Next Book

After considering a full slate of books, the club selected White Noise, by Don DeLillo-- a post-modern story of something amiss in a small college town in middle America (a mysterious illness, etc.). The book was the 1985 National Book Award winner and, interestingly, Amazon also sells several reading and teaching guides for the book, so it appears there's quite a bit to think about. One review online calls it DeLillo at his "dark, hilarious best." The book is 320 pages.

One idea that was raised at the meeting was to use the book club as a means to enlighten members about the Philadelphia Free Library, and to encourage members to take advantage of this great resource. If you'd like to help out Philadelphia's public libraries, please consider borrowing our next book club selection from your local branch and donating the money that you would have spent on the book to your local library. Elaine and Dan can give more specifics on how to donate at the meeting, if you are interested.

If you'd like to borrow from the library, Elaine checked and there should be around 11 available copies in various formats listed in the online catalog. It's ridiculously easy to put them on hold if you have a library card and pin number:

-The URL is www.library.phila.gov; you go to the blue box marked "Find" and click catalog, then enter.
-Type in the name of the book; there will be a link in blue above the title that says "place hold."
-Enter your library card number and pin and specify the branch from which you would like to pick up the book. A letter goes out from the branch when the book comes in.

You can always check your account online to see if the book has arrived yet. Elaine estimates the average wait time is about a week-- sometimes a little less, sometimes a little more.

Meeting Details
Elaine and Justin kindly offered to host our next meeting on Sunday, 9 September at 6:00. They live at 735 South 4th Street (between Monroe and Fitzwater). According to Elaine, there is an ugly satellite dish attached to the house which is hard to miss. No doorbell, but they can easily hear people knocking. Call my or Josh's cell if you have any issues finding the place.

Also, just a fair warning that Elaine and Justin do have several feline roommates; if you're allergic, you may want to make sure you take your Zyrtec that day. They've had guests in the past with cat allergies who seem to do just fine, but wanted to make you aware.

I assume we'll return to our potluck format; if you can tell me what you'll be bringing, Josh and I will ensure we have everything we need. If someone would like to bring paper plates, forks, etc. that would be great (again, let me know-- we only will need one person on utensil duty).

Philly Book Club 9 Blog
As a reminder, Josh had created a blog for our club so that members can post thoughts, comments, etc. You can also subscribe to an RSS feed so as to be notified when someone posts a comment, etc. (I don't think it would be an egregious number of emails in your inbox).