Category — Book Club

As I say every month, I’m shamelessly stealing this idea from Jessica Lahey. She has a recurring monthly date where she reviews all the books she reads that month. Book reviews are important for authors, and I want to get better at doing this.

So. I’m going to review them here and also online, but I’m going to do it a little differently. I’m only going to review the stuff I really liked. I don’t see a reason to spend my time writing about something I didn’t love; it’s just using up more of my energy. So only positive reviews.

These are the books I liked (or mostly liked) from August.

The Bright Sword (Lev Grossman): This is a book you need to own, not borrow, because you will want to take your time with it. It is slow and beautiful, almost a lament to Arthur. I’m a casual Arthur fan, so I imagine a true lover of the Arthurian legends would be over the moon with this book. But I am a Lev Grossman fan, and any story in his hands becomes beautiful.

I Hope This Finds You Well (Natalie Sue): A cute workplace romance (kind of)? It wraps up super neatly, which is why I may be thinking of it as a romance more than straight fiction (plus, crush). Loved the interactions with her mother. It was just a much sweeter book than expected from the opening. I thought it was going to be like Green Dot, but after that Green Dot-y opening, it veered more into romantic comedy territory.

The Wedding People (Alison Espach): Yes, it was sometimes unrealistic (sure, send the 11 year old off with a stranger to run errands despite all of the family there) but the writing and ideas were lovely. It’s about finding reasons to live every day. And it made me want to plan a trip to Rhode Island.

A Talent for Murder (Peter Swanson): If you read The Kind Worth Killing (and enjoyed it), you’ll like this one. It was another great creepy read from Swanson. His books make you squirm a little inside while reading them. And, as always, Lily and Henry are fantastically grey together.

The In Crowd (Charlotte Vassell): Sometimes I was laughing. Sometimes I was just appreciating the writing. I loved Vassell’s first book, and this is a connected story, sharing many of the same characters. There are two related crimes, one has a great twist and the other is a bit of a dud, but the book is so much more about the main characters and their relationships. I love the writing so much.

Death at Morning House (Maureen Johnson): I think I may have emotionally aged out of Maureen Johnson books. I know they’re for teens, but they were enjoyable reads for adults, too. I’m listing this book here because if I was a teen, I would have loved this book. And if you like Maureen Johnson, this has a similar feel to the Truly Devious series.

What did you read last month?

Do you know what is fun?  Talking about books.  Do you know what could help me out tremendously?  Talking about mine.  (If you’ve ever wanted to give me a gift, this would be what I want.)

Lavender Luz is hosting a book tour for my newest book, Apart at the Seams (thank you!).  Sign up goes until August 1st, and the posts will go up September 4th.  See, lots of time to read the book and join along.  All you need to do right now is click over and fill out Lori’s online form to let her know you’re participating.

Pretty please?  With sprinkles on top?

If you can’t participate, but still want to do something, consider spreading word with a blog post, Goodreads review, Amazon review, or getting an enormous Arianna tattoo across your lower back.  Really, you won’t regret having her face plastered across your skin for eternity.  I am considering getting two of them — one for each knee cap.

On a serious note, an enormous thank you in advance to everyone who is helping spread word.

This question is part of the GRAB(ook) Club, an online book club open to anyone and everyone.  It contains more than a few spoilers for Catching Fire, so read at your own peril.  No, really, stop reading this post if you plan on reading the Hunger Games trilogy.

So, Catching Fire managed to shock the shit out of me at the end.  I’ll admit that I had Hunger Games ruined for me when the press people started sending me Catching Fire movie images while I was reading the first book.  I inadvertently saw who was still alive, and therefore knew who would be the winner, though not how.  Still, I was a little annoyed that it was inadvertently ruined even though the book was still enjoyable.

On the other hand, I went through Catching Fire wondering how the hell they’d get out a second time, and… wow… that ending.  Blew my little mind.  I don’t know why I didn’t consider it, but I didn’t.

I have a push-me-pull-you relationship with spoilers.  On one hand, I obviously dislike them since they ruin the author’s story telling effect.  Catching Fire wouldn’t have emotionally affected me if I knew what was going to happen at the end.  I was thrilled by the surprise.  And, for me, it was that surprise that made the book.  On the other hand, I have been known to sneak onto spoiler sites or read articles that I know will ruin a movie or book.  I also sometimes flip ahead a page or two in the middle of intense action to get a sense of where things are going.  I can’t help myself.  I’m like someone who breathes too heavily next to someone else’s birthday candles.  On one hand, I don’t want to blow them out, but on the other hand, I’m certainly saying a lot of words with drawn-out, heavily inflected “H”s.

You can’t have it both ways.

Do you like spoilers, or do you like to go into books knowing nothing?

And were you surprised by the ending?

After you answer my question, please click over to read the rest of the book club questions for Catching Fire.  You can get your own copy of Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins at bookstores including Amazon.

This is a post for the GRAB(ook) Club. Like the idea of a book club where you don’t have to leave your living room? Then read more about the GRAB(ook) Club which holds the book discussion on blogs, a Facebook group, and a GoodReads group.

This question is part of the GRAB(ook) Club, an online book club open to anyone and everyone.  It contains more than a few spoilers for Gone Girl, so read at your own peril.  No, really, stop reading this post if you plan on reading Gone Girl.

I’ve already written on how I feel about the infertility and treatment protocol plot points.  (For the record, though I’m picking at this book, I really did enjoy it.  The writing is brilliant, the characters well-drawn, the pacing perfect.)

But there’s another discrepancy I found while reading the book: Amy didn’t always act like Amy.

I mean, she acted Amy-ish, but she departed from herself in an enormous way, and I don’t have a good explanation for why.

We’re told that she punished Hilary Handy for some pretty mild transgressions.  She forgot to wait for her after English (twice).  Forgot she was allergic to strawberries (also twice).  So Amy plotted to make her look like a stalker and succeeded in the most brilliant way.

Then we’re told that she punished Tommy O’Hara just a few years before Nick and Amy got together.  After three months of casual dating, he starts to pull away and see other people.  Amy finds out and she pins a rape on him.  Again, an intricate plot that is put into effect pretty much instantaneously.

And then she punishes Nick for his affair with Andie.  It takes her a year to plot it — the year leading up to their 5-year anniversary.  So from year 4 to year 5 of marriage, Amy plots.

Not really acting like Amy.

It’s two-fold: one, Amy is someone who likes immediate gratification.  She executes those other plans fairly quickly — in under a month for at least one of them.  Maybe two months for the other.  And with framing Nick, she is jumping out of her skin to find out what happens after the plan goes into effect.  This is not someone who is detached and calm; she is anxious to see him punished.  So she waits a year?  I mean, yes, obviously waiting a year makes for a more intricate plan, but would Amy — the Amy we know in the book — really wait a year to punish someone?  She wouldn’t rush things along a bit?  She’d keep sleeping next to him, never goaded to speed things along, every time he comes home smelling like Andie?

Fine, I could see a really good plan that takes a long time to set up being intriguing for Amy.  She’s also fenced in by the date of their anniversary if she wants to use that as part of the plan.   But we find out that she punishes Hilary for some very small transgressions: not waiting after class.  I’m willing to accept that in the high school years that could be a big deal.  But with Tommy, she’s an adult.  It’s under two years before she meets Nick.  She punishes Tommy for going out on a date with another girl after they’ve been casually dating for three months.  A huge punishment — rape charges.

But she waits until Nick has an affair, overlooking all the other transgressions that came before that point: being remote, being critical, being thoughtless, being cruel.  Not being the man she thinks she deserves.  Moving her away from New York without allowing her to be part of the discussion.  He pisses her off for years we’re told in the second half of the book.

Why doesn’t she punish him sooner?

Why does she wait for the affair to punish him?

Are we to believe that she loves Nick so much that she’s willing to overlook all those other things that would have pushed her over the edge if it had been another person?  If she is a psychopath, would she understand love in the first place?

In this tiny way, she ceases to act like Amy, something humans do all the time.  We regularly do things “out of character,” hence why humans are unpredictable.  So it wasn’t a deal breaker for me in the book, but I found myself distracted through the second half of the book, wondering why it took her so long to turn on Nick.  Why she acted out of character this one time when it came to doling out the punishments.

What did you think?  Did that seem out of character to you?  Why do you think she waited to punish Nick?

After you answer my question, please click over to read the rest of the book club questions for Gone Girl.  You can get your own copy of Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn at bookstores including Amazon.