"Julie" by David Bowie

I'm posting this song for Dottie, because she has challenged me to find a David Bowie link to the books we read.

"Julie" is a B-side to "Day-in Day-out." This is the only clip for the song that I could find on YouTube. For reasons known only to the video's creator, the song has been set to clips from the movie The Man Who Fell to Earth.

Julie & Julia movie, starring Meryl Streep & Stanley Tucci (so excited!) delayed until next year (not so excited)

http://newyork.seriouseats.com/2008/10/word-is-the-julie-and-julia-movie-is-being-de.html

November Book

Thanks to Amanda for suggesting November's book and providing the information about it.

We will be reading Julie & Julia by Julie Powell. The next meeting will be on Thursday, November 20th at 6pm. Does anyone have any ideas of where they'd like to eat?

In this book New Yorker Julie Powell tries to tackle 524 Julia Child recipes in her tiny apartment kitchen in 365 days. The Monroe County Public Library has a couple copies (in the non fiction section). In expensive copies can also be bought at book retailers and amazon.com.

Movie Time!

So The Secret Life of Bees comes to theaters tomorrow. After it's made it to the 5 buck club list, let's all go out and see the movie! This will give us a chance to discuss the book more for those who aren't able to make it to book club tonight.

"I'm bringin home a baby bumble bee, won't my mommy bee so proud of me...

Twice, I've posted accidentally to the IUAA Blog rather than my blog. This post is intentional! Amanda asked me to put my bee picture on the blog. I shot this at May's at the Fall Open House. For me, to shoot a bee is something akin to someone else shooting a bear. I am very allergic to bees and all stinging insects and carry my injector with me at all times. For me to get up close and personal to a bee like this really gets my adrenaline pumping! Who needs epinephrine?

Having said that, I would like to say that I'm so sorry I won't be in town for the next IUAA meeting because I so loved reading the Bee book. I read it years ago. My favorite part was all of the factual information that the reader gets at the beginning of each chapter. If only humans would run society like the little bee colony, we might all be better for it.

So do you know the old camp song that my title refers to?

The Secret Life of Bees in theaters Oct. 17

Today's episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show has the cast of The Secret Life of Bees. The movie stars Queen Latifah, Dakota Fanning, Alicia Keys, and Jennifer Hudson. Most of us will miss it because Oprah comes on at 4 p.m., but her Web site has some video clips. Check it out at http://www.oprah.com/dated/oprahshow/oprahshow_20080915_bees.

Bloomington Red Cross Book Fair

Book fair opens Thursday
H-T Report
Sept. 29, 2008

If you love to devour books, prepare for a feast.

For the 25th straight year, the Red Cross Book Fair will take place in Bloomington, offering low-cost books, magazines, CDs, records, cassettes, DVDs, videos, games, and puzzles.

Used books and other media items donated by the public throughout the year are categorized by genre and sold. All proceeds from the fair will go to the Red Cross.

This year the sale will be one day longer than normal, running Oct. 2-7 at the Monroe County Fairgrounds. Local authors Bob Hammel and Michael Koryta will be at the event the first day to sell and sign copies of their newest books.

“We’ve added an indoor concession stand so people can take their time browsing through the lunch and dinner hours,” Sue Gulley, Monroe County Red Cross executive director, said in a prepared statement. “We’ve also moved to the larger commercial building to accommodate the thousands of items we have to sell.”

At the event this year special T-shirts and Red Cross book bags will be on sale. Hours will be extended each day, and many of the same special event days will be in place, such as half price day, bag-it day and free-book day. There will be a half-price bag-it day Monday, and a new clearance section on Thursday and Friday.

Opening day is the only day with an admission fee, $10 at the door.

The fair schedule is as follows:

Thursday, 2-9 p.m.: $10 admission.

Friday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.: Free admission.

Saturday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.: Free admission; half-price books all day.

Sunday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.: Free admission; Bag-it Day all day ($8 for all books packed into a grocery bag)

Oct. 6, 9 a.m.-6 p.m.: Free admission; Half-price Bag-it Day all day ($4 for all books packed into a grocery bag)

Oct. 7, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.: Free Book Day.

Taken from the Herald-Times online at http://www.heraldtimesonline.com/stories/2008/09/29/news.qp-6657017.sto.

October Book

The book to be read for October is The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd.

The votes seem to be leaning toward switching to Thursdays, so our next meeting will be on Thursday, October 16th at 6pm. Please leave comments for suggestions of a (cheap) place to meet.

Congrats Catherine!

Great news, Catherine got accepted to the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra! Congratulations!! However, their practice time is on Tuesday evenings which means she would not be able to come to Book Club.

So that Catherine can continue to join us in our merriment, let's pick a new day to have our meetings. Based on the poll previously put up weekends, Mondays, and Fridays were the least popular are not put on the new poll. So pick a day that works best for you.

Unless there are conflicts on the part of everyone else, we will continue as scheduled with the September meeting on Tuesday the 16th at 6pm. Dottie had mentioned to me having something at her house, so we'll see if she's still up for it. If not, please let comments on suggestions for somewhere to go.

Elizabeth Gilbert at the IU Auditorium Tonight!

My apologies. I keep meaning to post this news. Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of Eat, Pray, Love, will be at the IU Auditorium today (Monday, Sept. 8) at 7 p.m. for FREE.

If you haven’t had the opportunity to read Eat, Pray, Love, then I highly recommend adding it to your list. I’m usually a speed-reader, but I have slowed myself down on this book so I can savor it. Gilbert is a wonderful writer!

For more information regarding Gilbert or her visit, then read this press release http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/8684.html.

September Book

For September, we will be reading My Sister's Keeper by Jody Picoult.



The meeting will be Tuesday, September 16 at 6pm. Location TBA.

1984 Discussion

Because of the Football Kickoff event this evening, the discussion for 1984 will be moved to tomorrow evening.

Meeting info:
Wednesday, August 20
6pm
Cheeseburger in Paradise

Why Cheeseburger you ask? Because it sounded good. And they have great drinks (both with and without alcohol).

Regular Meetings

Well it looks like the majority has chosen Tuesdays at 6pm. To keep it in line with the time of month we have been meeting before, how about the third Tuesday of each month? This would make our discussion of Orwell's 1984 on Tuesday, August 19th. Any preferences of meeting location?

Online Version

Just in case you'd prefer an online format, 1984 can be read online here.

Can you dance in a post-apocalyptic world?

David Bowie was a fan of George Orwell and wanted to do a concept album of Orwell's book 1984. Bowie started working on the material in 1973 but was unable to get permission from Orwell's estate. Not all was lost. In 1974, Bowie released Diamond Dogs a rock concept-album about a post-apocalyptic world.

I thought this video would be fun to post. This is David Bowie performing his song "1984" from Diamond Dogs.

Meetings

What does everyone thing about having a more "regular" meeting time? For example, the 3rd Tuesday of each month at 6pm. That might help in scheduling other life events. Just an idea.

A Likely Next Book

And the next book is... 1984 by George Orwell

Next Book

The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom was suggested by Amanda.

Next meeting info TBD. This is a FAST read, so it will be fairly soon!

Book suggestions...

Until Nicole OK's me as a friend on Goodreads (which I just requested, so unless Nicole is constantly monitoring the Goodreads page, she hasn't seen it yet), I'm putting book suggestions here.

• Islands in the Stream by Ernest Hemingway
• Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
• The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
• Back When We Were Grownups by Anne Tyler

Damn board meeting!

Unfortunately, I have a School of Informatics Alumni Association board meeting this evening, which means I can't make the Cheese Drip Factory. I suggested the book and everything. Oh how I wanted to discuss asparagus-flavored pee! Let me know tomorrow what this month's book choice is.

Goodreads Group

I created a group for us on Goodreads. If you're not already on there, signing up is easy! It's a great way to keep track of books you and your friends are reading, have read, and want to read. Feel free to add books to the group bookshelf for ideas of what to read next!

Meeting Stuff-o-rama

Yep, it's almost that time again!

Time to meet and discuss the love triangle of Fermina Daza and her two men...

I have to admit, after frustratingly turning pages, my opinion of the book is:

You'll just have to find out at the meeting!

Tuesday, June 24 at 6:30 pm

La Charreada (um, I think I've misspelled it) aka Cheese Drip Factory

The only thing I've forgotten - who picked this one?

In any case, bring some questions, comments and anything else you'd like to share along with another book. For July, make it a short and fast read!

Patty

All hot and sweaty

I have to confess that I got an extremely late start with this book. I'm only about halfway through and have just now gotten 'bitten' by it. At first, I had to force myself to pick it up, but I now look forward to late night reading time. I should finish it within the next few days.

When is the meeting again? Have I missed it? Where am I? What's my name? Someone help me here.

Love? in the time of Cholera??

I was reading the book last night and got so angry with what was happening that I almost slammed the book shut and threw it across the room. (I won't say what was happening in case anyone hasn't reached that point yet.) I just have to say that this is one messed up "love" story! I stuck it out to see if things would change but was disappointed by the results. I have about 100 pages left and am interested to see how it ends.

Yes, I'm still talking about Oscar Wilde

I was listening to Stephen Fry’s April Podgram, which was mainly about Oscar Wilde. Fry is quite the connoisseur of Wilde. I greatly enjoyed this particular episode and thought I would share it with all of you.

The episode can be downloaded for free from the iTunes store. Power search for Stephen Fry and you will get Stephen Fry’s PODGRAMS as a result. Click the subscribe button. If you don’t have iTunes then you can go to the blog section of his Web site for a text transcript, http://stephenfry.com/blog/.

I just noticed that the transcript isn’t up yet. If you want to read the transcript keep checking back from time to time. But, I highly recommend listening to the Podgram. Stephen Fry is an absolute joy.

And The New Book Is...

There are several of us who own copies of the book - feel free to ask!

The next meeting will be on:

Tuesday, May 24

Meeting Place:

Cheese Drip Factory (aka La Charreada)

Time:

To be voted on!

PSH

Interesting notes on Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray

I hope everyone enjoyed Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray as much as I did. From speaking to a few of you, I think we were all reading different editions and publications of the book. I thought I would share some notes from my edition, published by Penguin Books in 1985.

Some critics have identified Wilde entirely with the character Lord Henry “Harry” Wotton. Wilde’s own remarks on the subject in 1894 was, “Basil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry what the world thinks of me: Dorian what I would like to be — in other ages, perhaps.”

Continuing on the subject of Wilde being compared to his characters, there was an interesting connection made between Gray and Wilde. In my edition of the book, Chapter 12 starts with “It was on the ninth of November, the eve of his own thirty-eighth birthday…” My edition said in the Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine, version of this story, this date was given as Gray’s 32nd birthday, which is a more significant age to Wilde. When Wilde was 32, he engaged in his first homosexual experiences, thus making more of connection between Gray’s sin or guilt and his own.

Several directories are mentioned in Dorian Gray. Knowledge of these directories do not make or break the book, but they are interesting and worth noting. In Chapter Three, Lord Henry tells Uncle George, “Mr. Dorian Gray does not belong to Blu-books.” The Bluebook was the official reports of Parliament and the Privy Council. In Chapter 15, Lady Narborough offers to go through Debrett carefully to find eligible young ladies for Gray. Debrett is short for Debrett’s Complete Peerage of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, which was an aristocratic directory.

And finally, I want to point out one last thing. In Chapter 11, Wilde goes into long detail about Gray’s interests in music, art, tapestries, etc. I will be honest and admit that I skimmed/skipped it. Be honest, many of you did too. In case you were wondering how Wilde knew all of those things, he primarily used Huysmans, and the South Kensington Museum Art Handbook. According to the notes in my edition of the book, some of Wilde’s descriptive passages were taken almost verbatim.

Quotable Wilde

I love Oscar Wilde quotes. I just wanted to take a moment to share my favorites in "The Picture of Dorian Gray."

"The ugly and the stupid have the best of it in this world. They can sit at their ease and gape at the play."

"Humanity takes itself too seriously. It is the world's original sin. If the cave-man had known how to laugh, History would have been different."

"It is not good for one's morals to see bad acting."

"There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about."

"She behaves as if she was beautiful. Most American women do. It is the secret of their charm."

"It is an odd thing, but everyone who disappears is said to be seen at San Francisco. It must be a delightful city, and possess all the attractions of the next world."

Finished over the weekend...

Dearest IUAA book club ladies,

I finished "The Picture of Dorian Gray" over the weekend. What shallow dandies Dorian and Lord Henry were! I purchased the book from Barnes and Noble, and it had fabulous end notes and explanations of terminology, characters, etc. Thank goodness, or some of the subleties would have escaped me. And what a life Oscar Wilde led! We have a lot to discuss next week. ;)

--Rachael.

Recipe Fictional Book Series

Joanne Fluke is my new "mystery" series favorite author.

I call it "mystery" because it's more or less a no-thinker read for a mystery novel. I read the ninth book in the series (who the heck has the list of books in order when they go to the library? Not me) and really enjoyed it. I copied a few recipes out of it hoping to make one or two this summer.

It takes place in a small town in Minnesota (haha, yes, I am a Minnesotan and like most people, I have to give my home state authors a chance - so post some Indiana authors - I want to read more!) and is totally Minnesotan. Seriously. It's like I'm back home again when I open it.

If you need a no-thinker for entertainment, this is an OK book to read, just don't expect some great mystery novel. It's just entertaining!

Otherwise, I recommend Janet Evanovich - she's a real laugh out loud author!

Patty

I just finished! I'd remembered it being a lot longer than it actually was...

At any rate, I've found some questions about it for book club & have been thinking of some additional ones on my own; if you think of any discussion questions, remember them for our meeting!

Have a great weekend!

Happy Friday Everyone!

According to the votes, it looks like Tuesday, May 20 at 6 pm is the time.

The place is:

The Irish Lion

Here's a few fun facts about Oscar Wilde:

Irish-born novelist, playwright, poet, and critic

Birthdate: October 16, 1854
Died: November 30, 1900
Place of Birth: Dublin, Ireland

Known for:
Witty, often paradoxical, sayings that lampoon the social mores and behavior of the English upper classes of his time
Championing the aesthetic movement, which is based on the idea of art for art's sake

Milestones:
1878 Graduated from the University of Oxford with a degree in classics
1881 Published Poems, a collection of poetry
January - October 1882 Lectured on English aestheticism in the United States and Canada
1882 Vera, or the Nihilists, his first play, is produced in New York but is not successful
1891 Published his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, which portrayed the moral decay of its title character
February 1892 The play Lady Windermere's Fan, the first of four successful comedies, opened in London.
June 1892 Rehearsals for the play Salomé were halted by the British censor because of a law forbidding the representation of Biblical characters on stage.
February 1895 The Importance of Being Earnest, the last and most popular of his comedies, was produced in London.
May 1895 Was convicted of homosexual acts following three sensationalized trials, and received a sentence of two years' hard labor
1897 Released from prison, Wilde left immediately for France where he lived the rest of his life, publishing only the poem The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898).

Did You Know:
Wilde's flamboyant personality and eccentric dress were parodied in Gilbert and Sullivan's comic operetta, Patience (1881).
Wilde's most popular plays satirized the English upper classes- the very audience for whom they were intended.
Wilde's mother was a poetess and Irish nationalist known as Speranza.
Wilde's full name was Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde, in deference to his Irish heritage.

PSH

Ideas for Books

My mom forwarded to me an email from the Carmel High School librarians about what books students are reading. I thought I'd share it to give ideas of books to read.

There’s an interesting article in the newest TIME magazine (May 5, 2008, p.49-51) about Stephenie Meyer, the author of Twilight (published in 2005) and its sequels. The first 3 books have sold more than 53 million copies in the U.S. When Eclipse (the 3rd book) “was released last August, it bumped the final Harry Potter book out of the top spot on some lists even though it came out only 2 ½ weeks later.” The article compares writing styles of J.K. Rowling and Meyer.

While Twilight and its sequels are primarily chick books, we see guys reading them to find out what all the hub-bub is about.

Remember BEACH READ SURVIVOR, the Media Center contest the week before spring break?
Twilight won, followed by
Cell: a Novel by Stephen King
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
Rainbow Six by Tom Clancy
No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy

Favorite authors:
Jodi Picoult had a total of 30 nominations for 12 books.
Stephenie Meyer had a total of 54 nominations for 3 books.
J.K. Rowling had a total of 9 nominations for 2 books.

Another website

I was reading the book on the readprint site & noticed it was spacing paragraphs funny. I don't know if it's just my computer, but just in case any of you are having the same problem, here's the site I usually use:

http://www.classicreader.com/booktoc.php/sid.1/bookid.1914/

Additionally, I noticed that this site shows the Preface of the book, which I didn't see before on the other site!

And The New Book Is...

"The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde

Link to read online:

http://www.readprint.com/work-1508/Oscar-Wilde

PSH

That's Italian!

Reading Under the Tuscan Sun, made me want to speak Italian, dress Italian, make love to an Italian man, (yeah, baby), eat Italian food, paint my walls of my house so that they look like a Tuscan villa, decorate with tapestry. I want olives, pasta, coffee, gelato - all of the things they eat in Italy. I wandered about the grocery last week looking for Italian offerings and the best I could do was to buy a bag of tri-color pasta. How sad.

I want to sit in the sun on the terrace and drink wine. Frances Mayes does a wonderful job of leaving you wanting more. More of Tuscany, more of her writing, more of life! That's Amore'!

I'm excited about our first get together tonight and getting to know everyone better. What could be more fun than eating Italian and talking bout what we've just read? Yay for our book club!

Under The Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes

It's Spring time in Indiana, the first book club meeting is later tonight. I'm super excited!

Mostly because I chose this book to get away from the brown and gray Indiana skys and to really enjoy the warmth of a book that I've been wanting to read for so long. The movie has been out for quite a few years and I've seen it several times - it was now time to do the book some justice and read it.

Frances and her husband buy a Tuscan Villa which is called Bramasole. Yearning for the sun, is the english translation I believe. A journey through someone else's restoration project is the perfect sit down and read book for when the weather just does not agree with your mood. I found that the recipes had stories to go along, the food was described so well that my mouth watered, but I was disappointed by one thing.

The time she and her husband spent traveling around to the different Etruscan sites was a little too boring for me - I love history and learning of site, etc..., but I just could not get my mind into wandering along the roads like Frances and her husband do.

Overall, I have to say 4 stars out of 5. I enjoyed reading about someone else's life and her personal journey as she found herself again year after year.

Patty