Midnight Book Club: Gone Girl

It should come as no surprise that I'm in a book club.  I have a small book addiction. I started my book club on Meet Up back on Feb 19, 2010- almost three years ago!  The Hubs and I had moved to a new town about 6 months prior and other than family, I was lonely.  I had started my book blog, and decided that I would join a book club!  I found out about Meet Up, and realized that I just needed to start my own book club. It's been great, and I've really made a wonderful group of friends through it, but because it costs money to run a group (but not to be a member of a group) we've decided to just switch to Goodreads and continue meeting once a month (twice now that we're adding a dinner and movie get together).  Why continue paying to use a public forum when we already have an awesome book club?  

This will be a monthly feature in which I discuss my book club selections, and since it'll be posted after we meet, there will be spoilers!  DO NOT read further unless you want to be spoiled on plot.  

Our book for January was Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Group Take:  Out of 7 of us, we all agreed that the book was total FUBAR!  In fact, if our book club had a word for the book, it would start with F and end with K.  No points if you guessed ForK.  Then ending had most of us upset, and I may have the lone dissenter.  Sandra brought a print out of Gillian Flynn's explanation of the ending- the author likes ambiguous endings. I also read the same interview, and Flynn knows exactly where Amy and Nick are 5, 10 and 15 years down the road, so I'm hoping for a sequel a decade down the line!  We all liked the book, even if we hated both the characters (Nick was weak and an idiot, and Amy was a crazy bitch) and weren't thrilled with the ending.  Most of the gals were quite happy that Amy got duped by rednecks in the Ozarks- I personally hope that Amy tracks them down someday because if anyone knows how to serve a cold dish of revenge it is Amazing Amy.  Lots of jokes flew since one of our members is named Amy, and this made for one of our best book club discussions ever!  The biggest problem we all had was how easy Amy set Desi up, considering he actually wasn't spending all his time with her and we felt that could be weakness in her armor.  All seven of us read the book, which is a minor miracle, and we were all eager to discuss it.  Amy, crazy as she may have been, was impressive, as was Nick's monumental idiocy in all his screw ups!

My Take: This was a re-read for me, and it was even better the second time around!  The first time I read it, I kind of suspected the major twist, but I also was convinced that Nick's dad might have accidentally killed Amy, so it was fun to bring up various theories we'd all had at one point.  I listened to the audio, as had a few others, and we all agreed that it's a great audio listen- well recommended.  The scope of the twists and turns of this book continues to amaze me and I really, really need to make time for Flynn's other books.  I also hope that her next book lives up to some of Gone Girl's fame, which may be hard.  But I don't need it to have a 'gotcha' moment like GG, so I'm not as hard to please as I suspect some readers may be (you know, the ones who only buy books on the top ten list and like their authors to crank out the same story with new character names every few months).  

Verdict:  Gone Girl is the perfect book for book clubs, and it was likened to another favorite read of ours, Fingersmith by Sarah Waters.  That's another jaw dropper (actually, it's a bigger jaw dropper) and a book that we discussed just as much as Gone Girl.  

Up next in February: The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling!

Am I the only one who thinks the cover looks like some 1970's porn movie cover?

Vacation Post #1

Arrived at the beach yesterday afternoon, and much thanks to the beach gods as the temperature is actually nice and not overwhelming hot like back home.  The Hubs isn't coming down to the end of this week, but I'm down here for the full 3 weeks.  :)

I actually got quite a bit of reading done last night- finishing up Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire- I forgot that Fleur briefly meets Bill in this book and shows some interest in him.  I really love how layered J.K. Rowling's books are- the end of book 4 looms large in how book 7 plays out.  I am just so in awe of Rowling's writing.  Cedric's death in GoF is so much more tragic in the book, and Fudge goes from preening politician to obstinate ass in just a few pages.  Which of course sets up book 5 and the introduction of the villain I dislike the most- Delores Umbridge. 

Also started Dog On It last night, and I'm probably about half way done since I was the first one up this morning.  Is there anything better than reading in the ocean breeze?  So far I'm really enjoying the book, which is told from Chet the dog's perspective.  It's a bit Bunnicula for the adult crowd- and I still read that series, usually adding one to my Readathon Pile O' Books.

Should be hitting the beach in a bit, and then I need to take a nap so I can stay up late to try to get into Pottermore.  I know, I'm a nerd.  I'm especially a Harry Potter nerd.  I have made peace with this.

Blog Hop and Follow 7.22

It's been awhile, but it's time to Hop!

Hosted by The Crazy Bookworm

Question of the Week: What’s the ONE GENRE that you wish you could get into, but just can’t?

This may sound weird, since I actually follow a LOT of blogs that pretty much specialize in this genre, but Paranormal Romance.  Now, I'm not talking about YA books like Twilight, but the steamy kind of Mermaid meets Sexy Werewolf with a bit of Half-Demon joining in.  I couldn't even handle the Anita Blake series, there was just too much sex and switching up partners for my simple (read prudish) tastes.  I feel like I probably miss out on some great books, but that's part of the reason I follow bloggers who read genres that I don't normally read.

 Hosted by Parajunkee

Question of the Week: Name 3 authors that you would love to sit down and spend an hour or a meal with just talking about either their books or get advice on writing from?

Okay, this is a fairly easy one.  Stephen King, first and foremost.  I don't even care if all he wants to talk about is baseball (a sport I dislike) or his various ache and pains. In fact I could just stop there, but you know I won't.  JK Rowling, because I really want to get all the little tidbits from her head that she didn't put in the books and to ask her if she'd be willing to write a story starring me and Oliver Wood (and if she doesn't agree to do this, then perhaps I can take a page from Stephen King's book Misery and MAKE her write me a story).  Thirdly, Maureen Johnson.  She is hilarious, and I certainly wouldn't have to worry about the awkward silence that may arise as I stare slacked jawed and adoringly at King and Rowling, because Maureen Johnson does not do silence.  And since I do like writing, and if I ever actually finish anything (like my NaNoWriMo project) then it'll be in the YA genre that Johnson writes so wonderfully for and I'm sure after spending an hour with me she'll invite me into her secret writer's club with John Green and Scott Westerfeld, among others.  Right?