TSofTBC - The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Book Club is a book club that travels between 4 blogs with each blog hosting once per year.

Myself, Kelly (KellyVision), Christy (The Reader Bee) and Kim (PingWing's Bookshelf) are the bloggers involved.

Our first selection is The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. It inspired me (and was my choice) to start this club, and felt it only fitting to start with this.

** SPOILERS FOR THE SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING PANTS**

A few of the girls (Christy and Kim) hadn't read this before. Getting to experience them meeting Carmen, Tibby, Lena, and Bridget for the first time reminded me of why I love recommending books. It's always a rush when someone loves the same book you do.

The theme of friendship, and that these girls seemed to have a genuine one without the usual backstabbing featured in books/movies/t shows was the aspect we all loved. During our discussions we talked quite a bit about how these girls really care for each other.

The romance was hit and miss for us as a group. We thought Lena and Kostos were not developed enough for the declarations that come later (at least in this novel) but love the tentative steps Brian and Tibby were taking. I, personally, had forgotten how little Kostos and Lena really interact in this installment.

We found that the Lena's storyline was better in the movie. It made Lena come off like less of a brat, and provided some fun teen angst and rebellion with them sneaking around. I see why they changed it for the movie. Everyone of us felt the casting of the girls was done really well. America Ferrara and Amber Tamblyn especially were mentioned as being perfect for their roles.

Bailey was a character we all loved. The general consensus was that she was wise beyond her years. Tibby has the most heart wrenching storyline, and it certainly packed an emotional punch for all of us. I couldn't help but be in awe of how Tibby handled the situation. Yes, she had her moments of trying to avoid it, but I think she ended up handling it much better than I would have.

This novel sort of fell into the 'missing or absent parent' trap that so many young adult books do. Sometimes anyways. Certain storylines had parents front and centre like with Carmen. However, others had them lacking. Lena changing her travel plans at the last minute, Carmen running away and nobody looking for her, Bridget having little guidance. I think because all the members of our group are older, we wanted to protect them from themselves.

Side note- we were all incredibly jealous Lena being in Greece. Our discussion including much lementing that we were not in Greece. The movie did nothing to make this lessen. It's beautifully shot. We also were commenting that these girls were incredibly lucky to be traveling the way they did.

We all kind of reacted the same to Bridget's spiral. It felt authentic to her character, but we all wanted to save her from herself. A constant refrain of "STOP BRIDGET!" happened during a few chapters.

Carmen's storyline made all of us exasperated. We wanted to throttle each of them at various times. We couldn't believe he would drop that large bombshell on her without any warning, and she reacted badly (understandably so, but still). Their storyline, (and Lena's) prove that communication is key. You need to talk about things, and you need to make sure to clear up any misunderstands immediately. It's a lesson we all learn.

I found (and so did the other girls) this novel funnier than expected. Kim especially liked the line where Carmen refers to her 'little assed friends'. I myself giggled quite a few times, the main on being when Bridget, commenting on the pants to one of the other girls 'Those pants are in love with you. They want you for your body and your mind'. Tibby 'suckumentary' and other dialogue provided a humourous tone that was really fun.

In short, this was the perfect book to start with. Fun, light, and helped us ease into the club. It felt nostalgic for me because I love this series so much and getting to revisit it was like reuniting with old friends.

Each of the members (other than myself) has reviewed The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, so if you wanted to check them out, they are linked below.

Kelly
Christy
Kim

Our next 'meeting' is in November on Kelly's blog and will be to discuss Alissa Nutting's Tampa, so I expect it'll have quite the different feel.