Next pick

"The Old Maid" by Edith Wharton

Also available as part of the collection "Old New York: four novellas."

more short stuff

Just checking -- is this blog going to continue into 2010, and if so, what are we reading next? I've really missed this! I wish I had been involved with "The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone." I might go back and read it anyway!

Point of view

I wrote in an earlier comment that I thought the first and last segments were stronger, and I realized that those also were told in third person, and the middle tales were in first person. I wonder why that would make a difference -- but the storytelling was a lot better in third. Like all the clumsy references to how the dialogue was spoken from the first-person storytelling suggested the author wasn't comfortable in that point of view. Or maybe it had to do with whose dream he was telling? From the first tale we know the middle three stories were in the mindset of the schoolgirls, and maybe the writing reflected a more amateurish line of thought. Or maybe I'm giving him too much credit for the inconsistencies.

Setting in the mist

I count on details about setting to help me picture a story while I'm reading, and in this case I had trouble getting a feel for when this story was set. What do you think? In the form of dreams I don't know that it matters, unless a deliberate intent to set it back in time adds more information to a surreal set of stories.

The mosaic form

The approach Zikovic took with his story makes it too easy not to ask whether there was a chapter, or dream, that resonated with you more than the others. Was there a standout vignette for you?

'Effortless prose'?

"Zivkovic has that gift of effortless prose that envelops you as it drives daggers into your perception of the world." —The Agony Column

This was just one excerpt of praise for Zivkovic I read on Amazon while searching for one of his books to suggest for Short Stuff. May I defer and say that though his writing is clear and straightforward, I thought it lacked a certain elegance I had expected? Don't get me wrong -- I think he's an exceptional storyteller. I just found some of the writing -- especially the dialogue -- a little out of tune at times. I wonder whether this is a matter of the translation. Any thoughts?

Steps Through the Mist

Hi, everyone. I'm sorry to start posting so late here. Hope you enjoyed your holidays, if you've had them yet.

First impressions on "Steps": What did you think? Did it meet, exceed, fall below your expectations? Did it read like a fantasy? (I think I harbor back to days when fantasies included dragons or hobbits or whatnot. This was more like quality literature to me.)

I found myself eager to jump into each "dream" sequence and was surprised by how quickly the stories unfolded.

How did the dream premise work for you as a paranormal element?

When conversations become awkward...

I've always enjoyed the interchange between Laura and Sophia in Letter 13, when everything Laura says (or does) somehow reminds Sophia of her husband, Augustus! Have you ever experienced a similar situation, when you're trying to comfort somebody and always seem to say the wrong thing?

Victuals and Drink

Letter the Seventh -- Edward to Augusta: “Support! What Support will Laura want which she can receive from him?"

"Only those very insignificant ones of Victuals and Drink," (answered she).

"Victuals and Drink! (replied my Husband in a most nobly contemptuous Manner) and dost thou then imagine that there is no other support for an exalted Mind (such as is my Laura's) than the mean and indelicate employment of Eating and Drinking?"

"None that I know of, so efficacious," (returned Augusta).”

Even in Jane Austen’s juvenilia, financial “support” rears its ugly and ubiquitous head! Can you think of any examples in her later works that also contrast romance with finance? Charlotte Lucas comes to mind in Pride and Prejudice…

Why just the one?

Why do you think only one letter (the first one, from Isabel) is written by someone other than Laura? I mean, for a novel in letters, one would expect multiple letter writers! Was this supposed to be a commentary on Laura's self-centeredness? It's all about me! Or just an admission that her silly letters admitted of no reply?

A safe age - 50s and over

Letter the First

Isabel to Laura: “You are this day 55. If a woman may ever be said to be in safety from the determined Perseverance of disagreeable Lovers and the cruel Persecutions of obstinate Fathers, surely it must be at such a time of Life.”

I love this! What do you think it says about age, especially women’s age, in Regency England?

Christy's pick for December: "Steps through the Mist"

This collection of short stories that weave into one is by an author I've heard good things about, Zoran Zivkovic. Here's a description of "Steps Through The Mist" from Publishers Weekly:

"Serbian speculative fictionist Zivkovic's latest novel to be released in the U.S. (after 2006's Seven Touches of Music) isn't so much a literary work to be read as it is one to be reveled in. Like a great work of abstract art, this surrealistic novel—about five women who contend with fate in very different ways—is layered with subtle symbolism and nuance, and should be savored slowly so that the profound, and sometimes disturbing, existential underpinnings can be duly discerned. Featuring story lines about a schoolgirl who can see into other people's dreams, an institutionalized woman with the ability to know the future, a world-weary fortune teller who stumbles across true divination, a skier who's offered unconventional wisdom on a mountaintop and an elderly woman who loses her will to live when her alarm clock breaks, this montage of stories is as enlightening as it is entrancing."

Hope this sounds good for a few dark winter nights!

"I long to know who it is"

Shanxi mentioned laughing aloud in many places. I thought Letter 5, the door conversation, was seriously awesome — as a portrait of how people who are used to having servants become completely flummoxed when faced with a simple task like opening a door. It's so witty and delivers that JA specialty: making merciless fun of people while also finding real pleasure in their very human antics.

She's such a lovely observer of human nature. She must have deeply empathized with every single character she wrote about to be able to make her portraits so convincing.

So this isn't a question, except maybe to ask what scenes made you guys laugh.

The "perfect" heroine

Letter the Third:

"But lovely as I was, the Graces of my Person were the least of my Perfections. Of every accomplishment accustomary to my sex, I was Mistress. When in the Convent, my progress had always exceeded my instructions, my Acquirements had been wonderfull for my age, and I had shortly surpassed my Masters.

In my Mind, every Virtue that could adorn it was centered; it was the Rendez-vous of every good Quality and of every noble sentiment.”

What struck me most about this passage was how much novelists’ portrayals of heroes and heroines have changed! Today every protagonist is rarely if ever self-described, and they never have it so good. Although Austen is obviously parodying the heroines of her time, she raises an interesting point – people often saw the main characters of a novel to be just about perfect, or at least highly skilled and moral. Samuel Richardson's earlier novel, "Pamela," published in 1740, comes to mind.

What are the pros/cons of this approach? Conversely, what are the pros/cons of today’s protagonists? Which do you prefer, and why?

What is love?

Hope you all enjoyed this as much as I did! I confess that I laughed aloud when reading, to the consternation of those in the room who were not in on the joke. :)

Even though it's not a particularly (ahem) serious work, I thought we could treat it as such to get the conversation started...

Letter 7th - "A short Conversation between Augusta and her Brother, which I accidentally overheard, encreased my dislike to her, and convinced me that her Heart was no more formed for the soft ties of Love than for the endearing intercourse of Freindship."

This signals an interesting question, which I've swiped and adapted from The Victorian Web. The question originally referred to Pride and Prejudice, but it could equally apply to Love and Friendship:

"What is Austen's version of love? ... With how much sarcasm does Austen frequently use the phrase "violently in love?" Does love mean happiness to Austen?"

Subsequently, how does love compare and contrast to friendship?

Some secondaries

Why do you think Bellow gave Wilhem a girlfriend, Olive, and a sister, Catherine, a talentless painter who, like Wilhem (Tommy), also has created a new name for herself (Philippa)? I mean, how would the story be different without them?

And what did you think of Mr. Rappaport, the blind chicken guy who smokes big cigars. What was the purpose of Wilhelm's meeting up with him?

Related reading

Speaking of life in 1950s America, I saw "Revolutionary Road" a few months ago and was very taken with it. So I finally picked up the book by Richard Yates, thinking I'd get to it when I finished the several others I've started. I began reading the first page yesterday just to see how it started, and now I'm on page 220. I can't put it down. It's probably the best thing I've read about domestic life in that era. The writing is so clear and moving and seemingly effortless. I never feel, as I did with Bellow, that I'm on the verge of "getting it" but not quite. I get it.

Yates said this of his book:

"I think I meant it more as an indictment of American life in the 1950s. Because during the Fifties there was a general lust for conformity all over this country, by no means only in the suburbs — a kind of blind, desperate clinging to safety and security at any price, as exemplified politically in the Eisenhower administration and the Joe McCarthy witchhunts. Anyway, a great many Americans were deeply disturbed by all that — felt it to be an outright betrayal of our best and bravest revolutionary spirit — and that was the spirit I tried to embody in the character of April Wheeler. I meant the title to suggest that the revolutionary road of 1776 had come to something very much like a dead end in the Fifties."

Next book - Love and Friendship

As a change of pace, mood, and time, I suggest Jane Austen's "Love and Freindship" for our next read, though here it looks like the book's publishers have corrected her original misspelling!

You can read it online at a number of places. Here's just one example - http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/lovfrend.html

Shall we get started around Nov. 22? And then we may want to take a breather for the holidays.

$700

I know we're talking 1950s money, but, still, was $700 such a sum to get worked up over, even if it's all he had? Was the amount not important, but just that it was the tail-end of a life of poor money management? What'll he do for money now? (were you disappointed to be left hanging?)

I found a Web site with some fun inflation figures, such as:

In 1950 the average cost of a new car was $1,510.00.

In 1950 a new house cost $8,450.00 and by 1959 was $12,400.

In 1950 the average income per year was $3,210.00 and by 1959 was $5,010.00

In 1950 a gallon of gas was 18 cents and by 1959 was 25 cents.

A Chevrolet Corvette cost $3631 in 1958.

A men's all wool suit cost $28.90.

It's your funeral

Why did Bellow end the book with Wilhelm bawling at the funeral of a stranger? I think we've all had the experience of a particular sadness recalling every sadness and feeling like a conduit for generalized grief, but did this ending work for you as the conclusion to Wilhelm's tale?

The head doctor

What was your feeling about Tamkin? Wilhelm had a soft spot for him even as he saw his own doom in his strange face. Tamkin had a way with words. The narrator notes, "He spoke of things that mattered, and as very few people did this he could take you by surprise, excite you, move you."

I thought that was a great description of him, a perfect summary of his appeal. Wilhelm's in a world where no one talks about anything that matters. It's all business and small-talk from sunup to sundown, and here's this guy who talks about suffering ("don't marry suffering," he wisely tells Wilhelm) and seizing the day and living in the here and now and not thinking too much about what others think of you ("I want you to see how some people free themselves from morbid guilt feelings and follow their instincts"). All good advice, more or less. And then he rips him off. And Wilhelm sees it coming, but he's too enmeshed to stand clear. Why?

What's the significance of having a financial adviser be a "psychologist"?

Wilhelm

Did you like Wilhelm? Did you care about his fate? Could you make sense of the rank hostility shown him by his wife and father? Did he do anything to deserve it, or was it just terrible luck that the only "loved ones" in his life were both cold-hearted creeps? Was Bellow attempting to say something about the American Male in mid-1950s America, just before the Women's Movement and the great tide of 1960s liberalism put their marks on the world?

(I found it interesting that Bellow painted the wife as a heartless power-monger who was making out like a bandit from the marital separation, bringing the hapless husband to financial ruin. I suppose that went on here and there, but overwhelmingly it was women who were financially and socially devastated by divorce in that era ... so, was the wife a monster or merely a realist insisting on her due?)

First impressions

I'm going to get this started while it's fresh in my head, realizing that people may not weigh in for a few days.

My first thought upon finishing "Seize the Day" is that we have now completed the Triple Crown of Depressing Literature, with "Florida" and "Miss Lonelyhearts" being the Kentucky Derby and Preakness.

Roses all around.

Good grief.

I'm all for truth and suffering in literature, and I certainly don't require a happy ending, but I do have an expectation of a hint, a smattering, a soupçon of joy in the human condition somewhere in the book. Somewhere. Anywhere. In a nook or cranny, in an odd paragraph. Anything to forestall the feeling that a cheese grater is methodically shredding my soul as I read.

Is that too harsh?

Seize the Day with carbonated sugar

I read about half of "Seize the Day" this morning and was disappointed to discover that our protagonist drinks Coca-Cola for breakfast. Not a good indicator of character, in my book.

(To be fair, there's one scene where he drinks both Coke and coffee, so that made him a pinch more sympathetic)

You guys let me know when you're ready to discuss.

Significant confusion

What did you guys make of this:

Speaking of Betty: Her world was not the world and could never include the readers of his column. Her sureness was based on the power to limit experience arbitrarily. Moreover, his confusion was significant, while her order was not.

Shrike

Jeez, I really hated this guy. Thoughts?

Religion

Religion and faith is a recurrent theme in book. What do you think the message is? What do you think Miss Lonelyhearts really believes about religious faith? How does his "Christ complex" affect the story?

Funny

I've seen "Miss Lonelyhearts" described as a black comedy. Did you view it as such? (I must have missed the funny part.)

"Miss Lonelyhearts"

So, what did you think? Did you like it? First impressions?

Kim's pick

Since we have "Miss Lonely Hearts" on deck, I'll go ahead and make the next pick: Saul Bellow's "Seize the Day," a "modern classic" that I've always felt a little remiss in never having read. We can discuss it mid-October. I'd say sooner, but I'm on vacation from end of this month until Oct. 10. How's everyone doing on "Miss Lonely Hearts"?

Can you get there from here?

I’ve been wondering if some of what seems to be missing in this book could be provided by the geography. I particularly liked the scenes down in Arizona. Some of this might be that I know and enjoy that country. But I also found the image of her uncle prospecting to be distinctive. And might Alice be most at peace when swimming at night?

The desert is contrasted several times with the snows of the mid-West. And later we get an unsuccessful vacation to a tropical island. So I was wondering, might we line up the people somehow with the places and make a map of the geography of Alice’s relations?

Plot and insight

OK, I have to ask this question, especially in light of Shanxi's bringing up "Jane Eyre."

Schutt's book seems to have no plot, at least not a plot or storyline that you could readily describe to someone else, the way you could, say, with "Jane Eyre." If I were to describe this story, I'd say it's something like: Girl loses father. Mother is kind of unbalanced. Girl is raised by relatives, grows up, discovers books, has some dysfunctional relationships, including one as an adult with her mother.

The "action" is minimal.

The narrator refers to her lit teacher Mr. Early and says "He loved sound, the way a sentence sounded. Mr. Early did not hang his hat on plot."

Then a few pages later she begins a chapter with "Plot abandoned in favor of insight..." referring to Wordsworth's "Lyrical Ballads." She also refers to Wordsworth's "spots of time" vs. linear narrative. (more lit professor showing through).

Do you think Schutt's own book is meant to be a work of "insights" and "sounds"? And does it succeed, with all of its admitted narrative gaps, on that level?

Inside

What do you make of what we are not shown of Alice’s childhood? We are given detailed accounts of her time with various relatives and hired help, but we don’t learn about her interactions with other children when she is little. Then rather suddenly we learn that she is dating an ever changing string of boys. But even that episode is told from a perspective inside the house. We know she goes to school. Does she have friends? Does she get on well or poorly with the other kids? Why is this left out?

Jane Eyre references

Did anyone else pick up on the references to Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre? That was one of my favorite books in childhood, and I still like it.

1) In "Mr. Early," Alice mentions teaching at a small school like Jane Eyre and how she defends Mr. Rochester - "the caped, brooding Rochester, a man as ugly as my own Mr. Early, Rochester, who, in disguise, tested Jane and found her worthy..." Then, too, Mr. Early also has a wife ...

2) The "Little governess" passage in one of the chapters titled "Mother" - "Jane Eyre is a talker of such succinct or impassioned, memorable speech as in, how to avoid the burning pit of hell? 'I must keep in good health, and not die.' "

3) In "Short Identifications," Alice writes, "I was hoping for the discovery of a rich uncle from Madeira." The same uncle that gave Jane her fortune! Except in Jane's case, she wasn't expecting or hoping for it - it just came. And she gave most of it away.

4) How Alice's students don't understand Jane: "Most of them get mad at her or don't care what she does, if only she would get to it. Make a life in the brisk climes, honest and alone, or travel with your lover undercover in warm places, but in less than forty pages, please!" (Wow, how times have changed! Hehe.)

The title

Why do you think the book was called "Florida"? Any theories about the suntan box?

There's a lot of geography covered in the book. The story moves around the upper Midwest, the Southwest, Florida, California and New York (these are the ones I can remember). Why so many locations?

"Florida"

I'm going to get the conversation rolling before we fall too far behind.

What did you think of "Florida"? I had mixed feelings about it. I enjoyed Christine Schutt's writing style and was captivated by the early part of the narrative but became less intrigued as the main character aged and became reacquainted with her mother. I'm not sure I understood her trajectory into adulthood, exactly. Any insights?

Next pick

"Miss Lonelyhearts" by Nathanael West

Food in "Mango Street"

Mama's hair smelling like bread in "Hair" - Angel Vargas in "There Was an Old Woman..." who dropped from the sky "like a sugar donut" - Alicia and the "lunchbox tortillas" ...

References to food abound in "The House on Mango Street." Are there any special foods you associate with childhood, and is there a history behind it?

My special food is the "nine-layered cake" that my grandmother made. It's made with coconut milk and rice flour. I'd peel each layer apart in a sort of sacred ritual before eating it. Ahh! It's beyond good.

Florida

For our next book I thought we could read about another young girl, but this time growing up in rather different circumstances. This book is “Florida” by Christine Schutt.

Does that sound appealing to everyone? And would the 1st of July be suitable for starting our discussion?

Ethnic?

Did you consider this an "ethnic" book?

Esperanza - what's in a name?

Hi everyone,

Before we start serious discussion of "House on Mango Street," I wanted to get your overall thoughts and impressions. Did you love it/hate it, or fall somewhere in-between? Which was your favorite vignette and why?

That's a general introduction. For a more focused beginning:

“My Name” vignette – “Esperanza” tells us her name means hope in English and sadness in Spanish. “A muddy color.” From the outset of the novella, would you say Esperanza caters more to her English or Spanish definition of her name? Or do you think they're equally balanced?

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Next novella

Has anyone here read "The House on Mango Street" by Sandra Cisneros? I was thinking of that for our next project. We could shoot for discussing it on Monday, May 25.

A chill

Why is her name "Stone"?

Also, the first part of the book is called "A Cold Sun," plus there's a literal reference to a March evening where Paolo remarks that he doesn't like to be outdoors after the sun has lost its heat. "I hate a cold sun," he says, and one feels that his words allude also to his aging mistress, whose name unfortunately suggests "stone-cold."

I can't really make out how Williams is using this imagery, because Mrs. Stone really seems, maybe to a fault, the opposite of cold and hard. Any thoughts?

Cocktails and motion pictures

I'm a sucker for any kind of food or drink mentioned in a book, especially if it has a glamorous ring like "negroni." Did anyone else want to try the cocktail that Mrs. Stone and Paolo drank? I found this lovely recipe that calls for burnt orange. My real question, though, relates to a piece of dialog between Mrs. Stone and the contessa. The contessa is warning Mrs. Stone that Paolo is going to try to touch her heart with a sob story about a priest and a friend's lost money. Mrs. Stone says "I may be touched, but not for ten million lire! You see, Americans aren't as romantic as their motion pictures ..."

"What a pity they aren't," said the contessa sincerely.

I like how Williams added the "sincerely" here, like we couldn't just assume that she expressed herself sincerely. He had to point out that it was a genuine feeling, not meaningless small talk. The sentiment sort of endeared her to me. Did you have any reaction to it?

Original Negroni Recipe
Ingredients:
- 1 oz gin
- 1 oz Campari
- 3/4 oz Sweet Vermouth

Combine all ingredients in an ice filled shaker. Shake until well chilled and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a burnt orange. To make a burnt orange, cut about a 1 1/2 inch by 1 inch peel off a ripe navel orange. Be sure to get just the skin and as little of the pith as possible. Holding the orange peel between thumb and index fingers with skin facing out, hold a lit match over the glass and with the orange peel about an inch away from the flame squeeze the peel quickly and firmly between your fingers. When done correctly, a burst of flame will come from the oils being released from the peel leaving an aroma and adding a note of orange to the cocktail. Simply drop the twist in the drink.

This Italian concoction was invented in the early 1900s. Mixed with gin, Campari and sweet vermouth, it was named after Camillo Negroni in Florence who always ordered the same cocktail. Today Negroni is often consumed as a pre-dinner cocktail to stimulate the appetite for dinner. Aperitif is a European invention and it came to America in the early 1900s. Campari is also an Italian product, invented by Gaspare Campari in the early 1800s. http://www.cocktailtimes.com/gin/negroni.shtml

On film

If you want to see a couple of visual takes on the story, there's this 1961 film with Warren Beatty(!) and Vivien Leigh (ack!), and this 2003 TV deal with Helen Mirren(!) and Anne Bancroft (as the contessa!).

Would you rather be rich or sexy?

Beauty and wealth are the keys to this fictional world. Beauty is its own "virtue" in a way — the ticket that seems to free people from common morality and toil — but it's also the most surefire means to wealth and success. (Talent and knowledge — or even kindness — have their place but we've seen that they're not crucial to success). Mrs. Stone and Paolo have both relied on their looks to secure entry into the world of wealth and privilege. It seems like wealth is the point. Wealth is true freedom. But once wealth is obtained, it's found lacking, and then beauty once again seems the great object. Wealth is not an end in itself, but mainly a means of ensuring that beauty remains in one's life. That's really tangled, I know. I guess I'm asking what your take is on Williams' notion of how these two things interact.

Gender roles

This draws from DW's comment about Williams' description of Meg Bishop, but I thought it might need its own post.

I stumbled upon a book this morning called "Communists, Cowboys and Queers: The Politics of Masculinity in the Work of Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams." One passage looks at the various instances of gender reversal in "Mrs. Stone," from Meg Bishop to the Baron/Baroness to Mrs. Stone's seduction of her co-star.

You can read the excerpt here.

The woman-journalist

What is the point of including the character Meg Bishop in Mrs. Stone's story? She is the "woman-journalist" and old classmate who is visiting Mrs. Stone in her apartment at the beginning of the book, the one who warns her against the corrupt society she is moving in, accusing her of "escapism." She is also, perhaps more importantly, someone with whom Mrs. Stone, as a young woman, had some sort of intimacy with in "the dormitory of an Eastern college." The incident is mentioned once at the beginning, and then another time later as one of two instances of "emotional anarchy" in her life: "when the the kind of emotional anarchy which now seemed to possess her had happened only twice, in a college dormitory and the dressing room in Toledo" [where she seduced the actor].

Tall Dark Stranger

Is Tennessee Williams playing off stereotypes of the Latin Lover? Paolo is repeatedly described with his hand in his crotch “the center of his being”. Likewise isn’t Rome also sexualized? There was an odd little description early in the story where the domes of Rome were likened to the breasts of reclining women. How much is Williams depending on the preconceptions of his mid-20th American readers?

I was also intrigued by Williams blunt sexual descriptions that managed to avoid being either explicit or coy. Only occasionally did they seem awkward like that dome bit. But he did go on at great length in that mode. Was he excessive in the sort of way that KC thought he was in his bird motif descriptions?

The 800-pound bird in the room

At some point I started noticing the predatory bird imagery associated with Mrs. Stone. And then I noticed that the cover of my book has a giant stylized bird on it. I'm kind of slow on the uptake! But once I noticed, I started circling all the bird references, and there are dozens. (I'd even argue that the imagery is heavy-handed, but maybe there's a reason for that treatment that I'm not seeing). Her apartment in Rome is compared to an "eyrie of a bird." Her eyes are thought of by Paolo as containing "a rapacious bird." She sometimes has a "hawklike expression." She behaves toward the young actor she seduced as "a great bird of plunder." Time is spoken of as arresting her in "mid-flight." There's a reference to the "birdlike opacity of her eyes." At the end, she sweeps by Paolo with "the rapidity of a great-winged bird." And so on. The suit she buys Paolo is "dove" (peaceful, not predatory) grey.

Any thoughts on that? Did you see her as a predatory bird? Is she in any sense more preying than preyed upon?

Mrs. Stone

Once you discovered more about Mrs. Stone's own youth and the callousness she was capable of (I'm thinking specifically of the unreciprocated one-night stand with her fellow actor and the firing of the subordinate over jealousy — and generally of the unexamined vanity of her youth), did your sympathy for her shift at all? At one point I had the sensation of finding her less likeable for her faults but simultaneously more human and sympathetic.

Did you like her? Did she ever strike you as heroic?

The surrender

I'll start with what seems the most pressing question: How did you feel about Mrs. Stone's "surrender" — complete with waving white handkerchief — at the end of the book? And did it feel like an actual surrender (an acceptance of terms) or something else?

(I'll post some questions/observations to get the discussion started, but please jump in with your own posts.)

(Also, going in alphabetical order, the next pick is Leslie's.)

Kim's pick

This is a 1950 novella by Tennessee Williams about a fading actress who retires to Rome and hooks up with a young Italian — with passionate, and no doubt unfortunate, results. It should be available at the library, but you can also get it for 99 cents plus shipping on Amazon. Shall we start on April 3?

Getting started

I'll get us started with a selection and then we can take turns choosing — alphabetically? (That would make Leslie next). We can decide as a group how often we want to make a new pick. Once a month? Every five or six weeks? Whoever picks the reading should be in charge of getting the discussion started by posting a few observations/questions and then everyone else can jump in with comments/posts. I don't think we need to be concerned with defining "novella." We can just agree that the focus of the blog is short works — say, under 150 pages? — although that should be negotiable from time to time. Anything I'm forgetting?