Memoir and Memories June 17, 2009
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Since the potluck worked so well last time, we’re doing it again. We meet in two weeks, on Tuesday June 30th, 7:00 at my (Kris’s) house* for a potluck. I’ll have meat and veggie burgers and fixings. Bring a side dish or dessert and your favorite bottle (or bottles). This month, we’re reading Mark Helprin’s Memoir from Antproof Case.
If you haven’t started it yet, get going! It’s 514 pages long (but, unlike last June’s pick, House of Leaves, you won’t have to read it upside down and diagonally). Oh, and it’s not really a memoir. It’s a fictional memoir. Although, I guess we could argue that they all are.
Here are some reviews:
This meeting marks the one year anniversary of our book club, and from what I know and hear about book club success, we’re doing pretty well. We usually have ten or more people at each meeting, about half of whom have read the whole book, and we only go off topic about 60% of the time, so yay us! All kidding aside, most book clubs don’t make it this long, and I’m thrilled that we’re still going strong.
In more news, I’m going to start sharing the book club duty branch with Julie Cancio Harper and Miriam Klein who have graciously agreed to co-organize and co-facilitate the book club meetings (and I hope co-post to this blog). I’m so grateful to both of them.
So please, come out and join us for this anniversary meeting, and someone, bring a cake! Even if you don’t finish the book. You know how we are.
*If you’re a bookclub regular, you’ve already gotten an email from me with my address. If you’d didn’t receive that message, contact me at kharrington@ysu.edu.
Surviving the Minions of May May 18, 2009
Posted by oaklandbookclub in meetings.Tags: Christopher Barzak, meeting
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Go ahead, roll your eyes. I deserve it. Titles were never my strong suit. Moving on…
This month is an exciting one for the Oakland Book Club. We’re meeting Richard Bowes, author of Minions of the Moon, one of our two scheduled books. If you haven’t gotten a copy of it yet, there is still time. Although the book is out of print, I purchased a “like new” hardcover through barnesandnoble.com for under six dollars (including shipping), and I received it in only a few days. I’m waiting to read this one until closer to the date (it’s all about my failing memory), but I’m intrigued by the description of it as an “urban fantasy” and also by the cover art. Yes, friends, I judge books by their covers.
We’re also reading Chuck Palahniuk’s Survivor. I’m 3/4 of the way through this one, and clearly, it’s by the guy who brought us Fight Club. This is not a criticism. Where Fight Club brought us soap made from suburban ass fat, Survivor brings us spray-painted garden flowers, carefully selected from the local masoleum. There is some fun to be had here.
This month, we’re meeting on Tuesday May 26th, 7:00, at the home of Christopher Barzak. In the interest of protecting Chris from stalkers (he is an award-winning author, and if we’re honest, a hottie), I won’t print his address here. If you’re a book club regular, I’ve emailed it to you. If you didn’t receive this email, contact me at kharrington@ysu.edu.
The meeting is pot luck, so bring a dish to share and your favorite bottle of wine.
(Make sure to pick on the links. I put in the basic amazon.com descriptions along with another couple of fun sites to explore)
Urban magic, suicide cults, and cups of love… April 21, 2009
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There are several things going on with our book club over the next couple of months.
Let’s start with a shout out to book club founder, Chris Barzak. Chris will be reading from The Love We Share Without Knowing at 7:00 on Thursday April 23. The reading will take place in the Art Gallery of YSU’s Kilcawley Center. YSU Poet Phil Brady will read from his collection, By Heart, and Phil will be joined by student writers from the Penguin Review. This event is free and open to the public.
Our next book club meeting is at Charlie Staples next Tuesday, April 28, 7:00 to discuss Z.Z. Packer’s collection of short stories Drinking Coffee Elsewhere. Come and get your “cup of love.”
Here are a few reviews
The title story from Packer’s collection was published as debut fiction in The New Yorker, June 2000.
For May, we’re reading two books. Richard Bowes’s Minions of the Moon. We’re trying to arrange a meeting with Bowes, who will be in the area for a week in May. Here’s a teaser from the cultural arts magazine, Rambles: “Like all good urban fantasy, Minions of the Moon deals with magic living just below the surface of everyday life. Aside from Kevin’s Shadow, there are appearances here by angels, devils and strangers from another dimension, who want both Kevin and his Shadow for their own twisted purposes. Another character is haunted by a ghost which is tied to a disappearing book of children’s rhymes.”
This book is out of print, but ordering it shouldn’t pose a problem (except that is may take a couple of weeks, so order now). If you have an account with either barnesandnoble.com or amazon.com, you don’t need to do anything different but click on the used button on a book’s page, which will take you to a list of used book dealers with prices and book condition descriptions and you click one of those and go to the purchase page, just as you would with a new book.
The second book is Chuck Palahniuk’s Survivor, the story of Tender Branson, a member of death cult. Palahniuk’s novel has been described as “a satire of commercial culture.” From what I’ve read, people either love or hate Palahniuk’s work, so it should make for an interesting discussion.
We haven’t set the date, place, time for May’s meeting yet, but we will soon. Remember, you don’t have to read both books to attend the meeting.
March, April, May March 29, 2009
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The four of us who met at Vintage Estates Beer and Wine in Boardman to talk about Watchmen had a good time. It was all girls, so naturally, we enjoyed a feminist reading of the text. Really with four girls and Watchmen, it’s all but a countdown until the word “misogyny” makes its way into the conversation. I’m sure there are still more of you who’d like to get together to talk about Watchmen. Feel free to use the email list to do so.
Our next meeting will be on Tuesday April 28 at 7:00 (back to 4th Tuesdays for good). Mark your calendars. Location is TBA. It’ll be a secret location, like a rave party, without drugs, and with books, so in other words, nothing like a rave party.
This month we’re reading Z.Z. Packer’s collection of short stories Drinking Coffee Elsewhere, which I’ve just found at barnesandnoble.com for $4.98 in hardback! You can’t beat that price.
And now on to May. There is a slight modification here. Richard Bowes’s Minions of the Moon is out of print, but it’s available used online. We’re still going to discuss this book, but we’ll discuss it during the second hour of our May meeting.
We’re adding another book to May, Chuck Palahniuk’s Survivor: A Novel. Palahniuk is best known for being the author of Fight Club, the novel and film that brought us light and wonderful thoughts like “I wanted to destroy something beautiful.” We’ll discuss Survivor during the first half of the May meeting.
As always, email me with questions,
Kris
Fetishists and lunatics and books, oh my! February 27, 2009
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First, I’d like to thank everyone who attended the planning meeting. It was a lively one, that’s for sure, and I was thrilled with both the number and quality of suggestions. It’s also refreshing to kick off the next couple of months with some new genres.
Note, this is a change of time: Our next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday March 25th at the Vintage Estate Wine and Beer on South Ave. in Boardman ( it’s next to Aladdin’s, where The Boathouse used to be) at 7:00.
in March, we’re reading Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.
This one is a graphic novel, and I have to say, I’m pretty jazzed about reading it, despite having mocked both the superhero and graphic novel genres. Seriously, the graphic novel section of Barnes and Noble is like its own little world where the normal rules of book shelving and organizing don’t apply. It’s fortunate that B and N has a guy. You know, that guy…the reason we mock superheroes and graphic novels, that is, until we need him, and then he is the superhero (and that was a helluva lot of commas).
And then, we’re all going to go and see the movie together; it comes out in a week or two. Today, I found this great article on cnn.com. It’s called “Will Anyone Watch the Watchmen?” It really piqued my interest in both the novel and the film with this line from cast member Billy Crudup: “What would people who dress up in costumes to fight crime actually be like? Well, they’d probably be fetishists who lived on the fringes of society. They’d all be a bunch of freaking lunatics.”
Fetishists and lunatics? Count me in!
Here’s the rest of the lineup.
- April: Drinking Coffee Elsewhere, Z. Z. Packer (collection of short stories)
- May: Minions of the Moon, Richard Bowes (with opportunity to meet the author)
- June: Memoir From an Ant proof Case, Mark Helprin
- July: The Seville Communion, Arturo Perez-Revert
- August: The God of Small Things, Arundhanti Roi
- September: Skycraper, Faith Baldwin and Elizabeth M. Hess (pulp fiction from the Feminist Press Femme Fatale Series)
- October: Wicked, Gregory Maguire
- November: Hardboiled Wonderland at the End of the World, Haruki Marakami (I have to check the availability of this one)
- December: Linden Hills, Gloria Naylor
The best book club in the Yo. We’ve got it going on.
We’re mixin’ it up in 09! January 8, 2009
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Please Note: The meeting date has changed
This month, we’re started our first in a the series of member-selected books. January’s pick, Kindred by Octavia Butler was recommended by Laurie Delaney, who will also lead our discussion. Thank you Laurie! We’re meeting on Tuesday Jan. 27th at 7:00, but this time, Laurie and I decided to keep it cheap for the beer drinking and wing chomping among us, and thus, we’ll meet at the Inner Circle Pizza on YSU’s campus.
Here is a brief description of the Kindred from Amazon.com:
Dana, a modern black woman, is celebrating her twenty-sixth birthday with her new husband when she is snatched abruptly from her home in California and transported to the antebellum South. Rufus, the white son of a plantation owner, is drowning, and Dana has been summoned to save him. Dana is drawn back again and again for Rufus, yet each time the stay grows longer and more dangerous until it is uncertain whether or not Dana”s life will end, long before it has even begun.
So it seems there’s this magically realistic, Quantum Leap thing going on.
Intrigued!
I also tracked down this interesting interview with the author at wab.org (Writers and Books)
Just a head’s up, February’s book (meeting date TBA) is The Little Prince, suggested by Rob Joki.
The Love We Share Without Knowing December 27, 2008
Posted by oaklandbookclub in meetings.Tags: Christopher Barzak
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I’m particularly excited about this month’s meeting because we’re discussing our own Chris Barzak’s The Love We Share Without Knowing. We’re holding our meeting on Tuesday December 30th, 7:00 at Cafe Cimmento (in the board room). Chris will join us at 8:00 to answer our questions or to explain all of that Japenese stuff.
Here are some links to reviews that Chris was so kind to send me (he even included an unfavorable one, brave soul).
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/books/sfw19921.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/04/AR2008120403097.html
http://christopherbarzak.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/booklist-1111loveweshare1.jpg
I’ve already read them, and then I started re-reading sections of the book because, well, it seems I missed some important things. I don’t want to spoil, so let me just say that my gaijin brain wasn’t holding onto the Japanese names so well (I ended up making a chart).
I will, however, share my early reactions. I was about 40 pages into the book, and I said to my husband, “I wasn’t sure how this was going to work with the Japanese setting and all, but now I’m reading a Chris Barzak book.”
If you’ve read One For Sorrow, you’re already familiar with the ways Chris’s characters move between the worlds of the living and the dead. This time, these magical crossings are woven among people who all connect to one core event in a van in a rice paddy, and the books title derives (I think) from the fate of those four lonely souls and the spiritual trails they left in the lives they touched.
I hope to see you all on Tuesday.
Kris
all the way home November 11, 2008
Posted by oaklandbookclub in meetings.Tags: Christopher Barzak, David Giffels
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Don’t forget that November’s Book Club meeting is one week from today, Tuesday November 18, 7:00, Cedars Cafe. If you had the chance to meet David Giffels at last week’s Ytown Readers Series, you’re probably as intrigued as I was. Giffels’s humility and self-effacing humor are charming, and it is this charm that makes all the way home such an engrossing read.
The Giffels Family
Woven into Giffels’s chronicles of restoring a crumbling mansion (that he purchased for the shocking price of $65,000) are memories of his family, observations about his marriage, tidbits of Akron history. Giffels’s description of the mansion’s “dark charm” where the overwhelming opulence meets the equally overwhelming disrepair: a ten foot tall harp and twin crystal chandeliers share space with 55 turkey pans filled with rain water. Giffels is encouraged in his restoration (more like resurrection) adventures by his father, my favorite person in the book, who believes that any struture still standing can be fixed.
Although I’m only about a third of the way through the book so far, I’d say that my favorite feature is the sense of place as it is communicated through Giffels’s relationships with other people. As a Ytown native and fellow rustbelter, I understood perfectly when Giffels he describes how he chose his home inspector: “I called my dad and asked him if he knew anyone who might do the job. (This is how professional relationships are forged in places like Akron, by people like us).” Of course, the inspector, Steve, drives a beaten yellow pick-up truck that runs on propane. These are the real people, the most interesting characters, that we meet along this journey.
I hope you’ll join us to discuss this original and yet familiar memoir. Also, don’t forget to mark your calendars for Saturday November 29, when we celebrate the release of Chris’s The Love We Share Without Knowing.
“Merricat, said Connie, would you like a cup of tea?” October 15, 2008
Posted by oaklandbookclub in Uncategorized.Tags: cedars, shirley jackson
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“Oh no, said Merricat, you’ll poison me.”
Our October selection, Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle , is told from the point of view of Mary Katherine Blackwood, or Merricat, who lives in isolation along with her sister Constance and Uncle Julian on the family’s sprawling estate.
Merricat tells us early on that “the rest of my family is dead” and “the people of the village have always hated us.” She also intrigues us with her lists of what she likes and doesn’t like. Merricat doesn’t like to wash herself, but she likes her sister Constance and Amanita phalloides, the death-cup mushroom.
Although the novel is short and easy to read, its length is deceptive. The text is multi-layered and rich with what have become the hallmarks of gothic literature. Everything has meaning in this book, from the characters’ names to the “last” library books to the Blackwoods’ shifting position of power in their neighboring village.
Join us for a discussion of this classic mystery that raises questions about who is living and dead, sane or insane, guilty or innocent.
How, exactly, did the arsenic get into the sugar bowl?
Here are some reviews:
And here is a site that provides some biographical information (and links): http://www.classicauthors.net/Jackson/
This month’s meeting is on Tuesday October 21 at 7:00 at the Cedars restaurant.
If you didn’t come last month, you missed some lively conversation (although not necessarily about the book). Which members both served as the Bible study directors at their local high school? Which member looked for a sign from God about whether she should be a nun? Which member at age seven had inappropriate thoughts about an attractive priest? See what you’re missing?
So hurry up, read the book (or not) and join us for what is sure to be another memorable meeting.
