yep, I mentioned The Good Soldier in book club a couple weeks ago, very interesting, weighty book. Not a quick read, though it's relatively short.

I think it'd be come a popularity contest

Well, the original idea of the Select the Selectors plan was that the selectors would be selected randomly. Sorta kills the popularity thing. But I'm not feeling the pushing urge.

I'm going out of town soon. Hope to check back and find a working book club when I get back! Good luck, everybody!

(Yay books.)

Well, the original idea of the Select the Selectors plan was that the selectors would be selected randomly. Sorta kills the popularity thing. But I'm not feeling the pushing urge.

D'oh! I didn't catch that. Brainpower is on low today.

Brainpower is on low today.

Me too. I think there's something going around.

I guess I assumed because nobody objected to this it had the tacit approval of the stompies. But in re-read that may not be the case.

Errr... well I'm a stompy and I'm fine with it. But I don't think it's for a stompy to decide.

Speaking of stompies, if you want to use Lilty's first post as a "sticky" post, and she's not around, any stompy can edit any post (bwahahahaha!).

I'm reading The Good Soldier now, and I'd be thrilled to discuss it with Buffistas once I'm done.

Also, I'd like to sneak in a rec for Barbara Gowdy's Mister Sandman. The amazon.com review is here:

This riotous account of "the family unit" was a smash hit in Europe, Canada, and England. In the Times Literary Supplement, author Margaret Atwood (The Handmaid's Tale) praised Barbara Gowdy's novel as surprising and delightful, containing moments "at the same time preposterous and strangely moving." The Canary family guards many secrets, including the mystery of tiny daughter, Joan, who was dropped on her head at birth and has never spoken. Joan plays the piano like Mozart, yet has never had a lesson. The outrageous hilarity rises into a climax that creates a stunning new definition of family togetherness.

Also seconding the suggestions of Girl in Landscape, which has been on my meaning-to-read-it list for years, Homicide , Neil Gaiman's Sandman (though that may be a hard one because not all libraries stock graphic novels, and new it costs about $15 for one volume. but if we can do it, we should.) and anything by Lorrie Moore.

Small World - David Lodge: Not only one of the funniest books I've ever read, but also (a) a neat structural parody of Medieval romances - so a history lesson tossed in, (b) a satire of academia and specifically deconstruction jargon. But don't worry - it's incredibly fun and absorbing, the kind of book you can't wait to pick up again.

Rides of the Midway - Lee Durkee: Growing up Southern, teen boys, beautifully rendered. Also a ghost from a baseball mishap.

At Swim Two Birds - Flann O'Brien: One of the great comic novels. Irish to the very very core. Told in parts as a scathingly hilarious account of a scholarly ne'er do well, and then leavened with big chunks of Irish lore, told beautifully and comically.

Available Light - Ellen Currie: A book so good I tracked down her scant short stories. A woman, a man with a saxophone. Romantic, Irish again. Finding your place in the world after mistakes. Beautifully written and affecting.

Oh yeah - I really want to read The Intuitionist. I've picked it up a few times and it looked fascinating.

Buffista Book Club: It Should Be Smelly

I like this too.

Brainpower is on low today.

Me too. I think there's something going around.

This wouldn't affect Hayden, but DC seems awfully humid for summer.

And to get back to topic --

Theodore Dreiser, An American Tragedy. Very long (my copy is about 875 pages), but a relatively fast read. Young man on the make gets job at factory owned by wealthy uncle, dates fellow employee with tragic results.

And I'm not sure how available it is these days, and it's very, very long (well over 1000 pages) -- ...And Ladies of the Club by Helen Hooven Santmyer. A big bestseller in the mid-'80s (and a bit of a cause celebre, because the author was also in her 80s -- at least -- and it was the first novel she'd published in over 50 years). A group of young women in a small town in Ohio in 1868 form a "women's club" to pursue intellectual endeavors. The novel follows the life of the town -- emphasizing the club members and their families -- from 1868 to 1932. Won't endorse the author's politics (economic laissez faire), but a fascinating study of a small Midwest town during a certain era.

Hayden, here's Ron Rosenbaum on Pale Fire (and Rosenbaum on "shoplift lit").

Even though I probably won't participate in the book club very often, being rather lazy and all, I'll throw out a selection suggestion. What about a combination of a designated selector and a vote? Which is to say, the month's "leader" would be selected randomly (& without repeat until everyone who wants to has a shot) and then s/he would suggest 3 or 4 books, or more if s/he wants to, which would then be voted on. Leader gets some say but it's not a complete imposition of will. It would have to be decided whether the voting would be straight (sheer number of votes) or weighted (rank your choices from first to last, total points takes it, with first place votes as a tiebreaker.)