<p>What’s on my bedside table: Armistead Maupin’s Mary Ann in Autumn and Keith Richard’s *Life<a href=“enjoyable,%20but%20not%20so%20compelling,%20I%20read%20it%20between%20other%20books.”>/i</a> </p>
<p>Wrestling with ordering my choices:</p>
<p>I tried and can’t do it.</p>
<p>:-O </p>
<p>Oh Tiredofsnow … Dominion sounds good. I just put it on my bedside-table list.</p>
<p>I am also having a hard time further trimming and ordering my choices. Really, the only one that is jumping out at me as something I don’t want to read is The Golden Notebook, but I will read it if it is picked. I haven’t loved our last two books. They have both just been okay for me. I want to read a book I love. I’ll read what the group picks, but please pick something I will love. :x </p>
<p>You are so gracious, ignatius. Really, everybody in this group is just great. I appreciate y’all so much. </p>
<p>Tiredofsnow, I absolutely adore Jill Ker Conway’s memoirs. They are the <em>best</em>!</p>
<p>I have been on a Haruki Murakami kick for a while. I have read seven of his novels…possibly more than I have read by any other single author. I have been trying to figure out whether I would want to recommend any of them to this group. I hesitate only because they are…honestly…rather weird! They really grab me, though…</p>
<p>I did recommend The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle to a friend of mine, and she liked it enough to go on and read 1Q84, his long (but really good) one.</p>
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<p>Caraid, I think you have spoken for all of us!</p>
<p>Thanks for the input everyone. Let me say again, I never have any problem honoring “picky” requests. There are hundreds (thousands!) of books to choose from, so in the end, we’ll always be able to find something that appeals (albeit in varying degrees) to our disparate tastes. Basically, the point is to choose a book that everyone can look forward to and that lends itself to discussion. That’s what keeps bringing us back together, right? </p>
<p>Given all your–always fascinating!–observations and opinions, I am now ready to perform radical surgery. Out go the books that people have expressed reservations about. Remember, books that are removed can always be resurrected in a future month. You may not have the time or the energy this month for, let’s say, Remembrance of Things Past, but that doesn’t mean you won’t be dying for a little Marcel Proust by summer. </p>
<p>Did I say “Out go the books that people have reservations about?” LOL, the only book (appearing on three out of five lists) without any expressed concerns is Claire of the Sea Light by Edwidge Danticat. </p>
<p>So that’s the book I’m going to propose. Not only did it receive some really lovely reviews, but by my count, we have read 33 books together, and not a single one of those books was by a female African-American author. We could expand our horizons, enjoy some lyrical prose from a proven author, and keep the reading under 300 pages, in one fell swoop.</p>
<p>Let me know if you can live with the choice, and if you can’t, we’ll scrap the whole set and go back to the drawing board! This is a democracy, after all. 
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<p>Interesting. I suggested this book because a friend - a picky reader 
- told me she stumbled across it at the library. She loved it. She said that after she finished the last page, she turned to the first page and started reading it again. FWIW, I’ve never heard her say that about a book. (It wasn’t even on my “maybe” list till I heard her say that and it intrigued me enough to mention the title here.)</p>
<p>I can live with the choice. </p>
<p>Great choice, Mary. That was the book I was hoping would be chosen, actually…given everyone’s problems with so many of the titles. Looking forward to it. So interesting what your friend said about the book, ignatius.</p>
<p>P.S. If you aren’t impressed by The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times or The Guardian, maybe you’ll be swayed by this from our own garland on the “best books” thread: </p>
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<p>Mary and group, Thank you for the great discussions and for expanding my literary world. I feel reluctant to express pickiness because I am often not a big participant, although I always read the chosen books and follow the discussion. Caraid, I think you are my twin because I also want to read something captivating and I have been stuck in ambivalence. </p>
<p>Sounds good to me!</p>
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<p>Edwidge Danticat is Haitian-American. I’m not trying to come across as pedantic, but the book Americanah made me aware of/sensitive to such distinctions.</p>
<p>Looks like a done deal here. Mary: You’re pretty wonderful. Thanks again for “quarterbacking” the CC Book Club. You somehow always make it work.</p>
<p>*Now anyone else want to mention what’s up next on their personal reading list. I’m finishing up Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter for my library book club. I have several other books that I can read after I finish that one but am undecided as to what’s next - probably The Maid’s Version, possibly *Shadow of the Hegemon<a href=“continuing%20on%20from%20%5Bi%5DEnder’s%20Game%5B/i%5D”>/i</a>. I picked up Warbreaker after someone recommended it on the Best Books thread, so it’s sitting here also. </p>
<p>Again, thanks Mary and all who posted. NJTM, I did love The Luminaries and am
glad you suggested it. I’m not sure I would have tackled it otherwise. Till April 1 then … though I’ll keep an eye on this thread for a while to see what others are reading next </p>
<p>Ignatius, I am reading Old Filth by Jane Gardam…am enjoying it so far.</p>
<p>And no objections to * Claire of the Sea Light *</p>
<p>Thanks again, folks. The next time we “meet” it will be spring!</p>
<p>@ignatius I think I recommended Warbreaker - hope you enjoy it when you get around to reading it!</p>
<p>I enjoy reading books here that are more challenging than what I would read on my own, but I wouldn’t mind getting one I love too! </p>
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<p>Thanks for the clarification. I knew that she was from Haiti, but honestly was not sure the best way to describe her, as she so often shows up in anthologies/articles celebrating African-American literature.</p>
<p>I read an interesting commentary on this in an online excerpt from “Danticat and the African American Women’s Literary Tradition” by Régine Michelle Jean-Charles. Jean-Charles quotes writer/professor Mary Helen Washington:</p>
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<p>Jean-Charles goes on to say that by this criteria, Edwidge Danticat:</p>
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<p>(from Edwidge Danticat: A Reader’s Guide, edited by Martin Munro)</p>
<p>Sorry…:)…We haven’t even started the book and I’ve gotten way ahead of myself–maybe this is something we can discuss on April 1st. Looking forward to our discussion and to Spring! I’ll start a new thread. </p>
<p>^^^ The main character in Americanah blogs about race in America. In one blog she points out the diversity of Blacks in America always falling under the heading of African-American. Haitians are mentioned. Truthfully, I had never really stopped to think about it in detail before. The main character blogs that she seems to fall under the descriptor African-American while in the US while in truth she describes herself as Nigerian rather than African and definitely not American. Interesting. It makes me wonder if Danticant has a strong preference.</p>
<p>So Mary: What are you reading in the interim before next book club? </p>
<p>Hi, I’m Lipsha and I didn’t say this. Not sure who did:</p>
<p>Lipsha wrote:
A Tale for the Time Being sounds intriguing but I’m afraid it will turn into another Hedgehog,</p>
<p>Just ordered Claire…</p>
<p>I tend to think that people who were born elsewhere are Thatcountry-Americans, while those born in the US are (if black) African-Americans. But as a white person, I leave it up to the person to identify themselves however they prefer. Since Dandicat didn’t come to the US till she was 12 and lived in a Haitian enclave in NY, I can see that she would think of herself as a Haitan-American. That’s how Wikipedia identifies her in any event.</p>
<p>@Lipsha, I looked back and NJTM meant to quote Tiredofsnow. This is where having numbered posts would come in handy. </p>
<p>I’ll start reading A Tale for the Time Being soon and report back.</p>
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<p>At the moment, I’m reading a YA fantasy, The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson. My youngest daughter loved this book and has been asking me to read it. When I found it placed on my bed recently, I figured that meant I’d better get to it. If nothing else, it’s providing a glimpse into my daughter’s psyche…not sure yet whether I find that glimpse encouraging or alarming…:)</p>