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.