December's meeting -- "Woman With Birthmark" Next meet 2/24/2011 at John's.

We conducted our gift exchange which was terrific fun with some good deal of thought obviously involved. I just love my dragon, and admire Jessica's book and Barbara's Houdini wine bottle opener. Drew got socks, Linda a lighted page magnifier with LED light. John got a lovely bottle of Zinfandel from a favorite vintner of Linda's that is in Sonoma.

We talked about the book and ate a repast of Mexican Food, lovingly provided by our hostess, Barbara. She was assisted by Sam and Buddy (aka "Diablo").

Cheers! Have a Happy and Safe Christmas!

Inspector Van Veeteren Mystery: Woman with Birthmark - Dec 7 @Barbara's

Dinner at Jessica's was a great Texas treat - grilled beef steaks, Caesar salad, red potatoes, and succulent steamed mushrooms with key lime pie with a graham cracker crust!

Discussion of the book "Out Stealing Horses" was tame, as we all pretty much liked it, so not a lot of controversy.

The next meeting will find us discussing Jessica's selection "Woman with Birthmark" by Hakan Nasser, another fine Norwegian writer.
Happy Thanksgiving to all !!!!!!!!!!!!

Nov 4,2010 at Jessica's - "Out Stealing Horses" by Per Petterson

For our third selection of the six-month topic of "Scandinavian Authors" we are reading "Out Stealing Horses." This coming of age novel in the harsh Norwegian countryside  was first published in 2003, and voted "One of the best ten books of the year" by the New York Times Book Review.
   If you have read, or are reading this, or have any other comments, we'd love to see them. Just click on the "comments" button :)   We now have 'reactions' buttons which right now are "funny," "interesting," or "cool."
Thanks for looking!!

Help -- Anybody know what's on the porch?

I can't figure out something that is described in KO Dahl's novel "The Last Fix." The question is about the "Palace."

When  goes to Frølich goes to Gunnarstranda's country cabin for barbecue,Gunnarstranda is sitting on the porch rolling cigarettes. To his right is something with a cap and arms, but it's never explained what it is.

This is in the chapter called "Palace" which is what Gunnarstranda calls the cabin.

Thanks for any help.

Scandinavian Writers: KO Dahl's "The Last Fix" - 10/7/2010 @ Drew's

Our next selection in the topic of "Scandinavian Authors" is KO Dahl's "The Last Fix." Dahl is one of Norway's better known crime novelists. It's been a long time since we had a whodunit.

Linda will be able to enjoy it on her Kindle; since I'd already bought the book before I got mine, I'm going to read the hardback. Happily, my Kindle 3 #-G  arrived the evening we discussed "The Hunger" at my house.

In the future, we may all have digital books, but I bet it will be decades until all the books we like are available that way. Since I bought my Kindle, I've looked for a lot of books in Kindle format, and have had very little success. Even "Gone With the Wind" isn't available. It's posted on Amazon's website, but has a "pricing information unavailbale" so I couldn't buy it. Happily, a lot of technical software books are available, so I'll load up as my budget permits!

August's meeting is 9-Sep-2010 at Louis's House

All except Drew. Maybe he'll be at the next meeting!

We'll be discussing the current "Scandinavian Writers" selection "Hunger" by Knut Hamsun.

I saw "Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" but it's so long for a book club selection, so I'll be passing out something a bit shorter, but interesting.

Did I mention I just bought a Kindle? Now 1/3 of us have this marvelous piece of technology, with 3-g cellular networking no less!

July's Meeting - Thursday the 22nd 2010

Several members are going to be taking some vacation, or out of town for other reasons in June and July. Our meeting will be Thursday July 22, 2010.



We are all reading "Clock Without Hands" by Carson McCullers. I finished it a couple of weeks ago, and am now reading "The Optimist's Daughter" by Eudora Welty. Fun fact: the email client "Eudora" was written by a programmer who liked Ms. Welty's writing and her name, so he named it after her. I don't know if she got any royalties. The poet / ex-professor Stella Nesanovich (www.Nesanovich.com) met her and has an autographed first edition of "The Optimist's Daughter."



We hope everyone is enjoying this hot weather. Our topic is now "Scandinavian Authors."
Louis Hemmi - www.Hemmi.us www.SacredCodes.com

New Technology - KNO may be a Kindle,Sony eBook Reader, Nook slayer

A company called KNO has debuted a device that has two 14" touch screens and is in color. I don't know too much about it yet, but think it's got great potential if it is affordable and if the company can make a decent profit on it.


Click here for the link to KNO.com

I'd sure love to see this. Huffington has this new to share about it:

Link to Huffington Post's article

May 2010 Meeting

We discussed A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. This farcical work wasn't as well thought of by the book club members as I had hoped. Three members disliked it so much that they couldn't suffer to read the whole book. I think you have to be in the mood for a book like this. I caught myself on many occasions laughing out loud; this behavior is so unlike me.

The story is set in New Orleans, where I spent Easter of 2010. Here's a photo of Louis the webmaster at the Café du Monde.


Buddy, Barbara, and Sam hosted the meeting with terrific Mexican food, consisting of fajitas of both beef and chicken, fresh fluffy tortillas, chile con queso, pico de gallo, rice, beans and a plenitude of wine. We ate and discussed the book, then went outside to see Barbara's new addition to her house.

Jessica then directed our attention skyward, as the exact moment that the space shuttle would be over Houston was at hand. We saw it!!

All in all, it was a lovely evening, and I look forward to next month when the meeting will be at Linda's.
Cheers!
Louis

Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith

I finished the book club selection (my selection) of A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. I am forbidden to discuss my views, according to our bylaws, so as not to prejudice our meeting's discussion.

I just finished Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith last Saturday. It started out intense,and grew more so in the next 400+ pages. This novel is set in Stalinist Russia, 1953. Communism gives killers an easy time of it, as there is always someone to blame their crimes on.

This is a powerful story, well told. I liked it so much that I've now ordered Tom Rob Smith's second book 'a Secred Speech." His characters invite either your sympathy or contempt, without being too stereotypical.

This one rates five jalapeños!

Next Meeting Date Established for May's Meeting

The next meeting will be held at the home of Ms. Barbara's. on
Thursday 20 May, 2010.

Barbara has a gorgeous dog who (unfortunately for the next door neighbor) has a taste for Easter bunnies. Buddy is the blackest-furred dog I've ever seen. Really, a name like "Satan" would be so perfect for him. The other dog is nice too. The cats are indifferent to us, and I to them. Ms. Barbara always lays a good spread of victuals and accompanying libation.

See you there!

Pondering on a Sunday Afternoon

I've not yet started the current selection by Southern writer Charlaine Harris, but am just about through with The Hunt for Confederate Gold. It gave me a lot of ideas I'd like to use some day. Southern writers tend to be more gothic (dark), connected to the role of religion in their lives and those of their communities, ancestor worship, tradition and understanding of the quirks, foibles and pecadillos of men and women of whatever station in life.


I find I'm increasingly more interested in buying a Kindle. Linda R. loves hers, and she's not easy to please. Now that they are under $300, the Kindle is becoming affordable. However, I think it's still too much to pay when you can get closer and closer to the price of a laptop for which there are far more uses. Once the Kindle price falls to $199 I think that's when I'll bite and make a needlepoint case for it (you laugh, but my grandmother made a lot of things out of needlepoint like eyeglass cases, Kleenex dispensers, belts, vest fronts, etc.).

Netbooks are very close now in price to the Kindle, and they do a lot more than the Kindle can. I like the ASUS EE netbooks, and would consider one if I didn't already have a desktop (Starship Lord Fu XI has 8 GB RAM, 2 TB disk space, Windows 7), a laptop (personal) and a laptop from work.

Louis Hemmi - HoustonBookClub.com
Send Louis Hemmi an e-Mail
Cheers!

After discussion of "Rain Gods" by James Lee Burke

The new book club selection, the third in the topic "Southern Writers" is called "Dead Over Heels" and is an Aurora Teagarden  mystery written by Charlaine Harris. That's all I can tell you, as I've not yet started :)

Our last meeting was at Jessica's and we discussed the book club selection "Rain Gods." Several members opined that it did have some similarity to "No Country for Old Men." I'd not thought about it, but had to agree.

Another point of discussion was whether the selected book really  was "Southern" rather than "Western." I think it qualifies as both. True, it is distinctly different in tone than works typically thought to qualify as "Southern" but I think that the genre is evolving, and this is Southern writing in the teens.

I think it's safe to say that our consensus is that this was a good, fun read with some original twists on popular themes.

John R was not feeling well, and we hope he is better. We're not sure of where the next meeting will be, but we are able to coordinate well by email and perhaps a phone call or two.