I Let You Go Book Club

Carrie of Normal Level of Crazy and I are having too much fun this summer digging into our books! Get her scoop on our July selection in this I Let You Go Book Club discussion and make sure to comment below to win a copy of next month’s pick. Happy reading, friends!

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First and foremost, thanks to everyone who participated in our Summer Reading Giveaway!  And to Meredith, for working her butt off putting it all together.  I realize that I am a certified nerd, but I just love having a stack of books to read over the summer!  Hope you enjoyed seeing all these books as much as we did!

I Let You Go Book Club Discussion:

Speaking of great summer reads, how about I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh!?  As I’ve mentioned here before, I listen to the Modern Mrs. Darcy podcast as well as religiously read her blog and this book was listed as one of 17 labeled “unputdownable” back in February.  I’ll say!!  I read it in 2 days!

How about you guys?  Did you find it a quick, engrossing read?  Were you riveted?

I’ll be honest, the idea of letting my child’s hand go for a split second and then having him hit by a car had me starting to worry that I wouldn’t be able to handle the book.  Remember the good old days, before kids, when you could read those stories and not feel sick to your stomach?  Yeah, me neither.

Have you found reading books about children being in peril harder to read after kids?  (Presuming you’ve had children)

While the first half was a quick read, I definitely was a little worried that the whole book would be her agonizing over her child’s death.  I guess because I figured in real life that would obviously be the case.  I was glad they interspersed the investigation, so it wasn’t too heavy.

And then, bam!  Plot twist!!  Did NOT see that coming!

What did you all think of the big plot twist?  Did you see it coming? 

I had read that there was a huge plot twist and so I kept trying to guess what it would be.  I thought it was well done and actually enjoyed that it was more in the middle of the book and not at the end.  Although, that little plot twist at the end was good too!

And back to the investigation … while I didn’t mind that the author threw in the whole extra marital affair thing, I wasn’t sure exactly how it related to the book.  I mean, certainly the message that was presented was a good one, something along the lines of family being the most important thing, I’m just not sure it fit with the book.  It kept things interesting, though, so it wasn’t a deal breaker for me.

Your thoughts on Kate and Ray’s relationship?

I did really find the character of Mags both interesting and relatable.  Leaving her career, being a stay at him mom, and wanting to go back to work were all, I felt, truly relevant issues.  I just couldn’t decide how much this book was about that.  I guess I saw it as a straight forward thriller, so maybe it was my own expectations that threw me for a loop.

Could you relate to Mags?  How about that the author touched on numerous hot topics and not just the psychological thriller part?

I thought they did an excellent job of describing the slow slide that can occur with domestic abuse.  Those pages are hard to read, but important in understanding the characters of both Jenna and Ian.  I feel like one of the most thorough and realistic books that delves into domestic abuse is Black and Blue by Anna Quindlen, but this book was pretty close.  Both horrifying and real, I Let You Go did a really brilliant job describing this abhorrent violence.

I hope I didn’t sound overly critical in this review because I really did enjoy this book!  It was a page turner for sure!

Let us know your thoughts!  I am always so curious to hear other people’s opinions.

And on a side note, Clare Mackintosh has a new book out called I See You that I will be reading for sure!

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Our next pick is decidedly different from our usual picks, but I’m hoping it stirs up some really provocative discussions.  I’ve been anxious to read it since I first heard about it and will be equally anxious to get your feedback!

Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay

Amazon’s description:

From the New York Times bestselling author of Bad Feminist: a searingly honest memoir of food, weight, self-image, and learning how to feed your hunger while taking care of yourself.

“I ate and ate and ate in the hopes that if I made myself big, my body would be safe. I buried the girl I was because she ran into all kinds of trouble. I tried to erase every memory of her, but she is still there, somewhere. . . . I was trapped in my body, one that I barely recognized or understood, but at least I was safe.”

In her phenomenally popular essays and long-running Tumblr blog, Roxane Gay has written with intimacy and sensitivity about food and body, using her own emotional and psychological struggles as a means of exploring our shared anxieties over pleasure, consumption, appearance, and health. As a woman who describes her own body as “wildly undisciplined,” Roxane understands the tension between desire and denial, between self-comfort and self-care. In Hunger, she explores her past—including the devastating act of violence that acted as a turning point in her young life—and brings readers along on her journey to understand and ultimately save herself.

With the bracing candor, vulnerability, and power that have made her one of the most admired writers of her generation, Roxane explores what it means to learn to take care of yourself: how to feed your hungers for delicious and satisfying food, a smaller and safer body, and a body that can love and be loved—in a time when the bigger you are, the smaller your world becomes.

As always, we are giving away a copy to one of our readers here. Enter by leaving a comment on this blog post or Meredith’s Mom of the Year site before 7/14/17 at 5:30am EST. As long as you are 18 or older and live in the continental United States, you are eligible to win!

Happy Reading!

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Meredith

Meredith blogs at The Mom of the Year, where she dedicatedly earns her title one epic parenting fail at a time, offering quick, relatable laughs for fellow parents and all their empathizers. She has been part of several best-selling anthologies, featured on prominent sites such as Huffington Post, In the Powder Room and BlogHer, and loves her role as the Executive VP/Operations Manager of The BlogU Conference. When she's not breaking up fights over Legos and juice boxes, she remains fully committed to sharing a less serious look at the world of parenting.

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