Saturday, November 9, 2013

Thorn Birds

In October and November our book club read The Thorn Birds. We enjoyed this Australian epic book. We divided this book for two months because it is a 704 page book.

McCullough, Colleen, The Thorn Birds, Now, 25 years after it first took the world by storm, Colleen McCullough's sweeping family saga of dreams, titanic struggles, dark passions, and forbidden love in the Australian Outback returns to enthrall a new generation. As powerful, moving, and unforgettable as when it originally appeared, it remains a monumental literary achievement.


 

Christmas books

In November and December I like to read Christmas books. These books put in the Christmas spirit. I also shared them with our book club.

Frank, Dorothy Benton, The Christmas Pearl, With her truculent family gathered at her stately Charleston mansion for Christmas, 93-year-old matriarch Theodora is having a hard time tolerating the lot of them. Theodora hankers for her 1920s childhood and her family's Christmas. 256p.

Ahern, Cecelia, The Gift, 320p This Christmas story is a winning tale of magic and redemption. Lou Suffern is a busy man, and his family's growing weary of constantly taking the backseat to his career. 320p.

Jacobs, Kate, Knit the Season: A Friday Night Knitting, With the holidays just around the corner, the Friday Night Knitting group women have reason to celebrate: There's a special wedding planned for New Year's Day.  260p. litlovers.com

VanLiere, Donna,
The Christmas Secret
, When a struggling young single mother saves the life of an elderly woman, she sets into motion a series of events that
will test her strength, loyalty, and determination, all the while setting her on the path to finding true love. 291p.

Lamb, Wally, Wishin' and Hoping, It is 1964. LBJ and Lady Bird are in the White House, Meet the Beatles is on everyone's turntable, and ten-year-old Felix Funicello (distant cousin of the iconic Annette!) is doing his best to navigate fifth grade—easier said than done when scary movies still give you nightmares and you bear a striking resemblance to a certain adorable cartoon boy. But there are several things young Felix can depend on: the birds and bees are puzzling, television is magical, and this is one Christmas he's never going to forget. 274p.

Washburn, Livia, The Christmas Cookie Killer, The
Yuletide is here-and retired teacher cum amateur sleuth Phyllis Newsom looks forward to finishing up this unlucky year. But she won't be hanging up her apron just yet-because this year's Christmas bake-off is going to be cutthroat. 272p.

Thayer, Nancy, Nantucket Christmas, Holidays on Nantucket are nothing short of magical, and the season's wonderful traditions are much loved by Nicole Somerset, new to Nantucket and recently married to a handsome former attorney. Their home is already full of enticing scents of pine, baking spices, and homemade pie. But the warm, festive mood is soon tempered by Nicole's chilly stepdaughter, Kennedy, who arrives without a hint of holiday spirit. 209p.

Our book list for our book club

I have continued to be the keeper of the list. I have included our Christmas selection and our New Year's 2014 selection. I have also included books that we will select from later in 2014.

December-Chris at Chris's house-Washburn, Livia, The Christmas Cookie Killer
The
Yuletide is here-and retired teachercum amateur sleuth Phyllis Newsom looks forward to finishing up this unlucky year. But she won't be hanging up her apron just yet-because this year's Christmas bake-off is going to be cutthroat. 272p.

January-Ellen- Walter, Jess, Beautiful Ruins, The story begins in 1962. On a rocky patch of the sun-drenched Italian coastline, a young innkeeper, chest-deep in daydreams, looks out over the incandescent waters of the Ligurian Sea and spies an apparition: a tall, thin woman, a vision in white, approaching him on a boat. She is an actress, he soon learns, an American starlet, and she is dying. 352p. litlovers.com

February-Linda-library- Sotomayer, Sonia, My Beloved World, Sonia Sotomayer, the first Hispanic and third woman appointed to the United States Supreme Court, she recounts her life with candor from a Bronx housing project to the federal bench. 416p

March-Fran- Hoffman, Alice, The Third Angel, Three women linked over time by love and redemption. Three weddings riddled with secrecy and betrayal. Three generations wounded by heartbreak and loss. Traveling backward through time, The Third Angel moves from modern-day London where Maddy Heller seduces her sister's fiancé to the wild days of the '60s where Frieda Lewis falls for a musician with in search of a muse, and finally to the buttoned-down '50s where Bryn Evans can't give up her complicated ex-husband. 304p. Litlovers.com

More books to select from

Franek, Valarie Four of a Kind, Brought together as committee members at their children's school, and four women assume they have nothing in common. Until they meet for each other.

 
 

Frank, Dorothy Benton, Sullivan's Island, Set on the coast of South Carolina, this book explores one woman's journey from a contentedly married middle-aged wife and mother to a newly divorced woman looking back on her past for reassurance and to the future for some means of regaining her self-esteem. 416p. litlovers.com

 
 

Vogt, Virginia,
Death By Moonlight is a double mystery. Two terrible crimes mirror each other across nearly two centuries, and both must be solved to rescue a young girl threatened by an age-old evil.
376p.
This book is written by a Morristown author. We could see if she would like to speak to our group. Norma's friend also belongs to a book club and this author spoke to her book group. If we chose this book maybe we could have her speak

in April or after.

Erdrich. Louise, Round House, National Book Award Winner One Sunday in the spring of 1988, a woman living on a reservation in North Dakota is attacked. The details of the crime are slow to surface as Geraldine Coutts is traumatized and reluctant to relive or reveal what happened, either to the police or to her husband, Bazil, and thirteen-year-old son, Joe. 336pp

 
 

Sotomayer, Sonia, My Beloved World, Sonia Sotomayer, the first Hispanic and third woman appointed to the United States Supreme Court, she recounts her life with candor from a Bronx housing project to the federal bench. 416p

 
 

Walter, Jess, Beautiful Ruins, The story begins in 1962. On a rocky patch of the sun-drenched Italian coastline, a young innkeeper, chest-deep in daydreams, looks out over the incandescent waters of the Ligurian Sea and spies an apparition: a tall, thin woman, a vision in white, approaching him on a boat. She is an actress, he soon learns, an American starlet, and she is dying. 352p. litlovers.com

 
 

Hoffman, Alice, The Third Angel, Three women linked over time by love and redemption. Three weddings riddled with secrecy and betrayal. Three generations wounded by heartbreak and loss. Traveling backward through time, The Third Angel moves from modern-day London where Maddy Heller seduces her sister's fiancé to the wild days of the '60s where Frieda Lewis falls for a musician with in search of a muse, and finally to the buttoned-down '50s where Bryn Evans can't give up her complicated ex-husband. 304p. Litlovers.com

 
 

McLain, Paula, The Paris Wife, This deeply evocative story of ambition and betrayal, captures a remarkable period of time and a love affair between two unforgettable people: Ernest Hemingway and his first wife Hadley.352p readinggroupguides.com

 
 

O'Reilly, Bill, Killing Kennedy- Hardback will wait until it comes into paperback.

 
 

Patton, Lisa, Whistlin' Dixie in a Nor'easter, LeeLee moved from Memphis to Vermont for her husband to follow his pipe dream of managing a quaint inn. In this funny and sad fish out water book LeeLee learns she is more resilient than she thinks she is. 312p

www.lisapatton.com/DiscussionQuestions.pdf

Wells, Jeanette, Silver Star, The Silver Star, This is story about an intrepid girl who challenges the injustice of the adult world—a triumph of imagination and storytelling. 269p. Wait until it comes out in paperback

Van Allen, Lisa, The Wishing Thread, The Wishing Thread is an enchanting novel about the bonds between sisters, the indelible pull of the past, and the transformational power of love. 400p.


 


 

Friday, June 14, 2013

I have continued to be the keeper for our book club list. The following are books that we discussed or we will discuss from  December 2012 to September 2013. One of our favorite was The Shoemaker's Wife.

December 2012-Trigiani, Adriana,The Shoemaker’s Wife, The majestic and haunting beauty of the Italian Alps is the setting of the first meeting of Enza, a practical beauty, and Ciro, a strapping mountain boy, who meet as teenagers, despite growing up in villages just a few miles apart. At the turn of the last century, when Ciro catches the local priest in a scandal, he is banished from his village and sent to hide in America as an apprentice to a shoemaker in Little Italy. Without explanation, he leaves a bereft Enza behind.496p. litlovers.com

2013
Sylvia-January-Findlay, William, Defending Jacob,

Linda-February- Simon, Rachel, The Story of Beautiful Girl, Lynnie, a young white woman is put into the School for the Incurable and Feebleminded. She meets Homan, an African American man. Deeply in love, they escape. They start a long journey. 340p. litlover.com

Kris-March- Sebold, Alice, Lovely Bones, Shockingly original and completely unforgettable, The Lovely Bones is the story of a family devastated by a gruesome murder -- a murder recounted by the teenage victim. 352p. www.litlovers.com

Karen-April- McFadden, Maryann, The Richest Season, When lonely corporate wife Joanna Harrison runs away to Pawleys Island, she has no idea what happens next. But as a new life takes root, thanks to a passionate fisherman and a commitment to save endangered turtles, demands from her old life may force her to return. The Richest Season is a stunning debut that will resonate with any woman who's ever fantasized about leaving home to find herself. 352p.


Ellen-May- Frank, Dorothy Benton, Porch Lights, May and after In the South Carolina Low country, three generations of a family--a grandmother, a mother, and a son--discover the indelible power of love as they share a memorable summer on Sullivan's Island.  324pp   litlovers.com 

Norma-June-Lannert, Stacey and Kristen Kemp, Redemption: A Story of Sisterhood, Survival, and Finding Freedom Behind Bars, On July 4, 1990, eighteen-year-old Stacey Lannert shot and killed her father, who had been sexually abusing her since she was eight.

336pp This is the book that Pat Andersen talked about at one our meetings. It is not in library. It is sold through Barnes and Noble. Please use the complete title.

Linda- July Flagg, Fannie, Fried Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café This book is the story of two women in the 1980s: of gray-headed Mrs Threadgoode telling her life story to Evelyn, who is in the sad slump of middle age. The tale she tells is also of two women--of the irrepressibly dare devilish tomboy Idgie and her friend Ruth--who back in the thirties ran a little place in Whistle Stop, Alabama, offering good barbecue and good coffee and all kinds of love and laughter, even an occasional murder. 416p. litlovers.com

Sylvia August-Landay, William, Mission Flats Nothing ever happens in the sleepy backwater town of Versailles, Maine. At least, that’s what everybody thought. When Police Chief Ben Truman finds a body in the tourist cabins by Lake Mattaquisett, he is plunged headlong into a murder investigation that leads all the way into Boston Proper. 400p.

September-Trigiani, Adriana, Very Valentine, Meet the Roncalli and Angelini families, a vibrant cast of colorful characters who navigate tricky family dynamics with hilarity and brio, from magical Manhattan to the picturesque hills of bella Italia.  401p. www.harpercollins.com/author/authorExtra.aspx?isbn13