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You can read all the online book reviews in the world, but nothing beats real-world conversations between readers and authors. In an ongoing effort to build community among readers, writers, and publishing types in real life, we are hosting our third Mediabistro Book Club on next Wednesday, November 17, 2010 at Honey Lounge in New York City.
Follow this link to RSVP. The after-work event will feature a sequel to The Nanny Diaries, a fitness memoir, a media critic, and a humorous look at divorce. More information about the Book Club authors follows below.
This GalleyCat Reviews editor will lead the book club discussion with the authors. Besides scoring some free books, Mediabistro Book Club participants will have a night of practical and entertaining conversation.
Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus, Nanny Returns: “More than four million readers fell in love with Nan, the smart, spirited, and sympathetic heroine of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Nanny Diaries. After living abroad for twelve years, Nan and her husband, Ryan, aka H.H., have returned to New York to get her new business off the ground and fix up their fixer-upper. To compound the mounting construction woes and marital chaos of Ryan announcing his sudden desire to start a family, sixteen-year-old Grayer X makes a drunken, late-night visit wanting to know why Nan abandoned him all those years ago.”
Douglas Rushkoff, Program to be Programmed: Ten Commands for a Digital Age: “The debate over whether the Net is good or bad for us fills the airwaves and the blogosphere. But for all the heat of claim and counter-claim, the argument is essentially beside the point: it’s here; it’s everywhere. The real question is, do we direct technology, or do we let ourselves be directed by it and those who have mastered it? ‘Choose the former,’ writes Rushkoff, ‘and you gain access to the control panel of civilization. Choose the latter, and it could be the last real choice you get to make.’ In ten chapters, composed of ten ‘commands’ accompanied by original illustrations from comic artist Leland Purvis, Rushkoff provides cyberenthusiasts and technophobes alike with the guidelines to navigate this new universe.”
Joel Schwartzberg, The 40-Year-Old Version: “a unique and award-winning collection of funny and personal essays that examine how divorce reinvents relationships with kids and one’s own sense of Dadhood. The 40 short “humoirs” — heroic, hysterical, and heartbreaking reflections on being a part-time Dad in a full-time life — make a meaningful read for any parent, particularly the millions who’ve gone through divorce with their senses of humor intact.”
Kara Whitely, Fat Woman on the Mountain: “Fat was swallowing my dreams. It served as a cocoon of sorts while I, like many obese people, lived a life of contradiction. I longed to climb the highest mountains in the world but the only thing that went up was my weight. This is the story of how I changed my focus from how many pounds I wanted to lose to doing what I wanted to do in life.”