October Book Club
At our meeting in September, we discussed Catalina over Peruvian chicken, fried rice, and ceviche from Pio Pio. The only person who had read the entire book was host Chris Min, whose track record recently has been abysmal in that regard. The themes in Catalina of being other and having to learn to adjust to the expectations of white America resonated with many of our members. Liz intended to read the book while on a recent 1-week vacation to Turks & Caicos but couldn't commit to it after starting it on the flight there. Perhaps there were two challenges here: before starting, she hadn’t realized we had chosen another coming-of-age book set at Harvard, and second, she found the narrator somewhat more annoying than The Idiot. I don’t disagree--while both protagonists were introspective, Elif described someone who was mainly awkward and naïve whereas Catalina was meaner and self-important. I am curious whether others will finish the book and discuss some of the plot twists as well as what I would call an unfriendly attitude toward men.
For our next selection, Herman Diaz’s Trust, we decided to go with that reliable source on good books, Dua Lipa. “Be prepared for some serious mind games! Set in New York City in the 1920s and ’30s, the story of a Manhattan financier and his high-society wife is told through four “books” — a novel, a manuscript, a memoir and a journal. But which version should you trust? Is there even one true reality? As we sift our way through these competing narratives, Diaz serves us clues and red herrings in equal measure. We know we are being gamed, but we’re not sure exactly which character is gaming us. While each reader will draw their own conclusion when they reach the end of this complex and thrilling book, what is never disputed is the ease with which money and power can bend reality itself.” (From the New York Times Best 100 Books of the 21st Century).
I hope you can all make it to our next meeting!
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9/6/2024 Karla Cornejo Villavicencio — Catalina
7/5/2024 Elif Batuman - The Idiot
6/17/2022 Maggie O’Farell - Hamnet
4/1/2022 Colette - Cheri
3/4/2022 Mark Prins - The Latinist
2/11/2022 Charles Yu - Interior Chinatown
11/5/2021 Colson Whitehead - Harlem Shuffle
9/17/2021 Kazuo Ishiguro - Klara and the Sun
7/23/2021 Chang-Rae Lee - Native Speaker
7/24/2020 James Baldwin - The Fire Next Time
6/26/2020 John Kelly - The Great Mortality
5/15/2020 Stephen King - The Stand
6/28/2019 Namwall Serpell - The Old Drift
5/03/2019 Fateem Farheen Mirna - A Place for Us
3/08/2019 Barrry Unsworth - Morality Play
2/01/2019 Daniel Mason - The Piano Tuner
12/7/2018 Kate Atkinson - Transcription
10/26/2018 George Sanders - Lincoln in the Bardo
9/14/2018 Cixin Liu - The Three Body Problem
7/27/2018 Min Jin Lee - Pachinko
7/14/2017 Amor Towles - A Gentleman in Moscow
5/26/2017 Margaret Atwood - The Handmaid’s Tale
4/28/2017 Colson Whitehead - Underground Railroad
2/17/2017 Jasper Fforde - The Eyre Affair
11/18/2016 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Americanah
7/29/2016 Pamela Hawkins - The Girl on the Train
6/10/2016 Elena Ferrante - The Story of a New Name
4/08/2016 Elena Ferrante - My Brilliant Friend
2/12/2016 Paul Beatty - The Sellout
12/4/2015 Phillip Roth - Portnoy’s Complaint
10/2/2015 Emily St. John Mandel - Station Eleven
8/07/2015 Richard North - The Narrow Road to the Deep North
5/01/2015 Eleanor Catton - The Luminaries
1/16/2015 Azar Nafisi - Reading Lolita
11/14/2014 David Mitchell - The Bone Clocks
9/12/2014 Collum McCann - Let the Great World Spin
5/23/2014 Hilary Mantel - Wolff Hall
1/31/2014 Jennifer Egan - A Visit from the Goon Squad
12/13/2013 David Foster Wallace - Infinite Jest