a weird movie. no, a great movie. STET

I was perched in the corner of my couch; a blanket snuggled around me; sweatshirt hood in place; chick flick in the DVD player; warm scone and coffee nearby; a husband willing to brave said movie in exchange for some Bazooka Joe nonsensical man-movie - all in all, the makings of a perfect Sunday morning. The one hitch? The movie was Suburban Girl.

This movie was meant to be an amusing tryst between a neophyte (Netflix's word, I would have used novice) editor (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and the much older and more accomplished editor-in-chief of some publishing company (Alec Baldwin). Admittedly, the dialog was entertaining. However, the plot (or lack thereof) throughout the protagonist's plight was dull. Completely void of a sense of anticipation, accomplishment... A point. The worst part? I couldn't understand most of the references.

During the movie I said to J, "This is something Jen would totally get." He agreed and added that if she ever had some affair with an older man, in an alternate universe where she pursued her career as a book editor in New York, that this could be a movie about her. "Right," I said "except in her version the main character would be far more punchy and snarky." He agreed.

However, this has prompted Justin and I to start our own little book club. We are certainly an UN-read couple. The classics are lost on us - save for some standard English 101 reads: The Sun Also Rises, Catcher in the Rye, The Rainbow and various works of Shakespeare. And while I've read some, I can't remember anything about them - not enough to catch vague or even obvious references to something in the text. I want to be able to pick up Suburban Girl in a few years and actually understand the references. Maybe then I wouldn't walk away from the movie, dictionary in hand, still feeling under-educated and stupid.

Any suggestions for which classic we should start with? C'mon, Jen. You have a few suggestions, you know you’re dying to tell us where to start.