Thirteenth Meeting: Cloud Atlas

In December, Aaron hosted the thirteenth meeting of Eat, Drink, and Be Literary. For me, it seemed like "unlucky 13" because I did not particularly enjoy his pick Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell. The book consisted of six short stories that wove through time and space. The book itself was like a palindrome-- the first story ended abruptly (I'm talking mid-sentence) about half way through and didn't continue until the very end of the book. In other words, it was both the first and last story, and the second was also the second-to-last.

Each story was told from the point of view of a wildly different character. First up was Adam Ewing, a sailor exploring New Zealand in the 19th century, next was Robert Frobisher, a pompous young composer in the early 20th century living in Belgium; third was Louisa Rey, a young woman living in the 1970's in California, fourth was Timothy Cavendish, a book publisher in what seemed to be present day England, fifth was Son-Mi, a clone turned revolutionary in a futuristic Korea, and finally was Zachry living in post-apocalyptic Hawaii. Each character seemed to be reincarnations of the previous character, and also read or watched the same short stories as we read.

If nothing else, I was incredibly impressed by Mitchell's abilities to write from the point of view of these wildly different people. However, it was mostly lost on me. I especially couldn't read the sections told in dialects (Zachry's in particular). I found myself turning pages without knowing at all what I was reading. The book club meeting definitely helped me appreciate the book more, and I left feeling like I should re-read the book. (I'm not going to, mind you, but I think I should).

As usual, the book had a mixed review among the group. Of eight or so people that came, I think half liked it, and half didn't... though most of us were probably hovering towards the neutral feeling. I will not be recommending this book to anyone anytime soon, unless they are a philosopher or really into thinking hard and not understanding anything... but again, I have to hand it to David Mitchell for writing such an incredible book. I feel bad that most of it was lost on me.

* This novel is being adapted into a film sometime soon, and has an incredible cast. I'm definitely going to check it out, and maybe (hopefully!) I will get more out of it.

Twelfth Meeting: Norwegian Wood

Back in October (pretend this post happened approximately two months ago), Anne hosted our tiniest, coziest book club yet. Only four people were at the meeting, but in some ways it allowed for more discussion than usual.... and definitely more food. My pants are getting tighter just thinking about Sarah's raspberry bars and Kelsey's mint hot chocolate. But I digress--

For our twelfth meeting, we read Norwegian Wood by Japanese author Haruki Murakami. The book was our group's first piece of translated literature, and I think it was a hit. The novel (the title of which you may recognize as a Beatle's song)  is a nostalgic teenage-angst ridden love story on the surface, and a deep philosophical "what is the meaning of life" story once the layers are peeled back. The novel's protagonist is Toru Watanabe, a young man living in Tokyo in the 1960's, and we follow his life as he deals with loss and love and relationships with two women, fragile Naoko and spunky Midori. I didn't really emotionally connect with any of the characters and I couldn't tell if it was a product of the translated literature, or if it was that Toru was sort of vapid and unfeeling. Despite this lack of a connection, I still found the novel engaging (and very racy at times-- wowza!).

I think by the end of the meeting we all left with more questions than we started with mostly because none of us knew anything about life in 1960's in Japan, and what things were symbolic and what things should be taken at face value. That being said, I think the discussion helped me appreciate the work a lot more.



(Note-- my Amazon Associates button has disappeared, so I can no longer link to the book.. Bummer.)

Eleventh Meeting: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

So, as it turns out, working on my prospectus, grading papers, and having ever Saturday designated for tailgating and football not only makes me neglect blogging, but reading in general. For the past three months, I have only had time to read book club books (usually I read at least one book on the side each month too). And, I am two meetings behind in my blogging! Well, that all changes now.

September's meeting was hosted by my besty Lisa. She picked Rebecca's Skloot's The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.  The story of Henrietta Lacks is an unusual one-- as a woman, hardly anything is known about her, but her contribution to science is infamous! Henrietta was a poor black woman living outside of Baltimore in the 1950's. When she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, her doctors took some of her cancer cells without the knowledge or consent of her family. These cells, known as HeLa cells, were the first human cells ever able to be cultured, and they revolutionized the way we research and understand cancer and living cells in general. The book is part biography of Henrietta, part biography of HeLa, part scientific journalism, part memoir of the author uncovering this story, and reads like a novel. I found it to be incredible.

The book raises a lot of issues from racism to medical ethics to justice. Why were the HeLa cells taken without consent? Why was her family never told about the cells? How could Henrietta's cells be so influential in the face of health care today while her children can't even afford a doctor's visit? While it would be easy to point fingers and paint certain parties as villains in this book, I think that Skloot did a great job of reporting objectively, with no judgment, the role of each family member or physician.

As usual, the review of Eat, Drink, and Be Literary were mixed. While most of the book club members are psychologists, we have our fair share of experience with ethics and ethical violations, so some parties thought the book was just exploiting another example of why there are so many ethical codes now. It was really interesting to hear Lisa's point of view as a health care professional, and also to hear our friend Mandy's point of view as a biologist. Mandy works with HeLa cells and could give us the inside scoop on how prevalent they are in labs worldwide, and how much they now cost to purchase. I loved the book, and hearing everyone's points of view I loved it even more!

The Help

Remember how a few entries ago I mentioned something about never reading books until they had already come out as movies? Well, with this last novel I came in right at the buzzer. I finished The Help merely days before the movie premiered nationwide.

Wow, what a book! I honestly had no idea what the book was about when I heard the buzz about it last year. It wasn't until I saw a preview for the film that I had any idea. The previews looked fantastic and I vowed I would read the book before heading to the theaters. I bought the book when my besty Lisa and I made one last nostalgic trip to the Borders in our home town during its going out of business sale and knew I had only two weeks to finish it... luckily this self-imposed challenge was incredibly easy to complete. The Help was engaging, powerful, and a feel-good story (my favorite) about a group of black women in Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960's and the white women they worked for. Stockett captured the complexity of a time where civil rights were making headlines but not making headway in homes of the south. The book showed that beneath the racial tensions that women are just women-- they face the same struggles, joys, and heartbreaks no matter what their skin color or place in life.

My favorite line in the book (which I highlighted and dog-eared) was apparently Kathryn Stockett's as well. As I read her afterword entitled "Too Little, Too Late", she said, "Washing that the point of the book? For women to realize, We are just two people. Not that much separates us. Not nearly as much as I'd thought."

This special book is the kind that stays with you after you read it. It was difficult to put back on the shelf.

**I haven't seen the movie yet, so this post will likely be updated once I do

The Hunger Games Series

Oh. My. Gosh. That is really all I can say.

I finished the Hunger Games series over two months ago and I have just been contemplating what to write about them ever since. Nothing I can say could ever accurately represent these novels or how much I loved them. This series was like brain candy. I read all three books in a combined four sittings, and after I finished them I went through a mourning period. I couldn't think of reading another book, I couldn't believe the world Suzanne Collins had created for me was over, and I found myself literally cuddling with the books at night re-reading select chapters to get my fix.


No spoilers here-- the Games are best experienced if you have no idea what to expect. But, let me just say that these novels have something for everyone.

If you can't remember the last time you stayed up all night to finish a book then it is time to pick up the The Hunger Games, Catching Fire (The Second Book of the Hunger Games), and Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, Book 3).

Upcoming book picks

September's meeting will be hosted by Lisa and she picked The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. It is non-fiction (sort of a biography but sort of not) but reads like a fast paced novel. I'm 80 pages in and have found myself going to bed at nine every night this week so I could get more reading time in!

Other upcoming books are Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami and Caramelo by Sandra Cisneros (this one is my pick)... I'm hoping for some theme eats/drinks to go with these culturally specific books. We'll see if Japanese night and Mexican night pan out.

Happy Reading!

Tenth Meeting: Stiches A Memoir

When Eat, Drink, and Be Literary regular Sarah told me her pick for book club I was excited and very nervous. Sarah picked Stitches: A Memoir by David Small which happens to be a graphic novel. I had never read (er.... looked at) a graphic novel before so I was nervous that I wasn't going to do it properly. I realize how crazy that sounds, but I stand by it. I was afraid that I wouldn't "get" the book fully or notice what I was supposed to. Luckily, it seemed to go pretty well. Small's story was actually best told through images.

Since I have recently been on a memoir-about-a-messed-up-childhood kick, this fit right in. Small grew up in a love-less and silent home. His mother, who he later found out was a closeted lesbian, was harsh and cold and silent. His father was fairly absent. His brother barely in his life. If that wasn't enough to be considered a "messed up" childhood, Small had a growth on his neck removed, and the doctor took half of his vocal chords leaving him voice-less. Several months later he found out that this growth was actually cancer that had gone untreated for years. Small spent the rest of his youth, and much of his adulthood dealing with the fact that he couldn't speak above a raspy whisper, and that he had been lied to about his life.

The minimal words and dark artwork in this memoir were incredible vehicles for the theme of silence in Small's life. The silence of anger, of confusion, of unhappiness, and of actually being voice-less were all uniquely powerful depicted in one scene after another.

Sarah did a great job hosting a discussion about this book. Our discussion drifted back and forth from the content and the format of this book almost seamlessly.

If you have never read a graphic novel before, this is a good gate-way novel as it is not comic book-y or super hero-ish, but is definitely a piece of literature. I'm very glad it was picked for book club and that I was able to expand my horizons.

Jeannette Walls Extravaganza!

I am always a few years behind on summer beach reading. I don’t know if it’s because I am too busy reading other books, or just never have the attention span to read a whole book while I’m at the beach, but I typically don’t hear about , let alone read, the “fabulous” best seller types until after the movie interpretation has come out on DVD. So, in true fashion, I am six years behind the craze for Jeannette Walls’ incredible memoir The Glass Castle. However, I’m only 2 years behind in reading Half Broke Horses: A True Life Novel which could be considered a prequel to her memoir.

Because I’m a rebel, I decided to read Half-Broke Horses first. I figured it happened first chronologically speaking, so what was the difference? Also there was the tiny practical matter that I already had that book in my possession.  Last month I was in Tucson for four days visiting my boyfriend’s family, and I figured the flight down was the perfect time to start the novel. I was pleasantly surprised by the book. Walls wrote in the voice of her grandmother Lilly Casey, whom there are not enough adjective to describe. Born in 1900, she practically defined my idea of feminism-- she spent her life surviving and trying to find her purpose and never let a matter as small as her gender get in her way.  The “true-life novel” was the perfect format for telling this incredible woman’s story, and it is a concept I’ve fallen in love with.  I’m jealous of Walls and her ability to so beautifully bring to life the mythology of her grandmother and I wish I could do the same for my own grandparents!I finished Half-Broke Horses over the first few days of my visit to Tucson, and I relished every minute of it. As I experienced the desert in the summer for the first time, I got to read about Lily and her family living in that very desert—conquering it at times, and allowing it to conquer them at others. I felt a great appreciation for the fragile but harsh environment I found myself exploring, and some of Lily’s pluck rubbed off on me and I felt empowered and strong (which came in handy when hiking through the Sabino Canyon).

The last morning of my trip, as I packed my bags to travel back to Iowa, I serendipitously found The Glass Castle which my boyfriend’s mom had laid out for me to read. I started it over my morning coffee while I sat by the pool, and then somehow managed to finish it before my flight landed in Iowa. The Glass Castle is Jeannette Walls' memoir, and chronicles her simultaneously fascinating and disturbing childhood. Her parents, Rex  (a brilliant but irresponsible and somewhat abusive alcoholic), and Rose Mary, (an artist, the daughter of Lily, and in my opinion the worst mother of all time) were constantly on the run from bill collectors and raised four children, Lori, Jeannette, Brian, and Maureen on "adventures" around the U.S. The family lived in poverty most of the time, and while never short on creativity, or story-telling, the family was constantly short on food, and, well, responsible parenting. It was shocking to me that a family like this existed in the not-so-distant past, and that the children raised in this way were able to overcome.

Most of all what shocked me was a look at mother daughter relationships across both of the books. My own mother recently told me that the most surprising thing to her about motherhood was that when I was born I was my own person with my own opinions and values and personality right away. I thought of this while reading these novels because as different Lily was from Rose Mary, Rose Mary was from Jeannette. While I of course know plenty of sets of mothers and daughters in real life, these books offered a unique view of the mother/ daughter dynamic. I got to experience firsthand through Walls' descriptions how three generations of women were from childhood to womanhood to motherhood and how beautifully complex their relationships were with one another.

In short, I would recommend both of these books to any woman whether read alone or as a set. I would also recommend reading them while sitting poolside overlooking the Catalina mountains, but that's another story!

Ninth Meeting: The Charioteer

June's meeting of Eat, Drink, and Be Literary was hosted by my friend and former roommate Matt. He picked a book called The Charioteer, by Mary Renault. The story was about Laurie, a young british soldier in WWII who also happened to be gay. He struggled with these feelings and with who he wanted to be, and found himself quickly caught in a love triangle- one side he is being pulled by Andrew, a very innocent concientious objector o the war with whom he has an innocent love that neither of them act on, and on the other side, he is being pulled by Ralph, a young man that Laurie had gone to school with when he was young. Ralph is not innocent like Andrew, at all, and in many ways acts as a mentor to Laurie as he discovered himself and what his sexual-identity was.

The book was really difficult to read-- perhaps our most difficult yet! For one thing, the book was written in the 1950's, and for another thing, the book was written by a British woman. So, the vernacular and style were basically foreign. However, there were times when the language used was absolutely poetic. The writing is much more flowery than is found in today's novels, and in between the vague and hard-to-understand sections were beautiful descriptions.


For me, something that made the book even more difficult was that I didn't really like any of the characters. In fact, my alliance laid more with the peripheral characters in the story than Laurie or his two loves. Also, I embarrassingly interpreted all 1950's British slang as innuendo.... and I found out at the meeting that I wasn't the only one who experienced this!

The discussion of the book was one of our best yet. It was a small group this time (only six), probably because of the difficulty of the book, but six of us showed up with treats and ideas in hand. As usual, we were divided on our opinions of the book, but we all agreed that we didn't quite know what happened. Thank goodness Beth (who majored in English literature in college) was there to explain everything to us! Matt asked some great questions that really made me appreciate the story more. After having the plot re-explained to us, we discussed the symbolism in the book, and then whether we thought the book was still relevant today. We also talked about the author who wrote the book partially based on personal experience. Ms. Renault was working as a nurse during the war, and was a lesbian. She wrote the story based on gay soldiers she had befriended, and presumably also relied on her own experience while in search for her gay identity in a time where there was no such thing.


Though I didn't particularly like reading the book, my opinion towards it after our discussion is a lot higher.

Rembrandt Affair

Every night before bed, I read for at least a half an hour. I have done this basically since I could read. When I was little it was much more exhilarating-- I would hide under my covers with a flashlight so my parents wouldn't know I was cheating bed time. Somehow the adventures of the babysitters club always seemed more exciting past bedtime. Now that I'm the one in charge of my bedtime, I still find myself pushing the limits on occasion, when a book is so good, I just can't bare to be a responsible adult.

Since reading is such an important part of my life, it was a somewhat shocking revelation for me that I had never once shared a book with Tim. He reads less frequently than I do, but when he is visiting his parents in Tucson, he goes on mega reading-binges. Over the last few years, he has talked non-stop about a few authors. Finally, I asked him to recommend a book by one of these authors to me to read. So, he gave me his favorite book by Daniel Silva-- The Rembrandt Affair.

This book reminded me of a Dan Brown novel, only with better writing. In other words, every chapter was a cliff-hanger, the story took the reader all over the world, and never allowed for boredom.

The protagonist of this novel (who is apparently a recurring character for Silva) is an Israeli intelligence officer and art restorer (odd combination, but it works) named Gabriel. He combines his two careers as he tracks down a missing Rembrandt painting. He quickly finds that the painting's history was tainted with horrible tragedies. The rightful owner of the piece of art was a Jewish man in the Netherlands in the 1940's who was coerced into selling his painting to a Nazi officer in order to save his daughter's life. Uncovering more WWII atrocities led Gabriel and his colleagues to discover that a very powerful Swiss banker (nicknamed Saint Martin for his public image as a philanthropist) has been benefiting from the stolen goods of Jews since the war-- and that isn't where his treacherous deeds end.

This book was really fun to read and I think it had something for everyone-- there was plenty of action, there was mystery, and for me, there was a trip around the world and incredible artwork. I enjoyed the book and would definitely read something by Silva again. Most of all, it was fun to share a book with Tim. Discussing where I was in the story and what I thought of characters was great. Hopefully this is something we can repeat in the future.

Vampire Book Club-- Dead Reckoning

My girlfriends Lisa and Mandy and I discovered a few years ago that we all share a passion for silly vampire novels. Obviously we had a hay day with the Twilight series, but now our focus is on the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris-- and perhaps more importantly, the HBO series True Blood that brings the books to life!

Last summer we got together once a week to watch episodes of the show, share our culinary skills with each other, and squeal in delight over the viking vampire, Eric.

This summer is going to be no different, as the show just started up, but to tide us over before season 4, we had a vampire book club night so we could discuss the latest chronicles of Sookie-- Dead Reckoning. While these books are always fun, and very easy to devour in just a night or two, the latest installment mostly fell flat for us. (Somewhat-of-a-spoiler alert)The supernatural world that Sookie finds herself involved in has just gotten crazy-- there are vampires, werewolves, other shifters, fairies, elves, and plenty of others that appear every once in awhile. This book, instead of focusing on Sookie's battle with just one supe (or even one supe), basically covered too much ground. We checked in with every supe in Bon Temps at least once, and the plot barely moved a long.  The big events that unfolded were the end (or what appears to be) of Sookie's relationship with Eric, the end of the latest evil vampire in charge, and the discovery of some interesting Fae related truths in Sookie's home.

The book was still fun, raunchy, and exciting-- but it didn't have the same engaging qualities as some of the previous.

The ladies of the vampire book club are currently more excited for Season 4 of True Blood (Sunday nights on HBO). Any woman who has read the fourth book knows why.

Eighth meeting: Zeitoun

Oh my! I am a bad blogger. I am two months, and several books behind. I blame it on the distractions of sunny patios and cold beers... 

Last month (May 2011), Cheyenne hosted our eighth book club meeting to discuss Zeitoun by Dave Eggers. As my previous post indicated, I read the book in two nights and really loved it. But, I love almost everything Dave Eggers does, so that is no surprise. To remind you, this book is written like a novel but is actually the true story of the Zeitoun family from New Orleans before, during, and after Katrina. It is gripping, intense, and magnificently (I think anyway) shows the many different sides of people's responses to disaster. No spoiler alerts here-- though people may feel like they know about what happened in the aftermath of Katrina, what happens to the Zeitoun family is shocking, and best left as a surprise!

The meeting was in College Green Park, and we had a picnic! Pressed sandwiches, strawberry lemonade, spinach salad, and gooey brownies (Matt's first ever attempt at baking-- they were great!) All eight of us at the meeting were cozy and cute under the little gazebo when suddenly the wind picked up, a dark cloud loomed ahead, and all of the families and kids in the part started fleeing. We all started to laugh because it seemed so eerily similar to the book. Like Zeitoun, the main character, we decided to stay in our gazebo to ride out the storm. This change in the weather was the perfect segue to a great discussion of the book.

As usual, the group was split in their opinion of the book. For example, while I thought the book was the least political Katrina story I've read, others thought it was too political. The varying opinions of the Eat, Drink, and Be Literarians never cease to surprise me, but also impress me. It is great to examine a piece of literature from so many different points of view. One thing we could all agree on is that the Zeitoun family has a story that should be told.

If you have read the book already, or perhaps don't mind a spoiler, see a video interview with Abdulrahman and Kathy Zeitoun here.

Impatient? Me?

So, yet again, I finished the book club book more than a month ahead of schedule. I just can't help myself when the box arrives from Amazon. It's like Christmas!

I finished Zeitoun about a week ago and I cannot wait to talk about it with the club. It is unlike any of the other books we have read in that it is non-fiction. It is about the Zeitoun family and their lives in New Orleans around the time of Hurricane Katrina. It is still written like a novel, but the characters and the events are real. While reading it, I actually preferred to pretend it was fictionalized because some of the things that happened to the family are terrible, and I just wanted them to not be true.

I'm itching for anyone else to finish this book so we can cheat and talk about it before the meeting at the end of May. But I guess in the mean time I should get started on the ever-growing stack of books on my night stand.

Seventh Meeting: The Book Thief

The impossible happened. Not every single person at book club absolutely loved The Book Thief. The audacity! I know, I know-- this is what makes a book club great. There are a variety of points of view and opinions and you get challenged to read books that you would not normally choose or appreciate. And all of that crap. But I was so unbelievable moved and touched by this wonderful book (see my gushing review, 2 posts ago) that I was literally shocked that all members of Eat, Drink, and Be Literary did not agree.

This is not to say that people hated the book or anything. Of the seven participants present, one loved it (yours truly), three liked it, one only finished half, and two disliked it. This breakdown is fairly typical  of the meetings, but I am still surprised.

The meeting was good, though I will admit I was defensive about the novel. I feel like it is such a gem that I could barely tolerate negativity. We spent a long time talking about the role of death as the narrator, and how the book would be different from a different point of view. We also compared this novel to others revolved around the Holocaust or WWII, and who the intended audience of the book really was. It is being marketed as a book for young adults, but the club generally agreed that it was more for "real" adults... whatever that means.

Despite not hearing rave reviews when we went around the circle, I am still confident and comfortable in saying that this book will forever touch my heart, and is very safely one of my favorite novels ever.

One thing we all agreed on was the food. We decided to have a Jewish themed meal. Challah, noodle kugel, this delicious carrot onion dish (not sure the name) and apple latkes (my contribution) were all a big hit.

Shanghai Girls

Several months ago, my friend Emily had to cancel her book club meeting because she just didn't have time (she is a graduate student as well, so this is completely understandable). She had selected Shanghai Girls by Lisa See as her book, and because I'm overzealous in my purchasing (and I have Amazon Prime so I can buy with one-click and it seems "free"), I ordered the book immediately, and has been lying on my bedside table ever since. I finally picked it up a few weeks ago (took a hiatus to devour The Book Thief, but returned to it last week). The book was a lot better, and a lot more interesting than I thought.

I've read another of Lisa See's books (Snow Flower and the Secret Fan), and while I remember enjoying it, I don't remember a thing about it other than it taking place in China. Even though I knew I liked the book, I anticipated not liking Shanghai Girls. The title and the cover (yes, I judged a book by its cover... what are you going to do about it) led me to believe that the story was going to be a fluffy record of the adventures of two sisters. Instead, what I found was an incredible story of survival, self-discovery, and growth. While I don't typically find myself relating to traditional Chinese women, I feel that the hopes and fears and horrible struggles of the narrator Pearl, and her sister May were universally understandable. I felt their pains, and I craved for freedom and happiness along with them.


Without spoiling any of the plot, I would also like to say that this book also offered an incredibly interesting perspective of both Shanghai, and Los Angeles in generations past. Both cities were characters themselves in the novel, dealing with their own struggles between good and evil, fortune and despair.

I am wishing that this book club meeting was not canceled, because I would really love to hear the point of view of the other Eat, Drink, and Be Literary members. After scanning the list of books that we have read, I realize that though we have read a few books from the point of view of female characters, we have only read one other book by a female author. Lisa See reminded me in this novel how different a women's voice is when written by a woman. I look forward to selecting a book written by a strong female author next time it is my turn to choose-- I feel like this is a point of view that our club is lacking.

Updates

The book for May will be Zeitoun (Vintage) by Dave Eggers. I am very excited about this since I love Dave Eggers and have read many others by him (What Is the What (Vintage), A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, and You Shall Know Our Velocity are my favorites).

Happy reading!

Sixth Meeting: The Imperfectionists

Yesterday was the sixth meeting of Eat, Drink, and Be Literary-- and we really lived up to the name of our book club, let me tell you! Halley hosted our biggest group yet (14!) for brunch and discussion of Tom Rachman's Imperfectionists.

The book is actually quite similar in format to our fifth book club book (Let the Great World Spin);  it is a series of short stories that all intertwine to become a novel. This novel is set in Rome (a bonus for me) and each chapter is told from the point of view of a member of the staff at an American newspaper there. The characters are desperate and flawed, and the chapters are told much like a newspaper article would be-- they are abrupt and lack closure. 

The overwhelming opinion of the group was "eh"; however, which side of "eh" people fell on was quite varied. Some thought it was boring, some thought it was sad. I am apparently twisted because I thought the book was hilarious. I guess I thought the desperation and tragic nature of each story was supposed to be part of a dark comedy.

One thing everyone agreed on was that the book was well written, and that each of the characters had a distinct voice. We heard from work-a-holic editors, disgruntled copy writers, dried up correspondents so desperate for a headline that they fabricated an entire story, an uninspired obituary writer, and one of my favorites-- a dedicated reader who was a decade behind in the news, but read every word of every issue. Each character was more pathetic than the next (the newspaper included) and I found it to be funny, charming, and engaging. Finding out I was mostly alone in this opinion is making me re-think whether I would recommend this book to others.

Despite the apathy and negative feelings towards the book, we had an incredibly lively discussion, much of which was due to Halley's fantastic list of discussion questions. I think it was also due to the large numbers present. Several people came for the first time (including Lisa which I was incredibly nervous about since she is my "book club guru" but she had a great time) and nobody was shy about expressing opinions or asking questions. Every meeting I am just overwhelmed with gratitude for being surrounded by such brilliant people!

These brilliant people also happen to be fantastic chefs so I am doubly grateful. Our spread was pretty incredible. I contributed some measy "bake'n" (baked bacon), but others took the brunch challenge more seriously. We had mimosas, crepes, an egg casserole, cappuccino muffins, cranberry muffins, banana bread with chocolate chips, and the most amazing lemon curd filled pastry things I have ever had. I don't even know what they are called, but man they were something.

Overall a GREAT meeting. I'm still on my book club high a day later!