Colson Whitehead’s The Intuitionist

The Intuitionist Colson Whitehead

I’m excited to announce our summer book club read! Most of you know I choose a book that I think you will enjoy AND that I haven’t read. This season is no different. Intuition is a concept I’ve been thinking through for a while in various forms and occasionally comes up in our conversations as […]

Mark Z. Danielewski on Craving the Familiar

The Familiar Mark Z. Danielewski

The ear tends to be lazy, craves the familiar and is shocked by the unexpected; the eye, on the other hand, tends to be impatient, craves the novel and is bored by repetition. ~W.H. Auden I just spent two weeks in Northern California – a place that is incredibly familiar and that I am lucky […]

Announcing Fall Book Club

Book Oblivion Fall Book Club Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino

Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino It is the first day of Fall and I am so excited to start a new book with you this season. Now remember I pick books I think you might enjoy AND that I haven’t read. That means there is always risk involved on my part. I meditate on the […]

Announcing Summer Book Club

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

A Gentleman in Moscow – Summer Book Club We have some exciting news for summer book club, but first – Happy Summer! Now I realize a lot of you are all over the world, so it may or may not be your summer. Nonetheless, I hope you will continue to devour good books with us, […]

Miasma in Donna Tartt’s The Secret History

Miasma in Donna Tart's A Secret History

Miasma in Donna Tartt’s The Secret History “To many men… the miasma of peace seems more suffocating than the bracing air of war.” ~George Steiner By Jessica S. Manuel A little while back, we began thinking about the fatal flaw, that showy dark crack running down the middle of life. Richard, our protagonist in Donna Tartt’s […]

In Search of Lost Time Reading Group

In Search of Lost Time - Book Oblivion

Have you always wanted to read In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust? Myself and a handful of other ambitious, literary enthusiasts are setting out on what a friend termed, “A Reader’s Everest.” Over the next two and a half years, we are reading this seven volume, 4,215 page tome and using a reading […]

The Fatal Flaw in Donna Tartt’s The Secret History

The Fatal Flaw in The Secret History

The Fatal Flaw in Donna Tartt’s The Secret History Aristotle coined the term Hamartia which literally translates “to miss the mark” or “to err”. We’ve come to understand this term as the fatal flaw and find it in most tragedies, especially Greek tragedies. Basically, there is a reversal of fortunes that needs to take place in the plot. It’s […]

Announcing Spring Book Club

Spring Book Club | The Secret History by Donna Tartt

Spring is in the air! Hopefully the sunshine will grace you with its presence and you’ll be able to sneak outside with our Spring Book Club pick – at least for a few pages. As you know, we pick books we think you’ll enjoy AND that we’ve never read. We’re not always sure what we’re in […]

Winter Book Club 2017 Announced

Winter Book Club - The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera

Winter Book Club is here! We are excited to read our next book club pick with you that is sure to keep us warm over the next few months. As you probably know, we choose books we think you’ll enjoy AND that we’ve never read. Last year I wandered the streets of Prague and thought […]