dear e,

and they said that dr. soong never created a female android ...

--raf*

I'm a bad influence, and your mother has probably warned you against folks like me, but two alternatives come to mind:
1) Cut your losses and run. Your reward for reading a bad book is to meet the sort of people who enjoy it? Far better to spend your time working on changes to the 'Aqoul template.
2) Go to the book club meeting and berate everyone for reading this when they could be reading about things like Saudi Arabia. And I don't mean any that Princess stuff.

I find that men tend to prattle on about professional sports and tedious obsessions too much, whereas women like to talk about shoes and relationships and other people. Both tend to be tiresome, but one supposes the opposite sex sometimes has the certain saving grace of being easier on the eyes.

> Your reward for reading a bad book is to meet the sort of people who enjoy it?

In another world, this sort of thing might be known as 'penance'. Penance for not being able to say 'no', that is.

Of course, if you embarrass your so-called friend by being nasty and negative, there's the benefit of not being invited to any more book clubs. Or there's just a scheduling conflict and you have to leave early... blame the boyfriend--the 'girls' will commiserate because stereotypically men are ALWAYS to blame.

Re: repression, agree entirely. Experiencing emotion > being controlled by.

Raf: and they said that dr. soong never created a female android ...

Hah. I had almost forgotten that bit of pop culture.

Walla: Far better to spend your time working on changes to the 'Aqoul template.

True. By the way, the category menu is too long because I forgot to turn the subcategories into separate flyouts originating from the main category.

Of course, I don't entirely remember how to do that but it will come to me.

Blue: I much prefer guy prattling because we can often prattle on about the same things (e.g. computers, politics).

As for repression, I agree it's better not to be led around by your emotions. Can be a huge waste of time and energy.

perhaps at the end of the book, the herbal tea specialist will reveal that she poisoned the furnature maker out of jealousy or some other such silly emotion. the other women are, naturally, in shock. she then goes on to reveal that she just poisoned the cups of tea that they're all drinking.

and the book ends with the three women all dieing horrible deaths.

with an ending like that to look forward to, how could you NOT finish the book?

my suggestion, not that it counts for much, is to bring up how you can not relate at all to the charicter's experiences and how the book didn't interest you. then suggest some good book about a mameluke.

> I much prefer guy prattling because we can often prattle on about the same things (e.g. computers, politics).

Hm. It's probably a little cultural, but somehow most of the males I run into have horribly myopic political views to the point that it's painful to even try. (Oh yes, let's nuke Iran and Syria too. Wonderful suggestion.) Females here are at least marginally better... I can respect a bleeding heart slightly more than a wantonly ignorant hawk.

>then suggest some good book about a mameluke.

Why limit yourself to just one Mamluk?

I say slog through the herbal tea convention book, criticize it roundly for its prretentious sloppy-headed nonsense while sucking down your English Breakfast, then insist your next volume be Mongols and Mamluks: The Mamluk-Ilkhanid War, 1260-1281 by Reuven Amitai-Preiss ( 1995, Cambridge University Press.

At the very least it will add a little balance. Beautiful narcissistic dimwit brewing tea - duplicitous sultan sending a doomed Abbasid pretender to near-certain defeat. See? All is suddenly in balance.

Besides whoever said bookclubs have to be all about the fiction anyway? Is it a RULE? Demand to see such a rule in writing if they start claiming it exists. And if they actually produce one ( devious creatures, these women - so I hear, anyway ;) ), you can always demand they go with Neil Gaiman's latest next time or something else fun.

you should request to read the Starr Report. at least it has sex and politics. and minimal tea drinking.

dear e,

amin maalouf's "samarkand", starring omar khayyam, hassan-e sabagh (the guy who invented assassinations), nizam ul-mulk, AND jamal al-din al-afghani!

cheers,

--raf*

Beg off.

Wasting time on such rubbish is a loss. Reasonable pretext to protect time invested in this person, who might be a reasonable contact or something. Maybe next book will not be atrocious.

Illness or some 'family issue' should do, reschedule.

If you're even halfway interested in doing girlie bonding stuff in any remotely traditional way, even if you are thinking of it more as networking, why not do something other than the book club? Something you might actually do on your own, like, oh, go get pedicures?

L: Reasonable pretext to protect time invested in this person, who might be a reasonable contact or something.

This is really the only reason I care to attend. She'll feel bad if I don't show.

As for book atrocities, the club is a "democracy" of sorts, so I only have one vote. They're not going to be reading foreign policy/international dev/mamluke history anytime soon.

Eve: Something you might actually do on your own, like, oh, go get pedicures?

Well maybe, but I don't really want to girly-bond. I'd just as soon get a pedicure with some guys (my male coworkers are pretty metrosexual...wonder if they'd go for it?)

They're not going to be reading foreign policy/international dev/mamluke history anytime soon.

Can you at least sucker them into Mamluke bodice-rippers?

metrosexual

there's a term I haven't heard in a while.

This is really the only reason I care to attend. She'll feel bad if I don't show.

Right, reschedule. Next time.

Or, better yet, arrange for a call to get you out early on. Have some man (bf, other gullible sucker) ring up about some urgent business so you can fuck off earlier.

BTW, for some queer reason on main page the "remember me" function isn't working. Annoying for us primitives that do not understand TypeKey.

Feel like I should just suck it up and go. Only a few wasted hours. Perhaps it will be fun. At the very least a good story for you wankers.

Fixing the "Remember Me" as we speak, thanks for the heads up.

You know, you just articulated the reason why I used to belong to a women's only e-list and stopped logging on to read the messages shortly after I stopped posting myself.

The only time I feel the need for a circle of female friends is when I need support for some sort of crisis involving men.

Other than that female chit-chat is indeed annoying.

The problem is that male chit-chat is so often annoying too unless you know the right males as the ones I seem to have bad fortune to meet always think that chit-chat is them pontificating and me nodding and occasionally going "wow, how deep" or "how smart you are."

So the hell with being anti-men or anti-women - I guess I am just a plain old anti-people person.

The only time I feel the need for a circle of female friends is when I need support for some sort of crisis involving men.

I mostly keep to myself during a crisis because standard female comfort is usually the opposite of what I need to hear. I prefer males because they'll try to distract and won't prod for info or speculate wildly.

So the hell with being anti-men or anti-women - I guess I am just a plain old anti-people person.

Agreed.