Where'd You Go Bernadette-Review by Lindsay

Where’d You Go Bernadette is a funny, poignant story told in letters, faxes, emails, reports and bills.  It is about 15 year old Bee Branch and her brilliant but eccentric parents Bernadette Fox and Elgin Branch.  They promise her anything if she gets a perfect report card.  Bee chooses a cruise to, of all places, Antartica.  

What follows is a hilarious series of events that pokes fun at parenting, progressive schools, Seattle, Microsoft, Canadians, the life of the privileged, and much more.  It caused us to laugh out loud frequently but also managed to make us empathize with the emotional pain that the characters go through.  Since the book is narrated through several points of view, we were all reminded of the advice to not judge unless “you’ve walked in their shoes”.  Where Bernadette has “gone” refers to both the physical and mental absence. 

The book’s format is unlike anything we have read, and was a refreshing change from our list of past reads.  The characters were interesting and likeable.  Many of us could identify with Bernadette’s feelings of lost identity and feelings of not fitting in when the family relocated to Seattle.  She doesn’t particularly identify with the other mothers from Bee’s school and she nicknames them The Gnats. 

Overall, the feedback on the book was consistent and ranged from 3.5 to 4.0 with an average of 3.79.  New member Patty rated our group a perfect 5.0, so pat yourselves on the back ladies  

I have updated the Timbers Book Club blog with all the upcoming books.  If it doesn’t look correct please let me know.  We have books through July of next year!

All The Light We Cannot See-Review by Kellie

Our book this month was All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr.

Not only was it a hit but, for most of us that read it and were at the meeting, it was our favorite book we read this year.  For me, personally, it will be in my top five books of all time. It is a historical fiction, which is usually one of our favorites genres and it did not disappoint. 

 The story is set during WWII and is about a blind french girl and a german boy, who has been chosen as one of Hitlers' Youth. These two characters will eventually meet one day near the very end of the war. As of our meeting neither Lindsay nor Pat had finished the book, so I'm not going to go into further detail about the story line. 

Lisa, who sent us her review before leaving for her trip, found the sequence in which it was written  confusing, as it is not written in chronological order.  We all agreed that, yes, at first we were also confused.  I had to look at the index to figure out exactly what the author was doing, by going back and forth in time.  For instance, the first eight chapters (all the chapters are very short) are about just one day, Aug. 7, 1944.  Then chapters 9-31 are about the two main characters and their lives as young children starting in 1934.  Next thing you know, with chapter 32, you are back to Aug. 1944, but the day is now the 8th, and so on and so forth.  So, through almost the entire length of the book just a few days in Aug. 1944 are woven, a few chapters at a time, amongst the rest of the book that tells the story of both main characters childhoods and then their teen years during the war, the roles they played in the war and, what eventually brings them together for just a few hours on that one day in August.  The chapters about those days in August were written like a thriller and as the time progressed from Aug. 7 to the 9th, it got more and more nerve wracking and we all admitted to being literally riveted by those chapters. Another minor weakness of the book was the end.  For Lisa, as she said, it felt "rushed".  I can't say that it felt rushed, as a matter of fact, at the meeting, I couldn't really put my finger on why the end was ever so slightly disappointing. So, today, I just spent two hours rereading the end just to see if I felt the same about it!  It sat much better with me this time and I think I was just so disappointed that (someones whose name I'll not mention) died.

Collectively as a group, we thought Doerr's writing was just beautiful and wonderfully descriptive without being overly done.  We loved all of the characters, not just the main characters, but the supporting cast as well and, we were all very attached to them.  One of my complaints with our book from Aug., The Secret Keeper was that the author wrote way to much detail about people that were not strong characters in the book, making parts of it boring.  Not the case with this book.  We discussed how neither the story of the stone nor the connection between Werner and Marie-Laure (which was the radio shows made by Marie's grandfather) felt contrived, which had it not been written so well, could have.  It was a really good meeting with so many talking points that we ended up discussing just the mystery of the house/stone/key for more than an hour!  

It took Doerr ten years to write this novel and it won the Pulitzer for fiction in 2014.  Admittedly, one of the ONLY Pulitzer winners our club has EVER really enjoyed!   

Eight of us read and rated the book.  The lowest rating was a 3.5 the highest a 5, given by four of us. So, it receives an overall rating of 4.65. 

Next months book is Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple.  Our meetings are now going back to the SECOND Friday of the month, which in November is Friday, the 13th.  Lindsay will be our discussion leader.

Hope to see you all there!

Kellie

The Invention of Wings-Review by Bonnie Jean

For this month, the book was generally liked by all.  The ratings ranged from 4 to 5.  A couple people felt like it was slow at some points when discussing Sarah and her speech impediment, but no one disliked the book.  That's good for us!  The discussion ranged from women's issues in the 1800 to current day, slavery issues that have lingering effects in present day, and family relationships.  We liked the strong women in the book, and thought it was a shame that our history books don't include the stories of these two sisters and other strong American women.  I'm probably missing a few things, but it was a good discussion.

The Secret Keeper-Review by Pat

With a smaller group than normal, five of us were at the meeting to discuss “The Secret Keeper”, by Kate Morton.  The ratings ranged from 3.5 to 4.0 with an average of 3.70.  Despite the higher ratings, part of the group mentioned they would not read the other books the author has written.  Some of us found the writing style to be a little drawn out and too descriptive in areas while others liked the more intricate detailed information. 

The book’s main characters are Vivien, Dolly and Jimmy (of course, Jimmy is the love interest between the two women).  The book starts with Laurel at the family’s England farm for her mother’s 90^th birthday.  Laurel searches into her mother’s past for answers to a murder she witnessed by her mother back in 1961, over 50 years ago.  The story goes between the pre WWII blitz in England to the 1960’s to 2011 and we liked the writing style moving between the past and the present.  Laurel’s two sisters in the story added no value to the story line but everyone enjoyed the relationship that Laurel and Gerald shared.  Our group appreciated the book’s multiple sub-plots, twists and turns that were presented along with the big surprise ending.  None of us guessed the ending where Vivien switched her identity for Dolly’s when Dolly died.   

During our discussion, many of us had different interpretations and inferences drawn about events that occurred in the book (i.e. the arrival of Henry at the end of the book and if he knew that it was Vivien he was going to see or Dolly).  Readers often assumed something about a character only to find out later that the character is not as they appeared.  “The Secret Keeper” offers tragedy, deception, jealousy and romance blended with a mystery plot throughout the book. Some in our group didn’t feel like the book was realistic while others thought the events could occur as written.  

About the Author:  Born 1976 – 39 years old.  We all thought Kate Morton would be from England but she was from Berri, South Australia, however, she had spent some time in London in the summers.  She holds a B.A. in English literature, a Master’s degree in Victorian literature from the University of Queensland and is currently working on a PhD program researching contemporary novels that incorporate aspects of gothic and mystery fiction.  Kate Morton is married to Davin, a jazz musician/composer and they have two sons.

Call The Midwife-Review by Pam B.

In addition to eating, drinking and salacious talk (thanks Jimmy Fallon) we discussed "Call the Midwife."  Now, I have to admit that after a couple of drinks and without taking notes (my excuse...it was dark) I may not remember every detail. I do remember that most everyone loved it and thought it was a "delightful" book. It was easy to read and was perfect for our summertime meeting.

At the age of twenty-two, Jennifer Worth leaves her comfortable home to move into a convent and become a midwife in London's East End slums. You are told astounding stories about the author's years working at the Nonnatus House Convent in the Docklands during the 1950s.  

It was well written and full of insight into human nature.  Most of us had little knowledge about this time and place in history and loved that the book taught us so much about it. This book was touching, funny and fascinating. It was an unforgettable story of the joy of motherhood, even in the worst of circumstances.

I recommended this book because I love the PBS tv series and wanted to see if  the book was just as good. I was not disappointed! At least a couple more of us had seen the tv series and thought that it followed the book very well. If you are interested, the tv series is available on dvd at the library and also on Netflix.

Most of us agreed that it was one of the best books we have read and the average rating was a 4.3

Pam

All Our Names-Review by Valerie

In June we discussed All Our Names by Dinaw Mengestu. Six of us were at the meeting and ratings for the book ranged from 2.0 to 3.25 with an average of 2.5. In reading the reviews and great commentary of the book we expected it to be much better than it was. 

"All Our Names narrates the story of a young black man who comes of age in post-colonial Africa and the young white woman who meets and falls in love with him in a small Midwest town." Isaac and Helen alternate narrating the chapters and Isaac's story begins when he leaves his home in Ethiopia to attend college in Uganda in the early 1970's. He talks about having 13 names, one from each generation, and was the first from his village to reach that milestone. Helen is a social worker assigned to Isaac's case when he arrives as a foreign exchange student. Isaac's story focuses on the relationship he has with his friend "the real Isaac" in Uganda, while Helen's story is supposed to be about their sweeping love story. As a group, we felt more connected to Isaac's story of the Uganda conflict than to Helen's tale of their love story. None of us felt the love story and thought it was mostly just about sex.

The very end of the book tells of them going on a road trip to Chicago which is really the first time any of us felt emotion/love between the 2 of them. We wished there would have been more of that.

Some of our comments about the book were: it was vague, too many unanswered questions, wanted a better relationship between the characters, characters could have been better developed, reading the book felt like a dream and it was hard to recall details, felt disconnected, it was a quick read and didn't love or hate it, low level of engagement. Based on what we read about the author's goals for this novel we felt he did not accomplish what he set out to do.

Ok... on to our happy hour!

We are set for next Thursday the 16th at 5:00 at my house. Please let everyone know what you will be bringing. I will have drinks! Also we will be discussing Call the Midwife.

The Shoemaker's Wife-Review by Lindsay

We had a fairly good turnout for the meeting, despite the quality of the book we read.  Ratings ranged from 2.0 to 3.5, average of 2.7.

The story began in the Italian Alps, in the Lake Garda region.  It is the story of two young brothers, Ciro and Eduardo, left by their mother to be raised in a convent.  Their story merges with the story of a girl, Enza, raised in the same geographical area of Italy.  Enza and Ciro meet at, of all places, her sister’s graveside and it is love at first sight.  So much so that they find themselves in a lip lock right after the funeral. (insert rolling eyes here)  The two can’t quite get their act together in Italy and they both emigrate separately to the United States for different reasons.  And wow!  They “happen” to run in to each other in New York City.  Don’t be fooled, this is not some sweeping, epic novel of the American dream and the hard working immigrant such as Angela’s Ashes or Tortilla Curtain or My Antonia.  It is basically a cheesy love story of the two main characters, Enza and Ciro. 

This book started with so much promise, with some beautiful descriptions of the Italian countryside, food and customs.  The relationship between the boys and the nuns was very touching.   We liked the friendship between Laura and Enza, the description of the famous opera singer Enrico Caruso, and were curious about the story behind Ciro’s mother.  And then it all went south.  Several of these characters had so much potential for an interesting story and yet were not developed. It became a series of coincidences and overly dramatic relationships. I enjoy a little romance in a book but it got a bit Harlequin Romancy.  This book read more like a romance novel that good literature.

The book was an easy read, bring to the beach kind of book.  It was not a 5 star rating recipient, which kind of left us scratching our heads on what kind of reader likes this stuff.  A few of us felt is was a waste of their time, but is it really a waste of time when we all get together?!

Next month’s book is All Our Names by Dinaw Mengestu.

Also, I have updated our blog with the latest reading list and the reviews that I had.  If I missed any please send.  It has been over a year since I updated it.  We also added three new books to our list.  We decided that adding a few books every so often is an easier way to choose books rather than a massive decision at our annual summer drinking, I mean social hour, get together.  Here is the link-

http://timbersbookclub.blogspot.com/

Lindsay

Left to Tell-Review by Lisa

Hi everyone sorry this so late. We had 4  at our last meeting and even though we were a small group we still managed to have a wonderful discussion led by Pam.

"Left to Tell" is a book that is written by Immaculee Ilibagiza who survived the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. For a few of us, we were not aware of the genocide that killed about 1 million people within a 3 month time span. Therefor the book was such a shock and learning experience. 

The Tutsis and Hutus of the African country of Rwanda have had a bloody past and in essence this genocide was "pay back" to the Tutsis from the Hutus. Through propaganda radio, military force, hate and fear they brutally attacked and killed as many Tutsis as they could seek in attempt to eliminate them from Rwanda. Family, friends, neighbors, and the educated  turned against each other. Immaculee was "spared" with 8? other Tutsis women by Pastor Murinzi who put them up in his bathroom! For three months they were not allowed out, were fed minimum amounts, did not bathe, were covered with lice among other critters, and needed to flush the only toilet around the other toilet use of the rest of the home. Their news was limited to what they could hear from their small bathroom window and what the pastor would dare to share. For the most part they heard discussions of betrayal and brutality. Time stretched on and on for them with nothing to keep them occupied. Talking was prohibited. They couldn't move around and took turns to stretch out. Many times they feared discovery. Immaculee spent her time praying.Praying for survival, lost lives, release from the brutality,strength to carry on, and ultimately forgiveness to those that murdered her family and friends. 

She was raised Catholic and had been surrounded by prayer her entire life. BUT this praying was different for it was a cry out while desperately afraid and angry. She spent hours a day and night lost in her world of prayer. It was described as "feverish".She would lose consciousness. As a result, her faith led to hope which gave her the power of courage to survive and ultimately to FORGIVE those that butchered her family,friends and way of life.  In turn, she promised God that she would always have her faith with him and would share it with the world. She believed that she was the living proof of prayer and positive thinking which "really are almost the same thing." She felt she was"spared" not saved so she could serve the purpose of spreading her story throughout the world. She was pious not self righteous, for she was, is, aware of her gift of life and didn't feel it was"owed "to her and not others due to her prayers. All the survivors shared in the misery of the war, but she  felt others lost so much more than her...for they lost their faith and in "doing so, they'd also lost hope". She lives today with her family on the East coast and speaks around the world to share her story. She doesn't take her life for granted.

Part of our discussion were the parallels of this story and the story written by Viktor Frankl, "Man's Search for Ultimate Meaning". Both are stories of inspiration and how having hope gives you a sense of purpose, courage to continue on even when the odds are against you. We gave the book a 4 not because it was brilliantly written but for the history lesson, message of courage and inspiration AND easy reading! 

Dr. Zhivago-Review by Pam B.

A little bit of background...

Boris Pasternak was born in Russia in 1890, and by the time of the Russian Revolution was a well-known avant-garde poet. His work fell into disfavor during the 1920s and 1930s as the communist regime of Joseph Stalin imposed strict censorship on Russian art and literature. 

Boris Pasternak’s romantic novel, Dr. Zhivago was banned in the Soviet Union, but was published in the US in 1958 and won the Nobel Prize for Literature in the same year.

Not one of our favorites...

If my memory serves me correctly, we only had four people at our February meeting for "Dr. Zhivago". Kudos to Kellie - she was the only one who read the entire book. This was not an easy book to read. Maybe it was the translation? This was one of those books that can be frustrating to read because you have to keep looking back at the list of characters (with long Russian names) to figure out who the author was talking about and how they fit into the story. We did not end up discussing very much of the book because almost no one had read enough. Personally, I was disappointed with the book because I love the movie so much and had such high expectations, but this is one of those rare occasions where the movie is so much better than the book. We were curious about the movie and did some "googling". The movie was released in the US in 1965.  Since the book was banned in the Soviet Union the film could not be made there and was instead filmed mostly in Spain. The film won five Academy Awards and as of 2014 is the eighth highest grossing film of all time, adjusted for inflation. It did not win an Academy for best picture ("My Fair Lady" won). It was also nominated for five Golden Globes and won all five including best picture!

Not a big surprise...

"Dr. Zhivago" was not rated very highly, but to be fair, very little was read. I believe the highest rating was a 2.5

On to the next book...

Orphan Train-Review by Kellie

For the most part, the book was well liked by everyone.  Finding out that actual Orphan Trains ran from New York to the mid west from the late 1800's to the mid 1930s, was a shocking revelation for all of us.  Just like in this story, children had been housed in Orphanages before being put on trains and shipped out west.  I'm sure our Government had good intentions in this process, however, what many of the children experienced instead of loving homes was abuse of all kinds, neglect, and most of the older children were adopted to be used purely as laborers.  That was the harsh reality of the Orphan Trains.  For those of us that read the book, the pictures of the children in the back of the book of were painfully touching.

Vivian's story was most compelling to us.  We loved the historical aspect of it, and just loved her character. We were so pained by all of her bad experiences but also loved all the characters that truly cared for her along the way and helped her.  Most of us were less attracted to Molly, and as is very typical of us, did not buy into most of the dialog that she and her boyfriend Jack had.  We felt they came across as being too mature. However, we did discuss that because she was in the foster care system, it was possible she could be more mature than most girls her age,  just by having to live the life experiences that she had been through.  In the end though, we really loved the bond that developed between Molly and Vivian, and that their relationship was so good for Molly.  After all the years she spent bouncing around from foster family to foster family, she finally had someone in her life she could relate to.  Also, being able to help Vivian, not only reorganize the attic, but help find her daughter, really gave Molly a sense of purpose in her life.

However, the main issue that we had with the book was that it was just too short and we felt rather short changed when it came to Vivian's story.  Most of us wished the author would have elaborated on her life after she married her second husband.  Pat, however, wanted the story to be developed between Vivian and her daughter, once they were reunited.  So, we all agree this story could have been better developed.  It started out really strong and then the second half seemed very rushed.  Only one us didn't care for the book at all.  She felt like all the characters were very "stereotypical" in that the good characters were really good and the bad characters were really bad and that Molly wasn't believable at all.  It all seemed very "sophomoric" to her.  This is, however, exactly why we love book club!  Every book we read has a different effect on each of us.  Our ratings averaged out to be 3.71

After our discussion, a representative from Adoption Options, Courtney-Empson-Whaley, came to talk to us about the current foster care system.  We all wanted it to be leaps and bounds better than it was back at the turn of the century, however that isn't really the case.  Obviously, both  terms "orphan" and "orphanage" are no longer used today.  However, there are  still thousands of foster care children out there needing to be adopted and whose personal stories are so very sad.  Even more disturbing, there are also children that are so emotionally damaged, that they pose a threat to others, or themselves. These kids are housed in a facility, or group homes, and will never be adopted and, upon reaching adulthood, will then be housed in an adult facility. That's the bad news. The good news is that there are many families out there looking to adopt, not just babies, but older children as well, that have been in the system for many years.  Adoption Options has many success stories and it's an organization that seems to work tirelessly in aiding in the care and adoption of so many children in need.  These people are truly Super Heroes!  It was tremendously educational for all of us and left us all pondering whether or not we would have a role to play in the future with this organization.  I do NOT mean that we are all running down town tomorrow and adopting a child!  However, the needs of this organization are many: volunteer hours, money, supplies, etc.  Also, we are NOT participating in anything as a group.  This is a very personal choice and decision.  We asked for the presentation purely to become more educated and informed on a subject we know very little about.  However, for those of you who would like to pursue any aspect of this further, the number is 303-695-1601.  Also, Courtney gave me the name of a website related to Adoption Options, but I could not get it to come up.  I have not been able to get in touch with her, but will continue to try so I can get that information to everyone. Lastly, Courtney recommended a book that was written by a woman who was raised in the foster care system.  Her name is Ashley Rhodes-Courtier and the book is Three Little Words.  I can tell it's a heartbreaking story, but the reviews are really good.  Just something to think about.

Thanks for your time and have an awesome week,

Kellie

The Book Thief-Review by Pat

The book is narrated by Death who describes all of the main characters thoughts and emotions as well as his own. Death’s perspective injects humor at times but the overall tone is sadness.  The writing style of the book was written with an intimate, conversational style observing the relationships between the main characters and the conflicts they face during World War II.  Death flashes forward to the future to reveal some of the characters fates, which some of us were a little conflicted about if we wanted to know this foreshadowing of what was going to happen.  The booked flowed well with the articulate, descriptive observations of the surrounds and characters.  

The book follows the events during World War II with Liesel as the main character and the challenges she faces with the hardship of war-time Germany and hiding Max in their home.  There are a number of sub plots in the book and we all really liked certain characters like Hans, Rosa (she grew on us), Rudy (I think we all would have kissed him) and Max.  One of the underlying themes in the book was the power of words and how they were used by different characters to influence, direct and affect people (Max, Hitler and Liesel through the book she wrote).  I think we all agreed we would have rather have had a happier ending as most of the major characters were killed.  There were a lot of crucial scenes in the book that touched us and we discussed how difficult it must be to live in a constant, high stress environment like what occurred during this time period.  

In summary, we all seemed to enjoy the book, the writing style and characters.  Seven of us rated the book with an average rating of 3.65.   

About the Author: Markus Frank Zusak was born in 1975 and is an Australian writer. He is best known for The Book Thief and I Am The Messenger, two novels for young adults which have been international bestsellers. The Book Thief was published in 2005 and has been translated into more than 30 languages. Beside winning awards in Australia and overseas, The Book Thief has held the number one position at Amazon.com and on the New York Times bestseller list, as well as in Brazil, Ireland and Taiwan. It has been among the top five best sellers in the UK, Spain, Israel and South Korea, and is still set to be released in many other territories.

The Reading Promise-Review by Kellie

For those of you who didn't read it, it was written by 23 year old Alice Ozma.  She wrote about a promise she and her dad made to read together every night for 1000 days, which actually ended up turning into well over 3000.  He read to her every night, from the time she was 4, right up to the moment he dropped her off at College at 18.  Alice's mother left the family when Alice was only 8 and her sister was 12.  She didn't elaborate on a lot of details about her mother, except you were made very aware that she had  some "issues", whether it be depression or something else.  Neither Alice nor her sister seemed to spend a lot of time with her other than their assigned weekends, or whatever the arrangement was.  The responsibility of raising the girls fell mostly to their father and, quite honestly,he was a bit of an odd duck himself. However, he was completely dedicated to his daughters, and his nightly reading sessions with Alice had a profound affect on her and helped shape who she is today.  

This book was met with very mixed reviews. A couple of us loved it, a couple of us hated it, and the rest fell somewhere in between.  For those of us that loved it we thought it was sweet and endearing and described a childhood with a quirky father, whom Alice adored and who could read a book like no one else. Also, we felt inspired.  For those that didn't like it; it was boring, poorly written, needed more drama (would have loved details about the mom), did not see a good connection between father and daughter, etc.  For those in the middle it was a little boring but definitely had its moments.

So, in the end, what we ended up doing was reminiscing about either reading to our own children or being read to as children and telling tells about it.  Pam H.'s story won, hands down.   She and her husband were in the same 6th grade class with an awesome teacher, who had a very big personality.  She also (as Pam's husband remembers) had a very LARGE bust line in which she kept a handkerchief tucked away.  Anyway, when she would read out loud to the class she would reach down to get her kerchief, from between her boobs, and dab her face from time to time while excitedly reading.  I'm not sure I did the story justice, but it was funny ;)

Seven of us rated it (Lisa emailed hers) and they ranged from 2 - 4, averaging a 3.

Next month is our FAVORITE meeting!  Our happy hour at Val's house.  Thank you Val, ahead of time, for having us once again.  Our July book is Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephan Chbosky, August is The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, Sept. is The Goldfinch by Donna Draft.  Also, please bring ideas for books to this gathering.  It helps if you bring printed up reviews/details about the books so we can pass them around and look at them all.

Lastly, Val will send a separate email with the specifics about our July meeting.  Everyone, please let us know what you plan on bringing to Val's so we don't have repeats. Thanks!  I'm going to bring a hot spinach/artichoke dip w/crackers.

Hope to see everyone next month,

Kellie