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Monday Musings
Aug. 11th, 2003 12:25 pmDoes everyone know that today, August 11th, is the anniversary of the patent for the spork?
Well, you do now.
Also, Happy Birthday,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
raya_luna! And Happy Belated Birthday, elleesttrois! May the spork be with you both, though never in your eye.
Moving on.
I went to a book club meeting last week - I've been thinking of finding a replacement for "The Laziest Book Club Ever," my previous book club. It was the first time I'd been with this group. I'm not sure if it'll be a good fit yet, as there were only two other people there (they claimed there's usually at least 6 more and that the others must be on vacation). Sometimes it's difficult to get a good discussion going with so few people. Guess I'll try it again to see if I'll be continuing with them or if I'll be finding another group.
A few book club questions to ask you guys: first, I'm discovering that I like to have at least a couple of discussion questions set in place ahead of time. I like it because it gives us something specific to talk about. What do you guys think of that? Do you prefer to let the discussion evolve naturally, or do you like to have at least one thematic question to kind of get things started?
Second, this book club is one that only reads books written by women. I sat there thinking of books I might recommend and realized that all of the ones that immediately jumped to mind were written by men. Can you help me out? Any favorite female authors whom you'd like to rec?
I realized later that I can rec We The Living by Ayn Rand (I'm a big Rand fan). I am familiar with the work of a few women who write mysteries and romances, though those types of books aren't always good fodder for discussion. And I don't always want to fall back on the Big Name Authors like Jane Austen, Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison. There must be some contemporary women writers with whom I'm just not familiar or am forgetting right now.
Last book club item: I really liked White Teeth by Zadie Smith, which is the book we read for the meeting I attended. She's able to talk about serious events without being too heavy; she's got a lot of funny parts and asides in there as well; her characters were engaging; her style was layered enough that I'm thinking I'll need to read the book at least one more time to sort through all the little tidbits to see more clearly how they're related. I'm definitely interested in reading more of her work.
Well, you do now.
Also, Happy Birthday,
raya_luna! And Happy Belated Birthday, elleesttrois! May the spork be with you both, though never in your eye.Moving on.
I went to a book club meeting last week - I've been thinking of finding a replacement for "The Laziest Book Club Ever," my previous book club. It was the first time I'd been with this group. I'm not sure if it'll be a good fit yet, as there were only two other people there (they claimed there's usually at least 6 more and that the others must be on vacation). Sometimes it's difficult to get a good discussion going with so few people. Guess I'll try it again to see if I'll be continuing with them or if I'll be finding another group.
A few book club questions to ask you guys: first, I'm discovering that I like to have at least a couple of discussion questions set in place ahead of time. I like it because it gives us something specific to talk about. What do you guys think of that? Do you prefer to let the discussion evolve naturally, or do you like to have at least one thematic question to kind of get things started?
Second, this book club is one that only reads books written by women. I sat there thinking of books I might recommend and realized that all of the ones that immediately jumped to mind were written by men. Can you help me out? Any favorite female authors whom you'd like to rec?
I realized later that I can rec We The Living by Ayn Rand (I'm a big Rand fan). I am familiar with the work of a few women who write mysteries and romances, though those types of books aren't always good fodder for discussion. And I don't always want to fall back on the Big Name Authors like Jane Austen, Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison. There must be some contemporary women writers with whom I'm just not familiar or am forgetting right now.
Last book club item: I really liked White Teeth by Zadie Smith, which is the book we read for the meeting I attended. She's able to talk about serious events without being too heavy; she's got a lot of funny parts and asides in there as well; her characters were engaging; her style was layered enough that I'm thinking I'll need to read the book at least one more time to sort through all the little tidbits to see more clearly how they're related. I'm definitely interested in reading more of her work.
