Author Connections

I've just started reading Ann Patchett's Run (only on Chapter 4, but very much enjoying it). Ann Patchett, for those of you who attended the last meeting, is the author of Bel Canto, reviewed by my sister (for those of you who didn't attend, I promise, cross my heart and hope to die... well, maybe just cross my heart, that I'll get the update posted). I checked out her website, and saw a link to non-fiction book she wrote - Truth and Beauty. It's about her friendship with Lucy Grealy, the author of a Virginia-reviewed (IBC 5) book, Autobiography of a Face, written after Lucy passed away from cancer. I haven't read it yet, but there's an interesting article and interview here about the flap raised when Truth and Beauty was assigned for a course at Clemson, and Ann's subsequent speech there (including a clip from the speech).

Books that make you dumb

It's been a while since I've posted and I've still not started the update from the November meeting (although I have the copious notes in some indiscernible form). I came across this on the bookslut.com blog, and thought I'd post it here. When I read the title, a lot of books immediately came to mind - but not in the way they're presented here. I don't know about the rest of you, but the more sleep-deprived I am, the more stupid I get... there have been a number of books I've read recently that kept me up late into the night/early into the morning - Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, Kim Edwards' The Memory Keeper's Daughter, and the Brother Cadfael mysteries by Ellis Peters. But that's not the purpose of this study...

This study correlates the most popular books at different universities with the average SAT scores at said universities. Relevant? probably not. Useful? not likely. Entertaining? I thought so... Books that make you dumb.

See you at the next meeting, coming up on February 10!