We held two different book club discussion events for this book and we had a great group each time (work place discussion at a large university in the midwest). People were really excited about the book and the implications of if a highly structured (utopian) society vs. a society were you are allowed choices.

Great book for those interested in discussion of vocation, discernment, life choices and decision making. Most students in middle school/jr. high schools read this book --- but I STRONGLY encourage everyone to read this book -- and get into a discussion about it with your children, grandchildren or other adults.

Anne describes her journey to faith (and grace) through a series of short essays (chapters) on a variety of topics. She experiences grief, parenthood, discernment, personal growth, and her unique journey to a deeper, more whole faith. I love how she takes us through this faith journey with her -- and talks openly about her faith. This is not a book that is written by someone whom you cannot relate to, no, Anne lays it all out there and says things that we can all relate to. You will laugh at some of her statements, recoil at others, see yourself, and even nod your head in agreement, but you will nonetheless come away changed about how you too are on your own faith journey.

Everyone loved this book! The book is funny, lighthearted reading which keeps you wondering just what will happen next to Stephanie.

In talking about the funny parts of the book that tickled each of us, we related to our own "goofy" relatives, strange events in our lives and even weird things we have read in the local/national newspapers. So, even though some of this things mentioned in the book seem 'out there' we all realised that these various types of people do exist. We also talked about whom we would like to see play the different roles in a movie version of these books -- this generated a lot of discussion and we now have the cast pretty much set. Now, to get someone to make the movie.

We loved the book and those in the book club who had not read any from Janet Evanovich before have not set upon the task of reading ALL of Janet's books, especially this series. They have fallen in love with the individuals in the book.

If you want light, funny reading our book club highly suggests this book or series.

Although each chapter is titled with something about food and food is a main theme throughout the book, the book is much more than a reflection of food. We found layers of much more, any immigrants struggle to find their place in a new country, and how we relate all of our feelings and places to the food that is or was consumed there. We remember how certain foods made us "fit in" especially during our teenage years. Fitting in was a key issue in this book, as someone who does not look like the majority of the population, she wanted so badly to fit in or in a lot of cases to become invisible. Grandma Noi was so comfortable in who she was, she never faltered, and because of this, she kept the family anchored and rich in traditions that they have chosen to carry on with the next generation. Our book club was fortunate to visit with the author, who gave us additional insights into her book.

Several members of our book club really hated the book and were disappointed in the book. The book does deal with the life of a 20 something protagonist -- so that did include some drinking. Some of our book club readers grew up in families where one of their parents had a drinking problem, so those chapters did not appeal to them.

That being said, there are still some hilarious bits in this book. Bathroom ediquete and "Moral Sex" are too funny!!

Read this book as it was intended -- a not serious view of life and you will enjoy maybe even a bit of reminiscing about your own days as a 20 something year old.

This book brought up discussion in regards to just what is 'tradition' for the book club members present. We had a variety of ideas that other families do. Members also stated that tradtions change as the family structure changes, so 'new' traditions are created. The best traditions begin in odd ways. Like one of our members when she and her daughter do the traditonal Christmas cookie bake, their theme song is the Grateful Dead, "I will survive." This revelation cracked us all up! We enjoyed the fact that the Christmas spirit is well and alive in the characters in the book (as well as within each and everyone of us).

We had a good discussion regarding if you were given the opportunity to go back and have a "re-do" of your life, would you? This brought up many things,such as it was the difficulties in our lives that made us who we are today and truly most of us would not change anything.

This book was a good jumping off place for discussions about families, life and struggles we all have.

Everyone in the entire book club enjoyed this book. It was informative because none of us realized the tribulations the people of Guersney had during the war. It was an eye-opener to read and be a part of their daily struggles of coping with the war and its effects. Interwoven in the book is a delightful story of people and their lives. We wholeheartedly recommend this book.

We all thought I was going to be a good book about dealing with cancer, surprisingly it turned out to be a book about a woman's musings of her childhood and of she dealing with her father's cancer, not so much her own. She could have dealt more with the day-to-day struggle of cancer, how it affect her and her family, but instead it turned into a wandering book that went everywhere but where you wanted or expected it to go. In the end the author comes off as rather whinny and self-centered. We know nothing of her husband's family, nor how her children handled their mother having cancer.

Many of the readers wanted a more in depth depiction of his travels across the country with more details on the personal interactions with individuals or his own personal thoughts. The majority of us got caught up with the story of the dog he adopted.

Our book club gave this book very mixed reviews. It was a very different book from this particular author. Several of the members had difficulty with the graphic (drawn) story pages interspersed between the chapters. Several of the members did not read the drawn story pages. Although this element was new and different from the author, the story DID have some very interesting elements in the storyline regarding teenagers and their lifestyles and their thinking. Our discussion did hit upon the fact that a LOT of things were going on at the same time in this storyline. Maybe too much. What I did appreciate in the book was more the notes at the end from the author regarding her work in talking to high school and middle school age students regarding their sexual experiences and how 'hooking up' is devaluing to their self esteem. In reality many parents are very uninformed regarding who their children hang out with and what all they are doing. As parents in our book club we discussed dress, activities, school and how many times as parents we choose to look the other way and see see things, just as the father did in this novel.