How to Read Like a Master of 'Meh' Samantha Henig is the magazine's online editor and writes The Meh List section of The One-Page Magazine.. "The Buddha in the Attic," by Julie Otsuka. It's for my coed, intergenerational, noncouples book club, which my mother and I started a couple of years ago. After we'd been meeting for more than a year, we realized that we had only read one book by a woman. For a few meetings in a row, we worked really hard to try to balance things out by choosing female authors, but it felt sort of forced, and led to an even bigger letdown when the book was a dud: it wasn't just our reading experience at stake but also our overall sense of women's worth in the modern literary canon! But all the book clubbers were excited about reading "The Buddha in the Attic" even before we fully realized that it was by a woman. Now that's progress. "Gone Girl," by Gillian Flynn. I tore through it at the beach this summer. I was raving so much about how engaging and suspenseful the first few chapters were that my sister bought it on her Kindle so that we could read side by side. I was about two hours ahead of her and couldn't wait for her to finish it so that we could discuss all the twists. Added bonus: it's by a woman! "You Are Not a Gadget," by Jaron Lanier. I saw him speak at the New Yorker Festival a couple of years ago and rushed out to buy the book. The bits that I read were really interesting, but for some reason I just cannot get myself to finish the thing. Books in my field that I highly recommend: Well, I guess it wouldn't have much clout now if I said "You Are Not a Gadget." As the Web editor here, I suppose my "field" is something Internet-related, but I actually don't really read books about that sort of thing. I devour articles and blog posts about digital media - but not books. I go to books to escape my field. Book that I thought I would hate but loved: In much the same way that I expected to hate the TV show "Girls" - a combination of jealousy at being so outshined by someone basically my age and an urge to rail against the hype - I was also pretty sure I'd hate "The Art of Fielding," by Chad Harbach. But much like "Girls," it's too damn good to hate. I was also incredibly skeptical of "Then We Came to the End," by Joshua Ferris. All I had heard about it was that it's told in first-person plural, so I was expecting it to be an entire book built around a gimmick. Hardly! Despite his royal "we," Ferris painted some of the most vivid characters I've ever encountered in print, and frequently had me laughing out loud. I still often chuckle at the thought of the word "buckshelves." (Ferris does tragic as well as he does comic. I was haunted by his short story "The Dinner Party.") Book that I thought I would love but hated: As a fan of John Updike, I was looking forward last year to finally diving into the Rabbit series. Although I appreciated the writing and the sense of place in "Rabbit, Run," I think there are few people, real or fictional, I have hated the way I hated Rabbit. I just couldn't stand to spend a whole book with him - let alone four. One book I would recommend to anyone: "The Secret History," by Donna Tartt. It's gripping, evocative, smart - and not superdepressing. Most of my favorite books are fairly dark ("Blindness," "The Age of Grief," "The Sweet Hereafter"), so I would recommend them only to people who are into that sort of thing. "The Secret History" has its sinister moments, but it's not a downer. Book that's regarded as a classic but is actually meh: I made some enemies when I put this on the Meh List, but I'm standing by it: "Mrs. Dalloway."