The Kite RunnerKhaled Hosseini I bought this book over a year ago, in anticipation of its being a selection for my book club, but the member who was going to pick it ended up dropping out, and I just wasn’t motivated to pick it up until another member of the club chose it for our meeting this week. Despite the fact that everyone I know who has read this book loved it, I’ve been rather […]
Tag: one book at a time
Just finished: “The Memory Keeper’s Daughter”
The Memory Keeper’s Daughter Kim Edwards On a snowy late-winter night in Lexington, Kentucky in March 1964, a doctor’s wife unexpectedly goes into labor, and he has to perform the delivery himself in his own office. Twins are delivered – a healthy boy, and a girl who clearly exhibits Down’s syndrome. Believing that it’s in everyone’s best interests, the doctor asks his nurse to bring the baby girl to a home for the mentally impaired. […]
Just finished: “Nineteen Minutes”
Nineteen MinutesJodi Picoult Nineteen minutes is the amount of time it takes Peter Houghton to kill ten people and wound 19 more on one March morning at Sterling High School. Nineteen Minutes is also the title of Jodi Picoult’s latest novel, the story of a high-school shooting spree similar to Columbine and others, but with one major difference – the shooter is found just in time to be prevented from turning his gun on himself, […]
Just finished: “Altared”
Altared: Bridezillas, Bewilderment, Big Love, Breakups, and What Women Really Think About Contemporary WeddingsEdited by Colleen Curran This book of essays was what I chose to read in between Water for Elephants and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – I figured it was something I could drop at a moment’s notice if I had to, since it’s not a narrative. It was a good choice in that respect. It’s also an enjoyable read for […]
Just finished: “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”
Harry Potter and the Deathly HallowsJ. K. Rowling The major event of this weekend’s Harry Potter Extravaganza was reading the grand finale of this saga, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. As I’ve done since …Order of the Phoenix, I pre-ordered the book from Amazon.com as soon as they started taking orders, but this time I bought two copies – Tall Paul wanted his own. The package landed at our front door at around 1 […]
Just finished: “Lost and Found”
reviewed for the Mother-talk.com Blog Tour(due to be posted on Wednesday 7/18, but I’m done early!) Lost and FoundCarolyn Parkhurst (author’s website) Lost and Found revolves around a reality TV show of the same name that features a dozen teams competing in a worldwide scavenger hunt with a million-dollar prize. Like The Amazing Race (TAR), each of the teams is made up of two people with a pre-existing relationship. The book starts about halfway through […]
Just finished: “Water for Elephants”
Water for Elephants Sara Gruen This was picked for my book club’s meeting this past week, but the meeting didn’t happen – too many people couldn’t make it, and most of those that could be there were behind on their reading and didn’t think they could finish by Friday (myself included). We’ll be deferring our discussion till our August meeting, where this will be double-featured with The Kite Runner. From the book cover: As a […]
Just finished: “The Jane Austen Book Club”
The Jane Austen Book ClubKaren Joy Fowler from the book cover: In California’s central valley, five women and one man join to discuss Jane Austen’s novels. Over the six months they get together, marriages are tested, affairs begin, unsuitable arrangements become suitable, and love happens…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 […]
Just finished: “The Planets”
The PlanetsDava Sobel from the back cover: With her blockbuster New York Times bestsellers Longitude and Galileo’s Daughter, Dava Sobel used her rare and luminous gift for weaving difficult scientific concepts into a compelling story to garner rave reviews and attract readers from across the literary spectrum. Now, in “The Planets,” Sobel brings her full talents to bear on what is perhaps her most ambitious subject to date – the planets of our solar system. […]
Just finished: “Abundance”
Abundance: A Novel of Marie AntoinetteSena Jeter Naslund from the book cover: Marie Antoinette was a child of fourteen when her mother, the Empress of Austria, arranged for her to leave her family and her country to become the wife of the fifteen-year-old Dauphin, the future King of France. Coming of age in the most public of arenas, the young queen embraces her new family and the French people, and she is embraced in return. […]
Just finished: “Accidental Happiness”
Accidental HappinessJean Reynolds Page(selection for next week’s Book Club meeting) from the book cover: After her husband’s unexpected death at the age of thirty-six, Gina Melrose becomes a “live-aboard” on his boat, docked at a marina in coastal South Carolina, near the home she and Ben once shared. In this temporary, borrowed existence on the water, she settles into numb survival. But Gina finds her life taking yet another dramatic turn late one night when […]
Just Finished: “72-Hour Hold”
72-Hour HoldBebe Moore Campbell I’m going to try dispensing with the clips from Amazon and writing my own summaries, starting now. But before that, from the cover: Trina is eighteen and suffers from bi-polar disorder, making her paranoid, wild, and violent. Frightened by her own child, Keri searches for help, quickly learning that the mental health community can only offer her a seventy-two hour hold. After these three days Trina is off on her own […]
