Monday, September 26, 2011

What's next???

Hey Erinn??? I came on tonight to check which books we had decided on for the next three months only to find ... gasp... no post from you!!! Now you've had a solid week - We want/need to see your recap of our BFab night and the choices we made so we know what to do. Give us direction pretty please!!! (or you're fired)... Oops who wrote that? Rude!

xoxo RFab ;)

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

It actually exists!!!

Ok...enough picking on Tara already. This is not a case of "Glass Floorboard" as we suspected. "Human Smoke" is a novel and is written by Nicholson Baker, however, it seems like a really heavy non-fiction. (Also please note that I chose the picture stating how they are practically giving it away at 100% off!!!) LOL!

Here's the synopsis in case we wish to change our selections:

Bestselling author Nicholson Baker, recognized as one of the most dexterous and talented writers in America today, has created a compelling work of nonfiction bound to provoke discussion and controversy -- a wide-ranging, astonishingly fresh perspective on the political and social landscape that gave rise to World War II.
Human Smoke delivers a closely textured, deeply moving indictment of the treasured myths that have romanticized much of the 1930s and ''40s. Incorporating meticulous research and well-documented sources -- including newspaper and magazine articles, radio speeches, memoirs, and diaries -- the book juxtaposes hundreds of interrelated moments of decision, brutality, suffering, and mercy. Vivid glimpses of political leaders and their dissenters illuminate and examine the gradual, horrifying advance toward overt global war and Holocaust.
Praised by critics and readers alike for his exquisitely observant eye and deft, inimitable prose, Baker has assembled a narrative within Human Smoke that unfolds gracefully, tragically, and persuasively. This is an unforgettable book that makes a profound impact on our perceptions of historical events and mourns the unthinkable loss humanity has borne at its own hand.


So what do we think? If we're not sure, check out all the details listed under "About the Author" on Chapters/Indigo website:

About The Author:
Nicholson Baker lives in Maine.

Ha! Thanks...I'm super intrigued!!!

Good night ladies and thanks for great re-start of BFab. Looking forward to another fun year full of delicious treats, drinks and conversation. Julie raised the bar on this one!

xoxo RFab

BFab tonight!

Looking forward to finally getting back into it tonight ladies, and especially to see what suggestions everyone has to bring to the table. I am currently reading a real literary treat called "Sleeping Arrangements" but Madeline Wickham. O.K., so it's really Sophie Kinsella and it takes no brain to get through it, but I am enjoying it, although it's not as funny as many of her other books...a little sad really.

I wanted to share some random possible suggestions for our next year ahead. My only problem with looking up new suggestions to read is that most book descriptions now give a little too much away. I do like some element of surprise when reading. Nothing's worse than knowing someone is going to die when you meet them at the beginning of a story, eh?

Anyways, check out these three suggestions:

Called "The Fates Will Find Their Way" By Hannah Pittard

Here's what was written about it:
A 16-year-old named Nora goes missing from her tight-knit community one Halloween night and is never seen or heard from again. Though the premise sounds familiar, Hannah Pittard's mesmerizing debut, The Fates Will Find Their Way (Ecco), is no police procedural. With every carefully chosen word—and in this short, intense novel, each one counts—Pittard brilliantly draws us into the maturing consciousness of a group of neighborhood boys who make Nora's sudden but continuing absence the defining event of their lives over the next 30 years. Narrating in a collective first-person voice reminiscent of Jeffrey Eugenides's The Virgin Suicides, the boys reveal their life stories through the prism of their fascination with the missing girl's fate. They collect clues and hearsay, and imagine scenarios for Nora that range from murder to teen motherhood to lesbian love in Mumbai, all the while experiencing their own rites of passage—sex, drugs, marriage. As husbands, they maintain collective fantasies and share "vague and unfair comparisons between what our wives were and what she might have been." Gradually we see how the boys, at times indistinguishable, have developed as individuals: The one envied because he may have slept with Nora becomes a sexual predator; the pitied "weird kid" ends up happy. He's the one, in fact, who compels the others to let go of the past and accept "the obvious realization that this—this, all around us—is our life."— Liza Nelson

And then, there's a novel called "Before I go to Sleep" by S.J. Watson

which is described like this:
"As I sleep, my mind will erase everything I did today. I will wake up tomorrow as I did this morning. Thinking I?m still a child. Thinking I have a whole lifetime of choice ahead of me. . . ."

Memories define us.

So what if you lost yours every time you went to sleep?

Your name, your identity, your past, even the people you love?all forgotten overnight.

And the one person you trust may be telling you only half the story.

Welcome to Christine's life.


And now...we want to know more right? I like this description...gripping!

And for my third, a novel called "The Ninth Wife" by Amy Stolls


"Thirty-something Bess Gray has resigned herself to a lifetime of being single when she meets handsome, charming, and hilariously funny Rory. Rory and Bess hit it off instantly, and before long, he’s asked for her hand in marriage. Imagine Bess’s shock and surprise when Rory reveals his big secret just after their engagement: he’s already been married eight times. Bess decides that in order to accept his proposal, she needs to get as many facts as possible about these wives. So along with her aging grandparents and her gay best friend, Bess sets out on a journey to meet as many of the wives as possible and get their sides of her future husband’s story."


I'm really not sure what kind of book I'm in the mood for next, obviously, but these three seemed interesting. There were many more I would read, but among all the members of BFab, they've been read!!! Damn you all!

Looking forward to tonight...see you at Erinn's!

xoxo RFab

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Thoughts on movies???


I do get excited whenever I see that I book I read has been made into a movie. I was just telling Rob last night that I was wondering if "Water for Elephants" is available on DVD yet since I just finished that one, and he kindly replied: "Why do you keep watching the movies of the books you've read? You just get all angry and disappointed and annoying!" Touché Rob, but I do just need to see them for myself anyways...who's with me?

Of course the movies are rarely better than the books, they usually take their own liberties and they sometimes even change the plot; but none has been worse most recently than a movie I watched on holiday two weeks ago: "My Sister's Keeper." I mean really, are you kidding me? I read this book years ago and kept meaning to rent the movie, so I was stoked when I had some free time to watch it on my own, with a box of kleenex (just like I needed when reading it!) But the ending (spoiler alert) had me so ticked off, that I just couldn't even cry - that is a serious deal, changing which sister actually dies...the whole point was that she was able to donate her organs in the end and save her sisters life anyways, not that the sister with cancer dies, as one would have predicted, and the other sister feels shitty about it. I was so angry I was throwing couch cushions at the tv!!!

LOL - oops, that was quite the rant! Anyways, all that being said, I am actually still looking forward to seeing the latest "Jane Eyre" movie re-make, "Water for Elephants" (although I have trouble picturing Reese Witherspoon in it) and "Sarah's Key" which is out in theatres now.

I'll keep you posted as always! xoxo RFab

Couldn't resist...can't wait!


CLICK HERE to watch the official Hunger Games trailer ;)

Eeeeeekkkkkk!!! I feel like reading them again!

Couldn't resist...can

Couldn