Good News!

Did you see that our own Kelli has some good news? Go congratulate her!

"Middlesex" it is

You voted and our next reading selection will be "Middlesex" by Jeffrey Eugenides. After that, we will be reading "Down Came the Rain" by Brooke Shields. Leave me a comment and let me know what a reasonable timetable for reading the next selection is for you. Please keep in mind that Jenni seems to think this is a pretty quick read so perhaps we should start discussing this the third week in July? Anyone - RR contributors only, please - wanna lead the discussion? I will be happy to do it if no one else volunteers.

There is a new poll about future selections. Go vote in it!

And if you are a visitor, please leave comments if you have read a book that we are discussing! Or feel free to read along with us and comment. It's fun! And educational!

We have a tie. Again.

We have a tie in the voting for the next book. The front-runners right now are:

"Middlesex" by Jeffrey Eugenides
"Down Came the Rain" by Brooke Shields

So, I'm putting up a new poll so that we can determine what order we will read them in. Please vote by Saturday night.

Then I will put up a quick poll to see if we want to read the other books on this list ("The Boy Who Was Raised As a Girl" by John Colapinto, "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel, and "Bowling Alone" by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis M. Feldstein, With Don Cohen) as well, as was suggested previously. Depending on how that turns out, we'll have another poll about the order. And then I will quit harassing you to vote. I promise. But today is NOT that day. Go vote for a book!

Exercise your rights!

There is a new poll over there on the right side of the page. Lots of interesting books to choose from for our next reading selection. Why don't you go vote for one? Vote until next Monday and sometime next week I will post another poll to pick the the book after that. Then you can get super-saver shipping if you order the book online...

It's time to pick a book (or two)

So we haven't really talked about what we are reading next or when we are gonna do it. So. Let's do that.

When I brought this up a while back, Jenni made the following suggestions:

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. Jenni said "e I need to read this, and I guess I'm going to have to do it. One told me, "It's the best book about a schizophrenic transexual I've ever read." (I'm not making this up. She really said that.)"

The Boy Who Was Raised As a Girl by John Colapinto. Jenni said "I ead it some years ago and it has haunted me ever since. It's fascinating. And it does bring up a lot of hot-button issues that might be club-worthy too."

I have a couple suggestions of my own:

Down Came the Rain: My Journey Through Postpartum Depression by Brooke Shields. Another non-fiction option since I know at least one of you isn't a big fiction reader. Plus, I wanna see what got Tom Cruise's panties in a wad.

Life of Pi by Yann Martel. I have read this. It is amazing and I would love to hear your views on it.

Got any other good ideas? Leave a comment. I'll put up a poll with all of the suggestions next week so we can pick the next book.

Also, since we still seem to be talking about DIWC, shall we have it be our July read and August discuss book? I know that people are busy all the time but particularly in the summer. Let us know what you think...

Jack the Ripper v. Holmes

So Jack the Ripper - who had his killing spree in the late 1800's - is largely considered the world's first serial killer, right? But Holmes killed far more people - I believe Jack had just five victims while Holmes had at least 20 and more likely a couple hundred - and is far less famous. Is this because the murders were done in private and only discovered long after the fact whereas Jack's were public and immediate? Would either have these killers been thought to be less evil if they had committed just one murder rather than several?

What else could get this kind of attention?

Well, I'm finally getting a couple questions posted as well...

I remember reading in the book somewhere - forgive me, it was a passage I didn't mark but kept coming back to me - that shortly after the fair opened people were going to the fair, but not in the numbers that were expected. It was a disappointment to the organizers, but they took heart that things would pick up once all of the exhibits were open because they had heard good buzz among the people who were going. People started to think that once the fair was completely open, that it would be worth it - nay, necessary - to spend the time and money to make the trip to the fair. This was in a time when vacation travel was even more a luxury than it is now.

Is there any event that you can think of that would garner this kind of attention today? Or has leisure travel become something that is so commonplace that even very well-attended events are no longer viewed this way?

Random Thought

I was talking to folks about DIWC last night, and something came up that I wanted to mention to you guys that had read it. If these incidents -- both the fair AND Holmes' spree -- were to happen in a different period of time, how would they be different? If Holmes' was 'working' today, would he be more or less successful? Is he different from modern serial killers in any way that you noticed? Ditto on the fair thing: Do you think today's World Fair committees have the same issues? What do planners of today's fairs have to do to dazzle folks?