Book Club

[Wendy W]

It's the end of January! What have you been reading this week and was it any good? What will you be reading next?

Wendy

[Wendy W]

I've been busy reading a whole bunch of short things this week...

• Money-Smart Kids by Gail Van-Oxlade which was fine but didn't have anything in it that I didn't already know. non-fiction
• War Horse by Michael Morpurgo. It's the book based on a number of WWI war horses that was recently released as a movie by Steven Spielberg. I'm going to see the stage play in a couple of weeks and I'm *SO* excited. It's written from the view point of the horse. fiction
• Warrior by General Jack Seeley about a real WWI war horse - his in fact! non-fiction
• The Strange Case of Finley Jayne by Kady Cross a steampunk novella which wasn't half bad but wasn't as developed a story as I could have hoped for. I know she's got another in the series which I may try at a later date. fiction

And last night I started another non-fiction book The Back Stage Guide to Stage Management by Thomas Kelly. I've been a community theatre stage manager for the last 18 years and I'll be running a stage management workshop for a bunch of relative 'newbies' sometime in March so I thought I'd polish up on my own skills first!

My fiction selection will be The Iron King from Julie Kagawa's Iron Fey series.

What's everyone else reading these days?

Wendy

[Moominmama]

Just finished 11-22-63 by Stephen King. Better character development than I expected from King, and a really excellent conceptualizer ion of time travel. Thoroughly enjoyable! Reading Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi to the girls. We're only a few chapters in, but it's showing a lot of promise. Also skimming through Maffetone's Big Book of Endurance Training. It's not particularly wel written but has some good ideas in it. I'm also trying to read a self-published novel by a local acquaintance. Unfortunately it's one of the worst-written books I've ever read. I got about two thirds of the way through on evening but it's hard to get motivated to finish. I guess I admire her confidence and ambition, anyway! Waiting in my to-read stack is Habibi, a graphic novel by Craig Thompson. It looks absolutely beautiful. Miranda

[mapletree]

I am reading Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. I've just started it, so I can't say much yet but DD read it last week in about a day. She couldn't put it down, even though she's studying for Gr. 10 exams. She loved it, and DS agreed it was very good. 

[usedtoberedd]

I finished Cloclwork Prince.

Am reading Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi. The words in it are incredible..I like it.

Also finished The Pledge by Kimberly Derting

And, finished Legend by Marie Lu

[HelplineAlli]

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mapletree wrote:

I am reading Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. I've just started it, so I can't say much yet but DD read it last week in about a day. She couldn't put it down, even though she's studying for Gr. 10 exams. She loved it, and DS agreed it was very good. 

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I got that out from the library. I've heard mixed reviews so always nice to get another thumbs up into the mix.

[HelplineAlli]

I've been having a pretty non-linear year so far. I started a book called How to Survive your Sisters, couldn't tell you the alleged author's name, but it's not real anyway, it was actually written by a pair of sisters, which I thought was kind of funny/cute. It's about a family of four sisters whose lives are all going completely different directions and who are having a bunch of little grievances among each other. I have three sisters myself, although we're not all that dissimilar. (And we're very close in age (within 5 years! about the same as dh and his only brother!), the ones in the book not.) I don't know, it's making me a bit grumpy, probably the main reason I put it down.

And I started (a little over half done) Year of Wonders (a Novel of the Plague) by Geraldine Brooks--who wrote People of the Book which I *loved*. I don't like this as much, but that's ok, still a lot of leeway there. I really like the main character although she seems a little too perfect. She has it really hard and I find bounces back a bit too quick...although that may change...I haven't been surprised by the plot yet but who knows? She has a nice "voice", uses words that sound right for 1666.

And I read The Strange Case of Origami Yoda, which I got out from the library mostly for my dd (even though it's meant, presumably, for middle-school boys and she's a 16yo girl...she likes origami and kind of likes Yoda). Anyway, it's about this grade 6 boy whose dorky friend has a Yoda he made out of origami that seems to be able to give good advice (even though the dorky guy himself doesn't even normally take it). So the kid collects "cases" of why everyone does or does not believe in Origami Yoda. I really liked it.

And I got another kids' book, King Arthur by Antonia Fraser, which she wrote years and years ago (before she was Fraser, I think she was 21 or something). I loved her Mary Queen of Scots and Wives of Heny VIII and Marie Antoinette and whatever else I've read by her and this is good too. I have to admit I don't know the legend that well.

WHen I finish Year of Wonders and probably before I finish the Sisters one, I'll read Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. 

[Sirius Blacks Mother]

'The Hunger Games' by Suzanne Collins, which I am really enjoying.  Dd distracted me with this book because she was reading the book I really wanted to read ('A Red Herring Without Mustard' by Alan Bradley), which she borrowed from the library, so really, she is entitled to first dibs on it.

My SIL was over on the weekend, and said there actually was a woman named Lilian who passed through Hazelton, BC,  on her way to Siberia years ago.  The novel I read last week ('Away' by Amy Bloom) was a fictional account of Lilian's life.  So that book actually became more interesting to me, after finding this out, and I have now lent it to SIL, who actually lived in Hazelton for years and years.  Not too many people know about Hazelton, a lovely community on the banks of the Skeena River in northern BC.

[The Queen Bee]

Some recent reads ..... 

The Magic of Reality - How we Know What's Really True  non-fiction.  It was probably really good but I was not in the mood for it.  It was from the library so I returned it.

It's Hard Not To Hate You by Valerie Frankel, memoir about life's disappointments and, well, hating people!  It was good.

Only Time Will Tell by Jeffrey Archer.  Love his books and this one was good too ..... except I find that something the character did at the end was not really justified.  It's a series so there are more to come!

Little Black Dress by Susan McBride.  It goes back and forth between the past and the future,  3 women (2 sisters, and the daughter of one sister).  The little black dress of the title is a little magical - it shows the future.  That sounds corney but it was good.

The Leftovers by Tom  Perrotta.  I loved his other books, especially Election, but did not like this one much, although it's getting nominated for a bunch of awards.

Original Sin  by Beth McMullen.  A retired spy gets pulled back into the game.  Light and humourous. 

Up next .... not sure ..... I have 8 books waiting for me at the library to be picked up! 

[RedVelvet]

Loved the characters in Stephen King's book! I was getting really sad towards the end, thinking that I wouldn't be in Jake's head when the book ended. King's best by far and I have read every single one! Ps I am new here