Book Club Discussion: Why I Love Singlehood

Provisions and Paperbacks, my IRL book club, recently read Why I Love Singlehood by Elisa Lorello and Sarah Girrell. As I said in my previous post (you can read it here), I want to share some thoughts and ideas brought up during the book club and bring my blog readers into the discussion.

Not yet, but there will be spoilers. You have been warned.

Why I Love Singlehood 
by Elisa Lorello and Sarah Girrell
Published November 29, 2010
Pages: 368

Eva Perino is single and proud of it. Owner of The Grounds, a coffee shop nestled in the heart of a college town, thirtysomething Eva cherishes her comfortable life filled with quirky friends, a fun job, and no significant other. In fact, she’s so content to be on her own that she started a blog about it: “Why I Love Singlehood.” Yet when she hears the news of her ex-boyfriend’s engagement, her confidence in her single status takes a surprisingly hard hit. So begins Eva’s clumsy (and occasionally uproarious) search for love as she secretly joins an online dating site, tries her hand at speed-dating, and breaks her own rule by getting involved with one of The Grounds’ regulars. Soon Eva is forced to figure out exactly who—or what—is the true love of her life. 

Sparkling with warmth and wit, Why I Love Singlehood is a charming and insightful must-read for anyone—single or otherwise—who has ever been stymied by love.

There will be spoilers. You have been warned.

Here are some thoughts shared during our book club discussion after reading Why I Love Singlehood:

Disclaimer: We read this back in May and I didn't take any notes, so these are from memory and we actually discussed more, but this is all that's coming to back to me.

• The person who selected this book wasn't able to make the book club meeting, so we weren't able to hear her thoughts on the book and why she selected it for us to read.
• The writing style and the voices of the characters were seamless, and it wasn't obvious that Why I Love Singlehood was co-authored. However, when it seemed like the story was about to wrap up, a new story line would be introduced and we were curious if this was because the authors what to make sure that all ideas were included. This probably was not the case, but we considered it.
• We wanted to hang out at The Grounds. It sounded like a fun place to be with all of the comings and goings of interesting people.
• Reading about Eva baking made us hungry.
• As soon as Eva started writing her blog, it felt like she was trying to convince herself that she loved singlehood.When she was with her friends, she embraced the single life, but when she sat down and wrote about it on her blog, she expressed something else. 
• It was interesting to read about Eva's dates and it made us thankful that none of us were single and dating.
• There were a lot of characters (many of them were customers at The Grounds) and it was hard to keep track of them all.
• Overall we liked the book, but thought it could have been shorter and it still would have been as entertaining.

       Goodreads * Amazon * IndieBound

If you have read this book, I'd like to invite you to join in on the discussion and share your thoughts on Why I Love Singlehood!! Just leave your thoughts in the comments! Thanks!!

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Book Club Discussion: The Butterfly Clues by Kate Ellison

Provisions and Paperbacks, my IRL book club, recently read The Butterfly Clues by Kate Ellison. As I said in the initial post (you can read it here), I want to share some thoughts and ideas brought up during the book club and bring my blog readers into the discussion.

Not yet, but there will be spoilers. You have been warned.

The Butterfly Clues 
by Kate Ellison
Published February 14, 2012
Pages: 325

Penelope (Lo) Marin has always loved to collect beautiful things. Her dad's consulting job means she's grown up moving from one rundown city to the next, and she's learned to cope by collecting (sometimes even stealing) quirky trinkets and souvenirs in each new place--possessions that allow her to feel at least some semblance of home.

But in the year since her brother Oren's death, Lo's hoarding has blossomed into a full-blown, potentially dangerous obsession. She discovers a beautiful, antique butterfly pendant during a routine scour at a weekend flea market, and recognizes it as having been stolen from the home of a recently murdered girl known only as "Sapphire"--a girl just a few years older than Lo. As usual when Lo begins to obsess over something, she can't get the murder out of her mind.

As she attempts to piece together the mysterious "butterfly clues," with the unlikely help of a street artist named Flynt, Lo quickly finds herself caught up in a seedy, violent underworld much closer to home than she ever imagined--a world, she'll ultimately discover, that could hold the key to her brother's tragic death.

There will be spoilers. You have been warned.

Here are some thoughts shared during our book club discussion after reading The Butterfly Clues:

• So many of the characters weren't known by their real names: Flynt, Sapphire, Bird, and even the main character Lo. Why didn't they use their real names? Did this allow them to create a "street" persona or did it free them from their past? Naming themselves allowed them to be who they wanted to be, eliminated expectations.
• Lo's OCD stalled her, "But since Oren disappeared it has gotten worse" (page 15) At first it seemed like a quirk, but as we continued to read, it was apparent that it was debilitating. 
• The OCD affected us as readers. Some of us even arrived to book club saying, "tap, tap, tap, banana" - this was something that Lo did frequently before she could do anything else. Reading her OCD habits was exhausting, halted the flow of the story, but there was a point to this. It stressed what it was like to live with this behavior. As readers we couldn't continue reading progressively until Lo did her rituals.
• It was easy to be suspicious of Flynt. Did he know Oren? Had their paths crossed? Why did Flynt lie so frequently? Was he the killer? He was connected in too many ways to not be involved somehow. We didn't want to be suspicious of him because he had a certain kind of charm.
• Lo's OCD puts her in dangerous situations. Her need to know more, to make sense of everything, made her blind to these dangers. The obsession drove her. It's not clear if she realized the danger that she was putting herself in. 
• Flynt understood these dangers and even though he was sketchy, it said a lot about him that he took risks and was willing to help her. He understood to "rules" of the streets and knew that he was putting himself in danger as they tried to find out what happened to Sapphire (and Lo).
• The character "The Prophet" did prove to be prophetic - even though he was blind he knew everything about everyone.
• It was a shock to see Lo's OCD through the eyes of her parents. Her "collecting" of objects didn't seem that bad (we only knew it from her perspective). It was only when her dad described her room that we could understand just how out of control it was. 
• The Butterfly Clues was an interesting read, a mystery that wasn't easily solved. There are many layers to it and offered a lot to be discussed. It was a great book club pick.

        
Goodreads * Amazon * IndieBound

I'd like to invite anyone to join in on the discussion and share your thoughts on The Butterfly Clues!! Just leave your thoughts in the comments! 
Thanks!!

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