State of Wonder by Ann Patchett

State of Wonder: A Novel

I was the only person in book club who didn't like this book. I didn't like it because I disliked the main character, I thought her cowardly and fearful and somewhat pathetic  Nevertheless, she did travel deep into the Amazon jungle, which is something I personally wouldn't do.

The book brings up a few moral topics that can cause a good discussion in a book club. The major one is the age at which women give birth. Another topic was the subject of research and the funding of research, as in who chooses the topics when people do research, the people who do the research or the people who fund it?

One person mentioned the fact that "State of Wonder" is a quote from Shakespeare's The Tempest and that the book is filled with Shakespeare quotes, but not knowing The Tempest, I didn't notice them.

Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck

Tortilla Flat

John Steinbeck is one of my favorite authors, and I was pleasantly surprised to find Tortilla Flat and realize there's a Steinbeck I hadn't read. So I suggested it for my book club. The book is very short, so we read this one and Travels with Charley in the same month. 

Tortilla Flat is classic Steinbeck, with unusual characters doing some very unconventional things. My favorite part was where someone was given the gift of a vacuum cleaner before she had electricity in her house. Because the vacuum cleaner was a status symbol, she could be seeing running it up and down the rugs in her house every day. You can't make up stories like that, it had to be real and that's why I love Steinbeck so much. 

I enjoyed The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden better than this book, but I still loved the colorful characters living at Tortilla Flat. 

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

The Art of Racing in the Rain: A Novel

The book was narrated from the dog's point of view, and that in itself made it unusual. The story is that of a race car driver, his wife and child. He draws parallels from life and compares it with the racing circuit. Even if you have no interest in dogs or the racing circuit, then it's a great book to read, as the dog comments on life and feeling to which anyone can relate. 

My son loved the book because it's set in Seattle and he loves Seattle. This just shows that we all have our different reasons for liking or disliking something. Me, I'd have liked the book wherever it was set. 

How to be an American Housewife by Margaret Dilloway

How to Be an American Housewife

This is the story of a Japanese woman who married an American soldier after the end of the Second World War. She then came to the US with him and raised two children. She follows a book called How to Be an American Housewife that was written to help Japanese brides with the culture of a different country. So, punctuated through the book are the excerpts from the guidebook. 

The book was in two halves and each part narrated by a different person - mother and daughter. In the second half of the book, the daughter goes to Japan to visit her relatives. While the book was a cute story, that was it, just someone's life story of moving to America from Japan. The book was meant to be fiction, but it was so close to the real story of the author, that it was more an autobiography.

Olive Ketteridge by Elizabeth Strout

Olive Kitteridge

This book was originally a collection of short stories that was then put together as a book. But in my opinion, it didn't work as the stories didn't flow into one story and stayed a little disjointed. The only flow through the whole book was Olive, no one else appeared more than once. By the end of the book you did get a feeling for the small town in which she lived, but it was still not my favorite kind of book. I mainly disliked the book because the main character, Olive Kitteridge, was just not a nice person.

The Orchard: A Memoir by Theresa Weir

The Orchard: A Memoir

Theresa Weir (who also writes as Anne Frasier) has written many successful books, but The Orchard is her life story. It's a story of a family farm and the use of pesticides on that farm. It was a fairly quick, easy read, but haunting. After I finished the book my mind was still on that farm, my thoughts directed to the story I had immersed myself in for the previous week. I can't say it was a pleasant read, or even that I enjoyed reading it, but it was certainly educational. 

I really like her writing style, and although I don't usually read the type of books she writes, I would love to read more from this author. My only criticism of the book is that it was a little short and I would have liked more detail. I could tell, however, that the author's emotions were very much in this book and she did say in the front cover that it took her a long time to write.

Where are you now? by Mary Higgins Clark

Where Are You Now?

This was not a typical book club book, but more of a summer reading book. Carolyn's brother disappeared 10 years ago, but every year he phones home on Mother's Day. Finally Carolyn decides to solve the mystery.

This was the first Mary Higgins Clark book I had read and my friends in book club said it was not typical of her writing, and that they had read books by her that they had liked better than this one. It's not really a book I would recommend as I got a little confused with the people in the plot and especially by the ending.