Inside Jacket

Who do you think comes best out of this little legal tussle? LibraryThing.com or a company called American Reading? LibraryThing’s response made me laugh.

I searched forever for a great book club graphic but we actually have a guy in one of my book clubs (who brings a much needed perspective to our meetings!)  and all the graphics had women.  Sigh . . .

So, I’m in THREE book clubs and I wanted to share with you what books we read and a bit about our meetings from 2009.

My Neighborhood Book Club

Our neighborhood book club has been meeting religiously for about three years.  Our members are women who live in a three or four street radius from each other and we always have between 8-10 attend.  We met every single month and rotate hosts who get control of what book we will read for that month.  We had two awesome highlights this past year that I feel so bad I never blogged about.

Donna Woolfolk Cross, author of Pope Joan, joined our book club meeting on the telephone.  It was crazy because we happened to have about half a dozen roaming preschoolers and toddlers with us that day but it was really cool to talk to her about the book and the upcoming movie.  It was our first time we had done anything like that and it was awesome!!

AND THEN! As if we couldn’t be even more of an awesome book club, Katherine Center joined our book club on video via Skype when we discussed her book Everyone is Beautiful.  We hooked up the laptop to the large screen TV and she was there in the living room!  Katherine is simply an amazing person and SO personable in real life.  Seriously, invite Katherine to your book club and you won’t regret it!

The books we discussed during 2009:

• The Christmas Sweater by Glenn Beck
• The Help by Kathryn Stockett
• Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (did not finish)
• The Next Thing On My List by Jill Smolinksi
• Everyone is Beautiful by Katherine Center
• Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross
• Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil by Deborah Rodriguez
• The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
• Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult
• Searching for Eternity by Elizabeth Musser (not yet reviewed)
• Born in Blood: The Lost Secrets of Freemasonry by John J. Robinson (only 2 members read this one)

So hard to pick a favorite.  The Help and Everyone is Beautiful top the lists as favorites for the year.  The Hunger Games was a hit and everybody read my advanced copy of Catching Fire before it came out.  Seriously, it was making the rounds big time.  We had to draw names for the order that people read it.   Looking back I don’t remember anything about Searching for Eternity and want to finish Frankenstein.

Skype Book Club

Not the most elegant name for a book club (I wonder if I missed the naming?) but it’s a book club that meets via Skype with a bunch of other bloggers.  It’s been awesome and I’m kind of scared I’m going to get kicked out because I haven’t read the last three books and couldn’t find our book for January. (Please don’t kick me out!)

Skype is a great way to meet as a book club especially if you have webcams.  I’d totally recommend getting a group together or even an extended family book club.  I can’t survive without my Skype anymore.

Books we discussed:

• The Magicians by Lev Grossman
• 31 Hours by Masha Hamilton
• Burnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie
• Nothing but Ghosts by Beth Kephart (not yet reviewed)
• Every Last Cuckoo by Kate Maloy (not yet reviewed)
• Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
• The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
• Into the Beautiful North by Luis Alberto Urrea (not yet reviewed)

My favorite was Nothing But Ghosts.   And I’m going to be a better member in 2010!

Children’s Literature Book Club

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this book club.  Last year, I discovered that there was a book club of adults who read only children’s literature who met all over the Salt Lake valley.  I couldn’t resist and basically emailed and asked if they were taking new members.  I was so nervous my first meeting because I didn’t know anybody but I’ve been going now for over a year and am pleased to say that it’s one of the greatest things I ever did.  So moral of the story: it never hurts to ask!

Each month we read books based around on a different theme and books are picture books, middle grade and young adult.  We read a TON!  I secretly love how hardcore it is.

One of the highlights of the year was having local author Ann Cannon attend our meeting when we read her books.  It was awesome!

Books we discussed in 2009:

• Books to Movies
  • The Lightning Thief, Book One of Percy Jackson & The Olympians by Rick Riordan
  • Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl
  • Diary of a Wimpy Kid: A Novel in Cartoons by Jeff Kinney
  • The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo
• Cybils Awards Finalists
  • Abe Lincoln Crosses a Creek: A Tall Thin Tale by Deborah Hopkinson, illustrated by John Hendrix
  • Big Bad Bunny by Franny Billingsley, illustrated by G. Brian Karas
  • Chester’s Beck by Melanie Watt
  • How to Heal a Broken Wing by Bob Graham
  • Katie Loves the Kittens by John Himmelman
  • The Sea Serpent and Me by Dashka Slater, illustrated by Catia Chien
  • A Visitor for Bear by Bonny Becker, Illustrated by Kady MacDonald Denton
  • Wabi Sabi by Mark Reibstein, illustrated by Ed Young
  • A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams by Jen Bryant, illustrated by Melissa Sweet
  • Astronaut Handbook by Meghan McCarthy
  • Duel! Burr and Hamilton’s Deadly War of Words by Dennis Brindell Fradin, illustrated by Larry Day
  • Fabulous Fishes by Susan Stockdale
  • Frogs by Nic Bishop
  • Wanda Gag: The Girl Who Loved to Draw by Deborah Kogan Ray
  • Wangari’s Trees of Peace: A True Story from Africa by Jeanette Winter
  • Chiggers by Hope Larson
  • Emiko Superstar by Mariko Tamaki, Illustrated by Steve Rolston
  • Into the Volcano by Don Wood
  • Jellaby by Kean Soo
  • Rapunzel’s Revenge by Shannon and Dean Hale, Illustrated by Nathan Hale
  • The Savage by David Almond, illustrated by Dave McKean
  • There’s a Wolf at the Door: Five Classic Tales Retold by Zoe B. Alley, Illustrated by R.W. Alley
• Newbery and Caldecott Awards
  • The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
  • The Underneath by Kathi Appelt
  • Savvy by Ingrid Law
  • The Surrender Tree: Poem’s of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom by Margarita Engle
  • After Tupac and D Foster by Jacqueline Woodson
  • The House in the Night illustrated by Beth Krommes, written by Susan Marie Swanson
    
  • A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever, written and illustrated by Marla Frazee
  • How I Learned Geography, written and illustrated by Uri Shulevitz
  • A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams, illustrated by Melissa Sweet, written by Jen Bryant
• Fairy Tales
  • The Sisters Grimm, The Fairy Tale Detectives by Michael Buckley
  • The Princess and the Hound by Mette Ivie Harrison
  • The Palace of Mirrors by Margaret Peterson Haddix
• Historical Fiction – World War II
  • Jimmy’s Stars by Mary Ann Rodman
  • On the Wings of Heroes by Richard Peck
  • Journey to Topaz by Yoshicko Uchida
  • Baseball Saved Us by Ken Mochizuki, Illustrated by Dom Lee
  • T4 by Ann Clare LeZotte
  • The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne
• Ann Cannon Author Study
  • Charlotte’s Rose by Ann Cannon (to be reviewed)
  • A Loser’s Guide of Life and Love by Ann Cannon (to be reviewed)
  • Pirate Pete and Pirate Joe easy-to-read series
• Science Fiction
  • The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
  • Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin
  • Interworld by Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves
  • My Teacher is an Alien by Bruce Coville (to be reviewed)
• Popular Books
  • Gallop and/or Swing by Rufus Butler Seder
    
  • Love You Forever by Robert Munsch
    
  • The Pigeon Wants a Puppy by Mo Willems
  • Goodnight Goon, A Petrifying Parody by Michael Rex
  • Wings by Aprilynne Pike
  • Gym Candy by Carl Deuker (did not finish)
  • Chess Rumble by G. Neri, Illustrated by Jesse Joshua Watson
  • Story of a Girl by Sara Zarr
• Beehive Nominees
  • The Black Book of Colors by Menena Cottin and Rosana Faria
  • Someone Named Eva by Joan M. Wolf
  • Frankenstein Takes the Cake by Adam Rex
  • Climbing the Stairs by Padma Venkatraman
  • Brothers & Sisters: Sibling relationships in the Animal World by Steven Jenkins & Robin Page
• Mysteries
  • When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
  • The 39 Clues, Book One: Maze of Bones by Rick Riordan
  • Skeleton Creek by Patrick Carman
• Free Verse Novels
  • Sold by Patricia McCormick
  • Because I Am Furniture by Thalia Chaltas
  • Where I Live by Eileen Spinelli
  • Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson
• Holiday
  • A Season of Gifts by Richard Peck

So there you have it!!  I’m a bit of a book club junkie!

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I will be on Blog Talk Radio show on Tuesday, January 19th at 9pm EST as a guest for Nicole’s That’s How I Blog Show. I’d be thrilled if you listened in! At the end of the show, we will also be discussing the book WAR CHILD by Emmanuel Jal which is a book that I think everybody should read.
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Copyright 2009 by Maw Books Blog. This feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator or by email, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact us, so we can take immediate action.

Maw Books has an affiliate relationship with several bookstores, including Indiebound, Powell’s, and Amazon . When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, Maw Books earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog. There is no cost to you.

Despite the fact that I have at least 20 books that will be overlapped into 2010 reviews, it just doesn’t make sense to review a Christmas book in January, so I wanted to squeeze one last 2009 review in.  I read The Christmas Sweater by Glenn Beck for my book club.  I liked it, I didn’t like it.

Twelve year-old Eddie only wants a bike for Christmas.  He makes sure that his widowed mother knows it whenever she’s in earshot.  He’s been working hard all year and knows that he deserves this bike.  But his mother breaks his heart when instead of his shiny new read bike on Christmas morning, he receives an ugly, hand-knitted sweater.  He is devastated and hurts his mom deeply when he crumples the sweater and throws it in the corner.

That day when returning from a Christmas dinner at his grandparents house and not yet reconciling, his mother falls asleep at the wheel.  While he is unhurt, she dies.  Now living with his grandparents and mad at the world, he further distances himself from the grandfather that he always adored.  His journey through grief, healing, forgiveness, faith and redemption is just beginning and it will take a literal and figurative storm to bring him back from his wayward path.

What I liked:  the overall idea of the story.  I liked what Beck was trying to do.   I like Christmas stories.  I liked the message.  It was heartwarming.  I liked the characters.  I LOVED the grandfather.

What I didn’t like:  That is was SO obvious that you knew what he was trying to do.  It’s like he is trying WAY too hard to tug at your heart strings.  Just when he can’t plunge the knife into your heart any deeper, he twists it. I liked it until the storm came and then it was no longer a story but rather a hit-you-over-the-head with this message disguised as a story.  And I even LIKED the message!!  There was nothing wrong with the philosophy.   I knew that this would be a message book going into it.  But I just felt that less subtle would have been better. And the ending!  I did not like the ending at all.  *SPOILER ALERT*  The whole thing is a dream!  He wakes up and his mom is alive!!  He’s given a second chance at making the right choices and being happy with his sweater, instead of mad.  It was a real cope out ending.  Surely, there could have been a better way to end it.

So, I would recommend this one based solely on who you are (well . . . isn’t that the case with all books – but I know some of you would like it, others I wouldn’t recommend it at all) .  Some will love it, others might hate it.  With the exception of another book clubber, everybody really liked it.  So it might be worth trying to see where you fall.  And while I liked much of it, personally, I felt that it was a book that was trying too hard and it showed.

The Christmas Sweater book trailer:

Links of interest:  Glenn Beck website, more book blogger reviews.
Genre: Fiction, Holiday
Publisher: Threshold Editions. November 11, 2008
Hardcover, 284 pages. ISBN 141659485X
The Christmas Sweater is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

Copyright 2009 by Maw Books Blog. This feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator or by email, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact us, so we can take immediate action.

Maw Books has an affiliate relationship with several bookstores, including Indiebound, Powell’s, and Amazon . When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, Maw Books earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog. There is no cost to you.

I can not believe that I almost have forgotten that I hadn’t yet reviewed The Help by Kathryn Stockett!  Easily one of my most favorite books of the year!  I can not rave about this book enough.  I want to pepper this review with explanation marks everywhere!!

I knew that everybody was saying The Help was incredible, but I never found the time to set it aside to read until my neighborhood book club chose it as our next read (which by the way – was a fantastic book to discuss – especially if somebody brings chocolate pie for dessert).  I was preparing myself to be disappointed because of that whole expectation thing.   I’m glad to say that hands down, everybody at book club said The Help was easily one of our most favorite reads in two years.

I could not put this book down, I found myself at the stove with the book in one hand while flipping pancakes with another.  At 464 pages, I almost wished it was another 300 pages long.  I didn’t want it to end.  I read non-stop.  It was simply wonderful!

Set during the civil rights movement in Jackson, Mississippi, The Help, simply stated, is about the black women who run the households and raise the children of white women.  Abileen and her best friend Minny, are just two of those black women who while being entrusted with seeing to all their employers needs must put up with being treated as less than human.

Reluctantly, they begin to trust, Eugenia Skeeter Phelan, freshly home from college and the bane of her mother’s existence as she arrived home with a degree but not a husband.  Skeeter is all to aware of her hypocritical white friends and begins to gather the stories of the black women to be published in an anonymous book about what it’s like for the maids to serve in the white homes.  Not sure, if she’ll even be able to get it published, the whole affair is dangerous work as antisemitism is alive and strong in the area.  But the potential rewards and exposing the ugly and the touching stories are worth it.

My rough summary of The Help barely touches upon how truly astounding the book is.  The characters are the most memorable characters I have read about in a really long time.  The friendships and relationships are truly touching.  The writing is beautiful.  The stories and plot line is absolutely engaging.  You’ll be laughing out loud, shaking your head in disbelief and telling everybody you know that The Help IS the book that they have to read simply because it’s just too good not to be shared.  My highest recommendation.

Seriously.  A perfect book.  What more can I say than that?

Links of interest:  Kathryn Stockett website, more book blogger reviews.
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam. February 10, 2009
Hardcover, 464 pages. ISBN 0399155341
The Help is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

Copyright 2009 by Maw Books Blog. This feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator or by email, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact us, so we can take immediate action.

Maw Books has an affiliate relationship with several bookstores, including Indiebound, Powell’s, and Amazon . When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, Maw Books earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog. There is no cost to you.

So Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin is one of those books where perhaps not reviewing it in a timely manner ultimately creates the final judgment:  it’s a pretty forgettable book.  I hate to say that because I remember thinking that the book wasn’t that bad while I was reading it but when I picked it up again I almost convinced myself that I hadn’t read it before.  I couldn’t remember a single thing about it.  I had to go read some other reviews to refresh my memory and that’s not a good thing.  It’s not the small details that I’m talking about but rather the basic premise.

Elsewhere is a story about the afterlife.  Liz is almost sixteen when she’s hit by a  car and killed.  She awakens to find herself on a cruise ship, headed to Elsewhere.  It’s there that she meets her grandmother and discovers that everybody ages backward until they are ready to be born again.  How could I forget that?  The premise certainly is unusual.  I don’t remember ever wanting to put it down.  It held my interest.  I wouldn’t tell people not to read it because I think many teens will like it.  But it’s not one that stuck with me for long.  Oh, yeah.  And there’s talking dogs.  I don’t like talking dogs.

Links of interest:  Gabrielle Zevin website, more book blogger reviews.
Genre:  Young Adult Science Fiction/Fantasy
Publisher:  Square Fish, May 15, 2007.  (original publication: August 11, 2005)
Paperback, 304 pages.  ISBN:  0312367465
Elsewhere is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

Copyright 2009 by Maw Books Blog. This feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator or by email, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact us, so we can take immediate action.

Maw Books has an affiliate relationship with several bookstores, including Indiebound, Powell’s, and Amazon . When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, Maw Books earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog. There is no cost to you.