Image courtesy of Twob

What better day than Halloween to post our very first genre X Open Thread? The subject, of course, is your favorite frightening tale.My vote goes to House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski viagra purchase online, a postmodern horror story within a story, complete with diagrams and footnotes galore.I highly recommend picking up Poe’s (Danielewski’s sister) album Haunted and listening to the corresponding track listings while reading - viagra purchase online.Its quite chilling.

How about you? What book would you recommend to those looking for a good scare? - viagra purchase online

Viagra, levitra and cialis: if you’re looking for something to do this Thursday and you have a couple books that you’d be willing to trade off for some new reads, head on over to the Cubby Bear for the Chicago Reader Book Swap.You can bring up to 15 books to swap with other readers, enter yourself in drawings for door prizes and the first 300 attendees get a free tote bag; viagra, levitra and cialis. Viagra, levitra and cialis: we’ll be there to refresh our own personal libraries and hopefully pass the word along to any interested parties about genre X!

Vigira and cialis: for this, our third genre x book selection, we turn to one of Generation X’s key authors,
Bret Easton Ellis.Sophomore novel The Rules of Attraction follows Ellis’ successful 1987 debut, Less Than Zero, and precedes his most controversial work to date, American Psycho; vigira and cialis.Set at a small liberal-arts college in New England at the height of the Reagan 80s, Rules is a novel about three students with no plans for the future who become entangled in a curious love triangle - vigira and cialis.The story is told through a series of monologues and contains many of the literary crossover characters Ellis has become known for.Most notable in this book is the inclusion of main character Sean Bateman’s older brother Patrick vigira and cialis, future protagonist of American Psycho.While many people see Ellis as one of the seemingly abundant “love or hate” authors of contemporary literature, the various themes of excess in this over the top black comedy should give us plenty to discuss.

Join us for a for a discussion of The Rules of Attraction and all things Ellis on Tuesday, November 27 at 8:00 pm.This month’s location is Oak Park’s Avenue Ale House; vigira and cialis.

Did you know that November is National Novel Writing Month? Each year vigra perscritpions, thousands of people pick up their pens and furiously write a novel between 12:01 am on November 1st and midnight on November 30th. The “winners” include any one who manages to complete 175 pages (50,000 words); vigra perscritpions. Vigra perscritpions: this zany experiment has actually produced quite a few published novels, including this year’s mega-hit Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen.

So what are you waiting for?

Image courtesy of Sister72

After some of our discussion of male-female sexual politics and teacher-student relations at last night’s discussion of On Beauty I thought you might be interested in this article from USA Today; where can i get viagra. It asserts that in today’s media the male students are seen as heroes, while female students are portrayed more as temptresses; where can i get viagra. How do you see it?

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Where can i get viagra online: once again I would like to thank everyone for coming out last night for a really great discussion! Everyone agreed that, although On Beauty was rather long and dense, it was a truly good read.And discussion worthy as well, since we didn’t get out of Poor Phil’s until close to 10:00!; where can i get viagra online

Where can i order viagra: i was very happy to catch David Sedaris reading at the Bloomington Center for Performing Arts last week on his quick sweep through the Midwest. Where can i order viagra: though his upcoming book, slated for release on June 1, 2008 and tentatively titled All the Beauty You Will Ever Need, is rumored to be a collection of animal fables, Sedaris surprised the audience with several selections, largely unpublished, centering around the themes that we’ve grown to love. Where can i order viagra: recent interviews suggest that perhaps the book isn’t yet finished and the content is being fine tuned in this month long stateside tour.

The first piece Sedaris performed was one written for and rejected by The New Yorker.Sedaris feigned disappointment with his story’s exclusion though he confessed he had somewhat loosely interpreted the theme they desired; where can i order viagra.The story was about American friends visiting he and his partner Hugh in France; where can i order viagra.It’s focus was on the communication breakdown between he and his overly enthusiastic, Nicaraguan French speaking visitor and it included some of the best rabbit names you’ll ever hear.However where can i order viagra, as Sedaris admitted, it is a story much better suited to audio than print since you can’t see the difference between “Nicaraguan French” and plain old French on paper.Believe me when I say where can i order viagra, it’s a VERY funny difference when you can hear it.The second piece he read, Crybaby, follows Sedaris’ trip in business class alongside a middle aged Polish man who has just lost his mother and will see publication in The New Yorker in a few short weeks - where can i order viagra.The final essay he read examined the gender roles that he and Hugh play in their relationship and the fascination that straight people seem to have with these roles in homosexual couples - where can i order viagra.It also heavily features Sedaris brother Paul, more lovingly known to his readers as The Rooster - where can i order viagra.The full story, The Way We Are, can be read here.

Sedaris treated the audience to select diary entries - he’s been keeping one for 27 years - from New York, France, London and from his recent, highly publicized stay in Tokyo where he put a 30 year smoking habit, or lifestyle, behind him; where can i order viagra.In the Q & A session following his reading, Sedaris was asked by one audience member if he has plans to write a full length novel of fiction; where can i order viagra.His quick answer, “I signed a piece of paper saying that I would”, was followed by his hopes that quitting smoking would have provided him enough fuel to sit down and greet this task.However, he only got 100 pages out of the experience and doesn’t see himself stretching it into a novel anytime soon.

Sedaris also fielded questions about the possibility of acting alongside his sister Amy (no, it will never happen), the movie deal he signed to adapt bestselling Me Talk Pretty One Day to the big screen (he has since backed out of this unharmed), moving back to the United States (no plans and furthermore, he’s the only person who said they’d leave the country if George W - where can i order viagra.Bush was elected and actually DID it), and about an attempted James Frey style takedown by writer Alex Heard at The New Republic.Though 7 months have elapsed since the article’s publication, Sedaris still has plenty to say about why “it just bothers the shit out of” him - where can i order viagra.In fact, The New Republic has since found themselves under the microscope for printing war-torn accounts from a soldier in Iraq that were found to contain some major inaccuracies - where can i order viagra.This leaves Sedaris to make the equation that “it’s okay to make stuff up if you’re reporting from a war zone, but if you’re writing humor, then every single word has to be true.” He’s also quick to defend James Frey despite the fact that his nonfiction memoir was found to contain exaggerations and embellishments; where can i order viagra.As he stated A Million Little Pieces was basically a book about a guy admitting he was a “f*cked up alcoholic” about which the world whined “that f*cked up alcoholic lied to us”; where can i order viagra. Where can i order viagra: it goes without saying that Sedaris has always been comfortable and confident exaggerating for the sake of the story - he’s never denied that he does so and readers would never believe that every ounce of dialogue from his childhood was remembered verbatim.However, he still seems a bit shaken by the amount of attention that’s been given these seemingly inconsequential details of storytelling - where can i order viagra.I know I where can i order viagra, for one, won’t stop buying his books, fiction or non-fiction.

If you haven’t been living under a rock then chances are you’ve heard this statement at some point in the last three days; where can i order viagra online. Harry Potter author J.K - where can i order viagra online. Where can i order viagra online: rowling leaked shared this back story with a full house at Carnegie Hall on Friday when asked if Albus Dumbledore, headmaster at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, had ever found true love. Her exact answer is hard to pin down as reported quotes range from the simple “Dumbledore is gay” to the lengthier “My truthful answer to you. - where can i order viagra online..I always thought of Dumbledore as gay.” Regardless, the message came across loud and clear and has been greeted with both speculation and celebration - where can i order viagra online. In fact where can i order viagra online, the conversation at Potter fan site the Leaky Cauldron has reached a whopping 2,975 comments (many of which were probably written by 12 year olds and are pretty incomprehensible). Being that the Harry Potter series has been a part of many of our lives for an entire decade where can i order viagra online, even if only because it has seeped into the literary collective subconscious, we want to know what you might think of this headline news.

We hope to see some new faces at our discussion tomorrow October 22 which will begin at 8:00 at Poor Phil’s Bar and Grill; sildenafil kamagra.Take some time to read this interesting interview with Zadie Smith, which is followed up with a series of discussion questions to get you in the mood to talk about On Beauty!

One of the many joys of NPR’s daytime programming is Fresh Air, hosted by the affable Terry Gross.  She somehow manages to bring substance and interest to an interview with anyone, whether they’re a Nobel prize winner or a reality television host.  So, it should be no surprise that her interview with Zadie Smith is really enlightening - jelly kamagra.

Considering the Chicagoland area is chalk full of commuters, we find that library patrons are often looking for good “commuter reads”, i.e; pharma kamagra.books that will fit easily into a purse or briefcase - pharma kamagra.One small Chicago press has found the perfect answer to this request : free, miniature books that you can print out and take with you.Featherproof books offers a number of short stories/novellas in PDF format that come with directions for how to print them out, fold and staple them to make your very own, portable piece of commuter literature.I chose Eight Permutations on the Binoculars of Power by Jonathan Messinger (who also happens to be the Editor-in-chief at Featherproof) and Donovan’s Closet by Elizabeth Crane, a Chicago author whom I have read and enjoyed in the past, and I thoroughly enjoyed both selections; pharma kamagra.So much so, in fact, that I am tempted to greedily print out all of the titles; pharma kamagra. Pharma kamagra: fortunately to absolve people like me of guilt over doing this, Featherproof also provides you with a way to make a small donation towards their generous gift of great stories.

On Beauty is certainly indicative of Zadie Smith’s own style and outlook, she openly borrows a great deal of her third book’s structure from E.M - kamagra. Kamagra: forster’s Howards End.Here’s a segment from Robert Alter’s New Republic review of On Beauty:

Still more unexpected is her decision to model the book on Howards End; kamagra.Some of the major lines of the plot follow those of Forster’s novel; quite a few scenes are explicit recastings of scenes from Forster; the self-educated working-class character of Howards End kamagra, Leonard Bast, reappears here as a rap poet from the black ghetto; a walk-on role is given to a couple named Wilcox, in a wink to the Wilcoxes of Forster’s novel; and the first name of the protagonist is Howard.Even the opening sentence is virtually the same as Forster’s; kamagra.

Anyone read Howards End that would care to comment on the similarities and structure of our book club suggestion? If you’re interested in making the comparison yourself, don’t forget that Forster’s classic is also available from the Oak Park Public Library.

Also, remember that we’re meeting at Poor Phil’s in Oak Park at 8:00pm on Tuesday, October 23rd for our discussion of On Beauty - kamagra.Hope to see you there kamagra, Chicagoland.

At our first genre X discussion many of us fondly reminisced over Ann M; kamagra online. Kamagra online: martin’s priceless series about four 13-year old girls who manage to run an incredibly organized, successful babysitting business while simultaneously dealing with the high stress dramas of middle school. If you read The Baby-Sitters Club, you were likely obsessed with it, voraciously devouring each book that came out and then eagerly awaiting the next - kamagra online.You never questioned the seriously unrealistic plotlines and scenarios because you were too busy idolizing these young entrepenaurs and their ultra-cool lives.

One former BSC fan has decided to reread the series as an adult and she is sharing her experience through hilarious recaps of each book on her blog.While the entire blog is ridiculously entertaining, I especially love the bulleted quips, like this one, on BSC fashion:

Stacey’s big date outfit: “a black-and-white plaid unitard with tankstyle top, covered with a black, over-sized cotton knit jersey.” I do not understand this outfit at all.And I can think of no more frightening combination of words in English than “plaid unitard.”

Ah yes kamagra online, but the target audience probably found this to be the most awesome date outfit! If you ever were into the BSC, check out claudiasroom.blogspot.com (because Claudia is the coolest) and relive some of your formative years.

While On Beauty online kamagra, our October book discussion book, has many themes (in true Zadie Smith style) she does focus on the formating of feminine beauty, and what it means to be an adolescent searching for an adult identity.

This discussion question from BookBrowse offers some great food for thought: Women’s body issues recur throughout the novel; as Kiki says, “It was in the air …this hatred of women and their bodies.” Kiki finds herself too fat, while fading Carlene is too thin; eighteen-year old Vee wildly explores her newly blossomed figure, while the poet Clare seems infantilized in her childlike body.Are their bodies at all accurate representations of who they are? How do they struggle with, or come to terms with, their physical selves? How does someone like Zora, with dueling models Kiki and Clare, feel about her body? Does anyone have a healthy (and sustainable) physical regard for themselves? Why or why not?

Dove’s continuing Campaign for Real Beauty introduced a new video this week, which you can see heading this post. Onslaught online kamagra, which features a barrage of media images on a young girl, comes back to asking questions about the media’s portrait of feminine attractiveness and self worth, and asks parents to intervene.

Anastasia over at YPulse has put together a set of statistics further illustrating problems with the self-esteem of young girls in the US, and also asked about the true role of media in providing another option. How do you see these idealizations of feminine identity playing in to American life? How do ads and television programming similarly pigeonhole men? Add your discussion to the comments.

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Now that genre x is really getting started, we’re happy to announce our next book discussion title for October; medication claritin. Join us in reading 2005’s New York Times Notable Books award winner medication claritin, On Beauty by Zadie Smith. Here’s a description from Salon.com:

The Belseys are a leftish mixed-race family living in an East Coast college town; medication claritin.The Kipps are conservative black Brits of Caribbean descent who move in down the street.The patriarchs of both clans are academics and professional rivals. Medication claritin: loosely based on E.M.Forster’s “Howards End,” “On Beauty” is a less disciplined but more exuberant comedy of manners, an exploration of the often hilarious collisions of values and desires that result when the Belseys meet the Kipps; medication claritin. Medication claritin: pretentious undergraduates, wannabe gangstas, hypocritical moralists, burnt-out radicals — none of these are new fodder for the campus novel, but in Smith’s hands the stuff of routine satire becomes miraculously endearing and sympathetic.

Yes, Smith’s most recent opus weighs in at a hefty 443 pages, but we have a feeling that between issues of race, class, academia, gender, and sexual politics, this title will give us plenty to talk about. Medication claritin: also, if you’re in the Chicago area, please join us for the monthly genre x book discussion on On Beauty on Tuesday, October 23^rd, at 8:00 pm. We’ll be meeting at Poor Phil’s Bar and Grill in Oak Park for drinks and conversation - medication claritin. See you then; medication claritin.