3 posts tagged “books”
For all my fellow Jane Austen fans - this Sunday is the beginning of the Jane Austen series on Masterpiece Theater. In my area, it is on at 9:00 on Sunday nights, but you can check here to find out when it will be on your local station, just click on TV Schedules at the top. I'm very excited about the series, I first heard about it 6 months ago and I've been waiting eagerly. The series will show movies of all 6 of her books and then include a drama based on her life. Maybe I'll try to re-read the books again and work towards my New Years goal. The only one I haven't read yet is Northanger Abbey. I think that Persuasion will be the first movie shown. If anyone is planning to read the books also, let me know.
Do you think Casey will watch it with me?
A couple months ago, my friend Christi invited me to join Shelfari, website where I can post the books I've read/am reading/want to read and share my list with my friends. It inspired me to stop unpacking and organizing my house and start reading again.
Cellophane was a good book. It about an engineer who builds a paper factory in the middle of the Peruvian jungle, just to see if it could be done. He is successful, but everything changes when he decides to produce cellophane at his factory instead. This new paper, transparent and delicate, brings a trio of "plagues" upon his family and village that will forever change their world. Deep secrets and personal feelings are suddenly blurted out at the most inappropriate times, unlikely romantic attractions kindle, and everyone starts seeking to change their circumstances.
This was an enjoyable book to read with some very comical scenes and fascinating, memorable characters.
The Poisonwood Bible is one of the best books I've read! I've read some of Barbara Kingsolver's books before, but I had never read her most famous work. When I saw that several of my friends had it on their Shelfari shelf, I figured I should finally read it.
Wow! Fabulous book. It's a pretty heavy book that leaves you considering theological, political and personal issues with a depth not usually found in novels today. But I also loved reading it and I didn't want to put it down. (It's no small feat for a mom with 2 toddlers to read a 543 page book in about a week!) A strict missionary preacher drags his wife and four daughters to a small village in the Congo, unprepared for just about everything they would encounter. His wife and daughters take turns telling the story from their own perspectives. The women share with us how the experience changed their lives forever, but they also struggle with the role they played in how we changed the lives of the Africans forever.
It's the kind of book that makes you want to hit the history books, investigate current foreign policy, ask God some really tough questions and then hug your children for a really long time.
I recently read My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult for my book club. A great book, I highly recommend it! It's about a young girl whose older sister has a rare form of lukemia. She was conceived for the sole purpose of donating her umbilical cord blood to her sister for treatment. And as she grew up, she donated platelets and bone marrow. As the book opens, she is now 13 years old and her sister needs a kidney. The chapters switch between narrators so you can hear the voices of the 13 year old, her mother, her father, etc. The voice of the mother was the most gripping for me because her story starts when her oldest daughter is 2 years old and she is first diagnosed with lukemia. As the mother of a 2 year old, I sobbed. My husband can attest to my tears - he found it very amusing, especially since I was only 30 pages into the book.
I should also tell you about my book club. It's called "Book Club Gone Wild." I wasn't part of the book club in the beginning, but here's how the story goes: Originally, the book club was a regular book club, mostly consisting of residents' wives. Within this book club was a group of ladies that tended to be a bit unruly, a bit wild, and not so serious about the books. Their unruliness became a bit of a problem and the group of offenders was asked to leave the book club. So they banded together and started their own book club: Book Club Gone Wild. Reading the book is purely optional; Bringing an appetizer, dessert or alcohol is mandatory. We gather together and eat for about 45 minutes, discuss the book for 15 minutes, and then talk about anything and everything under the sun for another hour or so. Last year it truly was a wild book club. But as some of the original members have moved away, it seems that the mood is starting to be a bit less wild. I didn't actually get to go to book club this month because my child care plans fell through, but I hope I can make it next month. The book is The Mermaid Chair and I hope to pick it up at the library this week.
