Overall, we rated the book on a Hoppus scale from 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest, as follows:
Kristen:
Tom:
Natalie:
Dana:
Leah:
AVERAGE:
Lady Chatterly's Lover is next, with a preview post from Jenny coming soon.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Verdict: The Brooklyn Follies
Ms. Lower neglected to read the book whilst vacationing in Costa Rica, but the rest of us held a productive discussion today. I think most of us agreed that the story wrapped up too quickly, that it relegated the fates of the characters Auster took such effort to establish to afterthoughts, and also that the ending was just kind of predictable. Leah made a good case for interpreting the hasty conclusion as a reflection of 'real' life, but that didn't make us any happier about it.
Overall, we rated the book on a Hoppus scale from 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest, as follows:
Kristen:
Tom:
Natalie: 
Dana:
Leah:
AVERAGE:
Lady Chatterly's Lover is next, with a preview post from Jenny coming soon.
Overall, we rated the book on a Hoppus scale from 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest, as follows:
Kristen:
Tom:
Natalie:
Dana:
Leah:
AVERAGE:
Lady Chatterly's Lover is next, with a preview post from Jenny coming soon.
Monday, July 13, 2009
This Month's Selection: The Brooklyn Follies, by Paul Auster
ISBN-13: 978-0805077148
About a year ago, I read City of Glass, the first book of Paul Auster's New York Trilogy, and I really liked it. This is not that book.
City of Glass was a surrealistic, meta-fictional novel I read as part of series of weird detective fiction/sci-fi books that occupied most of my reading time in the early part of 2008. Really, it was kind of the end of it, because I think I got sucked into Mists of Avalon after that. In any case, it was a great read and I know I need to read the last two books in the series, but instead of making you guys start in the middle, I thought I would pick another book by the same author to somewhat allay my guilt. It's not working yet, though.
The Brooklyn Follies seems like a totally different genre and style, like The Crying of Lot 49 meets In the Shadow of No Towers. You can get a comprehensive list of the reviews at Paul Auster's site here, and find it for next to nothing on Amazon here. If you visit Auster's site, there's a creepy button on every page with the words "Enter my forum." I won't judge if you do.
The book is about 300+ pages, so why don't we try for 100 or so by the next meeting? And if it sucks, there's always Wuthering Heights.
About a year ago, I read City of Glass, the first book of Paul Auster's New York Trilogy, and I really liked it. This is not that book.
City of Glass was a surrealistic, meta-fictional novel I read as part of series of weird detective fiction/sci-fi books that occupied most of my reading time in the early part of 2008. Really, it was kind of the end of it, because I think I got sucked into Mists of Avalon after that. In any case, it was a great read and I know I need to read the last two books in the series, but instead of making you guys start in the middle, I thought I would pick another book by the same author to somewhat allay my guilt. It's not working yet, though.
The Brooklyn Follies seems like a totally different genre and style, like The Crying of Lot 49 meets In the Shadow of No Towers. You can get a comprehensive list of the reviews at Paul Auster's site here, and find it for next to nothing on Amazon here. If you visit Auster's site, there's a creepy button on every page with the words "Enter my forum." I won't judge if you do.
The book is about 300+ pages, so why don't we try for 100 or so by the next meeting? And if it sucks, there's always Wuthering Heights.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Butterfly in the skyyyyy
Welcome to the (book) club!The SAGE Social Science Journals crew has started a groundbreaking new book club. As our subhead mentions, we'll be "reading it," as well as discussing it, "it" meaning whichever book happens to have been chosen from the hat that month, possibly more often.
Maybe we'll all update this thing, or maybe we won't, but all I know is that the resident Naysayer of Things said he'd join if someone started such a blog. It's gonna be good, but you don't have to take my word for it!
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