So are you and your book club sick of reading 450 page novels set in war-torn Europe? Sick of books that you have to pretend to read because they're so boring? Sick of books that tear at your heartstrings and make you cry when the protagonist dies of some horrible disease? Fear not, because Holy Hullabaloos: A Road Trip to the Battlegrounds of the Church/State Wars is the perfect choice for your book club's next selection. Here are ten good reasons to choose it:
1. It's cheap! Only $13.85 from Amazon.
2. It's light! According to the Amazon website, it weighs only 3.2 ounces, so no more lugging giant tomes to the beach and throwing out your back. HH is available only in paperback (and Kindle, as of last week).
3. It has its own theme song, which you can play before and after your book club discusses the book, as well as during bathroom and snack breaks. How many other books have their own theme song? (answer: four)
4. It's "laugh out loud funny," according to Publisher's Weekly's starred review.
5. There's tons of hot juicy sex in it!
6. OK, so there isn't any hot juicy sex in it (I do briefly mention the sexual intercourse preferences of Cleveland Jews, but other than that, not much that can be described as sexy, unless you think Jesus and Uncle Sam driving in a convertible together is sexy, in which case, yikes!) but you will learn a lot about the separation of church and state, which is a pretty important thing in our country, right? Just think of how much you and your group will have to discuss/argue about.
7. Speaking of church and state issues, the Supreme Court is set to hear a big case involving a cross on public property on October 7. If you read the book now, you'll totally understand what's going on when Katie Couric starts talking about it.
8. Be unique! I mean, everyone's reading Richard Russo's new book That Old Cape Magic, and much as I love Richard Russo, don't you want to do something a little different from every other book club in the world? Plus, since I'm now going to tell you that the protagonist dies of a horrible disease, you already know how it ends.
9. OK, so the protagonist doesn't die of a horrible disease, but still, wouldn't it be great to read a book which the critics are calling "stunning," "entertaining," "probing," "enlightening," and "zanily irreverent"?
10. Finally, if you want, I'd be delighted to give your book group a call and chat with you for a while about the book, about writing generally, about the Supreme Court, church-state relations, that incredibly sad new Richard Russo book, or really anything you'd like. It will be fun!