September 2009 Book Challenge - Page 5

[fremontmama]

Originally Posted by kaliki_kila

I felt the same way. It was aight. I'm not a big fan of epistolary novels.

I had to go look that up. Turns out I'm not a fan either

[kbond]

Oh man, I'm bummed you guys didn't like The Guernsey Potato Peel book.....I guess, I do really like episolatory novels though.

But, all the people enjoying The Spellman Files makes up for it.

#67 Baby Love by Rebecca Walker

I enjoyed this book. It's her reflections on being pregnant and becoming a mother and the intersections that has with her feminism and her mother's feminism. It was a very personal account without a lot of feminist theory, which I found enjoyable.

#68 Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress

I'd read the next one in the series, but SPL doesn't have it. (They have the third book though.) The style of writing is slightly didactic in the way that Asimov's Foundation books are, but the, like in The Foundation, the ideas are big and the concept is pretty cool. Essentially, what happens if develop genetic modifications that eliminate the need to Sleep? What type of society emerges?

[fremontmama]

Originally Posted by kbond

Oh man, I'm bummed you guys didn't like The Guernsey Potato Peel book.....I guess, I do really like episolatory novels though.

But, all the people enjoying The Spellman Files makes up for it.

Aw! I liked it! I just didn't love love love love it.

#66 Netherland by Joseph O'Neill

To be honest, I picked this up b/c it was on a list of books that President Obama had read. And frankly, I'm not really enjoying it all that much. It's got an interesting premise, sort of an outsider's view of NYC, the story of an oil analyst from the Netherlands working in NYC, married to an Englishwoman. He befriends a Trinidadian man, becomes involved in the local cricket scene which is primarily people from the East and West Indies. And he lives in The Chelsea Hotel, which is an interesting setting. So, it all seems like it would be fascinating, but the plotline seems a little too weak maybe? Not sure what it is, it's just not ringing my bell.

[cathe]

The Day of the Pelican by Katherine Paterson

I chose this book to review because I'm a big fan of Paterson (Bridge of Teribithia). This book was good -- but I wouldn't say great. It's about an Albanian girl in Kosovo during the late 1990's who has to leave her home because of the Serb who are killing Albanians. She ends up in a camp in Macedonia and eventually comes to the US. The book was well-written but I just never really got attached to the character and the story just didn't seem to go deep enough for me -- I guess because it's geared to younger and maybe this is as much detail as they could handle. I think it is a good book for 4-6 graders to see what other kids go through in times of war.

[friendtoall]

Originally Posted by kbond

Oh man, I'm bummed you guys didn't like The Guernsey Potato Peel book.....I guess, I do really like episolatory novels though.

For what it is worth, I LOVED Guernsey Potato Peel Pie. I listened to it and they did a fabulous job with all the parts and I hated to turn it off each night. Who needs sleep?!

[Jenifer76]

Slightly Engaged by Wendy Markham

Silly fluff about a women consumed with getting married and being thin. That being said, I didn't hate the book -- it was the perfect light read.

[cathe]

Originally Posted by friendtoall

For what it is worth, I LOVED Guernsey Potato Peel Pie. I listened to it and they did a fabulous job with all the parts and I hated to turn it off each night. Who needs sleep?!

I loved it too -- but I think it was partly because I was expecting something really silly and it was much deeper than I thought -- plus I really do like epistolary novels.

[Jenifer76]

Shadows on the Coast of Maine by Lea Wait

Maine. Antiques. August. That's all Maggie Summer requires for a guaranteed fun getaway. But there is an unexplained urgency behind the invitation from her former college roommate, Amy Douglas. The eighteenth-century house Amy and her husband Drew are restoring in tiny Madoc, Maine, is perfect -- or it will be, once Maggie supplies just the right antique prints. But Amy's type A personality is bordering on hysteria: could her desperation to get pregnant explain the sound of the crying infant that haunts her nights? Perhaps the hostile neighbors -- resentful of transplanted New Yorkers Amy and Drew -- have Amy on edge. But when the body of a missing teenaged girl turns up on their land, Maggie knows the threat is authentic. Now everyone, even Maggie's antiques-hunter friend Will Brewer, is cast in a suspicious light -- as she scratches beneath the surface of small-town New England life, and blows the dust off secrets hidden inside a grand Maine home for generations.

I am not a mystery genre connoisseur but I do know I enjoy these books. I liked the element of supernatural in this one with the ghostly baby cry and the glimpse into the past.

[cathe]

Secrets She Left Behind by Diane Chamerlain

This was a sequel to Before The Storm. In this book, 19-year-old Maggie gets out of prison after her year sentence. She returns home but the people in the town are still really angry that she got such a light sentence after so many people died or were injured by the fire she was responsible for. Pretty good.

[mammastar2]

#54 - The Phantom Tollbooth by Norman Juster
I never read this one as a kid, but my daughter recently read it and wanted me to as well. I can see why she would enjoy the wordplay and the adventure aspect. Some of it is very clever! Personally I need a bit more character development to be engaged, but it's a neat book.

[cathe]

Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan

I read this for the children's lit class I'm taking and really enjoyed it. About a rather spoiled rich girl, daughter of a ranch owner in Mexico. When her father is killed, she and her mother flee and come to California to work as farm laborers.

[cathe]

OT -- Did you guys see my article in the newest issue of Mothering? (on ice cream making!)

[fremontmama]

Originally Posted by cathe

OT -- Did you guys see my article in the newest issue of Mothering? (on ice cream making!)

Yes! So exciting! And, I just happened to have started a 2 week cleanse with no dairy, soy, corn, wheat or peanuts, so some of those recipes were turning my crank! The coconut milk chocolate one sounded so easy! I have to try it.

[fremontmama]

#67 Collections of Nothing by William Davies King

Eh. I thought it might be interesting, learning about this collecting of nothing, but maybe it was a bit too autobiographical and dry? I mostly ended up skimming, b/c I never felt engaged and actually ended up thinking a lot about those people who have hoarding diseases. Although, I am sure his stuff is much more tidy. But still, it was a little glance into something a tad odd.

[Jenifer76]

Darling Jim by Christian Moerk

When two sisters and their aunt are found dead in their suburban Dublin home, it seems that the secret behind their untimely demise will never be known. But then Niall, a young mailman, finds a mysterious diary in the post office’s dead-letter bin. From beyond the grave, Fiona Walsh shares the most tragic love story he’s ever heard—and her tale has only just begun.

Niall soon becomes enveloped by the mystery surrounding itinerant storyteller Jim, who traveled through Ireland enrapturing audiences and wooing women with his macabre mythic narratives. Captivated by Jim, townspeople across Ireland thought it must be a sad coincidence that horrific murders trailed him wherever he went—and they failed to connect that the young female victims, who were smitten by the newest bad boy in town, bore an all too frightening similarity to the victims in Jim’s own fictional plots.

The Walsh sisters, fiercely loyal to one another, were not immune to “darling” Jim’s powers of seduction, but found themselves in harm’s way when they began to uncover his treacherous past. Niall must now continue his dangerous hunt for the truth—and for the vanished third sister—while there’s still time. And in the woods, the wolves from Jim’s stories begin to gather.

I think some others have read this book. I didn't think it would draw me in at first but I quickly became wrapped up in the story. Very dark.

[Jenifer76]

Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler

Second in a series where two women - one from 1813 and one from 2009 - find themselves in the other one's life.

[cathe]

Curse of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz

I agree with everyone else who read this. Is there another one after this?

[kaliki_kila]

Originally Posted by cathe

Curse of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz

I agree with everyone else who read this. Is there another one after this?

The next one is Revenge of the Spellmans. I have it on hold ready to pick up at the library.

83. The Help by Kathryn Stockett

hmmm... I liked this and it was interesting and an easy read. I do agree with some of the reviewers on Amazon who say the characters seemed very cliche. I would still recommend it, though.

[mammastar2]

#55 - The Flying Troutmans by Miriam Toews

The narrator, Hattie, leaves her life in Paris to fly back to Manitoba when she gets a distress call from her 11 year old niece, Thebes. Hattie's sister, Min, has struggled with mental illness for years and isn't getting out of bed or eating. Hattie gets Min admitted to the hospital, then loads up Thebes and her 15 year old brother, Logan, into the leaky family van and heads for South Dakota, in search of the kids' longlost dad.

Good road trip novel, very readable, with some funny moments and a lot of poignant ones. Fundamentally improbable: hello? it was published last year or so, but the 28 year old narrator loads up the kids and crosses an international border based soley on word of mouth as to where dad was 10 years ago? Did Google or 411 occur to her? But sharply written and enjoyable.

[fremontmama]

#68 The Motion in The Ocean by Janna Cawrse Esarey

I enjoyed this. It's a memoir about a woman's sailing trip from the Pacific Northwest all the way across the Pacific to Asia with her husband. They're newlyweds and throughout the journey, she learns about how to navigate a marriage (and the ocean), and discovers that writing is her calling. It's a fun read. I found it to be kind of inspiring too! Plus, I went to college with the writer, so I felt connected to the story.