Hey! Anya Ulinich Has Something To Say

Filed under: Book Club

Anya Ulinich

OK, so our talk with Anya Ulinich, author of Petropolis, aired on Monday -- and as you may remember, that was the day we learned some pretty grim news on the BPP. So we're a little late in getting up a blog post about the latest, and last, selection of the BPP Book Club.

But it would be a pity to let this marvelous interview with this remarkable writer go unblogged.

Ulinich discusses the American love of self and defends her characters in the face of questioning from Rebecca from Berlin. She also talks about writing in a language not her own -- English feels like "Lego bricks," as opposed to the "undifferentiated goo" of her native Russian.

The author proves to be as smart and funny and perceptive as her book. Listen to the interview. And if you haven't already, read the book. It's never too late to join this club.

Sarah Goodyear

12:10 PM ET | 07-16-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

Book Club In Session: Let's Talk 'Petropolis'

Filed under: Book Club

From Anya Ulinich's painting Optimist.

 

UPDATED: Our interview with Anya Ulinich.

---------

It's that time again, time to share your thoughts and questions about our BPP Book Club selection. This month, it was Petropolis, by Anya Ulinich, a dark and funny first novel from a young writer born in the former Soviet Union and now living in the United States. (She's also a painter; that's one of her works above.)

What did you think of her protagonist, Sasha Goldberg? Any other immigrants out there relate to her experience? Want to ask Ulinich a question?

We'll be interviewing the author later this week. Lay it out there for us, and her, in the comments.

Bonus: BPP Book Club alerts

Sarah Goodyear

7:43 AM ET | 07- 9-2008 | permalink | comments (24) | e-mail post

Listener Checks In: What It Means To Be Russian

Filed under: Book Club

Muscovites wait for bread, December 1993.

Michael Evstafiev/AFP/Getty Images

 

BPP listener Nina Charnotskaia came to the United States from the collapsing Soviet Union when she was 11 years old. So our latest BPP Book Club selection, Anya Ulinich's Petropolis -- which tells the story of Russian immigrant Sasha Goldberg -- really resonated with her. Charnotskaia, who lives in San Diego, told us that because she started speaking with an American accent soon after she moved here, people have often challenged her "Russianness." But she's never lost her sense that being Russian is an important part of her identity. She talked with us about what that means to her.

We'll be discussing the book here on the blog on July 9, a week from today. So get reading, if you haven't already!

Bonus: Sign up for BPP Book Club alerts.

Sarah Goodyear

9:44 AM ET | 07- 2-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post

The Amazing Anya Ulinich

Filed under: Book Club

Marx, Bird, Monster

Anya Ulinich

 

OK, so not only does Anya Ulinich -- our latest BPP Book Club author -- amaze us because she wrote her fabulous novel, Petropolis, in her second language (her first is Russian). She also amazes us because fiction is her second art form. Her first? Painting. When she moved to Brooklyn, apartment living made things a little cramped for that medium, and so she began to write.

The result puts her in the tradition of Slavs who use the English language well enough to put native speakers to shame. Other examples? Vladimir Nabokov and Joseph Conrad (born Jozef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski).

Check out more of Ulinich's paintings.

Bonus: Sign up for BPP Book Club alerts.

Sarah Goodyear

4:46 PM ET | 06-16-2008 | permalink | comments (7) | e-mail post

Next Up for the Book Club: 'Petropolis'

Filed under: Book Club

Jump in: We're reading Petropolis.

I first heard of Anya Ulinich when I saw her read at a literary conference last winter, as one of the National Book Foundation's "Five Under 35." What I heard there--part of an unpublished short story--made me want much, much more.

Fortunately, as I discovered, Ulinich's debut novel, Petropolis, is every bit as funny, smart, moving and surprising as the story she read from that day. In the novel, Ulinich, who emigrated from Russia to America with her family when she was 17, tells the story of another immigrant -- Sasha Goldberg. Sasha is part-black and part-Jewish, a misfit in the industrial Siberian town where she grows up, Asbestos 2, and equally a misfit in the US, where she comes as a mail-order bride.

But I don't want to give away too much. Get the book. It's out in paperback and Kindle. I can't wait to read it with you.

Bonus:
An autobiographical essay by Ulinich from the New York Times.
Sign up for BPP Book Club alerts.

Sarah Goodyear

12:34 PM ET | 06-11-2008 | permalink | comments (17) | e-mail post

Neil Gaiman Takes Your Questions

Filed under: Book Club

Neil Gaiman

photocredit

On today's show, Neil Gaiman talks with Mike Pesca and a few BPP listeners about the appeal of trickster gods, writing a novel where the default skin color is black, and the triumph of smarts over strength.

Gaiman says he was taken with the clever Anansi of West African folklore, and used it as the springboard for his novel Anansi Boys. "You begin with the folk tale, and then you start thinking, 'What does that mean? What does that mean for the rest of the world?' " he says. "The thing that made me happy is that really represents the point where people stop trying to hit their way out of trouble and start trying to think their way out of trouble."

Bonus: Sign up for BPP Book Club alerts.

Sarah Goodyear

12:34 PM ET | 06- 9-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

Now in Session: The BPP Book Club

Filed under: Book Club

iStock

Kymm Coveney talks about Neil Gaiman's yen for the fantastic.

So what did you think of our latest BPP Book Club pick, Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys? Mike Pesca threw out some interesting questions in the segment this morning...if you've known Gaiman through his comics, do you like his novels as much? If you're African-American, or a black person from the Caribbean, do you think that Gaiman (who is white) pulled off a novel that is mostly about black characters? And if you're not a regular reader of fantasy books, did this one whet your appetite for more?

Let us know in the comments.

Bonus: Sign up for Book Club alerts.

Sarah Goodyear

8:49 AM ET | 06- 4-2008 | permalink | comments (41) | e-mail post

All About Anansi, the Trickster Spider

Filed under: Book Club, Luncheonette

So, if you're liking Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman, our current BPP Book Club pick, you've probably been wondering about this Anansi character. And you've probably discovered that he is a figure originating in West African folklore about whom many stories are told throughout the African diaspora. He's a trickster, always scheming. Sometimes things turn out well for him, sometimes not--especially when he's greedy.

After reading a book called Anansi the Spider by Gerald McDermott, my six-year-old wanted more Anansi tales, and I went looking on YouTube. This one, Anansi and the Tug o' War, by Story Cove, was his favorite. Enjoy.

Bonus:
Crazy Polish TV commercial for Anansi Boys
Sign up for BPP Book Club alerts

Sarah Goodyear

12:55 PM ET | 05-30-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

Lenny Henry, Narrator, Friend of Neil Gaiman

Filed under: Book Club, Luncheonette

Meet Lenny Henry, big in Britain..

Listener Gavin Bruce took the BPP to task today for not knowing who Lenny Henry was when we played a clip of Henry's audiobook recording of Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys (this month's BPP Book Club selection). Bruce wrote:

You didn't seem to recognize Lenny Henry's name or voice on the show today (he's the narrator of your talking book version). I wanted to mention that he is actually a very very very famous person, one of the most well-known and talented people in the UK for at least 20 years. You might want to learn more about him.

Right you are, Gavin! You can find out everything you might want to know about Henry on his website. He's not only a very accomplished comedian, he's also a friend of Neil Gaiman's, and, according to Gaiman, was at least in part the inspiration for Anansi Boys:

There's definitely a part of me that feels that Lenny Henry's reading of ANANSI BOYS will be in some odd way the definitive text, but that's because Lenny was there when I came up with the idea, and much of the time while I was writing it, I was hearing Len's voice in the back of my head.

Gaiman also said this about Henry in an extensive interview about Anansi Boys for About.com:

On the one hand he's a very private, quiet, scholarly, reserved person, and on the other hand is an absolutely wild, outgoing, over-the-top, huge, funny dude. And both of these things are true. And I love the fact that both of these things are true.

After the jump, links to ever-so-slightly blue, absolutely hilarious Henry clips.

Bonus: Sign up for BPP Book Club alerts

Continue reading "Lenny Henry, Narrator, Friend of Neil Gaiman" »

Sarah Goodyear

12:23 PM ET | 05-22-2008 | permalink | comments (5) | e-mail post

Neil Gaiman, Defender of Free Speech

Filed under: Book Club, Luncheonette

One of the things I've discovered about Neil Gaiman since we picked his novel Anansi Boys for the BPP Book Club is that he has a really nice blog. Nice sounds like a mushy word, but I mean it in the best possible way.

Gaiman's posts are warm and spontaneous, filled with details of his travels and what he eats and the shenanigans of the bees he keeps. The blog also includes many letters from his fans -- many of them aspiring writers -- and his detailed personal responses to their questions. Overall, it gives the impression of a guy who is insatiably interested in the world around him and who is dedicated to supporting other creative people.

Check out this video clip he posted recently, of a spot he taped in support of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.

He even blogged about us on May 10, the day after we announced our pick of Anansi Boys:

The biggest news that doesn't involve walking along a fallen tree over a river with a dog following behind me is that NPR has picked Anansi Boys for the Bryant Park Project book club.

See what I mean? The man has things in perspective.

Bonus: Want a taste of Anansi Boys before committing to reading it? There's an excerpt here. // Sign up for BPP Book Club alerts or just drop us a line here.

Sarah Goodyear

12:21 PM ET | 05-16-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

Book Club's New Pick: Neil Gaiman's 'Anansi Boys'

Filed under: Book Club

Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys

Unlike some other book clubs that shall remain nameless, the BPP Book Club is not a one-trick pony. We like to mix it up. So far we've brought you the story of a boy coming of age inside authoritarian Libya (Hisham Matar's In the Country of Men) and the very different story of a girl coming of age on a ranch in Colorado (Aryn Kyle's The God of Animals). So no more coming of age. For a bit, anyway.

This time out, we'll be reading Anansi Boys, by cult hero Neil Gaiman, author of comics, novels and song lyrics, among other things. It's the very tall tale of a hapless bookkeeper named Fat Charlie Nancy, whose dreary life in London is turned upside down when his father dies . . . and Fat Charlie discovers that his dad was actually the trickster god Anansi.

If you've never read Gaiman before (I hadn't), here's your chance to find out why people are so crazy about him.

Our online discussion of the book will happen on Wednesday, June 4, and we'll be talking to Neil Gaiman shortly after. So get the book (available in paperback, audiobook, or Kindle editions) and get reading.

Bonus:
Announcing the pick.
Sign up for BPP Book Club alerts.

Sarah Goodyear

12:02 PM ET | 05- 9-2008 | permalink | comments (19) | e-mail post

'God of Animals' Author Takes Your Questions

Filed under: Book Club

Aryn Kyle

Simon and Schuster

On this morning's show, Aryn Kyle took questions about her novel -- and our April book club selection -- The God of Animals.

Kyle says she actually set out to write a different novel, a Victorian-era sprawler. The work wasn't going well. But the characters in her celebrated short story, "Foaling Season," kept coming back to her. The protagonist, middle schooler Alice Winston, demanded her attention.

"The voice of that particular character was so strong," Kyle says. "I never questioned it much."

Determined to turn "Foaling Season" into a novel, Kyle pulled away from friends and family for a couple of years and hammered away. "The writing process is so private and so isolating, and then to suddenly have it out in the world, and all of these people interacting with it and bringing their own things to it -- it's a very odd thing to sort of get used to," she says.

These days she's finishing a collection of short stories while she lets the clamor of the novel subside. Those characters were so alive in my head that I really needed some space to sort of get them out," she says. "You know, I don't want to write The God of Animals, Part II."

Bonus:
BPP Book Club meets online
Sign up for BPP Book Club alerts

Laura Conaway

8:03 AM ET | 05- 6-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post

Book Club Meets: 'Truth, Cruelty & the American Way'

Filed under: Book Club

Read any good books lately?

Update: Aryn Kyle takes your questions on the BPP.

Welcome to the online meeting of the BPP Book Club. We want to hear what you think of our latest selection, Aryn Kyle's The God of Animals, so lay it on us in the comments.

Next week, we'll use what we hear from you when we sit down to interview Kyle on the air.

A couple of days ago, we chatted about the book with listener and reader Seth Bate, the Kansas guy who dared to buy a book by a woman about horses, about some thoughts that he first sent over in an e-mail message titled "Truth, Cruelty and the American Way."

Want to join us for our next selection? Sign up for BPP Book Club alerts.

Sarah Goodyear

6:05 AM ET | 05- 2-2008 | permalink | comments (31) | e-mail post

Can't Judge a Book by the Woman on Its Cover

Filed under: Book Club

Karen Heller calls this cover "literal and beyond cliche."

Update: Book Club meeting online

Remember the debate we had a couple of weeks back about whether there's such a thing as a "woman's book"? The other day in the Philadelphia Inquirer, columnist Karen Heller lamented the way books by women are packaged and marketed, in a piece entitled "These Covers Say Women Are Dumb":

The beautiful book is an increasingly rare thing. Most times you see one, the author is male. What does this say? All women writers deserve generic treatment while all men are special in their own way?

Thanks to @elizs for the tweet.

Don't forget, the BPP Book Club meets online this Friday, May 2, starting bright and early in the morning to discuss this month''s selection, Aryn Kyle's The God of Animals.

Bonus: Sign up for BPP Book Club alerts.

Sarah Goodyear

11:16 AM ET | 05- 1-2008 | permalink | comments (5) | e-mail post

BPP Book Club: Jaw-Dropping Horse Video

Filed under: Book Club, Luncheonette

One of the famously great things about reading is that it opens up worlds you might never otherwise see. In the case of this month's BPP Book Club selection, Aryn Kyle's The God of Animals, it's the world of horse shows. Western horse shows, to be specific.

In one crucial scene, the main character participates in a reining competition -- in which a rider puts a horse through a series of maneuvers including a sliding stop. The key is to be in total communication with the horse.

The scene was so gripping that I wanted to see what reining looks like in real life. Almost immediately I found this remarkable example of a rider named Stacy Westfall, who does something called freestyle reining -- no saddle, no bridle, no reins. The video went viral on YouTube a couple of months ago, earning Westfall an appearance on the Ellen DeGeneres show. It takes a minute or so to really get going, but if you've ever been on the back of a horse -- and maybe if you haven't -- you'll be amazed that what she does is even possible.

Bonus: Sign up for BPP Book Club alerts.

Sarah Goodyear

11:55 AM ET | 04-24-2008 | permalink | comments (7) | e-mail post

Man Walks Into a Bookstore

Filed under: Book Club

Not Seth from Kansas.

iStockphoto

 

When BPP listener and book club member Seth Bate went to his local bookstore to buy our latest selection, Aryn Kyle's The God of Animals, he got a strange reaction from the woman who helped him. She said she had enjoyed the book herself, but was surprised that a man would want to read it. Give a listen to him telling the story, above.

We thought Seth's encounter with the bookseller raised some interesting questions and wanted to throw it open to you. Is there such a thing as a "woman's book?" And if you think there is, do you also think there's such a thing as a "man's book?" What defines those categories? And are you willing to cross gender lines?

Bonus:

Women Read More Than Men
Sign up for BPP Book Club alerts.

Sarah Goodyear

8:20 AM ET | 04-18-2008 | permalink | comments (40) | e-mail post

Alert! Get BPP Book Club Alerts!

Filed under: Book Club

Hey, we're official! The BPP Book Club now has its own e-mail address.

We'd love to start compiling a contact list for those of you who want to get updates about the book club -- new selections, blog entries, all that good stuff.

So drop us a line, and we'll sign you up.

Not sure what this whole book club thing is all about? Check out Alison Stewart's recent interview of Hisham Matar, the author of In the Country of Men, our inaugural selection.

And check out our latest pick, Aryn Kyle's The God of Animals. You've got until Friday, May 2 to finish it; that's when the BPP Book Club meets online.

Sarah Goodyear

11:00 AM ET | 04-11-2008 | permalink | comments (8) | e-mail post

Aryn Kyle Finds Success 'Surreal'

Filed under: Book Club

Aryn Kyle

Simon and Schuster

Thanks to BPP listener Dave Wiley, we bring you an audio interview with Aryn Kyle, the author of our current BPP Book Club selection, The God of Animals. Kyle talked to Colorado Public Radio station KCFR's show Colorado Matters about the process of turning a short story into a novel and dealing with the critical and popular acclaim for her debut. She says the book's success "still seems so surreal."

Kyle's official website is here. And we dug up a little blurb Kyle wrote before her book came out for an online publication called Conversely. In it, she talks about her inability to climb a rope in gym class (I could never do that either) and describes her post-MFA life in Missoula, Mont.:

I'm hoping that if I just hang around long enough, I will realize what it is that I'm supposed to do with my life. In the meantime, I'm working on a novel, begging money from my (incredibly generous) parents, and calculating the number of decades it is going to take me to repay my student loans.

Seems like she got at least some of that figured out.

Hey, we're official! The BPP Book Club now has its own e-mail address.

Sarah Goodyear

12:30 PM ET | 04- 8-2008 | permalink | comments (4) | e-mail post

BPP Book Club: Part Deux

Filed under: Book Club

Aryn Kyle'sThe God of Animals

Our book club selection for the month of April is Aryn Kyle's The God of Animals, a coming-of-age story set in the American West. Alice Winston is a 12-year-old girl growing up on a ranch in Desert Valley, Colorado. Book Club leader Sarah Goodyear says the book had her from the first paragraph:

Six months before Polly Cain drowned in the canal, my sister, Nona, ran off and married a cowboy. My father said there was a time when he would have been able to stop her, and I wasn't sure if he meant a time in our lives when she would have listened to him, or a time in history when the Desert Valley Sheriff's Posse would have been allowed to chase after her with torches and drag her back to our house by her yellow hair. My father had been a member of the sheriff's posse since before I was born, and he said that the group was pretty much the same as the Masons, except without the virgin sacrifices. They paid dues, rode their horses in parades, and directed traffic at the rodeo where my sister met her cowboy. Only once in a great while were they called upon for a task of real importance, like clearing a fallen tree from a hunting trail, or pulling a dead girl out of the canal.

It's out in paperback and also available as an audiobook and for your Kindle, if you've got one. Grab a copy and read along with us.

The next book club meeting happens Friday, May 2. Get to reading!

Hey, we're official! The BPP Book Club now has its own e-mail address.

Tricia McKinney

12:00 PM ET | 04- 4-2008 | permalink | comments (14) | e-mail post

Now in Session: The BPP Book Club

Filed under: Book Club

iStockphoto

 

All right, so it's time to talk. If you've read our inaugural BPP Book Club selection, Hisham Matar's In the Country of Men, here's your chance to let us know what you think. We'll be looking for your comments, questions, complaints and suggestions all day long, and we're planning to use your input when we talk to the author later this week.

Haven't finished the book yet? Don't let that stop you. This is not a test.

Hey, we're official! The BPP Book Club now has its own e-mail address.

Sarah Goodyear

8:36 AM ET | 04- 1-2008 | permalink | comments (39) | e-mail post

Listener Checks In: Read That Book

Filed under: Book Club

Hisham Matar's In the Country of Men

If you haven't yet read the BPP Book Club selection for March, Hisham Matar's In the Country of Men, it's time to get cracking.

We're having the online meeting on Tuesday, April 1, with Hisham Matar himself soon to follow on the show.

Meanwhile, Dave Hollis of of Hamilton, N.Y.'s Radio Free Hamilton, checks in to say that he read the book while lying in a fever state. And he liked it a lot.

Catching a bug for a couple of days might or might not work for you, as a strategy. Me, I'm hoping to read it on the plane to Nevada later this week.

Hey, we're official! The BPP Book Club now has its own e-mail address.

Laura Conaway

3:35 PM ET | 03-24-2008 | permalink | comments (9) | e-mail post

BPP Book Club: Ready to Talk?

Filed under: Book Club

Hisham Matar's In the Country of Men

(UPDATE, 04.01.08: The BPP Book Club is now in session.)

The ancient tale of Scheherazade -- in which a beautiful woman saves her own neck by spinning tales for a murderous sultan -- is sometimes seen as symbolic of the civilizing power of the feminine. But in Hisham Matar's In the Country of Men, the inaugural BPP Book Club selection, the mother of the 9-year-old narrator -- herself a furious prisoner of an increasingly repressive society -- has quite a different take on the story:

Nothing angered Mama more than the story of Scheherazade. I had always thought Scheherazade a brave woman who had gained her freedom through inventing tales and often, in moments of great fear, recalled her example.

"You should find yourself another model," Mama once began. "Scheherazade was a coward who accepted slavery over death."

Our online discussion of the book is coming up on March 28, a week from Friday, but I'm hoping to talk to some of you who have been reading it -- about the cowardice of Scheherazade or any other aspect of the book. Drop a line in the comments if you're up for that, and we can set up a time for a quick audio interview.

Hey, we're official! The BPP Book Club now has its own e-mail address.

Sarah Goodyear

1:55 PM ET | 03-18-2008 | permalink | comments (9) | e-mail post

UPDATE: For Dissidents, Libya Grim as Ever

Filed under: Book Club

Former Libyan political prisoner Fathi al-Jahmi

Mahmud Turkia/AFP/Getty Images

Our inaugural BPP Book Club selection, Hisham Matar's In the Country of Men, is set in Libya in 1979, a time when the country was ostracized by much of the international community.

In the last couple of years, though, the United States has reestablished full diplomatic relations with Libya, responding to Muammar Qaddafi's pledge to give up his pursuit of weapons of mass destruction, as well as his sponsorship of international terrorism.

But what is the situation like for dissidents inside Libya? For some, at least, it is as grim as ever, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW).

Take the case of Fathi al-Jahmi, a 66-year-old Libyan who was imprisoned for, among other things, calling for free elections in Libya. Initially arrested in 2002, al-Jahmi is said by authorities to finally have been released this week.

Continue reading "UPDATE: For Dissidents, Libya Grim as Ever" »

Sarah Goodyear

11:08 AM ET | 03-11-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

BPP Book Club: An American in Tripoli

Filed under: Book Club

Libya in 2005

Courtesy of Michael J. Totten

For much of the last 40 years, Libya -- setting of the BPP's inaugural book club selection, In the Country of Men -- has been an enigma to Americans.

But in 2004, restrictions on the use of U.S. passports to travel to the country were lifted. One of the first people who took advantage of the opportunity to travel there was freelance journalist Michael J. Totten, who wrote about his trip in the LA Weekly. His piece details an atmosphere of oppression and lethargy. It's not exactly what the Libyan tourism industry would have commissioned:

Tripoli's aesthetic brutality hurt me.

Continue reading "BPP Book Club: An American in Tripoli" »

Sarah Goodyear

12:21 PM ET | 03- 6-2008 | permalink | comments (4) | e-mail post

BPP Book Club: The Story Behind the Story

Filed under: Book Club

Hisham Matar's In the Country of Men

Our inaugural BPP Book Club selection, In the Country of Men, tells the story of a young boy coming of age in Moammar Gadhafi's Libya in the late 1970s. It is a tale haunted by political violence; the boy's father, a member of the resistance, is continually under threat.

For the book's author, Hisham Matar, that milieu has a deeply personal meaning. While the book is not strictly autobiographical, Matar's own father was active against the Gadhafi government. In 1990, he was abducted from his home in exile in Cairo and taken to a Libyan prison. His family has not seen him since, and his fate remains unknown.

Matar tells the story of his father's disappearance in a moving essay from the Independent of London, published in 2006:

To this day, every knock on the door could be my father. But the only way in which he visits unannounced is in dreams. I dream of him frequently. He sometimes comes as a young man; other times, wounded by his prison torturers. Most recently, his visit was so vivid, I am yet to recover from it. He was an old man, the age he should be now, and had the reticence of someone accustomed to solitude. He had acquired new habits, new manners of speech: attaching the phrase "you see?" at the end of every other sentence. His character has been coloured by his companions, I thought jealously in my dream. He spoke briefly, courteously, the way a fellow train passenger might do to pass away the time. When I placed my hand on his shoulder, he fell silent.

Not quite a month from now -- Friday, March 28th -- we'll have our book club meeting online. We'll generate some questions for the author. Then we'll talk to the author on our radio show and give you a chance to have your questions answered.

Hey, we're official! The BPP Book Club now has its own e-mail address.

Sarah Goodyear

10:16 AM ET | 03- 4-2008 | permalink | comments (8) | e-mail post

The BPP Book Club Begins!

Filed under: Book Club

Hisham Matar's In the Country of Men

We think you're so smart that we're starting a Bryant Park Project Book Club. Today.

Here's how it works. We'll pick a book and give you all a month to read it. The book club leader, Sarah Goodyear, will periodically post on our blog to remind us to keep reading, to give us stuff to think about and to field your questions.

One month from today--Friday, March 28th--we'll have our book club meeting online. Sarah will moderate a discussion about the book, and we'll generate some questions for the author.

Then we'll talk to the author on our radio show and give you a chance to have your questions answered.

Our first selection is. .. Hisham Matar's In the Country of Men. It's genius, like you. And it just came out in paperback. Go get it.

Hey, we're official! The BPP Book Club now has its own e-mail address.

Tricia McKinney

10:12 AM ET | 02-29-2008 | permalink | comments (20) | e-mail post