<p>I’m open to anything! I did hear both Geraldine Brooks and Jeffrey Eugenides interviewed on NPR and both their books sounded fascinating!</p>
<ol>
<li><p>“Before I Go to Sleep,” Watson. (I’d be up for a fast paced suspense novel.)</p></li>
<li><p>“The Cat’s Table,” Ondaatje. (Looks really good.)</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I think it would be fun to participate in a discussion, but unfortunately the other books don’t appeal to me. My tastes are probably too weird and picky for me to be a good book club member. :(</p>
<p>I will happily read any of the books. The margin of difference between choice #1 and #5 is insignificant. </p>
<h1>1 - Caleb’s Crossing</h1>
<h1>2 - Before I Go to Sleep</h1>
<h1>3 - The Cat’s Table</h1>
<h1>4 - The Family Fang</h1>
<h1>5 - The Marriage Plot *Last only because it strikes me (for absolutely no discernible reason) as a curl-up-in-cold-weather book</h1>
<p>OMG- what has happened. Was away for a day and came back ,and somehow the book I was 'not recommending" is finding a fan base.
I only suggested it because many times I find great suggestions here,
which are not the “selected” books but mentioned by someone. So I put it out there.</p>
<p>I just read some reviews, which I didn’t want to do, but before I weighed in on this book, I thought I should know more about it.</p>
<p>This book may be like ** “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”**- a real page turner and fun, but might not be “meaty” enough for discussion, as Mary13 suggested.</p>
<p>But, there seems to be some controversy about the book on Amazon, (I won’t mention more) which should spark discussion!
Mary13, perhaps not as much as some books, but come Dec, that might be just fine for all involved. as you mentioned.</p>
<p>I’ll read whatever everyone selects, they all sound interesting.
Perhaps this kind of book may lure in some “lurkers” ? (hellooooo out there )</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I’d have to check the by-laws, but I’m pretty sure “weird” and “picky” are prerequisites for membership in the CC book club. :)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>That’ll teach you to stay away for a day!</p>
<p>We can sleep on this and see if anyone else chimes in with a strong opinion, but it’s looking like Before I Go to Sleep might be our dark horse winner!</p>
<p>I looked at Amazon reader reviews of Before I Go to Sleep too. A number of people griped that they figured out the solution to the puzzle (or mystery) too easily and too soon.</p>
<p>I personally can never figure things out very early in a story, so a criticism like that doesn’t sway me!</p>
<p>In general, I like books that are non-romantic (which would kind of nix things like Language of Flowers) and non-comedic (which would probably nix Fang and the Eumenides book), and that are a bit literary (which is why I favor the Ondaatje; it seems to me to be the most literary of the choices). </p>
<p>However, some of the better-crafted genre novels are just fine by me. I adored “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” and its two follow ups, and I have the feeling I’d enjoy our dark horse candidate as well.</p>
<p>I could be wrong, but I suspect that something we could discuss would be the structure of Before I Go to Sleep, i.e. how the author achieves his effects.</p>
<p>This is probably totally irrelevant, since we are on the cusp of choosing, but one of the top books on my “to read” list is “In the Country of Men” by Hisham Matar.</p>
<p>It is a novel of Libya that was written in 2006. One glowing review contains the following statement:</p>
<p>"The wonderfully original is anathema to most marketing campaigns, so don’t let anyone tell you, as publicists in Britain did last summer when “In the Country of Men” first appeared, that this is a Libyan “Kite Runner.” Matar’s fictional creation could be set anywhere: Libya, his homeland, has been pared here of most of its idiosyncrasies, honed into the totalitarian Ur-state. And unlike Khaled Hosseini’s best-selling account of two boys in Afghanistan, Matar’s work is free of both clich</p>
<p>^ NJTheatreMOM, I read the review and looked it up on Amazon as well. Sounds fascinating. Let’s revisit the idea for our February selection. I would also like to keep our other finalists in mind for later—they are all great choices.</p>
<p>This time around, however, it looks like we’re going to venture into thriller territory with Before I Go to Sleep. </p>
<p>Okay with everyone? If so, I’ll start a new thread.</p>
<p>Looks good. </p>
<p>Thanks Mary! :)</p>
<p>What ignatius said!</p>
<p>I’m in! Thanks Mary!</p>
<p>NJTheaterMom, would be interested in your review of * In the Country of Men*, after you’ve read it. I resisted reading 1000 Splendid Suns, for a LONG time and that book ended leaving an important and lasting impression. This MAY be one of those books, but best to have your personal recommendation if you are able to read it before our next selection.</p>
<p>NJTheaterMom, I don’t know if the thriller “Before I Go To Sleep” will be an ‘easy’ read, but ** In the Country of Men *, looks * particularly brutal -from your link:</p>
<p>* What he renders goes beyond topicality. He has produced a timeless** portrait of the infantilism of evil.** *</p>
<p>“In the Country of Men” brings to mind “1984,” “Fahrenheit 451” and the other great science fiction of totalitarianism in the way it** posits a cruelly simplified and nonsensical universe. **"</p>
<p>." Alongside his faithlessness,** his capacity for sadism particularizes. He throws a rock, and although he denies he aimed at a seriously impaired friend**, a boy he respects, he nonetheless badly injures him.
He tries to save the neighborhood beggar from drowning, then inexplicably finds himself** kicking the man in the face.**</p>
<p>And, then the review ends with detailed description of a hanging. …</p>
<p>Whew ! I must say.
Apparently, the author’s family members were tortured ** “His father, a dissident former diplomat exiled in Egypt, was kidnapped there in 1990 and imprisoned and tortured in Tripoli. He was last heard from in 1995. Qaddafi’s regime imprisoned or hanged three of Matar’s cousins, an uncle and several friends”.**</p>
<p>I haven’t read **Before I Go To Sleep ** and hope there aren’t any regrets with this choice!
I notice no one has posted that they’ve ** Before I Go To Sleep **, which is unusual.</p>
<p>Okay, SJCM, I will read “In the Country of Men” and report on it. I only have about 150 pages left to go in “Middlemarch,” which I’ve finally gotten around to reading after all these years!</p>
<p>I must admit that I like gritty books that are set in other countries and written by non-Americans, so long as they are well written.</p>
<p>It sounds like you want to know whether this particular book will be likely to leave an important and long-lasting impression, or whether it will just be disturbing.</p>
<p>I do find that sometimes, through fiction, one can gain insights into varieties of experience that were formerly impenetrable. If the book is well-crafted, there are usually other values that balance whatever is shocking about them.</p>
<p>For example, “A Fine Balance” (which CBBBlinker liked; it was also an Oprah selection) illustrated certain aspects of the cruelty of the caste system in India that I would never previously have guessed at.</p>
<p>Imre Kertesz’s “Fatelessness” and “Kaddish for An Unborn Child” provided me with insights about holocaust survivors that I had never encountered anywhere else.</p>
<p>Anyway, I doubt that “Before I Go to Sleep” is going to give anybody nightmares. I certainly hope not!</p>
<p>Re “In the Country of Men”:</p>
<p>Publishers Weekly writes that “Matar wrests beauty from searing dread and loss.”</p>
<p>The School Library Journal recommends the book as suitable for teenagers, and writes, “Teens serious about understanding the complex nature of patriotism will find much to ponder here.”</p>
<p>Those are the kinds of recommendations that really tend to sway me!</p>
<p>before i go to sleep was kind of a disappointment. too simple and too much revealed so that it was a non-event when the story was finally told. the characters are not going to lend themselves to much analysis. </p>
<p>Anyone read Please Look After Mom?</p>
<p>It’s good to hear from someone who has read Before I Go To Sleep, wbow.</p>
<p>I haven’t read Please Look After Mom. Apparently it was a huge bestseller in Korea. </p>
<p>One review calls it a “manipulative sob sister melodrama” and “a Korean soap opera decked out as literary fiction”!</p>
<p>[‘Please</a> Look After Mom’: A Guilt Trip To The Big City : NPR](<a href=“'Please Look After Mom': A Guilt Trip To The Big City : NPR”>'Please Look After Mom': A Guilt Trip To The Big City : NPR)</p>
<p>Wbow-yeah, someone who has read** Before I Go To Sleep**. It’s helpful to know this information.</p>
<p>^Re:Please Look After Mom- from NJTheaterMom’s link - the last couple paragraphs from that article slamming ** Please Look After Mom**.
Surely, there’s a middle of the road book selection which would appeal the expansive CC audience out there ? I’m not proposing the Patti Smith book mentioned below , just copying what the NPR reviewer wrote. For a look at aging in America ** Emily Alone ** was a lovely book, but not much to discuss. </p>
<p>". I’m mystified as to why this guilt-laden morality tale has become such a sensation in Korea and why a literary house like Knopf would embrace it. (Although, as women are the biggest audience for literary fiction,** Please Look After Mom must be anticipated to be a book club hit in this country**.) But, why wallow in cross-cultural self-pity, ladies?</p>
<p>Having just read Patti Smith’s award-winning memoir,** Just Kids,** for the second time, I’d urge you to pick her empowering female adventure tale about getting lost in the city instead.* Smith will get your book club on its feet and pumping its collective fists in the air, rather than knocking back the wine and reaching for the cheap consolations of kimchee-scented Kleenex fiction."*</p>
<p>Thanks for the input, wbow. Before I Go to Sleep may not give us much to analyze, but we might as well take the risk and see what happens. There are discussion guides online—I haven’t looked at them because I don’t want to know anything before reading, but it’s good to know they’re out there if we need a boost. </p>
<p>SJCM, Just Kids sounds like another book for our “maybe next time” list! We still haven’t tried non-fiction; that might be a good choice if we decided to venture in that direction.</p>
<p>For now, though, I guess we’ll take the plunge with Before I Go to Sleep and see where it leads us!</p>
<p>I for one would be interested in Just Kids as a future selection. I did read the first couple of pages of it once and was not totally entranced, but I’d be willing to persevere.</p>
<p>Autobiographies and memoirs are one of my favorite categories of books. </p>
<p>Patti Smith was a close friend of Robert Mapplethorpe, and I’d be interested in knowing more about him as well as her!</p>
<p>Ok, Mary13- I’m in!</p>