It seems that we have a growing trend around here where we're using the book club as a motivation to actually finish a book.  For the third time in a month, I've heard the statement "maybe if it's our book club book I'll actually finish it."  And it's in that spirit that my sister-in-law Carrie selected our book.  Please join Carrie and me in reading White Teeth by Zadie Smith.


White Teeth is described in this way:
"In this remarkable novel set in postwar London, 24-year-old Smith has cleverly created an unlikely friendship between Archie Jones, a simple working-class Brit, and Samad Iqbal, a Muslim Bengali waiter in an Indian restaurant, who meet in the English army in WWII. After the war, the two commiserate over their lives and those of their children; their dreams, disappointments and expectations unfolding with riotous humor as the characters in both generations struggle to carve out their own cultural identities. As Samad himself says, '…you begin to give up the very idea of belonging. Suddenly, this thing, this belonging, it seems like some long, dirty lie.'"

Reviews from people we don't know:
"As I plunged into this book I was unaware of what to expect and was pleasantly surprised by the unique reality of it. Each page captured every-day- life in a humorous and nonchalant way. It dealt with real issues, things that I could truly relate to as a reader, and brought to life a variety of other perspectives. As a whole it flowed smoothly from page to page and I found myself immersed in the lives of the characters. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, though I was slightly disappointed by the lack of closure at the end, and would read it again in a heartbeat." - Anonymous

"I really liked Zadie Smith's writing style in that her descriptions were fantastic. The only thing this book was missing was a plot which is fairly important in my opinion. There were too many lulls to make me excited to pick it up to read." - Anonymous


Having not yet read the book, the title makes me want to pair it with Crest White Strips.  Or maybe something we can actually consume, like white zinfandel.  But neither of those feel like a very good pairing (although I'd bet that more of us have White Strips around than White Zinfandel).  This month, after you've read the book, help me out with a good pairing.  It could be a drink (alcoholic or non) or food.  If you'd like to include a recipe, please send it to me in email and I'll add it here as a link.  Any questions, just let me know.


As a new feature here, we're going to combine the announcement and rating entries.  This means no more waiting to add your comments, leaving it to chance that by the time I post the rating entry you will have forgotten your thoughts on the book.  So, when you finish the book, come on back and tell us all about it.  Here is the rating criteria:

***** = This was one of the best books I've ever read.
**** = It was a great book, I'd definitely recommend it.
*** = It was pretty good.
** = There were some parts that were OK, but overall not great.
* = Not great.  At all.
0 = Didn't quite get around to this one.