I finished the book yesterday and loved it...in fact I told the whole story to Don last night in the shower, and he thinks it was a great story too! I want this to be made into a movie because it would rock! But only, if I could direct it, cast it and market it! Ashley, it's all yours!

I started reading Vanishing Acts by Jodi Picoult this morning and so far I am enjoying it. There isn't a Jodi book that I haven't liked yet so I am not expecting this to be the first.

I literally cannot put The Virgin of Small Plains down! I just got to this really really amazing part in the book, where things start being explained, secrets are unleashed, mysterious happenings explained....and then...lunch hour's over!!! FUCK! I think I will be able to finish on my way home from work today!

I gave up on Inheritance of Loss. I was eighty pages in and didn't care about any of the characters. I feel like such a quitter. I picked a romance novel instead. A much better read!

I finished on Friday. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised about Indonesia...it was actually good (well, maybe not good, but much much better than Italy and India). I am glad to be finished with this book and probably wouldn't recommend this book at all.

I started reading The Virgin of Small Plains by Nancy Pickard. I received it in the mail from this online book club that I belong too because it is an editors copy so it isn't ready for widespread publication yet. I am really digging it so far...only about 40 pages in and I can't stop! It is a bit of a mystery/suspense book and I haven't read one like this in a long time. I am excited to step outside of the popular novel books and into something a tad different. So far I would recommend this book over Eat, Pray, Love anyday!

I am almost finished with India and I am finding myself bamboozled by the convenience of her spiritual awakenings. It's like, right on cue, God shows himself to her at just that perfect moment! I suppose it can happen, but spiritual awakening doesn't always happen so conveniently, unless of course your trip is paid for by the publishing company. What would have happened if her trip to India left her without any meditation breakthroughs and there was not spiritual awakening? Would the book still have been published, would Liz have to pay for her year long travels on her own dime...that's a lot of pressure to be spiritually enlightened! I am pretty sure that I would have come up with some wild stories!

The tag line for this book should be: One woman's desperate search for semi-believable stories of self-enlightenment across Italy, India and Indonesia so that I don't have to pay money back to the publisher!

I am finished with Italy and I am moving on to India! Yeah, 1/3 finished with the book! It is getting better, but I think that has to do with me lowering my expectations!

I am about 60 pages into Eat Pray Love and I can't stand it. This is the tale about one woman's search for everything across Italy, Indonesia and India. She is basically having a struggle with her life and decides that traveling is going to be the answer to her prayers! The way it is written makes me a little crazy, she skips around and hasn't actually said much about her travels so far. It seems as if this book was written for the reader to feel sorry for her pain and it is almost a bit attention seeking. I don't enjoy reading about one woman's sob story life and then how she is trying to find herself by being PAID to travel to these countries and then write a book about her adventures. It is a bit whiny, pity me the rich spoiled white girl, but then respect and be inspired by me kind of tone...and I just don't dig it. No pity parties will be thrown in her honor. I had high hopes for this book because I envisioned beautifully written descriptions of these countries and so far...nothing! I can't even seem to read the book on the train, I prefer to just stare out the window!

I cannot say it enough...I LOVED THIS BOOK! I had received this book in the past from a friend who loved it. She told me I needed to read it, but I never got around to it. Recently, Jenny gave me the book and told me I should read it. Well, I did. I really could not get enough of this book. It was truly one of the most beautiful books I have read in some time. The plot and characters are quite engaging. I also was enamored with these two people and how their lives' were so entangled for all eternity. I would recommend this book to everyone. I also enjoyed that this book took place in Chicago-I think Niffenegger is a U of C professor-as I knew so many of the locales in the story.

When I did a quick search of this book to find the picture, I saw the movie of this is in preproduction. It is slated to star Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams. I love Eric Bana (he is great in Munich), but I think he is far too attractive to play Henry. McAdams will be a good Clare. It will be interesting to see how they adapt this novel because of the time-traveling. It is also a thick book (~500 pages) and it will be hard to adapt the entire novel into a screenplay. I wonder if I will even want to see it since I liked the book so much.

This is my first addition to the BAMFs blog and I am so excited. Wanting to post on this site is what got me started. I am currently reading The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai. I decided to read this book some time ago after I saw the author on Charlie Rose (PBS). I cannot say that I am loving the book, but it is definitely a new experience. And, I have had to write down a few words that I didn't know. I also like a book that expands my mind a little bit. I will have to read much more before I can say if I would recommend it or not. I hope this book doesn't turn out to be a big "thumbs down." It won the Man Booker prize in Britain last year. This wouldn't be the first time an award winning book has let me down, though.

I finished A Spot Of Bother and really rather enjoyed it. I had my doubts! But it ended up being a wonderful tale of this incredibly dysfunctional crazy family and how they each learn to cope and adjust and come together for each other. The story centers around an upcoming wedding and the stresses, psycho outbreaks, accidents and incidentals that stem from each family member. I enjoyed this so much more than The Curious Incident and would read more of his books if they were like this. It was a bit long and based in England, so I am now kind of talking rather English!

Here is the list of self-help books that I found on Amazon that I found intriguing...or funny...whatever! I am sure Sarah's list will be much better!

Self-Help Nation: The Long Overdue, Entirely Justified, Delightfully Hostile Guide to the Snake-Oil Peddlers Who Are Sapping Our Nation's Soul by Tom Tiede

Rock-a-by Baby: Feminism, Self-Help and Postpartum Depression by Verta Taylor

Self-Defeating Behaviors: Free Yourself from the Habits, Compulsions, Feelings, and Attitudes That Hold You Back

Dating for Losers, for Men Only: An Uncensored Politically Incorrect Self-Help Guide to Meeting and Dating Women by Anonymous

Sham: How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless by Steve Salerno

The Grrl Genius Guide to Sex (with Other People): A Self-Help Novel by Cathryn Michon

Are You Normal About Sex, Love, and Relationships? by Bernice Kanner

The Holy G-Rail by Michael Schuessler

Sex and the Perfect Lover: Tao, Tantra, and the Kama Sutra by Mabel Iam

Sex: A Man's Guide by Stefan Bechtel

Stuttering Self-Help for Adults by Morris Val Jones

Pornology: Noun--1: A Good Girl's Guide to Porn; 2: The misadventures of the world's first anthroPORNologist; 3: A Hilarious Exploration of Men, Relationships, and Sex by Ayn Carrillo-Gailey

The Science/Fiction of Sex: Feminist Deconstruction and the Vocabularies of Heterosex (Women and Psychology) by Annie Potts

Sex, Work and Sex Work: Eroticizing Organization by Joanna Brewis

Red-Hot Sex the Kama Sutra Way by Emerson Richard

How to Be a Sex Goddess by Sarah Tomczak

To Bed or Not To Bed: What Men Want, What Women Want, How Great Sex Happens by Vera Bodansky and Steve Bodansky

The Disposable Male: Sex, Love, and Money--Your World Through Darwin's Eyes by Michael Gilbert

Want Great Sex? Put the Cap on the Toothpaste!: A Less Traveled Road to Blissful Intimacy by Renee Hecker

Lose Weight Through Great Sex with Celebrities: The Elvis Way by Colin Mcenroe

Sexy Mamas: Keeping Your Sex Life Alive While Raising Kids by Cathy Winks and Anne Semans

Positive Magic: Occult Self-Help by Marion Weinstein

BAMF's met on Friday night at Ashley's (who made the most fantastic BBQ pulled pork and salads) and it seemed like a consensus that the book was not well liked. Since it won a Newberry Award we were all expecting better. We did talk about the book for awhile, like 15 minutes...that's almost a record!

Judy is hosting next (Eat, Pray, Love) and then Sarah is taking her turn. We are going to do a self-help book which is different and kind of exciting. I am not a fan at all of self-help in fact I think they are a little dumb, but I would give it a whirl for my girls! Jeanette and I are requesting sex related self-help since that would at least give us something to keep entertained and chatty! Our librarian-esq member Elizabeth seemed shockingly intrigued by the possibility of sex self-help, which every time something sex related comes up (which is about every 6.3 minutes) I get a bit uneasy and I feel a bit slutty and sleazy....I am betting that she could show us all a few tricks!

I finished reading Rise and Shine. I really didn't like it at first but was determined to finish. I was actually surprised because towards the last 100 pages I couldn't put it down. I ended up liking the book, but would still probably not recommend this highly.

The book is about two sisters and their lives after a series of unfortunate events take place and how they re cooperate from devastation and grow apart and then, of course, back together. It is set in New York city and got a bit whiny about the people and social quirks of the city. The main character Bridget is a Social Worker and her sister, Meghan is a hugely famous morning talk show personality. The scenarios are a bit predictable and you knew what the outcome would be before the author even addressed the issue. There was not much surprise or mystery to this book, just your average novel.

I started reading A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon. I read his other book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time and didn't like it, so I am not sure why I am reading another. I guess I am a glutton for torture or I just want to give him another shot. So far I am confused, but that's not all that out of the ordinary!

I finished reading The Higher Power of Lucky and found myself very disappointed. This book was written for 9-11 year olds, so being a 25 year old, I found this book very very boring. I tried to imagine a 9 year old reading this and it is no wonder why kids now a days don't read! This book won a Newberry award and I am shocked. I know the idea behind the BAMF's picking this book was to expand our horizons and not get stuck in the popular novel rut, but this sucked. I will have to turn in my membership card if we pick more young adult books. I read this book in the span of about 2 hours and I want that time back so that I could do something more productive, like masturbate or pick up dog shit! Hopefully the next book will be better!

I finished reading Everything Changes yesterday and started Rise and Shine. I enjoyed Everything Changes, it was a very light book. It was about a man who is engaged to get married and his life seems all organized and set up nicely for him, but incidents takes place that uproot his entire life. Everything in his life seems to be falling apart, but really in the end his life finally takes a meaningful shape. I wouldn't recommend this book highly, unless you were looking for a semi-comic quick read.

I finally finished The Time Traveller's Wife and loved it! It was such a great book. I thought that it would be more romantic of a tale, but I am so glad it wasn't...I hate really sappy shit. I did; however, find myself in tears riding the train to work the other morning...really embarrassing. As far as I can remember, that is the first book that I cried for. I started reading Everything Changes, it seems like an easy read option.

The next BAMF's book is going to be The Higher Power of Lucky. I don't know if we can keep the name BAMF's after reading this book, we may need to go to Nerd Herd. I don't find reading adolescent literature all that exciting, in fact I haven't attempted that since I was an adolescent. The book after that is Eat Pray Love and I am only slightly excited about this one.

The BAMF's are meeting tonight to discuss One Hundred Years of Solitude and I am so not prepared! I just got the book last night and have only read 30 pages out of 458! It is a boring book so far and I am having a hard time keeping interested. I keep zoning out and having to re-read the same paragraph over and over again! It sucks! Don't read this one people!

I am in love with The Time Traveler's Wife. It is fantastic and I am less than 100 pages in. It is the story of this man who is a time traveler and how he meets his wife. Kind of a love story, but not sappy and romantic. Henry (the time traveler) meets Clare (his wife) when he is twenty-eight and she is twenty. Henry is a librarian who bangs a lot of chicks and Clare is an art student. Henry has never met Clare before (or so he thinks and remembers) but Clare has known Henry since she was six. So Henry keeps time travelling back to the past and Clare finds out tidbits of information about her future with Henry and it is really fun. I like the idea of someone who can time travel so this is fun and different. Henry ends up time traveling back to teach his younger self how to do things like pick pocket, steal, and other weird things. Henry arrives at his time destination naked with nothing so he has to steal things to be able to eat and get clothes. It is a really fun book so far, I would recommend it highly!

I have been so seriously behind in my blogging with BAMF's! I have finished a few books since my last post, but not the one for the book club meeting on Friday. I actually haven't even got the book yet, so I think this is going to be my first skipped book. From what I have heard from other members, this book sucks. It's slow and boring. Oh, did I mention that the book is One Hundred Years of Solitude?

I read Harvesting the Heart by Jodi Picoult and thought it was okay. I have been on a Jodi P. craze and don't know how to stop. I am currently reading My Friend Leonard by James Frey and I really like it. I enjoyed A Million Little Pieces and this is similar. I enjoy the way he writes, it is a super quick read and you can start and stop anywhere and not interupt anything important. I also like it because the cover is pink! Tacky I know, but hey, my favorite color is pink.

I finished reading The Last Boy and The Mermaid Chair. I didn't really like The Last Boy, I felt there was some underlying sanctimonious themes and that kind of rubbed me the wrong way. I also found the book to be incredibly predictable. I did enjoy The Mermaid Chair. It was a fairly good book but not fantastic. I am looking forward to reading The Secret Life of Bees. I have heard that this one is better than The Mermaid Chair. I just started reading Prep and that is so-so. The next BAMF's book is One Hundred Years of Solitude and I can't say that I am jumping at reading this one. Has anyone read any great books lately??? I am looking for suggestions because I haven't found something really intriguing lately...I've been getting some duds!