Teaser Tuesday & A Teeny Ramble -- Suzanne Kelman's The Rejected Writers' Book Club

The Book & Tease

The Meme

The Ramble

I wasn't quite sure what I was expecting when I requested Suzanne Kelman's The Rejected Writers' Book Club from Lake Union Publishing on NetGalley. I had no intention of requesting anything for at least another month or so, but was nosing around to see what some of my favorite publishers had up for grabs and I fell in love with the title and cover. The description didn't make it sound dreadful, either:

Librarian Janet Johnson is puzzled when she is invited—and practically dragged—to her first meeting of the Rejected Writers’ Book Club. This quirky group of women would much rather celebrate one another’s rejected manuscripts over cups of tea and slices of lemon cake than actually publish a book. But good friends are exactly what Janet needs after moving to the small town of Southlea Bay, Washington. Just as the ladies are about to raise a teacup to their five hundredth rejection letter, they receive bad news that could destroy one member’s reputation—and disband the group forever. To save the club, Janet joins her fellow writers on a wild road trip to San Francisco in search of the local publisher who holds the key to a long-buried secret. As they race to the finish line, they’ll face their fears—landslides, haunted houses, handsome strangers, ungrateful children—and have the time of their lives.

Janet is an empty-nester and about to become a grandmother and my one-and-only, John, turns ten this June so we're not quite in the same place life-experience-wise, but I could definitely relate to her in so many ways. She and her husband tease each other in much the same way that Tom and I do. She adores books. We find the same things about life ridiculous and sometimes exasperating (one of my favorite lines? "I was up and down like a whore's drawers") and I have a sneaky suspicion that she finds this image running through her head on a regular basis:

We would also both do anything that we could to help a friend in need -- even if it seems impossible and utterly ridiculous. That's basically what this book is all about. The impossible and utterly ridiculous. No, no. The helping a friend in need part. Only they aren't exactly friends when it all begins and it does seem impossible at times and is absolutely utterly ridiculous most of the time.

Even the chapter titles are chuckle-inducing and I love good chapter titles. Just to give you an idea, here are some of my favorites.

Chapter 1: Tyrants & Trash Cans

Chapter 6: Fairy Bells & Hot-Pink Jogging Pants

Chapter 13: A Ghost That Eats Pie

Chapter 17: Unchaining Ethel From The Toilet

Chapter 22: Saucepans, Drugs, & Doris's "Smalls"

And the best part is that they all actually make sense once you read it!

Speaking of reading it, I highly recommend that you do so. According to Goodreads it was actually published for the first time in 2014 but you only have to wait a week for the shiny new Lake Union edition to come out with the oh-so-gorgeous cover. (Even pretty on phones and tablets -- and the Kindle edition will only be $3.99 or FREE with Kindle Unlimited!) So go, do your pre-order thing, read it when it gets released on March 29th ..... and let me know when you want to start planning our road trip!