Super Fantastic Reading Group

Two (Sorta) Recommendations

I read two new books this week already: "Daughter's Keeper," by Ayelet Waldman, and "The Dive from Clausen's Pier," by Ann Packer, which always reminds me of PM, cuz we watched the made-for-TV movie (it was, wasn't it?) at the same time once.

Daughter's Keeper was dull. Touched on some good topics but didn't explore them enough for me. Also, I didn't really give a shit about the characters - or feel that significant evidence had been given to support the growing bond between mother and daughter. Not to mention, it was very predictable.

Clausen's Pier was okay. I never watched the entire movie, so I didn't know much of what took place after the dive (but then, not sure how much of NY, Kilroy, etc the movie actually delved into). I cared about the characters a little more here, but again, it was fairly predictable and I didn't care for the ending.

Drunk Knitters

I am not a knitter, but I do wish someone would knit me a fabulous wrap sweater with built-in fingerless mittens that I could wear at work since it is always freezing here.

When I first started this book, I was concerned that we were going to have another unsympathetic character. (I forgot all their names now, but it was the one who is part of triplets.) Thankfully, the other two characters' storylines were able to pick up the slack in the beginning until I started to like the triplet. Overall, I liked the book. It was a fast, enjoyable read and I am glad that everything worked out nicely for everyone and they all ended up with the right mates.

As for why the scientist didn't dump her loser boyfriend sooner, I can tell you from personal experience,that if you are a late bloomer and are suddenly able to land a hot guy, you are willing to put up with more crap from him than you would from a normal guy just to be able to sleep with the hot guy for a little while longer.

Friends Don't Let Friends Knit Drunk

I hope we're allowed to start posting about this book; I don't remember whether we got a start date, but I thought I remembered that Thanksgiving weekend was the end point.

I really enjoyed this one.  It was an easy read, in my opinion, and I liked each of the main characters.  The neatness with which each girl ended up with her respective man (and the pairing of who would end up with whom) was quite easy to predict, but not so much of an anvil that it took away from the storyline.  All of the girls had their flaws, but I felt like they also had positive qualities to balance them out so that they were not unsympathetic at all.

I thought James was a big, honking jerk from the very beginning, and didn't fully understand why Lucy put up with his crap for long.   I think Lucy was my favorite of the three knister girls, and I was wanting her to show her spine and kick him to the curb earlier than she did!

I also thought it was cute to include the knitting-theme names to the drink recipes at the end of the book.