What Book Shall We Read Next?

*Girl in a Blue Dress by Gaynor Arnold*

Our next selection for the Sista Hood Book Club has been finalized...update soon on length of time to read the book and meeting date!

So after a fantastic Sista Hood Book Club meeting last Sunday, we are now ready to select a new book!

I personally found this last meeting extra special because the author of Lime Tree Can't Bear Orange, Amanda Smyth, offered to join us for our discussion.  Her added insight about the writing process and open attitude around our reactions to her characters made our discussion quite unique. 

During the discussion, Amanda Smyth offered her best ideas for our next book club selection:

Girl in a Blue Dress by Gaynor Arnold

A Kind of Intimacy by Jenn Ashworth

Voyage in the Dark by Jean Rhys

Our own PNN peeps have suggested the following: 

Half Broke Horses by Jeanette Walls

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby

Brother I'm Dying by Edwidge Danticat

Please take a moment to look at the info about each of the titles and weigh in on your fave for our next read!

Creative Conception

Guess what? Despite all evidence to the contrary, I really DON’T spend all of my time reading and writing blogs!

In fact, in October 2007, I officially became a published author and, though I have fallen far short in the marketing aspect of said book, it IS still out there and available.  At our fun and fabulous Girl’s Night Out last Thursday, some PNN ladies expressed some interest in buying a copy for themselves or friends…so I thought I’d give some further details on the book.  If you DO decide to buy a copy, feel free to let me know as I have a few signed copies available that I could send out…with a discount for my lovely, supportive friends.

 “Surely I’ll get pregnant as soon as I stop taking the pill…I mean, that’s what mom always lectured me about!”  Unfortunately, as many women discover, and the increase in use of invasive IVF treatments attests to, sometimes becoming pregnant isn’t as inevitable as we’d thought. As more and more women put off having children until they have established their career, traveled and met the right partner, they are finding the supposedly simple task of becoming pregnant is more difficult than they’d ever imagined.

Today’s woman, compared to yesterday’s, is generally far more educated, career-focused and health-savvy.  She wants to plan her career, her overseas holidays, her wedding and, ultimately, her family.  When finally deciding that the time is right to start a family, she wants to see what state her mind and body need to be in before she conceives…and, like me, if she looks in the bookstores she’ll have a damn hard time finding it!

This book was written out of sheer frustration by a woman and her doctor, for women who want to take positive steps to ensure that their physical, mental and emotional health is up-to-scratch before trying to conceive.  With an easy-to-read, but informed (and sometimes humorous) approach, this book serves as a practical guide to those women who want to know how to prepare their body and mind for the ultimate experience…ensuring their own, and their future baby’s, health and happiness.

As a modern, educated 30+ year old ‘career woman’ I fell smack in the middle of all of the New Age wannabe Moms. With little or no good practical information I could lay my hands on (including using every ‘fuzzy’ search I could think to use on Amazon!) my frustration hit breaking point and I decided to write my own book for myself, my friends and every other woman scratching her head in my demographic. Not only did I do the 12 months research, but I spent over 6 months putting my advice into practice before attempting conception…and succeeding!  With the support of my own personal Team of Experts (doctors, dieticians, new moms and other wannabe moms) I have found out what works and have put it together in a format that is highly approachable, enjoyable and thoroughly readable.

I really believe...this book is beautiful

I know that I like a book when, at the turn of the last page, I feel a bit sad that its all over.  And I know I that I have officially fallen in love with a book when the author has written so well that the heroine has almost become like a real-life friend, where the end of the story feels like that new great friend is moving far far away.

That is exactly what I felt when reading through the eyes of Lanie Coates, Katherine Center’s charming heroine in Everyone Is Beautiful. 

From the first page, Lanie was a quintessential “real woman” with whom I could easily identify.  Moving house with a husband and young boys? Check.  Feeling insecure about post-baby body? Check.  Standing on the verge of something larger, something separate from family, something just for self? Check, check and check!

Katherine Center has shown that she has the wonderful ability to create characters that you might wish lived next door – close enough for a coffee, or at least within earshot for good eavesdropping!  Even for readers who have passed (or are yet to venture into) young parenthood, the universal feeling of being overwhelmed or uninspired by one’s current circumstances makes it possible to see hope and humor in Lanie’s decisions.

In the end, my favorite part was what turned out to be the driver behind the title of the book and was undoubtedly the most poetic prose in the novel. “And here, after all that, is what I have come to believe about beauty: Laughter is beautiful. Kindness is beautiful. Cellulite is beautiful. Softness and plumpness and roundness are beautiful. It’s more important to be interesting, to be vivid, and to be adventurous, than to sit pretty for pictures.” And then, “Beauty comes from variety, from specificity, from the fact that no person in the world looks exactly like anyone else. Beauty comes from the tragedy that each person’s life is destined to be lost to time.”