Book Review - Long Way Down

Today is book review day! Just like I said in my last book post (errr...my last post...sorry it's been super busy over here) make sure to head on over to the Design Pages for Carol's review...I'll be adding mine to the comments section!

Book club reminder - get reading!

A reminder that on Monday December 17th, Carol at the Design Pages will be reviewing our most recent book:

Funny story...I initially chose this book based on a friend's recommendation...but then I looked back in my iPhone notes and she actually recommended a DIFFERENT book with a similar title. woops.

Long story short, I read this, and liked it (gasp!) - you should too. See you on the 17th for the review!

New book for Blogger Book Club

It's that time again - time for a new book club pick! I've just finished Divergent and Insurgent and thoroughly enjoyed them (have you read them?). Now onto something else for the book club. Here's what we'll be reading:

A Long Way Down - Nick Hornby

It's a bit of an oldie, and was recommended by a friend so I am looking forward to reading it. Grab yourself a copy (or re-read it if you've already read it) and come back on December 17th to add your 2 cents to the review!

Blogger book club | Review: On Beauty (Zadie Smith)

Happy Monday everyone! How was your weekend? Hopefully relaxing and refreshing.

Mine was full of a lot of errands but a bit of progress on some mini-projects. Thank you all for your advice on my living room post - I needed the advice of a "light" coffee table! The one we have now is...hmmm...6 years old? It is practical but really doesn't suit the space or the look I am going for. We tried to find a table and a chair this weekend to no avail...so the search continues.

Ok - onto the business at hand - book review time! If you haven't read On Beauty yet, you can decide whether or not you continue to read on (but I can't promise no spoilers).

This is a novel about a family and the changes and challenges they go through; each character in the book makes decisions which impacts the outcome of the book. 

Unfotunately I can't say that I loved this book (gah I feel like I've said that about each bookclub book!). I'm not sure if it's the fact that I'm reading on the subway so my reading is broken up into 30 page chunks, but I didn't feel that I associated with any of the characters. Usually I have someone that I'm rooting for through the book, and I didn't have that here. I also didn't feel intrigued by the story of the book. Yes, I was disgusted by Howard on occasion, yes I felt badly for Kiki, yes I was annoyed by Zora. But did I really care about the outcome? Not really. And good thing because I felt the ending was pretty anti-climatic.

Now that I've given my unencumbered opinion...what did you think? I hope people enjoyed it, even if I didn't.

 

Back to the books - On Beauty {Blogger Book Club}

Just like September meant back to school shopping to me, it also means back to the books!

Blogger Book Club is back and we're reading On Beauty by Zadie Smith:

This is an older novel, so if you don't want to buy it you can likely find it at your local library (that's what I did!). 

We'll be reviewing this book after Thanksgiving, so although it's a bigger novel you have at least a month to read up. Hope to hear what you think about it in Ocotber! And just remember - you don't have to be a blogger to take part in the book club - everyone is welcome!

Blogger book club - Day After Night (Review)

Happy Monday blogiverse!

This weekend was a busy one - the Mr's parents were in town, so among other things we went to watch the Blue Jays game on Saturday. Bonus: the Jays won 11-9 - which means a lot of runs, which for me equals excitement! A home run ball even came into our section (thankfully a few rows in front of us so I didn't have to shriek and dive below my seat show off my catching skills).

Today is another Book Club review! Did this book come up quick for you? I tell ya...I read it quickly but can't believe how quickly July 16th has snuck up. We read Day after Night by Anita Diamant:

Click over to Carol's blog The Design Pages for her review (I've added mine to her comments).



What are you reading?

I hope all my Canadian readers had a great long weekend - it was a beautiful one here in Toronto!

I'm sure a lot of you spent time up at the cottage this long weekend, or some of you may be delving into beach reading as we speak...what I want to know is: What are you reading?

The Blogger Book Club is working on our third (and in my opinion, best book yet) right now (review coming up July 16th!). This means we're at the exact right time to pick some new books for future book club reads.

What have you read lately that you loved and would want to see as the Blogger bookclub series? What book do you want to read and need an excuse to pick up and chat about with other readers?

Let me know via comments some titles you want to see on the upcoming bookclub list!

Blogger Book Club #2: When God Was a Rabbit

Welcome back Monday...after a nice relaxing weekend sometimes Mondays aren't SO bad. And, it's that time again friends - time to applaud, blast, cheer, or just plain old comment on our second book club book.

If you've read our second book, When God Was a Rabbit (Sarah Winman), I really would love to hear what you have to say in the comments below, or on our Facebook page (under "Blogger Book Club", set up by Carol at The Design Pages).

This story is about a brother (Joe) and sister (Elly) and the deep connection they share with each other. There are many times in this book when it states that the only person that Elly truly feels understands her is her brother Joe. Joe is older, and seems more independent - running off to the US to work and leaving his sister and their family behind in the UK. Elly however still has an unstobbable reliance on Joe and his listening / understanding.

To me this book was a little bit disconnected. A number of things happened - the family won the lottery, the brother moved away to New York, the parents started up a B&B...but none of these actions really seemed monumental to me.  They just sort of happened. The most piercing part of this book was when it depicted 9/11 and its impact on the characters. I think 9/11 will always grip people because it was so monumental, and so recent. However, in this book I felt like it was thrown in as a last ditch effort to grab people's attention. I didn't really think it fit with the story, and I didn't like how the author dealt with it or its outcome on the characters.  It came late in the book and tied itself up nicely at the end.

Overall, this book gets a B from me. It wasn't a terrible book that I couldn't finish, however it won't make it onto my recommendation list. I also read it immediately after The Glass Castle...and I kept on having to remind myself that these kids aren't poor, actually quite the opposite! I think it says a lot when a book stays with you and the Glass Castle definitely did...I just can't say the same for When God Was a Rabbit.

I believe that so much about liking / disliking a book depends on when you're reading it, what else you have read recently, what's going on in your life, etc. Given that, I'm really excited to hear what you have to say about it!

Don't miss our third book - this is the one I'm most excited about: Day After Night (Anita Diamant). That one I think WILL have a strong female character (an area where our first two books were sorely lacking). Day After Night will be reviewed on July 16.

Book Club - Book #2

Thanks to everyone who has commented about our first Blogger Book Club book review on The Paris Wife! You can see all of our books on my Book Club page.

If you're interested in taking part in the Blogger Book Club, make sure to grab our second book:

Chapters / Indigo describes this book:

Spanning four decades, from 1968 onwards, this is the story of a fabulous but flawed family and the slew of ordinary and extraordinary incidents that shape their everyday lives. It is a story about childhood and growing up, loss of innocence, eccentricity, familial ties and friendships, love and life. Stripped down to its bare bones, it''s about the unbreakable bond between a brother and sister.

I'm starting this one tomorrow! Make sure to tune in for the review over at Carol's blog The Design Pages on June 4th!

Book Review - The Paris Wife

Happy Monday, everyone. Today's the big day - the first Blogger Book Club meeting!  Grab your tea, coffee, or glass of wine and join in the chat...

If you've read the Paris Wife, I really would love to hear what you have to say in the comments below, or on our Facebook page (under "Blogger Book Club", set up  by Carol at The Design Pages).

The Paris Wife is the story of Ernest Hemmingway and his wife Hadley. The story depicts their first meeting, early romance, marriage, foray into parenthood...and eventually, what tears them apart. I won't spend a lot of time recapping the book here, because I'm not really one for recalling the years of high school book reports (foreshadowing? climax? denouement?).

If you have not read the book, and don't want it spoiled, steer clear of the rest of this post - consider this your SPOILER alert!

Here's my take on it...

I thought the book was just OK. I read it after finishing the Hunger Games and Fall on Your Knees (Ann Marie Macdonald). After those exciting page turners, the Paris Wife didn't have the same level of action and anticipation. I felt that every event had a clear build up to it, without many surprises in the story.  I also didn't feel particularly attached to any of the characters.

I did enjoy the writing - it was nice, soft, and easy to read. I also enjoyed the descriptions of Paris - I was just there last spring, so it took me back! I could picture the neighbourhoods and tried to imagine the cafes and art scene as depicted in this book.

The end of the book was particulary interesting to me - trying to understand what would make Hadley stay with Ernest at first, and trying to understand how Pauline could competely sever Hemmingway's love and loyalty for his wife.

Overall, I found the pace a bit slow, but the writing was smooth and easy to read. While this book wouldn't be a book I would recommend to everyone, I do think it would be a good book to read as a "break" book - if you need a different genre from what you're used to, or if you just read a really heavy book and need a light book as a break.

What did you think?

Book Club

Wasn't it a beautiful weekend (at least here in Toronto)!?! It was positively warm and sunny out there and is supposed to be nice all week! I threw my back out on Saturday which greatly curtailed any sort of fun outdoorsiness on Sunday, but I'm still happy that it's light out for so long and it was so warm.

Ok...onto the post...

I am so excited for this announcement...Carol from The Design Pages and I have been talking about this for some time, and we are starting a Book Club!

For a while now, I've listed the books that I am reading or have recently read on my sidebar...readers will comment here and there - mostly saying they loved the book I'm reading, or asking what I thought of some of my past reads. Carol in particular had some great book suggestions for me, and we seemed to have a lot of similar book loves!  Everyone spends so much time online, but it's still nice to sit down with an actual BOOK and read a story. So we sort of tossed around the idea of doing a book club...except she's in Vancouver, and I 'm in Toronto. Then we tossed idea of doing an online book club...and here we are...

Our first book:

The Paris Wife - Paula Mclain

Here are the details....

WHO - Everyone is invited to join.  As long as you love to read, you're invited - you do NOT have to have a blog to join (but we would love if you do join, to add yourself as a follower of course)


WHAT - We'll announce the books well in advance so you have time to get your own copy.  As we announce the books we'll also include the review date and let you know which one of us will review the book.  We really want to hear from every single one of you who is reading along with us so on review day please stop by and add your review in the comments section or to a linky party (depending on how technologically advanced we can get!) 

WHERE - Each review will take place at either my blog or Carol's The Design Pages (we'll let you know where it's going to be in advance).

WHEN - We're going to start right now!  The first review will take place on Monday, April 23 here at InteriorGroupie

WHY - Because we love to read!

Here's the lineup of our first 3 books:

Let us know if you're planning to read along with us and if you're a fellow blogger, grab the Blogger Book Club button announcing that you're one of the cool kids in the book club (it also appears on my side bar).

<center><a href="http://interiorgroupie.blogspot.com/p/book-club.html”><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi33HS0_gr5v2Kfd90gQ-34YRnkK2tY20BoLKLyb5yyWAwP70Mq2rZwtI-WOqQydUmvtFTbfgwOJpcScdfhRwV0kqO1d0eVpopVzm7bGgE5ZNBNkyzGX81J-uCgA2yWdEVac8ZygICkvQQ/s1600/BloggerBookClub125x125.jpg" /></a></center>