welcome to the delta book club!

Getting the Watchmen from the library

2009-10-27T15:33:00.004-04:00

Setting: early saturday morning, york university library (this particular library also doubles as a computer lab; hence the computer tech also doubles as a librarian)

Me: I'm looking for a copy of The Watchmen; the system says that there should be a copy available but I couldn't find it in the stack.
Librarian: DVD or soundtrack?
Me: the comic book, please.
Librarian: the graphic novel (long pause)
Me: umm, ok, yes, thank you.
Librarian: the graphic novel (longer puase)
Me: Umm, yes, the graphic novel
Librarian: let me check the back

Book Club Portraits March '09

2009-03-17T12:44:00.001-04:00

2009-03-12T12:33:00.002-04:00

Our New List for 2009:

#1 Chris: The Red Tent - Anita Diamant
#2 Sylvia: The Scarlet Pimpernel - Baroness Orczy
#3 Debbie: Crow Lake - Mary Lawson
#4 Teresa: Animal Farm - George Orwell
#5 Michelle: The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
#6 Mary: Because of Winn Dixie - Kate Dicamillo
#7 Lisa: The Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton
#8 Bethany: Watchmen - Alan Moore
#9 Sharon: The Mists of Avalon - Marion Zimmer Bradley
#10 Iulia: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows
#11 Andrew: Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
#12 Janet: Here Today - Ann M Martin
#13 Joanne: TBD

The Educated Imagination

2008-10-27T14:11:00.003-04:00

I just started reading it and I found a great quote, chuckle chuckle:

"A person who knows nothing about literature may be an ignoramus, but many people don't mind being that."

- Northrop Frye

He's right, it's not a condition with any symptoms of pain or discomfort.

(and now I sound like such a snob! :P )

Updates

2008-09-25T11:32:00.004-04:00

Natty Bumpo got bumped off. Sorry Natty!
Andrew is promising new and exciting choices for this upcoming book club.

We're skipping to Catherine's Charmed Life

Happy Birthday Catherine! We miss you!

That's all for now!

Here's our reading list:

2008-08-19T16:27:00.004-04:00

1 Gloria - The Princess Bride, by William Goldman
2 Cath - The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios: Short Stories by Yann Martel; the literary equivalent of tickets to the Cirque du Soleil!
3 Debbie - Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott; one of the coolest book I've ever read. I didn't nominate it last couple times cuz I was afraid what y'all would think of me afterward =)
4 Mary - The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Armin; light, funny and quirky "the perfect vacation story" told 1920s-style, says reviews: "calls your attention to this ridiculous, lovable thing, human nature, and invites you to smile at it"
5 Andrew - A Game of Thrones, book one of the song of fire and ice trilogy... it's... it's...filled with so much intrigue. It's a fantasy novel.
6 Catherine - Charmed Life, by Diana Wynne Jones; YA book set in a magical world...first in a totally addictive series.. for anyone who loves Harry
7 Sharon - The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield (Mystery)
8 Janet - TBA
9 Sylvia - The Educated Imagination by Northrope Frye; when she read first read, it changed the way she saw the world! And it's only 80 pages
10 Bethany - Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein; sci fi but again this one acts as a satirical commentary...Will provide much discussion
11 Iulia - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Phillip K. Dick; the BladeRunner movie is based on this! So far - it is winning for book with the best title!
12 Chris - TBA

mid November

2007-11-06T00:29:00.000-05:00

We are down to short stories, and we're still flaking! tsk, tsk, people!
The book club is currently reading short stories by Budge Wilson. Has anyone finished?

2007-10-12T17:12:00.000-04:00

I was thinking that we can keep track of the books we read. We've gone through quite a bunch of them already. Maybe I'll feel like listing them all one of these days.

By the way, this is our next one for Oct. 15th:

And I have to say that I haven't laughed quite so much on the subway before.
:)

If you miss this one but have a comment, go ahead and post on it!

Chinese Sticky rice

2007-09-26T22:23:00.000-04:00

For those of you who don't know, this is how chinese sticky rice bundle should be like -- in case you mistaken it to be the deep fried mini granola bars we had =)

20,000 Leagues of Colonialism

2007-08-09T10:43:00.000-04:00

I think I am having way too much fun reading this book!
Here are some of my personal favourites:

“but I declare that they shall not eat me without my protesting”

"It is an infamous shame," cried Ned Land, who broke out for the twentieth time. "We speak to those rogues in French, English, German, and Latin, and not one of them has the politeness to answer!"

“My friends," I answered, making a sign for them to enter, "you are not in Canada, but on board the Nautilus, fifty yards below the level of the sea.”

“For some days we saw a great number of aquatic birds, sea-mews or gulls. Some were cleverly killed and, prepared in a certain way, made very acceptable water-game.”

“On the 25th of January the ocean was entirely deserted;”

‘"By the bye, M. Aronnax you are not afraid of sharks?" "Sharks!" exclaimed I. This question seemed a very hard one. "Well?" continued Captain Nemo. "I admit, Captain, that I am not yet very familiar with that kind of fish."’

I am not done yet, but I find it vastly humorous! (and I'm already talking like them ... )

Athos

"The enemy's gate is down!"

2006-08-14T17:17:00.000-04:00

Hi all;

I'm sorry girls (and guys), I'm not sure if I can make book club this Thursday because of my mom & Flora's imminent return from their month of Asia vacation. So, I thought I'd contribute my 2-cents and sing my praises for Ender's Game here =)

Ender's Game is the only Sci-Fi that managed to wakes me up at 6:00am Sunday by the necessity of reading. It helps that the story is an extremely fast & easy read and that the futuristic gadgets are all so cool (I'd like one of those desks and mind games, please). Most of all, though, I like it because it doesn't read like a Sci-Fi -- but simply a story of a young - very young - boy who desperately tries to fit. Now that I think about it, other than the Sci-Fi part, Ender's Game reads a lot like Harry Potter =)

Throughout the story, Ender repeatedly comments that he's becoming Peter (e.g. looking into a mirror in the free game and see Peter's face), but at the end, he wasn't manipulative or feared. In fact, he had to be tricked into battling the buggers, and felt remorse for his sacrificed soldiers & the bugger world when he found out. It reminds me of what Dumbledore said to Potter near the end of Chamber of Secret: "It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities."

The idea of "Third" in the first chapter instantly reminds me of population control in China – our book club is just naturally attracted to communist stories, aren’t we? =) Speaking of Communism backdrops, what do you think of Graff? "Individual human beings are all tools, that the others use to help us all survive." The ideas of "monitoring" children from birth, plucking them from their home to battle school, monitoring their every move & thoughts -- where's the Big brother to complete the picture? =)

Being so satisfied with the book, I did a little googling and found the whole lot of prequels and sequels -- and am quite determined to not read any of them unless one of you suggests otherwise. I also found that OS Card is a devoted Mormon, who'd know? Such a great Sci-Fi, I'd have guessed that a Scientologist wrote it!

Potato Salad a la Iulia, made for the viewing of Babette's Feast

2006-06-08T08:57:00.000-04:00

Now that I look back, what would the viewing of Babette's Feast have been without some cooking?! Here is our mayo-free potato salad recipe:

Makes 3 servings:

1 large sweet onion
1/4 garlic clove

Roast with sunflower oil at low temperature for 10 minutes

3 baked potatoes - 30 minutes at 525F (can be cut and boiled too)
2 boiled eggs (10 minutes)

Cut potatoes and eggs into generous chunks and mix with onions and garlic.

Add chopped up Cilantro.
Mix gently with a spoon.

And voila!

Athos

How to get us boys to read about you girls

2006-03-13T12:21:00.000-05:00

In light of our recent Pride and Prejudice marathon, where 66% of the boys present succumbed to sleep at some point during the 6 hour long event, one might be tempted to believe that we men are incapable of appreciating so called "girl books". But despite the embarrassing truth that I was one of the guys who nodded off during the P&P viewing, I maintain that this belief is unfounded and untrue. Men are more than capable of enjoying good books, even those popularly believed to be aimed at a female audience, as long as we can find something uniquely suited to the male palette in them. In fact, a recent Slate article (The Little Men who Love Little House) suggests that boys and girls can appreciate the same books but for different reasons:

The real appeal of Little House for many boys probably isn't the narrative, but rather the precise and detailed descriptions of how to tap a maple tree for syrup or load a musket.

Personally, I felt I had developed over the course of six hours of P&P viewing a strong craving to see some vigilante justice dealt to that worm of a man, Mr. Wickham. Imagine my disappointment when I realized that all those fencing scenes where Mr. Darcy demonstrated more than adequate ability to carve up Mr. Wickham with his deft swordsmanship were merely teasers to string me along. The ultimate showdown between the two heroes in this story was a lousy payoff in the form of debt consolidation. What is this? A story for accountants? Show me some blood and fighting!!! As it stands, Mr. Wickham's only punishment at the end of this drawn out story is a life destined to be spent with a naive teenager cursed with a very healthy libido. Woe is him. Come on, for most men this is more fantasy than punishment. I ask you: where is the justice?!?!?

May I suggest that the next book we pick for the book club be written with a suitably balanced blend of rich story development for the girls and tangible action scenes for the boys?

David

feb 20th meeting - part iii

2006-02-27T20:27:00.000-05:00

john donne (1572-1631)

holy sonnet xiv:
batter my heart, three-person'd God

01 batter my heart, three-person'd God, for you
02 as yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
03 that i may rise and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
04 your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
05 i, like an usurp'd town to another due,
06 labor to admit you, but oh, to no end;
07 reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
08 but is captiv'd, and proves weak or untrue.
09 yet dearly i love you, and would be lov'd fain,
10 but am betroth'd unto your enemy;
11 divorce me, untie or break that know again,
12 take me to you, imprison me, for i,
13 except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
14 nor ever chaste, expect you ravish me.

there is a debate in iulia's english class over whether this a sacriligious, perverted poem, or a well-written, heart-felt and raw plea to God. (she votes the latter, btw). john donne wrote many "morning after" type of sonnets - he eventually became a minister, but his poetry was still very raw (with some very violent and sensual imagery).

- rather than cliched "everything is wonderful and perfect" and christian-ly religious words, this sonnet is an open and honest cry to God
- things are not so happy or perfect --> it contains very human emotions

- he needs to be broken from his sins --> even his reason (God's viceroy, or representative, in him) is weak and has been held captive, instead of defending him. it's when you end up sticking to your own interpretations and rationalizations instead of listening to God and reason.
- when lucy and co. should have been following aslan in prince caspian, despite a very long and torturous decision-making process where they knew (deep down) that lucy was right, the majority of the group decided against reason and did not follow aslan's path

an ancient greek belief: reason is what elevates man from beast. reason connects us to the Divine.
- if we are slaves to our passions or follow our senses, we drive ourselves further away from God. these whims are also very fleeting as well.
- unfortunately, our society today is very emotions-driven --> do we believe b/c we believe christianity/God is the truth? or b/c we have a feeling about it? we need to be seeking God.

come in, come in!

2006-02-27T19:50:00.000-05:00

"If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar,
A hope-er, a pray-er, and magic bean buyer...
If you're a pretender, come sit by my fire
For we have some flax-golden tales to spin,
Come in, come in!"

~ Shell Silverstein

welcome to our new blog members. :)

feb 20th meeting - part ii

2006-02-25T23:32:00.000-05:00

prince caspian

- main theme of revival/restoration of faith after backsliding
- like our own modern-day "civilized" world --> no one believes in aslan, magical creatures

"someone is pulling me. oh- oh- oh- stop it!"
"i felt just the same," said edmund in a breathless voice. "as if i were being dragged along. a most frightful pulling- ugh! it's beginning again... look sharp!" shouted edmund. "all catch hands and keep together. this is magic - i can tell by the feeling. quick!"
- susan's horn - it gave the children an insistent tugging/pulling feeling into narnia
- it's like that nagging, calling feeling that God sometimes gives us (often in response to someone else's prayers). it's similar to those times when you're feeling down and someone gives you call out-of-the-blue -- it's God prompting the ppl in your life to help.
- God pulls and calls us to help other ppl, we just need to respond to His urgings

"will the others see you too?" asked lucy.
"certainly not at first," said aslan. "later on, it depends."
"but they won't believe me!" said lucy.
"it doesn't matter," said aslan... "i will wait here. go and wake the others and tell them to follow. if they will not, then you at least must folow me alone."

[later on]
"look!"[edmund] said in great excitement. "look! what's that shadow crawling down in front of us?"
"it's his shadow," said lucy.
"i do believe you're right, lu," said edmund. "i can't think how i didn't see it before. but where is he?"
"with his shadow, of course. can't you see him?"
"well, i almost thought i did - for a moment. it's such a rum light."

in a few minutes they were at the bottom and the roaring of water filled their ears. treading delicately, like a cat, aslan stepped from stone to stone across the stream... this time edmund saw him. "oh, aslan!" he cried, darting forward... "peter, peter," cried edmund. "did you see?"
- the idea of faith --> it's not that they see aslan first and then they believe and follow. it was, the more they followed, the more they saw.
- the idea of obedience --> regardless of what other ppl said/did or how little she understood, lucy still had to obey and follow aslan.

"you are my king. i know the difference between giving advice and taking orders. you've had my advice, and now it's time for orders."
- even though trumpkin did not believe in the horn, he still obeyed caspian because he was loyal and he respected him. loyalty isn't really loyalty if you're just doing what you want.

"there were things he wanted to say to su and me because we're not coming back to narnia... he says we're getting too old."
- this idea about being too old for narnia is rather sad - representing the loss of childlike faith?

next meeting?

2006-02-21T14:20:00.000-05:00

hey guys, just wanted to ask when you were all free next. iulia's suggested that we meet in around 3 weeks, so around mid-march. she's also graciously opened up her place for future meetings, so everybody give her a big hug the next time you see her! this past meeting was fun, full of yummy snacks, interesting, and chock full of talk of michael vartan and celine dion (strangely enough). let's keep it up, ppl!

i'm not sure if i'll have exams around that time, but i'll let you guys know asap. is mid-march good for you guys? or no? any preference for days of the week?

book club meeting notes - part i

2006-02-21T12:31:00.000-05:00

notes from our monday, february 20th meeting:

the horse and his boy:

"then it was you who wounded aravis?"
"it was I."
"but what for?"
"child," said the Voice, "I am telling you your story, not hers. I tell no one any story but his own." (chapter 11)
- this theme of only being told your own "story" is repeated several times by aslan throughout the books (aravis regarding her slave girl; lucy regarding her schoolmate in the dawntreader) and parallels peter's discussion with jesus in john 21:21-22. "When Peter saw him, he asked, "Lord, what about him?" Jesus answered, "If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me."

- aslan's "touch me. smell me. here are my paws, here is my tail, these are my wishkers. i am a true Beast." is reminiscent of jesus' assurances to doubting thomas

- the theme of pride is found many times in the book: aravis, bree, and even rabadash the ridiculous. it's funny that bree finds it so difficult to get past his vanity that "he looked more like a horse going to a funeral than a long-lost captive returning to home and freedom" even though he had laboured so hard reach narnia. when he had left shasta/cor behind with the lions, he felt completely disgraced and felt as if he had lost everything, but the hermit points out that he's lost nothing but his self-conceit. he hasn't humiliated himself, he's just been humbled and that is a good thing. (one of the book's chapters is titled "how bree became a wiser horse"... NOT "how bree embarassed himself") --> this is similar to namaan's humbling: the end result was good.

After warning king lune and lost in the woods en route to narnia, shasta realised that "someone or somebody was walking beside him. it was pitch dark and he could see nothing... at last he could bear it no longer."

"who are you?" he said, scarcely above a whisper.
"One who has waited long for you to speak," said the Thing. its voice was not loud, but very large and deep.

after convincing shasta he's not a giant or ghost, the Thing says, "tell me your sorrows." and shasta, reassured, "told about the heat and thirst or their desert journey, and how they were almost at their goal when another lion chased them and wounded aravis. and also, how very long it was since he had had anything to eat."

"i do not call you unfortunate," said the Large Voice.
"don't you think it was bad luck to meet so many lions?" said shasta.
"there was only one lion," said the Voice... I was the lion." And as shasta gaped from open mouth and said nothing, the Voice continued. "I was the lion who forced you to join with aravis...i was the lion who gave the horses the new strength of fear for the last mile so that you should reach king lune in time. And I was the lion you do not remember who pushed the boat in which you lay, a child near death, so that it came to shore where a man sat, wakeful at midnight, to receive you."
- i love how, even if we don't see him, aslan is at the center of all things. he's the driving force of our lives all throughout our lives. you can just see the love and longing that aslan has for shasta - he's initiated change, responding to shasta's prayers or needs, and he's just been waiting patiently for shasta to respond back. i read this somewhere online and it perfectly encapsulates the scene: "Too many times we Christians picture Jesus as The Lamb, and though He is, we forget the Lord part of Lord and Saviour. He's also the Lion. Through Shasta's life everything had been influenced by this Lion. This Lion was the force of change in Shasta's life. Many times this force of change was looked upon with fear as a monstrous threat to life itself. C.S. Lewis painted a wonderful picture of our blindness and God's love and patience. While we focus on the immediate discomfort and even pain, God has laid out a purpose and a path."

- i also read somewhere that the main theme of the horse and his boy is "the calling and converting of nonbelievers". wikipedia also said something about moses, but besides the wandering-through-the-desert thing, i'm not sure what they meant.

part ii (prince caspian) and iii (john donne's holy sonnet xiv) of our book club meeting will be posted later this week.

miscellaneous:
- debate: mr. tumnus: friendly faun? or mean molester? there was a deadlock with this issue - three ppl (tiff, iulia, mary) believe he is friendly, three ppl (harmony, debbie, janet) believe he was up to no good. ames? dave? hm? what are your thoughts?

Speaking of Narnia...

2005-12-06T18:40:00.000-05:00

I'm not sure if you guys have had a discussion on the Chronicles of Narnia yet... If not, here are my comments on The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.

ASIDE: I saw the movie this past weekend and I really enjoyed it. Debbie's right - WATCHING Santa hand out weapons was a little strange (for some reason reading about it seemed normal... ??) but I guess only in Narnia :).

After watching the movie, and even after having read the book, my initial reaction to Edmund's behaviour was always "What's wrong with this boy?? He's so disobedient and selfish!! The rest of the kids are so well-behaved." But after SEEING his character in the movie, it became apparent to me that sometimes, I am exactly like Edmund. Sometimes, I am selfish and I end up hurting people, sometimes I do only what I want and I think that everyone else is wrong. Or I do or say things that I know will upset someone else and I don't really think or care about it. I follow my own ways, and all it ends up doing is getting me into trouble. But eventually, I come around (or most of the time anyway) and I realize how I have wronged people in my life. I ask for their forgiveness and I hope that they will have grace and mercy enough to let it go and put it in the past. I like how Aslan says in the movie (and perhaps in the book) something along the lines of, "What's happened in the past cannot be changed. There is no need to talk to Edmund about what's past." This is how God forgives us isn't it? He forgives AND He forgets. Even though as humans we struggle with forgiving others and not just that but forgetting about it, it's comforting to know that God loves us enough to be able to do that with us.

I hope you guys enjoy the movie :) Heads up - stay in your seats while the credits roll!! Some people missed part of the REAL ending ;)

Just saying hi...

2005-12-06T15:39:00.000-05:00

thanks girls for setting up the book club and the blog! =) such great meetings we've had...such great books...only in Nanria is it justified for Santa to hand out deadly weapons to young children...

Soooo looking forward to the movie =)

bahumbug

2005-10-12T22:33:00.000-04:00

I just wanted to make my presence known. =P That's all.
Good job setting this up Tiffy!

I'll share wise words from Kalam: "Read like your life's depending on it!"

Thank you!

2005-10-12T22:19:00.000-04:00

Thanks for organizing this book club, guys. It is really great to be able to discuss books with other book lovers out there. I know that for me, at least, it will be a great opportunity to read books that I might not otherwise read.

FYI: As a teacher, I get books at a discount from Scholastic. If you would like, I could order them for you, if there are any books that you would like. You can check out their website at
http://www.scholastic.ca/clubs/. They are primarily children's books, so I don't know whether they will be of interest to you. But, who knows? It might be a way to 'rediscover' some of those children's classics that you haven't read in a long time. I know that I've seen the complete set of The Chronicles of Narnia for approximately $30 (and I know that there are a few of you who loved it!), and for Mary - The Little House on the Prairie Box Set (9 books for $40). Anyways, let me know if you see anything of interest.

See you guys at the next meeting!

- Janet

welcome, welcome!

2005-10-12T20:51:00.000-04:00

hey guys! just wanted to welcome you all to the delta book club/small group! :) we had our first meeting this tuesday, and despite only having three pages of text to discuss (the first letter/chapter of the screwtape letters), i thought that we were off to a great start!

so... the purpose of this blog was really to just give us a chance to "talk" throughout the week, especially for those who are unable to make it to the meetings. feel free to post your thoughts on a specific passage or phrase that you read, to recommend or review any other books that you've been reading, to suggest future book club titles, or to even just update us on your interesting life! :)

the next meeting will be on monday, october 24th at 7pm in the second cup right by the UT campus. try to read as much of screwtape as you can by that date - though, with the voracious readers in this bunch, i'm sure you'll all be done by the end of this week! :p

looking forward to seeing you all again! happy reading!

testing... testing...

2005-06-28T15:36:00.000-04:00

hey, just testing this thing out