tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57089410837075310722024-03-14T10:42:08.682-07:002010 Mommies Book ClubTheBump.com's 2010 Mommies once-a-month Book Club- We meet on the web forum, pick a book each month, read it, and discuss!Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger20125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5708941083707531072.post-27405009462788025792012-01-23T12:44:00.000-08:002012-01-23T12:44:14.705-08:00February Choices1. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy: A George Smiley Novel - By John Le Carre<br />
<img src="http://www.impassionedcinema.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/51D25Q003KL.jpeg" /><br />
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The first novel in John le Carré's celebrated Karla trilogy, <i>Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy</i> is a heart-stopping tale of international intrigue. <br />
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The man he knew as "Control" is dead, and the young Turks who forced him out now run the Circus. But George Smiley isn't quite ready for retirement-especially when a pretty, would-be defector surfaces with a shocking accusation: a Soviet mole has penetrated the highest level of British Intelligence. Relying only on his wits and a small, loyal cadre, Smiley recognizes the hand of Karla-his Moscow Centre nemesis-and sets a trap to catch the traitor. <br />
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2. The Flame Aphabet - By Ben Macus<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/030737937X/ref=sib_dp_kd#reader-link"><img alt="The Flame Alphabet" border="0" height="300" id="prodImage" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51toUkdEIzL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg" width="300" /></a><br />
A terrible epidemic has struck the country and the sound of children’s speech has become lethal. Radio transmissions from strange sources indicate that people are going into hiding. All Sam and Claire need to do is look around the neighborhood: In the park, parents wither beneath the powerful screams of their children. At night, suburban side streets become routes of shameful escape for fathers trying to get outside the radius of affliction. <br />
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With Claire nearing collapse, it seems their only means of survival is to flee from their daughter, Esther, who laughs at her parents’ sickness, unaware that in just a few years she, too, will be susceptible to the language toxicity. But Sam and Claire find it isn’t so easy to leave the daughter they still love, even as they waste away from her malevolent speech. On the eve of their departure, Claire mysteriously disappears, and Sam, determined to find a cure for this new toxic language, presses on alone into a world beyond recognition. <br />
3. The Age of Innocence - By Edith Wharton<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/1463717717/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link"><img alt="The Age of Innocence" border="0" height="300" id="prodImage" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51V0fHyn9SL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg" width="300" /></a><br />
Somewhere in this book, Wharton observes that clever liars always come up with good stories to back up their fabrications, but that really clever liars don't bother to explain anything at all. This is the kind of insight that makes <i>The Age of Innocence </i>so indispensable. Wharton's story of the upper classes of Old New York, and Newland Archer's impossible love for the disgraced Countess Olenska, is a perfectly wrought book about an era when upper-class culture in this country was still a mixture of American and European extracts, and when "society" had rules as rigid as any in history. <br />
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4. The Magicians- Lev Grossman<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0452296293/ref=sib_dp_kd#reader-link"><img alt="The Magicians: A Novel" border="0" height="300" id="prodImage" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/510h5K3dseL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg" width="300" /></a><br />
Like everyone else, precocious high school senior Quentin Coldwater assumes that magic isn't real, until he finds himself admitted to a very secretive and exclusive college of magic in upstate New York. There he indulges in joys of college-friendship, love, sex, and booze- and receives a rigorous education in modern sorcery. But magic doesn't bring the happiness and adventure Quentin thought it would. After graduation, he and his friends stumble upon a secret that sets them on a remarkable journey that may just fulfill Quentin's yearning. But their journey turns out to be darker and more dangerous than they'd imagined. Psychologically piercing and dazzlingly inventive, <i>The Magicians</i> is an enthralling coming-of-age tale about magic practiced in the real world-where good and evil aren't black and white, and power comes at a terrible price.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5708941083707531072.post-9789963572280219912011-12-23T20:16:00.000-08:002011-12-23T20:16:52.085-08:00January Book Selections!I can't believe its been a whole year of the book club! This has been really awesome guys. Thank you to everyone that's participated, whether its every month or just when you can. <br />
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Here are the selected choices for this month!<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-media/product-gallery/055357342X/ref=cm_ciu_pdp_images_1?ie=UTF8&index=1"><img alt="A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 3)" class="customer_image" height="300" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61i8VlWHTQL._AA300_.jpg" width="300" /></a><br />
1. Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin<br />
Of the five contenders for power, one is dead, another in disfavor, and still the wars rage as violently as ever, as alliances are made and broken. Joffrey, of House Lannister, sits on the Iron Throne, the uneasy ruler of the land of the Seven Kingdoms. His most bitter rival, Lord Stannis, stands defeated and disgraced, the victim of the jealous sorceress who holds him in her evil thrall. But young Robb, of House Stark, still rules the North from the fortress of Riverrun. Robb plots against his despised Lannister enemies, even as they hold his sister hostage at King’s Landing, the seat of the Iron Throne. Meanwhile, making her way across a blood-drenched continent is the exiled queen, Daenerys, mistress of the only three dragons still left in the world. <br />
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But as opposing forces maneuver for the final titanic showdown, an army of barbaric wildlings arrives from the outermost line of civilization. In their vanguard is a horde of mythical Others--a supernatural army of the living dead whose animated corpses are unstoppable. As the future of the land hangs in the balance, no one will rest until the Seven Kingdoms have exploded in a veritable storm of swords. . .<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0452296293/ref=sib_dp_kd#reader-link"><img alt="The Magicians: A Novel" border="0" height="300" id="prodImage" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/510h5K3dseL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg" width="300" /></a><br />
2. The Magicians by Lev Grossman<br />
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Like everyone else, precocious high school senior Quentin Coldwater assumes that magic isn't real, until he finds himself admitted to a very secretive and exclusive college of magic in upstate New York. There he indulges in joys of college-friendship, love, sex, and booze- and receives a rigorous education in modern sorcery. But magic doesn't bring the happiness and adventure Quentin thought it would. After graduation, he and his friends stumble upon a secret that sets them on a remarkable journey that may just fulfill Quentin's yearning. But their journey turns out to be darker and more dangerous than they'd imagined.<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0307740994/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link"><img alt="Never Let Me Go (Movie Tie-In Edition) (Vintage International)" border="0" height="300" id="prodImage" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51N1YmM77YL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg" width="300" /></a><br />
3. Never Let me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro<br />
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All children should believe they are special. But the students of Hailsham, an elite school in the English countryside, are so special that visitors shun them, and only by rumor and the occasional fleeting remark by a teacher do they discover their unconventional origins and strange destiny. Kazuo Ishiguro's sixth novel, <i>Never Let Me Go</i>, is a masterpiece of indirection. Like the students of Hailsham, readers are "told but not told" what is going on and should be allowed to discover the secrets of Hailsham and the truth about these children on their own. <br />
Offsetting the bizarreness of these revelations is the placid, measured voice of the narrator, Kathy H., a 31-year-old Hailsham alumna who, at the close of the 1990s, is consciously ending one phase of her life and beginning another. She is in a reflective mood, and recounts not only her childhood memories, but her quest in adulthood to find out more about Hailsham and the idealistic women who ran it. Although often poignant, Kathy's matter-of-fact narration blunts the sharper emotional effects you might expect in a novel that deals with illness, self-sacrifice, and the severe restriction of personal freedoms.<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/B006MCS3CC/ref=dp_image_0?ie=UTF8&n=133140011&s=digital-text" target="AmazonHelp"><img alt="The Dead Witness: A Connoisseur's Collection of Victorian Detective Stories" border="0" height="300" id="prodImage" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51vVJonsVuL._SL500_AA278_PIkin4,BottomRight,-46,22_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg" width="300" /></a><br />
4. The Dead Witness by Michael Sims<br />
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<div><i>The Dead Witness</i> gathers the finest adventures among private and police detectives from the nineteenth century and into the early twentieth--including a wide range of overlooked gems creating the finest ever anthology of Victorian detective stories. "The Dead Witness," the 1866 title story by Australian writer Mary Fortune, is the first known detective story by a woman, a suspenseful clue-strewn manhunt in the Outback. This forgotten treasure sets the tone for the whole anthology-surprises from every direction, including more female detectives and authors than you can find in any other anthology of its kind. Pioneer women writers such as Anna Katharine Green, Mary E. Wilkins, and C. L. Pirkis will take you from rural America to bustling London. Female detectives range from Loveday Brooke to Dorcas Dene and Madelyn Mack. In other stories, you will meet November Joe, the Canadian half-Native backwoods detective who stars in "The Crime at Big Tree Portage" and demonstrates that Sherlockian attention to detail works as well in the woods as in the city. Holmes himself is here, too, of course-not in another reprint of an already well-known story, but in the first two chapters of A Study in Scarlet, the first Holmes case, in which the great man meets and dazzles Watson. Authors range the gamut from luminaries such as Charles Dickens to the forgotten author who helped inspire Edgar Allan Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," the first real detective story. Bret Harte is here and so is E. W. Hornung, creator of master thief Raffles. Naturally Wilkie Collins couldn't be left behind. Michael Sims's new collection unfolds the fascinating and entertaining youth of what would mature into the most popular genre of the twentieth century.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5708941083707531072.post-85636494328865188742011-11-26T08:08:00.000-08:002011-11-26T08:08:55.448-08:00December Book Selections1. What Child is This? <br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0440226848/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link"><img alt="What Child Is This?: A Christmas Story" border="0" height="300" id="prodImage" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41H6G2QGXBL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg" width="300" /></a><br />
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A heart-tugging story with an upbeat ending, told in alternating chapters by the young people involved. Eight-year-old Katie, an emotionally starved foster child, writes a wish on a paper bell that will be hung on a Christmas tree in a local restaurant. There, members of the community can choose a request and give a gift to a needy child. However, Katie doesn't ask for toys or clothing?she wishes for a family. Although the social worker says her request is inappropriate, Matt, a high school student who lives in the same foster home and works in the restaurant, hangs the bell on the tree. Liz, Matt's classmate, is upset when her uncaring father reads the wish, calls it ridiculous, and tears up the bell. Meanwhile, Liz's older sister struggles with her grief over the recent death of her baby. When Matt tells Katie on Christmas Eve that her wish will not come true, the devastated girl runs out into a blizzard, setting off a chain of events that brings about a resolution befitting a holiday tale. Showing her flair for adolescent angst, Cooney allows the characters to speak for themselves, eventually weaving their lives together into a fitting climax. A moving, fast paced novel, sure to appeal to Cooney's fans.<br />
2. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0307264602/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link"><img alt="The Handmaid's Tale (Everyman's Library)" border="0" height="300" id="prodImage" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/511MKBHv95L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg" width="300" /></a><br />
Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, serving in the household of the enigmatic Commander and his bitter wife. She may go out once a day to markets whose signs are now pictures because women are not allowed to read. She must pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, for in a time of declining birthrates her value lies in her fertility, and failure means exile to the dangerously polluted Colonies. Offred can remember a time when she lived with her husband and daughter and had a job, before she lost even her own name. Now she navigates the intimate secrets of those who control her every move, risking her life in breaking the rules. <br />
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3. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0698400852/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link"><img alt="A Christmas Carol" border="0" height="300" id="prodImage" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61YACgc34yL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg" width="300" /></a><br />
<div class="content"> <div id="outer_postBodyPS" style="height: auto; overflow: hidden; z-index: 1;"> <div id="postBodyPS">The tale begins on Christmas Eve seven years after the death of Ebenezer Scrooge's business partner Jacob Marley. Scrooge is established within the first stave (chapter) as a greedy and stingy businessman who has no place in his life for kindness, compassion, charity, or benevolence. After being warned by Marley's ghost to change his ways, Scrooge is visited by three additional ghosts "each in its turn" who accompany him to various scenes with the hope of achieving his transformation. The first of the spirits, the Ghost of Christmas Past, takes Scrooge to the scenes of his boyhood and youth which stir the old miser's gentle and tender side by reminding him of a time when he was more innocent. The second spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Present, takes Scrooge to several radically differing scenes (a joy-filled market of people buying the makings of Christmas dinner, the family feast of Scrooge's near-impoverished clerk Bob Cratchit, a miner's cottage, and a lighthouse among other sites) in order to evince from the miser a sense of responsibility for his fellow man. The third spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, harrows Scrooge with dire visions of the future if he does not learn and act upon what he has witnessed. Scrooge's own neglected and untended grave is revealed, prompting the miser to aver that he will change his ways in hopes of changing these "shadows of what may be." In the fifth and final stave, Scrooge awakens Christmas morning with joy and love in his heart, then spends the day with his nephew's family after anonymously sending a prize turkey to the Crachit home for Christmas dinner. Scrooge has become a different man overnight, and now treats his fellow men with kindness, generosity, and compassion, gaining a reputation as a man who embodies the spirit of Christmas. The story closes with the narrator confirming the validity, completeness, and permanence of Scrooge's transformation.</div><div> </div><div>4. Atonement by Ian McEwan</div><div><img alt="Atonement: A Novel" border="0" height="300" id="prodImage" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51fS5vrBjZL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg" width="300" /></div><div>We meet 13-year-old Briony Tallis in the summer of 1935, as she attempts to stage a production of her new drama "The Trials of Arabella" to welcome home her older, idolized brother Leon. But she soon discovers that her cousins, the glamorous Lola and the twin boys Jackson and Pierrot, aren't up to the task, and directorial ambitions are abandoned as more interesting prospects of preoccupation come onto the scene. The charlady's son, Robbie Turner, appears to be forcing Briony's sister Cecilia to strip in the fountain and sends her obscene letters; Leon has brought home a dim chocolate magnate keen for a war to promote his new "Army Ammo" chocolate bar; and upstairs, Briony's migraine-stricken mother Emily keeps tabs on the house from her bed. Soon, secrets emerge that change the lives of everyone present....<br />
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5. Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0316078913/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link"><img alt="Holidays on Ice" border="0" height="300" id="prodImage" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/518olel2IqL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg" width="300" /></a><br />
David Sedaris's beloved holiday collection is new again with six more pieces, including a never before published story. Along with such favorites<i> </i>as the diaries of a Macy's elf and the annals of two very competitive families, are Sedaris's tales of tardy trick-or-treaters ("Us and Them"); the difficulties of explaining the Easter Bunny to the French ("Jesus Shaves"); what to do when you've been locked out in a snowstorm ("Let It Snow"); the puzzling Christmas traditions of other nations ("Six to Eight Black Men"); what Halloween at the medical examiner's looks like ("The Monster Mash"); and a barnyard secret Santa scheme gone awry ("Cow and Turkey").</div><div> </div></div><div class="psGradient" id="psGradient" oldblock="block" style="display: none;"></div><div id="psPlaceHolder" oldblock="block" style="display: none; height: 20px;"> <div id="expandPS" style="z-index: 3;"><span class="swSprite s_expandChevron"></span><a class="showMore" href="http://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Carol-Charles-Dickens/dp/1456407872/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1322323485&sr=1-1#">Show More</a> </div></div><div id="collapsePS" style="display: none; padding-top: 3px;"><span class="swSprite s_collapseChevron"></span><a class="showLess" href="http://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Carol-Charles-Dickens/dp/1456407872/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1322323485&sr=1-1#"><span style="color: #003399;">Show Less</span></a> </div><noscript></noscript></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5708941083707531072.post-8943559512011544362011-10-26T15:00:00.000-07:002011-10-26T15:00:00.551-07:00November Book Choices!1. <span style="font-size: small;">The Icing on the Cupcake by Jennifer Ross</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/034549296X/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link"><img alt="The Icing on the Cupcake: A Novel" border="0" height="400" id="prodImage" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51MbHA2008L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg" width="400" /></a></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Ansley thought her fiancé, Parish, loved her unconditionally until he dumps her. In order to escape the subsequent gossip and pity, she heads to New York City to visit her maternal grandmother, Vivian, whom she has never met. While Vivian is delighted to have the chance to reconnect with her family, she currently has problems of her own: her recently deceased husband’s creative tax shelters have brought down the wrath of the IRS, specifically agent 1432. As a way of coping, Ansley begins baking cupcakes, and as she mixes up batches of home-baked goodness, she realizes she may have stumbled on the answer to her and her grandmother’s problems. Striking the perfect balance between tart wit and sweet romance, Ross spoons up a thoughtful blend of chick lit and women’s fiction, complete with a tempting assortment of cupcake recipes, the icing on this irresistible culinary literary creation.</span><br />
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2. How to Bake a perfect Life by Barbara O'Neal<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0553386778/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link"><img alt="How to Bake a Perfect Life: A Novel" border="0" height="400" id="prodImage" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51lRz62aINL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />
Ramona has a prickly relationship with her large, restaurant-owning family and a deep love for her daughter, Sofia, who Ramona had as a teenager and is now grown and pregnant. When Sofia's husband is injured in Afghanistan and she flies to Germany to be with him, Ramona is left to care for Sofia's 13-year-old stepdaughter, Katie, a scrawny child whose drug-addicted mother is in jail. Over the summer, Ramona struggles to keep her business afloat and find some solid footing with her family, bonds with Katie, aches for what her daughter is enduring, and rekindles a romance from 25 years earlier.<br />
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3. What Child is this? by Caroline Cooney<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0440226848/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link"><img alt="What Child Is This?: A Christmas Story" border="0" height="400" id="prodImage" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41H6G2QGXBL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />
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A heart-tugging story with an upbeat ending, told in alternating chapters by the young people involved. Eight-year-old Katie, an emotionally starved foster child, writes a wish on a paper bell that will be hung on a Christmas tree in a local restaurant. There, members of the community can choose a request and give a gift to a needy child. However, Katie doesn't ask for toys or clothing?she wishes for a family. Although the social worker says her request is inappropriate, Matt, a high school student who lives in the same foster home and works in the restaurant, hangs the bell on the tree. Liz, Matt's classmate, is upset when her uncaring father reads the wish, calls it ridiculous, and tears up the bell. Meanwhile, Liz's older sister struggles with her grief over the recent death of her baby. When Matt tells Katie on Christmas Eve that her wish will not come true, the devastated girl runs out into a blizzard, setting off a chain of events that brings about a resolution befitting a holiday tale.<br />
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4. The Art of Happiness by the Dalai Lama<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/1594488894/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link"><img alt="The Art of Happiness, 10th Anniversary Edition: A Handbook for Living" border="0" height="300" id="prodImage" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/413jyMI0m%2BL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg" width="300" /></a><br />
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Have you ever wondered what it would be like to sit down with the Dalai Lama and really press him about life's persistent questions? Why are so many people unhappy? How can I abjure loneliness? How can we reduce conflict? Is romantic love true love? Why do we suffer? How should we deal with unfairness and anger? How do <i>you</i> handle the death of a loved one? These are the conundrums that psychiatrist Howard Cutler poses to the Dalai Lama during an extended period of interviews in <i>The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living</i>. <br />
At first, the Dalai Lama's answers seem simplistic, like a surface reading of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/Author=Fulghum%2C%20Robert/$%7B0%7D"><span style="color: #003399;">Robert Fulghum</span></a>: Ask yourself if you really need something; our enemies can be our teachers; compassion brings peace of mind. Cutler pushes: But some people <i>do</i> seem happy with lots of possessions; but "suffering is life" is so pessimistic; but going to extremes provides the zest in life; but what if I don't believe in karma? As the Dalai Lama's responses become more involved, a coherent philosophy takes shape. Cutler then develops the Dalai Lama's answers in the context of scientific studies and cases from his own practice, substantiating and elaborating on what he finds to be a revolutionary psychology. Like any art, the art of happiness requires study and practice--and the talent for it, the Dalai Lama assures us, is in our nature. <br />
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5. Geek Love by Katherine Dunn<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0375713344/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link"><img alt="Geek Love: A Novel" border="0" height="400" id="prodImage" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41etsJe9o4L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />
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This audacious, mesmerizing novel should carry a warning: "Reader Beware." Those entering the world of carnival freaks described by narrator Olympia Binewski, a bald, humpbacked albino dwarf, will find no escape from a story at once engrossing and repellent, funny and terrifying, unreal and true to human nature. Dunn's vivid, energetic prose, her soaring imagination and assured narrative skill fuse to produce an unforgettable tale. The premise is bizarre. Art and Lily, owners of Binewski's Fabulon, a traveling carnival, decide to breed their own freak show by creating genetically altered children through the use of experimental drugs. "What greater gift could you offer your children than an inherent ability to earn a living just by being themselves?" muses Lily. Eventually their family consists of Arty, aka Arturo the Aqua Boy, born with flippers instead of limbs, who performs swimming inside a tank and soon learns how to manipulate his audience; Electra and Iphigenia, Siamese twins and pianists; the narrator, Oly; and Fortunato, also called the Chick, who seems normal at birth, but whose telekinetic powers become apparent just as his brokenhearted parents are about to abandon him. More than anatomy has been altered. Arty is a monsterpower hungry, evil, malicious, consumed by "dark, bitter meanness and . . . jagged rippling jealousy." Yet he has the capacity to inspire adoration, especially that of Oly, who is his willing slave, and who arranges to bear his child, Miranda, who appears "norm," but has a tiny tail. A spellbinding orator, Arty uses his ability to establish a religious cult, in which he preaches redemption through the sacrifice of body partsdigits and limbs."I want the losers who know they're losers. I want those who have a choice of tortures and pick me." This raw, shocking view of the human condition, a glimpse of the tormented people who live on the fringe, makes readers confront the dark, mad elements in every society.<br />
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</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5708941083707531072.post-13308172476804950412011-09-28T08:34:00.000-07:002011-09-28T08:34:53.278-07:00Book Choices: October<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br />
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<img height="500" id="il_fi" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFRz_ChqLd2bgROffpQNQ9DTEAdMb8iUUUeCcfpCvEta1a4cyvp2g2JDjN_lTuwrfKu2N1jPYa8hXfeERsBtIa8XTxhBKStIsOrKFvE4yyrnq4WjCanwGtalH_je77K64xvNucVCuPcGQv/s1600/Discovery+of+Witches.jpg" style="padding-bottom: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px;" width="500" /><br />
It all begins with a lost manuscript, a reluctant witch, and 1,500-year-old vampire. Dr. Diana Bishop has a really good reason for refusing to do magic: she is a direct descendant of the first woman executed in the Salem Witch Trials, and her parents cautioned her be discreet about her talents before they were murdered, presumably for having "too much power." So it is purely by accident that Diana unlocks an enchanted long-lost manuscript (a book that all manner of supernatural creatures believe to hold the story of all origins and the secret of immortality) at the Bodleian Library at Oxford, and finds herself in a race to prevent an interspecies war. A sparkling debut written by a historian and self-proclaimed oenophile, <em>A Discovery of Witches</em> is heady mix of history and magic, mythology and love (cue the aforementioned vampire!), making for a luxurious, intoxicating, one-sitting read.<br />
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<img alt="Pet Sematary Book Cover" src="http://static.moviefanatic.com/files/pet-sematary-book-cover.jpg" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /><br />
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The novel was originally released in 1983, and tells the story of a pet cemetary built on a Native American burial ground, which is home to a monstrous Wendigo. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://img2.imagesbn.com/images/13850000/13853858.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="280" id="il_fi" src="http://img2.imagesbn.com/images/13850000/13853858.JPG" style="padding-bottom: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px;" width="162" /></a></div><em>Different Seasons</em> is a collection of four novellas, markedly different in tone and subject, each on the theme of a journey. The first is a rich, satisfying, nonhorrific tale about an innocent man who carefully nurtures hope and devises a wily scheme to escape from prison. The second concerns a boy who discards his innocence by enticing an old man to travel with him into a reawakening of long-buried evil. In the third story, a writer looks back on the trek he took with three friends on the brink of adolescence to find another boy's corpse. The trip becomes a character-rich rite of passage from youth to maturity. <br />
These first three novellas have been made into well-received movies: "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption" into Frank Darabont's 1994 <i>The Shawshank Redemption</i> ), "Apt Pupil" into Bryan Singer's 1998 film <i>Apt Pupil</i> and "The Body" into Rob Reiner's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0800141628/$%7B0%7D"><i><span style="color: #003399;">Stand by Me</span></i></a> (1986). <br />
The final novella, "Breathing Lessons," is a horror yarn told by a doctor, about a patient whose indomitable spirit keeps her baby alive under extraordinary circumstances. <br />
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<img height="457" id="il_fi" src="http://cdn.sheknows.com/articles/the-lovely-bones-book.jpg" style="padding-bottom: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px;" width="300" /><br />
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<em>The Lovely Bones</em> works as an odd yet affecting coming-of-age story. Susie struggles to accept her death while still clinging to the lost world of the living, following her family's dramas over the years like an episode of <i>My So-Called Afterlife</i>. Her family disintegrates in their grief: her father becomes determined to find her killer, her mother withdraws, her little brother Buckley attempts to make sense of the new hole in his family, and her younger sister Lindsey moves through the milestone events of her teenage and young adult years with Susie riding spiritual shotgun. Random acts and missed opportunities run throughout the book--Susie recalls her sole kiss with a boy on Earth as "like an accident--a beautiful gasoline rainbow." Though sentimental at times, <i>The Lovely Bones</i> is a moving exploration of loss and mourning that ultimately puts its faith in the living and that is made even more powerful by a cast of convincing characters.<br />
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<img height="400" id="il_fi" src="http://pinalbookclub.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/expecting-adam.jpg?w=255&h=400" style="padding-bottom: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px;" width="255" /><br />
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<em>Expecting Adam</em> is an autobiographical tale of an academically oriented Harvard couple who conceive a baby with Down's syndrome and decide to carry him to term. Despite everything Martha Beck and her husband John know about themselves and their belief system, when Martha gets accidentally pregnant and the fetus is discovered to have Down's syndrome, the Becks find they cannot even consider abortion. The presence of the fetus that they each, privately, believe is a familiar being named Adam is too strong. As Martha's terribly difficult pregnancy progresses, odd coincidences and paranormal experiences begin to occur for both Martha and John, though for months they don't share them with each other. Martha's pregnancy and Adam (once born) become the catalyst for tremendous life changes for the Becks<br />
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<img height="500" id="il_fi" src="http://www.fnordinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/GRRM-Clash_of_Kings.jpg" style="padding-bottom: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px;" width="311" /><br />
The Seven Kingdoms have come apart. Joffrey, Queen Cersei's sadistic son, ascends the Iron Throne following the death of Robert Baratheon, the Usurper, who won it in battle. Queen Cersei's family, the Lannisters, fight to hold it for him. Both the dour Stannis and the charismatic Renly Baratheon, Robert's brothers, also seek the throne. Robb Stark, declared King in the North, battles to avenge his father's execution and retrieve his sister from Joffrey's court. Daenerys, the exiled last heir of the former ruling family, nurtures three dragons and seeks a way home. Meanwhile the Night's Watch, sworn to protect the realm from dangers north of the Wall, dwindle in numbers, even as barbarian forces gather and beings out of legend stalk the Haunted Forest.<br />
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<img height="500" id="il_fi" src="http://teainateacup.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/pride-and-prejudice-and-zombies.jpg" style="padding-bottom: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px;" width="500" /><br />
In what’s described as an “expanded edition” of Pride and Prejudice, 85 percent of the original text has been preserved but fused with “ultraviolent zombie mayhem.” For more than 50 years, we learn, England has been overrun by zombies, prompting people like the Bennets to send their daughters away to China for training in the art of deadly combat, and prompting others, like Lady Catherine de Bourgh, to employ armies of ninjas. Added to the familiar plot turns that bring Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy together is the fact that both are highly skilled killers, gleefully slaying zombies on the way to their happy ending. Is nothing sacred? Well, no, and mash-ups using literary classics that are freely available on the Web may become a whole new genre.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5708941083707531072.post-90779244934250359762011-08-25T13:50:00.000-07:002011-08-25T13:50:58.627-07:00September Book Suggestions<img height="300" id="il_fi" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51uB90%2BxrSL._SL500_AA300_.jpg" style="padding-bottom: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px;" width="300" /><br />
1. Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin<br />
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The Seven Kingdoms have come apart. Joffrey, Queen Cersei's sadistic son, ascends the Iron Throne following the death of Robert Baratheon, the Usurper, who won it in battle. Queen Cersei's family, the Lannisters, fight to hold it for him. Both the dour Stannis and the charismatic Renly Baratheon, Robert's brothers, also seek the throne. Robb Stark, declared King in the North, battles to avenge his father's execution and retrieve his sister from Joffrey's court. Daenerys, the exiled last heir of the former ruling family, nurtures three dragons and seeks a way home. Meanwhile the Night's Watch, sworn to protect the realm from dangers north of the Wall, dwindle in numbers, even as barbarian forces gather and beings out of legend stalk the Haunted Forest.<br />
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<img height="320" id="il_fi" src="http://suvudu.com/files/2010/09/sebold-lovely.jpg" style="padding-bottom: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px;" width="210" /><br />
2. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold<br />
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It is the story of a teenage girl who, after being raped and murdered, watches from her personal Heaven as her family and friends struggle to move on with their lives while she comes to terms with her own death.<br />
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<img height="475" id="il_fi" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1309287410l/349504.jpg" style="padding-bottom: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px;" width="306" /><br />
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3. Expecting Adam by Martha Beck<br />
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Despite everything Martha Beck and her husband John know about themselves and their belief system, when Martha gets accidentally pregnant and the fetus is discovered to have Down's syndrome, the Becks find they cannot even consider abortion. The presence of the fetus that they each, privately, believe is a familiar being named Adam is too strong. As Martha's terribly difficult pregnancy progresses, odd coincidences and paranormal experiences begin to occur for both Martha and John, though for months they don't share them with each other. Martha's pregnancy and Adam (once born) become the catalyst for tremendous life changes for the Becks.<br />
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<img height="602" id="il_fi" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicNZ0H9BfdPHeEGkaJBOThNvsHTF-WsxWQO4MyI8VEGu3w8fNStUKFTP3G3BWpUWORGuF7q0Dk5RevH_1K8lSYbIImA4IbFoGERud7GekTDL7eBiw38TitZ5Uwn09BWFhn0Q2ObTrHeuTx/s1600/Room-by-Emma-Donoghue.jpg" style="padding-bottom: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px;" width="388" /><br />
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4. Room by Emma Donoghue<br />
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In many ways, Jack is a typical 5-year-old. He likes to read books, watch TV, and play games with his Ma. But Jack is different in a big way--he has lived his entire life in a single room, sharing the tiny space with only his mother and an unnerving nighttime visitor known as Old Nick. For Jack, Room is the only world he knows, but for Ma, it is a prison in which she has tried to craft a normal life for her son. When their insular world suddenly expands beyond the confines of their four walls, the consequences are piercing and extraordinary. Despite its profoundly disturbing premise, Emma Donoghue's <em>Room</em> is rife with moments of hope and beauty, and the dogged determination to live, even in the most desolate circumstances.<br />
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<img height="475" id="il_fi" src="http://dresdendoll.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/pride-and-prejudice.jpg?w=289&h=475" style="padding-bottom: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px;" width="289" /><br />
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5. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen<br />
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The story follows the main character Elizabeth Bennet as she deals with issues of manners, upbringing, morality, education and marriage in the society of the landed gentry of early 19th-century England. Elizabeth is the second of five daughters of a country gentleman, living near the fictional town of Meryton in Hertfordshire, near London. <br />
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<img height="475" id="il_fi" src="http://iwritealot.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Living-Dead-in-Dallas-Charlaine-Harris.jpg" style="padding-bottom: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px;" width="293" /><br />
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6. Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris<br />
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Living Dead in Dallas is the second book in Charlaine Harris's series The Southern Vampire Mysteries. This second novel follows the adventures of telepathic waitress Sookie Stackhouse of Bon Temps, Louisiana, as she is employed by Dallas vampires to use her telepathy to help find their lost companion. Sookie agrees to help investigate the whereabouts of the missing vampire on one condition: any humans found to be involved must be turned over to human law enforcement rather than subjected to vampire justice. In Dallas Sookie Stackhouse has her first encounter with the anti-vampire organization "The Fellowship of the Sun," as well as meeting and learning of the existence of werewolves.<br />
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5708941083707531072.post-37117429926041598302011-07-26T07:38:00.001-07:002011-07-26T07:38:33.390-07:00August Book by Choice!<img height="608" id="il_fi" src="http://www.disenchanted.me/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/game-of-thrones-book-1-of-a-song-of-ice-and-fire.jpg" style="padding-bottom: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px;" width="400" />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5708941083707531072.post-12221696596062008222011-07-23T10:18:00.000-07:002011-07-23T10:18:09.536-07:00August Book Suggestions1. <em>Fool</em> by Christopher Moore<br />
<img height="500" id="il_fi" src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0060590327.01.LZZZZZZZ.JPG" style="padding-bottom: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px;" width="331" /><br />
Here's the Cliff Notes you wished you'd had for <i>King Lear</i>—the mad royal, his devious daughters, rhyming ghosts and a castle full of hot intrigue—in a cheeky and ribald romp that both channels and chides the Bard and all Fate's bastards. It's 1288, and the king's fool, Pocket, and his dimwit apprentice, Drool, set out to clean up the mess Lear has made of his kingdom, his family and his fortune—only to discover the truth about their own heritage. There's more murder, mayhem, mistaken identities and scene changes than you can remember, but bestselling Moore (<i>You Suck</i>) turns things on their head with an edgy 21st-century perspective.<br />
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2. <em>Game of Thrones Book One: A Song of Ice and Fire</em> by George R.R. Martin<br />
<img height="683" id="il_fi" src="http://images4.fanpop.com/image/photos/20100000/Game-of-Thrones-Tie-in-Cover-a-song-of-ice-and-fire-20154638-794-1213.jpg" style="padding-bottom: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px;" width="447" /><br />
In a world where the approaching winter will last four decades, kings and queens, knights and renegades struggle for control of a throne. Some fight with sword and mace, others with magic and poison. Beyond the Wall to the north, meanwhile, the Others are preparing their army of the dead to march south as the warmth of summer drains from the land. After more than a decade devoted primarily to TV and screen work, Martin (The Armageddon Rag, 1983) makes a triumphant return to high fantasy with this extraordinarily rich new novel, the first of a trilogy. Although conventional in form, the book stands out from similar work by Eddings, Brooks and others by virtue of its superbly developed characters, accomplished prose and sheer bloody-mindedness. Although the romance of chivalry is central to the culture of the Seven Kingdoms, and tournaments, derring-do and handsome knights abound, these trappings merely give cover to dangerous men and women who will stop at nothing to achieve their goals. When Lord Stark of Winterfell, an honest man, comes south to act as the King's chief councilor, no amount of heroism or good intentions can keep the realm under control.<br />
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3. <em>The Book Thief</em> by Mark Zusak<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0375842209/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link"><img alt="The Book Thief" border="0" height="300" id="prodImage" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51eQvANUsnL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg" width="300" /></a><br />
Death himself narrates the World War II-era story of Liesel Meminger from the time she is taken, at age nine, to live in Molching, Germany, with a foster family in a working-class neighborhood of tough kids, acid-tongued mothers, and loving fathers who earn their living by the work of their hands. The child arrives having just stolen her first book–although she has not yet learned how to read–and her foster father uses it, <i>The Gravediggers Handbook</i>, to lull her to sleep when shes roused by regular nightmares about her younger brothers death. Across the ensuing years of the late 1930s and into the 1940s, Liesel collects more stolen books as well as a peculiar set of friends: the boy Rudy, the Jewish refugee Max, the mayors reclusive wife (who has a whole library from which she allows Liesel to steal), and especially her foster parents.<br />
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4.<em>Living Dead in Dallas</em> by Charlaine Harris<br />
<img height="680" id="il_fi" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1eI0E3iMTDmCEgi3Wx1GPPJ2ZGPr9X1d22LAPIucrPcQNzjFqWY4Kx4eMTztpx_k2QGtnj8-gx9kh_fGzcMGkDDIxDHGa1jJx7OWZ5cGYAFzYzEGHm0uNnAPLTXyswpwSQPGIOJk_lMN5/s1600/livingdeadindallas.jpg" style="padding-bottom: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px;" width="420" /><br />
When a vampire asks Sookie Stackhouse to use her telepathic skills to find another missing vampire, she agrees under one condition: the bloodsuckers must promise to let the humans go unharmed.<br />
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5. <em>Prayers For Bobby</em><br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0062511238/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link"><img alt="Prayers for Bobby: A Mother's Coming to Terms with the Suicide of Her Gay Son" border="0" height="300" id="prodImage" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41%2Bg8niuRfL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg" width="300" /></a><br />
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Very painful and personal, this is the story of a mother's struggle to reconcile the tension between her deeply held religious beliefs and the suicide of her gay son. Mary Griffith came from a religious family and raised her four children to believe in God and live a Christian life. Their conservative Presbyterian church was the center of family life for every family member except Mary's husband, Bob. When 17-year-old Bobby confided to older bother Ed that he was gay, the family's life changed. Mary convinced Bobby to pray that God would cure him and to seek solace in church activities. Bobby did it all, but the church's hatred of homosexuality and the obvious pain his gayness was causing his family led him increasingly to loathe himself. Excerpts from a diary he kept, family photos, and letters written by Mary to her dead son make the book intense reading for both high-school and public library patrons.<br />
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6. <em>The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones</em> by Cassandra Clare<br />
<img height="680" id="il_fi" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSmgIz95DVLjZURE2aWbFI_uUjIocWFMbrBAOOTud3riepRN2AJdxUgoKiAaHNKI7pbM5k7Q369qXlj4MxCMMXXFKdvqX_Roj6dXVBiWM78iR_xuDuRhu-NG7VIU9xiRX2V4zPuVEPhpE/s1600/city_of_bones.jpg" style="padding-bottom: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px;" width="451" /><br />
When Clary Fray witnesses three tattoo-covered teenagers murder another teen, she is unable to prove the crime because the victim disappears right in front of her eyes, and no one else can see the killers. She learns that the teens are Shadowhunters (humans who hunt and kill demons), and Clary, a mundie (i.e., mundane human), should not be able to see them either. Shortly after this discovery, her mother, Jocelyn, an erstwhile Shadowhunter, is kidnapped. Jocelyn is the only person who knows the whereabouts of The Mortal Cup, a dangerous magical item that turns humans into Shadowhunters. Clary must find the cup and keep it from a renegade sector of Shadowhunters bent on eliminating all nonhumans, including benevolent werewolves and friendly vampires. Amid motorcycles powered by demon energies, a telepathic brotherhood of archivists, and other moments of great urban fantasy, the story gets sidetracked by cutesy touches, like the toasted bat sandwich on the menu of an otherworldly restaurant.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5708941083707531072.post-27087638068141922952011-06-29T08:29:00.000-07:002011-06-29T08:29:14.694-07:00July's Book is....<img height="600" id="il_fi" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMp2llqbxgg8OxP_xhsuPgOouCjSpmGvIMDbnNSmIr2_pxtPT-7bieYu4qLi4rNKjb6nxo6LrzHa4VjuLnNE62QNyk7JmR8WtwqWztIpJCFa_LZaeZl1I8JA3byAn_0jHlHeU-qbeQce2-/s1600/Dead.jpg" style="padding-bottom: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px;" width="381" /><br />
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(Isn't this cover way weirder than the "True Blood" version?)Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5708941083707531072.post-20556526808909481162011-06-26T11:09:00.000-07:002011-06-26T11:09:10.651-07:00July's New book selections!This month's new suggestions are as follows: <br />
(The other choices are last months rejects. Their summaries can be found in the blog entry below this one!)<br />
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1. <em>Prayers for Bobby</em> by Leroy Aarons<br />
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<img height="640" id="il_fi" src="http://www.bilerico.com/2008/06/PrayersJacket.jpg" style="padding-bottom: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px;" width="410" /><br />
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Very painful and personal, this is the story of a mother's struggle to reconcile the tension between her deeply held religious beliefs and the suicide of her gay son. Mary Griffith came from a religious family and raised her four children to believe in God and live a Christian life. Their conservative Presbyterian church was the center of family life for every family member except Mary's husband, Bob. When 17-year-old Bobby confided to older bother Ed that he was gay, the family's life changed. Mary convinced Bobby to pray that God would cure him and to seek solace in church activities. Bobby did it all, but the church's hatred of homosexuality and the obvious pain his gayness was causing his family led him increasingly to loathe himself. Excerpts from a diary he kept, family photos, and letters written by Mary to her dead son make the book intense reading for both high-school and public library patrons.<br />
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2. <em>The Mortal Instruments</em> (City of Bones Series: Book 1) by Cassandra Clare<br />
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<img height="500" id="il_fi" src="http://img.listal.com/image/1645951/600full-city-of-bones-(mortal-instruments,-book-1)-cover.jpg" style="padding-bottom: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px;" width="334" /><br />
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When Clary Fray witnesses three tattoo-covered teenagers murder another teen, she is unable to prove the crime because the victim disappears right in front of her eyes, and no one else can see the killers. She learns that the teens are Shadowhunters (humans who hunt and kill demons), and Clary, a mundie (i.e., mundane human), should not be able to see them either. Shortly after this discovery, her mother, Jocelyn, an erstwhile Shadowhunter, is kidnapped. Jocelyn is the only person who knows the whereabouts of The Mortal Cup, a dangerous magical item that turns humans into Shadowhunters. Clary must find the cup and keep it from a renegade sector of Shadowhunters bent on eliminating all nonhumans, including benevolent werewolves and friendly vampires.<br />
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3. <em>Dead Until Dark</em> (Sookie Stackhouse Series: Book 1) by Charlaine Harris<br />
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<img height="500" id="il_fi" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYRvVm6RVXhGf_q5OBEBRfeWvye0jP1Kpsl8Adwx_eEn_CLQtcyplp_rWPD3267crW63M9f-8y-Lls957wxrAO8hiZAPqkbZGvk1ziY9RFDjPZGHYAoENB46Cz9UL1rOTyE7rp0QSQLfo/s1600/dead-until-dark.jpg" style="padding-bottom: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px;" width="310" /><br />
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Sookie Stackhouse is just a small-time cocktail waitress in small-town Louisiana. Until the vampire of her dreams walks into her life-and one of her coworkers checks out.... Maybe having a vampire for a boyfriend isn't such a bright idea. A fun, fast, funny, and wonderfully intriguing blend of vampire and mystery that's hard to put down, and should not be missed.<br />
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4. <em>The Help</em> by Kathryn Stockett<br />
<img height="500" id="il_fi" src="http://peggyhogan.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/the-help-cover.jpg" style="padding-bottom: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px;" width="322" /><br />
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Set during the nascent civil rights movement in Jackson, Miss., where black women were trusted to raise white children but not to polish the household silver. Eugenia Skeeter Phelan is just home from college in 1962, and, anxious to become a writer, is advised to hone her chops by writing about what disturbs you. The budding social activist begins to collect the stories of the black women on whom the country club sets relies and mistrusts enlisting the help of Aibileen, a maid who's raised 17 children, and Aibileen's best friend Minny, who's found herself unemployed more than a few times after mouthing off to her white employers. The book Skeeter puts together based on their stories is scathing and shocking, bringing pride and hope to the black community, while giving Skeeter the courage to break down her personal boundaries and pursue her dreams. <br />
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5. <em>The Book Thief</em> by Markus Zusak<br />
<img height="500" id="il_fi" src="http://www.johncaspian.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/the-book-thief.jpg" style="padding-bottom: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px;" width="324" /><br />
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Death himself narrates the World War II-era story of Liesel Meminger from the time she is taken, at age nine, to live in Molching, Germany, with a foster family in a working-class neighborhood of tough kids, acid-tongued mothers, and loving fathers who earn their living by the work of their hands. The child arrives having just stolen her first book–although she has not yet learned how to read–and her foster father uses it, <i>The Gravediggers Handbook</i>, to lull her to sleep when shes roused by regular nightmares about her younger brothers death. Across the ensuing years of the late 1930s and into the 1940s, Liesel collects more stolen books as well as a peculiar set of friends: the boy Rudy, the Jewish refugee Max, the mayors reclusive wife (who has a whole library from which she allows Liesel to steal), and especially her foster parents.<br />
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6. <em>The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks</em> (summary found below)<br />
7. <em>The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt</em> (Summary found Below)<br />
8. <em>Cold Comfort Farm</em> (summary found below)<br />
9. <em>Wench</em> (Summary found below) <br />
10. <em>The Scorch Trials</em> (summary found below)<br />
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Now that you know what they are about, don't forget to head back over to Facebook and place your vote!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5708941083707531072.post-22749312780747980472011-05-25T19:35:00.000-07:002011-05-25T19:35:38.292-07:00June is Double Book Month!!!The books this month are as follows: <br />
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Tomorrow or the next day I'll start gathering suggestions for discussion times for this months book "Maze Runner". <br />
The beginning of July we'll have two seperate discussions, one for each book, on different days so that those that want to read and participate with both books can do so! <br />
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Happy Reading, people!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5708941083707531072.post-16076920665532171782011-05-22T11:37:00.000-07:002011-05-22T11:37:13.018-07:00June Book ChoicesOkay, there is a lot of book options this month. Half are rejects from last month so you can scroll down to read the descriptions and view those book covers to save me the trouble of copying and pasting. This is the last month for Mockingjay and Water for Elephants, next month they will not appear even if they are rejected. Voting will take place on the Facebook group page, so head on over there once you've made your choice!<br />
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1. <em>Mockingjay</em> by Suzanne Collins (View last month's post for synopsis)<br />
2. <em>Bossypants</em> by Tina Fey (View last month's post for synopsis)<br />
3. <em>Water for Elephants</em> by Sara Gruen (View last month's post for synopsis)<br />
4. <em>The Knife of Never Letting Go</em> by Patrick Ness (View last month's post for synopsis)<br />
5. <em>Roses</em> by Leila Meacham (View last month's post for synopsis) <br />
6. <em>Madame Bovary</em> by Gustave Flaubert (View last month's post for synopsis)<br />
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7. <em>The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks</em> by Rebecca Skloot <br />
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From a single, abbreviated life grew a seemingly immortal line of cells that made some of the most crucial innovations in modern science possible. And from that same life, and those cells, Rebecca Skloot has fashioned in <em>The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks</em> a fascinating and moving story of medicine and family, of how life is sustained in laboratories and in memory. Henrietta Lacks was a mother of five in Baltimore, a poor African American migrant from the tobacco farms of Virginia, who died from a cruelly aggressive cancer at the age of 30 in 1951. A sample of her cancerous tissue, taken without her knowledge or consent, as was the custom then, turned out to provide one of the holy grails of mid-century biology: human cells that could survive--even thrive--in the lab. Known as HeLa cells, their stunning potency gave scientists a building block for countless breakthroughs, beginning with the cure for polio. Meanwhile, Henrietta's family continued to live in poverty and frequently poor health, and their discovery decades later of her unknowing contribution--and her cells' strange survival--left them full of pride, anger, and suspicion. For a decade, Skloot doggedly but compassionately gathered the threads of these stories, slowly gaining the trust of the family while helping them learn the truth about Henrietta, and with their aid she tells a rich and haunting story that asks the questions, Who owns our bodies? And who carries our memories?<br />
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8. <em>The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt</em> by Edmund Morris<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><img height="317" id="il_fi" src="http://i43.tower.com/images/mm100074326/rise-theodore-roosevelt-edmund-morris-paperback-cover-art.jpg" style="padding-bottom: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px;" width="200" /></div> (Sorry, I couldn't find a larger picture!)<br />
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During the years 1858–1901, Theodore Roosevelt, the son of a wealthy Yankee father and a plantation-bred southern belle, transformed himself from a frail, asthmatic boy into a full-blooded man. Fresh out of Harvard, he simultaneously published a distinguished work of naval history and became the fist-swinging leader of a Republican insurgency in the New York State Assembly. He had a youthful romance as lyrical—and tragic—as any in Victorian fiction. He chased thieves across the Badlands of North Dakota with a copy of Anna Karenina in one hand and a Winchester rifle in the other. Married to his childhood sweetheart in 1886, he became the country squire of Sagamore Hill on Long Island, a flamboyant civil service reformer in Washington, D.C., and a night-stalking police commissioner in New York City. As assistant secretary of the navy under President McKinley, he almost single-handedly brought about the Spanish-American War. After leading “Roosevelt’s Rough Riders” in the famous charge up San Juan Hill, Cuba, he returned home a military hero, and was rewarded with the governorship of New York. In what he called his “spare hours” he fathered six children and wrote fourteen books. By 1901, the man Senator Mark Hanna called “that damned cowboy” was vice president of the United States. Seven months later, an assassin’s bullet gave TR the national leadership he had always craved.<br />
His is a story so prodigal in its variety, so surprising in its turns of fate, that previous biographers have treated it as a series of haphazard episodes. This book, the only full study of TR’s pre-presidential years, shows that he was an inevitable chief executive, and recognized as such in his early teens. His apparently random adventures were precipitated and linked by various aspects of his character, not least an overwhelming will. <br />
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9. <em>Cold Comfort Farm</em> by Stella Gibbons <br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><img height="300" id="il_fi" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitbvum6lh8zH6luBlddKJMVUWvDMOHXKrNRDoOnsXvvBLfPucerdzrD-KBOniJbhEoAqE2O3NszPGkvyEYaabjaDe7C9HFzwQ72YVpmoLvc9YETgOmzM6j32eG9teYXqcEt2Nuch8KXLmq/s320/cold_.jpg" style="padding-bottom: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px;" width="300" /></div> <br />
Cold Comfort Farm is a wildly funny parody of D. H. Lawrence, Thomas Hardy, and the Bronte sisters stark portrayal of country living. Having been orphaned at age 19 Flora Poste is forced to move to Cold Comfort Farm to live with her mother's relatives. The farm is poorly run by her mysterious aunt and all of her relatives are in some way dark and disturbed. It is generally believed that they and the farm are all cursed. Flora takes all this in stride and quickly begins to organize the farm and her relatives out of their dark desperate state. Wilder Publications is a green publisher. All of our books are printed to order. This reduces waste and helps us keep prices low while greatly reducing our impact on the environment. <br />
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10. <em>Wench</em> by Dolen Perkins Valdez <br />
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Four slave women accompany their masters to a resort in the free state of Ohio in the mid-1850s. Lizzie actually loves Drayle, the father of her two children—a brown-skinned boy named for his father and a girl white enough to pass. Reenie is the half sister of her owner, a cruel man who passes her along to the resort manager. Sweet is pregnant and has a relatively amiable relationship with her master, while Mawu is a wild red-haired woman bent on freedom from a cruel and violent owner. Frustrations mount as they consider their options, tempted to take advantage of the help offered by free blacks and a Quaker woman. But they are guilt-ridden about the prospect of leaving their children behind. The women rely on each other for support as they come together for three summers, catching up on their lives of woe and occasional joy. Drawing on research about the resort that eventually became the first black college, Wilberforce University, the novel explores the complexities of relationships in slavery and the abiding comfort of women’s friendships. <br />
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11. <em>The Scorch Trials</em> by James Dashner <br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><img height="500" id="il_fi" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTOvuTUN1O2AVj9xM7sqZ0qYUTgSgQfev4ER4xCHKyGnijeE-XN1Ow9DiTjihdan4_pCJwimW1dPWfXnw2Ee-G-nOMMoo83PZpcTQ6QstCjbn5SQ0v93iy7F5rMKxjlkj0-TJHu9CiVCQ/s1600/The-Scorch-Trials-Book-2-the-maze-runner-11616104-500-500.jpg" style="padding-bottom: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px;" width="500" /></div> <br />
This dystopian novel begins where The Maze Runner ends. Thomas and the rest of the group's escape from the Maze and the horrifying creatures called Grievers has proven to be short-lived because WICKED, the group behind it all, has another trial in store for them. Sun flares have destroyed most of the Earth, and a virus called the Flare has ravaged its population. Infected people turn into zombies called Cranks that attack and eat one other. The kids are told that they have the Flare but if they succeed in surviving the second trial, they will be cured. With few supplies, they must travel across 100 miles of hot and scorched land within two weeks to reach a safe house to receive the cure. When Teresa, Thomas's best friend and the only girl in the group, disappears, and he loses the ability to communicate telepathically with her, he and the other guys determine to find her. As they trek across the barren desert encountering crazed Cranks, the teens' loyalty to one another and the group is tested.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5708941083707531072.post-10072655644583982372011-04-28T15:52:00.001-07:002011-04-28T15:52:59.438-07:00May's Book<img height="667" id="il_fi" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOh_fzm9Pmd_C3kvi1iLBkSvrF956oR4xyx-BmDSFpunFp08L6av2cQAS5x8JPg8J4yE91JV9wvTBCp7bDhJFEuxPwO4GQuPa4h-lXqSK0b_WDciGXzPvmo7Lw7ktI_RPzJ5kRQIW3ycjy/s1600/maze-runner.jpg" style="padding-bottom: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px;" width="460" />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5708941083707531072.post-91677226196721739852011-04-23T07:53:00.000-07:002011-04-23T07:56:49.853-07:00The book choices for May.<div style="text-align: center;"><div align="left">I took last month's rejected choices, the other suggestion by you guys and added a memoir and a classic just to change things up a bit. Read the summaries and head over to Facebook to do the main vote. Thanks guys!</div><br />
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<img height="450" id="il_fi" src="http://markreads.net/reviews/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/021110_mockingjay2.jpg" style="padding-bottom: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px;" width="297" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="left" style="text-align: center;"></div><div align="left">Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has survived the Hunger Games twice. But now that she's made it out of the bloody arena alive, she's still not safe. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge. Who do they think should pay for the unrest? Katniss. And what's worse, President Snow has made it clear that no one else is safe either. Not Katniss's family, not her friends, not the people of District 12. Powerful and haunting, this thrilling final installment of Suzanne Collins's groundbreaking The Hunger Games trilogy promises to be one of the most talked about books of the year.</div><br />
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<div align="center"><img height="500" id="il_fi" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj98Tdd1Xu64zk3hgfZsqw0gF-0q06zcBYSkv940qUmYnFRNTQKxY8i6kea2zmcJJQFJOxsPvtujBpWvsOwVA7DU4KYVeHQ1UG4GnQIJTjNKns1EGc787MaN8oUPcOf_DlS5qRiXUnVw8hj/s1600/water-for-elephants.jpg" style="padding-bottom: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px;" width="322" /></div><div align="center"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">The novel, told in flashback by nonagenarian Jacob Jankowski, recounts the wild and wonderful period he spent with the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth, a traveling circus he joined during the Great Depression. When 23-year-old Jankowski learns that his parents have been killed in a car crash, leaving him penniless, he drops out of Cornell veterinary school and parlays his expertise with animals into a job with the circus, where he cares for a menagerie of exotic creatures. He also falls in love with Marlena, one of the show's star performers—a romance complicated by Marlena's husband, the unbalanced, sadistic circus boss who beats both his wife and the animals Jankowski cares for.</div><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><img height="500" id="il_fi" src="http://www.wauclib.org/teens/images/knifeofnever.jpg" style="padding-bottom: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px;" width="314" /></div>Todd Hewitt lives in a world in which all women are dead, and the thoughts of men and animals are constantly audible as Noise. Graphically represented by a set of scratchy fonts and sentence fragments that run into and over each other, Noise is an oppressive chaos of words, images, and sounds that makes human company exhausting and no thought truly private. The history of these peculiar circumstances unfolds over the course of the novel, but Ness's basic world-building is so immediately successful that readers, too, will be shocked when Todd and his dog, Manchee, first notice a silence in the Noise. Realizing that he must keep the silence secret from the town leaders, he runs away, and his terrified flight with an army in pursuit makes up the backbone of the plot. The emotional, physical, and intellectual drama is well crafted and relentless. <br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><img height="458" id="il_fi" src="http://www.pivotalkids.com/maze_runner.jpg" style="padding-bottom: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px;" width="316" /></div>Thomas wakes up in an elevator, remembering nothing but his own name. He emerges into a world of about 60 teen boys who have learned to survive in a completely enclosed environment, subsisting on their own agriculture and supplies from below. A new boy arrives every 30 days. The original group has been in "the glade" for two years, trying to find a way to escape through a maze that surrounds their living space. They have begun to give up hope. Then a comatose girl arrives with a strange note, and their world begins to change. There are some great, fast-paced action scenes, particularly those involving the nightmarish Grievers who plague the boys. Thomas is a likable protagonist who uses the information available to him and his relationships (including his ties to the girl, Teresa) to lead the Gladers. <br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><img height="579" id="il_fi" src="http://serendipiter.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/roses.jpg" style="padding-bottom: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px;" width="388" /></div>This enthralling stunner, a good old-fashioned read, may herald the overdue return of those delicious doorstop epics from such writers as Barbara Taylor Bradford and Colleen McCullough. Meacham's multigenerational family saga, set in East Texas circa 1914–1985, charts the transformation of Mary Toliver, a wide-eyed 16-year-old heiress, into a calculating cotton plantation queen as hardheaded as Scarlett O'Hara. Her brother, Miles, goes off to WWI, returns home, but then goes back to France to marry Marietta, a French Communist, leaving Mary to deal with their plantation, Somerset, and Darla, their alcoholic mother. Many years later, Mary, now an elderly, terminally ill widow, resolves to defeat the Toliver Curse and regrets selling her soul for Somerset and giving up her true love, Percy Warwick, the father of their secret child, to marry their friend Ollie DuMont, who helped her save Somerset when Percy refused. <br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><img height="500" id="il_fi" src="http://www.booksbestprice.com/images_products/bossy_pants_amazon.jpg" style="padding-bottom: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px;" width="323" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Tina Fey’s new book Bossypants is short, messy, and impossibly funny. From her humble roots growing up in Pennsylvania to her days doing amateur improv in Chicago to her early sketches on Saturday Night Live, Fey gives us a fascinating glimpse behind the curtain of modern comedy with equal doses of wit, candor, and self-deprecation. Some of the funniest chapters feature the differences between male and female comedy writers ("men urinate in cups"), her cruise ship honeymoon ("it’s very Poseidon Adventure"), and advice about breastfeeding ("I had an obligation to my child to pretend to try"). But the chaos of Fey’s life is best detailed when she’s dividing her efforts equally between rehearsing her Sarah Palin impression, trying to get Oprah to appear on 30 Rock, and planning her daughter’s Peter Pan-themed birthday. Bossypants gets to the heart of why Tina Fey remains universally adored: she embodies the hectic, too-many-things-to-juggle lifestyle we all have, but instead of complaining about it, she can just laugh it off.</div><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><img height="500" id="il_fi" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1160691449l/2175.jpg" style="padding-bottom: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px;" width="312" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Emma Bovary is the original desperate housewife. Beautiful but bored, she is married to the provincial doctor Charles Bovary yet harbors dreams of an elegant and passionate life. Escaping into sentimental novels, she finds her fantasies dashed by the tedium of her days. Motherhood proves to be a burden; religion is only a brief distraction. In an effort to make her life everything she believes it should be, she spends lavishly on clothes and on her home and embarks on two disappointing affairs. Soon heartbroken and crippled by debts, Emma takes drastic action with tragic consequences for her husband and daughter. </div><br />
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<div style="text-align: left;"></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5708941083707531072.post-74157616142073187892011-03-27T22:56:00.000-07:002011-03-27T22:56:33.886-07:00April's Book ChoicesFor April's book we had 3 suggestions. Below I will post the cover and a summary courtesy of Amazon.com so that you can make a more informed choice about which you'd rather read. <br />
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Voting will take place in the Facebook group later this week hopefully around Tuesday!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-k8SP7tt9aoc/TZAgUD2CF_I/AAAAAAAAAAs/RjWK5nMY1zU/s1600/a-confederacy-of-dunces-by-john-kennedy-toole.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" r6="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-k8SP7tt9aoc/TZAgUD2CF_I/AAAAAAAAAAs/RjWK5nMY1zU/s320/a-confederacy-of-dunces-by-john-kennedy-toole.jpg" width="219" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">"<strong><em>A Confederacy of Dunces</em></strong>" - Meet Ignatius J. Reilly, the hero of John Kennedy Toole's tragicomic tale, A Confederacy of Dunces. This 30-year-old medievalist lives at home with his mother in New Orleans, pens his magnum opus on Big Chief writing pads he keeps hidden under his bed, and relays to anyone who will listen the traumatic experience he once had on a Greyhound Scenicruiser bound for Baton Rouge. ("Speeding along in that bus was like hurtling into the abyss.") But Ignatius's quiet life of tyrannizing his mother and writing his endless comparative history screeches to a halt when he is almost arrested by the overeager Patrolman Mancuso--who mistakes him for a vagrant--and then involved in a car accident with his tipsy mother behind the wheel. One thing leads to another, and before he knows it, Ignatius is out pounding the pavement in search of a job. Over the next several hundred pages, our hero stumbles from one adventure to the next. The many subplots that weave through A Confederacy of Dunces are as complicated as anything you'll find in a Dickens novel, and just as beautifully tied together in the end. But it is Ignatius--selfish, domineering, and deluded, tragic and comic and larger than life--who carries the story. He is a modern-day Quixote beset by giants of the modern age. His fragility cracks the shell of comic bluster, revealing a deep streak of melancholy beneath the antic humor. John Kennedy Toole committed suicide in 1969 and never saw the publication of his novel. Ignatius Reilly is what he left behind, a fitting memorial to a talented and tormented life.</div><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VAdpd8PfpxY/TZAgVRSOcwI/AAAAAAAAAAw/wlkaFLykUGE/s1600/water-for-elephants.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" r6="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VAdpd8PfpxY/TZAgVRSOcwI/AAAAAAAAAAw/wlkaFLykUGE/s320/water-for-elephants.jpg" width="206" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">"<strong><em>Water for Elephants</em></strong>" - The novel, told in flashback by nonagenarian Jacob Jankowski, recounts the wild and wonderful period he spent with the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth, a traveling circus he joined during the Great Depression. When 23-year-old Jankowski learns that his parents have been killed in a car crash, leaving him penniless, he drops out of Cornell veterinary school and parlays his expertise with animals into a job with the circus, where he cares for a menagerie of exotic creatures[...] He also falls in love with Marlena, one of the show's star performers—a romance complicated by Marlena's husband, the unbalanced, sadistic circus boss who beats both his wife and the animals Jankowski cares for.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-b8wPtS9n6xU/TZAgSDVzY3I/AAAAAAAAAAo/6b6ltDczEcE/s1600/cvrMockingjay.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" r6="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-b8wPtS9n6xU/TZAgSDVzY3I/AAAAAAAAAAo/6b6ltDczEcE/s320/cvrMockingjay.jpg" width="211" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div>"<strong><em>Mockingjay</em></strong>" - Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has survived the Hunger Games twice. But now that she's made it out of the bloody arena alive, she's still not safe. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge. Who do they think should pay for the unrest? Katniss. And what's worse, President Snow has made it clear that no one else is safe either. Not Katniss's family, not her friends, not the people of District 12. Powerful and haunting, this thrilling final installment of Suzanne Collins's groundbreaking The Hunger Games trilogy promises to be one of the most talked about books of the year. <br />
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<div style="text-align: left;"></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5708941083707531072.post-72114832527661493932011-03-09T15:43:00.000-08:002011-03-09T15:43:56.902-08:00The Hunger Games DiscussionWe had our first (belated) one of many (probably!) discussions of <strong><em><u>The Hunger Games</u></em></strong> by Suzanne Collins today. I am very excited because I think the chat aspect on Facebook went really well and is a much better forum then the message board. <br />
I hope you ladies enjoyed it as well. <br />
There is a 2nd tentative discussion planned for around 9:00pm EST tonight 3/9. If you can't make that one either, let me know. We'll set one up for when you get to it. <br />
Remember: March's book is part 2 in the same series, <strong><em><u>Catching Fire</u></em></strong>. <br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">We'll start taking suggestions at this time for April's book and have a vote some time soon!</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5708941083707531072.post-48567793537950711772011-02-23T09:06:00.000-08:002011-02-23T09:06:29.911-08:00Book Club MoveThe book club has officially moved off-board. <br />
The major communication will take place on the Facebook group and through the blog here.<br />
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I decided to move it due to a large drop in board participation and because the discussions will be much easier on a FB chat rather than a message board. It's open to all members still, just let me know you want to be added and I'll get to it as soon as possible. <br />
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Sorry for any inconvienience or confusion this may cause!<br />
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Also, we are currently accepting requests for March's book. Anything and everything would be helpful because right nowe we don't have any suggestions! We'll take a vote in the next couple of days (pending actual suggestions) and the majority will decide, okay?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5708941083707531072.post-81892342119085213862011-01-22T13:08:00.000-08:002011-01-22T13:08:39.704-08:00Hunger Games<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_L5LxpMZiJTk/TTtG6qU8U_I/AAAAAAAAAAc/nlTsAsgSc-o/s1600/books1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" s5="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_L5LxpMZiJTk/TTtG6qU8U_I/AAAAAAAAAAc/nlTsAsgSc-o/s1600/books1.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div>"Hunger Games" officially won out for February's book 55% to "Eat, Pray, Love"'s 45%. <br />
Enjoy! The new book starts February 2nd.. but I won't tell anyone if you start reading up on it early!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5708941083707531072.post-27601783773258300842011-01-14T09:01:00.000-08:002011-01-14T09:01:50.856-08:00February's Book PollAt last check in we had a close race between two books. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_L5LxpMZiJTk/TTB_k30UYhI/AAAAAAAAAAU/EBy-yOeJqgc/s1600/books.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" n4="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_L5LxpMZiJTk/TTB_k30UYhI/AAAAAAAAAAU/EBy-yOeJqgc/s1600/books.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">OR</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_L5LxpMZiJTk/TTB_mPbhH-I/AAAAAAAAAAY/2ONObk_9804/s1600/books1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" n4="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_L5LxpMZiJTk/TTB_mPbhH-I/AAAAAAAAAAY/2ONObk_9804/s1600/books1.jpg" /></a></div><div align="left" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">It was suggested that we do a second poll between these two books. To make the poll a little easier, I'm going to include a synopsis of both of these books (from Wikipedia!) here. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">1. <strong><em>Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia</em></strong> is a 2006 memoir by <span style="color: #f3f3f3;">Elizabeth Gilbert</span>. The memoir chronicles the author's trip around the world after her divorce and what she discovered during her travels. At 32 years old, Elizabeth Gilbert was educated, had a home, a husband, and a successful career as a writer. However, she was unhappy in her marriage and often spent the night crying on her bathroom floor. After separating from her husband and initiating a divorce, which he contested, she embarked on a rebound relationship which continued for some time but did not work out, leaving her devastated and alone.</div>Afterwards, while writing an article on yoga vacations in Bali, Gilbert met a ninth-generation medicine man who told her she would one day come back and study with him. After finalizing her difficult divorce, Gilbert spent the next year traveling around the world. The trip was paid for in advance with a book deal from the publisher.<br />
She spent four months in Italy, eating and enjoying life ("Eat"). She spent four months in India, finding her spirituality ("Pray"). She ended the year in Bali, Indonesia, looking for "balance" of the two and found love ("Love") in the form of a dashing Brazilian factory owner.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">2. <strong><em>The Hunger Games</em></strong> is a young-adult science fiction novel written by Suzanne Collins. It was originally published on September 14, 2008 by Scholastic. It is the first book of the Hunger Games trilogy. It introduces sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives in a post-apocalyptic world in the country of Panem where North America once stood. This is where a powerful government working in a central city called the Capitol holds power. In the book, the Hunger Games are an annual televised event where the Capitol chooses one boy and one girl from each district to fight to the death. The Hunger Games exist to demonstrate not even children are beyond the reach of the Capitol's power.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The poll will be posted next week! Enjoy!</div><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5708941083707531072.post-9143335812638466752010-12-29T11:21:00.000-08:002010-12-29T11:21:52.566-08:00January 2011Hey Ladies! <br />
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This upcoming month's book of choice (by popular vote!):<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_L5LxpMZiJTk/TRuJ2o0uc4I/AAAAAAAAAAQ/PwUqFgJjzGk/s1600/The-Girl-with-the-dragon-tattoo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" n4="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_L5LxpMZiJTk/TRuJ2o0uc4I/AAAAAAAAAAQ/PwUqFgJjzGk/s320/The-Girl-with-the-dragon-tattoo.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div align="left">Discussion will take place on February 1st! </div><div align="left"><br />
</div><div align="left">We'll also be taking the vote for February's book around the middle of January and I'll post before that to collect a list of suggestions (you can suggest a book at any time. PM me. I'll keep a running tab.), so keep a look out for that post!</div><div align="left"><br />
</div><div align="left">Happy Reading!</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0