The life of Tiberius

At the Dallas Museum of Art until October, you can see artifacts from the time of I, Claudius.

“The remarkable exhibition presents the lifestyle of the very wealthy and powerful Roman elite. It is the best preserved concentration of first century B.C. and A.D. elite seaside villas in the entire Mediterranean world.”

Thanks to Preston for discovering this timely supplement to our literary adventures. Field trip, anyone?

Start scheming

There are now eight nominations for the Great Choosing of Books. You could begin thinking now about which titles you might add to the list.

A veritable cousin of the yeti

South American legends of the mapinguary―a slothlike creature that can make you dizzy and turn day into night―possibly reflect real encounters with a prehistoric ground sloth bigger than a modern elephant.

Salon’s literary guide to the world

Wouldn’t it be cool if there was a travel guide devoted not to restaurants, hotels and museums, but to the literature of a place?

A critic reviews the site.

The next Great Choosing

We will choose six more books not at our next meeting in August but at our September 14 meeting. Please start considering which books you would like to nominate. We will each propose four books, and the everyone’s choices will be on the ballot for September 14.

When you have decided upon your four books, please let me know and I will post them on the blog ahead of time. The sooner they are posted, the more familiar everyone will be with them and the more likely people may be to vote for them. I have created a page where these choices will be posted (see the link at right named “The Great Choosing”).

If George Orwell were in a band…

None of our writers were on this list, so I’ve done my own hypothesizing. Can you guess which of our authors would be in which band?

Fur Waistcoats
Horrible Atmosphere
Moose Steak
Border Lords
Male Dress
Blindfolded Man
Dead Monks
Robust Anarchist

Mark and George

I came across an interesting essay exploring the relationship between Mark Twain and George MacDonald.

Change of plans

Supply lines have been broken, and we must postpone our next meeting until June 22. We will be meeting at our usual time (7:00 pm) at Brandon’s house to discuss Joan of Arc.

It is clear from some of our members’ difficulty in procuring the book that it is our most obscure choice yet. Bravo, Frugal Chariots!

Books to read before you die

Whether or not you agree with the list, or even the idea of such a list, this nifty spreadsheet is great fun for bookworms.

Back to Alaska?

I feel like Alaska has become something of a homeland for our group. How about a crime novel based on an alternate imagining of history, set in Alaska, involving Orthodox Jews? And Chabon is a great writer.

“…what if, as Franklin Roosevelt proposed on the eve of World War II, a temporary Jewish settlement had been established on the Alaska panhandle?”