Greetings, Readers,
Due to time constraints, this month's recap is in bullet format. I am also trying to eliminate any words that are forbidden by Marlene's filters. Read on . . .
* Many thanks to Hostess Nancy, who braved crisis at the Short Hills train station to provide us with a delicious dinner! Lots of yummy things encased in puff pastry, a la Nils and Marly's engagement party, with salad and pizza from Italian Village. (Yes, thank you Laura for introducing Nancy to Italian Village.)
* A dramatic divergence of views on "Moo"-all lovers and haters except for this reader who remains happily neutral. Thanks to Nate for pointing out that the book probably takes place in Ames, Iowa, as others of us were focusing on the Ag schools we know and love. Clearly a satire, but did it work too hard? Too predictable? Scott and Marlene are having none of it! Which is okay since Nancy, Hilary, and Ann will take an extra helping. Really, you just need to recognize it as a character driven narrative, not a plot driven story. Yes, even if there are too many characters, they're all caricatures of academic types. But we all loved Earl Butz, the big hog in the middle eating everything.
* Is book club moving to Greenwich? An interesting trend emerges as both Jeanne (with husband, A, and B) and Tom G. head north for the winter. Rumors abound regarding the reason for Tom's relocation. Jeanne has been reassigned to investigative reporting from the business division to get some answers.
* Former Fearless Leader (FL), Chris, has been renamed Spineless Reader (SR), following his assigning of "Slowness" and failure to show at said discussion, plus his untimely development of "stomach flu" mere minutes before last night's book club. Thanks to Scott for the new name, which was chosen from a slew of hilarious and brilliant submissions.
* Hilarious things only a librarian would say: "Academic comedy is my favorite sub-genre." Also, watch for California university libraries in "Planet of the Apes" and "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes".
* Our next meeting will be Monday, 27Oct03 at SR's, hosted by Professor Matt. Rumor has it he will mandate reading of "The Golden Ass", which boasts a relatively mild page count of 320. Matt, please confirm or deny book selection ASAP. Also, considering the meeting's proximity to Halloween, please come in costume.
See you then and happy reading!
FS