Join us for the January installment of the No Kidding book club!

Since, as always, we skipped December, we went with a rather longer tome for the January event. The book this month is The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski.

From amazon.com:

It's gutsy for a debut novelist to offer a modern take on Hamlet set in rural Wisconsin -- particularly one in which the young hero, born mute, communicates with people, dogs, and the occasional ghost through his own mix of sign and body language. But David Wroblewski's extraordinary way with language in The Story of Edgar Sawtelle immerses readers in a living, breathing world that is both fantastic and utterly believable. In selecting for temperament and a special intelligence, Edgar's grandfather started a line of unusual dogs -- the Sawtelles -- and his sons carried on his work. But among human families, undesirable traits aren't so easily predicted, and clashes can erupt with tragic force. Edgar's tale takes you to the extremes of what humans must endure, and when you're finally released, you will come back to yourself feeling wiser, and flush with gratitude. And you will have remembered what magnificent alchemy a finely wrought novel can work. --Mari Malcolm, Amazon Best of the Month, June 2008

Amazon has paperback at $10 and used hardbacks available from $1.

As always, this is more a social gathering than anything else, so feel free to attend even if you haven't finished - or started - the book! And also as always, we'll have a dinner ahead of time; it'll be posted on the calendar as a separate event.