Six Years Ago

I had just finished "Girl with a Pearl Earring" when Julie and I were discussing book lists for the year. The e-mail was dated Jan 17th and right away Julie sent an invitation to Cris and Catie and had Cris forward the e-mail to Jane that we were starting with "Girl in Hyacinth Blue". We followed that with "Red Tent" which Cris already read. Cris was reading "Outlander" anyways, so Jane started it and I purchased the first 3 books from Amazon. So while we were all unofficially reading Outlander the next official book was "Memoirs of a Geisha". This is where things began to snowball. The four of us (Dana hadn't joined us yet) were passing lists of books back and forth. Cris started reading "Mists of Avalon". Jane cleared a shelf at her desk for swapping books. The funny thing is as I'm going through my e-mail which documents most of this, I'm e-mailing Dana with details on our Longaberger party. It wasn't until the following summer, around May 2003 that Dana finally joined us. By this time were were firmly entrenched in the "read your own books and w/ a monthly lunch discussion". So I'd say that in May we're way overdue for a anniversary book club lunch. 5 years and still reading!

Birth of Venus

Not sure what the title has to do with the book -- maybe Cris can explain. There are mentions of Botticelli although not really "central" to the story. I don't get it, maybe a different title would give too much away. Anyways the book is set in 15th century Florence where the de Medici (Lorenzo the Magnificent) looses power and the church (Savanorola) tries to "cleanse" the city. Crazy times. Central character is a strong-willed female aspiring artist (during a time when female artists were unheard of -- 100 years before Artemesia) and we see all through her eyes and experiences. Her discoveries of the world around her as well as of herself are intriguing. A good read.

Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende

Daughter of Fortune is about a Chilean girl who follows her heart to San Francisco during the gold rush. Main storyline is interesting but what's even better is the stuff that goes on around her, the gold rush and its affect on San Francisco, Sacramento and everything in between. Originally written in Spanish it is beautifully translated. I'm looking forward to another one of her books, Portrait in Sepia where she uses some of the characters (and timeframe) introduced in this book.

What other book clubs read

Here's a booklist from another bookclub a friend of mine belongs to. As you can see
they've been at it awhile.

1997
Samurai’s Garden Gail Tsukiyama
Snow Falling on Cedars David Guterson
Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston
Big Rock Candy Mountain Wallace Stegner
Stones from the River Ursula Hegi
The Magus John Fowles
Book of Ruth Jane Hamilton
Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers Lois-Ann Yamanaka

1998
Pale View of Hills Kazuo Ishiguro
So Long, See You Tomorrow William Maxwell
Le Divorce Diane Johnson
Mistress of Spices Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Sweet Hereafter Russell Banks
Angela’s Ashes Frank McCourt
House of the Spirits Isabel Allende
The Demon Haunted World Carl Sagan
The President’s Daughter Barbara Chase-Ribaud
Reservation Blues Shirman Alexie
Before Women Had Wings Connie May Fowler

1999
Hidden Latitudes Allison Anderson
Becoming a Man Paul Monette
The Road from Coorain Jill Ker Conway
The Archivist Martha Cooley
Memoirs of a Geisha Arthur Golden
Tortilla Curtain T. Coraghessan Boyle
The Reader Bernard Schlink
American Pastorale Philip Roth
The Farming of Bones Edwidge Danticat
Nine Parts of Desire Geraldine Brooks
Cold New World William Finnegan

2000
Elementals A. S. Byatt
Autobiography of an ex-Colored Man James Weldon Johnson
Woman in the Dunes Kobo Abe
House of Mirth Edith Wharton
Howard’s End E. M. Forster
Mendel’s Dwarf Simon Mawer
Poisonwood Bible Barbara Kingsolver
The Pilot's Wife Anita Shreve
The Spirit Catches You and You Ann Fadiman
Fall Down (PB)
Guns, Germs, and Steel (PB) Jared Diamond

2001
Dreams of my Russian Summer (PB) Andrei Makine
The Gospel According to Jesus Christ Jose Saramago
The Architect of Desire Suzannah Lessard
Red Azalea Anchee Min
The Red Tent Anita Diamant
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius Dave Eggers
The Girl with the Pearl Earring Tracy Cavendish
No Great Mischief Alistair McLeod
Disgrace J. M. Coetzee
White Teeth (PB) Zadie Smith
Shipping News (PB) E. Annie Proulx
The Interpreter of Maladies Jhumpa Lahari

2002
The Danger Tree: Memory, War and the David MacFarlane
Search for a Family’s Past
Mrs. Dalloway Virginia Wolfe
The Hours Michael Cunningham
The Dark Room Rachel Seiffert
Staring at the Sun Julian Barnes
Properties of Light (PB) Rebecca Goldstein
Amsterdam Ian McEwan
Nickel and Dimed (PB) Barbara Ehrenreich
Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck
Year of Wonders Geraldine Brooks
The Gospel of Judas (PB) Simon Mawer

2003
Angle of Repose Wallace Stegner
I Been in Sorrow’s Kitchen and Susan Straight
Licked Out All the Pots
The Sweetest Dream (PB) Doris Lessing
The True Believer (PB) Eric Hoffer
The Sea, The Sea Iris Murdoch
The Bee Season Myla Goldberg
Housekeeping Marilynne Robinson
A Fine Balance (PB) Rohinton Mistry
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (PB) Sijie Dai
Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Alice Munro
Marriage (PB)
A Primate’s Memoir: A Neuroscientist’s Robert Sapolsky
Life Among the Baboons (PB)
River Town (PB) Peter Hessler

2004
A Yellow Raft in Blue Water (PB) Michael Dorris
Midwives (PB) Chris Bohjalian
The Professor and the Madman (PB) Simon Winchester
The Autograph Man (PB) Zadie Smith
The Man Who Tried to Save the World Scott Anderson
Sea Glass Anita Shreve
Thousand Cranes Yasunari Kawabara
History as Mystery Michael Parenti
Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight Alexandra Fuller
The Gift of the Jews Thomas Cahill
Middlesex Jeffrey Eugenides
Lost in America Sherwin Nuland

2005

The Motorcycle Diaries (PB) Ernesto “Che” Guevara
Fugitive Pieces Ann Michaels
Revenge Laura Blumenfeld
Reading Lolita in Tehran (PB) Azar Nafisi
Kite Runner (PB) Khaled Hosseini
Tale of Two Cities Charles Dickens
The Dream of Scipio (PB) Iain Pears
The Known World (PB) Edward Jones
Never Let Me Go (PB) Kazuo Ishiguro
My Sister’s Keeper (PB) Jody Picoult
The Way the Crow Flies (PB) Anne Marie MacDonald
The Great Inland Sea David Francis

2006
The Plague Albert Camus
The Shadow of the Wind Luis Ruiz Safon
The Future of Freedom (PB) Fareed Zakaria
Genghis Khan (PB) Jack Wetherford
Wild Swans (PB) Jung Chang
Through the Wall: A Year in Havana (PB) Margot Pepper
Love Medicine (PB) Louise Erdrich

Saturday - by Ian McEwan

Jocelyn wanted more posts, so here they are.

Don't bother with Saturday, by Ian McEwan. I picked it up because I had read McEwan's Booker-prize winning novel, Amsternam, a couple of years ago and liked it. And Saturday was on the library shelf and available. I should have been more prepared and reserved something.

Saturday drones on and on (and on) through the stream of consciousness thoughts of the main character. The reviews say that McEwan is a master of both attention to detail and its digressions. (I agree here. Detailed to the point that I thought "What's the point?") The reviews also say the book is "powerful", "complex and suspenseful" , and "engrossing. " Well, perhaps I gave up too soon, as I couldn't take it any more and returned the book after getting through only half of it.

My rating. 1 of 4. (It was written well. I give it that.)

Amy

Any Place I Hang My Hat - by Susan Isaacs

A colleague at work recommended Any Place I Hang My Hat, by Susan Isaacs. The heroin, Amy Lincoln, is a daughter who parents her parents -- in this case a father who loves her but doesn't provide much, as he is in and out of the slammer; and a grandmother who is who works part time as a waxer and who is "not the brightest bulb in the menorah." Amy is also looking for her roots -- finding out about a mother who no one wants to talk about much. It's funny and interesting -- a double or tripple, but no a home run in my opinion. I give it three stars out of 4.

Should we come up with a rating scheme?

Amy

Whoops!

It's "The Memory Keeper's Daughter" - not The Memory Keeper. Sorry about that!

The Memory Keeper - by Kim Edwards

I just finished readying "The Memory Keeper." It's the story about a physician and his wife, beginning in 1964. They're trapped in a blizzard, the wife is pregnant, and the husband must deliver the baby at his office. Turns out it's twins (boy/girl), but the girl has Down's Syndrome. Without telling his wife, the husband gives the baby to the nurse to bring to an institution, but instead, the nurse runs away with the baby and raises her as her own. The husband tells his wife the girl twin died at birth.

Because of losses he experienced in his own childhood, the husband thought he'd be saving his wife a lifetime of grief by giving the baby away. What happens instead is a lifetime of grief of a different kind for the whole family that the husband hadn't envisioned.

I'd seen this book advertised quite a bit, so I had high hopes for it. I must say I enjoyed the book and read it quickly. I found some of the characters particularly interesting, and so was motivated to keep reading to get to more of those characters' chapters. However, while I would recommend this book, it did fall short of being entirely compelling and as richly complex as I was anticipating.

Jane

Into the Wilderness

This is my 3rd post in a row -- so some o' y'all ain't holdin' up your ends...Anyways, I just started a new series by Sara Donati. It's a continuation of JF Cooper's Last of the Mohicans (loved the movie with Daniel Day-Lewis and Madeleine Stowe -- steamy), Chingachgook and Hawkeye are in it but Cora has passed on, their son Nathaniel is now central to the story and a new English maiden joins the cast. It's historical romance much like the Outlander series, w/o the time travel though. It has its own merits and I'm enjoying it (can't put it down -- ask Julie) while I wait for DG to come out with number 6. There are 4 books out now and one more to be released this fall. That should keep me busy.

Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd

We all read "The Secret Life of Bees" which was a wonderful, satisfying, coming-of-age story. I think the author copped out on this one. I don't like the fairy tale ending and I think she could have done more about how the heroine's father's death affected her (not giving anything away here -- he dies before the start of the book). It was a bit anti-climatic towards the end then she just kind of tied everything up rather quickly and neatly -- a little too neatly. I did like all the background info of the Mermaid Chair itself. Not a total waste of time, but leaves much to be desired.