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: October Pick!

I can't believe we just picked our October book! Summer is officially over. I'm cuddled up under a blanket as I type this and apparently it is snowing in the Colorado mountains already. Sigh...

I guess the title for our next book pick is fitting then: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See (Get it? SNOW? Ok I know that was cheesy but it is early and I haven't had any coffee yet.) I am excited to take our club to China, somewhere we have not been yet through our reading travels and this is another best-seller that has already been made into a movie (no cheating by Netflix-ing it!). It looks to be an easy, fun read that will give us insight into 19th- century Chinese female life. 

Image from lisasee.com

Here is the Amazon.com summary: 

In nineteenth-century China, in a remote Hunan county, a girl named Lily, at the tender age of seven, is paired with a laotong, “old same,” in an emotional match that will last a lifetime. The laotong, Snow Flower, introduces herself by sending Lily a silk fan on which she’s painted a poem in nu shu, a unique language that Chinese women created in order to communicate in secret, away from the influence of men. As the years pass, Lily and Snow Flower send messages on fans, compose stories on handkerchiefs, reaching out of isolation to share their hopes, dreams, and accomplishments. Together, they endure the agony of foot-binding, and reflect upon their arranged marriages, shared loneliness, and the joys and tragedies of motherhood. The two find solace, developing a bond that keeps their spirits alive. But when a misunderstanding arises, their deep friendship suddenly threatens to tear apart.

This book will be our 10th in our year long reading challenge! As for now please join the discussion for our September book, Red Dust Road by Jackie Kay, happening now in our Facebook group. And feel free to invite friends to join the group so they can participate in the tail-end of our challenge. 

October Book Pick: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

Discussion Opens: Thursday, October 24th 

HBIC Book Club: September Book Pick

Welp it's August 24th. Summer is almost over and it is time to discuss yet another finished book in our year long pursuit of elevated reading! I am looking forward to hearing what my fellow club members think about The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides. All I will say here is I am surprised this is a best-seller and won top book awards! Join me in the discussion in our Facebook group here and let everyone know what you thought!

We had a tie in our September book poll! The two top choices were Red Dust Road by Jackie Kay and This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz. Both of these titles have been on my personal list for a while so I would be happy with either one BUT since I have to be the tie-breaker I am going to pick Red Dust Road. Honestly, I just wanted a little variety and the Diaz book sounds like a lot of love lost, forlorn stories and young heartbreak, similar to The Marriage Plot. And I just finished a Diaz book about a month ago so I could use some time before delving into the next one. Being the tie-breaker is just one of the perks of running this book club I guess! 

The summary from Amazon:

'Like the best memoirs, this one is written with novelistic and poetic flair. Red Dust Road is a fantastic, probing and heart-warming read' - "Independent". From the moment when, as a little girl, she realizes that her skin is a different colour from that of her beloved mum and dad, to the tracing and finding of her birth parents, her Highland mother and Nigerian father, Jackie Kay's journey in "Red Dust Road" is one of unexpected twists, turns and deep emotions. In a book remarkable for its warmth and candour, she discovers that inheritance is about much more than genes: that we are shaped by songs as much as by cells, and that what triumphs, ultimately, is love. 'A clear-eyed, witty and unsentimental account of the push and pull between nature and nurture. Happiness shines through' - "Sunday Times". 'Wonderful, humane ...This is a book with resolution, determination and honesty' - "Scotland on Sunday". 'It is Kay's abundant wit that makes Red Dust Road such a moving, spirited work. This is a terrifically easy, evocative, and often amusing read ...A remarkable, soul-searching journey' - "Sunday Herald".

See you all in the Facebook group for discussion time. And happy reading for September :)

September Book Pick: Red Dust Road by Jackie Kay

Discussion Period Opens: Monday, September 23rd

HBIC Book Club - August Book Pick!

Well another month has flown by, I know I say that every month but every month I am shocked at how fast the weeks pass. Must be old age. Anyway, we just finished another book! 7 books into our year long, 12 book challenge! Awesomeness. I loved Day After Night by Anita Diamant. She is such an imaginative historical writer. The setting of the book was so depressing (boo The Holocaust) but she managed to create distinct and multi-dimentional characters that stood out from their historical circumstances. They were relatable and complex and I really look forward to hearing what the group has to say about this book! Speak up and let your voice be heard! ;)

So our August book pick is in! Next month we will be reading The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides. This novel was named a Best Book of the Year by The New York Times, NPR, Salon, Publisher's Weekly, and many others so I guess it's gonna be good! 

The Amazon summary: 

"Are the great love stories of the nineteenth century dead? Or can there be a new story, written for today and alive to the realities of feminism, sexual freedom, prenups, and divorce? It’s the early 1980s. In American colleges, the wised-up kids are inhaling Derrida and listening to Talking Heads. But Madeleine Hanna, dutiful English major, is writing her senior thesis on Jane Austen and George Eliot, purveyors of the marriage plot that lies at the heart of the greatest English novels. As Madeleine studies the age-old motivations of the human heart, real life, in the form of two very different guys, intervenes---the charismatic and intense Leonard Bankhead, and her old friend the mystically inclined Mitchell Grammaticus. As all three of them face life in the real world they will have to reevaluate everything they have learned. Jeffrey Eugenides creates a new kind of contemporary love story in "his most powerful novel yet" (Newsweek)."

Sounds interesting! Also Jeffrey Eugenides rocks.

Happy Reading HBICs :)

August Book: The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides

Discussion Opens: Saturday, August 24th

HBIC Book Club - July Book Pick!

Woowee I cannot believe we are halfway through 2013 AND our year-long book challenge. A pat-on-the-back to each and everyone that has kept up with the reading and participated in discussions! We just opened discussion for Women, Food and God by Geneen Roth. I am interested in hearing what others have to say about this book because it was nothing what I expected! If you have something to add please push yourself out of your comfort zone and join the discussion!

Everything takes place in our Facebook group here!

With that being said, our July book pick is in! It was a close race this month but we have a winner by one vote: Day After Night by Anita Diamant

Image from http://articulo.mercadolibre.com.mx

I am looking forward to this book because Anita Diamant is amazing! The Red Tent is one of my all time favorite books so I cannot wait to read this publication. I'm also always interested in Jewish historical fiction as it is my own personal heritage. Here is the summary from Amazon:

Just as she gave voice to the silent women of the Old Testament in The Red Tent, Anita Diamant creates a cast of breathtakingly vivid characters -- young women who escaped to Israel from Nazi Europe -- in this intensely dramatic novel.This is an unforgettable story of tragedy and redemption, a novel that reimagines a moment in history with such stunning eloquence that we are haunted and moved by every devastating detail. Day After Night is a triumphant work of fiction. Day After Night is based on the extraordinary true story of the October 1945 rescue of more than two hundred prisoners from the Atlit internment camp, a prison for "illegal" immigrants run by the British military near the Mediterranean coast south of Haifa. The story is told through the eyes of four young women at the camp with profoundly different stories. All of them survived the Holocaust: Shayndel, a Polish Zionist; Leonie, a Parisian beauty; Tedi, a hidden Dutch Jew; and Zorah, a concentration camp survivor. Haunted by unspeakable memories and losses, afraid to begin to hope, Shayndel, Leonie, Tedi, and Zorah find salvation in the bonds of friendship and shared experience even as they confront the challenge of re-creating themselves in a strange new country.

July Book Pick: Day After Night by Anita Diamant

Discussion Opens: Wednesday July 24th

Happy reading HBICs!

HBIC Book Club: June Pick!

Hello lovely spring flowers! Hope this post finds all of my friends well and enjoying the beautiful life that spring has returned to us. I know I am! I just finished running my (half) marathon for the Alliance for Lupus Research and this weekend I am off to visit friends in Cali. YAY.

Our discussion for our May book, Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, does not open until Friday but I wanted to post our June book early (mostly in preparation for my trip - gots to get things done so I can travel, worry-free). I really enjoyed reading Gone Girl. I never read thrillers but maybe I should start to more often because this book totally kept me on my toes. Once I got through the slow first few chapters I could not put it down! Literally! The ending is all kinds of messed up but I will save those comments for discussion. Anyway, I am glad that, yet again, the group voted for a book I would have never chosen on my own. I love this new book discovery! And this group! 

Our June pick is Women Food and God: An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything by Geneen Roth. I have had this book on my personal "To-Read" list for a few years now so I am so excited that it caught the eye of so many group members and won this month's poll! 

Here is the summary from Amazon: 

"No matter how sophisticated or wealthy or broke or enlightened you are, how you eat tells all.

After three decades of studying, teaching and writing about our compulsions with food, bestselling author Geneen Roth adds a powerful new dimension to her work in Women Food and God. She begins with her most basic concept: The way you eat is inseparable from your core beliefs about being alive. Your relationship with food is an exact mirror of your feelings about love, fear, anger, meaning, transformation and, yes, even God. A timeless and seminal work, Women Food and God shows how going beyond the food and the feelings takes you deeper into realms of spirit and soul—to the bright center of your own life."

Sounds like this book may give us all a little does of self-discovery. I can't imagine what the connections between how we eat and our relationship with God are but I am excited to find out. Roth has decades of research on these topics and many other books to her credit so I think this will provide us with a lot to talk (and think) about. If you have any friends who are finishing up school for the semester and want to join the club please invite them to our Facebook group. Everyone is welcome. Happy Reading!

June Book Pick: Women Food and God: An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything

Discussion Opens: Sunday, June 23rd

And congrats to everyone for making it all the way to June! One more book and we will be halfway finished with our year-long challenge :)

HBIC Book Club: February Pick

Well the HBIC Book Club has successfully completed our first book and are in the midst of our discussion period. I love the questions and discussion that is happening so far! I read that something like less than 10% of people actually keep their New Year's resolutions after January so I would just like to say congrats to everyone that committed to the 2013 Reading Challenge and is sticking with it! (For anyone that recently joined or is still thinking about it then come on board! We are committed to reading one fun book per month for the year.)

With that said, it is time to announce our February book pick! Thanks to everyone that voted in our poll and chose, The Feminist and The Cowboy: An Unlikely Love Story by Alisa Valdes Rodriquez.

Summary of the book from Amazon:

Feminism was a religion in Alisa Valdes’s childhood home. Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem took the place of Barbies and left Valdes impressed with a feminist ideology that guided a prolific writing career—at twenty-two Valdes was named one of the top feminist writers under thirty by the editor of Ms Magazine. Yet despite her professional success, Valdes hit forty-two a single mom and a serial dater of inadequate men in tweed jackets—until she met the Cowboy. A conservative rancher, the Cowboy held the traditional views on gender roles that Valdes was raised to reject. Yet as she falls head-over-spurs for him and their relationship finds harmony, she finds the strength, peace, and happiness that comes from embracing her femininity. From their first date the Cowboy makes her pulse race, and she discovers that “when men… act like men rather than like emasculated boys, you as a woman will find not only great pleasure in submitting to them but also great growth as a person.”  Told with plenty of humor and candor, The Feminist and the Cowboy will delight the many readers who made The Pioneer Woman a bestseller—not to mention every woman who dreams of being swept away by a rugged cowboy.

I must admit that this was not my pick for our next book and the summary does not excite me. From the summary and few short reviews I have read online this seems like a structureless love story laden with cliches about feminism. Such cliches are not only not funny but are a sad excuse for complex writing. There is nothing interesting or provocative about ideology cliches and I fear that this book is just more 50 Shades of Grey-esque garbage that was spewed out and gained praise because everyone loves a love story, even if the relationship on display is dysfunctional and dangerous. But this book was the most popular vote so it is our February pick (democracy rules)! Hopefully I will be proved wrong and it will end up being an interesting read. We shall see...

Finish Date: Friday, February 21st

Discussion Period: Feb 21 - Feb 28

I bought my copy last night on Ebay for about $19 including shipping, FYI.

HAPPY READING! 

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!!!

Dove Self Esteem Weekend 2012

Happy Friday y'all! I wanted to make sure you all knew about the Dove Self Esteem Weekend that starts today. In support of their corporate mission to help women and girls with body image and appearance issues they are holding this 3 day campaign to help people start a conversation about self- esteem with younger girls. I am a HUGE fan of corporate social responsibility and think this is an awesome campaign from Dove.

Join women across the country, October 5-7, when Dove will be holding a nationwide rally to talk about beauty, confidence and self-esteem. Commit to talk to the girl in your life during the weekend and beyond - it all starts with a conversation. If you can't share over the weekend, any time is a good time to start the conversation. Not sure where to start? Download the Let's Talk Toolkit using this link.

Dove research shows that it is still important for us to address girls' anxiety about looks, as there is a universal increase in beauty pressure and a decrease in girls' confidence as they grow older.
Key findings from the latest research include:

- Only 4% of women around the world consider themselves beautiful (up from 2% in 2004)

- Only 11% of girls globally are comfortable using the word beautiful to describe themselves

- 72% of girls feel tremendous pressure to be beautiful

80% of women agree that every woman has something about her that is beautiful but do not see their own beauty

- More than half (54%) of women globally agree that when it comes to how they look, they are their own worst beauty critic*

Created with Jess Weiner, Dove Global Self-Esteem Ambassador, this is a great resource for all women on starting a conversation in a simple way. Ask, Share, Listen and Act -- you'll find unintimidating ways to make these a natural part of your talk about self-esteem. The Dove Facebook page offers a lot of cool tools and downloads to help you get the conversation started.

You can share your commitment to girls' elf-esteem with your friends on Facebook! Visit Dove's Facebook Page or use Send a Note of confidence Link to select your message and share with your friends. Send a note of confidence to the Dove community wall here.

And of course you can follow Dove on Twitter too.

This is the very touching campaign video. 

You are all beautiful to me! 

*Source: Dove Research: The Real Truth About Beauty: Revisited.

Sponsored Content. 
#spon

Help a Bitch out!

I really want to write a post about the word Bitch. I want to explain my history with this word, how the HBIC Movement came to be, and why I proudly let my Bitch flag fly now. But, I think this is a great conversation to have as a community, as women, as feminists, as self-described bitches and bitch-lovers. I really want to hear why you love or hate the word Bitch! Does it offend you? Does it empower you? Do you think that it has be redefined by contemporary pop-culture? Or is it's usage worse than ever? Do you know an interesting fact about the word's history? Does it play a role in your own history? Has it's meaning changed throughout your life? Would you say Bitch in front of your grandmother? 

Share with me! Share with each other! 

Either comment on this post, answer our survey and share your thoughts on our Facebook wall, 

or tweet me @WhatsUpMGB

P.S. You can buy the Bitch cross stitch set pictured above here. If anyone with cross stitch talent wants to make this for me I will love you forever! And pay you $20 ;)