Book Challenge 2005: February - Page 5

[jayayenay]

.

[grumo]

#6 The Nature of Water and Air

Last year I became a Regina McBride Fan. This was her first novel, and, I think, my favorite. The others are The Marriage Bed and The Land of Women. They are all about the relationships of Irish daughters with their mothers. In these books, they don't tend to have good relationships with their mothers!

McBride's writng is just lovely, and she often has phrases where I stop and recognize just what a nice phase that is.

From the back: "My mother was never easy in the world of houses. She was a tinker, a traveler girl who had married a wealthy man. Her name was Agatha Sheehy....There are silences all around my mother's story."

So begins The Nature of Water and Air, set on a patch of Irish coast where, amid a flurry of whispers, we meet Agatha's only surviving daughter, Clodagh. Determined to secure her mother's elusive love and the truth about her, Clodagh is swept into a relationship with a handsome, isolated man. He brings her to the heart of her mother's story, where she must confront the questions "Does a truth change love?" and "What madness will come from chasing a secret?"

Powerfully sensitive, this startling debut novel about forbidden love will place Regina McBride among our most celebrated novelists.

[MamaBug]

Alkenny I LOVE the Dear America series

[annettemarie]

7. Riding the Bus with My Sister: A true life journey by Rachel Simon
I read this as part of our "One Book, One City" program.
from Amazon.com

This perceptive, uplifting chronicle shows how much Simon, a creative writing professor at Bryn Mawr College, had to learn from her mentally retarded sister, Beth, about life, love and happiness. Beth lives independently and is in a long-term romantic relationship, but perhaps the most surprising thing about her, certainly to her (mostly) supportive family, is how she spends her days riding buses. Six days a week (the buses don't run on Sundays in her unnamed Pennsylvania city), all day, she cruises around, chatting up her favorite drivers, dispensing advice and holding her ground against those who find her a nuisance. Rachel joined Beth on her rides for a year, a few days every two weeks, in an attempt to mend their distanced relationship and gain some insight into Beth's daily life. She wound up learning a great deal about herself and how narrowly she'd been seeing the world. Beth's community within the transit system is a much stronger network than the one Rachel has in her hectic world, and some of the portraits of drivers and the other people in Beth's life are unforgettable. Rachel juxtaposes this with the story of their childhood, including the dissolution of their parents' marriage and the devastating abandonment by their mother, the effect of which is tied poignantly to the sisters' present relationship. Although she is honest about the frustrations of relating to her stubborn sister, Rachel comes to a new appreciation of her, and it is a pleasure for readers to share in that discovery.

I mostly liked it, although I would disagree with the reviewer who said it wasn't sentimental. The backflashes to her childhood were extremely disturbing. What was most distracting to me is that I am from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and I kept trying to figure out in what "gritty Pennsylvania town" the story took place. There are "continuity errors" in the book (page one she is waking up to ride the bus; later in the year she states she has never slept over at her sister's before- well, which is it???) that drive me nuts. I guess if you are going to choose a book for a whole city to read, it can't be too difficult, but honestly, I thought they could have chosen a deeper book.

[kofduke]

Annette, I read The Price of a Child by Cary for last year's Philly One Book program...have you read that one? Overall I really liked it but there were some parts that were just too heartbreaking.

[Alkenny]

Originally Posted by MamaBug

Alkenny I LOVE the Dear America series

So do I! Just about done with this last one...DD checks them out and I sneak them :

[MrsMissy]

The Book Club, by Mary Alice Monroe.

Per Amazon:
Monroe's (Girl in the Mirror) new novel opens as five friends, all members of a monthly book club, face turning points in their lives. Eve's husband dies suddenly, shattering her comfortable lifestyle, while Midge's mother makes an unannounced and unwelcomed reappearance. Annie finally feels ready to have a child, only to find her health and her marriage in jeopardy. Gabriella strains to make ends meet after her husband is laid off; Doris slides into depression as she tries to deny signs of her husband's infidelity. Sometimes close to and sometimes at odds with each other, the friends struggle to face harsh realities and, in the process, gain new independence. The actual book club of the title plays an oddly small role in this celebration of friendship and growth--the books the club reads are mentioned only briefly and often seem irrelevant to the women's struggles. Still, Monroe offers up believable characters in a well-crafted story.

Kind of slow in the beginning, but then I *really* got into it.

[annettemarie]

Originally Posted by kofduke

Annette, I read The Price of a Child by Cary for last year's Philly One Book program...have you read that one? Overall I really liked it but there were some parts that were just too heartbreaking.

Maybe I will try it- thanks!

[LuckyMommaToo]

#5 Banishing Verona by Margot Livesey

I mostly enjoyed this British novel. She's a good writer, although the premise (of two people who met briefly and then can't seem to get together) does get a little worn toward the end. The male character has mild Asperger's, which was an interesting twist. It is a page-turner; I finished this book faster than anything else I've read this year.

From Amazon:

Margot Livesey's Banishing Verona is the story of two people who enjoy an enchanted evening together, and then spend the next few weeks chasing each other across continents in order to decide if it's the real thing. Zeke Cafarelli is an endearingly timid, rather obsessive-compulsive housepainter who dismantles clocks, "laying out the springs and coils in careful sequence and putting them back together," in order to gain the courage to leave his house. Verona MacIntyre is a seven-months-pregnant radio talk show host who goes back and forth between wanting to rescue her wayward brother and simply wanting to rescue herself. The backdrop for this ethereal novel is London and Boston, and Livesey does a masterful job of creating characters out of the cities and places that house her protagonists.

Banishing Verona is a love story at its core; however, Zeke and Verona are seen together in only a few scenes. Instead, Livesey tells the story from each character's perspective, overlapping time and place yet creating entirely unique situations. Each event is described with such precision that even the most mundane tasks take on a sense of importance that feels almost palpable. ("Then he noticed the red light on the phone, blinking ... He raised the receiver and heard only the usual high-pitched note; he had no idea what to do next.")

While her attention to detail may seem a bit excessive at times, Livesey is undeniably adept at creating a vivid, colorful world whose only purpose is to exist as a backdrop for Zeke and Verona's search for self, and for each other. Even secondary characters, like Zeke's employee Emmanuel and Verona's brother Henry, are only there to accentuate the good (and the bad) in our hero and heroine. Still, the underlying message here is that no one ever really knows anyone else, or as Zeke says, "Only years later ... did he grasp that even at their most vivid ... his thoughts were invisible, not only to teachers and tyrants, but to everyone..." What keeps us reading this dreamy novel until the very last page is the hope that people exist who are willing to take a chance on what can never truly be a sure thing. --Gisele Toueg

[MommytoMJM]

Sigh.... I am so far behind.....

#3. Currant Events By Piers Anthony the 28th novel in the Xanth universe (yes I have read them all! LOL) It is a quest with the Muse of History. Fantasy, lots of bad puns, some romance. Pretty good.

As a side note, the geography of Xanth is based on FL (where I live) and the author lives 90 minutes from me.

ETA: Ooops, this was book 3 for me, not 2....

[MaggiesMom]

12- Middlesex Won't blurb this since it has been discussed before.

Although some things in this book offended my sensibilities (mostly what people do in their bedrooms I could care less about, but there are just a few things that cross my "ewwww" line- and this book had one of them) but it was so well written that I was able to get past it. Mind you, I kept thinking "ewwww" every time it was brought up, but luckily it wasn't the main event here.

That said, in general I like this book. There were some things that I thought were very forced, but since the main character is female, I would think that is to be expected of a male writer. There were also things I thought were sort of off on a tangent that had very little relation to the story being told, but all-in-all, it was a good book. Don't know if I would go around recommending it to my Mom or anything, but the writing really pulled me in, so I would recommend it to most other book lovers.

1) Daughter of God 2) The Lovely Bones 3) The Shattering 4) Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code 5) The Burning 6) Shadow Divers 7) Shadowmancer 8) Recipes For a Small Planet 9) The Red Tent 10) The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time 11) Diet For A Small Planet 12) Middlesex

[cathe]

Wondering where I've been? I've been trying to make it through Sophies World. While an interesting book it is definitely not a page turner or easy read. I am about 2/3 through and took a little break to read this book - which is both a page turner and an easy read.

#23 Mad Cowboy by Howard F. Lyman

Oh my gosh - I thought I had read everything about the cattle industry but this book by an ex-cattle rancher was very eye opening. Rather than explain the gruesomeness of slaughter houses which is what I expected, this book told about the cows about when they were alive. I was horrified to find out what cows are actually fed. Although, because of mad cow they are no longer allowed to feed dead cows to cows, these animals are still being fed horse, pigs, chicken carcasses, euphanized dogs and cats, roadkill and I still can't beleive this chicken and other animal manure. Also, there are no restrictions on the amount of pesticides used on grain grown for animals, so they are very liberally sprayed - and this all goes into our meat and our milk. It's quite horrifying. There is a lot of other info about how the cattle industry is destroying our environment, info about the bovine growth hormone (I actually started to cry when I heard about what that does to the dairy cows) - the strain of producing all that extra milk sucks all the calcium and fat off them and they become sterile, and a lot about the politics and the clout that Monsanto has with the FDA. It's scary. The state of Vermont was actually sued by Monstanto for wanting to label dairy that had BGH in it - and Monsanto WON.

This book was very well written, easy to read, and believable because this man was actually in the business. By the way - this is the guy that was on Oprah when Oprah said she would never eat a burger again and both of them were sued.

[Nosy]

#7 Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler. This was a good read. I've never been part of a book club, so I was curious. One hint: It's been a while since I read any Austen, and I kept wishing for synopses of her books. The last chapter of the book is Jane Austen synopses (and doesn't spoil the book's plot)-if I only I had looked, I would have enjoyed the book more. Oh well.

From Amazon:

A sublime comedy of contemporary manners, this is the novel Jane Austen might well have written had she lived in twenty-first- century California.

Nothing ever moves in a straight line in Karen Joy Fowler's fiction, and in her latest, the complex dance of modern love has never been so devious or so much fun.

Six Californians join to discuss Jane Austen's novels. Over the six months they meet, marriages are tested, affairs begin, unsuitable arrangements become suitable, and love happens. With her finely sighted eye for the frailties of human behavior and her finely tuned ear for the absurdities of social intercourse, Fowler has never been wittier nor her characters more appealing. The result is a delicious dissection of modern relationships.

Dedicated Austenites will delight in unearthing the echoes of Austen that run through the novel, but most readers will simply enjoy the vision and voice that, despite two centuries of separation, unite two great writers of brilliant social comedy.

MommytoMJM, my DH is a huge Piers Anthony fan. He's currently working his way through Discworld series (Terry Pratchett).

[konamama]

cathe - that book sounds worth reading - I'm already a veg and only eat organic dairy, but would be good reference and good for dh to read since he still eats non-organic red meat sometimes!

[Queen Gwen]

#10 Going Postal by Terry Pratchett. The latest news from Discworld. Our library just got it. If you're a Terry Pratchett fan there's a good chance you've already read it (our library isn't really speedy with getting them in). It's about the post office, corporate greed, golems (lots of golems), Lord Vetinari, the Internet, cameo by The Watch, a bit about the Unseen University and the wizards therein, hacking, a little about angels....

If you don't like Terry Pratchett, this is more of the same, and you still won't like him.

If you don't know Terry Pratchett, it's a bit like Douglas Adams (Hitch-hiker's Guide, Dirk Gently), but the setting is more a mix of 19th century intersected with 21st century, with lots of vampires, trolls, dwarves, werewolves, tooth fairies (there are several, you know, and they have a union), wizards, and just regular folks. You can start the series pretty much anywhere (that is, you don't have to start with the 1st one) as long as you keep an open mind. An open mind is a very good thing to have when dealing with Terry Pratchett.

[MamaBug]

cathe I was just about to post looking for you! You post a new book almost daily it seems!

annettemarie they are making a Hallmark movie about the book, Riding the Bus with Rosie O'Donnell as the sister. They renamed it The Slow Ride. Andie McDowell stars as her sister.

[MaggiesMom]

cathe- I've been thinking about reading that book. Now I'm not so sure I want to, only because I still eat ice cream and cheese. I am not sure I am ready to give it up yet after habing to go completely free last year for several months, and I am sure I would after reading that book. Hmmm... guess I'll have to really think about it before I pick it up.

[Astrid]

:LOL I was wondering where cathe was too!

#13 Can You Keep A Secret by Sophie Kinsella

From Publishers Weekly
Things are suddenly starting to look up for the hapless but optimistic Emma Corrigan. She has kept her job at Panther Cola for nearly a year, has the perfect boyfriend and hopes for a promotion to marketing executive should her first opportunity to strut her stuff and land a business deal be successful. Unfortunately, things don't go quite as planned, and on her unusually turbulent return flight from a disappointing client meeting, in a terrified state, she confesses her innermost secrets to the good-looking stranger sitting beside her. When she shows up at work the next morning, she is horrified to discover that her mystery man is none other than the revered and brilliant Jack Harper, American CEO of Panther Cola, on a weeklong visit to the company's U.K. branch. Thus begins a series of chaotic, emotionally exhausting and funny episodes that thrust Emma, with her workaholic best friend, Lissy, and their awful flatmate Jemima, into a world of fairy tales, secrets and deceit. Venturing beyond Saks and Barney's, the bestselling author of Confessions of a Shopaholic and Shopaholic Ties the Knot entertains readers with backstabbing office shenanigans, competition, scandal, love and sex. The plot is gossamer thin (Jack is keeping secrets of his own) and the lopsided romance not entirely believable, but Kinsella's down-to-earth protagonist is sure to have readers sympathizing and doubled over in laughter.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


I liked this character better then her Shopaholic character, and I really enjoyed this book.

[cathe]

Originally Posted by MaggiesMom

cathe- I've been thinking about reading that book. Now I'm not so sure I want to, only because I still eat ice cream and cheese. I am not sure I am ready to give it up yet after habing to go completely free last year for several months, and I am sure I would after reading that book. Hmmm... guess I'll have to really think about it before I pick it up.

Well - there's not that much stuff about dairy cows except for the part on bovine growth hormone. That will definitely make you only eat organic or rbgh free dairy.

[broodymama]

#14 for LB

We've been at a star party with the local astronomy club since Friday so I've just done a little light reading the past few days.

"His Every Kiss" by Laura Guhrke

from Amazon:
Everyone knows about Dylan Moore -- his brilliant talent and his pleasure-seeking ways -- but no one knows the torment that lies beneath his reckless veneer. Only one woman gets a glimpse of the forces that drive Dylan's soul, a woman who haunts his dreams and evokes his passions as no other woman ever has before.


Disgraced and destitute, Grace Cheval wantsnothing to do with the seductive man who desires her. When Dylan offers her a position as governess to his newfound daughter, she knows his true intentions are dishonorable. Yet she finds this charismatic man hard to resist, and she returns his passionate kisses with a fire that matches his own. Can Dylan dare hope that this proud, spirited beauty will melt the ice around his heart?