Thursday, July 19, 2007

Upcoming books for Cambridge group

The radiant Lisa Math reports to me that her Cambridge group is looking forward to reading these books for each of their next two meetups:

1) Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. For the August 21 Cambridge meeting

*This has been out a while but a couple members had started it and really enjoyed it, so now they're looking for an excuse to go back and finish it.

*I'd write you up my own description of the book, but I'd rather not get slapped with plagiarism charges. So visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Confederacy_of_Dunces for some great information on Confederacy.... But try not to read too far, cuz you don't want to spoil the ending. I read this book back in high school for the summer and enjoyed it, though it turned out to be a "love it or hate it" kind of novel. The main character is a pompous goof and demands a lot of patience and understanding from the reader. However, plenty of students had this to say about him: "I #@$%ing HATE that guy!"

2) On Beauty by Zadie Smith. For the September Cambridge meeting

*Lisa reports that members really like this author, and this is her latest.

*Hear an NPR interview with the author at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4961669.

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