Who Are You Sophie?

What a fascinating book club discussion today. Place: My house. Food: tasty chips, dip, snacks, mushroom soup, and cookies. Book: Jostein Gaarder's Sophie's World: A Novel About the History of Philosophy. Many of us had not finished the book, but the discussion was lively, and we uncovered multiple connections between the philosophical ideas being described and the twists and turns of the story. In fact, the discussion may have inspired several of the readers to finish the book, and it definitely inspired me to reread the book some time, maybe.

I enjoy reading about philosophy, and I found the first half of the book an enjoyable read. Not only did Gaarder, in my view, provide an easy to read primer on philosophy, he also interwined the lesson with an intriguing mystery story. However, by the middle of the book, a great twist occurs that completely deflated any interest I had in following the mystery story to the end. I also felt that Gaarder was too ambitious tackling the entirety of Western philosophy and trying to cobble together a novel at the same time. The second half of the book felt entirely too rushed to me, and it became a bewildering rush of philosophers and philosphies and the dramatic engine of the novel portion of the book stalled for me.

Our next book club meeting is Wednesday, January 28. We'll be reading A.J. Jacobs' The Year Of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible. Also, don't forget to bring along three suggestions for books to read as we'll be picking our next three books.

Happy reading!

Belated Clan Of The Cave Bear

Forgive me for the lack of posting; the delay was definitely not for lack of good conversation, observations, and food. For this meeting, we trekked over to Hungry Mother for some new southern cuisine and some good discussion about Jean M. Auel's Clan of the Cave Bear.

My impressions of the book were pretty meh. I thought that Auel's descriptions of a the fateful meeting between the more developed Cro-Magnons (Ayla) and the doomed Neanderthals (the Clan) and the world that both species inhabited were inventive. But, I wasn't able to willingly suspend my disbelief for most of the book. Ayla was too perfect. Tall, blonde, unaware of her own beauty, she's a feminist 30,000 years too soon. Somehow she magically makes all of the jumps in logic that it would take an entire species to do all by herself. I also felt that the villain of the book, Broud, was fairly one-dimensional. I felt the author pulling her strings and manipulating me into hating him, waiting for him to get what was coming to him.

At today's book club meeting, I heard that a fellow intrepid book clubber watched the movie over the holiday's. We want details about how bad it was!

Unaccustomed Earth

Yes, this delinquent blogger is finally posting about our great discussion about Jhumpa Lahiri's collection of short stories, Unaccustomed Earth. As we ate a tasty Indian meal at the Bombay Club in Harvard Square, we discussed stories of children in various states of dislocation searching for identity, family, and love. I had never read the Namesake, also written by Lahiri, but I found her prose spare and yet perfectly descriptive of the characters' journeys to discover who they really are in relation to as well as outside of their families' Indian roots.

Have any further thoughts about the book? Don't be shy -- leave a comment!

Next up -- We travel to Hungry Mother to discuss Jean Auel's Clan of The Cave Bear. See you there!

And, don't forget to get started on Sophie's World: A Novel About The History Of Philosophy.

Next three books

At our last discussion, we randomly selected three people to choose books and picked the following three books:

Wednesday, October 29: The Clan Of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel. Amazon description: Although this story takes place roughly 35,000 years ago, its cast of characters could easily slide into any modern tale. The members of the Neanderthal clan, ruled by traditions and taboos, find themselves challenged by Ayla, who represents the physically modern Cro-Magnons. And as Ayla begins to grow and mature, her natural tendencies emerge, putting her in the middle of a brutal and dangerous power struggle. This first in the series of four is a wonderful story of survival. Ayla's personal evolution is a compelling and relevant tale.

Thursday, December 4: Sophie's World: A Novel About the History of Philosophy by Jostein Gaarder. Amazon description: Wanting to understand the most fundamental questions of the universe isn't the province of ivory-tower intellectuals alone, as this book's enormous popularity has demonstrated. A young girl, Sophie, becomes embroiled in a discussion of philosophy with a faceless correspondent. At the same time, she must unravel a mystery involving another young girl, Hilde, by using everything she's learning. The truth is far more complicated than she could ever have imagined.

Wednesday, January 28: The Year Of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible by A.J. Jacobs. Amazon description: Make no mistake: A.J. Jacobs is not a religious man. He describes himself as Jewish "in the same way the Olive Garden is an Italian restaurant." Yet his latest work is an insightful and hilarious journey for readers of all faiths. Though no fatted calves were harmed in the making of this book, Jacobs chronicles 12 months living a remarkably strict Biblical life full of charity, chastity, and facial hair as impressive as anything found in The Lord of the Rings. Through it all, he manages to brilliantly keep things light, while avoiding the sinful eye of judgment.

A night of Devils and the White City (and some wine and cheese!)

Sorry for the long time between posts. Our discussion this past August about Erik Larson's The Devil And The White City was fantastic. The book is a fascinating window into a period of history -- the end of the 19th century -- launched by the 1893 Chicago World's Fair.

Many of us felt that we didn't learn as much about the vaunted architect of the fair, Daniel Burnham, as we did about the devil lurking at the edges of the fair, luring victims to horrific deaths, Dr. H. H. Holmes. Larson, in his copious notes, let the reader know that he created and dramatized many of the thoughts that Holmes and his victims may have had based on notes from the time period as well as psychological theories of psychopaths. Is this purely a work of nonfiction if there are large pieces of dramatization inserted to fill in the gaps in the historical record? What are your thoughts? If you have any additional thoughts about the book, comment away.

Next up: Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri (Wednesday, September 17).

Of elephants and muses

Our first actual book discussion meeting was a success! We all met at the The Elephant Walk in Cambridge. Over tasty shrimp won ton and spring roll appetizers and a mixture of French and Cambodian entrees, conversation flowed about the merits of Judith Jones' memories in food. While many of us were disappointed that she didn't share more details about her life, there was also much appreciation for how she described (and indeed played a hand in) reshaping American cuisine.

Personally, I hadn't read very many memoirs before, so I didn't really know what to expect. I had thought I would find out more about her motivations for why she choose certain paths; most everything in her life seemed to happen through serendipity and family connections.

Have any more thoughts about the book? Comment away!

The book for our next meeting (Monday, August 25) is The Devil In The White City by Erik Larson. Until then, happy reading!

Tenth Muse Thoughts

Feel free to jot down some thoughts in the comments to this post if you'd like to keep a record of things to discuss at our next meeting.

In search for some reading group guides, I came across some questions specific to memoirs. Some questions to ponder while reading:

Were there any instances in which you felt the author was not being truthful? How did you react to these sections?

What is the author's most admirable quality? Is this someone you would want to know or have known?

Looking for other interesting information about Judith Jones? Check out this October 30, 2007 blog post by Michael Ruhlman.

Happy reading!

Books selected

As you can see, we've picked our books to read for the next three months. And it definitely looks like we've got an exciting assortment. We have two nonfiction books and one selection of short stories. I'll send out an email requesting gmail addresses or Blogger account names if you have any so that I can add you to this blog's author list. Feel free to email any suggestions for the blog or book club. Happy reading!

First book club meeting!

We'll be meeting tomorrow at Rangzen in Central Square. We'll pick books for the first several meetings and set up some ground rules for the book club. I'll post the next books to read here and open up the blog so that we can continue the book discussion after the meeting's over. Let's also use this site to discuss future meeting venues and list dates, times, and places. Happy reading!