Book Club

[SWEET]

Finished Amy Poeppel's Musical Chairs.  I'm glad I got around to finishing it after shelving it because others I wanted to read came before this one.  It was really enjoyable.

[dmod nj]

Hi everyone,

I finished listening to Wake My Heart, by Lydia Michaels.  The book takes you through a journey filled with sadness, laughter and seeing light at the end of a tunnel.  

My dearest friend of 53 years was a young widow, like the main female character.  The main character goes through so many of the stages of grief, only to find her new self again.......like my dear friend.

I laughed out loud, teared up and enjoyed this book, despite the emotional, heavy beginning. 

I just started, The Winter House, by Joanne DeMaio. 

[beckyb1012]

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@CareBears wrote:

Just finished The Butler by Danielle Steel, I enjoyed this book!  pretty much like all of her books.

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I really enjoyed The Butler.  If you have time @CareBears go over to the Kinkaide thread in Home Forum.  We were posting about Thomas Kinkaide"s beautiful paintings and I posted about the Cape Light Series.  One poster had never heard of them and as already downloaded the first book.  She just discovered Jan Karon recently and already read 5 of the Mitford Series.  Give her a shout out of your love of Mitford if you can!! 

[teganslaw]

I'm reading "Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell" by Susanna Clarke. 

This is an unusual book. It takes place in 1800 England. Magic used to be a part of British society, but isn't relevant anymore. Mr. Norrell, a magician, has a library of books referring to magic, and is intent upon making magic once again relevant. 

He meets Jonathan Strange, another magician, and becomes Strange's mentor. The two are very different: Mr. Norrell is a recluse, preferring to use controlled magic, whereas Jonathan is outgoing and likes to take wild perilous chances. That could be his undoing.

The novel took me a few chapters to actually get into it. I can't recommend the book because it's not for everyone. If a reader wants action, events happening constantly, this is not it. The book relies on mood, depth, and characterization. 

It still is slow moving, but I like the way the story is developing and how Strange and Norrell relate to each other and their ways of using magic. The author does a good job of transporting the reader to nineteenth century England. I wasn't sure at first, but I find the premise very interesting. 

[CANDLEQUEEN]

Just started reading a book that I won thru Goodreads a while back, called Couple Found Slain...It is about a young man who murders his parents, but instead of focusing on the actual murder, the book so far anyway is focusing on the mental aspect of it, the boy before and after the crime, as well as the other siblings, and their roles in the family, etc......It is based on a true story.....It is interesting...... 

[sandy53]

I read Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe by Heather Webber.  It is my book club book for this month.  It was ok.  I generally do not like southern fiction that is full of mystic shapeshifters and that is what this book was.  The main character inherited the cafe but had to run it for two months.  During that time she "found" herself and was connected for life to the small Alabama town.  There was a little romance and it was totally G-rated. 

[icezeus]

Last night I finished Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah. Thank you to the reader who recommended this book. It's the story primarily of two sisters and their mother and their fractured relationship. The mother has never shown them any sort of affection or love. The mom is from Russia and their dad is American. The two sisters are now grown and have their own problems which can be tied back to the mother.

They sisters love their father dearly. When the dad suffers a heart attack, his deathbed wish to his girls was to make their mother finish telling them the story, which as kids growing up they assumed was a fairy tale. What unfolds is heart breaking, and the sisters come to realize why their mother is the way that she is, and the steps that must be taken to heal. 

[CareBears]

@beckyb1012 I have read some of the Cape Light series and enjoyed them!

[SWEET]

Just read my first short story book ever by Lily King.  Five Tuesdays In Winter.  I read all but one of 10. They weren't connecting stories and probably 20-30 pages in all.  I finished the book in 2 days.  I'm not a big fan of short stories and depending on the book I might give them another chance.

[CareBears]

Just finished The memory of Butterflies by Grace Greene, I enjoyed this book!  Rather deep and it left me in tears at one point, it is a book that will leave me thinking for a long time!