Commence reading!

I finally got my book in the mail! Has anyone started already/drank any of the suggested wines? I've been reading Straub's The Throat while waiting for Shadowland. Now I have to finish that before beginning our book club book! Gah! The Throat is excellent, by the way. Very spooky if you can make it past the millitary jargon in the first 1/10th. Anyway, it's looking like Shadowland will be the "book of the month" after all. What about Living Biblically?

wine suggestions for this month!

Even though we're getting a late start, I have to say that I am really excited with this month's selections. Shadowland looks awesome and I really hope it leads me down a reading-all-peter-straub-books-ever-written path. Also, when I went to purchase it at the book store it was sharing a shelf with an R.L. Stine thriller written for adults. YES.

So, I have to admit, I jumped the gun a little last night and drank my red wine selection for this month before actually posting it as an option. And I am so glad I did. In fact, I wish I was still drinking it now, even though it is only 10AM. So I have developed a relative obsession lately over Malbecs, which I believe to be experiencing a popular spell much akin to that of Pinot Noir after the movie "Sideways" but I'm totally cool with that. My go-to Malbec is made by Casillero del Diablo and I always (always) suggest it because, for $8 it cannot be beat. Quick side story, I saw it on the table in pictures of my friend Viv and was like, "you love Casillero del Diablo?" and she was all, "hell yeah I do!" Oook, anyways, so for this month's red wine suggestion I have to go with Francis Ford Coppola's Celestial Blue Label Malbec. At $14 it's a little pricier but worth the extra moolah. Here's what they're saying about it, "While working on a film in Argentina, Coppola discovered the allure of Malbec, which is a wine seldom bottled as a single-varietal in the U.S. Winemaker Corey Beck agreed that it would make for a wonderful addition to the Diamond Collection. Similar to Cabernet, Malbec exudes rich, dark fruits, currants, and cassis, but an inherent note of minerals and spice is what makes this wine distinctive and delicious." P.S. don't go to the website, it is about as cheesy as you might suspect (i.e. hot chicks looking as though they are in the throes of passion who happen to be holding unopened bottles of wine). It should be said that all marketing aside, this wine makes for a happy night. Also, we had this wine with pigs in a blanket which may not be the pinnacle of class but was really fun and tasty!

Moving along, I'm sad/ashamed to admit that I have not had a South African Chenin Blanc prior to this post. Chenin Blanc is one of two varietals (the other being Pinotage) that give South Africa it's name in the wine-world. I was talking to a clerk at our local wine store about this and apparently I have been missing out on something awesome this whole time. So for our second wine, I'm suggesting we go ahead and try Man Vintners 2008 Chenin Blanc. Here's what the vineyard is saying, "This wine has a unique delicious tangy character that goes well with a lot of food and makes for an excellent aperitif. In South Africa we say "moreish"; it is an excellent third date wine. It has lively aromas of tropical fruits and melon, with crisp, bold citrus and tropical fruit flavours. Serve chilled." While I am not exactly sure what the parameters for a "third date" wine are, I'm pretty sure I am up to try it. I've been craving asparagus lately so Dan & I are going to give this wine a try alongside asparagus spears wrapped with prosciutto (since it feels like 1000 degrees in our apartment I am welcoming the chilled wine & snack!).

Cheers! Let me know what you think!

still no book

i requested the book thru inter library loan week ago and it has still not arrived. ugh.

Just ordered my book...

Should be 2-5 days before Shadowland is in. Amazon has "like new" copies for 0.01$ plus 4 bucks s&h. I'm going to purchase Living Biblically at a local bookstore because Amazon is all out! Let's read Shadowland first and if we race through it we'll have something else ready. It is summertime, anyway. I'm psyched. Thanks for sticking with this (Amy, Dano, Mom, Kir{duh}).

Choose by Wednesday!

Bit of a late start on this one but if we get moving, perhaps we can finish it before June. I've set up a poll (closing Wednesday) to the left with two books listed that you've seen before and two new ones. Vote for your top two. Living Biblically seems fascinating. I hear he actually tries to stone a woman for adultery and gets himself arrested. Michael introduced me to Peter Straub. I read Straub's Ghost Story a couple of years back (which I highly recommend) and really loved it. Since I'm SO in the mood for something spooky I'll probably buy Shadowland no matter what the vote. Amazon reviews:



Subtitled: "One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible," Jacobs, or A.J., as his two-year-old son calls him, does just that. It is likely that no one but A.J. Jacobs could have accomplished such a feat. After all, his last book, The Know-It-All, chronicles his reading of the entire Encyclopedia Brittanica, from A to Z. No one but a smart, witty, self-deprecating, nitpicky kinda guy would undertake two such daunting tasks, and complete them with grace, no pun intended.

Jacobs, a New York Jewish agnostic, decides to follow the laws and rules of the Bible, beginning with the Old Testament, for one year. (He actually adds some bonus days and makes it a 381-day year.) He starts by growing a beard and we are with him through every itchy moment. Jacobs is borderline OCD, at least as he describes himself; obsessing over possible dangers to his son, germs, literal interpretation of Bible verses, etc. He enlists the aid of counselors along the way; Jewish rabbis, Christians of every stripe, friends and neighbors.

In an open-minded way he also visits with atheists, Evangelicals Concerned (a gay group), Jerry Falwell, snake handlers, Red Letter Christians--those who adhere to the red letters in the Bible, those words spoken by Jesus Himself, and even takes a trip to Israel and meets Samaritans. Through it all, he keeps a healthy skepticism, but continues to pray and is open to the flowering of real faith. Jacobs is a knowledge junky, to be sure. He enjoys the lore he picks up along the way as much as any other aspect of his experiment. One of the ongoing schticks is his meeting with the shatnez tester, Mr. Berkowitz. He is the one who determines whether or not your clothes are made of mixed fibers, in keeping with the Biblical injunction not to wear wool and linen together. The two become friends and prayer partners, in only one of the unexpected results of this year.

In the end, he says, "I'm now a reverent agnostic. Which isn't an oxymoron, I swear. I now believe that whether or not there's a God, there is such a thing as sacredness. Life is sacred." Not a bad outcome. --Valerie Ryan --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.




First setting: an all-male prep school in Arizona, where two sensitive freshmen form a bond based on their interest in magic tricks. Second setting: the labyrinthine house of a weird magician uncle in New England, where the two boys spend a memorable summer being trained in the art of illusion. Or is it real magic? Third setting: an alternate world where dark forces are at play--forces that first show up at the school, but intensify their power the summer. Shadowland is a superb, under-recognized, early novel from a master of literary terror.

what next?

So I was completely sold on The Thirteenth Tale until I found some reviews:

Booklist - Kaite Mediatore
A wholly original work told in the vein of all the best gothic classics. Lovers of books about book lovers will be enthralled.

Library Journal - Jenne Bergstrom
[It's] a gothic novel, and it doesn't pretend to be anything fancier. But this one grabs the reader with its damp, icy fingers and doesn't let go until the last shocking secret has been revealed.

Kirkus Reviews
A contemporary Gothic tale whose excesses and occasional implausibility can be forgiven for the thrill of the storytelling. Setterfield's debut is enchanting Goth for the 21st century.

Publishers Weekly
like Jane [Eyre, Setterfield's heroine is] a real reader and makes a terrific narrator. That's where the comparisons end, but Setterfield, who lives in Yorkshire, offers graceful storytelling that has its own pleasures.

The Washington Post - Margaux Wexberg Sanchez
"The Thirteenth Tale" keeps us reading for its nimble cadences and atmospheric locales, as well as for its puzzles, the pieces of which, for the most part, fall into place just as we discover where the holes are. And yet, for all its successes -- and perhaps because of them -- on the whole the book feels unadventurous, content to rehash literary formulas rather than reimagine them.


Now, I love ghost stories. This MAY overpower any of the aforementioned "negatives." Does anyone else want to read this book? Should we keep looking? I know that many people are coming up on finals week and may not have time to read. I was thinking that this weekend could be the unofficial start of a new book; the official start being graduation.

My second first choice(heh) would be Love in a Time of Cholera. Let me know who's on board and your choice of book!

done!

finished reading the glass castle today. eh. parts of it were really good but the lack of plot and real resolution made for a frustrating read. i was definitely dragging my feet at the end. Anyone else ready to move on? Any thoughts you want to share? I found this on youtube: