F13 Book Club

[MaceVanHoffen]

I'm not much of a fan of Austen's subject matter, but I love her turn of phrase.  Pride and Prejudice has the best opening sentence of any novel I've ever read:

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."

That is one well-constructed sentence.  It's at once a scathing, sarcastic observation about the social norms of her day and tells you pretty much what the novel is about, packaged in a lovely little grammatical powerhouse.  She earns marks in my book for being very good at the mechanics of writing.

I mean come on ... Austen was probably the original cynical Internet Douchebag.  How could you not like her?

[schild]

Her shit is boring.

It makes it pretty easy not to like her.

[lamaros]

It's not you, it's me.

SF is it? It is.

Pick a good'un cmlancas.

[MaceVanHoffen]

Heh, I knew when I suggested Austen it wouldn't go well.

For something more modern, I'll toss out Ray Bradbury for consideration and to redeem myself.  The Martian Chronicles is a surprisingly deep novel, full of all manner of meaning and what not.  It's also got aliens, which never hurts.

Dandelion Wine isn't sci fi, but it is one of Bradbury's better novels.  It's like a Norman Rockwell painting put to paper.  It comes up regularly on book club lists.

[Rendakor]

My dearest Rendakor, now be serious. I want to talk very seriously. Let me know every thing that I am to know, without delay. Will you tell me how long you have hated that book?

About 6 years or so, now, Dr. lesion.

[cmlancas]

The masses clamor and demand science fiction! In response, I have chosen a major work, Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut, to lead us into our first discussion.

Some off-hand reasons why I chose Cat's Cradle:

1) Ease of Entry: Vonnegut's style isn't going to throw any of you for a loop -- it's not Jane Austen here. He creates a straightforward, gritty, and poignant prose style.
2) Critical Interpretations: Scholars in academia continue to analyze Vonnegut, especially with his death a few months back. I will offer to assist anyone who believes he/she has a convincing reading with critical articles.
3) Fun: This book is hilarious. I think it befits this board to read this work because the book contains "usefully cynical commentary."

Therefore, I hope you enjoy it. I have been looking for online e-texts for Cat's Cradle, and there apparently is an e-text on Google Books. Unfortunately, when I go to log in through my university's web proxy (with full access to most scholastic sites), I get a major error and cannot continue. Therefore, if any of you can come up with a legal e-text, it would be splendid.

That being said, places to buy Cat's Cradle:
Amazon <--From $2.70 at the moment.
AbeBooks <--From $1.23 at the moment.
eBay <---From $2.00 at the moment.
This book should also be available at all major public and university libraries.

Also, if you love this novel, you might interest yourself in reading Harrison Bergeron, recommended by schild. I rather liked it.

Cheers, and happy reading!

Edit: Ready to respond? Go here.

[Strazos]

Sounds good, ordered.

I just hope I am able to keep up.

Also, I hope that it's good.

[lamaros]

Dib on picking the mystery novel. Pluzze. You must all come to the proper appreciation of agatha!

[Margalis]

Dear God no not Agatha Christie! At least go with someone like John Dickson Carr.

[lamaros]

Dear God no not Agatha Christie! At least go with someone like John Dickson Carr.

Agatha has some quiality books! Though many are by-numbers jobs some a fun. And short! There is lots of other good stuff about too, but it's better to pick books that piss people off! 

[Miasma]

I've always wanted to know how Murder on the Orient Express ended.  Pretty sure it was an elaborate suicide.

[Johny Cee]

I've always meant to get into the old noir stuff,  but never got started.  I tend to like the modern riffs on noir,  especially noir mixing other genres,  so will be interesting to explore the basis of it.

[cmlancas]

I have a great book lined up for Noir if ya'll let me continue picking. I think everyone will like it. You just can't not like Chandler.

[lamaros]

I have a great book lined up for Noir if ya'll let me continue picking.

It all depends how sharp the knives of opinion on Cat's Cradle are, methinks.

The Postman Always Rings Twice would be my Non-Agatha suggestion (seriously, Agatha has some good books).

[Johny Cee]

I have a great book lined up for Noir if ya'll let me continue picking. I think everyone will like it. You just can't not like Chandler.

People hear enough about what I've been reading.  I'm happy to have someone else picking for me,  especially since I'm in a slight rut.  I'm pretty much done with the Fantasy genre,  without going out and chasing down out-of-print/hard to find classics. 

Been picking at scifi.

This pick was a great way to force me to pick back up Vonnegut,  so I can him a fair shot.

[cmlancas]

Postman is a good choice too lamaros. Definitely a possibility too. I just can't see how people can't like Cat's Cradle. It's a lot like moist, delicious cake.

[Johny Cee]

Postman is a good choice too lamaros. Definitely a possibility too. I just can't see how people can't like Cat's Cradle. It's a lot like moist, delicious cake.

Truthfully,  I sorta wanted to see a Heinlen or Chalker choice for the pure entertainment of forum outrage explosions.

[Strazos]

Why, Heinlen is good. I even have a few of his books, most of which I haven't actually read...

Ok, so I only read Starship Troopers.

[Johny Cee]

Why, Heinlen is good. I even have a few of his books, most of which I haven't actually read...

Ok, so I only read Starship Troopers.

Alot of the time Heinlein takes a social more, and then creates a situation where most of society's normal rational reasons don't apply,  and then runs with it so you have to ask yourself if your belief is rationally founded,  or just upbringing/"it's icky" response.

Homosexuality (obviously not a huge issue now compared to the time of writing), incest, non-standard marriage arrangements, gender roles, goverment arrangements, civil liberties, religion, etc. just from the books I've read.

[lamaros]

I always thought he was an absurdist, I mean, The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, what? You bet it is. It's all dusty and rocky and shit. You'd just get all cut up. And what about when it's on top? I'm not strong enough to let the moon mount me. Fuck! Who'd want to sleep with the moon... Insane...

[Margalis]

Heinlein is weird. At some point suffered severe brain trauma and got all fucked up. Some of his stuff is pulpy fun, like The Puppet Masters and some of it like Farnham's Freehold is some of the worst shit ever written.

I prefer if we rotate picking books. Kind of silly for the same person to keep picking.

Also why are "female authors" a genre?

[MaceVanHoffen]

Truthfully,  I sorta wanted to see a Heinlen or Chalker choice for the pure entertainment of forum outrage explosions.

I think Andre Norton would be the perfect choice for explosive argumentative entertainment.  My wife reads a lot of the classics (she introduced me to Austen), and it's always a fun conversational grenade to mention my enjoyment of the Witch World books around her.

I'm picking up Cat's Cradle tomorrow.  I've never read anything by Vonnegut, so this'll be awesome.

[cmlancas]

Also why are "female authors" a genre?

Many traditional canons completely ignore many important female authors. Therefore, a few anthologies have surfaced focusing on women's lit.

I wasn't attempting to be sexist, although one could argue that simply having a category for women's lit is sexist by definition. It's just the way academia does it right now. They aren't sure how to lump the great female authors that have been discovered in the last twenty-five years in with the dead white males that have been so prominent for so long without mucking things up. I could PM you further if you want, it gets kinda dry and silly.

[Phildo]

Why, Heinlen is good. I even have a few of his books, most of which I haven't actually read...

Ok, so I only read Starship Troopers.

Alot of the time Heinlein takes a social more, and then creates a situation where most of society's normal rational reasons don't apply,  and then runs with it so you have to ask yourself if your belief is rationally founded,  or just upbringing/"it's icky" response.

Homosexuality (obviously not a huge issue now compared to the time of writing), incest, non-standard marriage arrangements, gender roles, goverment arrangements, civil liberties, religion, etc. just from the books I've read.

About halfway through Stranger in a Strange Land I had to stop and ask myself what the fuck was going on.  It would definitely be a great book for discussion.

[Miasma]

I always thought it was interesting that even though there are many female authors in sci-fi, fantasy and mystery most of them use their initials for the covers instead of their actual names so that people don't stereotype them and assume the book is all sappy and romantic.

It's slowly getting better though in that they don't have to hide behind initials as much.

[cmlancas]

I think the only female sci-fi author I've seen anthologized is LeGuin. And it isn't for the Earthsea series, it's for something else.

[Soukyan]

I think we should read something by Willa Cather at some point. As female authors go, she is my favorite, but her personal life and her writing make for some interesting discussion.

[Engels]

Well, here in Seattle, Twice Sold Tales is out, Magus Books is out, even Univeristy Village Barnes and Noble is out of Cat's Cradle! Tomorrow I'll check out a few more.

As for good female scifi and/or fantasy writers, folks interested should check out Elizabeth Moon and Robin Hobb.

[Strazos]

Fuck, whoever I bought the book from on Amazon isn't shipping the book until Sunday or Monday, with an estimated arrival of somewhere between the 18th and Feb 1.

Lame.

Well, at least it's always nice to have more books. But next time, I'll just find the book in person.

[Rendakor]

Well, here in Seattle, Twice Sold Tales is out, Magus Books is out, even Univeristy Village Barnes and Noble is out of Cat's Cradle! Tomorrow I'll check out a few more.

As for good female scifi and/or fantasy writers, folks interested should check out Elizabeth Moon and Robin Hobb.

Robin Hobb's Farseer series was excellent. Best fantasy I've read in a while; utterly avoids the "tell the story for over 9000 angles" thing that I hate so much.

[Engels]

She's in Seattle this Wednesday, stumping for her latest Shaman series book. She's a total hottie too.

[Soukyan]

She's in Seattle this Wednesday, stumping for her latest Shaman series book. She's a total hottie too.

I read her Farseer series and really enjoyed it, but haven't started any of the Shaman books yet. Are they any good? I think she's excellent when writing from a first-person perspective, but I'm not sure that I like her third-person style.

[Engels]

I dug it. Its pretty similar to the Farseer books.

[Evildrider]

Why, Heinlen is good. I even have a few of his books, most of which I haven't actually read...

Ok, so I only read Starship Troopers.

Alot of the time Heinlein takes a social more, and then creates a situation where most of society's normal rational reasons don't apply,  and then runs with it so you have to ask yourself if your belief is rationally founded,  or just upbringing/"it's icky" response.

Homosexuality (obviously not a huge issue now compared to the time of writing), incest, non-standard marriage arrangements, gender roles, goverment arrangements, civil liberties, religion, etc. just from the books I've read.

About halfway through Stranger in a Strange Land I had to stop and ask myself what the fuck was going on.  It would definitely be a great book for discussion.

Stranger in a Strange Land is one of my top 5 favorite books of all time.

[Phildo]

It's one of my dad's all-time favorites also, which is why I read it in the first place and holy shit, do I ever have a new opinion of him now.