I've only read the prologue so far but got several good laughs out of it. This is my first pick and I was hoping for some humor. I am older and I have talked to several women before this about being overlooked or not taken seriously at an age when our tolerance for idiocy seems to have disappeared. And it personally loved the line about young people who say things such as this "fucking chair and fucking pencil." I saw it so much on campus and remember asking one young man just how the chair did that. You will know by now that Mel's pick was written by me. I wanted to thank you all for some really good feedback and comments. I am now in the process of revising parts of it. I also wanted to say that if any of you would like to ask me anything about it that you are welcome to do so. Some things you asked about in comments were bloops or oversights but some things also had a reason. So if you have any questions, feel free to ask.
Welcome Elizabeth! We're very glad to have another member, hope you enjoy our little book club. From now on you will be referred to as "E" in accordance with M's doctorate shorthand.
I'm Angie, I went to school with Melissa. We met a couple of times, many years ago. I live in Troy and so does my older (much older, haha) sister Joy. I work in sales for a global tag and label company; I also have a very bad track record for picking books. Mine are always called "international downers."
I'll be ordering this book online this morning. Also my next pick will be Willard and His Bowling Trophies by Richard Brautigan if anyone wants to order them together (I couldn't find either locally).
First, was I the one that started the name abbreviation? I thought it was you, A. ;-)
Also, I guess if I had read this post i wouldn't have had to ask what the next book was (on Facebook). I'm lucky that I could get this book through ILL and just found out the Willard is in the campus library. E- if you want me to order Willard for you let me know via regular email.
I think many of my books could be classic as "monotonous classics" (Shirley and Seven Gables at least).
I'm up to the 3rd chapter in this book and enjoying it. The writing is average, but there are a number of clever witticisms and very fitting points. A few that stood out to me:
I liked how Janet defends the suller waiter on p. 10. I feel for waitstaff, having been there, but still wonder about his attitude because it is not going to improve his tips.
P 36: "Like many women of her generation, Melissa informed me, she occasionally swung the other way. Gee, I thought, we'd felt liberated, way back when, just being able to swing the one way." LOL
The whole second chapter with revenge by a heavier woman made me happy. Am I a vindictive person? Maybe, because this whole idea just tickles me pink.
I wanted to say that I sure laughed about the cellphone guy. Good job that! I also laughed a lot through the first chapter -- ahh, parking. It reminds me I am so glad that I am not working on campus and going through the daily search. I didn't know what to think about the movie thing in chapter two. When I travel around I have experienced being ignored or seen as uncool, though I also know I was surprised a how cool I was considered at the university, even by those same kind of young males. I am not sure if that part just didn't strike me as much or if the reference to dorkiness taps into a childhood where I was treated terribly because I didn't fit in. Either way, I didn't have any real humor or thought about that chapter except the references to Nietzsche, who I also was familiar with and refer to at times. It seemed to get strange after that and I haven't enjoyed the next chaper so much. I am not sure what I think on it on a philosophical level. As far as a fun read it is one nothc above a waste of time. Hope it gets better.
I'm about halfway through and haven't been enjoying the middle as much as the beginning.
Things I like: Their comments after watching the porno and the way the author sprinkled tidbits of the infomercial throughout the chapter in chapter 3. Also, the comment at the end of chapter 3: "Melissa Crane was beinning to become like the daughter I as beginning to be a little relieved I'd never had."
On p. 91 while she is repeating the word odious to herself. An example of logophilia? Also, the Canadian version just cracked me up.
I actually liked their ability to influence pop culture through their uncoolness. Revenge of the nerds, and all that. :-)
Things I don't like: It seems to have gotten a bit crude. Where it starts as some older women taking small acts of vengeance, it seems to morph in a rough discussion of sex and corruption and dislike. All in all, less enjoyable then the beginning.
A question: On p. 100 the author wirtes about the origin of the phrase "thin as a rail", but I always thought it meant as thin as a piece of railing... Thoughts?
I also thought it meant thin as a porch railing. I finished hte book and overall enjoyed it. My criticisms would be like M's in that the crudity annoyed me. The end also left people in a nice spot but a rather Hollywood ending as far as romance. Don't get me wrong I would love to star in an ending where my older crone-woman self found a new love interest and started a new section of happier life. And I don't want my life to revolve around vengeance (no matter how humorous it may be). But they seemed to lose some of their older crone-woman selves in psuedo-younger sexier selves which might attract people but doesn't seem ot celebrate the real joys that I have seen older women exhibit. That did not happen ot peppermint Patty. She was a side character but her postscript seemed to fit who she was from the start. I guess it seemed like they lost the flabbiness of the arms. (which is quite a metaphor since what woman wouldn't want to loose the flabbiness of their arms?) I liked the subtle change that the old judge experienced in getting out of his world and, hense, out of hisself and his narrow viewpoint. I personally really liked the Purple Pimpernel. As an artist, and someone who hates vandalism but loves creative street art, and loves justice with a twist of humor, ahh --- to have a chance to do such unharmful vandalism. One hting I liked in Italy was the graffitti everywhere was so frequently well done and artisitic and good to look at it. Here we are ashamed of graffitti but generally all it is is a poorly painted f*** something. It's like the road signs: if people are going to change a 35 to 85 they should do it well so it looks like that is what it is supposed to say. Scribbling over it doesn't look any different than scribbling 45 over it. The end seemed ot explain Melissa Cranes character to me. There are funny things I wanted to share but I tend to still read like I am reading a novel purely for fun-- fast and uninterrupted,and then I get way beyond and totally forget the lines I had picked out to laugh at or share with the group. I didn't take notes and don't think to write in books or underline, so now I have ot go back and find the things that I had noted.
I read through my comment and wanted to comment on it- For those of you who read my novel and found its typos, and for all who read my posts -- I am a notoriously poor typer and unless I spend a lot of time spell-checking and editing will end up challenging you to read between the miss-types to the message behind. I can talk well because it does not require hand eye coordination. I can even hand-write with very few errors. Alas, not growing up in a world of computers and having dyslexic hands as I age, typing will never be my strong suit even after a three hundred page novel!
Hi Beth, It's nice to "see you" again. I am sure you will love our book club. As for the book, I have finished it. I found it mildly humerous throughout. It was a short and easy read which I always like. Some things I enjoyed were the parking lot incident with Ellie. The best part was when she switched the grocery bags. As for the mouthy little girl, if it had been me I would have had a few things to say to her and her mother. How dare they judge someone like that and be so rude? Although the second part of the book was more crude, I did enjoy when they took down the plastic surgeon. I found myself routing them on as I read it. Boy did Karma get him. The third section about Carole I found kind of dull. Her office romance struck me as odd. The ending of her marriage was also strange. Any marriage I have seen end had arguements, debates about who gets what, and certainly was not ended with a note. Justice X is another strange incident. I felt bad for P. Patty. It seemed like she was losing her sanity. I am glad the the Judge developed feelings for her at the end. I would have hated to see her go to jail. Over all, I thought it was a good book. Although, like E. it does seem to have a "Hollywood" ending.
To start, I originally had the same trouble as you, E, in that I would read a book so fast that I would lose track of the lines/stories that I wanted to mention. I have come to a two-pronged approach, depending on book ownership. If it is my book, then I use an index card as a bookmarker and write the page number of pages that have something I want to mention on it. Sure, sometimes I go back to the page and can't figure out why I wrote that page number down, but usually I can figure it out. A is the one that gave me this idea because she mentioned doing a similar thing in one of our earliest club books. If it is a library book (which the last few have been) then I tab the corner of the page down. This is a big step for me because I am stridently against dog-earing, marking, or otherwise defacing books. HOWEVER, the condition of the books from WMUs library are terrible to start. Apparently college students have no qualms about defacing library property. So, I've decided that tabbing a few pages isn't that bad in the grand scheme of highlighting, underlining, writing in margins, etc.
I finished this book several days ago and am finally getting around to mention my final comments. In my opinion, the last part started to recapture some of the humor in the first part, it really felt like just the middle was lacking.
The ending didn't feel too Hollywood to me. For one, I don't see Carole and Dennis working out in the long run. None of the rest seemed to have particularly Hollywood happy endings. They were alive and healthy, but not riding off into the sunset or living happily every after necessarily.
Some passages to highlight:
P 128: "Henry probably didn't realize that "dating" now meant "having sex." When they were young, dating had been what you did while you considered having sex." I really see this reflected in college life. Terms like hooking up and hanging out, which used to be fairly innocuous, now mean "sex". In fact, just about everything means sex to college students.
Unlike Tracy, I loved the part where Henry leaves Carole with a note. "P.S. you can have everything." (p 139). This seemed to fit his personality and it isn't like their marriage really meant much to either of them anymore. It's better than a text message, right?
What bugged me about Carole's story is the sentiment reflected in the line "It had been Carole who, with her gentle prodding and tactful reminders of his faults, had turned him into a more or less viable specimen of a man." (p 141) It drives me crazy when one person in a couple feels the need to "improve" their partner and then feels like they should get all the credit for the new and improved partner. Really? Maybe you should just love them for who they are. And if they do change for the better, give them the credit for it. I think this is just a personal pet peeve, though. :-)
P. 158: "So once she had her first experience of mayhem, why she was like that convent girl who finally discovers sex... There was no stopping her." :-)
I LOVED the footnotes on p. 172 and all the discussions of Justice X's opinions. Definitely a Tea Party member.
And finally, who can't love the sentence, "What the screamers failed to understand was that just because you might be mistaken in the end didn't mean that you hadn't been correct in the first place." (P 175)? Classic.
I'm still waiting for my copy to arrive! The slow delivery service may or may not be related to my current lack of a mailbox (thanks to the TWO times it was hit by a PennDot truck over the weekend).
Sorry for being the poky little puppy on this one.
So, Hi E! I am Joy, ANgie's MATURE sister. I'm the one that keeps her in line. Otherwise, constant MISbehavior!
I'm a teacher at Troy and I always pick the really good books! : )
I just finished "Book One - Ellie". I liked the beginning part about switching the groceries - I would LOVE to do that sometime.
I liked the idea of an informercial as pay back and the manner in which they did it (as in delivered a new tape just hours before air time) but didn't really care for the content of the tape. Kinda raunchy.
M - I've discovered that using a post-it note as a bookmark is EXCELLENT! Then if you drop the book, you don't lose your book mark and you can easily "park it" in the book while you are reading. And can take notes on it...
Post it notes -- and the index cards are both good ideas. Though I may still have to have a pen nearby if I want to write on them. Thanks J and M. I never finished my comments but you touched on some: M-- I agree with you about the way Henry left. Even though I have known a lot o people to have terrible divorces or one htat took awhile, I can see someone who didn't need any of tha accumulated stuff (and I beleive that Henry joined the senior peace corps or something so it fit the personality) to just leave a short polite note and call it good. M -- Why don't you think that Carole and Dennis won't work out? M-- also I agree that the comment about people taking credit for changing someone into someone irked me. Love YOUR cmment that "everything means sex to a college student." (Though that may also be true for high school students.) J-- you hit my reaction to the infomercial exactly. I liked the idea of it and the way they stopped him and exposed him but all the talk about his attitudes towards Ellie and others and the whole theme of crudity seemed unneeded. T-- :) Hi again. We share a love of short easy reads! I also was irritated by hte little girl and noticed that, though I love the grocery switch, there was nothing that the little girl will have learned from the incident. Unluckily that is hte problem of revenge-- despite a change in a few people's behavior, there isn't really a change in how people think and therefore not long term, broad-based change in how people treat others. So the little girl will not have learned anything.
Angie-- if books are slow to get to this area do you share with your sister or are you interested in sharing books? I have finished this one for over a week and we don't live far away. You could have this one or share in the future if you wanted.
Actually, Joy does have about the best record picking books. "Last of the Mohicans" was probably her worst pick, but both A and I had worse choices (I'm thinking Shirly and Moby Dick). T is too new yet to have much of a record.
J- What are you doing with your books that you are dropping them and losing bookmarks? Let me guess, when reading books like Fanny or Bruno you just have to throw them away to get a break from all the sex? I always keep mine in a neat stack and only move them in careful ways so that neither a single page nor bookmark is disturbed. :-)
E, about Carole and Dennis. For one, Carole's obsession with fixing Dennis and doing what Dennis does without seeming to show much interest in his activities seems to indicate some dysfunction. Secondly, Dennis is infatuated with Carole, but seems more excited about birds and bees (literally). Will that be enough attention to keep Carole? Plus, they work together. How many relationships can survive working together? Nothing major about the relationship, but they just don't FEEL compatible (sp?) to me.
My copy finally came, and I finished already (stupid snow = lots of reading).
E, yes, Joy and I do trade lots of books back and forth, especially if there's only one volume available at the library, though, I do like to buy my own copies. Harder to do in this area though, I often have to order online.
Regarding how to mark noteworthy sections, the best method I've found so far is using those little post it flags. I just stick the whole pile of them inside the front cover, and stick one to the actual sentence I want to comment on later. I can reuse the same stack for several books, don't have to carry a pencil with me and don't harm the books either. I also use post it notes. In college I used index cards extensively, but for some reason now I just NEVER have a pen when I want one.
Back to the book. I have similar comments: the beginning and ending were good, but the middle lost my interest, especially the bit about the marshland and Janet spray painting. Peppermint Patty tickled my fancy, and I liked how her story was told with posts from the website. I enjoy authors who find creative ways to communicate key plot elements. (The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler is an excellent example of this) And I also loved how trading recipes showed up.
I agree with M about Carole and Dennis not lasting. Their relationship seems 1-sided and I think she'll start expecting him to be more outspoken at work, and he won't want to be, and crash/burn; unless they retire soon, and then maybe they'll have a chance to grow into each other.
I did love Ramon and his view on larger women (p 63) "You should be able to sink into a woman like a featherbed.."
For most of the book I was hoping that Sandi was in jail, and Melissa Crane was interviewing her for an expose. But, I guess being arrested would have made Sandi less "invisible" and dis-proved her entire point.
This was an interesting change, and not a book I would have picked up normally; that's why I love the book club!
Also I meant to comment how much I loved the recipe for emergency Thai Chicken on page 26. It reminded me of the style of writing in The Book Thief, which is very high praise indeed.
Overall, it was ok. I liked the premise A LOT, older women are “invisible” and not suspected but I don’t think the follow through was that good. I really didn’t like the use of the f-bomb on practically every page. That got tiring.
I liked the kidnapping section the best but the end felt rushed. At the bottom of page 198, there should have been a sentence “They ran back to the car and started down the access road”. And after coming up with such a scheme to get to Margaret’s house, why did Jason and Carole leave at the first sign of a little trouble? And the Chief Justice is led out outside with a rope around his waist but his hands are free? It didn’t make sense.
Also, I didn’t quite get the book’s cover picture? I would have liked a picture of Janet spray painting a car.
And I just MUST comment on the part about math people not having sex? Huh?
19 comments:
I've only read the prologue so far but got several good laughs out of it. This is my first pick and I was hoping for some humor. I am older and I have talked to several women before this about being overlooked or not taken seriously at an age when our tolerance for idiocy seems to have disappeared. And it personally loved the line about young people who say things such as this "fucking chair and fucking pencil." I saw it so much on campus and remember asking one young man just how the chair did that.
You will know by now that Mel's pick was written by me. I wanted to thank you all for some really good feedback and comments. I am now in the process of revising parts of it. I also wanted to say that if any of you would like to ask me anything about it that you are welcome to do so. Some things you asked about in comments were bloops or oversights but some things also had a reason. So if you have any questions, feel free to ask.
Welcome Elizabeth! We're very glad to have another member, hope you enjoy our little book club. From now on you will be referred to as "E" in accordance with M's doctorate shorthand.
I'm Angie, I went to school with Melissa. We met a couple of times, many years ago. I live in Troy and so does my older (much older, haha) sister Joy. I work in sales for a global tag and label company; I also have a very bad track record for picking books. Mine are always called "international downers."
I'll be ordering this book online this morning. Also my next pick will be Willard and His Bowling Trophies by Richard Brautigan if anyone wants to order them together (I couldn't find either locally).
First, was I the one that started the name abbreviation? I thought it was you, A. ;-)
Also, I guess if I had read this post i wouldn't have had to ask what the next book was (on Facebook). I'm lucky that I could get this book through ILL and just found out the Willard is in the campus library. E- if you want me to order Willard for you let me know via regular email.
I think many of my books could be classic as "monotonous classics" (Shirley and Seven Gables at least).
I'm up to the 3rd chapter in this book and enjoying it. The writing is average, but there are a number of clever witticisms and very fitting points. A few that stood out to me:
I liked how Janet defends the suller waiter on p. 10. I feel for waitstaff, having been there, but still wonder about his attitude because it is not going to improve his tips.
P 36: "Like many women of her generation, Melissa informed me, she occasionally swung the other way. Gee, I thought, we'd felt liberated, way back when, just being able to swing the one way." LOL
The whole second chapter with revenge by a heavier woman made me happy. Am I a vindictive person? Maybe, because this whole idea just tickles me pink.
I wanted to say that I sure laughed about the cellphone guy. Good job that!
I also laughed a lot through the first chapter -- ahh, parking. It reminds me I am so glad that I am not working on campus and going through the daily search.
I didn't know what to think about the movie thing in chapter two. When I travel around I have experienced being ignored or seen as uncool, though I also know I was surprised a how cool I was considered at the university, even by those same kind of young males. I am not sure if that part just didn't strike me as much or if the reference to dorkiness taps into a childhood where I was treated terribly because I didn't fit in. Either way, I didn't have any real humor or thought about that chapter except the references to Nietzsche, who I also was familiar with and refer to at times.
It seemed to get strange after that and I haven't enjoyed the next chaper so much. I am not sure what I think on it on a philosophical level. As far as a fun read it is one nothc above a waste of time. Hope it gets better.
I'm about halfway through and haven't been enjoying the middle as much as the beginning.
Things I like: Their comments after watching the porno and the way the author sprinkled tidbits of the infomercial throughout the chapter in chapter 3. Also, the comment at the end of chapter 3: "Melissa Crane was beinning to become like the daughter I as beginning to be a little relieved I'd never had."
On p. 91 while she is repeating the word odious to herself. An example of logophilia? Also, the Canadian version just cracked me up.
I actually liked their ability to influence pop culture through their uncoolness. Revenge of the nerds, and all that. :-)
Things I don't like: It seems to have gotten a bit crude. Where it starts as some older women taking small acts of vengeance, it seems to morph in a rough discussion of sex and corruption and dislike. All in all, less enjoyable then the beginning.
A question: On p. 100 the author wirtes about the origin of the phrase "thin as a rail", but I always thought it meant as thin as a piece of railing... Thoughts?
I also thought it meant thin as a porch railing.
I finished hte book and overall enjoyed it.
My criticisms would be like M's in that the crudity annoyed me. The end also left people in a nice spot but a rather Hollywood ending as far as romance. Don't get me wrong I would love to star in an ending where my older crone-woman self found a new love interest and started a new section of happier life. And I don't want my life to revolve around vengeance (no matter how humorous it may be). But they seemed to lose some of their older crone-woman selves in psuedo-younger sexier selves which might attract people but doesn't seem ot celebrate the real joys that I have seen older women exhibit. That did not happen ot peppermint Patty. She was a side character but her postscript seemed to fit who she was from the start.
I guess it seemed like they lost the flabbiness of the arms. (which is quite a metaphor since what woman wouldn't want to loose the flabbiness of their arms?)
I liked the subtle change that the old judge experienced in getting out of his world and, hense, out of hisself and his narrow viewpoint.
I personally really liked the Purple Pimpernel. As an artist, and someone who hates vandalism but loves creative street art, and loves justice with a twist of humor, ahh --- to have a chance to do such unharmful vandalism. One hting I liked in Italy was the graffitti everywhere was so frequently well done and artisitic and good to look at it. Here we are ashamed of graffitti but generally all it is is a poorly painted f*** something. It's like the road signs: if people are going to change a 35 to 85 they should do it well so it looks like that is what it is supposed to say. Scribbling over it doesn't look any different than scribbling 45 over it.
The end seemed ot explain Melissa Cranes character to me.
There are funny things I wanted to share but I tend to still read like I am reading a novel purely for fun-- fast and uninterrupted,and then I get way beyond and totally forget the lines I had picked out to laugh at or share with the group. I didn't take notes and don't think to write in books or underline, so now I have ot go back and find the things that I had noted.
I read through my comment and wanted to comment on it- For those of you who read my novel and found its typos, and for all who read my posts -- I am a notoriously poor typer and unless I spend a lot of time spell-checking and editing will end up challenging you to read between the miss-types to the message behind. I can talk well because it does not require hand eye coordination. I can even hand-write with very few errors. Alas, not growing up in a world of computers and having dyslexic hands as I age, typing will never be my strong suit even after a three hundred page novel!
Hi Beth, It's nice to "see you" again. I am sure you will love our book club.
As for the book, I have finished it. I found it mildly humerous throughout. It was a short and easy read which I always like.
Some things I enjoyed were the parking lot incident with Ellie. The best part was when she switched the grocery bags. As for the mouthy little girl, if it had been me I would have had a few things to say to her and her mother. How dare they judge someone like that and be so rude?
Although the second part of the book was more crude, I did enjoy when they took down the plastic surgeon. I found myself routing them on as I read it. Boy did Karma get him.
The third section about Carole I found kind of dull. Her office romance struck me as odd. The ending of her marriage was also strange. Any marriage I have seen end had arguements, debates about who gets what, and certainly was not ended with a note.
Justice X is another strange incident. I felt bad for P. Patty. It seemed like she was losing her sanity. I am glad the the Judge developed feelings for her at the end. I would have hated to see her go to jail.
Over all, I thought it was a good book. Although, like E. it does seem to have a "Hollywood" ending.
To start, I originally had the same trouble as you, E, in that I would read a book so fast that I would lose track of the lines/stories that I wanted to mention. I have come to a two-pronged approach, depending on book ownership. If it is my book, then I use an index card as a bookmarker and write the page number of pages that have something I want to mention on it. Sure, sometimes I go back to the page and can't figure out why I wrote that page number down, but usually I can figure it out. A is the one that gave me this idea because she mentioned doing a similar thing in one of our earliest club books. If it is a library book (which the last few have been) then I tab the corner of the page down. This is a big step for me because I am stridently against dog-earing, marking, or otherwise defacing books. HOWEVER, the condition of the books from WMUs library are terrible to start. Apparently college students have no qualms about defacing library property. So, I've decided that tabbing a few pages isn't that bad in the grand scheme of highlighting, underlining, writing in margins, etc.
I finished this book several days ago and am finally getting around to mention my final comments. In my opinion, the last part started to recapture some of the humor in the first part, it really felt like just the middle was lacking.
The ending didn't feel too Hollywood to me. For one, I don't see Carole and Dennis working out in the long run. None of the rest seemed to have particularly Hollywood happy endings. They were alive and healthy, but not riding off into the sunset or living happily every after necessarily.
Some passages to highlight:
P 128: "Henry probably didn't realize that "dating" now meant "having sex." When they were young, dating had been what you did while you considered having sex." I really see this reflected in college life. Terms like hooking up and hanging out, which used to be fairly innocuous, now mean "sex". In fact, just about everything means sex to college students.
Unlike Tracy, I loved the part where Henry leaves Carole with a note. "P.S. you can have everything." (p 139). This seemed to fit his personality and it isn't like their marriage really meant much to either of them anymore. It's better than a text message, right?
What bugged me about Carole's story is the sentiment reflected in the line "It had been Carole who, with her gentle prodding and tactful reminders of his faults, had turned him into a more or less viable specimen of a man." (p 141) It drives me crazy when one person in a couple feels the need to "improve" their partner and then feels like they should get all the credit for the new and improved partner. Really? Maybe you should just love them for who they are. And if they do change for the better, give them the credit for it. I think this is just a personal pet peeve, though. :-)
P. 158: "So once she had her first experience of mayhem, why she was like that convent girl who finally discovers sex... There was no stopping her." :-)
I LOVED the footnotes on p. 172 and all the discussions of Justice X's opinions. Definitely a Tea Party member.
And finally, who can't love the sentence, "What the screamers failed to understand was that just because you might be mistaken in the end didn't mean that you hadn't been correct in the first place." (P 175)? Classic.
So, I'm glad I read it, but it isn't a keeper.
I'm still waiting for my copy to arrive! The slow delivery service may or may not be related to my current lack of a mailbox (thanks to the TWO times it was hit by a PennDot truck over the weekend).
Sorry for being the poky little puppy on this one.
So, Hi E! I am Joy, ANgie's MATURE sister. I'm the one that keeps her in line. Otherwise, constant MISbehavior!
I'm a teacher at Troy and I always pick the really good books! : )
I just finished "Book One - Ellie". I liked the beginning part about switching the groceries - I would LOVE to do that sometime.
I liked the idea of an informercial as pay back and the manner in which they did it (as in delivered a new tape just hours before air time) but didn't really care for the content of the tape. Kinda raunchy.
SO onto Book 2 Carole now.
M - I've discovered that using a post-it note as a bookmark is EXCELLENT! Then if you drop the book, you don't lose your book mark and you can easily "park it" in the book while you are reading. And can take notes on it...
Post it notes -- and the index cards are both good ideas. Though I may still have to have a pen nearby if I want to write on them. Thanks J and M.
I never finished my comments but you touched on some:
M-- I agree with you about the way Henry left. Even though I have known a lot o people to have terrible divorces or one htat took awhile, I can see someone who didn't need any of tha accumulated stuff (and I beleive that Henry joined the senior peace corps or something so it fit the personality) to just leave a short polite note and call it good.
M -- Why don't you think that Carole and Dennis won't work out?
M-- also I agree that the comment about people taking credit for changing someone into someone irked me. Love YOUR cmment that "everything means sex to a college student." (Though that may also be true for high school students.)
J-- you hit my reaction to the infomercial exactly. I liked the idea of it and the way they stopped him and exposed him but all the talk about his attitudes towards Ellie and others and the whole theme of crudity seemed unneeded.
T-- :) Hi again. We share a love of short easy reads!
I also was irritated by hte little girl and noticed that, though I love the grocery switch, there was nothing that the little girl will have learned from the incident. Unluckily that is hte problem of revenge-- despite a change in a few people's behavior, there isn't really a change in how people think and therefore not long term, broad-based change in how people treat others. So the little girl will not have learned anything.
Angie-- if books are slow to get to this area do you share with your sister or are you interested in sharing books? I have finished this one for over a week and we don't live far away. You could have this one or share in the future if you wanted.
Actually, Joy does have about the best record picking books. "Last of the Mohicans" was probably her worst pick, but both A and I had worse choices (I'm thinking Shirly and Moby Dick). T is too new yet to have much of a record.
J- What are you doing with your books that you are dropping them and losing bookmarks? Let me guess, when reading books like Fanny or Bruno you just have to throw them away to get a break from all the sex? I always keep mine in a neat stack and only move them in careful ways so that neither a single page nor bookmark is disturbed. :-)
E, about Carole and Dennis. For one, Carole's obsession with fixing Dennis and doing what Dennis does without seeming to show much interest in his activities seems to indicate some dysfunction. Secondly, Dennis is infatuated with Carole, but seems more excited about birds and bees (literally). Will that be enough attention to keep Carole? Plus, they work together. How many relationships can survive working together? Nothing major about the relationship, but they just don't FEEL compatible (sp?) to me.
My copy finally came, and I finished already (stupid snow = lots of reading).
E, yes, Joy and I do trade lots of books back and forth, especially if there's only one volume available at the library, though, I do like to buy my own copies. Harder to do in this area though, I often have to order online.
Regarding how to mark noteworthy sections, the best method I've found so far is using those little post it flags. I just stick the whole pile of them inside the front cover, and stick one to the actual sentence I want to comment on later. I can reuse the same stack for several books, don't have to carry a pencil with me and don't harm the books either. I also use post it notes. In college I used index cards extensively, but for some reason now I just NEVER have a pen when I want one.
Back to the book. I have similar comments: the beginning and ending were good, but the middle lost my interest, especially the bit about the marshland and Janet spray painting. Peppermint Patty tickled my fancy, and I liked how her story was told with posts from the website. I enjoy authors who find creative ways to communicate key plot elements. (The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler is an excellent example of this) And I also loved how trading recipes showed up.
I agree with M about Carole and Dennis not lasting. Their relationship seems 1-sided and I think she'll start expecting him to be more outspoken at work, and he won't want to be, and crash/burn; unless they retire soon, and then maybe they'll have a chance to grow into each other.
I did love Ramon and his view on larger women (p 63) "You should be able to sink into a woman like a featherbed.."
For most of the book I was hoping that Sandi was in jail, and Melissa Crane was interviewing her for an expose. But, I guess being arrested would have made Sandi less "invisible" and dis-proved her entire point.
This was an interesting change, and not a book I would have picked up normally; that's why I love the book club!
Also I meant to comment how much I loved the recipe for emergency Thai Chicken on page 26. It reminded me of the style of writing in The Book Thief, which is very high praise indeed.
Okay, done.
Overall, it was ok. I liked the premise A LOT, older women are “invisible” and not suspected but I don’t think the follow through was that good. I really didn’t like the use of the f-bomb on practically every page. That got tiring.
I liked the kidnapping section the best but the end felt rushed. At the bottom of page 198, there should have been a sentence “They ran back to the car and started down the access road”. And after coming up with such a scheme to get to Margaret’s house, why did Jason and Carole leave at the first sign of a little trouble? And the Chief Justice is led out outside with a rope around his waist but his hands are free? It didn’t make sense.
Also, I didn’t quite get the book’s cover picture? I would have liked a picture of Janet spray painting a car.
And I just MUST comment on the part about math people not having sex? Huh?
My problem is .... I am reading when I should just go to sleep and thus drop the book and there goes my page.... So I end up re-reading a lot.
I always thought "thin as a rail" was a fence rail since you'd have to split the wood into rails - thin.
I agree, I don't think Carole and Dennis are made to last.... I didn't care much for their stories anyway.
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