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

Man's Search For Meaning - review by Valerie

So sorry for the delay in getting this review done. Better late than never I hope!

We had a great meeting in May to discuss Viktor Frankl's "Man's Search For Meaning." There were 9 of us there and the discussion was very interesting. Not everyone loved the book most of us felt it's impact and can see why it is on the all time list of must reads.

Frankl was born in Vienna in 1905 and died in 1997. He was a Nazi death camp survivor and lost his wife, father, mother and brother in concentration camps. Despite these circumstances, Frankl remained an optimist and always believed that a person has the freedom to choose how they see their situation in life and to then create meaning for themselves. One of his favorite quotes was from Nietzche, "He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how."

The first half of "Man's Search For Meaning" is for the most part an autobiography of Frankl's experiences in a concentration camp. We all thought this part of the book was very interesting and felt empowered and inspired by his will to live. The last half of the book is a essay explaining his theory called "logo therapy." This basically states that the main human drive is not please but the pursuit of what we find meaningful. He believed that people often died in concentration camps because they did not have something to live for, something that was meaningful to them. Some of us felt this part of the book was repetitive and not a page turner as it was full of technical terminology and clinical psychology information. But we were all inspired by the bottom line of his philosophy: "Human behavior is not dictated by conditions than man encounters, but by decisions he himself makes." Our thoughts on this were that it's so nice to feel like we have a choice regarding how we live life, that you get out of life what you put into it, we are in control. Frankl has given us a challenge and we need to embrace it. Most of us could relate to his theory and would keep this book as a reference point when having a bad day. It can empower us all. 

The overall rating for this book was a 3.5. The first half of the book describing Frankl's experiences in the death camps was definitely preferred over the last half but taken as a whole, it was still an amazing book and has been a huge influence on major contemporary self-help writers. 

Frankl's message is one of hope, even in the worst situations. No matter what the circumstances, we can be free.

Their Eyes Were Watching God-Review by Kellie

Last Friday five of us met to review our April read which was Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. Three more of us, who were unable to attend our meeting, read the book and emailed me their rating/opinion, and our collective score was a 3.75.  This is excellent, considering some of the disappointing books we've read in the last six months!  The only real negative that came up was that all of the dialog was written in a vernacular dialect.  For some it grew tiresome, for others it was hard at first to figure out what a particular word meant.  However, for most of us, once we got the hang of it, it just wasn't that much of a distraction. Upon discussing this topic at great lengths we felt that because this book was about a young black woman in the 1930's, who is very poor and uneducated and lived in the deep south, this is exactly how they would have talked!  To change that up would have been ridiculous.  The book would not have been the same without it. Furthermore, we came to the conclusion that what we really appreciated about this book was Ms. Hurston's talent when writing in the narrative. She wrote so beautifully and we reviewed many of our favorite passages or paragraphs while discussing this book.  We realized that this book had both metaphors and symbolism laced throughout, and just like last months book, we probably needed professional help to explore the true depth of this book. This explains why most of our kids have read it, either in high school or college; so very much to discuss. Unfortunately, we weren't really able to do this book justice in our meeting, but we really enjoyed talking about it.  Also, worth noting, by the end of our discussion, three of us who originally gave it a rating of 3.5, changed it to a 4.  Now, that's a good discussion!

A note about the author:  Hurston was an American-folklorist, anthropologist, and author. She received an Associates degree from Howard University and then went to Barnard College, Columbia University, where she was the college's sole black student. She received her B.A. in anthropology in 1928, when she was 37. Sadly, Hurston's work slid into obscurity for decades, for a number of cultural and political reasons. Many readers objected to the representation of African-American dialect in Hurston's novels. However, Author Alice Walker published "In Search of Zora Neale Hurston" in the March 1975 issue of Ms. magazine, reviving interest in Hurston's work, unfortunately, fifteen years after her death.  Now, this book is considered one of the most important works of twentieth-century American literature.

Next months book is Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl.

Anna Karenina-Review by Valerie

There were 6 of us at Kellie's on Friday to discuss Anna Karenina. First and foremost, thank you Kellie for hosting! The food was so yummy and your home was beautiful. If you weren't there, we missed you.

Our discussion of the book was interesting but we all felt there was just too much to discuss in such a short period of time. We definitely did not do this book justice. There have been a few times when we have read a classic and thought that without some advanced study and thought topics, we did not grasp the full meaning and impact of the novel. This was certainly the case with Anna Karenina. We should have broken the book down and had questions to review throughout. Food for thought before our next classic!

Just a little recap for us all....

Themes (taken right from the internet)

1. There were huge social changes taking place in Russia at the time Tolstoy wrote this, making the historical aspects of the novel as important as the personal and psychological aspects. We see a battle between old patriarchal values and new liberal values.

2. Blessings of family life. Family novels were popular in the early 1800's in Russia but were out of fashion when Anna was written. Tolstoy presents an idea that family limits individual freedom. However, we are shown that faith, happiness and family life go hand in hand.

3. Philosophical value of farming. Wow, did we read a lot about farming (if you didn't skip these parts.) Levin, one of the main characters in the book, is a devoted farmer. Tolstoy uses him to portray farmers as more fulfilled and happy than their urban counterparts. There is a delicate balance between personal labor and trust in the forces of nature.

4.Interior monologue. We discussed this in depth. Some of us really disliked this aspect of the book. There was tons of internal dialogue and many thought it was monotonous. This was a new style of writing at the time and was supposed to create more empathy with the characters....not sure if we got that!! We did find the radical change in thoughts to be almost comical. For example, a character might be happy and in love, then the next minute feel that they were not loved and life was not worth living. Then would come the "make-up scene" and all was forgotten. Wow!

5. Forgiveness.  The idea of Christian forgiveness recurs regularly in the book and is one of Tolstoy's main topics. The central action of the plot is sin, forgiveness is the potential resolution. What is our attitude toward the characters (primarily Anna) and how much do we forgive them? 

6. Death. The protagonists face death numerous times. It is seen as an escape from problems that are faced and also as an "inescapable end to existence", calling into question the entire meaning of life.

Ok, these themes would have been good to discuss last Friday. Why didn't I see this before today? Oh well, if anyone wants to reread with these insights in mind, feel free!

On a personal note, I loved this book when I read it the first time, about 20 years ago. I fully expected to love it again. What happened?  I really didn't love it this time around and think that I must now be jaded! I didn't feel as much emotion and connection to the characters and wasn't sad this time when I was done reading it (would it ever end?) It's interesting how our own life experiences affect our perception of books and most likely everything we encounter. Hmm...

Ratings: We gave it 2 2.5's and 3 3's for an average of 2.8. Here were a few of our comments: Didn't enjoy it, not compelled to keep reading it, would not recommend. Gave it a 3 because it was a classic. Needed to have more information about the book so we could understand it more. Gave it a 3 because I understood where the book was coming from and the time period but could not relate for today. 

Ok, our next book is "Their Eyes Were Watching" by Zora Neale Hurston. We are meeting on Friday, April 11th. 

The Kitchen House-Review by Pam B.

Finally...a good book! We had a really good turnout and discussion of The Kitchen House. This was a page turner for most of us. We couldn't wait to see what new tragedy was on the next page. Actually, was there just too much that happened in the story? Was it possible that so many horrible things could happen one after another? This was a different time in history, so does that make it feasible? This book was about the lives of slaves and one indentured servant on a Virginia tobacco plantation. Was it better to be a servant or a slave? Were servants treated better than slaves? These are just a few of the questions we pondered.

Some of the main characters...
Lavinia, a 7 year old white Irish girl, was brought to the plantation as an indentured servant. She suffered the loss of her parents and brother at this tender age. She married an abusive guy that put her through hell. She got addicted to opium. Yet, she maintained her child like innocence through all she went through. Is this humanly possible? We discussed if it was because of being put in this situation at such a young age.

Marshall was pretty much abandoned by his parents and was physically and mentally abused by the overseer most of his childhood. Did his past justify his abusive and ruthless behavior? Most of us thought that, while nothing excuses the horrible things that he did, we could certainly see where it came from.

Belle was a slave and the illegitimate daughter of the master of the plantation and became a stand in mom for Lavinia. The slaves became Lavinia's adopted family.

Mama Mae and Papa George...we all loved Mama and Papa... They pretty much ran the kitchen house and were the peacemakers.

Although we really liked the book, there were a couple of complaints that some of us had with the author's writing style. Some felt like the writing was different in the first half than in the second and that the story was a little contrived with just too much going on. Some, also felt that the ending was abruptly stopped. Does this leave it open for a sequel?...

Our average rating was 4.02 :)

A Pig in Provence

No official review was written on this book.  We were all too busy with the holiday season.  None of us cared much for the book.  Let's try again next month, seems like we have had a series of bad books on our list.

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius-Review by Deb

We had 7 of us at the meeting yesterday and had a good discussion despite the overwhelming dislike for the author's style of writing.

The consensus was that the story was compelling but the stream of consciousness style was so off-putting that it spoiled the narrative. The highest rating was a 2 and most people gave it a 1.5

Eggers has authored a number of books and screenplays, he is editor of the literary magazine McSweeney's, and he and Toph co-author children's books. He gives a great deal of the proceeds of his work to charity and he also runs a children's workshop in San Francisco to teach kids from 6-18 yrs. old how to write. It was interesting to read one of the few interviews he granted and see behind the grandiose facade that he puts out in the book. His childhood was overshadowed by his father's alcoholism and his mother attempted to rigidly control the chaos of the household "where everyone fought about everything." He remembers needing to internalize the chaos and feeling responsible for his mother's happiness. After his parents' deaths he fought against keeping any kind of schedule for years and the free-for-all lifestyle that he and Toph led in California was obviously some part inexperience and youth and some part rebellion.

We agreed that Eggers really is a talented writer and we were drawn to the relationship that he had with Toph and wished it had been told more along the lines of The Glass Castle. It was hard to understand how the older brother did not take more of a role in raising Toph when he was obviously the most settled in his life. In my research about the book and author I was shocked to learn that their sister Beth committed suicide in 2001 shortly after the book was published. Eggers hasn't discussed her death in any detail however he did say she was unhappy with the book and felt that he minimized the impact she had on raising Toph. 

There were some bright spots in the book and he is clearly able to write some laugh out loud moments but they weren't enough to sustain the book. 

Kellie who loves disfunction (in other people's lives) declared it was her least favorite book she has read since being in the book club. Many felt the writing was self-indulgent, but  we also agreed that the majority of 20 somethings are incredibly selfish. 

The beginning was obviously difficult to read given the real health struggles so many of us are dealing with now.

The sense was that the non stop dialogue was so intense it was exhausting to read and created more tension in the reader than enjoyment. Bonnie Jean said we all have had similar thoughts but have managed with age to put a filter on what comes out. Obviously at 21 Eggers did not have much of a filter and every thought just poured out. 

The end of the book (spoiler alert but I know if you haven't read it yet you won't) was incredibly disappointing. Toph and Dave were throwing the frisbee on a nude beach in California and talking about a move to New York and it just trailed off after one of Dave's rants….

The extensive preface was far more enlightening to read after having finished the book but it was too much more of the same…

We are beginning to question how we are choosing our books since so many have been rather disappointing reads despite receiving overwhelmingly positive reviews and awards….

Revolutionary Summer-Review by Bonnie Jean

We had a small, but happy meeting yesterday.  Liz made some sort of delicious cashews - which we all enjoyed.  The discussion was good because of the things we learned about that small time period in American history.  None of us were overly fond of the book, the ratings ranged from a low of 1.5 to a high of 3.5.  The reason for the low ratings on the book was not because we didn't enjoy the information presented.  It was because the way the information was presented was 1) more academic/drier than what we expected, and 2) the book was missing the relationship piece of the story - which we all would have enjoyed.  We wanted to know more of the connections between the players, feel their story was more personal.  I will leave you with this question/discussion topic that the author posed in an on-line book-talk I listened to. 

    He said -

A republic depends on the value of its ideas to succeed.

 

An empire depends on the power of its arms to succeed.

 

While we may consider ourselves a "republic", the rest of the world considers us an "empire".  Are our actions in the world today similar to England's in 1776?  Our core values are in conflict with us being an imperial power.  Our original intent was not to succeed by the power of our arms.  Joseph Ellis believes that our country should at least have this discussion.

 

Our November book is November: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius – Dave Eggers

Watership Down-Review by Valerie

We had a great meeting on Friday and had a great turnout! For those of you who couldn't make it, we missed you. Liz, our newest member, was there and fit right in to our crazy conversation.  Once again, welcome Liz!

Watership Down was written in 1972 by Richard Adams.  He has said that this was based upon stories he would tell his girls as they were driving through the English countryside.  They then told him he should turn it into a novel.  His book was rejected by numerous publishers before being picked up by a small publisher. Over the next few years, Watership Down sold over a million copies worldwide and became a modern classic. 

It was not easy to find book club discussion question as the bulk of online material is geared toward literature classes, breaking down each chapter in detail. We all agreed that this is not a children's book although teens (especially boys) may like it. Some of the main concepts in the book revolved around friendship, courage, villains and heroes. Adams was posted to the Royal Army and military structure is seen throughout the book.

Now for the review....

We were all over the place on our ratings, ranging from a 1 to a 5 and averaging 3.25.  We pretty much loved it or hated it, with a few in between. Most of us agreed that the first part of the book was hard to get through but it did pick up. Those who did not like the book felt it was way too wordy, especially the descriptions of the countryside, flowers, trees, the warrens, etc. Another criticism was regarding their rabbit language. Why did they know certain English words yet had to make up rabbit words for other things, such as "hrududu" for car? Some also never felt like they connected to the rabbits and never gave a second thought to those cute little bunnies (Kellie!) There was a nice which was too tidy for those who like hard, painful, deadly endings (Kellie!) The legendary stories told about El-ahrairah, the rabbit folk hero, were hard to get through.

Those who liked the book were able to connect to the characters and root for them throughout the book. The story was poignant and touching and had great character development. It made you want to know what was going to happen to each of the rabbits. The perspective was interesting and different from the norm. Most of us would have liked to have had more female rabbits involved in the plot. It was a male dominated story although females were the driving force behind most of the action! The language issues were not bothersome; after all, this was published as a children's book, which is very scary! Why do I keep thinking of Rosie eating all those baby bunnies?

All in all, it was a good discussion and another classic completed!

We discussed the possibility of reading "Regret Not a Moment", by Nicole McGehee, Lisa Fournier's neighbor, and discussing it in January. Nicole would come speak to our group that month. We would push all books back one month to accommodate this book. 

We are now reading "Revolutionary Summer" by Joseph Ellis.

Happy reading! Looking forward to seeing you all in October.

The Orphan Master's Son - REVIEW by KELLIE

Book Club Babes:

I think it safe to say, sadly, that this book was a bit of a bust with the group.  Only two of us (that I know of) finished it, and most that attempted it did not get further than 100-150 pages.

The book was written in two parts.  Part One was solely narrated by Jun Do and Part Two was narrated by Commander Ga (Jun Do), the interrogator, and then about every third chapter was the government loud speakers daily episode of what one living outside of a communist country would consider brain washing sessions, which EVERY citizen in North Korea is required to listen to every morning.

The first part of the book is about Jun Do's life, first as an orphan, and then it goes into the government assigned jobs he has as a young adult.  For most of us, the writing felt very disjointed and was difficult to read.  Pat also felt that this book failed to develop Jun Do's character sufficiently, and was a rather boring read.  The rest of us did not feel that it was boring, as we found the subject matter rather riveting, never having read about North Korea before.  (One book reviewer describes the daily existence of the average North Korean citizen as a "frightmare".)  However, we absolutely agreed that the way in which this book was written made it very difficult to get through.  I for one had the constant feeling that I was missing something when I would find myself reading and then wonder, "how did he get to this point?"  Did I miss the transition?"   Last Friday, Bonnie Jean and I met so she could talk about it and, her take on the way it was written was SO interesting!  In her opinion, she felt that the writing style was very intentional by the author.  She feels that he was trying to give the reader a small taste of the frustration of the North Korean society.  The citizens of NK only got to know what the government told them and they had to live with that. We, the reader, experienced that through the writing.

The author, Adam Johnson, who is an associate professor in creative writing at Stanford University, clearly knows how to write.  Unfortunately, we just did not care that much for his chosen style.  So much so, that the highest rating this book received from us was a 3 and the average was only 2.75.

Book Review on "The Light Between Oceans" by Pat - July 2013

Hi everyone,

Our July book, “The Light Between Oceans” was perceived as an enjoyable read by most of us and scored a 3.75 average rating from our group.

This book had a lot of moral dilemmas that echoed throughout the book and we discussed each of the characters in the book in depth.  Tom was our morally but conflicted character that was torn by his guilty conscience in many events in the book ranging from not being killed in the war to keeping Lucy when she washed ashore.  Tom was in love with Isabelle and went to great lengths to protect her.  Isabelle was a wild spirit and she went through a lot of heartache with three miscarriages so once finding Lucy, Isabelle felt justified in keeping the baby and although a loving mother, she was overly obsessed with the child.  Hannah was one of our least liked characters as she was not a very nice person in general and showed weak moral character in several scenes throughout the book.  Isabelle’s parents and Hannah’s father, Septimus, were both loving, giving people that loved Lucy-Grace and we could all relate to them as people we would want in our own lives.

Emotions ranged through a large spectrum in the book from joy and love to anger, despair and sorrow.  We liked the fact that there were only a few main characters and the ending of the book had good closure.  It was a simple story line but the author’s writing style allowed us to visualize the settings, scenery and characters being portrayed.  The consensus was this would be a good book to make a movie about.  Our group did feel that a couple of parts in the book were a little redundant with an overemphasize on the “moral” aspects of the book as it related to Tom’s character. 

A bit about the author – the book was written by Margot Stedman who was raised in Australia and now lives in London.  Working in London as a lawyer in 1997, she had a “eureka moment” and decided to try creative writing so she quit her job and transitioned into writing.  Margot sent this short story version of the book comprised of 15,000 words to an agent who told her it had the makings of a novel and she pursued her passion and expanded the book to a novel.  This is her first novel.   

Lastly, the quote of the year that all of us will remember from Lisa Fournier in regards to several of Tom’s actions is “I divorce my husband mentally once a month” – I am sure we can all relate to that.

Pat 

Breaking Her Fall-Review by Pam H.

Hi Ladies,

 

It was a good discussion today and we missed those of you who couldn't make it.  For a book that we didn't end up liking that much... it did stimulate some good conversation!

There were 7 of us present (with one person not having read the book but came anyway... go Johnnie!!)  The range of ratings went from 0 to 2.5 ( with an average of 1.75).   

Some of us thought the book was a compelling story at the beginning and then went down hill and others didn't care for it right from the start.  We all agreed that we wouldn't recommend the book.  Much of the problem revolved around not liking the characters, especially Tucker, the father.  We all agreed that the author did not really develop some of the characters nor some of the parts of the book and we found that frustrating.  He also digressed, at times, for too long which interfered with the flow of the book and made it boring.

The writing left a lot to be desired and we were amazed that the author is a professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va in the creative writing department!   Goodwin has written four other books "Kin" in 1975 and "The Blood of Paradise in 2000 and then 2 (little know books) about golf.

Here is a link to an interview with Goodwin regarding Breaking Her Fall :  http://www.harcourtbooks.com/authorinterviews/bookinterview_Goodwin.asp

Much of our conversation was about sexual behavior of teenagers (today and in the past)  and whether the daughter was raped in this particular story. We were ambivalent about a decision on that.   I personally liked the book for its references to the DC metro area which brought up many memories of my 25 years there. That did not help my rating, however!  Probably the case for Pam B, as well.  There was much more but you kinda  "had to be there"  as the saying goes!  

THE NEWS

We did make some decisions today, so mark your calendars!  Our next meeting is going to be on March 15 instead of March 8th at it will be a Jonnie's house at 9:30 am.  She will provide her address closer to the date.  We also decided to push the May book (Shantaram ..which is a long book) to June and go to see the movie "Great Gatsby" in May and therefore not discuss a book in May.  A review of book list is below.

The other BIG decision that we made was at our annual July "party" meeting everyone is to bring 2 book titles (each from a different genre) that you have NOT read.  At that meeting, we will plan out the following year of books and work toward a good variety and mix of genres.

 

Wow... hope you enjoyed your wine and have a great weekend!

 

Pam H

Unbroken - Review by Kellie

Good Afternoon Book Club Babes:

 

Our meeting today was a great one, in spite of getting off to a rough start!   First off, the Pinery Club was being cleaned so it was closed down and we had to scramble and make a mad dash to Panera's.  Secondly, we were somewhat small in number (only 7 of us), thirdly, a few of the already small group had yet to finish the book........HOWEVER, I'm quite sure a record was set today anyway.  Out of the seven people that gave it a rating (Val, I am counting yours even though you were not in attendance) four of us gave it a 5!  The lowest score was a 3 and those who have yet to finish it plan on emailing me their revised score upon completion of the book.  Pat and Bonnie Jean, I'm talking to you!

The first thing we established is that, had I been in the raft, I SO would have eaten all the chocolate and once it was gone I would have then exclaimed that, "we're all gonna die!!!"  Cindy assured me though, that, unlike Phil and Louie, she would have been prompt in throwing me overboard and fed me to the sharks....

Seriously, though, what an amazing story.  We were all humbled and awed by Louie's strength, faith, hope, fortitude, and perhaps most of all, the endurance that would eventually be required of him, in order to survive his ordeal.  One of the questions for the book was, Was Louie a Hero and what does Heroism mean to you?  It was a great question and we discussed it at length, concluding that he absolutely was a Hero.  He wasn't a hero based on the fact that he survived, but what he did for those around him while they were all suffering as POW's.

The struggle then continues for Louie and all WWII veterans upon coming home after the war and then trying to have a "normal" life.  Obviously, many of these men and, without question, Louie, suffered from what we now call, P.T.S.D. but back then was not known, and therefore, not treated.  We were all so happy that in the end he was able to find true inner peace, happiness, and God bless his wife for hanging in there with him and helping him along the way.  We also had tremendous respect and appreciation for his family, who, never once gave him up for dead which speaks volumes to the strong bond the family had.

So, some of the criticism, as far as the writing is concerned, was that the first half of the book was somewhat long, drawn out, and a little repetitive.  However, those of us that read this book to the end really felt that all of that detail laid the ground work for us to have a perfect understanding of who Louie was as an individual, and how he would eventually need to draw on many of those childhood experiences. For example, while imprisoned, in order to survive he was able to steal and endure bullying.  Also, his running/olympic experiences gave him the ability to have such a tremendous focus, not to mention, the amazing physical shape he was in at the time of his crash, no doubt, also played a large part in his survival.  Majority of us appreciated that the author was very straight forward in her writing and really dealt with the hard, cold facts because this story needed to be told exactly as it happened and we accepted and appreciated that.  It was definitely written in more of a jurnalistic-style, opposed to how a fiction writer would have told the story.  This brought up the discussion of  No Ordinary Time  by Dorris Kerns Goodwin which, although true, read very much like a novel and I do understand the appeal in that writing style, which is what a couple of us where hoping for in this book.

Well, that sums up our thoughts and feelings about this book.  Pretty powerful stuff!  Also, let's always remember the Veterans and the sacrifices they made....this story was a great reminder of what they have done for Americans.

Next month we will be reading Breaking Her Fall by Stephen Goodwin and Pam H. will be discussion leader.

On a VERY sad note, Cindy informed us today that she and her family will be moving to Austin, TX, in August.  We have enjoyed having you in group so much and you will be missed when your moving day comes....

Hope to see you all in February,

Kellie

Fifty Shades of Grey-Review by Lindsay

We had to change our meeting location to Panera due to the weather.   This probably subdued our discussion as the guy with the laptop behind us was cemented to his chair after we started the conversation.  I think he was texting friends to drop by and join his eavesdropping.  

I have to admit that I hated this book so much that it is going to be very difficult to write an objective review.  Most of us didn't hate the book.   Ratings ranged from ZERO (guess who) to 3.0, with an average of 1.8.  A few of us read all three books in the trilogy, mostly because we kept hoping for something more substantial to emerge.  Some of us felt the story was engaging while the majority thought it was a bunch of crap.  There were some entertaining emails between the two main characters, Ana and Christian, and some of the fringe characters were okay, I guess. 

Mostly we thought it was soft porn, overly graphic, disturbing and placed women in a degrading light.  It should be a study for all young women in what NOT to look for in a partner.  That is, an insecure control freak who likes to slap women around who look like his dead mother and claim it is a mutually fulfilling sex act.  REALLY?!!  And as if that isn't bad enough, the quality of the writing was so bad we felt our intelligence had been insulted.  We also felt saddened that our society has been reduced to accepting this kind of book as main stream.

One interesting comment was that perhaps we, as a group, are more critical because we have read some really good literature and our standard of excellence is much higher.  Something to ponder, I know I feel MUCH better now!

And no book is completely bad that gets us all together on Friday morning for some spirited conversation and friendship.  Our next meeting is on Friday, October 12 at 9:30 am at the Pinery CC.  We will be discussing A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith.  I don't know who, if anyone, is leading the discussion on this.  Any volunteers?

We only have one book left on our list after October.  Is it time to select some more books?  Should we do at at the October meeting?

Killing Lincoln-Review by Lisa

Hi Ladies--I thought I would write the review for this month's book, Killing Lincoln, before I got caught up in the weekend "before school starts!" scramble!.We had a lively meeting and missed those that weren't able to join us.The book was written by Bill O'Reilly during a time when he felt that America needed a boost in patriotism. "For those of us who want to improve the United States and keep it the greatest nation in the world, we must be aware of the true heroes who have made the country great as well as the villains who have besmirched it...this book is written as a thriller...What you are about to read is unsanitized and uncompromising." He portrayed Lincoln in a way many of us haven't considered, as an American hero who didn't just free the slaves(actually he wasn't as passionate about slavery as most think),but as a hero who wanted to keep the country together.  Lincoln actually wore his belief and passion embroidered in his coat ..."one country, one destiny"..

     We rated the book overall with a score of 3.5.  Most of us "loved it, enjoyed the details, learned a lot, were intrigued ,compelled, entertained and engaged" by the the story. We were fascinated with the medical details from the doctor's journals and notes. Many of us were not aware of the other assassination attempts planned simultaneously with Lincoln's murder. We also didn't realize he was killed so soon after the Civil War. The details and information used from the many primary sources..diaries, journals, pictures, maps... kept the book engaging and brought the history lesson to life. BUT..  a few of us also felt it was somewhat choppy and confusing in the writing. That even with the many primary sources  used in the writing, the book was wasn't as scholarly and objective as most historical factual books. 

      We also were made aware of the controversy surrounding Booth's death.  There are conflicting stories about his death and potential escape to the south.  So much so, that Booth's descendants have agreed to have his body exhumed, and DNA compared with that from the three vertebrae that were taken from "the man" the soldiers shot at the farm. The Smithsonian has taken the DNA and results were to be announced this past Spring, but haven't yet been released.  I, Lisa, will keep everyone posted for I find this research amazing. It could make or break the history books! 

The anchor of The O'Reilly Factor recounts one of the most dramatic stories in American history—how one gunshot changed the country forever. In the spring of 1865, the bloody saga of America's Civil War finally comes to an end after a series of increasingly harrowing battles. President Abraham Lincoln's generous terms for Robert E. Lee's surrender are devised to fulfill Lincoln's dream of healing a divided nation, with the former Confederates allowed to reintegrate into American society. But one man and his band of murderous accomplices, perhaps reaching into the highest ranks of the U.S. government, are not appeased.
In the midst of the patriotic celebrations in Washington D.C., John Wilkes Booth—charismatic ladies' man and impenitent racist—murders Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre. A furious manhunt ensues and Booth immediately becomes the country's most wanted fugitive. Lafayette C. Baker, a smart but shifty New York detective and former Union spy, unravels the string of clues leading to Booth, while federal forces track his accomplices. The thrilling chase ends in a fiery shootout and a series of court-ordered executions—including that of the first woman ever executed by the U.S. government, Mary Surratt. Featuring some of history's most remarkable figures, vivid detail, and page-turning action, Killing Lincoln is history that reads like a thriller.