I was thinking of starting a reading group over here and was wondering what people thought? We tried this on another board a while ago and people liked it. We can start with a book that Majandra herself has said she read and go from there if people are interested.

ETA: Kinda forgot to add the poll

I voted for yes but since I know myself I would end up not reading the book because I´m too busy with other stuff but I could give it a try.

I vote yes! I'm an avid reader and like finding new authors or subject matter.

I voted yes! I love reading, and I think this is a great idea, especially to read stuff that Majandra recommends.

I vote YES! reading something Majandra recommends would be great!

Sure! Why not?

I vote YES, I was looking for a new book to read.
So what is it?heh.

Yay!! I was hoping people would be interested. The only books I can think of off the top of my head is Prozac Nation and I believe Lovely Bones(actually I think that is the book Brendan said that Majandra suggested to him to read) were books that she has mentioned before. I'll have to scan her Q&As to see if she mentioned any others as well as her AOL chats.

We can start with one of them and then move on. We all can make suggestions. Heck we could maybe suggest books that people think has a character in it that you would love to see Majandra play in a movie.

I'm so happy people are interested in doing this

Hiya

I don't mind what book we read first! I'm up for it!!!!!!!!!

Polia

Val I think this is a great idea. Maybe it will keep me away from the fan fiction for a while

I haven't read Prozac Nation but I read The lovely bones because of Brendan's suggestion. He didn't mention that hormonal pregnant women should probably give it a miss and I spent the better part of two hours sobbing in the bath.

Bye
Kate

That's a great idea Val
i vote yes

Yes, lets do it!!!

Well I think there is enough interest to go ahead with this idea *YAY*. What I'll do is look to see which books Majandra mentions and then I'll post another poll to which one we should start off with.

I'll make sure to go into Amazon and pull up a summary and stuff like that and post it too so you can get an idea what the books are about.

I'm so excited!!

i agree with you guys. i'd like to make it! it seems to be so cool
ok, i'm reading some things, especially all the things about q's/a's since ff... and thanks to ppl here, we learn a lot about her, yeah.

that's good, see you soon

Ok I found the some stuff on the two books I mentioned earlier and I also checked her Q&As and saw that she reads Harry Potter but I figure I don't need to pull that info up, we all know Harry . Also I figured if we go with Harry we would go in order so I put up the first book as a choice.

Oh and I also changed the title of the thread. What do you think?

The Prozac Nation by Elizabeth Wurtzel

From Publishers Weekly

Twenty-six-year-old Wurtzel, a former critic of popular music for New York and the New Yorker, recounts in this luridly intimate memoir the 10 years of chronic, debilitating depression that preceded her treatment with Prozac in 1990. After her parents' acrimonious divorce, Wurtzel was raised by her mother on Manhattan's Upper West Side. The onset of puberty, she recalls, also marked the onset of recurrent bouts of acute depression, sending her spiraling into episodes of catatonic despair, masochism and hysterical crying. Here she unsparingly details her therapists, hospitalizations, binges of sex and drug use and the paralyzing spells of depression which afflicted her in high school and as a Harvard undergraduate and culminated in a suicide attempt and ultimate diagnosis of atypical depression, a severe, episodic psychological disorder. The title is misleading, for Wurtzel skimps on sociological analysis and remains too self-involved to justify her contention that depression is endemic to her generation. By turns emotionally powerful and tiresomely solipsistic, her book straddles the line between an absorbing self-portrait and a coy bid for public attention. First serial to Vogue, Esquire and Mouth2Mouth.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.


From Library Journal

From her first attempted suicide as a 12 year old, Wurtzel records her life as an intellectually gifted but emotionally deprived young woman struggling with clinical depression. She describes her adolescence and her acceptance to Harvard despite a checkered high school career. At the university, she lived constantly on the precipice of a nervous breakdown-and slipped down into the abyss from time to time. Always, she fought back-relying on therapy, drugs (both licit and illicit), friends, and an innate inner strength-and found some salvation in the recognition she received for her writing. Ultimately, treatment with a combination of lithium and prozac allowed her to maintain her stability, but she is unwilling to accept a fate of life-long drug dependence. Graphically written, this book expresses the pain and anger of Wurtzel's unremitting protest against her disability. It will appeal to young readers seeking stories of depression they can relate to. Recommended.
Carol R. Glatt, VA Medical Ctr. Lib., Philadelphia
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.


Daphne Merkin
The saddest, funniest, and ultimately, most triumphant book about youthful depression I've come across. It reads like a mixture of J.D. Salinger and Sylvia Plath, with some Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen thrown in for good measure...Elizabeth Wurtzel is one canny and entertaining observer of her generation: If you've been wondering why Kurt Cobain meant what he did - what it feels like to be young, gifted, and black of spirit - this book is the CD, tape, video, and literary answer all in one. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.


From Booklist
From toddlerhood on, Wurtzel was recognized as bright and gifted. What people didn't know was that by the time she was 11, she was depressed, first overdosing while a kid at summer camp. Her description of life as a depressive is so precise, so filled with the horror, the tedium, and, yes, even the funny moments she experienced on her spiral downward that readers will feel like they're being taken down with her. The title, Prozac Nation, is Wurtzel's term for her generation's collective bad mood. It's a resonant concept, but the notion that Generation X'ers are uniquely susceptible to depressive illnesses does not really take into account the Valium generation and the Miltown generation before that. On the other hand, what does make today's young depressives different from their predecessors is the availability of Prozac and other drugs of its ilk, which work on the brain in new ways and are considered almost miraculous by many who take them. (Wurtzel herself, though skeptical about the drug's long-term effects, is convinced it saved her life.) While the agonizing descriptions of life in shades of black and blue are intensely moving, it's Wurtzel's last chapter, in which she muses on the effects of Prozac both in medical and philosophical terms, that will really get readers thinking. Like Peter Kramer in Listening to Prozac (1993), Wurtzel questions why six million people have felt the need to take the drug. Why, she asks, has depression, once considered a tragic state of mind, now become an utterly commonplace condition? Are doctors overmedicating their unhappy patients, or should Prozac be handed out even more readily? Is the world, in fact, "too difficult to negotiate without some kind of a chemical buffer zone"? Expect lots of talk about this one as the currently depressed, the formerly depressed, and the soon-to-be depressed debate the nagging question of how to feel better. Ilene Cooper --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.


From Kirkus Reviews

A memoir of a depressed, heavily medicated young woman who identifies with Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, and other tragic figures--and fantasizes about being profiled as a tragic suicide in New York magazine. Born in 1967, Wurtzel grew up in New York City, the precocious only child of divorced parents. At six, she wrote her first book. At the age of 11, she carved up her legs with razor blades in the school bathroom and went to a therapist her parents couldn't afford. But stints at the psychiatrist and summer camp didn't cure Wurtzel of her depression. When she entered Harvard, she spent her days deep in despair or high on Ecstacy or cocaine. By the time she graduated, she was being treated with Prozac and lithium. This is all presented with such narcissistic pride that the following comment about herself is true of the book: ``I was so far gone that I didn't even come across as sad any longer. Just obnoxious.'' She wants to contextualize her experience to give it deeper meaning as some sort of a beacon for her generation. But Wurtzel insists on one-upmanship: She's ``a real sicko,'' while the other six million Americans on Prozac are ``all these happy-pill poppers.'' She wants it both ways: to be at once the Head Loony and a representative voice. But her nihilism offers nothing new (she wails about loneliness and death's inevitability). Her only generational trademark is a preternatural media sensibility. But even her TV- informed peers cringed when she threw a party celebrating her deflowering. By alternately belittling and belaboring her depression, Wurtzel loses her credibility: Either she's a brat who won't shape up or she needs the drugs. Ultimately, you don't care which. An excruciating portrait of, even cause for, depression. This most certainly is not an examination of a generation's collective psyche. (First serial to Vogue, Esquire, and Mouth2Mouth) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.


From Book News, Inc.

"Full of promise" is how anyone would have described Elizabeth Wurtzel at age ten, a bright-eyed little girl who painted, wrote stories, and excelled in school. By age 12, she was cutting her legs with razor blades, and college turned into a series of breakdowns, crises, and a suicide attempt. Not until being prescribed Prozac, in combination with other psychoactive drugs and therapy, was some stability possible for her. Written with spunk and wit, this is an excellent picture of a young woman's struggle with depression and her view of the dire effects our social and cultural milieu has on the young. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.


Ingram

Painful, poignant, and ultimately triumphant, Prozac Nation is Elizabeth Wurtzel's catharsis--a cry of rage at the chronic depression which has dominated most of her young life. "A powerful portrait of one girl's journey through the purgatory of depression."--The New York Times.

For The Lovely Bones by Anne Sebold

From Publishers Weekly

Sebold's first novel after her memoir, Lucky is a small but far from minor miracle. Sebold has taken a grim, media-exploited subject and fashioned from it a story that is both tragic and full of light and grace. The novel begins swiftly. In the second sentence, Sebold's narrator, Susie Salmon, announces, "I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973." Susie is taking a shortcut through a cornfield when a neighbor lures her to his hideaway. The description of the crime is chilling, but never vulgar, and Sebold maintains this delicate balance between homely and horrid as she depicts the progress of grief for Susie's family and friends. She captures the odd alliances forged and the relationships ruined: the shattered father who buries his sadness trying to gather evidence, the mother who escapes "her ruined heart, in merciful adultery." At the same time, Sebold brings to life an entire suburban community, from the mortician's son to the handsome biker dropout who quietly helps investigate Susie's murder. Much as this novel is about "the lovely bones" growing around Susie's absence, it is also full of suspense and written in lithe, resilient prose that by itself delights. Sebold's most dazzling stroke, among many bold ones, is to narrate the story from Susie's heaven (a place where wishing is having), providing the warmth of a first-person narration and the freedom of an omniscient one. It might be this that gives Sebold's novel its special flavor, for in Susie's every observation and memory of the smell of skunk or the touch of spider webs is the reminder that life is sweet and funny and surprising.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From School Library Journal

Adult/High School-"I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973," says Susie Salmon in this intriguing novel. Teens will immediately be drawn into this account of a girl who was raped and killed, and tells her story from "heaven." She realizes gradually that she is in an interim heaven until she can let go of her earthly concerns. The place is like school with Seventeen for a textbook and no teachers. On Earth, her mother needs to leave the family for a time, her sister seems to have Susie constantly in her thoughts, her young brother grows into a pensive preteen, and her grief-stricken father spends much of his time seeking out the murderer, even after it seems that the police have given up. The narrator observes the disparate ways her family and friends cope, and finally sees that they are resolving their grief as "the lovely bones" of their lives knit themselves around the empty space that was her life. While the subject matter is grim, the telling is light and frequently humorous-Susie remains 14 even though 8 years pass in the other characters' lives. This novel will encourage discussion. There is a slight feeling of magical realism, but there is grounding in real adolescence.
Susan H. Woodcock, Fairfax County Public Library, Chantilly, VA
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal

Sebold, whose previous book, Lucky, told of her own rape and the subsequent trial of her attacker, here offers a powerful first novel, narrated by Susie Salmon, in heaven. Brutally raped and murdered by a deceptively mild-mannered neighbor, Susie begins with a compelling description of her death. During the next ten years, she watches over her family and friends as they struggle to cope with her murder. She observes their disintegrating lives with compassion and occasionally attempts, sometimes successfully, to communicate her love to them. Although the lives of all who knew her well are shaped by her tragic death, eventually her family and friends survive their pain and grief. In Sebold's heaven, Susie continues to grow emotionally. She learns that human existence is "the helplessness of being alive, the dark bright pity of being human feeling as you went, groping in corners and opening your arms to light all of it part of navigating the unknown." Sebold's compelling and sometimes poetic prose style and unsparing vision transform Susie's tragedy into an ultimately rewarding novel. Highly recommended for academic and public libraries.
- Cheryl L. Conway, Univ. of Arkansas Lib., Fayetteville
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist

Few novels, debut or otherwise, are as masterful or as compelling as Sebold's. Her heroine, 14-year-old Suzy Salmon, is murdered in the first chapter, on her way home from school. Suzy narrates the story from heaven, viewing the devastating effects of her murder on her family. Each member reacts differently: her gentle father grieves quietly, intent on finding her killer; her aloof mother retreats from the family; her tough younger sister, Lindsey, keeps everything inside, except for the occasional moment when she tentatively opens up to her boyfriend; and her four-year-old brother, Bucky, longs for his older sister and can't comprehend her absence. Suzy also watches Ray Singh, the boy who kissed her for the first time, who represents all of her lost hopes, and Ruth Connors, who became obsessed with death and murder after Suzy's passing. Under Suzy's watchful eye, the members of her family individually grow away from her murder, each shaped by it in their own way. In heaven, Suzy herself continues to grapple with her death as well, still longing for her family and for Earth, until she is finally granted a wish that allows her to fulfill one of her dreams. Sebold's beautiful novel shows how a tragedy can tear a family apart, and bring them back together again. She challenges us to re-imagine happy endings, as she brings the novel to a conclusion that is unfalteringly magnificent. And she paints, with an artist's precision, a portrait of a world where the terrible and the miraculous can and do co-exist. Kristine Huntley

Great new title - to the point yet fun!

Ooh good choices for books Val. I have read The Lovely Bones and it is a great book, and is also great to do for a reading group. It was our first book for the Book Club on the books board. I really am interested in Prozac Nation though so I voted for that

LOL Janelle, I had bought The Prozac Nation to read for the previous club but didn't get it in time but figured I read it anyways. Well I had it in a bag with a bottle of diet coke that wasn't really closed so the book got distroyed.

Not much luck with that book, Amazon lost it and it took over a month to get to me and then it was destroyed by soda. I'm borrowing it from the library this time .

I voted The Prozac Nation, I have heard of this book and people tell me its very good so Ill try to read it

Well I'll leave the poll up for a few days and say next Wednesday we can annouce the winner and then set a date to begin discussions.

Sound good my fellow readers .

i must search the french version...

Ok People, today is the last day for voting. I just wanted to remind everyone.

Cool, can't wait

Well The Prozac Nation won 3 to 2 over The Lovely Bones so The Prozac Nation it is . Now we just need to come up with a time frame. What do people think? How long will you need to get the book and to read it?

I could get the book tomorrow probably, It would maybe take me 2-3 weeks to read it, Im a fast reader

Well, I'm broke till Wednesday and swamped with homework, so it will take me 3 to 4 weeks to read!

Ooh it will take me a couple of weeks to read the book and get it. I checked for it when I was at the library today but they were all out of it at the branch I was at. I am going to have to put in a request to get it from another library and that will take a few days. I am excited to read it though!

Janelle, I had to order it from another branch too but I'm hoping to pick it up on Monday. It should be in today but I'm going out tonight after work. If it's not to nasty out tomorrow I might run up and pick it up but if it's raining forget it .

Ok it's September 17th, how about we say discussions can start Oct. 15th. That's 4 weeks from today. How does that sound?

sounds great to me val I should be going by to get the book today!

Cool Lauren, I ordered my at the library but you know I was at the mall tonight and went in Barnes and Nobles and they didn't have a copy. I hope everyone is able to get it.

[quote]Ok it's September 17th, how about we say discussions can start Oct. 15th. That's 4 weeks from today. How does that sound?[/quote]

that's ok, i search where can i find it, and when i've found it , i'll read it[/quote]

I'll try to go out and snag a copy as soon as I can and start reading.

good news! I went to Barnes and Nobles this morning and got my copy! I bought myself a starbucks coffee sat in the cafe and read! So far I have read the prologue and the first chapter, this book is quite interesting.

I love how in the first chapter it explains the reason for this girls depression, she points out every single detail of her life and all of it comes together to produce her depression, like everyone in her family had the gene of depression and shes explaining what depression is, just in depth details about it, so far its a really good book and I cant wait to read more!

Lauren, you lucked out the Barnes and Nobles I was at last night didn't have it in stock but I did get a call that my library has it so I'm picking it up on Monday.

I just read the thread, what a cool idea. I've always wanted to read this book so now I have an incentive.
Can't wait to discuss it.

Cool lesleykj, I'm glad you're going to join in. I picked my copy up on Monday. I'm finishing the book I'm reading now and then I'll start reading this one.

This was a great idea Val. While I was still in school, I was always reading a book from our school library but now that I'm out, I can't seem to find the time to go to the library and check some out.

And like Lesleykj said, this is a great incentive to start again. And what a great way to start but with Prozac Nation.

Although I don't think they'll have it at the public library. They just moved to a new location so they're still relocating all the books. It's going to take them at least one or two more weeks to finish. I think that I'm going to have to buy it at Barnes and Nobles.

But I'll definitely have it done by October 15.

Can't wait to discuss it!

Hi, I'm new and I hope you don't mind if I add me at you.
Sorry for my english but I'm Italian and I'm not a genius at school, but I love reading and my parents call me Dorothy because my favourite book was "The wonderful wizard of Oz" when I was a child.
I buy Prozac Nation and then I'll write my impression.
CIAO

Dorothy to Majandra's board and to Media Blvd . I'm so glad you're going to join in with us and don't apologize, you're English is great!!

Dorothy to our reading circle! Glad you have decided to join us!

Im reading another book for school, so its taking longer than I expected to read the book, Im about half-way through, Ill try to finish as soon as I can. Im reading The Grapes of Wrath for school so Im trying to read both books, its quite difficult, but the Prozac nation is easier to understand than The Grapes of Wrath so Ill be finished with the Prozac nation pretty soon hopefully!

Actually I've read around the first 50 pages so far. It's very interesting since me and the author are about the same age and to see how her childhood and family history shapes her.

So how is everyone doing with the book? I'm behind, I haven't had a lot of time to read but I'm getting.

Life has been a bit hectic, so its going to be at least a week before I finish the book.

I had to order it from another library and I was beginning to think that I wouldn't be able to get a copy. Got to work this morning and there it was! I'll see how I go over the weekend, but another week sounds great.

Kate

Don't worry about it Kate and Keri, the time wasn't set in stone. I know I could use more time too .

Big oops! I forgot all about this and I haven't even gotten a copy of the book yet. I will try to get right on that, because I really want to read it.

Ok believe it or not I did finish this book a couple of weeks ago but I haven't had a chance to post about it. Did anyone else finish it?

It definitely wasn't the type of book I would read on my own but it was good, intense but good.

I could relate a bit to the author's depression but the sad thing is that this disease is still misunderstood by the general public. It's also kinda scary the number of people who are suffer from it.

I think I could identified more with her mother because as angry as I could get with the disease I found myself getting fustrated with the writer but I know that is the disease.

I'm wondering what the movie with Michelle Williams will be like.

I will say if we do read another book it needs to be something more light .

Well I guess The Prozac Nation wasn't exactly a fun filled book huh .

I was thinking it would be fun to try a book that we would like to see made into a movie and Majandra star in it. Here's one I read recently I think would be fun

Undead and Unwed by Mary Janice Davidson

From Booklist
Betsy Taylor--former model, newly unemployed secretary, 30, and still single--wakes up after being flattened by a small SUV in a tacky coffin wearing cheap knock-off shoes. Her mother is glad she is back, albeit as a vampire, but her stepmother is enraged that Betsy has reclaimed her designer-shoe collection. With a wealthy best friend and a newly acquired doctor pal who is not susceptible to her formidable allure, she sets out to right wrongs but is abducted by Nostro, a tacky 500-year-old vampire who rules the undead roost. It seems that Betsy is an anomaly: a vampire who doesn't burn in sunlight, can fight the urge to feed, and is not repulsed by religious articles, all of which may make her the prophesied Queen of the Vampires. Teaming up with gorgeous vampire Eric Sinclair, who is in her opinion a major pervert, she takes on Nostro and his minions. Sexy, steamy, and laugh-out-loud funny, Davidson's chick-lit foray into the paranormal is delightful. Diana Tixier Herald
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Description:
First Betsy Taylor loses her job, then she's killed in a car accident. But what really bites is that she can't seem to stay dead. And now her new friends have the ridiculous idea that Betsy is the prophesied vampire queen, and they want her help in overthrowing the most obnoxious power-hungry vampire in five centuries.


Of course this says she's 30 and she's discribed as being really tall, like close to 6'0 feet but hey what the heck it's just for fun.

'She was tall, real tall, 'bout my height, and I'm just shy of six feet. She had light blond hair with them streaky, what do you call 'ems. Highlights! She had kind of reddish highlights and the biggest, prettiest green eyes you'd ever seen. Her eyes were the color of them old-fashion glass bottles, those real dark green ones. And she was real pale, like she worked in an office all the time.'

That's just some of the discription of the lead character Betsy Taylor.

Seriously I think people would like this book. It's fun and sexy and when you read the one line zingers Betsy say you can just hear Majandra delivering the lines.

What do people think?

I finished Prozac Nation a while ago myself. It wasn't quite what I expected. I think that a book like this is important to shed some light on depression and the great number of people that suffer from it. By talking about depression in general and more specifically her own pain, I'm sure she helped others and removed some of the stigma attached to this disease.

Having said that, I didn't really connect with author. At times I empathized with her since I know people who have suffered from depression including myself. I respect the brutally honest and sometimes witty way she talked about herself. But on the other hand, parts of the book seemed to be nothing more than self indulgent nonsensical ramblings of a spoiled brat. At those times, I empathized with the people around her because I know what if feels like to watch someone you care about self destruct while you helplessly stand by.

I also wonder what the movie will be like. I have it reserved through Netflix, but have no idea when it will be released.

As for a new book, my vote is definitely for something frivolous and fun. Undead and Unwed sounds like a hoot. Majandra may be off a little height wise, but she's got the gorgeous green eyes, blonde hair, porcelin complexion, and sarcastic wit. I'd say its a winner.

Keri, I had the same problems as you did at times I felt so much for the author but at other times it was very self indulgent and like I said before I felt more for her mother than her a lot of times.

I think people would like Undead and Unwed and there's even a nice hot romance that kinda reminded me a bit of our Candy couple.