Well, it's my turn to pick a book for our book club, and I spent several hours yesterday morning trying to find something that I liked and thought everyone else would like too. We used to always pick the books as a group, but someone had the bright idea (can you hear my sarcasm? ) to have the person who hosts pick the book. Most of the fiction was very violent and/or war-related (A Thousand Splendid Suns, Water for Elephants, etc. and then we had a slew of five non-fiction books, some self-help and others violent and war-related (Eat, Pray, Love, Many Lives, Many Masters, After Long Silence, Infidel, etc.). I've been begged to pick something fiction (which I wanted anyway), and everyone wants something light and fun. I'm in that mood too, but I'm also a bit put off that I was subjected to all these books I really didn't want to read. So part of me wants to just pick something I know I'll love without any regard to what they all think...but that's not really me. *sigh* Hence the delimma.
When DH got home last night (after I went to the gym), we sat on the porch and had our snacks, then took out our brand new laptop (how awesome is it to go online on the porch??? ) and DH "helped" me look for books (by typing things into the Amazon search like "monkey" and "alien probe" Boys!). I guess he could tell how frustrated I was feeling because he took the puppy for a walk and then grabbed me and drove me to Barnes and Noble. I think I finally picked a book, with his help--Confessions of a Jane Austin Addict. It's light and fun, fiction, but it's definitely a book that I'm interested in. Hope they don't mind!
Zeff, how'd you get so darn smart? Thanks for your info on the blood-type diets. I'd heard that they weren't very scientific, but didn't know anything else. Thanks for bringing it up, Melanie! I hear you on "vomitous" Harlequin scenes. I loved them as a teen, but now they bother me. I often just skip them and hope nothing important was going on!
Thanks for the info on Goodnight Nobody...I was hoping it was good, but it's good to know before trying it!
Laurie -
That is one of the reasons why I stopped going to my local book club. There were just too many books that I had no interest in, and quite a few that were offensive. When I stopped going, we had 27 people in our book club...so getting a book that everybody liked would have been hard. I would like to find a smaller book club, they were a great little twice a month retreat!
As for me being smart? haha. I have a lot of time on my hands?
I stopped going to my book club probably 2 years ago because all they talked about was babies...LOL. But I do miss having one to go to. I've never heard of that book, Laurie, but I'm sure you picked a good one!
I stopped going to my book club probably 2 years ago because all they talked about was babies...LOL.
That's hilarious, Jessie! My friend Laura did the same thing, she said she could handle the baby talk, but when it became 2 hours of lactation discussion, she had had enough. She has no interest in ever having kids, though. You, on the other hand... Guess you can join again now, eh?
Wow, Zeff, our club is up to 8 or 9 people and it seems HUGE to me. How do you ever discuss? Seriously, I'd love to know, because I'm not sure how to make sure everyone gets their time to talk at ours (I'm newly in charge of the club).
Here's a synopsis of the book, Jessie, from Amazon. If you like Jane Austin, I think you'd enjoy it!
Quote:
From Publishers Weekly
Aclever time-travel setup functions as the prime attraction for this breezy debut novel. Courtney Stone, a single Los Angeles woman recovering from the double whammy of a broken engagement and a failed friendship, wakes up after a night of self-medicating with her drug of choice, Jane Austen novels, to find herself in 1813 England. She's inhabiting the body of Jane Mansfield, a manor-born Englishwoman who, at 30, has yet to find a husband, confounding her humorless, Miss Bossy-corset stand-in mother. While still haunted by real-life memories, Courtney, as Jane, soon gets swept up in this Austenesque world of decadent meals and grand balls, gentlemen in form-fitting knee breeches and traveling with her friend Mary, whose brother, Charles Edgeworth, appears to have an interest in Jane that Courtney struggles to understand. As her identity starts to meld with Jane's, Courtney rethinks who she wants to be (and to be with) in any time period. While her 21st-century anachronisms can be comical, Courtney, for such an Austen addict, is unconvincingly naïve about Regency norms. Fans of the ever-expanding inspired-by-Austen-lit garden party will find a winner here; it doesn't hurt that Austen has a brief, comical cameo.
Wow, Zeff, our club is up to 8 or 9 people and it seems HUGE to me. How do you ever discuss? Seriously, I'd love to know, because I'm not sure how to make sure everyone gets their time to talk at ours (I'm newly in charge of the club).
It wasn't always that number, but people would bring friends and then they would bring friends...you know how it goes.
We didn't discuss....that is part of the reason why I left. It started as a group of 4 girls and we all had the same tastes in books but different opinions on topics. It led for very interesting discussion.
It doesn't take long though before someone comes in that is very closed minded and starts attacking someone for having a different viewpoint and to keep things civil...we would start talking about something that most everyone there had in common - kids. Eventually even that led to attacks (homeschooling v. public schooling was a big topic of discussion and drama)....it just lost it's fun and I realized that I had more fun discussing the books with my husband and SIL so I stopped going.
Probably for the best, I don't have much time to read lately.
I finished Astrid and Veronika and also finished Things I've Learned From Women Who've Dumped Me (which turned out to be much less funny than I'd hoped and even a little gross) on CD. I'm waiting for a couple of David Sedaris books on CD to come in at the library.
I finished Saving Graces (wonderful and definitely worth a read!!! Thank you, Jessie!) and am working on my last Jessie-recommended book, Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons. I don't usually like books that follow a group over a long period of time (this goes from 1968 to 1995), but this one is really fabulous! Each chapter tells what book the group chose to read and why (or sometimes it tells what they ate, instead) and it's the story of a book club that sticks together through all sorts of life changes. It's really well written and fascinating! Thanks for the recommend, Jessie!
While I was gone this weekend, I also finished a great book, Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach. She's written two other non-fiction books, one on cadavers (Stiff) and another on the scientific study of the supernatural (Spook). She is SUCH a great research and writer. The book was utterly hilarious and full of footnotes that you cannot wait to read! I adored it. I learned a lot, too!
Next on my list is one I'm dreading--my last non-fiction (hopefully for a while) book-club book, Infidel. I've asked a couple times here, but no one's admitted to reading it. Even the girl who picked it admitted it was "heavy." *sigh* Oh well...gotta get through it, kinda like a pile of lima beans. After that, hopefully book club will be more fun!
I just finished The Rice Room by Ben Fong-Torres, who is/was?? was one of the founders and writers of Rolling Stone. It is about growing up in Chinatown in California. It wasn't exceptional...I was a little disappointed.
Last night I started The Giant's House by Elizabeth McCracken which seems interesting. I listened to one of her books a few years ago (Niagara Falls All Over Again) and really enjoyed it.
The Lewis title is intriguing, Zeff! Why does he feel that the modern education system has abolished man? I've read a lot of his fiction and some of his wonderful Christian non-fiction, but didn't know he wrote about education. That's neat!
Jessie, that's a shame about The Rice Room. Some of those memoirs are so colorful! I feel like I've read McCracken before, but can't place what it might have been.
I finished Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons last night and was sad to put it down. Thanks so much for recommending it, Jessie! I loved it--and was especially pleased with how she ended it. Very cool.
Now I have to pick up Infidel for my book club. I'm dreading it. I hope it turns out to be better than I thought. Over the weekend, my sister was sexually assaulted (thank God, she's handling it very well) and I found out my neighbor's son-in-law was attacked by a vagrant who was living in the garage of his rental property. The guy came after him with a hatchet and broke his leg in two places. The only reason he's alive today is because his 13yo son (who was with him), wrested the hatchet from the guy, who then ran away. Thank God, they caught the guy, but it's a mess. Anyways, there's enough violence and sadness going around in my real life (well, the lives of the ones I love, really) that I don't need to read about more in the world. Isn't that kind of bad? But I think I'm in a very escapist mood of late, so I'm hoping to get through this book as fast as possible.
Laurie- I'll let you know when we finish the book. We've taken a few nights off from reading and are only a few pages in. It's been a great first few pages though. Definitely a quick read if you're not having discussions every other paragraph like DH and I.
Finally finished In Defense of Food. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the history of food policy, what is actually in our "food", and tips for making healthier choices. He takes a very holistic approach to eating: whole foods in the context of soil, other foods served with, our bodies interaction with foods, and the culture of meals rather than just breaking it all down into nutrients. I also found a lecture in iTunes if anyone wants the 45 minute version
Now that it's getting cooler I'm indulging in the 2 Alice Hoffman books I have saved. Right now I'm reading Skylight Confessions. I've never read one of her books that I didn't love and this one is no exception. I actually think she gets better as time goes on.
I think I'm going to make Mindless Eating my next audio book. Anyone read it? Is it worth the time? Now that I'm back to the treadmill I'm listening to the iPod again.
Wow, Cyndi, I'm loving your reading selections! Is the lecture you found just under the book title in the search on iTunes? I'd love to look it up! The book sounds great, but my TBR pile is getting huge... Where do you get your audio books? It seems like a lot of the places I've found online are sooo expensive, especially when I can get books on CD for nothing from our library. Our library does do audio books online, but they don't work with iPods, for some reason. Tell me more about Alice Hoffman. What kind of books does she write? Why do you like her?
Zeff, I think it's so cool that you and your husband read together! I'd love to do that with mine.
Well, I'm into Infidel, and am liking it, much to my chagrin. So far, the violence hasn't been too bad, though the general atmosphere of her upbringing in regards to women's rights is just abominable. I had Bible study yesterday and found that even the more progressive women in my group really don't think women should be considered equal to men. I find there's such a backlash against feminism these days to the point where even women themselves seem to feel it's a bad idea for women to see themselves as equal to and worthy of the same respect and responsibilities as men. That makes me so sad. I have never understood the argument that women are worth less than men. It doesn't make any sense at all to me. I think we're different and we bring different gifts to the table, but we're all just as important and necessary to this world. Reading this book makes me think about it a lot more.
Hi everyone! I'm also new here, so I thought I'd jump on in. I also adore and love reading. If I could afford all the schooling for it my dream job would be a librarian or reading teacher. But, those are both master degrees!
I am a huge fan of my library system. I read to fast for buying books at the store to be financially feasible. I know my card number by heart and I know their website as though it were my own.
I mostly read urban fantasy (Neil Gaiman, Charles DeLint, and the like), supernatural romance (Queen Betsy, Sookie Stackhouse, Anita Blake, Merry Gentry... ect) And the less romantic urban supernatural mysteries (Dresden, Nightwatch...). Also some SciFi, Fantasy, Manga/Graphic Novels/comic books, Young Adult literature, classics... And I also read a wide variety of non-fiction.
Currently I'm working though the Sookie Stackhouse novels. And I already have a whole list of things I wanna read after that! lol...
) to have the person who hosts pick the book. Most of the fiction was very violent and/or war-related (A Thousand Splendid Suns, Water for Elephants, etc. and then we had a slew of five non-fiction books, some self-help and others violent and war-related (Eat, Pray, Love, Many Lives, Many Masters, After Long Silence, Infidel, etc.). I've been begged to pick something fiction (which I wanted anyway), and everyone wants something light and fun. I'm in that mood too, but I'm also a bit put off that I was subjected to all these books I really didn't want to read. So part of me wants to just pick something I know I'll love without any regard to what they all think...but that's not really me. *sigh* Hence the delimma. 
) and DH "helped" me look for books (by typing things into the Amazon search like "monkey" and "alien probe" 
I hear you on "vomitous" Harlequin scenes. I loved them as a teen, but now they bother me. I often just skip them and hope nothing important was going on! 
That's hilarious, Jessie! My friend Laura did the same thing, she said she could handle the baby talk, but when it became 2 hours of lactation discussion, she had had enough. She has no interest in ever having kids, though. You, on the other hand... 
After that, hopefully book club will be more fun! 
Anyways, there's enough violence and sadness going around in my real life (well, the lives of the ones I love, really) that I don't need to read about more in the world. Isn't that kind of bad? But I think I'm in a very escapist mood of late, so I'm hoping to get through this book as fast as possible.
Tell me more about Alice Hoffman. What kind of books does she write? Why do you like her? 
