The Unbearable Book Club for Unsinkable Girls by Julie Schumacher

Mar 15, 2013 Julia rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 50-states-locales-ya-challenge, advice, criticism, contemporary-fiction, ya

I lovelovelove this book!
“Thesis statement: Book clubs can kill you. (This essay ends with a person drowning. It turns out you don’t need much water for a person to drown.)…I want to apologize for some of the things you’ll read in this essay: they may not be appropriate for the assignment. In The Left Hand of Darkness Genly says, ‘I’ll make my report as if I told a story.’ That’s what I’m going to do. And I’ll explain how the books affected me – because whoever I was at the beginning of the sum...more I lovelovelove this book!
“Thesis statement: Book clubs can kill you. (This essay ends with a person drowning. It turns out you don’t need much water for a person to drown.)…I want to apologize for some of the things you’ll read in this essay: they may not be appropriate for the assignment. In The Left Hand of Darkness Genly says, ‘I’ll make my report as if I told a story.’ That’s what I’m going to do. And I’ll explain how the books affected me – because whoever I was at the beginning of the summer, I am not that person anymore.” (i)
“The joke about West New Hope was that there was no East New Hope, and there was No Hope. We lived in a flat, oversized suburb west of nothing, a dot on the map in a state people drove through to get somewhere else.” (9)
Here Adrienne imagines her Library of Congress description. “Haus, Adrienne. 1. People with knee ailments –- Biography. 2. Bored fifteen- year-old Delawareans –- Non-fiction. 3. People without hobbies who have only one friend, and that friend is away for the summer. 4. People who have never met their fathers.” (20)
15. EPIPHANY: Probably because I once saw my third- grade teacher use an EpiPen, driving the point of it into Jordan Wersall, who’d been stung by a bee, I think of an epiphany as something that gets injected into the main character so she suddenly sees things differently.” (184)
“Edna and Esperanza and Genly and Frankenstein’s monster and the crazy woman in the yellow room: it seemed they all wanted to tell me something. They wanted to talk to me about this person Adrienne Haus.” (227)
I love this book because Adrienne tells us how she changes with the books she reads. She learns about the girls in the book club and their moms through the book club. And it’s a really nice look at the books the book club reads, two of which I’ve recently read (The Yellow Wallpaper and Frankenstein) and three I want to read or reread. (The Left Hand of Darkness, The House on Mango Street, The Awakening.)(Interlibrary loan, 50 States+ YA Challenge, Delaware)(less)

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Feb 20, 2013 Les rated it 2 of 5 stars

Four high school girls get roped into a summer reading club with their moms under duress. All of them are going to be in the same AP English class in the fall.

The protagonist, Adrienne, tore up her knee and missed a scheduled canoeing trip. Instead her leg is in a brace but she isn't very motivated to rehab it like she is supposed to. She is a typical teen angst drama queen (too plain looking, too heavy, don't like my hair, etc.). She is in frequent conflict with her mother, primarily because sh...more Four high school girls get roped into a summer reading club with their moms under duress. All of them are going to be in the same AP English class in the fall.

The protagonist, Adrienne, tore up her knee and missed a scheduled canoeing trip. Instead her leg is in a brace but she isn't very motivated to rehab it like she is supposed to. She is a typical teen angst drama queen (too plain looking, too heavy, don't like my hair, etc.). She is in frequent conflict with her mother, primarily because she will tell Adrienne nothing about her father (not even his name). Her mom will only say that the condom broke so Adrienne is proof that they aren't 100% effective.

Cee Cee is wealthy. She wrecked a car (didn't even have a learner's permit) and her summer trip to Paris turned into taking French in summer school. She is the instigator who constantly gets Adrienne in trouble (sneaking out at night, drinking, etc.) but doesn't suffer the same consequences.

Jill is the standard straight A/prom queen/cheerleader. She was a Chinese orphan adopted by Americans. It was her mother's idea to do the club to force her daughter to expand her horizons. And Wallis is the weird outsider from the poor side of town, a new girl who has skipped a grade, doesn't have a tv, doesn't shave her armpits, and is evasive about her home life.

None of them want to participate, as evidenced by the different names that get suggested for the group:

The Mother-Daughter Book Club and Conspiracy League
The Literary Enslavement Society of West New Hope
The Involuntary Book Bondage Guild
The Unbearable Book Club of West New Hope
The Extremely Unbearable Book Club for Irresponsible Girls

Theoretically, the book club was supposed to bring the girls and their mothers closer together but instead it does the opposite. Cee Cee keeps getting Adrianne in trouble, Jill is disgusted with both of them, Wallis won't share any information about her family, and the moms are screaming accusations at each other.

Finally an incident occurs which forces them to work together. However, to the author's credit, she didn't pull a "Breakfast Club" ending and make them all best buddies afterwards. They pretty much just dissolved the book club and went their separate ways.(less)

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Dec 29, 2012 MacK rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: young-adult, am-lit, chapter-and-verse

Minnesota author Julie Shumacher's The Unbearable Bookclub for Unsinkable Girls thrived when it defied cliched YA expectations. Rather than subscribing whole heartedly to a world of sexy vampires or life-and-death adventures, Shumacher works within the very personal sphere of a mother-daughter book club.

Her characters (a suitably diverse array of teen readers) are genuine, neither precocious nor sullen, utterly believable as average American teens--partnered by their utterly average American mo...more

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Dec 06, 2012 Christina rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2012, realistic

Fun fluffy "beach read" novel about four girls forced to meet during the summer with their moms for a mother-daughter book club, so that the girls will read their required summer reading novels. They also have to write an essay about the books, using literary terms that are also used as the book's chapter headings. Adrienne, 15, is the main character telling the story of their summer, how it ends in a drowning (revealed in beginning of book). They're all reluctant to be in this club, for various...more

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Oct 19, 2012 Erin Cataldi rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, slis-ya-book-club

I thought it was rather amusing when my book club decided to read a book about a book club. Thankfully my book club meets because they want to, not because they have to. In "The Unbearable Book Club for Unsinkable Girls," four teenagers find themselves thrown into a book club with their mothers, it wouldn't be so bad if they had happened to be friends, but the girls couldn't be more different. Adrienne, is the narrator, she thinks of herself as being plain and boring. Instead of spending the sum...more

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Sep 17, 2012 Lee Ann rated it 4 of 5 stars

As summer has already passed and Autumn officially starts this weekend, I'd like to suggest that book clubs would be great during the winter months...you might not be able to get out and meet, but I guess you could do it by Skype, or email, or texting or through whatever other wonders of technology are out there. But book clubs, I think, would be best done face to face so that you can pick up on each other's emotions, interrupt with exclamations based on others' impressions, you, know good old-f...more As summer has already passed and Autumn officially starts this weekend, I'd like to suggest that book clubs would be great during the winter months...you might not be able to get out and meet, but I guess you could do it by Skype, or email, or texting or through whatever other wonders of technology are out there. But book clubs, I think, would be best done face to face so that you can pick up on each other's emotions, interrupt with exclamations based on others' impressions, you, know good old-fashioned feedback.

Having said all that, I've never been part of a book club. As a bookseller for almost 25 years, I feel like I've conducted many a short one just in my recommendation sessions, but I've never actually belonged to one, mostly because I don't think I read the type of weighty novels they assign. For example, I've never read any of the 5 books discussed by the Unbearable Book Club of Unsinkable Girls. I've seen a movie or short film based on The Yellow Wallpaper, and I'd love to have a nickel for every copy of Frankenstein I've sold over the years. I'm familiar with all the other titles, too, but they're just not the sort of thing I'd pick up for an entertaining read.

But that's not what this group is here for. 2 mothers of 2 girls in the group attend yoga class and came up with the idea for the book club. Our heroine, Adrienne, had saved for a 6 week canoeing trip with her best friend, but a bad fall had decimated both her knee and her summer plans; now she's stuck with the popular girl, CeeCee, the overachieving Jill, and the younger brainiac Wallis, named for a certain prince stealing American divorcee, who may or may not have a mother to participate in the Mother/daughter book club. The books are chosen by the mothers with the understanding that they fit the criteria for English 11 AP class.

The book discussions are brief enough that they give a synopsis of each book, and since the summer essay required by the teacher of the AP class includes a necessary definition by the essayist of at least 20 literary terms, the reader gets a novel that would actually make a great text for a Lit 101 class in any high school in the country, one much more fun that the ordinary texts, that's for sure.

Most book clubs choose certain types of books because they think they can learn something from, apply them to their lives, get new meaning to their circumstances mined from the wisdom of such worthy literature: the Oprah effect, as it were. But sometimes girls - and book clubs - just want to have fun, and that is where the breakdown and all the fun and charm of this book happen, in between club meetings.

Adrienne is trying to define herself, classify herself in a sort of Library of Congress way. When her mother tries to help out by describing her as impressionable and easygoing, Adrienne is less than flattered, although she does fall so deeply into books that she all but disappears, emerging still immersed in the characters...she finger-spelled for days after reading about Annie Sullivan's breakthrough with a young Helen Keller. But she also allows herself to be far too easily led by the more sophisticated, but surprisingly not all bad popular girl, CeeCee. Adrienne has never known her father and feels a void inside only encouraged by CeeCee's relentless interview style of inquisition inspired, possibly, by the fact that her parents never seem to be around. Jill is adopted but since her parents chose her as the one in a million, she has no problems with fitting in, nor does she suffer any doubt about her future. And Wallis and her shadow-figure Mother may or may not be on the run from a father/stalker/mystery figure.

The book is witty as it's told in first person by Adrienne whose off the cuff mental meanderings had me chuckling throughout, but it's also poignant watching the young teens struggling through a summer of forced-togetherness where they may or may not learn lessons they may or may not be ready for. And - LITERARY TERM ALERT! - the foreshadowing is awesome!(less)

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Aug 29, 2012 Liviania rated it 4 of 5 stars

Adrienne Haus was supposed to spend the summer with her best friend, canoeing. Then she busted her knee and got herself stuck at home for the summer. Even worse, her mother decided to organize a mother-daughter book club with some of the other mother's whose girls are in town for the summer. There's wild and rich Cee-Cee, studious and obedient Jill, and total enigma Wallis. Not exactly who Adrienne would choose to hang with. But then, it's not their choice either.

One of the strengths of THE UNBE...more Adrienne Haus was supposed to spend the summer with her best friend, canoeing. Then she busted her knee and got herself stuck at home for the summer. Even worse, her mother decided to organize a mother-daughter book club with some of the other mother's whose girls are in town for the summer. There's wild and rich Cee-Cee, studious and obedient Jill, and total enigma Wallis. Not exactly who Adrienne would choose to hang with. But then, it's not their choice either.

One of the strengths of THE UNBEARABLE BOOK CLUB FOR UNSINKABLE is how it uses literature. The club reads THE YELLOW WALLPAPER, FRANKENSTEIN, THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS, THE AWAKENING, and THE HOUSE ON CISNEROS STREET. It's a great selection of books that high school girls are likely to be familiar with or become interested in due to the story. The actual book club scenes are always great, and it's interesting to see the different interpretations of the text.

But one of the weaknesses of THE UNBEARABLE BOOK CLUB FOR UNSINKABLE GIRLS is how much it meanders. The opening promises that someone is going to die because of the book club, but the novel doesn't sustain that ominous tone. It's mostly a character study, but a very strange one. Adrienne doesn't really know who she is and she isn't very good at figuring out other people's character either. (And she constantly dismisses Jill as boring when Jill is both clearly awesome and the fount of all gossip.)

Even though THE UNBEARABLE BOOK CLUB FOR UNSINKABLE GIRLS comes close to being a shaggy dog story I enjoyed reading it. It's not that hard to empathize with a teen girl who just wants something to do (aside from going to a book club with her mom). Of course she runs a bit wild. Summer is super boring when you're stuck at home with no friends. I also liked that the book refused to solve all of its mysteries.

For those who love plot-driven novels, Julie Schumacher's latest is not your best bet. For those who are looking for a fun novel to curl up with in these final days of summer, THE UNBEARABLE BOOK CLUB FOR UNSINKABLE GIRLS might be a good choice. It certainly captures the season.(less)

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Aug 27, 2012 Sue rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012-50-states, young-adult

3.5 stars. The book is one member's AP 11 English essay about her summer in the mother/daughter book club. It's a summer that involves her learning a lot about herself and her mother, the ins and outs of friendship and teens, and gaining an awareness of others. The chapters cleverly begin with a literary term and its definition and then the chapter proceeds to use that term in its construction. It revolves around the five books the club reads: Frankenstein, The Awakening, The House on Mango Stre...more

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Aug 13, 2012 Terri rated it 5 of 5 stars

Minnesota author, Julie Schumacher, has written a Language Arts teacher's, a librarian's, and a female teen reader's dream book! "The Unbearable Book Club for Unsinkable Girls" has garnered several positive professional reviews - and deservedly so (though now that I look at the goodreads reviews I see that the reviews are mixed - I will have to investigate this). I really liked "The Black Box" by Schumacher - but loved this even more!

The story concerns four teenage girls who are brought together...more Minnesota author, Julie Schumacher, has written a Language Arts teacher's, a librarian's, and a female teen reader's dream book! "The Unbearable Book Club for Unsinkable Girls" has garnered several positive professional reviews - and deservedly so (though now that I look at the goodreads reviews I see that the reviews are mixed - I will have to investigate this). I really liked "The Black Box" by Schumacher - but loved this even more!

The story concerns four teenage girls who are brought together in a mother-daughter book club the summer between their sophomore and junior years: Adreinne, CeeCee, Jill, and Wallis. Because their mothers arrange the group at a yoga class, the girls are at first reluctant (with the exception of Wallis), but the club ends up changing them and their relationships as they try figure each other and themselves out. The girls will all be part of an Advanced Placement course in the fall, for which they are required to read several books and write an essay about what they've read. The book is Adrienne's essay and is told from her first person perspective.

What is to love about this book? It is very "literary" in the sense that each chapter begins with a literary term which is exemplified in the chapter (part of the essay assignment is that students demonstrate that they have learned the literary terms on a list that the instructor has given them. The book is also very literary in that it is beautifully written. The imagery and use of figurative language is terrific.

Another aspect of the book is that the four teen characters are all unique, quirky, flawed, and multi-dimensional. However, Schumacher leaves the reader to answer unanswered questions. What is Wallace's real story? What really happens in the climax of the story? What is the truth about Adrienne's mom and the dad she has never met? I can't decide whether or not I liked this. On one hand, I like it when the writer believes in the intelligence of the reader - this is indeed a "smart" book. On the other hand, I really wanted to know the truth about some of these characters. Is there, possibly, a sequel in the making? I also appreciated it that there were adults present in the lives of these teens. Though we don't get to know the mothers well, we know enough to see that they care about their daughters - and that raising a teenage girl is fraught with all sorts of difficulties.

Finally, there is a plethora of thematic material here that would be perfect for...well, perfect for a book club. I intend to use this with my high school book club this year. And there several things that have led me back to the classics lately - anyone read "The Phantom Tollbooth"? So I am also going to do a classic with my book club and work the classics into my programming - probably one of those mentioned in the pages of "The Unbearable Book Club for Unsinkable Girls." We have really worked on developing a culture of reading at our school, and I think the some of the kids are ready to make this leap.

Congratulations, Julie Schumacher! I LOVED this book!(less)

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Jul 27, 2012 Cindy Hudson rated it 3 of 5 stars

Adrienne is sure her summer is going to be a disaster. Instead of spending it on a wilderness canoe trip in Canada with her best friend, she’s stuck at home in West New Hope, Delaware with a knee injury. And if that isn’t bad enough, her mother is forcing her to be in a mother-daughter book club with girls she would never hang out with. CeeCee is popular and a bit of a spoiled, rich girl, Jill works at the pool and her mother thinks she doesn’t socialize enough, and Wallis is a sort of recluse w...more Adrienne is sure her summer is going to be a disaster. Instead of spending it on a wilderness canoe trip in Canada with her best friend, she’s stuck at home in West New Hope, Delaware with a knee injury. And if that isn’t bad enough, her mother is forcing her to be in a mother-daughter book club with girls she would never hang out with. CeeCee is popular and a bit of a spoiled, rich girl, Jill works at the pool and her mother thinks she doesn’t socialize enough, and Wallis is a sort of recluse who for some reason actually wanted to be in the club. Her mother never attends meetings and no one has ever met her.

The girls choose to read five books from their AP English list for junior year, but it’s clear from the beginning that reading and books isn’t at all what this club is about.

Until reading The Unbearable Book Club for Unsinkable Girls by Julie Schumacher I had never considered the possibility that mother-daughter book clubs could actually be a bad influence on girls. Even though this reading group bears no resemblance to real-life groups that I know of, the issues brought up are important ones.

The story is told from Adrienne’s perspective. She loves to read, she’s comfortable around her best friend but not in broader social circles, and she’s not much of a risk taker. But CeeCee, who has a knack for creating trouble, starts to get under her skin.

As the two of them spend more time together Adrienne finds herself doing things she never would have otherwise, as though she’s trying on a different personality for the summer. She questions who she is and thinks about who she wants to be, but the questions create turmoil and the answers don’t come easy. The moms also have issues they are dealing with, and it’s clear that there are different levels of parental supervision and involvement in each of the girls’ lives.

As a side note, girls and their moms may also want to explore the titles in the summer reading list this book club takes on: The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Anna Perkins; Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley; The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula LeGuin; The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros; and The Awakening, by Kate Chopin. Each book resonates in some way with the girls, and their discussions about them are interesting. Girls in mother-daughter book clubs with girls ages 14 and up will find a lot to talk about when reading The Unbearable Book Club.

The author provided me with a copy of this book to review.
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Jul 10, 2012 Debbie Wenk rated it 2 of 5 stars

This story has a great premise with interesting characters, yet it falls flat. I was left turning pages looking for the rest of the story. Adrienne narrates this tale of four vastly different girls thrown together in a mother-daughter book club during the summer. A - as one of the girls calls her - has a single mom who is an English teacher. Jill is the only child of adoptive parents, CeeCee is the poor little rich girl woefully neglected by her parents, and Wallis is an enigma who actually want...more

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Jul 02, 2012 Lorel rated it 2 of 5 stars

This book starts off full of promise- it appears to be a rather mocking, more gritty version of the often maudlin "Traveling Pants" series as well as the even more saccharine Mother-Daughter Book Club series for younger readers. Four very different girls are thrown together by their mothers, who met in yoga class. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

The story is written by Adrienne, as an assignment for her Advanced Placement Literature class. She is 15 and frustrated by an injured knee and the lack of...more This book starts off full of promise- it appears to be a rather mocking, more gritty version of the often maudlin "Traveling Pants" series as well as the even more saccharine Mother-Daughter Book Club series for younger readers. Four very different girls are thrown together by their mothers, who met in yoga class. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

The story is written by Adrienne, as an assignment for her Advanced Placement Literature class. She is 15 and frustrated by an injured knee and the lack of a strong self identity. The knee injury has canceled out her summer plans for travel and adventure, ans she is stuck in West New Hope Delaware. She is joined in the club by CeeCee, a rather stereotypical popular girl, Jill, an adopted Asian brainiac, and Wallis,an enigmatic loner. The author has a charming style and uses evocative imagery to conjure up scenes. Her humorous banter shows that Adrienne is a smart girl, though she doesn't drill herself with flashcards by the pool, as Jill is known to do.

Here's an excerpt I enjoyed from the first scene: "I wasn't sure if she was talking to me: I wasn't the sort of person CeeCee Christiansen usually talked to. The two of us chatting? It was like a dolphin hanging out with a squirrel." Despite her apprehension at being addressed by CeeCee, the two girls continue chatting and Adrienne finds that she doesn't dislike CeeCee. It takes the whole summer for the group to gel and then tragedy (not a spoiler, as it is spelled out at he beginning of the novel) strikes and nothing will ever be the same.

The story is directed at teens and contains some more mature subject matter, though there are no sex scenes. There is a girl/girl kiss, an unlicensed teen joyriding in a "borrowed" vehicle, underage drinking (complete with vomit!), but no actual sex scenes, which I find rather refreshing in a Young Adult book. The book club discusses real works of literature and one of these features hermaphroditic characters, so that is another topic covered obliquely.

My feeling is that the story starts off with a bang and gets lost a bit as things slow down in the middle. The ending is less than satisfying, as it resolves some things but leaves others hanging.
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Jun 28, 2012 Ms. Yockey marked it as to-read

Random House
May 2012
Ask Tim

Kirkus Reviews starred (March 1, 2012)
In a novel tailor-made for literature teachers, four unwilling high-school girls and their mothers join a summer book club with both comic and tragic results. In the summer before her junior year, Adrienne, recovering from a knee injury, falls under the influence of beautiful and irresponsible CeeCee, another reluctant member of the book club. Adrienne has always had a good relationship with her mother, but CeeCee flippantly bulli...more Random House
May 2012
Ask Tim

Kirkus Reviews starred (March 1, 2012)
In a novel tailor-made for literature teachers, four unwilling high-school girls and their mothers join a summer book club with both comic and tragic results. In the summer before her junior year, Adrienne, recovering from a knee injury, falls under the influence of beautiful and irresponsible CeeCee, another reluctant member of the book club. Adrienne has always had a good relationship with her mother, but CeeCee flippantly bullies her into late-night excursions that do not end well and pesters Adrienne about her absent father. Reluctant to blame CeeCee for anything, Adrienne instead begins to worry that her single mother sees her as a "mistake." Meanwhile the two other girls, Jill and Wallis have problems of their own. Adrienne constantly re-injures her knee during CeeCee's midnight outings, the mothers begin quarreling with one another and circumstances deteriorate until the girls' final nighttime jaunt ends tragically. Schumacher weaves the narrative around common literary terms, such as setting, mood and conflict, which she illustrates in their respective chapters. Always a bookworm, Adrienne also ties her first-person narration into the five books the club reads, including The Left Hand of Darkness, Frankenstein and The Awakening. The characters, especially the four girls, sparkle, and even amid drama the narration remains lighthearted enough to appeal beyond bookish readers. Smart and insightful. (Realistic fiction. 12 & up)

School Library Journal (June 1, 2012)
Gr 8 Up-Presented as an AP English essay assignment, with each chapter heading containing a definition of a literary term, this novel feels like a take on Ann Brashares's The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Delacorte, 2001). Fifteen-year-old Adrienne Haus is laid up with a fractured kneecap and torn ACL for the summer so her mother forces her to join a mother-daughter book club. Wealthy, rebellious CeeCee; Jill, an adopted Asian girl; and mysterious, secretive Wallis are the other unlikely teen members. Adrienne is a moody, self-conscious girl, and the complexity of the relationship with her unflappable mother is a pleasure to read, especially as she falls further and further under CeeCee's bad influence. Exceptionally strong characterization and attention to detail thoroughly place readers in a summer suburb in Delaware. Teens need not have read all the classics discussed throughout the book (e.g., The Yellow Wallpaper, Frankenstein, The Left Hand of Darkness, The House on Mango Street, and The Awakening), although some familiarity with them certainly enriches the story. Adrienne is a thoughtful reader, applying quotes from each of the books to real-life situations. However, like Catherine in Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, she lets her imagination run away with her and incorrectly dreams up horrible scenarios that lead to a highly foreshadowed, yet suspenseful, tragic ending.-Madigan McGillicuddy, Gwinnett County Public Library, GA (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.(less)

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May 28, 2012 Majibookshelf Juhina & Farah rated it 2 of 5 stars

I don't have a lot to say about this book. I'm not even going write the title in my review because it's just to long. Anyways, this book started off like any other contemporary book. It was normal. I'm not even sure what the main plot of the book was, other than it having a book club. The main protagonist, Adriennce, is forced to go to a mother-daughter book club with her mom. She meets the other girls there, and they sort of become acquaintances. Their relationship with each other was really we...more

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May 07, 2012 Ginny rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, arc, contemporary, e-book, nook, secret-shock-tag

When this book showed up on NetGalley, I grabbed it. But I left it on my Nook, debating if I wanted to read it or not. But I decided to read it-I've kind of been on a Contemporary kick lately and wanted another one. Immediately I was hooked. This book was just so much MORE than I could have hoped for!

The story starts with an assignment page for an 11th Grade AP English class. Adrienne Haus is the protagonist (to use some of her literary terms) and she is the voice of the novel. At the end of he...more

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Jan 26, 2012 Karla Nellenbach rated it 3 of 5 stars

A unique and thoughtful story, I was quite surprised by how much I ended up liking this book. I have to admit that this is not the type of book I gravitate towards. The idea, a bunch of Moms creating a book club and pretty much forcing their kids to take part in it, didn't intrigue me. The very transparent way of bringing four completely different girls together, throwing them into a friendship that probably wouldn't last much longer than the end of summer, I thought might come out to be a littl...more A unique and thoughtful story, I was quite surprised by how much I ended up liking this book. I have to admit that this is not the type of book I gravitate towards. The idea, a bunch of Moms creating a book club and pretty much forcing their kids to take part in it, didn't intrigue me. The very transparent way of bringing four completely different girls together, throwing them into a friendship that probably wouldn't last much longer than the end of summer, I thought might come out to be a little forced for the reader.

I'm happy to say that I was wrong. Adrienne is fun, snarky, just the kind of kid you want to read about. She has her faults--always going along with whatever CeeCee says, mostly because CeeCee is the It girl--but that just makes her more human. I love how easy her relationship is with her mom to begin with and how things get dicey when she begins to ask questions about her father that she'd never thought to voice before. I love how in typical teenage style, she gets moody and secretive, and won't talk to her mom about them. I love how her mom tries and tries but can't seem to hurdle the wall Adrienne erects between them. It's real and very authentic.

But, most of all I love the layout of this book. I love how it's basically one big essay (an assignment for AP English that tells the story of their summer of reading). Each chapter begins with a "glossary" word in which Adrienne defines, and the chapter follows that theme. Also, as the book club goes through the four books they've chosen, you see how the subtleties of the books reflect what is happening in their lives.

All this love is not to say that this was a perfect read. I wasn't. I have some issues with the pacing, how one or two storylines weren't all that resolved, and how one-note CeeCee's character ended up being (the others were fleshed out remarkably well). However, the death at the end (this is no spoiler as they tell you in the first chapter that someone drowns) did surprise me, not an easy task. And Adrienne's way of talking about books really gets me. She is truly a reader, and that love shines through.

A satisfying story for any unsinkable girl looking for an easy summer read.
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Oct 31, 2011 Donna rated it 3 of 5 stars

received this book from NetGalley for review
A unique and insightful story. We begin in Delaware during summer vacation. Adrienne Haus had planned to spend vacation with her best friend Liz, but due to an accident involving her knee, she is stuck at home. Her mother enrolls Adrienne into a mother daughter bookclub consisting of the two of them and three other girls with their mothers. CeeCee is the popular cheerleader type. She likes to lead everyone around. She is not happy about the bookclub...more

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Jan 13, 2013 Phoebe rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: young-adult

At first reading about a non-descriptive and impressionable girl living vicariously through fictional characters and thus find herself seemed relatable. Actually, it wasn't. She wasn't an ordinary girl thrown into unlikely circumstances and end up doing extraordinary things. She was an ordinary girl who was an unlikely heroine and ended up being unlikeable as well. The relationship between the characters were barely there. Her recklessness and acts of rebellion were utterly cliche and that was i...more

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Nov 20, 2012 Gail Gauthier rated it 5 of 5 stars

"Over the course of the book, the girls read four novels that scream AP English. (I had an AP English student living in my house not too long ago. Yes, he had to read The Awakening, just as these girls do. ). Bits of the books relate to what's happening to the girls in The Unbearable Book Club. It could be argued that not much does happen to them, which, to me, is in large part what makes this book so believable. Lots of times, not much happens to us. Schumacher writes about not much happening v...more

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Jun 13, 2012 Holly rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: teen

Well, like many of the other reviewers, I was ready to be done with the book in the first 50 pages. But alas, the only thing that kept me reading was to find out who bit the dust at the end. The cover flap makes you think its going to be a funny lighthearted book, but as the first page suggests, the events to come changed the main characters life, and she was never the same, and yes, book clubs can kill you b/c someone ends up drowning in the end. So says the first page.

As I was finishing this b...more Well, like many of the other reviewers, I was ready to be done with the book in the first 50 pages. But alas, the only thing that kept me reading was to find out who bit the dust at the end. The cover flap makes you think its going to be a funny lighthearted book, but as the first page suggests, the events to come changed the main characters life, and she was never the same, and yes, book clubs can kill you b/c someone ends up drowning in the end. So says the first page.

As I was finishing this book, at the end, I had an epiphany. How to describe this book?? Then it hit me,the way this book just breezes through and barely scratches the surface of its characters reminds me of the old movie "The Breakfast Club". A bunch of teens from different worlds thrown together, we get to know a little about each one, but when its all said and done, we have only glimpsed into a small part of the world of these teen lives. So goes this Unsinkable book. Although I do wish that we got to know the other characters a little bit more. Like, why was Wallis the way she was? Quiet, elusive, and the only one who actually *wanted to join the book club. My biggest gripe was that the main character, Adrienne, call 'A' by stuck up CeeCee, attached to Ceecee so quickly?? Lets face it, Ceecee was that superficial, stuck up, play with peoples lives just for the fun of it who thought they were better than anyone else, and assumed everyone wanted to either be her, or be around her, just because. Why did Adrienne let CC pierce her ear in the beginning?? And as it got increasingly infected, STILL didnt remove it?? Things like that, that just didnt make sense, annoyed me. First meeting of the book club, thrown together by their mothers, and CeeCee points out how 1 girl is almost an orphan, and another one IS an orphan, abandoned by fathers or parents. How rude! Yet the moms dont say anything. I think parts like that in the book were a little too hard to believe, yet none of this seemed to bother Adrienne as she continued to be Ceecees pet. The only believable thing was the relationship between Adrienne and her mother. Ok..now why I finished..

Chapter 16, thats when things get realllly good. The book picks up, Im determined to finish. And, beleive it or not, I liked the ending, alot. Once I realized that this book wasnt supposed to be deep, touching, existential, or even remotely intellectual (no offense) but simply an easy breezy read, a blip on the "Ive read this" radar. The ending was actually good. After reading the last page, I sat for a while, and pondered what this book was really about. All in all, its amazing how an ending can make or break a book. Its why there are 3 stars up there and not 2. When its all said and done, read the book. Will it change your life? Probably not. But it is an incredibly fast read, and, like me, you might just find yourself with a little smile on your face as you close the last page.(less)

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Mar 16, 2012 Shoshana rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: merde, middle

It kind of feels like the author read The Mother-Daughter Book Club, was nauseated, and felt the need to rebut.

In theory, a good call. In execution, Julie Schumacher had not the talent. The characters are uninspired - CeeCee is almost interesting, as the flippant "popular girl" type with a surprising interest and insight into the books. But the narrator (Adrienne? I've already forgot) is as bland as everyone informs her she is; Jill also treads the "almost interesting" line (though behind CeeCe...more

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May 07, 2012 Katelyn rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: sam

I LOVED this book! I really enjoy books that mention other books. What could be better than a summer book club?! I enjoyed the characters, although I wish the author had been more complete in her picture of Wallis and Wallis' family life. I'm curious, you know? She gets you all interested and then doesn't really reveal anything. I found CeeCee hilarious, because I pictured her as a smarter version of Dahlia from the tv show Suburgatory. The characters didn't really like each other that much, but...more

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Aug 31, 2012 Nielson rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: ya, contemporary-realistic-fiction

This book was a mess. Being a book lover and being a member of a book club, I was intrigued by this title. Unfortunately, the title ended up being the only really intriguing thing about the book. Adrienne and 3 other girls are forced for various reasons to be in a book club with their mothers over the summer. Strange friendships are formed as they meet throughout the summer. Adrienne is narrating the story the whole time and along the way discovers a few things about herself.
I initially thought...more

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Mar 19, 2012 ExLibris_Kate rated it 4 of 5 stars

3.5

This book tells the story of four very different girls who are thrown together in a summer book club with their moms to read and get ahead in AP English for the next school year. None of the girls are very excited by this. CeeCee is the resident popular girl, and although her behavior is ridiculous at times, I grew to like her. Some of the things she said and did actually made me laugh out loud. Jill is the overachiever who has to be tough on herself because her parent's can stand to be, Wall...more

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Sep 04, 2012 Heather Hitchcock rated it 4 of 5 stars

Not really 4 stars, more like 3.5 or 3.25 -- but I enjoyed it too much to give it just 3. I liked the mix of 4 girls who would have never been friends otherwise (and I would use the term friends where these four are concerned very loosely) thrown together into a mother/daughter book club. A lot of reviews didn't think there was enough character development, but I disagree. It's by no means a deep read, but the dynamic between the characters was interesting enough for me. The ending I found a tin...more

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Oct 24, 2012 Erin rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-2012

WHY aren't people talking about this book?? It's AMAZING! I stumbled across this when searching my library's e-book collection for something to read while I waited for another book to become available. I wasn't disappointed at all.

The writing is intelligent and often laugh-out-loud funny. One of the best line in the book is Adrienne's "I love to sleep. My astrological sign is the sloth." << Mine is too, Adrienne ;o)

This is book is about a girl finding her own story--who she is, where she...more

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Mar 30, 2012 Lacey Crough rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: young-adult, 2012-challenge

My first thoughts? Adrienne is funny, in that aloof and highly susceptible to ”following a leader” kind of way. CeeCee is that leader, who orders people around with reckless abandon and basically says whatever she wants. Jill is sort of that sassy friend who’s smarter than you and you hate it, but she is still a friend and you guess you’ll keep her around. And Wallis, sweet little genius Wallis with the strange home life. She just made me want to cry.

But then you get a little more than halfway t...more My first thoughts? Adrienne is funny, in that aloof and highly susceptible to ”following a leader” kind of way. CeeCee is that leader, who orders people around with reckless abandon and basically says whatever she wants. Jill is sort of that sassy friend who’s smarter than you and you hate it, but she is still a friend and you guess you’ll keep her around. And Wallis, sweet little genius Wallis with the strange home life. She just made me want to cry.

But then you get a little more than halfway through and you learn A LOT more about the characters. Adrienne was a marvelous narrator. If you didn’t get it from the beginning, the whole story is written like she’s typing out a paper (with the all the elements…plot, mood, etc.). At first I thought she was just aloof, living her life with her mother and her one friend Liz. But then you see that she loves reading and she just gets lost in the words of books. Her inner monologue is often lines from books. I loved how they were interspersed. Some people on Goodreads called her bland, but I think she’s pretty neat. I thinks she reminds me of myself a bit. She is stuck in this bizarro age where she can’t really figure out who she is. Don’t we all go through that. I thought this quote kind of summed that up.

“Do you want to stand here talking about the car, or are you going to get in it?” CeeCee asked. I was a person with horrible red hair and a mound of pink crust surrounding a diamond in her ear. I was at risk, and I had just made out with a girl in a bathroom. I got into the car.

Of course, there is an epic build-up full of Wallis’s family mystery and CeeCee’s relationship with her older sister’s boyfriend Jeff and Jill’s dad’s medicine going missing and Adrienne finally talking to her mom. The mothers who started the book club thought it would be fun for the girls, but the girls themselves didn’t really thing “fun” was the right word. They were more forced to participate. But even though they were shoved together in this thing they didn’t want to do, they still came out at the end with a semblance of friendship.

The book is all about growing up and realizing what friendships and relationships mean. I think the whole theme of the book is about becoming your own person; making mistakes and taking chances and finally FINALLY learning who you are. It’s a really great book for any person who’s ever been a wallflower or a late bloomer.(less)

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Oct 31, 2012 Anna (Gatsby's Girl) rated it 3 of 5 stars

Adrienne Haus was supposed to go on a wilderness canoeing trip in Canada with her BFF (her only friend at all, really) but a knee injury has derailed that plan and left Adrienne stranded with only her Mom for company over the vacation months. Then her Mom joins a yoga group with other Moms from school and they decide to start a Mother-Daughter book club to get through the daughters' summer reading assignments. Attendance isn't optional and this an awkward thing at first, since none of the girls...more Adrienne Haus was supposed to go on a wilderness canoeing trip in Canada with her BFF (her only friend at all, really) but a knee injury has derailed that plan and left Adrienne stranded with only her Mom for company over the vacation months. Then her Mom joins a yoga group with other Moms from school and they decide to start a Mother-Daughter book club to get through the daughters' summer reading assignments. Attendance isn't optional and this an awkward thing at first, since none of the girls really know each other. But Adrienne may have more in common with overachieving Jill, shy and insecure Wallis and rich party girl CeeCee than she ever thought. As the girls make their way through the book list, Adrienne begins to question the denial she's been comfortably living in. Who is her Father and why did he leave them? Why won't her Mom tell her anything at all about him? Also, why is Wallis' Mom never at book club and their house is off limits for meetings? Engaging in reckless behavior with CeeCee becomes an outlet for Adrienne, but one night when Jill and Wallis tag along someone is seriously injured. Will the girls be able to recover from a devastating incident that will change them forever and bring them closer together? I liked Adrienne's writing voice, since the entire book is written as her term paper on the summer book assignments. It also tells the story of her trying to find out who she is in relation to the world - to create her own individual identity. CeeCee was quite annoying because she never really seemed to learn anything and really only ever caused trouble for the other girls, without any apparent remorse. Jill definitely had more buried beneath the surface, but the majority of the book is spent with Adrienne and CeeCee, so those possibilities went unexplored. The big mystery still left at the end of the book (with the answer hinted at, but never really clarified) was whether or not Wallis and her Mom were in Witness Protection or on the run from an abusive husband/Father/stalker. That is definitely what it was made to seem like had happened to them. At the end of the book the lack of resolution between Adrienne and her Mom about the Dad situation may have been realistic, but it was very unsatisfying as a reader. Especially since that seemed to be one of the main conflicts in the storyline. Overall, it was an interesting book and I did like getting to know Adrienne. But I think it could have been a lot more interesting and a bit longer too.

*Books read by the girls in the novel for their book club:
- The Yellow Wallpaper by: Charlotte Anna Perkins
- Frankenstein by: Mary Shelley
- The Left Hand of Darkness by: Ursula K. LeGuin
- The House on Mango Street by: Sandra Cisneros
- The Awakening by: Kate Chopin

VERDICT: 3.25/5 Stars

*No money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book is now available in stores, online, or maybe even at your local library.*(less)

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Mar 17, 2012 Christiana rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: netgalley, teen-fic, high-school

I like the idea of this book more than the execution. I like all the literary references, especially for a big-time reader who reads this book. It's cool to recognize characters of other books when Adrienne remarks on them and inserts them into conversation and her narration. I was interested in reading this book the whole way through (Schmacher does a good job of the chapter endings that make you want to keep reading) but by the end I was kind of underwhelmed.

The characters promise to be more t...more

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Jun 02, 2012 Amie rated it 2 of 5 stars

The Unbearable Book Club for Unsinkable Girls is written in the form of a creative essay for an A.P. English class. Adrienne Haus is summarizing the reading list and therefore her summer, for her teacher. Each chapter begins with the definition of a literary term, but not the type of definition you would expect. Instead the definitions are snarky and witty, for example: “subplot—This is sort of like the plot’s younger brother, the one who tags along behind the big kids who are hogging all the to...more The Unbearable Book Club for Unsinkable Girls is written in the form of a creative essay for an A.P. English class. Adrienne Haus is summarizing the reading list and therefore her summer, for her teacher. Each chapter begins with the definition of a literary term, but not the type of definition you would expect. Instead the definitions are snarky and witty, for example: “subplot—This is sort of like the plot’s younger brother, the one who tags along behind the big kids who are hogging all the toys and having most of the fun. But mostly it means a less important plot” (location 720, subject to change). These were actually my favorite part of the book.

I thought that a book about forcing four girls with nothing in common into a book club for the summer would be really fun to read. It started off great; at first I felt a connection to Adrienne because she had no father, loved to read and really had only one friend (who was gone for the summer). Unfortunately, a few chapters in, that connection was gone. I thought the premise of the book was interesting and I felt it had a lot of potential. But the book really ended up fizzling for me and I found myself struggling to get through it.

I didn’t think that the characters connected in the way the author wanted us to believe. CeeCee, your quintessential popular girl, latched onto Adrienne immediately. But CeeCee opting to spend time with Adrienne outside of the book club seemed very unrealistic. They have absolutely nothing in common aside from their forced participation in the book club. And Adrienne accepting CeeCee friendship also seemed farfetched. I’m not sure anyone would put up with a “friend” who rifles through her stuff and frequently insults her. As a matter of fact, none of the girls really seemed to get along. Jill doesn’t trust CeeCee and Wallis doesn’t trust anyone. The mothers even seemed to dislike each other. I just couldn’t connect with the characters as the book progressed because the characters couldn’t connect.

The synopsis of the book suggests that a great deal of it takes place at the pool. Ummm, yeah, not so much. In reality, I think that the girls were at the pool maybe three or four times. And one of those times was the climax of the story. I felt like the pool was supposed to have some kind of great significance to the story, but because so little time was actually spent there, it was lost on me. Adrienne spent more time at home than she did at the pool.

While I appreciate the use of imagery in a story, sometimes an author can go overboard. Schumacher really loves her metaphors and similes, so much so that she uses anywhere from three to four per paragraph. It really got old after awhile. Sometimes it’s ok to describe something without comparing it to something else. Or leave it out entirely. I really didn’t need to know that the scouring pad was “like a slimy, silver wig for fish” used to scrub the “islands of burned rice” (location 1887, subject to change). I don’t think the reader should notice the imagery; it should be so seamlessly interwoven into the story that its use doesn’t affect the reader at all. I might have been more appreciative of the imagery if it had not been extremely overused. I started to feel as if the author was trying to write the “next great literary masterpiece” in young adult form. She was just trying too hard.

I can’t say I enjoyed The Unbearable Book Club for Unsinkable Girls. It was readable, but certainly not something I would read again or recommend, especially to my pickier readers. It’s just not interesting enough.(less)

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