"A few years back, when I finally got smart enough to go to a therapist, she asked me how I had held things together all these years. It didn't take long to come up with an answer. 'That's easy. I belong to a book club.'"This book was loaned to me more than a year ago and has had the misfortune to languish on my shelf ever since, merely due to its cover. The only way it could have looked any less like my kind of book is if they had actually printed "This Book Is Not For Kathy" on the cover. Well, its title wasn't any better. Either the title or the cover alone would say chick lit, but together they screech it like nails on a chalkboard.
But what do you know? I didn't hate this book. It didn't even make me feel like my brains were melting and running out of my ears.
The five housewives in this book weren't really angry (well, not all of the time, anyway) and I don't believe they ever actually ate any bon bons during the story. The name of the book is the same as the tongue-in-cheek name they chose for their book club, which impressively (or perhaps implausibly?) spans three decades. (What do you say, book club girls? Will you all stop talking about moving away so we can still be meeting in 2041?)
I found it disappointing that very little was actually said about the books the Angry Housewives read. The references to each title were unsatisfyingly brief, amounting to little more than name-dropping. But then a lot of the books they read didn't sound that great anyway. And the story was more about the Housewives, their relationships with each other, and the circumstances their families dealt with over the years. The books they read were there as more of a framework instead of the main focus of the story.
Anyway, I guess I've got to (grudgingly) admit that this book wasn't as bad as I expected it to be. I probably wouldn't ever re-read it, but I think I actually enjoyed reading it once. Don't worry about me, though: I'm planning to absolutely hate the next book I read. Because there's only one topic I'm less interested in than chick lit. Can you guess what it is?
I read this one some years and enjoyed it. Must have been during my "female friendship" reading phase. LOL
ReplyDeleteThis author has written several books that I've enjoyed. They may not be your cup of tea, but they probably lean more to "women's" fiction than "chick" lit. :-)
And as to what you are not interested in - fantasy or sci fi? Or romance (i.e. bodice rippers)?
War, that's my guess! And I love a good war story, oh well!
ReplyDeleteThis is one of those books that I admit to judging by its cover (and title). It just didn't seem like one I'd like. But then, I didn't know it was about a book club :-)
ReplyDeleteOh, good guesses, Kay and Mandy--well, I don't mind some fantasy or sci fi, but I *definitely* don't go for romance/bodice rippers or war stories. But what I was actually referring to (as you no doubt know by now, nearly a year later!) was ZOMBIES. Well, Mandy, you were half right, anyway--the next book was zombies AND war. Ugh.
ReplyDeleteAarti--yep, the fact that it was about a book club went a long way towards making this book more palatable. Because I was definitely Judgy McJudgerson over the title and cover!
I would pass on a zombies book!!
ReplyDeleteHaha! I SHOULD have. Can't believe they made a movie about that book!! I refuse to see it, despite the fact that Brad Pitt is in it.
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