Super Fantastic Reading Group

Pleasantly Surprised

This book really surprised me.

When I started reading it, I kept thinking when is this going to get better? I actually considered giving it up several times. I never stop reading books.  But I saw here where everyone else had read it and they said they enjoyed it. So I kept trying to struggle through. Then all of the sudden it started to get better. I ended up really enjoying this book in the end.

I liked Joe. At first he was a complete annoying jackass. I couldn't believe we were reading another book where the main character was such an idiot. While he never became the most amazing good guy ever, I started to kinda like him. The fact that he tried hard, but still screwed up made him seem more realistic. I always hate books where people are horrible in the beginning and then suddenly become all wonderful and perfect. That never happens.

I didn't feel like we got to know Brad or Carly or some of the lesser characters as well as I wanted. There would be these bright sharing flashes where you would realize something about a character, but then you wouldn't get any more information.

I agreed with Middle Girl about Jared. I loved Jared. He was great. The paintball scene really made me laugh. It was great! I also really enjoyed Wayne. He was cliched and sort of stereotypical, but still interesting. I liked the fact that Joe had him come live with him. It seemed so right somehow.

A very good book. Although I agree with everyone else about the whole sticking the tongue out to catch the ashes being icky. That was just weird. Otherwise, it was a fabulous way to end the book. And it finished everything up very nicely.

enjoyable.

It was a good book that had a couple interesting turns and twists that I hadn't expected and kept me reading.  While I wasn't "in-love" with Joe or some of his actions, i could definetly sympathize and relate.  I mean, there have definetly been times when your history with people  leads you to want to tell everyone in the world how bad they were.   He never denied that he had written about his past and his feelings, people just didn't like it.

And while I loved the character of Wayne, I did think that tragic Gay-Aids death was  a tad cliche. It was made up for as Wayne had a nice balance to him with the witty banter and the confession of feeling like he had to make his death "okay" for everyone else.  I found the part when the coach lowered the "special" basketball hoops for Wayne to shoot at far more moving tha than the funeral scene. Maybe because Wayne was there to actually experience it.

My other favorite character was the nephew, Jared. (That could be the wrong name, as I read it a while ago) He seemed to be the bridge in the gap between Joe and his brother. And his realization that he stopped playing basketball because that's all his father would talk to him about seemed to be pretty intuitive.

All in All.. good choice.

Ditto Michelle's initial thoughts about the main character.  It dragged for me at first until Wayne came into the picture.  Until then, it was all self-absorbed rambling. 

The flashbacks added some excitement and suspense.   They also helped move along the slower parts from the present.  It was a little like reading two different books.

It was very interesting overall but there are a couple of things that were odd about it.

1. I could see him not reporting the beating at the bar, thinking the guy just needed to get it out of his system and be macho.  But then he didn't report getting thrown off the cliff and just casually mentions that Sean is the one that blew up his car.  Does he think it's funny that the guy is actually trying to kill him?  Totally unrealistic.

2. I liked the surprising method of spreading the ashes and could even understand letting them fall all over you.  As far as sticking out my tongue and tasting them, I lean toward Kate's response of being grossed out.  A little too Jeffrey Dahmer for me.

I liked it and I read it super fantastically fast.

In the beginning, I was slightly alarmed about the possibility that I chose for our second book another one that had a completely unsympathetic protagonist, but then Joe went back home and I started to like him and the book much better. I really admired the author for not having a scene where Joe and his father make peace on the death bed. I don't think it was to make a statement about how you should make peace with all your shitty relatives now because you never know when they will die. I think that it was more about the growth of Joe's character. He had so far to come from being a depressed, adolescent asshole, that he couldn't have grown into an adult with some maturity and concern for others without having to do some hard work, like making peace with his father on his own after his father's death. I am pretty sure that getting pushed off a cliff also helped.

Discussion time!

I rather enjoyed the story until I started thinking further about one of the plot points.  The plot point that bothered me was the 'noble gay guy dying of AIDS.'  To me, this is such a cliche.  People who die of a condition (as opposed to accidentally) are usually written as these noble, brave souls with all sorts of insight as they die.  They're there to teach us a life lesson.  And the more I thought about it, the more it bothered me.  Especially because whenever a gay man needs to die in a story it is AIDS that takes him down.  I know it is all part of the plot device to set up the disapproving family member who thinks AIDS is G-d's punishment for being homosexual, but that too is becoming too much of a stereotype.  If the guy needed to die, there are plenty of other conditions he could've gotten that would allow a similar kind of slow fading death.  And perhaps there's more sensitivity for me on this subject now that I actually know people with HIV, but once I started thinking about it, it really bothered me.

Other than that, I thought the book was a quick read.  I could really relate to the black sheep of the family coming home kind of thing since I am that person in my family.  It really did make me think about my own family in that I sometimes wonder if my sister resents me the way Brad resented Joe for escaping and abandoning the family.  I didn't write a scathing tell all novel about them (yet) but she definitely bears the brunt of their parenting. 

I also found it interesting, and rather sad but true, that the big basketball players were kind of always the big basketball players, even years later.  But I was touched by their attendance of Wayne's funeral.  And I did not cry until the end of chapter 36.  (I think it was them all showing up for the funeral that did it.) 

What did you think? 

Deadline Reprieve

Michelle has pointed out that a Friday deadline doesn't make a whole lot of sense.  Give the people the weekend to cram if they need to and they will come!  Since the Friday thing was random anyway, I'm all for moving to Mondays.  So the deadline for Book of Joe has been extended to Monday, September 25th and thus the deadline for the next book would be Monday October 9th.

Book #3

It took me awhile to decide this one. I narrowed it down to two choices and then tried to pick one.

The next book is Paging Aphrodite by Kim Green.

Edited to change the read by date - Jo said to have this one read by Monday October 9th.

I hope it's a good book! Enjoy everyone! :)

Next book read by

Next book is up.  Please have it read by September 22nd which is when we'll start discussing. 

Blue Moon Girl, if you would post your book choice by September 15th then we can have a week to get it and have it read by October 6th.

Do we see ourselves at all?

One of the reasons I wanted to like this book was the idea of identifying with the main character.  Although I am a married mom, so there is a major portion of my identity that is contrary to Shannon's, I hoped that some of her experience would mirror my own.  Little of it did, though, except superficially.  I have an offbeat type of humorous relationship with my parents and my sister, I've recently gone through therapy to address what some would consider an undeserved bout with depression and anxiety (you know, since my folks are still together and I was able to finish college and get a job and all), I love to shop (especially at Target, and much to the detriment of my credit card balances) and I need to vary my sentence structure when I write.  Still, I didn't feel like I got a connection the way I typically do when I read.

Do you all see parts of yourselves in Shannon that you wish were different, or do the people who don't like her character feel that way because she isn't identifiable, or what?

Are you kidding?

I was prepared to enjoy this book but just kept thinking, "Are you kidding?"  Is this girl really so messed up that she acts like a spoiled teenager and then blames her mom for being too good at parenting?  Originally I thought she was joking but she kept at it so much it sounded like she actually believed it.

At first, when she talks about being a virgin at 22 and just wanting to get laid, it didn't seem realistic.  Now after reading the book, the question is what either one of her boyfriends saw in her in the first place.   The first one was a little creepy and needy so that almost makes sense, but Michael seemed so together.  What did he see in her?

Other than her assertian that she could do well without trying despite her insane procrastination, she didn't seem to have any redeeming qualities.  Am I being too critical?  Did she leave anything good out because she doesn't see it in herself?

Also, I thought the title was cute although it does sound a little egotistical to me when people say it in real life.  Like no one else's life is like theirs and you have just entered an exclusive club ...