West with the Night and Circling the Sun – October CC Book Club Selection

[Mary13]

@SouthJerseyChessMom

Is it true college seeking parents and students use this site ?

LOL!

@PlantMom

Neither Lovell nor Trzebinski has evidence to support a Hubert Broad/Beryl Markham affair.

Interesting – because I’ve been looking around since @college_query posted, and the “affair” is mentioned as fact on a number of different (non-academic) sites about the life of Beryl Markham. I guess once a gal gets a certain reputation, anybody will believe anything about her.

[NJTheatreMOM]

The Secret Chord is historical fiction, so if we chose it that would be two historical fiction books in a row.

This is from a Chicago Tribune review of the book. Note the word “flails.”

…on the whole Brooks’ “The Secret Chord” flails somewhere between history and fiction. Neither entirely convincing nor particularly compelling, Brooks’ novel is a prototypical work of historical fiction that falters under the constraints of its own genre.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/books/ct-prj-secret-chord-geraldine-brooks-20151008-story.html

[Mary13]

So far (having eliminated the vetoed books):

Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
This Is Your Life, Harriet Chance! by Jonathan Evison
Stones for Ibarra by Harriet Doerr
The State We’re In by Ann Beattie
The Secret Chord by Geraldine Brooks

[NJTheatreMOM]

1. Either *Far From the Madding Crowd* or *This Is Your Life, Harriet Chance!*
2. *The State We're In*
3. *Stones for Ibarra*

I’m not pushing Harriet Chance super strongly, but I did want to post an excerpt from the New York Times review that calls it “a wonderful novel”:

The result is a book that speaks to all of us, whether we’re young enough to check Facebook 50 times a day, or old enough to have only a vague idea what the Internet is. The themes Evison presents — disappointment, delusion, redemption — are universal, and he deals with them beautifully in this wonderful novel. “Love grows quieter, Harriet, it’s true,” Evison writes. “People evolve, or they don’t. Either way, they grow apart.” The truth is sometimes hard to accept, but we have no choice but to do so. This is your life, Harriet Chance, but it’s ours, too.

[ignatius]

All sound good to me. Pick one and I’ll join in.

(Gosh, I’m easy today. )

[SouthJerseyChessMom]

Disclaimer:
@njtheatermom I didn’t intend to suggest Geraldine Brooks, I just mentioned I was reading it now.
I’ve enjoyed some of her books more than others, hit or miss.
And, the initial reviews are not stellar-

[NJTheatreMOM]

@SouthJerseyChessMom

And, the initial reviews are not stellar-

Right. Thanks, SJCM!

[Mary13]

Okay, out it goes –

Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
This Is Your Life, Harriet Chance! by Jonathan Evison
Stones for Ibarra by Harriet Doerr
The State We’re In by Ann Beattie

[NJTheatreMOM]

I’m addicted to quoting this morning! Did anybody use the “Look inside” feature on Amazon for the Anne Beattie book? Here is the first sentence of the first story in the book:

The summer school assignment, the fing fing fing summer school third paper of ten, and if you didn’t get at least a C on the first nine, you had to write eleven papers, the fing teacher wadding up her big fat lips so they looked like a carnation, the lips that she’d use to pout at your inadequacy,…this paper, to hold their interest, was supposed to be about Magical Realism, and though you didn’t have to read all of the Márquez book the teacher sooooooo loved, she had distributed several paragraphs of the book in which weird things happened, and your paper was supposed to go on forever, like the writer, then have the clouds howl, or something.

[Mary13]

^ Colorful!

From The Washington Post:

“What Magical Realism Would Be,” the first story in Ann Beattie’s splendid new collection, is about Jocelyn, among the most memorable characters Beattie has offered in her long, esteemed writing life. Jocelyn’s moods are like ambushing electrical storms. You stand mesmerized by her pyrotechnic language, strafing contentiousness and sass, but you also want to run for cover. https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/the-state-were-in-a-splendid-new-collection-of-stories-by-ann-beattie/2015/08/03/f323ecf8-36d6-11e5-9739-170df8af8eb9_story.html

[NJTheatreMOM]

The sentence I posted is grating, but the book does sound good. It has a pretty, classy-looking cover too!

[PlantMom]

I’d read any of the four listed above.

I’m curious to know if anyone here has read Stones for Ibarra? I haven’t, but heard the title in an audio book by Nora Ephron i. Here’s an old NYT review for the Harriet Doerr. I’m so amazed she wrote this, her first book–winner of the National Book Award–at age 73!

[mathmom]

LOL, since I have never been able to get more than 50 pages into One hundred million years of Solitude I’m sympathetic! Has anyone ever read Margaret Drabble? Estranged sister of A.S. Byatt’s Possession.)

[SouthJerseyChessMom]

@plantmom did you intend to include a link - ???

[NJTheatreMOM]

I’ve never read Stones for Ibarra and I’ve never read Margaret Drabble. What do you mean by “Estranged sister of A.S. Byatt’s Possession,” mathmom?

I have weird tastes. I didn’t like “Possession”; I thought it was pretentious and overblown, with a tacked-on feel-good ending. I loved “One Hundred Years of Solitude” – I’ve read it twice and will probably read it again.

I recently read Thomas Mann’s 1924 novel The Magic Mountain and loved it. I thought it was mesmerizing and surprisingly humorous. It is a 700 page book, and I was sorry when it ended.

I needed more Thomas Mann right away, so now I am reading his celebrated family saga, “Buddenbrooks.”

[mathmom]

I’ve always meant to read something of Thomas Mann’s. Never have, even while we lived in Germany. I see Buddenbrooksis also more than 700 pages.

They are sisters they don’t talk. It’s not really clear why except that the rivalry dates back to childhood: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/8632911/Margaret-Drabble-Its-sad-but-our-feud-is-beyond-repair.html

[PlantMom]

Yes I did, SJCM! Here’s the old NYT review for Stones for Ibarra:

http://www.nytimes.com/1983/12/07/books/books-of-the-times-092712.html

[Caraid]

I am in the middle of moving my son to the DC area this weekend. I’ll read whatever the majority picks!

[SouthJerseyChessMom]

Any of these would be fine.
but, I’d prefer the lighter of the options, and hope it attracts some lurkers.

1. This is your life Harriet Chance
2. Far from the madding crowd ( one of top ten love stories listed by the gaurdian) plus movie tie in.
3. The State We’re In: Maine Stories

[Mary13]

@ignatius

All sound good to me. Pick one and I’ll join in.

@PlantMom

I’d read any of the four listed above.

@Caraid

I’ll read whatever the majority picks.

@SouthJerseyChessMom

Any of these would be fine.

Thank God this is only book club and not the 2016 Presidential election.

With such an easy-going crew, the only way to determine a winner is by seniority. Therefore, the December selection will be the book that has been suggested multiple times during previous rounds: Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy.

I’ll start a new thread. Thanks everyone!