The Month of May's theme was Mother's and Memorial Day
Share your review with us here on the blog.
This is a story about a wife and a mother who sets out on a journey to learn more about history and her own family’s heritage, and ultimately learns more about herself and her own abilities. Even though Rahna is a successful author, she had never been on her own or taken on anything as challenging or life-changing as leaving her family and travelling to Japan for six months. She has challenges fitting in and finding people in Japan who want to share their stories with her, or the stories seem to lack an emotional connection and just sound like rehearsed facts. Her marriage starts to fall apart during her absence, and she struggles with her role as wife and mother. Then, 9/11 happened and changed everything. The fear for her family’s safety and reality of how life can change in an instant repairs the damage to her marriage.
320 Pages
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Book to Movie: Kathryn Stockett's "The Help"
In 1960s Mississippi, Southern society girl Skeeter (Emma Stone) returns from college with dreams of being a writer. She turns her small town on its ear by choosing to interview the black women who have spent their lives taking care of prominent white families. At first, only Aibileen (Viola Davis), the housekeeper of Skeeter's best friend, will talk. But, as the pair continue their collaboration, more women decide to come forward, and as it turns out, they have quite a lot to say.
Ladies if you haven't already ready The Help, it's a must read it's on my top ten list.
Link Below:
http://youtu.be/l0dWCXCjX9o
Opens August 12th, 2011
Ladies if you haven't already ready The Help, it's a must read it's on my top ten list.
Link Below:
http://youtu.be/l0dWCXCjX9o
Opens August 12th, 2011
Friday, April 15, 2011
Book Suggestion: A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
A richly inventive novel about a centuries-old vampire, a spellbound witch, and the mysterious manuscript that draws them together.
Deep in the stacks of Oxford's Bodleian Library, young scholar Diana Bishop unwittingly calls up a bewitched alchemical manuscript in the course of her research. Descended from an old and distinguished line of witches, Diana wants nothing to do with sorcery; so after a furtive glance and a few notes, she banishes the book to the stacks.
But her discovery sets a fantastical underworld stirring, and a horde of daemons, witches, and vampires soon descends upon the library. Diana has stumbled upon a coveted treasure lost for centuries-and she is the only creature who can break its spell.
Debut novelist Deborah Harkness has crafted a mesmerizing and addictive read, equal parts history and magic, romance and suspense.
Diana is a bold heroine who meets her equal in vampire geneticist Matthew Clairmont, and gradually warms up to him as their alliance deepens into an intimacy that violates age-old taboos. This smart, sophisticated story harks back to the novels of Anne Rice, but it is as contemporary and sensual as the Twilight series-with an extra serving of historical realism.
(From the publisher.)
579 pages
paper back and e-books
Deep in the stacks of Oxford's Bodleian Library, young scholar Diana Bishop unwittingly calls up a bewitched alchemical manuscript in the course of her research. Descended from an old and distinguished line of witches, Diana wants nothing to do with sorcery; so after a furtive glance and a few notes, she banishes the book to the stacks.
But her discovery sets a fantastical underworld stirring, and a horde of daemons, witches, and vampires soon descends upon the library. Diana has stumbled upon a coveted treasure lost for centuries-and she is the only creature who can break its spell.
Debut novelist Deborah Harkness has crafted a mesmerizing and addictive read, equal parts history and magic, romance and suspense.
Diana is a bold heroine who meets her equal in vampire geneticist Matthew Clairmont, and gradually warms up to him as their alliance deepens into an intimacy that violates age-old taboos. This smart, sophisticated story harks back to the novels of Anne Rice, but it is as contemporary and sensual as the Twilight series-with an extra serving of historical realism.
(From the publisher.)
579 pages
paper back and e-books
Book Suggestion: The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
Gogol Ganguli. Born to an Indian academic and his wife, Gogol is afflicted from birth with a name that is neither Indian nor American nor even really a first name at all. He is given the name by his father who, before he came to America to study at MIT, was almost killed in a train wreck in India. Rescuers caught sight of the volume of Nikolai Gogol's short stories that he held, and hauled him from the train. Ashoke gives his American-born son the name as a kind of placeholder, and the awkward thing sticks.
Awkwardness is Gogol's birthright. He grows up a bright American boy, goes to Yale, has pretty girlfriends, becomes a successful architect, but like many second-generation immigrants, he can never quite find his place in the world. There's a lovely section where he dates a wealthy, cultured young Manhattan woman who lives with her charming parents. They fold Gogol into their easy, elegant life, but even here he can find no peace and he breaks off the relationship. His mother finally sets him up on a blind date with the daughter of a Bengali friend, and Gogol thinks he has found his match.
Moushumi, like Gogol, is at odds with the Indian-American world she inhabits. She has found, however, a circuitous escape: "At Brown, her rebellion had been academic ... she'd pursued a double major in French. Immersing herself in a third language, a third culture, had been her refuge--she approached French, unlike things American or Indian, without guilt, or misgiving, or expectation of any kind.
" Lahiri documents these quiet rebellions and random longings with great sensitivity. There's no cleverness or showing-off in The Namesake, just beautifully confident storytelling. Gogol's story is neither comedy nor tragedy; it's simply that ordinary, hard-to-get-down-on-paper commodity: real life. --Claire Dederer
304 pages
mass paperback and e-books
Awkwardness is Gogol's birthright. He grows up a bright American boy, goes to Yale, has pretty girlfriends, becomes a successful architect, but like many second-generation immigrants, he can never quite find his place in the world. There's a lovely section where he dates a wealthy, cultured young Manhattan woman who lives with her charming parents. They fold Gogol into their easy, elegant life, but even here he can find no peace and he breaks off the relationship. His mother finally sets him up on a blind date with the daughter of a Bengali friend, and Gogol thinks he has found his match.
Moushumi, like Gogol, is at odds with the Indian-American world she inhabits. She has found, however, a circuitous escape: "At Brown, her rebellion had been academic ... she'd pursued a double major in French. Immersing herself in a third language, a third culture, had been her refuge--she approached French, unlike things American or Indian, without guilt, or misgiving, or expectation of any kind.
" Lahiri documents these quiet rebellions and random longings with great sensitivity. There's no cleverness or showing-off in The Namesake, just beautifully confident storytelling. Gogol's story is neither comedy nor tragedy; it's simply that ordinary, hard-to-get-down-on-paper commodity: real life. --Claire Dederer
304 pages
mass paperback and e-books
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Book Suggestion: Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race's next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin lives with his kind but distant parents, his sadistic brother Peter, and the person he loves more than anyone else, his sister Valentine. Peter and Valentine were candidates for the soldier-training program but didn't make the cut--young Ender is the Wiggin drafted to the orbiting Battle School for rigorous military training.
Ender's skills make him a leader in school and respected in the Battle Room, where children play at mock battles in zero gravity.
Yet growing up in an artificial community of young soldiers Ender suffers greatly from isolation, rivalry from his peers, pressure from the adult teachers, and an unsettling fear of the alien invaders. His psychological battles include loneliness, fear that he is becoming like the cruel brother he remembers, and fanning the flames of devotion to his beloved sister. Back on Earth, Peter and Valentine forge an intellectual alliance and attempt to change the course of history.
This futuristic tale involves aliens, political discourse on the Internet, sophisticated computer games, and an orbiting battle station. Yet the reason it rings true for so many is that it is first and foremost a tale of humanity; a tale of a boy struggling to grow up into someone he can respect while living in an environment stripped of choices. Ender's Game is a must-read book for science fiction lovers, and a key conversion read for their friends who "don't read science fiction."
384 pages
Paper back & e-books
Ender's skills make him a leader in school and respected in the Battle Room, where children play at mock battles in zero gravity.
Yet growing up in an artificial community of young soldiers Ender suffers greatly from isolation, rivalry from his peers, pressure from the adult teachers, and an unsettling fear of the alien invaders. His psychological battles include loneliness, fear that he is becoming like the cruel brother he remembers, and fanning the flames of devotion to his beloved sister. Back on Earth, Peter and Valentine forge an intellectual alliance and attempt to change the course of history.
This futuristic tale involves aliens, political discourse on the Internet, sophisticated computer games, and an orbiting battle station. Yet the reason it rings true for so many is that it is first and foremost a tale of humanity; a tale of a boy struggling to grow up into someone he can respect while living in an environment stripped of choices. Ender's Game is a must-read book for science fiction lovers, and a key conversion read for their friends who "don't read science fiction."
384 pages
Paper back & e-books
April Side Book - The Painter's Gift by Penelope J. Holt
The month of April's theme was religion:
Let us if you read and share your review with us here on the blog.
A new Gospel will emerge early in the third millennium. Christ s message will remain unchanged, but the medium will be different. Three paintings will combine to soften and heal the heart of modern man. Claire Lucas is a young widow and an oil painter of middling ability. Plagued for weeks by a sad dream of Benares, India, she funnels the pivotal image into a work of transcendent majesty. The painting actually radiates heat, requiring a dedicated security guard at the Vetch gallery in Soho, as people yearn to touch it. Viewers are rapt and go away possessed of an overwhelming calm. The painter sells her painting for a life-altering million-five, but suffers a paroxysm of regret and tries to cancel the transaction.
She meets and becomes fast allies with the forcefully capable Father Karl Brandt, a priest on the trail of the three foretold masterpieces mentioned in The Angel Scroll, and also Richard Markson, an introverted widower. Someone else wants the paintings enough to kill for them, enough to invade homes in both darkness and daylight. Claire and her champions have quite a bit of ground to make up. The story carries from New York to Jerusalem, Glastonbury Tor to Siena in Italy, with the author conveying a flair for descriptive detail, and a good sense of when to shift backdrops
256 pages
paperback & e-books
Let us if you read and share your review with us here on the blog.
A new Gospel will emerge early in the third millennium. Christ s message will remain unchanged, but the medium will be different. Three paintings will combine to soften and heal the heart of modern man. Claire Lucas is a young widow and an oil painter of middling ability. Plagued for weeks by a sad dream of Benares, India, she funnels the pivotal image into a work of transcendent majesty. The painting actually radiates heat, requiring a dedicated security guard at the Vetch gallery in Soho, as people yearn to touch it. Viewers are rapt and go away possessed of an overwhelming calm. The painter sells her painting for a life-altering million-five, but suffers a paroxysm of regret and tries to cancel the transaction.
She meets and becomes fast allies with the forcefully capable Father Karl Brandt, a priest on the trail of the three foretold masterpieces mentioned in The Angel Scroll, and also Richard Markson, an introverted widower. Someone else wants the paintings enough to kill for them, enough to invade homes in both darkness and daylight. Claire and her champions have quite a bit of ground to make up. The story carries from New York to Jerusalem, Glastonbury Tor to Siena in Italy, with the author conveying a flair for descriptive detail, and a good sense of when to shift backdrops
256 pages
paperback & e-books
Book Suggestion: House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III
Andre Dubus III wastes no time in capturing the dark side of the immigrant experience in America at the end of the 20th century. House of Sand and Fog opens with a highway crew composed of several nationalities picking up litter on a hot California summer day. Massoud Amir Behrani, a former colonel in the Iranian military under the Shah, reflects on his job-search efforts since arriving in the U.S. four years before: "I have spent hundreds of dollars copying my credentials; I have worn my French suits and my Italian shoes to hand-deliver my qualifications; I have waited and then called back after the correct waiting time; but there is nothing." The father of two, Behrani has spent most of the money he brought with him from Iran on an apartment and furnishings that are too expensive, desperately trying to keep up appearances in order to enhance his daughter's chances of making a good marriage. Now the daughter is married, and on impulse he sinks his remaining funds into a house he buys at auction, thus unwittingly putting himself and his family on a trajectory to disaster. The house, it seems, once belonged to Kathy Nicolo, a self-destructive alcoholic who wants it back. What starts out as a legal tussle soon escalates into a personal confrontation--with dire results.
Dubus tells his tragic tale from the viewpoints of the two main adversaries, Behrani and Kathy. To both of them, the house represents something more than just a place to live. For the colonel, it is a foot in the door of the American dream; for Kathy, a reminder of a kinder, gentler past. In prose that is simple yet evocative, House of Sand and Fog builds to its inevitable denouement, one that is painfully dark but unfailingly honest.
365 pages
paper back and e-books
Dubus tells his tragic tale from the viewpoints of the two main adversaries, Behrani and Kathy. To both of them, the house represents something more than just a place to live. For the colonel, it is a foot in the door of the American dream; for Kathy, a reminder of a kinder, gentler past. In prose that is simple yet evocative, House of Sand and Fog builds to its inevitable denouement, one that is painfully dark but unfailingly honest.
365 pages
paper back and e-books
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