raisin_gurl

[

mood

|

awake

]

Throughout the summer I have been reading tons of very erm...tasty books...not for you paper fiends...amoung my favourites have been ones that were written by Jeanette Winterson...

I just feel completely fulfilled after finishing a book by her. The Power Book, left me wondering about love and life on a wide scale...since being almost eighteen it was enligtening in the sense that it made me realize there is a whole world out there with millions of people to find...and that i should just take every thing as it is, instead of constantly looking too into things that don't mean that much.

Written on the Body, was also very tasty...it's also about a relationship between two beings. The author doesn't specify their sex. Many of her novels have either discreet or blatantly obvious sexual diversity.

Some more books by her are..."Oranges are not the only Fruit...which is also a BBC production that I am trying to seek out, Sexing the Cherry, The Passion, Gut Symmetries...which is also very lovely .

Sorry if this is dull...but it's a wee bit after three...and i'm becoming fuzzy eyed.

postcardjunkie

[

mood

|

busy

]

This community has been really quiet for a very long time (except for postings by me and my co-moderator, devi_pavarti). In fact, we're the only people who have *ever* posted, despite the fact that we've got 21 members (15 of whom are watching). So there are ostensibly at least a dozen of you out there reading this.

So seriously folks, shall we put some effort into making this book club viable, or should we abandon it and turn it into a book recommendation forum?

Either way, I'd like to submit A Desert in Bohemia by Jill Paton Walsh as a recommendation/suggestion as either the next or second book we read. I've mentioned it before, but I finally got around to reading it a few weeks ago. Like Walsh's earlier book, Knowledge of Angels, it's filled with various interesting philosophical issues. This one specifically tackles free will, moral luck, and conflicts of morality, politics and idealism in 20th Century Czechoslovakia . It's a great history lesson, too. As much as I enjoyed reading the novel and getting to know the characters, I think there are some structural flaws on a basic literary level. It's the sort of thing I'm surprised wasn't picked up by editors, so I'm wondering if maybe I'm just crazy. I'm very curious to hear what anyone else thinks of it. (Also, it's a fairly quick read -- only about 300 pages.)

But seriously folks, comment and state your intentions for participation. I understand if people are busy and don't have time, or have other stuff they want to read. I just don't want to waste my own time trying to keep this going when nobody's interested.

postcardjunkie

[

mood

|

cheerful

]

Okay, folks, today's the day to begin discussion of The Hours. I hope people were able to read it. . .

What struck me most about the novel was how Cunningham captured the atmosphere of Mrs. Dalloway. Taking the facts of the original novel and twisting them around into these three intertwining lives is a clever enough idea, but he also captures the tone quite well.

Question for discussion: Are all three women supposed to be Clarissa Dalloway to some extent, or is something else going on? There are certainly parallels, but only Clarissa's life comes close to truly mirroring the original story. No?

I'm also very interested to hear what people who haven't read Mrs. Dalloway think of The Hours. . .

postcardjunkie

[

mood

|

determined

]

I've recently been talking to kstyler, and I'm going to help out as co-moderator. For now, at least, I'm the person to contact if you want to be added or removed. I'd like to revive this community and get some discussion going, especially since we have several new people who have just joined. (I'll be updating the journal info page as soon as we resolve a password issue.)

As for actual book discussion, I hereby declare open season on discussing Hard Boiled Wonderland. Given the way discussion in LiveJournal format tends to go, I suggest that people feel free to post a comment or thought on any particular aspect of the book that grabbed them, and others can comment from there. Don't feel compelled to write a complete "book report" or to keep all discussion in the comment thread of one post. I think that puts too much pressure on everyone and it seems too much like work. Please post and comment as inspiration strikes. (Kara, feel free to strike me down and bludgeon me if you disagree.)

Our next book will be The Hours. Please give it a shot whether you've read Mrs. Dalloway or not. It's a quick read, I promise. Tentative discussion deadline is January 27. Does that give everyone enough time? Should we push it back to Feb. 3?

In addition, I think we'll be discussing the movie version over in damnfinefilms around the same time (once it hits theaters). [damnfinefilms is the brand-spankin' new sister community to damnfinebooks; the hope is that since watching a movie requires less time and effort than reading a book, more people will be able to participate in the discussion. Please join us if you haven't already!]

The next question is which book(s) should come next. I, personally, am currently reading Gore Vidal's Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace: How We Got To Be So Hated and Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies.

I suggest doing something by Banana Yoshimoto (having just been captivated by Asleep), and I'll add Knowledge of Angels (which I've read and loved) and A Desert in Bohemia (which I haven't read) both by Jill Paton Walsh to my pile of suggestions. We've already got some others here, but I'd like to hear from people and sort out what people are really up for reading and discussing.

So what do you think?

postcardjunkie

[

mood

|

determined

]

I'm just wondering how we're doing with Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. The original deadline for discussion was (heh) October 15th. Hmmmm.

I finished it a couple weeks ago. Other people have read it, right? Kara, are you still working on it?

Shall we begin discussing? Shall we skip discussion? Shall we move on to something new? Shall we do both, all, whatever we feel like? Shall I cut it out with the annoying questions?

In any case, I would like to suggest The Hours as our next selection, particularly as the film version is coming out in the next few days/weeks (depending on where you are -- it probably won't make it to NH at all). It's a very quick read -- a fact verified by another friend. My only concern with this choice is that it's heavily based on and all wrapped up in Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, (my favorite Woolf novel).

I'm not sure (a) how many of you have already read Mrs. Dalloway, and (b) if it would enrich or cripple discussion if some people had read Mrs. D and others hadn't.
Should we all read Mrs. Dalloway first?

Bueller?

postcardjunkie

[

mood

|

geeky

]

I thought I'd just try to revive the discussions here a little bit. I know I promised to post something about Alice Walker's Possessing the Secret of Joy a long time ago, so that seems like a good place to start.

I finished the book at the beginning of September, and immediately wrote down my thoughts in a very long, slightly incoherent rant. I've edited that into the (hopefully) much more coherent rant which follows. I'm very curious to hear what other people think about it though. . .
( Possessing the Secret of JoyCollapse )

If anyone's interested in learning more about Female Genital Mutilation and what's being done, I strongly encourage you to check out RAINBO, a non-profit begun by Nahid Toubia, one of the foremost scholars and activists on the issue.

kstyler

[

mood

|

excited

]

OK, since no one seemed all that interested in the Alice Walker book we decided to move on to the next book. Now, if you've been hesitant or unsure about our group, please read this book, it's one of my absolute favorites and of a completely different genre than the other two.

postcardjunkie

[

mood

|

nerdy

]

So I was on vacation for the discussion of The Prisoner's Wife and missed out on discussing it. But I did check in long enough to see that Posessing the Secret of Joy is our next book. Now it occurs to me that I may be the only one reading it, and I can look forward to discussing it with myself.

Say it ain't so!

It's not a long read -- I actually finished it in one day, and I tend to read slow. (Granted, it was an entire day spent in airports and on planes, but still! I was going West to East, so it was a short day.)

What's it about? It's about a woman dealing with her history, with her female genital mutilation, specifically infibulation. It's a novel that has raised awareness of the practice in the U.S., but is very controversial in Africa. Personally, I'm itching to discuss it and I hope someone else will read it and talk to me. I understand that thesidhe has read it, so that makes two of us. Anyone else?

Kara is having a hard time finding it in stores, but it's only $6.99 at Amazon, as low as 90 cents used!.

Given this information, can we set a date for discussion? I suggest Sept. 25 (rather arbitrarily), but if people need more time, that's fine too. Please comment to say whether or not you have any intention of reading/participating in the discussion though. 'Cause if not, those of us who have read can post our thoughts tomorrow and we can all move on to something else. What do you think?

kstyler

[

mood

|

creative

]

Please comment here and share your general thoughts on the book, anything you'd like to generate serious conversation on can be it's own post. For here please answer the following questions:

1 - Why did you like/dislike this book
2 - Did asha's experience as a black woman affect you on a universal level (man/woman/black/white) or did it seem to be a specific cultural experience
3 - What character from the book did you relate to the most
4 - Did you find Rashid to be a sympathetic character...how much of that do you think is because we are seeing him from asha's POV?
5 - Did you cry? When?
6 - Did you laugh? When?
7 - If you had a favorite passage or line please quote.
8 - What do you think of asha's writing style? What aspect of it did you enjoy/dislike the most?

kstyler

[

mood

|

artistic

]

Before we begin the actual book club meeting some news:

The next book we will be reading is possessing the secret of joy by alice walker. I have not read this one but thesidhe has so I'm sure it will be fantastic. I would like our next meeting to be in the middle to end of September. Let me know if you think that's doable.

If there's anyone I have not added as a member, please let me know and I will do so.

I was going to structure this by using the book club questions at the back of the book but jivescribe stole my copy of the book so I can't. If there are any questions from that list that you would like to discuss please feel free to post the question and we will reply with our thoughts.

I am going to begin with a general, what did you think/like/dislike about this book question and then move on to more specific topics. Please feel free to chime in with comments or new posts if there is something you would like the group to discuss.

I would suggest checking this from the community page and not your friends page so that you can check in on replys not just the most current post to make sure you can jump in on all the conversations going on.

I hope you loved this book as much as I do :)

kstyler

[

mood

|

excited

]

A list of Books recomended so far...please comment if you have a book to add or an opinion on one of these. I will delete these and comments about books we have already read.

• posessing the secret of joy by alice walker. this is a must read. - thesidhe


• Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End Of the World by Haruki Murakami (a stunning combination of the contemporary and brash with elegiac allegory, all topped off by a strong measure of cyberpunk) - kstyler


• The Hours by Michael Cunningham ("the person who recommended it to me said it was one of the best books he'd read in a long time. Granted, he's a Benedictine monk, but he's one of the cool ones.") - postcarjunkie


• King Leopold's Ghost - postcardjunkie


• The Body and the Blood (the Israel/Palestinian conflict from the perspective of the handful of Palestinian Christians still in the region) - postcardjunkie