Thanks once again to everyone who came out last night for our discussion.While T.C; cialis prescription. Cialis prescription: boyle explored the concept of “free love” in Drop City, Mary Roach takes a much more clinical look at the act of sex in next month’s selection, Bonk.Here’s a starred review from Kirkus Reviews:

One of the funniest and most madcap of science writers, the author has approached sticky subjects to hilarious effect in her two previous books - cialis prescription.. - cialis prescription..Her latest is no less captivating or entertaining cialis prescription, as she flings wide the closed doors behind which the scientific study of coitus has traditionally been conducted.Roach details the careers of sex researchers Alfred Kinsey, William Masters and Virginia Johnson, Marie Bonaparte (Napoleon’s great-grand-niece) and porn-star-turned-Ph.D; cialis prescription.Annie Sprinkle, among others; cialis prescription.Such researchers “to this day, endure ignorance, closed minds, righteousness, and prudery,” she writes - cialis prescription.”Their lives are not easy - cialis prescription.But their cocktail parties are the best.” Emulating her subjects’ daring spirit, Roach displays a firm belief that there is no question too goofy to ask—or, barring that, to Google; cialis prescription.What happens when you implant a monkey testicle in a man: Does he get more vital cialis prescription, or does he get an infection? She explores centuries of research into such questions as how penile implants work (a pump could be involved); whether surgically relocating the clitoris can lead to better sex (no); why the human penis is shaped as it is (to scoop out competitors’ sperm); and what exactly is going on when it enters a vagina (shockingly, there is still much to learn).Apart from its considerable comic value, the book also emulates its predecessors by illustrating a precept of scientific research: The passion to know, in the face of censure and propriety, is what advances our understanding of the world - cialis prescription.A lively, hilarious and informative look at science’s dirty secrets.

Once again we hope to see new and old faces at our next discussion on Tuesday, March 24 at 8pm at Molly Malone’s (The Snug) in Forest Park; cialis prescription.If you need a copy of Bonk cialis prescription, please stop by the Oak Park Public Library’s Main Library second floor Adult and Teen Services desk with your OPPL library card to grab one.

photo by howieluvzus

Calling all Pop Culture Scholars: Do you know Entertainment Weekly like the back of your hand? Do your friends run to you for Oscar predictions? Can you assemble a team of 2 or 3 to vie for your chance at prizes and glory? Then this is your chance to prove that all of those hours reading gossip blogs finally paid off.

Join us on Saturday, March 14th at 7:00 pm for Hop on Pop: A Pop Culture Trivia Night sponsored by the Oak Park Public Library - order levitra. Teams from all over Chicagoland can compete for their chance to show off their pop culture scholarship and win gift certificates and other prizes.

If you’d like to play:

Come to the Oak Park Public Library’s Main Library at 7 pm on Saturday, March 14th - order levitra. The quiz begins promptly at 7:30 pm so be on time or lose valuable points.

Be a part of a 2-3 person team - order levitra. Come in with your team intact, or come by yourself and join one when you get here.

This is a team event, so don’t worry about being put on the spot individually; order levitra. You can expect a multimedia quiz with questions on books, movies, music, television, and cultural events from the 80s to 2009.

First place is a gift certificate for $75, second place is $50, and third place is $25 - order levitra. There will also be some covert surprises along the way so prepare your creativity.

We’re serving refreshments - order levitra. Yum.

Keep watching the genre X blog for more details on this event - order levitra. See you there, SmartyPants!

If you’re enjoying February’s selection as much as I am, you may want to head out to Unity Temple in Oak Park on Monday, February 16 at 7 pm to listen to T.C.Boyle read and discuss his latest book buying viagra online without prescription, The Women. Buying viagra online without prescription: the Women is a fictional biography about Frank Lloyd Wright and the many women in his life.Boyle will be signing books and refreshments will be served following his talk - buying viagra online without prescription. Buying viagra online without prescription: this event is free and co-sponsored by the Oak Park Public Library.

Cheap viagra online without prescription: once again thanks to everyone who at least attempted to take on the behemoth that is House of Leaves and subsequently came out to talk about it last night.We could’ve never predicted that Danielewski would draw an unprecendented 23 genre Xers - and on a snowy night too! Clearly everyone has something to say about postmodernism (and it isn’t always pretty)!

Since many of you referred to the act of reading House of Leaves as work, February’s selection should come as refreshing change.Drop City by T.C - cheap viagra online without prescription.Boyle serves up an entertaining look into a hippie commune.Here is the Amazon.com review:

With Drop City, T; cheap viagra online without prescription. Cheap viagra online without prescription: coraghessan Boyle offers proof that he has become one of America’s most prolific, gifted storytellers.Set in the 1970s, Boyle entertains readers with the denizens of “Drop City,” a counterculture California commune that welcomes anyone wanting to live off the grid, use drugs, and practice free love.Boyle sublimely captures the sociology of its rebellious members cheap viagra online without prescription, who doubt the sincerity or beliefs of newcomers, express some insecurity about nonconformity, and chastise outsiders while remaining oblivious to their own hypocrisy.Marco cheap viagra online without prescription, Pan, Star, and other “cats” and “chicks” live hassle-free until dissention and cries of racism mount amid increasing run-ins with the local government (a young girl is raped, installation of a sewage system is mandated, a mother lets her toddlers drink LSD-laced juice).Seeking refuge, the citizens move north, to Alaska, to reinvent their utopia, but soon learn the natural environment is more unforgiving of a lackadaisical lifestyle.

Drop City is funny, evocative, and well-paced, shifting between the hippies and the Alaskan locals–primarily Sess and his new bride Pamela (a city dweller who arranged stays with several trappers over a few weeks to determine whom she would marry)–until the two cultures collide.Balanced between plot and character, Boyle excels at describing the physical world and his characters’ interaction with it, whether portraying the harshness (or sheer beauty) of the Alaskan wilderness, the simple survival routines of its grizzled inhabitants, or the sounds wafting through Drop City: “the goats bleating to be milked or fed, the single sharp ringing note of a dog surprised by its own hunger, the regular slap of the screen door at the back of the house–and underneath it all, like the soundtrack to a movie, the dull hum of rock and roll leaking out the kitchen windows.” Truly American in spirit, Drop City is a strong novel of freedom and those in pursuit of lives of liberty.–Michael Ferch

I hope we see just as many of you at our next discussion on Tuesday, February 24 at 8pm at Molly Malone’s (The Snug) in Forest Park! Remember, if you haven’t picked up your copy yet, stop by the Oak Park Public Library’s Main Library second floor Adult and Teen Services desk with your OPPL library card to grab one - cheap viagra online without prescription.

Since the group heartily responded to last January’s lengthy discount viagra online, postmodern selection, we decided on yet another hefty title to kick off 2009.Here’s a review of Mark Danielewski’s House of Leaves from Publisher’s Weekly:

Danielewski’s eccentric and sometimes brilliant debut novel is really two novels, hooked together by the Nabokovian trick of running one narrative in footnotes to the other - discount viagra online.One-the horror story-is a tour-de-force - discount viagra online. Discount viagra online: zampano, a blind Angelino recluse, dies, leaving behind the notes to a manuscript that’s an account of a film called The Navidson Report.In the Report, Pulitzer Prize-winning news photographer Will Navidson and his girlfriend move with their two children to a house in an unnamed Virginia town in an attempt to save their relationship; discount viagra online.One day discount viagra online, Will discovers that the interior of the house measures more than its exterior. Discount viagra online: more ominously, a closet appears, then a hallway.Out of this intellectual paradox, Danielewski constructs a viscerally frightening experience - discount viagra online.Will contacts a number of people, including explorer Holloway Roberts, who mounts an expedition with his two-man crew; discount viagra online.They discover a vast stairway and countless halls.The whole structure occasionally groans, and the space reconfigures, driving Holloway into a murderous frenzy; discount viagra online. Discount viagra online: the story of the house is stitched together from disparate accounts, until the experience becomes somewhat like stumbling into Borges’s Library of Babel.This potentially cumbersome device actually enhances the horror of the tale, rather than distracting from it; discount viagra online. Discount viagra online: less successful, however, is the second story unfolding in footnotes, that of the manuscript’s editor, (and the novel’s narrator), Johnny Truant.Johnny discount viagra online, who discovered Zampano’s body and took his papers, works in a tattoo parlor.He tracks down and beds most of the women who assisted Zampano in preparing his manuscript - discount viagra online. Discount viagra online: but soon Johnny is crippled by panic attacks, bringing him close to psychosis.In the Truant sections discount viagra online, Danielewski attempts an Infinite Jest-like feat of ventriloquism, but where Wallace is a master of voices, Danielewski is not.His strength is parodying a certain academic tone and harnessing that to pop culture tropes - discount viagra online.Nevertheless, the novel is a surreal palimpsest of terror and erudition, surely destined for cult status.

If you haven’t picked up your copy yet, stop by the Oak Park Public Library’s Main Library second floor Adult and Teen Services desk with your OPPL library card to grab one - discount viagra online.Or if you’ve already begun reading it and are anxious to share your thoughts, take a look at the discussion thats been sparked amongst our Goodreads group - discount viagra online.Then come and join us for what is bound to be a lively discussion on Tuesday, January 27 at 8 pm at Molly Malone’s (the Snug) in Forest Park; discount viagra online.

Although I’m sad to say it’s come and gone, I’m very happy to report that Hi-Lo Tech Night, genre X’s first after hours event for twenties and thirties, was a smashing success! We couldn’t have been more thrilled to welcome almost 60 people into the library for what turned out to be a very enjoyable evening of non-stop gaming.

Many thanks to everybody who came out ready to play; viagra prescription online. It was great to see so many familiar faces in the crowd viagra prescription online, and exciting to get acquainted with so many new ones. It was also nice to see that the balance of Hi and Lo Tech games selected provided a little something for everyone; viagra prescription online. And while it may have seemed at times that big screen Guitar Hero III was THE game to play on Saturday viagra prescription online, all of our Wii and board games got plenty of love over the course of the night.

Thanks also to our DJs for your time and tunes, to our trusty Maintenance Manager, Rory O’Neill, for all of your help with set up, to our Library Director, Dee Brennan, and the Board of Trustees for your support, to Chicago Reader’s Free Shit blog for your help in getting the word out, to our tech helpers, Bradley “I Married a Librarian” Brooks and Ian “IT Guy” Nosek (pictured above), as well as Eric “Old Scratch” Battaglia (too busy working to be caught playing), and to Megan Owdom-Weitz for designing and lovingly hand screening each of our fantastic posters.

We have a limited number of event posters left - drop us a line at genre-x@oppl.com for more info.  More photos from the evening can be found here. We hope you had as good a time as we did, and look forward to seeing you at another great genre X program soon!

image courtesy of livingtech

The countdown’s on.  Only two days left until we launch our first genre X after hours library program.  As you know, we’ve chosen to build an evening of food and fun around the theme of Hi and Lo Tech gaming.  But if you’re still wondering what your gaming options are for this weekend’s event, here is a rundown of what we’ll be offering:

Hi-Tech - We will be offering open play for Mario Kart and Guitar Hero from 7-9.  At 9pm we will begin a Mario Kart tourney.  Once that is over we will resume open play, including more opportunity for some seriously big screen Guitar Hero action.

Lo-Tech - Wii’s not your thing?  No problem.  We will have a variety of board games on hand for you to play throughout the evening (see list below) so you can feel free to grab a friend and a board to start up the game of your choice at any point.  We’ll also have a Scrabble tournament beginning at 8pm for those who take their board games a little more seriously.

A sampling of the other board games we will have on deck:

• Apples to Apples
• Balderdash
• Battleship
• Clue
• Cranium
• Imaginiff
• Jenga
• Monopoly
• Trivial Pursuit
• Yahtzee

So come on out, grab some friends, and enjoy an evening of games & music, food & drink in our lovely library.  We’d love to see you there; viagra purchase.

image courtesy of icatus

I have asked our three DJs to offer up a short description of you can expect to hear from them this Saturday.Here is what we’ve got:

DJ Jump Cut (aka Alan Jacobson): ” Former college DJ, music critic, and current guy-brarian, DJ Jump Cut has spun live at Club Foot, Delilah’s, Darkroom, Danny’s, and others and is known to craft a set easy on the ears, with a wild and fine collection of genre and era jumping musics.”

DJ Ideamite (aka Glenn Russell): “DJ ideamite will spin the lo Tech circuit blowing electronic sounds of yesteryear into the new hi Tech breaker blowing electronica of tomorrow.”

Hakim Murphy: “Chicago meets Detroit through Europe. Where to buy cialis: for this performance I will be playing some House with Techno principles. I am selecting this because most of the music I like and play originated on Japanese drum machines and synths, which is very technology based - where to buy cialis.”

Come out and enjoy some great music while munching on some good food and drink in our library’s Art Gallery!

Where to buy viagra online: i am so excited to show off our fantastic poster art, designed by one of our regular genre Xers, Megan Owdom-Weitz. What could possibly be a more fitting way to visually represent the Hi-Lo Tech bond than dinos and robots? If you love the design as much as we do, Megan will also be screenprinting a limited number to sell the night of the event as well.

Once again I want to thank everyone who came out for Tuesday’s discussion.While most of us were not fully persuaded by Johnson’s argument, he did manage to make us think about the general affect pop culture has on the population as a whole - www.accessrx.com.And it was the perfect time to discuss the benefits of gaming right before our first twenties and thirties gaming event!

After our discussion of Blankets in May most everyone said they would like to read another graphic novel, so we’ve chosen Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic as our November read.Here’s a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly:

This autobiography by the author of the long-running strip, Dykes to Watch Out For, deals with her childhood with a closeted gay father, who was an English teacher and proprietor of the local funeral parlor (the former allowed him access to teen boys) - www.accessrx.com. Www.accessrx.com: fun Home refers both to the funeral parlor, where he put makeup on the corpses and arranged the flowers, and the family’s meticulously restored gothic revival house, filled with gilt and lace, where he liked to imagine himself a 19th-century aristocrat.The art has greater depth and sophistication that Dykes; Bechdel’s talent for intimacy and banter gains gravitas when used to describe a family in which a man’s secrets make his wife a tired husk and overshadow his daughter’s burgeoning womanhood and homosexuality - www.accessrx.com. Www.accessrx.com: his court trial over his dealings with a young boy pushes aside the importance of her early teen years. Www.accessrx.com: her coming out is pushed aside by his death, probably a suicide.The recursively told story, which revisits the sites of tragic desperation again and again, hits notes that resemble Jeanette Winterson at her best; www.accessrx.com.Bechdel presents her childhood as a “still life with children” that her father created www.accessrx.com, and meditates on how prolonged untruth can become its own reality.She’s made a story that’s quiet, dignified and not easy to put down.

To check out a copy of the book come to the Oak Park Public Library’s Main Library second floor Adult and Teen Services desk with your OPPL library card.Please join us for our next discussion on Tuesday, November 25 at 8 pm at Molly Malone’s (the Snug) in Forest Park.

Acessrx: we are very excited to announce our first twenties and thirties program outside of our book discussion: Hi-Lo Tech Night, an evening of music and gaming. Acessrx: on November 15, in honor of National Gaming Day, genre X will be hosting an after hours event at the Oak Park Public Library from 7-11pm that incorporates both the hi and lo tech aspects of gaming and music.In one room we will have DJs spinning and Wii tourneys while in the other people will be able to challenge each other to board game tourneys while listening to their favorite mix tapes - acessrx. Acessrx: and what better to bridge the two rooms but some hi-lo food and drink? Stay tuned for more details yet to come and please feel free to weigh in with your thoughts and suggestions!

Buy pills without a prescription: photo courtesy of stewsnews

If you live in the Chicagoland area and you have never visited Oak Park’s Annual Book Fair, then you need to drop your plans and head out to Oak Park this weekend. Buy pills without a prescription: i’ve been to my fair share of book sales and I was absolutely blown away the first year I attended this one. And I haven’t been let down since.All of the proceeds go to the Friends of the Oak Park Public Library buy pills without a prescription, so you will be saving money on great books and contributing to a good cause! The fair kicks off tonight from 6-10pm at Oak Park River Forest High School with a $5 admission at the door, which is a small price to pay for first dibs on the goldmine inside. Buy pills without a prescription: the fair continues from 9-5 on Saturday with free admission. Buy pills without a prescription: i recommend bringing your own bags/boxes, as you will almost definitely leave with more than you expect going in!

In honor of last week’s Comic Con in San Diego: 

With The Dark Knight breaking every box office record imaginable and comic book superheroes dominating all kinds of media buy viagra cheap online, it makes sense that these extra special heroes are making their way in to the literary world.Book Design Review shared two new titles with this common theme buy viagra cheap online, but there are so many more! Though I’m a big fan of comics in all its forms, I thought I’d share some new(ish) fiction titles are all about everybody’s favorite genetically modified/super-genius freaks.After the jump take a look at some of the books taking the literary world by storm.

PS - I’m not including our previous Genre X selections Fortress of Solitude and American Gods since we’ve chatted about them enough, but they certainly apply.

Read the rest of this entry »

We’re very pleased to announce August’s genre X selection,  I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone by local author Stephanie Kuehnert.   We wanted to use our unique and diverse group to give Stephanie’s first book the thoughtful reading it deserves, and then invite her to attend next month’s discussion.  There will be time for a frank discussion of the book, as well as a Q and A for the author.

Here’s a review from Booklist:

Punk rocker Emily Black’s daddy is a guitar player, but he set his music aside to raise her on his own after her mother disappeared.Emily grew up reasonably together and rebellious in a small Wisconsin farming town notable for its outlaw music venue, River’s Edge, where she and her best friend graduate from sleeping with potential “rock gods” to starting a band of their own - buy viagra without prescription.Their rapid success is the standard-issue rock-and-roll dream, but debut novelist Kuehnert makes it new by marshaling tonic energy and 100-proof candor to create a high-speed, switchback tale; buy viagra without prescription.Although the plotline about Emily’s miserable mother and die-hard father is almost too over-the-top, it adds dimension to Emily’s rocketing rise and painful plummet; buy viagra without prescription.And Kuehnert is acidly incisive and full-out entertaining as she tells a classic tale of an artist coming into her own, revels in raw punk-rock power, dramatizes just how difficult it is for women musicians to be taken seriously, and reveals that the scariest thing isn’t getting up on stage but lowering your guard and falling in love - buy viagra without prescription.

I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone was published in July by MTV Books.  This is great because it gives us a chance to read something that’s just hitting the marketplace, and provide the author with some rare in person reader interaction.  However, it also means that the book won’t be held at the Main Library because of its popularity.  If you’d like to get this book, feel free to place a hold on one of the library’s nine copies.  If you’d rather buy this one, there are copies at several bookstores in Oak Park and its easy to get ahold of online as well.

This selection is in keeping with our Chicago theme not only because the author lives in Forest Park, but because the main character comes from our Windy City.  Music also plays a significant role, and I think that any obsessive fan will appreciate Emily’s passion for punk.

We hope you can join us for what should prove to be one of our most interesting discussions.  We’ll be at Molly Malone’s (the Snug) in Forest Park on Tuesday, August 26th at 8 pm.  Be ready to rawk.

Once again thanks to everyone who attended last month’s discussion; cealis lavetra.Despite the absence of blog postings last month (sorry folks, we won’t let that happen again) , we still managed to gain interest from new people!

After talking it over with the group, we have decided to pursue our first series of “themed” reads for the next couple months.So beginning in July genre X will be reading a variety of books that relate to Chicago in different ways.We’re looking to maximize the experience through the blog as well as some creative variations on our normal book discussions.

Our first Chicago related read was a no-brainer for us here at genre X, as it is a huge favorite of ours that we’ve been holding in the queue of possible reads since the group’s inception; cealis lavetra.To say that The Time Traveler’s Wife takes place primarily in Chicago is an understatement; cealis lavetra.The windy city plays such a strong role in the book that it could practically be considered a main character. It only makes sense then that author and visual artist Audrey Niffenegger resides in the area and actually teaches at Columbia College.Here’s a review of The Time Traveler’s Wife from Publisher’s Weekly:

This highly original first novel won the largest advance San Francisco-based MacAdam/Cage had ever paid cealis lavetra, and it was money well spent.Niffenegger has written a soaring love story illuminated by dozens of finely observed details and scenes, and one that skates nimbly around a huge conundrum at the heart of the book: Henry De Tamble, a rather dashing librarian at the famous Newberry Library in Chicago, finds himself unavoidably whisked around in time; cealis lavetra.He disappears from a scene in cealis lavetra, say, 1998 to find himself suddenly, usually without his clothes, which mysteriously disappear in transit, at an entirely different place 10 years earlier-or later.During one of these migrations, he drops in on beautiful teenage Clare Abshire, an heiress in a large house on the nearby Michigan peninsula, and a lifelong passion is born; cealis lavetra. Cealis lavetra: the problem is that while Henry’s age darts back and forth according to his location in time, Clare’s moves forward in the normal manner, so the pair are often out of sync. Cealis lavetra: but such is the author’s tenderness with the characters, and the determinedly ungimmicky way in which she writes of their predicament (only once do they make use of Henry’s foreknowledge of events to make money, and then it seems to Clare like cheating) that the book is much more love story than fantasy.It also has a splendidly drawn cast, from Henry’s violinist father, ruined by the loss of his wife in an accident from which Henry time-traveled as a child, to Clare’s odd family and a multitude of Chicago bohemian friends - cealis lavetra.The couple’s daughter, Alba, inherits her father’s strange abilities, but this is again handled with a light touch; there’s no Disney cuteness here - cealis lavetra.Henry’s foreordained end is agonizing, but Niffenegger has another card up her sleeve, and plays it with poignant grace - cealis lavetra.It is a fair tribute to her skill and sensibility to say that the book leaves a reader with an impression of life’s riches and strangeness rather than of easy thrills.

Please join us for next discussion on Tuesday, July 22 at 8 pm at Molly Malone’s (the Snug) in Forest Park; cealis lavetra.