Let me add on to the thanks for this feature. This is exactly what I hoped a book club would be; thoughtful discussion on books I wouldn't read otherwise, and a great welcoming environment for me to pitch in my two cents. Thanks again! It's been my favorite feature on this site this year.

Suggestions for future books:
Remainder by Tom McCarthy

I liked it!
I initially couldn't get my head around the tone of this book, and was kind of put off by the emotional cold, clinical detachment Muldrow had to the immediate danger surrounding him at the beginning, so consequently, I didn't enjoy the first third of the book. It was when Muldrow gets on the train and…

Another good game to play…
But how about Beyond Good and Evil? That was one of the best games I played in the last 10 years, and is so unlike any game out there.

My favorite segment of that show will be the part where he takes his shirt off and talks to the camera.

Please Hollywood Gods,
Let Nick Cage play Papa Bear.

That Alexander Payne Segment…
Gets me every time. It was the same watching the last scene in About Schmidt. That six minutes of film was my favorite of that year.

I spent a whole summer reading nothing but Dennis LeHane. That was a good summer.

I thought as a teen that it was so clever to have the wasp on the cover and you don't know why until the very end that you were staring at a spoiler of sorts.

@Bender. Did you ever read McCammon's Boy's Life? It's really different from his other stuff, but it's probably his best book. That would actually be a really interesting selection for this book club.

I remember this book was good when I was a teen…
But not so much as an adult. But my "growing up" didn't make me read any less horror. Or was that simply a back-handed way of saying that most people start seriously reading by picking a genre and then eventually branch out to other things?

Should we really remain cautiously optimistic?
This makes me lean towards fervently pessimistic.

Opposite of mysteries. "Certainties"? Does that work?

Fair enough, and thanks for the insight. I'm more than willing to admit that there is a bit of self-loathing involved when I'm hatin' on Art and Holden Caufield. But it's their emphasis on their directionless nature and (in the case of these two) no real evidence in growing up that makes my sympathy for them zilch. It…

Yep!
I couldn't finish Catcher in the Rye for all the reasons Tasha describes. Are there good coming-of-age tales where the protagonists isn't a self-centered blabberer?

Nope. The first Chabon book I read was Kavalier and Clay, then Wonder Boys, and then this one. The best thing I can say for Mysteries is it's interesting to see the potential he was later able to deliver on with his later work. But this book is basically a mess. But hey, bad Chabon is better than the best Dan Brown…

Yep Donna, Kavalier and Clay ranks for me as one of my favorite books. The only problem I had was after I read that, perfectly fine books like Wonder Boys seemed disappointing only because they weren't as good. That's the only reason I think to read Wonder Boys first.

Definitely read "Wonderboys". "Mysteries" is probably not the best place to start with Chabon. But I would read Wonderboys, and if you like that, try Cavalier and Clay, and then maybe move on to someone else. He kinda hit his peak for me with those two books.

I read this book…
…a couple of years ago in two sittings. The first sitting was everything up to the motorcyle ride, and the second was everything after. I remember a lot from that first day of reading and virtually nothing from the second.

I can't get into books with strange punctuation. So I'm probably one of the 16 people out there who didn't like The Road.