Tag: Book Club

Remember what childhood friendships can be like? Quite often, we become best friends with someone and probably swear to each other that this friendship will last forever. Such is the case in Kristin Hannah’s touching story Firefly Lane. We hear, “Best friends forever. They’d believed it would last, that vow, that someday they’d be old women, sitting in their rocking chairs on a creaking deck, talking about the times of their lives, and laughing. “

Even the best intentioned promises can sometimes go awry as we learn in this 30 year history of friendship between Kate and Tully. It began in 1974 when Kate Mularkey was feeling especially isolated and coming to terms with the fact that she wasn’t popular or pretty. In fact, she might best be described as ordinary.

Then, miracle of miracles a new family moved in across the street and in that family was Tully Hart , the coolest, best looking girl Kate had ever seen. Further, Tully wanted to be her friend, not just an acquaintance but best friends. They were opposites in many ways, but that didn’t matter they swore their friendship would never end.

Tully had aspirations and in the years to come she would do whatever it took to become successful, to be acknowledged by all as the best. She does reach the top as a broadcast journalist. Kate, although, has no such dreams. She simply wants to be a wife and mother, which she does with her husband Johnny and daughter Marah.

Years pass, 30 of them, when suddenly a friendship that was to last forever seems irreparably broken.

I nominated this book for our March Bookies read and it won the vote.  I know it was the friendship storyline that drew me to choose it.  I love reading about strong women friendships, I always have… and reading the back of this book led me to believe that is what we would be getting by venturing into this world of “friends forever” from a young age to adult.

While I wasn’t disappointed… I actually struggled a bit with this friendship – Tully whose life was a mess, no securities with her family, a non-existent father who last she heard was in jail, a mother who never got beyond the 60’s and drugs and lives her life in a fog…. all Tully really has going for her is her incredible beauty which she learns how to use at a young age to get things she wants.

Kate on the flip side of that is a wallflower.  Quietly living out her life with both parents intact, while pretty, she doesn’t know it or have the confidence to enhance it.  She dresses outdated, she wears glasses that should have been tossed decades ago and she lives life in the shadows and prefers it that way.

Put these two together and while I love to see Kate grow stronger in herself and that is yes, thanks to Tully – Tully takes advantage of the friendship again and again and again throughout the book all the way to the point of it effecting a relationship between Kate and her teenage daughter.

Honestly – there were times I would have shown Tully the door – for good.  Her actions angered me, and it wasn’t until I started writing the review that I in the end – the very end as in my mind I lay this book to rest – I got it.

Kate needed an outrageous Tully to become who she was going to become.  Kate’s life would have never gone the way that it did if not for Tully, her marriage, her lifestyle… Kate would have continued to live life in the shadows and never known there was something more out there for her.

Tully needed Kate.  If not for Kate’s level headed advice and Kate’s family – Tully would have self destructed long ago.  She needed to know she was loved…. and after years of trying to find it the wrong way… she always knows it is real from Kate and her family and she is drawn like a moth to light, time and again.

Mixed feelings on parts of the book but over all I think I have to give it a 3.9.

I started and finished this book in Honduras.

Update after Bookies Review on March 10:  Our book review was during a snow storm.  We met at Boardwalk Bread and Bagel, 5 of us made it to this review.  We all agreed that the friendship between Tully and Kate was one we were not sure we could have dealt with – mainly, Tully and her missing sensitivity chip.  I was pleasantly surprised though that the book rated a high 4 overall, and while the book made us angry at times, overall the read was pretty good and the message at the end about cancer was good for all of us to remember.

Personal Training, Session One: I’m standing at the front desk, waiting for the mythical “Barbie” to appear. While I was sucking down water and aspirin earlier today, trying to shed my hangover, I started thinking about how judgmental I can be. I mean, why should I have instantly freaked out when I heard someone named Barbie was going to be my trainer? Sure, the name brings up images of gorgeous girls with long blonde hair, shiny white teeth, deep tan, and impossible-to-achieve, completely enviable figures, but maybe this Barbie is different.

Maybe Trainer Barbie is a dark, homely girl with   and she took up fitness to feel better about her hump and her skin condition. Yes, that’s it. Barbie is all hideous and disfigured and she will have a heart of gold and because of this, she’ll be devoted to nothing but making me lose weight…

I stand by the magazine rack and I’m about to pull out this week’s In Touch when I hear my name being called. I turn around and look for my gargoyle of a trainer.

But I don’t see any monsters.

All I see is a gorgeous girl with long blonde hair, shiny white teeth, a deep tan, and an impossible-to- achieve, completely enviable figure standing there. “Hey, are you Jen?” she asks. “I’m Barbie!”

Of course you are.

This was our book club recommendation for February.  The book description sounded hilarious… overweight character finds a personal trainer…. it sounded so funny.

I started reading all excited to get to the part where the trainer comes in and as I read and read (FYI…. Barbie the trainer shows up 2/3 into the book) I feel like I am reading someones diary.

I soon learn that the book is about the author herself and her weight struggles.  And yes, she is funny – but in some parts crude with the language.  The book goes on and on about what they are eating, what she says to her husband, what he says to her, what the dogs are doing, what the house looks like, what Jen wants to eat, what Jen gets to eat… and so on and so on.

Don’t get me wrong – this is my book blog so I am giving my opinion… looking on-line, she has a following who love her wit and her struggles… and in parts I did too, laughing out loud in some cases.  Yet, I felt it missed something….

meaning maybe???

A plot???

It just didn’t read like a book to me.

The Bookies for the most part struggled through it too with a couple exceptions of those who loved laughing from cover to cover at Jen’s quick humor.

Overall – I had ended up rating it at our book club a high 3 but the more I think about it – I really think I am more of a 2.8 out of 5.  I can’t rate this average….

Synopsis

Paris, July 1942: Sarah, a ten year-old girl, is brutally arrested with her family by the French police in the Vel’ d’Hiv’ roundup, but not before she locks her younger brother in a cupboard in the family’s apartment, thinking that she will be back within a few hours.
Paris, May 2002: On Vel’ d’Hiv’s 60th anniversary, journalist Julia Jarmond is asked to write an article about this black day in France’s past. Through her contemporary investigation, she stumbles onto a trail of long-hidden family secrets that connect her to Sarah. Julia finds herself compelled to retrace the girl’s ordeal, from that terrible term in the Vel d’Hiv’, to the camps, and beyond. As she probes into Sarah’s  past, she begins to question her own place in France, and to reevaluate her marriage and her life.
Tatiana de Rosnay offers us a brilliantly subtle, compelling portrait of France under occupation and reveals the taboos and silence that surround this painful episode.

I am honestly unsure how I feel overall about this book. On one hand, the story line and learning about this day was so interesting.  I seriously had no idea about the day they took the Jews and what happened to them.  I was glad to have read that.  Tatiana’s story was written well enough that it could have been a true story.  In fact at times I questioned if it was or not.

The characters were vibrant, I loved Sarah’s storyline and how it connected back to Julia and her family.

Yet, as the book found closure… it seemed Julia did not.  As her marriage fell apart and we flash forward to her new life she is portrayed as unhappy, having meaningless relationships, and alone with her two daughters.  And just as I think I know where this is going and how it is going to end… it just ends.  So abruptly that I turn the page to read on and find the acknowledgments and think I must have missed a page.  But no… it was over, giving me the impression that the author became bored with her story or didn’t know where to take it from there.

Overall, a 3 rating…. the start of the book rated a high 4…. but the ending brought it down to a low 3

** 1/24/2009 Update on this review…. after our book club reviewed this book and discussed it, I was brought to a better conclusion on my thoughts of how this book ended.  While I personally felt I was left hanging, not knowing where Julia’s life would lead, Angie Simmonds in our group had a better thought.  She felt our author was giving us a sense now that Julias life was a lot like Sarah’s must have been… unsettled, never quite happy, but trying to make the most of what she has.  Like Julia and Sarah’s life have entertwined through time.  I like that thought…. this is why the book discussion is so important.  We do not always see things the way others do, and the review gives each of us a different way to consider each book we read.

After the review my overall rating went up to a 3.8.

Jodi Picoult is an incredible author who takes the stories we see in todays papers and gives you a different perspective – a twist to our point of view where at times you find yourself rooting for the one you never thought you would side with. I for one, find her books to be fascinating and look forward to whatever she is going to think of next.

Our book club reviewed this book last night and we had a great discussion over this book. While the book spurred mixed feelings – we all agree that Jodi Picoult is an amazing writer and can really put a twist on current issues that make the reader view things differently as well.

Our discussion led to memories of what it was like to not fit in at school – moments when we were were insecure in our social standing no matter where we landed on the popularity scale. We were also able to discuss the current school issues and hear stories from members from one whose son was actually on a school hit list by an angry child, to another whose son hates school and how to help him through it.

The overall review went well and the book received an average rating with mixed votes turned in from 2 – 4 points out of 5.

This was our book club book for our May read.  This is one of the top ten books that book clubs are currently reading and I was excited to see it picked as I was already reading it.

They compare this author to Jodi Picoult but I don’t think so.  While Michelle started out strong in this book – the book quickly deteriorates to a long 300+ pages of trying to find the lost child (Emma) and flash backs to earlier days and a lot of photography facts and metaphores.

I found myself racing through the book just to get to the end.  I wanted to know if they found Emma alive, dead… or never?

Overall I have to wonder if after reading such a well written book as The Other Boleyn Girl, perhaps this book was just not strong enough to follow so closely.  I will be very interested next month to hear what the other girls in our Bookies Group have to say on this.

I would rate this a slightly below average book.

With three weeks to read this 735 page book as nominated by my book club, we joked about narrowing down the task of reading this book:  21 pages per day, .8 pages per hour….

The truth is … once I sat down and started reading, I could hardly put the book down.  The draw for me to this book was the historical signifigance.  yes, it is a fiction book, but the basic outline was actual as I discovered by my research on the Boleyn’s.

The Other Boleyn Girl is an excellent portrayal of one of the most fascinating eras in English history, the turbulent reign of Henry VIII. Under Henry’s direction, the English Court changes course, breaking from the Roman Church in order to dissolve Henry’s marriage to Katherine of Aragon, who cannot provide a living heir to the throne.

The Boleyn’s as well as the other influential names of the times, fawn over the King,  fightling for titles and status.

When Henry first notices Mary Boleyn, Anne’s sister,  he is attracted to her beauty and her youthful manner. Mary, already married, is acceptable for a tryst with the King.  (Up until this book, I don’t belive I had ever heard of Mary Boleyn – which is exactly the point of this book and why the book is narrated from Mary’s view point.

Mary is the primary focus of the novel, even when replaced in the King’s affections by Anne.  First hand we see as Mary steps aside for Anne to take the family name onward and upward or so it is hoped… With the help of Mary and the brother George, we read on to see how one family manipulates themselves for what they believe is the greater good no matter what the cost.

Philippa Gregory’s characters are enchanting.  I found them believable and was impressed when doing research that this story was not too far from the truth.  Gregory seems to take the facts as we know them and magnificantly fills in the holes with colorful brilliant characters that held my attention through all 735 pages.

I enjoyed this book very much.

This Book was chosen by my book club for our March read. First thing I picked up on was this book is written in a Davinchi Code style (I don’t believe it to be as controversial) but had the same fast paced theme and it all stemmed around a group called the Lamed Vovniks (who I had never heard of).

I loved that the book was written by two women, best friends in fact. They knew about the legend of the Lamed Vovniks and wanted to write a story around them. After years of research and putting this idea onthe back burner – it finally came to be.

The book was written well and read well. I liked the pace and our book club review was very interesting as we discussed Biblical references, and who in todays world would classify as this fiction book said, as a lamed vovnik.

About a year ago I stumbled across a website called Book Movement. It has reading group guides for book clubs and a monthly book give away by authors who want opinions on their just released books.

Well… Hello!

I jumped right on this band wagon and faithfully signed up for each and every one of their book giveaways every month. In December I opened their latest e newsletter to a surprise – our book club had won 12 copies of the book The Contractor! I was so excited! I mean winning free books! Wow! But what exactly was The Contractor?

Funny thing is…. after reading the book as a group in February, I can still ask that same question, “What exactly was The Contractor?”

The book is of course, about a contractor. Someone who tortures others in secret prisons for information…. but the book quickly turns from what you think the book is going to be about – to basically our main character George pondering over his crumbling marriage, life choices, and conversations with the family cat.

In a nut shell (and I use that term loosely…) The Contractor leaves you feeling a bit empty and cheated. You never get a strong grasp of who any of the characters are and as it comes to a close – you really do not have closure.

Our book club (The Bookies) were offered to do a phone conference with the author and unanimously declined. As one of our group stated, “What really would we say to him besides, Why? Why did you write this?”

While it was exciting to win the books – I am now more choosy in my book contest choices.

I have been a fan of John Grisham’s writing for many years (loved The Street Lawyer!). Our book club chose this book as our January read and I was excited as this is Grisham’s first non fiction book.

Based on the true life story of Ron Williamson from Ada, Oklahoma, Grisham tells of his walk in the big league as the up and coming Mickey Mantle to his fall into being accused of a crime he did not commit.

Grisham handles accurate details as he shares the years that Williamson is in prison, the accommodation’s and his fight for justice as the true killer walks free due to police errors.

True to Grishams style, the book holds you to the end as you hope beyond hope for a miracle… a miracle that comes too late.