HuffPo Book Club
I
f, like me, you’ve had trouble grasping why Tea Obreht’s The Tiger’s Wife is such a literary sensation (on at least 19 Best Books lists, finalist for the National Book Award and winner of the Orange Prize), the Huffington Post is here to help, kicking off their book club with a month-long look at the novel, the first of ten books that will be featured in the club.
HuffPo is utilizing multiple online communication tools for the club — readers can comment on the Book Club page, via Twitter and Facebook. They can even upload images of themselves reading the book via Flickr and sign up for weekly reading assignments. Huffington Post‘s Book Editor, Andrew Losowsky says they also “want to join your real-world community, teaming up with local book clubs and independent bookstores, hosting both online discussion and real-world events,” (we assume he meant to include libraries, since the Books section recently launched a series on the importance of libraries).
The first session of the club ends on Feb. 7th, with a live event in New York.
January 5th, 2012 at 11:07 am
I read it last month…I have no idea what all the fuss is about. (Glad I’m not alone!)
January 5th, 2012 at 11:11 am
I keep scratching my head, too.
January 5th, 2012 at 11:59 am
I adored it. The plot is meticulously crafted, so much so that there’s a point 3/4 of the way into the book where a plot resolution snaps in like a puzzle piece finding its home. It’s not for everybody, that’s for sure, but I would recommend it to people who regularly read literary fiction and/or world fiction in translation.
January 5th, 2012 at 3:47 pm
Thanks, Leigh Anne. I didn’t get that far. With your encouragement, I may learn to love the book as well.
January 6th, 2012 at 10:52 am
Sentimental tripe, with the requisite ethnic suffering, paranormal tropes, beautiful troubled heroine, cute oldster and large, carnivorous, yet strangely cuddly animal. Where are the novels for grownups?
January 8th, 2012 at 5:16 pm
I agree with Michel. I did feel that there was an immaturity in this novel, as if the view of the war was from a child’s perspective. The fears created by the wars are displaced onto the disjointed folk tales, which are all about the deaths of innocents. The author left out the situation that created the fears in the first place, as if she did not quite grasp it. I didn’t actually despise the book, but I sure don’t get all the hype.