Category Archives: book club

Busy weekend

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Whew! Lots going on this weekend. I saw two movies–Pan’s Labyrinth and Babel. I’ll probably post more thoughts on these later. I will say that, while I liked Babel, I don’t think it was any great injustice that it didn’t win Best Picture. Both movies were dark, but I thought Pan’s Labyrinth was slightly more hopeful and uplifting. I cried during Pan’s Labyrinth and didn’t during Babel, which is not to say that there were not sad, heartwrenching moments during that movie.

Anyway.

brownies

I made Eden’s peanut butter swirl brownies, and for my first attempt at brownies from scratch, I have to say not half bad. I think my pan was an 8×8 rather than 9×9, which made them a little thicker than I would have liked, but they were okay.

books

Sunday was our book club meeting. None of us hated the book as violently as Eden did, but we all basically agreed about the book’s problems. It seemed to me that Coupland couldn’t decide which story he wanted to tell, which resulted in a jumbled, chaotic story with too many loose threads left untied. I’m not sure the four-narrator thing worked so well, because the characters weren’t given distinct enough voices.

The book was very readable…I got through it in a day…but I just kept waiting for something to happen, particularly in Heather’s story. There were moments when I thought I saw where Coupland wanted to go, but I don’t think it quite got there. I think the father/son dynamic should have been more at the heart of the story than it was. I think Hey Nostradamus wanted to be a story about faith and redemption and family, but fell a little bit short.

I did mark a lot of passages that I thought were memorable–this one in particular:

Redemption exists, but only for others. I believe, and yet I lack faith. I tried building a private world free of hypocrisy, but all I ended up with was a sour little bubble as insular and exclusive as my father’s.

And this one:

Sometimes I think God is like weather–you may not like the weather, but it has nothing to do with you. You just happen to be there. Deal with it.

I didn’t love it, which was disappointing, given how much I enjoyed Girlfriend in a Coma and All Families are Psychotic. But I didn’t completely hate it either. I doubt I’ll ever want to read it again, and I definitely wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who hasn’t read any other Coupland.

Jen’s post, LT’s post, and Eden’s review.

LT hosted the meeting, which meant we got to visit with her adorable kitty, Linus, as well.

linus looking up

Weekend stuff

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Among other things, like laundry and cleaning, I spent some time this weekend futzing around with the book blog. New template, using the default “book” header image until I come up with something better. I’m having a hard time getting the links to play nice (for some reason, they won’t divide into link categories. Is it just a problem with the template, or is there a way to fix it?), but otherwise, I’m pretty happy with the template.

I think the blog needs a new name, since I’m going for a YA focus. Unfortunately, I’m notoriously bad at naming things. Suggestions would be most welcome.

I finished reading Hey Nostradamus, but I’m not going to write about it until after the book club meeting. I also finished Anatomy of a Boyfriend (link to my review on the book blog). And of course, I read Eden’s manuscript. I should have been doing more working and less reading, but I couldn’t help myself… 😉

I continue to plug along with Project 365. I may not always post the photos on my blog, but they’ll always be there in my flickr set.

And finally, a big congratulations to my friends Mary and Rob, who welcomed a baby boy into the world last Thursday night!

Okay, I’ve got work to do. Happy Monday!

Book club, anyone?

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As you may or may not know, Jen, Lady Turpentine and I have formed a book club. Our next selection is Hey, Nostradamus by Douglas Coupland. (Jen posted a bit of a review here)

We’ve opened up the club to virtual members…people not within reasonable proximity who’d like to read along. As soon as we decide on the date of our next meeting, we’ll post it as a “read by” date. After the meeting, we’ll post and you can jump in and share your brilliant insights.

Let us know if you want to join in!

The Awakening/Book club meeting

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Many moons ago, LT sent out a “Hey, let’s form a book club” email. Jen and I said “cool!” We finally had our first meeting yesterday, at Caffe Aroma on Elmwood. (LT gives her report here!)

I had never read The Awakening. As you may recall, I was not a lit major in college, and this wasn’t one of the selections I had to read either in high school or in my intro survey course. I did, however, read about it when I crammed for the exams I took to get the necessary credits to be certified in HS English.

So I knew how it ended, and I think I was a bit jaded by this information.

Which is not to say that I disliked it; I didn’t. It was certainly thought-provoking, and provided plenty of topics for discussion. I, for one, found the social commentary aspect much more interesting than the “feminist” aspect…that is, the idea that appearances were everything. For example, Edna’s husband didn’t seem to mind so much that his wife had moved out. It was more “What will people think?”

And in the end, even, Edna rationalized her decision by saying that it would be better for her children this way…their reputations wouldn’t be damaged.

That’s interesting. And sad.

I think if I were teaching literature, I’d pair this selection with The Yellow Wallpaper and discuss how women’s health issues were so woefully neglected. But hey, that’s just me. 😉

Jen had the camera, so look for photos soon.

We need to choose our next selection. We’ve all tossed a few ideas out, but nothing solid. Any suggestions?