Are you members of a book club? I love my book club! Being part of a book club helps me to read books that I would not have otherwise chosen. We have good discussions that usually present different aspects of the book to me. It's amazing to me how 15 people can read the same book and remember different parts or arrive at different conclusions.
We usually get together and enjoy snacks and drinks provided by the hostess. Some of the time, the member hosting will tie the food choices into the theme of the book. The imagination of some of these wonderful women is amazing to me. Over all, the food is delicious and we share in a few glasses of the beverage of our choice while catching up on the latest news with each other.
Watching my book club interact a few nights ago, made me realize that as a woman I really need time spent around other women. Don't get me wrong, I love my husband and family and enjoy my guys at work, but being around other women will usually uplift me in a special way. There is some sort of acceptance and ease that comes from the common cause we share. We have been together 12 years so there is a special bond there, but beyond that we have shared alot with each other over the years. We have watched each other's children grow up and go off to careers or college. We have watched our daily lives change and adapt to the place in time we inhabit now. Just aging from your 30's to your 40's, or like some of us from your 40's into your 50's, bring big changes to a woman's life -
to anyone's life.
Women just need other women friends. I'm not some huge feminist but the opportunity to bond with other women can not be overrated. I wish everyone could have this experience in their life. Maybe I feel this way because I love to read and write more than most things I do, but I think it's deeper than that. Women just need other women to share thoughts with and bounce ideas off of along with our spouses, partners, families and loved ones.
If I ever do move on from my current house into a new phase in a new location, I will miss this special group of women.
I few years ago my sister-in-law gave me a documentary DVD on a group of women that have had a book club for in the Washington DC area by Hope Hartman showed how important a book club is to women. They shared much more than books they read. They shared 70+ years of their lives together. I don't know that my book club will be together for 70 years but I do know that the friendships I have gained through my book club are
irreplaceable. Spending time together doesn't let us change the world per se, but it does
change our own worlds just a little bit. And that in itself is a miracle worth cherishing.
This little book will leave you laughing your head off with
the adventures of the main character on her trip to France. The main character, Emmy, sets off for a holiday in France with her live-in boyfriend, Nathan. The first afternoon, while hunting for the wife of the guesthouse since Emmy found the owner having a heart attack in the kitchen, she finds more than she bargained for. Emmy stumbles upon her boyfriend shagging the owner's wife on the upstairs balcony! Needless to say this did ruin the trip for Emmy but she bravely stays on to help Rupert, the owner, deal with the loss of 50% of his staff.
Emmy's head in swimming and she is forced to look in the mirror and see the facts about
their relationship and what she has been trying to avoid facing. This crossroads will lead her to look at her entire life path. She stays on in France for a while to re-access what she wants to do with the rest of her life and to avoid having to face her parents and friends. You will laugh and commiserate with Emmy as this brave new world unfolds in front of her.
I found this book delightful and a great summer read. The characters are full and
vibrant and you want to find out what happens as Emmy embarks on this new adventure.
She is so likable that I plan to read the sequel, "Return to the Little French Guesthouse",
which is scheduled to come out this month. This was my book club's summer read and we all gave it a thumbs up! Let me know if you have or plan on reading it.
Just added another book to my Goodreads To-Read list and saw that I have 403 books on it! Do I have enough days left in my life to read all these? Ha! Ha! I keep finding new recommendations or one of my favorite authors publishes a new book and I want to add to my list all most every day. I know that I am falling behind a little. That's okay, hopefully some day you all will have one of my books on your to-read list which will make me extremely happy. I guess I understand how agents and publishers can get overwhelmed with manuscripts when I think about all the published books out there that I want to read alone.
Since I am not ready to add a review for another book this week, I thought I would
share with you some of the good ones I have on my To-Read list. If you have read or
end of reading any of them, please share and let me know your thoughts. Here
we go:
1) The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin
2) Byrd by Kim Church
3) Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin
4) Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly
5) Flight Patterns by Karen White (Anything by Karen White is good!)
6) Memory Closet by Ninie Hammon
7) The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson
8) My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout
9) The Opposite of Everyone by Joshilyn Jackson (Another wonderful author!)
10) Truly Madly Guilty by Laine Moriarty (Everything she writes!)
As you can see I do have my favorites, but these are a few that I am anxious to
move to the Read list. If you get to any of them first, I would love to know your
thoughts. Hopefully we can compare notes on some of these in the nearer future.
Happy Reading!
With references to some of the details from the true story of the Trailside Serial Killer, Joyce Maynard works her magic in this fiction tale of two sisters caught up in the midst of the tragedy.
Rachel and Patty share a very special sister relationship. For many years, Patty, Rachel's younger sister only talks through Rachel. They lean and protect each other through life after their father left the marriage and home when they were young. Their mom lives in a deeply depressed state most of the time. She works a low wage job, but comes home to hide in her room with books from the public library for companionship. The sisters are often left to find their own food and explore the mountain trails behind their home. The fact that they use the back windows of their neighbors to watch TV
shows that are popular during the time was a touching storyline.
Their father is a local police detective in Marin County, California who is picked to head the investigation of a murder on the mountain which turns into many murders.
The charismatic officer, Anthony Torricello, leaves his daughters to move away and continue his unending affair with women when they were young. Once the murders happen, he is the face of the police department investigation. Watching him unravel, the girls try to find a way to help.
Rachel is a aspiring writer and continues to fill notebooks with her writing. She thinks
solving the case will bring her father home again. Patty, the younger sister, is quiet
and unassuming. She watches her lively sister grow up and their close relationship change. She finds out that she has athletic talent and continues to pursue her skills into adulthood. The story follows the years before the murders and what happens when Rachel tries to solve the murders and help her father. Told from the perspective of an adult Rachel, we are left to run through the slow unraveling tale to put the clues together and find out what happened. Part thriller and part coming-of-age story, I found it very interesting. It kept my interest and I will definitely by reading more by this author in the future. A definite thumbs up!
I was all ready to review another book this week, but as is usual lately in my life,
I just flat ran out of time. Getting up at 5am to work out, then off to our small
business, then home to eat, clean, write, etc. There really needs to be more than
24 hours in the day to successfully complete what I wish I could get done in a day!
I am very excited about the success of our business. My husband and I run a sign
company in Raleigh and working with your spouse can have it's challenges. But I
am proud to say, that we run like a well-oiled machine most days. Being together
so much of your 24 hours may not work for other couples, but it has brought us even
closer together and given me moments that are beyond priceless.
He supports my goals. One of my goals being to publish my first book and continue
to write. He and my wonderful daughter, even brought me a comfy chair so I could turn our "computer room" into my new writing enclave. I have taken over the desk, the bed, and pretty much the whole room. I wish it had succeeded in finding me an agent for my first book, but I am continuing to plug along. That includes currently writing two books. I'm not sure how that is going to work out in the close future but have no doubt they will be finished.
I am very proud that an amazing woman, Lisa Shank, has chosen me to help her
write her story. She is one of the strongest and most honest individuals I have ever had
the pleasure to get to know. She and her husband, Doug, have been through hell and
back and survived. She has beaten a terminable diagnosis with grace, strength, and
courage that would boggle your mind as I hope to be able to help you read for yourselves in our book. When I say that her adult stem cell treatment saved her life, there are no truer words, but it took a toll on her and she is still recovering with that same smile and grace.
I do feel that my life is going by too fast. There are so many places, people, and things I want to see and do. But as a very smart person named Jim Valvano once said, "Don't give up, don't ever give up." He knew that his life was coming to an end but did he lay down
and give up, never. I want that same attitude - that same attitude that drives Lisa and
so many people I know and that I admire. So bear with me as we take this journey,
and please help me find that agent!! I'll be back with a book review of "After Her" by
Joyce Maynard next week!
Loved Mary's debut novel, "The Good Girl." It had twists and turns that drove my book club and myself crazy! This one, "Pretty Baby," is also very good! Heidi, Chris, & Zoe have
a nice, neat family. They work, live and go to school in the city and where Heidi rides
the train to work every day. One day on the platform during a torrential rain storm,
Heidi notices a young girl with a baby. A girl about the age of her own daughter. Heidi invites Willow home with her to dry out and intends to help her get on her feet by staying a few days. Her husband and daughter are shocked by her actions, but the twists and turns will keep coming after this.
Willow's baby, Ruby, is sick and they both need food, clothes and help. Heidi becomes more and more involved in their lives and finds it hard to let them go. Heidi always wanted a large family and when she was pregnant with their second child, she was diagnosed with cancer and the child had to be sacrificed to save Heidi's life. Heidi still misses the unborn children she never had but planned for and sees Willow and her baby, Ruby, as a way to give back. As Heidi becomes more and more involved in their care and less in her own life, her husband is being tempted at work and her daughter is barely surviving on the little amount of food she eats.
Willow has secrets of her own. She was an orphan that was placed in foster care when
both her parents were killed in an automobile accident. Her sister was put into another home and Willow feels responsible for her. Joseph, her foster dad and his family have their own secrets. Let's just saw his twisted religious zeal forces Willow to do things that no child should have to do like, to clean, cook, and take care of his mentally ill wife. He refuses to let her go to school and Joseph finds other ways to torture Willow as well.
Not to give too much away, but all of these characters need some help! How will Heidi
let the baby and Willow return to a life on the street? Will Chris get fed up and turn to
someone else? Why is Willow running from her foster home? Read this book when you
have time to stay up because you will not want to put it down.
We do not read a lot of non-fiction in my book club, but boy am I glad that one of us chose this book to share with the club. "The Color of Water" is a very timely choice with the current state of race relations in our country. What I enjoyed the most about this book was not the fact that a white Jewish woman chose to marry a African-Amercan man in the 1940's. I loved the story of a mother and her children - all twelve of them. Jame McBride's mother was not a perfect person, as no one is including our own moms, but rather a strong mother who found a way to shepherd her flock through thick and thin.
James McBride began searching for his mother's story, her family, her roots, her past without any help from her. During this process he finds out a little bit about himself and more about the trials and tribulation that helped to shape the woman his mother became. This is the amazing story of his mom, Ruth McBride Jordan, born Rachel Shilsky, a Polish Jew who immigrated to America with her family as a young child. She had an abusive father and a handicapped mother, but she learned that life is what you make of it and preceded to make as much of her own as possible. Ruth was married twice and had twelve children who all grew up to be valued members of our country. They attended school and married and raised families. They became lawyers,
doctors, neighbors and parents.
They learned lessons sometimes through hard knocks and sometimes through the nuggets of wisdom that their mother taught them along the way. One lesson that Ruth instilled in them all, is to get your education, the best one you can and go as far as you want to get to in life. Please read this American story of what you can become in our great country if you try hard and work harder.
