End of 2010 Books

Hmmm...I guess having a baby and then going back to work slowed me down on my updating!!!  We've been meeting for book club though!  We've been on a roll with really good books lately.  Here's to more great books in 2011!

Our August Book

Island Beneath the Sun

By Isabelle Allende

This was a book that I didn't finish.  I started it and the language was beautiful, but very literary.  I was just too sleep deprived that once I started it I was asleep!  I'd like to go back to it someday though.

Our September Book

Tricks 

By Ellen Hopkins

 This book I loved.  Ellen Hopkins has a way of getting down and dirty when it comes to teen issues.  She talks about topics that aren't easy to broach.  I love her novels in poetry.  This book was interesting because it tied in so many different stories.

Our October Book

Pope Joan 

By Donna Woolfolk Cross

I was at least halfway into this one when book club snuck up on me.  I need to check it our from the library again so I can finish it.  I liked the writing, it reminded me of Beneath a Marble Sky and The Red Tent.

Our November Book

Room 

By Emma Donoghue

I listened to the audiobook in my car and found myself wanting to know what was going to happen next!  This book starts of without telling you where the main character is and what his circumstance is.  I liked the way it was written from the perspective of a 5-year-old. 

Our December Book

Zeitoun 

By Dave Eggers

I'm still only at the beginning of this book, but I really like the few chapters I have read.  This book is a nonfiction account of a man who experience Hurricane Katrina.  I'm hanging on to this one so I can finish it even though we had book club tonight.  

The Red Tent

February Book of the Month

The Red Tent

By Anita Diamant

I can't speak for those of us who couldn't make it to book club tonight, but everyone who was there really enjoyed the book this month!  The Red Tent is a religious fiction book about Dinah, the daughter of Jacob.  I thought this was a great book about family and mothers and daughters.  I have to admit that it was a little slow moving, especially in the beginning of the book, but I found myself really liking the character.  

We welcomed a new member(...or two or three???) to the book club tonight.  Kim joined our book club this time and got a dose of our craziness.  We also have a potential new member...our waiter!  ...Or maybe his wife, perhaps?  

Escape

The May 2008 Book of the Month

Escape

By Carolyn Jessop

The May book of the month was recommended by Veronica.  The other books it beat out were Belong To Me by Marisa de los Santos and The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards.  We met at Ram to discuss the book over a tall glass of Merrill "Buttface" Jessop beer and a plate of shrimp.  

Escape is the "dramatic first-person account of life inside an ultra-fundamentalist American religious sect, and one woman's courageous flight to freedom with her eight children."  We were all appalled to read about the suffering and abuse women and children had to face within the FLDS cult.  Even more outrageous is to think that this was happening recently and is still going on even today.

We didn't really have focused discussion questions but the discussion kind of just led itself.  Here are some of the topics we discussed:

1. Which part of the story appalled and outraged us the most?

2. How were the men in the FLDS able to totally and completely control the women and children?

3. What do we learn from Carolyn's relationship with her children in regards to mothers?

We all agreed that Carolyn has an amazingly strong will and that she is definitely smart to have been able to carefully plan her escape so she would be successful.  We also discussed our opinions of long underwear.  To end the night, we all shared a mile high mudpie.  Yum!