Connie Willis: To Say Nothing of the Dog

One Word Summary: Redundancy

More Words: You know that dizzy feeling you get when you watch "His Girl Friday" or "Bringing up Baby"? This book is funny and zany in the same way. If you're old, like me, read this in small doses. Otherwise it's marvellous.

Plot Summary: Someone brought something back through time. It's an anomaly. It's supposed to be impossible. It could ruin the universe as we know it. Ned Henry is sent to correct the problem, only he's time-lagged and has no idea what he's doing in Victorian England. Luckily he has a Naiad to help. These are their misadventures trying to save the day.

Questions:
Why do time travel novels inevitably deal with fate and destiny?

Why is everyone so down on the Victorians?

Why don't I like mystery novels?

Other Books:

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe by Douglas Adams

Audrey Neffenegger: The Time Travellers Wife

One Word Summary: Streakers demystified.
More Words: An alternative title for this book could be Hip & Avant Garde in the Early '90s for dummies. Seriously, it's practically a how to manual, complete with a play list, a reading list, a menu, a dress code,and a 'garden variety Marxist' ideology. Unfortunately my IQ is barely above average, I don't know any German (except Die Bart! Die), I never read poetry, and I was pathetic in high school. So, yeah, aside from the Love Story and the Time Travelling this book is really about a bunch of upper middle class kids being ironic... er... cliche... er... down on the man. I really liked it when Mrs. Kim prepared 'some sort of casserole with corn flakes', because up until then no one ate anything I would ever touch. Alright, so those are all my gripes. And guess what? I liked this book. I like that Neffenegger thanked the tax payers of Chicago for making it possible for her to write this book. I wonder how long she spent thinking and researching and writing. I've spent days thinking about this book.

Censorship: There is a lot of foul language. There is a lot of drug and alcohol use. There is a lot of sex. Around the time I was thinking: "Hey these kids are having a lot of sex", Clare said "You know, sometimes I can't even sit down". I'm not excited for my daughter to read this until she's in college. I'm not really excited to have a sit down lesson on sexual terminology. And really I'd prefer she look higher for ideas.
Quotes:

I can't believe I'm feeling jealous of a multimillionaire rock star geezer
old enough to be Clare's dad. p64

Running is many things to me, survival, calmness, euphoria, solitude. It is
proof of my corporeal existence, my ability to control my movement through space
if not time, and the obedience, however temporary of my body to my will.
p154

But you make me happy. It's living up to being happy that's the difficult
part.

Questions:

• What came first, the chicken or the egg?
• When did Clare choose Henry?
• Is it fair for Henry to tell Clare that he's coming back?
• What if Henry didn't exist?
• Why does Clare draw a self portrait as her first foray back into Art?
• What was the purpose of the interlude with the baby punks?
• What is The Chronicles of Nawat Wuzzer Hyderbed? Why does the author refer to it 3x?
• Is ignorance bliss?
• Do you believe in choice? Fate? Time Travel?
• The book group questions at the back of the book probe a little into Gender Issues and Roles. Why? Is there some sort of higher meaning coded into the fact that Henry is very Masculine AND likes to cook? Am I missing something about the nature of romantic love?
• If Clare is a Kitten, what animal is Henry? How about Gomez?
• Do you think their precocious daughter, what her name, is annoying too?

List:

• Homer's Odyssey
• Tristan and Iseult
• Selkie Folklore
• Marie de France
• E Aquitaine