Flashback Friday - Barbara Kingsolver

THE LACUNA by Barbara Kingsolver: My book club chose this novel. It had been years since I'd read Kingsolver (THE POISONWOOD BIBLE), and I remembered that it always takes me at least a hundred pages before I connect to her characters, but once I do, the bond is absolute. Her plots are so complex and sprawling that being dropped into the middle of a world she's written is disorienting, even off-putting. But that world is so rich that it seizes the reader's imagination and won't let go. I emerge from a reading session forgetting for a moment that I am not in the kitchen of Diego Riviera and Frida Kahlo's home, where a meal for an exiled Trotsky is being prepared. This sprawling novel takes place between 1929 and 1951 and addresses Mexican history and art, the rise of Communism, the Red Scare and HUAC, American internment camps during World War II, and Jim Crow laws.

The novel is made up of the notebooks kept by quiet, unassuming Harrison Shepherd, product of a discontented Mexican mother and rather boring American father. His mother leaves Washington, D.C. to follow her oilman lover to Mexico, where Harrison primarily grows up, shadowing the kitchen. The skills he acquires in making pan dulce translate eerily well to mixing plaster for muralist Diego Riviera, and he soon becomes a part of the Riviera household, befriending Frida Kahlo and typing for Trotsky, who is in exile. At night, he works on his own novel, set in the Aztec kingdom. After Trotsky is assassinated, Harrison is sent back to the United States, where he becomes a well-known novelist just in time for McCarthyism to mark him as a Communist.

In less capable hands, this could have been an utter mess that no amount of suspension of disbelief could clean up, but Kingsolver is a master. She deftly blends fact and fiction and her insertion of the quiet Harrison into major world events brings them to life. Frida Kahlo and Trotsky, in particular, are rich, complex characters. Harrison is a perfect counterpoint to his larger-than-life companions, and his life, in its own quiet way, is just as compelling. A lacuna can refer to the underwater cave that challenges Harrison as a boy on Isla Pixol, or to a section of missing text, like the notebook from Harrison's childhood that has disappeared. Harrison himself is something of a lacuna, lifted from his rightful place in American literature by HUAC. As the underwater cave opens up into a sinkhole in the jungle, a place of ancient sacrifices. Harrison begins as a cook in Mexico, but emerges a literary force in America, only to be pushed back into obscurity.

This is a glorious novel of history, revolution, and culture, an incisive commentary on modern society, and a thoroughly enjoyable read. Very highly recommended.

Source disclosure: I purchased this book.

The Scent of Rain and Lightning by Nancy Pickard

Nancy Pickard's The Scent of Rain and Lightning was a truly enjoyable way to start off my New Year reading. It grabbed me from the very beginning and kept me interested all the way through to the big reveal at the end. And the end really packed a punch!

The book tells its story on two timelines. We start off in present day with Jody Linder, a 26 year old school teacher who suffered family tragedy as a three year old when her father was murdered and her mother disappeared. The book then shifts back 23 years so we can see what happened leading up to the murder. We gradually come back to present day when the man convicted of her father's murder is released from prison early and returns to the small town of Rose, Kansas.

The book seems to depict small town life accurately and the many characters are interesting from the Linder family to the town drunk convicted of her father's murder and his family. Pickard also weaves in an unlikely love story between Jody and the son of the man convicted of killing her father.

I spent much of the book trying to figure out the mystery of who really killed Jody's father. It seemed the man convicted was too drunk. But who?! It was such a small town and everyone else seemed accounted for. My theory was that her mom killed her dad and ran off. But, I was pleasantly surprised by the twist that Pickard threw in at the end. For once, there wasn't a totally cookie cutter ending to a book!

This is a highly recommended from me! And very close to a five-star rating. It's just a tiny bit too fluffy for me to make it five stars. I usually like to learn something along with having a fantastic story in order to give a five star rating....such as learning about the Japanese internment camps during WWII in The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet or the south during the 1960's in The Help. I need just a tiny bit more substance for a 5-star book. However, this is definitely a 4.75 for me.

Source disclosure: Purchased by me as an e-book.

First Come Love, Then Comes Malaria by Eve Brown-Waite

I read various reviews of this memoir last year and suggested it to my book club. I'm glad I did, because everyone who read it loved it!

Eve Brown-Waite recounts how she met her husband while joining the Peace Corps, her brief stint as a Peace Corps worker and then their experiences as ex-patriots living in Uganda.

Brown-Waite's husband is the type of guy who loves traveling the world and helping out in third-world communities. Eve isn't so sure she's up for the same adventure but goes along with it anyway. Arriving in Africa, she doesn't quite know what to expect. The other ex-pat wives teach her all that she needs to know to be as comfortable as possible in this strange place. When she believes she might be pregnant, she sees a doctor who can't really tell her if she is pregnant or not. She is "maybe" pregnant. She also spends a good part of the book trying to figure out how she can use her background in public health education to help educate the people there about HIV/AIDS prevention.

I thoroughly enjoyed joining Eve on her African adventure and her entry into motherhood in less than ideal conditions. It was interesting how they learned to adapt to the different culture and climate and returning to the fast-paced, overstimulated world of America was so overwhelming to her. The end of the book hinted at a sequel of their next adventure when their time in Uganda was finished. I certainly would jump at the chance to read anything else by this author. She had me laughing out loud at her stories.

Source Disclosure: I borrowed this book from the library.

Whip Smart by Melissa Febos

Whip Smart by Melissa Febos: When I heard about this memoir of a professional dominatrix, I was skeptical. I could see a publisher hearing the pitch "It's a memoir that gives a rare look into the world of dominatrices!" and falling all over themselves to sign it, blinded by the potential dollar signs such a sensationalist memoir could bring. I was relieved that Melissa Febos is actually an excellent writer in addition to having a fascinating story. Memoir is not necessarily my favorite genre, particularly memoirs written by young people, who tend not to have the perspective and distance to tell their story in the most insightful way. (Yes, Elizabeth Gilbert, I mean YOU!) Febos is smart, but drops out of high school, moves to New York City, and pursues a degree at the New School. Intrigued by a neighbor who is a professional dominatrix, Febos decides to give it a go; after all, $75 an hour plus tips can buy a lot of heroin and cocaine. I thought she did an excellent job of easing the neophyte into the world of professional domming. Her early sessions are pretty tame, and she doesn't get to the really disturbing stuff until late in the book, at which point it seems almost normal. Febos loves to shock people by telling them what she does for a living and breezily says she has the best acting gig in the city. She constantly distinguishes herself from the other dommes and from other sex workers (she looks down on prostitutes and is quick to draw distinctions between her work and theirs). She's smart, we're reminded. She chose this because she's smart and edgy and cool. But she gets through her sessions high on heroin and cocaine, and though her grades are high, her life is a mess. It becomes clear that while she's dominating men for money, she's the one being dominated; by drugs, by depression, by a growing addiction to domming and being desired by men.

This was a fascinating look at a lifestyle most people never glimpse, and, to a certain extent, it's an interesting look at addiction and recovery. Some of the passages in which Febos discusses her addictions and growing awareness of her problems resonate with truth. However, these are numerous, and her constant justification, sense of entitlement, and navel-gazing got a bit tiresome. A person in therapy is always fascinated by her psyche and the dawning understanding of her thought/emotional processes, but to an outsider who is not being paid to listen, the self-analysis becomes tedious. I also didn't find her particularly likable. She seems to fall into drug use and domming because she's bored. She has a great childhood, no trauma to send her spiraling, a family and friends who care about her, but she's rebelling against something unknown. I kept reading along and thinking that I had a revelation of abuse or trauma coming up, something so horrible I should brace myself, but it eventually dawned on me that there was no precipitating event to her downward spiral. It's almost as though she decided to try everything a person as smart as she is (and we are told often that she is smart) should known better. I could have used a little less self-analysis of her growth and a little more backstory about her emotional state. Really, I didn't put the book down knowing why a perfectly nice girl ends up a heroin addict without any apparent reason.

As a glimpse into the world of professional domming, this book is fascinating. As a journey from depression and addiction to self-awareness, it has its moments of clarity and inspiration. As a memoir...If she had waited ten more years, she might have had the perspective to make this a really great book, but she's too recently healed (and I suspect she's still in the midst of the process, or was at the time she wrote this) to tell her story - at least the triumphant rise from addiction and self-destructive behavior part. Still, it's worth reading if you're curious about professional dommes and their clients, and the moments of insight in her journey back to herself are lovely and thought-provoking.

Source disclosure: I purchased this book.

The House at Sugar Beach by Helene Cooper

The House at Sugar Beach is Helene Cooper's memoir of her childhood in Liberia, Africa and continues through her college years in America and eventual American citizenship.

For whatever reason, I continue to be drawn to books with African cultures at the center. And this was no exception. I had absolutely no knowledge of Liberia going into this book. I found its history very interesting. Freed slaves from America were shipped back to this country to settle and start life again causing dissension between the people already inhabiting the area and the new settlers. The tension appeared to escalate in the late 1980's and 1990's causing great violence and civil war in the area.

Helene Cooper's family dates back to the original ship arriving with freed slaves. She grew up living in a mansion and having a grand life compared to people in the area. Often the wealthier families in Liberia would accept children from the "country" people or the native cultures into their homes and raise them as their own. This gave the children a better life than they would have otherwise. This is how Eunice came to live with the Coopers. She and Helene became sisters almost as if they were blood.

As the violence grew and her family was no longer safe (in fact her mother was raped), they moved to America and settled in the south. Unfortunately, Eunice was sent back to her family and did not travel to America. While Helene finished out her high school years and then college she would write letters to Eunice until they just lost touch. Helene went on to become a journalist working for the Wall Street Journal and other papers.

The House at Sugar Beach recounts all of these events in great detail. I found the book to be interesting, but to a point. I felt the first half about her childhood dragged a bit. I admit I skipped 100 pages (102-202) in the middle. And I don't feel like I really missed out on much except reading about the violence against her family. I actually prefer not to read that and was happy I could gleam what happened from tidbits later in the book. I enjoyed reading the second half more than the first. Overall, a mediocre read. Not sure what my book club will think about it. I anticipate it will be a DNF for many. Although, not the greatest book ever, I don't think it was a waste of my time. I did learn about a country and its history that I knew nothing about before. And that's never a waste of time! :-) And it was also interesting to read about a woman as strong as Helene Cooper.

Source disclosure: I borrowed this book from the library.

More Book Club Snippets

Our book club read Karen White's The Lost Hours in November and we picked The House on Tradd Street for January. The two books had a very different feel to them, although they both contained White's very descriptive style of writing. I have to say, overall, I believe I enjoyed The Lost Hours a bit more (mostly because I really enjoyed the historical fiction part of the book).

Tradd Street finds realtor Melanie Middleton inheriting an old historic house in Charleston after meeting with its owner only once. She's not sure why she inherited the house, but agrees to live there for a year and oversee its restoration before she plans on selling it. Before she realizes it, Melanie stumbles into a bit of a historical mystery. She has a gift and can see ghosts (there is even a quote that seems to poke fun at the Sixth Sense's famous quote "I see dead people".) :-) Melanie and her friends come across information both in reality and through clues from the spirit world that solve the decades old mystery of a woman's disappearance.

This book is actually listed as a "romance". I can see why it was categorized as such because Melanie gets involved in a bit of a love triangle. However, I see this book more as general fiction. It has much more to it than just the romance. This is also the first in a series by White, followed up by The Girl on Legare Street (which I seen reviewed very well around the blogosphere).

Overall, I found the book very difficult to get into. It didn't move fast enough for me. The first half to two-thirds were rather dull. The last third or so really picked up and left me liking it overall just because the book ended so well. I probably will take a gander at the second book, but not sure I'll continue reading the series. Maybe eventually, but there are plenty of other books I'll get to first.
Source disclosure: Borrowed this book from the library.

Laura Lippman's What the Dead Know served as our book club pick for October. I read this one pretty quickly. It was well-written and a good story, however, the subject matter is a bit disturbing. The book opens with a woman claiming to be a girl who disappeared decades earlier with her sister. The authorities pull her over when she appears to be involved in a hit and run accident and disoriented. They are not sure if they should believe she is who she says she is. The book is written both in present day and through flashbacks explaining what happened to the two sisters.

You spend much of the book thinking one thing is going on only to do an about-face at the end of the book and something completely different was really happening. The interesting thing is that when you finally find out the truth about what really happened, the rest of the story seems to be a little less disturbing than you thought while reading it (does that make any sense?).
Source disclosure: Off my bookshelf, originally given to me by a friend.

The Lost Hours by Karen White

The Lost Hours by Karen White is quite the change of pace from my recent seasonal YA and middle-grade reading. But actually a very nice change of pace. I needed something different and my October book club fit the bill.

I've seen several of White's books reviewed on various blogs and they always seem to appeal to me when I read about them. I was excited to have the opportunity to finally read one.

White introduces the reader to Piper Mills, an accomplished competitive equestrian who is still recovering from a tragic fall six years earlier. She lost her parents in a car accident when she was six years old and was raised by her grandparents. Early in the book, her grandparents both pass away leaving her with her grandmother's angel charm necklace and a key to something unknown. She finds several things in her grandparents' house that lead her to wonder who her grandmother really was and what her story was. Piper follows a trail of clues to her grandmother's childhood friend Lillian, now an elderly woman with grandchildren and great-grandchildren of her own. Disguised as a geneologist looking into "someone's" family, she tries to delve into the past and figure out what could have torn these two woman apart and how all of that relates to the grandmother she knew and grew up with.

This book is told from three perspectives: Piper's, Lillian's, and Lillian's granddaughter Helen. It also goes back and forth between present day and what happened in the late 1930's between the two women. The past is told by using old scrapbook entries as the storytelling mechanism so it is never difficult to follow where you are or who is speaking at the time.

This book is very much about family relationships and "broken" people. I think just about ever character in this book has had something tragic happen to them in one way or another and they are still trying to heal and get to a better place mentally. Though, the book itself is not all together depressing. The thing I found most interesting is the backdrop of the late 1930's in Savannah, Georgia and the issues of race and segregation that were apparent. While I definitely wouldn't categorize this book as historical fiction, there are definitely elements here that would fit.

The pace of this book is quite slow, you have to have the expectation of that going in or you may lose patience. The prose is very lyrical and descriptive. So much so, that it's annoying is some spots (at least to me), but again, a nice change of pace from my current spooky reading. Flowers and gardening are a theme throughout the book as is the idea that women are the storytellers in life and we should and must pass down their stories to their daughters.

I'm not sure I've done a good job of making this book sound appealing. If you like lyrical stories about women and familial relationships, this is definitely the book for you! My book club seemed to like it overall, though it was quite slow for most people.

Other reviews:
J. Kaye's Book Blog, Bloggin' 'bout Books, Girls Just Reading, The Tome Traveller

Source disclosure: I purchased this book.

Book Club Snippets

I haven't been very good about reviewing my book club books the last several months. I think that's because most of them were just "meh" for me and I didn't feel like writing a long review for a blah book.

The Associate by John Grisham has been touted as a return to the style he was first known for with The Firm and The Client. It has been awhile since I've read a Grisham novel. I think The Summons was the last one I read. I have such high expectations when something is compared to any of Grisham's earlier works. This one was mildly interesting but no where near as good as The Firm for me. It would make for a good beach/vacation read though.
Source disclosure: Book purchased

Billie Letts also wrote Where the Heart Is. I have not read that book, but have seen the movie a number of times. I wasn't sure what I would think about this book going into it. Shoot the Moon is the story of a stranger coming to visit a small town to learn about his roots. Is he who he really says he is, the grown man who once was a baby that disappeared from the town decades earlier? Nick moves from feeling like an outsider to realizing perhaps he is finally home. This was an average to good read for me. The "mystery" of what happened to Nick kept me intrigued. The romantic angle to the book seemed quite unrealistic for me. But I'm not usually too into romantic story angles anyway. :-) If you're just looking for a light quick read with just a little depth, this would be a good one.
Source disclosure: Borrowed book from a friend

Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen can be characterized as Southern Fiction. Catherine Grace grows up the preacher's daughter in the small town of Ringgold, Georgia. The book starts off with Catherine Grace as a child and moves through to adulthood. She leaves Ringgold and has to come back when tragedy strikes. I have to admit this was a DNF (did not finish) for me. I got to about page 50 and just couldn't take the Southern preacher talk anymore. My book club thought it was all right though and some liked it pretty well. Again, I imagine this might be a good vacation/car trip book.
Source disclosure: Borrowed from the library

Testimony by Anita Shreve was our September book. Again, this was a rather fast read thanks to short chapters. And again, this one fell a bit short for me. Each chapter featured a different character's voice rotating through the story. True to its title, the book starts after an tragic event of date rape (or was it?) at a New England prep school. The characters go through the aftermath of the event telling where their lives at now. What Shreve did accomplish was writing an impressive array of different character voices. If you didn't have the chapter title, often you could tell which character was speaking just by the tone of the section. Though Shreve did an interesting job with the character voice, I felt she had TOO many characters. We had everyone from the main participants in the event to the lunch lady, the liquor store clerk and more. Some people just didn't seem to be needed to tell the story. I also felt that the ending didn't fully satisfy my curiosity about what really happened. I wanted to know more about the girl and her motives. It was never made clear if she really was taken advantage of, or if she just worked the situation to make it appear she was taken advantage of so she wouldn't get into trouble. I sort of wanted to know more about her. My final thought on Testimony is that I felt like she was trying to mimic Jodi Picoult's style of switching character voice, but in this case I felt like it didn't work as well as Picoult. On one good note, this was a good book club book because it provided a LOT of discussion.
Source disclosure: Received book from Hachette. I won a copy in a book blog giveaway.

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

This was our book club pick for April (I'm a little behind...hee hee). It took me awhile to get in the right mood to read it. But once I started it, I really enjoyed it.

The novel flip-flops between two stories. Julia Jarmond in 2001, a journalist who is assigned to write an article about the Vel d'Hiv roundup in France during WWII. Julia is an American married to a Frenchman living in Paris. She writes for an American magazine there. Through her investigation and research, she discovers that not many people are aware that Jewish families were arrested in Paris and sent to camps and eventually Auschwitz. It's a dark time in French history that seemed to be swept under the carpet.

This brings us to the second part of the novel, Sarah's story. Sarah is a young girl whose family is arrested for being Jewish and sent to a camp in the French countryside. When she hears the police coming to round them up, Sarah locks her little brother in a secret cupboard to keep him safe. She doesn't realize that she will not be able to return to get him until its too late. She frets for weeks about her brother and whether anyone had discovered him or if he was still stuck in the cupboard all this time without food and water.

The two stories eventually come together when Julia discovers a connection in her husband's family to Sarah's life. She becomes obsessed with the story and goes to great lengths to find out more about Sarah and what happened to her.

I really liked this book. Granted, I believe I was intrigued by Sarah's story much more than Julia's. Julia was quite a bit obsessive, moreso than I think a person would be in reality. And I felt like a few of the characters were a bit overdramatic. But overall, this was a good book and if you like the subject of World War II and how it affected people, be sure to check this one out.

I have found the novels I've read lately with WWII as a backdrop to be very interesting and informative in providing new viewpoints of the war. Growing up, I mostly learned about the political/logistical aspects of the War and how our country was specifically affected. Never gave much thought to how other countries in Europe were dealing with things. Even though these are fictionalized accounts, I think they provide great stepping stones for thought on the war.

Other novels reviewed with WWII as the time period:
Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
Lily's Crossing
The Boy in Striped Pajamas

The Next Thing On My List by Jill Smolinski

In Smolinksi's novel, we meet June Parker about six months after a tragic accident in which a young woman she just barely met (Marissa) is killed. And June is responsible because she was driving the car involved in the accident. She finds a list in Marissa's purse that lists the 20 things she'd like to accomplish before her next birthday. June feels it is her duty to complete Marissa's list for her and hopefully finishing this task will relieve some of the guilt she feels from the accident.

Some things on the list are relatively easy (going braless for a day, boogie boarding, kiss a stranger) and others prove difficult (change someone's life, show brother gratitude, find a guy named Buddy Finch and "make him pay"). Along the way June just may encounter romance and learn a few things about herself as well.

While certain things were predictable about the story, I enjoyed reading about June's journey. I'm not entirely sure I feel satisfied by the ending, but I was not surprised by it. There was a bit of romance going on with Marissa's brother that bothered me a bit. And I was a little annoyed at who June ends up with at the end of the book. But, the idea to have a list and push yourself to accomplish something instead of idly watching life go by is an interesting one. There is a note at the back of the paperback from the author thanking all the people who wrote to her with their own stories. So this book really spoke to people! Though I have yet to go to my book club meeting and discuss this book as a group, I do feel there's potential for some good discussion. I breezed through the novel. It would make a fantastic beach/vacation read (hmm...maybe we should start a new category here on On My Bookshelf!).

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

The Twilight series has come up a few times at my book club gatherings. A couple had read them (Most notably one member's husband was hard up for reading material on a vacation. He devoured Twilight and then rushed out to buy the other three!) and the rest of us sort of felt like we'd read them if we had to for book club. :-) Well, Twilight was our choice for February. I have yet to have the meeting so I'm not sure what everyone else thought.

I cannot really tell you why I haven't read these books before. It appears the entire rest of the world has read and reviewed them. When Breaking Dawn was released it was all the rage for several weeks on the book blogs. I guess part of my aversion was that it was such a big deal. I guess I didn't want to feel like I should read something just because it was a sensation all over. Especially when the topic was vampires. I'm just not really into vampires. Never really got into Buffy or anything like that. So, of course it was my book club book, I just had to read it then, right? ;-) I took it on vacation with me and it really was the perfect beach read. And just to further illustrate my point about the extreme popularity of this series. As I was sitting by the pool in the second row of chairs. I looked to my right. Three chairs down a woman was also reading Twilight. I looked to my left and four chairs down a woman was reading Breaking Dawn. In front of me someone was reading New Moon. And I just sort of scanned the crowd at that point and there was someone else reading one of the books. I mean, seriously! That was on ONE day.

I have to be completely honest and say I took forever to jump on the Harry Potter bandwagon too because of its sensation-like popularity. It took me seeing a 70-year old man reading it on a plane and obviously enjoying it to convince me to start the series. And well that was fantastic!

Anyhoo...my thoughts on the book. Hmmm...mixed feelings. I actually really liked quite a bit of the book. Maybe the first two-thirds. I enjoyed meeting the characters. I enjoyed the mystery of Edward and why he was the way he was. I enjoying learning about the "reality" of the vampires versus the mythology. It was fun to see how Meyer was so creative with stamping out the myths and stereotypes of vampires. But it started to go downhill for me when the other coven of vampires started hunting Bella down. And then her whining at the end about wanting Edward to turn her into a vampire really got on my nerves. I did read the excerpt of New Moon in the back and I can't decide if I want to continue the series or not. I'm a little curious to know what happens to the characters, but I'm not sure I can handle Bella for three more books. So I guess I'm on the fence with this one. I'll take a break. I have so many, many books I want to read that I think I may come back to the series after I have gotten through a few more on my TBR stack. But I guess I can understand the appeal of these a bit. This one just did not pull me in quite as much as I thought it might.

The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian

The Double Bind was our January book club pick. I actually suggested this one to the group after reading reviews about it. To me it sounded like a multi-layered interesting book and it is tied to the classic The Great Gatsby.

The novel opens with nineteen year old Laurel going on a bike ride in rural Vermont. Two men come upon her and assault her. She does everything possible to fend off the men and is saved from death by three other men biking along who scare the assailants away. From this opening we meet up with Laurel several years later working in a homeless shelter as a social worker. She becomes enamored with the photographs of a schizophrenic client, Bobbie Crocker who passes away. The photographs span decades and include famous faces such as Dick Van Dyke, past presidents, jazz musicians and Jay Gatsby. There are also a few photos of the client as a boy. Laurel is given the job of organizing an exhibit of these photographs as a way to bring the homeless shelter into the public eye. Laurel becomes obsessed with Crocker's photos and finding out who he was. She's convinced that Crocker was indeed Robert Buchannon, son of Tom and Daisy Buchannon, characters in The Great Gatsby. All of this begins a frenetic spiral into a world filled only with linking Crocker to the world of Gatsby. Laurel's boss, boyfriend and friends all become worried about her as she becomes more obsessed with the photographs.

As you read, you can tell the book is building up to quite an ending, you're just not quite sure what it is. Then all of sudden it twists and hits you. I won't reveal anymore because I don't want to ruin it for anymore. I liked this book quite a bit and enjoyed how it related to The Great Gatsby. In fact, I believe I will reread Gatsby in the near future. I haven't read it since I was a junior in high school. I really like the modern take on an old classic. And although I somewhat saw the twist at the end coming it wasn't entirely predictable to me and I was satisfied with it. The end also made me go back and reread short sections of the book to see if I saw it in a new light. I would recommend this one to anyone looking for a book with a little more depth.

Unfortunately, I cannot report how the rest of the book club felt about the book because our meeting was canceled. But we plan to discuss it next month when we meet to discuss Stephanie Meyer's Twilight. Yes, I have resisted the Twilight bandwagon for this long. I knew the only way I would read it was through book club. It is not because I think its going to be bad. I just am not that excited about vampires in general as a subject. And I'm a little worried I will be annoyed by Bella's whininess from other reviews I have read. But I plan to delve into the book on a very long plane ride. We'll see what I think of it. I may have to rush out and read the rest of them. I'll be sure to report back on that one!

Other reviews of The Double Bind:
A Life in Books
The Hidden Side of a Leaf
Girls Just Reading (This is the review that made me add this to my TBR list)

Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah

I read this one for my book club in December. It's a nearly 500-page hardcover (coming out in paperback in January) but quite a quick read. We are introduced to the two main characters Kate and Tully as children, both in need of a real friend. They become instant and inseparable friends. Kate comes from a very traditional family: parents still married, brother, mother cares about what she does. Tully (short for Tallulah) never knew her father, her drug-addicted mother was in and out of her life, she grew up living with her grandparents, and just had a very unstable childhood. Kate was attracted to Tully's rebellious, unconventional nature and Tully loved Kate's homey family.

The book follows these two ladies through the next 3 decades of their lives and their friendship. The two women grow up to have very different lives. Kate becomes a married, stay at home mom to three children while Tully has a very successful career as a TV news journalist. She never marries and has no children. There friendship takes a few hits as they get older and ultimately they end up not speaking for more than a year until tragedy brings them together again. The end of this one is a tearjerker and I spent much of the book wondering when the inevitable tragedy would occur and to whom (I'll keep it to myself so no spoilers!).

Overall, this was a fast read, but it could have benefited from one more edit before publishing. It really seemed to drag out at 500 pages. And I feel a bit of the older years could have been edited down. Tully's selfishness really got on my nerves after awhile. I give it about 3 out of 5 stars. I may try something else by this author just because it was a quick read and she has a few other books that sound interesting. But I'll check the page length before delving into them. The rest of my book club had luke-warm feelings toward this one as well.

Finding Nouf by Zoe Ferraris

My book club (really more of a wine and gossip club, but we do read...well, some of us do) chose Finding Nouf for our December book, and I found it riveting. Zoe Ferraris, an American formerly married to a Saudi, gives us a unique look at Saudi culture. The action begins with a search for a missing girl, but this is a mystery the way Kate Atkinson's Jackson Brodie novels are mysteries, which is to say it is a literary novel with a mystery at its core. Ferraris does a brilliant job of slowly unraveling the mystery amidst a portrayal of the extreme gender segregation in Saudi culture and its impact on both women and men. At first, I was put off by the point-of-view character being male--how can you look at the restrictions on women through a man's eyes? But Ferraris chose Nayir as her vehicle for showing how gender segregation impacts men, and it's fascinating. Nayir is naive in the way of women, uncomfortable when a woman speaks "brazenly"--that is, without a man first having spoken to her--and can barely think when confronted with the sight of a woman's ankle, much less her face. He is unmarried and frustrated by the ridiculous process of finding a wife. The story begins with Nouf's rich, influential family asking Nayir to look into Nouf's death after they've used their influence to shut down the official investigation. Katya, an assistant in the morgue and fiancee to Nayir's best friend Othman (adopted brother to Nouf), ends up helping Nayir. They struggle to peel back the layers of the family's secrets while avoiding the wrath of the religious police as they meet to share information.

There's an extensive amazon review detailing the "errors" Ferraris has made in matters of Saudi culture and geography. The geography doesn't bother me in the least--it's a novel, for heaven's sake! Does Ferraris really have to stick to the distances between cities in reality? Does it matter for the purposes of the novel that one can't actually take an overnight bus from Jeddah to Muscat? However, some of his points, such as the use of paid escorts (women are not permitted to drive in Saudi Arabia), are more to the point. Googling, though, did turn up discussion of paid drivers for women in Saudi Arabia, so I'm not sure if things have changed since the reviewer lived in Saudi Arabia or if there are regional differences. Ferraris did stay in Saudi Arabia for almost a year following the first Gulf War, so she's not completely inventing the culture she describes. Times may have changed, or she may have made some changes for literary purposes. It's an interesting question, I think--since Ferraris is giving a rare glimpse into Saudi culture (possibly the only glimpse many of us will get), how accurate does she have to be? Does she have as much literary license as a novelist whose work is set in a more well-described culture? I don't think there's an easy answer, and several scenes ring so true (Katya moving her head from side to side to be able to see the contents of her purse, Katya sitting in the drawing room with her future in-laws) that they may outweigh nitpicky details.

Finding Nouf was a riveting mystery (though I wasn't quite satisfied with the resolution) set in a fascinating discussion of a strange culture. The discussion of the limitations on men and women was really interesting, and the development of Nayir's attitudes toward Katya was complex and well-developed. I highly recommend this book.

In the Woods by Tana French

I have seen this book EVERYWHERE in the last year. So I'll save you the long-winded synopsis. :-) Check out these reviews if you haven't had a chance to hear about this book yet: The Written Word, The Optimistic Bookfool, or here for an infinite list of blog links.

In the Woods was our book club pick for November. Hmm....I have mixed feelings about this. I think I give it a 4 out of 5 overall. But, as usual for me, books that have a lot of hype tend to come with a lot of expectations. And I usually don't like overhyped books just because they tend to be a bit of a let-down for me. Everyone says what a page turner this was. It wasn't super slow, but I found parts of it dragging a bit and it didn't help that I was busy while trying to read this and could only sneak in 5-10 minutes here and there. So the dragging might have been more my fault than French's. She had a lyrical quality to her writing which was nice at times, and other times I was thinking, "just get on with it already". I liked the relationship between Rob/Adam and Cassie. I was a little dismayed to see how it turned out, but I supposed what happened between them was realistic and inevitable. My biggest gripe with the book is that you are left hanging about a major section of the mystery. I wanted to know what happened in the worst way. And French just left us never knowing. I was highly annoyed by that.

Otherwise, a solid book and I look forward to reading The Likeness as everyone claims its even better. Well, okay, there I go with the expectations again.

Killer Heels by Sheryl J. Anderson

It seems our book club has been on a bit of a chick lit kick lately (Killer Heels, Sundays at Tiffanys, Last Summer (of you and me), and Bitter is the New Black). While I like the occasional light chick-lit read, I am not one to read a lot in a row. I never did get into The Last Summer. But I have to say I enjoyed Killer Heels more than the others. And I'm looking forward to the very NON-chick-lit pick of The Shack by William P. Young for our October book.

I think I enjoyed Killer Heels more than the rest because its technically classified as a mystery. Molly Forrester is an advice columnist for Zeitgeist magazine in New York. She and her friend stumble across the dead body of her co-worker and Molly becomes determined to figure out who murdered him. Because who wouldn't do that for a colleague, right? It had nothing to do with the fact that it would be an amazing story to write and get her out of the advice doldrums. She and her two best friends work through the various witnesses and suspects and do indeed figure out the killer AND she gets her article published in a big time magazine!

This was a very light, fun read. Just what I needed after The Eight. I read this basically in a day versus the month it took me to get though that book! Whew! So nice to just whiz on through this book. There's not a lot of depth here. I liked the character of Molly and I enjoyed her friends. It did have a Sex in the City feel with Molly and her girlfriends and their banter. The mystery itself is not that mysterious. I suspected something was up with the character who was the killer, but I wasn't sure if she was having an affair with the deceased or if she killed him, or BOTH! :-D (And there are multiple mistresses in the book, so I didn't give anything away!)

A fun read, but not sure it will foster much deep discussion at book club.

Sundays at Tiffany's by James Patterson/Gabrielle Charbonnet

This was our book club book for August. I have to say, I'm glad it was a quick read. I read it in a day. And I would have been upset to spend more time on it than that.

The basic premise of the book: little girl has imaginary friend named Michael until age 9, when, by the rules governing imaginary friends, he has to say good-bye and move on. Also per the rules, she is to forget about him. Well, she doesn't forget about him and spends the next 23 years feeling lonely and not very happy. Until one day, Michael runs into her when he is between "assignments". Yada, yada, yada. They fall in love and he goes from being imaginary to becoming human.

Okay, I didn't hate this book. But I do give it about 2.5 to 3 stars out of 5. It would only get 3 because its a very fast read and therefore doesn't waste too much of your time. This just really was not the book for me. I'm not into romance/sappy books too much to begin with and I'm a bit of a practical person. So the premise was just a bit too far-fetched to me to be even remotely believable. The "magic" that was supposed to be there just wasn't for me. I'm not totally against this sort of thing. Have you seen the movie The Lake House with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock? A "magical" mailbox that helps them communicate even though they are years apart in time. I did like that one. The premise seemed a bit far-fetched to me, but it worked in that movie. Maybe I would like this better as a movie, instead of a book. But even then, I don't know.

Also, one other giant annoyance. The woman on the cover of the book, who presumably is Jane the main character, has dark hair. In the book, the character has blonde hair. So they couldn't even get the cover right? Did the marketing people just miss that? I think the blonde hair is mentioned multiple times. Okay, enough time wasted on this one.

See also: Julie's review at Girls Just Reading

Bitter is the New Black by Jen Lancaster

The full title of this book is: Bitter is the New Black: Confessions of a Condescending, Egomaniacal, Self-Centered Smartass, Or, Why You Should Never Carry a Prada Bag into the Unemployment Office. It was our book club pick for June. We have yet to meet and discuss but several members had already read or started it at our last meeting and they overwhelming felt it was hysterical and a fun read.

This memoir describes about two years of Jen Lancaster's life in Chicago. We open with her in a Vice President position in business sales something or other. (I am sort of lost in the business world myself, since I was in the non-profit world when I did work outside the home.) She was young, cute, and very successful at her job, but ended up laid off after a corporate merger and 9/11. This left her VERY bitter. She tried for nearly 2 years to get a job with progressively less standards. She saw her opportunities, money and friends dwindle. She started a blog to entertain herself during the day (currently known as jennsylvania). Then her husband lost his job as well and they REALLY were in DIRE straits (according to her). She had to move to a non-penthouse apartment in a less desirable neighborhood, work for a temp agency (once). Eventually, her husband found a job and Lancaster tried her hand at writing (hence this book). They got back on their feet and there you have it.

Although, all of this sounds really depressing, it's not at all. Lancaster writes with a fun sarcastic tone and has absolutely no filter when it comes to anything. While her style of writing is entertaining, knowing this is a real person's life and that she actually thinks this way, annoyed me a little. I mean really, she was surprised when people looked at her Prada bag at the unemployment office and then rolled their eyes? Come on. Lancaster just seemed like such a snob to me. I think I would have thought this was more funny if I read it as a fiction book instead of constantly thinking, "Wow! She's really like this?!"

I guess I think of myself as a fairly practical person so it was hard for me to take in some of her shopping obsessions and her "need" for really expensive things. It just seemed so stupid to me that they didn't move out of their super expensive apartment long before they did and she just frittered her unemployment checks away. I just had no sympathy for her at all. So I say again, if you're a practical, hard-working, money-saving person, read this as a fiction book and you'll probably be very entertained (ala Confessions of a Shopaholic) and not annoyed.

I actually feel like I'm being a bit hard on the book and maybe I'm taking it a bit too serious. Normally, I wouldn't even think to second guess my feelings on a book, I would just write what I feel and be done with it, but I'd heard so many things about it being sooo funny. Maybe I had too high of expectations. I guess I'll be curious to hear what other book club members thought of it at our meeting next week. :-)

Woman in Red by Eileen Goudge

This was our book club pick for May. I actually did not vote for this one when we were voting on new choices and I thought the description of it sounded really depressing. So I was not actually looking forward to reading this one. However, this is a case of don't judge a book by its cover. I really enjoyed it much more than I thought I would.

The book is about a woman, Alice, who spends nine years in prison for running over the drunk driver who killed one of her two sons. While in prison, her husband divorces her and eventually her son does not want to visit her anymore. She gets out and returns to the small town where she grew up. She tries to rebuild her life and get to know her son and family again despite the stigma of being an ex-con. She also meets a new man (Colin) who lost his wife in the 9/11 attacks and is just coming out a downward spiral himself. As if all of this is not difficult enough for her to deal with, her son is falsely accused of raping a girl and finds himself in trouble with the law. Hmmm...like mother, like son?

See, I told you depressing, right? BUT, it turns out, it's not quite as depressing as it sounds. And there is a back story interspersed throughout the book about Alice's grandmother and Colin's grandfather. A love story. This book actually somewhat reminded me of a Jodi Picoult book without the extra legal thriller part of it. The whole book is about different relationships old and new. And in the end all the different threads come together. I absolutely loved the epilogue. I think Goudge did a great job writing this and keeping all the characters interesting with a solid story line. It's as long as it needs to be without anything extra. This is definitely not one I would have picked up at the bookstore, but I'm glad I had the chance to read it. And really I had a hard time putting it down!

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Relin

Wow. I just finished this book. I hardly know where to begin. What an amazingly interesting story. Greg Mortenson is a man who decided a little over a decade ago to single-handedly take on changing the Middle East. During a failed attempt to summit K2, Mortenson wandered lost into a small village in Northern Pakistan. After being entranced with these impoverished people, Mortenson promised to build their children a school. At the time, they would kneel in the dirt and practice their multiplication tables writing with sticks in the dirt. This one promise of a school turned into what is now the Central Asia Institute founded by Mortenson.

Three Cups of Tea details his tremendous journey from the side of a mountain to building many schools throughout Pakistan and Afghanistan in order to secularly educate the children of the region. His belief is that if we help educate the children there, they will have options and will not have to be educated in schools run by religious extremists. Therefore, the ideals of the Taliban and other extremist groups of that region will simply die out with future educated generations. Mortenson's influence in the area has not only built schools, but women's vocational centers, and proper water supplies. He actively promoted education for girls and women so they would not have to live naively in their husband's shadow. They could become empowered and whatever they wanted to be.

The book was incredibly interesting and filled with details about the cultures Mortenson encounters regularly on his trips to the Middle East. I learned more about the Middle East from this one book than anything the American media has published since before 9/11. The story was moving and really makes you want to support Mortenson's cause. The old saying goes, "one person really can make a difference." Well, it is truly amazing what this one human being has accomplished and continues to accomplish. The book is pretty long and I felt like maybe there were a few details that could have been more glossed over or condensed. But because the overall effect of the book was so intriguing, it makes you keep reading on. Read this book. And then tell more people to read it.

I have long ignored nonfiction books as something to read in my spare time. I think often I look to books to escape stress from everyday life so I typically don't want to read things that I find difficult, sad, "boring" or disturbing. Yet, I've enjoyed the last several nonfiction books I've read and found them to be none of the above. Perhaps I need to rethink my preconceived notions about the nonfiction genre. :-)

Edited to add: I meant to mention that Mortenson spent much of his childhood growing up in Africa with his family. The whole section about his childhood reminded me of the book The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, one of my all-time favorite books. I've also had the book Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi on my bookshelf for a couple years now. I may get around to reading it now. It is about a small group of women in Iran who gathered secretly to read forbidden Western classics.