Hello Buzz Book Club readers! Welcome to August! We finished the July book club selection a week ago, and while the breather was kind of nice, it's time to get back to reading. After last month's detour to personal essay-ville, we're returning to fiction-land for August, as I've chosen Tom Perrotta's book The Wishbones as this month's selection.

This book was the author's first novel and came before his more famous works, like Election and Little Children. The story seems like The Wedding Singer meets High Fidelity, and it piqued my interest because — like his other books — it will also become a movie soon.

For those of you new to my book club format, here's how it works: I'll announce a new book each month. Every week I'll suggest chapters to complete by the next post (which, in this case, will go up every Friday in August). In these weekly Book Club posts, I'll posit a few discussion-provoking questions for you to respond to in the comments section.

To find out what The Wishbones is all about and to get the first assignment, read more.

The synopsis for The Wishbones reads:
"Tom Perrotta's first novel, The Wishbones, is all about that much-maligned class of 30-ish men who still live at home with their parents, guys who make furtive love to their girlfriends — if they have them at all — in the basement rec room or the back seat of a car. But Dave Raymond, the protagonist of The Wishbones, doesn't waste his time on Star Trek reruns or computer games; he spends his weekends playing in a wedding band called The Wishbones, using the rapidly receding dream of rock stardom as an excuse to put off growing up. The sudden death of a fellow musician sends Dave into something of a tailspin, however, and in a moment of weakness, he proposes to his longtime girlfriend, Julie. The engagement has hardly been announced when Dave meets Gretchen, a bridesmaid at one of the weddings at which The Wishbones play, and before long he's having serious doubts about his own marital plans."

The first assignment: Read from the start of the story until the end of the chapter titled "You've Got a Friend" in the section titled "May." We'll chat about this first section a week from today, Aug. 8.

Source