December book

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Ok, I think it's my (Ashlie's) turn to pick 3 books for everyone to vote on.

The Secret Life of Bees- Sue Monk Kidd

The Giver- Lois Lowry

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close- Jonathan Safran Foer


I will put up a poll here in the next few days for you all to vote. Also, we were thinking that the discussion forum could just be open to anyone as soon as they finish each book. I am thinking that we will want to try to shoot for the end of November to finish up The Memory Keepers Daughter so we can start on the next book for December. However, anytime you finish is fine. Right Mellissa? Did I leave anything out?

Book Review - Austenland

Thursday, November 13, 2008


Since I have so far been unable to procure a copy of The Memory Keeper's Daughter (hopefully I'll be able to get a hold of one during the weekend) I picked up Austenland by Shannon Hale this week instead. Being a huge fan of Mr. Darcy a la Colin Firth myself, I found this book pretty hilarious.
Austenland is the story of Jane Hayes, a 'thirty something' woman who has let her unhealthy fascination with the fictional Mr. Darcy ruin her real-life relationships.
Jane's great aunt, having learned about Jane's obsession, gives her an all-expense paid trip to a place called Pembrook Park in England, where visitors dress in Regency style clothes and basically pretend to be living in a Jane Austen novel.

This is a fun book, and one that I'd recommend to anyone looking for a good lighthearted read, as well as anyone who has ever fantasized about men in breeches or finding their very own Mr. Darcy. The narrator has a sarcastic sense of humor, and I found myself laughing out loud more than once. It is a bit 'cute', but not the kind of cute that makes you want to gag... well, at least not until the last chapter, which I found a tad disappointing. All in all, out of 5 stars I'd give Austenland about 3 and 3/4,
0 stars meaning I couldn't even finish the book and 5 stars meaning I absolutely loved it.

Read more book reviews, get recommendations and discuss the books that you're reading right now over at our forum.
The newest topic up for discussion: The Twilight Series. love it? Hate it? leave your comments on our Twilight thread.

And the winner is:

Saturday, November 1, 2008


The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards.
Thanks for voting, everyone!

Some Information about the book:

(Taken from the litlovers website)

"A few months after my story collection, The Secrets of a Fire King, was published, one of the pastors of the Presbyterian church I'd recently joined said she had a story to give me," Kim Edwards explained in an interview on the Penguin Group web site. "It was just a few sentences, about a man who'd discovered late in life that his brother had been born with Down syndrome, placed in an institution at birth, and kept a secret from his family, even from his own mother, all his life. He'd died in that institution, unknown. I remember being struck by the story even as she told it, and thinking right away that it really would make a good novel. It was the secret at the center of the family that intrigued me. Still, in the very next heartbeat, I thought: Of course, I'll never write that book."

Despite Edwards' quick dismissal of the idea, it would not unhand her. She let several years slip by without going to work on the story, but she never forgot it. When she was invited to run a writing workshop for mentally disabled adults, the experience affected Edwards so profoundly that she started mulling over the pastor's story more seriously. It would be another year before Edwards actually began working on The Memory Keeper's Daughter, but once she did, she found that it came quickly and surprisingly well-developed.

In The Memory Keeper's Daughter, a man named David discovers that his newly born son is in fine health, but the child's twin sister is stricken with Down Syndrome. So, the distraught father, who harbors painful memories of his own sister's chronic illness, makes a quick but incredibly difficult decision: he asks the attending nurse to take his daughter to an institution where she might receive better care. Although he tells his wife that the child was stillborn, David's decision goes on to affect the lives of himself and his wife for the following 25 years.

I hope that you all enjoy the book. Don't forget to register for our forum so that you can share your thoughts with our other members.