I love Curtis Sittenfeld’s New York Times Book Review essay from 2006 on visiting book groups.  I have had the great honor of being asked to a few book group discussions about Please Excuse My Daughter and it’s always a real treat. Even when it’s bad.  I went to a book group in New Jersey with about twenty women who all seemed like they could have been me.   At the end of the talk one of the women who wasn’t a normal member –a visiting guest– raised her hand and said, “Are we allowed to say we don’t like the book?”  To which I said, “Of course!” But what I really meant was, “No.”  Her comment was that “some of the middle was boring”. I nodded my head as if I was going to take that nugget of wisdom back to my lab and suck out the  parts out that didn’t grab her dumb, under-conditioned head.

That said, if you ever want me to come to your book group, I’d be happy to.  Just don’t invite that woman.