Hi Mary,
Well, I've decided that I'll volunteer for next month. I'm choosing The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom. :D --not too long, short enough.

ana | June 11, 2004 1:44 PM

I'll take August with Neil Gaiman's "Coraline" if no else has dibs. (On August or the book. :-) )

Joel | June 13, 2004 8:10 AM

Thanks for volunteering!

The The Five People You Meet in Heaven discussion will start on July 26th. Tuesdays with Morrie has been in my TBR pile forever. I'm glad this will get me to finally read a Mitch Albom book.

The Coraline discussion will start on August 23rd. Love Neil Gaiman!

marydell | June 13, 2004 10:19 AM

Oy! Neil Gaimen. The only thing I have ever read of his is one paragraph...16 of the greatest sentences ever written. I keep them posted on my bulletin board at work. Chew on this:

"Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn't it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up. You build up these defenses, you build this whole suit of armor, so that nothing can hurt you, then one stupid person, no different from any other stupid person, wanders into your stupid life. You give them a piece of you. They didn't ask for it. They do something dumb one day, like kiss you or simle at you, and then your life isn't your own anymore. Love takes hostages. It gets inside you. It eats you out and leaves you crying in the darkness, so working its way into your heart. It hurts. Not just in the imagination. Not just in the mind. It's a soul-hurt, a body-hurt, a real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain. I hate love."

barbara | June 14, 2004 10:44 AM

Great paragraph indeed. :) Is it from Sandman? Coroline is a children's book of sorts. I've had it on my shelf for a while and keep passing it over in favor of other things; kids books seem to be something everyone needs/has time for right now, so...

I really enjoyed Tuesdays with Morrie and I'm looking forward to Five People You Meet In Heaven.

Joel | June 17, 2004 8:37 AM

Yeah! Screw love! Who needs it?

[weep]

Oh, Barbara. It's so true. I know that if I had that posted on my board at work, someone might come along and say something to me, which I'd take the wrong way and retort: "Yeah, well you're stupid like every other stupid person and you're not going to take me hostage! I'm not going to let you eat my heart and rip up my mind or whatever! I hate love."

I have a nasty habit of butchering quotes...

amy | June 17, 2004 10:48 AM

Joel, I am sorry that I can't tell you where the quote comes from....I was planning a bridal shower and looking for quotes about love when I just came across it somewhere in cyberspace (do people still use the word cyberspace?)

Amy, posting that quote near my desk at work has been a great way to keep the field crew guys from asking me out. It's only slightly more subtle than waving a banner that says "Bitter Spinster."

barbara | June 17, 2004 2:29 PM

Hello,
I'd be happy to moderate an upcoming book. Let me ask around in the library and I'll suggest a book for September. I'll have to get better on the dates. For some reason, I though that WIT discussion started on Monday. *ACK*

manda | June 26, 2004 12:12 PM

Books for September:

I've got a couple of suggestions for September. Both are Pulitzer Prize winners. The first in "All the King's Men". I haven't read it, but had always wanted to do so. It has a recently released expanded version with about 100 pages of material edited out of the 1946 version.

"The Known World" won the 2004 Pulitzer prize for fiction. I don't know a lot about it, just that it is set in Virginia. It's about a former slave who is also a slave owner.

Should I keep looking?

manda | July 16, 2004 10:39 AM

Okay, I've got September's book. Fannie Flagg's book Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe. It's a piece of fiction that I've been meaning to read since I saw the movie last decade!

manda | July 21, 2004 3:24 PM

Thanks, Manda! I finally have some time and will put it up.

marydell | July 26, 2004 9:09 PM