Bookishness
Since I’ve been on such a reading kick, and I’ve enjoyed all of the books (and highly recommend all but one), I figured I’d share. I’ll put the details behind a cut, and the details are mostly aimed at folks in the book group I’m in, but anyone interested in a new book to read may find something.
Here is the list from most discussible to least:
1. American Gods - Neil Gaiman
2. The Lazarus Project - Aleksandar Hemon
3. Towing Jehovah - James Morrow
4. Dreamers of the Day - Mary Doria Russell
5. Wit’s End - Karen Joy Fowler
6. Bad Monkeys - Matt Ruff
7. A Canticle for Leibowitz - Walter M. Miller Jr
8. A Case of Conscience - James Blish
In terms of recommendation for general reading, I’d move Bad Monkeys and A Canticle for Leibowitz up to positions 4 and 5.
American Gods - Neil Gaiman - 2001
Premise: America has become a land of immigrants, and immigrants brought their belief in old gods with them. But within a generation or two, those old beliefs faded, leaving gods in a new land with nobody to worship them.
My Thoughts: One of my favorite books ever - it would have gone on my top 15 list except that I was still reading it at the time. Extremely well written, and the story telling is fluid and enjoyable. Plus I love the ideas it presents.
Discussability: The nature of religion and belief, and of the immigrant experience in America. Americana itself is interestingly addressed. Just the comparison of death mythos could be a lively discussion.
The Lazarus Project - Aleksandar Hemon
Premise: Written by a Serbian immigrant to the US about an modern day author who is a Serbian immigrant to Chicago who is researching and writing a novel about a turn of the 20th century Eastern European Jewish immigrant to Chicago (Lazarus Averbach). Lazarus is shot dead by the chief of police while visiting the chief’s house.
My Thoughts: As with American Gods, this is very well written and Hemon is a talented storyteller. I don’t know how to describe it beyond that I loved the book.
Discussability: First and foremost it is about the immigrant experience and what now seems to be a perennial tension in the US with immigrants. Parallels are drawn between the “war on terror” today with the uproar about anarchists in the early 20th century. The Muslim/Jewish interactions in Eeastern Europe are worth noting.
Towing Jehovah - James Morrow
Premise: God’s 2-mile long corpse shows up floating in the Atlantic. The Vatican commissions a supertanker to tow the Corpse for interment. Hyjinx ensue.
My Thoughts: This was both a fun and thought-provoking read. This would be a lot of fun to discuss, but I’d encourage anyone for whom the premise doesn’t actively turn them off to read this book! It is a quick and very enjoyable read.
Discussability: The nature of belief and religion. There is a fascinating subplot involving atheists and secular humanists. There is also a heavy sub-theme about personal error and redemption (think of being the pilot of the Exxon Valdez)
Dreamers of the Day - Mary Doria Russell
Premise: A spinster teacher loses all of her immediate family in the influenza epidemic of 1918 (is that the right year?). She decides to break out of her carefully crafted mold, and use some inheritance to travel to Egypt and the Holy Land. Her arrival in Egypt coincides with the Cairo Peace Conference where she befriends T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) and thus also interacts some with Sir Winston Churchill.
My Thoughts: An interesting meditation on self-direction while musing on what an influenza epidemic really was like, the horrible grit of WWI, and the historical basis for the current boarders (and ensuing issues) in the middle-east. While not as strong as The Sparrow or A Thread of Grace (her previous books), I found Dreamers to be a very enjoyable read. Oh - this is written in the first person and has a heavy dose of magical realism, which I found a bit distracting (and probably not really necessary) - none the less I enjoyed it.
Discussability: I think the discussion for this would be much better than it will be for A Thread of Grace. It opened my eyes to what the influenza epidemic was like, and obviously there is heavy discussion about how things are in the middle-east. There will be a discussion of bad parenting as well.
Wit’s End - Karen Joy Fowler - 2008
Premise: A young woman has lost her brother and both parents over the course of several years. After her father dies, she accepts and invitation to go stay with her godmother, whom she had never actually met. Her godmother is a famous mystery writer (think Stephen King if he wrote mysteries). She encounters some mysteries while there, and works to integrate the fragments of her life.
My Thoughts: This was a book I’d normally never had read - it showed up as recommended when we were looking for a book group selection, and I was looking for a pile of books to read on the deck on vacation, so I added it to my list. I thoroughly enjoyed the book. It is a bit fluffier than what I generally choose - it is some combination of a character sketch and a mystery (though probably not enough of a mystery for die-hard mystery fans). It turned out to be a perfect book to read while sitting on the deck and sipping wine.
Discussability: I think there would be varied discussion on the characters themselves and on the mysteries in the story. In terms of broader themes, the main one would be family by blood and family of choice. There are aspects of the storytelling to discuss as well.
Bad Monkeys - Matt Ruff - 2007
Premise: A person ends up in a Las Vegas psych ward claiming to be a member of a secret agency who deal with those who do extreme evil in the world.
My Thoughts: This was just fun. A very fast read. It comes off a bit fluffy, but is very enjoyable. Oh - and Ruff got blurbs from both Christopher Moore and from Neil Stephenson!
Discussability: TQ and I have debated on if this would be a good book group book or not. The discussion would need to be much more English department like - about the writing, etc. It is told in the first person and obviously brings up questions such as the reliability of the narrator. I’d suggest it as a summer read since it only requires a couple of evenings to get through.
A Canticle for Leibowitz - Walter M. Miller Jr - 1959
Premise: Written at the height of cold war fear, Canticle ponders life in the distant future after a massive nuclear war. Written in three separate sections, each chronicling life in the Leibowitzian order of monks, at time periods hundreds of years apart.
My Thoughts: This was on my “why haven’t I ever read this list”, and in hindsight I should have read it long ago! It is a classic in sci-fi, and it definitely informs many later works. The closest parallels are for Stephenson’s Anathem, and if you could get a group to read the 1500 pages between the two, it would be an interesting compare and contrast of post-apocalyptic monastic visions. For old school science fiction the writing is solid - it isn’t nearly as seamless as others on the list (such as American Gods and The Lazarus Project in particular), but it wasn’t a distraction either. If you’d only read one of the two, I’d recommend Anathem, but if the bulk of that book is just too daunting I enjoyed Canticle quite a lot.
Discussability: This would be a “broader themes” discussion more than a discussion of the writing (sci-fi: go figure…). Themes include: the cold war and nuclear Armageddon, religion, the separation of academe from the masses, the nature of power and control in society.
A Case of Conscience - James Blish - 1958
Premise: Faster than light travel allows explorations of other planets. The book starts with a survey team visiting the first planet we’ve discovered with intelligent life - they must make a recommendation about whether to open regular travel to the planet. The four members of the team seem to have very personal motivations and there is tension.
My Thoughts: I found the book looking for fiction dealing with theology - looking for books similar to The Sparrow. Given that the survey team includes a Jesuit, it has remarkable similarity in premise. The book also features a second half which reverses the view a bit and thus parallels Children of God (my guess is that Russell read this book, but I find both of her books to be vastly superior). I liked the book, and it went a very different direction than Russell did. I’d describe the writing as classic sci-fi “pulp” - not terribly great writing, but it is short and a pretty quick read. If the ideas grab you, give it a read, but you have to be interested in the subject matter (including hard core sci-fi) or it will be a dreary read.
Discussability: There would be interesting discussions aplenty. I’m not going to go into any as it would tend to give spoilers. I’d personally choose any of the books above first, but I think it would create interesting discussions - and it would be interesting to compare and contrast this book with Russell’s first two novels.