Sorry I'm a little late getting this out - been busy. I also decided to go first because A) If this falls flat it is my fault and B) I wasn't sure who would be ready with a selection. After me it's just randomized.

Title: What is the What
Author: Dave Eggers

Amazon.com synopsis: Valentino Achak Deng, real-life hero of this engrossing epic, was a refugee from the Sudanese civil war-the bloodbath before the current Darfur bloodbath-of the 1980s and 90s. In this fictionalized memoir, Eggers (A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius) makes him an icon of globalization. Separated from his family when Arab militia destroy his village, Valentino joins thousands of other "Lost Boys," beset by starvation, thirst and man-eating lions on their march to squalid refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya, where Valentino pieces together a new life. He eventually reaches America, but finds his quest for safety, community and fulfillment in many ways even more difficult there than in the camps: he recalls, for instance, being robbed, beaten and held captive in his Atlanta apartment. Eggers's limpid prose gives Valentino an unaffected, compelling voice and makes his narrative by turns harrowing, funny, bleak and lyrical. The result is a horrific account of the Sudanese tragedy, but also an emblematic saga of modernity-of the search for home and self in a world of unending upheaval.

First, I hope that this book isn't too popular that many of us have read it. Dave Eggers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Eggers) is known for both his nonfiction and fiction works. What is the What is largely based off a true story - as in the main character was/is a real person, and the events depicted throughout the book are ones that happened. However, Achek wasn't able to always provide crystal-clear, precise recollections of long past events. Thus, Eggers was given leeway in regards to details, which prevent this book from being 100% non-fiction, but still allow for a very personal and true story about survival in the Sudan.

I picked this book because I believe that it is a compelling account of human suffering that we don't always hear a lot about. It is a graphic, often depressing book, but in my opinion, a necessary one. Human suffering and the sanctity of life ought not end at our borders, and by attaching real names and real stories to each of these 'statistics', the author compels the reader to give second thought to those much less fortunate than all of us.

P.S. Eggers is a very good writer. It's not all doom and gloom - there is plenty of funny!

Sounds interesting. I'll pick it up on my way home tonight :) Just about done with the book I am currently reading.

just letting you know that amazon.com also has it if you can't get to a bookstore. (Got a copy from them)

Are we all going to be suggesting books eventually? And if so, what types?

Go buy this book! I've started re-reading it again. Just waiting for people to pick it up.

I really hope you goofs who signed up for the list have bought this book!

Sorry, this book doesn't appeal to me. =\

Your public library will have this book too, if you choose not to buy it.

I'll be getting it this afternoon.

We have two carriers out for surgeries, one out for a broken wrist from falling on a snow-covered painted porch (keep this in mind if painting your porch floor), one out for cancer treatments, and another retired last Saturday.....in other words, we are covering five vacant routes, in addition to two people on vacation each week, with only three sub-carriers. Needless to say, the overtime has taken away my time for leisure reading for a while. Six day work weeks suck.

Picked it up today at lunch.

I hope everyone who purchased the book is making their way through it nicely. This is only my second time reading it, which allows me to absorb some of the details I missed the first time because I was too busy trying to digest some of the things that happened (The lions... /shudder).

Anyways, I hope you are all enjoying it and if you haven't gone out and bought this book do it! You will not be dissapointed!

Not something I'd have pick up on my own normally. but i'm finding it beautifull and haunting all in one. you might not like it for what it makes you face about our world.
but it's one you'll likely never forget. about half way and will be done in a couple of days. it grips you. i'll most likely read for a few hours in the morning instead of playing WoW.

Finally started this. So far so good.

So it's March now. Whats next? I really want to discuss this book! we waithing on Grifter? /stamps foot impatiently!

Feel free to discuss away! Just spoiler text it if need be.

As far as the book club, I'm going to ask for a hard list of people who are going to do it after a couple more days. Not a "Oh, if the book interests me," because I got a lot of people who said they would do it and apparently are no longer interested. I don't care if it gets to the point where there are only 2 people - as long as I'm getting some good reading suggestions the number of people involved doesn't really bother me.

I guess in the beginning I should have been more clear - this is not a fantasy book club. If someone wants to pick War of the Elves for their monthly selection than that is fine, I'll read it. The point of a book club, however, is to branch out, not to relegate yourself to one or two small niches.

I have read many books with topics that would normally make me cry of boredom, but were put together so well that I finished them with ease. Good writing is good writing. Genre is only as important as you let it be (Unless you're talking about some of Halo's history books. To hell with those!)

So it's March now. Whats next? I really want to discuss this book! we waiting on Grifter? /stamps foot impatiently!

I've been distracted with life lately so haven't wrapped this up yet. I will finish it this week-end but go ahead and start discussing it now.

As for March books, I'll read just about anything.

Likewise, I have been wrapped up with a bunch of things lately. But, I've started the book and I am liking it a lot... not a book I ever would have picked up on my own.

Leaving for spring break in 10 minutes. I get back on Saturday - by then I'll have a concrete idea of who is in and who is not. Then maybe we can start the months at the halfway point or something. No worries - we'll get it taken care of. Adios!

So at this point I have:

Fadorn
Grift3r
Velvetsilence
Crystana
Myself

Anyone else? If not we can just roll with this and pick up stragglers as they slowly realize our combined awesomeness!

I have been loathe and hesitant to "start discussion" of this book not because i cannot find something worthy of a diccussion. quite the opposite, every single page in some way has something not just worthy of our attention but frankly screaming for our attention!

I have been loathe, not because I cannot reconcile the emotions that this book invoked in me. wich were many.
I have been loathe because this book exposed me for who I have been. this book evicerated my illusions of the world around me.

This book in a wierd way showed me for who I am and I am ashamed of my self.

Ashamed not because of the privelage under wich i've lived my entire life. but the circumstance that this privelage afforded me.
Ashamed because I and I alone built these lil walls in my head that was the cause of my ignorance/ignoring.

Well, my commentary on the book is going to seem shallow and juvenile after that. :o

I haven't finished this book and I struggle to sit down and read it every time. Honestly, it is the way the story is told I find troubling. It is not that I haven't read books using this same method of storytelling (dual-plot, asynchronous timelines), I just find that it gets in the way of the story entirely. I understand the intent with the mirroring of sentiment and the whole duality of his past and present reality, it just . . . bothers me!

I am going to force myself to finish this but I am disappointed. In the books defense, I was eager for another "Kite Runner" experience and it just failed to deliver.

Disclaimer: My review of this book should in no way translate to any sort of ambivalence on my part to the story actually being told.