Category: Books

For our August Book Club book, we chose Bread and Wine. We decided to try a new genre with food and I think it was a good choice…something a little different. Here’s a bit about the book:

As a follow up to her two bestselling books, Bittersweet and Cold Tangerines, author and blogger Shauna Niequist returns with the perfect read for those who love food and value the community and connection of family and friends around the table.

Bread & Wine is a collection of essays about family relationships, friendships, and the meals that bring us together. This mix of Anne Lamott and Barefoot Contessa is a funny, honest, and vulnerable spiritual memoir. Bread & Wine is a celebration of food shared, reminding readers of the joy found in a life around the table. It’s about the ways God teaches and nourishes people as they nourish the people around them. It’s about hunger, both physical and otherwise, and the connections between the two.

With wonderful recipes included, from Bacon-Wrapped Dates to Mango Chicken Curry to Blueberry Crisp, readers will be able to recreate the comforting and satisfying meals that come to life in Bread & Wine.

I had actually heard about this book from a woman in MOPS. She raved about it and gave a copy away as a prize. I actually enjoyed the book. I thought I might not like it because I feel like I’ve been reading choppy books lately…books with a bunch of random information thrown into a book, not always with any sort of point, order, etc.

I think part of what I liked is that she made it important to eat with friends and family. It’s something we do with the girls, all sit and have dinner together. It was important in my family growing up, too. And I liked that most chapters ended with a yummy recipe. She’s not a fancy chef, but learned some new meals and techniques and likes to play and experiment with food.

I wasn’t sure what to expect since I knew there were some religious references, especially at the beginning, but that didn’t end up being a major trend in the book. Some of the revelations she had from meals or events really struck a chord with me. I recall thinking a couple times “I really needed to read that right now.” So although I couldn’t relate to all of the content, I came away really liking the book and enjoyed it a lot.

If you are looking for a good book with a wide variety of topics with a focus on family, food, entertaining and gatherings, give this book a try. I think this is a book I would like to reread one day because I feel like I could get even more out of it.

Happy reading!

Hollow City is another fabulous book. I read the first book in the series, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, and loved it. So I was really excited for this one to come out. Here’s a little about the book:

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children was the surprise best seller of 2011—an unprecedented mix of YA fantasy and vintage photography that enthralled readers and critics alike. Publishers Weekly called it “an enjoyable, eccentric read, distinguished by well-developed characters, a believable Welsh setting, and some very creepy monsters.”

This second novel begins in 1940, immediately after the first book ended. Having escaped Miss Peregrine’s island by the skin of their teeth, Jacob and his new friends must journey to London, the peculiar capital of the world. Along the way, they encounter new allies, a menagerie of peculiar animals, and other unexpected surprises.

Complete with dozens of newly discovered (and thoroughly mesmerizing) vintage photographs, this new adventure will delight readers of all ages.

I really liked this one, but found it a little confusing at times. There was a lot of time travel and it was hard to keep track of what time they were in. The story was fun and exciting and whimsical, just like the first book. You got to know the characters a bit better and my favorite part about both of these books are the photos that are incorporated throughout the book. It’s a fun addition to an already entertaining book.

Overall, if you liked the first book, definitely read this one. And if you haven’t read the first one, I highly recommend reading it. Everyone I have talked to that has read it has loved it, too.

Happy reading!

First, I love the show True Blood. Second, I was having a terrible time getting through my current book club book, To the Moon and Timbuktu (which I still haven’t finished and we are meeting tonight), so I decided to start a new book. I could get this book from the library right away, so I thought I’d give it a go. Here’s a synopsis if you haven’t read the books or seen the show:

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.

There’s a lot more that happens and the first book was the whole first season of the show. Normally I don’t like reading books where I have a face to put with the characters, but since I love the show and the people they have casted for the roles, I was fine with it. I didn’t remember some of the things that had happened in this book because it was so long ago since the first season of the show aired.

Overall it was a quick read and a fun read at that. I have already downloaded the second book to read until my book club book for August becomes available. I definitely liked this more than I liked the first book in the Twilight series.  So if you want characters that aren’t just vampires and werewolves, but like the vampire-type books, you should check this one out.

Happy reading!

I finished Divergent a couple weeks ago. I was really excited for it because I liked some of the other young adult trilogies in the same genre (The Hunger Games and The Maze Runner) but for some reason I was having a terrible time getting through this one. It could have been because I had just finished the final book in The Maze Runner series or it could have been because I was in another reading slump. First, here’s a summary:

One choice can transform you. Beatrice Prior’s society is divided into five factions—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). Beatrice must choose between staying with her Abnegation family and transferring factions. Her choice will shock her community and herself. But the newly christened Tris also has a secret, one she’s determined to keep hidden, because in this world, what makes you different makes you dangerous.

I thought the majority of the book went pretty slowly (again, possibly due to my reading slump), but by the end of the book, I was very intrigued and really excited to read the next book (which I will admit I haven’t started yet because I have had other books that needed to be read). Overall, it was an interesting idea and I will read the other books in the trilogy. I just need a little time to recover from young adult thriller trilogies first.

I have heard that it was a pretty good movie. I will probably watch it at some point since I have read the book and like watching movies that go with books.

Have you read this one? Finished reading the series? Seen the movie?

Happy reading!

For June, my book club did a “choose your own book”. Covet was my pick. This book is by Tracey Garvis Graves. She wrote On The Island and I really liked that book, so I had a feeling I would like this one as well. Here’s a little about the book:

What if the life you wanted, and the woman you fell in love with, belonged to someone else?

Chris and Claire Canton’s marriage is on life support. Downsized during the recession and out of work for a year, Chris copes by retreating to a dark place where no one can reach him, not even Claire. When he’s offered a position that will keep him away from home four nights a week, he dismisses Claire’s concern that time apart could be the one thing their fragile union can’t weather. Their suburban life may look idyllic on the outside, but Claire has never felt so disconnected from Chris, or so lonely.

Local police officer Daniel Rush used to have it all, but now he goes home to an empty house every night. He pulls Claire over during a routine traffic stop and runs into her again at the 4th of July parade. When Claire is hired to do some graphic design work for the police department, her friendship with Daniel grows, and soon they’re spending hours together.

Claire loves the way Daniel makes her feel, and the way his face lights up when she walks into the room. Daniel knows that Claire’s marital status means their relationship will never be anything other than platonic. But it doesn’t take long before Claire and Daniel are in way over their heads, and skating close to the line that Claire has sworn she’ll never cross.

First, I really liked this book. It was a fast and easy read. I felt like I could have been reading about anyone in my neighborhood. With so many stay-at-home moms who have husbands who travel, I could see them in this situation. It made the whole book more “real” in that way.

Second, I liked that Graves continued with her writing style of having different chapters by different characters. The main character, Claire, had the majority of the dialogue with some dispersed chapters that were a few pages long, from the view of her husband and her cop friend.

My one gripe, which I only noticed after reading the book, actually has nothing to do with the book at all. It’s the first sentence in the synopsis.  “What if the life you wanted, and the woman you fell in love with, belonged to someone else?” POSSIBLE SPOILER. This was from the view of the cop friend. It originally led me to believe there would be more about this. But there really wasn’t. And I only noticed it later on. It just seemed strange to catch readers’ attention with this line when it really wasn’t the main focus of the book, in my mind.

Oh well. It really takes nothing away from the book. I just found it odd. Again, I thought it was a great book. I really like this author and I can’t wait for her to come out with more books. If you want a nice summer read, pick this up!

A couple months ago, my book club picked The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult. If you have ever read a book of hers, you will understand how powerful they can be. If you haven’t read one of her books, you definitely should. First, here’s what the book is about.

Some stories live forever . . .

Sage Singer is a baker. She works through the night, preparing the day’s breads and pastries, trying to escape a reality of loneliness, bad memories, and the shadow of her mother’s death. When Josef Weber, an elderly man in Sage’s grief support group, begins stopping by the bakery, they strike up an unlikely friendship. Despite their differences, they see in each other the hidden scars that others can’t, and they become companions.

Everything changes on the day that Josef confesses a long-buried and shameful secret—one that nobody else in town would ever suspect—and asks Sage for an extraordinary favor. If she says yes, she faces not only moral repercussions, but potentially legal ones as well. With her own identity suddenly challenged, and the integrity of the closest friend she’s ever had clouded, Sage begins to question the assumptions and expectations she’s made about her life and her family. When does a moral choice become a moral imperative? And where does one draw the line between punishment and justice, forgiveness and mercy?

In this searingly honest novel, Jodi Picoult gracefully explores the lengths we will go in order to protect our families and to keep the past from dictating the future.

Let me start by saying I didn’t finish this the month we were reading it for book club. I was so excited to read a Picoult book again because it had been a while. But it was really hard for me to get into at first. By about half way through, I was hooked. I didn’t want to put it down and I HAD to know what happened next. I don’t feel like I am giving much away by saying there are flashbacks to the holocaust. The flashbacks were truly the most moving and gripping parts of the novel and it wasn’t pretty. This book and the images are going to stay with me for a long time. It was haunting to read and imagine being there. Yet so compelling, I needed to know more.

If you like Jodi Picoult, I think you’ll really enjoy this one as well. If you haven’t read one by her before, this might not be the best one to start with unless you are curious about the holocaust. It was a little slow moving at the beginning, so one of her others might be a better fit for a first time read.

Overall, I think you should definitely read this at some point. It wouldn’t be my pick for a beach read because I like those to be a little more “fluffy”. And I couldn’t read this one right before bed (I had some terrible dreams the one time I did that!). But the topic and depth of the story is something I would urge people to read.

Happy reading.

Sharp Objects is my Book Club’s pick for May, but I had already started it when we picked it. I just finished it last night and really loved it. Here’s a little run-down.

WICKED above her hipbone, GIRL across her heart
Words are like a road map to reporter Camille Preaker’s troubled past. Fresh from a brief stay at a psych hospital, Camille’s first assignment from the second-rate daily paper where she works brings her reluctantly back to her hometown to cover the murders of two preteen girls.

NASTY on her kneecap, BABYDOLL on her leg
Since she left town eight years ago, Camille has hardly spoken to her neurotic, hypochondriac mother or to the half-sister she barely knows: a beautiful thirteen-year-old with an eerie grip on the town. Now, installed again in her family’s Victorian mansion, Camille is haunted by the childhood tragedy she has spent her whole life trying to cut from her memory.

HARMFUL on her wrist, WHORE on her ankle
As Camille works to uncover the truth about these violent crimes, she finds herself identifying with the young victims—a bit too strongly. Clues keep leading to dead ends, forcing Camille to unravel the psychological puzzle of her own past to get at the story. Dogged by her own demons, Camille will have to confront what happened to her years before if she wants to survive this homecoming.

With its taut, crafted writing, Sharp Objects is addictive, haunting, and unforgettable.

This was Gillian Flynn’s first book, but it’s the last one of hers I have read. I read Gone Girl first and then Dark Places. I love Flynn’s writing and when this one came available to me through the library, I dropped what I was doing and started reading. I can’t wait for Flynn to release more books!!

I love a good mystery. I love it when a book keeps me guessing. There were a number of times I thought I knew who did it (I’m pretty good at figuring out who did it early on in tv shows…it’s weird), then something else made me jump to someone else, then I was just down right confused. I didn’t want to put it down when I was getting close to the end because it was getting exciting, and all my questions were getting answered.

Overall, if you have read Gone Girl or Dark Places and liked them, you will like this one, too. Flynn makes some creepy, yet likable characters and tells such an eerie story that you just can’t stop reading.

Since I am done reading my book for May, I’m trying to decide what to read next. I have a couple books I have started that I may try to finish reading. But if you’ve read something recently that I should pick up right away, let me know!!

Happy reading!

For April, my book club decided to The Happiness Project. I had heard a lot of really great things about it, so I was really excited to read this book. Here’s a little about it:

One rainy afternoon, while riding a city bus, Gretchen Rubin asked herself, “What do I want from life, anyway?” She answered, “I want to be happy”—yet she spent no time thinking about her happiness. In a flash, she decided to dedicate a year to a happiness project. The result? One of the most thoughtful and engaging works on happiness to have emerged from the recent explosion of interest in the subject.

The Happiness Project synthesizes the wisdom of the ages with current scientific research, as Rubin brings readers along on her year to greater happiness.

I was so excited to get started on this. Anything that can make me happy, keep me happy and generally boost my attitude, I am all for it! The first couple chapters I was really into it. After that, I sort of felt like “ok, I got it already.” I found that I was skimming and the only reading the chapters or subchapters that were interesting to me or that may be relevant for me.

I don’t think I’m going to be starting my own happiness project, but I am glad I read the book and I got some good ideas of some general ways to be happier that I hadn’t thought about before.

Happy reading!

A few of my friends absolutely love Glennon. I read her blog, but not religiously. She is so raw and true and very refreshing to read. She’s not afraid to show her murky past and is a truly beautiful soul. Here’s a little about her book:

For years Glennon Doyle Melton built a wall between herself and others, hiding inside a bunker of secrets and shame. But one day everything changed: Glennon woke up to life, committing herself to living out loud and giving language to our universal (yet often secret) experiences. She became a sensation when her personal essays started going viral. Her hilarious and poignant observations have been read by millions, shared among friends, discussed at water coolers, and have now inspired a social movement. In Carry On, Warrior,Melton shares new stories and the best-loved material from Momastery.com. Her mistakes and triumphs demonstrate that love wins and that together we can do hard things. Melton is a courageous truth-teller and hopespreader, a wise and witty friend who emboldens us to believe in ourselves and reminds us that the journey is the reward. Carry On, Warrior proves that by shedding our weapons and armor, we can stop hiding, competing, and striving for the mirage of perfection, to build better lives in our hearts, homes, and communities.

I did like the book. I thought parts really touched me and others weren’t really up my alley. I felt like it was a little choppy, but I believe that was intentional. I think she is a very inspiring person who does a wonderful job of wearing her life on her sleeves for the world to see. The good, the bad, and everything in between. I find that so admirable.

It was a good read and if you like any of the stuff she writes on her blog, you will definitely like this book. And the paperback just came out.

Happy reading!

For March, my book club read Maximum Insecurity. Here’s a little description:

After three decades as a successful ear surgeon, William Wright, MD is bored beyond belief. He dabbles with retirement, but finds idleness infuriating. He has to do something.

Then he sees an ad for a doctor’s position from the Colorado Department of Corrections at a supermax prison. Now that, he thinks, would be different. His wife has some thoughts on the matter too. She thinks her husband just lost his mind and is on a collision course with a prison shiv.

After his first day on the job, he wonders if she wasn’t onto something. His first patient is an arrogant, callous youth convicted of five cold-blooded murders. Dr. Wright has to steel himself not to bolt.

Nothing prepares a doctor for life at the Colorado State Penitentiary. He quickly discovers treating maximum security convicts is like treating recalcitrant murderous four-year-olds. Always willing to threaten their doctors with bodily harm, they are more interested in scamming drugs than treatment.

Told with self-depreciating humor and scathing wit, Maximum Insecurity describes Dr. Wright’s adventures practicing medicine in a supermax correctional facility without, he’s glad to say, getting killed even once.

I will start by saying, not only did I not like the book, no one in book club did either. The idea for the story was very interesting. It was the execution that wasn’t up to par. The writing was poor. And the author had a very low opinion of everyone around him (not just the prisoners). One friend made the comment that this would have been such an interesting story had it been written from the perspective of the nurses, guards, administration, etc. and not just this one hot-headed doctor. He acts as though he’s the smartest one there even though he came into this as an ENT and had to look up just about everything that came through him.

I was hoping I would like it. I find prisons fascinating and with a relative in the prison system (although, not in a supermax prison), I was hoping to like the book more than I did. So it wasn’t my favorite book, but I did learn a few things (even from his skewed point of view). This isn’t a book I would recommend you read. Stick to something else.

Happy reading!