Alright.  And the new book is.....  Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley!  I'm willing to wager that many of you have read it, but I haven't and now is my chance.  Plus Halloween is coming up, so what's not to love about the combination?!

This book is pretty short - do we dare give ourselves just until the end of September?  Is that too soon for people?  Let me know thoughts on this!

Book Discussion: The Brother's Karamazov

Alright--  It's time to start the discussion, and it's late and I've had some crazy weeks filled with ups and downs that leave discussing heavy Russian Literature not my first priority, so I apologize for the lateness of this post (although, a portion of this lateness is due to many members not finishing the book, so lets not cast stones here.) 

Let's start the discussion, so we can get some insights and opinions and then (maybe for many of you)  just move on so we can get to whatever Ami has in store for us.

 How about for tonight, all I ask is you lend your voice to the discussion by giving an overall impression and let us know how far you got before you gave up trying to figure out for the millionth time who exactly is Mitya again?  In a day or two I will try to come up with some other topics, but for tonight, I am just proud I finally got this post posted.

How's it going?

Hi there, fellow readers!
I'm about half way through the book.  I must admit I'm having a love hate relationship with the Brothers K.  How's it going with everyone else? 

The Brothers Karamazov

The Brothers Karamazov is a Russian novel written in the 19th century by Fyodor Dostoyevsky that asks the question "is there really a God?".  It centers around 3 brothers: Ivan (Vanka) an intellectual Atheist, Alexei (Alyosha) faithful and religious, and Dmitri (Mitka) a cad, and their relationship with their father whom Dmitri most emulates.  Yes, they all have nicknames (several in fact) you'll need to keep up with. 

I am really excited to read this (I got in about a hundred pages once and didn't finish).  Back in the day, I got into old Russian novels so much I wanted to learn Russian just so I could read them in their native language (mostly Tolstoy).  Well, that didn't happen, but all of the ones I have read have been beautifully translated so I guess I can live with that. 

If you read from a kindle or a tablet, the free version on Amazon is currently unavailable, citing some problem with it's typing or format or something similar.  But there are several .99 copies still.  I sprung for a 1.99 version that is annotated- I figure for this book, I am really going appreciate having that (it also has illustrations- bonus).

Since we are moving into summer, and this book is fairly long and arduous, let's go until the end of July.  Hope you all like it, and happy reading.



 (As happy as dreary, philosophical old Russian novels can get anyway.)

I am so excited that you started this ladies! What if the book I want to read, if/when it becomes my turn, is a classic, but also was on the Oprah list???? Which criteria will we defer to? Its a classic- so yes, Yay!, or its banned for being on the Oprah list- boo?  Can't wait to get home from work to dust off my Brothers K.

Welcome

I am writing this not knowing who is going to join this group (except for Ami, she cooked it up with me).  We decided to start this group since I am not involved in a book club right now, and I like having a book club.  It gets me to read books I might not read, or books I want to read- but need a little push, suggestion, and/or deadline to do it.

The way I figure it, like a regular, functioning book club, we take turns choosing a book, a deadline, and then we come back here and the person who chose the book leads an informal discussion about our thoughts.

In every book club I've been in I've always wished we were reading more classics and less self help, jargony, books that don't usually appeal to me.   Basically, this is the book club to join if you've always wanted to read Ulysses. 

We are busy people, and many already belong to a book club, so I propose we perhaps pick a new book every two or three months.  We can discuss it further when there are more members.

If you want to join, send me your email, and I will add you as a blog author and we'll get started.  Since I started the blog, I am just going to go ahead and pick first and I pick The Brother's Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky because I started it a few years ago and didn't finish it, Ami and I discussed it tonight, I've always wanted to read it, and I loved Crime and Punishment.