I finished The Lovely Bones the other day and absolutely loved it! It is one of my favorite books from book club. I am looking forward to our next book, The Tenth Circle. This book was a really suprising read, I wasn't expecting to love it because of the subject matter and themes throughout the book. I found myself angry at the mother in this book too, kind of like the Curious Incident of the Dog. Towards the end it got a little weird, but all in all, the book was great! See you guys next week for book club...don't forget your book for the grab bag!

Book Club was a blast! We had a Tastefully Simple party before hand, so that kind of mixed it up a bit. Those dips are fantastic! I am slightly disappointed that we didn't make it to Studio 21 after the meeting...that would have been some kind of fun! I thought people were going to like the book more. I didn't really love it, but I didn't hate it either. The next book is Lovely Bones and the meeting is on December 1st at Ashley's. This will be our 1 year anniversary meeting...OMG!!! We are also going to do a book exchange secret Satan thing so that sounds pretty fun. I am going to finish the vampire novel book before I start Lovely Bones. I also can't wait to talk to Lorna on November 18th...that will be different.

So I am not impressed with Curious Incident...

Everytime I started to get into the story he would go off on this insane and at times boring launch into stuff that just did not matter. I guess I can say that I thought it was interesting to read the thought process of an Autistic person but it was just not enough to really keep me engaged in the book.

I think it was also a slight let down after I read Running With Scissors which I thought was absolutely fantastic. I cannot wait for the movie to some out, although I am sure there will be a long debate about the changes made for the movie. After just seeing the previews I am already upset that the girl Augusten hangs out with (whats her name) is not overweight in the movie. I also can tell already that the house will not be as disgusting as it was described in the book.

I really have to get on it with the reading thing becuase I have just begun Tall Pine Polka and it seems a little slow at first. Housewives eating bonbons was the same way though and I loved it!

I have started reading the book "Little Children" by Tom Perrotta. I am about half way through and it is okay. I wouldn't highly recommend the book to people, but I wouldn't call it a complete waste of time. Tom Perrotta is the author of "Election" and "Joe College" so I expected this book to be funny like "Election" - it's not! I loved "Election" the movie, I never read the book and I am slightly disappointed because that was so witty and fun, and this is totally not like that at all. This book is being made into a movie, don't know release date or anything, but I'm not sure how great of a movie it will be. I think that Kate Winslet may be in it?

I finished Little Earthquakes by Jennifer Weiner and loved it. It was a great book and I loved the way that it was written and set up. The book was basically about four women and their lives during the period surrounding the birth of their first born children and how they bonded together to get through rocky parts of their marriage, family, raising children and other conflicts. It was really enjoyable. I would almost rather talk with Jennifer Weiner than Lorna Landvik. I think that Jennifer is more our style and would mesh well with our little group.

This book also made me kind of sad because I so wish that my friends were having babies so that we could share our experiences of motherhood together. I know that I could join a play group and make friends there, but it just wouldn't be the same. I feel so alienated from my friends sometimes because none of them have kids and I am sure that they get sick of me talking about Donovan all the time.

I changed my mind...I am going to read Little Earthquakes by Jennifer Weiner next and then read Me Talk Pretty One Day. I haven't been able to find Me Talk Pretty One Day at Target since the first time I saw it...I knew I should have just bought it then! Damn it! I hate buying books at Borders because they are so much more expensive. I love Target's book prices, but there selection is limited. The paperbacks at target are $5 and it is a sweet deal. Don asked me if Little Earthquakes is an erotic novel - I said, "No, I don't think so...why?" He said that orgasms are sometimes called "little earthquakes." See, you do learn something new everyday!

I have finished reading The Tall Pine Polka and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time. They were both good books, I enjoyed them, but didn't love love love them. The Tall Pine Polka was definitely not as good as AHEB, but had a pretty good story line to keep you interested. I did like The Curious Incident because it was different from anything else I've read. It was a really fast read, I finished it in less than two days and gave myself a headache because of my internal voice being "slow". I can't wait for the meeting though because we are going to have a Tastefully Simple party hosted by Judy before. I love Tastefully Simple's food...it is fantastic! I was looking forward to painting pot, but we can always do that another time.

There seems to be so much happening lately with book club, or at least I feel like there is. I finished Running With Scissors and loved it. I am probably going to start reading The Tall Pine Polk by Lorna Landvik so that I can be prepared for whenever we set the date for and then move onto The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night Time. I feel like there are so many deadlines for reading. There are also a shitload of other books that I want to read too. I am growing my Amazon.com Wish List just for fun. I won't ever use that list, but its kind of fun to have. It is more of a way for me to remember what I want to read next. Here is what I am thinking for my next inbetween book....Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris.

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah! Lorna Landvik's publicist, Cindy, finally got back to me about setting up a phone chat with Lorna. I am so excited because I requested a phone chat twice with The Reader's Circle and I never heard back, not even a "we got your request and she's really busy" email. I didn't think that this was goin to happen so I am kind of looking forward to it. The BAMF's have decided that The Tall Pine Polka is the book that we will be reading for this phone chat with Lorna. That way we will have two of her books to discuss. I have no idea when this is happening, so we are going to have to play it by ear.

Since the BAMF's aren't going to be meeting until beginning of November, I have decided to set some reading goals for myself. I really like having book club once a month because then I am constantly reading. I usually finish our club book in a week and then have some time to read one in between. I am a little disappointed that we are waiting two months for our next meeting since the book we are reading looks like a quick read kind of book. I have already started The Amateur Marriage by Anne Tyler but haven't been able to really get into the book. I started it before The Carnal Prayer Mat and haven't picked it up since I finished. I am determined to finish this one since it would bother me to leave a book half read. I also decided to read Running With Scissors By Augusten Burroughs. I have heard that it is a really good book so I have motivation to finish The Amateur Marriage first. So, if anyone else would like to read either of these books, we can arrange our own personal meeting.

Book club was a great time on Friday. Here's everyone but Judy (she took the picture). Jenny had found these super cute chinese containers for the food, and everyone loved them. We actually talked about the book quite a bit (I needed some clarification on words like vulva). We had all of our members there! Very different from the last evening that Jenny and I hosted. One of our members has moved away putting us down to eight, and now one is being excommunicated for never attending. We really want to do a ceremony with the putting out of a candle and banging a gong, but some of us are against that. Overall a great time - kudos to us!

Here is the next book for the meeting on

Friday, November 3rd!

Which cover will you choose?

The Carnal Prayer Mat meeting was last night. All members were in attendance, Haley has officially been voted out...it's about time. Jeanette and I found these super cute take-out containers that we put fried rice, spring rolls and potstickers in individual containers. Tina made sangria and it was really really good, it was her own secret recipe. We talked about the book a decent amount and people that I expected to like the book, didn't really enjoy it. I was also surprised that only 2 people didn't finish this book, and one of them WASN'T Ashley. Sarah made a boobie cake...AKA...pineapple upside down cake, and it was really good. I didn't let her take the leftovers, so that I could have them all to myself. I was also surprised by the lack of sex discussion, since most of our meeting consist of sex talk, I figured this one would contain tons of sex talk. I am thinking that the content of the book made people a little more hesitant to talk openly. I was also a little held back because some of our members seemed put off by the content of the book or embarrassed about talking about the book. I had a really good time, like I always do! Again, I really really liked this book alot!

P.S. As soon as I remember what the next book is...I will post it!

I have finished the book! Out of all of the books that we've read I would most like to see this one turned into a movie. No you pervs, not because it would then be porn. The ending was really quite shocking to me. The entire book (minus the first two and a half chapters) was really good and really enjoyable, but the ending moved it up from a fun book to read to a really good book that I would recommend to someone. Good picking Jenny!

Book club meeting is this Friday...keep reading! You must finish the book in order to get in!

I'm about half way through the book and I really do like it. I share many of the same thoughts as Sarah (except that there could be more sex). It is actually a really good book. It also seems a little more like literature than the books that we have been reading. Not that I don't love the books that we've been reading b/c for the most part I do. So far I really dislike the main character and all of the girls that he meets. That's the plus about porn. You don't get attached enough to them to care that they're having meaningless sex with woman after woman. That's what you expect. When I'm reading about someone's life I get a little more drawn in, and I'm a little disgusted when they have affair after affair.

When I first started this book I thought uh oh, this is like porn.... absurd plots that lead poorly written characters into funky situation where everyone must take off their clothes and screw to survive. Now that I am a little further along into the book I have found that the characters dont suck (hehehehe) and that the plot is actually kind of interesting.

I still blush while reading it most of the time but I am enjoying it so far. ( in a completly literary sense of the word enjoyment)

So...Is anyone ever going to post besides me - because there is a lot of pink going on folks?!?

I am almost finished.

I am really enjoying the book (not like that, the book isn't even close to being sticky)! Like I said before, I don't know that I will become an habitual reader of erotic literature, but I think that Jeanette and I did a good job in picking this book. We picked it for many reasons and we did good.

We picked The Carnal Prayer Mat because...

A. We wanted to host an Asian inspired book club meeting.
B. We just randomly searched for Asian Literature and this came up.
C. It is banned in China.
D. We couldn't find anything else.
E. Penis transplant.
F. Banned in China.
G. Must be dirty!

I started reading last night...and it is....well...dirty! I had no idea that erotic literature actually meant erotic.

Here is the dictionaries description of the word erotic:

1. Of or concerning sexual love and desire; amatory.
2. Tending to arouse sexual desire.
3. Dominated by sexual love or desire.

I read about 60 pages and I am going to keep reading - not just because I am a perv...but because I like the characters...and I cannot not finish. I have never read erotic literature before (I am such a prude) and I am not sure that I will jump at the opportunity to read another. It's not that I don't like the book, but it is just a little weird...and very dirty!

This book is also a lot "heavier" than the books that we have read in the past. There are so many big words and complex language usages that I am not use to from our traditional book style. I am really enjoying the characters and excited to see how their journey ends.