Exit West Recap

Happy Patriots Day!  Many of you may know Rudy is out running today.  So far it looks like he's making good time and approaching the half way mark.  I had a lot of sympathy for the players and fans in attendance at the Red Sox game yesterday, but I can't imagine those that have planned and trained around the Marathon to have to deal with today's weather. Send him your thoughts and good wishes on this cold, rainy, blustery day....


Thanks everyone for your flexibility in making the Thursday meeting last week and for the lively and thoughtful discussion of Exit West, that in many ways flew in the face of my belief that you need a more divided view to facilitate a great conversation.

 As I mentioned, our next meeting will be back to a Wednesday night on May 9th.  A fairly quick turn around but we have a very short read in Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin, a giant killer and the overall winner of the 2018 Tournament of Books.  It joins the ranks of some of our most popular previous selections like:  A Visit from the Goon Squad, The Sisters Brothers,  and The Orphan Master's Son.   Unlike most selections, I have yet to read this one so feel free to offer your unvarnished opinions this time!

Lastly, some sad news that Philip Kerr, author of the Bernie Gunther novels (we read A Quiet Flame) died on March 27th at the age of 62.  His most recent iteration in his series, Greeks Bearing Gifts, was just published last week.  Barton passed along this NY Times obituary. 

Red Notice Wrap up - Next up Exit West

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.  


 

Red Notice Check-in

 

 

I'm writing this from London in the middle of a snowstorm (2 inches!) which seems to have disrupted much of the City. During the unexpected break in my schedule I did manage to fight my way through the weather to make a quick visit to my favorite whisky shop - Cadenhead's - Scotland's oldest independent bottler, where I picked up an interesting and unique bottle for our meeting next week.  Remember I'm always looking out for you!

By the way, if you haven't started the book, there is still plenty of time for the invigorating read.  To get the juices flowing, you might want to check out this podcast Ralph sent along on Putin's No. 1 enemy or this Bloomberg article from Bart about when Russian officials 'Nightmare' your business.

For those interested, the Annihilation movie excursion is set for next Tuesday, March 6th at the 7pm showing in Framingham.  Steve is coordinating, if you are interested in joining, please let him know.

Blood Meridian debrief

What a great turnout and an enthusiastic debate last night!  As always, the more divided the opinions on the book, the better the discussion.  Thumbs up or down, I think everyone could find something of value from the evening.  It was great to see so many new faces in the room.  If it was your first visit, I posted an updated list of the books we've read over the last 4 years or so on our (lightly curated) blog. You can get a flavor for the spirit of the group and the types of books we favor (they're not all as tough as Blood Meridian.) You can also find the syllabus on the Wellesley Books website.

While we're at it, here is the link to the Wellesley Books partnership with Libro.fm for audiobooks.  I've always done audio books, going all the way back to Books on Tape in the 1980s.  I think you'll find the Libro prices very competitive with other audio book providers and you get to continue to support your local independent bookstore :).  You can also find a link to Libro on the Wellesley Books homepage. 

 

We'll follow up in the near future on Steve's suggestion for a group night out for the Annihilation movie coming out soon.  If you are thinking about joining, shoot me a note so we gauge the potential interest.  In the meantime, check out this list of the most highly anticipated book-to-film adaptations of 2018 with links to all the trailers.

Lastly, our next Book Group meeting will be on Wednesday, March 7th when we will discuss Red Notice by Bill Browder. Part financial caper, part spy thriller, part political crusade: Red Notice is the actual story of an accidental activist pursuing overwhelming odds to seek justice in post-Soviet Russia.

Updated Syllabus

The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson

Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain

Cooper's Creek by Alan Moorehead

The New Confessions by William Boyd

A Hologram for the King by Dave Eggers

Headlong by Michael Frayn

The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner

The Dog Stars by Peter Heller

The Nick Adams Stories by Ernest Hemingway

The Son by Phillipp Meyer

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John le Carre 

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler

All That Is by James Salter 

Consider the Lobster  by David Foster Wallace

A Quiet Flame by Philip Kerr

Lucky Jim  by Kingsley Amis

Leaving the Atocha Station by Ben Lerner

Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel

The Sisters Brothers  by Patrick DeWitt

Tenth of December by George Saunders

Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

The Tsar of Love and Techno  by Anthony Marra

The Sellout by Paul Beatty

Nobody's Fool by Richard Russo

Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan

The Harder They Come by TC Boyle

A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki 

Young Men and Fire by Norman Maclean 

The Whites by Richard Price

Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh

Black Swan Green by David Mitchell

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson 

The Sportswriter by Richard Ford

Atonement by Ian McEwan

Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer 

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy

Red Notice by Bill Browder

 

Richard Ford Reverberations

Reader's Room

We've just returned from a long weekend in lovely San Miguel de Allende in central Mexico celebrating a couple of big birthdays for my parents with my siblings and their spouses.  We were in a little boutique hotel with views out over the city.  Gillian and I, fittingly, stayed in a room named "La Biblioteca."  If you ever chance to visit, check out the accompanying photo to see why I can highly recommend our accommodations if you are trying to keep up with you're Book Group reading...

While I resisted the temptation to delve into the second volume of the Frank Bascombe trilogy, I did use the opportunity of the travel to catch up on some vintage Ian McEwan (The Innocent) which only increased my enthusiasm for our next meeting.  Plenty of time to get started on Atonement if you haven't started yet.  Hope you can all join us on Wednesday, November 15th.

The Sportswriter - Wednesday October 11th at 7pm

I'm just back and settling in after a couple of weeks of travel out of the country.  In my absence, I hope you all noticed the Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to Kazuo Ishiguro (Never Let Me Go).  For the record, in our short existence along with this Nobel, we have pre-selected winners for the Pulitzer Prize (Adam Johnson - The Orphan Master's Son), the Man Booker (Paul Beatty - The Sellout), and a MacArthur Genius Grant Award (Ben Lerner - Leaving the Atocha Station.)  In addition, our reading list is littered with books and authors we've read after they've received major awards.  I hope you are all finding a way to let your reading background trickle out during various cocktail parties or when your are searching for a distraction during a Sox playoff disaster!

This email is also a reminder that our meeting for The Sportswriter is this Wednesday at 7pm where we will examine the prospects for Richard Ford on the awards circuit.  I hope you can make it.

As always, if you plan to attend, please send me a note so that I can insure we are properly provisioned.