Ellis Paul Discussion

Folks,

It's time to vote for our 3rd Book Club choice. Ellis has added one book title to his list of recommended books (by John Stover) and likes the idea of including a book NOT on his list, so the title Sue Ellen suggested (by Sue Monk Kidd) is also on the poll.

A couple of new things to hopefully improve the whole experience:

1. Only vote in the poll if you are willing to participate in the book discussion. Since voting is anonymous, everyone is bound by the honor system.

2. Feel free to lobby for a particular title - tell us why.

3. The actual book discussion will be a separate thread from the poll.

Jela, if you're still willing to be our leader, we'll have you. But please don't feel pressured.

This poll will run for 7 days. I'm looking forward to our next discussion.

KarenZ

Thanks Karen,

Would someone else like to lead on the next book discussion?

I think that it would be nice if we took turns as I don't want to hog the proceedings!!!


Jela

Jela,

Speaking for myself, I am tres contente to have you continue as our leader.

KarenZ

Folks,

Ellis hasn't gotten around to making any comments about the John Stover book, so I pulled this from Amazon.com:

The Road Runner is an autobiographical novel detailing the life, loves and times of John Stover.

The story is loosely based on Homer's Odyssey entailing the search described by Homer almost 2,700 years ago. The themes are similar-the quest for identity, the search for love, the value of hearth and family and the continual challenge of being true to one's values and ideals. Many of the temptations encountered by Odysseus are placed before the title character. He meets the one-eyed Cyclops, is tempted by Circe and Calypso and walks among the lotus eaters.

The story begins with painfully descriptive details of the author's harsh home life. Mr. Stover, the fourth of seven children, describes the family dynamics and how they play out as dysfunction slowly and easily manifests itself in its various forms in all the children.

Sue Ellen, please give us a 2 or 3 sentence synopsis of The Dissident Daughter.

Right now I think I just don't feel like reading a biography or an autobiography. Unless it was James Blunt's.

KarenZ

This is from the back cover of The Dance of the Dissident Daughter:

Sue Monk Kidd was a "conventionally religious, churchgoing woman, a traditional wife and mother" with a thriving career as a Christian writer, until she began to question her role as a woman in her culture, her family, and her church. From a jarring encounter with sexism in a suburban drugstore to monastery retreats and rituals in the caves of Crete, Kidd takes readers through the fear, anger, healing and transformation of her awakening and provides inspiring wisdom for all who struggle to embrace their full humanity.

Hmm, after sitting here for ten minutes, I'm still having extreme difficulty succintly summing up my thoughts. The best I can say was that this read simultaneously painfully traumatized and irrepressively resuscitated my soul as I was forced to confront basic truths about myself and my life. I suspect this book is either embraced and allowed to speak deeply to a reader, or dismissed, probably because of the dangerous questions and issues it raises about the concious and unconscious conventions of our culture and our world.

Frankly, I'm not very interested in reading about yet another man's journey.

Ellis, do you ever read anything light? Does anyone? I could go for a good light novel ala Danielle Steele....or better Fern Michaels! Not sure I have the energy for any of the titles in the poll....but that's where I am right now. Will cast my vote at some point...

KarenZ

I will think some more of something I think would be a good read but I tend to like non-fiction better than fiction. Into Thin Air, by Jon Krauker, JK's account of his fateful climb up Mt. Everestt is on my list of favorites... as well as "A Hell of a Place to Lose a Cow" by Tim Brooks, commentator on NPR..a man in his 40's retracing a hitchhikng trip he took in his 20's. I guess I like true stories of travel and adventure.


Also not sure if the link below will work, but I came across this book, Solo: Women Singer Songwriteser writers at Amazon. There are entries from Lucy Kaplansky, Lucinda, Catie Curtis, Shawn Colvin, and many others.

http://www.amazon.com/Solo-Women-Singer ... 0385324073 .

Karen, you say only vote if you plan on reading the book. I voted last time knowing I would not read Owen Meany, but I voted for something else. If what I voted for had won then I would have participated...so should you vote if will only read certain books?? Also, if you know someone who would read the book, but doesn't participate on the DB be sure to invite them along.

"Jitterbug Perfume"by 'Tom Robbins. Much better, I thought, and funnier than "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues"

Patti,

I think being a member of a book club means you agree to read whatever book is chosen by the group. Jela, is that true with your traditional book club? Do members opt out if they don't like the book chosen? I always thought one of the purposes of a book club was to kinda provoke/encourage members to read things that maybe they wouldn't read otherwise.....but maybe my thinking is off. My gut feeling is to say don't vote unless you are willing to read whichever book is chosen....but I am open to other thinking.

KarenZ

Patti wrote:Karen, you say only vote if you plan on reading the book. I voted last time knowing I would not read Owen Meany, but I voted for something else. If what I voted for had won then I would have participated...so should you vote if will only read certain books?? Also, if you know someone who would read the book, but doesn't participate on the DB be sure to invite them along.

Karen - yes you're right. The idea is that by being part of the group, we all read the book that has been chosen by the group. Book clubs do encourage you to read books that you may not choose for yourself.

Sometimes therfore you find a gem of an author that is completely new to you and it makes you want to delve deeper into their written collection and other times, you discover what you don't like.

I just love it when readers have such opposite views about a book - makes for a really interesting discussion. We had an example before Christmas when we read a book called 'A short history of tractors in Ukranian' the women loved it, the guy hated it! Sometimes if a group member finds that the book is not one that they can finish reading (because it doesn't have appeal after reading a few chapters), after the others have discussed it at the meeting, they sometimes give it another try because the discussion has been so interesting.

So I think that if people vote here they should be prepared to read the group choice, even if it wasn't one they voted for themselves.

Certainly, too if someone wasn't able to vote within the timescale we set, but reads the book and wants to join in the discussions, then that is very welcome - the more the merrier!!

Jela

I absolutely agree!

KarenZ

Richard + Jela wrote:Certainly, too if someone wasn't able to vote within the timescale we set, but reads the book and wants to join in the discussions, then that is very welcome - the more the merrier!!

Jela

Yes, I agree that is what a book club is for. I said I knew I wouldn't read Owen Meany only because I had attempted to read it a few years ago and didn't get into it. I wouldn't not read something just because I didn't pick it. Expanding the choices will also help get more involved. Maybe there should be certain genres in each vote, or all of the same genres in one vote. Something lite and funny would go over well right now for me too I read House of Sand and Fog recently and frankly don't understand what made that book so popular. The books Sue Ellen mentioned by Tom Robbins sound good. I just picked up Harvard Yard by William Martin. ( I was actually looking for Cape Cod),it is historical fiction. He has written several books, Annapolis, Citizen Washington, and one of my favorite Back Bay.

Sue Ellen wrote:

"Jitterbug Perfume"by 'Tom Robbins. Much better, I thought, and funnier than "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues"

Oh yes, I definitely agree! "Another Roadside Attraction" (also Robbins) is also great.

On a slightly (but not entirely) different note:
Any of Carl Hiaasen's books are great fun. My particular favorite is "Stormy Weather". Great light reading, but with a kick or two.

Folks,

I appreciate all the suggestions, but please....no more for now....we need to stay on topic here. I will put all your suggestions into another thread at some point...and we'll figure out what to do with them.

KarenZ

Just bumping this to the top as a gentle reminder the voting is open for our 3rd book.

Jela

Thanks, Jela.

I'm pleased that we have 8 total votes, but two books are tied at 3 votes each, so if there's someone out there who hasn't voted and would like to participate, please cast the tie-breaking vote! The poll ends tonight!

KarenZ

Well, folks - it's looks like we're reading Huckleberry Finn. Jela, at your convenience, please start a separate thread for the actual book discussion. Can we allow 6 weeks to read the book? Since some of us read faster than others, let's try to pace ourselves to finish in the allotted time. I appreciate being given more time to finish Owen Meany, but I know the extension was probably problematic for those who finished it earlier. I apologize for that.

KarenZ

I make that Monday 2nd April so I'll kick the discussion off then.

Karen, you weren't the only one who was pleased that we exteneded the deadline for Owen Meany......took me a while to get the book as I ordered it from Amazon via the link on Ellis' site (as he gets some benefit from doing so) and took me longer to read it than I thought especially with all those activities in the run up to Xmas and New Year!

I read Huckleberry Finn when I was about 10 years old so will really enjoy revisiting it as an adult.

Jela

Jela,

Sounds good. Believe it or not I've never read Huck Finn. I visited our local public library on Saturday to donate stuff for a bake sale they were having that day and to see for the first time the brand new building the library moved into last week. I also borrowed Huck Finn.

Check it out:

Rostraver Township Public Library

KarenZ

Karen - looks like a fantastic building, big and great to see that they have storytimes for children. I was (still am?) an avid reader, as a child I used to read with a torch under the bed covers when I was supposed to be sleeping!!

Some of my favourite memories of being in junior school (age 8 or so) are of sitting in class, on warm sunny days and being read to by the teacher. The joy of books remains with me to this day.

Jela

Better explain torch to the Yanks, Jela, they're going to think something flammable.

Sue Ellen

LOL!!

Ok - flashlight?

Jela

Yes Jela great memories of reading... my Mom passed down to me and now I have done that for my two daughters. We live pretty close to our local library, we go there all the time.... . It is actaully exciting to see them reading books especially ones I read at their age as well. When we took a trip out to St. Louis, I "insisted" to my husband (in a nice way:) to just swing by Hanibal Missouri ( a few hours out of the way) to see Mark Twain's home.. and the famous Mississippi River, the white picket fence, the cave... We had brought books on tapes with us and I had timed it pretty good to be finishing Tom Sawyer just as we got to town!! It was awesome... my girls loved it...I loved it.. sweet memories indeed.. We listened to Huck Finn later in the trip..( but it was a bit more difficult to listen to with little ears as there was some content (acceptable at the time it was written) not appropriate for them. The book had/has actually been banned from many schools.

I hope to participate in the discussion, but right now I am reading and so enjoying my "history mystery" Harvard Yard...

I'm finishing up a Fern Michaels.

KarenZ

I'm enjoying "The Black Panties: Tales of Animal Mischief and Veterinary Intrigue," you know, by Monica Mansfield. See this LINK.

I'm just finishing and enjoying very much 'Restless' by William Boyd.


Jela