Wow. Just devoured the excerpt. Now I can't wait to read the rest, whether I win the book or not.

My first club is The Baseball Moms Book Club, because that is how we met. Our sons all have played baseball together in town rec leagues and school teams for lo these many years. My second one is the Sisters Book Club (which I could not get my own sister to join!) comprised of dear cousins, sis-in-laws, and nieces...we vote on books and discuss the monthly book via email!

AOGG is one of those books that transports you to the time and place. I loved it and re-read it many times. I'm 51 now, and if I am ever in a house with a small upstairs bedroom with low windows and curtains blowing in the fresh breeze...and a gabled ceiling, of course!...I can't help but think of Anne.

Ladies, the Lord giveth, and He taketh away. Dave Cook is dating Kimberly Caldwell, sigh. But George Clooney has broken up with his gf!

I love SATC because of the funny, smart writing, great acting, beautiful clothes and most of all the idealized friendship among the four ladies. I can't break it down in quite the same way, I'm reminded of what I heard one of the ladies from the Mary Tyler Moore say about the female characters on that show: Mary was the girl we all wanted to be like, Phyllis was the one we were afraid we were like, and Rhoda was the one we actually were like. Who doesn't wish for a mature four-way-girlfriendship like in SATC? Nothing but acceptance, frank honesty, support, great clothes and constant eating and drinking! There's not a two-faced hurtful bi**ch in the group, and they've never done anything to each other they couldn't forgive. Take Carrie's anger at Miranda when Miranda busted Carrie for going to Paris and totally leaving her life behind. In REAL life, that rift would be forever...

Oh yeah, it was YOU, David V., who loves Josiah Lemming! Now I remember...! Hm, maybe I'll buy his new album in September. If I have any money left after I buy "Brooke White Stops and Starts the Classics!" (Did you see her on "Best Week Ever?" She did a great satiric "infomercial"...she was really good in it, too.)

Interesting that Josiah Lemming got barred from the Amer Idol afterparty. Back during Hollywood week, when he got cut, I took some flak for saying he seemed unstable and likely to go postal. No offense to mail carriers.

Anne, great recap. I couldn't tune in until 9 p.m. (son's concert -- do I get Mother of the Year for attending the middle school concert instead of watching Amer Idol finale??) so Thank You!! You do an awesome job for someone who just fast forwards through your DVR and then writes as fast as you can. :-) My favorite moment: When David Cook's beautiful, relaxed smile returned as he sang the winning song last night. It has been absent for a few weeks. Aaaah. He's back. The best performance: Hands down, CARRIE UNDERWOOD. Anyone who watched her set the stage on fire last night, and watched Bo Bice and The Split Ends wheeze through some southern rock a few weeks ago, and still thinks BO was "robbed" that season, is nuts. And is Carrie Underwood a Barbie or what? She looks like those legs were made in a lab. HS. (Runs to put paper bag over own mediocrre head. And over legs while at it.)

I love David A. saying "Gosh!" over and over. I think he's 100% genuine. So successful, and yet he continues to be surprised and grateful by the response to him! Nice kid. I LOVED Fantasia's wild performance. AI needs more of this cutting loose, over-the-top creativity, imo. I never liked her, but I LOVED her last night.

David V. and Anne's comments really highlight one of the most interesting parts of Idol for me: how different tastes can be! I watched the show last night (unlike you Anne, who DVRd it and then wrote as fast as you could! D'oh!) and actually left the room for a minute while Syesha sang Fever. I couldn't bear it. Too 1980-beauty-pageanty. And I LOVED David Cook. I played back "Don't Want To Miss a Thing" five or six times this morning on the Idol website. So of course, I think it is Syesha who is a distant, distant third and will go home tonight. Interesting - - enjoy Idol, everybody! (ANNE you do an awesome job, and I really enjoy you here, as well as in the paper. So does everybody I know.)

I mean, there was no big payoff to Jason's song. No "Why, oh why can't I?" COME ON. Unfair that no judge mentioned it. Lots of contestants have gotten the BOOT for messing up lyrics, way less important lyrics than "Over the Rainbow" on "Inspirational Song" night.

Anne, I loved Jason's singing on Over the Rainbow. But I was flabbergasted at the bungled lyrics throughout. And double flabbergasted that not ONE single judge even mentioned it. "If happy little bluebirds fly beyond the rainbow, dreams really do come troo-oooo-ooo" just doesn't have the same wistful POW in the gut and catch in the throat....

Wow, Anne, if Kristy Lee Cook looks like "death warmed over," I hope someone bottles Death Warmed Over and I'll be waiting at the doors of BonTon at 9:59 a.m. for the store to open! Now David Cook, he looked like death warmed over. . . looks like he should have been in bed, on diuretics and resting. Poor Cookie!

I want them to surprise us. I don't WANT to hear a passionate heartfelt song from little David. I don't want an angsty-emo alt-rock twist on a country song from David Cook. I don't want a diva turn from Syesha. I don't want a folkie piano-and-sing from Brooke, I don't want karaoke from Michael Johns, I don't want Carly to plant her feet and wail like Heart, I don't want Jason to plink-plink on the guitar and sing a simple little ditty. SURPRISE US, please, please, contestants!

Ah, yes. Usually you have to force children to visit a museum, or elderly relatives they don't know, to get these expressions. Nicely done. Am I mistaken or is this the perfect Connors family Christmas photo 2008?

Does anyone else miss You Had a Bad Day?? I didn't like last year's "I'm Going Home" but at least the words were meaningful and it had a pop hook you could remember after hearing it a few times. If someone offered me a million dollars right this minute to sing or hum 5 notes from that boring dull Luther-esque Ruben Studdard dirge they play this year when the contestant's video is being shown, I could not do it. Isn't this the same kind of dull boring song Chik got voted off for singing??

Props to ANNE for bold prediction of Jason in the bottom three. Props to DAVE for Chikezie prediction. That was sad, though. Although Paula was right. (Now that's not something you hear anyone say too often.) With only a few contestants left, somebody has to leave every week. None of these people suck. Simon was right (now THAT you hear a lot). It all boils down to What Have You Done For Me Lately? Chik's choice of a Luther snoozefest throwback bore...bad choice. America loved him just three short weeks ago in She's a Woman, remember way back then? And Jason. What has he done for us lately, since Hallelujah? could he look more out of place in those group sings? Like a 14-year-old whose mom is forcing him to play nice with the six-year-olds at his cousin's birthday party.

Yeah, Dave, isn't that interesting? Raw and kinda Legally Blonde research method but...it really isn't too far away from the basic standings, I bet. I am not surprised at anything in that list -- except that Ramiele is on top. Judging from the numbers (ahem, adjust eyeglasses to look smart) I would have said 4th or 5th.

Wow! Those online search numbers...the bottom three is exactly my pick for tonight's bottom three! Maybe there is something to my raw kinda Legally Blonde approach to interpreting the Amer. Idol. fan thread numbers. I am not happy about Chikezie being so low, I really love him, every week he's great. So likeable! Who do I think deserves to go? Michael Johns or Ramiele. But I don't think that's happening tonite.

Anne and Dave, enjoyed your picks. I agree with your opinions about each contestant. Especially Jason: COME ON, dude! My picks for bottom three: Chickezie, Syesha and Carly, with Syesha going home. (Numbers of rabid fans online for little David and Jason make it a huge upset if they are in the bottom three tonight, even though they may deserve it.)

Great suggestion and good point, Jean. Well said. thank you.

No Adele, it isn't a requirement to like any kind of music, or dislike any kind of music, or fit any kind of stupid mold, or label, liberal or conservative, to be an American. Thank YOU very much. Just because KKK is "all over the Internet" is no reason to repeat it. There are plenty of things all over the Internet that do not deserve to be repeated.

Thank you, Anne, for digging up the story on the Fox blackout. I'll watch for it.

Wow. I find it incredibly, unutterably depressing, even sickening, that singing "Proud to Be An American" gets someone labeled KKK these days. I love that song, and I'm proud to be an American. Hopefully, that does not also identify me as a violent, racist, white supremacist. Unbelievable.

Viewer in Pennsylvania on American Idol website saying he also lost video/audio tonight from the Buffalo station...