The Universe is trying to tell me something...

Tonight i have my 10 year high school reunion and i'm kind of dreading it. If you don't already know this about me, I hate small talk. I'm just not good at it... And I feel like this reunion is going to be a night of small talk. A night of telling people who in most cases I haven't seen in ten years about what those years have been like... in 25 words or less. What fun!

Having said that, i guess i am interested in what a few of them have been up to, I'm sure there will be some great stories and many adventures to share (some of them mine), so hopefully it will be a night to catch up on the fun things, not a night to revisit the cliquey smugness of my private girls school education.

In the same day that the last ten years caught up with me i had another blast from the past, which is the reason i'm writing. My early teenage years were spent doing a lot of reading... I did a lot of other things (under 13s basketball with the Waverley Raiders to name just one highlight) but reading was definitely up there. And there was one series which i remember the most. I was obsessed with them and wanted to live their lives (elizabeth, not jessica), and that was the Sweet Valley series.

There was Sweet Valley Twins, Sweet Valley High, and Sweet Valley University. And this morning I discovered (thanks People.com on twitter) that now, years after they finished releasing them, there is going to be another book - Sweet Valley Confidential! Am too excited.

Interesting timing though... I'm realising that these 10 years which have come and gone since leaving high school have been incredible, and I wouldn't take back any of them (not yet anyway), and even if the five girls under 26 in my team don't even know who Elizabeth and Jessica are (WTF!), the main thing is that i'm old enough to know cool stuff like this. And i'm totally happy with that.

http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20435286,00.html?xid=rss-topheadlines

An awesome book i've heard of!

http://www.borders.com.au/book/clean-and-lean-diet/7846540/
Ok, so it's not a novel but i've heard rave reviews. I'll report back on it once it bloody turns up from Amazon.
That is all

Sorry about last bookclub

I can't believe I broke my promise already! I still haven't blogged about out last book club (The Other Hand) and now I've forgotten a lot of the detail!

In future i'm going to borrow Brett's dicta phone thingy and record it so i can be a little more thorough. I promise!

Bookclub is next week at the House of Deniz (sans Jenny Deniz as she'll be gallivanting off somewhere interstate) and we've all been reading The Godfather (or at least i hope we have!) and i have to say i'm almost finished reading it and i love it! It's not my style of book at all, or at least i thought it wasn't but i'm 100% in! I never would have picked it up off the book shelf, and to be honest i didn't even know it was a book before it was a movie, but i'm converted. Nice choice Abby!

http://www.borders.com.au/book/godfather/56851/

I have another confession to make... I fully intend to break with protocol and watch the three movies before we catch up on Wednesday... I think I've seen them before but i clearly don't remember. I feel like the book is intrinsically linked to the film now, and throughout the entire (very long) book I've been picturing all the characters straight from the film, so it should be interesting to see the differences.

Plus we always forget to talk about the film version of the books we read after the fact, and i bet you lot have all already seen the movies so i just want to be able to keep up with conversation!

http://www.thegodfather.com/ 

See you on Wednesday!

Catcher in the Rye

Hi book clubbers, through my awesome investigation powers i have discovered that Catcher in the Rye will be discussed on the First Tuesday Book Club tonight on ABC.

I honestly don't know what they could discuss/uncover which we haven't already covered, but i suppose they might have another perspective...

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/firsttuesday/

Anyway it might be interesting...

Book Club tomorrow!

It's book club tomorrow night, The Other Hand by Chris Cleave, and i came across some quotes from the book which i really liked. check these out (sam, this means you)  http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/374590.Chris_Cleave

there is one quote on the very last page which i liked, but i'm not totally sure if i agree with it or not. I'll find it and post it here. It has sort of stuck with me all day today.

Here is a reading group guide from Chris Cleave's website which is interesting, some of it is a bit lame, but there are some good thought starters.
http://www.chriscleave.com/little-bee/reading-group-guide/
here is some more
http://www.hodder.co.uk/Assets/WorkAssets/ReadingGuides/Other_Hand_RG.pdf

I wonder why the U.S. book has another name... It's called Little Bee. I understand why some publishers change the name of their books in different markets, but that's usually because it's lost in translation, but this title seems pretty cross-cultural to me...

Can't wait for book club!

Welcome book clubbers!

Well i was going to make my first post about this months book (which is The Other Hand by Chris Cleave by the way  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Other-Hand-Chris-Cleave/dp/0340963409 ) but i figure it is best to just start from the start...

I want to write about what book club means to me... Book Club is my favourite night of the month, and has been for almost three years now. Part of what i love about book club isn't just discussing the book though, it's the month before that, it's reading a book which i probably never would have picked up before and reading it at the same time as eight of my friends. During this month i'm always thinking about what their reactions are going to be, what parts of the book they are going to love or hate or flick past and then being surprised by the actual experience those people had.  I love knowing that my friends are having a totally different experience from the same book than i'm having, and i love seeing how my own and my friend's attitudes and prejudices change over time.

Another thing i love about book club? Finding out what books people haven't read... Both Amy and Sam haven't read Pride and Prejudice! How is that possible! That's like someone saying they haven't seen Dirty Dancing or Ferris Bueller's Day off! It just shouldn't happen in a civilised society!

I'm going to finish up now, but i want to make a promise... I promise to keep this blog updated and write about the books we read and what we talk about in book club... whether you find that interesting and choose to read it or not is up to you, but it will be here all the same.

Love ya guts!

Sally