The World’s Laziest Book Club™

Forest Russell Lewis

November 6, 2011

On November 20th, The World’s Laziest Book Club (TM) will be reading “He’s Not Possessed, He’s My Husband!” from our own Forest Russell Lewis. Forest has written loads of short stories, including a couple that have been read as liturgical responses at Mercy Seat holiday events. You might recognize Forest as the tall, attractive, enigmatic fellow wearing Carharts and a log-chain belt.
Book Club director Cody Menning will be circulating the story to the book club email list this month. If you’re not on the list, talk to Cody at church or email him here: codymenning at gmail dot com.

Book Club Two-fer

May 27, 2011

The World’s Laziest Book Club™ is going to be a two-for-one in July. We will be reading “Let the Great World Spin,” by Colum McCann and watching James Marsh’s documentary “Man on Wire.” Both the book and the documentary revolve around Philippe Petit’s wire walk between the World Trade Center towers in 1974. We will be meeting on Sunday, July 17, after church.

Persepolis

May 13, 2011

This week the World’s Laziest Book Club™ will discuss Marjane Satrapi’s classic graphic novel, Persepolis (or the Movie version – whatever you have time for). Persepolis tells the tale of a young girl trying to grow up punk-rock in 1970s Iran, amid the very unpunk-rock disturbances of the cultural revolution. Pick up a copy at 1/2 Price Books now and you can totally read it, like, Sunday afternoon before church.

We’ll meet after church at Stephanie Johnson’s house. Get directions at church.

The Life You Can Save

March 23, 2011

Acting Now To End World Poverty.

That’s the subtitle to Peter Singer’s 2009 Manefesto on affluence, poverty, and giving. Ambitious? Yes. Plausible? Perhaps. Insane? Let’s find out. The third Sunday of each month Mercy Seat meets for some postchurch textual healing. This month’s author has taken his 40 year career in bioethics and turned it on humans in The Life You Can Save. Grab your copy now ($3 used on Amazon) and meet us on April 17. (Location TBD)

A Wrinkle in March

January 18, 2011

Update: Since the weather didn’t quite behave for us, we have pushed this book club to the third Sunday of March (the 20th). It will be at Brad and Heidi’s. If you haven’t met them yet, they’re great (we promise).

The World’s Laziest Book Club® goes back (forward? sideways?) in time this month. Join us in returning to everyone’s favorite book from 5th grade*, Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time. As always, book club meets on the third Sunday (2/20), after church. Location TBD.

*as determined by an informal poll of everyone within 18” of my desk

Book Club gets ambitious

November 22, 2010

Don’t let the holiday break fool you. The World’s Laziest Book Club™ may be taking December off, but we return in rare form after the new year. The third Sunday in January we will indulge our collective Seasonal Affective Disorder with a discussion of The Brother’s Karamozov. That’s right. THE Brother’s K (not the other book by that hack, Duncan). Nothin’ says wintertime cheer like a good ol’ Russian novel. So mark your calendars early and crack open that dusty old copy from college with the post-it still on page 52. You can do it this time. I believe in you. This month’s discussion will be lead by Cody Menning at la casa de Laura Brown.

November Book Club

November 18, 2010

This month the World’s Laziest Book Club (TM) will be heading over to Tseganesh and Matthew’s place after church to talk about the social psychology of mass movements while, you know, socializing en masse. And eating hot dish! Because, you know, the best midwestern mass movement of all = covering all food with a layer of tater tots. It’d be nice if some of you brought dessert or drinks or something, too. Don’t worry if you haven’t read the book, Rev. Mark certainly hasn’t and that won’t stop him from talking about it.

October Book Club

October 14, 2010

In October the World’s Laziest Book Club™ is going all monster. Well, one monster. We will be reading (or not reading and yet still talking about) Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and we’ll be doing it in spooky St. Paul. Ruth Rosengren will be hosting at her apartment in St. Paul and she promises: harvest chicken stew, potato leek soup, hearty bread and yummy cheeses. Very, um, spooky. The World’s Laziest Book Club™will be held after church on Sunday the 17th.

Sept. Book Club

August 24, 2010

This Month’s book club will be hosted over in good ol’ St. Paul (Directions to the Osterholt’s). Since we’ll be in the capitol, we thought it would be appropriate to celebrate one of it’s most notorious authors, Scotty the Fitz (aka, F. Scott Fitzgerald). And since we are the World’s Laziest Book Club™, we’re keeping it short with the 1920 short story that first put the Minnesotan on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post, Bernice Bobs Her Hair.

June’s Book Club

June 3, 2010

This month’s book club is a triple-duty pizza potluck at Thad and Carmen’s post-church (6:30-ish) on June 20th: You can celebrate Father’s Day, Brian and Natalie Julin-McCleary (this will be their last Sunday at Mercy Seat, so let’s make it a great one), and this month’s book club selection (The Holy Man by Susan Trott) all in one fell (delicious) swoop.

Carmen and Thad will provide sauce + crusts; you bring toppings + your beverage of choice. Here are some directions.

As pizza-creation inspiration, I offer this actual menu item from Pizza Hut in Japan: “The crust is made of hot dogs wrapped in bacon and rolls of molten cheese. The center is built with hamburgers, cheese rolls, sausage, bacon, ham, bacon bits, mushroom, onion, pepper, garlic and tomato sauce. The pie also comes with two toppings — ketchup and maple syrup.”

Also, if you haven’t already joined the Mercy Seat Book Club Facebook group, you should!