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I like the idea of the Capote book -- i've only ever read his short stories, and they're just stunning. (And I recently read To Kill a Mockingbird for the first time...according to the one movie I saw (Capote), Harper Lee was a friend of his.)Or the James bio. Not the one on Iraq though. "All beings are the owners of their deeds, the heirs to their deeds." Loricat's Book NookCelebrating the Absurd

The movie was very good.My daughter is in rehearsal for the role of "Scout" at a local theater group in NJ. She is very excited about getting this role. This is her first dramatic role and we are very proud of her for taking it so seriously.Mr. P. I'm not saying it's usual for people to do those things but I(with the permission of God) have raised a dog from the dead and healed many people from all sorts of ailments. - Asana Boditharta (former booktalk troll)The one thing of which I am positive is that there is much of which to be negative - Mr. P.What is all this shit about Angels? Have you heard this? 3 out of 4 people believe in Angels. Are you F****** STUPID? Has everybody lost their mind? - George CarlinI came to kick ass and chew Bubble Gum...and I am all out of Bubble Gum - They Live, Roddy PiperEdited by: misterpessimistic  at: 2/5/07 9:26 am

Loricat, did you like To Kill a Mockingbird? That's one of those books I've read so many times I can't remember the first time I read it. I'm jealous of people who are first discovering it. I highly recommend the movie if you haven't seen it yet.

Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, like Jack London's Call of the Wild and White Fang, introduced me to what it means to fall in love with a story and be held in its grip...as well as sparking a lifelong companionship with books, libraries, and bookstores. Gregory Peck's Atticus Finch was the most decent and brave adult I'd ever come into contact with: sensitive, serious, compassionate, courageous, tolerant, attentive, wise, articulate, willing to take an unpopular stand at enormous cost and risk in order to do the right thing, protecting the outsider and outcast. And what about Robert Duvall as Boo Radley? A long way from Tom Hagen on the Godfather, or Frank Burns on MASH, or Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore on Apocalypse Now or Augustus "Gus" McCrae on Lonesome Dove....and I think Duvall's Gus is a beautiful rendition of the very best of Peck's Atticus.Has anybody ever considered the influence of Atticus Finch on Mayberry's Andy Taylor?

Mr. P., congrats to your daughter for landing such a plum role. One of my favorite delivered lines in cinema is Mary Badham's (Scout's) "Hey Boo" at the end of To Kill a Mockingbird. Just an uninvited suggestion, if you don't mind. If she hasn't already seen the movie yet, don't show it to her until after the production. I've found when I directed children their interpretations of characters are more genuine if they aren't mimicking what they've seen before.As for Peck's Atticus, D.H., that's when I first started crushing on father figures. I loved the character when I read the book, but always pictured my own dad in the part. Then when I saw the movie, and Peck is well just yummy, I immediately fell in "crush." To this day I attribute that male/instructor crush to Gregory Peck's Atticus Finch.I agree about Duvall too; he just melts into any role.

In the face of rapid and profound changes in gender roles in contemporary western society, men have been left behind. And while women engage in new and ever-growing social and professional circles, men are largely still confined to the same circles as a century ago. Research and writing that explored the resolution of women's new roles have largely ignored their male counterparts. In 1995, Rebecca Walker compiled essays by some leading women/gender study writers, To Be Real: Telling the Truth and Changing the Face of Feminism. In it writers (both male and female) readdressed and reexamined how their feminist pursuits defined, and perhaps limited, the personal.Ten years later, Walker has compiled a book by male, and some female, writers who wish to explore the definition of masculine in a similar light. Here is an excerpt from Walker's introduction of What Makes a Man: 22 Writers Imagine the Future:Quote:There is a war being waged on boys, and it starts before they are even born. It is a war against vulnerability, creativity, individuality, and the mysterious unknown. It is a war against tenderness, empathy, grief, fear, longing, and feeling itself. It is a war against wholeness and psychological integration. In its determination to annihilate the authentic self, it is a war against peace.This war against what is considered feminine that is wounding our sons and brothers, fathers and uncles, is familiar to women, but now we see that it is killing the other half of the planet too. But instead of dying of heartache and botched abortions and breast cancer and sexual trauma and low self-esteem, this half is dying of radiation from modern weaponry, suicidal depression, and a soul-killing obsession with the material. This half is dying of prostate cancer and heart attacks and workaholism and an overwhelming sense of failure, of missing something exceedingly important that they cannot name.Review from Publishers Weekly:Quote:In this literate essay collection, Walker (Black, White and Jewish) brings together male and female writers to ponder the male figure in its various poses: ill, robust, young, aged, confident, emotionally spent. The result is a book that portrays masculinity as a fluid mosaic, giving added resonance to contributor Caitriona Reed's claim that "the Navajo have at least forty-nine gender designations." Elsewhere humor writer Bruce Stockler, in "No Means No," uses agile diction to portray the frenetic schedule and social stigma attached to being a stay-at-home dad

Salt by Mark Kurlansky is a very good book -- warps your mind a little, as pretty soon everything is about salt. I like the sound of the Nurture Assumption and Deep Economy. Just my two cents... "All beings are the owners of their deeds, the heirs to their deeds." Loricat's Book NookCelebrating the Absurd

Nick's (misterpessimistic) son seems to be suggesting we read, Captain Underpants And The Preposterous Plight Of The Purple Potty PeopleBook DescriptionWhen we last saw George and Harold, they were about to take their pet pterodactyl Crackers back to the Cretaceous period. But things didn't work out quite as they had hoped. They've entered an absurd alternate reality where teachers are nice, kids are allowed to read banned books, and the cafeteria food doesn't smell like dirty diapers. Even worse, they've discovered alternate versions of themselves--Evil George and Evil Harold--who plan to unleash some preposterous plans on Piqua, Ohio. Now it's up to George and Harold to defeat the evil twins and THEIR superhero, Captain Blunderpants! What do you guys think?

The next book polls need to go up soon, so now would be a great time for all of us to go back through these suggestion threads and look over the book suggestions closely. We don't really need additional suggestions, but we do need further input on the ones we currently have before us.If you suggested a book please sell us on it. All of the short posts without any additional personal endorsement are hard to read or interpret. Tell us why you like a particular book. Tell us why it might be good as a group selection. And also look at other peoples book suggestions and tell us what you think. Would you read their book suggestion if it won? Or does it not appeal to you in the slightest? Narrowing down all these selections is much easier if there are some real explanations accompanying the suggestions. So please share your opinions so we can have an awesome discussion period in 2nd quarter of 2007!

I would have a hard time choosing between:Deep EconomyDancing in the Streets In Cold BloodNone of them sound overwhelming, they're not about Iraq or Religion, and they interest me. "All beings are the owners of their deeds, the heirs to their deeds." Loricat's Book NookCelebrating the Absurd