Book Club Selections

A month or so ago I requested input on books for my work book club to read. After compiling lots of suggestions and putting it to vote, here is the list for 2012-2013. If you'd like to read along, and comment here on my blog, that would be possibly the coolest thing ever.

2012

• January 25, 2012: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
• February 22, 2012: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
• March 28, 2012: Room by Emma Donoghue
• April 25, 2012: The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World by Michael Pollan
• May 23, 2012: Our Cancer Year by Harvey Pekar
• June 27, 2012: City of Thieves by David Benioff
• July 25, 2012: A Game of Thrones by George RR Martin
• August 22, 2012: The Fortune Quilt by Lani Diane Rich
• September 26, 2012: Arctic Chill by Arnaldur Indridason
• October 24, 2012: The Strictest School in the World: Being the Tale of a Clever Girl, a Rubber Boy and a Collection of Flying Machines, Mostly Broken by Howard Whitehouse
• November 28, 2012: Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation by Steven Johnson
• December 19, 2012: The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #1) by Alexander McCall Smith

2013

• January 23, 2013: The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain
• February 27, 2013: Bossypants by Tina Fey
• March 27, 2013: The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown
• April 24, 2013: Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
• May 22, 2013: The Professor's Daughter by Joann Sfar and Emmanuel Guibert
• June 26, 2013: Muhammad: A Story of the Last Prophet by Deepak Chopra
• July 24, 2013: Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell
• August 21, 2013: Comfort Food by Kate Jacobs
• September 25, 2013: The Garden of Finzi-Continis by Giorgio Bassani
• October 23, 2013: The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl by Barry Lyga
• November 20, 2013:Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde
• December 18, 2013: A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

A Thousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I didn't realize until I reached the end that I listened to the abridged version of this audiobook. Despite that, I thought it was a terrific story, and I'm sure that the main plot points were covered.

The woman who read the book was fantastic. Her accent is lovely. I also appreciated getting her pronunciation of people and place names. "Miriam" and "Laila" sound like music with her accent. And the way she said "Afghanistan" was very interesting.

Now, to the story itself. Heart-wrenching and hopeful at the same time. It was such a stark examination of life for women in Afghanistan. The differences between their lives and my own, and those of women I know in the Western world, was startling. Where we'd say "Leave the bastard" or "Just say no to your father," such things were impossible for Miriam and Laila. That's the heart-wrenching part. The hopeful was that they kept going. These women made lives for themselves, in spite of the way they were treated.





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Win ARCs of Lola, Crossed, and Shatter Me

This is your chance to win ARCs of three highly anticipated YA novels: Lola and the Boy Next Door, Crossed, and Shatter Me. See Tahereh Mafi's blog for instructions. And good luck!

Divine Justice by Cheryl Kaye Tardiff

First of all, I must say that I got this book for free from BookRooster.com.

The main part of this story takes place in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, where a prominent politician has been found murdered, and another comes up missing. Three members of the CFBI's PSI department -- agents with psychic abilities -- are on the case.

This murder case, dubbed "The Parliament Murders," is bracketed by the story of one of the agents being in a coma in the hospital some time after the main events of the book. The story of the Parliament Murders is being told through her dreaming/reliving during her coma. (There is no way of knowing how her subconscious could know things that happened when she wasn't present. Just one of many plot weaknesses.)

About a quarter of the way through the book I thought "This sounds like The Manchurian Candidate. I bet these guys are being brainwashed." Around the half-way mark I figured out who the bad guy was. I was really hoping I was wrong, but, no. I was absolutely correct. Disappointing.

I didn't buy the "story within a story" construct in this book. The coma and events immediately after the main character wakes up seemed completely superfluous. The main story could have easily, and less confusingly, been told on its own. As this was the second book in a series, perhaps the first book sets up this premise in a more believable way.

This book also suffered from simplistic, obvious, and repetitive dialogue. "We have to keep looking for connections between [the victims]." They were closing in on the link between the two men. They just had to figure it out before the second was killed. Yes, yes, we got that already, we understand. Write better dialogue or stop talking. I hope that real (C)FBI agents don't state the obvious so often and with such conviction.

There were editing problems, both with spelling (lose vs. loose), and with continuity. For example, one of the characters notices twice that there are no cars in the parking lot; two characters power off their phones, then one uses her (now powered) phone to unlock a door. First someone was shot in the head, then the bullet wound is in his arm.

Finally, I had to wonder if this heroine is the most stupid cop on the planet. She decided to confront the suspect with no backup and without telling anyone where she's going, and didn't realize her mistake until she was confined with him on a yacht headed to open water? And then she willingly drank a beverage he gave her, when his victims had all been drugged with Rohypnol? The conversation between her and the culprit was laughable and, again, repetitive.

I wanted to like this book. I didn't. If I hadn't committed to finishing it in order to write the review for BookRooster.com, I would have stopped reading half way through.

As a side note, the formatting was completely messed up, making it difficult to follow the flow of dialog, especially, as statements by a given character would often be split by line breaks that shouldn't have been there. 

Huntress (Grace Murphy, #1) by Nicole Hamlett

Huntress (A Grace Murphy Novel)

First of all, I need to say that I got a review copy of this book for free from BookRooster.com. I'm glad I did, for positive as well as negative reasons, all of which I'll get to.

Huntress is the introduction to Grace Murphy, a romance writer who, on the day her divorce is final, meets her biological mother, the goddess Diana. Grace is the snarky mother of an 11-year-old boy, with whom she seems to have a very loving, trusting relationship. She shares custody of her son with her husband, who has Dylan on some weekends and holidays.

Now, on to the reasons why I'm glad I got this book for free. First, it introduced me to this very fun and interesting character. Grace is irreverent, self-deprecating, and can't seem to keep her mouth shut. I like the universe this author has created, with her take on Greek mythology. There are also some interesting supporting characters, such as Drew, Rose, and Zachary.

However, I found my enjoyment of the book dampened quite a bit by editing problems. There were some serious punctuation issues, such as a blatant misuse of semi-colons; continuity issues (when, exactly, did the ex-husband first encounter Drew?); and the confusion of words ("physics" and "psychics" getting mixed up -- she meant to use the former).

In addition to the editing problems, I think that Grace's voice, while fun and, as I said before, irreverent, may be off-putting to some. She is definitely not a narrator who will last the ages. Her language is very 2010.

I hope that the editing issues are taken care of in the next book in the series. Oh, yes, this is the first book in a series. And that particular point is not a topic to be discussed here. Just know that, if you choose to read this book, you won't be getting what I would consider a professional product. Enjoy the story, try to ignore the mistakes.

(This review originally posted on Goodreads June 26, 2011.)