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: 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: April Pick!

Hellooooo book bitches! I can hardly believe it but we are already winding down March and about to start discussion on the third book of our year long challenge! Time is flying but I feel so great that we are sticking to our commitment and having such fun as we go along! With the publication of this post our discussion for our March pick: Beth Ditto's Coal to Diamonds will officially open and we can all declare our punk Riot Grrrl Northwest grunge fat Feminist love for Beth Ditto. Well, at least I will! I look forward to hearing what everyone has to say about this memoir. If you want to join the booky bitchy fun then meet us in the Facebook group where we pick one book per month to read and chat about. Everyone is welcomed and encouraged to take part!

And the bitches have spoken and our clear winner for our April pick is

  Drinking: A Love Story by Caroline Knapp

Here is the summary from Amazon: 

Freelance journalist Knapp began drinking in her early teens and continued unabatedly until she "hit bottom" in 1995 and checked herself into a rehab at the age of 36. During that time she managed to graduate with honors from Brown and have a successful career as a journalist, and few people suspected she had a problem with the bottle. Here she recounts the years of denial that helped her rationalize the blackouts, innumerable hangovers, broken relationships and family tensions characteristic of the alcoholic's story. Knapp interweaves her personal history with factual information about alcohol abuse, including frequent references to the AA meetings she's attended. Here's a confession utterly devoid of self-pity, an extraordinarily lucid and very well-written personal account of a common addiction that is filled with insights as well as a comprehensive treatment of the subject.


Like many of us, alcoholism and addiction have plagued my friends, family members and myself. It is an all too common issue amongst us so I am sure we will all be able to relate to this story. In my opinion, if a confessional like this helps one person get sober, healthy, and happy then it is a success and from the reviews it seems that many women have related and benefitted from Knapp's story. I am looking forward to reading it and finding out what they found comfort in! So go buy or check out your new April read and get going! But first let's talk about Coal to Diamonds...

April Book Pick: Drinking: A Love Story by Caroline Knapp

Discussion opens on Tuesday, April 23rd

HBIC Book Club: March Book Pick!

Well we are in the midst of a rousing discussion of our February book, The Feminist and The Cowboy,  for the HBIC Book Club, which is awesome! Honestly, I dare to say I hated this book becuase it was so hard to watch the author Valdes dive into an abusive relationship and scapegoat feminism while she did it. BUT she brings up lots of complex ideas about gender, identity and relationships that are sure to hit home with all of us so it should make for great discussion! I look forward to hearing more from all the club members in the next few days.  I encourage all of those that feel a little hesitant to speak up in the discussion to do so! Part of this reading challenge is to engage with other intelligent women about the books we read and to learn from each other's thoughts and opinions. Don't be shy, push yourself to participate in discussion! For anyone interested in joining please do! We are an open group and welcome all interested members. Just go here!

With that said, I am happy to announce our March book pick, Coal to Diamonds: A Memoir by Beth Ditto! Special shout out to Taylor in Chi-town for suggesting this book! I am not personally a Gossip fan, the punk band that Ditto headlines, but the summary of this book sounds like a lot of fun. Here it is from Amazon:

Born and raised in Judsonia, Arkansas—a place where indoor plumbing was a luxury, squirrel was a meal, and sex ed was taught during senior year in high school (long after many girls had gotten pregnant and dropped out) Beth Ditto stood out. Beth was a fat, pro-choice, sexually confused choir nerd with a great voice, an eighties perm, and a Kool Aid dye job. Her single mother worked overtime, which meant Beth and her five siblings were often left to fend for themselves. Beth spent much of her childhood as a transient, shuttling between relatives, caring for a sickly, volatile aunt she nonetheless loved, looking after sisters, brothers, and cousins, and trying to steer clear of her mother’s bad boyfriends.

Her punk education began in high school under the tutelage of a group of teens—her second family—who embraced their outsider status and introduced her to safety-pinned clothing, mail-order tapes, queer and fat-positive zines, and any shred of counterculture they could smuggle into Arkansas. With their help, Beth survived high school, a tragic family scandal, and a mental breakdown, and then she got the hell out of Judsonia. She decamped to Olympia, Washington, a late-1990s paradise for Riot Grrrls and punks, and began to cultivate her glamorous, queer, fat, femme image. On a whim—with longtime friends Nathan, a guitarist and musical savant in a polyester suit, and Kathy, a quiet intellectual turned drummer—she formed the band Gossip. She gave up trying to remake her singing voice into the ethereal wisp she thought it should be and instead embraced its full, soulful potential. Gossip gave her that chance, and the raw power of her voice won her and Gossip the attention they deserved.

Marked with the frankness, humor, and defiance that have made her an international icon, Beth Ditto’s unapologetic, startlingly direct, and poetic memoir is a hypnotic and inspiring account of a woman coming into her own.

I smell themes of music, body image politics, feminism and general kickass-ery and I can't wait to start reading! So order your books and start reading ladies! As always please feel free to suggest books for future months and let me know if you have any suggestions or questions about the club. if you are new to our group, welcome! And enjoy the book :)

March Book: Coal to Diamonds: A Memoir by Beth Ditto

Discussion Opens on Sunday, March 24th

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!!!