Who's ready for another Book Menage? I am!
My librarian and reader's advisor friends tell me escapist fare is hot this summer, so I say we go the other way with our Menage. I'm pulling executive privilege* and announcing that our two books for this round will be Tom Bissell's The Father of All Things: A Marine, His Son, and the Legacy of Vietnam (you knew I was going to make you read it eventually) and Michael Perry's Population 485: Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren at a Time. You know the drill: we read two books (as compared to all those other wussy book groups where they only read one), we come back here, we talk.
Now, arguably, the Perry could be considered escapist fare. But it's so much more than that. And what are the connections between these two books? Well, largely, these are two men that I think you should get to know, as they are stupendous. Also, they are both memoirs that explain what it means to be connected, both to a place and to a history, and what that means (for good and bad) to our relationships.
So the only thing that remains to be decided is who gets a free set of these books (I'll have my lovely assistant Mr. CR pick a name from the last Menage for me later) and when we should start. Why don't we start on Monday, July 20? That's a good five weeks out. Sound like a plan?
AND PLEASE NOTE: Anyone who participates in the Menage is entered in the drawing to get the two books for the next Menage, absolutely free! So join us and invite a friend; the more the merrier.
*Everybody's suggestions last time for future book pairings were great, and we'll use them for our next Menage, like maybe a couple of travel books or a bio/memoir mix.