Metropolitan’s Comments (group member since Aug 25, 2014)

Metropolitan’s comments from the Metro Library ReadUp group.

I'm still not done reading this one! Will post more topics and info as soon as I'm done.

Since this is such a visual book, I thought I'd look around for art inspired by it. Here are a few things to look at:

http://la-chapeliere-folle.deviantart...

http://society6.com/abigaillarson/the...

a whole lot of things here: http://www.tumblr.com/search/night%20...

http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/ori...

Here are some discussion questions from litlovers.com.
http://www.litlovers.com/reading-guid...

So I'm on page 80 or so, and I just realized I was very confused about something. Somehow I thought that Isobel and Celia were the same person! I guess because earlier in the story it mentions how Prospero wanted to call her Miranda, and then how Marco didn't have a real name.

So in this climate of people's names being not-so-permanent, when I read the part on page 32 when Isobel and Marco meet and he asks her name:
"Martin," she supplies, and it sounds like a lie. "Isobel Martin", and her physical description didn't seem to me so much different from Celia to me either, I thought she was Celia!

Then on page 39 we read about Celia: "Her father picks different names for her as they change locales."

All to say, when Marco and Celia meet up again around page 75, and then he talks to Isobel about it, I was totally confused! I'm sure it was clear to everyone else that these are not the same people, but just in case anyone else has the same confusion I did I thought I'd share.

And then this made me laugh out loud:
"The Burgess sisters arrive together. Tara and Lainie do a little bit of everything. Sometimes dancers, sometimes actresses. Once they were librarians, but that is a subject they will only discuss if heavily intoxicated." (p58)

If anyone has thoughts or questions to share as you read along, please do! Enjoy the book.

Malala wins the Nobel Peace Prize! http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2...

She is such an inspiring person, isn't she?
(As always, the comments on the article are quite dumb.)

Glad you liked it! It's one of those I've been meaning to read for quite a while and just never got around to it.

Here's the author's website: http://erinmorgenstern.com/
There's some interesting stuff there, look around if you like!

Discuss it here.

Well, let's go with the Night Circus. It's 397pgs versus NOS4A2 weighing in at 692pgs. I think NOS4A2 might be hard to finish in a month at that length.

Let's choose one of these books for our spooky October read:

The Night Circus by Ellen Morganstern: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9...

1984 by George Orwell: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...

NOS4A2 by Joe Hill:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

Vote in the poll and if there's no clear winner, I'll pick.

I felt the same way about the last few chapters. It seemed like the whole family was going through PTSD, and understandably so. I was blown away by how focused she was on school through all the horrible things that happened to her and around her, like when she asked for her schoolbooks as she was recovering in the hospital. Her tenacity is very inspiring.

I also liked how she gave an overview of the very complex historical and political situation in her country. I didn't know all that much about it, so it was interesting to find out these things. There are so many political parties and religious sects, and it seems like they all very strongly disagree with one another, making it difficult to accomplish anything.

In Chapter 1, Malala says her mother can't read or write. Her father is an educator--why do you think he hasn't taught her?

Here's an item from today's New York Times about the capture of 10 people in connection with Malala's shooting: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/13/wor...

Here are a some discussion topics from Litlovers.com:

Talk about the role of Malala's parents, especially her father, Ziauddin. If you were her parents, would you have encouraged her to write and speak out?

What can be done about female education in the Middle East and places like Pakistan? What are the prospects? Can one girl, despite her worldwide fame, make a difference? Why does the Taliban want to prevent girls from acquiring an education—how do they see the female role?

And some general questions about nonfiction:

What do you find most surprising, intriguing or
difficult to understand?

What solutions does the author propose? Who would implement those solutions? How probable is success?

Talk about specific passages that struck you as significant—or interesting, profound, amusing, illuminating, disturbing, sad...? What was memorable?

What have you learned after reading this book? Has it broadened your perspective about a difficult issue—personal or societal? Has it introduced you to a culture in another country...or an ethnic or regional culture in your own country?

Talk about it here.

Why should you join Metro Library ReadUp?

1.) It's fun and free!
2.) You'll get to participate in lively discussions about thought provoking books.
3.) Some selections might be a little outside your preferred genres, so you'll expand your reading horizons!
4.) Since this book club is online, you'll get to share your thoughts whenever they come to you instead of waiting for a specific meeting time.

How are the books chosen?
Books have to be in the MLS catalog, and to ensure that everyone has a chance to check out a copy, I can only choose books that there are at least 20 copies of in the system.

We will read fiction and nonfiction, ideally alternating month to month. I'll try to pick a variety, so we aren't reading the same type of book over and over.

I will set up polls so we can see what the group wants to read. If there's no clear winner, I'll pick the book.

What do we have to do?
As the moderator, I will:

1.) Make sure there are enough copies of the book in as many formats as possible.
2.) Read the book.
3.) Post discussion topics and questions.
4.) Remind everyone of new books and read-by dates.
5.) Look out for new and interesting books that might be suitable for us to read.
6.) Take suggestions from members for books to read.

As a member, you will: Read the book and respectfully share your thoughts and ideas about it.

Dates:
New books will be voted on throughout the month. By the last day of the month, the book for next month will be decided upon. You'll have the whole month to read and discuss the book.