A Few More Perks...

Want to know more about The Perks of Being a Wallflower? I did, too, and I found a few neat things online. First, Charlie experiences a lot of new music with his friend Sam and books with his teacher Bill. Wikipedia has a list of the songs, movies and books in the novel. Take a look. 

Next, this is a "literary weaving" that a class made after reading the book. The little sections have ideas or quotes from the book, and are woven together to make a piece of art that represents the book. Cool!

If you have ideas for projects to make, or songs that fit with this book, or movies it reminded you of, go ahead, leave a comment! 

The Perks of Being... a Book Clubber.

Well, I just finished The Perks of Being a Wallflower . Let me tell you, it threw me for such a loop.

I picked up Perks because two friends of mine say it's their favorite book. I just had to see for myself what all the renown was about. It's a fast-paced read about a shy, but brilliant, ninth grader named Charlie, who writes to an anonymous friend about his hopes, fears and misadventures. His star football-player brother is off at college, his older sister wants nothing to do with him, and he misses his closest companion, his aunt who died years ago. Charlie, with the help of his new friends and a teacher who believes in him, must navigate the frenzied world of high school--and that includes dealing with drugs, dating, sexuality and self-confidence.

I'm not going to give away the ending, but it was cemented in my brain for days after reading it. I couldn't wait to tell my boyfriend the whole tale. The next day at work, I spilled the ending to Mary, our director, who'd never read it. The thing was, I couldn't help but talk about it. The story spun around in my head all day, like clothes in a washing machine.

This is, of course, the perk of being in a book club like ours: you get a chance to chat about those stories that just beg to be talked about! The books in our library were chosen for their ability to get your brains buzzing! They're wildly exciting or so painful you might tear up. Many take difficult issues and face them head on, with a roar. Regardless of your age or background, we bet these babies will get you talking.

You and your fellow club members don't even have to agree about whether you liked the book or not. Mary, when she picked up the book after me, remembered that she'd read it before -- the story had just so uninterested her that she forgot about it! But we still had a good chat about it.

And you know what? If you've read the book, you know that Charlie is pretty shy, and has a dilemma of watching life go by him. But he learns, I think, at the end of the book to dive in and participate. Well, that's what we say to do with your book club, too!

So, for those of you that have read it, what do you think? Leave a comment! Did you relate to Charlie's character? Did it get you talking? What's your take on that ending?

That's all for now! Happy reading.

-Meredith

We're off and running...

Hi gals,

Today's been an exciting day in the Mainely Girls office. Our first clubs have ordered books! We have one group reading The Book Thief, a 2005 bestseller by Mark Zusak, about a young girl using books to cope with the horrors of Nazi Germany. Another group just asked for Looking for Alaska, a coming-of-age story about a boy and his entanglements with a girl named Alaska. Two great books to start the year!

Check out this site, which has the author discussing The Book Thief: Check it out!

Also, cruise over to Looking for Alaska on Amazon.

The other news is that Maine author Megan Frazer sent us a copy of her book, Secrets of Truth and Beauty. I cracked it open today at lunch, while I soaked up sunlight on a bench outside of the Rockport Library. (What a beautiful thing.) Anyway, I'll let you know what we think about the book. Thanks, Megan, for your generosity!

A New Year!

Hi there! Meredith here. I'm the new Programs Director at Mainely Girls and I'm thrilled! The school year is just starting, and that means it's the perfect time for our Girl's Point of View Book Club to get rolling, too!

You might be wondering what purpose this blog will serve. Well, I'll be sharing info about our clubs and, of course, our books! I definitely want to hear what you have to say about them. See, that's the best part about these clubs: they offer a chance to interact! I want to hear your ideas. Did you really love "The Secret Life of Bees," or "The Bean Trees?" Did you hate that one character, or did you cry at the ending?

I also want to hear about what YOUR club is up to. Do you guys have an awesome idea for a meeting that other gals might want to hear? Did you all get together and watch, "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" after reading the book? Did you come up with a brilliant plan to make meetings even more fun? Let me hear it!

The cool thing about having a blog is that we can interact a little differently here than in the clubs. I'll post links to sites that relate to our books, or maybe even video clips that match up with our themes. There's a world of media out there and we can use it take these books off the page and into our larger world.

So, here we go! Hope you'll be joining me for the ride.