The Girls by Lori Lansens

 

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.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusack

 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

 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

 

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 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.

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

 

Abraham Verghese was a doctor first before becoming an author, and it shows in this book. He writes descriptive details of operations and procedures that highlight his medical knowledge and experience. He includes in the book ethical subjects such as female circumcision and transplant from a live donor. But they are not the core of the book.

The book starts in a mission hospital in Ethiopia and the birth of twins fathered by an Indian nun and a British doctor. At times, the twins seem like opposites, suggesting the good and evil of the same person. Neither of the parents are in the life of the twins after they were born, and they are raised by the people in the mission.

The book is a good history of Ethiopia, most of which I didn't know before I read the book. The book tells the story of civil unrest from an individual's point of view.

I thought the setting was unusual, the birth of twins in Ethiopia to an Indian nun. Then I read about Abraham Verghese on Wikipedia and discovered he was born in Ethiopia to Indian parents, so the book is somewhat biographical.

The book has everything you need in a good novel, great plot, interesting characters, unusual setting and even a murder at one point (or, was it an accident?) It certainly led to a great discussion. Some of us thought it was a little long and didn't like the descriptions of medical procedures, but personally I got a big feeling that the author knew a lot more than me about the subject he was writing about, and that fact made me enjoy the book immensely.

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

 Oh, my goodness! What an amazing book! This is one of my all time favorite books. I read it with one book club and then suggested it to another, just so I could read it again. There are plots, sub plots, parallel plots and things that happen that you aren't told about. If I had read it in book form I would not have wanted to put it down, but I listened to it in the car and found myself wanting to drive somewhere just so that I could listen to the next installment of the book. The audiobook is very well done and I enjoyed listening to it immensely. The fact that it was a mystery and I had to wait between installments made it even more fascinating.

The main plot is set about 50-70 years ago in England amongst over privileged and under civilized people. The setting is a large stately home. That plot is intertwined with the storyteller's modern day life which is set a little before the Internet happened. The exact year is also not specified. It flows beautifully, giving you just enough information bit by bit to keep you enthralled in the plot.

There were a number of quotes and references to some of the classics, mainly Jane Eyre. And some parallels to those books, too. It is definitely a book for book lovers and a must for your book club.

Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult

 

Every book club reads, at some time or other, a Jodi Picoult book. Every time we read one, we discuss the other Jodi Picoults we have read. Personally, I'm always amazed at the obvious amount of research she does before writing a plot. This one is all about the death penalty, and if a condemned man can donate his organs after the punishment has been carried out. 

Then there are the delightful characters she writes about: a Catholic priest, an ACLU lawyer, a mother who lost both her daughter and husband and a convicted murderer. Each one is so well developed that we had a great discussion on each of the main characters in the book, then discussed who is the hero of the book and it was not a unanimous decision!

There were lots of twists and turns, and the plot was by no means obvious. No wonder Judi Picoult is well read in book clubs when she produces a great book that leads to a wonderful discussion.

My Abandonment by Peter Rock

 If you haven't read the book:

The book is told from a 13 year old's point of view of her life with her father while living in the forest in Oregon. Although they are homeless, she seems content and well cared for, physically and educationally, until one day someone sees them, tells the police and they are tracked down and she is taken into care. The story of how they got to be living in the forest in Oregon isn't revealed until the end of the book. Neither is it ever revealed if he is her real father or not.

The book is haunting in its telling and there's lots of mystery and unanswered questions through the book, not all of which (like, is he her real father?) are resolved. I can't really say much more without spoiling the story if you haven't read the book. I did read the book quickly and thoroughly enjoyed it, but now it has left me with questions.
.
.
.
.
.
.
If you have read the book:
.
.
.
.
.
.
this is a spoiler alert and a discussion only for if you have finished the book
.
.
.
.
.
.
So only scroll down if you've read the book
.
.
.
.
.
.
I've read many reviews in other places and no one thought the same as I did, so here's my personal opinion or suspicions.
.
.
.
.
.
.
At the end of the book she puts together her own manuscript of the events that have happened to her, so everything is her opinion. Like they say, winners write the story of battles, so the real truth was never written down.

I think she killed her own father, and here are my reasonings.

Their arrival at the yurt and the discovery of Susan and Paul was just strange. The characters themselves didn't seem human. Then you have to ask yourself, how did Susan manage to electrocute the father when he was fully awake, and presumably not very compliant? An average man can overcome an average woman, this part is unbelievable.

Then Caroline takes her father down the hill in thick snow and a bunch of teenagers arrive to have a party in a cave. Remember they are in the middle of nowhere and there is thick snow and the road cannot be found. This part of the story is also unbelievable. Where did they park their cars? Surely there wasn't a parking lot next to the cave.

So this is what I think happened, Caroline was kidnapped by a man who was not her father and used as a sex slave. Caroline doesn't say that they were having sex, but remember, she was writing the story. In a similar way to the Elizabeth Smart story, she was a prisoner, but was compliant. Would you want to admit that if it were you?

So I think that rather than being a great father, he was really holding her hostage and having sex with her. Then finally when she saw her chance, she murdered him. The clue is that earlier in the story she was told of other homeless people who had died by electrocution. When Caroline and her father entered the yurt and saw the wires, she murdered her father while he slept. Then she took him to an empty cave and disposed of his body.

But because the story was written by Caroline, she couldn't write any of that, so we have this bizarre story of strange and unrealistic people.

What do you think?

The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry by Kathleen Flynn

 The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry by Kathleen Flynn

I was really excited to read this book, but the reading of it didn't live up to my expectations. The author writes the story of how she suddenly decides to live in Paris and go to cooking school. But to my analytic brain, she didn't even say how she financed her year. I'm sure many of us have a wild idea of doing something similar, but a little help in the direction of how she achieved her dream may help others achieve theirs. 

I thought it was a great title for a book, and it did make me want to read it.

The book is punctuated with recipes, but it was interesting to note in book club that no one had even tried one of the recipes. With much good intention, I did plan on it, but somehow never got round to doing so. 

The book is compared with Eat, Pray Love, but I enjoyed that book much more. I think if I did it again in a book club, I would end with an evening of cooking one of the recipes together. 

Moloka'i by Alan Brennert

 Moloka'i takes place in the Leper colony in the Hawaiian Islands. Although the book is officially fiction, the events that happen in the book are true. It is the story of one young girl who contracts the disease and is sent away from her family to live on the colony with other lepers. The book is well researched and very moving in its depiction of life in the leper colony on Moloka'i.

Dirt Music by Tim Winton

 

Dirt Music was not a very popular book. Two members of our group didn't manage to finish it. Nevertheless, we had a great discussion after reading it. The characters were very colorful and memorable. We were a little confused about some of the things that happened in the plot as there didn't seem to be any purpose to those events being there. Some of the events were just that the main character was traveling and met different people.

The way it was written was a little strange. I personally don't like writing that isn't in complete sentences. There was a lot of speech without the correct punctuation. My English teacher would have been horrified. However, that was the style and it did make it easier to read. And the book did win a number of prizes for having been written.

Personally I wouldn't read another book by this author because of the style of writing. However, his characters have stayed with me long after I finished the book.

Drowning Ruth: A Novel (Oprah's Book Club) by Christina Schwarz

 The way this book is written is unusual. It jumps about backward and forward in time, sometimes from one page to the next. But somehow it works and that added to the joy of reading the book. I wouldn't, however, have liked to have listened to this on CD, I think that would have made it confusing.

The mystery is around the fact that Ruth remembers drowning, although obviously she didn't actually drown. You don't find out what actually happened until the end of the book. The book is easy to read and difficult to put down. Personally I reached the middle and finished it in one day even though I had other things to do.

It is an Oprah Book Club choice and I find many of these have some form of sexual abuse in them. I'd just like to say that this one didn't. The characters were a little unusual, but just enough to make them interesting to read about and discuss in a book club setting.

Travels with Charley in Search of America by John Steinbeck

 I love Steinbeck. After reading popular fiction I love to go back to reading a Steinbeck just for the quality of the writing, people don't seem to write that well any more.

This book is not typical Steinbeck. It was written in 1962 after he had received the Pulitzer Prize for literature. He felt he didn't really know his own country and so drove from New York to Washington, through California, Texas and Louisiana and back home to Long Island. The book is a collection of his feelings about the United States as well as descriptions of people he met.

I listened to it on CD while traveling. It seemed particularly fitting to listen to Steinbeck's road trip while I was on one of my own. 

Sarah's Key by

 

The Second World War produced a lot of great literature. This book is based on the 1942 round up of the French Jews (which I didn't even know had happened before I read the book), known as the Vel d'Hiv round up. Sarah thinks she is protecting her little brother by locking him in a closet when the French police collect them, intending to come back for him later.

The story is intertwined with the story of a journalist with a failing marriage writing about the Vel d'Hiv round up 60 years later. She discovers the story of Sarah and decides to try and find her.

There is also a movie made from the book, which is very true to the story of the book.

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

 

This is one of those books that will stay in my memory for ever. I listened to it on CD and it was very well read.  The story is that of a man in a lifeboat with a tiger, which doesn't sound too interesting, but it was. Somehow, despite the picture of the tiger on the front of the book, I didn't realize what it was about when I started to read it, so the part where Pi (yes that's his name) realized there was a tiger on board was a complete surprise to me. From there the book just got better and better. 

The book recently came out as a movie and, while I don't usually go to the movies very often, I did go and see this one as many people were saying it was a really good movie. Everything about the movie was excellent: the acting, the animals, the story line and the whole production. I heard the criticism that the movie was too long, but I didn't find it so.

I did read Yann Martel's second book, Beatrice and Virgil, and very much disliked it. The reason being that it was the story of an author who had had a very successful book who was struggling to write a second book. I felt it was autobiographical, and not very good in itself. Usually if I like one book from an author, I like all of them, but not in this case. It just didn't have the feel of quality of the Life of Pi. People suggested that the book was an allegory and had a double meaning, but I didn't see it.

The Wives of Henry Oades: A Novel by Johanna Moran

 

The Wives of Henry Oades: A Novel by Johanna Moran

Based on a true story, Henry Oades was living in Australia when his wife and children were kidnapped by Maoris. Henry did all he could to find them and then gave up and moved to California. Many years later his wife and children travel to California, but discover Henry has remarried. He welcomes his first wife into his home, while not rejecting his second wife. The resulting dilemma is the topic of this book. 

Henry is charged with bigamy by the people living near him, and you'll have to read the book to find out what happend next. This is the only book that has led to a discussion of bigamy in our book club, a rare and interesting dilemma, and one which our Henry didn't have an easy solution.