Last week my book club met to discuss The Red Garden by Alice Hoffmann. It was a small group and even though we had a few discussion questions the discussion itself was a bit disjointed. I had read the book about 6 weeks prior and couldn't remember as much as I wished. My niece loaned me Fifty Shades of Grey which I had been avoiding due to all the hoop-la. Well I did read it and I am so ambivalent about it. I had hoped that I would feel strongly one way or another- either really hate it or really love it/couldn't put it down. Neither. I read it, I wasn't driven to read it, I finished it but am not sure I will read the other two books in the series. I really didn't care for either character, I really didn't understand why Ana would enter into a D/S relationship, I couldn't believe that Christian was that amazing in any way. I have heard others discussing the book- I had heard the author didn't set out to write a great novel, she just wanted to write a story. It is not a great novel. And after reading it I think people are putting more significance on it than the author intended. I think I will return to The Expats and finish that next.