<p>I wouldn’t ask for any of the books to be eliminated this time, but there are a few that I am definitely lukewarm about. These are the ones I like:</p>
<p>Clever Girl by Tessa Hadley
The Storied Life of A.K. Fikry by Gabriell Zevin
The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers</p>
<p>If we paired Hound of the Baskervilles with House of Silk, I could really go for that!</p>
<p>^^^ I then withdraw my suggestion about holding till later The Hound of the Baskervilles and The House of Silk. Again good with all the above. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>You should read it. It’s a perfectly pleasant book and very short, so you’ll breeze right through it, especially if you studiously ignore any temptation to look up the mathematical terms. I had problems with suspension of disbelief, and with writing that, while competent, was not as transcendent as suggested by the Amazon reviews.</p>
<p>Okay I have to admit to being intrigued by The Housekeeper and the Professor. (But I’m not called mathmom for nuthin!) I doubt there’s much real math - and I hope not too much baseball. I loved the two plays about mathematicians I’ve seen - Proof and Arcadia.</p>
<p>I liked the Curious Incident, but have no real desire to reread it. I happened to read it in conjunction with Elizabeth Moon’s Speed of Dark which also has an autistic narrator - though more of a Flowers for Algernon type plot. It made a great pairing. </p>
<p>I’m all for Carson McCullars who is on my long list of American Classics I Have Not Read.</p>
<p>^ lol thought about you, mathmom, as I read the reviews of the Professor and the Housekeeper, wondering if your screen name applied to you, or your children. For instance, I am terrible chess player, but my son was quite good, until it wasn’t a cool thing and he stopped playing. I ran a summer chess club for 16 years and had hundreds of participants, fearful the little darlings would challenge me to games, </p>
<p>I like math, I notice number patterns, I gave my older son lots and lots of enrichment in math, so I know a lot of stuff that most people have forgotten or didn’t get in school. (Pascal’s triange, Fibonacci series, Catalan numbers, cryptography…) However I actually never got past college calculus. Too many other courses to take! My kids were pretty involved in scholastic chess tournaments in elementary school, but then moved on to other stuff. My mind does not work that way at all.</p>
<p>^ Nor does mine. All I know of chess is Frank Poole versus Hal 9000.</p>
<p>Given that mathmom has read The Curious Incident, let’s definitely swap that out for The House of Silk. The revised list:</p>
<p>Clever Girl by Tessa Hadley
Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline
The Storied Life of A.K. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle and The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz (duet)
The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers</p>
<p>Do you want to rank your top three?</p>
<p>The Storied Life of AK Fikry
Clever Girl
The Member of the Wedding </p>
<p>Clever Girl by Tessa Hadley
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle and The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz (duet)
The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers OR The Storied Life of A.K. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin</p>
<p>Ha ^^^ you managed to sneak in four books (five actually if you count each one in the duet separately). That’s usually my trick.</p>
<p>Let’s see:</p>
<p>The Storied Life of A.K. Fikry - just because it’s so, so new.</p>
<p>The Hound of the Baskervilles and The House of Silk - I love this pairing but it does not fall into our shorter for the month of May thoughts. But I’m scared if I don’t list it, it’ll go away. And short or long for the next book doesn’t really affect me - I just thought others might be busy.</p>
<p>The Member of the Wedding OR Clever Girl</p>
<p>Matched NJTM with my own count of four (or five, depending)</p>
<p>It’s nice to be in sync again, ignatius. I feel the same exact way about the pairing! :)</p>
<p>Sorry I’ve been missing in action for the second half of the discussion. We have friends visiting from out of town and I have been really busy. I haven’t had time to check in here. </p>
<p>I haven’t looked through the book suggestions, so I am going to let you guys decide without me. I have a crazy busy May coming up. My son is graduating and relatives will be visiting the week before. I also will be traveling for my nieces wedding Memorial Day weekend. Lastly, I am rereading the Outlander Series before the next book comes out in June. 
I’m not sure how much time I will have to read a new book. I may, but I don’t want to commit. I will check out the book that is picked!</p>
<p>1.The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
2.The Storied Life of A.K. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
3.The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers
4.The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle and The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz (duet) I think this would be fun - but maybe save it for later as I’ll also have a busy May.</p>
<p>New day … revised list. Though it pains me, I’m dropping the considered duet to #3 on my list (and adding in The Ocean at the End of the Lane). The page count of the duet is 500+. Both caraid and mathmom mention a time crunch and I’m sure that they’re only two of many. It probably should be saved for later (next time).</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The Storied Life of A.K. Fikry</p></li>
<li><p>The Member of the Wedding OR Clever Girl OR *The Ocean at the End of the Lane<a href=“good,%20good%20reviews”>/i</a></p></li>
</ol>
<p>^^^ The three books listed for #2 have been chosen with my usual indecisiveness. In other words, I have no particular preference.</p>
<ol>
<li> The Holmes duet<br></li>
</ol>
<p>^ for the record I don’t have strong preference either, so if anyone, especially you, Mary13, has strong views about certain selections, know that my list it extremely flexible. </p>
<p>Okay, I’ll revise my list too. I looked more closely at the reviews of The Ocean at the End of the Lane and am now more interested in it. Probably we should reserve the considered duet for next time.</p>
<ol>
<li>Clever Girl</li>
<li>The Storied Life of A.K. Fikry OR The Ocean at the End of the Lane</li>
<li>The Member of the Wedding</li>
</ol>
<p>I just realized that we have each now mangled the title of Gabrielle Zevin’s book. The correct title is The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry - not A. K. Fikry. Usually I’m the one who screws with titles … this time it’s been an epidemic.</p>
<p>^ Ha, I have a feeling I started that when I posted the list of choices. Apologies to Gabrielle Zevin! I’m about to make it up to her by selecting The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry as our next selection.</p>
<p>If life were less hectic, my first choice would have been The Hound of the Baskervilles and The House of Silk. But you’re right, now is not a good time. Historically, our April 1st, June 1st, and December 1st books have tended to be slimmer and/or less intense than our February 1st, August 1st and October 1st choices, which can have a little more heft. You can be sure I will be adding The Hound of the Baskervilles and The House of Silk to our list for the next round. </p>
<p>The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry is a book that we are all interested in reading, and I think it’s a good choice for a couple of reasons. First of all, excellent reviews and lots of recent press may make the selection appealing to a wider range of CC readers. Secondly, it’s been a long, tough winter for some of us (waving at SJCM :-h), and there is an element of loneliness and despair in Carson McCullers work that I’m not sure I want to embrace as spring finally rolls in. </p>
<p>Will there be enough substance in the The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry to sustain discussion? I’m encouraged by this review from Library Journal:</p>
<p>
</a></p>
<p>Those feeling ambitious might even be inspired to read (or re-read) some of those short stories mentioned at the beginning of every chapter.</p>
<p>I hope you’re on board with this selection! I think it will be fun and we need a little fun after murders and frog-swallowings and motto taxi accidents. All in favor…? </p>
<p>Aye! And good bye to the frogs.</p>
<p>Aye! Sounds fine to me!</p>