Book Club: May’s Selection

I hope those of you who are reading April’s book club selection, This is Where I Leave You, are enjoying the novel. I’m reading it for the second time and loving it still. We’ll discuss it next week when I get back from Austin (I hope to use travel time to finish it up and draft a few discussion questions). In the meantime, you can get a copy of May’s DW book club selection, which is Fifty Shades of Grey, the so-called “Mommy Porn” erotic fiction that has been burning your Facebook feed for the last few months.

I know, I know, it’s not exactly the type of novel one would normally read for a book club, but curiosity got the best of me and if I don’t make it a book club selection, I may never get around to reading it and thus, will not be able to poke fun at it fairly. So, who’s with me? You know you’ve been wanting to read it, too, and now you have an excuse. Come on, if we all read it together, we won’t feel so foolish. Or maybe we will, but who cares?

Get the paperback edition here, and the kindle edition here.

 

 

26 Comments

  1. Just finished reading Fifty Shades of Grey and I’m actually on to the sequel…I got sucked in (although will freely admit that it’s complete trashy escapism and poorly written, in my opinion).

  2. Yes and yes on the trashy escapism and not very well written..and I totally read all three =)
    It’s the literary equivalent of a fast food meal, not nutritious, but every now and then the fatty salty goodness is enjoyable. Plus, it was fun seeing the Twilight parallels (also fast food).

  3. Didn’t read the Twilight books… but I will say that the 50 Shades series is terribly written, trashy escapism, soft porn, completely unrealistic, has a terrible role model for women as the heroine, and something I could not put down — read all three in about 4 days. 🙂

    Look forward to the book club discussion…

  4. I caved and read (and LOVED) Twilight, so I might as well give these a shot!! I could use a little more trash in my life.

    As an aside- I LOVED ‘This is Where I Leave You.’

  5. iseeshiny says:

    I can’t. I just can’t. If I want to read Twilight fanfiction I (embarrassingly enough) know where to find it. 🙁 I am enjoying This is Where I Leave You, though.

  6. The_Yellow_Dart says:

    I really loved _This is Where I Leave You_ – I was wondering if Wendy or other readers could recommend a good next Tropper book to read. As for _50 Shades of Grey_, I burned through that whole trilogy this past week. It’s trash, and I’d be ashamed to recommend it to anyone, but at the same time, it’s incredibly compelling…

    1. I love most of Tropper’s books (with the exception of Plan B). As an immediate follow-up to TIWILY, I’d suggest Everything Changes. I see Tropper has a new book coming out in August. Maybe we can make that a book club selection later this year.

      1. The_Yellow_Dart says:

        Awesome – thanks! _Everything Changes_ is officially next on my reading list. (And I would definitely support having the new Tropper book as a later selection!)

  7. i just bought this today! without knowing that it was teh book club selection. I’m going to read it while I’m in Mexico next week!

    1. jealous of your vacay!!

  8. Ugh here you go again with the non-advice-columns! 😉

    But as to the point of being able to fairly poke fun at it- I’m totally with you! I did that with the Twilight books. I read them to complete my BA in hatin’. I need to expand my resume with Fifty Shades of Gray, which I am pretentiously convinced is awful since it’s referred to as “mommy porn” and about two dozen people have asked me if I’ve read it. I get asked that a lot because I’m a voracious reader. I also get forced to be the gift list recorder at bridal showers because I’m a writer- I shit you not, that happened to me on Sunday. So glad I got to use my language skills to make a list! What would they have done had I not been there?!

  9. Question for people who have read 50 Shades…is it really all about S & M, or is it just erotica? I’ve had tons of people tell me I should read it, but I’ve heard it’s heavy with the S & M and that makes me not want to read it. Don’t get me wrong, love smut (hooray for trashy historical romance novels!) but if there’s stuff about bondage and choking in there I’m not so sure I’d be able to read it.

    1. The main character talks a lot about being in to S & M but the ‘sex scenes’ are not S & M at all. He smacks her on the ass a couple times. It’s not disturbing at all.

      1. Thanks!

    2. It wasn’t disturbing at all. The S & M scenes were hot. No choking involved.

  10. I read it out of curiosity….and hated it. It’s a terrible book…the characters are annoying, the writing is horrible and repetitive. I couldn’t bring myself to waste my money or my brain cells on the other two books.

  11. ReginaRey says:

    I’ve been looking for an excuse to read this, so don’t mind if I do! Thanks, Wendy, for making me feel better about slummin’ it, in a literary sense at least. 😉

  12. Yay!! I’ve already read this and I can’t wait to discuss it with everyone! Yes, it sure was trashy escapism and far from quality literature…but I don’t care. I needed an escape.

    1. Exactly, that’s how I see it. I acknowledge that it’s terrible, but no one was trying to pass this off as a literary masterpiece. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with indulging in it.

  13. I finished This is Where I Leave You a few weeks ago and then read another great novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. I started 50 Shades of Grey the other day. I agree it is trash and terribly written but I am still reading it 🙂

    I can’t wait to talk about This is Where I Leave You!

  14. Hooray a book I’ve read! And I’ve been feeling really deprived having no one to talk about it with. Very excited!

    (Note: I read a lot but not literary stuff usually. Maybe we can do A Game of Thrones next 🙂 )

  15. How funny, I just started reading it. I like it…It’s trashy, not well written, but entertaining as hell. I have a few quibbles…people who are involved in BDSM are often totally normal (then again, what’s normal) and fairly vanilla on the outside…The book kind of makes it seem like everyone involved in BDSM is dramatic or damaged. So far, I’m not really getting the criticism over the romantic relationship that I read about on Jezebel…The book makes it pretty clear that Christian is emotionally fucked up and not perfect, he’s not held up like some romantic ideal figure like Edward Cullen. Sometimes a trashy, fun book is just a trashy, fun book in my opinion.

  16. AndreaMarie says:

    Sigh….I was so hyped up thinking it was about erotic sex with hot silver foxes…..but its not…wah. Though apparently it does have some exciting sex in it.

  17. My inner goddess is jumping up and down with pom poms that this is the next book club selection!

    I just started book 3 and can’t wait to discuss with you all! Yay :o)

  18. Is it sad that I read this when it ~was a Twilight fanfiction? Cannot bring myself to pay for it, sadly.

  19. Just finished the first two books, but the third will have to wait until I finish finals this week. Echoing everyone above – the writing starts off just okay in the first book and really dies in the second. It is HILARIOUS though – between inner goddesses I wish would shut up and subconsciouses that, I think, are supposed to be consciences, it’s hot at times but overall just really fun to laugh about with another friend who is reading it.

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