Tuesday, March 25, 2008

A Few Legistics

Hey ladies! To clear up some confusion and make things easier for everyone, Annette in her wisdom suggested that we add a list of who is choosing the book for which month. I have added a list to the side column titled "Who's Choosing When". It has a list through the end of this year of who is choosing the book for each month. If you don't want to choose a book, can't do it that month, or know of people who are joining the book club, just let me know and we'll change things accordingly. If you are the one choosing the book for the following month, please post which book you've chosen by the middle of the preceding month so everyone has time to pick it up. There is also a list of what we've already read in the right column to help everyone know which books have already been chosen. If for some reason you go to post and are not able to, please let me know. It may be that I just need to change to your rights. If I have not sent you an email with an invite as an author to the blog, please email me and we'll get it all squared away so you can post. (Also, please let me know if I have misspelled your name anywhere!) If anyone has any other suggestions on how to make things work better in our book club, we would love to hear them. We're a work in progress! Thanks for bearing with us as we work out all of the kinks! Happy reading everyone!

Thursday, March 20, 2008

April: A Girl Named Zippy by Haven Kimmel

So I'm not sure if the person I had asked to choose the book for April ever saw the message so I went ahead and chose one. I've heard nothing but good things about this book and was in the mood for a light, easy and funny read and from what I've heard, this book fits the bill. Hope you enjoy! Here's a little snip-it of what the book is about:

From Publishers Weekly

It's a clich‚ to say that a good memoir reads like a well-crafted work of fiction, but Kimmel's smooth, impeccably humorous prose evokes her childhood as vividly as any novel. Born in 1965, she grew up in Mooreland, Ind., a place that by some "mysterious and powerful mathematical principle" perpetually retains a population of 300, a place where there's no point learning the street names because it's just as easy to say, "We live at the four-way stop sign." Hers is less a formal autobiography than a collection of vignettes comprising the things a small child would remember: sick birds, a new bike, reading comics at the drugstore, the mean old lady down the street. The truths of childhood are rendered in lush yet simple prose; here's Zippy describing a friend who hates wearing girls' clothes: "Julie in a dress was like the rest of us in quicksand." Over and over, we encounter pearls of third-grade wisdom revealed in a child's assured voice: "There are a finite number of times one can safely climb the same tree in a single day"; or, regarding Jesus, "Everyone around me was flat-out in love with him, and who wouldn't be? He was good with animals, he loved his mother, and he wasn't afraid of blind people." (Mar.)Forecast: Dreamy and comforting, spiced with flashes of wit, this book seems a natural for readers of the Oprah school of women's fiction (e.g., Elizabeth Berg, Janet Fitch). The startling baby photograph on the cover should catch browsers' eyes. (Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.)

It's available for $11.16 at Amazon.com.

Monday, March 3, 2008

Let's Chat

Okay ladies, hopefully you've finished the book since it's March now and I want to hear what you thought so here are a questions to get the chat going:

-What was your favorite part?

-What did you think about Vida Winter's real identity? Did you see that coming?

-Who was your favorite character?

-Do you see yourself in any of the characters in this book?

-Do any of you have the desire to read Jane Eyre again after all the references to it?

-What did you think of the Governess' and the Doctor's "experiment" with Emmeline and Adeline?

Post comments for these questions or anything else you want to bring up!