Sunday Salon - September 23

Happy fall! I am, for the first time in a long time, thoroughly enjoying fall. I know, I know, it did just officially begin the other day, but it's felt like fall for a while now. I've fluffed the house to change out the decor for fall, football is on the tv almost constantly, I've pulled out the crockpot for something other than steelcut oats, and sweaters are moving back into the clothing rotation.

Friday night the Omaha Bookworms met to discuss Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. Having some of our parents there to talk about the book with us was wonderful. If nothing else, it meant that people had made a real effort to read the book so they were ready to discuss it. As always, we did find plenty of time to talk about other things but we also spent more time talking about the book than we have in years. We'll definitely be looking for another book for 2013 that will allow for us to include multiple generations and men. I'll be reviewing the book later this week and will include some of the topics we discussed. Do you have any suggestions that would make good choices for this kind of group? Has your book club ever tried doing something like this?

I found this interesting article at Salon.com about the effects of different kinds of reading on the brain. I'm delighted to see the Jane Austen's Mansfield Park was selected to test brain activity when two different types of reading are being done. The researchers were looking at the difference between pleasure reading and what they call "close" reading (reading for analytical purposed). It just goes to prove what I've known for years, Austen writes books that are fun to read but have great depth.

For all of you audiobook fans, Laura Miller, also at Salon.com, calls Eduardo Bellarini's narration of Jess Walter's Beautiful Ruins the best narration of 2012. Of the narration, Miller says "Ballerini’s handling of this fantastically complex narration is so accomplished you keep forgetting that it’s a performance." Incidentally, Miller also happens to like the book quite a lot, maybe even more than I did.

This week I'll also have a review of The Headmaster's Wager (which, thanks to falling behind on reading last week, I'll be racing to finish in the next couple of days). I've given up on The Little Stranger, for the time being, but will get back to that in a couple of week. Meanwhile, I'll be reading Michael Chabon's Telegraph Avenue and, hopefully working in Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber for R.I.P. VII. What are you reading this week?