The Typical Book Exchange

Tonight was The Typical Book Group's annual book exchange!  There were nine of us there, and by luck, I got to pick first.  I exercised impressive self restraint (if I do say so myself), and left with only 3 books this year.  The ones I picked are The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl, The Weight of Water by Anita Shreve, and The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James.  I have somehow not read anything by Henry James, so I am interested in that one.  The Dante Club is a mystery set in Boston in 1865, and featuring detectives who study Dante's Inferno. I'm thinking that this one might be a little like The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.

We were meant to talk about The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey tonight, but the group was just getting started on the discussion when I had to leave, after being there for two hours.  I listened to the book in audio form, but my friend, Nancy, who read it, wanted me to ask the group what they thought about the conversations with Faina not including quotation marks, when the conversations with the other neighbors were properly punctuated.  We felt that stylistic choice contributed to the question of whether Faina was a "real" girl or whether she could possibly be a snow girl, which really is the central issue of the narrative.

Next month we are going to read Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.  I was surprised to see that I was 7th on the wait list for 11 copies of the book when I tried to request it from my library.  Hopefully I will get it in time to read it before the next meeting!

Still Reading:  Bring up the Bodies  by Hilary Mantel

Still Listening to:  Cleopatra:  A Life by Stacy Schiff