It's About Time...

It's about time for another post, seeing that it's been 3 WHOLE years since the last one. Oh well, you know how it is. I've also updated our book list on the left, since we've read a TON of books since then. If you see any typos or duplications, please let me know. So we're back online and will be posting more regular. The Lit Group just read "Breakfast At Tiffany's" for the month of July and I can't remember what we chose for August, even though book club was just last night. :-) I'll post that as soon as someone emails me again. We skipped reading a book for the month of June and had a retreat hosted by Ashley. We came, we socialized, we drank wine and even discussed books we had read that weren't designated book club books. For some reason I'm the only one holding a glass, but I swear I wasn't the only one. I shouldn't have leaned up against that tree because I found a tick on my arm after we went inside...but then I digress. Like I said before, I'll post our August book after I find out if any of my Lit Groupers have even bothered to check this blog! See you soon!

In Search of Eden, by Linda Nichols

Book pick for book club meeting on September 11.

Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Nichols's latest novel follows the wanderings of Miranda DeSpain, a young woman who has been unable to recover from a painful adolescent experience. An upstanding drifter (she always finds gainful employment where ever she goes), Miranda finds herself in bucolic Abingdon, Virginia, where she meets an array of lovely Christian townsfolk, among them a spunky 11-year-old girl named Eden who helps Miranda find a job and a place to live. Nichols's writing style is often engaging, and while some of her characters are clichéd (the ruggedly handsome, tough but tender leading man, for example), a few of her characters, most notably Eden, are quirky and real. Nichols blends the romance genre with a more problem-oriented women's novel here. While there are few surprises and the many coincidences make it difficult to suspend disbelief, the plot holds together well enough, with likable characters fighting nobly against adversity and unlikable characters trying their best to change. Spiritual themes such as forgiveness and redemption are well integrated into the novel, and the Christian characters are genuine, openhearted and giving. Readers looking for sentimental yet well-written women's fiction won't be disappointed.

Life As We Knew It, by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Amazon.com
It's almost the end of Miranda's sophomore year in high school, and her journal reflects the busy life of a typical teenager: conversations with friends, fights with mom, and fervent hopes for a driver's license. When Miranda first begins hearing the reports of a meteor on a collision course with the moon, it hardly seems worth a mention in her diary. But after the meteor hits, pushing the moon off its axis and causing worldwide earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanoes, all the things Miranda used to take for granted begin to disappear. Food and gas shortages, along with extreme weather changes, come to her small Pennsylvania town; and Miranda's voice is by turns petulant, angry, and finally resigned, as her family is forced to make tough choices while they consider their increasingly limited options. Yet even as suspicious neighbors stockpile food in anticipation of a looming winter without heat or electricity, Miranda knows that that her future is still hers to decide even if life as she knew it is over.

This was not a book club pick but may well be my pick for my month. It is a young adult selection and it was brought to my attention by my husband who is a Junior High principal who is reading from a book list that is available to his students. This book grabs you and really doesn't let go until the end. The concept of the moon getting knocked out of it's orbit moving closer to the earth and the environmental effects on a teenager girl, her family, friends and ultimately, the world, is a very engrossing read. Because of the gravitational pull of the moon is increased, the earth experiences constant extreme weather circumstances that take their toll on human population. The book is written from a teenage girl's perspective in journal form and we see how a normal teenager goes from worrying about boys and the prom to wondering where her next food is coming from and will she survive the winter. It sounds depressing, but it really is a great read and I thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend it to others.

If you've read it, I'd love to hear what you thought.

The Memory Keeper's Daughter, by Kim Edwards

Our book for August was, "The Memory Keeper's Daughter", by Kim Edwards. This novel begins on a winter night in 1964. A blizzard forces Dr. David Henry to deliver his own twins. One child, a boy, is born perfect and healthy. His little girl is born with Down's syndrome. On the basis of good intentions, the doctor sends the little girl baby off to an institution and tells his wife she was born dead. The novel deals with the separate lives of Dr. Henry and his family and the life of the little girl, "Phoebe" that grows up apart from her relatives. The secret that the doctor keeps haunts him and does irreparable damage to the people in his life.

In discussing the book, we were split on deciding how good a read it was. Some thought it was too drawn out and hard to get into. Others felt it was a great read and appreciated the story. I thought while I might recommend it to others, it did take a while to get into the story. I also found it hard to relate to the concept of giving your child away and telling your spouse they had died. It was a good book for discussion whether you like it or not.

If you've read this book, please leave your thoughts.

Running With Scissors, by Augusten Burroughs

Having read previous reviews of this book I have to say that that I never did find it "laugh out loud funny", it did have humorous undertones, but actually it saddened, fascinated and shocked me more than anything. This book is the memoir of its author Augusten Burroughs and tells the tale of a child brought up with a narcissistic mother and alcoholic and absent father. The mother starts seeing a psychiatrist, "Dr. Finch" and eventually lets him adopt her son, sending him to live with his extended family where there are "no rules" and they are all "running with scissors". From the list of unbelievable characters (who are all based on real people): Dr. Finch, the patriarch of the family that believes children should do whatever they feel and that drugs can be a cure for anything; Agnes, Finch's wife that snacks on dog food; Hope, Finch's daughter, a 30 yr old that lives at home and has a pet cat named Freud who she believes can talk; Natalie, an underage daughter that dates 40 year old men; and many more characters that will leave you wondering how Burroughs made it through living with these people through his teenage years without becoming permanently dysfunctional himself.

I would recommend this book for anyone who is open minded enough to get through some rather shocking details and appreciate the book for a funny, yet twisted commentary on a child's survival through the most extraordinary circumstances. It's definitely not a "feel good book" yet it's one you can't put down.

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Survivor: A Novel, by Chuck Palahniuk

Our book for April is "The Survivor, " by Chuck Palahniuk. Our book club meeting will be April 11th. If you have read this book please leave your thoughts and comments.

Book Description

Some say that the apocalypse swiftly approacheth, but that simply ain't so according to Chuck Palahniuk. Oh no. It's already here, living in the head of the guy who just crossed the street in front of you, or maybe even closer than that. We saw these possibilities get played out in the author's bloodsporting-anarchist-yuppie shocker of a first novel, Fight Club. Now, in Survivor, his second and newest, the concern is more for the origin of the malaise. Starting at chapter 47 and screaming toward ground zero, Palahniuk hurls the reader back to the beginning in a breathless search for where it all went wrong. This time out, the author's protagonist is self-made, self-ruined mogul-messiah Tender Branson, the sole passenger of a jet moments away from slamming first into the Australian outback and then into oblivion. All that will be left, Branson assures us with a tone bordering on relief, is his life story, from its Amish-on-acid cult beginnings to its televangelist-huckster end. All of this courtesy of the plane's flight recorder.—Amazon.com

Author, Jill Conner Browne

The Lit Group with Jill Conner Brown, author of "The Sweet Potato Queens' Book of Love" series.