Intermission

We are about halfway through our Summer hiatus and as I'll be out of commission for a bit for my oldest son's wedding next weekend I'm attaching this piece by William Finnegan from the Delancey Place website to remind you that our next meeting is on Wednesday, August 31.  

Today's selection from -- Barbarian Days by William Finnegan. How waves are formed.

"Here is how waves form. A storm out at sea churns the surface, creating chop -- smaller and then larger disorganized wavelets, which amalgamate, with enough wind, into heavy seas. What we are wait­ing for on distant coasts is the energy that escapes from the storm, radiat­ing outward into calmer waters in the form of wave trains -- groups of waves, increasingly organized, that travel together. Each wave is a column of orbiting energy, most of it below the surface. All the wave trains pro­duced by a storm constitute what surfers call a swell. The swell can travel thousands of miles. The more powerful the storm, the farther the swell may travel. As it travels, it becomes more organized -- the distance be­tween each wave in a train, known as the interval, increases. In a long­ interval train, the orbiting energy in each wave may extend more than a thousand feet beneath the ocean surface. Such a train can pass easily through surface resistance like chop or other smaller, shallower swells that it crosses or overtakes."

A couple of other fun notes related to previous meetings.  I don't know where you come down on the election campaigns, but George Saunders has been attending Donald Trump events around the country and has written a highly entertaining account of his experience for The New Yorker.  By the way, Saunders' first novel is scheduled for publication in February.  If you looked closely at the photo of my proposed Summer reading stack last time, you may have noticed the arc for Lincoln in the Bardo. But I'm saving that one for now. Incidentally, I'm still soliciting Summer reading updates, so if you've read anything good, post it as a comment to the blog for everyone to see (thanks Bart!)


Lastly, I was so happy to see that The Sellout was just selected to the long list for the Man Booker Prize, one the most high profile literary prizes out there. My admiration for this novel continues to grow and I've been recommending it to everyone I know. So best of luck to Paul Beatty!

Summer Reading 2016

Thanks for a great conversation around Nobody's Fool last week and apologies, again, for the last minute change of date.  We have about two months before our next meeting on Wednesday, August 31st when we will discuss Barbarian Days: A Surfer's Life by William Finnegan.  This memoir won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction. "Reading this guy on the subject of waves and water is like reading Hemingway on bullfighting." Finnegan is a staff writer for The New Yorker, about my age, and grew up near my home town in Southern California and the same generation covered in The Sellout. In the NY Times Book Review's By the Book section Geoff Dyer described Barbarian Days as the last great book he'd read because "it made me realize my whole life has been pretty much a waste. I suspected this anyway; he explained why: because I’d not surfed."

My summer ambition

 Apart from our next read, several of you have asked for some summer reading suggestions. Wellesley Books publishes a Summer Reading pamphlet, available in the store, which features recommendations from our entire staff if you are interested in something beyond my narrow scope.  Otherwise, here's what I'm thinking:

•  The Sport of Kings by C.E. Morgan - Replace Texas with Kentucky and this is an epic on the scale of The Son. I'm just getting started but already enthralled.
• The One from the Other by Philip Kerr - After The Quiet Flame I read the Berlin Noir trilogy which contains the first 3 Bernie Gunther novels and I have to admit I'm hooked.
• Before the Fall by Noah Hawley - "The thriller of the year." When a private plane plunges into the ocean off Martha's Vineyard, the media and the government want answers.
• The Ginger Man by James Patrick Dunleavy - Never read it, just recently heard of it, but a classic contemporary of Lucky Jim.
• Be Frank with Me by Julia Claiborne Johnson -  An editor's assistant is sent to act as caregiver to a reclusive novelist's quirky 9-year old son while she tries to finish her next novel. A whimsical page-turner in the spirit of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and Where'd You Go, Bernadette.
•  The City of Mirrors by Justin Cronin - For those of you who haven't had enough dystopian drama.  This is the third book of a trilogy.  The first, The Passage, was a thrilling literary phenomenon.  I felt the second was a bit of a plod, but this last has apparently returned to the level of the debut.

As always, I reserve the right to change my mind or head in a different direction. Are you reading something good?  Have other ideas or suggestions you think the group might like? Please respond or comment via the blog about books you plan to read or have enjoyed over the Summer.

***New Date for Nobody's Fool - Wednesday, June 29th***

Due to a conflict, I need to change the BBGG date for Nobody's Fool  to Wednesday, June 29th.  For those of you who have already committed, I hope you can still make it. We'll gladly refund the price of the ticket if you have a conflict (I hope you'll still enjoy the book.) Please reply to this email letting me know your plans either way so that I can confirm you've received this message.  For those of you who were on the fence, this notice provides a bonus week of reading time, so come sign up!  By the way, I'll be sure to bring something good for tasting due to this unexpected inconvenience!



I also wanted to let you know of an upcoming event that's just recently been added to the calendar.  Long-time Sports Illustrated writer and NPR commentator Frank Deford will be in the store on Thursday, June 16th to discuss his new book I'd Know That Voice Anywhere.  You can sign up in the store or on-line by following this link.


Lastly, Wellesley resident and NY Times best-selling author Ben Coes will be in the store on Thursday, June 30th to discuss his new novel, First Strike. I hope you can find some time to come in, meet these great authors and help support the Events Program at Wellesley Books.

Sellout Follow-up & Richard Russo on Deck

Wow! What a great evening and conversation for The Sellout on Wednesday night.  I admit to being a little nervous, given the subject and inflammatory style of the book, but I personally learned a lot during the discussion and really appreciate the differing views on the book and personal anecdotes, as well.


The next Book Group meeting is set for Wednesday June 22nd at 7pm.  We'll be reading Nobody's Fool,  Richard Russo's "slyly funny and moving novel follows the unexpected operation of grace in a deadbeat town in upstate New York and in the life of one of its unluckiest citizens, Sully, who has been doing the wrong thing triumphantly for fifty years."

I'm excited about this selection for a number of reasons.  It's a great story filled with memorable characters. As reported recently, this was the top rated book by the Man Book Club.  Richard Russo will be in our store this coming Wednesday (with Jennifer Haigh) to talk Everybody's Fool, written 20 years later but a follow up to this book.  The event is sold out, but you can order a personalized copy, if you are interested.  Lastly, Russo was recently named that ABA's Indie Champion, awarded annually the author who goes out all out to support independent bookstores. 

Hope you can be there!

Manly Book Clubs

Many of you wrote me about an article on all male book clubs that looks to be published in tomorrow's NY Times.  It's well worth a read and many comparison opportunities with other men's reading groups, including a Top 100 Books for Every Man list from the subtly titled International Ultra Manly Book Club.  The website and blog for the iUMBC are quite impressive, although it does look like they've only recently discovered The Sisters Brothers.

Men Have Book Clubs, Too www.nytimes.com An all-male book club in California has a rule: “No books by women about women.”

Overall, the article left me wondering if I would have right stuff to become a member.  For instance, The Man Book Club lists its lowest scoring book ever (yes Parker, other groups seem to have score keepers as well) as Oscar & Lucinda by Peter Carey - one of my favorite books by one of my favorite authors.  The only reason I haven't previously suggested it is its overwhelming length.  However, their highest scoring book is Nobody's Fool by Richard Russo which intrigues me enough to pick for our next book group meeting in mid-June.  Coincidentally, Richard Russo and Jennifer Haigh are in the store for an event on Wednesday, May 25th.  Russo will be discussing his new book, Everybody's Fool, an obvious follow up to the former title with the same characters and small town upstate New York location.  I understand the event is close to sold out, so come in soon if you are interested and want to get  your book signed.


Also, many of you had previously expressed an interest in attending an event with Nathaniel Philbrick, the National Book Award winning author of In the Heart of the Sea. Wellesley Books is hosting him on Saturday, May 14th at 4pm, at the Wellesley Community Center on Washington Street.  He will discuss his new book, Valient Ambition, an account of George Washington and Benedict Arnold during the middle years of the American Revolution. Again, I suggest you get your ticket early for this great event.

Hope you are all deeply engrossed in The Sellout, looking forward to seeing you all in a couple of weeks.

    

Tsar Follow Up - Sellout Preview

This is a slightly delayed follow up to the excellent Tsar of Love and Techno  discussion of a few weeks ago.  Thank you to all participants.  I loved the substance and structure of the conversation and will continue to look for ways to broaden the level of the conversation going forward.

 

As I hope you know by now, the next BBGG selecton is The Sellout by Paul Beatty and is scheduled for Wednesday, May 18th at 7pm.  The book is a modern day Huckleberry Finn, with biting, inflammatory social/racial satire that is one of the funniest books I've read in a long while.  The Sellout knocked Tsar out of The Morning News Tournament of Books and ended up going on to win the whole thing (always a great endorsement) and should provide the backbone for a great conversation.  I couldn't put the book down and ended up finishing it in a couple of days.  If you find yourself in a similar situation and are looking for some additional (and more serious) background reading, you should pick up Ta-Nehisi Coates' Between the World and Me, a recent winner of the National Book Award and one of our store's top sellers.

 

 

Alexander Hamilton did not make the list

Time magazine just released its annual list of the "100 Most Influential People in the World." Coates was among the handful of authors showcased: Bryan Stevenson wrote: "Many of us have known for years that Ta-Nehisi Coates is one of America's most compelling and thoughtful voices. His timely, provocative and well-researched writings about race and this nation's shameful history of inequality have been essential reading.... Between the World and Me is brilliantly structured, insightful and forcefully argued. He navigates the complexities and burdens of race in America compassed by a father's love for his son. But it's the soulful writing that makes the work a classic... He has much more to say, and we will all be the wiser for reading it."

Hope to see you all on the 18th.