Year 3 - Day 65 - March 5

I started this book for book club in late February about 2 days before our book club meeting. I hadn't been able to get it from the library so I eventually gave in and bought the e-book version. What a waste of money. Since the town is close to here, I did enjoy the mental images of what it may have looked like in this area 150 years ago, but the storyline was dumb. It bothered me even more when I found out it was based on reality. I just felt like it was very blah writing. "This happened, then this, then this, then this, then the end." I'm not usually a fan of books that have the ending at the beginning, either. Oh well. Live and learn! Oh, and book club got cancelled, so I didn't even need to read it! (That's why it took me a couple weeks to come back to it on my Kindle app and finish it once I knew that book club was off.)

Year 2 - Day 227 - August 16

This is my August book club book and it occurred to me yesterday that while I had both the physical AND Overdrive versions in my possession, I hadn't read it. Luckily it was mostly light reading and I got it done really quickly. CeeCee is a 12 year old girl growing up in Ohio in the late 1960's. Her life isn't easy - her mother is mentally ill and her father is a traveling salesman who travels more than he's home. When tragedy falls, CeeCee moves with her Great Aunt to Savannah, Georgia and quickly becomes part of southern society. I enjoyed the book for a quick read, but I wished it had gone further. Once the author sets the scene, the action is set from the last day of school until the first day of school over one summer. I wanted it to keep going into the school year to see what happened. While I thought the book was decent, I was extremely surprised to see that it has over a 4 star average on Amazon.

There are more books in my house to read - Tina Fey, for example ... but tonight is my LAST non-school night of the summer! How did that happen!?!

Year 2 - Day 196 - July 16

I have been reading many, many e-books lately. It started with the realization that the iPad's light doesn't keep Mike up at night. Once a week or so I peruse the free Amazon e-books. I also download from NetGalley as well as the library's Overdrive. This is a selection of what I've read in recent days. The only one that I'd put in the really GOOD category is the top one, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter & Sweet. My book club is reading the book for July, but the meeting is while we are gone so I'll miss it. It's the story of a Chinese-American man who was a child in Seattle during WWII. He attended a mostly white school in a time where many Americans didn't trust people with an Asian face and his best friend was a Japanese-American girl. The story flip flops between his childhood and later in his life...I don't remember if they gave an actual age, but his son is in college. I didn't find many parts of the story surprising, but it was a pleasant read. The other 3 were all free Amazon books and I read them quickly. The nurse one is full of super short stories/memories by ICU nurses, the paramedic one is similar to a journal where the author tells quick stories about his earlier years as a paramedic, and Eyewall read like a Sci Fi original movie. What would happen if a category 5 hurricane hit the Georgia barrier islands with no warning? It wasn't super high quality literature, but it'd probably make an ok movie of the week. :)

Year 2 - Day 54 - February 23

Tonight my photography class was canceled, so I got to go to book club!  That's exciting because we were actually discussing both our Jan & Feb books due to the January snow.  We read Room & House Rules.  I had actually read both previously, but it was fun to discuss them with people.

More importantly, I read this picture book again because we're voting on the Black Eyed Susan Picture Book Award list this weekend, and I needed to refresh my memory with some of them.  This book is genius.  I really hope it makes the list.  I'd love to sit down with the author and say HOW DID YOU DO IT?!

On each page, there is a pair of poems and a fantastic illustration that go with a fairy tale.  They describe both sides of the story.  The catch is that the 2nd poem is the words in the 1st poem exactly reversed.  It's spectacular. 

Day 349 - December 15

All set up for book club ... just waiting for people to arrive!

For food, I decided to make:
The crescent roll/brie thing with crackers and apples
The sausage/cheese/crescent roll thing (also stolen from Danielle) ;)
Chips & salsa
cake pops
cookies
sweet & sour meatballs
wine
soda

Day 318 - November 14

And now for a different type of book club.  We're reading this for a book study in our school this year.  I spent some time this morning getting through chapter 1.  It's actually really good, and I wanted to read it anyway, but it's hard to get the professional books I want through the library sometimes.  (And REALLY hard to read them in 3 weeks!)

Day 315 - November 11

This month's book club book is due back to the library this week, but book club isn't until next week.  That means I'm done a whole week early!  This is a civil war era historical fiction book about a woman (Mary) who wants to be a doctor.  Parts of it were interesting, but parts were too far fetched for me.  I enjoyed the medical parts more than the girl meets boy who wants to meet her sister part.

Day 300 - October 27

We read this for book club this month.  It's about the woman & family behind the famous "HeLa" cells.  Her cancer cells were unusual in that they were easy to keep alive in the lab.  Decades later, HeLa cells have been used in all kinds of science - from the Polio vaccine to space flight.  It was really interesting.

Day 262 - September 19

This is this month's read for book club.  I enjoyed it somewhat, however, I have a really hard time reading memoirs ever since the Million Little Pieces debacle.  Whenever there's a moment (good or bad) that is emotional, I think "awwww. TOO BAD IT PROBABLY ISN'T TRUE!" This is not fair to memoir writers around the world, but it's just how it is for me now. :(