July Book: The Paris Wife

The obsession of the summer is Paris so we thought it would be apropos to read The Paris Wife by Paula McLain.  It's the 1920s in the City of Lights which means our characters will be hanging out with the Fitzgeralds, Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, and all the other American ex-patriots that are responsible for creating some of the greatest pieces of music, art, and literature that the world as ever known.  Hope you'll join us.  We promise to have more discussion on this book so that it feels more like an actual book club. Happy reading and happy summer!

-Jac

Jaclyn's Possession

Possession by Elana Johnson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I am feeling a bit conflicted about this book.  On one hand I sat and devoured it in one sitting before I left for Europe.  On the other hand I felt like much of the plot was a blending of other teenage dystopian fiction with a few sparks of originality and a strong ending.  I think I feel most of my conflict over the fact that Meg’s friend wrote this book.  I am in awe that she did that – that she came up with a story and managed to sell it to a publisher.  I just wish I loved it more.  I would definitely recommend it to young people who loved Uglies or The Hunger Games.  My problem is that I would recommend those other books first.  All those contradictory things said, it was still an entertaining read.  Kudos to Meg’s friend for achieving her goal of getting published and on a national level.  So exciting!

On a totally trivial note, I love Johnson’s choice of character names.  Vi, Zenn, Jag, Gavin – they roll off the tongue well, and they are completely fitting for the type of story. 

June Book: Possession

Our June book will be Possession by Elana Johnson.  I know your mind initially goes to A.S. Byatt's classic when you first hear the title, but this is a completely different story.  It's a dystopian young adult novel that was written by our very own Megan's friend.  She went to the launch party last night and will be filling us in on more details later.
 
-Jaclyn

ps. We know you're tired and just glad summer weather is approaching. This book is a true summer read - hope you'll join us!

Getting Back on the Horse

Once upon a time three girls who had batted the idea of an online book club around decided to finally start one.  Hence the Pickwick Society Book Club was born.  And we read a few books, wrote a few reviews, answered a few questions, and talked on the phone about how we needed to pick up the pace of our respective reading.  Now it's June 9th, and things have gotten more than a little behind and our posting has been sporadic at best.

We are picking a new book for June and will be reporting its title to you very soon.  Even if you're working extra hours, have little people hanging off you constantly, or are traipsing to various locations for summer travel, we'd love to have you read the book and then tell us what you think.

As always, happy reading!

--Jac

Jaclyn's Failure to Run

I have to be honest - I never was that intrigued by Born to Run, but I trust Megan and Anna implicitly and so I bought into expanding my usual reading interests for our March book.  It is now May, and I have yet to finish this book.  I've tried.  I've picked it up repeatedly and feel more frustrated each time by how incoherent the narrative feels to me. Both Meg and Anna listened to this book before / if they read the actual text, and I think that would make a difference.  McDougall's writing reads like story that is being told around a campfire or after everyone's eaten at a barbeque which is fun, but feels in print, like it is one of those "you had to be there" stories. Don't get me wrong, it's a fascinating story, but it's just one where I'd rather be sitting in the spa than trying to follow which drug cartel is actually throwing bodies int he canyon. 

To the people who read the book, kudos to you.  Don't judge me too much for my failure to run.

Born To Run - Megan

I have two very different responses to this book: my immediate emotional response and my later critical response.
1: I loved every page and was post-it noting (could we please make that a verb?) way more than I anticipated. It made me want to run better and have more fun with it. It made me re-think why I run. It made me LOVE the fact that there are people in the world who just...who just run. And it was SO much more than a running book. It was a fascinating anthropologic study, it was insightful into the human spirit, and it was very journalistic, which is exactly what a book about running should be. There were no long-winded technical chapters describing the mechanics of running, or perhaps there were but they were so well disguised by fantastic writing that I didn't even notice. Just fabulous.
Then, I thought more about it, and here is what I have determined:
2: While the book is inspiring, interesting, and really a delicious read, there were a lot of characters, a lack of continuity and maybe a bit too much anti-shoe preaching for a non-runner. There were a few spots where I felt the need to follow up on the research because it seemed a bit far-fetched/colored to fit the belief system of the writer. 
So, depending on if you'd like to wear your happy pants or grumpy pants during a read of this book, there you go. Two pair of pants. 

March...April...Spring Books

Hello all-

As most of you know, the three of us who run this little book club are either in graduate school or have a husband in graduate school and have two little boys to run after.  This means that this time of year is borderline insane.  Hence, the lack of posts on our March book "Born to Run" by Christopher McDougall and why our April book is yet unannounced. 

So here's the plan - we're overlapping books because that's our prerogative.  We will continue reading "Born to Run" and would love to hear your thoughts as they come (whether you're finished or not).  We will also begin discussing Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre" which will serve as our April/May book (since classics take a bit longer to get through).  Whether you've read "Jane Eyre" every year since you were twelve or whether you are taking on "Jane Eyre" for the first time, we want to hear what you have to say. 

I personally am on a mission to get through "Jane Eyre" as soon as possible because I really want to see the movie, but not until I've read the book.  Other another literary movie note, "Water for Elephants" comes out in just over two weeks on April 22nd.  Call it blasphemy or uncultured tastes, but I think the movie will be better than the book. 

Happy reading, happy movie watching, happy running, happy spring, and everything in-between!

--Jaclyn