And we’re back on the cruelest month of the year!

This month we’ll be reading The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever or Tell Me: 30 Stories by Mary Robison.

Enjoy the reads and comment whenever you want!

On other news, I’m currently obsessed with David Foster Wallace.

As you already know, this month you can read any, some or all of these books:

The winner of the candy and the bottle of water is… my mom!
Viva la madre que me parió!!

The giveaway for the month of May is this:

A surprise!! A mysterious item!!

Hint: The surprise is not something made by me because I don´t have that sort of time.

I´ll post the questions for discussion around the 10th, but as you already know, there are no rules, so feel free to comment anytime and say anything except “I hate you and I hope your britches catch on fire!” because really, that´s neither here nor there. This is a serious Book Club, after all.

1. In chapter Seven Zach recalls the wreck that took Rael’s life. How do you picture Zach before the accident?

2. How do Lela’s sons perceive her? How does she compare to the other women in their lives?

3.What did Norm mean at the end of chapter Thirty-nine when he writes, “If all it took was the love in my heart, I’d be father of the year"? Could anything have made him stay? Could anyone have made him honest?

1. Homecoming lies at the heart of the novel. How has this theme played out in your own experience? How prominently does your past shape your current life?

2. The novel’s title echoes the biblical Book of Job. Though Joe himself would probably reject that comparison, does he have much in common with Job?

3. Discuss the spectrum of parenting offered in The Book of Joe. How does Joe’s family compare to that of his friends? What emotional scars do he and his brother bear from their mother’s suicide? Is Owen a father figure to Joe, and if so, how would you characterize his “fathering?”

During April we´re reading:

The winner of the huge and very pretty block for making lists and a cookie jar with a lisp is… PielCanela! Congratulations!

The Book Club Prize for April is:

A reusable water bottle and delicious mango and kiwi drops.

Remember that to enter the giveaway, you have to leave a comment!
Good luck and happy reading!

Nobody´s Fool

1. One critic has described Nobody’s Fool as “a sad novel camouflaged in comedy.” How is this true? What is the nature of the book’s sadness? How does Russo balance his comic and tragic impulses?

2. Perhaps to compensate for Sully’s brutal father, Russo supplies Sully with a very good, if somewhat sharp-tongued, surrogate mother, Beryl Peoples. She may, in fact, be the most real and enduring attachment Sully has. How does their relationship compare with Beryl’s relationship with her real son, Clive, Jr.?

3. One consequence of Sully’s prickly autonomy is his tendency to go off on “stupid streaks.” Is Sully a stupid man? Is he destined to be unlucky? To what extent are his actions and character predetermined?

The Whore´s Child

1. In several of these stories, husbands and wives are seriously at odds, and children are caught between feuding parents, or parents have to intervene for troubled children. Is Russo’s view of family life—or married life—particularly bleak, or scrupulously realistic?

2. What is the effect of the collection as a whole, given the order, pacing, and content of the stories? What view of life does it project?

3. What do the two stories told from a child’s perspective have in common? How does Russo show himself to be a compassionate observer of children’s troubles?