Her Fearful Symmetry

~Stacey's choice~

So yes. The book club was many, many months ago and I'm just now getting around to blogging. I'd like to say it's because I was SOOO busy, but in reality, I think it's because I just was NOT excited to blog about this book. After selecting a few golden books in the past {Same Kind of Different as Me, The Thirteenth Tale, Sarah's Key, Little Bee), I knew the pressure was on to select another good one. Well, I failed. Miserably. The book I chose, Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger, is not one I'd recommend. I had wanted to select another "suspenseful" book, but this one was not suspenseful, but rather a weird ghost story.


The story is about two young American twin girls, Julia and Valentina, who inherit an apartment from their English aunt, Elspeth (their mother's twin), that they have never met. They move to London to live in the apartment for a year, and while they are there, they get to know the people in Elspeth's life - her neighbor Martin, who suffers from OCD, and her boy-toy, Robert. I thought Martin was a well-developed character. Reading about his OCD tendencies and seeing the affect it had on his marriage and friendships was heart-breaking. This book had the potential to be a good story if it had been just about the twins learning who their aunt was and exploring the new relationships they encountered in London. Instead, it took a weird turn when the twins start communicating with Elspeth, who has been trapped in her apartment as a ghost. Valentina, the "weaker" twin, comes up with a plan to separate her life from Julia and it's all down-hill from there... After that, it's just a jumble of confusing, ridiculous, and SILLY story-lines.

Honestly, for those of you out there looking for a book recommendation, this is not one of them. Don't waste your time. We've read SO many better books than this! I AM proud of myself for finishing it, though. :-)

Here were our ratings for the book: (I honestly have no idea why I rated it this high! Months later, I'd like to change it to a 5... Haha!)

Stacey: 7
Kristin: 8
Allison: 8
Camille: 7.5
Erin: 7.75

BOSSYPANTS

I need to comment that now I am the worst blogger ever since we met in October, and it is now February. Sue me. Ha! That sounds like something a Bossypants would say. Anyway...a long time ago, we read a book called Bossypants by Tina Fey. She wrote all about her life in a very humorous way. Of course she did. This is Tina Fey. From Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock. She is hilarious.

Bossypants is a quick read about all different aspects of Tina's life. You'll find out how she got that crazy scar on her face and read about her horrible honeymoon while crying from laughing at the same time. One of the best parts of the book is all the pictures she has along the way. Hi.Lar.I.Ous. However, Allison opted for the audio version of the book and enjoyed hearing Tina's voice tell all the stories. So that could be fun, if you're into that kind of thing. We agreed that women will probably find this book more enjoyable than men, since we can relate to more of the things she writes about, but I did find myself reading several excerpts to my husband, and he thought they were very funny too. He's a comedian, so he knows funny. Here are the ratings we gave the book:

Allison: 8
Kristin: 9
Camille: 8.5
Erin: 9
Stacey: 7.5

After discussing the book, we sat around and talked...like women do. We talked about the hot drinks we were enjoying...like women do. Then we reminisced about the commercials from the 80s for General Foods International Coffees...like women do. Then we realized we were acting like the ladies from the commercials by sitting around, enjoying our beverages, reminiscing about old times, so we decided to remake one of those commercials...like women do? Well, very much like something we would do. So, we spent the next while writing a script and getting dressed up like 80's ladies. And this is what we made:

So, until next time, please make sure that you "Celebrate the moments of your life."
-Erin