12 of 12! December Book Pick - Our Last Book of the Year!

I honestly cannot believe the year is coming to an end and we are about to start our final book in our year-long reading challenge! The group started as a random idea I had with a friend because we are both avid readers who loved to discuss books but never aligned our readings so we could discuss the same book at the same time. Initially, we decided to read one book a month together just for the sake of discussion. Then we figured a few more of our friends would like to join in. After a lot of excitement from our group of friends and more and more people expressing interest, I decided to make it an open Facebook group where people could join in as they pleased. I never imagined that I would make it through a whole year of running the club but I am so happy I have. Even if no one else is reading along with me (although I really hope you are!) I have come to appreciate the self-placed responsibility I have to finish books, post discussion questions and keep the challenge alive. I hope you have enjoyed being a part of the group! I definitely want to continue the book club into 2014 but maybe incorporate some twists, like theme months, rotating discussion leaders, etc. I will post about this in our Facebook group in the coming weeks so we can come up with a new challenge for the new year! 

For now, discussion for I Am Malala is now open and I look forward to hearing your thoughts! Our December book has also been chosen:

This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz is our final book pick for 2013. Diaz is an amazing author who writes complex and interesting characters. I am definitely excited to read his latest gem! Here is the summary from Amazon:

"Pulitzer Prize-winner Junot Díaz’s first book, Drown, established him as a major new writer with “the dispassionate eye of a journalist and the tongue of a poet” (Newsweek). His first novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, was named #1 Fiction Book of the Year” byTime magazine and spent more than 100 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, establishing itself – with more than a million copies in print – as a modern classic. In addition to the Pulitzer, Díaz has won a host of major awards and prizes, including the National Book Critic’s Circle Award, the PEN/Malamud Award, the PEN/O. Henry Prize, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and the Anisfield-Wolf Award.

 Now Díaz turns his remarkable talent to the haunting, impossible power of love – obsessive love, illicit love, fading love, maternal love. On a beach in the Dominican Republic, a doomed relationship flounders. In the heat of a hospital laundry room in New Jersey, a woman does her lover’s washing and thinks about his wife. In Boston, a man buys his love child, his only son, a first baseball bat and glove. At the heart of these stories is the irrepressible, irresistible Yunior, a young hardhead whose longing for love is equaled only by his recklessness--and by the extraordinary women he loves and loses: artistic Alma; the aging Miss Lora; Magdalena, who thinks all Dominican men are cheaters; and the love of his life, whose heartbreak ultimately becomes his own. In prose that is endlessly energetic, inventive, tender, and funny, the stories in the New York Times-Bestselling This Is How You Lose Her lay bare the infinite longing and inevitable weakness of the human heart. They remind us that passion always triumphs over experience, and that “the half-life of love is forever.”

December book pick: This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz

Discussion opens: December 24th 

Happy Thanksgiving! 

HBIC Book Club: November Pick

I know a lot of us are super excited for this month's book pick, I am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai. This amazing young girl has captured the attention of the whole Internet and her autobiography promises to be a great read. I already contemplated naming my first-born Malala too. I am sure we all are familiar with her story so I will skip that summary and just get straight to the book...

The summary from Amazon.com:

"When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan, one girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her right to an education. On Tuesday, October 9, 2012, when she was fifteen, she almost paid the ultimate price. She was shot in the head at point-blank range while riding the bus home from school, and few expected her to survive. Instead, Malala's miraculous recovery has taken her on an extraordinary journey from a remote valley in northern Pakistan to the halls of the United Nations in New York. At sixteen, she has become a global symbol of peaceful protest and the youngest nominee ever for the Nobel Peace Prize. I AM MALALA is the remarkable tale of a family uprooted by global terrorism, of the fight for girls' education, of a father who, himself a school owner, championed and encouraged his daughter to write and attend school, and of brave parents who have a fierce love for their daughter in a society that prizes sons. I AM MALALA will make you believe in the power of one person's voice to inspire change in the world."

MALALA! Discussion for our October book opens on Thursday so finish up Snow Flower and the Secret Fan! I look forward to hearing your thoughts about all the crazy ish that happened in this one. And now we are really in the home stretch of our year-long reading challenge. Only 2 more books to go...do we see another year on the horizon?!? 

Happy reading :)

November Book Pick: I Am Malala

Discussion opens Saturday, November 23

HBIC Book Club Rules of Order

I am soooo excited about the response that our HBIC Book Club and 2013 Reading Challenge has gotten so far. In about 2 weeks we have 60 group members participating in the challenge in our Facebook Group. Awesome! Less than a week into the new year and we already have people finished with our first book! And having rousing discussion about it to boot. Reading your thoughts and knowing how much this club has already captivated minds, challenged your brains and brought new friends together truly warms my heart. That being said, it has become apparent that I need to implement a few rules of order to make sure everyone is enjoying this challenge, and we can have controlled discussion at the end of each month. My sincere apologies to anyone who felt bombarded by comments or got details of the book revealed to them without their permission! If we all follow these guidelines it won't happen again! 

HBIC Book Club Rules of Order

1. We will read one book per month (as originally stated in the Challenge) as a group. My hope is that you choose to be involved every month but if you want to take a month off or you are a super fast reader and want to read 5 books a month then go for it! You are an adult and can make your own choices. I will still love you no matter what you decide.

2. I will announce our "Finish Date" each month (typically 3 weeks into the month) when we should all have the book finished and on which discussion will begin and last for the remainder of the month. This will allow us to match up our monthly cycles (hehe) and have a controlled "Discussion Period." Again, you are an adult, only you know your schedule, reading pace, note-taking habits, etc. If you are fast and forgetful then maybe you should wait to start the book later into the month so your thoughts are still fresh when discussion starts. If you are busy and slow then schedule your reading accordingly. You are a big girl, you can do it!

3. If you just can't wait to discuss something or have a burning questions then refrain from posting it in the group. Instead ask the group if anyone has read up to the page/chapter you are on and then discuss in a private message. Make sure you bring up what you discussed during Discussion Period so the rest of the group can hear your amazing thoughts. That's the point!

4. Suggestions for future month's books will always be taken. I will start a running list of books and upload them to the "documents" section of the group so they can be viewed. It will be updated as suggestions come in. Once per month I will start a poll in the group to choose the next book. If you want a say in the next book please vote in the poll!

5. Anything goes during Discussion Period. Ask whatever you want, discuss whatever you want (in relation to the book) without fear of spoiling the book for anyone else. If you haven't finished the book by time the Discussion Period starts then don't look at the group comments! Or do! But just know that there will be spoilers left and right.

6. And, finally, I will only say this once, be nice to each other. Slander, rudeness or general ignorance towards other members will not be tolerated for even a second. I will kick you out of the group if you are a jerk. Again the adults thing.

Otherwise have fun! I am always open to suggestions as this is the first online book club I have managed. I am learning as I go so feel free to help a sista out! 

January Book: The Girls Of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea

January Finish Date: Friday, January 25

January Discussion Period: January 25 - 31

HBIC Reading Challenge 2013

So the end of the year is near and this time of year always gets me thinking about New Year's Resolutions. I generally make a few resolutions each year and have been pretty successful about sticking to them. They are more like yearly goals or milestones, rather than resolutions, but I make them still the same. Having a quantitative time frame in which to accomplish goals makes it easier for me to visualize my timeline and actually get things done. I have a few goals in mind for 2013 that I have been formulating... 

Since I moved into my own house about 6 weeks ago I started watching a lot of TV (umm Duck Dynasty why are you so hilarious!?) and it has kinda got me bummed out. It is sooo easy to sit in front of the TV and waste a few hours without even noticing! Since I just started paying for TV again I told myself I could enjoy it until January and then I would have to cut back and force myself back into my good old habit of reading at least every evening. When my dear friend Rachel was visiting me from LA a few weeks ago we visited an awesome local book store, The Tattered Cover, so she could pick up a new book for her plane ride home. She told me that she decided to start reading all of the titles off of a list of 100 must read classics. She figured even if it took her 10 years it was a good goal and she would never be without a book suggestion.  I thought it sounded like an awesome idea and a great parameter for my 2013 goal of reading more. I could just go through the list and check each title off one by one. I talked about the idea with my other friend Emily, another avid reader, and we looked over a few different 100 lists but none of them suited our fancy. We had either already read too many of the titles and didn't want to read them again ( Harry Potter books for instance) or didn't want to read them in the first place ( aka The Bible). And then lighting struck...BANG...let's start our own book club and read books we want! We decided to do it together so we could keep each other on track and discuss the books as we go. In my aim to share my goals, struggles, ideas and accomplishments with the HBIC community I decided it would be awesome to start a full-fledged HBIC Book Club! Yippee! Another brilliant idea from the minds of babes...

So here is the plan:

Each month for an entire year we will read one book and our Facebook group will host open conversation and discussion as we read. We can vote on the next months topic and/or title so we read books that we are interested in but also new to us. We hope that some other fabulous women want to join in on this challenge and together we can read great books, have mindful discussions and accomplish something real! We took the liberty of deciding on January's book, The Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea, so if you want to join the group then order it, pick it up from the library or borrow it from a friend and on January 1st start reading!  I will post reminders in the group and questions or thoughts as the month goes on so we can help each other stay on track and motivated. Feel free to post your own questions, thoughts and suggestions in the group as we go along. At the end of each month we will have a group convo about the overall book and then start our next pick! Sounds like fun right?? 

If you are interested in joining the official HBIC book cub then join the Facebook group and start reading! Everyone is invited and welcomed. I challenge you to take on a goal for 2013 that may seem a little too big, a little scary or a little out of your comfort zone and then reap the sweet rewards of self-affirmation when you kick that goal's ass. Maybe your goal involves the HBIC book club, maybe not, but whatever it is know that I support you!  When we support each other in our goals, we all accomplish more.

 Happy Holidays and a Fruitful 2013!!!