Our April CC Book Club selection is The Sleepwalker’s Guide to Dancing by Mira Jacob. This debut novel about a multigenerational Indian-American family was named one of the Best Books of 2014 by The Boston Globe, Kirkus Reviews and Millions.
For those of you who prefer to listen to your books, the audiobook (read by the author) received a grade of “A” from the Cleveland Plain Dealer:
Discussion begins April 1st. Please join us!
The reviews make this book sound like quite an adventure, Mary. I’m glad we’re reading something about Indian-Americans. Hope everybody likes it.
Is there a March book club book? Did I miss it somewhere?
^ Hi Barbalot! No, you didn’t miss anything. We only “meet” every other month: February, April, June, August, October and December. We try to mix up our selections to cover a variety of genres and eras. Periodically, I post a list of the titles we’ve read to-date. Today is as good a day as any to do that again (if you haven’t read the book, beware of spoilers when opening a link):
2009:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/722812-cc-june-summer-book-club-selection.html (The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society)
2010:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/839908-help-february-cc-book-club-selection.html
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/874004-shadow-wind-april-cc-book-club-selection.html
2011:
2012:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/1324495-cat-s-table-june-cc-book-club-selection.html
2013:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/1461744-orchardist-april-cc-book-club-selection.html
2014:
2015:
^ Discussion begins in one month (April 1st) for The Sleepwalker’s Guide to Dancing. I hope you can join us!
I absolutely love Sleepwalker’s! I won a copy before it was published and was blown away by the story and the writing.
I just downloaded it! I was out of book ideas so this comes right in time. I really enjoy reading everyone’s posts even if I don’t participate all that much or have deep comments to share.
Thanks. These look like great books. I just finished All The Light We CannotbSee and went back to the CC discussion on that. Looking forward to reading and discussing Sleepwalker’s.
I picked up my copy at the library yesterday and started it last night. Looking forward to the April 1 start of discussion.
I stumbled across this by accident and thought I’d post it. I don’t think Jacob’s comments contain any spoilers, so anyone spoiler-averse should be safe You can click on the song title and sometimes end up right there - other times you need to type in the song title in the search bar in order to get there. So another dimension to the book - or at least to the author.
http://www.largeheartedboy.com/blog/archive/2014/07/book_notes_mira_1.html
I finished! I thought it was excellent. I ended up listening to it. The author, Mira Jacob, narrated the audio and she was fantastic. I highly recommend the audio if you need something for a car or plane ride.
uh oh forgot all about it. I’ll have to join in late.
Have it on my mini for a 5 and then a 7 hour flight 4-8 so will have to join late but am looking forward to this book.
Reading, reading …
Waving at Caraid. I listened to the audio and am impressed with the narration. I have the book (library) here also so am well-covered for The Sleepwalker’s Guide to Dancing.
I have finished, but we’re hosting a little get-together for the alma mater tomorrow. I may be a day late in joining the discussion!
Welcome to our discussion of The Sleepwalker’s Guide to Dancing by Mira Jacob.
This marks the first time I’ve ever listened to an audio book. I read the story the traditional way as well. I would read the novel in bed at night, and then during the day—in the car, the kitchen, wherever—I would listen.
The effect of this was twofold:
It made the story seem more vivid and the characters more real. Mira Jacob did an amazing job as narrator—those voices!
By the time I reached hour fifteen, Mira Jacob’s voice was narrating my every move: “Mary opened the car door and slipped inside. She placed her purse on the seat beside her and peered through the front window. The clouds were grey, like dusty cottonballs. She wondered if she might have left the stove on. She remembered that they were out of milk.”
For days, I felt like Will Ferrell in “Stranger than Fiction.”
I’ll take a stab at the last question:
The title refers (at least on the surface) to Sunil Uncle. He is the sleepwalker who wishes he could have been a dancer. Like Sunil, many of the characters feel like they are trapped in lives that could have/should have been different. I think that Amina is initially a “sleepwalker.” This was reinforced for me when I listened to the book because I felt that Mira Jacob’s delivery of Anima’s dialogue was often (deliberately) emotionless, passive—as if she couldn’t really take an active part in her own life. Sunil Uncle sleepwalks himself and his family into a tragic ending, but the outcome is brighter for Amina. She gradually “awakens” and her passivity falls away as she grapples with Thomas’ illness.
I’m about half way through - so I’ll join up a little late. Stayed up way, way too late last night.
I agree with Mary that Sunil Uncle is the most obvious reason, but disordered sleep seems to be a major theme of the novel - whether it’s literal sleep problems or the way Amina sleepwalks through life after photographing the jumper.
I don’t know if this is a cheat but here’s the author’s take on it.
I’m not quite sure what Jacob means. I get hopes and dreams (dreaming) and reality (waking). It’s the “hopeful title, one that promises relief for the book’s main characters” that I don’t get.
I would add Thomas and Kamala to the list of sleepwalkers, especially after Akhil’s death. They were all so caught up in their grief, they forgot to live. They all avoided life by not really participating in it. Kamala was that way even before Akhil’s death. She didn’t want to be in America and never allowed herself to belong. Thomas’ life was at the hospital, not at home with his family. It’s ironic that Akhil’s problem was narcolepsy. He slept too much.
I noticed ignatius just posted. I’m on my way out the door. I’ll read it later and see if any of my ideas were close.