Before devouring that turkey and going into a food coma on the couch, give a little thanks for great books. Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanks to everyone who participated in the discussion (still ongoing, so jump in late if you've had a busy week or something) of A Home at the End of the World.

A follow-up question related to the book: A couple of people mentioned during the discussion that the novel was not being their favorite book ever, or even a book they liked, but still mentioned that it was a worthwhile read.

I thought about that, and I'm wondering, what do you take away from this book, whether or not you liked it? What lingers in your mind, if anything, days or weeks after you put it down?

And, on a larger level, and for those of you who didn't read (ahem), what do you generally take away from books that you've read?

Soon many people will know A Home at the End of the World from its screen adaptation (as we discussed). This is the second time I've read the novel, and I've found it to be quickly inhabitable and deeply absorbing, even though I know what's coming next in terms of the plot.

In a review of The Hours, The New York Times says both AHATEOTW and Cunningham's first novel "are remarkable for the intensity with which their characters experience their own strangeness -- as if to be ordinary were an accomplishment, only rarely within reach." That's a perfect, if ambiguous, definition, I think, for a book that's very ambiguous. Or maybe it's perfectly clear.

What did you all think?

Other thoughts to kick off the discussion:

• How did you like Michael Cunningham's use of language? What about his metaphors? The book is almost poetic in many places for me; as a writer, I aspire to this level of writing and depth of vocabulary. Still, there were times when the language didn't work as well. For example, when he'd repeat a relatively underused word ("flesh" is a good example), I'd recall its earlier usage and that tended to pull me out of the narrative.
  
  
• The narrative structure, with the chapters alternately narrated by each of the four main characters, works well here for me. However, I don't think you can really tell the difference between each voice (if you opened the book to a random page, you'd have no idea who was narrating). That may be intentional, but I found it hurt my understanding of the characters on an admittedly more surface level. For example, when Jonathan first makes fun of Alice's accent, I just wasn't convinced, because I hadn't imagined her as having an accent at all. Does the novel's structure work? What did this technique reveal about the characters for you?
  
  
• If anything, this novel works for me on an emotional level. That decreases slightly in each of the three parts, so I think the first is definitely the strongest. And as mentioned above, I think the narrative structure ultimately enhances the emotional depth. Is this novel emotionally honest?
  
  
• Are the novel's depictions of different types of friendship, love, and family realistic? Or is this more of a gritty fantasy?
  
  

Our discussion of A Home at the End of the World starts next Monday, but I just wanted to check in.

I hope everyone's been able to at least begin to explore Michael Cunningham's prose, and hopefully get lost in some of it. This is my second time reading the novel, and although I know the plot, it's even better this time, because I can just revel in his use of language.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Hope you're all enjoying it, or at least formulating arguments about why it sucks. We'll converse soon.

Just when we thought interest in our Gender Genie was about to die out, Alexander Chancellor of The Guardian wrote a column about it:

Given the Gender Genie's hopeless record in identifying the sex of the Guardian's women columnists, it is tempting to write it off as a piece of rubbish. But it's not quite possible to do that, for its guesses have proven accurate in 72% of cases, which may be less than the 80% claimed, but is quite impressive all the same.

The genie also did a tour of political blogs after getting mentions on InstaPundit, Andrew Sullivan, Dynamist, and National Review Online's The Corner. Of all of them, though, I think I most appreciate the endorsement from Allah Is in the House. Even a higher power enjoys the genie. [Thanks to BarCodeKing for the heads up.]

And, finally, welcome to all the NaNoWriMo participants who have been stopping by, plugging in their works in progress, and reporting their results. Please note, though, that although the Gender Genie will take a guess at the gender of your writing style, it cannot tell you whether or not your novel will be published. Perhaps I should blow the dust off the plans for the Your-Writing-Sucks Genie.

Hello, my name’s Amy and I’m a new (official) bookblogger. I’m 25 years old and living in Vermont. I’ve always had a love of reading. I can remember when I was young, I would spend my summer days on a farm devouring Babysitter’s Club and then moving on to the R.L. Stine/Christopher Pike scary books. Oh man, the Fear Street books were the best. Stine had titles like The Snowman ("A cold blooded killer."), The Girlfriend ("When she was good, she was very good... but when she was bad, she was murder.") and don't forget The Dead Girlfriend ("She loves him. She loves him NOT."). While these books were considered Stephen-King-in-Training, I’m not into horror now that I’m older. Must have gotten it all out of my system by the age of 12.

I like books that take imagination to read. Neil Gaiman is at the top of my favorite authors list. The Sandman series is the most impressive, wonderful, awesome and remarkable story I’ve ever read. AND it’s a comic book. I’m very into graphic novels. The first graphic novel I ever read was the Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind Collection by Hayao Miyazaki (director/creator of Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away). More favorite authors: Charles Bukowski, Hubert Selby Jr., Phillip Pullman, Garth Nix, David Sedaris, Tom Robbins, Alexander McCall Smith, Chris Ware and (when I want trashy beach reading) Nora Roberts. I love all books.

Peace!

I hope everyone had a spooky yet safe and fun Halloween. Now that October is over, the holiday season is just about upon us. Discussions normally take place during the last full week of each month, but Thanksgiving and Christmas both fall during that time. As a result, the next two discussions have been moved up to the following dates:

November 17, 2003, for A Home at the End of the World by Michael Cunningham
December 15, 2003, for Watch Your Mouth by Daniel Handler

In January, we'll return to our regular schedule.

I've placed my copy of this month's book right on top of my barely cracked open copy of The Diamond Age and I swear I'm going to find the time to read both of them. I hope you do, too.