BPP Book Club Intros Next Pick: 'Petropolis'

MIKE PESCA, host:

Well, it's time for the fourth go-round of the BPP Book Club. We kicked off the club with Hisham Matar's "In the Country of Men." Then, we read Aryn Kyle's "The God of Animals." And we just finished up Neil Gaiman's "Anansi Boys." So men, God, and boys, maybe there's a trend? Maybe from this we can suss out what the fourth book will be?

So this is the question. What will BPP Book Club members be reading at the beach in their hammocks, while riding mass transit, maybe while pretending to do their work in their cramped cubicles? Here with us now, BPP Book club moderator Sarah Goodyear with the stunning announcement. The next selection of the BPP Book Club is, Sarah?

SARAH GOODYEAR: It is "Petropolis" by Anya Ulinich.

PESCA: Not "Petropolis Dudes" or "The Petropolis Fellas," just "Petropolis"?

GOODYEAR: Just "Petropolis," yep. And it's - Anya Ulinich is a Russian writer who lives in the United States. She wrote this book in English, and it's about a mail-order bride who came to Arizona from the former Soviet Union and her adventures trying to figure out her life. She was born in a town called Asbestos 2, which is not actually a real place, but it's a very funny, very witty book.

PESCA: Good.

GOODYEAR: And...

PESCA: It's got some good fish-out-of-water elements, always a crowd pleaser.

GOODYEAR: Absolutely, and it's just really funny, and original, and different, very different from the other books that we've read.

PESCA: Would you care to read us a passage?

GOODYEAR: I would love to. This is our - heroine Sasha is in Arizona where she is engaged to be married to Neal, and she is on her way to her ESL class.

(Reading) Sasha waits for the bus in the four-inch-wide shadow of a telephone pole, half hidden from the street. In a city where no one walks, the motorists sometimes celebrate the unusual occurrence of a pedestrian by flinging objects. So far, Sasha has had an ice-cube and a soda can thrown at her. Neither hit, and Sasha didn't say anything about it to Neal, afraid that he would insist she stay home during the week. Sasha knows that, to Neal, her use of public transportation is an unusual and potentially dangerous hobby, a third-world anachronism he wishes she would give up. Not that he's ever offered to teach her to drive or let her use the car.

So, there it is. That's a little taste of what you're going to be getting. The rules are, you have until July 9th, when we are going to have our next online discussion. And then, we'll talk with the author Anya Ulinich, and it's out in paperback. It is not available on Kindle. It is not available as an audio book.

PESCA: That's means our producer Trish McKinney can't cheat.

GOODYEAR: Yes, this is an old-school reading experience, but the great thing about this technology, this paperback technology, is that you take it to the beach, you can drop it in the surf, you can roll it around in the sand, and it's still legible.

PESCA: And still literary, which is good.

GOODYEAR: Yes.

PESCA: Thank you, Sarah Goodyear, the moderator of the BPP Book Club. The new book is "Petropolis" by Anya Ulinich. Great reading, and we'll see you online on Wednesday, July 9th.

GOODYEAR: Thank you.

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