YW Book Club 2005

[kitty]

For a brief time, we had a book club, but it unfortunately died due to lack of interest. For 2005, kimpossible and I are going to try and breathe some life back into it.

What Is a Book Club?
A book club is a club in which each of the members read the same book over a certain time period. Then, at the end of the time period, we all get together and discuss the book, what we liked and disliked, etc. It's fun, it's not very time consuming, and it makes us all smarter (and the life of very dull parties)!

How Can I Participate?
Please post your interest in this thread so we can get an estimate of who will be participating! You can buy or borrow the chosen book from the library, or PM me or kimpossible with any questions.

How Will the Book Club 2005 Work?
I'm going to nominate four books spanning four vastly different focuses. If you are interested in participating in the book club, vote for one of the four books (a quick description is below). Please don't vote if you're not going to read the book.

When a book is chosen, we'll all get one month to read it. Then, we'll come back and discuss! The cycle will repeat itself every two months, so by December, you'll have read 6 awesome books!

A Contest and a Cool Prize?!?
To try and drum up extra interest in the Book Club, we're going to try something new. At the end of the one-month reading period, to start off the discussion, I'll post a series of questions on the chosen book. You won't be able to answer it unless you've read the book. For the first person to correctly answer all the questions, I'll send you a really cool prize!

Jan. - Feb. 2005
Prize: Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle (DVD)

Donald Duk: A Novel by Frank Chin (Donald Duk: A Novel )

The eponymous narrator of this first novel, which bulldozes stereotypes about supposed Chinese timidity and passivity, isn't a cartoon character but a smart 12-year-old Chinese-American boy who, with all the vehemence and certainty of youth, spits on everyone and everything Chinese. Although his female characters are underdeveloped and often the humor is broad and seems to exclude its audience, Chin's descriptions are acute and gifted, vivifying the virtuoso technique of Donald's father, who fashions 108 model airplanes--named for Chinese outlaw heroes--that he plans to launch and set afire during the Chinese New Year celebration, and Donald's nighttime dreams, which cast him as an underaged railroad builder in 1869 California, one of 1200 unheralded Chinese workers. The New Year festival in San Francisco's Chinatown becomes Donald's rite of passage and doorway to self-acceptance and -respect; Donald and the reader find themselves on an odyssey that is at once stinging and seductive, reclaiming the exquisite myths of a beautiful and proud ancient civilization. Chin wrote the short-fiction collection The Chinaman

Jasmine by Bharati Mukherjee
( Buy it on Amazon )
When Jasmine is suddenly widowed at seventeen, she seems fated to a life of quiet isolation in the small Indian village where she was born. But the force of Jasmine's desires propels her explosively into a larger, more dangerous, and ultimately more life-giving world. In just a few years, Jasmine becomes Jane Ripplemeyer, happily pregnant by a middle-aged Iowa banker and the adoptive mother of a Vietnamese refugee. Jasmine's metamorphosis, with its shocking upheavals and its slow evolutionary steps, illuminates the making of an American mind; but even more powerfully, her story depicts the shifting contours of an America being transformed by her and others like her - our new neighbors, friends, and lovers. In Jasmine, Bharati Mukherjee has created a heroine as exotic and unexpected as the many worlds in which she lives. "Rich...one of the most suggestive novels we have about what it is to become an American."

Bone by Fae M. Ng
( Buy it from Amazon )
In this profoundly moving novel, Fae Myenne Ng takes readers into the hidden heart of San Francisco's Chinatown, to a world of family secrets, hidden shames, and the lost bones of a "paper father." It is a world in which two generations of the Leong family live in an uneasy tension as they try to fathom the source of the middle daughter Ona's sorrow. Fae Myenne Ng's portraits of the everyday heroism of the Leongs--who inflict deep hurt on each other in their struggles to survive, yet sustain one another with loyalty and love--have made Bone one of the most critically acclaimed novels of recent years and immediately a classic of contemporary American life.

Strangers from a Different Shore by Ronald Takaki
(Buy it from Amazon )
Chinese immigrants to the U.S. in the 19th century were transformed into outsiders by racism and economic exploitation. This pattern, Takaki shows, would be imposed on other Asian immigrant groups. Filipinos, condescended to as "little brown brothers" by whites in the Philippines, became targets of violent white backlash once they emigrated to the U.S.; Indians were feared and persecuted as labor competition; Japanese-Americans withdrew into self-contained communities. Takaki, descended from a Japanese-American family who labored on Hawaiian plantations, and now an ethnic studies professor at UC Berkeley, has written a vibrant, rich history that gives back a voice to countless "invisible Americans." His broad, multi-ethnic survey is peopled with real individuals, allowing us to experience their loneliness, separation from families, struggles for survival. Later chapters cover the internment of Japanese-Americans during WW II and the post-1965 "second wave" of Asian immigrants that included Vietnamese, Cambodians and Laotians.

[hooligan]

Bone is a really quick read and it's a really good book. I like all of the choices but I'm not familiar with Jasmine. How about setting up a 8 month plan with the books not being chosen going to March-April, May-June, and July-August time periods?

We should also have alternative readings, maybe like pdf files of articles. If someone wants to make them or somethig like that. : )

Maybe not just APIA books but stuff about the immigrant/diasporic experience such as Edward Said's "Orientalism"

I voted for Bone, I've read it before (actually a lot of times), so can I still play?

[nola]

Bone and Orientalism. I thought the latter was about Eastern philosophy. Oh well.

[kitty]

Originally Posted by hooligan

Bone is a really quick read and it's a really good book. I like all of the choices but I'm not familiar with Jasmine. How about setting up a 8 month plan with the books not being chosen going to March-April, May-June, and July-August time periods?

Being chosen or NOT being chosen?
I CAN guarantee that at least two of the books not chosen this time round will show up next time round.

We should also have alternative readings, maybe like pdf files of articles. If someone wants to make them or somethig like that. : )

We can also do that. I'll make that an option for next month. I'm trying to limit the options right now because last time we ended up with twelve book choices -- simply too many to get a decent consensus.

I voted for Bone, I've read it before (actually a lot of times), so can I still play?

of course. I've read all the books except Donald Duk :)

[Filiprish]

I've voted for Strangers but I realized now that I should've voted for Bone. Strangers is just a historical recap of Asians in the US. I think most of us are have a general idea of the history. Bone seems good because gives you an intimate depiction of the lives in SF's Chinatown. I think most of us are beyond the desire to learn about the history and would rather read about lives and struggles of AAs.

[SunWuKong]

what, no Joy Luck Club? just kidding.

[kitty]

Originally Posted by Filiprish

I've voted for Strangers but I realized now that I should've voted for Bone. Strangers is just a historical recap of Asians in the US. I think most of us are have a general idea of the history. Bone seems good because gives you an intimate depiction of the lives in SF's Chinatown. I think most of us are beyond the desire to learn about the history and would rather read about lives and struggles of AAs.

want me to change your vote?

[rice cracker]

I picked Jasmine, I had enough dysfunctional family from Barbarians at the Gate, or whatever it's called.

[Filiprish]

Originally Posted by kitty

want me to change your vote?

Could you? Thanks.

[ism]

I'm open to any.

If we can have a schedule for the upcoming year that would be cool, like hooligan suggested.

BTW, are those Amazon links set up to credit YW or someone? Easy way to get something since I usually order through them or bn anyway.

[kitty]

Originally Posted by Filiprish

Could you? Thanks.

done!

If we can have a schedule for the upcoming year that would be cool, like hooligan suggested.

LOL! Isn't that kind of like a course syllabus? I can do that, but I wanted to give you guys a little more input on what we read. However, I could schedule the year, according to these books and two sets of .pdf articles?

edit: actually, I really like that idea. makes my and kim's lives easier not having to poll. I think after we choose this first book, I'll just set something up for the rest of the year.

BTW, are those Amazon links set up to credit YW or someone? Easy way to get something since I usually order through them or bn anyway.

no. is that possible?

[ism]

I think since the links are being posted on YW, Elbert might need to be the one to set it up, but since it's an open forum I think anyone can post links from their Associate program. I'm at work right now... I'll check it out when I get home.

[kitty]

okie. i've actually only ordered one thing off amazon.com ever, so i'm a n00b when it comes to all the stuff they offer.

[ism]

Okay I just set myself up as an Amazon associate and can build links. It's pretty easy, you don't need an Amazon account. Just go to Amazon.com and click the Associates link all the way at the bottom. Once you're approved, you'll want to build text links.

If Elbert or Kasie want to do this it'll take about 7 minutes. They reimburse with check ($100 minimum) or gift certificate or direct deposit ($10 minimum).

[kitty]

Originally Posted by ism

Okay I just set myself up as an Amazon associate and can build links. It's pretty easy, you don't need an Amazon account. Just go to Amazon.com and click the Associates link all the way at the bottom. Once you're approved, you'll want to build text links.

If Elbert or Kasie want to do this it'll take about 7 minutes. They reimburse with check ($100 minimum) or gift certificate or direct deposit ($10 minimum).

lol. maybe they can use the money to reimburse me for the prizes!