Book Club

Soon I'll be reviewing The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson, because that's the book I'm reading for my next book club meeting. My friend Cheryl chose this book because it's the 2010 Man Booker Prize winner. I've read other Man Booker Prize winners and liked them: The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga, Life of Pi by Yann Martel, The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy come to mind.

It's tricky to choose a book for Book Club. You hope most of the people, or at least a vocal minority, will like it. You remind yourself that you didn't WRITE the book, you only chose it, so if they don't like it, it's nothing personal. You can't please everyone; you know that going in. At least one member of our group doesn't like any books that are popular. Some like short stories. I don't like short stories. As I said in an earlier post, if I'm going to commit to a relationship with a character, I want it to be long-lasting.

I suppose you could say Possible Side Effects is a series of short stories, or essays. But Augusten Burroughs is in all of them, so my relationship with him remains intact. In fact, getting to know him better makes his essays even funnier. When he likes the bitter-tasting, hole-producing Nicorette gum (see post from 12/13/10) it's not only funny because that's a surprise, it's also funny because that is so him.

As I write this, Gerard is hard at work in the kitchen. He's making oven-roasted lamb shanks with roasted tomatoes and toasted orzo. Drool.