November 1, 2009
December’s Selection: Water for Elephants
December's selection will be Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen:
"Water for Elephants is the story of Jacob's life with this circus. Sara Gruen spares no detail in chronicling the squalid, filthy, brutish circumstances in which he finds himself. The animals are mangy, underfed or fed rotten food, and abused. Jacob, once it becomes known that he has veterinary skills, is put in charge of the "menagerie" and all its ills. Uncle Al, the circus impresario, is a self-serving, venal creep who slaps people around because he can. August, the animal trainer, is a certified paranoid schizophrenic whose occasional flights into madness and brutality often have Jacob as their object. Jacob is the only person in the book who has a handle on a moral compass and as his reward he spends most of the novel beaten, broken, concussed, bleeding, swollen and hungover. He is the self-appointed Protector of the Downtrodden, and… he falls in love with Marlena, crazy August's wife. Not his best idea.
The most interesting aspect of the book is all the circus lore that Gruen has so carefully researched. She has all the right vocabulary: grifters, roustabouts, workers, cooch tent, rubes, First of May, what the band plays when there's trouble, Jamaican ginger paralysis, life on a circus train, set-up and take-down, being run out of town by the "revenooers" or the cops, and losing all your hooch. There is one glorious passage about Marlena and Rosie, the bull elephant, that truly evokes the magic a circus can create. It is easy to see Marlena's and Rosie's pink sequins under the Big Top and to imagine their perfect choreography as they perform unbelievable stunts. The crowd loves it–and so will the reader. The ending is absolutely ludicrous and really quite lovely. –Valerie Ryan –This text refers to the Hardcover edition."
November’s Book Club Selection: Wicked
November's selection is Gregory Maguire's Wicked.
"Born with green skin and huge teeth, like a dragon, the free-spirited Elphaba grows up to be an anti-totalitarian agitator, an animal-rights activist, a nun, then a nurse who tends the dying?and, ultimately, the headstrong Wicked Witch of the West in the land of Oz. Maguire's strange and imaginative postmodernist fable uses L. Frank Baum's Wonderful Wizard of Oz as a springboard to create a tense realm inhabited by humans, talking animals (a rhino librarian, a goat physician), Munchkinlanders, dwarves and various tribes. The Wizard of Oz, emperor of this dystopian dictatorship, promotes Industrial Modern architecture and restricts animals' right to freedom of travel; his holy book is an ancient manuscript of magic that was clairvoyantly located by Madam Blavatsky 40 years earlier. Much of the narrative concerns Elphaba's troubled youth (she is raised by a giddy alcoholic mother and a hermitlike minister father who transmits to her his habits of loathing and self-hatred) and with her student years. Dorothy appears only near novel's end, as her house crash-lands on Elphaba's sister, the Wicked Witch of the East, in an accident that sets Elphaba on the trail of the girl from Kansas?as well as the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodsman and the Lion?and her fabulous new shoes. Maguire combines puckish humor and bracing pessimism in this fantastical meditation on good and evil, God and free will, which should, despite being far removed in spirit from the Baum books, captivate devotees of fantasy."
Feel free to post as you read1 Discussions will be open until December 15th!
Post your December suggestions in an E-mail to me! A link to my E-mail address can be found in the upper left hand corner of the blog. Thanks!
October 10, 2009
October’s Book Club Selection: While I’m Falling
This month's selection is Laura Moriarty's While I'm Falling.
"Ever since her parents announced that they're getting divorced, Veronica has been falling. Hard. A junior in college, she has fallen in love. She has fallen behind in her difficult coursework. She hates her job as counselor at the dorm, and she longs for the home that no longer exists. When an attempt to escape the pressure, combined with bad luck, lands her in a terrifying situation, a shaken Veronica calls her mother for help–only to find her former foundation too preoccupied to offer any assistance at all.
But Veronica only gets to feel hurt for so long. Her mother shows up at the dorm with a surprising request–and with the elderly family dog in tow. Boyfriend complications ensue, along with her father's sudden interest in dating. Veronica soon finds herself with a new set of problems, and new questions about love and independence.
Darkly humorous, beautifully written, and filled with crystalline observations about how families fall apart, While I'm Falling takes a deep look at the relationship between a daughter and a mother when one is trying to grow up and the other is trying to stay afloat. "
Feel free to start posting as you read! Discussions will be open until November 15th!
August 23, 2009
Books I’d Like to Read
This is a list of books I own, though I have not read. If you're local, you are more than welcome to borrow my copies.
The Generosity of Women by Courtney Eldridge
Angels and Demons by Dan Brown
The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown
After the Fire: A Still Small Voice by Evie Wyld
The Birth House by Ami McKay
The Shipping News by Annie Proulx
Atonement by Ian McEwan
Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom
*The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks
*My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult
*Animals Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver
Liseys's Story by Stephen King
*It's a friend's or a library copy, so I can't lend these.
Welcome!
Welcome!
If you look to the left, you will see a section entitled "Upcoming Books". For now, there is only one. This is because I want YOU, my fellow virtual book club members, to suggest our future reads! Please do not suggest a book unless you have a copy for at least yourself! Other than that, there are no restrictions for future reading suggestions!
Each book will be discussed at the end of the month. I will start by posting what I thought, and then others can post their thoughts in the comments section. Be sure to read through other's reviews and thoughts to see if there was something else you might want to write about! You never know what might spark your imagination after it's been filtered by someone else!
The only other rule: be respectful. If you don't agree with someone's interpretation, that's fine. There is no need to belittle anyone's thoughts about the book.
Let's have fun!
Book Club 