Our next book is The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

In The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle bad things come in threes for Toru Okada. He loses his job, his cat, and his wife. His search for his wife and cat introduces him to a bizarre collection of characters in which mundane events throb with menace, while the bizarre is accepted without comment. An entrancing mystery by on of Japan's most acclaimed writers.

We'll be meeting to discuss this book on February 11th at the Main Library in Conference Rm 3 at noon. Feel free to bring a lunch

Ballot for Summer 2009 selections

2666 - Roberto Bolano

Amospheric Disturbances - Rivka Galchen

American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House - Jon Meachum

American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer - Kai Bird

The Black Swan: the Impact of the Highly Improbable - Nassim Taleb

Death with Interruptions - Jose Saramago

Exiles - Ron Hansen

The Gifted Gabaldon Sisters - Lorraine Lopez

Revolutionary Road - Richard Yates

Shadow Country - Peter Matthieson

Email me your top four selections in order of preference before our meeting on Feb. 11th, OR make sure to come to the Feb. 11th meeting and vote with a paper ballot. In the event we elect to read both 2666 and Shadow Country, I will choose to save one for our fall selections so we don't have to read two very long fiction books back to back. (I'd love to read both these books, don't hesitate to vote for them.)

cheers,
Bryan

Some thoughts about Life is So Good...

When George & Richard browse the newspaper archive, George tears up because he realizes many of the stories in the newspaper are not true. Do newspapers tell the truth now?

George’s father tells him that “Everyman is born to die... so always do the right thing.” Is this good advice?

Though racial conditions are better in other places George travels to, he eventually always wants to go back home. What is the allure of home? Why would he want to go back when knew social conditions there were so unjust?

What gave George his stoic, if not positive, view of life? Why do you think he had such good health and such a good memory long into his life?

We'll be meeting to discuss this book on January 14th at the Main Library in Conference Rm 3 at noon. Feel free to bring a lunch.