Choosing the book for July

Well, the votes are in and we're doing *Suite Francaise* by Irene Nemirovsky for our June 3 meetup. (Lalitha, take note.)

For July, I'm inclined to continue with the chose-at-the-meetup method of deciding what book we'll discuss. As before, I encourage anyone who wants to start lobbying to use the fancy utilities of this website to do so (by, e.g., posting here). I'm switching to voting at the meetup for the following reasons:

1) sentiment has at times been expressed that our stalwart participants ought to be rewarded for the virtue of showing up (in the spirit of Woody Allen) by getting more of a say, and this does so;

2) it gives the yeas and nays, including the ardent varieties of the kind I myself am particularly prone to, an open opportunity for airing and possible persuasion; and

3) I'm getting bored with the fussing around that the previous poll method entailed.

That said, if there are any strong proponents of the online poll method, feel free to volunteer to do the mechanics and maybe we'll elevate you to the empyrean status of an *Assistant Organizer* and go back to that.

Let me toss in a couple of ideas. One, I'm interested in reading some more Patricia Highsmith. I've only read two of her novels, not any of the well-known ones. It's respectable genre, a good compromise between the group's schlock pop-fiction and literary art tendencies. Any suggestions? Two, I just read a fantastic longer short story by Annie Proulx in the New Yorker (not available online, unfortunately) and, while I wasn't able to read her breakthrough novel *The Shipping News* at all despite taking two whacks, much of her shorter stuff, especially her longer shorter stuff, seems to come right from the mother lode. I'd like to consider something like *Close Range: Wyoming Stories*

Your *Organizer*

I just joined this group and am wondering when the next meeting is and whether there's a book that members are currently reading.