Friday, March 28, 2008

Announcement: Book Club (the first)

Alright, my friends, here it is. The big reveal! OK, maybe it is not that exciting. Or maybe it is! muah ha ha!!!

As I mentioned in my first post on this here blog, I am starting a book club. A book club? you ask. Yes, a book club. Somewhat like the one Oprah "hosts", but less annoying. I don't claim that the books I choose will ever qualify as "high quality literature." Actually, I guarantee they won't be.

Here is how it will work:

-I will post the title of the book and a "read by" date
-On that date I will post a discussion thread for the book
-We all share our thoughts on the book

OK, I admit it is a bit simple at the moment. Part of me feels like we should have discussion questions and such, but that just seems like too much work right now. Come on! A girl can only juggle so many events and ideas at one given time (new blog, real life, my best friend's wedding, teaching.)

Here is what we will read:


Enchanted, Inc.
by Shanna Swendson



From Publishers Weekly
In her first mainstream novel, romance writer Swendson puts a Harry
Potter–inspired twist on the standard tale of a smalltown girl in the big city, with lively if saccharine sweet results. Fish-out-of-water Katie Chandler suffers in her thankless job as assistant to marketing manager "Evil Mimi," worrying that maybe she just can't hack it in New York City. Will her colleagues ever consider her anything but a hick? For a girl from Texas, the Big Apple is stranger than a foreign country, but she discovers that the weird things she notices are signs of real magic afoot. Her "small-town honesty and common sense" soon land her a new job at Magic, Spells, and Illusion Inc., which traffics in
benevolent sorcery. "You... are of the rare breed who can neither do magic nor be influenced by magic. You see the world as it is," an MSI executive explains. With her clear-sightedness—plus business acumen gained working for her family's feed-and-seed store—Katie will play a pivotal role in MSI's magical battle against a malevolent competitor. From sanitized descriptions of New York City life to hunky wizards and fairies on the subway, this book is pure and innocent fantasy, suitable for preteens or readers hungry for a cotton candy read.



Read by date: April 18th

This means you have three weeks to read about Katie and her adventures in NYC. I have a confession. I have already read this book once. This will be a reread for me. I even contacted Shanna last week about using her book. Who knows, maybe she will stop by and drop us a comment. I hope you will join me in this!

9 comments:

Ana said...

Hey, I really want to be part of the book club but my Amazon UK tells me that it may take 1-3 weeks to dispatch (it will come from the US) so I may not make it! :(

Sarai said...

I would love to read this book, However, I am currently on a break from my addiction to Amazon.
I will see if I can get it from the library but I would still be interested to see what other have to say ;)

barb said...

I reserved this through our library's network. I'm hoping it comes in soon!

Shannon said...

ana- I hope it arrives in time for you! This series is really very cute.

sarai & barb- I hope your libraries have this book. I would love to read your reactions.

barb-.... spicedrum?

barb said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Marti said...

Oh I love this book!! Guess I'll have to dig through my "library" to find it, but that will be good for when the 4th one comes out at the end of the month.

barb said...

The library FINALLY came through. I also saw on one of the bookstore web sites that she had written other books, so I randomly reserved one of the others from the library, too. Boy, was I LUCKY that the one I chose happened to be the sequel. I would have DIED. Except now I don't have the third, and the fourth one is apparently coming out this month (according to the comment above this one)?

I am OFFICIALLY HOOKED on this woman's writing. SO SO SO SO funny and entertaining and engrossing. I love that there's enough action thrown in, but not an unbelievable amount. Also, Katie isn't wimpy or stupid, but she's also not able to figure everything out immediately. Katie is most definitely not a bad MarySue. HOORAY!

Thank you so much for picking this book. I love it LOTS and am buying the whole series - what's available for purchase right now, any way.

Do you know the etiquette of fan letters begging an author to hurry up and write? I've done my time with bribery and pestering emails for people to write fanfiction, but I've never had the experience of wanting to ficstalk an author before. =)

Shannon said...

barb- I'm so glad you liked the book. I am about to do my reread. The author actually has an LJ. I have her friended, so if you look under my profile you can find her. It's just her name.

I will be putting up a discussion post on Thursday so please chime in with more of your thoughts!

Bridget Locke said...

I've already read the whole series (through book 3). After the way that one ended...hmm.

Anyway, the thought is cool. :) See, I have this problem in that I DON'T have a TBR pile. I can read a 500 pg book in maybe 2 hours, so when I go buy books, I read them all at once. Can make life frustrating sometimes, but what do I do? :)

I've been broadening my reading horizons though (I blame lisabea) and actually sneaked over to read some m/m romance. It was...enlightening for certain. LOL!


~Lady of the Review/Kaitlin/oh, I have too many sign ons. Anyway, hi! :)