Dukes Up

This year's Canada Reads competition is under way, and it should be a good debate. Each of the panelists has won a previous year's challenge, so the strategies are complex and the arguments quick. Here's a run down:

- Stephen Page (Barenaked Ladies) : Natasha and Other Stories by David Bezmozgis
- Donna Morrissey (author from out east) : The Song of Kahunsha by Anosh Irani
- John K. Sampson (The Weakerthans) : Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O'Neill
- Denise Bombardier (French author) : Children of My Heart (Ces enfants de ma vie) by Gabrielle Roy
- Jim Cuddy (Blue Rodeo) : Stanley Park by Timothy Taylor

I haven't read any of these books (I've got to remember next year to check which books are selected, before the actual debate)! But the discussions are interesting nonetheless, and there are now five new books (well, actually only three) on my "to read" list. So far, I'm not too interested in The Song of Kahunsha or Children of my Heart. I bet they're good though. And you can bet one of these will be my next book club pick, when it's my turn to pick again!

Don't forget to listen to Canada Reads everyday this week on the CBC at 11:30am and 7:30pm. If you miss it, you can always read the transcripts or download the discussion here:

http://www.cbc.ca/canadareads/debate/index.html

Austin Clarke Makes Me Laugh

For many reasons, but most recently, because of this:

http://www.quillandquire.com/blog/index.php/2007/02/19/austin-clarke-meets-malcolm-x/

My favourite is where they say, "Clarke apparently interviewed Malcolm X again, years later and shortly before his assassination, but forgot to turn on the tape recorder." LOLOLOL

The Order of Canada

The Order of Canada was given last night. Two of the authors we have read on Book Club received The Order:
Frances Itani (Deafening, January 2006)
Barbara Gowdy (The Romantic, March 2004)
Congratulations to these two beloved authors!

It's Settled

We're meeting at Maria's next Monday (the 19th), at 6:30pm.

We're eating pizza.

We're watching The Big Sleep with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall.

Got Some Time On Your Hands??

I would LOVE to volunteer to be on the Toronto Book Awards Jury, but there's absolutely NO WAY I could read all 80-100 submissions in 3-4 months! That's 80-100 novels! Sheesh!

Anyways- if you're unlike me and have the time and motivation to volunteer, here's a link to the info!
http://www.workinculture.ca/apps/index.cfm?fuseaction=job.showDetails&jobid=19936&termid=

The Big Sleep

After our book club session at the Flatiron and Firkin, Gabriella has picked The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler for our February meeting.

Julia has just announced that she's moving on from book club. Julia, we are going to miss you so much, I will forever remember those early sessions when only you and I were part of book club.
We love you, Julia!

The Time Traveler's Wife at Tequila Bookworm

cross post from Blurty Blurt Blurt...

We had our monthly book club meeting last night, and we went to Tequila Bookworm. What a great place for a book club! We sat at the back, in the comfy cozy couches, and had a really good-looking waiter serving us. Always a bonus!

The food was a little disappointing, but I knew this going in (I'd read a couple reviews)... my bagel was burnt, but the cream cheese on my bagel was full of chunks of roasted garlic, which made up for the "Cajun-style" bagel. The cafe mocha was yummy, but looked like it was just coffee with some hot chocolate powder mixed in. Prices were pretty steep; my "cafe mocha" was over $3, and the bagel was also over $3. Alas, the price (literally) we pay to hang out at a really cool café on Queen Street West.

The discussion of the book was really in-depth; a roller coaster ride of opinions. The Time Traveler's Wife makes you think hard. While you're reading it, and once your finished. The book is about a man named Henry who has a genetic disease, which causes him to uncontrollably blip out of time and space, traveling back or forward in his life. But like I said last night, I wouldn't say this book is about a guy who time travels. It's a love story, about the struggles Henry and his wife Clare go through, caused by Henry's tendency to disappear every now and again, as well as the tough times any married couple would experience.

The big question of the evening was whether or not this book should be classified as Science Fiction. Technically, the book is about something that is not humanly possible (as far as we know). But because the book is written with such a realistic tone, I don't think it counts as Sci-Fi. It certainly doesn't look like a Sci-Fi book! Nestor said he really didn't like the cover, so we hopped online (thanks to the free wireless at Tequila Bookworm- god I love my new laptop), to see some of the other covers out there for this book. Here's what we found:


But the best image we found was this one by Jess the Fink on MySpace. I'm guessing she read the book, got inspired, and then drew this really cool illustration... Awesome, eh?

Another good question the book addresses is the age-old argument... Are our lives pre-destined, and therefore we have no control over the paths we take? Or do we have a certain amount of free will, and are able to change the route of our lives through the decisions we make? In the book, Henry is unable to change the outcome of anyone's life, even though he can travel back to integral moments over and over again (eg: he watches his mother die in a car crash numerous times). I think we concluded that it depends on your own faith/belief/spirituality. (Isn't that just always the answer- "it depends"?)

All in all, we rated this book 5 out of 5. I personally think it's the best book we've read in book club... even better than Three Day Road (which I picked last spring)!

We also took lots of photos while we were there... here's a link to the set on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ravenswift/sets/72157594388000551/

Started the Book....

... And I'm LOVING it. I'm so glad we're reading this book... it's amazing! And I'm only on page 127!

For some reason, I'm really equating this book with that new show Hereos (which is also awesome, you should watch it). AND, the premise is kinda similar to that movie The Lake House, with Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves in it.

Time travel. It's hard to wrap my head around. Do you think one day it'll be possible?!?

OMG GUYS!

ok so i'm almost done the book and some things are starting to make sense about the books style and length. it........... is ........... all........... intentional!

i'll tell u more about it later ;-)

Love, time, cholera

love, time, cholera
Originally uploaded by kurmidt.

October 2006, Love in the Time of Cholera. At Hemingway's for book club.

Henry's to Hemingway's

Henry's is where I work, and Hemingway's is where we met last night to talk about Love in the Time of Cholera. I just like the way it sounds. Henry's to Hemingway's. Like a song!

The discussion went well, I think, and everyone had fun answering the quiz questions I had printed out. Some of them were too easy, and some of them were a bit ambiguous- but I didn't have the answer sheet, so it didn't really matter! I think my favourite question was...

The song Florentino writes and plays for Fermina is called:
(A) Crowned Goddess
(B) Rockabye, Sweet Fermina
(C) Like A Virgin
(D) Share Your Love With Me

Haha... Like a Virgin... There were many instances of weird, quirky, and dare I say, illegal sexual encounters in this book, but since it was set around 1900, I don't think it really mattered. I was grossed out by the affair between the protagonist and his teenage lover, but I understand the value of the relationship within the story. The old people sex scene was a little unnerving, but funny at the same time. LOL

My personal opinion on this book? I think it could've been much shorter. And at time, it felt like a chore for me to read. I'm not sure if this had to do with the fact that it was translated from Spanish, or if it's because it written in a very classical language (as opposed to pop lit, or something closer to a soap opera, although the premise of the story would've fit nicely into say, The Young and the Restless). I know that the book was supposed to be humourous in places, too, but only a couple of times did I actually laugh out loud.

The story was interesting, though, the themes (suffering from love/cholera, and the fear of death) were relevant, and the characters were developed nicely. Nestor pointed out that he liked the way the author would time travel, to inform the reader of the character's past. Sometimes I found this a bit confusing, but I was thankful for it. I also found the names of the characters a bit confusing (see my previous post).

Ultimately, I think we all enjoyed the book. It was also great to see Daniella (our newest member), and her seeing eye dog Roger, who was super cute (especially when he licked Julia's knee)! John didn't make it out (even though he was the one who chose the book), because he was sick. Feel better John!!

Next book- The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger. Nestor's pick. Meeting date: November 22. Venue TBA.

Derrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

I don't know if it's just cause I'm an idiot, or because it's been so long since I've read anything that wouldn't be considered "pop lit"... but this Love in the Time of Cholera book is really making me rack my brain.

All the names sounds the same, and some people even have the same name! Or perhaps the name "Fermina" is an honorific, like Mister or Madame. And the book would be a heck of a lot shorter if the author truncated the names slightly. Instead of typing out Florentina Ariza 5000 times, he could've just called him Flor!

I'm also baffled about the geographical location. From what I understand, the book takes place in the Dominican Republic? But the treasure that Flor looks for just before Fermina returns from her fathers exile is located in the Sotavento Archipelago, which is off the coast of Africa!

It is turning out to be a good story, though. I am glad that we pushed back the date of the meeting (Oct. 11), which will definitely allow me enough time to finish the book.

Away from Home

Last night was our first meeting in a public place in a while (since the book club became known as "The Book Club", instead of"The Indigo Book Club", where we met in the book store). I think it went well! We met at The Victory Cafe, in Mirvish Village. What a great place. I enjoyed the food, and the service was good (even though the bartender kept saying, "Very good...").

All in all, we thought the book was fair. I liked it the most out of the four of us, I think. Then probably Maria (who choose the book). Then it's probably a tie between Julia and Gab, who both liked the language used in the book and the way the author wrote it (first person, told directly to the reader with lots of personal pronouns- I's and you's and us's), but didn't really think the premise of the story was all that interesting. Gab kept waiting for some kind of rebellion by the characters. I'd have to agree, the book did lack emotion and a serious climax. I said maybe the author's intention was to keep things fairly sterile, since it is a book about clones, and one of the themes was the question of morality in scientific progress and the spirituality (if any) of a cloned human.

Other themes included the value of friendship, the teenager's struggle to be accepted by their peers, and the importance of art and creativity in a child's development.

We discussed the book almost the entire time (which is rare for us), besides the odd Star Wars debate and of course, talk of my brithday! LOL... Julia had printed out some discussion questions from bookclubs.ca, and we used those as a guide.

I think this was my favourite book club meeting in a while... besides the one I planned at my house, that is! It's the new guy's turn to pick a book this month, so I'm not sure what we're reading next. Hopefully something good! I have no doubts, since he also works at Indigo!

The Ingenue

Oops! I accidentally posted here instead of on my blog. Now I erased the post. Sorry!