The Big Girls — Book Club Pick

I  had heard about The Big Girls, by Susanna Moore, on Booking Mama last year.  When I had gone to the outlets in PA, I saw it and grabbed it up.  Our book club picked it for this month’s read, so I finally got around to reading it. 

This book is about four inter-connected people:  1. a psychiatrist at a women’s prison, Dr. Forrest; 2. a prisoner at the prison, Helen; 3. Capt. Bradshaw, a guard there; and 4.  Angie, a Hollywood actress.  It is told alternating between the four people telling their story. 

This book is quite disturbing.  It is so honestly written that I shuddered several times as I read each person’s story.  The book seemed to be written in a sort of stream on consciousness from each main character’s point of view.  Sometimes this was a little confusing because some thoughts seem to start in the middle of a story somewhere.  But, I found this writing style effective in telling these tales. 

The book touches on mental illness, murder, abuse, sex, and relationships.  It was difficult to read some of the content of this novel, but I’m glad I ploughed through.  As a psychologist myself, I was fascinated by the dynamics in this book.  The psychiatrist is analytical which always provides for some interesting conclusions and theories. 

The relationships between the four people are interesting and quite dysfunctional.  And, they don’t seem to improve as the story progresses.  The ending of the book is a little surprising, at least to me.  Life continues and you still wonder what will happen to these people.

I’ll be interested in how the other members of my book club will react to this book.  We’re all mothers and think many of us will have had some difficulty with this novel.  Although, I think it should make for a good discussion.

Sandra Kring — a new favorite

Yes, I’m back.  It’s been a crazy couple of weeks over here with working, birthdays, visiting grandparents, conferences, and Daisy meetings.  I applaud you full-time working parents out there.  I don’t know how you hold it together.  I only work part-time and I am way overwhelmed.

Anyway, back to books.  Our book club chose a Sandra Kring book this month, Thank You for All Things.  I was thrilled with this selection because I had read The Book of Bright Ideas and loved it!  And, I wasn’t disappointed with this new book.  After these two novels, I’m putting Sandra Kring on my must-read author list.  I don’t have a long list of these, either!

This story is told from an 11-year-old’s perspective.  Lucy is a very bright girl with a genius twin brother.  They live with their single mother in Chicago and are home-schooled.  They move to Timber Falls to help their Oma take care of their dying grandfatther (whom they’ve never met).  While there,  Lucy decides she wants to know all about her family, something her mother has not shared with her.  She sets out to do her own investigating and must deal with her new knowledge.

Sandra Kring did a fabulous job telling the story from an 11-year-old’s perspective.  You can tell the girl is very bright (IQ-144) and you can also tell that she doesn’t get out much.  Lucy is funny and insightful.  I love her and would love to know her in real life.  Of course, she has her annoying preteen moments and it just adds to the believability of the story.

As for the other characters, they are all well done.  Oma is my other favorite character.  She’s a riot and has come a long way since the years of being married to Lucy’s grandfather.  It was a little odd that she wanted to help him as he was dying as I learned the past from reading, but her personality did make it all possible. 

I found the mother a complex character.  This woman did suffer and is, understandably, “scarred.”  What I liked about the book was that, by the end, only small change was occurring.  It didn’t end with everything perfect, but it’s a good ending.  I remember that as something good about The Book of Bright Ideas. 

One thing that was a little “weird” was the timing of the novel.  There are definite hints throughout the novel that the book takes place in the present (2006?).  But, as I was reading, I found that the setting and some the descriptions of the kids gave me the impression that it was happening in the 50s-60s.  Maybe it was the innoncence of the kids.

Anyway, for a good, touching read, check out Sandra Kring.  I’m out to find her other book, Carry Me Home.  Has anyone else read this one?

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Don’t forget to return on Thursday for my review of The Memorist, my interview with MJ Rose, and a giveaway for both The Reincarnationist and The Memorist.

October Book Club Pick — The Probable Future

This month, our book club tried to pick a book with a little “magic” for Halloween.  We’re going to meet a few days before Halloween to discuss.  We decided on The Probable Future by Alice Hoffman.  I finished this two days ago and I’m already starting to forget.  So, I’ll do my best with this review.

This book is about the Sparrow women of a small New England town.  Going back 300 years, a Sparrow woman is always born in March and on her 13th birthday, she receives a special gift.  One doesn’t feel pain, one can tell a liar, another see people’s dreams.  The newest Sparrow,  Stella, can see how people will die.  When she sees that a woman will be murdered, she asks her father to help.  He goes to the police, who don’t believe him.  Later, when the woman is murdered, he is arrested and the family’s life ends up in turmoil.  Stella and her mother, Jenny, move back in with Stella’s grandmother, Elinor.  The grandmother, mother, and daughter relationships are prominent in this story.

As I read this book, I had a lot of criticsm.  Now, I don’t remember it too much to share what that criticsm was.  Maybe that, in itself, is a criticsm.  I didn’t find this book too memorable.  I think I remember thinking that it reminded me of another book I read recently, Going Down South, about mother-daughter relationships, but didn’t do it as well.   

There were also a lot of names of Sparrow women and many stories surrounding these women over the centuries and it was difficult to keep them all straight.  The author did use one character’s master thesis to try to help tell these tales.  But, it was still a little too confusing. 

 Also, the Sparrow women’s “powers” were inconsistent or unreliable.  Of course, this did help the plot along and explain some of the romantic relationships.  I just found it kind of annoying.   There were romances, complete with confusion, resistance, and finally happy endings.  The book did wrap up nice and tidy, almost too tidy. 

Now, after all this complaining about the book, I have to say it wasn’t awful.  The story was okay and it kept me reading.  I thought it got better in the second half of the book.  And, I did find myself on bookmooch looking up the author considering getting some of her other books.  So, I must have been entertained on some level.  I just can’t seem to figure out my mixed feelings on this one.

A Novel of Marie Antoinette

Abundance — A Novel of Marie Antoinette by Sena Jeter Naslund was our book club pick for this month.  It is a long book (542 pages) about the life of, you guessed it, Marie Antoinette.  I have mixed feelings about this book.  I felt like it did a good job describing Marie Antoinette, giving us a new perspective of her.  Instead of just the queen of abundance, you see that she did really love the people of France.  I also enjoyed the descriptions of France, Versailles as well as the other residences of the royalty of France.  While I’m not in a position to decide if the descriptions were historically accurate, I felt like they described the period well.

For the criticsm, I thought there was just too much.  I think the author got a little bogged down with describing the day to day life.  While I think some of that is important, I think I got the idea after a couple of years.  I felt like she could have focused on the more significant events and spared some of the daily grind after awhile.  It may have shortened the book up a little.

I haven’t read anything about Marie Antionette before, but I did see Vanity Fair awhile back.  As I was reading the first part of this novel, I felt like I may have already read it and just forgot.  Then, my friend reminded me that we had seen that movie and I realized the beginning of this book mirrors the movie almost exactly (or the other way around??)  I don’t know if the two projects are related, but they sure seem like it. 

Overall I would rate this book as “okay.”  I think history buffs may enjoy the details a little more than I did.  I was intrigued for about the first half of the book, but I started to feel bogged down as it progressed.

The Next Thing on My List — by Jill Smolinski

Our August book club pick was The Next Thing on My List  by Jill Smolinski.  I, as usual, didn’t vote for it, but after reading it, I’m glad it was this month’s pick.  It was an endearing read I finished in one day!

This is the story of June, a 34-year-writer who is just coasting through life and not really living until……she’s in a car accident that kills the passenger, Marissa, a girl she just met at a Weight Watchers meeting.  As she goes through the woman’s purse getting it ready to give back to her parents, June finds a list entitled, “20 Things to Do by my 25th Birthday.”  Because she feels guilty, June decides to finish the woman’s list and gives herself until the girl’s 25th birthday to complete it, only a few months away.

At the beginning of the book, I found myself thinking this was a silly idea, reminiscent of The Bucket List.  However, as the story progressed, it became apparent there was a stroy here, not just a list of things to do.  I enjoyed how June’s character developed as she scrambled to finish the list.  It was interesting how June worked so hard to remain loyal to Marissa as she attempted to fulfill Marissa’s dreams.  June learned a lot about herself and others as she completed the tasks.

The story line with the “little sister” was a little contrived, though.  In addition, some of the relationships that June develops as a result of this list seem a little unbelievable.  She starts the book as basically a loner with one friend to having significant relationships with several different people.  I do understand that the author was trying to show June’s development as a person through the use of these developing relationships, but sometimes I think she included too many for such a short period of time.

There were a few plot twists in the book.  Some I saw coming from a mile away.  The author wasn’t too subtle in foreshadowing them.  However, for others, I was pleasantly surprised.  Although, I noticed the foreshadowing after the fact. 

Overall, I tought this was an entertaining story of a young woman finding herself in an interesting manner.  It was fun.

Kindergarten Book Club Update

     Well, we just had our fourth meeting of the Kindergarten book club.  Overall, the book club has been a success, I think.  All the girls seem to be enjoying it, except my little one, who is very controlling.  If things are not exactly as she wants it, she doesn’t want to participate.

      Our second book club meeting, summer, was held as someone else’s house.  At first, my daughter didn’t want to go because she thought it was HER book club since she started it.  She did come around and she participated at that meeting.  That mom picked out the book, There’s a Dolphin in the Grand Canal, a story about a little boy who sees a dolphin in the Grand Canal in Venice by John Bemelmans Marciano .  It was a cute story which exposed our little girls to a new country.  Afterwards, the girls decorated visors to protect themselves this summer and then snacked on fruit and Italian Ice (went well with the story). 

     After we finished, it was time to pick a theme for the following week.  My daughter wanted ballet, but she was out-voted (like I often am at my own book club) and pets became the theme.  My little one was not happy.

      Pets week was back at our house.  We passed out paper cats of different colors.  Then we read a poem about cats where each girl had to hold up there colored cat when their color was read in the poem. 

Then, we read Princess Justina Albertina, by Ellen Dee Davidson and Michael Chesworth, about a princess that wanted a special pet.  We then made dog tags to wear and completed a pet riddle book.  We snacked on gold fish and Scooby dog bone snacks (graham crackers shaped like dog bones).  My daughter actually ended up having a good time.  And, she convinced her friends to vote for ballet for the next theme.

     This week was ballet, what my daughter was waiting for.  But, since she was mad at me, she didn’t participate.  So, I ran the book club for the other girls that showed up.  We played freeze dance (to HSM), practiced dancing slow to slower music and fast to faster music. 

We read Belinda Begins Ballet, by Amy Young, about a girl with really big feet who becomes a dancer.  We then colored pictures of Angelina Ballerina and decorated door hangers with ballerina stickers for the girls to hand on their bedroom doors (since Belinda practiced her ballet in her room).  Finally, we snacked on fruit and water, since ballerinas needed healthy snacks.  Of course, my daughter joined the group for snack and playtime.

     While I thought I may end the book club because I was having issues with my girl, all the other moms assured me that their girls really like it.  So, on we go. Plus, I think my daughter could use some practice with groups.

      My friend is hosting next week with the theme of butterflies!

Book Club Pick — Baby Proof by emily giffin

This month, my vote finally won and we chose Baby Proof, by emily giffin for our read.  Of the three books suggested, I felt like this would be a nice, light read — a good one for the summer.

Baby Proof is the story of a couple who has agreed they don’t want children and decide to get married.  However, after three years, the husband (not the wife) changes his mind.  He does want kids. 

Well, I finished this book in one day!  I really enjoyed it and loved emily giffin’s insights.  Sometimes, I felt like she was reading my mind.  Now, I have decided to have two kids, and, before having kids I often wondered why married couples chose not to have children.  After having my kids, whom I love dearly, I “get” why people don’t have kids. 

The author does a great job describing the conflicting emotions and thoughts of the main character, Claudia, throughout the book.  I do find the main character a little un-self-aware and stubborn.  I understand Claudia’s feelings that she and her husband had a deal and it’s not fair he changed his mind, but she doesn’t even try to understand his point of view.  She professes that he’s her soul mate, but doesn’t even try to work out their problem (at least at first).  Also, I felt like she projected onto others what she “thought” they were thinking instead of what they really were.  She always jumped to conclusions (don’t we all?)  But, sometimes, I didn’t like her very much. 

Other times, I found her to be very endearing.  Her interactions with her young niece are heart-warming.  Her deep feelings for her family and her husband are admirable.  And, her finally coming to terms with her thoughts and feelings helped me like her more.  Overall, Claudia turned into a friend that I was sometimes frustrated with, but liked anyway.

I don’t usually remember quotes/passages from books or find any that have truly “touched” me, but as I read the early pages, I found some lines that the author wrote that I have actually thought as a parent.  One such line, talking about how relationships change with children, is:

“So for better or worse, the dynamic of two people shifts and takes a new form.  A form that sometimes seems to have more to do with surviving than truly enjoying life.”

I can’t tell you how much I relate to this statement. 

Anyway, I’m looking forward to our book club’s discussion of this book.  We’re a group of mothers (some who have had trouble conceiving) and it will be interesting to see how each of us relates to Claudia (or not). 

I, also, just checked out the author’s website.  I don’t usually do that, but I wondered if there was information about why she chose this topic, especially since she has children of her own.  While I didn’t find out anything like that, I did find out that if you join her newsletter, you get entered into a drawing for some great stuff, all in honor of her new book, Love the One Your With.  I plan on checking that one out!

A Night with an Author

Last night, my book club met and discussed a first novel with it’s author.  Patricia Galiotos is writing her first mystery novel and allowed our book club to read it and give her feedback before she starts the process of sending out letters to get a book agent.  It was a fun and interesting meeting.

Patricia’s book, Bitter Pills, is a story about a psychologist, Eva, who works in an alternative high school in New York City.  Her colleague is murdered in the school and Eva gets involved, unofficially, in trying to solve the murder, especially since it seems related to things going on in the high school with her students.  In the meantime, she’s also working with her students who present some interesting story lines as well. 

Patricia has been working on her novel for 2.5 years.  She has two little kids and spends her evenings when they finally go to sleep to work on her book.  In “real life” she is a psychologist, so she writes from her own experiences. 

I was fortunate to be able to read two versions of her book.  While I really enjoyed her first draft, she really improved it with some major revisions over the last couple of months.  As she was researching how to get published, she realized that as a first time author with a mystery novel, she needed to shorten her book.  The process of cutting it down really helped her improve the book. 

While I may not be totally objective since Patricia is an old friend, my peers at the book club were.  They seemed to like Patricia’s novel, too.  We discussed how everyone really liked Patricia’s characters.  Someone commented that Patricia let the reader see the main character’s thought processes which really added to the book.  It was also agreed that Patricia did a great job describing Eva’s life in New York City.  We could really picture the city.  Patricia admitted that writing about the City was a fun part of writing the novel.

As for the mystery, there definitely was one.  Of the nine of us who read the book, only one guessed the murderer before it was revealed.  However, even the one who guessed said she wasn’t totally sure until the end, of course.  I know I enjoyed the mystery part and was relieved that the conclusion was not obvious nor so far-fetched that it was ridiculous.  It actually made sense.

Overall, it’s been fun being part of the “process” with an author (and very good friend).  I wish the best for her and know she’ll be successful.  You should all keep your eyes out in the future for Bitter Pillsby Patricia Galiotos. 

 

A Little Christian Fiction

My book club met tonight to discuss Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers.  It was my pick and I was a little nervous about how the ladies would like it.  When I picked it, I must have just skimmed the synopsis because it didn’t dawn on me that it was Christian fiction until I actually sat down to read it.  This was my first foray into this genre. 

This book retold the bible story of Hosea and Gomer, but put it into an 1800s setting.  Now, I was not familiar with this story from the bible, but I’ll give a quick synopsis of the 1800s version.  This book tells the story of a prostitute in California during the gold rush in the mid-1800s.  A woman grows up, is betrayed by many, and eventually meets a man that God has told to marry her.  She resists, but the man continues to follow God’s words and pursues her.  It is their story.

I loved this book.  It was a wonderful romance told beautifully.  The author really tells you the protagonists life story, bit by bit, and it really helps you understand her and the choices she makes.  The man in the story is “unbelievable” and his love is extraordinary.  All the key characters are described so that you’ll love or hate them.  The referrals to God and his love added to the story and were not preachy in any way.  It was just part of the story. 

I would definitely recommend this book, to Christains and non-Christians.  Who wouldn’t enjoy a romance with a positive message about unconditional love?  And that’s what this was.

PS  Thanks for all the welcomes from the book bloggers out there.  I’ve enjoyed your comments and look forward to reading more of your blogs.

PPS  I’ll rejoin the discussion of Jane Austen era books soon.