Babes with Brains Book Club

2 Loved It
2 Liked It
1 Neutral
1 Disliked It
0 Hated It

Comments:
• I found this book highly entertaining. I personally enjoyed the writing style and the amount of detail provided. I enjoyed Lois as a protagonist. I read the book while I was traveling to San Francisco, and yes!, this book reflects something of modern San Francisco entrepreneurial, elite and yet earthy “grassroots” culture. – Hillary
• I zipped through this one. I found the writing very inviting and humorous but also with many levels of depth. I found the “magical realism” to be more surrealism with a funny edge and was fascinated by some of the weirder details. I’m really happy we read it. – Danica
• I enjoyed reading the book, and dealt with the magical realism until the end when the magic tipped over the realism. – Kerry
• I couldn’t get into this book. The main characters were too unbelievable and shallow to me. – Steph
• It was good it was short. The magical realism felt very much like reading Tom Robbins which made the book more enjoyable. – Sarah
• I love the food element & the joy in it. Made me wnat to make bread! Loved the fairy tale element and the music. I want more from these characters. – Chelsea

0 Loved It
0 Liked It
0 Neutral
4 Disliked It
1 Hated It

Comments:
• This was my second time through this book. While I feel like I gained a greater appreciation for Holden’s positions & understanding of Salinger’s background – it is not a book for me. – Chelsea
• Along with another book that I read immediately before this one, I felt I was inundated by petulant boy energy running through both stories. I was not a happy person during those weeks. – Danica
• I have read this before – two times – as a teenager, myself. At the time, I found it revolutionary. This time, I was not a fan. I was frustrated with many aspects of the book: writing style, the narrator’s unapologetic privilege and sexism, and pace of the book. The one redeemable quality was the back story of Holden losing his brother, Allie, and the impact of this loss on the Caufield family. – Hillary
• I did not enjoy reading this book. I disliked it in high school, but I wanted to re-read it with adult eyes. I felt like I had to hang out with a negative person I would never want to be around. There was a glimmer of humanity toward the end, but other than that – nope. – Kerry
• I found the prose annoying and repetitive. I see how it would appeal to a teenage boy but I just did not connect. – Sarah

1 Loved It
5 Liked It
0 Neutral
0 Disliked It
0 Hated It

Comments:
• I really enjoyed this book. It reminded me of a series of books I read when I was a kid. It was struck by the issues brought up in the times and how progressive it was. – Kerry
• I loved the world building and journeys of the characters. There were points where I felt it could have been set during many periods in history and then others where it was of a very distinct period. The themes were really meaningful. – Danica
• OMG – I wish I had enough time to read this whole book. I really enjoyed the first 30%! The writing style was easy to read but sophisticated and it took me back in the past. The characters were so well developed. – Steph
• Although it was slow at times, some of the imagery & descriptive language was so lovely. I enjoyed being immersed in that world. Happy I finally read this. – Chelsea
• I really enjoyed listening to this book – couldn’t “put it down.” I appreciated the writing style and the way the author narrated all characters’ thoughts and inner lives. I identified with Francie! – Hillary
• I really enjoyed reading this book. The people were really well developed and very interesting. I became really interested in the characters, especially Francie. – Carrie

0 Loved It
4 Liked It
2 Neutral
2 Disliked It
0 Hated It

Comments:
• I feel like I missed a lot of the elements in this book. I was very involved in JoJo and Kayla’s relationship and journey but feel like I didn’t pick up other connections. – Danica
• I couldn’t really get into this book. Didn’t really like the characters. Didn’t see a story to it. Then when Ritchie showed up, I was done. Finished it hoping there would be something interesting. There wasn’t. – Carrie
• The writing was beautifully descriptive. I really enjoyed the story, even though it veered too much in the surrealism for my personal taste. – Kerry
• I have been reading a lot more writing from the Mississippi Delta and there is a primal nature to it. So much pain and dysfunction; there were moments where it was bleak but the descriptive language was beautiful. I thought that the mythic energy and her use of karmic destiny was very interesting. – Chelsea
• I was moved by the writing. The character JoJo really spoke to me. I found my interest in the book wavering more than expected, but was motivated to finish. – Hillary
• For me, this book was not what I expected. I kept reading expecting the story to move to a better place, but never got there. It was very descriptive, in some instances too descriptive. All that said, I thought it was written very well. – Robyn
• I thought the book was very well written and I cared about the characters. I really liked the supernatural element that reminded me of Isabel Allende in the “regularness” of the supernatural. Very depressing, though. – Steph
• I did not think I would like this book but was pleasantly surprised. Most of it was enjoyable but the end kind of lost me. – Sarah

0 Loved It
1 Liked It
3 Neutral
2 Disliked It
0 Hated It

Comments:
• It was short and written in an interesting way. I would not typically like a book like this, but was pleasantly surprised. – Sarah
• Granted, I finished it quite awhile ago. I thought it was an interesting concept and enjoyed certain language but the narrator felt removed. – Chelsea
• It was a book I read through quickly because I wanted to see what would happen. However, the book didn’t strike me as a favorite or stand out in any particular way. Still, I like the writing and found it had a real human dimension to the narrative. Very reflective narrator. – Hillary
• More food for thought then action. It wasn’t a book that really spoke to me, but I think a good book for discussion. – Kerry
• It was short and a quick read. Couldn’t connect to any of the characters and felt let down overall. – Carrie
• The moral dilemmas were interesting but beside an insight into the main character’s inner dialogue, nothing really happens. – Danica

0 Loved It
2 Liked It
1 Neutral
0 Disliked It
0 Hated It

Comments:
• I love Chabon’s writing style and it was true to form in this book. I did have a hard time with the story because I am a little over saturated with WWII lit right now. The jumping around in character, time, and place had me a little lost as well. – Danica
• One of the things I like about Chabon’s books is the unique story settings and plot lines. I enjoyed this story, even though it took awhile to get through. – Kerry
• I love a good family saga, so this was a real treat in that way. I enjoyed Chabon’s voice as a narrator. The grandfather intrigued me. So much of this family’s story was shrouded in mystery and secrecy. I found the timeline confusing because of how it jumped around. – Hillary

1 Loved It
4 Liked It
1 Neutral
0 Disliked It
0 Hated It

Comments:
• I had read it before, but was glad I got to refresh; I enjoyed it more this time. – Chelsea
• I’ve always wanted to read this and never got to it. Really enjoyed the book. – Carrie
• I could imagine Emma being a progressive, forward thinking woman of her time, and so I especially appreciated her early on in the book. Later,  I enjoyed more of the comical and ironic elements of the book. Highly enjoyed it – especially the way it was written. – Hillary
• This was the first Austen book I had read and really loved it. Coming back many years later and after reading the rest of Austen, I realized this is not one of my favorites. – Sarah
• I couldn’t get into this book. There were cute and Shakespearian parts/situations that I enjoyed but I had trouble connection with the characters and had little patience for Emma. – Steph
• I somehow never read this but the Gwyneth Paltrow movie version is one of my favorites from my teenage years. I was happy to have finally read this and liked the style of writing and pluckiness of Emma. On the other hand, the wealth, leisure, and social station commentary was very interesting but also somewhat off-putting in its frivolity. – Danica

0 Loved It
4 Liked It
1 Neutral
1 Disliked It
0 Hated It

Comments:
• I really enjoyed lots of parts of it; his writing, descriptions. The beginning chapters were riveting, I enjoyed the middle, but didn’t care for the end. The biggest missing part for me was convincing me that he was actually a communist sympathizer. – Kerry
• It was hard for me to get into it at first, because it is written as dialogue so the structure disarmed me. But, I enjoyed parts of it and really didn’t enjoy others. Overall, I am glad I read it and I thought the writing was compelling. – Chelsea
• The book was poorly written and I really didn’t enjoy the story. There were many parts of the book (everything with the movie) which just was not needed and seemed like it was used to add pages. There were also parts that used ideas from other books but not used well. – Sarah
• I thought the writing style was great. His observations and insights were brilliant. I enjoyed it throughly – even though the subject matter was difficult. – Steph
• The book is vivid and offers a complex, unique perspective. Outrageous and dramatic in parts, but also contrasted with moments capturing the simplicity of life. Relevant to current refugee issues and adjustments to the new world. – Hillary
• There were so many disjointed parts of this book, some I was very engaged in and some I drifted in and out of interest. The layers of motivations were hard to parse but in the end it revealed an interesting perspective and left me thinking about it for awhile after I finished it. – Danica

2 Loved It
2 Liked It
0 Neutral
0 Disliked It
0 Hated It

Comments:
• This book is so full of information, I feel like my head is spinning. Really provocative in how I think about my own food and consumption choices. – Chelsea
• I really enjoyed the thinking that I have done since finishing this book. I learned a lot in each of the meals but by far the one that has stuck with me is the grass section. Specifically how evolutionarily, the plants and animals are all designed to support their individual needs as long as you work at maintaining their delicate balances. I see this on a micro level in my own edible garden but never considered this in animal food production. I have never lived on a farm or outside of a city, like most of our country, so it is not something we think about on the regular. – Danica
• I learned so much and it was well written. I liked the way he examined food from so many perspectives and it is quite scary how money and profit dictate what we eat. All that and I only got to 42%! I do plan on finishing. – Steph
• Great read to keep you thinking about what we consume. The part that stuck with me the most was  that we need a journalist to find out where our food is from! – Kerry
• I enjoyed this book much more that I thought I would. I thought the author would try to forward a certain agenda but was happy to see that it was mostly a look at food systems without making judgement calls. – Sarah

We gathered to watch The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks because we had read the book by Rebecca Skloot in September 2016.

There was a mixed reaction to the film becuase it focused on the author and Henrietta’s daughter’s relationship instead of the science and moral questions that were more prevalent in the book.

0 Loved It
1 Liked It
1 Neutral
0 Disliked It
1 Hated It

Comments:
• Don’t waste your time. Just read The Tempest directly. – Sarah
• It was great, not perfect, but I enjoyed it. I love theater, so the play within a play element was great for me. I loved the concept more than the execution. – Chelsea
• There were parts were I was super engaged, especially in the beginning but by the time the whole plot was coming to an apex, I just didn’t care anymore. I like the concept of this series, this one was just a little too obvious and beating you over the head with The Tempest story. – Danica

0 Loved It
3 Liked It
0 Neutral
0 Disliked It
0 Hated It

Comments:
• It was an interesting look at that time of history from a very specific point of view. – Sarah
• I understand why the structure was how it was, but it didn’t have great flow. Glad of certain stories, but didn’t need some of them. – Chelsea
• I have always been fascinated by Jackie. I was very engaged and interested in the conversations about the events and people that I had previously known and had context, others where I had no reference, I wasn’t. I wish there was more about her feelings and events in her life, not just her trying to remember bits about Jack. It really shined a light on women’s roles and how they have changed since the 60’s. -Danica

0 Loved It
4 Liked It
1 Neutral
0 Disliked It
0 Hated It

Comments:
• This book was a window into a different world. It was a devastating story but I’m glad I read it. – Steph
• I enjoyed this book for the things it made me contemplate although it was hard emotionally to go back to it daily. – Danica
• I was slow to set into it, but I really am glad that I waited it out and got to see how it ended. Ot ultimately left me sad at the outcome and how inevitable the tragedy of life seems. – Chelsea
• It was a difficult book to read at the beginning because of the subject matter. – Sarah
• It was an interesting view into how terrorism affects a non-western culture. Interesting to watch the evolution of a “terrorist.” – Carrie

0 Loved It
1 Liked It
4 Neutral
0 Disliked It
0 Hated It

Comments:
• It was OK. It was a fast read and an interesting look at her life. – Sarah
• I thought this book was interesting, and touched on lots of interesting topics and issues like women’s roles and war, etc. – Steph
• There were parts I was super engaged and parts that I could care less about. I was very interested in her story but I feel like I didn’t really get the full picture of Mata Hari’s life. – Danica
• It was an interesting perspective and an easy read. Felt like parts were well developed and parts were rushed. – Carrie
• I was surprised at her story and vulnerabilities but ultimately I thought she was subject to the efforts to stifle women’s power in a patriarchal society. – Kerry

0 Loved It
5 Liked It
2 Neutral
0 Disliked It
0 Hated It

Comments:
• Cute story. A nice reminder that it’s worth it to dig a little deeper to get to know someone. –
• I am not finished. Picked it up again today and read a lot. Plan to finish it. Definitely enjoying it. – Tami
• Sweet feel good story. Love ornery old men! – Carrie
• I was slow to set into it, but I ended up feeling warm and sweet at the ending and enjoyed the writing. – Chelsea
• I enjoyed the story and characters. I am glad I read this book and would recommend it. – Steph
• I didn’t dislike the story but I kept comparing it to Out of Sorts by Aurelie Valognes, I enjoyed the satire and humor in that one much more. If I hadn’t so recently read Out of Sorts, I think I would have come to this fresher and probably would have been more excited about it. The writing is great, the story structure is well done and the characters are well formed and distinct. – Danica