What I Read - February 2013

February was another great month of reading for me.  I had two great books that I read for my two (!) book clubs and one other book that I squeezed in.

Two books clubs?!  Am I crazy or what?

Yes, I am cheating . . .

My first book club, which I adore, is filled with ten incredible, accomplished, fun, beautiful and very busy women.  So busy though, that we hardly read any books anymore.  We still meet once every couple of months for dinner and drinks.  We have great discussions.  We just rarely talk about books.  That is okay with me, because I enjoy these women and the time that I spend with them.  I don't want to lose my commitment to them.

But, it leaves me wishing I had someone to talk books with.

Lo and behold, I started talking books with a friend.  One thing led to another, and we started our own little book club of two!  Very low key, but I love it!  And it fills that desire I have to discuss books on an intellectual level.

Such a slippery slope cheating is.  The justification.  The "it's not you, it's me".  Oh, my!

Seriously, though . . .

For my new book club:

11/22/63 by Stephen King - 

This is the first book that my friend and I decided upon as our inaugural read and there is nothing like starting off with a bang!  I used to read a lot of Stephen King in high school.  He was definitely a favorite author of mine, but I fell off the King bandwagon in college and beyond.  This novel, despite it's almost 900 page size, was incredible.  I loved the story line, the characters, the dilemmas, and eventually even the length.  It is the somewhat familiar question of what would have the world been like if JFK not been assassinated?  King takes the question a bit further though and you get to see the ripple effect ("butterfly effect") of some other smaller events as well.  Time travel, combined with love story and historical fiction proved to be a real winner for me.

If you could go back in time and change an event, would you?  Your answer might change after reading this!

My Goodreads rating:  5/5 stars

For my "old" book club:

Chanel Bonfire by Wendy Lawless -

Now,  after totally dissing my "old" book club, this was my other book club read for the month.  Only a couple of us actually read the book, but I was impressed a book was even chosen (usually we don't even delude ourselves).  Points given.

This is a memoir along the lines of Mommy Dearest.  I actually liken it to The Glass Castle with money.  In Chanel Bonfire we have an addicted, mentally ill (I would guess manic depressive) mother with two daughters that provides a lot of fodder for a novel. While the novel doesn't necessarily give a lot of depth, it does score highly on the train wreck/entertainment scale.  I found myself turning the pages quickly if only to see what other horrible things these poor girls had to endure.

The novel does invoke a lot of questions/discussion about the powerlessness of children in situations of addiction and mental illness.  I also think it is interesting how oftentimes the fathers are not held to a higher standard of protecting their children when this is going on.

If nothing else, you will walk away from this thinking, "hey, my childhood was not that bad!"

My Goodreads rating:  4/5 stars

And lastly for this short month :

Heft by Liz Moore -

My own pick for the month, Heft is the interwoven story of 4 people who all carry a burden on their soul.  Be that burden 550 pounds, mental illness, addiction, parental desertion, loneliness, whatever . . .  and the toll that weight takes on your life.  Loneliness is a big theme in the book.  It is how the various characters deal with that loneliness, and how the others in their lives confront it as well, that was so interesting.  Do you embrace your aloneness?  Do you wallow in being lonely?  All very singular reactions.

I loved this book and the character development.  My heart ached for the figures depicted.  I had a difficult time when it ended for I wanted to continue with their lives.

My Goodreads rating:   5/5 stars


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Did you read anything great in February?  Any wonderful books to recommend to me and my new book club of two?  Who do you cheat on?!

What I Read - January

January was a great month for me on the reading front.  I read several great books.  I love when I get in a groove like that!

I'm a member of Goodreads and love connecting with my reading friends and finding great books to add to my to-be-read list.  Consider joining up!

The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis

I must confess that I read all of the Oprah recommended books.  Truly, as soon as she announces a book, I'm on Amazon ordering it.  Not sure why, but I just do!  I also must confess that I usually like the books that she picks, including this one.

Since we are confessing, I ordered this book before Christmas (the day it was announced).  When it arrived, I felt bad buying myself something so close to the holiday, so I gave it to Mark to give to me.  Especially since I really couldn't come up with any ideas for gifts for myself.  I threw the poor guy a bone.

This book chronicles the life of a woman and the profound effect she has on her children.  It was amazing how different of an effect she had on each of her children, primarily based on where she was in her life at the various impressionable stages of each child.  It was a very different insight into the importance of that mother figure in a child's life.

Even more than the story line itself though, I loved this book because of the writing.  It was written so beautifully and with such wonderful descriptions.  I do not appreciate poetry and do not enjoy reading it, but to me Ms. Mathis' writing felt poetic.

My Goodreads rating was 5 stars (out of 5).

City of Thieves by David Benioff

The next book on my pile was given to me by a good friend who simply said that I "just had to read it".  Boy, was she right!

This story is set in WWII Russia and involves a young man who is arrested for looting.  He will be pardoned for his crime if he procures a dozen eggs, with the help of a fellow jail mate, for the wedding cake of the Colonel's daughter.  Of course, the task sounds a lot easier than it is, given it is wartime Russia.

This was a humorously disturbing historical fiction.  I found it to be a very interesting story that highlights the integrity of the human experience in very inhumane times.

More importantly, it drove home to me how fortunate I am as an American, not to have experienced war on our soil during my lifetime.

My Goodreads rating was 5 stars.

Wife 22 by Melanie Gideon

The last book I read in January was a much lighter read.  It is the story of Alice, who becomes Wife 22 in a study of marriage in the 21st century.

Alice is a 40-something year old wife and mother of two who has reached that too comfortable point in her life and marriage.  She begins to question her relationship with her husband, and then she really begins to critically look at it, while responding to the study questions.  Naturally she begins to feel a camaraderie develop with the researcher assigned to her case.  Twenty years of marriage angst can easily make one look for virtual "viral" comfort.

This was a very easy and compelling read.  The book was presented in an unique format of texts, tweets and facebook posts, making it very modern and true to today's life.  I found it to be a very readable story.

My Goodreads rating was 4 stars.


I have some great books on the docket for next month, including two book club books.  I hope that this may have given you some good books to put on your night stand!

Any good book recommendations for me?  Have you read anything that you just can't put down?
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Book Review: Cheerful Money

I received this book in a holiday book exchange for my book club. I started to read this book three times, actually finishing it on the third attempt. I hate to leave books unfinished, and yet, I was very tempted to, even with this third and final try. 

This is essentially an upper class family memoir. Lots of name dropping, vacations, second homes, marriages and money. Also, a great deal of dysfunction. 

Just as with any family, there are some very funny stories, drama and scandals. It was the promise of that which kept me turning the pages. Unfortunately, the author drowns a great deal of it in pretentious language, requiring constant referral to a dictionary (my Nook would have been helpful for this). 

I would also have preferred a more linear history than the tack chosen by the author, but that is my personal choice. 

All-in-all, not a book that I would recommend, unless you knew the author or his family. 

Catherine Schmidt's review 

Oct 24, 11  ·  edit

Read from October 18 to 24, 2011

Book Review: Here, Home, Hope

Here, Home, Hope is a good, mindless beach read.  I hate to label it chick lit, but probably more "beach book"; one that gets left behind at the rental property.

I really wanted to like this book.  The setting is close to my home town.  I loved identifying with popular places, restaurants and stores. And for that reason, I found it fun.

Unfortunately, the book is best characterized as being trite.  I really didn't like and couldn't identify or sympathize with any of the characters.  I felt that the author attempted to hit on a lot of controversial topics (eating disorders, rape, underage drinking, midlife crisis, infidelity, divorce, suburban pettiness, to name a few) without really delving into any one of them deeply enough.  Everything was dealt with in a very superficial fashion.  Ultimately, all ends well and is wrapped up with a bow at the end.  All of it.  Ugh!

The author is a very accomplished person in her own right.  It appears as if "write a novel" was on her bucket list.  Done.

I received this novel as a PDF version of an advanced readers copy through my involvement with One2One Network.  I received no compensation for this review and all opinions expressed are completely my own.