The Red Garden by Alice Hoffman

The Red Garden

I started listening to this on a CD in the car, but then realized it was a series of related short stories. Listening to a book makes it more difficult to realize when one story finishes and another starts, and so I got the book and decided to read it instead. 

The story is that of Blackwell, Massachusetts, from the founding of the town to the present day. The town is imaginary, but it is typical of others in the area. The first few chapters are the founding of the town, and the separate stories are sometimes linked to previous ones and sometimes stand alones. 

Some of the stories were classics and memorable, but when it came to discussing the book many people couldn't remember a lot of the individual stories. While previous stories were often referenced to, I would have liked more of a flowing feel to the book. It was a little too strange for my linking, and not one of the favorites we have read. 

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Never Let Me Go

This was a book that I never would have read had it not been a book club book. Firstly, it's science fiction and I didn't realize it until half way through the book. The people in the book are different from other people, but you don't realize how or why until the second half. 

It's set in England in the 1990s and centered around what appears to be a normal boarding school until one of the teachers lets slip that there's really no point in educating the students in the school. When the teacher suddenly no longer works there, the students become suspicious and wonder what is different about themselves and their school.

I can't tell you any more without spoiling the plot. It's one of those science fiction books that you wonder if it could come true one day. After I read the book I watched the movie and found it very true to the book, but still just as haunting.

Here's the movie:

Never Let Me Go

La's Orchestra Saves the World by Alexander McCall Smith

La's Orchestra Saves the World

Personally, I didn't like this book. It is set in pre war and then during the Second World War. La is a woman who was educated with a Cambridge degree and I was frustrated that she didn't do anything significant with that degree. A woman with a Cambridge degree in pre war years was just about unheard of and she must have been someone special to achieve one. Yet through the book she doesn't appear to act so well educated. 

Without spoiling the plot, she finds herself alone during the war years in a rural community and with enough money to live on. So she volunteers to help the war effort by assisting an elderly farmer with his chickens. Then she also starts an orchestra. There's actually not much written about the orchestra except that everyone loved it. I was past half way in the book before I read about the orchestra being formed. I thought it would take more space in the book, being mentioned in the title. Also I wondered how they could have had decent performances when they only practiced once a month. 

The first chapter is significant in the story of the plot. So, when you have finished the book, go back and read the first chapter. 

Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls

Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel

This is the story of the author's grandmother, although not all of it is true, so therefore it becomes a fiction book. The author pieced together what she knew of her grandmother, and then invented the rest. Still, it's an amazing story in the midwest and Arizona nearly 100 years ago. 

Lily, the heroine of the story, leaves home at 15, travels alone for days and takes up residence as a teacher in a frontier town. She works and goes to school in Chicago, and she runs ranches through floods tornadoes and much more. 

Jeannette Walls' first book, The Glass Castle, was her own life story, and after she wrote that, she wrote this story of her grandmother. You should read both starting with this one, although personally I preferred The Glass Castle.

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

The Glass Castle: A Memoir

This is the true story of Jeannette Walls. She was raised in extreme poverty, with an alcoholic father and a mother who didn't want the responsibility of raising her own children. During their childhood they moved a lot, often to escape debt. But aside from that, she was incredibly stimulated by her father and talks very lovingly about her family.

One part that really stood out to me was when they didn't have any money for Christmas presents, so her father told her he had named a star after her. As an adult I could see he did this because he had no way of buying Christmas presents, but as a child, Jeannette thought she had a present that no other child would ever have, and was therefore special. The whole book is filled with this sort of thing, so although the family was incredibly dysfunctional, you get the feeling that the children didn't feel they were underprivileged. 

As time goes on, things get worse and the children bond together to help each other leave home and support themselves. 

This book will stay in my heart for a long time. At parts I was horrified at what happened, but it is told with such skill that I have a warmth for the family and the author in particular. 

The Confession by John Grisham

The Confession: A Novel

The story line is that of an innocent man who confesses to a murder he didn't commit after many hours of police interrogation. Days before he is about to be executed, the real murderer wants to confess. Most of the book is the storyline of what happens in those few short days and the reader is wondering if he will get his message across in time to stop the execution.

This was the first John Grisham book I have read, and apparently it is not typical of Grisham. It has, however, made me want to read a book that is typical of Grisham. If you have a favorite John Grisham book, let me know in the comments. I have heard that once you start reading a Grisham book, you can't stop, but this didn't happen with this book. It certainly held my attention, but it didn't consume me so I forgot my household chores (which is my definition of a good book).

I started this book thinking "Oh, no, not another book about the death penalty," it seems to be a common book club topic, but I still enjoyed reading the book and discussing the topics it raised.

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.