BEGIN:VCALENDAR PRODID:-//Meetup Inc//RemoteApi//EN VERSION:2.0 METHOD:PUBLISH CALSCALE:GREGORIAN X-ORIGINAL-URL:http://bookclub.meetup.com/430/calendar/ical/The+East+Valley +Book+Club/ X-WR-CALNAME:Events - The East Valley Book Club BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Serious Fiction Fan Club October meeting DESCRIPTION:Book Club Meetups > The East Valley Book Club\n\nOur book for O ctober is the Pulitzer Prize winner for 1992\, “A Thousand Acres” by Jane S miley\, which later was made into a major motion picture. \n\nJane Smiley b ooks belong in the library of any serious fiction reader. She took her mast ers and PhD in creative writing from the prestigious program at the Univers ity of Iowa and then taught undergrad and graduate creative writing worksho ps at Iowa State University from 1981 to 1996\, along the way winning many awards for both novels and short stories. Along the way\, she received a Fu lbright grant that allowed a year studying Greenland\, after which she wrot e “The Greenlanders\,” a book that was avoided by everyone except those fas cinated by Viking culture of the early fourteen hundreds.\n\nWhat makes her novels so engaging is that all have a theme. She obsesses on a topic\, do es exhaustive research\, and finally explains the subject by creating a wor k of fiction. To name a few\; “Horse Heaven” is about the horse racing indu stry\, “Good Faith” covers real estate\, “MOO” is about the life and politi cs of a modern state university\, “The All-True Travels and Adventures of L idie Newton” is about the Kansas-Nebraska wars that preceded the Civil War\ , and her most recent\, “Ten Days in the Hills” tells a reader everything h e ever wanted to know about the film business. \n\nUndoubtedly\, her best n ovel is “A Thousand Acres\,” a novel often described as a modern-day versio n of “King Lear\,” perhaps the greatest of Shakespeare’s tragedies. It is a remarkably satisfying read.\n\nAging Larry Cook announces his intention to turn over his 1\,000-acre farm to his three daughters\, Caroline\, Ginny a nd Rose. A man of harsh sensibilities\, he carves Caroline out of the deal because she has the nerve to be less than enthusiastic about her father's g enerosity. While Larry Cook deteriorates into a pathetic drunk\, his daught ers are left to cope with the often grim realities of life on a family farm –––from battering husbands to cutthroat lenders.\n\n"Our farm and our lives seemed secure and good\," says narrator Ginny Cook\, looking back on the s ummer before her father capriciously decided to turn over the farm to his t hree daughters and their mates. Although Ginny's existence as a farmer's wi fe and caretaker of her irascible\, bullying\, widower father is not easy\, there have been compensations in her good marriage\, in the close companio nship of her indomitable sister Rose\, who lives across the road\, and in s haring vicariously in the accomplishments of their younger sister\, Carolin e\, a lawyer. \n\nHaving managed to submerge her grief at being childless\, passive Ginny has also hidden a number of darker secrets in her past. Thes e shocking events work their way out of her subconscious in the dreadful af termath of her father's decision to rescind his legacy\, shouting accusatio ns of filial betrayal. Like Lear's daughters\, the Cook sisters each reveal their true natures as the tragedy plays out. \n\nSmiley powerfully evokes the unrelenting\, insular world of farm life\, the symbiotic relationships between a farmer and his land as well as those among the other members of t he rural community. She contrasts the stringencies of nature with those of human nature: the sting of sibling rivalry\, the tensions of marriage\, the psychological burdens of children\, the passion of lovers\, and in the end \, she has raises profound questions about human conduct and moral responsi bility\, especially about family relationships and the guilt and bitterness that incest inflicted by a father on his daughters begets. \n\nThis book w ill stick in your mind for a very long time and illustrates the enduring va lue of serious creative literary fiction.\n\nMesa\, AZ 85203 - USA\n\nMond ay\, October 13 at 7:00 PM\n\nPhoto: http://photos4.meetupstatic.com/photos /event/6/f/c/c/event_688620.jpeg\n\nAttending: 7\n\nDetails: http://bookclu b.meetup.com/430/calendar/8566785/ LAST-MODIFIED:20080818T043420Z UID:event_8566785@meetup.com CLASS:PUBLIC CREATED:20080818T043420Z DTSTAMP:20081013T095030Z DTSTART:20081014T020000Z DTEND:20081014T040000Z GEO:33.44;-111.71 URL:http://bookclub.meetup.com/430/calendar/8566785/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:October East Valley Book Club DESCRIPTION:Book Club Meetups > The East Valley Book Club\n\nGuys\, can we BE more fun? Well\, we are going to try! For October\, we have chosen "Bl indness" by Jose Saramago. We decided to get a bit "serious" before the ho lidays\, and this book came HIGHLY recommended by beloved member\, Denise! Here is what Amazon has to say:\nIn an unnamed city in an unnamed country\ , a man sitting in his car waiting for a traffic light to change is suddenl y struck blind. But instead of being plunged into darkness\, this man sees everything white\, as if he "were caught in a mist or had fallen into a mil ky sea." A Good Samaritan offers to drive him home (and later steals his ca r)\; his wife takes him by taxi to a nearby eye clinic where they are usher ed past other patients into the doctor's office. Within a day the man's wif e\, the taxi driver\, the doctor and his patients\, and the car thief have all succumbed to blindness. As the epidemic spreads\, the government panics and begins quarantining victims in an abandoned mental asylum--guarded by soldiers with orders to shoot anyone who tries to escape. So begins Portugu ese author José Saramago's gripping story of humanity under siege\, written with a dearth of paragraphs\, limited punctuation\, and embedded dialogue minus either quotation marks or attribution. At first this may seem challen ging\, but the style actually contributes to the narrative's building tensi on\, and to the reader's involvement. \nIn this community of blind people t here is still one set of functioning eyes: the doctor's wife has affected b lindness in order to accompany her husband to the asylum. As the number of victims grows and the asylum becomes overcrowded\, systems begin to break d own: toilets back up\, food deliveries become sporadic\; there is no medica l treatment for the sick and no proper way to bury the dead. Inevitably\, s ocial conventions begin to crumble as well\, with one group of blind inmate s taking control of the dwindling food supply and using it to exploit the o thers. Through it all\, the doctor's wife does her best to protect her litt le band of blind charges\, eventually leading them out of the hospital and back into the horribly changed landscape of the city. \n\nBlindness is in m any ways a horrific novel\, detailing as it does the total breakdown in soc iety that follows upon this most unnatural disaster. Saramago takes his cha racters to the very edge of humanity and then pushes them over the precipic e. His people learn to live in inexpressible filth\, they commit acts of bo th unspeakable violence and amazing generosity that would have been unimagi nable to them before the tragedy. The very structure of society itself alte rs to suit the circumstances as once-civilized\, urban dwellers become ragg ed nomads traveling by touch from building to building in search of food. T he devil is in the details\, and Saramago has imagined for us in all its de vastation a hell where those who went blind in the streets can never find t heir homes again\, where people are reduced to eating chickens raw and pack s of dogs roam the excrement-covered sidewalks scavenging from corpses. \n\ nAnd yet in the midst of all this horror Saramago has written passages of u nsurpassed beauty. Upon being told she is beautiful by three of her charges \, women who have never seen her\, "the doctor's wife is reduced to tears b ecause of a personal pronoun\, an adverb\, a verb\, an adjective\, mere gra mmatical categories\, mere labels\, just like the two women\, the others\, indefinite pronouns\, they too are crying\, they embrace the woman of the w hole sentence\, three graces beneath the falling rain." In this one woman S aramago has created an enduring\, fully developed character who serves both as the eyes and ears of the reader and as the conscience of the race. And in Blindness he has written a profound\, ultimately transcendent meditation on what it means to be human.\n\nLooks like a great book\, but an even bet ter discussion\, and I hope to see everyone there!\n\nShelly Y. Hughes!!\n\ nMesa\, AZ 85203 - USA\n\nWednesday\, October 22 at 7:00 PM\n\nPhoto: http ://photos4.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/6/f/c/c/event_688620.jpeg\n\nAtten ding: 9\n\nDetails: http://bookclub.meetup.com/430/calendar/8712070/ LAST-MODIFIED:20080908T042738Z UID:event_8712070@meetup.com CLASS:PUBLIC CREATED:20080908T042738Z DTSTAMP:20081013T095030Z DTSTART:20081023T020000Z DTEND:20081023T040000Z GEO:33.44;-111.71 URL:http://bookclub.meetup.com/430/calendar/8712070/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Serious Fiction Fan Novemberr meeting DESCRIPTION:Book Club Meetups > The East Valley Book Club\n\nOur November r eading choice is a radical change of pace: a collection of short stories by Raymond Carver called “Where I’m Calling From.”\n\nOur parent club has sel ected an excellent book for their October meeting and a book of brief short stories will allow plenty of time for members of our small group to partic ipate in both. \n\nCarver became a literary cult hero in the eighties to r eaders of short stories. Three collections were published\, two of which b eing short listed for the National Book Award. Six of the stories won the c oveted O Henry Award. \n\nHis mentor\, John Gardner\, had insisted he write with fifteen words instead of twenty-five\, and his editor at Knopf provok ed endless arguments and rewrites by insisting on five words instead of fif teen. The famously alcoholic and unstable Carver raged and resisted\, but m any think his agonizing attempts to placate the “unreasonable” editor resul ted in stories that came closer to seven or eight words instead of the fift een\, and ultimately made him the all-time genius of short story fiction. O ne could say he stands in a category all his own.\n\n“Where I’m Calling Fro m” was Carver’s attempt to “set the record straight” by finding a publisher that would reissue the best stories from the three collections as he origi nally wrote them. It was published in 1988\, shortly before his death at ag e fifty. Ironically\, after all the “storm and fury\,” only three stories w ere different from those originally edited by the “hateful” editor.\n\nCarv er wrote about ordinary people stuck in ordinary situations: waitresses\, s alesmen\, schoolteachers\, and such\, all facing their private frustrations around bad relationships\, frustrated aspirations\, grief\, and other myri ad problems\, some of their own making and some merely bad rolls of the dic e. Somewhere in the book\, nearly everyone encounters a “there but for the grace of god go I” moment. \n\nBest of all\, Carver’s writing style allows the reader to continue and expand on the story according to his own inclina tions. Most are masterpieces of the literary art. and many\, if not most\, university writing and literature programs include them. \n\nNeed a little convincing? When you get your copy\, immediately go to page 114 and read “L ittle Things.” It’s only 506 words long\, less than two pages. The last sen tence jolts you like sticking your thumb into a live electrical socket\, se nding your imagination shooting off in nine directions at once. MY GOD\, WH AT HAPPENED? AND\, WHO WERE THESE PEOPLE\, AND WHAT BROUGHT THEM TO THIS HO RRIBLE RESULT? \n\nHemingway wrote “iceberg stories” that famously left nin ety percent unsaid. The pure genius of some Carver stories leave ninety-nin e percent up to the reader. \n\nWe will start our discussion with this stor y and I’ll bet money ten people will have ten wildly different versions. Wh at fun.\n\nEach member will be the lead provocateur for two stories\, and I ’ll make the assignments as people RSVP. Be sure to send me your email addr ess so I can send everyone a list of the specific stories we will discuss.\ n\nI urge you to go online today and buy the book. It’s available at www.h alf\,com in both hard back and soft cover for just a few bucks..\n\nMesa\, AZ 85203 - USA\n\nMonday\, November 10 at 7:00 PM\n\nPhoto: http://photos 4.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/6/f/c/c/event_688620.jpeg\n\nAttending: 6\n \nDetails: http://bookclub.meetup.com/430/calendar/8797516/ LAST-MODIFIED:20080920T190450Z UID:event_8797516@meetup.com CLASS:PUBLIC CREATED:20080920T190450Z DTSTAMP:20081013T095030Z DTSTART:20081111T020000Z DTEND:20081111T040000Z GEO:33.44;-111.71 LOCATION:Borders Fiesta - 1361 S. Alma School Road - Mesa\, AZ 85203 - USA URL:http://bookclub.meetup.com/430/calendar/8797516/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:The East Valley Book Club November Meetup DESCRIPTION:Book Club Meetups > The East Valley Book Club\n\nOk\, well\, I haven't finalized the details for the November meeting\, but I will post th e book for now. We have chosen "The Glass Castle: A Memoir" by Jeannette W alls. This book is one that has been on my radar for a while. Here is wha t Publisher's Weekly0 has to say:\nFreelance writer Walls doesn't pull her punches. She opens her memoir by describing looking out the window of her t axi\, wondering if she's "overdressed for the evening" and spotting her mot her on the sidewalk\, "rooting through a Dumpster." Walls's parents—just tw o of the unforgettable characters in this excellent\, unusual book—were a m atched pair of eccentrics\, and raising four children didn't conventionaliz e either of them. Her father was a self-taught man\, a would-be inventor wh o could stay longer at a poker table than at most jobs and had "a little bi t of a drinking situation\," as her mother put it. With a fantastic storyte lling knack\, Walls describes her artist mom's great gift for rationalizing . Apartment walls so thin they heard all their neighbors? What a bonus—they 'd "pick up a little Spanish without even studying." Why feed their pets? T hey'd be helping them "by not allowing them to become dependent." While Wal ls's father's version of Christmas presents—walking each child into the Ari zona desert at night and letting each one claim a star—was delightful\, he wasn't so dear when he stole the kids' hard-earned savings to go on a bende r. The Walls children learned to support themselves\, eating out of trashca ns at school or painting their skin so the holes in their pants didn't show . Buck-toothed Jeannette even tried making her own braces when she heard wh at orthodontia cost. One by one\, each child escaped to New York City. Stil l\, it wasn't long before their parents appeared on their doorsteps. "Why n ot?" Mom said. "Being homeless is an adventure." \nHope that everyone has a good read with this one\, and I look forward to discussing it!\nSYH\n\nMes a\, AZ 85205 - USA\n\nWednesday\, November 19 at 7:00 PM\n\nPhoto: http:// photos4.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/6/f/c/c/event_688620.jpeg\n\nAttendin g: 1\n\nDetails: http://bookclub.meetup.com/430/calendar/8913093/ LAST-MODIFIED:20081007T041056Z UID:event_8913093@meetup.com CLASS:PUBLIC CREATED:20081007T041056Z DTSTAMP:20081013T095030Z DTSTART:20081120T020000Z DTEND:20081120T040000Z GEO:33.44;-111.71 URL:http://bookclub.meetup.com/430/calendar/8913093/ END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR