Readers and Reading discussion

Please post your the books you read in January 2010 here. It would be great if you could post some comments too.

Because it's been so long (almost two months) since i started a new book, i was surprised that i read two novels one right after the other last week. I'd like to think i'm on a roll. Unfortunately both were library books, not ones i own, which had been my intention. Oh well. These WERE mentioned over the last year or two, which is how i "found" them.

Blamingby Elizabeth Taylor

It's about a woman whose husband dies on a cruise & how a younger woman befriends her. Over the course of a year the widow's life is shared. Small, good book in which the author expresses ideas i've had & couldn't put my finger on.

The Leisure Seeker: A Novel by Michael Zadoorian

I like road books anyway but this one about nearing the end of life people was enjoyable. Again, the author put into words some things about aging that i've noticed but hadn't latched on to in my brain. I enjoyed it.

Now i am reading Looking BackwardEdward Bellamy

It's a sort of science fiction in which a man goes to sleep in the late 1800s & awakes in the year 2000. While not an exciting action book, it's a sort of sharing of utopian ideas the author explores. Bellamy wrote it in 1888 and it was, according to the link below, one of the top 3 books of its time. The other two were Uncle Tom's Cabin and Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ by Lew Wallace.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Looking_...

deborah

Only two for me this month.

This weekend I plan on finishing:

No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II by Doris Kearns Goodwin

I will give the book 5 GR stars. It's well written and engaging. At one point in the book FDR and some close friends are in the parlor chatting and the president asked everyone to name four outstanding leaders, including Ben Franklin.

FDR choices were: Franklin, Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt, and the earl of Orrery, a confidential adviser to Oliver Cromwell.

Eleanor's choices were: Anne Hutchinson, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Emily Dickinson, and Carrie Chapman Catt.

My choices would be: FDR, Eleanor, Susan B. Anthony and Lincoln.

The other book I read was a play.
How I Learned to Drive by Paula Vogel

I read this with the GR group Book Nook Cafe
http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1...
I thought the play was well written.

First in January I reread The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society for my book group discussion. It was just as enjoyable for me the second time around (and I very rarely reread books). It was also a book group hit.

Next I read The Haunted Bookshop by Christopher Morley. This was quite a pleasant story set in Brooklyn, NY, at the end of the First World War. It involved spy activities and a bit of a love story. Roger Mifflin's smoky, second-hand bookshop was haunted by the spirit of old books and authors. I really like well-written books which take you back to another time.

Next I read my first Barbara Delinsky book, An Accidental Woman. It's an easy to read, romantic novel which features a spunky young woman confined to a wheelchair since a snowmobile accident many years before. The setting is a small New Hampshire lake town in late winter, and one of the main characters must make preparations for the maple sugar season, at the same time his significant other has been arrested on a charge that years ago, in California, she ran down a wealthy young man.

After that, I read a Marcia Muller mystery, The Dangerous Hour. It is one of the Sharon McCone series, always a good read. Sharon owns a San Francisco private investigation agency, and one of her employees has been accused of stealing a client's credit card and charging a lot of merchandise. It seems that this could ruin the agency, so maybe someone has a grudge against Sharon.

I'm now reading F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, for Monday night's book group meeting. I may finish it tomorrow (still January).

Carolyn, I would love to read Gatsby with a group. That is one I have read many times.

My month started out awful since I abandoned four novels in a row!
ABANDONED BOOKS ---- I am listing them separately here
Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
I started this book one night, then read 3 pages the next day (not a good sign) and a couple of nights later I hunkered down and finished the story of Corrigan. Sorta. I skimmed some of it. I found the writing too dense and showy yet the characters were not developed. If an author is going to write so many words (and some of the writing seemed very contrived), why doesn't he at least give some motivations, some inner thoughts of the characters'?

I realize that the short story form is very difficult and I do not think this author had a grasp on it, at least in this one story. So it went back to the library, unfinished. Sigh. My first abandoned book of the new year

The Summer Kitchen by Karen Weinreb
[image error]

In one night, I started (and stopped)reading this --- what could be the worst-written book I have ever tried to read. Weinreb purports to have been a journalist, have a degree in literature from Yale, and a master's from Oxford. NO WAY!!!! The writing was so awkward - the way translated language can be, with words seeming to be out of order....but it was not a translated book! I found myself re-reading passages to try to make sense of them. Here are some examples I found when thumbing through the book (some after I abandoned it):

"I booked the trip to Bermuda so that we would have the chance to talk finally alone"

"Though the laugh, the day, it exhausted her." (p.21)

"Nora had been keeping up appearances for two months since the arrest when the exhaustion of the effort and of all she was now managing alone swelled to the feeling that a blood vessel would burst if she didn't rest." (p.65)

"... her boys' faces looked like adorable painted puppets, their cheeks and the tips of their noses blooded circles on complexions frozen otherwise white and stiff." (p. 99)

"la senora" appeared 10 times on one page!

If I had bought this book, I would have returned it and asked for my money back. This once immensely privileged woman must have known someone to have ever gotten her book published. And she got lots of press due to her personal story (hedge-fund husband arrested for wire fraud). GRRRR

Heartbreak Cafe by Penelope J. Stokes

The first 30 pages d r a g g e d, so I stopped reading it.

Mr. and Miss Anonymous by Fern Michaels

With nothing to listen to in the car, I ran into the library to pick up an audio book. Not much choice.....and I left with this one. It could have been a short story. So little meat, so predictable....I quit in the middle of Disk 2. I was better off talking to myself!

I read a mix of fiction and non-fiction in January
[image error] In the Sanctuary of Outcasts by Neil White
4 stars

I almost hate to call this, or see it called, a "memoir" because I am notorious among my reading friends for having no patience with this genre. But this one is different and (mostly) believable to me. For one thing, White does not "recall" large portions of his childhood with exact quotes (from when he was 4 years old!)

I found White's story to be realistic (imprisoned for bank fraud) and surreal (sent to a federal prison that is also a leper colony, the last one in the United States). I had read Moloka'i last year so I was somewhat familiar with leprosy. In Hawaii these people were isolated whereas in Carville, they were expected to co-exist with prisoners.

I do think that White misled readers when he stated and implied that the patients had to stay in Carville (he used the word quarantined) when, in reality, they could leave at any time. I also never really felt the link he had with Ella because he never really thoroughly explained or elaborated on this relationship.

White does a good job of character development in this book, with prisoners and patients alike. The cast of characters is far-ranging and interesting.

I must say that I did come to feel uncomfortable at times while reading this book - with the underlying feeling that the author thought he was so special and so different, and not really remorseful. Was it a "spin job"? Too slick? Maybe.

I would like to know more about how he rehabilitated himself after leaving prison, how he put his life back together. There was a short explanation at the end that left me wanting to know more....

Oxygen by Carol Cassella
3 stars

This was interesting material but I thought the book was just okay. Too many words at many points in the book, too many times when the narrator just went on and on and on....and then the ending seemed hurried.

I really got annoyed with reading, over and over, about how guilty Marie felt and also about her moping around. The dreariness of her everyday life and the too-long descriptions of her angst were just too much and did nothing to advance the story. Enough already!

I found myself getting annoyed with Marie for not being more proactive - she should have seen a counselor if she was not allowed to talk to anyone. But then again, who would she talk with? The woman had no friends, not even any close acquaintances. She was such a loner and emotionally bereft, a woman with no life other than her work. This was surprising to me because the author apparently has a very full life as a doctor and the mother of four children.

I suspected that a mistake had been made at the beginning of the surgery and wondered why someone who was as "in control" as Marie would allow another doctor to do something so important. That did not make sense to me.

There was a good plot twist at the end that I had suspected but not in its entirety.

Will I read her next book? Yes, because I think this author has a lot of potential.

Whistlin' Dixie in a Nor'easterby Lisa Patton
4 stars

Leslie told me about this book, written by someone who was in her sorority (but later than Leslie, I think) and was selling the books at a football game (Do I have this correct, Leslie?)

While not great literature, this sure was fun to read. With abandon, Patton skewers Northerners and Southerners alike (although I did wonder how she thought that Fran Drescher sounds like a New Englander - huh?)

I liked the story of Leelee's journey.....how she rose to the challenge of running an inn in Vermont, on her own, when she never even wanted to move there. She is clever and does not dwell on her situation, but makes the best of it. She starts out totally dependent and ends up as .... a Steel Magnolia!

The author painted a lovely picture of female friendships and how they get us through the bad times. Too many authors depict their female characters in isolation and that is just unrealistic.

I loved the unusual ending too. Clever.

Funny and heartbreaking, this book kept me turning the pages. I hear a sequel is on the way and look forward to it.

Queen of the Road: The True Tale of 47 States, 22,000 Miles, 200 Shoes, 2 Cats, 1 Poodle, a Husband, and a Bus with a Will of Its Own by Doreen Orion
2 stars

I started out really liking this book and the author's humor, but it quickly grew tiresome. I think it would have been much more enjoyable from the husband's point of view because Doreen was just so obnoxious. She was so negative, manipulative, and whiny before and during the trip - what a spoiled brat! I found the constant use of - or reference to - her title of "princess" (self-proclaimed) to be annoying. It ceased being cute after the 50th time! She tried way too hard to be funny and often her attempts at humor just fell flat.

I also thought the book was poorly written. The narrative "flow" was just not there, and I disliked how disjointed and scattered the story was.

It got to the point that I was not even enjoying the descriptions of the places they visited, and this is something I usually like to read. I was surprised to see how many good reviews it got.

Rainwater by Sandra Brown
4 stars

This book, which I listened to on audio, was fairly good. An interesting story of the aftermath of the Depression in Texas, during a terrible drought, as the inhabitants of Gilead TX struggle with poverty and racism. I have read that Brown based this on her grandparents' experiences.

Reviewers who have read lots of Brown's books say that RAINWATER is very different from her other books, but not having read any others by this author, I cannot judge that.

I thought it was a good story, good character development, and a realistic depiction of the social mores of that time.

The surprise ending in the epilogue was well-done and satisfying.

I also read two Dogtown books:

Dogtown: A Sanctuary for Rescued Dogs (Hardcover) by Best Friends Animal Society
5 stars

This was the first Dogtown book that I read and I found it so uplifting and engaging. Great stories and photos. I had been watching the show for quite a while when I found this book --- a wonderful companion to the show. The book is a beautiful testament to the great people who live and work there and take care of these animals every day. Dogtown is a sanctuary in the truest sense of the word - it is a place of refuge or safety.

and

DogTown: Tales of Rescue, Rehabilitation, and Redemption
5 stars

I love the DOGTOWN show and I loved this book of wonderful stories. I really liked how it was organized with the story of each dog from when it entered Dogtown until it was adopted (or not). The people who care for, train and love these dogs are real heroes who look for the best for all of their charges. No dog is considered hopeless.

Even though I have seen every episode of the show, I appreciated every page of this book. Some of the dogs were "old friends" and some were new....but all were interesting.



Brava, Valentine by Adriana Trigiani

I was so glad to be able to spend more time with Valentine Roncalli as she took over the family's Angelini shoe business alongside her brother Alfred. Sparks fly as these two, who are like oil and water, attempt to merge their very different styles.

Encouraged by her former fiance, Bret, now a financier, Valentine decides to embark on a new venture.

The book starts off with a wedding in Italy where Valentine re-encounters the dashing Gianluca, but a long-distance romance seems fruitless. Returning to NY, Valentine discovers that a branch of the family is in Buenos Aires and takes off for there, where she has a couple of surprises waiting.

Trigiana is a clever writer, especially good with family scenes and relationships. She accurately portrays the humor and pathos in families with well-drawn characters who ring so true.

The book is full of life and love and is very appealing.

I really enjoyed this book. It is the first in a series. The main characters are a young Chinese American woman private investigator and an American male investigator. The mystery was good. The intertwing and clash of the cultures was interesting.



This wa light read. As always these are fun abd quick books to read.



I love the way Richard Russo writes and this book did not disappoint. I could vividy picture the characters and visualize the scenes described.

Currently two thirds throug Aqua Alta by Donna Leon. I enjoy this series as you learn a lot of history of Venice and the mysteries are usually good

Meredith

In January I read:

Raintree County by Ross Lockridge Jr. A while back there was some discussion about this book on this board. I had never heard of it before so I tracked down a used copy. There was speculation that this somewhat ignored book was a "great American novel". John Shawnessy of Raintree County recalls the great moments of his life, including his Civil War experiences. I found the novel interesting and engaging, but skimmed much of the philosophical ramblings--I thought they became repetitive. Also, the novel is over 1000 pages, so skimming is allowed.

I read:

Scarlet Feather by Maeve Binchy
To The Nines by Janet Evanovich
Crossing To Safety by Wallace Stegner

To The Nines was my favorite of those 3.

Karla, I agree about skimming in Big Fat Books. Definitely allowed....even encouraged!

Lin, I loved Scarlet Feathers. I read it years ago and then a couple of years later, listened to the audio.

x-posted at M/T Reading Friends

Had a very good month with more variety than usual.

Top Reads


Silent on the Moor
Deanna Raybourn
Not quite as humorous or romantic as the previous books in the series (kind of gothic in tone) but still a very enjoyable read.


Bringing the Heat
Mark Bowden
Would have been a five star read if I actually cared about the Philadelphia Eagles. Bowden must have had unbelievable access and he did not waste it. Lots of interesting tidbits from the 1992 NFL season (I did not know that Jeff Fisher was interviewed for the Philly job after Buddy Ryan was fired and almost got the job).


The First Rule
Robert Crais
My favorite for the month. A really smooth thriller


The Darkness and the Deep
Aline Templeton
This is the second book in this series and I really enjoyed the rural Scottish setting and the realistic characters.

Good Reads


The Girl Who Played with Fire
Stieg Larsson
I think I am a bit in the minority on this book. I found it very slow in the beginning with lots of unrelated digressions that did not add to the story. The last 1/4 of the book though was really suspenseful and I am looking forward to the final book in the trilogy (though I do think both of the main characters are completely unrealistic). I listened to the audio version narrated by Simon Vance.

Death of a Unicorn
Peter Dickinson
A young socialite meets a mysterious older man who sets her up as a society columnist at a magazine he owns in the 1950's. The author worked at Punch magazine for many years.


The Polysyllabic Spree
Nick Hornby
Collection of columns for a magazine that compiles the books that Hornby purchases vs. those he actually reads each month. Like any good bibliophile the acquisitions usually outnumber the finished books.

[image error]
Knives at Dawn: America's Quest for Culinary Glory at the Legendary Bocuse d'Or Competition
Andrew Friedman
Follows the American team's preparation and outcome at the famous food competition held in France.


Getting Stoned with Savages: A Trip Through the Islands of Fiji and Vanuatu
J. Maarten Troost
While not as good as the author's previous book (The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific) still, an amusing look at island life. Audio read by Simon Vance.


The Murder at the Vicarage: A Miss Marple Mystery
Agatha Christie
The first Miss Marple. I was surprised that Miss Marple was really just a supporting player in this book since the first person narration was by the vicar. I listened to the audio which was read ably by James Saxon.


Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang
Kate Wilhelm
Science fiction classic about cloning. Did have a bit of a quibble with the narration by Anna Fields since most of the main characters were male and her masculine voices were all pretty wimpy.


Talking About Detective Fiction
P.D. James
The author's views on the enduring popularity of the detective story.

Bad Read


Sworn to Silence
Linda Castillo
Just did not like this audio book. Thought all the characters acted stupidly throughout the book and that the violence was overdone. Need to learn to give up on audios though the narration by Kathleen McInerney was, at least, competent.

4657 The First Tycoon The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt, by T. J. Stiles (read 4 Jan 2010) (National Book Award nonfiction prize in 2009) Cornelius Vanderbilt was born May 17, 1794 and died at 10:51 A.M. on Jan 4, 1877. He had very little education--three months or so, apparently--but was involved in shipping and was very successful. At the time of the Civil War he turned to railroads and became the greatest figure in railroads, and the richest man in his time. I have read and enjoyed biographies of other rich men, e.g., Carnegie, Rockefeller, and J. P. Morgan. But for a long time this book did not entrance me--so much talk of shipping and finance seemed pointless. But it got better toward the end and by the time I finished I decided it was a good account of an important life. Though I did not like Vanderbilt, this book paints him in a favorable light--though he did not have much social conscience. But he did give a ship worth a million dollars to the Union at the time of the Civil War--and after that war gave a million dollars to found Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. This is a book I am glad I read.

4658 The Help, by Kathryn Stockett (read 7 Jan 2010) In December I noticed that this novel had 1375 reviews on Amazon, 1166 of them five-star. I found the book absorbing and hard to stop reading. Sometimes I laughed out loud, but usually the book was rivetingly attention-holding. It is laid in Jackson, Miss., in the early 1960's and tells of black women who are maids in white people's houses. Abileen is in her fifties and works for a woman who pays little attention to her kids and moves in a vapid society where the women leave all the domestic chores for their maids. Minny is also a maid working for an almost impossibly weird dingbat. And Miss Skeeter is a white woman who decides to write about the relationship between the white women and their help. I found the story, while maybe a little obvious and overdrawn, one that caught me up utterly. I would have liked a happier ending, but maybe such would be false to the time and place. This is surely the best novel I have read since 2008.

4659 North Star, by Hammond Innes (read 12 Jan 2010) On May 31, 1998, I read with much appreciation the author's The Wreck of the Mary Deare, so I thought I would read something else by him. This book is about an oil rig near the Shetland Islands. It is full of sea and technical talk about ships and oil rigs, and this is so foreign to me that I did not enjoy the book too much. The central character is Mike Randall, a not too likeable but very able sea person, who has lots of bad things happen to him. But in the last part of the book he goes to an oil rig when there is huge storm and the rig is wrecked. That part is very exciting.

4660 Popes And The Tale Of Their Names, by Anura Guruge (read 14 Jan 2010) This is a book which my kids gave me for Christmas after a very unsubtle suggestion from me. It is a 2008 book which discusses exhaustively papal names and tells all kinds of things about such names. There are 45 names used only once and 36 names used more than once. The book discusses the times between use of a name, and lots of information about the Popes, and how they came to choose the name they did, and trends in choosing names, etc. It is a great work, dealing with papal history in a way I never saw before. Since I once knew by heart all the names of all 265 Popes and their years of reign, this book was full of interest for me and I am glad I own it.

4661 Iowa The Definitive Collection Classic & Contemporary Readings By Iowans, About Iowa, Edited by Zachary Michael Jack (read 20 Jan 2010) This book collects over 100 pieces of mostly Iowa authors, most talking about Iowa. The pieces are short ,often only 3 or 4 pages, so if one doesn't interest you soon get to the next. Some were excerpts from books I have read: Abigail Gardner Sharp on the Spirit Lake Massacre; Vandemark's Folly, by Herbert Quick (once mayor of Sioux City); Black Soil, by Josephine Donovan; Three Miles Square, by Paul Corey; Old Orchard Farm by Paul Orchard. Bob Feller's account of his time in Iowa was of interest, as was an excerpt from Billy Sunday's autobiography. There are more items of greater interest in the book than there are items of lesser interest.

4662 The Painted Veil, by W. Somerset Maugham (read 21 Jan 2010) This book was first published in 1925 and is a facile novel about an English girl who marries a man she does not love who goes to Hong Kong where she has an affair, her husband finds out, and they go to a Chinese town in the grip of a cholera epidemic. It is a slick, very readable novel, which purports to paint a moral of the possibility of change and growth. At first I was much absorbed by the kind of soap-opera-ey story, though it become less enthralling, but finished fairly strong. There is an admirable depiction of heroic French nuns in China. I enjoyed the book.

4663 Landfall A Channel Story, by Nevil Shute (read 22 Jan 2010) This is the 9th Shute novel I have read. Published in 1940, it tells a story of an R.A.F. pilot who falls in love with a barmaid. He sinks a submarine and it is concluded the sub was British! It makes for a tender story, as his girlfriend (who is concerned about the class difference between herself and the officer) from things she overhears in the bar gets the investigation reopened. The characters are such nice people, and they behave so well, and I found the novel extremely poignant. I thought I had read all of Shute's best work, but this ranks higher than some I have read--simple, direct, and such a pleasant ending!

4664 The Tales of Hoffman, Edited from the official transcript by Mark L, Levine George C. McNamee Daniel Greenberg (read 23 Jan 2010) I picked this book up at a used book sale where all I was trying to do was fill a sack. I thought it was the book on which the opera, The Tales of Hoffmann. was based and did not look at it until because of the weather I ran out of books to read so I opened it. It is based on the transcript of the trial in 1969-1970 of the Chicago Seven, charged with inciting a riot at the Democratic Convention of 1968. The trial was in Federal court and Julius Hoffman was the judge. I found the book intensely interesting, and often had to laugh out loud. Things done by the defendants and their lawyers were often highly objectionable, but Hoffman made no attempt to be impartial. He sustained practically every prosecution objection and overruled all or nearly all the defendants' objections. The jury convicted five of the 7 but on appeal all the convictions were thrown out. You can read the opinion on appeal at 472 F.2d 340 (CA7, 1972). This was a great book to read .

4665 Beach Music, by Pat Conroy (read 28 Jan 2010) This 1995 novel tells of Jack McCall of Waterford, S.C., whose wife commits suicide, leaving Jack to raise their daughter, Leah. Jack and Leah go to Rome but he is called back by his mother's illness. He has four brothers; one, John Hardin, at times violently crazy. The book tells of the life of Jack, his mother--who had a life in the Appalachians of unbelievable horror-- and of his father, a lawyer and judge and a drunk. Many things happen but it was hard to find them credible enough to get caught up in them, even though I know it is fiction. 800 pages of Conroy prose is too much--I disapproved of much of the foul language, and found some descriptions cloying--daughter Leah is an impossibly angelic character, who in one scene (she is about 9 or 10) tells Jack's crazy brother she thinks his penis is lovely, contrary to what other observers and the brother himself are saying. I have read all Conroy's other books except the one published last year, and I think I enjoyed this one the least of all of them.

4666 Iowa--Spaces, Places, Faces an entertaining ride through all 99 counties, by Carson Ode (read 30 Jan 2010) This book tells of the author and his wife during 2008 driving through every Iowa county. They started in Lee County in the southeast corner and traveled through all 9 tiers of counties, very systematically, discussing each county and people and places therein in turn. It was fun to see what they would say about each county. In Shelby County they only went through Portsmouth, Harlan, and Elk Horn so that was disappointing that they never said a word about Earling, the most important town in Iowa. The book is lavishly illustrated with pictures taken in every county, including pictures of every county courthouse. The text tends to be consistently laudatory, so no one will be offended by what is said. The only offense will be as to what is not mentioned.

Reading-wise it was a good month. The weather, now, was another story...

My interludes on the Vineyard are perfect reading times for me, starting as soon as I get on the ferry and we spent several weekends there in January (it was a very good month!).Here are the highlights . . .

- Gina Nahai's Moonlight on the Avenue Faith is filled with magic realism in an Iranian Jewish quarter. As richly imagined and detailed as a Persian rug.It defies description, but what a story!

Chris Nicholson paints a period piece of a wealthy sugar merchant who buys two near-death young elephants in 1766 England and turns them over to the care of a young stableboy. Although he knows nothing of elephants, he forms a deep bond with the elephants. This story takes you from lush estates to the brutal alleys of London. It will rank as one of the best I've read this year.

The black maids of the South raise their children (who profess deep love for them), but The Help by Kathryn Stockett limns the poisonous racism of the white women for whom they work that is never far from the surface. By turns funny, infuriating and tragic - and you'll never look at a chocolate cream pie in quite the same way.


Allison Hoover Bartlett set out to write about book thieves in the cultured world of rare and collectible books, but she made herself too integral a focus of The Man Who Loved Books Too Much: The True Story of a Thief, a Detective and a World of Literary Obsession rather than letting the thief and the dealers tell their own stories. It suffered for it, in my opinion. But it was a fascinating look behind the curtain at a crime that is hard to prove, thieves who are hard to catch and cops who don't take it very seriously.

Schmerguls, you sure read a lot of novels last month. Very unusual for you, I think......

Schmerguls wrote: "4657 The First Tycoon The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt, by T. J. Stiles (read 4 Jan 2010) (National Book Award nonfiction prize in 2009) Cornelius Vanderbilt was born May 17, 1794 and died a..."

I haven't read Landfall - thought I'd read all of the good ones, now this one goes on the list - nice to have one to look forward to. I think A Town Called Alice is my favorite of all.

Also adding The Elephant Keeper and Moonlight on the Avenue Faith. Where would I be without you guys?

Schmerguls wrote: "Popes And The Tale Of Their Names, by Anura Guruge

This sounds great. Some of those names make one wonder. Pius, Clement, Innocent, Urban. I'll have to locate a copy of the book. Thanks for the title.

And thanks to all who posted their list. It's wonderful to see so many new titles, mysteries and nonfiction! Of course they've lengthened my TBR, but who's counting anymore?

deborah

Alison wrote: "The black maids of the South raise their children (who profess deep love for them), but The Help by Kathryn Stockett limns the poisonous racism of the white women for whom they work that is never far from the surface. By turns funny, infuriating and tragic - and you'll never look at a chocolate cream pie in quite the same way..."

Today happens to be the 50th anniversary of the first lunch counter sit-ins. First four young men, freshmen at a local college, at Woolworth's; the next day, 23; the next day 66.....
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/opinio...

In the Sanctuary of Outcasts by Neil White
4 stars

Joanne, Neil is coming here next Mon to speak to a group and he is staying with me and DH. We are having a dinner party for him so I will let you know about his 15 years post-prison. He is also meeting with my neighbor's book group made up of about 8 retired Epis. priests. I can't wait to hear what they say. I have already met him as I have told you and he is a very charming man.

Also, Let the Great World Spin was not really short stories. I had a hard time getting into it, but the stories were connected and it all came together at the end. It was one of my favs from 09.

I agree 100% with you about Queen of the Road! Is was one of 2 books I read this month, along with Cutting for Stone. I LOVED THIS BOOK! Definitely a 5 star for me. We did it at our bookgroup tonight and most of us loved it. It was a great book to discuss, I am surprised we are not still there!

I also listen to Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Wells and didn't like it nearly as well as The Glass Castle.

Surely I read something else but I can't think right now. Have to read Wolf Hall for our Feb book, but I think I am going to slip in a few light weights before I get to it.

I have read the following so far this year:

The Secret Life of Bees - 3/5
The Graveyard Book - 5/5
Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking - 2/5
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass - 5/5

My reviews are on record.

Leslie, I have read several books that are "connected" stories and I still consider each segment a short story. Like Olive Kitteridge or Mary and O'Neill. Each segment in both of those books had much better character development (and a more complete story) than the one I read in Let the Great World Spin. IMHO

Better late than never..........right?

The Unit - Ninni Holmqvist. This little book turned out to be one of my best reads of 2009. Set in a futuristic (but not too far off) dystopian society, women who are 50 years old and men who are 60 years old, who don't have children and meet other criteria, are sent to Units, where they are used for physical and psychological experiments and tests. Eventually, when the right recipients are found, they donate their organs to younger, more productive citizens. The main character in this book is a 50 year old woman whose experience in The Unit isn't quite what one would expect. Very thought provoking, with a great ending. A

Cartwheels in a Sari: A Memoir of Growing Up Cult - Jayanti Tamm. Tamm's parents were disciples of Guru Sri Chinmoy, and when she was born - after they violated the cult prohibition against having sex - Guru decided she would be his chosen follower, and for much of her life, she was loyal to him and the cult. Her experiences both in and out of the cult made for a fascinating memoir. And I will confess that when I heard her talking about her book on the radio, I couldn't figure out where was this "Asari" place where she was doing her cartwheels. B+

A Reliable Wife - Robert Goolrick. In the early 1900's, a Wisconsin farmer advertises in the newspaper for a "reliable wife." He gets a lot more than he bargained for! I liked this book at first, but tired of the over-the-top writing as I read on. There are some interesting plot twists and a very strong sense of place, but I just didn't enjoy it overall. C+

Life as We Knew It - Susan Beth Pfeffer. This was a YA book that caught my eye at the used book store. After an asteroid strikes the moon and throws it out of orbit, calamities ensue around the earth - tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions - and this book is the story of one family trying to survive the catastrophe. Similar to, but nowhere near as good, as the heartbreaking movie Testament. B

All Things at Once - Mika Brzezinski. I enjoy Brzezinski on TV and I enjoyed reading her book. I felt for her as she wrote about dealing with the conflicts of family and career, although I would have made very different choices than she did. She's pretty tough on herself but smart and funny and interesting. B+

The Given Day - Dennis Lehane. I don't know why it took me so long to read a book that I enjoyed as much as I enjoyed this one, but it did. Set in Boston in the years following WWI, the city and the country were dealing with political unrest and the threat posed by an influx of foreigners, many of whom were feared to be anarchists. And against this scenario are the stories of two families - and Babe Ruth! Lehane is a wonderful storyteller. A

The Unit sounds good. I'm adding it to my eternal TBR list. Thanks, Connie.

deborah

January reads:

Appetite For Life: Biography of Julia Child by Noel Riley Fitch

Push A Novel by Sapphire

The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer by Philip Carlo

Noah's Compass by Anne Tyler

The White Queen by Phillippa Gregory

The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova

Connie wrote: " Better late than never..........right?

The Unit - Ninni Holmqvist. This little book turned out to be one of my best reads of 2009. Set in a futuristic (but not too far off) dystopian society, ..."

Glad to see your favorable review of The Unit, Connie. I had been eyeing it, but thought it might be a bit too weird. Now maybe I'll give it a try.

Connie wrote: " Better late than never..........right?

The Unit - Ninni Holmqvist. This little book turned out to be one of my best reads of 2009. Set in a futuristic (but not too far off) dystopian society, ..."

The Unit reminds me of Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. It was published in 2006. Rather than just people who are older, certain children are raised for the sole purpose of providing organs and body parts to others when they reach a certain age. Meanwhile, they care for those who lose their organs, one by one.

Jan, thanks for mentioning the Ishiguro book. I was trying to think why The Unit sounded a tad familiar & this is why. I liked Never Let Me Go, so look forward to this new one.

deborah

A few here have mentioned the book The Help byKathryn Stockett

Just a FYI, we are reading and discussing this book on GR's Book Nook Cafe this month. There are 4 threads for each section of the book so spoilers can be avoided.

Please drop on by if you would like to chat about the book. :)

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/list_g...

Ever since I joined this group earlier this year, I've enjoyed reading other members comments and books recommendation. Not as lucky as the rest for the month of Jan but my best read have been these so far:
Memoir: Expecting Adam - by Martha Beck [image error] - the book moved and tickled me to tears. I'm not very good wt summary so I just leave it as just that.
Fiction: Lost in the Forest by Sue Miller, modern family drama, enjoyed it too.

Glad you are liking our group's comments, Leo....and happy to see you leaving your own comment!

I read and enjoyed Beck's book a long time ago.

I keep forgetting about the message boards on Goodreads...I think partly because they aren't as user friendly (for me) as the AOL boards.

Slow month for me.
I finished a Christmas book The Christmas Sweater which was just "ok"

But the best book I've read in a long time was one I took with me on our family vacation to Hawaii. It wasn't the one I thought I would take...
Moloka'i
I thought it would be more "appropriate" to read about Hawaii while I was there. What an excellent book!

Nancy, I also liked Moloka'i......very well done. If you liked that, you should read Neil White's
In the Sanctuary of Outcasts: A Memoir

Thanks for the suggestion, JoAnn. I'm going to be starting "The Shark Dialogues" shortly, also about Hawaii. I WANT TO GO BACK!!!

Nancy/nanckopf wrote: "Thanks for the suggestion, JoAnn. I'm going to be starting "The Shark Dialogues" shortly, also about Hawaii. I WANT TO GO BACK!!!"

sounds like you had a great time. Do you know that Hawaii was the only state that did not have snow yesterday? Amazing factoid!

HA! When my husband said there were 49 states that had snow, which one didn't, I said "Floria"! DUH!!!

Nancy/nanckopf wrote: "HA! When my husband said there were 49 states that had snow, which one didn't, I said "Floria"! DUH!!!"

LOL LOL

I heard that an area north of Pensacola FL had snow for ten minutes!

My daughter in Mobile, which is about an hour west of Pensacola, had snow for about an hour. Then it disappeared!

and , I must add we had a great time with Neil White last Monday. He is the guy who wrote In the Sanctuary of Outcasts. He was a hit at our bookclub luncheon meeting, with about 60-70 in attendance. He had dinner at my house with some of my other bookclub members, and then had to drive back to Oxford, MS.

Jo Ann, I asked about the lepers being able to leave Carville. When he was there, they were free to go, but most had no where to go and hadn't seen their families in years. Carville was their "sanctuary". Their names had been changed by their families, so no one would know they had a relative with Leprosy (Hansen's disease) It was a really sad situation. And yes, Neil is still paying the people back from whom he stole money/kited checks.

He is a delightful person and I dare say he has learned a lot from his experience.

Leslie/cloudla wrote: "Jo Ann, I asked about the lepers being able to leave Carville. When he was there, they were free to go, but most had no where to go and hadn't seen their families in years. Carville was their "sanctuary".

This is what I thought and why I did not understand his use of the word "quarentined".

And yes, Neil is still paying the people back from whom he stole money/kited checks.

He is a delightful person and I dare say he has learned a lot from his experience. ."

Good to know because feelings of remorse did not really come through in his book. But I still gave the book 4/5 stars! Glad to hear that he's a nice guy

In the early years they were quarentined. They were sent off by their families and had no where else to go. They were also "quarentined" from the prisoners, although that often didn't happen. He said the patients were very insulted they sent Fed. prisoners to their hospital.

I think the reason remorse did not come through in the book is because he says it has been a 15 year process. He said he was not "struck" by the Lord/religion overnight- which so many in prison claim. He said it has been a gradual process of growth for him. It took him 10 years of reflection to start writing the book. He said he thinks about it everyday, and knows when he gets up in the morning he has choices to make. But he also said he is the same person, subject to the same wants needs, desires. These are by no means direct quotes of his, but what I have taken away from talking to him. And can you believe I didn't take a single picture of us together? I am slipping!

Alert! Stay away from armadillos. The last 3 people in the US to get Leprosy had had contact with armadillos. No one knows why they carry the bacillus. And the disease can lie dormant in your body for 5 to 20 years. There is no test to see if you have it, and until you get the symptoms, you just don't know!

I am glad I do not have regular contact with armadillos!!!

Like I said, I liked White's book, but he would have seemed like a "kinder and gentler" person had had made remorse part of the epilogue.

Leslie, i'm glad you gave me the dormancy years. DH ate an armadillo as a young man, back when he was a camp counsellor (someone there shot it). THEN he found out that it was the lone animal which can contract leprosy. We're feeling safe now! ;-)

deborah