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I'm currently 1/2 way through Dedication (as you can see, I'm going very heavy on the chick lit as of late). It's excellent - by the authors of the Nanny Diaries but I think very different in tone. The flashbacks to high school alone make it worth the read (at least, bythe 1/2 way mark). Has anyone else read this one?

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I just finished How to Talk to a Widower. SO good. Read it in one day and just didn't want it to end. If you're a fan of Nick Hornby or Tom Perrotta, I think you'd like it.

 

Blondie - I got a free copy of Dedication, (I did a book signing next to the authors, so grabbed one after we were done), so I have it in my shelf, but haven't yet cracked it. I'm wary since I heard that Citizen Girl was a debacle, and that a lot of people speculated that they were one-hit wonders. Glad to hear that you're enjoying it. I should get to it - I really liked The Nanny Diaries.

 

I just ordered The Other Mother, The Way Life Should Be, and Rules for Saying Goodbye from Amazon. And am also eyeing Getting Rid of Matthew and The Bright Side of Disaster. Anyone read any of these?

Edited by freelancergirl

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Oh, I did read Dedication. I had to think about that for a long time so that isn't a good sign. I remember it now though - I thought it was better than Citizen Girl (which I hated), not as good as Nanny Diaries.

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^^ Freelancergirl - I read Getting Rid of Matthew - took me a few chapters to get into but it was pretty entertaining (though I thought the ending was a bit of a cop out). I'd recommend it as a good poolside read.

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I just finished We Need to Talk About Kevin and I have no idea what I even think about this book. At different times I wanted to murder pretty much every character with my bare hands, but at the end I'm just saddened by it all.

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Hee! I love this reading group. :)

 

Corrections did payoff in the end, however, only in the context of the story. I would have never picked it up, had I known what I was in for.

 

I am currently reading We Need to Talk About Kevin. Um WOW. It is VERY disturbing. I say this as a mother of an impossible to please child. I so totally understood the younger years. I don't know if I had postpartum depression, but I do know I was clinically depressed for approximately 5 years after his birth. It was like reading my diary.

 

I do want to say after he hit 5 and could communicate, things got better. I stopped having to ask God for strength every day. School is painful, but he is (now) loving and empathetic. I was sooo worried. I still worry about him being an able adult, but I have faith. He's 16 and finally *wants* to go to school this year.

 

My only nit. Evan Ramsey. I lived in Bethel when that went down. My son was in school right next door. The highschool and the little kids school are right next to eachother. He didn't start shooting in Math class.

 

He got up, got his grandfathers gun -- Oh yea, the night before he called his friends and told them to bring video cameras and to be up at the library for lunch. He hid the gun outside and grabbed it during lunch. 11ish - I know when we got the call. He came in with the gun to the lobby where people hung out to eat and chat during lunch, and no one thought anything because of ROTC. He shot the athlete - God forgive me, I cannot remember his name. The principal came out of his office which was upper center of the lobby (btw the library overhangs the lobby, his buds got a great view) to save the children. He put someone behind him and tried to reason with the ... whateverthefuckheis. He was shot - The admin dragged him into one of the offices. It was no use. Renee Athanas was the art teacher - his art teacher in fact, stood in front of the athlete and kept talking to Evan, while covering the athlete. He liked Renee. Hell all of the broken kids loved Renee. She was an art teacher there when I went to highschool. She was a liberal hippy, and believed in expression through art would and could help anyone. She was the one who stopped the shooting. The last I heard of Renee was her resignation, she couldn't teach anymore because she hated her students. Ah yes, why? Only one student, right? Because of those kids up in the library... especially the ones who brought videocameras. They didn't tell a fucking soul, and for some reason they couldn't be charged with anything. Cops went around the next day to the parents advising them it would be a good time to move.

 

I am still bitter about it to this day. :( It jars me with bitterness everytime I read his name in that book, and again when the details are wrong.

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Finished Middlesex over the weekend - amazing book. Epic but personal. I cried at the end, partly because some of it was sad but mostly because I didn't want it to be over. Highly recommend.

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Just finished two--"Garden Spells"--quick read about sisters, love, and a little bit of magic. I ended up liking it a lot by the end, but I felt it was wrapped up too quickly for my taste.

 

Also finished an advanced copy of "The Rest of Her Life" by Laura Moriarty. It was about a high school senior who accidentally hits a classmate with her car and kills her. It is told from the mother's point of view, and it was well-told.

 

Getting ready to start "Life on the Refrigerator Door".

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Ok, "Life on the Refrigerator Door" was an incredibly fast read, but very moving. It is a series of short notes left between daughter and mother. I don't want to give too much away, but I was crying at the end.

Good stuff!

 

Going to start "Mr. Monk and the Two Assistants" to clear my head before heading into work. :)

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I just finished We Need to Talk About Kevin and I have no idea what I even think about this book. At different times I wanted to murder pretty much every character with my bare hands, but at the end I'm just saddened by it all.

This book was such an incredibley tragic book. You don't want to ampathize but you find yourself doing just that. SHE is an amazing writer. Just recently she did an interview for Psychologies magazine and she said that her pet peeves are books with happy endings.... LOVE IT... You must read her new book = The Post Birthday World.

 

If you end up deciding you liked this book read 19 Minutes by Jodi Picolet

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I actually had some sympathy for the shooter in Nineteen Minutes but not Kevin. He was just awful. You just do not want to believe anyone's kid would be like that. The part where he tries to kill the neighor's boy by messing with his bike and he was still pretty young. Chilling.

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In the last two weeks, I have read Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and I will surely mess this up - A Thousand Splendid Sunsets... whatever the next book by the Kite Runner Author is.

 

Both are awful stories of the sad lives of women in Patriarchal societies. Sad but beautiful.

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Ooooh, I thought "A Thousand Splendid Suns" was great! Very well-written and moving.

 

I just finished "Mr. Monk and the Two Assistants". A nice change of pace from the emotional drama I've been reading lately. Just getting ready to start "Death Masks", book 5 of the Dresden Files series.

Edited by GovMarley

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What Atwood would you particularly recommend? I have loved all the books of hers that I've read - Alias Grace, The Robber Bride, The Blind Assassin, Handmaid's Tale, Cat's Eye - but it's been a while since I've read them and I'm not sure which of her other books to pick up next. (Gosh, it's been so long since I've read most of the ones that I listed that I probably could go back and read them again).

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What Atwood would you particularly recommend? I have loved all the books of hers that I've read - Alias Grace, The Robber Bride, The Blind Assassin, Handmaid's Tale, Cat's Eye - but it's been a while since I've read them and I'm not sure which of her other books to pick up next. (Gosh, it's been so long since I've read most of the ones that I listed that I probably could go back and read them again).

Have you read Oryx and Crake? I particularly enjoyed that one, and it's fairly recent. I haven't read her newest stuff. You pretty much named all my favorites, though. If you're into poetry, you should read try some of her poetry; it's wonderful. Her short story collections are pretty good too. I have Dancing Girls and I rmember enjoying it, although it's been awhile.

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Have you read Oryx and Crake? I particularly enjoyed that one, and it's fairly recent. I haven't read her newest stuff. You pretty much named all my favorites, though. If you're into poetry, you should read try some of her poetry; it's wonderful. Her short story collections are pretty good too. I have Dancing Girls and I rmember enjoying it, although it's been awhile.

No, I haven't. I'll have to look for that this weekend. Thanks!

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Reading a great Lawrence Block mystery, "Even the Wicked." For some reason it has crappy reviews on Amazon but I love it and highly recommend it to mystery fans. The man is an awesome writer and he can plot like nobody's business. A better book in the series to start with, though, is Eight Million Ways to Die.

Edited by soho2chelsea

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Gorged on books this weekend - finished An Innocent Man (very good but very depressing), then read The Dive from Claussen's Pier (pretty good) and The Rest of Her Life (started out meh but got a lot better).

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