Skip to main content

Little Thoughts About Book Club Selections - January

Who thought it was a good idea for me to participate in FOUR book discussions? I do enjoy talking about books so it's not a huge deal.  This is one of the things I miss about working at a public desk in a small branch, everyone was always talking about what they were reading and recommending books. 

Author: Liane Moriarty
Rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
Group: For the Love of Reading

Review: [It was a fast read and didn't take a lot of focus.  That said, there were things that I didn't care for like the sterotypes, like the mother and daughter-in-law who didn't get a long, or the fat girl who loses weight and is suddenly beautiful.  I also didn't see a need for the Tess/Felicity/Will story line. Oh and let's not forget poor Polly!


Title: Normal People
Author: Sally Rooney
Rating: 2.5 of 5 stars
Group: Ladies Night Out 

Review: I've seen this author compared to Jane Austen and as a Janeite I can say who ever wrote that has never read a Jane Austen novel because these two authors cannot be compared.  This book was again, an easy read, but painful to read.  It was like reading a Seinfeld episode, it was a lot of nothing that went no where. I'm happy with the ending cause these two people need to be apart from each other. Also where were the quotation marks?!


Author: George Saunders
Rating: DNF
Group: Mercer County Library System Tuesday Night Book Discussion


Review: I tried with this one. I gave it the Nancy Pearl 50 Page Rule and just couldn't get into the flow of the format and the story.  I really would like to know what all the people raving about this book saw that I completely missed. 


Author: Emily St. John Mandel
Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Group: Single Librarians Support Group Book Discussion


Review: This was by far my favorite selection for the month. It was a little weird reading it while the corona virus is making headlines.  It was interesting to read about those first few years after the end of it all and how all the story lines intertwined and kind of came full circle. 

Check out my Goodreads 2020 Challenge to see what I've read this year.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Blind Date with a Book

Last year I put together a book display called Blind Date with a Book.  I found the idea through another librarian's post and thought it was great.  Last year I wrapped 19 books and 15 books were checked out.  We asked that people reviewed the book but unfortunately only two people returned reviews. Last year's books included: In the Hot Zone by Kevin Sites Night by Elie Wiesel Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon by Daivd Michaels Macbeth by Shakespear A Million Little Pieces by James Frey Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore Under the Dome by Stephen King Lawless by Nora Roberts The Sinatra Files by Tom Kuntz The Help by Kathryn Stockett The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl Ford County by John Grisham The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery The Postmistress by Sarah Blake A Beautiful Mind by Sylvia Nasar Hide & Seek by James Patterson A Vintage Affair by Isabel Wolf Gorgeous East by Robert Girardi Most of these books were ones tha

Peek Inside a Book - Becoming

Book Beginnings on Friday from  Rose City Reader   The Friday 56 with  Freda's Voice . This week I'm reading: Becoming   by Michelle Obama It Begins:   Preface March 2017 When I was a kid, my aspirations were simple.  On Page 56: This was the doubt that sat in my mind through student orientation, through my first sessions of high school biology and English, through my somewhat fumbling get-to-know-you conversations in the cafeteria with new friends. Not enough. Not enough.  It was doubt about where I came from and what I'd believed about myself until now. It was like a malignant cell that threatened to divide and divide again, unless I could find some way to stop it.  Verdict: I'm really enjoying this look into Michelle Obama's life. It's comforting in a way to see that she has struggled with self image, self doubt and a need to be in control in an order to comfort herself.  She talks about meeting new people while cam

Nonfiction November: My Year in Nonfiction

Hosted by Sophisticated Dorkiness this week This week's prompt: Your Year in Nonfiction: Take a look back at your year of nonfiction and reflect on the following questions – What was your favorite nonfiction read of the year? What nonfiction book have you recommended the most? What is one topic or type of nonfiction you haven’t read enough of yet? What are you hoping to get out of participating in Nonfiction November? What was your favorite nonfiction read of the year?  I don't know if I can pick one favorite, I looked at my list and there are at least 10 that I really enjoyed so far this year. If I had to pick my top three they would be: Caffeinated by Murray Carpenter My Beloved World by Sonya Sotomayor I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai All three of these books really caught my attention and really made me take a look at my life.  I saw how much of a caffeine addict I really am, how lucky I was to be born in the suburbs in New Jersey, and how with hard wor