Wicka, wicka, whaaaT!

Look who made it on the good ole blog... Madame President herself!

I am going to try to upload the minutes from the last meetings for Outliers and Little Bee. I am just a little concerned that I am not allowed to edit on that section of the blog so we'll see. Eric was so gracious to "invite" me to post, but I am tardy to the party and the invitation expired!!! UGH! Let see what kind of magic I can make happen :)

Cross your fingers folks... I'm not so savvy with this.

NMS Press Release regarding American Pastoral

(INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana) - March 16th, 2010 - New Midnight Society Member Adam Todd is initiating a voluntary recall of Philip Roth's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, AMERICAN PASTORAL. Adam "Nature Boy" Todd is taking this action out of an abundance of caution after being notified that the New Midnight Society, together with the Indiana Book Club Counsel and, strangely, the FDA, are conducting an investigation into reported E. coli 0157:H7 illnesses that may be related to consumption of this supposedly wrenching and cathartic piece of work.

A number of readers have reported illness after beginning even the earliest chapters of AMERICAN PASTORAL. While the E. coli strain implicated in this investigation has not been detected in this book as of yet, the health and safety of my fellow New Midnight Society Book Club members is paramount so I am initiating this voluntary recall. I have been and will continue to cooperate fully with the New Midnight Society, the Indiana Book Club Counsel, and FDA in this investigation. Providing safe, high quality books to my fellow club members is my number one priority.No other New Midnight Society Book Club selections have been implicated (but I have my suspicions, ONION JOHN). I want to strongly advise readers that, at this time, no Philip Roth novels should be read.

Again, members who have purchased AMERICAN PASTORAL should not read it. Instead, I am asking that members return this product to their local bookseller for a full refund (good luck with that). I invite members with questions to contact Member Naitch Todd at 270-791-1349 or visit our web site at http://newmidnightsociety.blogspot.com/.

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT REGARDING AMERICAN PASTORAL

This proposal is submitted for the approval of The New Midnight Society:

Hello devoted readers. It is I, self-appointed President Todd. Good to see you too. Please, no, stop. That’s embarrassing. Stop the chanting. I know my name. Thank you. Thank you. Really, you’re too much. Well okay, a little more. It’s me, it’s me, its E.C.T. Alright, good, calm down. I have some important shit to say. Okay. Book club members, I sense we have reached an impasse with our current selection, the impressive 7th of our time together, and action must be taken. Unlike some other world leaders throughout history, I choose to act swiftly. Not as swiftly as some of you might like, I understand, but I choose to think things through thoroughly (alliteration, mother fuckers) before making a decision. But a decision I have made. Oh yes, a decision I have made. Let me start by saying the following. Do I think this is a bad book? Hell no. Do I think it is time to cut our losses and move on? Well hell yeah! My fear is that BookDust is no longer just a great tag team, but it is also an apt descriptor of the substance found on our copies of American Pastoral. The book’s selector, Member A. Todd has finished the book, I intend to do the same, and I trust we would all like to. But it just may not be in the cards. I propose we move on and follow this course of action. Everyone, whether you read a page, a chapter, half the book, or accidentally read a different book with a similar title and are too embarrassed to admit your mistake, should submit via email to me your thoughts. I don’t need to hear any excuses for why you didn’t read the book. Don’t pee on my leg and tell me it’s raining. If you have no thoughts, simply state that. If you feel you are qualified to give a star rating, I strongly encourage you to do that. I would like to collect these responses in the next couple of weeks and I will promptly post them on this very forum. This will provide access to anyone who wants to read the thoughts of your fellow NMSers. After this has been done, I will put into motion some type of plan to make the next selection. If you have thoughts on this, such as going back to Member Finkler or doing something else, maybe you have a book in mind, whatever, then email me that too and I’ll take it under consideration. But for the time being, let’s close the book—so to speak—on American Pastoral. I’ll look forward to hearing your thoughts and I look forward to our next selection and the revival of our traditional lively book chats. Thank you and may God bless The New Midnight Society.

LINK

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2009/10/in-praise-of-browsing.html

--Member McGuire

Check out this HHHHHHOT link

Here is some book related content (for a change). This content was submitted for approval of the New Midnight Society Blog by Member McGuire. For the record, the only books banned from this book club are books with disparaging remarks about Home Alone, Blue II, WrestleMania VII, Gobias Industries, or Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. Or The Golden One.

Here's the link, Thanks Ms. Sarah!!!

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2009/09/banned-books-week.html

Lemme lemme lemme lemme up…date ya!

Greetings NMS members. We meet again here at the blog. First and foremost, I want to make sure you all have read and considered the blog post by Member Finkler that directly precedes this one. It’s not too early to start thinking about a date for our next meeting, not if we really want to kick this thing into high gear. Plus, need I remind you that we did talk about having a meeting in early October and 2 before Xmas ’09. So let’s get retarded in here.

Next point of order: some new features on the blog. If you look to your left. Well, maybe up a little and to your left, you’ll see a Navigation area with links to a couple new features we’ve added here at newmidnightsociety.blogspot.com. The first is a link to the minutes from all of our previous meetings, transcribed directly from the official NMS minutes binder to your computer screens. The second is an exciting feature that will allow all of us to share thoughts on other books we are reading outside of the book club. I think we all share the hope that this club is about more than just the regular meetings; it’s about reading, and this is where we can share our feelings about other books we are reading. I want us all to be able to post in this area, obviously, as well as other areas, so I will need to get all of your gmail addresses if you want to do this. So here is the deal. You have to have gmail to post on this blog. If you have it, I’ll send you the info to post in that section. If you don’t have gmail, you have two options. 1) get a gmail account and I’ll hook you up. 2) email me the content that you want to add to this section, and I’ll post it and attribute it appropriately.

L8R dudes,

PRESIDENT TODD

Meeting Date?

Well I'm not going to lie... I have been DYING to post on this board but have failed to think of anything worth posting. Therefore I am posting to clarify the approximate (or exact) date of our next book club. I know the month of August will quickly come to an end and I believe we were looking at September to come together and discuss. Are we ready to set a date? Does anyone with a more difficult schedule to work around want to throw some dates out there? I am usually free after 8pm on most days of the week.
-Member Finkler