I was in a book club with some friends for a while in 2006–7. Here are some quick thoughts on the books we attempted to cover.

• Eragon by Christopher Paolini

  Lindsay’s choice. Erin and I didn’t join the book club until the meeting on Eragon, so I haven’t actually read it. I think the movie is somewhere in our Netflix queue.

• Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell

  Matt’s choice. Basically good, but too pop-digestable and lacking in detail for my taste. Certainly not the mind-blower some made it out to be.

• Lud-In-The-Mist by Hope Mirrlees

  Erin’s choice. I’ve already written a review of Lud: basically, this book completely rocks and you should read it right now.

• Life of Pi by Yann Martel

  Michelle’s choice. Only made it a little way into it before the meeting. Still on the list of things to finish.

• Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions of a Cuban Boyhood by Carlos M. N. Eire

  My choice. I chose it because it got glowing reviews from other Cuban immigrants to America; I figured they of all people know what they’re talking about in this case. It turned out to be very difficult to finish—I don’t think any of us actually managed to finish it.

• Perdido Street Station by China Miéville

  Matt’s choice. Good blend of steampunk and fantasy, though the world depicted is so bleak, it’s hard to say I enjoyed it. Very slow going for the first 200 pages or so, but it seemed to accelerate constantly until near the end, so the rest of it went pretty quickly.

Lindsay and Matt moved to Seattle in July, so that was it for the book club.