Book Club Read: "The Secret Life Of CeeCee Wilkes" Chapters 1-10

As part of the book club over at Book Beginnings and Bookends here are my thoughts on the first 10 chapters of The Secret Life Of CeeCee Wilkes.

I think I have the relationship of the people figured out.  CeeCee is the mother of Corinne, a teacher with phobias, who is engaged to the news reporter, CeeCee's mother died but wrote letters to her daughter with advice and encouraging words to open at different dates so it would be like she was still around for her daughter.  I liked that idea a lot!  So many times I wish my mom were still alive so I could talk to her about things.  


CeeCee got herself into a very bad situation already.  I think Tim is just using her and will be surprised if he bothers getting back with her at all.  I think the waitress who warned her that Tim was "dangerous" knew what she was talking about and CeeCee should have been more careful about going with him.  The fact that he's also so much older should have been a red flag for her not to get involved with this guy.  


I like this books so far because it goes quick and I am anxious to see what will happen next and what other bad decisions CeeCee will make.  I hope she comes to her senses and can get out of the mess she is in, but I have a feeling it will take the whole book for her to do that.  She is not very bright.  Too bad she took her mom's advice about making decisions with her heart and jumping right in without weighing the pros and cons, but did not follow her mother's advice about not trusting boys and not having sex at 16. 

Have you read this one? What did you think of it?

Want to Join A Blogger Book Club?

Over at Book Beginnings and Bookends, they are just starting a "book club" for bloggers to participate in online.  I thought this sounded like it might be fun so went ahead and got the first book they'll be discussing from the library, The Secret Life of Cee Cee Wilkes.  The idea is to read ten chapters a week and then on Monday discuss them in a post and hook up with Mr. Linky on their blog.  How many are participating?  Well, I was the 194th person to "sign up."

Here is the schedule that they came come up with for the book. Each week is about 100 pages.

Aug 16: Chapters 1-10
Aug 23: Chapters 11-20
Aug 30: Chapters 21-35
Sep 6: Chapters 36-50
Sep 13: Chapters 50-71

That means I have to switch from reading the book I just started and read 10 chapters of this one TODAY!  YIKES!  Well, I'll try.  Have you read this book?  If so, what did you think of it?

Please tell us: What categories of literature do you like? What are you reading now? Who are your top five favorite authors? Have you read this one? What did you think of it?

"My Sister's Keeper" by Jodi Picoult

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult is a story of a family coping with a daughter who has Cancer and the sister who is destined to be the donor for her.  It also has an interesting subplot of romance between the lawyer Anna hires and the lady appointed to make a recommendation to the court as to what she thinks is in Anna’s best interest.  This would be a great book for a book club to discuss.  It’s about feelings, ethics, motivations and relationships.  It kept my interest all the way through and as usual in Picoult’s books, has a surprise ending.

(Karen's review 8/14/09)