End of a chapter

This is the not the final chapter of our Between the Covers, just the end of this particular one. The few of us who attended Carol's meeting to discuss "Lowboy" agreed that this is a good time to suspend our book club. We threw around the idea of turning it into a film club, where we meet to see an independent or classic movie and then go out for drinks to discuss it. If you'd like to participate in a film club, let us know.

Carol also asked us to tell each other about noteworthy books we've read. So, if you couldn't put down a book, let us know about it. Either e-mail the group or post a comment on our blog. (If you need another invitation to write on the blog, let me know and I'll send you one.) With that in mind, Carol and Cathy recommended one of our book nominees, Colum McCann's "Let the Great World Spin." Cathy also said that she enjoyed Bonnie Jo Campbell's brutal "American Salvage." And Carol recommended another one of her choices, "I Am Not Sidney Poitier."

As for our last book, "Lowboy," everyone at our meeting -- Carol, Cathy, Francine, Tracy and I -- thought it was well-written, compelling book. Carol said she thought the author, John Wray, gave "an authentic portrayal of a schizophrenic without being condescending." Francine especially enjoyed reading the book, which takes place mainly under New York City, while she rode on the subway. All of us wanted to see the abandoned City Hall stop Wray so beautifully wrote about. So, if you haven't read "Lowboy," we encourage you to do so. Wray has been compared to other writers we've read, including Joseph O'Neill, Jonathan Lethem and Junot Diaz.

I want to thank everyone for participating in "Between the Covers" over these last few years. All of our meetings are memorable as much for their lively conversations as for their delicious fare. While I will miss them, I am grateful that we were able to get together to discuss books. We read more than 20 books, including:

• Snow
• Unaccustomed Earth
• Housekeeping
• Special Topics in Calamity Physics
• The Sea
• Zeitoun
• Lowboy
• Never Let Me Go
• Netherland
• Wind-up Bird Chronicles
• By the Lake
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
• Fear of Flying
• White Teeth
• The History of Love
• The Time Traveler's Wife
• The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
• Misfortune
• Persepolis

In closing, I wanted to let everyone know that a theatrical adaptation of Jane Austen's "Emma" begins on Masterpiece Theater this Sunday. If you're interested in meeting to discuss "Emma," let us know. Maybe we could meet for a couple of hours in a cozy bar.

Lowboy is our next book

All the votes are in; "Lowboy" by John Wray (at left) is the our next book. We'll be meeting at Carol's home in Ft. Greene, Brooklyn. Dec. 13th seemed to be the most convenient date. Carol will send out directions and a time later. In the meantime, get ready to take a ride to another place that is both familiar and foreign:

The book opens on a November morning, when 16-year-old William Heller enters the Manhattan subway system. Talking to an aged Sikh seated next to him, William explains he has a fondness for riding trains, specifically subways — hence his nickname, “Lowboy.” His voice drops when he asks if the Sikh understands him. He checks over his shoulder to see if he’s being followed. “The Sikh religion,” he confides knowingly to the puzzled Sikh, “is less than 70 years old.” Soon he curses, impatient.

See you next month...

Carol's 3 choices

Carol writes:

I have three book choices, one from Tim and others from talking with friends. The Paul Auster book is an old title, so I'm thinking some may have read it already.

1) Lowboy (John Wray)

2) Book of Illusions ( (Paul Auster)

3) I Am Not Sidney Poitier ( Percival Everett).

The dates, I think, will be hard due to holidays but let's start with 12/6 and 12/13.

Remember: Vote early and often. We will tally up the votes in a few days and send out the winner by Friday.

Gumbo fest

If you weren't able to make our book club meeting earlier this month, you missed out on some lively discussion and some tasty vitals. Cathy made not one, but two pots of gumbo: a vegan one and an omnivore one with chicken and shrimp. Both were delicious.

Carol made sweet and moist cornbread and I made a savory endive salad with a mustard and maple syrup dressing. And Francine brought some New Orleans pecan-flavored brew: Abita. Not surprisingly, we didn't have many leftovers.

Now for the book. Everyone enjoyed Zeitoun, but some found that the narrative style detracted from the story. Francine criticized the simple language, saying it was "low level." Cathy disagreed, saying that the language fit with the story. I thought that the story could have been told in a long magazine magazine feature a la The New Yorker. Eggers repeated many of the same details throughout the book. Francine agreed, saying it could have been edited more tightly. Mary also agreed. Even though she wasn't able to attend, she wanted to share some of her thoughts on the book. Here they are:

i liked it but i thought (as i have with his previous books) it could have used a good edit. i enjoyed his choice of style of writing it -- kind of like a biblical narrative, simple words and strong images --- and appropriate use of relgious passages. the end was so interesting when he changed voice into reporter/factual mode with the voices of other people in the story (cops, friends).

Tim later read the book and said that he didn't mind the book's simple language. He said that it reflected the fact that "Zeitoun" was essentially the personal story of Zeitoun and the book let us see the events through his eyes. Even though we had differences over the style, we all thought that "Zeitoun" told a powerful story about America.

After reading "Zeitoun," I was disgusted with our country. I thought that Eggers illustrated how much more we, as citizens, have to do to make sure America lives up to its ideals. I'm sure I'm not the only one who thought it was sad that these events happened in our country, not in some faraway land.

I didn't take notes at our book club meeting, so I wasn't able to remember everyone's comments. If you'd like to add your thoughts, please do. Carol has volunteered to hold the next book club meeting. As soon as she sends me her choices and some tentative dates, I'll post them.

Zeitoun floats to the top

I am pleased to announce that our next book is Zeitoun, Dave Eggers' account of the Zeitoun family's ordeals in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Though this will be our first nonfiction book, reviewers say it reads like a work of literature. In The New York Times Book Review one wrote, "Imagine Charles Dickens, his sentimentality in check but his journalistic eyes wide open, roaming New Orleans after it was buried by Hurricane Katrina."

And Vanity Fair's James Wolcott wrote: "[It’s] unmistakably a narrative feat, slowly pulling the reader into the oncoming vortex without literary trickery or theatrical devices, reminiscent of Mailer’s Executioner’s Song but less craftily self-conscious in the exercise of its restraint. Humanistic, that is, in the highest, best, least boring sense of the word.”

The book also offers a rich culinary experience. Abdulrahman Zeitoun, the main character, is originally from Syria, but made New Orleans his adoptive home. I don't know about you, but I'm already looking forward to Cathy's menu for our literary evening. In the meantime, here's an article on Egger's book and the Zeitoun's experiences in The Times-Picayune.

Cathy's 3 Choices

As I was picking up a Ribba picture frame, Vippa clothes hooks, Anna ginger snaps and numerous other well-designed Swedish tchotchkes at IKEA the other day, I thought about The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Then I started regretting that I had missed eating Pam's Cedar-Plank Salmon -- and, of course, discussing the Stieg Larsson's thriller at her BBQ. I am also disappointed that I missed Dulcy's meeting on The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. I hope everyone enjoyed reading both books this summer. I did.

Now it's time for our fall book club. Cathy has volunteered to host it at her house on Sunday, Oct. 11. Please let her know, if this date works for you. Please vote for one her choices. Cathy will announce the winner next week.

• Zeiton by Dave Eggers (The Times had an amazing review of this book on Katrina the other week.)
• Let the World Spin: A Novel by Colum McCann
• Serena: A Novel by Ron Rash

Though they're all new books and in hardcover, they are available on Amazon.com for between $14 and $16. And, of course, free at your local library.

Mary mentioned some interesting books shortlisted for the Booker Prize in her July post. I have been eager to read Colm Toibin's Brooklyn. Though I'd be happy to read any and all of them.

Mary, maybe you would be interested in hosting our winter meeting? Hint, hint.

Inspiration for future books?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/jul/28/heavyweights-clash-booker-longlist/print

Literary heavyweights in the form of AS Byatt, JM Coetzee and Colm Tóibín were today named on the 13-strong longlist for the Booker prize.

The broadcaster James Naughtie, who is chairing this year's judges, called it one of the "strongest lists in recent memory" with a good span of styles and themes.

Two former winners are nominated. Byatt, who won in 1990 for Possession, is longlisted for The Children's Book, an almost staggeringly detailed book set between 1895 and 1919 which explores the Edwardian cult of childhood. And Coetzee, who won in 1999 for Disgrace, is named for his yet-to-be-published novel Summertime.

One of the most popular books to make the list is Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall, which recreates the Tudor court of Henry VIII seen through the eyes of the king's most trusted adviser, Thomas Cromwell. The novel – expect it to be popular beach reading this summer – has been one of the best-reviewed books of the year so far. The Guardian's Christopher Tayler called it "a display of Mantel's extraordinary talent" adding: "Lyrically yet cleanly and tightly written, solidly imagined yet filled with spooky resonances, and very funny at times, it's not like much else in contemporary British fiction."

Many would be pleased if this was the year for one of Ireland's most acclaimed writers, Colm Tóibín. He has been a Booker bridesmaid twice – shortlisted in 1999 for The Blackwater Lightship and in 2004 for The Master, which by all accounts came extremely close – and is this year longlisted for his funny and moving study of belonging, Brooklyn.

Other established names on the list include Sarah Waters for The Little Stranger, William Trevor for Love and Summer and Sarah Hall for How to Paint a Dead Man.

Judges will now meet in a month's time and whittle the list down to six. The other longlisted novels are Adam Foulds for The Quickening Maze, Samantha Harvey for The Wilderness, James Lever for Me Cheeta, Simon Mawer for The Glass Room, Ed O'Loughlin for Not Untrue & Not Unkind and James Scudamore for Heliopolis.