Book Club
A few friends of mine and I started a legit book club. Yes, there was wine... but for-real, wine is a kind of a prerequisite for a book club. Our first book we read was: Big Little Lies. Let me just tell you, wow. There is a reason they made an HBO show. I've now watched the show and though I liked it a lot, the actors are some of my favorites, I liked the book better.
Spoilers, I will talk about the book from this point on.
The books tone was more sarcastic and satirical in certain points in the plot, examples being like: the teachers having to deal with the "bulling" helicopter parents and the school Trivia night, and following the character Madeline Mackenzie (everything she touched was gold). I laughed so hard at the school trivia night. It was the perfect set up for the climax and the big reveal of "who" actually gets murdered at the end. I honestly didn't see it coming.
This book took my emotions on a roller-coaster ride and I'm grateful for that. Most of the content is brutal and heart breaking. Jane and Celeste (more so the latter) story-lines are tragic and distressing. The domestic violence from Celeste POV is frustrating. She is dealing with the reason 'why' most women don't leave a man like that. Giving excuses for him, even as he's beating her up. Finally going to a therapist to get help.
Jane's POV is having to overcome a trauma of being raped on a one-night stand; what was supposed to be a fun experience turns violent and results in her getting pregnant. Which she keeps because a doctor previously told her that she'd eventually have a hard time getting pregnant if she ever wanted to have children in the future. As we follow Jane, her son Ziggy becomes part of a witch hunt involving the kindergarten parents. He was accused of choking another little girl on orientation day, and most of the parents don't bother uncovering the truth and begin behaving cruelly to Jane and Ziggy. Through the story Jane worries that Ziggy is violent because of what his father had done to her. That he inherited his violent nature. Ziggy keeps insisting that her didn't hurt the little girl. Putting Jane in a emotional conundrum.
Madeline was my favorite POV; she's dealing with an ex-husband and his seemingly perfect wife, a fourteen year old daughter who's behaving like a teenager and idolizes her step-mom Bonnie; and then going to war with some of the other kindergarten Mom's who are exuding and semi-bulling Jane and her son Ziggy. Madeleine feels like she has to protect Jane because she remembers what it was like to be a single Mom when her ex-husband left her with a young baby.
'Big Little Lies' came with discussion question's in the back of the book that my friends and I were able to discuss. It made our first meeting a success and tackled the hard questions that the novel was trying to convey. The social commentary on what women have to deal with everyday. I've missing being able to have real book discussions.
Our next book that we're tackling is 'Wuthering Heights' which amazingly none of us have read. I've always felt like a bad English major for not having read it before, but hooray, I'm not the only one.
Spoilers, I will talk about the book from this point on.
The books tone was more sarcastic and satirical in certain points in the plot, examples being like: the teachers having to deal with the "bulling" helicopter parents and the school Trivia night, and following the character Madeline Mackenzie (everything she touched was gold). I laughed so hard at the school trivia night. It was the perfect set up for the climax and the big reveal of "who" actually gets murdered at the end. I honestly didn't see it coming.
This book took my emotions on a roller-coaster ride and I'm grateful for that. Most of the content is brutal and heart breaking. Jane and Celeste (more so the latter) story-lines are tragic and distressing. The domestic violence from Celeste POV is frustrating. She is dealing with the reason 'why' most women don't leave a man like that. Giving excuses for him, even as he's beating her up. Finally going to a therapist to get help.
Jane's POV is having to overcome a trauma of being raped on a one-night stand; what was supposed to be a fun experience turns violent and results in her getting pregnant. Which she keeps because a doctor previously told her that she'd eventually have a hard time getting pregnant if she ever wanted to have children in the future. As we follow Jane, her son Ziggy becomes part of a witch hunt involving the kindergarten parents. He was accused of choking another little girl on orientation day, and most of the parents don't bother uncovering the truth and begin behaving cruelly to Jane and Ziggy. Through the story Jane worries that Ziggy is violent because of what his father had done to her. That he inherited his violent nature. Ziggy keeps insisting that her didn't hurt the little girl. Putting Jane in a emotional conundrum.
Madeline was my favorite POV; she's dealing with an ex-husband and his seemingly perfect wife, a fourteen year old daughter who's behaving like a teenager and idolizes her step-mom Bonnie; and then going to war with some of the other kindergarten Mom's who are exuding and semi-bulling Jane and her son Ziggy. Madeleine feels like she has to protect Jane because she remembers what it was like to be a single Mom when her ex-husband left her with a young baby.
'Big Little Lies' came with discussion question's in the back of the book that my friends and I were able to discuss. It made our first meeting a success and tackled the hard questions that the novel was trying to convey. The social commentary on what women have to deal with everyday. I've missing being able to have real book discussions.
Our next book that we're tackling is 'Wuthering Heights' which amazingly none of us have read. I've always felt like a bad English major for not having read it before, but hooray, I'm not the only one.
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