Interesting Article in NY Times...

If you haven't already read this weekend's article about bookclubs from the NY Times, here's the link...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/07/fashion/07clubs.html?_r=1&ref=style

Certainly makes you think twice!

January Book!

Looks like people overwhelmingly wanted to wait for the holiday madness to end before meeting again, so...

We will be reading the classic CRIME AND PUNISHMENT, by Dostoyevsky. I'm looking forward to finally finishing this, as I've attempted it a few times.

And we will discuss it on January 6th, at 8pm in the lounge at 200 Chambers, hosted by Christie. If enough of us want to, I'm sure we can push the time back to 8:30.

Have a beautiful holiday season no matter what you celebrate... I certainly look forward to another great group night which will come sooner than you think, so get reading!!!

December/January Picks - Book and Date

November's meeting was a great success and so much fun! Christie has volunteered to host our next meeting in her building's lounge (200 Chambers St), and has gotten me her picks for books to choose from. Please get your vote in so we know the book as well as the date asap. There are two polls - please vote once for the book, and for as many dates as work for you.

Christie requested a Tuesday group, which put us at either the day before Xmas eve or the day before New Year's eve... which may be fine for most of us, or may not. So I added 2 Tuesdays in January (which may be helpful if we pick a long book) - if the holidays are crazy, we should certainly not feel stress about finishing our book!

In other news, the NY Times published their 2008 Best books of the year list:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/07/books/review/100Notable-t.html?_r=1&em

Can't wait!

So here are the options:

Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl

• Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl's memoir has riveted generations of readers with its descriptions of life in Nazi death camps and its lessons for spiritual survival. Between 1942 and 1945 Frankl labored in four different camps, including Auschwitz, while his parents, brother, and pregnant wife perished. Based on his own experience and the experiences of those he treated in his practice, Frankl argues that we cannot avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with renewed purpose. Frankl's theory—known as logotherapy, from the Greek word logos ("meaning")—holds that our primary drive in life is not pleasure, as Freud maintained, but the discovery and pursuit of what we personally find meaningful.

Sex, Sleep, Eat, Drink, Dream by Jennifer Ackerman

• Just as Michael Sims does in his planetary guide, Apollo's Fire (Reviews, June 11), science journalist Ackerman (Notes from the Shore) uses a single day as a narrative framework for examining a wide array of scientific information, but she has chosen a much more intimate subject: the human body. Starting with a 5:30 a.m. wakeup call and working through to the wee hours (with a pause for a restorative midday nap), she explains the complex details behind some of the body's most basic functions. The day is a somewhat arbitrary structure for topics that could be discussed at any time (she holds off on exercise until the late afternoon, for example), but the arrangement is never obtrusive, and Ackerman's prose is inviting. While she doesn't offer a radical new perspective on the human body, she does provide a steady stream of interesting information on things like the tiny hair cells inside the cochlea that enable us to hear even the briefest of noises, and the aphrodisiac allure for women of the odor of men's underarm sweat. All in all, Ackerman offers an pleasant day's diversion.

Turning Japanese by David Mura

• Award-winning poet David Mura's critically acclaimed memoir Turning Japanese chronicles how a year in Japan transformed his sense of self and pulled into sharp focus his complicated inheritance. Mura is a sansei, a third-generation Japanese-American who grew up on baseball and hot dogs in a Chicago suburb, where he heard more Yiddish than Japanese. Turning Japanese chronicles his quest for identity with honesty, intelligence, and poetic vision and it stands as a classic meditation on difference and assimilation and is a valuable window onto a country that has long fascinated our own. Turning Japanese was a New York Times Notable Book and winner of an Oakland PEN Josephine Miles Book Award.

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

• Novel by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, published in 1866 as Prestupleniye i nakazaniye. Dostoyevsky's first masterpiece, the novel is a psychological analysis of the poor student Raskolnikov, whose theory that humanitarian ends justify evil means leads him to murder a St. Petersburg pawnbroker. The act produces nightmarish guilt in Raskolnikov. The narrative's feverish, compelling tone follows the twists and turns of Raskolnikov's emotions and elaborates his struggle with his conscience and his mounting sense of horror as he wanders the city's hot, crowded streets. In prison, Raskolnikov comes to the realization that happiness cannot be achieved by a reasoned plan of existence but must be earned by suffering. The novel's status as a masterpiece is chiefly a result of its narrative intensity and its moving depiction of the recovery of a man's diseased spirit

December Group

Thank you so much, Brigette, for hosting such a fun bookgroup last night! We had a small, but really interesting mix of women, and a lively discussion that lasted well past my bed time! 5:30am came very quickly today...

Christie has volunteered to host the December meeting in the lounge of her building, where, apparently, food and wine is welcome. Thanks, Christie! If you're interested in hosting a future bookgroup, or know of a bar/lounge/coffee shop where we can all have a lively discussion, let me know. One of the things we've all loved so much about having it in each other's homes is the intimacy and the "take-your-shoes-off-and-get-comfy" attitude - and I know people are reluctant to let that go...

I have also asked Christie to get me her list for books to pick from. Hopefully we can get a list by the end of this week, and have a book by the first week of december so we can all start reading!

I'll also put up some potential dates, so let's decide on when we'll meet as soon as possible.

It was such a joy to just get out last night. Away really sparked some interesting discussion topics - giving birth with a gangster, parents letting their kids hit other kids on the playground, and what WE would do for our kids (and yes, we all concurred we would whore ourselves across the continent and hike in the freezing cold wilderness for them).

We Have a Book!

Our first meeting will be on November 25th, at 8pm.

We will be reading AWAY, by Amy Bloom.

Our first meeting will be hosted by:

Brigette Smith
22 Warren St, Apt. 3 (between Church and Broadway)

Traditionally, the host has provided beverages and the guests have provided the snacks. We can stick to this, or we can just bring whatever we want, and the hostess can provide whatever she wants, too. Think about it - we don't have to decide on this til late November.

As we get closer, we'll get a better head-count, just so Brigette has an idea of how many people to expect.

Let's get reading!!!

Book Choices Narrowed Down

Brigette offered to take a few books out of contention for the November meeting... I can't change the "poll" since there have already been votes

SO

There are now only 4 options:

• Away
• And Then We Came to the End
• Last Night at the Lobster
• The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears

Right now (4 days before the poll will end), there is an equal number of votes for 2 books - so if it remains tied at the end, I'm going to leave it up to our hostess to pick the book from those two. But I'm hoping there will be a couple more votes before its all over... Or, if its just six of us, then that's just fine, too! There is also an equal number of votes for the date to have it - so again, if its tied, I'm going to let our hostess pick which date works best for her and her family.

I'm excited to see how the personalities of our hostesses really influence the feel of each month! I think its going to be a neat mix of genres and styles.

Vote for book and date if you haven't already!

Possible Book Choices for November

OK - Brigette had a LOT of suggestions for the first book, so here they are WITH blurb, which might help make a decision without a lot of research... Please vote for your choice in the poll on the right. Also, vote for the date if you haven't already. I'm going to eliminate the Thursday date, since that one's no good for our host!

Francine Prose - A Changed Man:
One sun-spangled afternoon at a rave, Vincent Nolan, a palooka who may be the most hapless neo-Nazi on record (he's thrummed up his politics so that his unsavory cousin, Ray, will let him crash on his couch), has a conversion experience: things go all glowy, he sees the error of his nefarious ways, and, soon afterward, he's ascending to the Manhattan offices of the World Brotherhood Watch, to offer his services to its founder, Meyer Maslow. Clearly, Maslow is based on Elie Wiesel, though Prose tries to forestall this assumption by giving Wiesel a cameo role elsewhere. Vince is taken home by Maslow's mousy assistant, a harassed single mother, who manages to overlook the Waffen-S.S. tattoo and fall for him, and, at a benefit at the Met Museum, he becomes a poster boy for the P.C. set. As a sendup, the book is quite fun, but too often Prose's writing falls victim to the very earnestness that she satirizes.

Richard Ford - The Lay of the Land:
*Starred Review* Ford's third novel featuring realtor Frank Bascombe, previously seen in he Sportswriter (1986)and the Pulitzer-winning ndependence Day (1995), finds the beleaguered everyman in the "Permanent Period" of his life, where he's trying mightily to deal with present circumstances while dodging past regrets. But it's Thanksgiving week, "the time of year when things go wrong if they're going to." Frank has recently been diagnosed and is undergoing treatment for prostate cancer; his second wife has left him for her first husband (presumed dead but recently resurrected); his long-divorced first wife has suddenly (and disturbingly) expressed an interest in getting back together; and his fractious relationship with his son is soon to be tested anew as the family gathers for an organic-turkey dinner. As Frank struggles to hold onto his peace of mind, events both large and small conspire to give him an "acute case of the heebie-jeebies." A barroom brawl with a drunken florist, a real-estate deal gone sour, and an unexpected, intense bout of grieving for his first child, who died at age nine--Frank suddenly finds himself just where he doesn't want to be, mired "in the meaning of every goddamn thing." Through Frank's acerbic opinions on a host of issues, from the presidential election of 2000 to the real-estate business, friendship, and the "treacherous" nature of holidays, Ford crafts a mesmerizing narrative voice--one that gives us, with offhanded eloquence and a kind of grim mirth, "the lay of the land." Joanne Wilkinson

Dinaw Mengestu - The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears
Starred Review. Barely suppressed despair and black wit infuse this beautifully observed debut from Ethiopian émigré Mengestu. Set over eight months in a gentrifying Washington, D.C., neighborhood in the 1970s, it captures an uptick in Ethiopian grocery store owner Sepha Stephanos's long-deferred hopes, as Judith, a white academic, fixes up the four-story house next to his apartment building, treats him to dinner and lets him steal a kiss. Just as unexpected is Sepha's friendship with Judith's biracial 11-year-old daughter, Naomi (one of the book's most vivid characters), over a copy of The Brothers Karamazov. Mengestu adds chiaroscuro with the story of Stephanos's 17-year exile from his family and country following his father's murder by revolutionary soldiers. After long days in the dusty, barely profitable shop, Sepha's two friends, Joseph from Congo and Kenneth from Kenya, joke with Sepha about African dictators and gently mock his romantic aspirations, while the neighborhood's loaded racial politics hang over Sepha and Judith's burgeoning relationship like a sword of Damocles. The novel's dirge-like tone may put off readers looking for the next Kite Runner, but Mengestu's assured prose and haunting set pieces (especially a series of letters from Stephanos's uncle to Jimmy Carter, pleading that he respect "the deep friendship between our two countries") are heart-rending and indelible. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information

Amy Bloom - Away
Starred Review. Life is no party for Lillian Leyb, the 22-year-old Jewish immigrant protagonist of Bloom's outstanding fifth novel: her husband and parents were killed in a Russian pogrom, and the same violent episode separated her from her three-year-old daughter, Sophie. Arriving in New York in 1924, Lillian dreams of Sophie, and after five weeks in America, barely speaking English, she outmaneuvers a line of applicants for a seamstress job at the Goldfadn Yiddish Theatre, where she becomes the mistress of both handsome lead actor Meyer Burstein and his very connected father, Reuben. Her only friend in New York, tailor/actor/playwright Yaakov Shimmelman, gives her a thesaurus and coaches her on American culture. In a last, loving, gesture, Yaakov secures Lillian passage out of New York to begin her quest to find Sophie. The journey—through Chicago by train, into Seattle's African-American underworld and across the Alaskan wilderness—elevates Bloom's novel from familiar immigrant chronicle to sweeping saga of endurance and rebirth. Encompassing prison, prostitution and poetry, Yiddish humor and Yukon settings, Bloom's tale offers linguistic twists, startling imagery, sharp wit and a compelling vision of the past. Bloom has created an extraordinary range of characters, settings and emotions. Absolutely stunning. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information

Joshua Ferris - Then We Came to the End
Amazon Best of the Month Spotlight Title, April 2007: It's 2001. The dot-com bubble has burst and rolling layoffs have hit an unnamed Chicago advertising firm sending employees into an escalating siege mentality as their numbers dwindle. As a parade of employees depart, bankers boxes filled with their personal effects, those left behind raid their fallen comrades' offices, sifting through the detritus for the errant desk lamp or Aeron chair. Written with confidence in the tricky-to-pull-off first-person plural, the collective fishbowl perspective of the "we" voice nails the dynamics of cubicle culture--the deadlines, the gossip, the elaborate pranks to break the boredom, the joy of discovering free food in the breakroom. Arch, achingly funny, and surprisingly heartfelt, it's a view of how your work becomes a symbiotic part of your life. A dysfunctional family of misfits forced together and fondly remembered as it falls apart. Praised as "the Catch-22 of the business world" and "The Office meets Kafka," I'm happy to report that Joshua Ferris's brilliant debut lives up to every ounce of pre-publication hype and instantly became one of my favorite books of the year. --Brad Thomas Parsons

Stewart O'Nan - Last Night at the Lobster
Set on the last day of business of a Connecticut Red Lobster, this touching novel by the author of Snow Angels and A Prayer for the Dying tells the story of Manny DeLeon, a conscientious, committed restaurant manager any national chain would want to keep. Instead, corporate has notified Manny that his—and Manny does think of the restaurant as his—New Britain, Conn., location is not meeting expectations and will close December 20. On top of that, he'll be assigned to a nearby Olive Garden and downgraded to assistant manager. It's a loss he tries to rationalize much as he does the loss of Jacquie, a waitress and the former not-so-secret lover he suspects means more to him than his girlfriend Deena, who is pregnant with his child. On this last night, Manny is committed to a dream of perfection, but no one and nothing seems to share his vision: a blizzard batters the area, customers are sparse, employees don't show up and Manny has a tough time finding a Christmas gift for Deena. Lunch gives way to dinner with hardly anyone stopping to eat, but Manny refuses to close early or give up hope. Small but not slight, the novel is a concise, poignant portrait of a man on the verge of losing himself. (Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information

Vendela Vida - Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name
Believer co-editor Vida again explores violence, its aftermath and the curative powers of travel in her bleak second novel. (Her debut, 2003's And Now You Can Go, sent a young woman to the Philippines after a traumatic event.) But this time readers are nearly a hundred pages in before the long-ago physical violence is revealed. Clarissa, home after her father's funeral, finds herself deeply alone. Her developmentally disabled brother has never spoken, and her mother walked out on them 14 years before. Digging through family papers, she finds her birth certificate, which lists a stranger as her father. The hunt for him—and the resumption of a search for her mother—lead Clarissa to far northern Europe, where the days are short, the reindeer are plentiful and her mother had once felt "connected." Clarissa's travels in her mother's steps—seeking that connection, stumbling, finding it and finally severing it—are bleak. Vida's fan base will welcome this novel, and the twin questions of what Clarissa's amateur sleuthing will turn up and how each discovery will affect her might draw a few new readers through this slim, austere work. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information

So that's what we've got right now. This should make it easy to get a feel for each of the books, and make a vote in the next week so we can all start reading!

And We're Off...

Seems like this blog works, as there was already a comment posted, as well as people who responded to the poll. Yay!

We also already have a volunteer to host our first meeting. We do have one mom who doesn't live in Tribeca anymore but wants to still come and made a request that once in a while we see about having a meeting halfway between here and the Upper East Side, and she even volunteered to host at her Uptown spot. I'm sure we can all accommodate each other...

I also put Brigette's book requests on the list to the right, and asked her to come up with 4 or 5 options for us all to "vote" on.

As we finalize book and date details, I'll make sure to link to Brigette's apartment and any relevant information we'll need.

If you want to volunteer to host a future date, please let me know and I'll put your name on the list. The end of December is always a crazy place in my house (especially since Sarah's birthday also falls in that time, and we "do" Xmas & Chanukah) - but we might be able to do something after Christmas/the holidays, or even the first week of January...

Post your thoughts in the "comments" area so we can start a discussion.

Welcome Back!

Hi Ladies

Here's what I'm hoping we can keep track of on this blog:

When we'll meet
Where we'll meet
Who wants to come
What we're reading
What we'd like to read in the future

And maybe even our general thoughts on books we read? I'm just thinking out loud... We'll see if this works out.

What we can hopefully do is use the "comments" area to discuss things, and then I'll write the blog post so we all know where to find the information!

We will need someone to host the first meeting. I have cats and dogs so I don't think I'm a great candidate as I remember there were some women who have allergies. Any takers? I also posted a poll for WHEN we'll have our first meeting - go ahead and check as many dates as will work for you and hopefully we'll get a consensus.

Also, any book ideas, I'll add to the list of "Titles of Interest" and we can keep track of things we'd like to read. We previously had the host choose the book for that month - I think we can keep that OR post a poll with 4-5 choices and the majority rules. I already put up a few books that I personally have an interest in reading (just to get a feel for how to operate this blog-thing).

I'm glad we're doing this again... It will be fun!