1st book: A human being died that night

We decided as our first foray into book club country would be A human being died that night by Pumla Gobodo Madikizela. It's non-fiction, so not strictly a novel, but still seems interesting.

From Amazon.com:

More focused than most books about South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), this searing account is by a psychologist who grew up in the black townships and who served on the TRC under Archbishop Tutu. She brings you close to the horrific testimony about what apartheid's perpetrators did, and also to what Tutu called "holy" scenes of forgiveness by victims' families. But at the center are her personal prison interviews with Eugene de Kock, who directed "the blood, the bodies and the killing" against apartheid's enemies. Does he feel remorse? Can Gobodo-Madikizela feel empathy for him? Demonizing him as monster, as hopelessly other, lets him--and us--off too easily, she maintains. The elemental issues about perpetrators, victims, and bystanders stretch back to the Holocaust and will spark intense discussion. How can apartheid Prime Minister De Klerk say his hands were clean? What about the majority of whites who say they didn't know? No easy answers, just the hope embodied in the TRC that cycles of political violence can be broken and that there are alternatives to revenge. Hazel Rochman

Let's get started!

I added three polls on the left nav bar. Please vote on the following:

1. The books you would like to read for the first meeting. We will select the one with more votes.
2. The dates you can meet to discuss the books. As this is our first meeting, we should all select at least one day in common -- if not, I will add more options to the poll.
3. The frequency you would like to have these meetings.

David -- if you want to add a book to the poll, please do :)

blog name

any other ideas for blog titles?

sarah on the essence of ruben

"at least he's a big fan of alanis." Sarah on Ruben

link here for alanis on "my hump" [warning: its prety horrible]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W91sqAs-_-g

blogspot a-hoy

hmm... well looks like were doing a blogspot forum instead. I just wanted to take the initative and get it going... i kind of figured you were going to want a blogspot, Ruben, but I went with livejournal because i dont have a google email account set up (which blogspot requires) and wanted to avoid doing that, but...im not too fussy and the multiple author access seems to lend itself more to what we're trying to do.

And... those were not insults in my first two posts, they were just facts! ;) lets start blogging!

I already started reading the book about the consititution, not sure if you all are interested in starting with that... perhaps we should start out with something more symbolic or grandeois...? what say yous?

like your book list a lot, sarah! i think im going to update/amend mine.

although a bit of a fuss, your initative and appreciation for the astetic are entertained, fancy and honorable, Ruben. yay! its begun...

how are we going to choose our first book? how are we going to recruit more people for our club?

lets post this email to the blog...

The chosen one

I went ahead and created links for all suggestions up to now. From your own list, choose your top two options, so we can decide which book will go first.

Does that sound like a plan?

First Book List

From David's pen...

This is just a preliminary list of books that we may choose from to start with. These were conjured up in prep for a dinner meeting, perhaps what could be dubbed the first official meeting, in preparation of the club. We'll add books to the list and come up with better suggestions. We haven't conjured up a meeting place, time, format for discussion, means of choosing the books, and many other important factors.

Ruben is reading a ridiculously long book right now and refusing to start participating until he finishes. Sarah has not contributed to the book club yet, to be fair she just heard about our idea last week. Hopefully we'll be able to work out some of those details -- it doesn't have to be too formal, could just be a bi-monthly discussion of sorts over tea or something equally or more gay.

I'm kinda excited about this in a really dorky way because i think it will get my brain moving, give me motivation to read more and give me a place to list the books that i always think about wanting to read but of which I soon after forget the names.

David's List

• Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius -- David Eggers
• Decision in Philadelphia, The Constitutional Convention of 1787 -- Christopher Olive rand James Collier
• Mountains Beyond Mountains -- Tracy Kidder
• Alexis o tratado del inutil combate -- Marguerite Yourcenar
• A Confederacy of Dunces -- John Kennedy Toole
• The Road -- Cormec McCarthy
• Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde

Ruben's List -- Ruben was really dorky about it and prepared synopsis of each book--- maybe making a link to amazon.com descriptions of the books we list wouldn't be a bad idea for choosing purposes.

• The Indian Clerk -- David Leavitt
• Ladies Coupe -- Anita Nair
• Call Me by Your Name -- Andre Aciman
• Kindred -- Octavia E. Butler
• The Real Thing -- Tom Stoppard
• Beloved -- Toni Morrison
• Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love -- Oscar Hijuelos
• The Buddha of Suburbia -- Hanif Kureishi