Upcoming Books:
December
The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert

"Lee has always been preoccupied by the themes of hope and betrayal, by the tensions that arise in small lives in the midst of great social change. His marvelous new book, which imagines a future after the breakdown of our own society, takes on those concerns with his customary mastery of quiet detail — and a touch of the fantastic." - Diving Into the Wreck by Andrew Sean Greer, Jan 2, 2014 The New York Times Sunday Book Review. 

Author Bio:

Chang-Rae Lee , was born on July 29, 1965 in Seoul, South Korea. Lee came to the United States when he when he was three years old when his father moved to Pittsburgh to finish his medical training. 

Lee graduated from Yale University and went on to work on Wall Street as an equities analyst for a year, then left to devote his time to writing. Lee's first book, Native Speaker (1995), won the prestigious PEN award.

He moved to New York to teach creative writing at Hunter College. In 1999, the New Yorker selected him as one of the top 20 writers under 40. Lee's second book, A Gesture Life, came out in 1999; two others, Aloft and The Surrendered, appeared in 2004 and 2010, respectively. In 2002 Lee moved to New Jersey to teach creative writing at Princeton where he lives with his wife and two daughters.
Author Quotes: "As for what's the most challenging aspect of teaching, it's convincing younger writers of the importance of reading widely and passionately." -Chang-Rae Lee

Read BExtraordinaire Blog for more reviews on our next book club selection. 
is reading "On Such a Full Sea"  written by Chang-Rae Lee on October 23. 

"There is a tide in the affairs of men" from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar:
Brutus:
There is a tide in the affairs of men.
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.
Julius Caesar Act 4, scene 3, 218–224

On Such a Full Sea is about the interplay between fate and free will in human life. Throughout the novel, the reader must ponder on the forces of fate versus free will and whether Fan may be able to achieve success through virtue, ambition, courage and commitment. Is she shrewd enough to understand and heed the many omens that she encounters in the primitive and lawless "open counties?" 

Fan lives and works as a diver in B-Mor (futuristic Baltimore) tending the fish farm for the consumption of a privileged upper class living in planned communities known as Charters. Between these facilities and the Charters is a vast rural no man’s land known as “the open counties.” She becomes pregnant by her boyfriend Reg. He is immune to a fatal disease inflicting the population referred to as C. One day, he mysteriously disappears. There is speculation that he has been taken by the Charters for medical research. A distraught Fan takes off to find him. 

After Fan leaves B-Mor, , she becomes almost a mythical creature to the people she has left behind in the "facilities." She is lauded and condemned. Overall, she has stirred up emotions and tales are told and embellished, "We can’t help but add a little of our own special imprint, a tiny re-marking here, a slight miscoloration there, and sometimes even more than that if the feeling is intense enough."

Fan seems powerless and powerful throughout her adventures to reunite with her beloved Reg. And much like Brutus' quote above, Brutus conceives life as being influenced by both fate and free will.