March Book Choices & Discussion

Hello again friends,
Hope all is well and you are looking forward to the book discussion scheduled for Tonight: Tuesday, February 26 at 7pm on AIM. I will unfortunately not be able to attend as I will be on a plane to NYC, yet again. However, my dear friend A.Karpy will be in charge (thanks karps!) of bringing everyone together for the discussion. If you would like to join, please IM "karpy423" and she will invite you to the chat.

Also, wanted to announce March as the month for the classics! I was thinking with the ever-so-long month of March, we could make the most of it by getting caught up on the classics that we have never read and/or want to re-read. So, let's try the format for this month will be: you make your choice of classic to read. Get caught up on the stories that you always say, "Oh, I've been meaning to read that..." or you missed it the first time and want to re-read. We won't all be reading the same thing, but at least we can give a collective shout-out to the great authors of days gone by.

The following list is just to give you ideas:) Happy reading!

The Great Gatsby
Anna Karenina
Lolita
War and Peace
The Bell Jar
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Love in the Time of Cholera


More ideas (see also):
http://als.lib.wi.us/Collegebound.html
http://www.cincinnatilibrary.org/booklists/?id=classics

February Book Annoucement!

Happy Love month friends! We will be reading some raunchy, sexy, love stories in honor of the month of Valentines day! We will be reading Star Quality by Lori Foster which is a collection of three sexy stories. This should be one that you will feel scandalous reading in a Starbucks sitting next to strangers! Hah! Also, you can mark it in your calendars that our online book discussion is scheduled for Feb. 26 at 7:00pm on Instant Messengar Chat again.

This past week, we had our online discussion about A Thousand Splendid Suns and I found it particularly interesting and insightful. Hope you can join the next book discussion! FYI: Weller found the book on amazon.com for under $5!

Book Discussion Reminder and new book vote:

Hi all, hope the holidays were fabulous and you read our January book, A Thousand Splendid Suns. Wanted to remind you all that this Tuesday, January 29th, at 7pm will be our online discussion about the book. I'm really looking forward to it, I dog-eared a bunch of pages/quotes i want to talk about. heh. If you want, comment on this post with your instant msg. screenname (i probs have it, but just to make sure) and also RSVP if you will "be" there.

I want to also add links to the options for our February books, with the month of love of the horizon, i thought we could go into some lovey-chicky-borderline raunchy route. Check out the reviews of each book and let me know your vote on Tuesday!


The Little Lady Agency by Hester Browne
http://www.amazon.com/Little-Lady-Agency-Hester-Browne/dp/1416514929

Body Surfing by Anita Shreve
http://www.amazon.com/Body-Surfing-Novel-Anita-Shreve/dp/0316059854

Star Quality by Lori Foster (3 raunchy stories-she wrote one for Perfect for the Beach)
http://www.amazon.com/Star-Quality-Lori-Foster/dp/0758210043/ref=pd_sim_b_title_15

Thousand Splendid Suns Discussion

Happy New Year! Hope the holidays treated you well and Santa and/or a loved one gifted you the January book. (I know mine did; thanks, Tasha!) Aaanyway, I was thinking that since the little side comment bar is so skinny we should have a meeting day designated specifically for talking about the book. So, with administrative authority I am announcing that January 29th will be the Jan. book discussion day. If interested, at 7pm: sign on AIM and I will invite to a chat room and we can talk about it there. yay? Don't play like you don't have AIM either, elena. if you are not on my buddy list, that is a travesty; add me; i am tabigirl11. and i'm never on, but will be on Jan. 29th, at 6:45pm waiting for all of you. heh.

So read the book and be done (or almost done, watch out for spoilers though!) by Tuesday, 01/29/08 at 7pm.

Happy reading!

The first book in 2008!

Happy Holidays! To honor all our readers that are on break now we are going to read A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. Hooray! Hurry up and write it on your wish lists quickly and hopefully Santa can squeeze it in. Enjoy the holiday and look forward to reading starting the new year. Attached below are some reviews:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/29/books/29kaku.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ei=5070&en=51a023a4954be2ee&ex=1182052800

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20038949,00.html

December Book: I love you, Beth Cooper

Thanks to the beautiful Allison Karpy, our December book has been suggested and it sounds perfect. I was hoping to have something light-hearted and upbeat for the busy holidays and this sounds perfect! The book is I love you, Beth Cooper by Larry Doyle. It is his debut novel, and Tom Perrotta (our previous author) actually has a review on the book cover! Yay for smooth transitions. hah.

Hope your holidays are going swimmingly and this book brings you laughs when you need them most in a very busy and exciting season.

For the review in the Times check out: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/01/books/review/Sarvas-t.html

So..whatdcha think?

Well, we are coming to the end of the month and I know for a fact a few of you are done reading (I've been holding back my comments for a few weeks-thanks Karpy for pointing out the fact that I'm a nerd). So it's time to start talking. Feel free to pose questions, write about your fav/least fav parts, surprises, deeper understandings, hahah, ok, i'm done. Let's hear it all...la la love youns!

Also, if you have ideas for next month's book, post those in the comment section of this entry. I'm thinking we should do a easy read/lighthearted type book with the holidays coming up and all. So request away......

Let the reading begin!

Happy November/First Book Club Month!
Hope you all purchased/borrowed the book. It is now official reading month. Make sure to post any comments on the right hand side comment bar. Very excited...I have all afternoon to sit at the airport and read! yay!

If you want to leave a comment on the side bar, look to the bottom of the CBox and type in your name and then your thoughts in the comment box. no need to include an email/url. This is going to be our cyber-chatting. so keep the thoughts coming! See also the current poll beneath the CBox and vote for your favorite character so far!

And our November book is....The Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perrotta

Well Ladies and Gent,
Start your book buying/borrowing frenzy, because we are going to be reading The Abstinence Teacher during the month of November. For all of you little sex-kittens who were requesting filthy novels, you may be just in luck. I just read Michiku Kakutani's review (from the NY Times) and apparently this author is the same guy who wrote "Little Children" (which if you haven't seen that movie, see it, its good and insane)

So, official start date is November 1st. Any comments or questions you want to bring up to the group can be posted on the side bar (see the right side of the page) for easy viewing. Yay! I am copying the summary and the NY Times review below, so you can get a little preview:)

Happy reading!!

Barnes&Noble Summary
Midway through Tom Perrotta's sixth novel, The Abstinence Teacher, Ruth Ramsey, a divorced mother of two, reluctantly puts on lipstick and jeans to meet with Tim Mason, her youngest daughter's soccer coach and a recently remarried father of one, and even more reluctantly admits to herself that she secretly wishes she were a heroine in one of those "corny 'opposites attract' narratives" that were so appealing to writers of sitcoms and romantic comedies:
The formula was simple: you brought together a man and a woman who held wildly divergent world views -- an idealistic doctor, say, and an ambulance-chasing lawyer -- and waited for them to realize that their witty intellectual combat was nothing more than a smoke screen, kicked up to conceal the inconvenient and increasingly obvious fact that they were desperate to hop into bed together.

The New York Times - Michiko Kakutani
As formulaic as this plot might sound, Mr. Perrotta uses it not to construct a conventional screwball romance but to create a sad-funny-touching story that looks at the frustrations and perils of life in suburbia through darkly tinted, not rose-colored glasses—a story similar in tone and setting to his last novel, Little Children (2004).

Welcome to the long distance Book Club!

My gorgeous friends,
So here's the deal. I love reading and Brandon doesn't. So I read all these great books and have thoughts about them but no one to really talk to about them. Since we are all far apart and I love you all, I was thinking we can start a book club across the states. Or I am a big nerd and like to read and blog...whichever you prefer. So, if you would like to join in on the common reading and chatting, please comment on which book you would like to read first and by majority rules, we will start reading it for November:) After this first book choosing, we can use the poll feature and then just vote. If you have any suggestions, we can add those to the poll of course! Yay for being pretty AND smart.
love,
tab.

Possible November books:
(we're going fiction this month, ladies)

The Choice- Nicholas Sparks
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780446579926&itm=1

A Thousand Splendid Suns- Khaled Hosseini
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9781594489501&itm=1

Wicked- Gregory Maguire
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780060876326&itm=5

The Abstinence Teacher- Tom Perrotta
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780312358334&itm=1