Oprah Picks Dickens

A month or so ago, my Crummy Book Club picked David Copperfield for its next discussion. I was so worried about not being able to finish it on time that I both listened and read it. (The audio version alone was about 37 hours...or you can listen to an abridged version that clocks in at 2 hours...I can't imagine how they did that!).

Unfortunately, our Book Club discussion was postponed until January. But, I am done with the book and look forward to the discussion.

Now, I've learned that Oprah's next book picks are Charles Dickens' Great Expectations and A Tale of Two Cities.

I wonder if a Dickens' renaissance is in the works?

Good Storytelling: The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

Late last night, I finished reading Diane Setterfield's The Thirteenth Tale.

The book probably falls under the heading 'gothic mystery'. But don't be turned off by that.

I'm usually not a fan of this genre; but good writing is good writing whatever the category, and there is plenty to be found here.

As for a plot summary, it's hard to summarize in just a few sentences. The library system's online catalog says it is "a compelling emotional mystery about family secrets and the magic of books and storytelling. A dying writer bids a young bookshop assistant to write her biography."

That's a start, but it doesn't really indicate the book's rich narrative, its story-within-a-story qualities, and its careful plotting.

If you are a fan of classics like Jane Eyre, Rebecca and Wuthering Heights, you will really enjoy this book. It's full of secrets, family madness, ghosts, a number of surprising twists and just plain hard-to-put-down storytelling.

It's definitely a recommended read and very worthy of book club consideration.

Crummy Book Club No More!

Last year I was happy to form a book club with seven friends. We meet every other month over a potluck dinner and enjoy conversation, a lot of laughter and a fair amount of conversation about the chosen book.

Amazingly (since we each consider ourselves people who like books and know how to choose them), most of the books that we selected last year were disliked by pretty much everyone.

So, by the end of the year we agreed that perhaps our group’s name should be "The Crummy Book Club”.

Well, we are The Crummy Book Club no more. We've had two consecutive meetings where we all liked the books that we chose.

This month's book was no exception: Richard Russo's Bridge of Sighs. It is a wonderful, deeply imagined portrait of small town life in rural New York state. Perhaps not as humorous as some of his earlier novels (Nobody's Fool or Straight Man), it is similar in flavor to his Pulitzer Prize winning novel Empire Falls.

For an excerpt and an interview with Russo, check out NPR's Morning Edition (October 1, 2007) website.