Book Club: The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

Last Thursday we had our first book club meeting at my house.  It was a blast.  I know I wasn't really sure what to expect.  I have never been a part of a book club before and come to find out none of the other girls had either.  I think that turned out to be a good thing because we just made it what we wanted it to be.  There were 11 of us that made it that night and it was a great group of people.  Not everyone knew each other and I think that made for interesting conversation about the book we read, The Lovely Bones.  There was also a good mix of people as far as life experiences go too.  It's great to look at things from someone else's perspective and take yourself out of your own little world.  There was plenty of good food and wine to get the party started while everyone was getting to know each other for the first half hour or so.  Finally, we decided we should probably talk about the book!

The conversation about the book flowed really easily because it dealt with such strong topics as rape, murder, infidelity, adolescence, etc.  The funny thing about The Lovely Bones is that while it did provide conversation topics, no one in the group would have recommended it to a friend.  For me, the book was not something that I wanted to read.  The idea of a serial killer walking around in a neighborhood with no one the wiser really creeped me out.  Now that I have a daughter, I view things differently and this book really pointed that out to me.  It was disturbing to be in the murderer's head at some points in the book.  Some might find that interesting but for me it was too much.  There was also a sex incident in the book that we all found a little odd.  It seemed out of place and thrown in for interest that was forced.

We voted for our next book and it ended up being a tie.  We are reading The Happiness Project this month and then Dear John the following month.  I think after the dark book we just finished The Happiness Project was a good choice.  We were joking that next month we will all be so much happier.  If any of you have read The Lovely Bones, I would love to know if you liked it or not.