Book Club!

The votes have been tallied and it was so close until the very end, but with just over 33% of the votes, our first book club selection of the year is: The Fault in Our Stars! Where’d You Go Bernadette and The Husband’s Secret each got 27% of the votes, so for people who are fast readers or already have read FIOS, I suggest reading one (or both) of these other selections and we can have an informal book club discussion in the forums at the beginning of March. Since FIOS is a short one, I’m hoping I can knock it out quickly and read Bernadette next. (I also borrowed The Wonder…

This month we read Wild, the new memoir written by fellow advice columnist, Cheryl Strayed (she’s “Dear Sugar” from The Rumpus, for those who don’t know), and I loved it. In fact, I finished it in one week, which is about three weeks faster than all the other books we’ve read this year. As much as I enjoyed the book, though, the speed at which I read it had more to do with being laid up for a couple of days early in the month with a bad back. I can’t remember the last time I had hours on end to read. Wild was chosen as the first book in Oprah’s new…

September’s book club selection, Jonathan Tropper’s brand new novel, One Last Think Before I Go, is available today. We read another of Tropper’s novels, This is Where I Leave You, earlier this year and it was universally loved it. Here’s the description for his new book, published today: You don’t have to look very hard at Drew Silver to see that mistakes have been made. His fleeting fame as the drummer for a one-hit wonder rock band is nearly a decade behind him. He lives in the Versailles, an apartment building filled almost exclusively with divorced men like him, and makes a living playing in wedding bands. His ex-wife, Denise, is about…

Thank you to whoever recommended this novel for our book club. It was exactly the kind of read I’d been craving — well-written, suspenseful, engaging characters, and a historical context for good measure. For those who haven’t read it and plan to, you should probably stop reading this post now…

This was my second time reading Truth and Beauty, having read it in one sitting years ago on the train from Manhattan to Vermont, and I have to say, I found Lucy and Ann much less likable in this second reading of the book. Lucy’s self-obsession gets really annoying around page 50 or so, and Ann’s total lack of personality pretty much drains from the beginning. And while there was still something admirable about their loyalty to each other, the co-dependency of their friendship seemed much sadder in this reading of the book. What did you guys think? Did you envy their intimate friendship at all? I do envy parts of it….

I did not love Fifty Shades of Grey. In fact, I disliked it so much, I didn’t finish it. But I know a lot of people greatly enjoy this series — including my friend who loaned me her copy of the book — so rather than rain all over their parade (again), I’m going to tell you ten things I loved about Fifty Shades. 1. It’s totally hilarious. Whether intentional or not, the book made me laugh. I read passages aloud to Drew not because I found them sexy but because I found them riotously amusing. (Unfortunately, it was not amusing enough to carry the book several hundred pages, but I digress…)….

Next week we’ll discuss Fifty Shades of Grey (get ready to “flush”), but in the mean time you can pick up a copy of June’s book club selection, which is a memoir by Ann Patchett called Truth & Beauty: A Friendship. I read this book a few years ago and absolutely loved it, finishing it in one sitting on a train from Manhattan to Vermont where Drew and I spent the weekend in a charming B&B. It’s the story of a tight and complicated friendship between two women writers (Patchett and Lucy Grealy) and the depth and limitations of their love for one another. You can read some synopses and reviews here. You…

As I mentioned before, this was my second reading of This is Where I Leave You. Luckily, I didn’t completely remember the ending, so — spoiler alert! — I kept wondering if Judd was going to end up back together with Jen or pursue Penny or what. Of course, we don’t know the answer to that. What do you think? I hope he and Jen don’t get back together, but remain friendly co-parents. I think Judd dates Penny briefly (again) and eventually embraces being alone, focusing on being a father and getting his life back together. He’ll find love again, but it will happen when he isn’t looking for it. Other predictions:…

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…