Saturday, April 30, 2005
Book ideas for next book club
May 26th is our next date for the beer and book meeting. Any requests to change the date?
And I'm sorry but I think I forgot some of the suggestions mentioned last Thursday, didn't I mention something about senility before? So if anyobdy remembers or has anything to add to the list, email me and we'll put it into an unnecessarily fancy-pantsy poll.
Here are the books I remember us talking about:
The heart is a lonenly hunter by Carson McCullers
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0618526412/qid=1114925968/sr=8-2/ref=pd_csp_2/102-4912486-0632947?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
The sound and the fury by William Faulkner
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0679732241/qid=1114925921/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/102-4912486-0632947?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
g.
And I'm sorry but I think I forgot some of the suggestions mentioned last Thursday, didn't I mention something about senility before? So if anyobdy remembers or has anything to add to the list, email me and we'll put it into an unnecessarily fancy-pantsy poll.
Here are the books I remember us talking about:
The heart is a lonenly hunter by Carson McCullers
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0618526412/qid=1114925968/sr=8-2/ref=pd_csp_2/102-4912486-0632947?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
The sound and the fury by William Faulkner
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0679732241/qid=1114925921/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/102-4912486-0632947?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
g.
Thursday, April 28, 2005
Tonight
Triple Rock
6pm
Amy Tan
Opposite of Faith (... Uhmmm, Despair?)
See you there.
6pm
Amy Tan
Opposite of Faith (... Uhmmm, Despair?)
See you there.
Monday, April 18, 2005
Amy Tan
Amy Tan is introducing "The Joy Luck Club" at the Balboa on Wednesday.
Might be interesting......
http://www.balboamovies.com/program/reel_sf.html
S
Wednesday, April 13, 2005
Some Book Recommendations
Hi all, I've read a few good books in the past few months and thought I would share them with you and also synopsize (?) them before my early-onset senility erased all trace of their plot and the reason for my enjoyment. Here goes:
The remains of the day, Kazuo Ishiguro
I fell in love with Ishiguro after picking up An Artist of the Floating World in Argentina (all my big book epiphanies seem to occurr during a trip). After reading "The Remains" I was officially obssesed with Ishiguro. He is a master using the first person narrative to portray the main character's repressed psychology.We understand their fears, loves and motivations even when they try their hardest to suppress them. In "The Remains" it's a British butler who takes pride in his job to the extreme, renouncing even love for duty. I haven't seen the movie bu it's hard for me to imagine it doing justice to the book. So if you've seen it and fallen asleep (as I heard from my mom) don't discount the book because of it.
Persepolis (both I and II) by Marjane Satrapi
These are two graphic novels by an Iranian writer who lived through the fall of the Shah and the cultural revolution. Her first book deals with her childhood years at the beginnings of the revolution and her second book with her teenage years leaving to study abroad in Europe and then returning to a country transformed by a totalitarian regime where womenwere forced to wear the veil. I know, I know. "Graphic novel" is a fancy way of saying Comic. But sometimes all you have time for after a whole day of doing (noisy) recordings is a story that is summarized in a few dozen frames. Also, there is something really cool about portraying so much emotion from just a few balck and white images and a text bubble.
The heart is a lonely hunter by Carson McCullers
OK, so I didn't read this. But I looooved the Audible version. I loved it so much I bought and mailed the book to a friend. The book takes place in a small town in the south of the 1930s(?) 40s(?) where the lives of four very different people intersect with their friendship to a mute who serves as confessor, disciple, and savior. Whatever, i can't do it justice but just believe me. It's a book about humanity and it's great.
Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
This is the book recommendation I'm excited the least about. Like AHWOSG by Dave Eggers, this is written by a precocious smarty-pants 21 year-old who likes to experiment with narrative techniques (which already made me predisposed to hate the book a little). But unlike Eggers, this guy knows how to keep to a point and not go on an on (and on). It's about a young Jewish-American (coincidentally named Jonathan Safran Foer, and sometimes referred to as "Hero" -yeesh) who travels to the Ukraine to find the woman who saved his grandfather during WWII from the Nazis. But really it's about a Jewish community, the Ukranian young man who serves as Jonathans guide, his family's own past, and the friendship he develops with Jonathan. Actually it was quite funny, despite the serious matter (in his latest book Foer writes about 9-11). I was only annoyed during one chapter but touched during many so in my book that's a thumbs up.
OK, so that's my review list, to be saved through eternity (or whenever we cancel this account) from the ravages of age and too many bottles of wine/beer/beer.
Do you guys have any good reads to recommend?
The remains of the day, Kazuo Ishiguro
I fell in love with Ishiguro after picking up An Artist of the Floating World in Argentina (all my big book epiphanies seem to occurr during a trip). After reading "The Remains" I was officially obssesed with Ishiguro. He is a master using the first person narrative to portray the main character's repressed psychology.We understand their fears, loves and motivations even when they try their hardest to suppress them. In "The Remains" it's a British butler who takes pride in his job to the extreme, renouncing even love for duty. I haven't seen the movie bu it's hard for me to imagine it doing justice to the book. So if you've seen it and fallen asleep (as I heard from my mom) don't discount the book because of it.
Persepolis (both I and II) by Marjane Satrapi
These are two graphic novels by an Iranian writer who lived through the fall of the Shah and the cultural revolution. Her first book deals with her childhood years at the beginnings of the revolution and her second book with her teenage years leaving to study abroad in Europe and then returning to a country transformed by a totalitarian regime where womenwere forced to wear the veil. I know, I know. "Graphic novel" is a fancy way of saying Comic. But sometimes all you have time for after a whole day of doing (noisy) recordings is a story that is summarized in a few dozen frames. Also, there is something really cool about portraying so much emotion from just a few balck and white images and a text bubble.
The heart is a lonely hunter by Carson McCullers
OK, so I didn't read this. But I looooved the Audible version. I loved it so much I bought and mailed the book to a friend. The book takes place in a small town in the south of the 1930s(?) 40s(?) where the lives of four very different people intersect with their friendship to a mute who serves as confessor, disciple, and savior. Whatever, i can't do it justice but just believe me. It's a book about humanity and it's great.
Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
This is the book recommendation I'm excited the least about. Like AHWOSG by Dave Eggers, this is written by a precocious smarty-pants 21 year-old who likes to experiment with narrative techniques (which already made me predisposed to hate the book a little). But unlike Eggers, this guy knows how to keep to a point and not go on an on (and on). It's about a young Jewish-American (coincidentally named Jonathan Safran Foer, and sometimes referred to as "Hero" -yeesh) who travels to the Ukraine to find the woman who saved his grandfather during WWII from the Nazis. But really it's about a Jewish community, the Ukranian young man who serves as Jonathans guide, his family's own past, and the friendship he develops with Jonathan. Actually it was quite funny, despite the serious matter (in his latest book Foer writes about 9-11). I was only annoyed during one chapter but touched during many so in my book that's a thumbs up.
OK, so that's my review list, to be saved through eternity (or whenever we cancel this account) from the ravages of age and too many bottles of wine/beer/beer.
Do you guys have any good reads to recommend?
