nekkid

[freckles_and_doubt]

Whew. A somewhat well-wined and, as usual, chatty and not too literary evening with the Tea Readers, the book club to which I and wolverine_nun belong. Tonight I hosted, which entails cooking supper (so not an issue) and, more worryingly, picking the books from which we chose this month's reads.

'Tis a curiously and terrifyingly exposed position, selecting books on behalf of a 7-person, all-female book club, some of whose members I don't know very well. In some ways it's great: I end up with books I would never otherwise look at, for example the new Isabel Allende "biography" of Zorro; but it's a dicey balancing act, trying to choose things I'd like to read that I vaguely suspect the book club members would either like to read, or haven't read already. Tricky, and, in fact, horribly self-revealing. In the event, a fairly successful selection; I snuck in both a Neil Gaiman (Smoke and Mirrors, which for some bizarre reason I don't own) and a Tom Holt, to a fair amount of enthusiasm, and had two other rejected (Chocolat and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time) only because other club members already own them and can lend them. This is, after all, the book club that introduced me to the joyous reading experience that is Murukami, so I probably worry too much about alienating them. And, once everyone's finished reading them, I get to keep the books. Score.

It's alarming, though. They're making me read weird stuff that (gasp!) isn't science fiction or fantasy!. Too much more of this, and I may actually come to resemble something vaguely akin to a literature professional.

Comments

alcohol and book club

[(Anonymous)]

It is very strange being a non-alcohol drinking member of this particular book club. The amount of red wine consumed can sometimes be rather daunting, yet I go home sober every time. I think I might be missing an important facet of the experience and look forward to rectifying it.

An important part of being pregnant is picking out the info you like from the info you don't like out of a sea of largely contradictory info. Here is a sample of a nice bit of info: champagne (French champagne says the nutritionist) is great for breast feeding. I'll bring some (not French) sparkling wine along to book club one day :D. ["Doesn't the alcohol make it through to the baby?" asks one concerned mum. "So, you're relaxed, the baby's relaxed...", says the laid back nutritionist.]

w_n

Another excuse for champagne? Excellent.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm saving that up for future personal use (ha! unlikely) and disseminating it widely among all the preggers/new mums I know (many). Please do share any more useful titbits. I do recall a couple of years ago there was a report that expensive dark chocolate was Quite The Thing for pregnancy. That, too, is locked safe in my memory.

robynn

Re: Another excuse for champagne? Excellent.

[(Anonymous)]

Early Human Development 76 (2004) 139 - 145
Sweet babies: chocolate consumption during pregnancy and infant temperament at six months. I can send you the PDF.

Ginger beer and milk stout are apparently good for breast feeding too. I'll be satisfied with champagne, though.

w_n

Re: Another excuse for champagne? Excellent.

[strawberryfrog.livejournal.com]

a report that expensive dark chocolate was Quite The Thing for pregnancy

You can get pregnant from chocolate?

I thought that hard liquor was required.

Re: Another excuse for champagne? Excellent.

[(Anonymous)]

lol!
Thak.

[strawberryfrog.livejournal.com]

Murakami isn't fantasy? Nobody told me.

don't get me started

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

... although I'm sure that's what you're trying to do.

I'd say that Murakami is probably closest to magical realism, which is, as Terry Pratchett says, "a weasel word meaning 'fantasy written by someone I went to university with.'" Despite unicorns and suchlike, it certainly isn't genre fantasy, which is a useful and somewhat dismissive category us pretentious academics like to throw around while pontificating about cultural studies :>.