Book group 2014

Have I told y'all about my book group? It's only the best ever. Desmama and I started it back in 2007 and then I mourned its absence in my life after I got married and lived too far away. My sister Jenny did pour into my wounded bosom the balm of sisterly consolation, however. (Translation: she let me join her awesome book group.) I returned the favor during her brief stint in Logan by sending her to mine.

Only then I moved back to Cache Valley (why hello again, Smell of Cows!) and one of the things I was most excited about was getting back together with these ladies. It's such a great group. People have come in and out but this great core is still there. We've got single ladies (aaaand cue Beyonce, wow am I current), married ones, Mormons, not-Mormons, SAHMs, working girls (no, not that kind), liberals, conservatives, and everyone is just lovely. It would be great to find a lesbian and a woman of color to really round us out, but this is Cache Valley. There's only so much to work with.

I hosted in January, because we were supposed to read I am Half-Sick of Shadows during the month of December. And now we know not to do that again. Trying to read a book during the holidays, even a light page-turning Christmas mystery about English people, is just a dumb idea. It was probably my idea, which explains the dumb.

Because I was in charge of the food, I decided to make a cake. I did not choose the cake featured in the book, because when I looked it up I realized that like many other English desserts (bless them) the one the de Luce family ate suffered from some kind of inferiority/rationing complex. "If we add raisins and a pinch of sugar to bread we can call it cake! Lovely!" (No, no you can't.)

I made a pound cake instead. I made it from scratch after choosing the best recipe I could find. I put love into that cake. I wiped down the inside of the pan with butter and Pam. It was to be served with fresh blueberries and cream whipped by me. And here's how it turned out:

Grrrrr.

I texted Jenny to moan about the cake, and she suggested that I take the part that stayed in the pan and, like, glue it to the rest of the cake with frosting.

Here was my response to that:

this was after I ate half the crumbs with my hands because I was just that mad

So much for my cake. The ladies just carried on and ate mangled cake with blueberries and cream, much as an aristocratic English family fallen on hard times would have done (except their cake really would have been just bread.)

We also brought our book ideas for this year. Last year I suggested a spreadsheet voting system (because you know I love me a spreadsheet). I created a Google Drive document with all the suggested titles and a link to the Amazon description/reviews, plus notes about the title's availability. (Some suggestions turn out to be out of print, others have book club sets at local libraries or are really cheap on Kindle.) And, of course, spaces for each member to put an "X" next to the titles they would like to read. People have about a week to decide which books they are most interested in and vote for 11 of them. I count up the votes for each book and the top 11 are our picks. Then people shout out for the month & book they'd like to host (usually this ends up being the person who suggested the title in the first place).

Considering how complicated I made it, I think it's worked out pretty well and we've ended up with a good lineup, last year and this year. Each book has several people who really want to read it. And if a book turns out to be a dud then it's not like one person will feel responsible. A bunch of people will!

Here is what we'll be reading in 2014

1. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen 
2. The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles 
3. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green 
4. How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn  
5. A Year of Biblical Womanhood by Rachel Held Evans 
6. My Year with Eleanor: a Memoir by Noelle Hancock 
7. Wonder by R. J. Palacio 
8. Kitchen Counter Cooking School: How a Few Simple Lessons Transformed Nine Culinary Novices into Fearless Home Cooks by Kathleen Flinn  
9. USU Common Literature Experience 2014 pick (they haven't announced it yet) 
10. The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman 
11. Unbroken by Laura Hillebrand

And here are a few suggestions that didn't get enough votes but I'm adding them all to my Goodreads list.

1. The Hundred-foot Journey
2. Tale for the Time Being
3. Life after Life 
4. A Winter's Tale
5. The Homecoming of Samuel Lake
6. Navigating Early
7. Tiny Beautiful Things
8. Lean In
9. Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength

Anybody else want to add what you'll be reading with your group?

Readers, Dad. They're called readers.

I did read some books this year--not as many as I would have liked, of course, but still. There was reading. One time I saw another blogger's New Year's Resolutions and one of them was "Read four books this year." I remember being so confused and gobsmacked. I mean, how could you avoid reading four books in one year? Seriously! I think her other resolutions were things like "Learn how to make own croissants" and "Go sailing in the Maldives or some s***," and she probably accomplished them. Which just goes to show that maybe I don't use my down time as productively as I could.

Anyway. There was a stretch this summer where everything I read was disappointing, but thankfully I got back on track. Here were a few favorites from 2013.




Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. This was the 5-star book for this year. I had to be in the right frame of mind to finally pick it up and read about cheery things like sex trafficking and women without access to education or maternity care. But I'm so glad I did. And there's actually quite a lot of cool, uplifting stories about what these women are able to do once they get treated like, you know, humans.



Still Alice. This novel is about a brilliant Harvard professor who starts forgetting things. When she gets disoriented during a jog, she visits her doctor and is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's disease. Alice and her husband, with their three adult children, are all trying to cope in their own ways as she deteriorates. I couldn't put it down, even though it was pretty heartbreaking in places.


 Parenting: Illustrated with Crappy Pictures. This will never win the Nobel Prize for Literature, but man it's what I needed to read after little Loki was born. I just sat on the couch and howled, then tried to read parts out loud to GH. I think my favorite story was the one about the road trip where her husband had to hold their child in the air on the side of the road while he did his business.

Where'd You Go Bernadette? This book was a fun read that was also really well-written. Bernadette doesn't fit in with the other moms in Seattle (and she doesn't want to). When her agoraphobic tendencies get out of control, she disappears after a failed intervention. The novel is made up of the emails, FBI files, and ER bills compiled by Bernadette's teenage daughter as she searches for her mom.

 The Rosie Project. Hilarious and touching. This book is maybe what would happen if Dr. Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory wanted to find a life partner. In this version he's Dr. Don Tillman, an Australian genetics professor whose social awkwardness (think Asperger's) masks the fact that he's a very sweet guy. Don embarks on "The Wife Project" armed with a survey he's designed to weed out unsuitable matches. But when he meets Rosie, a woman who meets none of his requirements and causes all kinds of upset to his orderly life, he keeps looking for reasons to spend time with her. (Note: the Kindle version is only $1.99 right now, so if your library doesn't have it this would be a great way to check it out!)

What about you guys? Any favorites I should put on this year's to-read list?

Flunking Sainthood $2.99 for Kindle

Psssst.

If anyone is interested, Flunking Sainthood by Jana Riess is $2.99 in the Amazon Kindle store until September 9th.

I like Jana Riess, and I liked her book. That is all.

Oooooooh no you did not.

I got a call from the library recently, letting me know that there was a book on hold for me and I needed to come pick it up. The title was Finding Colin Firth.

Me: "Um, I think there may be a mistake. I didn't put that book on hold. It sounds awesome, but I've never heard of it."

Library staff: "Well, it has your name on it."

Me: "Really? Uh. Okay then!"

My guess is that one of the other librarians saw it and figured I would want it if I knew about it and so went ahead and put me on hold. This is why librarians rule.

And I did enjoy the book. It was a sweet read about three women whose lives converge one summer in a gorgeous seaside town in Maine where Colin Firth (of whom they are all big, big fans) may or may not be coming to film a part in a movie. Also one of the women bakes really good practically-magical pies, which I always enjoy.

HOWEVER.

When first we meet the pie-baking woman, she is at home baking while simultaneously watching the Colin Firth BBC version of Pride & Prejudice, and the Wet Shirt Scene keeps making her mess up her recipe. As it would. A few pages later, she gives all her attention to the cinematic moment she has been waiting for, where Colin Firth utters these immortal words:

"If, however, your feelings have changed, I will have to tell you: you have bewitched me, body and soul, and I love, I love, I love you. I never wish to be parted from you from this day on."

SCREEEEEEEEEEEECH. (Or whatever sound the record needle makes in that one sound effect.)

Yeah. Anybody else know what's wrong here?

Colin Firth never SAID any of that blubbery stupid "I love, I love, I love you" mess. That was all 2005 Matthew Macfadyen to Keira Hipbones Poutyface McKnightley in the field just before the weird hand kissing nonsense. Jane Austen never wrote any of that, Andrew Davies never wrote that, and I refuse to believe that Emma Thompson had anything to do with it either during the uncredited re-write she did of the script.

It jolted me out of the story so completely that I had to stop reading and do this massive rant to GH, and then call my sister Jenny and tell her about it too. Just, wow. FAIL.

And now that I've told the Internet about it too, I'll let you all get back to your Mondays. Mine consists of toilet training. Go ahead and envy me. I've got carpet cleaners coming on Wednesday, so I figure now is the perfect time to get pee everywhere.