Wow!!! What a heated discussion we just had! Does the Master have a real name? How long can you stay in the purgatory? How far can you kick a glass of pineapple juice? Well, we might not have reached a consensus on those questions, but we enjoyed our evening, even though I didn't comply to the no-talking-during-book-club rule.
First, we must congratulate Edouard and Laure again, since they gave us an excuse to have champagne ready to celebrate the good news of Andrea and Natalie. We also must remind people of Natalie's master plan to start sharing emcee's duty during future boo club. The devil knows where that will lead us to!
Natalie will force me to post an alcohol-free post soon enough so that I can update the group with all the books we mentioned, including Or's washroom literature, so stay tune!!!
March 25, 2009
March 15, 2009
Are you ready for another impossible-to-understand book?
During our last meeting, we had a great discussion on The Good Earth, thanks to Natalie who cracked the whip enough times to keep us focused. After an hour-long discussion, we agreed that we should probably go watch the French movie The Class.
In terms of other books we read, last month was a particularly good month. In no particular order, here is what people read:
Laure & Edouard: They really liked Les Funerailles Celestes, which translates into Sky Burial. It's an epic story of Tibet, and it gets good reviews on Amazon.
Karen read The Five Quarters Of An Orange. The amazon.com community gave it a 4 out of 5 rating. The author commented that she would have liked to receive a 5 out of 4 rating.
Natalie read another of these bad tourist trap book based on her next destination, Budapest. You can view her pictures from her trip here.
Or read Midnight's Children, although he has yet to finish it.
Finally, I read Middlesex, the story of an hermaphrodite. The book came highly recommended from Natalie and Karen, and was actually quite interesting, especially if you are interested in either men or women.
Jonathan, Steve, Andrea, Amy: what did you read last month?
Enough said about the past, let's take a look at the future. Ten more days until our next meeting! I hope that you have started reading The Master and Margarita, because from what I can get from it, this story is hard to get. The Dufuis are happy to host you in Richmond, and I'm sure it'll be fun.
Another thing to look forward to is the release of The Watchmen on DVD. The movie is fine, but the DVD will include a short animated movie of a story told inside The Watchmen graphic novel, which I read recently. Here is the preview:
In terms of other books we read, last month was a particularly good month. In no particular order, here is what people read:
Laure & Edouard: They really liked Les Funerailles Celestes, which translates into Sky Burial. It's an epic story of Tibet, and it gets good reviews on Amazon.
Karen read The Five Quarters Of An Orange. The amazon.com community gave it a 4 out of 5 rating. The author commented that she would have liked to receive a 5 out of 4 rating.
Natalie read another of these bad tourist trap book based on her next destination, Budapest. You can view her pictures from her trip here.
Or read Midnight's Children, although he has yet to finish it.
Finally, I read Middlesex, the story of an hermaphrodite. The book came highly recommended from Natalie and Karen, and was actually quite interesting, especially if you are interested in either men or women.
Jonathan, Steve, Andrea, Amy: what did you read last month?
Enough said about the past, let's take a look at the future. Ten more days until our next meeting! I hope that you have started reading The Master and Margarita, because from what I can get from it, this story is hard to get. The Dufuis are happy to host you in Richmond, and I'm sure it'll be fun.
Another thing to look forward to is the release of The Watchmen on DVD. The movie is fine, but the DVD will include a short animated movie of a story told inside The Watchmen graphic novel, which I read recently. Here is the preview:
February 28, 2009
Prepare for some weirdness!
Readers: watch this trailer (in Russian) for the movie and prepare for some strangeness in our next novel! Maybe we should try to arrange a movie night...OR?
February 21, 2009
February 02, 2009
Midnight's Children
Last week, we met to discuss the book Amy and I read: Midnight's Children. After Amy served us an amazing soup and secured a heart-breaking reading comprehension quiz victory, we went on to discuss why we didn't read Midnight's Children. Natalie explained how she can't read a book when she doesn't connect with the main character, while Or described the story of another sci-fi novel. I was too busy drinking to write down the title, although I do remember that:
- Amy is reading On Brick Lane, not to be confused with Brick Lane
- Natalie is reading Prague, a book on Hungary?!?!?!?
- I'm reading The Dark Half by Stephen King, and I'm trembling like a little girl
The absentees might think that they didn't miss much that night, but that would not be giving credit to Laure and Edouard! En effet, the blogosphere joins us in congratulating them as they are expecting!!! Will we be adding an eleventh book club member next year? Will Or and Karen serve burgers at the next book meeting? Will we be reading Teletubbies: An Outing at the Zoo over the Christmas break next year? I think so!!!
Until then, our next book club is on Feb 26, and we are discussing what will probably win the best book award of the year: The Good Earth. This is an easy read folks, so I expect everyone to have read it (that means you too Steve).
Read forever,
Tube Reader
- Amy is reading On Brick Lane, not to be confused with Brick Lane
- Natalie is reading Prague, a book on Hungary?!?!?!?
- I'm reading The Dark Half by Stephen King, and I'm trembling like a little girl
The absentees might think that they didn't miss much that night, but that would not be giving credit to Laure and Edouard! En effet, the blogosphere joins us in congratulating them as they are expecting!!! Will we be adding an eleventh book club member next year? Will Or and Karen serve burgers at the next book meeting? Will we be reading Teletubbies: An Outing at the Zoo over the Christmas break next year? I think so!!!
Until then, our next book club is on Feb 26, and we are discussing what will probably win the best book award of the year: The Good Earth. This is an easy read folks, so I expect everyone to have read it (that means you too Steve).
Read forever,
Tube Reader
December 15, 2008
Or's Top 5!!!
As you know, I would like to update the top 5 section on the right side of the blog monthly with someone's top 5 books of all time. I don't intend to create a post about it every time I change the section, but Or provided such good descriptions of his top 5 (after much procrastination) that I couldn't let this good work go un-noticed...
1. The Lord of the Rings / J.R.R. Tolkien - The ultimate narrative of the everlasting struggle between good and evil. On its initial review the Sunday Telegraph felt it was "among the greatest works of imaginative fiction of the twentieth century." The Sunday Times review stated that "the English-speaking world is divided into those who have read The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit and those who are going to read them."
2. State of Fear / Michael Crichton - One of Crichton's, who died last month, most critical and thought provoking books on the relationship between science, capital, mass media and politics.
3. Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) / Jerome K. Jerome - First published in 1889, one of the most praised things about Three Men in a Boat is how undated it appears to modern readers; the jokes seem fresh and witty even today.
4. The Man in the High Castle / Philip K. Dick - A mesmerising novel depicting an alternative history in which Germany and Japan have won The Second World War. Like most of Dick's novels, the main themes touched upon concern life in a police state and a genuine difficulty (for both readers and characters) to ascertain what is real and what is false
5. Good Omens / Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett - Quite possibly the funniest book ever written, despite it mostly depicting the Apocalypse.
On another note, I'm devoted to keep a track record of the books mentioned during the meetings. Although I thought most people gave compelling reasons to read these books at the last meeting, I decided not to repeat them like I did in last month's post. This is a simple bullet point version of them:
1) Flowers for Algernon
2) Outliers: The Story of Success
3) How Ms Claus Saved Christmas
4) Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
5) We Need to Talk about Kevin
6) The Door
7) The Weekenders: Travels in the Heart of Africa
My guess is that Steve is reading "How Ms Claus Saved Christmas" and that Natalie is reading "Outliers: The Story of Success".
1. The Lord of the Rings / J.R.R. Tolkien - The ultimate narrative of the everlasting struggle between good and evil. On its initial review the Sunday Telegraph felt it was "among the greatest works of imaginative fiction of the twentieth century." The Sunday Times review stated that "the English-speaking world is divided into those who have read The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit and those who are going to read them."
2. State of Fear / Michael Crichton - One of Crichton's, who died last month, most critical and thought provoking books on the relationship between science, capital, mass media and politics.
3. Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) / Jerome K. Jerome - First published in 1889, one of the most praised things about Three Men in a Boat is how undated it appears to modern readers; the jokes seem fresh and witty even today.
4. The Man in the High Castle / Philip K. Dick - A mesmerising novel depicting an alternative history in which Germany and Japan have won The Second World War. Like most of Dick's novels, the main themes touched upon concern life in a police state and a genuine difficulty (for both readers and characters) to ascertain what is real and what is false
5. Good Omens / Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett - Quite possibly the funniest book ever written, despite it mostly depicting the Apocalypse.
On another note, I'm devoted to keep a track record of the books mentioned during the meetings. Although I thought most people gave compelling reasons to read these books at the last meeting, I decided not to repeat them like I did in last month's post. This is a simple bullet point version of them:
1) Flowers for Algernon
2) Outliers: The Story of Success
3) How Ms Claus Saved Christmas
4) Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
5) We Need to Talk about Kevin
6) The Door
7) The Weekenders: Travels in the Heart of Africa
My guess is that Steve is reading "How Ms Claus Saved Christmas" and that Natalie is reading "Outliers: The Story of Success".
December 11, 2008
Pulitzer Prizes enters the online era
This information might be of interest to some of you.
The Pulitzer Prizes in journalism have been expanded to include many text-based newspapers and news organizations that publish only on the Internet. The Pulitzer Board also has decided to allow entries made up entirely of online content to be submitted in all 14 Pulitzer journalism categories.
Most of you will naturally expect that your devoted blogger will shortly be nominated for this prestigious prize. However, that would be forgetting that the prize is only awarded to American newspapers and news organizations. Given the complexity involved in getting a UK visa, I think I will pass on applying for US citizenship!
The Pulitzer Prizes in journalism have been expanded to include many text-based newspapers and news organizations that publish only on the Internet. The Pulitzer Board also has decided to allow entries made up entirely of online content to be submitted in all 14 Pulitzer journalism categories.
Most of you will naturally expect that your devoted blogger will shortly be nominated for this prestigious prize. However, that would be forgetting that the prize is only awarded to American newspapers and news organizations. Given the complexity involved in getting a UK visa, I think I will pass on applying for US citizenship!
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