April's Book: The Long Goodbye

The Long Goodbye (1954) was Raymond Chandler's last novel before he sunk into a downward spiral of personal tragedy, alcoholism and psychiatric hospitalization until his death in 1959. I know. That's cheerful. But now that's out of the way, we can hit the really good news: this book clocks in at under 400 pages!

I hope everyone's as ready as I am to enjoy some sunny Los Angeles instead of this drizzly half-spring.

March's Book: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell

As one of the top ten books of 2004 on several book lists, I thought Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke would be fabulous for this month. I'm reading it right now, and if you love Jane Austen's books, you'll love this. It combines her comedy-of-manners style with a twist of the fantastic. Mr. Norrell is the only practical magician in 19th century England (the other magicians are theoretical--they read books and philosophize about magic) and quickly climbs into the elite of London because of his skills. Then along comes Mr. Strange, a practical magician that appears out of nowhere, and Mr. Norrell takes him as a pupil. But Mr. Strange isn't content with the conservative magic that Mr. Norrell performs. He delves into more dangerous magic as he learns about the Raven King--the most powerful magician in English history.

A word to the wise: if you want to read this for March, get crackin'. It's 700+ pages, and if your schedules are anything like mine, it could take a while.

February's Book: The Secret History

Yes, there is a book for February: The Secret History by Donna Tartt. I'm taking a chance in choosing a book I've not read myself, because I wanted to read one that would be a surprise for everyone. Actually, my sister is reading it right now, but hasn't finished it yet. But that's a good testimonial right there -- she has very little free time and yet whenever I see the book lying around, she's 20 pages further in. Apparently it's a suspense novel about a young man who decides to leave his underprivileged life in a small town and attend an elite eastern college, where he gets drawn into an intriguing group of students studying Greek and gradually uncovers some dark secrets about their little society. That's all I know. If the language and characters are anything like her other book (The Little Friend), it should be a pretty stunning read...

January's book: The Eyre Affair

For those of you who are ready to go on to our next book, this is it: The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde.

Christina has said: "I would try and explain what kind of book it is, but I'm afraid that I won't really do a very good job. It is the first in a series of 4 books and all I can say is that it has been called "Harry Potter for adults".

First person to respond gets to pick the next book (Christina and myself excepted). Happy holidays, everybody.

December's book: The Secret Life of Bees

Well? Who read it, and what did you think?

Welcome to bookitty-book-book club, the club with a lame name!

Sorry, but I seriously couldn't come up with anything better than that. For some reason, every time I tried to type something into the "name for your blog" field, I kept thinking about Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang. Anyway.

This is how I think this should work: Every month, we read a book. You come to the site, when you want, and comment on it. How simple is that? If you have a book that you want people to read, you suggest it. Let's begin, already!

Also, if anyone knows how to get this word-processing thing to produce an em dash, let me know?