Speaking Volumes May book selection:

If you’ve ever worked in an office, you are keenly aware of the way personalities blend to form a family unit as individuals are thrown together for a common purpose. As Americans we spend more than 80 percent of our lives at work, which means most of our lives we are engaged with the madcap comedy, high drama and peculiar personalities of the office. Author Joshua Ferris offers a modern and insightful look at our workplace relationships, which are rich for examination in his novel, “Then We Came to the End,” Charlotte Weekly’s Speaking Volumes book club selection for May.

Ferris’ novel is set at an advertising agency in Chicago just after the dot-com bust. Be warned: This book is not for the meek. Be prepared to laugh hard. Really hard. You will see yourself and everyone you’ve ever worked with in this novel. People either get fired or die – the former being worse because they keep hanging around the office and finding reasons to return. The workers lament the infrequent appearance of free bagels and the office worker who is always happy and sees goodness in everyone and everything (you know who you are). The pointless meetings are lambasted with equal measure to the co-workers who e-mail the entire group about personal trivialities.

My best advice: Don’t read this book in public. The continual outpouring of rip-roaring laughter may send people scurrying away.

Join us on Tuesday, May 20, at 7 p.m. at Barnes & Noble at 11025 Carolina Place in Pineville. Please RSVP at www.thecharlotteweekly.com.

Novel idea
Charlotte Weekly partners with
Joseph-Beth Booksellers to debut book club

by Alison Woo

“We read to learn that we are not alone.”
– C.S. Lewis, “Shadowlands”

Those lines from the movie “Shadowlands,” starring Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger, remind us why reading is so important: reading builds community.

Connecting the community
One of CW’s missions is to connect neighbor to neighbor. Never has that been so important. We live in a time in which so many of us spend hours each day in our own bubble, often in our cars, rarely reaching out to neighbors to talk about what’s important to us. Thankful that technology streamlines our lives, we also realize it reduces human contact. At CW, we believe those essential connections are longed for, especially by women. We read because it is truly the one time we can forget ourselves and be in someone else’s head, in their experience. We get to live their lives from the inside out.
Each month we’ll focus on a book that speaks about the experiences of women. We will announce that selection every month here in CW. A month later, we will meet to discuss the book at a private event reserved just for our readers at Joseph-Beth Booksellers at SouthPark mall. If you haven’t had a chance to visit this exquisite new paradise for book lovers, you’ll be delighted. Two floors of the widest selection of books in town, from blockbusters to little-known gems, await your discovery. And they are all nestled in a harmonious environment, complete with an elegant café that even serves martinis.