Cameron Carling - Suggestions

Cameron Carling <carling@gmail.com> wrote:
If there was ever a time for a bunch of white male twenty-somethings from Utah to start a book club it's now, during Black History Month. Very astute Frank, very astute. I attribute most of that to you "just become a good reader."Are we shooting for fiction? Non-fiction? A mixture? I've got a favorite from the list below, but check 'em all out.So many books, such a short month. Let's see:For Black History MonthFortress of Solitude: Jonathan Lethem-If there still remains any doubt, this novel confirms Lethem's status as the poet of Brooklyn and of motherless boys. Projected through the prism of race relations, black music and pop art, Lethem's stunning, disturbing and authoritatively observed narrative covers three decades of turbulent events on Dean Street, Brooklyn.-I just read his novel Motherless Brooklyn and it was badassThe Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher (Paperback)by Debby Applegate -might be a bit long for book club, but on topicNot for Black History MonthThen We Came to the End: Joshua Ferris-In this wildly funny debut from former ad man Ferris, a group of copywriters and designers at a Chicago ad agency face layoffs at the end of the '90s boom.-my roommate just read this and love itOn Humour (Thinking in Action) (Paperback)by Simon Critchley -this dude is coming into Google in a few months, sounds interestingStill Life with Woodpecker (Paperback)by Tom Robbins-this guy is a little out there, but his stuff is really funny. Jitterbug Perfume is one of my favorite books. If you get a chance to read it, the last 40 pages will destroy your brain. Seriously.Stuff and Things about Foreigners:The Brief Wondrous Life of Ocsar Wao: Junot Diaz-The Dominican Republic he portrays in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is a wild, beautiful, dangerous and contradictory place, both hopelessly impoverished and impossibly rich. Not so different, perhaps, from anyone else's ancestral homeland, but Díaz's weirdly wonderful novel illustrates the island's uniquely powerful hold on Dominicans wherever they may wander ---supposedly one of the best novels of 2007Interpreter of Maladiesby Jhumpa Lahiri-an oldy but a goody according to most. ya know, like the people that give out that Nobel Prize thingy.all other suggestions welcome. i'm tired of thinking.cc