Book Club - Now Reading: How to Be an American Housewife

Coming Soon!

The First Husband
by Laura Dave
 
May 30
My Artist's Way Toolkit
 
June 13
What Alice Forgot
by Liane Moriarty
 
June 27

A Discovery of Witches
Deborah Harkness
A Good Hard Look
Ann Napolitano
A Jane Austen Education
William Deresiewicz
Born Wicked
Jessica Spotswood
Caleb's Crossing
Geraldine Brooks
Diary of a Mad Fat Girl
Stephanie McAfee
Faithful Place
Tana French
Getting to Happy
Terry McMillan
Girl in Translation
Jean Kwok
How to Be an American Housewife
Margaret Dilloway
Lost and Found
Geneen Roth
Love at First Bark
Julie Klam
Lunch Wars
Amy Kalafa
Rules of Civility
Amor Towles
Sea Change
Jeremy Page
Slow Love
Dominique Browning
The Beach Trees
Karen White
The Book of Jonas
Stephen Dau
The Fault in Our Stars
John Green
The Kid
Sapphire
The Lake of Dreams
Kim Edwards
The Magic Room
Jeffrey Zaslow
The Rules of Inheritance
Claire Bidwell Smith
The Underside of Joy
Seré Prince Halverson
The Weird Sisters
Eleanor Brown
Theodora: Actress, Empress, Whore
Stella Duffy
What Happened to Goodbye
Sarah Dessen
Where She Went
Gayle Forman
Why Women Need Fat
William D. Lassek, M.D. & Steven J.C. Gaulin, Ph.D.
You Have No Idea
Vanessa Williams & Helen Williams
More >

Meet Book Club Host


Karen Ballum
Karen Ballum has been blogging about books on her blog Sassymonkey Reads since 2005 and on BlogHer since 2006.

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Reading Next!

A savvy, page-turning novel about a woman torn between her husband and the man she thought she'd marry. Stay tuned for The First Husband!

Recent Comments on Book Club

 
Now Reading: How to Be an American Housewife
Margaret DillowayAuthor: Margaret Dilloway
What Did You Think of the Book?

Is the Past Ever Really Just the Past?

11/13/11 7:00am by sassymonkey
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"The past is the past" is a phrase that runs through Margaret Dilloway's How to Be an American Housewife. It is uttered by most of the characters at one time. Shoko tried to shake off the past but she couldn't. It was with her every day. Is the past ever really just the past? Does the past not shape everything that we are?  Read more >

Navigating Mother-Daughter Relationships

11/8/11 7:57am by sassymonkey
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Shoko's relationship with her daughter Sue in Margaret Dilloway's How to Be an American Housewife is one of the most vital parts of the book. Shoko's attempts to push Sue in various directions cause her to pull away. Sue's attempts to show interest in things that her mother does or loves causes Shoko to push her away. Sometimes mother-daughter relationships are more like a game of tug of war than a cooperative three-legged race.  Read more >

Do You Have A Guidebook For Life?

11/3/11 6:00am by sassymonkey
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In Margaret Dilloway's How to Be an American Housewife, Shoko uses a book by the same name as her guidebook to American life. Sometimes she likes the book, other days she hates it. But it's there for her when she needs it to offer advice, comfort or just the recognition that she's not the only woman in her position.  Read more >

What Does Forgiveness Look Like?

10/25/11 11:58am by sassymonkey
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I thought a lot about forgiveness while reading Margaret Dilloway's How to Be an American Housewife. What does it mean to forgive? Have I ever sought it the way the characters have? Is there someone in my past that I have not forgiven?  Read more >

Relearning How to Cook and Live

10/12/11 10:00am by sassymonkey
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While reading Margaret Dilloway's How to Be an American Housewife, I was struck by how much of my daily like I take for granted. I speak the local language. I know what most things are in the grocery store and how to cook them. I know what's expected of a school science fair project. I know all of this because they are all things I learned growing up. Shoko didn't.  Read more >

Were You a Disobedient Girl?

10/5/11 8:13am by sassymonkey
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Margaret Dilloway's How to Be an American Housewife starts with Shoko declaring "I had always been a disobedient girl." The second part of the book, told from Shoko's daughter Sue's perspective, starts with Sue's declaration, "I had always been an obedient girl." It made me wonder, am I disobedient? Or am I obedient?  Read more >