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