It's About Books December Book Discussion

It's About Books is meeting to discuss this book on Tuesday evening (barring a blizzard of course) at 5:30 at the library. Though the story centers on the murder of a young wife and mother by two fundamentalist mormons in the mid 1990's the story is really about the history of Mormonism in the United States from its inception in the mid 1800's. Krakauer, though not totally objective, I think, gives an impressive account of mormon history and where they stand today. It is a very timely subject. Polygamy and Mormon fundamentalism have been in the news, and books from the wives of morman polygamists have been popular as many have sought to understand just where they are coming from. This book was very eye opening and startling. We should have plenty to discuss! Join us if you can. Find discussion questions at our website at www.lemars.lib.ia.us under "Books and Reading" or follow the link.

Dark Assassin by Anne Perry

Dark Assassin is book number 15 in the William and Hester Monk series. So, Here I go jumping into the middle of a series for my first time reading Perry. This was a great story though, and I could hardly put it down. Perry does tend to give endless details, but I was not put off by this.
William Monk, of the Thames River Police witnesses a young woman's fall (or was it a push) off a bridge into the icy waters of the Thames. It is ruled a suicide and the young woman is assigned the grave of a suicide. A humiliating end. But Monk is unsure of what he'd actually seen and his investigations lead him into the dark and forbidding underworld of the sewers and tunnels of London during the time when they were being rebuilt and redone. We meet Toshers and Navvies, and lumpers. Indigent and homeless children as well as the very high class of London Society. It is a very Dickensonian view of the Victorian era-London in the late 1850's. The tale is well told and there is plenty of suspense and a nice twist at the end. Perry has several series of books and if you can start at the beginning of one of them, it is probably the best choice. Try the William Monk series. I know you'll enjoy.

Best Books 2009

It's getting to be that time of year. The time for looking back. For deciding the best/worst of the year. This list is from about.com blogger Mark Flanagan, the best literature of 2009

1. Little Bee by Chris Cleave. The Story of a friendship between a Nigerian girl and a British magazine editor.


2. The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks. Sparks is a favorite of our readers. This is the story of relationships between parents and children.


3. Homer and Langley by E.L. Doctorow This is the story of two eccentric bachelors from respected New York families who were found dead in their apartment amid a ton of trash. This is a fictionalized account of a story that captivated an audience of New Yorkers in 1947.


4. Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenger This is about twins who have a supernatural encounter with their dead aunt in London

We have each of these books at the library. Best of 2009 books.

Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah

I have just finished my second Kristin Hannah novel, Firefly Lane. As soon as the story began I knew that it was going to be vaguely similar to the one I had just finished. While this one was several hundred pages longer and spanned a far larger time period I felt like I had somehow already read it. Girl from trouble home with drug addict, absent mother, meets girl from stable loving home. Troubled girl is enveloped into the warm loving home and thus begins a 30 year long friendship/relationship. This story covers the entire 30 year span rather endlessly. The book was very warm and mostly sweet and filled with tear jerking moments with the usual line up: men, careers, marriage, children....with one girl pursing a career, and one pursuing marriage and family. If you want a pretty stereotypical read, well this is the book for you. It wasn't that I would have called it a bad read, after all, I did finish it. It's just, well not too surprising. No unusual characters, or even very deep relationships despite a 30 year friendship between two women. The book doesn't really get going and I skim quite a bit of the middle. Will this ever end? I know this will be the last Hannah book that I read (unless I'm on a desert Island and it's the only book I can find) But I will probably recommend them to people who aren't looking for something too deep to fill their evenings, or beach days with. Very predictable.

Finding Friends at the Library

We had a visitor yesterday who was thrilled to find the turkey just waiting for him! In addition to finding plenty of fun books to read he joined Mr. Turkey in a comfortable pose!
Speaking of fun books for preschoolers, hurry down to try out some great new Thanksgiving titles. Jim Arnosky is an author of wildlife and nature for children. He has honors galore for his books. His newest one is "I'm a Turkey" Learn how to 'talk turkey' and some facts about this peculiarly special thanksgiving bird! It's not what you expect. Gobble gobble.
A second new Thanksgiving book is "Thanksgiving Rules" by Laurie Friedman. This story, written in rhyme gives 10 simple rules to follow so you can most enjoy a delicious holiday! After all there is more to thanksgiving than just the Turkey and sweet potatoes.
So Happy Thanksgiving! There's still time to enjoy these books before the holiday. If you hurry!

GEOCACHING FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY

We have a big family event coming up on Monday. I'm excited to invite families in for this. It's a "Learn How To GeoCache" for everyone, young and old. We start here at the library at 6:30. GPS Systems are provided, so if you don't have one, come anyway!

I tried my first geocaching in October with some friends. Of course, I wasn't holding the GPS but I still got to tramp through the woods and have the thrill of discovery. It worked. We found a travelling geo tag-something you take with you and put in another location as you do more and more 'treasure hunting'. Part of the fun was just being with someone else who was enjoying themselves as much as you. The other part was using that GPS system. I love technology and it was great fun to figure out how it worked.
Kids of all ages are welcome to this. It will be a very hands on experience and you won't be sitting in the library for long. See you on Monday night!

Patty Jane's House of Curl takes place near Minneapolis in the 60's. The overall story is about the bonds of women in a very "Steel Magnolia-ish" style. I can't remember when I read a more tragic story than this one. Tragedies fall around every corner, from husbands to sisters. Though the Beauty parlor, the House of Curl, actually figures little in the overall story, it is offered as symbolic for family in general, though in one weird passage, The House of Curl holds an Art show movie that offends most of its patrons, and seems a bit out of place in the story overall. Characters abound, from outspoken Patty to a nearly unnoticeable Nora, to the mildly outrageous Clyde Chuka. I wish a lot of things about the story line of this book. Mostly, I wish I hadn't so highly recommended it before I'd even read it. Our monthly book Club will be discussing this book on Tuesday. I'm going to be interested in their opinion. Read it if you dare, but don't have high hopes for it.

The Things We Do for Love by Kristin Hannah

I just finished this wonderful book by Hannah. I know many others have discovered this author and really appreciate her family friendly stories. This book is scheduled to be a Book Club book in 2010 and I am quite confident that those reading it will thoroughly enjoy it. This is the story of Angie Malone and Lauren Riebadeau . Angie has just divorced her husband, Conlon after enduring the loss of a long desired child. Through much heartache and pain she heads back to her large and very loving Italian family to help out in the family business, and to heal from the pain of childless-ness. In the other part of town teen-ager Lauren Riebadeau lives with her alcoholic mothe. She has reminded Lauren her entire life that she was a mistake and that she will never really amount to anything. Lauren has spent her entire life trying to get her mother to love her just for herself and trying to be the perfect daughter, the perfect student, the perfect girlfriend. Her boyfriend David comes from a wealthy family and really has trouble relating to Lauren's poverty of love and self esteem. He only sees the smart image that she wants him to see. When he gets accepted to Standford and is prepared to head off to college without her, Lauren knows that life will never be the same...
You can probably guess at the rest of this story, it's exactly what you would think as you continue reading and Lauren ends up pregnant and her mother abandons her for yet another live in boyfriend. It held me to the end though. And it didn't end exactly the way I thought it would (hope that's not a spoiler) but it was most satisfying anyway.I think it's a lovely book and well worth the read. Pick it up at the library!

Even Money by Dick Francis

Ned Talbot is a bookmaker. And bookies are not exactly well loved in English society to say the least. A necessary evil more like. Ned is used to that, but when a mysterious man presents himself one evening after the races and claims to be his long thought-to-be-dead father, then is murdered right in front of him he has lots of explaining to do to a skeptical police audience. And, he has one very puzzling question to answer- Was this man really his father? Why would his grandparents, who raised him, have lied to him his entire life? It also seems that this father of his has really murdered his mother as well.
While Ned is off to find out the answers to his questions we watch as he struggles with his book making business and the large corporations set on swallowing him up. Dick Francis' newest Racing book, Even Money is similar to many of his other books in that it is connected in someway to English Racing. Francis gives a great deal about betting, horse identification and RFID chips, and though the information is great, it doesn't really matter if the reader 'gets it'. It is, after all, the story, the mystery that counts. The story picks up as we head to the end and we see loose ends coming together. Though, I admit, I am partial to horse racing ever since my first bet was placed on a Kentucky Derby winner and I won myself a cherry pie, and the likeable characters of Dick Francis' novels. This is Dick Francis and English style racing at its best.

Bad Luck and Trouble by Lee Child

This is book number 11 in the Jack Reacher series by Child. It was my first one. I love to start in the middle of a series and see if the book will stand on its own as a 'good' one. This one fits the bill! It seems the hero, Jack Reacher, has no home, no worldly goods and no place to lay his head, but he's part of a special team that 'No one messes with special teams' seems to be in a serious trouble. Half the team assembles and they begin to try to solve the riddle of what has happened to their compatriots. Terrorism, violence, murder. Everything points to an attack on US commercial airplanes. The bad guy is not just a part of some terrorist cell, he's, well...maybe that's giving away too much. If you don't want to start with number 11 I still recommend Lee Child. Go ahead, pick up the first Jack Reacher book and work your way to this one. If you're already a fan, you will enjoy this one as well.

The Case of the Missing Marquess by Nancy Springer

Oooh, this was a delightful story! It's written for students from about 5th-9th grades, and any mystery or Sherlock Holmes lover will enjoy this story. Sherlock Holme's mother has gone missing and his 14 year old sister, Enola is left alone and confused. Enter Sherlock and brother Mycroft. Neither one of them are able to make headway on the case and they decide to send Enola off to a proper girls finishing school. This is not what Enola has in mind, so she runs away. On her way she gets involved in another local mystery and the fun begins! This is the first of many Enola Holmes mysteries and once you get through this one, you will surely want to read another. I loved this story and along the way you learn about 19th century London and the Victorian age as well as customs, dress, and speech. This is a great mystery for beginning mystery lovers!

Petropolis by Anya Ulinich

This month's book club discussion is about Ulinich's book Petropolis. The story is about young Sasha Goldberg, a half jewish, half black Russian Teenager living in depressing, post communist Asbestos 2 in Siberia. That her life is filled with abject misery is plain, and so is the life of almost every character we meet in the book. I did not find much redemption in this story, even in the crippled Jake, or the reunion of Sasha with her daughter and most especially not in the way Sasha ends up in America. To say that I did not enjoy the book is an understatement, but then, I don't think I was supposed to enjoy it in the traditional sense. It did, make me think, especially about our perceptions about culture and immigration. I had to force myself through the first 100 pages, but it was a bit easier after that fortunately. I will be interested to hear what others thought of this story.

The Girl With the Pearl Earring

This book, the Girl with the Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier is not a new publication. In fact, even the movie (2003) based on this title is not new. But of course, sometimes that seldom matters if the topic is timeless. This is the fictionalized account of the famous painting by Johannes Vermeer in about 1665 of "The Girl with the Pearl Earring". And actually, no one really knows the 'story' of this painting, who this girl really is, or how she came to be painted by Vermeer. Was she really his daughter, or some other household member, like a maid as is suggested in this story by Chevalier. No matter, the story is a wonderful glimpse in to life, culture, and customs of the Dutch in the 17th century. Though we don't end up really knowing too much about Johannes Vermeer, we do learn a lot about some of the subjects of his paintings, of the art of, well art. This was a wonderful book, an easy read, and it certainly made me more curious about Vermeer's work and life. You can see some of his paintings here, and if you've read the book or plan to there are many things in each of his paintings that you'll find in this story.

Private Peaceful by Michael Morpugo

I finished this book on Wednesday morning. It's rare that I am surprised by an ending, but this one was somewhat of a surprise. It was also a very powerful book for young adults. It's the story of two Peaceful brothers, Charlie and Tommo who have both gone off to fight the 'Hun' in France in 1914 when Charlie is 18 and Tommo is 14. Each chapter begins with time. Tommo is remembering through one long sleepless night of his life in England with his 2 brothers and his mother and Molly. Ah, Molly. It's such a lovely sad story about family and relationships and becoming. And of course, the horror of war. In particular the horror of the "Great War". This makes warring so personal. I have read Jeff Shaara's book "To the Last Man" about the first World War and that gave quite a bit of perspective on this very personal story about it. An outstanding book. Enjoy it if you can.

Burn by Linda Howard

This was my first and probably last Linda Howard novel and it was red hot alright! I did not know what to expect when I started reading this book, but it fairly reeked with all of the sterotypical aspects of a romance novel. Mind you, it had a little action spy thriller thrown in on top just so we wouldn't get all wrapped up in that hunk of a guy with the odd first name, Cael. Of course the female lead is named Jenner so we are pretty well set in the unusual, this-should-keep-your-attention name department. The story is about the wealthy, albeit 'workingman' Jenner Redwine who has won the lottery and now has a new kind of life because of all that money. She is kidnapped on a cruise for the ultra wealthy and forced to work for her kidnappers in order to save a friend's life. But creeping into the middle of all this she falls in love with that hunk of a kidnapper/good guy while sleeping handcuffed to him. hmmm. I'm not a huge romance novel fan, but it all seemed pretty standard fare for the romance novel. The real writing came in when the sex scenes started appearing. (that's the 'red hot' part) It seemed this was the real reason why she was writing this novel, I thought. Everything else was pretty boring and familiar. Seriously, I could have predicted how this would turn out from the beginning. After all, what could be more sexy than to fall in love with your captor..
So. If you want to read about kidnapping, and intrigue, or a spy thriller about the north Koreans stealing weapons of mass destruction, better pass on this one. But as a sex novel. Well. It's in there.

The Star of Kazan by Eva Ibotsen

Annika is a foundling discovered in a church by two old women who are on holiday in the Swiss mountains and happen by the church. They live in Vienna and take Annika along and end up raising her in a most happy household filled with bachelor professors, and a community of friends and school and even cooking and cleaning. Annika's deepest longing as she grows is that her mother would one day appear and claim her and take her away to a life for just the two of them. Then one day a woman does show up on her doorstep claiming to be her mother and whisks her away to a run down estate in Germany. Annika, unaware, inherits a trunk full of 'fake' jewels from an elderly friend. How does that fit in with her newfound mother and uncle and brother and cousin? How could she end up in a stern school for girls, alone? And her new friend, Zed? How could he have lied to her and then run off with the horse Rocco?
I listened to this story on a 'playaway'. It was great for my morning walks and I thoroughly enjoyed this story. There is plenty of mytery and intrigue and I fell in love with each of the characters that Ibotsen develops so well. A great read (or listen) for students 8 and older.

The White Queen

I have never read any of Philipa Gregory's historical novels before though I once started her popular "The other Boylen Girl" that had been made into a movie! (not enough time) The White Queen was my first one. I listened to it over several days as I drove back and forth from work. If you enjoy English King/Queen history then this book will be a delight for you. You have to keep in mind that this is a work of fiction, however! There was plenty of drama though this was ultimately a love story and a delving into what the English monarchy was like during the15th century.
It is the story of the Plantagent monarchy and the so called 'Cousins' Wars. The White Queen, Elizabeth Gray, marries the usurper King Edward, who with the help of the Duke of Warwick, took the throne by force. Elizabeth and Edward went on to rule England for many years and they had 8 children, 2 of whom were boys, the young princes Edward and Richard. Though this bit of English history was vaguely familiar to me, Gregory's work put a face to what before had been only musty history. I once saw Shakespeare's Richard III as an outdoor stage production and knew about the 2 young prince's that he murdered and of course his loss of the battle to the Henry who was the beginning of today's Tudor Kings. Gregory's book helped fill in some gaps in my understanding of that time and especially of who and what Richard III was along with all the intrigue and politicking that abounded in the royal English court. I enjoyed this story and think anyone who enjoys English history might as well!

Trucktown

I bought 2 of Jon Scieszka's Trucktown books for my grandsons last week. I wanted to save them until I absolutely needed them, but the boys found them before we hit that moment. I could not read them enough they loved them that much! Trucktown is Scieszka's (author of the Time Warp Trio series) newest series and it's aimed right at busy active boys. There are 14 different books in the series- cement mixers, garbage trucks, dump trucks, cranes and even an ice cream truck all with adventures and smashing and crashing of their own. They smash and crash and build and roar all over town.
You know, those kids will now have the perfect reason to be smashing down all those building block towers they have created! They'll be joining the truck town crew. Not only does Scieszka have the right amount of colorful action filled trucks in his books he's created a website where kids can continue the fun of smashing and crashing and dumping and building. It's Jon Scieszka's Trucktown (amazingly enough) and there are lots of fun things for those little computer literate boys can do that are related to these books. Find that here. So before you even go out and buy one of these great books, you can check out what they're all about. Enjoy

Olive Kitteridge

Elizabeth Strout's Pulitizer Prize winning book was my latest read. Another book that I often thought about as I went through my day. The main character, Olive Kitteridge is a person that I feel like I vaguely know. Though stern and unbending she reminds me of my grandmother somehow. Another generation that I'm not quite connected to and have difficulty relating to. This book takes a look at how our lives rush by and the changes in it can some times be baffling and leave us disoriented and dismayed. The story is told in a series of little stories with Olive sometimes as the center of the story, and somethimes as just a bit player. All of them feature citizens of Crosby, Maine and tales of hurt, loss, life. I highly recommend this book, and am even more thrilled to say I loved a Pulitzer Prize winning story.

September Book Club

My very favorite kind of book can be any genre - you know, a mystery, a romance, science fiction or a western, but it has to be one that I can't put down. And when I do put it down I have to be thinking about it, wondering about it's characters, the story line and what new turn I'm going to find. Then When I get to the end. Well, there is the great sadness. Ending a book I really like is, at the same time bittersweet and satisfying. Not to many books out there that I feel that way about but Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time was one of them. This was a book recommended by my sister. She usually has some really good story for me to read when I go visit her and I end up reading the story instead of visiting the way a good sister should. I can't tell you how many times that's happened. This means that when she tells me the book is "really good" I usually believe her and pick it up and get going. She rarely disappoints me.

All this as a lead in to Haddon's wonderful book about a 15 year old boy with Asperger's. The story is told from Christopher's point of view and I really liked that about the book. It gave me perspective and respect for not just those I know who are autistic but who are 'different'. This book is our September book Club selection. Be sure to stop down and pick up a copy. Enjoy the read then we'll see you at book Club On September 8 at 5:30