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 Vacation Reading

Inspired by an essay on The Millions called What I Read on My Summer Vacation, I decided to write what I read on my summer vacation - as it turns out, not that much. However, I can talk about the books that we talked about on my summer vacation:

1. A Prayer for Owen Meany. As this is our current club selection, I dutifully brought it with me to our trip to New Jersey. I'm halfway through, and it's proving to be slow, probably since much of the story takes place around Christmas, which makes for terrible summer vacation reading. But John Irving's a great writer, and Owen Meany is a great character. I'm pushing forward, with high hopes for the latter half.
2. A Widow For One Year. Another John Irving book, this time purchased at an awesome book store in Greenwich Village my wife and I stumbled upon called Three Lives & Company.

It is the quintessential corner bookshop, with low ceilings and dark-wood shelves. I bought the American edition of Widow to mark the event. I have read the book a few times already, so I probably won't actually read this edition, but it already looks great on the shelf.
3. Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger. I've been thinking about Salinger a lot lately, for a few reasons. One, I recently reread Shoeless Joe by W.P. Kinsella, in which Salinger (or "Jerry") is a main character. Two, I recently rewatched Imagine: John Lennon and could not help but somehow implicate Salinger in Lennon's death, as Mark David Chapman was obsessed with Holden Caulfield and had a copy of Catcher in the Rye in his pocket when he shot Lennon to death. This feeling of tragedy was exacerbated by our visit to The Dakota and Strawberry Fields in Central Park:

Nine Stories is brilliant, however, so I forgave Salinger his involvement in the twisting of Chapman's mind.
4. Housekeeping vs. The Dirt. Nick Hornby's second collection of articles for The Believer are every bit as enjoyable as the other two. I can't really put into words what these books do for me, though "pure enjoyment" comes pretty close. And he talks about Miriam Toews in this one, which gets me even more excited, as I always feel a little bit of excitement whenever a Canadian is featured in an international-type program or book. The same is true for Owen Meany, as the protagonist eventually ends up in Toronto. Even though it's Toronto, I still think to myself, "cool, he's talking about Toronto!" I'm so Canadian.
5. Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon. Everybody's favourite book about a bookstore became my wife's beach book this summer. Since she liked it, a lot, I am inclined to read it sooner rather than later. In her words, "It's a strange, mysterious mystery. And strange."

6. Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson. Another American edition find. I shopped at Borders for this one, and was lucky enough to find an edition that is not available in Canada, making my biblioventure complete. My wife also recently finished this one, and liked it, a lot. It's a dark, dark mystery, set in Sweden and is part one of a trilogy. Part 2 is out now in hardcover, Girl Who Played With Fire, and the third one is set for release next summer. The author wrote the trilogy but died before its publication, and its subsequent translation from Swedish has been an interesting biblioventure in itself, as the entire trilogy, called the Millennium trilogy, has been fully translated into French, but not English. There's also a movie in the pipe, making this a burgeoning franchise opportunity. For all the hype, however, well-deserved, according to my wife.

That's my trip in books - look for less interesting posts in the days to come. Also, it's close to September reading time, so get your thinking caps on for a September book selection.

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.