The Marriage Plot: A Novel

I've been dying to read something by Jeffrey Eugenides, but just never found the time -- thank you for the book choice, Lara!

The description for The Marriage Plot: A Novel on Amazon notes: "It's the early 1980s—the country is in a deep recession, and life after college is harder than ever." Hm...doesn't sound too different to the times we live in now, does it? In a decade that looked at relationships through the lens of "Kramer vs. Kramer," "Mr. Mom," and "Working Girl," what could the novels of Jane Austin and George Eliot that ended their stories with a happy marriage, have to do with anything? Looks like we'll find out along with Madeleine Hannah, an english major delving into the intricacies of marriage plots.

Our next meeting to discuss this book is Thursday, January 26. Happy reading!

The Dispossessed: Post quotes and suggestions in the comments to this post

Great discussion this last Wednesday at the Summer Shack. Some said that they felt that some of the ideas of revolution and propertarianism versus anarchy, played out as they were with states mirroring the US and the USSR of the middle to late 1970s, were dated and that the focus of the story was too much on the ideas and not the story or the telling of the story.

Of course, I can't speak for anyone else but myself. I really enjoyed this story and the characters, most especially Shevek. I grew up in a time with, in my opinion, a near unhealthy worship of the antihero, the cynical -- if you don't believe in anything, then no one is going to pull the wool over your eyes. Shevek is a man of moral integrity who enters any situation with empty, but open hands, ready to help and to trust. Is that more important than a readiness to see, and to accept, flaws? I don't know, maybe it's just as needed. But the book was so much more than anarchism, then competing philosophies. It's about how our language affects how we think, how we form notions of ownership, love, brotherhood.

What a great discussion we had though; we recommended books in a similar vein, maybe more on the dystopian side, by Margaret Atwood (The Handmaid's Tale, Orxy and Crake, etc.). If you've got more books to suggest, feel free to add them to the comments. I'll use the comments to also continue to put quotes from the book that touched me.

Our next book club will be on Thursday, January 26. Lara picked The Marriage Plot: A Novel by Jeffrey Eugenides. Can't wait to see you there!

More info for The Dispossesed

Here are some more interesting links.

This is a great study guide from WSU. If you're still reading, it's a thought-provoking series of questions arranged by chapter: http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/science_fiction/dispossessed.html.

This is a great interview with Ursula K. LeGuin specifically about The Dispossessed:

Ursula K. Le Guin Interview from Jefferson County Library on Vimeo.

Book club next week! Discussion questions in comments

And the countdown begins. No, not to Santa arriving but to our fabulous book club meeting this coming Wednesday at the Shack. I'll paste in some book discussion questions into a comment for this post for all you naughty ferrets who aren't close to finishing the book to avoid revealing any spoilers.

Remember, Lara will be picking the next book (Lara feel free to add the book to this blog in advance of next week's meeting if you've already got one picked out. We may want to start adding books earlier to the blog so people have time to reserve them at the library).

We'll pick between Matt and Diane for the meeting following's Lara's meeting -- I foresee a bruising bout of thumb war or perhaps arm wrestling. Or, maybe Diane and Matt could just flip a coin. After that, we'll start the random picks again.

Happy reading!

The Dispossessed

After visiting a night-time world of magicians dueling against a circus backdrop, we take a jaunt to a no less fantastical tale about Utopian possibilities: The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin.

Do the words "anarchy," "mother planet," and "utopia" intrigue you? Ok, maybe only sci-fi/fantasy nerds like me, but we'll find out if this book breaks out of the genre ghetto at our next book club meeting at the Summer Shack: Wednesday, December 14 at 530 pm.

Happy reading!

The Night Circus Book Discussion Questions

SPOILER ALERT! Do not read any further if you have not yet finished Night Circus!! Below are a few discussion questions I found that I thought might help get the conversation started:

1. What role does time play in the novel? From Friedrick Thiessen's clock to the delayed aging of the circus developers to the birth of the twins -- is time manipulated or fated at the circus?

2. Behind the scenes, the delicate push and pull of the competition results in some sinister events (e.g., Tara Burgess' and Thiessen's deaths). How much is the competition at fault for these losses and how much is it the individual's doing?

3. What is Hector's role in determining the final fate of the competition? He lectures Celia about not interfering with her partner, yet he largely influences the outcome. How much does Marco's underestimation of Isobel affect the outcome?

4. Tsukiko is aware of Isobel's tempering of the circus and when Isobel worries that it is having no effect, Tsukiko suggests that " perhaps it is controlling the chaos within more than the chaos without." What and whose chaos is Tsukiko alluding to here?

5. Celia tells Bailey that he is "not destined or chosen" to be the next propietor of the circus. He is simply "in the right place at the right time ... and care[s] enough to do what needs to be done." In this situation, is that enough? Can the responsibility of maintaining the circus be trusted to just anyone, or, unlike Celia suggests, is Baily truly special? How does Celia's belief relate to the struggling philophies of the game, that is, nature versus nurture, and the ultimate outcome?

Night Circus

Yay, we're off an running on another round of the Ferret Book Club! Our first meeting will be at the Summer Shack after work on Thursday, October 27. Amy has made our club's first selection, Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. One of my favorite book reviewers, Laura Miller from Salon.com, describes it as "a tale of romance and dueling sorcerers set in a nocturnal carnival." Definitely an intriguing pick for the spooky month of October.

Check out the guidelines at the end of this blog for details on where and when we'll meet and for how we'll pick books. Feel free to add new posts, comment on old ones, or let me know how you'd like to change the blog or add items to it.

Happy reading!