Readers!

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KNOW HOW MANY BOOKMARKS NYWBC OWNS? Sing along, wave your spines in the air, y'all.

And vote on our latest book choice!  Here's the form one more time in case you missed it over email yesterday.  Voting will wrap up on Friday afternoon so get yer counts in or regret it forever, basically.

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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.

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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!

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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!

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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!

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Get reading!

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

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

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Preorder your copy of "Boo: The Life of the World's Cutest Dog" and forever enjoy ...the world's cutest dog.

THIS POST IS FOR JEAN.  HI JEAN!

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Fire up the ol' e-reader doohickey and get to eyeballin' this fine text!  Get it on Amazon or at your fine local book purveyor.

We'll be meetin' on Thursday, June 30th, at a place TBD.  READ UP, I SAY!

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Thanks to all who came out for our Womens Book Club Discussion last Monday!  We had a strong showing of six participants, not all of whom had completed or even read the book, but brought along their talking points nonetheless.  Interestingly enough, out of our attendees, only one person read a physical copy of the book!  Two people read it on ipads, one on the iphone, on on the kindle, and the last read only the wikipedia article.  

Nobody really loved any of the characters.  There was a collective WTF regarding Walter's jagged character change, and we disagreed on our levels of liking/hatred for Patty, but we could all agree that Joey's path shadowed Patty's in that he made a mistake yet amended it much faster than his own mother.  In the ongoing themes of familial relationships and the notion of freedom itself, this pattern resonated pretty deeply with us.  We talked a great deal about a few other themes in the book (is Franzen an eco-liberal zealot? is he some strange combination of Patty, Richard, and Walter? Why didn't they name the entire book "Walnut Surprise"?).  Although there wasn't overwhelming support as one of the best pieces of literature we'd read in a while, there was no shortage of things to talk about, so that in and of itself made this NYWBC meeting a success.  Angrywayne blogged his review, too -- a must-read!

The next reading and meeting for the NYWBC will be led by Matt Jacobs!  Stay tuned, and do invite your women and non-women friends to join along in the fun.

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Books come into our lives in mysterious ways. In mine, sometimes it
feels like I’m a giant electro-magnet and they hurl at me from the
shelves of bookstores, friends, neighbors, garbage piles, small dogs
and cats. When the recent controversial vote for our “monthly” book
reading for the New York’s Women’s Book Club came up, my wife chimed
in with “Oh, we should read that book... ‘The New York Regional Mormon
Singles Halloween Dance’! Yea, I thought, because I’ve always wanted
to read about that. What the hell has happened to Tracie? She must
have eaten something funny last night. Maybe this is one of those
mornings;where she wakes up and tells me all about her crazy dreams in
their Hieronymus Bosch forms. Maybe I slept through the first half of
the dream description and now she’s to the point where she is on about
Mormons.

So, it was not without reservation and to a large extent deeply
skeptical reservation that I succumbed to her advice that we should
read this book. And to some extent, guilt brought me to that decision,
 standing in the middle of Greenlight Bookstore I already had an
armload of books so I figured I should swoop one or two up for her
therby justifying my even setting into a bookstore without first
checking in with her. I could almost hear a stack of books fall to the
floor in our apartment a mile away. We have too many books. At least,
we go through this discussion from time to time. I should go through
them, get rid of some. Most of the time, we just ignore them,
until friends come by where we usually are able to pawn a few off,
exposing space for a few more.

Elna Baker’s book, was a couple of things I rarely find myself drawn
towards, a memoir of someone I’ve never heard of and Mormons. But
Tracie had gone on to remind me that we’d heard a story by her on
‘This American Life’ one day, remember? The baby story...? ...Um, no,
I did not. But I asked the shopkeeper if they had it, ‘cause I hadn’t
found it in the fiction shelves. She said, “...I think it’s in the
humor section...”. Sure enough it was. That is how when I needed a
break from our seriously depressing sociological history as
illuminated by the late Howard Zinn, I cracked the spine and started
to read and laugh over coffee.

It was easy to get into, her humor and humanity permeates every
sentence. And it was while reading this, a few days in, that I heard a
story on the radio. It was some famous critic talking about some
recent ‘memoir’ and they were discussing the recent onslaught of
“insignificant memoirs by the unaccomplished”, and I believe I got so
pissed that I snapped off the radio . The notion that one has to be a
scholar, a president, a famous actor, some measure of popular
‘accomplishment’ to be ‘worthy’ of being published grates on me.  A
box grater that catches on the back of knuckle as my grip slips and
blood oozes on the counter.

So, I dove into reading my memoir of another, so far, short-lived and
‘unaccomplished’ by traditional publishing standards memoirist and I’m
glad I did. Its kind of awesome that we have this freedom, to write
about our diverse experiences, our challenges, the breadth of
religious struggles and battles with faith that go on in our lives.
The fact that it has a place to be shared and discussed and reflected
on, that is why publishers should publish books like these, and why,
when they don’t, we should find other ways to do so.

I think young women all over the world, from all backgrounds, will
read books like these and want to share their stories as well, and I
think this adds to the richness of our cultural diaspora and wouldn’t
have it any other way.  It gives us a sense of calm and ease with one
another, an understanding. If I had to highlight one aspect of that
comes across as  the Elna Baker ideal, without ruining the book for
you, it would be her ‘Yes’ to life. Elna Baker embodies an eagerness
and willingness towards an adventurous and boundlessness in life. I’m
happy she took the time to share her moments in her deep and continual
battle with her belief systems, her conflicts with the paternalistic
boundaries of her religion, and her overcoming these challenges. She
illuminates for those that know not and those that yet need reminded,
we have these privileges to challenge our beliefs and yet can remain
faithful to those beliefs because of what we’ve built as a society.
And she makes us laugh out loud in the process.

Without saying anything about her writing, I hope I’ve convinced you
her story is worth your time. In case you still need a little swaying,
take a moment and listen to this segment from ‘This American Life’ her
story, one chapter from this book, ‘Babies Buying Babies’. Enjoy.

Originally Reviewed at Angrywayne.com

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Members, we have chosen to read Jonathan Franzen's Freedom.  We will discuss this literary work with clear eyes, full hearts, and know that we can't lose.  After all, dammit, this is the Dillon New York Women's Book Club, and if there's one thing we love, it's football books. 

Our NYWBC Meeting to discuss Freedom will be on Tuesday, March 1st, at 6:30.  Venue is TBD, and an invitation will be sent over our Google Groups list.

GO READERS!

UPDATE: Thanks to one of our very thoughtful members for the following video suggestion!

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This is one of those finds that I think bookstores and conversation are one of the few ways one could decide upon reading it. Its the quick glance inside that gets you and nails you to the wall. I wasn't even looking for this book. That's generally the way it happens when you find a great bookstore, you leave with your arms weighed down and your pocketbook vanquished. Something pushed it into my hands off the 'Rebecca Reccomends' shelf of Greenlight Bookstore in Ft. Greene, Brooklyn.I read Winik's intro and then the first story and then headed to the cashier.

I've just finished all of the remembrances in this extremely short book and I think you all should read this. It is particularly imperative if you'll ever die. These 'portraits of the dead' are inspired by the fictional vignettes of Edgar Lee Master's 'Spoon River Anthology' and yet a leap into the contemporary form. Every one is a deep insight into her life and the lives of many she came in touch. The writing is so spare and so crystal at times it as shocking as smashing down a glass of Grandma's favorite crystal at the dinner table.

Each of the portraits, drawn from her own rich experiences and those that have touched her life are spare yet concentrated reflection most only amounting to a few paragraphs at best, yet there always are these barbs and lines that stab up from the text and draw one forward, leaving a yearning for a deeper connection to this thing we call life and the other we are all ever spinning towards. Here are a few of my favorite moments, although the whole thing will fall into that realm. I'll probably read it again. It's the perfect book for a train ride, while standing on a corner waiting for a friend, or when you're sitting in the loo. Enjoy.

From 'The Second Grade Teacher' pg.66

"...I heard that C. Green had died of breast cancer, leaving young children of her own. It seemed impossible. Aren't elementary school teachers eternal and ageless--like Santa Claus--holding open the heavy steel doors to the future as the babbling river of children runs through and through."

From 'The Man of Letters' pg. 73

"Look, here we all are in the boardwalk at Bradley Beach, New Jersey, the summer my boys were one and three. The sun is an orange-brown pill bottle in the sky. Lounging on a beach, the men squint through the taffy air at little hands waving from the ferris wheel."

If you are in the Brooklyn, NY area, or if you want to buy it online from an awesome small bookseller, hit up Greenlight Bookstore.

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