New book

Last night was book club at Carmen's house. I can't tell you how nice it is to hang out with smart people talking about intellectual subjects and not the latest episode of Sesame Street (which, by the way, was so cute with that number zero. . . did you see it? But I digress).

Tale of Two Cities kicked my butt until the middle of the book. That Dickens sure does like to take a 2-sentance idea and turn it into a 10-page novella. Phew. I made it to page 211, so about half-way. Now that I know what happens at the end, part of me wants to keep reading so I can see how it all fits together. And part of me says hey, you already know the ending, so why bother?

I thought Carmen had some really interesting suggestions for our next book but people didn't want to read anything depressing. As we discussed various books it was apparent that most great literature is pretty darn depressing. I suggested we try a different genre, like science fiction or humor, or maybe a collection of short stories (my fave). Well, somehow, after a lot of debate/discussion, we ended up choosing a collection of science fiction short stories. It is I Sing the Body Electric, by Ray Bradbury. This book title prompted Carmen to sing a song by the same title she learned in high school choir, so I look forward to the full performance next month.