Under the Banner of Heaven by jon Krakauer

Non-fiction work about the history of the FLDS (Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints).

I continue on my FLDS theme with this work of non-fiction tracing the history of the mormon church, and then specifically the fundamentalist break-away (which basically happened over the practice of polygamy).

I found this book fascinating and it really helped to link and clarify the other personal stories I've been reading about women who escaped their lives in these communities.

It is dark in places, but I think that is simply the truth of the history of this group, like so many other religions and particularly religious zealots.....

High marks from me, but perhaps only due to all my other recent reading? 8.5/10

Escape by Carolyn Jessop

Wow. This was quite the book. Along my mom and I's theme/obsession this fall with the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints, this book stands out as an incredible story. It is about a woman who eventually left her polygamous husband, and he was a pretty high-up church guy, high up with Warren Jeffs.

This book gives a nasty view into a world where women and children - boys and girls are systematically abused in the name of religion. And Carolyn Jessop's account is so frightenly similar to the other memoirs and books we've read, that I cannot just dismiss her story as a "one-off". There is evil flourshing in those remote FLDS communities, and the states of Utah/Arizona are only recently beginning to do something to protect these citizens (who usually have their own FLDS police and judicial system).

I found this memoir to be well written, interesting, personal and also absolutely haunting. I do think that more people should read this type of book, I had no real idea of what really was going on in these cults and it is not good.

Worth reading, in my humble opinion, but difficult at times: 8.5/10

Deadly Appearances by Gail Bowen

This is a mystery, written by Regina author Gail Bowen. I believe it is her first novel...... I found it easy to read, and sort of engaging, but I did not find her characters very believable or real, especially her three mostly perfect teenage children (Huh?).

Also, I was so distracted by the Regina setting, disguised for some reason known only to Gail Bowen. The book is clearly set in Regina, yet she changed names - and no, she did not invent new names, she just scrambled them so that they were just weird...... She named the Cathedral "Little Flower Cathedral" for example, she put landmarks on the wrong street, that's just one little example but it drove me crazy..... also she put a Piggly Wiggly in Regina, and the characters smoked Kool's Marlboroughs and Camel's...... I was just irritated.

So...... about a 5/10 from me, but perhaps I am harsh for a first novel?

The Almost Moon, by Alice Sebold

Alice Sebold is the author of "The Lovely Bones" which is such a well written, interesting and vivid book, that a person couldn't help looking forward to this one, despite the fact that the first line of the book divulges that the main character kills her elderly mother. You kind of expect that she would work with another difficult topic with dexterity and maybe grace or insight, etc..

WRONG. This is a dreadful book. It is unrelentingly grim and alternatively just stupid and unbelievable. I did not find one redeeming thing to like about the novel, the characters, the plot - nothing. I think it will be a huge bomb, unless there are a lot of people out there who appreciate some kind of hidden meaning in an absolutely bleak and unbelievable outlook.

Joanne's rating: Bad. 1 / 10 (It gets one point because at least it was short)

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

I'm not the biggest Jodi Picoult reader, although I have read most of her books and they are a very nice easy read, I find them a little "formula" like, and that is a pretty big word for me and book analysis.

Anyway, this is one of her better ones, and certainly most people LOVE it, I always hear it recommended. It is about a family who chose to "breed" an additional child in the hopes of saving an existing child from a blood disease. We had a great discussion at our bookclubs, and one of my good friends has a niece who had a disease similar to the character (sister) and it is so interesting always to note how people's life experiences change they way they see the world.

Worth reading, but isn't my favourite by a long stretch....

My score: 7/10

Cloud Mountain by Aimee Liu

This historical fiction is set in the early to mid 1900's, between San Francisco and China. It follows the marriage of a Chinese man (Paul) and a white woman (Hope) as they marry in the USA (where that is mostly illegal) and then live much of their lives in China, where Paul is an active revolutionary (or counter-revolutionary, or some such political reformist) admidst his family's history of wealth and status under the old empire. The story is loosely based on the author's grandparents real lives, and weaves political events and upheavals along with the ups and downs of their unusual and challenging marriage.

I thought it was a great novel, very well written and very descriptive, as well as being strong in the character development of several main characters. The historical timeline I found at the END of the book would have been helpful for me to have at the BEGINNING, along with the maps of China, which I did find useful. My only complaint was a rather vague ending, so if you read the book, let me know how YOU think it ended!

It seems easy to recommend this one! 8.5/10

Shattered Dreams by Irene Spencer

Recently, my mom and myself have become hooked on the HBO series "Big Love" which is a summer series on the movie channel. It is about a polygamist family living secretly in mainstream society in a suburb of Salt Lake City (rest assured even though the family lives in mainstream SLC, they are still mixed up in the polygamist cult that some of them grew up in, complete with whacky leaders and crazy goings-ons, so that's all in the show too). This fictional show has sparked in us an intrigue about polygamy, fundamentalist mormonism and the likelihood that there is some reality in the show's premise.

Then, my mom spotted a review of this book, which is a real-life memoir of a woman who lived as a polygamist for about 40 years, as a child, and then again as a wife, complete with a nutty polygamist husband and a great variety of cultish communes and settlements in Mexico.

The book is fascinating and frustrating in equal measure. It is easy to get really tired of the main character, Irene, as she continually returns to this abusive, poverty stricken, demoralizing life, over and over and over again. She is completely conflicted between her unhappiness here on earth, and the promise of celestial glory (or eternal damnation if she does not cooperate). At times (most times in fact), you would just like to slap her, and I was fed up with the loser husband well before they were even married.

Still, I found the book to be a page turner. And for anyone with an interest in totally different cultural norms operating within our society, I think it a great descriptive book. She is also still living, touring and speaking, so the whole thing has a very "real" quality.

Joanne's Rating: 8/10

Angry Housewives Eating Bonbons

I would say that most of the member's of my book club, about 2/3 or so, liked or loved this book.

I, however, disliked it fairly intensely. The novel is about a book club over the span of 25 yrs or so, and therefore the lives of the several women who are in this book club. Theoretically, sounds like I should love it. But I found it too long, the characters to be too shallow, some of the situations just too scripted and all that could have been forgiven if not for the lack of discussion about the many books this bookclub had read. They were used as markers for time, no real content about any of the books..... disappointed me in a major way. Perhaps a trivial complaint, but it is what make me feel so passionately negative about this book.

Joanne's rating: 4/10

Consumption by Kevin Patterson

I'll never be able to summarize this book properly, so I've copied excerpts from the publisher:

Consumption is a haunting story of a woman’s life marked by struggle and heartbreak, but it is also much more. It stunningly evokes life in the far north, both past and present, and offers a scathing dissection of the effects of consumer life on both north and south. It does so in an unadorned, elegiac style, moving between times, places and people in beautiful counterpoint. But it is also a gripping detective story, and features medical reportage of the highest order.

Consumption is tuberculosis, an illness previously unknown among the Inuit that wrenches Victoria from her home as a child, changing her family relationships, her outlook on the world and her entire future. As such consumption is a harbinger of the diseases of affluence, such as diabetes and heart disease that come to afflict the Inuit over the four-decade span of the novel. Consumption also defines the culture of post-industrial, urban North America, captured here through Keith Balthazar’s troubled relatives in New Jersey. And when the diamond mine opens in Rankin Inlet, its consumption of northern natural resources seems to symbolize Canada’s relationship with the Arctic and southern encroachments on the Inuit way of life. Consumption is a sweeping novel, of the kind one rarely encounters today: it is an essential book for Canadians to linger over, learn from, and remember.

I don't always agree with publisher's assessments of a book, but I have to say that this one is pretty accurate. I found this book a little difficult to get "into", but it was well worth the read. It was really well-written and it was both a goood story and a insightful commentary about the north. I have not read much set in northern Canada, and so I am quite glad I read this book.

Joanne's Rating: 8/10

Middlesex

Honestly, I have put off posting about this book, and I am still not sure what I think. It won a Pullitser Prize, and there is no doubt about it, the writing is really good. The novel is about a person who is born as a girl, but has a medical syndrome that means she/he is really a hermaprhodite, with male sex characteristics presenting at puberty.

I'm still not sure if I really liked it though, and I'm not sure I really believed the choices the main character makes. But I'm still not really sure.

Mixed review for me...... more like a 6.5 / 10. I can see why others would really like this book though. I'm still not sure.

Miss Julia Speaks her Mind

A fun book. Light, funny, and yet subtly layered. Everyone in my book club loved it.

8/10

If Today Be Sweet by Thrity Umrigar

I enjoyed "The Space Between Us" so much that I couldn't wait to read this newer book, and it did not disappoint. I found it very enjoyable and an easy read.

I noticed that my friend, Fiona, from Sydney, Australia has a great book club and they rate their choices 1-10, so I figured, heck, I'm going to do the same....

Joanne's rating" 8/10

Body Surfing by Anita Shreve

Uh.........didn't really like it and DEFINITELY not one of my favs of Anita Shreve, it would in fact be very near to the bottom. I didn't like the writing style, didn't find the book credible or believable.

I did read the whole thing, and she still is a gifted writer, I just did not like the style (or a lot of the substance, for that matter)

Madonnas of Leningrad

Mostly, I liked this very much, although there is a lot of content of art (of which I know nothing) and a lot of endless suffering, which ordinarly I don't like. However, the context is interesting (Russia, WWII) and the way that she weaves past and present, and tries to present through the eyes of a person with progressing Alzheimers was beautifully done, and I really admired that.

Worth reading.

Thumbs down for me

Too much torture, too much violence, too much drama, too many miraculous escapes from execution.............. too much sex, too much violent sex........ and so on.

Not my thing, but I think I am in the minoity, most people I meet absolutly LOVE this series, so you will have to read it for yourself and decide!

Peony in Love

Wow.

TOTALLY different than the other two "See" novels I have read: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Dragon Bones.

There is nothing I can describe that wouldn't be a spoiler, except that the setting in China is a place that Sherlocks and Mom and Dad toured.

It is a very different novel. Get out there and borrow this one so we can all discuss it! It's hardcover, not sure I would recommend you buy it.... dust off your library card, or get my mom's copy, we are waiting to hear more opinions!

J

We are all Welcome Here

I enjoyed this book very much. The story is about a woman who gives birth in an iron lung and then raises the child although paralyzed from the neck down, and while it is fiction, it is based on a real person.

Very engaging, nicely written and an easy read. I liked it.

The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai

Wow. I will need other's opinions to discuss this one.

Since it won a Booker prize, I guess it is redundant to say that the writing is very good, but it is. Very readable, and I found that the characters captured me right from the start. It is a sad novel, and "The Inheritance of Loss" works for me as a title very well, it captures the theme of this book, so many losses, so many consequences of losing, or being born into a "loss" situation

This book is set in the Himalyan mountains, and at the time of the story it was India (From what I could tell). It was very well described, but I sure could have used a map and maybe a bit of a history synopsis, I'm not sure I really "got" all that was intended with the various rebellions and territory changes. I read this in hospital, so my concentration was not ideal, I think I missed some of the points, and I especially missed whatever was within the novel that would have helped me to accept the ending. I found I totally missed whatever resolution there was and it is also possible that that was intentional, that resolution was not a part of the story.

Am very interested in others' opinions, I think that this was a "Molly" recommend book. I'm glad I read it, and would like to hear from someone else who has.

J

Rise and Shine By Anna Quindlan

I really like Anna Quindlan, so the book automatically gets a good mark from me. I did not think this was her best novel, however, it was still very readable, and very enjoyable. She paints very "large" characters this time around, not entirely within my realm of reality, but she works a lot of New York city into the novel, almost like another character and I think some of the believability of the place, time and character work because it is set in NYC.

Thumbs up. Try it and see what you think.

The space between us. by Thrity Umrigar

Two thumbs up.

I really enjoyed this novel of two women from different "worlds" within India.... and the stories their lives weave. I think it was well-written. It is a sad and poignant account of a friendship that can never really be a friendship. Easy to recommend

Mangoes and Quince

I bought this from a bargain bin, but with great hopes since it was billed as a "cooking/food" novel, a genre which I love.

Anyway, I'll gladly lend anyone my copy. In fact, the book was pretty weird; the food aspect was a restaurant started by a woman who is abaondoned by her crazy husband (who married her when she was 15). The young daughter's perspective, of course is a big aspect of the novel as she copes with abandonment, the realization that her father actually was into some crazy, ritualistic, transcendent spirituality /sex thing..... The food was not as present as I would have liked, although that picked up in the latter half of the book, and recipes are included at the back....

So...... it was a bargain book....... and it gets a bargain review from me! Others may disagree!

Nineteen Minutes

I am not a huge Jodi Picoult fan, and the last few I read left me "wanting". But I actually enjoyed this one reasonably well. She brings back a few characters from previous novels, and maybe that helps having some already developed depth or something. It's an easy read, and I think for the masses, probably a good one to read, given the topic (bullying) is of huge importance. So, keep reading, all you others, and tell me what you thought!

Dragon Bones

Wow, one thing I will say for Lisa See is that she does not write to formula. This book is totally different than "Snowflower and the Secret Fan", a book which I LOVED. This book was set in modern-day China, and I got very confused with the government functions and political environment that is important to the story. It is basically a murder mystery, with and archeology/Ancient Chinese History as the motives, and modern China in the backdrop.

I will be curious to see other opinions.

Personally, I often get confused in the murder mystery/thriller type of book, so I am not holding that against Lisa See so far.

Girl with a Pearl Earring

I reread this because my bookclub is reading it this month, and I must say it remained as good as I remembered. I love this book, and I'm not quite sure why. Love the characters and the "what if" story being woven into the facts of Vermeer's life.

This book inspired me to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC, where I saw 5 of Vermeer's paintings, not "the one", but five others. It was a unique experience, and we really enjoyed the other areas of the museum we were able to visit (It is a huge, huge, huge, place). Gord picked 'Armor" and "Battle Gear" and I picked the European masters........ along the way, I saw many Monets, Manets, Renoir, and a bunch of other famous works, being I am pretty dumb about art it was a new experience for me. And a good one.

As was rereading this book. Still enjoyed ever page. So I guess it gets to stay on my "favourites" lists.

Joanne

What I read this week

People magazine. Two of them.

Sorry folks, that's it!

I tried, tried, and tried on the Outlanders but I am just not captured (yet?)

In the Company of the Courtesan by Sarah Dunant

Another small photo, sigh...

OK, I bought this book with enthusiasm, because I did enjoy "Birth of Venus". I now have a copy that I am happy to lend out with enthusiasm, because I can't wait to hear what anyone else think....

Here's a review from Amazon.ca: I gobbled this novel up. I love the historical facts and the fiction of the times. I love the customs and the intrigue. I loved the main characters and their stories as told by the dwarf Bucino. I can't wait to read the "Birth of Venus".

From "the New Statesman": A rip-roaring tale in which gusty vulgarity and ferocious intelligence go hand in hand.

Bottom line..... Too much "gusty vulgarity" for Joanne, not sure about the ferocious intelligence, and I was very much wondering about the historical fact "accuracy" albeit it is ficition.... she does list a big bibliography. I didn't love it, but I'm waiting for someone else to post their opinion. She is a good writer, and her writing does draw me in.....

I think it is worth a read, if only for your opinion. Easy to read. I'm not a fan.

On to the next one!!!!

The Known World

Tiny picture, not sure why, sigh...

Anyway, The Known World.......... pullitzer prize winner, and I'm sure has stellar writing. To be honest, it reminded me of the type of book that would be perfect for an English class, there were many clever literary techniques, foreshadowing and symbolism, etc...

Interesting story, about a freed slave who becomes a slave owner. His father buys his own freedom, then his mother's then the son. The son however, becomes more influenced by his white "master" who helps him become a landowner and slaveowner. He is actually recently departed in the opening of the story, so it unfolds from many other viewpoints.

Frankly, though, for me, it just didn't work, too much back and forth (and I usually enjoy that)... the foreshadowing drove me crazy, and the people I most wanted to know about (the parents) were brushed aside, in my humble opinion. And I never really figured out how and why the former slave would choose to turn around and own slaves, in my mind that character development was vacant. I actually disliked most of the characters, perhaps that is good, I have no idea, but at any rate, the book just doesn't rate "up there" in my opinion.

But what do I know? It did win a Pullitzer!

Everyman by Philip Roth

This is the one of the 'books about books" I mentioned, the one where the writer decides to read a book a week, then write about it. To be honest, the book isn't very organized, though I'm sure it is quite prosaic.

At any rate, at several points throughout this book, Sara Nelsen says "anything by Philip Roth" or how much she loves Philip Roth, with a seeming assumption that the reader must indeed be familiar with this Mr. Roth. Well, I was not.

A few weeks ago, my aunt, Peggy, came over with a few "extra" books that had arrived from her bookclub, the unsolicited type, and lo and behold, one of these was Philip Roth's latest Everyman. (2006)

So, that's what I read for this week. It was actually a story of illness and decline, then death of an "everyman" kind of guy, a man who lived his life, made mistakes, did not resolve issues with his loved ones and eventually ended his days lonely and scared, and mad about his declining health. So, of course, there are parts in here that resonated for me, even though I could not relate in the slightest to the protagonist, whom I found irritating.

If you read it, I'd say borrow it from the library (or from Peggy). And I'm not sure I'll seek out another Philip Roth book, even though I guess he is a famous guy.... http://orgs.tamu-commerce.edu/rothsoc/bio.htm.

At any rate, I did take one memorable passage from this book, which is wisdom from this man's father: "There's no remaking reality. Just take it as it comes. Hold your ground and take it as it comes. There's no other way" I think I will remember that one.

Cheers all....

Here is an example

One of the "books about books" is called "The Reading Group" and it is really a story about the women in a book club, more than the books..... anyway, my mom set about to read the books that were featured in the story, and she has done better than me!

However, here is a book I never would have read otherwise: "I capture the Castle" by Dodie Smith. It was written in the thirties, was virtually out of print until brought back to life by something (I'm not sure what, maybe Oprah?). At any rate it is enjoyable to read, and easy too. The narrator is a young girl, she reminds me of Anne of Green Gables.....

It is a book I would definitely suggest giving a try!

Cheers fellow readers....

So........... I was lying in bed..........

And I was thinking about this book that I read a few years ago. It was my mom's and it was about a woman who read a book a week, and then wrote a book about it.

Got me thinking about the "books about books" which I enjoy very much, and the lists of author's favourite books. Some of these books I've read recently include "Reading Lolita in Tehran" and "How Reading Changed my Life" (pictured above) and also "The Reading Group". Sadly I have often not read these books (especially in the Reading Lolita in Tehran one) and I feel like a doorknob, since I consider myself a reader.

I'm reading a lot these days, so I thought - gee whiz, I could read a book a week, and I would try to read some of those books that are mentioned in the "books about books"..... and then I will post my opinion, and if you choose, you might also post yours, a bit of a virtual book club, of sorts.

We'll see....

Also, frankly, it is a good time for me to have goals that span a year, so that's another good thing for me.