January's Pick: Nikolski

Fantastic Mr. Fox was pretty good, though the movie was better. I will attempt a full review at a later date, but for now let's reveal the pick for January: Nikolski by Nicolas Dickner. Published in French in 2005, it was translated into English in 2008 and subsequently won the Governor General's Literary Award for Translation. In 2010, it's becoming popular once again as it is a selection for this year's Canada Reads competition on CBC Radio One. It is a story about "three young people" who "follow their personal songs of migration". The back cover synopsis may seem overdramatic, but it actually worked, as it convinced me to give it a try (being $10 at Chapters right now doesn't hurt, either). It seems like a true Canadian tale, a coming together of unlikely compatriots to overcome the odds, and with a few jokes thrown in for good measure. I am looking forward to it.

Right now, however, I am in the middle of The Mistress of Nothing by Kate Pullinger, the current selection for the other Book Club I am involved in, the Chapters Rideau Book Club. So far, so good. I am enjoying it. I am looking forward to our book club meeting on February 24th at 7pm. All are welcome to attend - it should be exciting!

December's Pick: Fantastic Mr. Fox

December's book club pick is a short and easy one: Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl, accompanied by the film version by Wes Anderson. Hotbox!

November's Pick: Last Night in Twisted River

I'm slowly but surely catching up to the present. October's pick, Juliet, Naked, is done and we can't just skip over to December without covering November first. So, without further ado, I present November's book club pick: Last Night in Twisted River by John Irving. I understand that we just did a John Irving novel, but Irving's newest release is too good not to read. Stay tuned for December's pick!

October's Pick: Juliet, Naked

So the book reviews are few and far between lately. However, you can expect that I will post reviews about a number of books I've read lately, including Year of the Flood, The Time Traveler's Wife, Fables, Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and our wayward book club selections A Prayer for Owen Meany and Inherent Vice. Although neither has made it to my "Already Read" section on Facebook, I will get to them soon enough. For now, however, I am reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.

I have also not forgotten about October's book club pick. As everyone may or may not already know, one of my favourite authors is Nick Hornby. As everyone may or may not already know, Nick Hornby has a new book out. Thus, without really needing to explain myself further, Juliet, Naked will be October's book club selection.

I encourage all members to stay the course and maintain the discipline that has propelled us this far: don't give up on Owen Meany, get to Pynchon asap, and revel in the rare treat that is provided by anything writtenby Nick Hornby.

September's Pick: Inherent Vice

As August comes to a close, I have been thinking about which books to choose for our monthly poll. However, I have made a decision for the group, and it's entirely selfish: September's book will be Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon. Pynchon's latest novel, which can be described very briefly as a stoner gumshoe mystery, seems to baffle most critics: some expect Pynchon's postmodern leanings to come out in full force, i.e. the more complicated and confusing the better, and some like the idea of a straightforward murder mystery. It seems that Inherent Vice is somewhere in between. I am intrigued enough to find out for myself. The review on The Millions (yes, I am their greatest fan) is necessarily ambiguous, but it features a video trailer for the book that is, I believe, narrated by Tommy Chong, of Cheech & Chong fame. Which would make sense.

In other news, keep chugging away at A Prayer for Owen Meany, people! I am not yet done myself, but I will be shortly. It is proving to be a difficult one to get through, not the summer read I expected at the beginning of July. At any rate, my review will be here sometime in September.

Summer Reading Pick: A Prayer For Owen Meany

The poll has closed and our choice is clear: A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving has been selected as our summer pick. I am happy with this choice, as this is one Irving novel that I have not yet read, and by all accounts it is one of his best. I've seen the movie (Simon Birch), or parts of it, and I liked that, so I know I'll like the book. I also just finished reading Shoeless Joe by W.P. Kinsella (another great summer read - a full post on that later), which prominently features Iowa, writers and/or writing, and New England, three Irving staples.

Given the length of time before our next reading selection (September 1st), we should also try to read as many of the other nominees as possible and write some bonus reviews. As mentioned previously, they're all great reads and should be interesting to read about them.

June's pick: Cloud Atlas

This month, we have a unanimous selection: Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. The premise and reach of this novel is ambitious, so prepare for a challenging read, or so I'm told:

"David Mitchell entices his readers on to a rollercoaster, and at first they wonder if they want to get off. Then - at least in my case - they can't bear the journey to end. Like Scheherazade, and like serialised Victorian novels and modern soaps, he ends his episodes on cliffhangers and missed heartbeats. But unlike these, he starts his next tale in another place, in another time, in another vocabulary, and expects us to go through it all again. Trust the tale. He reaches a cumulative ending of all of them, and then finishes them all individually, giving a complete narrative pleasure that is rare."

Looking forward to it.

*Update*: Check out Books Worth Reading for another favourable review.

May's Pick: Empire of the Sun

May's pick was far from unanimous, but a winner nonetheless: Empire of the Sun by J.G. Ballard. Categorized as a novel, technically, Ballard calls EOTS "for the most part... an eyewitness account of events I observed during the Japanese occupation of Shanghai and within the camp at Lunghua" (from the Foreward). As autobiography is often described as fiction anyway, it is fitting that this is a fictionalized story of his experience as a young boy in China and Japan during the Second World War.

Interesting note: it was made into a movie in 1987 by Steven Spielberg and starred a young Christian Bale. Even more interesting is that the screenplay was penned by Tom Stoppard!

April's Pick: Fool

It's been coming for a while, based on a suggestion by Jacks: I am going to co-opt the voting this month and make Christopher Moore's latest book Fool April's pick, for the sole reason of saluting April 1st. I've heard so many mixed things about this book - the buzz is too interesting to set aside. The basic story is a retelling of King Lear in the manner of Shakespeare at his populist best - bawdy, raunchy, vulgar, a little bit sexist (okay, a lot) and also full of sex. But also funny. Very funny, if I am to believe those Moore fans out there. It is a risk, but what is a book club without a little risk? We'll have some fun, hopefully.

February's Pick: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

The masses have spoken: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald will be February's quick pick. As it is a short book and a short month, let's look to finish this one by the end of the month and have a new one ready to go for March.

I found a limited preview for BB from Google Books. In the introduction, Fitzgerald explains that the idea for BB came from Mark Twain: "This story was inspired by a remark of Mark Twain's that it was a pity that the best part of life came at the beginning and the worst part at the end." We'll have to come back to that idea after reading the story - is it truly better to age into infancy? To have knowledge of 80 years but to have the body of a baby? Is that any different than having the body of an 80-year-old when you're 80? I guess we'll find out.