I talked to you about how in all of 2015, I finished reading exactly one book, right? In fact, I put on my 2016 Bucket List “finish reading one book”. And I’m happy to report that even though it’s only the end of March, I’ve already met that goal. Twice over, actually!
Please stick around till the end of this post for a very exciting announcement!

So let me tell you about Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng. I’ll only tell you a little bit about it, actually. Not only because I read it a month ago and it’s not as fresh in my mind but also because I want you to read it and I don’t want to spoil it for you.

I walked into the library and I had about 12 minutes to spare. Which really isn’t that much time at all. More often than not I just go straight to the new release rack and I grab whichever one seems cool. But this time I didn’t see anything that really stuck out at all. So I went over to the fiction section and randomly started pulling titles. I wasn’t feeling much of anything at all and time was running out. I pulled out Everything I Never Told You. I was really intrigued by the title and I opened up to read the first line on the first page.

“Lydia is dead. But they don’t know it yet.”

That settles it.

I finished this book over the course of about three days. Which is quite impressive for me considering all the literary ground that I covered last year.
So, it’s a murder mystery—technically. We know what happened to her but we don’t know why or how. Was it a murder? Was it suicide? What happened here??
The characters are beautifully portrayed in very real and honest and realistic ways. There’s something about each character that I found myself relating to. Sometimes it’s easy to recognize who is and is not the bad guy. But in Everything I Never Told You, it’s hard to separate things into black and white—which is so much more like reality, to me.

This is a book that I want to give to all of my friends who recently had kids. Or all of my friends who don’t have kids but do have families. Or have had families or relationships of any kind. Not because it has anything to do with new parenthood or families or friendships specifically at all. It has a lot to do with how people interact and communicate and what happens when they don’t. What happens when we have expectations or hopes for our loved ones that we never really recognize? What happens when we don’t really say exactly what we’re thinking and we assume the other person knows? What happens when we never know how to say what it is that we need? I’ve always said the road to hell is paved in expectations.

I won’t tell you any more about the book just that I’m raving about it to every single person that I come in contact with. Celeste Ng has done such a great job on this one and I can’t wait to see what she has coming for us, next.

————

So now, the announcement!

I’m trying to find a real clever way to tease this and make it take longer but I’m going to go ahead and get down to business because, frankly, you can probably already see the image. It’s a dead give away. And if you are a follower of XOXO, Lib on Facebook, then you already know (because that’s where you go for up-to-the-date information and conversation)!

That’s right we’re starting a monthly book club!

So how’s it going to work? Well, at the first of the month I’ll announce what book we’ll be reading. I’ll read it, you’ll read it, other people will read it and we’ll all write about the book and link up with our blogs.
But Libby? What if I don’t have a blog?
Well, friend, start one. You can start a blog and only update it once a month. That’s allowed. It’s free! And easy! If you need help, just let me know.
OR if you don’t want to go to the trouble of all of that, you can certainly leave your thoughts on the book in the comments section of someone else’s book review. That’s allowed, as well.
**edit** Also if you don’t want to start a blog but you’ve got an account on GoodReads, feel free to write a review there, and we’ll be happy to link it for you! **end edit**
We’ve already got some other bloggers on board, including but not limited to My Friend Staci who you met a few weeks ago in her Feminist Friday interview!

So for the month of April, we’ll all be reading Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger. From the back of the book, “Julia and Valentina Poole are twenty-year-old sisters with an intense attachment to one another. One morning the mailman delivers a thick envelope to their house in the suburbs of Chicago. Their English aunt Elspeth Noblin has died of cancer and left them her London apartment. There are two conditions for this inheritance: that they live in the flat for a year before they sell it and that their parents not enter it….”

At the end of the month, we’ll all tell one another what we think and not only will it will be a lot of fun, but it’ll help us to get more reading in. I like joining book clubs because more often than not, it stretches me to read books that I ordinarily wouldn’t pick up. And I have a very specific taste in literature so I need to be nudged out of my comfort zone as often as I can.

What do you think? Does that sound like something you’d be into?

Can you think of a name for this thing? Currently accepting suggestions in the comments section!

What do you think of Everything I Never Told You? It’s just so good and I strongly encourage all of you to take a look at it.

XOXO, Lib

FYI: This post does include affiliate links through Amazon.com.