For our next bookclub meeting we’ll be reading The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi. A “biopunk” novel, this science fiction novel won the Hugo in 2010, tied with our last selection, The City & the City. The Windup Girl also won the 2009 Nebula Award, the 2010 Compton Crook Award and the 2010 Locus Award for best first novel. Here, a bleak 23rd-century Bangkok is threatened by rising sea levels and strange mutations. Agribusiness controls calories, this world’s greatest commodity, and Anderson Lee searches out new sources.

Join us for discussion of our current book as well as helping decide our next selection.

This is what you missed at our last bookclub meeting:

We read The City & the City by China Miéville, in honor of his visit to C2E2 in March. Miéville has won the Arthur C. Clarke, Hugo, World Fantasy, British Fantasy and British Science Fiction Awards. The City & the City takes place in overlapping cities, where one often bleeds into another. The story plunges you into the setting by opening with a murder mystery.

Most enjoyed it, some with a few reservations involving writing style and characterization. The setting, however, is outstanding here, layered and alive. The noir style holds well against the more fantasy-related aspects.

When: Monday, April 11, 2011 – 6:30pm-8:00pm

Where: First or second floor of the Noble Tree Cafe 2444 N. Clark Street Chicago, IL

Cost: Free