Maybe someone can clean them up and make a nice fresh new list for reposting?

I'll do it.

The Big List of Books To Choose From

The Education of Henry Adams, by Henry Adams
Part autobiography, part cynical observation of politics and progress. An insightful and at times darkly humorous exploration of both a remarkable man and the tumultuous age in which he lived.

Persuasion, by Jane Austen

Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte

The Alienist, by Caleb Carr

House of Sleep, by Jonathan Coe

The Devil's Larder, by Jim Crace

Available Light, by 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.

The Red Tent, by Anita Diamant
Hard Times, by Charles Dickens
In our discussions in Literary, a number of people said they'd like to read Dickens, either because they never had or because they'd only read Great Expectations in high school, which is a good way to learn to loathe Dickens. (It's a great book, but perhaps not something to tackle in the 9th grade.) Hard Times is a relatively short work that explores Dickens' social concerns and the affects of an abusive system on both the abused and the people who profit from their work.

An American Tragedy, by Theodore Dreiser
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.

Louisiana Power and Light, by John Dufresne

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

Jaran, by Kate Elliot

The Good Soldier, by Ford Madox Ford

Sandman, by Neil Gaiman

Mister Sandman, by Barbara Gowdy

Mariette in Ecstasy, by Ron Hansen

Into the Forest, by Jean Hegland

The Remains of the Day, by Kazuo Ishiguro

The Devil in the White City, by Erik Larson

Girl in Landscape, by Jonathan Lethem

If Not Now, When?, by Primo Levi

Stranger Things Happen, by Kelly Link

Mary Reilly, by Valerie Martin

Birds of America, by Lorrie Moore

Like Life, by Lorrie Moore

Who Will Run the Frog Hospital by Lorrie Moore

Pale Fire, by Vladimir Nabokov

The Enchanted Castle, by Edith Nesbit

At Swim Two Birds, by 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.

My Year of Meats, by Ruth Ozeki

Vineland, by Thomas Pynchon

Mating, by Norman Rush

The Sparrow, by Maria Doria Russell

…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.

Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, by David Simon

Arcadia, by Tom Stoppard

Valley of the Dolls, by Jacqueline Susann

The Warden, by Anthony Trollope

The Loved One, by Evelyn Waugh
Forever Amber, by Kathleen Winsor

Dirt Music, by Tim Winton

Winter’s Tale by Mark Helprin

Say Goodbye: The Laurie Moss Story by Lewis Shiner.
It is kind of a melancholy rock and roll journal. I liked it very much.

I would like to point out- since it has no blurb (I think I just put a link there, my bad) LP&L is not non-fiction about La's public utilities, but is in fact pretty hilarious and often compaired favorably to Confederacy of Dunces.

Not that I would want anyone to pick it or anything.

Damn, that's a mouth-watering list.

billytea, you and I swapping December and January works fine for me.

Well, I'm out for the Jewish holiday of Shmini Atzeret/Simhat Torah, and won't be back online until Monday. Can someone post in Press the reminder for the discussion date on Small World, and also any subsequent books that get selected? FYI, we've moved to a 4 week/start-on-Monday system so the next three discussion dates would be 11/8, 12/6 and 1/3/05.

Or, if a separate place would be preferred, perhaps P-C's #2 spot (only if you don't mind, P-C)?

Hijack away. I probably won't be stopping in here that often anymore anyway. I've discovered I hardly have time to read books now that classes have started!

FYI, we've moved to a 4 week/start-on-Monday system so the next three discussion dates would be 11/8, 12/6 and 1/3/05.

Meep. Would it be easier if we went with the Monday closest to the 15th instead of four week rotation, keeping it close to the middle of the month? Or am I the only one whose confidence in my organizational skills is so low that a revolving date seems like too much to remember?

Not that I couldn't, say, write things down. That might also work.

sits in the...area...with brenda

tries to decide if it is corner

contemplates tidying it up

falls asleep

falls asleep

sneeks up on Cindy

writes "Thinks Wrong Thoughts" on her forehead in permanent marker

sneeks out

writes "Thinks Wrong Thoughts" on her forehead in permanent marker

crosses out "Thinks Wrong Thoughts"

writes "CONTAINS SPICY BRAINS"