Fall Reads September 17, 2010

The summer hiatus ended with our reunion gathering/birthday celebration on Wednesday, September 15 at Liz’s house. Which really turned into more of an OB round table than anything (holy gestating members!), but as usual the company was top-notch.

In between discussions of whose OB rocks the most and the pros and cons of Piedmont versus Northside, we did manage to select the next three months’ books, dates and locations. Aren’t we productive? See the list to the right. If anyone reads this anymore, anyway?

It is now time for my morning slice of Allyson’s chocolate cake. What? It’s my birthday, dammit.

No Required Summer Reading June 17, 2010

Better late than never for a book club post, eh? Sounds like many of us are finished with or closing in on The House of Mondavi. I grudgingly admit it was a better read than I anticipated, though I stick to my preference for fiction. It definitely made me long for a trip to Napa!

I’m also thrilled with Susana’s suggestion that for July and August we each tackle the To Read piles of books we’ve no doubt accumulated, and then resume a group selection for September. The big question: will I tackle World Without End this summer, after my victorious reading of  Pillars of the Earth last year? Stay tuned!

In the meantime, I for one am looking forward to a truncated discussion of Mondavi and then an indulgent viewing of “Twilight” in the Bergstrom Theater. Bring on the movie candy!

We Laughed, We Cried, and We May Have Ditched Grace… March 24, 2010

When the MLGFSS first began, lo these many years (nearly four) ago, there were four brave members. From the get-go we called ourselves the Core Four. Books and meetings came and went, a few new members joined and then quit, and we eventually lost one of the Core Four. The Three Musketeers (Amy, Linda and Liz) braved on, bolstered by new members. In fact, the past three months have seen the MLGFSS grow to its biggest numbers ever. Sadly, we are soon saying goodbye to another of the Core Four, leaving the Two Few. After all this time, we couldn’t let Linda escape without a bit of a send-off, and what turned out to be an excellent meeting! You have to love a book that is both a page-turner and still generates plenty of discussion. Who do you think you are??

I will need some confirmation, but it sounded as though we may bypass Grace and move on to Edgar Sawtelle. Anyone? Also, did we choose a date and location? I suppose the first person to leave the meeting shouldn’t be the one to post about it…

Eclipse Trailer March 12, 2010

Watch it here – looks good!

Mark your calendars for June 30…

P.F. Chang, Typhoid Misty and One Really Annoying ‘Family’ March 1, 2010

So, the February meeting was interesting. First of all, it was Amy B.’s first-ever absence.  Which is impressive considering that she gave birth during the club’s tenure and never missed a beat. But when your kid is throwing up, you gotta stay home. Even if P.F. Chang’s is on the menu. Which Misty, doting caretaker to aforementioned puking kid, may never eat again. I don’t think too many of us were shocked to hear that she became ill later that evening, and I think we were all wise to give her a pretty wide berth that night! (Glad you’re all better, though – we love you!!)

Anyway, the book Family was overall not a huge hit, and I think it was fairly unanimous that most of the characters were irritating, and the likable ones all wound up dead. Oh well. Onward and upward!

So far I (Liz) am finding that The Kids Are All Right is very reminiscent of The Glass Castle. An easy read, short chapters, multiple voices. It is nonfiction, which many were surprised and dismayed to learn that Liz does not care for, at least most of the time. I have grudgingly agreed to read The House of Mondavi, though at this point that won’t be until June. There was a fair amount of interest in The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power, but somehow I whined loudly enough to veto it. (See? The squeaky wheel really does get the grease.) At some point, though, people may realize I’m not really omnipotent and depose me from my Throne of Book Decisions. Good luck getting me to cough up the password for this blog, though.

A Mixed Review January 22, 2010

The 2010 session of MLGFSS got off to a great start at Amy B.’s last night. Naturally plenty of off-topic things were discussed (and you will soon be banned from the club if you don’t possess an iPhone, apparently), but A Widow for One Year also got its fair share. Several of us weren’t quite sure what to make of the book: entertaining, well-written, compelling story…but the characters were frustrating and often downright unlikable. In other words, a great read for generating discussion!

So now we turn our attention to China and the dynasty saga Family. Enjoy!

2010 is a Family Affair November 3, 2009

I am happy to report that we have selected books for the first quarter of 2010. We’re trying a theme this year: family sagas. Nice and broad, but a thread to tie all the books together. Here are the selections so far:

January: A Widow for One Year by John Irving: Marion Cole, a thirty-nine-year-old woman — and a faithful wife for twenty-two years — has an affair with a sixteen-year-old boy; she then leaves her philandering husband. And also abandons her four-year-old daughter, Ruth. By the age of thirty-six, Ruth Cole has become an internationally acclaimed novelist. But she is an angry, impulsive, often self-contradictory, unmarried woman whose personal life is not nearly as successful as her literary career, and she distrusts her judgement in men, for good reason. Five years later, at forty-one, Ruth Cole is a widow and a mother. Ruth’s child is the same age Ruth was when her mother left her. Now Ruth is about to fall in love for the first time. A Widow for One Year is a multilayered love story of astonishing emotional force. Both richly comic and erotic, it is also a brilliant novel about the passage of time and the relentlessness of grief.

February: Family by Pa Chin: An essential work for anyone interested in the society and history of modern China! The first half of the twentieth century was a period of great turmoil in China. Family, one of the most popular Chinese novels of that time, vividly reflects that turmoil and serves as a basis for understanding what followed. Written in 1931, Family has been compared to Dream of the Red Chamber for its superb portrayal of the family life and society of its time. Drawn largely from Pa Chin’s own experience, Family is the story of the Kao family compound, consisting of four generations plus servants. It is essentially a picture of the conflict between old China and the new tide rising to destroy it, as manifested in the daily lives of the Kao family, and particularly the three young Kao brothers. Here we see situations that, unique as they are to the time and place of this novel, recall many circumstances of today’s world: the conflict between generations and classes, ill-fated love affairs, students’ political activities, and the struggle for the liberation of women. The complex passions aroused in Family and in the reader are an indication of the universality of human experience. This novel illustrates the effectiveness of fiction as a vehicle for translating the experience of one culture to another very different one.

March: The Kids are All Right by Diana, Amanda, Liz and Dan Welch: “Perfect is boring.”
Well, 1983 certainly wasn’t boring for the Welch family. Somehow, between their handsome father’s mysterious death, their glamorous soap-opera-star mother’s cancer diagnosis, and a phalanx of lawyers intent on bankruptcy proceedings, the four Welch siblings managed to handle each new heartbreaking misfortune in the same way they dealt with the unexpected arrival of the forgotten-about Chilean exchange student–together. All that changed with the death of their mother. While nineteen-year-old Amanda was legally on her own, the three younger siblings–Liz, sixteen; Dan, fourteen; and Diana, eight–were each dispatched to a different set of family friends. Quick-witted and sharp-tongued, Amanda headed for college in New York City and immersed herself in an ’80s world of alternative music and drugs. Liz, living with the couple for whom she babysat, followed in Amanda’s footsteps until high school graduation when she took a job in Norway as a nanny. Mischievous, rebellious Dan, bounced from guardian to boarding school and back again, getting deeper into trouble and drugs. And Diana, the red-haired baby of the family, was given a new life and identity and told to forget her past. But Diana’s siblings refused to forget her–or let her go. Told in the alternating voices of the four siblings, their poignant, harrowing story of un­breakable bonds unfolds with ferocious emotion. Despite the Welch children’s wrenching loss and subsequent separation, they retained the resilience and humor that both their mother and father endowed them with–growing up as lost souls, takingdisastrous turns along the way, but eventually coming out right side up. The kids are not only all right; they’re back together.

April: Grace by Richard Paul Evans: She was my first kiss. My first love. She was a little match girl who could see the future in the flame of a candle. She was a runaway who taught me more about life than anyone has before or since. And when she was gone my innocence left with her. As I begin to write, a part of me feels as if I am awakening something best left dead and buried, or at least buried. We can bury the past, but it never really dies. The experience of that winter has grown on my soul like ivy climbing the outside of a home, growing until it begins to tear and tug at the brick and mortar. I pray I can still get the story right. My memory, like my eyesight, has waned with age. Still, there are things that become clearer to me as I grow older. This much I know: too many things were kept secret in those days. Things that never should have been hidden. And things that should have.

May: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski A riveting family saga, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle explores the deep and ancient alliance between humans and dogs, and the power of fate through one boy’s epic journey into the wild. Born mute, speaking only in sign, Edgar Sawtelle leads an idyllic life with his parents on their farm in remote northern Wisconsin. For generations, the Sawtelles have raised and trained a fictional breed of dog whose thoughtful companionship is epitomized by Almondine, Edgar’s lifelong companion. But with the unexpected return of Claude, Edgar’s uncle, turmoil consumes the Sawtelle’s once-peaceful home. When Edgar’s father dies suddenly, Claude insinuates himself into the life of the farm – and into Edgar’s mother’s affections. Grief-stricken and bewildered, Edgar tries to prove Claude played a role in his father’s death, but his plan backfires, spectacularly. Edgar flees into the vast wilderness lying beyond the farm. He comes of age in the wild, fighting for his survival and that of the three yearling dogs who follow him. But his need to face his father’s murderer, and his devotion to the Sawtelle dogs, turn Edgar ever homeward. Wroblewski is a master storyteller, and his breathtaking scenes – the elemental north woods, the sweep of seasons, an iconic American barn, a ghost made of falling rain – create a family saga that is at once a brilliantly inventive retelling of Hamlet, an exploration of the limits of language, and a compulsively readable modern classic.

Two Turkey Selections November 2, 2009

The October gathering was small, but delightful. We shut down Muss & Turner’s…I think our waiter might have been a bit more annoyed had there not been a few bottles of wine on the table. So, we hereby claim our first “off-campus” meeting a hit and look forward to the next outing.

It’s too bad that bronchitis, vomiting and Florida took members away for this meeting – we found A LOT to talk about related to The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo – who knew Swedes could be so multi-faceted…

Here are November’s details: Ambition is the name of the game – 2 selections!
Date: Wednesday, November 18 – Is anyone opposed to switching to the 19th? One extra day to read? Or December 1?
Location: Any volunteers?

Are You There Vodka? It’s me, Chelsea by Chelsea Handler

Description
When Chelsea Handler needs to get a few things off her chest, she appeals to a higher power — vodka. You would too if you found out that your boyfriend was having an affair with a Peekapoo or if you had to pretend to be honeymooning with your father in order to upgrade to first class. Welcome to Chelsea’s world — a place where absurdity reigns supreme and a quick wit is the best line of defense.

In this hilarious, deliciously skewed collection, Chelsea mines her past for stories about her family, relationships, and career that are at once singular and ridiculous. Whether she’s convincing her third-grade class that she has been tapped to play Goldie Hawn’s daughter in the sequel to Private Benjamin, deciding to be more egalitarian by dating a redhead, or looking out for a foulmouthed, rum-swilling little person who looks just like her…only smaller, Chelsea has a knack for getting herself into the most outrageous situations. Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea showcases the candor and irresistible turns of phrase that have made her one of the freshest voices in comedy today.

Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
 

Description
In this stunning new book, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of “outliers”—the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes high-achievers different? His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing. Along the way he explains the secrets of software billionaires, what it takes to be a great soccer player, why Asians are good at math, and what made the Beatles the greatest rock band.

Brilliant and entertaining, OUTLIERS is a landmark work that will simultaneously delight and illuminate.

 

Murder, Vodka, Success & a Lamb October 2, 2009

Are everyone else’s ears still ringing from last night?  Some might be surprised to know that we actually picked books through May of 2010.  Following are the choices for the remainder of 2009.  Stay tuned for details on our family saga reads!

 

October: Murder, mystery, family saga & a field trip!

Meeting: Wednesday, October 28, 7:30 p.m.
Location: Muss & Turner’s

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
 

Description
An international publishing sensation, Stieg Larsson’s Girl with the Dragon Tattoo combines murder mystery, family saga, love story, and financial intrigue into one satisfyingly complex and entertainingly atmospheric novel.

Harriet Vanger, a scion of one of Sweden’s wealthiest families disappeared over forty years ago. All these years later, her aged uncle continues to seek the truth. He hires Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently trapped by a libel conviction, to investigate. He is aided by the pieced and tattooed punk prodigy Lisbeth Salander. Together they tap into a vein of unfathomable iniquity and astonishing corruption.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

November: Ambition is the name of the game – 2 selections!

Are You There Vodka? It’s me, Chelsea by Chelsea Handler

 

Description
When Chelsea Handler needs to get a few things off her chest, she appeals to a higher power — vodka. You would too if you found out that your boyfriend was having an affair with a Peekapoo or if you had to pretend to be honeymooning with your father in order to upgrade to first class. Welcome to Chelsea’s world — a place where absurdity reigns supreme and a quick wit is the best line of defense.

In this hilarious, deliciously skewed collection, Chelsea mines her past for stories about her family, relationships, and career that are at once singular and ridiculous. Whether she’s convincing her third-grade class that she has been tapped to play Goldie Hawn’s daughter in the sequel to Private Benjamin, deciding to be more egalitarian by dating a redhead, or looking out for a foulmouthed, rum-swilling little person who looks just like her…only smaller, Chelsea has a knack for getting herself into the most outrageous situations. Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea showcases the candor and irresistible turns of phrase that have made her one of the freshest voices in comedy today.

 

 

 

Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
 

Description
In this stunning new book, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of “outliers”—the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes high-achievers different? His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing. Along the way he explains the secrets of software billionaires, what it takes to be a great soccer player, why Asians are good at math, and what made the Beatles the greatest rock band.

Brilliant and entertaining, OUTLIERS is a landmark work that will simultaneously delight and illuminate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 December: We searched, and there are less than 20 instances of the “F” word in 464 pages…so, we’re good.

Lamb by Christopher Moore

Description
The birth of Jesus has been well chronicled, as have his glorious teachings, acts, and divine sacrifice after his thirtieth birthday. But no one knows about the early life of the Son of God, the missing years — except Biff, the Messiah’s best bud, who has been resurrected to tell the story in the divinely hilarious yet heartfelt work “reminiscent of Vonnegut and Douglas Adams” (Philadelphia Inquirer).

Verily, the story Biff has to tell is a miraculous one, filled with remarkable journeys, magic, healings, kung fu, corpse reanimations, demons, and hot babes. Even the considerable wiles and devotion of the Savior’s pal may not be enough to divert Joshua from his tragic destiny. But there’s no one who loves Josh more — except maybe “Maggie,” Mary of Magdala — and Biff isn’t about to let his extraordinary pal suffer and ascend without a fight.

Bloodsucking Fiends September 21, 2009

So, Susana today turned up a fact none of us knew – You Suck is actually a sequel to a book called Bloodsucking Fiends. Linda, I wonder if this explains why you weren’t thrilled with You Suck? Maybe having the full backstory would help?

Should we switch our selection to Bloodsucking Fiends? Click here to read the description…