions: Catcher in the Rye
• May: The imperfectionist, by Rachmen
• June: A Case of Exploding Mangoes, Hamid

Your Inner Fish: Neil Shubin.
Historical fiction about the early 1700s in the Carolinas and Virginia: Ingliss Fletcher.
CC will look into getting an author.
Other recommendations: A Boy's Life, A Reluctant Fundamentalist,

And our nostalgia moment: Library cards that were for kids only. If you held one, you were not allowed to take a book from the adult's section.

July 18, Wonder Boys

With movie!

Bring popcorn if you want. I will bring the movie.

Hope to see you all there.

Next meeting, May 9

Sorry, I know it is Mother's Day. Schedule has been tough this year.

Good discussion about Through Black Spruce. We did not get to talk at all about how Will's first family died, and what was the effect of their death on Will. Any thoughts?

Also, we added Pat Conroy's South of Broad to the future books list.

Black Spruce

I agree with Cathy -- Through Black Spruce went down like a cold glass of water. Maybe ice melt. I finished the last 120 pages in an afternoon and loved the ending. Did she or didn't she????

Although not a Three Day Road, this book is compelling in its own way and I look forward to talking about it.

The Golden Notebook

If I ever had any doubts about whether or not I suffer from OCD, this pretty much confirms it. I stopped reading The Golden Notebook (as I had said I would), after our last meeting. I picked up the Joseph Boyden (Through Black Spruce) for next month and practically swallowed it all in one bite.

But The Golden Notebook sat there taunting me. I have always felt compelled to finish reading any book I start, no matter how bad. But I thought, in this case, that I would let myself off the hook. But no. After I finished the Boyden, I took it up again. And just finished it today. I am absolutely positive I will never be tempted to read it a second time, but I came to have a sort of grudging respect for what Doris Lessing was getting at. The style, which I found so irritating, is really a reflection of what the character Anna is grappling with in her own head. So to me, it's a real portrait of a person who is either losing her sanity or fears she is and is working hard to make sense of a world that doesn't make sense.

I found a podcast this afternoon that shed further light and made me think about things in the book I hadn't thought about before.

So, if anyone else has choked it all down, you might find this interesting. And if you haven't, it might make you reconsider picking it up again.

http://www.sabanciuniv.edu/do/eng/PodCast/files/podcast69.mp3

Ahhhh.......

I just finished reading Through Black Spruce. After the torture that was The Golden Notebook, it's like a long drink of cool, clear water. I wish I could have paced myself to make it last longer, but I think I was dying of thirst.

Upcoming meetings

At the last meeting, we set dates for upcoming meetings. We will meet on February 14 (no romantics among us?), March 14, and April 4 (Easter).

Good discussion on Anna Karenina. There was something for everybody to love and hate.

Oh, and I found this great link about all the books I wish I had time to read...

Anna Karenina Sunday, January 17, Usual time and place.