Book Club

So I’m going to tell you about a great new book by a brand new author that you need to order, but first I’m going to tell you a little story.

Many, many years ago (Gulley and I decided it goes all the way back to the days of dial-up internet), I started watching a brand new show called The Bachelor on ABC. Who could’ve imagined it would still be on television 48 years and 37 “amazing journeys” later? But I believe it was during Trista and Ryan’s season when I was pregnant with Caroline that my sweet Jen forwarded me an email, written by a girl named Lincee Ray, that was a recap of the previous week’s episode of The Bachelor. It was love at first read and, as Gulley said, we clearly loved reading it because that was back when it took a solid sixteen minutes to log on to the dial up internet just to check email.

These Bachelor email recaps became a highlight of my week and one of my secret goals in life was to meet the clearly hilarious Lincee who wrote them because I felt like we were destined to be soulmates. Not in The Bachelor sense of the word, but in that I thought she was so witty and clever. And funny has always been at the top of my friendship priority list.

Fast forward many years and seasons of The Bachelor later and Lincee Ray emailed me to let me know she’d written a review of my book Nobody’s Cuter Than You for Entertainment Weekly. My excitement level at receiving a personal email from her was somewhere in the same vicinity as if Meghan Markle were to email me asking for wedding dress advice. In other words, OFF THE CHARTS.

Thus, Lincee and I began our very own amazing journey and became real life friends. She drove to San Antonio and we met for coffee and she confessed that she’d been thinking about writing a book. I basically told her she had to do it because I needed a great book to read and I had no doubt she would write a great book.

And you know what? I was right. Her first book called I Hate Green Beans: And other confessions about relationships, reality tv, and how we see ourselves is officially out today. You are going to love it so much. It’s just like Lincee herself; warm, hilarious, endearing, honest and refreshingly normal. That’s how I always feel after being with Lincee…like she’s one of my people. She just gets it.

Here’s the official book summary that describes it better than I ever could:

“If there is one thing Lincee Ray has learned over the years, it’s that the majority of women on the planet struggle with insecurities. Our skinny jeans mock us. Our just-trying-to-help mothers are just driving us crazy. Our social media feeds taunt us with everyone else’s picture-perfect lives. It’s enough to send you on a gummy-bear bender while binge-watching Friends reruns and not showering for a week. Lincee knows. She’s been there. Right there, in fact. Gummy bears and all.

For every woman who’s ever wondered if she’s unlovable, uninteresting, or unattractive, Lincee offers her particular brand of hilarious (and hard-hitting) self-reflection. Like a true friend, she shows us that the fastest way to happiness is to embrace ourselves in all our imperfection, trust that God knew what he was doing when he made us, and maybe go buy a new tube of mascara.”

You are going to love this book filled with her hilarious and relatable stories and you’re going to love Lincee. You can order it here on Amazon, here on Barnes & Noble, and you can find her blog with her hilarious Bachelor recaps and her weekly podcast here.

Happy Tuesday!

Umm. Yeah.

This kind of slipped my mind.

When I announced Bossypants by Tina Fey as the next book in our very informal, largely unorganized book club, I said we’d discuss it on Wednesday, June 1st.

Obviously that date has passed us by.

But let me explain. I bought the book on May 4th and finished it on a flight home from Minneapolis on May 5th. And then I was swamped with end of school festivities, the last twelve episodes of Oprah, finding new ways to make chalupas seem like a valid dinner choice, and driving through Sonic to get Route 44 Diet Cokes.

In other words, I dropped the Bossypants ball.

However, my appalling lack of book club hosting skills is in no way a reflection of my feelings for the book. Because I LOVED the book. My goal was to find something completely different from the uber depressing Sarah’s Key and I think we can all agree that I succeeded.

Bossypants was everything I love in a book. It was a memoir full of funny stories that made me laugh out loud at least once every two or three pages. And I mean really laugh out loud. Not just a polite LOL-type thing that people say when chances are good they probably really didn’t laugh out loud at all.

There were so many things that I adored and I’d love nothing more than to share some of my favorite quotes. However, that is currently impossible because I loaned my copy to Gulley and therefore the book isn’t in my possession. And while I loved various lines, I haven’t committed them to memory.

But what about you? Did you love the book? Did it make you laugh? Are you a fan of the humorous memoir genre?

And, most importantly, should we continue the very informal, unorganized book club this summer?

These are the things that weigh heavy on my mind.

So I realize the whole book club thing has probably lost some momentum considering it’s been a month since we discussed the last book. I’d been meaning to announce our next book but found myself overwhelmed by all the choices. I don’t know if y’all are aware of this, but there are A LOT of books out there.

In fact, they have entire stores devoted to books. And buildings where you can borrow books for a limited amount of time that they call LIBRARIES.

After Sarah’s Key I really wanted something that didn’t cause me to fall into a depression that might last for days. And I kind of wanted something in the non-fiction genre because, truth be told, it’s my favorite. And I certainly didn’t want anything that had anything to do with the Holocaust.

Then I was at HEB the other day and saw a copy of Tina Fey’s new book, Bossypants.

(Yes. Our HEB has a book section. It’s very fancy. They even have a complete cheese section with pre-made cheese balls.)

Anyway, I am a fan of Tina Fey. I think she’s hilarious and the back cover of her book was enough to make me laugh out loud. And I am generally not a laugh out loud in the grocery store kind of person because people might think you’re crazy.

So the third book in the very informal, very casual, non-commital Big Mama book club is Bossypants by Tina Fey. I realize it might not be everyone’s cup of tea or Tina as the case may be, but it’s the book I bought at Borders yesterday and, thus, it’s the next book I’m going to read.

And I’d love for you to read it along with me if you feel like it. Or you can totally pass on this one and see if I choose a book that’s more your style next time.

See? Non-commital.

But if you’re down with Bossypants, here’s what you need to do:

1. Go get a copy of the book or download it on your fancy whosiwhatzit. Amazon has it on sale for $13.97 right now.

Or you could always visit one of those new things they call a library.

2. Read the book. Or just look at it sitting on your nightstand. Whichever you prefer.

3. On Wednesday, June 1st, I’ll write a post with my thoughts on the book. We can just share our thoughts or what we thought was funny or didn’t think was funny. We can talk or not talk for hours.

4. That’s it.

5. Feel free to suggest other future book suggestions in the comments. I’m always open to any input.

I have no idea how this snuck up on me.

All day long yesterday I kept thinking that it seemed like I had something to do on March 31st and I couldn’t for the life of me remember what it was. And then, finally, when I was at Bible Study yesterday morning I mentioned Sarah’s Key for some reason I can’t even recall and it all came together that, YES, March 31st was the day I’d scheduled for the second meeting of our very informal, very casual book club.

And how much more casual and informal can you get than having a hostess who completely forgets all about it?

I think I’ll refrain from posting any official book club questions this go round because no one really seemed to care to get that technical last time. Instead, I will sum up my feelings in one sentence.

I thought Sarah’s Key was very sad.

I guess I should have seen it coming seeing as how it was about the Holocaust, but I don’t think I was prepared for the level of sadness and how hard some of it would be to read. I think I was under the impression that most of it was written in the present and didn’t realize that almost the entire novel would have the past and present intertwined. Which makes me think I need to do a better job of reading the description on the back of books.

I will say that I read the entire thing in two days. I couldn’t put it down. And I was amazed to realize I’d never heard of the Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup that took place in France by French police. It made me wish I’d paid more attention in all those History classes I took in college. But, you know what they say, college tuition is wasted on people who are a lot more worried about their next date party than history.

Overall, I thought it was a really good book. It held my attention, although I think I was more captivated by Sarah’s story than by Julia’s, even though it was much harder to read. And, honestly, I thought the ending was a little too Danielle Steele.

But maybe that’s just me.

It also cemented my theory that I prefer a good memoir over a fiction novel. I guess I just think real life is more interesting and less predictable.

But, again, maybe that’s just me.

I would love to hear y’alls thoughts on the book. What did you love? What did you hate? Would you recommend it?

And if you have any suggestions for next time, I’d love to hear that too. I’m thinking something light and funny that preferably doesn’t have to do with one of the greatest tragedies in human history.

So, I felt like the first meeting of our informal internet book club went pretty well. And I totally meant to announce the next book earlier this week but then I saw something shiny and forgot.

Actually, I have to tell y’all that my blog friend, Chelsea, sent me a copy of The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls and I read it in less than forty-eight hours. It was fascinating. Absolutely a must read if you haven’t read it already, although I’m so glad I read Half Broke Horses first because I knew the family history.

On Tuesday morning I headed over to Borders to peruse the shelves, even though I already had a pretty good idea of the book I was going to choose. But I have to allow myself some time to obsess over these things.

And so, after much deliberation, I’ve decided our next book should be Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay.

Here’s an excerpt from the review in Publishers Weekly:

“De Rosnay’s U.S. debut fictionalizes the 1942 Paris roundups and deportations, in which thousands of Jewish families were arrested, held at the Vélodrome d’Hiver outside the city, then transported to Auschwitz. Forty-five-year-old Julia Jarmond, American by birth, moved to Paris when she was 20 and is married to the arrogant, unfaithful Bertrand Tézac, with whom she has an 11-year-old daughter. Julia writes for an American magazine and her editor assigns her to cover the 60th anniversary of the Vél’ d’Hiv’ roundups. Julia soon learns that the apartment she and Bertrand plan to move into was acquired by Bertrand’s family when its Jewish occupants were dispossessed and deported 60 years before. She resolves to find out what happened to the former occupants: Wladyslaw and Rywka Starzynski, parents of 10-year-old Sarah and four-year-old Michel. The more Julia discovers—especially about Sarah, the only member of the Starzynski family to survive—the more she uncovers about Bertrand’s family, about France and, finally, herself.”

So if that sounds like something you want to read or at least something you might attempt to read, here’s what you need to do:

1. Go get a copy of the book or download it on your Kindle or your iPad or straight into the microchip implanted in your brain. Amazon has it on sale for $6.36 right now.

2. Read the book. If you just use it as a coaster it limits the impact.

3. On Thursday, March 31st, I’ll write a post with my thoughts on the book. I’ll probably ditch the discussion questions this go round because no one really seemed to care about them. So we’ll just share our thoughts and insights.

4. That’s it.

5. Except feel free to suggest other future book suggestions in the comments. I’m always open to any input.

See y’all tomorrow. It’s Fashion Friday and rumor around Big Mama, Inc. is that there might be a giveaway. See how book club brings out the giveaways? It’s just all part of my continuing quest to be the middle-class suburban mom version of Oprah.

Today is the first official meeting of the book club. And perhaps the last. We’ll see how it goes and work out any issues and decide if it might be fun to do it again and what book we should read next and how long we need to finish said book. See? It’s a lot to think about.

I feel like I need to confess up front that I have never participated in a real life book club, unless you count all the times Gulley and I have read the same book and discussed it over chips and queso. The idea of a real life book club commitment kind of stressed me out since I tend to get stressed by commitments of all kinds because WHAT IF I CHANGE MY MIND?

Plus I only want to read the books I want to read and don’t want to waste any time reading something that might involve science fiction or boring people. But what I do know is it’s a pretty safe bet that if I ever participated in a real life book club, I’d be content to just sit back and listen to what everyone else had to say because I’d be afraid of saying something stupid or inappropriate.

(Like last week in Bible study when I went off on a tangent about the show Good Times)

That being said, I’ll begin our discussion and include a few questions at the end. Feel free to add your thoughts, insights and questions in the comments and we can all just check in there to see what everyone has to say. I’ll chime back in there, also.

Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls basically had me from hello. I adore a good memoir and, even though this was part novel/part memoir, it read very much like an authentic first hand account of Lily Casey’s life. I thought it was written with humor (big fan of humor) and sensitivity but definitely made me think about things in my own life and whether or not I agreed with Lily’s philosophies on life.

Here are a few of my favorite excerpts:

“I asked Dad if he believed everything that happened was God’s will. ‘Is and isn’t,’ he said, ‘God deals us all different hands. How we play ’em is up to us.'”

“Also, my front teeth jutted out, so she bought me a red silk fan to cover my mouth. Whenever I laughed or smiled too big, Mom would say, ‘Lily, dear, the fan.'”

When her daddy was teaching her to train horses…“Most important thing in life,” he would say, “is learning how to fall.”

(I’ve used this particular quote several times in recent days because Caroline is trying to learn how to ride a two-wheel bike. So far it hasn’t helped. But it makes me feel better to say it.)

And maybe because I am a big English nerd at heart, I adored this “Two of Dad’s biggest concerns in his letters were industrialization and mechanization, which he felt were destroying the human soul. He was also obsessed with Prohibition and phonetic spelling, both of which he saw as cures for mankind’s tendency toward irrational behavior.” She later goes on to write, “At the same time, Dad was working on a book arguing the case for phonetic spelling. He called it A Ghoti out of Water. ‘Ghoti,’ he liked to point out, could be pronounce like ‘fish’. The ‘gh’ had the ‘f’ sound in ‘enough’, the ‘o’ had the short ‘i’ sound in ‘women’, and ‘ti’ had the ‘sh’ sound in ‘nation.'”

Y’all have no idea how much I wish a real book existed called Ghoti Out of Water.

I loved Lily Casey. I admired her tenacity in hard times and the way she just did what she had to do. She accepted her circumstances and made the best out of her situations, never wallowing in self-pity. I had times where I questioned what kind of mother I thought she was. No doubt she loved her children, but the boarding school decision was hard for me to understand even though it was a different day and time and I’m think she was just trying to give them the opportunities she wished she’d had.

Overall, this was one of the best books I’ve read in a while and I’ve already started The Glass Castle because I want to see what happens to Rosemary and Rex.

So here are a few questions (adapted from the Simon and Schuster reading guide) you can ponder. Or not ponder. Or turn into other thoughts. Or add your own thoughts.

1. When Lily’s father dies, she and Rosemary drive his body from Tucson back to the ranch in West Texas. Rosemary is embarrassed to be seen driving with a corpse and ducks down in the car when they stop at a red light (pg. 198). “Life’s too short, honey,” Lily tells Rosemary, “to worry what other people think of you.” What does Lily’s reaction to this behavior show about her character? Does she give much credence to what other people think of her? What effect do you think her mother’s attitude had on Rosemary?

2. Lily has high expectations for her children, from sending them off to boarding school despite their protests to enforcing strict rules for keeping animals as pets. When Rosemary falls in love with a wild horse and asks her mother if she can keep it, Lily replies, “The last thing we need around here is another half-broke horse” (pg. 190). How might this statement apply to Lily’s children as well? Are Lily’s expectations of her children particularly high or rather a reflection of the times? Why do you think this phrase was chosen as the title of the book?

3. When a group of Brooklyn ladies visits the ranch, Rosemary and Lily take them for a car ride they’ll never forget. Lily concludes their encounter by saying, “You ride, you got to know how to fall, and you drive, you got to know how to crash” (pg. 175). How does this statement apply to Lily’s life as a whole? What does she mean by knowing “how to fall”?

4. While attempting to prevent the ranch from flooding, Lily tells Rosemary, “Do the best you can…That’s all anyone can do.” Her instructions are echoed by Jim’s declaration: “We did a good job—good as we could” (pg. 152). Why do you think Lily and Jim have both adopted this philosophy? To which other instances in their lives are they likely to have applied this rationale?

5. “Helen’s beauty, as far as I was concerned, had been a curse, and I resolved that I would never tell Rosemary she was beautiful” (pg. 119). Examine Lily’s relationship with her daughter, Rosemary. How does each generation try to compensate for the one before? How does each mother try to avoid the mistakes or pain imposed upon her by her own mother?

Can’t wait to hear what you have to say.