April - Book Pick & Date

April is National Poetry Month! We will be reading The Captain Asks for a Show of Hands by Nick Flynn. I know that some of you are anxious about reading poetry, but this book club is not about being "correct" in your feelings or analysis of poetry (I don't think that there is even such thing as being "correct" in that sense), but instead it's just to read & enjoy the poems together. Nick Flynn is a wonderful poet and I hope everyone enjoys it.


We will be meeting at the amazing Birroteca (seriously, that place has incredible food & a huge beer selection) on April 27th at 1:00pm. I look forward to seeing all of you there!

Choose Your Own Adventure - April

April's theme is poetry, so please choose the book that you'd most like to read on the monthly poll. Here are some descriptions of each book, all of which are pulled from Amazon.

A Coney Island of the Mind by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

The title of this book is taken from Henry Miller's "Into the Night Life" and expresses the way Lawrence Ferlinghetti felt about these poems when he wrote them during a short period in the 1950's - as if they were, taken together, a kind of Coney Island of the mind, a kind of circus of the soul.

The Captain Asks for a Show of Hands by Nick Flynn
What begins as a meditation on love and the body soon breaks down into a collage of voices culled from media reports, childhood memories, testimonies from Abu Ghraib detainees, passages from documentary films, overheard conversations, and scraps of poems and song, only to reassemble with a gathering sonic force. It’s as if all the noise that fills our days were a storm, yet at the center is a quiet place, but to get there you must first pass through the storm, with eyes wide open, singing. Each poem becomes a hallucinatory, shifting experience, through jump cut, lyric persuasion, and deadpan utterance.

Low Parish by Steven Leyva







awaiting description
Useless Landscape by D.A. Powell
In D. A. Powell’s fifth book of poetry, the rollicking line he has made his signature becomes the taut, more discursive means to describing beauty, singing a dirge, directing an ironic smile, or questioning who in any given setting is the instructor and who is the pupil. This is a book that explores the darker side of divisions and developments, which shows how the interstitial spaces of boonies, backstage, bathhouse, or bar are locations of desire. With Powell’s witty banter, emotional resolve, and powerful lyricism, this collection demonstrates his exhilarating range.

The Wild Iris by Louise Gluck
This collection of stunningly beautiful poems encompasses the natural, human, and spiritual realms, and is bound together by the universal themes of time and mortality. With clarity and sureness of craft, Gluck's poetry questions, explores, and finally celebrates the ordeal of being alive.

Deadest Rapper Alive: The Rise of Lil' Wayne and the Fall of Urban Youth by Jomo K. Johnson
Labeled as one of the most polarizing urban book releases of 2011 — Deadest Rapper Alive gives a microscopic social analysis of Rap Superstar Lil Wayne. The Author challenges Lil’ Wayne’s fans and critics — to take a greater look into the rise, career, and impact of the cultural icon.” Written with a unique intellectual prowess and a near exhaustive knowledge of the Artist’s rise to fame, Jomo Johnson’s, Deadest Rapper Alive is a razor sharp exegesis of not only Lil’ Wayne’s body of work – but the impact of his philosophy upon Urban Youth. Mainstream Hip Hop Fans, Parents, and Social Critics alike would do well to read the book that has arguably ended the rap reign of Lil’ Wayne.

Who's the Best Rapper? Biggie, Jay-Z or Nas by Ronald Crawford
Ronald Crawford, a therapist and author uses hip-hop lyrics and dialog sessions to increase literacy and stimulate healing among at-risk youth

Thank you and please vote no later than March 15th.

March - Book Pick & Date

Thanks to all for voting for March's book! The chosen book for the sci-fi is Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.

The book discussion will be on March 30th (1pm) at Sticky Rice in Fells Point. Please let me know your RSVP for the discussion no later than March 25th, so I can finalize it with them.


Also, just a side note, Anthony has a good point that this book is a well-known & well-received sci-fi novel (and I am VERY excited to read it), but the author is kind of a jerk (meaning that he is on the board for a huge anti-equality org). So, if you can, please borrow the book from the library or buy the book used so we don't support jerks. 

 I look forward to seeing you in March!

Choose Your Own Adventure - March

For March's book, we are choosing a science fiction novel! Please vote in the poll by February 11th.

Here are the contenders, in no particular order (all summaries have been pulled from Amazon & Google Books). Please respond to the poll at the end. Thank you!

The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
In The Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury, America’s preeminent storyteller, imagines a place of hope, dreams, and metaphor— of crystal pillars and fossil seas—where a fine dust settles on the great empty cities of a vanished, devastated civilization. Earthmen conquer Mars and then are conquered by it, lulled by dangerous lies of comfort and familiarity, and enchanted by the lingering glamour of an ancient, mysterious native race. In this classic work of fiction, Bradbury exposes our ambitions, weaknesses, and ignorance in a strange and breathtaking world where man does not belong.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Join Douglas Adams's hapless hero Arthur Dent as he travels the galaxy with his intrepid pal Ford Prefect, getting into horrible messes and generally wreaking hilarious havoc. Dent is grabbed from Earth moments before a cosmic construction team obliterates the planet to build a freeway. You'll never read funnier science fiction; Adams is a master of intelligent satire, barbed wit, and comedic dialogue. The Hitchhiker's Guide is rich in comedic detail and thought-provoking situations and stands up to multiple reads. 

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, serving in the household of the enigmatic Commander and his bitter wife. She may go out once a day to markets whose signs are now pictures because women are not allowed to read. She must pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, for in a time of declining birthrates her value lies in her fertility, and failure means exile to the dangerously polluted Colonies. Offred can remember a time when she lived with her husband and daughter and had a job, before she lost even her own name. Now she navigates the intimate secrets of those who control her every move, risking her life in breaking the rules.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
All children should believe they are special. But the students of Hailsham, an elite school in the English countryside, are so special that visitors shun them, and only by rumor and the occasional fleeting remark by a teacher do they discover their unconventional origins and strange destiny. Kazuo Ishiguro's sixth novel, Never Let Me Go, is a masterpiece of indirection. Like the students of Hailsham, readers are "told but not told" what is going on and should be allowed to discover the secrets of Hailsham and the truth about these children on their own. Offsetting the bizarreness of these revelations is the placid, measured voice of the narrator, Kathy H., a 31-year-old Hailsham alumna who, at the close of the 1990s, is consciously ending one phase of her life and beginning another. She is in a reflective mood, and recounts not only her childhood memories, but her quest in adulthood to find out more about Hailsham and the idealistic women who ran it. Although often poignant, Kathy's matter-of-fact narration blunts the sharper emotional effects you might expect in a novel that deals with illness, self-sacrifice, and the severe restriction of personal freedoms.

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race's next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin lives with his kind but distant parents, his sadistic brother Peter, and the person he loves more than anyone else, his sister Valentine. Peter and Valentine were candidates for the soldier-training program but didn't make the cut—young Ender is the Wiggin drafted to the orbiting Battle School for rigorous military training.
Is Ender the general the Earth needs? But Ender is not the only result of the genetic experiments. The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Ender's two older siblings are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. Between the three of them lie the abilities to remake a world. If, that is, the world survives.

Please vote for your favorite no later than February 11th. Here is the poll: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/8FC63XK Thank you!

January Discussion Questions

Here are some discussion questions to keep in mind for our meeting this weekend. As always, please come with additional questions if you have them!

1. The author, Cheryl, changed her last name to "Strayed" after her divorce, but long before she stepped onto the Pacific Coast Trail. Do you think that her name fit her well? Moreso before or after her trek on the PCT?
   
2. Cheryl embarks on her adventure with no additional knowledge that what she acquires from her trail guide and from the REI employees. Do you think that her unpreparedness was fitting to her character? Why do you believe that she got on the trail with no prior training?
   
3. What role does Cheryl's books play for her on the trail?
   
4. Throughout her time on the trail, Cheryl dumps a lot of hiking accessories (foldable saw, a huge pack of condoms) and picks up others (the black feather, the Bob Marley t-shirt). What is the significance of these various objects?
   
5. Monster, the name that she has given her pack, almost takes on its own persona on the trail. Additionally, Cheryl has a lot of emotional baggage that she carries on the trail. Do you think that all of this weight (physical and metaphorical) built her to be stronger, or weakened her further? Discuss.
   
6. Did Cheryl's relationships with others (her siblings, her mother, Paul, Joe) affect her on the trail? In what ways? How did she see herself and others differently after being on the PCT for awhile?
   
7. Give your personal feelings about hiking alone on a long trail for 1,100 miles. Do you think you could do it? Would you want to?

Thanks for participating in Bookmarks & Barstools and I'll see you this weekend!

Choose Your Own Adventure - February

For February's book, we are choosing a book written by a Black author. Please vote in the poll by January 14th.

Here are the contenders, in no particular order (all summaries have been pulled from Amazon & Google Books). Please respond to the poll at the end. Thank you!

The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother by James McBride
James McBride grew up one of twelve siblings in the all-black housing projects of Red Hook, Brooklyn, the son of a black minister and a woman who would not admit she was white. The object of McBride's constant embarrassment and continuous fear for her safety, his mother was an inspiring figure, who through sheer force of will saw her dozen children through college, and many through graduate school. McBride was an adult before he discovered the truth about his mother: The daughter of a failed itinerant Orthodox rabbi in rural Virginia, she had run away to Harlem, married a black man, and founded an all-black Baptist church in her living room in Red Hook. In her son's remarkable memoir, she tells in her own words the story of her past. Around her narrative, James McBride has written a powerful portrait of growing up, a meditation on race and identity, and a poignant, beautifully crafted hymn from a son to his mother.

 

The Girl Who Fell From the Sky by Heidi W. Durrow
Rachel, the daughter of a danish mother and a black G.I., becomes the sole survivor of a family tragedy after a fateful morning on their Chicago rooftop.
Forced to move to a new city, with her strict African American grandmother as her guardian, Rachel is thrust for the first time into a mostly black community, where her light brown skin, blue eyes, and beauty bring a constant stream of attention her way. It’s there, as she grows up and tries to swallow her grief, that she comes to understand how the mystery and tragedy of her mother might be connected to her own uncertain identity.
This searing and heartwrenching portrait of a young biracial girl dealing with society’s ideas of race and class is the winner of the Bellwether Prize for best fiction manuscript addressing issues of social justice. 

 

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
Oscar is a sweet but disastrously overweight ghetto nerd who—from the New Jersey home he shares with his old world mother and rebellious sister—dreams of becoming the Dominican J.R.R. Tolkien and, most of all, finding love. But Oscar may never get what he wants. Blame the fukú—a curse that has haunted Oscar’s family for generations, following them on their epic journey from Santo Domingo to the USA. Encapsulating Dominican-American history, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao opens our eyes to an astonishing vision of the contemporary American experience and explores the endless human capacity to persevere—and risk it all—in the name of love.

 

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
One of the most important works of twentieth-century American literature, Zora Neale Hurston's beloved 1937 classic, Their Eyes Were Watching God, is an enduring Southern love story sparkling with wit, beauty, and heartfelt wisdom. Told in the captivating voice of a woman who refuses to live in sorrow, bitterness, fear, or foolish romantic dreams, it is the story of fair-skinned, fiercely independent Janie Crawford, and her evolving selfhood through three marriages and a life marked by poverty, trials, and purpose. A true literary wonder, Hurston's masterwork remains as relevant and affecting today as when it was first published—perhaps the most widely read and highly regarded novel in the entire canon of African American literature.

 

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local “powhitetrash.” At eight years old and back at her mother’s side in St. Louis, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age–and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime. Years later, in San Francisco, Maya learns about love for herself and the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors (“I met and fell in love with William Shakespeare”) will allow her to be free instead of imprisoned.

  

The Known World by Edward P. Jones
The Known World tells the story of Henry Townsend, a black farmer and former slave who falls under the tutelage of William Robbins, the most powerful man in Manchester County, Virginia. Making certain he never circumvents the law, Townsend runs his affairs with unusual discipline. But when death takes him unexpectedly, his widow, Caldonia, can't uphold the estate's order, and chaos ensues. Jones has woven a footnote of history into an epic that takes an unflinching look at slavery in all its moral complexities. 

Thank you! Please vote here by January 14th.

December - Discussion Questions

Here are some discussion questions to keep in mind for our meeting tonight. As always, please come with additional questions if you have them!

Questions for Discussion 

1. This book was chosen for the "winter" theme. Can you tell why immediately? What was the role that winter played in the novel?
2. The relationship between Lev & Kolya changes throughout the novel. Was this relationship depicted realistically?
3. The two characters are on a quest for one dozen eggs. Why do you think the author chose eggs as the commodity? Would the message of deprivation been as strong (or stronger) with another product?
4. Kolya talks about the brilliance that is The Courtyard Hound. What indication does the author give you that Kolya is the author? What was the significance to Kolya that he wrote this?
5. One of the plot peaks of the book is when Lev & Kolya find the house filled with the girls who are kept plump and healthy for the German Einsatzgruppen. Discuss what goes on in this house. How did it change Lev's character?
6. The author wrote this as if it was about his grandfather, although he admits in interviews that his grandfather has never been to Russia. This speaks to the flexibility that the story has; it could be anyone's grandfather. Did you feel as if your family's history could fit into this story somewhere?
7. David Benioff is a writer for Game of Thrones. For those of you who have seen GoT, do you see any similarities in the storytelling?

 Thank you for participating again this month! I look forward to seeing you for the discussion!