Book of the Week Category
The Violent Mr. Fox
Posted on November 28, 2016 Leave a Comment
By Ryan Joe It’s hard not to be beguiled by the teasing wit in the opening chapters of Mr. Fox. Helen Oyeyemi’s novel begins when an enigmatic firecracker of a woman named Mary Foxe surprises the novelist St. John Fox by appearing in his study. At first we assume she’s his mistress. Later, we learn […]
Loading The Big Guns With Blanks
Posted on November 2, 2016 Leave a Comment
By Ryan Joe I’m going to discuss Manuel Gonzales’s debut The Regional Office Is Under Attack regardless of spoilers. So be warned. Okay. So, here’s a novel that’s both completely entertaining and a completely missed opportunity – a comic book in prose instead of panels.
Book 4: ‘The Regional Office Is Under Attack!’ by Manuel Gonzales
Posted on October 19, 2016 Leave a Comment
For the next two weeks, Football Book Club will be reading The Regional Office Is Under Attack! by Manuel Gonzales and posting about An Untamed State by Roxane Gay. Chandler nominated The Regional Office Is Under Attack! for FBC because, “in his short story collection The Miniature Wife, Manuel Gonzales managed to make the plight of a zombie, a video game […]
A Dark Space With No Exit
Posted on October 10, 2016 Leave a Comment
By Ryan Joe Roxane Gay’s An Untamed State is both very easy and very difficult to read. Easy because the novel follows the general outlines of a thriller – the heroine is kidnapped and eventually released – and because Gay’s prose is clear and unadorned, save for the opening sentence. That candid writing style guides […]
Book 3: ‘An Untamed State’ by Roxane Gay
Posted on October 2, 2016 Leave a Comment
For the next two weeks, Football Book Club will be reading An Untamed State by Roxane Gay and posting about Zero K by Don DeLillo. Ryan nominated An Untamed State for FBC because, “At face value, An Untamed State, about a young mother kidnapped for ransom in Haiti, is ostensibly the stuff of pulp. But Roxane Gay, based […]
It’s Cold In Here
Posted on September 19, 2016 Leave a Comment
By Ryan Joe Note: This week, we were supposed to read half of Zero K, but I ended up powering through the whole thing. So needless to say, there are end-of-the-book spoilers. I have never entirely figured out how to read Don DeLillo – a writer I admire but don’t really enjoy. I haven’t read […]
Book 2: ‘Zero K’ by Don DeLillo
Posted on September 14, 2016 2 Comments
For the next two weeks, Football Book Club will be reading Zero K by Don DeLillo — and posting about M.R. Carey’s The Girl With all the Gifts. Chandler — who will doubtlessly have a lot to say about RGIII’s latest injury and how it will impact her beloved Browns — nominated Zero K for Football Book Club […]
Melanie, The Reluctant Zombie
Posted on September 12, 2016 1 Comment
By Ryan Joe Like cell phones, every zombie iteration requires some kind of new feature. The 2002 film 28 Days Later gave us zombies that sprint – which is now de rigueur. And the 2013 video game The Last of Us – likely haunted by a segment from the BBC’s Planet Earth – introduced the […]
Book 1: ‘The Girl With All the Gifts’
Posted on September 2, 2016 Leave a Comment
Much like Jay Cutler in Chicago, Football Book Club is back for another year — and you’re pretty much stuck with us. To kick things off, this week we’re reading M.R. Carey’s zombie horror novel The Girl With all the Gifts . Tired of zombies yet? Too bad, because Ryan Joe isn’t. He nominated The Girl With All the […]
Books 17 & 18: ‘End Zone’ and ‘League of Denial’
Posted on February 2, 2016 Leave a Comment
This week, Football Book Club is reading Don DeLillo’s End Zone and Mark Fainaru-Wada and Steve Fainaru’s League of Denial. And we’ll be posting about The Private Lives of Trees by Alejandro Zambra, along with anything else we feel like throwing in there because football season is just about over and we are all in great moods because the […]
FOOTBALL BOOK CLUB 