June (planning meeting+poetry+Vonnegut)

I'm hoping to get people a bit excited about June when we will have our planning meeting.
I am ambitiously planning to accomplish the following 4 things:

1.  Discuss what to read in the next 6 months.

This is just the sort of thing the blog is perfect for.  Will you please take a moment to think about what you've read and if you have any ideas of what we might like to read in July-December please go to this entry and post a comment with your suggestion?  What Our Group Should Read Next

2.  Discuss the Blog.  Ideas, concerns, and questions. . .

3.  Share poetry, if you so desire.  No pressure here, but if you have a favorite poem please bring it to share with us.  (There are some great poetry resources in the Literary Links to the right.  ie. Writer's Almanac and the Poetry Foundation links)

4.  Discuss a couple short stories by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.  (only 17 pages)  I'm going to abuse my authority a bit and declare this last thing, just for fun, and because I love short stories, bragging about things that come from my home state (part of my personal mission to show people we have more than corn and the Indy 500), and because I was in the mood for some literay fiction with some depth .  The New York Times said, "Like Mark Twain, Mr. Vonnegut used humor to tackle the basic questions of human existence". He died April 11, 2007, New York Times Obituary.  Click on the titles for each to get to them on the wonderful web.
Preface to Welcome to the Monkey House:  Vonnegut shares some biographical information.  It also gives some context to the last story here, Long Walk to Forever.  It's only 3 pages and may I say, don't start it unless you finish it, because stopping halfway is rather unflattering to him.

Harrison Bergeron:  I chose this because it's somewhat typical of his writing.  It's a bit SciFi, a bit social commentary, and a bit shocking, but it is one I felt was clean enough for our group.  This is why I have never suggested we read a novel of his and also why I haven't mustered the emotional strength to read very many myself, even though I think he's a brilliant writer.  There is a movie version of this made for educational purposes.  They change a LOT in the story, but the essence is the same.  Sean Astin plays Harrison Bergeron and they give him a love interest played by Josie Pye from Anne of Green Gables.  It's a more complicated story and probably equally, though differently, violent.  7 pages
After you've read the story.  Think about how odd it is that the hosts of Dancing with the Stars were Tom Bergeron and Samantha Harris.  Too odd.

Long Walk to Forever:  I chose this one because I love it and it is happy.  He refers to it as a "sickeningly slick love story from the Ladies Home Journal", and says, "it describes an afternoon I spent with my wife-to-be.  Shame, shame, to have lived scenes from a woman's magazine."   7 pages
John just informed me that there are several youtube versions of this story too.  Here's one.  Here's a bunch.  Thus far, I've watched none, so proceed with caution and I'd read the story FIRST in case these are lame.

May's Book: Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua

"This is a story about a mother, two daughters, and two dogs. It’s also about Mozart and Mendelssohn, the piano and the violin, and how we made it to Carnegie Hall.
This was supposed to be a story of how Chinese parents are better at raising kids than Western ones.
But instead, it’s about a bitter clash of cultures, a fleeting taste of glory, and how I was humbled by a thirteen-year-old…"
(From the opening of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother)

Links:
About Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother
About Amy Chua
Amy Chua about her book
Link to Q&A between Amy Chua and readers of an article about the book  

A Couple Updates:
The Q&A above is a response to an article, Why Chinese Mother's are Superior, which is excerpts from the book, but there is one picture that's not in the book and there are a few pictures from the book but they are in color.
Also very interesting is that in response to that excerpt people went crazy with hate mail and such, but there was also a response from her daughter, Sophia.  Dear Tiger Mom (make sure you read page 2 as well, I almost didn't see it).