A Few Legistics

Hey ladies! To clear up some confusion and make things easier for everyone, Annette in her wisdom suggested that we add a list of who is choosing the book for which month. I have added a list to the side column titled "Who's Choosing When". It has a list through the end of this year of who is choosing the book for each month. If you don't want to choose a book, can't do it that month, or know of people who are joining the book club, just let me know and we'll change things accordingly. If you are the one choosing the book for the following month, please post which book you've chosen by the middle of the preceding month so everyone has time to pick it up. There is also a list of what we've already read in the right column to help everyone know which books have already been chosen. If for some reason you go to post and are not able to, please let me know. It may be that I just need to change to your rights. If I have not sent you an email with an invite as an author to the blog, please email me and we'll get it all squared away so you can post. (Also, please let me know if I have misspelled your name anywhere!) If anyone has any other suggestions on how to make things work better in our book club, we would love to hear them. We're a work in progress! Thanks for bearing with us as we work out all of the kinks! Happy reading everyone!

April: A Girl Named Zippy by Haven Kimmel

So I'm not sure if the person I had asked to choose the book for April ever saw the message so I went ahead and chose one. I've heard nothing but good things about this book and was in the mood for a light, easy and funny read and from what I've heard, this book fits the bill. Hope you enjoy! Here's a little snip-it of what the book is about:

From Publishers Weekly

It's a clich‚ to say that a good memoir reads like a well-crafted work of fiction, but Kimmel's smooth, impeccably humorous prose evokes her childhood as vividly as any novel. Born in 1965, she grew up in Mooreland, Ind., a place that by some "mysterious and powerful mathematical principle" perpetually retains a population of 300, a place where there's no point learning the street names because it's just as easy to say, "We live at the four-way stop sign." Hers is less a formal autobiography than a collection of vignettes comprising the things a small child would remember: sick birds, a new bike, reading comics at the drugstore, the mean old lady down the street. The truths of childhood are rendered in lush yet simple prose; here's Zippy describing a friend who hates wearing girls' clothes: "Julie in a dress was like the rest of us in quicksand." Over and over, we encounter pearls of third-grade wisdom revealed in a child's assured voice: "There are a finite number of times one can safely climb the same tree in a single day"; or, regarding Jesus, "Everyone around me was flat-out in love with him, and who wouldn't be? He was good with animals, he loved his mother, and he wasn't afraid of blind people." (Mar.)Forecast: Dreamy and comforting, spiced with flashes of wit, this book seems a natural for readers of the Oprah school of women's fiction (e.g., Elizabeth Berg, Janet Fitch). The startling baby photograph on the cover should catch browsers' eyes. (Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.)

It's available for $11.16 at Amazon.com.

Let's Chat

Okay ladies, hopefully you've finished the book since it's March now and I want to hear what you thought so here are a questions to get the chat going:

-What was your favorite part?

-What did you think about Vida Winter's real identity? Did you see that coming?

-Who was your favorite character?

-Do you see yourself in any of the characters in this book?

-Do any of you have the desire to read Jane Eyre again after all the references to it?

-What did you think of the Governess' and the Doctor's "experiment" with Emmeline and Adeline?

Post comments for these questions or anything else you want to bring up!

March: It Takes a Mother to Raise a Village by Colleen Down

Tricia informed me that I am in charge of picking a book for March. I picked the book for February (not having read it before) and while I am enjoying The Thirteenth Tale (I'm only halfway through) I realized that I probably broke Rule #2 because there are a couple not-so-clean parts in that book. So, I have chosen It Takes a Mother for March because I think it will conform to Rules #2 and #3 and be uplifting for all! I've heard great things about it! Here's a little description from Good Reads:

"While the old African proverb of 'it takes a village to raise a child' sounds appealing, perhaps the realities of life are more accurately conveyed in the story of The Little Red Hen. 'Who will help me potty train my child?' asks the mother, 'Not I,' says the village. 'Who will help me clean up this third glass of spilt milk?' asks the mother. 'Not I,' says the village. 'Who will help put braces on my child's teeth?' asks the mother. 'Not I,' says the village. 'Who wants to use my child to further their own political agendas?' asks the mother. 'WE DO,' says the village.
The irony of motherhood is that there has not been a spokesperson for mothers because those who feel most passionately are simply too busy. They're too busy running the car pools, doing the laundry, shopping for the groceries and the 1,001 other things, which are required to sustain life. Some have tried, but really, when was the last time Oprah plopped down her last ten dollar bill for a bag of Huggies and a gallon of milk?
Full time Mom, Colleen Down, has decided to ignore her buzzing dryer and ringing phone long enough to stand up and defend those whose profession it is to rock the cradle, and to remind them once again that they truly do have the power to change the world.
It Takes a Mother to Raise a Village is a humorous look at the joys and frustrations of being a mother of seven, ranging from preschool to college. It Takes a Mother to Raise a Village also takes a serious look at how important the role of a mother is in dealing with the problems that face us in the new millennium. If it takes a mother to raise the village it is also going to take all of the mothers to save the village."

It's available for $12.95 new on Amazon as low as $2.35 used.

February: The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

Settle down to enjoy a rousing good ghost story with Diane Setterfield's debut novel, The Thirteenth Tale. Setterfield has rejuvenated the genre with this closely plotted, clever foray into a world of secrets, confused identities, lies, and half-truths. She never cheats by pulling a rabbit out of a hat; this atmospheric story hangs together perfectly.

There are two heroines here: Vida Winter, a famous author, whose life story is coming to an end, and Margaret Lea, a young, unworldly, bookish girl who is a bookseller in her father's shop. Vida has been confounding her biographers and fans for years by giving everybody a different version of her life, each time swearing it's the truth. Because of a biography that Margaret has written about brothers, Vida chooses Margaret to tell her story, all of it, for the first time. At their initial meeting, the conversation begins:

"You have given nineteen different versions of your life story to journalists in the last two years alone."

She [Vida] shrugged. "It's my profession. I'm a storyteller."

"I am a biographer, I work with facts."

The game is afoot and Margaret must spend some time sorting out whether or not Vida is actually ready to tell the whole truth. There is more here of Margaret discovering than of Vida cooperating wholeheartedly, but that is part of Vida's plan.

Margaret has a story of her own: she was one of conjoined twins and her sister died so that Margaret could live. She feels an otherworldly aura sometimes or a yearning for a part of her that is forever missing. Vida's story involves two wild girls--feral twins (is she one of them?)--who would have been better off being suckled by wolves. Instead, their mother and uncle, involved in things too unsavory to contemplate, combine to neglect them woefully. There's also a governess, a Doctor, a kindly housekeeper, a gardener, and another presence--a very strange presence--which Margaret perceives as a ghost at first. Making obeisance to other great ghost stories, there is a deadly fire, a beautiful old house gone to ruin, and always that presence....

The transformative power of truth informs the lives of both women by story's end, and The Thirteenth Tale is finally and convincingly told. --Valerie Ryan

January: Left to Tell by Immaculee Ilibagiza

Immaculee Ilibagiza grew up in a country she loved, surrounded by a family she cherished. But in 1994 her idyllic world was ripped apart as Rwanda descended into a bloody genocide. Immaculee’s family was brutally murdered during a killing spree that lasted three months and claimed the lives of nearly a million Rwandans.

Incredibly, Immaculee survived the slaughter. For 91 days, she and seven other women huddled silently together in the cramped bathroom of a local pastor while hundreds of machete-wielding killers hunted for them.

It was during those endless hours of unspeakable terror that Immaculee discovered the power of prayer, eventually shedding her fear of death and forging a profound and lasting relationship with God. She emerged from her bathroom hideout having discovered the meaning of truly unconditional love—a love so strong she was able seek out and forgive her family’s killers.

The triumphant story of this remarkable young woman’s journey through the darkness of genocide will inspire anyone whose life has been touched by fear, suffering, and loss.