The Girls by Lori Lansens

The Girls: A Novel

This is the story of Siamese twins who are joined at the head. They are abandoned at birth by their mother and raised by the nurse who helped deliver them. The girls write alternating chapters telling their life story. While I enjoyed read this book immensely, it is a work of fiction. I would have preferred to read a true story of Siamese twins. 

The book was well written and every page was a delight to read, most people in the book club enjoyed reading it, one person found it just a little too unreal.

Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert

Committed: A Love Story

This is the sequel to Eat, Pray, Love. At the end of the first book Liz finds her true love, but is determined not to marry him, as they have both been through pretty painful divorces. But it is soon pointed out to them by a Homeland Security official that if they want to live together in the US, they need to marry. So begins their exile until the paperwork is though and they can get married.

The book is the story of their journey, but during their wait Elizabeth Gilbert researches the history and traditions attached to marriage. This history I found fascinating, and learned lots of things I didn't otherwise know. She studies marriage in other cultures and traditions and why there are so few divorces in some cultures and so many in others. 

She discusses the intersection between church, state and marriage. When one must get involved and when another. Then she debates her own prejudices toward marriage - the institution and also the wedding day. 

You can guess the end of the book, they do finally get married. To me the best part of the book was the description of this rather unusual wedding, people who were only getting married so they could spend the rest of their lives together. But then, isn't that the purpose of marriage?

This is the cover of the earlier version of the book

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia

The book is the story of one woman's search, in three different countries, to find herself. First she goes to Italy, then to India and then to Indonesia. The book is in three equal sections, one for each country. As a result I found it a little disjoint, almost being three different stories. But by the end of the book I was enjoying it.

In the middle section she goes to an Ashran in India to pursue her spiritual journey and discovers her strengths and weaknesses. In the final part she is mixing with the locals as well as learning meditation from the local spiritual man. 

I found the book informative and insightful. It is a bestseller, but personally not one of my favorite books.

But I loved this talk by Elizabeth Gilbert on TED http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html 

And here's the movie, with Julia Roberts, which I found very true to the book

Eat Pray Love

The Book Thief by Markus Zusack

The Book Thief 

I found this book difficult at first, but the more I read through it, the more I liked it. By the time I finished, it became one of those books that will remain in my heart forever. The story is that of an ordinary girl, Liesel, who grew up on an ordinary street in Germany during the Second World War. The book is narrated by the character Death, which in particular makes it memorable. He keeps telling us when he is needed and when he will come back soon, and how busy he was on certain days. But he follows Liesel in particular and so narrates the story of her life.

I found the book in the teen section of the library, but I'm not sure why someone decided it should go there. I'm still not sure if the themes of the Holocaust should even be told to teens. The book contains a man who is hidden in the basement, a father who is forced into labor for the Nazis, a teen who refuses to join the Nazi Youth, lots of bombing and of course a large amount of death. For me, by the time I finished the book I felt I knew the people in the book really well, and that is full credit to the author's writing.

Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Henrietta Lacks was an African American born in 1920, who had a very severe form of cervical cancer. Without her knowledge some cancer cells, now known as HeLa cells, were taken for medical research. These cells were kept alive and grown in the lab enabling research that had never been done before. The cells were then mass grown and helped in the research or cure of polio, AIDS and cancer.

The book parallels the life of Henrietta Lacks with the story of the cells. How the family lived in poverty yet the cells made money for those who developed patents from working with them.

Henrietta died at the age of 31, but her cells live for ever and save the lives of other people, and that is the story of the book.

My Name is Memory by Ann Brashares

My Name is Memory

When you read a lot of books, you find there are many similarities between the books you read. This book was just different - and I loved it.

It is the love story of Daniel and Sophia who die and are reborn as different people in different times. Just that idea alone made it different from anything else I've ever read. It's a gripping read and one of those books I just couldn't put down.

It's the way that it's written that gripped me, I couldn't wait to find out what happened next. And now I've finished reading the book, I'm looking forward to the sequel to find out what happens next.

Definitely a good book to discuss in a book club.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

The Help

The Help takes place during the 1960s civil rights movement. One white woman, Skeeter, collects stories from a number of black women and publishes them in a book. The black women tell the stories of how they are treated, and the book does a really good job of describing the happenings and emotions of the time in a G rated format. 

The book was easy to read, and once I'd started, I couldn't put it down. I even gave the book to my young teen to educate her about that time.

Then, as a group we went to see the movie together, and found it to be very true to the book. No wonder the book was a best seller, I think any book club would enjoy reading it together.

Here's the movie:

The Help