Summary: Darcy is prideful. Jane is prejudiced. Can this couple ever come together?
Why I Read This: An ill-advised book club choice.
Review: I hated th...moreSummary: Darcy is prideful. Jane is prejudiced. Can this couple ever come together?
Why I Read This: An ill-advised book club choice.
Review: I hated this book when I read it 10 years ago. This time I thought it was ok. I was mostly bored and sick of the whole "we're rich. We're only kind of rich. We can't inter-marry." That only goes on for 200 pages before something happens. Then it's over. I can see some good in it, but not enough to read it again.(less)
Summary: "The story of a man coming to terms with the mutable past, Julian Barnes's new novel is laced with his trademark precision, dexterity and ins...moreSummary: "The story of a man coming to terms with the mutable past, Julian Barnes's new novel is laced with his trademark precision, dexterity and insight. It is the work of one of the world's most distinguished writers." - Publisher's summary
Why I Read This: For a book club
Review: I think that the fact that neither I nor the publisher could summarize this book says a lot. But, somehow, I still really enjoyed it. I thought that the author played well with themes of history and time as well as many others. (less)
Summary: The story of the relationship between Sera and Bhima, employer and servant, in the heart of Mumbai.
Why I Read This: Our book clubs are readi...moreSummary: The story of the relationship between Sera and Bhima, employer and servant, in the heart of Mumbai.
Why I Read This: Our book clubs are reading it because the author is coming to Farmington Community Library.
Review: I actually enjoyed this. It was a book club book that didn't try to be more than it actually was. It was honest and easy to read. I enjoyed it. (less)
Summary: Margo feels complicit in the death of her father, so she takes to life on the river.
Why I Read This: Book group.
Review: I can see why people...moreSummary: Margo feels complicit in the death of her father, so she takes to life on the river.
Why I Read This: Book group.
Review: I can see why people would like this book, but I did not. I think that Margo was a good character until the end, where she made a giant leap in maturity and morality that I didn't feel she had really earned. The setting was phenomenal, but I'm not a setting person. The storyline was plausible and kept up at a good clip. And the writing was fine. I mostly found it personally not to my taste, but I could appreciate it.(less)
Summary: Part memoir, part instruction manual, this book explores Stephen King's perspective on writing. It is primarily aimed at the beginning writer...moreSummary: Part memoir, part instruction manual, this book explores Stephen King's perspective on writing. It is primarily aimed at the beginning writer.
Why I Read This: Book club!
Review: I really loved the first part of the book, which is a short memoir of the most influential moments of King's life that affected his writing. The second part, the better part of the book that's actually 'on writing' I was on the fence about. I completely agreed on some points, and sometime I thought that he was completely wrong. Yet, even when I thought that he was wrong, I could see how his perspective had influenced his writing.(less)
Summary: This follows three stories: the story of the narrator in post-war Yugoslavia; the story of the Tiger's Wife; the story of the death-less man....moreSummary: This follows three stories: the story of the narrator in post-war Yugoslavia; the story of the Tiger's Wife; the story of the death-less man. An intriguing look into the world of several eras in Eastern Europe.
Why I Read This: For a book club.
Review: I thought that the book was well-written, but incomprehensible from a symbolic point of view. I'm still not sure what everything meant, even after discussing it with my group.(less)
**spoiler alert** Summary: This is the book that started the Civil War. Ok, not really, but this moving portrayal of the lives of slaves and slave own...more**spoiler alert** Summary: This is the book that started the Civil War. Ok, not really, but this moving portrayal of the lives of slaves and slave owners had a significant impact upon its release in the 1950s
Why I Read This: For a book club.
Review: I love this book. I had only read it once before, and I will always remember it as the first book that I read that touched the depths of my soul. I was 11, and I remember sobbing on my loveseat while reading about Eva's death. I kept putting off reading it for my book club, not ready to engage the possibility that what changed my life at 11, might not live up to my memory of it at 27. But my fears were unfounded. I found myself not only profoundly moved by the story, but fell in love with the writing style. I kept posting arbitrary quotes to twitter, a few of which I will share below:
"There are in this world blessed souls, whose sorrows all spring up into joys for others; whose earthly hopes, laid in the grave with many tears, are the seed from which spring healing flowers and balm for the desolate and the distressed. Among such was the delicate woman who sits there by the lamp, dropping slow tears, while she prepares the memorials of her own lost one for the outcast wanderer."
"Ah, what said those eyes, that spoke so much of heaven? Earth was past, and earthly pain; but so solemn, so mysterious, was the triumphant brightness of that face, that it checked even the sobs of sorrow."
"They think it's nothing, what we suffer,--nothing, what our children suffer! It's all a small matter; yet I've walked the streets when it seemed as if I had misery enough in my one heart to sink the city. I've wished the houses would fall on me, or the stones sink under me. Yes! and, in the judgment day, I will stand up before God, a witness against those that have ruined me and my children, body and soul!"(less)
Summary: When a plane with 50 beauty queens on it crashes on a deserted island, the girls must band together, and find a way to work together to stay...moreSummary: When a plane with 50 beauty queens on it crashes on a deserted island, the girls must band together, and find a way to work together to stay alive. But, there's more going on on this island than meets the eye.
Why I Read This: This is the April book for 10 Pages a Day (The Book Club): A Work in Progress.
Review: It was fine. The story was interesting, a new twist on an old tale. My biggest problem was that it espoused a whole set of values that I don't agree with. I know that in the library world it is incredibly taboo to be conservative, but it doesn't change the truth. I believe that your genetics determine your gender. I believe that sex should be saved for committed long-term relationships. These are things that I know with every fiber in my being. I won't judge you because you think differently from me, but I will disagree with you. And while I don't normally hate books because I disagree with them, I do hate them when they make underhanded jabs at what I believe in, which this book does over-and-over. An overarching theme of the books is, "throw away the rules and do what you want," which, as I said in my review of "The Giver" is an overly simplistic view of life. Trust me, teens don't need any encouragement to throw away the rules, but it would be useful to show that life is more complicated then finding yourself by ignoring the experience and wisdom of those who have been where you're at.(less)
Summary: Ender has never been a normal boy, but his life begins to change when he is taken to battle school to learn to fight the Buggers.
Why I Read...moreSummary: Ender has never been a normal boy, but his life begins to change when he is taken to battle school to learn to fight the Buggers.
Why I Read This: For a book club
Review: I enjoyed it. I've been hesitant to read it because it's not really my type of book, but it was good; I found myself wanting to read it. My only qualm would be the ending. You get to the climax of the book, then the quick downslope and then the book should have ended. Unfortunately, it didn't. It kept going into an odd sort of parable, which was unnecessary and distracting. Overall, though, a good read with some challenging moral questions about war.(less)
Summary: Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave a...moreSummary: Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells—taken without her knowledge—became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first “immortal” human cells grown in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. If you could pile all HeLa cells ever grown onto a scale, they’d weigh more than 50 million metric tons—as much as a hundred Empire State Buildings. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb’s effects; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions. Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave. (From Amazon.com)
Why I Read This: For a book club!
Review: I enjoyed this. It was a fine book, very interesting, and good for book club discussion.(less)
Summary: When Natalie was 4 months pregnant with her first son, she got the unimaginable news: her husband was killed in a tragic accident. A memoir o...moreSummary: When Natalie was 4 months pregnant with her first son, she got the unimaginable news: her husband was killed in a tragic accident. A memoir of loss, new life, and love, "Signs of Life" follows the next 15 months of here life.
Why I Read This Book: I had heard quite a few people say good things about the book, so I invited the author to do a book club with us, and she accepted!
Review: I thought that this book was really well done. It was complex without being haughty, and the author's voice really came through strongly. I love the way that she weaved literature throughout her memoir under the guise of teaching it to her students. Her internal monologue was right in line with what I think myself; my favorites being the FMG (Fairy Mom Godmother) and Ralph Waldo Emerson attending the birth of Kai, her son.(less)
Summary: Ralph advertises for a reliable wife -- the wife that arrives is not who he expected, but he had his own secrets.
Why I Read This: For a book...moreSummary: Ralph advertises for a reliable wife -- the wife that arrives is not who he expected, but he had his own secrets.
Why I Read This: For a book club
Review: I thought it was interesting. It was a lot -- event after event kept happening, but they were unexpected, and not uninteresting. (less)
Summary: Hugo is alone in the world. An orphan who lives in a train station in Paris, repairing the clocks and stealing for his meals, Hugo spends his...moreSummary: Hugo is alone in the world. An orphan who lives in a train station in Paris, repairing the clocks and stealing for his meals, Hugo spends his time trying to complete his life's worth. This is until he meets Papa Georges who turns his plans upside down.
Why I Read This Book: Three reasons (1) A friend and I saw Brian Selznick at the National Book Festival. He was great. (2) We decided to do a collective reading experience - we would read a book, take notes in it, and then pass it to the next person, and so forth until us and a few friends had read the book together. (3) I have a book club reading this book this month.
Review: I think that I may have ruined the collective reading experience by not really liking the book. I thought that the story had potential, but never reached it. And I thought that the idea was good, but not particularly well executed. I do think, that through his drawings, Selznick created an interesting world, but I wasn't interested in being a part of it. Not my cup of tea.(less)
Summary: This is another one of Burroughs's short essays on life -- with a Christmas theme.
Why I Read This Book: Our book club wanted something Christ...moreSummary: This is another one of Burroughs's short essays on life -- with a Christmas theme.
Why I Read This Book: Our book club wanted something Christmas themed, so we bounced between this and David Sedaris's "Holidays on Ice". This one won because one of us had already read the Sedaris book.
Review: I didn't find this book to be laugh out loud funny like "Magical Thinking", but it touched me in an entirely different way. I also learned some great lessons: (1) Don't eat off the face of a wax Santa no matter how much it takes like Bottle Candy. (2) Don't sleep with a raunchy French Santa for ANY REASON. (3) Hobos can change your life, even if you don't remember what you did with them. (4) Love overcomes all obstacles....even unnatural disasters.(less)
Summary: Shiva & Marion are both conjoined twins in a small Ethiopian hospital to a doctor and an Indian nun. Raised by members of the staff, they...moreSummary: Shiva & Marion are both conjoined twins in a small Ethiopian hospital to a doctor and an Indian nun. Raised by members of the staff, they cut lives for themselves and each other, inexorably linked throughout their tumultuous lives.
Why I Read This Book: For a book club
Review: I didn't hate this book; it didn't get two stars because it was terrible. It got two stars because I can't handle anything medical. The story was very good, but I listened to the audio and I made a rule early on that each time anything medical happened, I would just skip to the next track. Verghese is actually a doctor (in addition to a writer), so he graphically describes medical procedures. Without all of that medical non-sense it would have been a great book. It made me quite interested in Ethiopian history, and the characters were really quite engaging.(less)
Summary: Jonas is an ordinary boy in an ordinary world - a world where everything is ordinary. While there is not sickness and no pain, there is somet...moreSummary: Jonas is an ordinary boy in an ordinary world - a world where everything is ordinary. While there is not sickness and no pain, there is something else lacking as well. Never having considered it, Jonas is chosen one day to take a special role in the community where he must face what they are missing.
Why I Read This Book: This month our bookclub is reading Banned Books, and I was on the fence about which one to read. Then I asked the recommendation of another librarian and she said that it should certainly be this one.
Review: I am glad that I read this book. Having never read it as a child, I have always felt a little bit left out, but I have also never felt so compelled as to read it. Still, I found the book to be falsely appealing. Sure, the part of me that is true-blue American says that choice is good and regulations are bad, but that's only the American part of me. The rational part of me knows that "freedom from" is not true freedom. "Freedom for" is much more freedom. Lowry is not advocating for a completely free world with no rules, but the one-sided view of rules and discipline was disheartening. Just as rules can be bad, rules ordered towards the good will make humans more free, not less free.
Imagine children playing on the top of a mountain - without a fence they have to stay in the very middle of the mountain and can't play far, lest the ball fall over the edge. But, if the children have a fence around the top of the mountain, then they need not worry about losing the ball and can play more heartily. Boundaries that are ordered towards the good give them the opportunity to shine.
I found Lowry's book overly simplistic (though it is for children...), but still enjoyable and interesting.(less)
Summary: Arthur thought that he was having a bad day when his house was torn down, but it wasn't until the planet was torn down that he realized thing...moreSummary: Arthur thought that he was having a bad day when his house was torn down, but it wasn't until the planet was torn down that he realized things could get a lot worse. But for Arthur, the adventure is just beginning.
Why I Read This: Our book club decided that it would be fun to read.
Review: And it was. It was fun and interesting with great one-liners. At the same time, though it was a little bit confusing and the end was abrupt. Still, it was an enjoyable and fun read.(less)
Summary: Nick Carraway leaves his simple (though scandal prone) life in Chicago to move to the East coast. While there he re-engages his friends Tom a...moreSummary: Nick Carraway leaves his simple (though scandal prone) life in Chicago to move to the East coast. While there he re-engages his friends Tom and Daisy, falls for a golfer, and parties at his next-door neighbor's house. But this classic tale is an unrealized fantasy, and life is not quite as perfect as it seems on East Egg.
Why I Read This Book: I had been itching to read it for a while, but I had my motivation increased when (a) John Green declared it his online book club choice and then (b) my staff book club decided to do it.
Review: I loved it. Not only is the message timeless, the writing is beautiful. It's incredible. Modern books don't have the same je-ne-sais-quoi. A book needs that fifth element that makes it more than a good story, more than great characters, that fifth element that turns them into a piece of literature, and what I couldn't appreciate in this book when I read it at 16 was that fifth element. The lyrical passages and unusual imagery bring you to another world that is exactly like your own, but somehow dream-like - unrealistic, like Carraway was seeing the East Coast world around him. I have never been very good at symbolism, and I see the allegorical nature of the book, but its the language that drew me in, tossed me around, and spit me out.
A few of my favorite passages:
"I think that voice held him most, with its fluctuating, feverish warmth, because it couldn't be over-dreamed--that voice was a deathless song.
"So the whole caravansary had fallen in like a card house at the disapproval in her eyes."
"She's got an indiscreet voice, "I remarked. "It's full of-" I hesitated. "Her voice is full of money," he said suddenly. That was it. I'd never understood before. It was full of money--that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals' song of it...High in a white palace the king's daughter, the golden girl...
"That's my Middle West--not the wheat or the prairies or the lost Swede towns, but the thrilling returning trains of my youth, and the street lamps and sleigh bells in the frosty dark and the shadows of holly wreaths thrown by lighted windows on the snow."(less)
Summary: "The White Tiger" is the kind of animal that comes around only once in a generation, and so is Balram. He intends to rise above his caste and...moreSummary: "The White Tiger" is the kind of animal that comes around only once in a generation, and so is Balram. He intends to rise above his caste and his position and become something more. In order to do it, he'll have to rise above what the average person is willing to do.
Why I Read This Book: The White Tiger was the Friends Don't Let Friends Read Alone book club book for July 2011.
Review: This is certainly a non-traditional book. I enjoyed the writing style of the author and the realist tone of the voice of the narrator. I found the forced symbolism a little hard to take and the author's lack of subtlety a little bit hard to swallow, but overall the book left our book club with a lot of questions and a lot to talk about.(less)
Summary: Minny and Aibileen are maids in Jackson, MS. When Miss Skeeter needs to find a topic to write about in order to get noticed by a big city pub...moreSummary: Minny and Aibileen are maids in Jackson, MS. When Miss Skeeter needs to find a topic to write about in order to get noticed by a big city publisher, she turns to these women and their friends to help her write her book about the life of maids in Jackson.
Why I Read This Book: I read this book for a book club. We decided to read it as (a) it has been very popular and (b) they're making a movie.
Review: Truthfully, its not a bad book. I might have even given it a 4. But it has had so much hype, and so many people have told me that its the best book ever. Truthfully, the hype made it more disappointing to me than anything else. I'm a book snob, and a good story and quirky characters just aren't enough for me anymore. But I will probably see the movie. The story and characters were interesting, which is what will be in the movie.(less)
Summary: David is a pastry chef. He moved to Paris. Hilarity ensues.
Why I Read This Book: Our book club decided to do travel books this month. While t...moreSummary: David is a pastry chef. He moved to Paris. Hilarity ensues.
Why I Read This Book: Our book club decided to do travel books this month. While this is technically not a travel book, I had seen it a while ago and really wanted to read it. So I threw caution to the wind, defied my book club, and read it anyways.
Review: It's an easy read. It's short. It's funny. And its full of recipes. How can you lose? (less)
Summary: Henry Townsend has left this world for the next, but how will his wife run his plantation? Henry was one of the few black men in the Antebell...moreSummary: Henry Townsend has left this world for the next, but how will his wife run his plantation? Henry was one of the few black men in the Antebellum South who owned slaves. Follow him, his family, his friends, the townsfolk, and his slaves through the past present and future.
Review: I can see the value of this book. It's well-written with well-developed characters. Truthfully, I just wasn't in the mood to read it. Perhaps I will read it again one day when I can better appreciate it.(less)
Summary: Readicide is the systematic killing of the love of reading currently occuring in our public schools. Gallagher discusses how to overcome this...moreSummary: Readicide is the systematic killing of the love of reading currently occuring in our public schools. Gallagher discusses how to overcome this trend to create effective and engaged readers.
Review: Even though I am not a school educator, I found this book engaging, intriguing, and helpful. I read it in order to participate in a facebook discussion with educators across the US, and I am glad that I did. It also raises many important questions for librarians about what we can and should do to create engaged readers. I also, since I don't have an English degree and never trained as a teacher, found some valuable tips for my own book clubs.(less)
Summary: A father and son trek to the coast in a post-apocalytic world.
Review: I actually didn't know how to rate this, because I have no conceptual f...moreSummary: A father and son trek to the coast in a post-apocalytic world.
Review: I actually didn't know how to rate this, because I have no conceptual framework into which I can put this book. Is it prose or is it poetry? Who are the characters? What has happened? But it was very well-written, like very well-written. He made you feel the storyline even though there really was no story line. In fact, when something did happen, I felt like it was a cop out - like he should have just continued to write about nothing. I would read one of his books about nothing forever.(less)
Summary: Jane leads a not-so-charmed life. An ophan, raised by a family that hates her, sent to a school with a tyhpus outbreak, and then taking work...moreSummary: Jane leads a not-so-charmed life. An ophan, raised by a family that hates her, sent to a school with a tyhpus outbreak, and then taking work as a governess where shes incredibly lonely...until she meets Rochester.
Review: So, my summary sounds like the review of a romance novel, but Jane Eyre is not that. It is only the best book that I've ever read. Complementary themes, beautiful writing, full characters. Everyone should read it.(less)
Summary: In a world filled with wych-kin, Thaniel is working as one of the best wych-kin hunters in town. Until one day, in pursuit of a cradlejack, h...moreSummary: In a world filled with wych-kin, Thaniel is working as one of the best wych-kin hunters in town. Until one day, in pursuit of a cradlejack, he stumbles upon Alaizabel. A young girl, disheveled, with amnesia, he must find out who she is, and why someone is hunting her.
Review: It did have an asylum, and I do love books about asylums, but that was pretty much all that I really loved. The ending was going well until it just suddenly stopped, and I was very confused. Overall, it was find to read once, but I probably won't ever read it again.(less)
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