2012 in Review

Each title will link you its blog post.
The first 3 months have 2 posts each.  That seemed complicated and I have just one for the following months.

January
Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte 
"Discussion" Post

Host: Lisa F.

February

Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (this link includes the timeline)
"Discussion" post
Host: Margaret

March

Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Poisonwood Bible Related Photos

Host: Eva 

April
Tao of Pooh
Host: Stephanie 

 

May

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother
Host: Kelly 

June

Planning Meeting+Poetry+Vonnegut

Host: Mary Anne

Schedule July-December

July 

Hostess: Brooke 

Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner.  341pages

August  

Hostess:  Julie 

The Samurai's Garden by Gail Tsukiayama.   224 pages

September 

Hostess:  Amanda

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson.   447pages

.

October  Hostess: Chelsea

Mutant Message Down Under by Marlo Morgan 187 pages

November 

Hostess: Mary Anne

Palace of Stone by Shannon Hale

December 

Hostess:  Heather

The Greatest Salesman in the World  by Og Mandino 128 pages

The Greatest Salesman in the World by Og Mandino

For December we read The Greatest Salesman in the World by Og Mandino.

I didn't manage to get this posted before we met, but I know there were some of you who read it and weren't able to make it.  Even though it is after the fact, you now have a place to comment.

Mandino composed The Legend Of The Ten Scrolls. They are:
Scroll I - The Power of Good Habits
Scroll II - Greet Each Day With Love In Your Heart
Scroll III - Persist Until You Succeed
Scroll IV - You Are Nature's Greatest Miracle
Scroll V - Live Each Day as if it Were Your Last
Scroll VI - Master Your Emotions
Scroll VII - The Power of Laughter
Scroll VIII - Multiply Your Value Every Day
Scroll IX - All is Worthless Without Action
Scroll X - Pray to God for Guidance

Palace of Stone by Shannon Hale

November's book is Palace of Stone by Shannon Hale. This is the sequel to her Newberry Honor book, Princess Academy. It tells the story of Miri from Mount Eskel in the city of Asland on the verge of a revolution.
Here is Shannon Hale's website, and here's the link directly to her page for Palace of Stone.
Here's a quick interview from Salt Lake Magazine.

After writing 12 other books, local author Shannon Hale is releasing her first sequel, Princess Academy: Palace of Stone. It's the long-awaited continuation of her Newbery-Award-winning Princess Academy book series, which has also made buzz at the bookstores and given her a legion of local readers.
Hale wrote Princess Academy seven years ago and hesitated to revisit the story. "I was afraid that anything I would write couldn't measure up," Hale says. But then inspiration struck. She stopped worrying and focused on the story she wanted to tell.
"A new idea occurred to me and it was so compelling that I had to write it out. There were definitely challenges, but I knew the characters so well and the setting so well that it felt like returning home," she says.
The new journey with familiar characters was satisfying but the sequel to her most popular book has put some pressure on Hale. "When the advanced copies went out to reviewers I had a panic attack," she says. "These things keep happening where I realize I really am a lot more anxious about this work than most others."
Hale felt equally uncertain when she wrote Princess Academy because the plot line wasn't as sweeping or complex as her previous books. "It felt like a smaller book to me. It was a more intimate story and I was sure everyone would be disappointed," she says.
"It was then 10 times more successful than any other book I've written. I can never tell how these books will be received. I just have to trust that if I like the story, my fans will," she says.
If Hale enjoying her books is any indication of how well her fans will like her latest book, they should be in for a treat. Hale is delighted with the sequel. "Writing it was very exciting and the ending is so satisfying to me. It is so powerful and true to the characters," she says. 

Mutant Message Down Under by Marlo Morgan

October's book
So when I put this on our to-read list I said, "True story of a woman reporter going on a walk about with an Aboriginal tribe in Australia and how it changes her.", but then when I checked it out from the library my son was reading the inside flap and pointed out that it says the account is fictional.
Then when looking for a website for the book I came across this review, which states that the author claims it as truth but that many in Australia were upset by it and it's truth was called into question. I missed this discussion so I don't know what take you all have on the book. I'd love to read any comments.

There is no official website for the book or the author but here is the Wikipedia entry.

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

Sorry for my book group neglect. I'm playing catch up with blog entries, so here is the one for September. 

There was quite a bit of interesting discussion for this one so if you've been pondering it since then or didn't get to go and this sparks a bursting desire (or even a measly one) to discuss this book please feel free to comment. 

Devil in the White City: 

Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America

by Erik Larson

"Their fates were linked by the magical Chicago World’s Fair of 1893, nicknamed the “White City” for its majestic beauty. Architect Daniel Burnham built it; serial killer Dr. H. H. Holmes used it to lure victims to his World’s Fair Hotel, designed for murder. Both men left behind them a powerful legacy, one of brilliance and energy, the other of sorrow and darkness.

Here, then, is your ticket to the greatest fair in history—a place where incredible dreams came to life alongside darkest nightmares" --From the Official Website

Here is the book's official website. This includes pages about Dr. H.H. Holmes and Daniel Burnham as well as an author interview and some other interesting information. 

Erik Larson's website.

Dr. H. H. Holmes

Daniel Burnham

The Samurai's Garden by Gail Tsukiyama

Availability

Libraries seem to have copies available, but there are some pretty cheap ones through Amazon if you'd rather go that route. Just a reminder that there are links to the right for the closest library systems and to a few online booksellers.

Any who have read it and want to get the conversation started post your questions and comments below!

From the Author's Website:  

The Samurai's Garden 
"On the eve of the Second World War, a young Chinese man is sent to his family's summer home in Japan to recover from tuberculosis. He will rest, swim in the salubrious sea, and paint in the brilliant shoreside light. It will be quiet and solitary. But he meets four local residents - a lovely young Japanese girl and three older people. What then ensues is a tale that readers will find at once classical yet utterly unique. Young Stephen has his own adventure, but it is the unfolding story of Matsu, Sachi, and Kenzo that seizes your attention and will stay with you forever. Tsukiyama, with lines as clean, simple, telling, and dazzling as the best of Oriental art, has created an exquisite little masterpiece."


Gail Tsukiyama
Gail Tsukiyama was born in San Francisco, California to a Chinese mother from Hong Kong and a Japanese father from Hawaii. She attended San Francisco State University where she received both her Bachelor of Arts Degree and a Master of Arts Degree in English with the emphasis in Creative Writing.  Most of her college work was focused on poetry, and she was the recipient of the Academy of American Poets Award.  A resident of the San Francisco Bay Area, she has been apart-time lecturer in Creative Writing at San Francisco State University, as well as a freelance book reviewer for the San Francisco Chronicle.  

Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner

For July we are discussing Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner

This is a novel based very much on the author's life, a story of the life-long friendship between two couples.

KUED did a documentary on Wallace Stegner, which unfortunately is not available online, but the site for it does have photos and and also transcripts of interviews they did for the documentary.

Here are a few discussion questions to get you thinking before we meet.  Feel free (especially if you can't come) to post your thoughts here.  

1. Given the difference between their upbringings (social class), what is the basis of friendship between these two couples? What does each couple gain from the friendship? Is it an equal or unequal relationship?

2. Have you ever had friends as generous as Sid and Charity Lang? How did Stegner write the pairs of characters so that we would believe Larry and Sally could accept the Langs repeated gifts without inducing shame and guilt?

3. Talk about the nature of the two marriages, how they differ. The Langs' marriage seems to be the one most under the microscope here, the most complicated of the two marriages.

4. Discuss the role of wives in the book. Have wives, especially faculty wives, changed since the 1930s?

5. Larry ruminates on the basis of their friendship with the Langs when they flatter him on his writing, asking on page 18: "Do we respond only to people who seem to find us interesting?" and "Can I think of anyone in my hole life whom I have liked without his first showing signs of liking me?" How do you respond to Larry's questions?

6. In the end, do you feel Charity should have thought more about others, or did she have the right to do things her way?

July-December 2012

Sorry all, this is no more than the email I sent out already, but I thought I'd post it here so it would be easily accessible.  I know I usually put in pictures and links and such but this all I can manage at the moment.  Hope it helps.  (Wondering how I managed that Ray Bradbury post and couldn't doctor this up?  Well, I wrote that weeks ago, just after his death,+ and had thought I'd get back to it and write more, but that didn't happen either so I just added a sentence or two and posted.)

July 

Hostess: Brooke 

Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner.  341pages

It's 341 pages so hunt up a copy quick and get started.  Kelly was talking about this one at the last book group for those of you who were there.  It's about 2 couples and their friendship through life.  It's a very well-written and touching story and I'll stop rambling about it and move on . . .

August  

Hostess:  Julie 

The Samurai's Garden by Gail Tsukiayama.   224 pages

Julie says this is a happy book and a quick read but with lots of interesting stuff in it as well.  224 pages

September 

 Hostess:  Amanda

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson.   447pages

This is the story of the Chicago's World Fair and a serial murderer from that time.  Written in novel form, but it is non-fiction.

This one is a bit longer too so be sure to allot enough time to read it before school starts.

October  

Hostess: Chelsea

Mutant Message Down Under by Marlo Morgan 187 pages

True story of a woman reporter going on a walk about with an Aboriginal tribe in Australia and how it changes her.

November 

Hostess: Mary Anne

Palace of Stone by Shannon Hale

This is the sequel to The Princess Academy, so you may want to read or reread that in anticipation.  It comes out in August sometime, so hopefully we'll have time to get copies and read it.

December 

Hostess:  Heather

The Greatest Salesman in the World  by Og Mandino 128 pages

I didn't quite gather what this book is all about so here's a snippet of a review off of amazon

"A parable set in the time just prior to Christianity, The Greatest Salesman in the World weaves mythology with spirituality into a much needed message of inspiration in this culture of self-promotion. Mandino believes that to be a good salesperson, you must believe in yourself and the work you are doing. It is a simple but profound spiritual philosophy about how to succeed in the world's marketplace, easily understood and easy to take to heart"

Hostesses:  FYI Eva and Lisa F. volunteered to host but all the slots were filled so if you need a back up you might try one of them.  

Ray Bradbury-thoughts on his death

How odd that the very night Ray Bradbury had died I found myself in a discussion about him, only to discover his demise the next day.  Somehow I feel as though I've lost a relative, an old friend I'd lost touch with but still loved dearly.  His writing was always about people, which is why he's one of a very few science fiction/fantasy authors that I love.  So many get wrapped up in describing the world or the gadgets or the plot that comes out of the crazy world, but Ray Bradbury never forgot that people are people whether here or on Mars, whether adults or children.  And he was excellent at imagining what they might do in what many found, unimaginable situations.

I haven't read as many of his works as you would think, considering I'm such a fan.  I have read Fahrenheit 451 and Dandelion Wine a few times each.  I've read the Illustrated Man, Farewell Summer and most of Green Shadows, White Whale.  I started the Martian Chronicles this week.  

Dandelion Wine feels like it could have been about my own small hometown and in the era of my parents childhood.  Ray is only 12 years older than my father.  He must've been about the age of Becky Walton who grew up next door to my mother (yup she grew up next to a family of Waltons--so did I).  So hearing of his own childhood sounded so familiar because it was very similar to the lives of my parents growing up in the neighboring state (although they were on the southern end of Indiana and he on the northern end of Illinois).  So I feel as though I've lost my Uncle Eli all over again.  Uncle Eli was the one that had a handful of stories that were well-polished and well-loved; every family seems to have one.  I feel as though I've lost all over again the small town itself.  English Indiana was prone to flooding so the old sandstone library, the old barber shop, the old marble bank and the old post office and the old Denbo funeral home where I'd attended more funerals than I can keep track of,  were all torn down when the town literally moved away (only about 2 miles though).   The new town is fairly devoid of personality, but when John and I moved back in the spring of 1999 I brought the librarian to tears when I signed my full name, which included my mother's maiden name and my own.  The librarian remembered both my grandmothers.  People would stop my sisters in the grocery store and say, "You must be Opal's girl".  When they did the plant exchange at the Home Ec Club the retired librarian (who had given my very first library card) brought a cactus runner that was from a plant that she'd originally gotten from my grandfather who by this time had been dead almost 20 years.  When John and I were on our honeymoon my dad took us on a cemetery tour of the county and told us how we were related to what seemed like, everyone in the county.  We're also related to everyone in the county to north of us, but we thought we'd save that tour for another day.  I guess what I'm saying is my sisters and I are from a place where our roots run deep.  A world where people were people and they were the focus of our lives, and a world that felt as though Ray Bradbury were a member of the family.  Ray is even the most common name in my family.  A lost world that Ray Bradbury did an excellent job of capturing so it wasn't really lost after all.  He was brilliant, and always so hopeful about the world, which considering the seriousness of so much of his writing and all the social ills they addressed, he was always hopeful that those people would wake up and remember they were people and start making the world a better place and jump off the bandwagon of self-destruction so many seem to be on.

Here are a couple links:
Ray Bradbury's website
NPR All Things Considered
NPR Fresh Air Interview November 2000
NPR Talk of the Nation
NPR news break, includes audio of him talking about writing Farhenheit 451.
NPR snippets

Mary Anne's Summer Reading List 2012

In 2009 I heard an NPR show, On Point, go over a summer reading list and I was inspired to do my own.  Sort of surprising I hadn't before, huh? So here is my 4th summer reading list.  I'll never get to them all, but a large portion are young adult selections so maybe I'll get to more than I think, although this summer promises to be particularly hectic, so who knows.


(sorry for all the formatting variations, but I did cut and paste from a few different places)

"Heart of a Samurai by Margi Preus tells the true story of Manjiro, a fisherman's son who dreams of becoming a samurai. The book begins in 1841, and is based on the sprawling true-life tale of Manjiro, whose destiny was almost determined before birth as a son in a long line of fishermen. But a storm blew his life on a new course, and he became one of the first Japanese to set foot in America.   I heard of this first on NPR, it's part of their Backseat Book Club.  You can listen to the article here.


Young Adult Novel Based on a true story

Another from the Backseat book club is Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman
It's about a community garden in Cleveland and how it brings people together.  You can listen to the article here.




Young Adult Novel

My very first list I posted on Facebook and after reading it one old friend strongly recommended this book, The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams


Novel (I think it's young adult)

In August Palace of Stone by Shannon Hale comes out and I'm excited to read it.  She is one of my favorite authors.  This is the sequel to Princess Academy.  


Young Adult Novel

My sister has recommended this to me for years really I'd better read it before my kids are grown:  

Raising An Emotionally Intelligent Child

by John Gottman, Joan DeClaire

Non-fiction














The next several have been on my summer reading list in the past and I've not managed to read.

Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder Um, yeah. Still haven’t made much progress on the Little House Books. 






Young Adult Novel

Richard Peck: I’ve read a few of his books. They are typically set in the Midwest in the early 1900s and are just fun. They are good ones to listen to on car trips.


Young Adult Novels

BFG by Roald Dahl: I’ve begun to be ashamed that I’ve never read anything by Roald Dahl. It seems like everyone has but me. This happens to be a book we own so I’m starting with it. 




Young Adult Novel

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card: My husband and others have recommended this to me for years. Orson Scott Card is not my favorite author but I have heard such good things about these books.




Young Adult Sci-fi Novel

Peter Pan by JM Barrie: I've wanted to read this ever since watching Finding Neverland.  Also, I have read Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and wondered how much was changed from the original story. Plus books about never growing up sound like a great summer read. 




Young Adult Novel

Reading the OED by Ammon Shea: A book about his experience reading the Oxford English Dictionary. Sounds incredibly dull and yet the little interview snippet they had on the NPR show I mentioned made me very curious. This may be one I nibble at all summer rather than read all at once, assuming I can get a copy now.  When I first put it on my list it was new and in great demand.

Non-fiction
















A Jury of Her Peers: American Women Writers from Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx by Elaine Showalter: Someone called in on that NPR show in 2009 and suggested this and since I love Women's Literature I was pretty excited about it. A Jury of her Peers may sound familiar to a lot of you because I bet you had to read the short story by Susan Glaspell for school sometime. This book also sounds like something I may just nibble at but the caller said he couldn't put it down, so we'll see. 



Non-fiction








Jo's Boys by Louisa May Alcott: I've read Little Women and Little Men and then bought Jo's boys years ago and somehow never read it.  I loved Little Men. I read it when John Ray was still pretty young but it inspired me to be more patient and creative in my parenting. Something I could use a refresher course on. 


Young Adult Novel

Land of Little Rain by Mary Austen: A Recommendation by Daddy several years back. I just know it's very short and is set in the Southwest. 




Novel

Beauty by Robin McKinley: It's a young adult novel version of the story of Beauty and the Beast. I have read this one before but it was so long ago I don't remember anything about it except that I think the Beast had a library with all the books ever written (past or future). Robin McKinley's retelling of Fairy Tales was some of Shannon Hales inspiration for her novels and I love her novels. My sister, Jana's recommendation. 




Young Adult Novel

The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar: This was loaned to me quite a while ago and as interested as I am in it I haven't managed to read it yet so hopefully this summer.  (Don't worry Annette, I'll get your copy back to you)




Novel













No Regrets: The Life of Edith Piaf by Carolyn Burke: I myself am surprised that this made it on this list. Mommy decided she liked Edith Piaf and I never understood it, but last year on NPR they were discussing Summer Reading lists and they did a little review of this and I wanted to read it. I even found myself enjoying the snippet of song they included. Wha. . .?


It was on All Things Considered.  Click here if you want to hear it.  They go through a list of books and No Regrets is mentioned last. 6 minutes and 18 seconds into it, if you want to skip the other books.  


Non-fiction

Taming the Paper Tiger at Home (Kiplinger's Personal Finance Guides) by Barbara Hemphill  I have read this book before and it helped a ton, but that was just before I had Samuel (he'll be 6 soon) and I feel I need a refresher course before my papers swallow us all whole.






Non fiction/how to

These is My Words by Nancy Turner: This has been recommended to me a few times by a few people and when our group read it I was gone and didn't read it.  




Novel

Borning Room by Paul Fleischman: In 2010 I happened to see a friend reading this on Goodreads and put it on my list and promptly forgot about it, but am now intrigued anew since it is by the same author as Seedfolks up on the top of this list.




Young Adult Novel

Breakfast at Tiffany’s: Interested in this for several reasons. Want to read something by Truman Capote just because of his connection to Harper Lee and all I’ve ever read was his Christmas memory which is mostly sweet and I think not very indicative of his regular style or subject matter. It's also the only Capote we own.  There were two movies about Truman Capote a few years ago that, although I didn’t see, sparked some further interest in him. 




Novel

Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck.  I thought I didn't like Steinbeck, but it turns out that I do and this is such a classic that it seems like I'm missing something not reading it (I haven't even seen the movie unless you want to count the Veggie Tales version).  Plus I'd never read much about the dust bowl and after reading Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse a few months back I am intrigued.  It sounded so much more awful than I'd ever understood and it seems crazy to me that I was so unaware of it seeing how it was not that long ago or that far away.   This is one John and I thought we might both read.  It's a little dark for summer reading I think, but I can't only read young adult stuff.  Plus I feel the oppressive heat of summer might be just the time to relate to some of the suffering I expect to find in this book.

Novel