That’s right, this is a book club. I realize that this may be entirely a club unto myself, but it will give me good practice to be the next Oprah in concise lit analysis skills and be incentive for continuing to educate my mind outside of work as I start a new, daunting long-term job. You all are welcome to join and contribute. It’s like drop-in soccer at the Y, only with books. And not at the Y.
Also, if there’s enough local (LA) interest, you guys can come over for monthly chats and treats. We could expand the blog to Skypes and vlogs and GIFs and other hip and happening storytelling forms. Keep that in mind, too.
I want to cover a wide spectrum of reading materials, both for the benefit my eccentric interests as well as your own. I’m taking an open poll on a book with which to start: if no one votes, I’ll pick one and start posting and you can jump in as you fancy. Here’s what I’m considering at the moment. Addenda welcome, always.
Say You’re One of Them – Uwem Akpan
Dear Life – Alice Munro
Bless Me, Ultima – Rudolfo Anaya
Sailor Twain – Mark Siegal
The Fault in Our Stars and/or Looking for Alaska – John Green
Are you Smart Enough to Work at Google? – William Poundstone
The Presidents’ Club – Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duff
Jim the Boy – Tony Earley
Cutting for Stone – Abraham Verghese
Unbroken – Laura Hillenbrand
True at First Light – Ernest Hemingway
The Poisonwood Bible – Barbara Kingsolver
Tortilla Flat – John Steinbeck
I am Malala – Malala Yousafzai, Christina Lamb
David and Goliath – Malcolm Gladwell
The Goldfinch – Donna Tartt
The Dog Stars – Peter Heller
Even Cowgirls Get the Blues – Tom Robbins
I’m posting here, on an ancient WordPress blog I created and never used. I’m in the process of learning code and also deciding whether I want to start a whole new blog for this project. So we’ll see.
About the subtitle: “Lotos-eaters” or “Lotus-Eaters” is from Tennyson, and has fascinated me since I was a child and read a snippet of it as quoted by Laura Ingalls Wilder in one of her “Little House” books.
Hipster Oprah 