As Kurt Vonnegut says, Valley of the Dolls is a book with it's "ups and downs, ups and downs".

I thought so. But I'm the kind of sick person who would actually try to keep track of Rules One-Nine, so they had me at "Gimme a quarter." It is way, way, better written than any other book about crime, ever. If Simon wrote faster...and the whole TV thing hadn't happened, he could send Ann Rule back to the suicide hotline. As a client.

Woo, glad I caught up before the lists were entirely set.

I'll have to mull over some suggestions for the list.

I wonder if we could do a Select the Selector every fourth book or so. It intrigues me as an idea. It doesn't have to be an either/or situation. We can build our own traditions. I think it might be a good way to keep people involved, enthusiastic and add some wildcard elements.

I wonder if we could do a Select the Selector every fourth book or so. It intrigues me as an idea. It doesn't have to be an either/or situation. We can build our own traditions. I think it might be a good way to keep people involved, enthusiastic and add some wildcard elements.

Agreeing muchly.

It'll be fun - after we finish a three book cycle, we'll spin a large virtual wheel and somebody gets to be The Boss Of Us that month (at least as far as reading matter).

"Bwahahahhaha! You'll all read Ethan Frome and you'll LIKE IT!"

Okay, it goes without saying MM is right out.

Very cool idea!! Also, I love the suggestion upthread of pairing up books. A suggestion for two relatively recent selections, one fiction and one non-fiction (the non-fiction author got the idea of the book from reading the fiction one)--The Alienist by Caleb Carr and The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. The first is a wonderfully creepy serial killer book set in 1890s NYC, with real people fictionalized and intermingling with the original characters. The second has parallel storylines, one dealing with Daniel Burnham, architect and organizer of the Chicago Columbian Exposition of 1893, and the other with a serial killer who actually did transform his hotel on the outskirts of the fair into a death factory, where he killed an unknown number of women.

The Alienist by Caleb Carr and The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

I love this pairing. I've been wanting to read The Alienist again, and a friend just finished The Devil in the White City and said it was fascinating.

Maybe pairings should be stretched over two months, though? I'm usually a fast reader, but with a baby under eight months, not so much at the moment. And I hate the idea of skimming to keep up.

Hopefully everything we come up with will be available at the library, because my book buying budget is pretty nill.

And the anarchist in my head wants me to rec "Roget's Pocket Thesaurus." Yes, the reference book. Could be worse, the anarchist could be looking up the recipes for nitroglycerin.

Some other non-novel suggestions--a Bill Bryson book, perhaps A Walk in the Woods? A collection of essays/columns, perhaps by Mike Royko or Molly Ivins? A biography/memoir or two?

Just tossing out ideas.

OK. I think I'm going to at least try this book club thing and see how it goes.

I'd hoped to offer a romance or two for my suggestions, but all the ones I wanted to recommend are out of print. So, instead I'm going to recommend some romance-ish books:

Jaran, by Kate Elliott. Described by the author as "Jane Austen meets Genghis Khan on the set of Lawrence of Arabia," it's a science fiction novel that feels more like fantasy or historical fiction in many ways, since it's mostly set on a low-tech planet among nomads on horseback. And it's a romance, and a coming-of-age story about finding yourself, and your family, and escaping and failing to escape your past. And, IMO, a damn good read all around.

Persuasion, by Jane Austen. Not my favorite Austen--that's P&P. But IMO it's her richest, most mature, and most satisfying work.