Hi, Slowtrav book lovers and addicted readers! I have a few decisions to make about the format of our book club for 2008 and I’m looking forward to your help and input...here are some ideas:
1. Day and time – Sunday @ 2:00 P.M. Sunday works best for me, and I’m also able to arrange an occasional Saturday, if that is needed. Weekdays are difficult because of work, so I’d rather not promise to be here on a weekday and then have to change it.
I’d like to set a time that would include as many people as possible. If we choose to go with 2:00 P.M. MST, will that allow Slowtrav members in the UK, France, Spain and other locations at 9:00 P.M. and in Italy at 10:00 P.M. to join us? Is 8:00 A.M. too early or not workable for our members in Australia and New Zealand? Hopefully, I've read the World Clock properly!
2. Last November’s selection was "Don't Let's Go To The Dogs Tonight" by Alexandra Fuller. Because that discussion didn’t take place, would you like to have that as our first book for this year or would you prefer to choose something new?
3. 2008 Book List – I’m creating a new book list for 2008, and I’d like to hear your ideas for your all-time favourite book that you’d like to add to the new list! Please include any of the books from the 2007 list posted below, as well as a new selection that you’d like to see included. Post your choices and I’ll update the list for you!
Here’s the 2007 book list: • The Dream of Scipio by Iain Pears, 396 pages • A Life of Her Own by Emile Carles, 304 pages • Moloka'i by Alan Brennert, 400 pages • Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt by Anne Rice, 336 pages • Mr. Emerson's Wife by Amy Belding Brown, 336 pages • Miss Garnet's Angel by Salley Vickers, 352 pages • Our Hearts were Young and Gay by Cornelia Otis Skinner and Emily Kimbrough, 208 pages • The Lovely Bones by Alice Seybold, 352 pages • Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, 336 pages • Cara Massimina by Tim Parks, 230 pages • The Makioka Sisters by Junichiro Tanazaki, 544 pages • Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz, 512 pages • Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner, 592 pages • The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, 672 pages • In This House of Brede by Rumer Goddon, 656 pages
Let me know what you’d like to see happen with this year’s book club…I’m happy to hear from you!
“A good book should leave you slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading it." ~ William Styron Brenda
If we choose to go with 2:00 P.M. MST, will that allow Slowtrav members in the UK, France, Spain and other locations at 9:00 P.M. and in Italy at 10:00 P.M. to join us?
Correction - France, Spain and Italy are in the same time zone - the U.K. is one hour earlier - 10pm is probably too late for us in Spain as this is the time we normally eat. Surely an earlier time MST (11.00am) would be much better and therefore enable European Slow Travel contibutors to be included. This is supposed to be an international website after all (isn't it?).
1. Since I'm on the west coast of the US, 2pm on Sunday works quite well for me. Not sure how that will work for Australia and NZ, since that is Monday morning for them. But I'll let them weigh in on that. Michael, this is very much an international website, and I think Brenda is trying very hard to find a time that is inclusive of as many people as possible. Pushing the time to 11am MST makes it very early in the morning in parts of Australia.
2. I'd love to start 2008 with Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight. But I'm the one who suggested the book, so I'm a little biased.
3. I'd like to keep The Dream of Scipio from last year's list, and suggest Half of a Yellow Sun as a new book.
Brenda, 4pm EST would work fine for me on either Saturday or Sunday, although I am sure that there would be more than one occasion where I'd be busy and unable to attend. But definitely do-able for me!
2 p.m. is fine for me too, but I will be available up till 8 p.m. at night.
I would like to add The Blind Assassin to the list and would be more than happy to host when or if we read this one.
As for the reading list above, all the books are fine except Christ the Lord, Out of Egypt which was a giant yawn and not worth reading IMO. I usually love her narratives but this one was terrible.
Good book ideas... Thanks for your enthusiasm! I'll revise a book list and include your choices.
My new book choice is: The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
My choices to keep from the 2007 list are: Miss Garnet's Angels by Salley Vickers The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver The Lovely Bones by Alice Seybold Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
Jill, Nancy, Panda, Terry and Ginger, It seems like 2:00 P.M. on Sundays will be a good time for us to meet. I suggested this time because it allows people living on both sides of my local MST to participate.
Thanks for the skinny on Christ the Lord, Out of Egypt, Ginger. No sleepers needed here!
Michael, I understand what you are saying about 2:00 P.M. MST/10:00 P.M. your time being meal time for you. It is, for me, as well! We always have a late family brunch on Sundays between 1:00 - 3:00 P.M., so there will now be one Sunday a month when everyone in my family has agreed to move that family time to a couple of hours earlier, so I can participate in my beloved book club. Hope you can find a way to join us.
Terry, Nancy, Panda...are there any books in the 2007 list posted above that you'd especially like to keep for this year's list?
Our first book for discussion for 2008 will be Don't Lets Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller, Jill's choice. I know some of you have already read it, but I haven't! Would you mind if I took a couple of weeks before we get together for discussion, so I can have a chance to read it? Has anyone else not read this book, besides me?
So, here's the list so far...please let me know if you wish to add any more of the books from the 2007 list. I've also added links for the books and the authors, when I've found them:
Thanks, Terry! I thought I'd be the only one who hadn't read the book, and I was feeling like a bit of a dim bulb because I am way behind. Now that there's someone else who hasn't read it, I don't feel so bad!
I didn't post a date for the first discussion yet, because I wanted to make sure that everyone had time to make all additions to the reading list. Let's hold the first book club meeting of 2008 on Sunday, February 17th at 2:00 P.M. Anyone unavailable for that date? That's the best weekend for me, so hopefully, it is also good for all of you.
"I find television to be very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go in the other room and read a book." ~ Groucho Marx Brenda
I will be spending that weekend with my granddaughters, but will try to slip away to get online with you-all. I also have not read the Fuller book but will order it ASAP.
Ginger, you crack me up! I can totally see it! They're constantly moving and setting up new "homesteads," they're in the middle of BFE, and they definitely don't fit the traditional image of Ma and Pa.
I am really cross with myself (or possibly with my clutter-phobic husband, she thinks darkly): we definately had this book and I have searched the many bookshelves in this house and think it might be a accidental victim of a book purge. (We clear out those we are not going to read again, by taking them to the local children's hospice charity shop.)
Have just buzzed around town trying our local library, two local bookshops and all the book sections in the many local charity shops. Zilch.
Am hoping my online order will get to me in time now so I can speed read and refresh my memory!
Posts: 925 | Location: London, UK | Registered: 20 September 2006
Panda, if you need more time to find and read the book, let me know...I can extend the meeting date a week or so. That's not a problem for me...would it be for anyone else?
"Nobody has ever written a book about growing up white in rural Africa the way Alexandra Fuller has. Her voice is mordant, her ear uncanny. Her unsentimentality is a pleasant shock. Her sense of humor is extremely sly. Without a trace of pretension, she quietly performs what is really a major literary feat-nailing both the poetry and the myopia of a child's experience in a brawling, bad-luck family on the losing side of an anti-colonial war." ~ William Finnegan Brenda
What a kind offer !- but I should be ok, timewise. I've tracked down a copy to a bigger bookshop branch, and I'll pick it up tomorrow (decided not to trust to vagaries of the postal service!)
My husband has defended himself against accusations of book disposal by suggesting that I got it out from the library. Think he may be right.
Looking forward to reading it again.
Posts: 925 | Location: London, UK | Registered: 20 September 2006
I'm also a voracious reader and would love to participate in this book club.
I can totally see it! They're constantly moving and setting up new "homesteads," they're in the middle of BFE, and they definitely don't fit the traditional image of Ma and Pa.
