February Book

Since February is a short month, I thought I'd let you know now what book I'm choosing.

Edenbrooke, by Julianne Donaldson
"Marianne Daventry will do anything to escape the boredom of Bath and the amorous attentions of an unwanted suitor. So when an invitation arrives from her twin sister, Cecily, to join her at a sprawling country estate, she jumps at the chance. Thinking she'll be able to relax and enjoy her beloved English countryside while her sister snags the handsome heir of Edenbrooke, Marianne finds that even the best laid plans can go awry. From a terrifying run-in with a highwayman to a seemingly harmless flirtation, Marianne finds herself embroiled in an unexpected adventure filled with enough romance and intrigue to keep her mind racing. Will Marianne be able to rein in her traitorous heart, or will a mysterious stranger sweep her off her feet? Fate had something other than a relaxing summer in mind when it sent Marianne to Edenbrooke."

There's a pretty big hold list at the library, so put it on hold asap.  I have a copy I'll bring to Tristen's on Wednesday, and mine should be coming in at the library soon.  I'll pass that one around too.

I loved this book, and read it in just a couple days.  It's just a fun, and cute book.  I've heard a few people say they read it twice before returning it.

See you Wednesday at Tristen's!

-Michelle

January 2013

From Tristen:

Hey Ladies! 

The book I have chosen is:
The Happiness Project by Gretchin Rubin. I haven't read it yet, but I've heard good things about it. I hope you all like it. I thought it would be fitting to talk about happiness in January because this is the time when the winter blues seem to set in for many of us, me included. 

It's a short book and only $5 on the kindle. I haven't checked the library. If any of you do, let us know.

I will have book club at my house on Wednesday January 30th. There will of course be lots of food, so come hungry!

See you then!

December

No Book Club this month!!

November

Sorry I haven't kept up on the blog.  BUT, I have kept the list of books we've read updated (to the right side of the blog).

From Jenn Olsen:

Hi Ladies,

I will be hosting book club for November. The book I have picked to read is Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi.

Here is a summary from the book;

"You can't touch me," I whisper.
I'm lying, is what i don't tell him.
He can touch me, is what I'll never tell him.
But things happen when people touch me.
Strange things.
Bad things.
No one knows why Juliette's touch is fatal, but The Reestablishment has plans for her. Plans to use her as a weapon.
But Juliette had plans of her own.
After a lifetime without freedom, she's finally discovering a strength to fight back for the very first time- and to find a future with the one boy she thought she'd lost forever.

I'm planning on Thursday November 29th to have everyone over to my house.
Hope you enjoy the book!

Jenn Olsen

June

I have book club for June and wanted to let you know the book we will be reading. I chose a quick easy book for summer... We will be meeting on June 20th wed at 7pm . Hope you all enjoy this book.

Out of my Mind  by Sharon Draper.

Eleven-year-old Melody has a photographic memory. Her head is like a video camera that is always recording. Always. And there's no delete button. She's the smartest kid in her whole school-but NO ONE knows it. Most people -her teachers and doctors included-don't think she's capable of learning, and up until recently her school days consisted of listening to the same preschool-level alphabet lessons again and again and again. If only she could speak up, if only she could tell people what she thinks and knows...but she can't because Melody can't talk. She can't walk. She can't write.

Being stuck inside her head is making Melody go out of her mind-that is, until she discovers something that will allow her to speak for the first time ever. At last Melody has a voice...but not everyone around her is ready to hear it.

From multiple Coretta Scott King Award winner Sharon M. Draper comes a story full of heartache and hope. Get ready to meet a girl whose voice you'll never forget.
-Sheila Jones

May Book Club

Hey everyone! I (Emily Judd) am hosting Book Club for the month of May and I have chosen the book "Unbroken: A World War 2 story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption" by Laura Hillenbrand

There are a bunch of people that have it on hold at the library though, so I hope we can all get a hold of it. I am putting it on hold now, along with the audio book and stuff so I will let you know when/if I get it! I'm not sure what date I want yet so I will keep you posted on that as well!

Here is the synopsis:

On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood.  Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared.  It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane’s bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard.  So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Second World War.

The lieutenant’s name was Louis Zamperini.  In boyhood, he’d been a cunning and incorrigible delinquent, breaking into houses, brawling, and fleeing his home to ride the rails.  As a teenager, he had channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics and within sight of the four-minute mile.  But when war had come, the athlete had become an airman, embarking on a journey that led to his doomed flight, a tiny raft, and a drift into the unknown.

Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, a foundering raft, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater.  Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor; brutality with rebellion.  His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will.

In her long-awaited new book, Laura Hillenbrand writes with the same rich and vivid narrative voice she displayed in Seabiscuit.  Telling an unforgettable story of a man’s journey into extremity, Unbroken is a testament to the resilience of the human mind, body, and spirit.

April Book Club

I have chosen to read the book "Hotel on the corner of bitter and sweet" by Jamie Ford.  Here is a synopsis of the book:
In the opening pages of Jamie Ford’s stunning debut novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Henry Lee comes upon a crowd gathered outside the Panama Hotel, once the gateway to Seattle’s Japantown. It has been boarded up for decades, but now the new owner has made an incredible discovery: the belongings of Japanese families, left when they were rounded up and sent to internment camps during World War II. As Henry looks on, the owner opens a Japanese parasol.

This simple act takes old Henry Lee back to the 1940s, at the height of the war, when young Henry’s world is a jumble of confusion and excitement, and to his father, who is obsessed with the war in China and having Henry grow up American. While “scholarshipping” at the exclusive Rainier Elementary, where the white kids ignore him, Henry meets Keiko Okabe, a young Japanese American student. Amid the chaos of blackouts, curfews, and FBI raids, Henry and Keiko forge a bond of friendship–and innocent love–that transcends the long-standing prejudices of their Old World ancestors. And after Keiko and her family are swept up in the evacuations to the internment camps, she and Henry are left only with the hope that the war will end, and that their promise to each other will be kept.

Forty years later, Henry Lee is certain that the parasol belonged to Keiko. In the hotel’s dark dusty basement he begins looking for signs of the Okabe family’s belongings and for a long-lost object whose value he cannot begin to measure. Now a widower, Henry is still trying to find his voice–words that might explain the actions of his nationalistic father; words that might bridge the gap between him and his modern, Chinese American son; words that might help him confront the choices he made many years ago.

Set during one of the most conflicted and volatile times in American history, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is an extraordinary story of commitment and enduring hope. In Henry and Keiko, Jamie Ford has created an unforgettable duo whose story teaches us of the power of forgiveness and the human heart.

I'm planning on hosting bookclub on April 19th at 7:00pm. Hope to see you all!
Crystal