Loved the discussion on Wednesday night. Thank you all for your enthusiasm, flexibility around the change of date, and the strong attendance despite the post Skylar hangover. That said, I'm still trying to come to terms with Bill Browder being played by The Rock in the movie adaptation.
Please take special note that our next meeting will be on a
Thursday, April 12th. We will be discussing
Exit West by Mohsin Hamid. In this meditation on refuge, exile, and home, a couple flee their unnamed country riven by civil war through magic doors in search of a new life. Just out in paperback, this highly acclaimed novel was short listed for both the Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle as well as featured on many 2017 book-of-the-year lists. It's also just been selected as this month's pick for the
PBS NewsHour-New York Times Book Club where you can find lots supplemental material.
Also of note, today
Exit West, as one of the top seeds,
won it's opening round match in the
2018 Morning News Tournament of Books. Following the commentary around it's progress is a great way to learn about the book. The tournament runs in March, concurrent with the NCAA Basketball
Tournament, with a similar format of brackets, seeds, etc.
Sixteen or more books (it even has a "play-in" round) are narrowed from a Long List of the
most important books released in the past year. Each head-to-head
contest is officiated by a different judge selected from a pool that
includes writers from various backgrounds (TV, movies, web, print), critics,
book industry gurus and an occasional musician. It tends to be a great vetting process because, in order to win, a book must please many different types of reader. Some of our more popular previous book selections have gone on to win the tournament:
The Orphan Master's Son, The Sellout, The Sisters Brothers, A Visit from the Goon Squad, and
Station Eleven.
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