I don't have options, but there has been much hubbub about reading John Steinbeck's, The Grapes of Wrath. For all those who haven't read it in high school and are interested (and those who have but couldn't tell you anything about it) feel free to weigh in or suggest something else. Personally, I'm in. 

So, what's happening, my fine, fine book club members?  Reading anything interesting?  We're now accepting suggestions for our Late January NYWBC Meetup.  We've got a couple suggestions and we'll try to narrow it down to one finalist in the last week of December.

 

from: http://mlkshk.com/p/AM43

Thanks to everybody who made it out to Cascabel last time for some tacos deliciosos.  For the first time ever, all attendees read 30% or more of the book, then 100% two days later.  Nice job, guys. Dr. Swenson would (not) be proud.

 

I've been wasting time on the Internet! Thankfully i found a video that's about a book we read recently, James Franco, and mentions Twilight. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfzuOu4UIOU&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Readers,

 

Have you been reading?  The leaves are falling, cats are sitting on laps, bags of tea are steeping, I am making terrible excuses for not sending this announcement earlier, etc.  

 

 

 

 

Regardless of your personal autumnal rituals, our Fall Book choice has been CHOSEN: State of Wonder, by Ann Patchett. Buy it on Amazon or your local book seller or wheresoever you choose.

We will be meeting on Thursday, November 17th Tuesday, November 15th at 7pm at Cascabel (108th & Broadway on the UWS).  I hope to see you all there!

Thanks to everyone who came out to Hot Bird to talk about Super Sad Love Story (Natalie and Matt, I'm looking at you). For those of you who didn't come, shame on you! (jk, there's always next time.) Y'all also missed an opportunity to gorge on delicious ice cream from Ample Hills.

We had a great time discussing the book, and we happily welcomed a new book lover, Chelsea, to our group. Who would like to pick up the baton for our next book? Autumn is in the air and I'm ready to start a new novel!

Based on your responses, we're going to meet at Hot Bird at 7:30 PM on Wednesday, August 31st. It's a cash only bar, but there are plenty of places to order food from if you get hungry. And an outdoor space to boot.

Hello book club members!

How far are you into the book? Honestly I haven't started yet. But I want to know when and where you want to meet! So I made this survey, it'll take twenty seconds to fill it out. I'm thinking sometime in the last week of August, with a variety of venues to choose from.

My awesome book club survey.

Please fill it out by this Friday at 5 pm. Go for it!

Annnnnnd the clear winner, with a total of 6 votes out of 11, is Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart. I'll be posting some dates next week for tentative book club dates. If anyone has ideas for a good meeting place I'm all ears.

Get reading!

Finally, finally, I've come up with a list of books. Yes, I cheated and looked at Oprah's summer reading list. And a whole bunch of others. There's not really a theme beyond me picking three books that sounded interesting. Vote in the poll below by 5 pm, Friday August 5th. I'll let you know what we'll be reading!

Conquistadora, By Esmeralda Santiago
"Gloriosa Ana María de los Angeles Larragoity Cubillas Nieves de Donostia—Ana for short—is slight for a Spanish aristocrat, and unfashionably dark-skinned. In convent school in the 1830s, having eccentrically buried her not-so-pretty nose in a journal of a conquistador, she decides to become one, after a fashion, herself. "Ana despaired that she was born female and centuries too late to be an explorer and adventurer," writes Esmeralda Santiago, author of When I Was Puerto Rican*.  A decades-long story about marriage, slavery, and calculated choices—Ana makes an unspoken, unnatural pact with her young husband and his twin brother—Conquistadora (Knopf) is a splendid expedition into colonial history complete with enrapturing suspense to the very end."

Read more: http://www.oprah.com/book/Conquistadora-by-Esmeralda-Santiago?editors_pick_id=31642#ixzz1TirWNpA5

Super Sad True Love Story, Gary Shteyngart
"Do we ever truly know each other? Is intimacy possible in a culture where every interaction can be tracked and quantified by constantly updated data streams? These are the questions at the heart of Gary Shteyngart's postapocalyptic black comedy, Super Sad True Love Story. Taking place a few decades in the future, in an America where the war on terror has led to financial and ethical bankruptcy, the novel revolves around the affair between Lenny Abramov, 39, a second-generation Russian Jew bereft at the thought of his mortality, and the significantly younger Eunice Park, a Korean-American from Fort Lee, New Jersey, who lives to shop. "We're such an unlikely couple, so unlikely," Lenny cries one night in a Staten Island tavern, "because she's beautiful and I'm the fortieth ugliest man in this bar. But so what! So what!... Isn't this how people used to fall in love?" Suddenly, chaos strikes and the world reverts to a pretech era in which all we have is our isolated humanity. This leads Lenny to reassess his work for the Post-Human Services division of a company that markets high-end immortality, while Eunice finds herself unexpectedly politicized. Shteyngart makes trenchant, often hilarious, observations about a fading empire in which companies merge in bizarre combinations (LandO'LakesGMFord), and paramilitarism rules. How do we survive in such a world? The answer, this pointed novel argues, lies in trying to stay together despite ourselves."

Read more: http://www.oprah.com/book/Super-Sad-True-Love-Story-by-Gary-Shteyngart?editors_pick_id=26705#ixzz1Tis7Zn6Q

Once Upon a River, Bonnie Jo Campbell
One of the most talked-about new releases of the season, this novel will be sure to get you some jealous looks from your fellow literary beachgoers. More importantly, it’s an adventure story that will keep you pinned to your towel. Sixteen-year-old Margo Crane, armed with her trusty rifle, “only a few supplies and a biography of Annie Oakley,” sets off on a river journey through the wilds of rural Michigan in search of her mother. Margo has repeatedly been touted as the female Huck Finn, which means you’ll probably want to be her best friend. From Flavorwire