ILB Book Club - Volume Three?

I am making my way through "Best Short Stories of 2004" and some of the stories just seem to end and others throw a wrench in the works and leave me going, "huh?"

I'd love an opportunity for someone to help me understand the modern short story.

So, uh, any suggestions? Would quite like to read Dostoevsky's The Eternal Husband myself, one of his late works from around the time he was knocking out those huge, voluminous masterpuddings of his. It's short! It's cheap! It's an excuse to drink vodka! And it also sort of ties in time-wise with Mr Flaubert. Or we could fast-forward to the 20th century instead if people are through with petty-coats and pocket-watches. Heck, the 21st even...

(x-post with Clellie: I'm game if everyone else is)

End of the month too soon? I think we need to realign the book with the calendar month or it confuses me no end.

Dostoevsky's The Eternal Husband. Any objections?

Who is ZZ Packer by the way? What's them Z's stand for?

I love these threads - they're like the eternal "what do you want for dnner questions."

Short stories are short. It seems we should be able to set up a calendar and have one short story per week. Discussion to begin on Monday morning. If you put the short story on the calendar, you have to start of the discussion.

Give us 2 weeks before we start the first story so we can find it.

How does that sound? I like that the suggestions are a smattering of everything. I just think we need a list/order/leader.

Am I being pushy? I have no social skills with grownups anymore.

The first week I think should be either the first or second week of April starting on the monday.

Then people can sign up for the folowing weeks.

If you sign up for say, "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" then you have to start the conversation a rolling.

Thank you for not calling me a pushy broad. Remember I am still cutting food into morsal size bites for at least the smallest two at every meal.

Although when the husband took me out for Valentine's Day I was in a deep discussion about the current popularity of memoir and looked down to see I had cut up his steak.

Motherhood is many things. But mostly embarassing.

I can only find the one from the kids school and I can't figure out when Mondays are. I doubt any of you need to know when Famous Persons Day is.

That is quite superb.

http://www.elsegundousd.com/arena/classes/englishxa/poetics.html

http://athena.english.vt.edu/~appalach/readings/pancake.htm

I don't suppose anyone's bothered with "The Honored Dead," have they? We could try something else.

Would there be interest in doing this again on a looser schedule - maybe one book a month? Or is it already going on and I'm out of the loop? We could make a suggestions thread in the last week of the month and then poll to figure out what book to read. Or whatever!

Yeah we did a book club of sorts, and just the one last year w/'The Last Samurai' by Helen DeWitt. If you have a look at the thread we broke it down into a range of pages per week for about 4-5 weeks. That was great as it allowed me to read it alongside whatever else I was personally interested in.

I think the main thing is to get a good list and end up with a book we'd all be enthusiastic to approach. And I already see that for 'A Visit from the Goon Squad' by Jennifer Egan.

It would be difficult to do one a month every month. Could start with that ambition but walk before running w/that.

maybe seasonal? discussion could go on throughout the season w/ people adding their comments as they finish the books - very loose. same method of book selection, happening as the discussion of the previous book dies down. i think it could work! if people want to do it, that is.

Yeah, based on past attempts at this I'd say seasonal would be a better bet. And since spring is just about here...

I would certainly be fine with that.

sounds alright, also i just preordered that book

I'm In. I'd definitely like to do "Goon Squad."