June and July Book Club Selections have been chosen!

I'm happy to report that the June and July book club selections have been chosen, and I already own BOTH! :)

June's book club selection is Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella of the Shopaholic fame. Funnily enough, you can see the book on my book shelf in the background of this blog (yes, the background is actually my very own book shelf!). See the red book on the right hand side?





July's book club selection is Second Chance by Jane Green.





Oh, and in other news, I'm now the organizer of our book club. Fun! :)

Update!!

Ok, so I admittedly never finished Wally Lamb's The Hour I First Believed :(

The next book we read for book club was The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff. This book was one of a list of maybe 5 that I had the book club choose from... I was given the task (well, truthfully, I'm pretty sure I asked for it) of coming up with the poll for our March book club selections. The 19th Wife won as it was chosen by our book club members in our online poll.

The book is an interesting intertwines two stories of polygamy... one of a wife in the late 1800s (Bringham Young's wife Ann Eliza) and a 20th century murder mystery in Utah.





In the meanwhile, I continued to succumb to my Twilight indulgences and am finishing the third book in the series, Eclipse (by Stephenie Meyer in case you've been living under a rock and don't know who the author of the Twilight series is). LOVE this book too! :)

Good Grief!

Long time, no post! Let me catch up... So, for November I read Girls in Trouble by Caroline Leavitt as mentioned below. It was quite good. It was a story of a young girl who, as a teenager, is pregnant and decides to give her baby up for adoption. Specifically, an open adoption. It is a VERY interesting read.

Following that book, in December, I read Christmas Jars by Jason F. Wright for book club. It was a very easy read, good for the holidays. My only complaint is that things were too "convenient" at the end.





I then indulged my Twilight craving and read New Moon by Stephenie Meyer. OMG, LOVED it! I can't wait for the movie to come out, and I can't wait to read Eclipse...





...but first, I have book club commitments. January's book was Molokai'i by Alan Brennert. A story set back in the 1890s in Hawaii where lepers were hunted, arrested, and sent to the island of Molokai'i for seclusion. The story follows the life of a young girl... admittedly, I didn't get all the way through the book, but I plan on finishing it soon!





Next up for book club is The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb. At this point, I am not very far in, so I don't have a real opinion of the book just yet.





My task for today is to come up with a short list of books for a poll for my book club for March's discussion. The book club leader has decided that each month we're going to have one member pick a short list of books that the rest can vote on. I think it is a GREAT idea!

Twilight is AWESOME!

So, I just finished the first book in the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. The book was ay-may-zing! OMG! I can't wait to read the next one, New Moon.

But, I'm going to move on to the November book club selection for my club, Girls in Trouble: A Novel by Caroline Leavitt.

Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer

Based on a suggestion from a friend, I've picked up the four Twilight series books by Stephenie Meyer. I've already started the first one (actually called Twilight) yesterday and I'm already three chapters in (note, I had to update my reading list to the left - haha!). The books are really teen reads, but in the spirit of the Harry Potter series, adults have taken to them too... they are totally easy reads.

Switchin' again!

So, I've had to put down Pillars of the Earth to start working on "What the Dead Know" by Laura Lippman. This is the bookclub selection for October. I'm only about 4 pages in right now, so it is too soon to really make any kind of judgement on the book. I'll be posting again once I have a handle on this one though!

100 Pages In...

...and plugging along. Pillars of the Earth has gotten pretty good. I just need to find more dedicated time to read it. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'm able to keep the commitment to finish by my September book club meeting!!

DQ'd Myself

So, tomorrow is the bookclub meeting for Jane Eyre and I haven't read the book. This is the first time that's happened to me. I think this may be the first time that I've started a book and have not finished it! (well, maybe since college - ha!) I gave up on it. So sad. I'm not going to my book club either - I have some work commitments I need to keep. Oh, well. Guess it is a good thing that I didn't read the book anyway.

I've started Pillars of the Earth and it is a little slow so far, but I've admittedly been distracted by the Olympics and haven't been reading much. Wish me luck! It is a REALLY big book :)

Jane Eyre Confession

My book club is meeting one week from tomorrow and I haven't really read the book, Jane Eyre, yet. I'm debating as to whether I should really dig in and start reading it, or if I should just say "the heck with it" and just watch the movie. Seriously, who talks like that anymore? It is really a tough read.

Our next book club selection (for September) was a memoir and the book chosen by the club is Marley and Me by John Grogan. I read that book last summer (I think) but I'm pretty sure I still remember most of the story, or enough to have a book club conversation about it.

October's book club selection is supposed to be a murder/mystery book. I've given our organizer my top few choices for that genre, so we'll see what is picked. Meanwhile, I'll be working on reading Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. Weeee!

The Last Summer of You and Me

...was HORRIBLE, IMHO. It is written by Ann Brashares. You may recognize that author's name as the woman who wrote The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants series of teen novels. This was her first "attempt" (air quotes intentional) at writing an "adult" (again, air quotes intentional) novel.





Why didn't I like the book? Hmm... Well, the basic story is that there is this pair of early twentysomething sisters who summer with their parents on an island off New York City. The older sister's best friend on the island is this guy Paul, who secretly has a crush on the younger sister, who, ironically, has a crush on him back. But, it takes over 100 pages for the two to tell each other that they like each other. So juvenile. The thing that I felt was funny was that occasionally Brashares throws in a big word that I would have to look up in the dictionary for the definition, or have a character drop an "f-bomb" as if to say "oh yeah, I'm writing an adult novel".

Let's put it this way, when the highlighted reviews on the back of the book come from Cosmo and Entertainment Weekly magazines, you HAVE to know that you're not in for much substance.

All that said, I admit it. I voted for this book for our book club to read. So, if you read this blog, B, know that I don't blame you for the choice! ;)

Next up, Jane Eyre. I've started the book, but have realized that this is a challenging read. I'm not able to read this one while in bed. I have to be downstairs, under my Ott light, feet planted on the floor, sitting upright with a steady stream of caffiene going directly into my veins. The book is interesting, but challenging. This is one of those that I didn't have to read in high school, but have always wanted to try and tackle. I have to say, I feel really smart having it sit on my coffee table, if nothing else! :)

My bedtime book is back to being Wicked. Still odd, but is getting better. More on that to come when I finish it!

What the heck is up with Wicked??

So, I'd eventually like to see the show, Wicked. I figured a good "taste" of what the show would be like would be to read the book by Gregory Maguire. All I have to say is OH! MY! GOD! I mean, this is supposed to be Oz, people. A happy place with munchkins and whatnot. I mean, I figured that it would be an even happier place without the mean old green witch. Not so. I'm forcing myself to read this in between book club books, but man, I never dreamed of an Oz like this!

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

This book was a slow go for me at first. It took me a good 100 pages to really get into it. The story was initially slow, and the main character is really not someone that I liked, so there was little inscentive for me to dig in (other than finishing before my next book club meeting). But, fortunately, I got sick and had a day where I just laid down with my stuffy/runny nose and read... and read, and read, and read. The book had gone from "just ok" to "GREAT" in my opinion.

I have become more interested in Middle Eastern culture, and it was very interesting to hear the story of Afghanistan and how it changed over the years from the perspective of this book. I look forward to reading Hosseini's second book, A Thousand Splendid Suns (as you can see it is on my reading list).

Water for Elephants: A Novel by Sara Gruen

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVED this book! I had never heard of it before. It was the second selection for my book club to read. The story is about a travelling circus in the 1930s. The story is romantic, upsetting, and completely engaging. There is one particular character who was written so well that I felt hatred toward them. So much so that I would have to stop reading the book and calm down! ;)

Change of Heart: A Novel by Jodi Picoult

This was the first book that my new book club read. Interesting to have such a political, religious book to have people just meeting each other for the first time to discuss! :) Fortunately, the people in my book club totally rock and it was an easy discussion, even with the touchy material. This was only my second Picoult book, but it had a VERY familiar feel to My Sister's Keeper with the flow of the story. I wonder if her other books are that way?

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

I read My Sister's Keeper back in the fall. It was just prior to me joining a book club. I LOVED this book. It was so intriguing... the idea of birthing a child specifically to save an existing child. I'm looking forward to the moving coming out soon. Cameron Diaz is playing the part of the mother.





I was so in love with this book that I sent it to my mom to read. Unfortunately, this book is not a "light" read, and she took it on vacation with her. She said that it upset her during her vacation, but she couldn't stop reading it!