August Meeting Wrap-Up

For those of you who came here looking for the post with the nominees that weren't chosen during the last selection, since I have a feeling that post is about to be knocked off the bottom of the page by this post, here is a permalink to that post. You will find synopses both for the books that weren't chosen and the books which were chosen, so out of those, the ones we are being asked to consider now for voting by e-mail are:

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
Just Kids by Patti Smith
Parrot and Olivier in America by Peter Carey
Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Wells
Mr. Pip by Lloyd James

I just realized that Let the Great World Spin is not in the original post because it was nominated at the meeting and not before, so here is a link to a synopsis of that. Also, we have a nomination by Nancy for consideration of Room by Emma Donoghue, so here is a link for that. Peggy would like to have us pick our 4 favorites and reply no later than Sunday, August, 21, 2011, by email or by phone. I don't want to post her email and phone here on the internet (for anti-spam reasons), but if you don't have them, add a comment to this post stating so, and I will send them to you.

Followup to City of Thieves: A Russian Movie Recommendation, "Ballad of a Soldier"














For those of you who don't mind subtitled movies, a Russian movie from 1959 that you might enjoy is "Ballad of a Soldier." It is available on Netflix and is not as "heavy" as a lot of Russian movies, also the hero of that story physically looks what I imagine the character "Kolya" to look like. In the movie, the hero's name is "Alyosha," (diminutive of Alexei). He is out on recon one day at the front, and he and his partner stumble across German tanks. Impulsively and in a panic, Alyosha picks up an anti-tank gun and scores a direct hit on two tanks, incapacitating them. For his "bravery," his commanding officer proposes him for a medal. Alyosha asks instead for leave for a couple of days to visit his mother on the collective farm because her roof has been leaking and he wants to repair the roof. The officer agrees, but since he knows travel in wartime will be difficult, he grants Alyosha 6 days: 2 days to get there, 2 days to fix the roof, and 2 days to get back. The film then follows Alyosha on his journey where: 1) transportation is even more messed up than his commanding officer imagined, and 2) Alyosha is such a friendly and helpful guy he can't help getting involved in the lives of the people he meets along the way. That is all I can say about the plot in case any of you want to watch it.