MADreads

Perfect for the hip and trendy wine-drinking book group

October 21st, 2009 Katharine - Sequoya

After working in the library business for awhile I noticed several types of readers.  Avid (first on holds list when books are ordered) Fairweather (everyone is reading this book so I should be too) Picky (I ONLY read romance) and the ones that I’m writing this review for, the Book Groupers.  Some Book Groupers may cross over to the other categories, but many are locked into their once a month committement for purely social reasons.  A night with a glass of wine and good friends, and oh yeah, that book we were supposed to read for tonite.

Two of my recent reads seem like they would be ideal for this demographic.  Both Misconception by Ryan Boudinot and Trouble by Kate Christensen have characters that leap off the page, starting a conversation about any of them would be like gossiping about your favorite film star or ex-high school friend.  Both books have plenty of crazy sex scenes, alcohol and drug use, adultery and unhealthy relationships, sorta like a new show on HBO, which makes them perfect for those attending a book group only after their DVR has been set for the evening.

I first read about Misconception at Shelfari and was intrigued by the author’s witty repartee.  His short book (just over 200 pages) packed in a lot of story and he employed a unique storytelling style.  Misconception, set in the mid-1980’s Pacific Northwest, begins by introducing us to Cedar and Kat, horny eight graders with two unusual sets of parents.  Fast forward twenty years and Kat has tracked down Cedar to tell him about the memoir she’s written and to make sure he won’t sue her when it comes out.  Boudinot flips back and forth between Kat’s memoir and Cedar’s narrative that fateful summer when life threw them together.  Boudinot’s unique storytelling coupled with a dramatic conclusion with a  great “one perfect line” ending make this first novel worth the read and very discussable.

Kate Christensen’s book Trouble takes place mainly in Mexico where the main characters are pulling a Thelma and Louise type getaway; tightly wound psychiatrist Josie is escaping a boring marriage in NYC and wild rock musician Raquel is escaping a tabloid style affair in LA.  Left behind in NY is their friend Indrani, a trust fund baby turned college professor who can’t find love.  Christensen talked about her book at Salon and I was pleased to find out one of my favorite book bloggers CR enjoys Christensen.  If I had to choose a few words to describe Trouble, I’d say”high brow chick lit”.  Though not a “perfect one liner” ending like Misconception, Trouble ended with a scene I just didn’t see coming.

So if your fun little book group doesn’t want to just read The Help like everyone else, suggest these two off the beaten path titles to them.  You won’t regret it.

Entry Filed under: Literary Fiction, Recreational Fiction