Been reading "A Game of Thrones", in anticipation for the forthecoming 'Game of Thrones' TV series on HBO. I'm about a third through it, and so far I can say that it is quite impressive, especially for a fantasy novel.
How does Monday, March 21st sound for the next book club meeting? 7-9. i can most likely host. Erik gave the book 4/5 STARS. This means it doesn't suck! So read it. Cuyler is in Texas visiting his girlfriend, and won't be able to make it. Baird does plays now, not books. New people are encouraged to attend!
For those of you who aren't in our book club, or have STOPPED GOING, i'm bringing goodies from Alaska Cake Studio! They will be delicious. So, you should join our book club! or RE-join.
Libby will not be getting any cake.
Allison's picks
After all the doom and gloom...and equations, lets read something light and fun!
The Third Policeman by: Flann O’Brien
200 pages
The Third Policemanis Flann O'Brien's brilliantly dark comic novel about the nature of time, death, and existence. Told by a narrator who has committed a botched robbery and brutal murder, the novel follows him and his adventures in a two-dimensional police station where, through the theories of the scientist/philosopher de Selby, he is introduced to "Atomic Theory" and its relation to bicycles, the existence of eternity (which turns out to be just down the road), and de Selby's view that the earth is not round but "sausage-shaped." With the help of his newly found soul named "Joe," he grapples with the riddles and
contradictions that three eccentric policeman present to him.
The last of O'Brien's novels to be published, The Third Policeman joins O'Brien's other fiction (At Swim-Two-Birds, The Poor Mouth, The Hard Life, The Best of Myles, The Dalkey Archive) to ensure his place, along with James Joyce and Samuel Beckett, as one of Ireland's great comic geniuses.
Super Sad True Love Storyby Gary Shteyngart
331 pages
Author Gary Shteyngart might have the most memorable name, but the author of Absurdistan continues to roll out wild dystopian novels that unnerve you even while you're laughing. Super Sad True Love Story belies almost every word of its title, but it still plunges us into a satirical realm that we can recognize if we open our eyes widely. Restless, middle-aged, maladjusted Lenny Abramov and young Eunice Park, his somewhat reluctant old-fashioned love interest alternate as narrators, each of them projecting a slightly twisted view of an even more twisted reality. A refreshing satirical romp for hip fiction readers.
Remained by: Tom McCarthy
308 pages
A man is severely injured in a mysterious accident, receives an outrageous sum in legal compensation, and has no idea what to do with it.
Then, one night, an ordinary sight sets off a series of bizarre visions he can’t quite place.
How he goes about bringing his visions to life–and what happens afterward–makes for one of the most riveting, complex, and unusual novels in recent memory.
Remainder is about the secret world each of us harbors within, and what might happen if we were granted the power to make it real.
The Unnamed By:Joshua Ferris
336 pages
It's back.With those words Tim and Jane Farnsworth reenter a nightmare they know so intimately it needs no other description. "It" may not be found among an insurance company's diagnostic codes, but the Farnsworths, a couple made wealthy by Tim's single-mindedly successful legal practice, know it too well: Tim's compulsion, at any random moment of the day or night, to set out walking for hours at a time until he collapses in exhaustion. They've survived two bouts of this inexplicable illness, which began as mysteriously as they ended, and now, as Joshua Ferris's second novel, The Unnamed, opens, they are beset by a third. Ferris follows his character's condition as far as it leads him, far beyond where logic and loyalty usually take our lives, but always treats it with empathy, grace, and imagination. His language is as exact and poetic as his premise is fantastic, and by the story's end you feel the title refers not only to his hero's strange and solitary disease but also to those elemental but equally inexplicable forces that bind us together through the most difficult turns of
Finished Wastelands.
Although short stories aren't my favorite, i really liked this collection. There were 3-4 real stand outs in my opinion. The last one is pretty awesome. Curious to see if others liked the same authors i did. Actually, King, Card, and Wolfe (all noted authors) wrote what i thought were some of the more lackluster or disappointing stories. Martin's contribution was pretty solid.
If i had to guess, i would have thought King was the author of David Bailey's chapter. Definitely going to look into some of Bailey's other works.
Hurry up and finish guys!
Wastelands
So far I've finished the first story (Stephen King). Off to a pretty good start. Although it's a little too compassionate for a Stephen King story, imo. Looking forward to some morMON fiction next (Orson Scott Card).
In the past 24 hours i have bought Dune, Wastelands, and World War Z. Apparently my outlook on life is bleak.
Book club choices for a meeting on Monday, February 21st!
We'll discuss the whole book.
The Children of Húrin, by JRR Tolkein (Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages (www.amazon.com))
Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse, by various authors (Oversize Paperback: 331 pages (www.amazon.com))
The Last Temptation of Christ, by Nikos Kazantzakis (Paperback: 506 pages (www.amazon.com))
Eureka Man is so far mostly interesting.
I say "mostly," because at what seems like the mid-point of the book, it stops being about Archimedes, and starts describing the journeys taken by some of the critical texts from which we know about Archimedes. Which means for the last 3 chapters I've been reading about papyrus, parchment, scribes, and the repeated sacking of entire cultures' intellectual capital.
Having a little trouble staying awake, is all.
Cuyler's turn for picking book club books.
His choices are:
So far, votes are 3 for Eureka Man, 2 for Smile When You're Lying.
How's the reading going book club friends? I'm at the end of part two. Its still pretty good-things are getting exciting again. But, I feel like i'm supposed to like Neil Gaiman more than i actually do. Keep reading! See you all in 2 weeks.
For this round, we're reading American Gods. We plan to split the book into three parts, as it would appear to be more on the side of 600 pages than 480. I'll pick up the book tomorrow and pick a good chapter boundary. Expect to read about a third of the book in two week's time, planning on having the next meeting on November 1st, location as of yet undetermined.
If it's indeed my turn to come up with a book selection for last time, I'm comfortable with recycling my previous choices. Original email to follow:
----
Vernor Vinge, "A Fire Upon the Deep" (391 pages)
From Wikipedia: "A Fire Upon the Deep is a science fiction novel by American writer Vernor Vinge, a space opera involving superhuman intelligences, aliens, variable physics, space battles, love, betrayal, genocide, and a conversation medium resembling Usenet. A Fire Upon the Deep won the Hugo Award in 1993 (tied with Doomsday Book by Connie Willis).[1]
[...]
A human civilization high in the Beyond (see below for an explanation of the Zones of Thought) dispatches an expedition to a planet in the low Transcend, having learned of a massive 5-billion year old archive of data there which had been off the Known Net for all that time. It offers the possibility of unthinkable riches for the ambitious young civilization of Straumli Realm, and an expedition of archaeologist programmers is dispatched to open the archive and discover its secrets."
This is probably going to be extremely "hard" science fiction, not necessarily difficult in reading, but in that it will focus heavily on science concepts and extremely nerdy things. I'm interested in this book because, well, I'm a nerd, and this sounds like it has truly novel ideas about the future and space travel that you don't find often.
Neil Gaiman, "American Gods" (480 pages)
From Wikipedia: "American Gods is a Hugo and Nebula Award-winning[1] novel by Neil Gaiman. The novel is a blend of Americana, fantasy, and various strands of ancient and modern mythology, all centering on a mysterious and taciturn protagonist, Shadow. It is Gaiman's fourth prose novel, being preceded by Good Omens (a collaboration with Terry Pratchett), Neverwhere, and Stardust. Several of the themes touched upon in the book were previously glimpsed in The Sandman graphic novels.
[...]
The central concept is that gods and mythological creatures exist because people believe in them. Immigrants to the United States brought dwarves, elves, leprechauns, and other spirits and gods with them, but their power is diminished as people's beliefs wane. New gods have arisen, reflecting America's obsessions with media, celebrity, technology, and illegal drugs, among others."
I've heard nothing but good things about this author, either from fantasy enthusiasts, or comic book geeks (Gaiman is famous for his "Sandman" series). The concept sounds pretty interesting, and if nothing else sounds like its pretty decent fiction.
Naomi Novik, "His Majesty's Dragon" (356 pages)
From Wikipedia: "His Majesty's Dragon, published in the UK as Temeraire, is the first novel in the Temeraire alternate history/fantasy series by American author Naomi Novik first published in 2005. His Majesty's Dragon won the 2007 Compton Crook Award for best novel in the Science Fiction/Fantasy genre during 2006 by a first time author in the genre. The book was also nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2007, but lost out to Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge.
[...]
The story is set during an alternate history version of the Napoleonic Wars, in which dragons not only exist but are used as a staple of aerial warfare in Asia and Europe. The dragons of the story are portrayed as sentient and intelligent, capable of logical thought and human speech. The series centers primarily on events involving Temeraire (the titular dragon) and his handler, Will Laurence. The first book of the series centers on how Laurence, formerly a Captain in the Royal Navy, becomes Temeraire's handler, and their early training in preparation for battles against Napoleon's aerial fleet."
I mean, who *hasn't* wondered how the Napoleonic wars would have gone if he had dragons at his disposal? I'd normally skip this one because it sounds a little silly, but this is one where other fantasy writers have said "Wow, this is surprisingly good, and I'm not embarrassed to have somebody read the book's title when I'm sitting next to them on an airplane."
I think we agreed on Monday, Oct. 18th, for our next meeting, tenatively at Allison or Cuyler's place, or both. Plan is to finish "Saturn's Children."
Predictable bad news: I have rehearsal tonight from 8 PM until 10 PM. Perhaps I could be there early for a little bit? I will be very sad to miss pie and pink goo discussions. But I can tell you that the apples and dough are DELICIOUS.
Votes are currently at:
Leguin - 3
Borges - 2
Murakami - 2
Butler - 1
Calvino - 1
Stross - 1
We're missing Libby, and mystery members X, Y, and Cuyler.
We're planning on starting back up with our book club up here in Anchorage, and using idkfa as a combination discussion, scheduling, and coordination area. We'll try to include what we're reading, and when, and maybe try to provide discussion or questions about books as we go along.
Our usual deal is we rotate through members of the book club, with each person coming up with a list of 3-5 books for the rest of the group to vote on. Once voted, we give ourselves about 2 weeks to read around 250 pages, or half of a book, whichever comes first, or seems like a good stopping point.
Libby's in a book!!!
https://www.novapu...0f50d28f2c9984f5175 (www.novapublishers.com)
She helped with "Cementitious Wasteforms for Immobilization of Low-Activity Radioactive Wastes". Looks like she used to be a little ol' environmental scientist.
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 style that challenge with mysteries and paradoxes revealed only slowly after several readings. Highly recommended to anyone who wants their imagination and intellect to be aswarm with philosophical plots, compelling conundrums, and a wealth of real and imagined literary references derived from an infinitely imaginary library.
t zero (stories), Italo Calvino
A collection of stories about time, space, and the evolution of the universe in which the author blends mathematics with poetic imagination. “Calvino does what very few writers can do: he describes imaginary worlds with the most extraordinary precision and beauty” (Gore Vidal, New York Review of Books). Translated by William Weaver. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book
The Dispossessed, Ursula LeGuin
The second part of this 1974 novel's title is: "An Ambiguous Utopia." It's the story of two civilizations. A wealthy but authoritarian culture thrives planetside, and on its arid moon is a feminist-anarchist colony created by dissidents who left the planet over a century before. A brilliant physicist is the first member of the moon colony to travel back planetside since the separation. What he learns there, using advanced scientific equipment, is nothing compared to what he learns about political conflict.
Lilith's Brood, by Octavia Butler
Butler brings us a story of completely alien creatures who want to merge with humanity. This series of three interconnected stories focuses on the Oankali, aliens who use biotechnology to reinvent themselves every few generations by merging with other intelligent forms of life. Their new chosen mates are human, and Butler takes us through three generations of the Oankali's hybridization project, introducing us to the Oankali's three-gender family structure as well as their biotech spaceships, created by lifeforms that devour entire planets to build themselves into vast habitats that roam the galaxy.
Saturn's Children, by Charles Stross
A recent novel by award-winning author Stross, Saturn's Children is a deceptively light-hearted story of a sexbot trying to figure out what her life really means now that the humans she was programmed to service are extinct.
