October 2014 – Page 6

Good morning. *sips coffee*

How you doing?

It is a hazy day here in central Minnesota. I am sitting at my kitchen table, sipping coffee, and contemplating life. I know I know… thems loaded words 😉

Anyhoo…

The Book The Best Of My by Nicholas Sparks has been made into a movie! I love that! Here is the trailer:

The Best of Me – In Theaters October 17

Based on the bestselling novel by acclaimed author Nicholas Sparks, The Best of Me tells the story of Dawson and Amanda, two former high school sweethearts who find themselves reunited after 20 years apart, when they return to their small town for the funeral of a beloved friend. Their bittersweet reunion reignites the love they’ve never forgotten, but soon they discover the forces that drove them apart twenty years ago live on, posing even more serious threats today. Spanning decades, this epic love story captures the enduring power of our first true love, and the wrenching choices we face when confronted with elusive second chances.

Also…

Want Nicholas Sparks to join your Book Club?

Calling all book clubs! You and your club could win a visit from a professional moderator & special guest appearance from Nicholas Sparks via Skype. All you have to do is tweet a question you’d like answered using #BestOfMeBookSweeps!

Two commenters on this post will win a copy of the movie tie in edition of the book!

Tell me… have you read Nicholas Sparks? Have you read this book? Do you have a favorite of his books? If you have not read him, would you like to?

Courtesy of Relativity Media

Open to US mailing addresses only

In November of 1959 a family who lived in Holcomb Kansas was brutally attacked, killed and left. The murders of the Clutter family were senseless. The family was well-respected humble farmers and had no enemies as far as anyone knew.

It turned out it was two ex convicts from the Kansas State Penitentiary had heard from another inmate who had worked for the Clutters at one time that the farmer had a safe of money. As it turned out, this was untrue and the convicts left with $43 after they killed the family.

One thing went wrong after another. The foiled crime did not give the two men the money they thought they would have to escape and start new lives. Instead they stayed in hiding, writing out bad checks to survive until they were captured and tried for the murders.

Author Truman Capote heard about the crimes and traveled with his fellow author friend Harper Lee to investigate the crimes. This book is the true account of the murders.

Richard Hitchcock (left) and Perry Smith were executed on April 14th, 1965 for the slaying of a Kansas family.

Initially this book was chosen by our book club to read for our October Classic. To me, it was also a bonus that it is a banned book. While I am not sure how a true crime book will go over in book club (it has been many years since we have read one as a group), I however enjoy a true crime now and then. Enjoy? That sounds awful.

I listened to In Cold Blood on audio mainly because I was not sure when I would get to it in book format. Narrator Scott Brick was a good voice for this style of read. Informative and crisp in his words, he read like a detective novel unfolding its story page by page. I While this is a true crime book, it reads as fiction. Truman Capote wrote this book in a story format where it is easy to slip into a fiction state of mind and forget that you are reading about horrible senseless murders.

I did enjoy (there’s that word again!) the book and learning about the crime novel that made it to a classic. There is a lot of information about the two killers before, during, and after the crime. At 14 hours and 27 minutes on audio, it felt a little drug out.

Over all… happy to say that I have read this one, but will more than likely not be revisiting it.

Why was In Cold Blood Banned?

2012

Some Glendale (CA) Unified School District officials and parents attempted to block a request by a high school English teacher to add the text to the district’s advanced English curriculum because the nonfiction book was “too violent for a young audience;” the school board voted 4-0 to approve the book for Advanced Placement students.

2001

Banned, but reinstated in an English Advanced Placement class in Savannah (GA) after a parent complained that it contained sex, violence, and profanity.

You will hear from the Bookies Book Group in October about their thoughts on the book.