http://www.idkfa.com/v3 idkfa: syndicated http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=397&msg_id=418 More like LeWIN. Sorry, I'm not sure why I'm so keen on this LeGuin choice. It's probably not going to be nearly as cool as I think. Especially since it was directly compared to "The Handmaid's Tale". Scrotor@idkfa.com (Scrotor) The Good Books Sun, 05 Sep 2010 04:11:08 -0800 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=397&msg_id=418 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=397&msg_id=411 I vote for LeGuin. And Butler and Calvino. Please let me know which one wins (LeGuin) before I leave in a couple of days. Scrotor@idkfa.com (Scrotor) The Good Books Sun, 05 Sep 2010 03:44:16 -0800 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=397&msg_id=411 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=397&msg_id=400 I wonder whether my mother has a copy. It sounds pretty awesome. sexretary@idkfa.com (sexretary) The Good Books Fri, 03 Sep 2010 19:45:33 -0800 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=397&msg_id=400 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=397&msg_id=399 Murakami, Borges, and LeGuin. kaiden@idkfa.com (kaiden) The Good Books Fri, 03 Sep 2010 19:43:52 -0800 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=397&msg_id=399 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=397&msg_id=398 I vote for Murakami, Borges, or Stross. Saturn's Children was a great find, Sexretary. CatLady@idkfa.com (CatLady) The Good Books Fri, 03 Sep 2010 19:42:48 -0800 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=397&msg_id=398 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=397&msg_id=397 Hello, friends. I hope you have had a wonderful summer and also that you have missed our little gatherings immensely. Perhaps it is time for a resumption of Monday Night Book Club. Are you ready? I was told to pick a book. As you may recall, I am very partial to collections of short stories and a sucker for authors with a tendency towards preciousness. I included a couple of novels, though. Here are some suggestions. What do you think? Yours sincerely, Sexretary The Elephant Vanishes (stories), Haruki Murakami This collection of 15 stories from a popular Japanese writer, perhaps best known in this country for A Wild Sheep Chase, gives a nice idea of his breadth of style. The work maintains the matter-of-fact tone reminiscent of American detective fiction, balancing itself somewhere between the spare realism of Raymond Carver and the surrealism of Kobo Abe. These are not the sort of stories that one thinks of as "Japanese"; the intentionally Westernized style and well-placed reference to pop culture gives them a contemporary and universal feel. Engaging, thought-provoking, humorous, and slyly profound, these skillful stories will easily appeal to American readers but must present something of a challenge to the Japanese cultural establishment. At their best, however, they serve to dispel cultural stereotypes and reveal a common humanity. Labyrinths (stories), Jorge Luis Borges If Jorge Luis Borges had been a computer scientist, he probably would have invented hypertext and the World Wide Web. Instead, being a librarian and one of the world's most widely read people, he became the leading practitioner of a densely layered imaginistic writing style that has been imitated throughout this century, but has no peer (although Umberto Eco sometimes comes close, especially in Name of the Rose). Borges's stories are redolent with an intelligence, wealth of invention, and a tight, almost mathematically formal sexretary@idkfa.com (sexretary) The Good Books Fri, 03 Sep 2010 19:39:55 -0800 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=397&msg_id=397