Her Fearful Symmetry

When Elspeth dies, she leaves her London area apartment to her twin nieces, Julia and Valentina. These girls are American and have never met their aunt, who also happened to be their mother's twin. The only rule Elspeth sets for the twins to get the apartment is that their parents can never set foot in the place and after a year of living there, they can sell it or do what they want. Julia and Valentina are about 20yrs old and have been to several colleges and have dropped out of each one, they do not have any drive or determination to get on with their lives, they are very happy living at home in a suburb of Chicago. They go to live in the apartment which is on the other side of the wall from Highgate Cemetery. They meet their neighbors along with their aunt's lover who also lives in the building. This book is about sisters, mothers, love, hate, live and death. It is also a ghost story which seems right since it is set next door to a cemetery. There are a couple of twists, one you can figure out pretty easily, the second one you sit back and think to yourself, man, that's f'd up. I liked it, but it is no Time Traveler's Wife.

My Horizontal Life, A Collection of One-night Stands by Chelsea Handler

Let me just say, I love Chelsea Handler. I think she's hilarious. I don't know if that biased me towards this book, maybe, but probably not. I laughed out loud reading this book. It is what it says it is, short essays and stories of her various sexual dalliances. If you are offended by vagina, big penis, little penis, midgets, drugs and vodka, this is not your kind of book. She writes like she is in the room talking to you, telling you the story of her latest night out. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at it, I could relate to more than one of the stories. It really is an easy read, and a nice palliate cleanser after Push.

Push by Sapphire

The movie that is out right now, Precious, is based on this book. I haven't seen the movie, but the book is pretty intense. It follows Precious Jones, and illiterate 16yr old who is pregnant with her second child by her father. She is kicked out of school in part to her pregnancy and sent to an alternative school where she meets a teacher who inspires her to learn to read and write her feelings down in a journal. She also meets classmates who don't judge her or her situation. Through Precious and her journal, we learn about her home life, the repeated rapes by her father and the brutal abuse by her mother. Since it is Precious' story and her words, the language and text is not something we are used to seeing, she should be in the twelf' grade but she is in the ninfe grade, she likes her maff class.

I think I was expecting more because the movie has gotten such acclaim, but it was a good book and grabbed you within the first few pages. It isn't a big novel, but the subject matter is such that it isn't an easy read. It is intense, brutal, repulsive, ugly, depressing, and compelling. I think the thing that really got me was that even though this is a work of fiction, I know that sh*t like this happens more that we want to admit.

Unwind by Neal Shusterman

This book was intense! In a time after the Second Civil War which was fought between the pro-lifers and the pro-choicers, there is now the Bill of Life which states that life is inviolable from conception until the age of 13. Once a child has reached thirteen years they may be retroactively aborted by unwinding. This satisfied both sides because the Unwinds life does not technically end because all of their parts are distributed among others who need or can afford them. This story follows three Unwinds who have escaped and are simply trying to live until their eighteenth birthdays when they can no longer be lawfully unwound.

This book is incredible. It is difficult to read because of the subject matter and impossible to put down at the same time. Even with the terrifying story I would highly recommend it. It is in the same league as The Giver by Lois Lowery and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Wow!

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher is a look at teenage suicide through the eyes of the deceased. Hannah has committed suicide and she has thirteen reasons why she chose to end her young life. She has made audio tapes and mailed them to her "reasons" in order of their influence. We spend the night with Clay as he listens to her tapes and remember how viscous and cutthroat high school can be. Two things struck me while reading this book: 1) I never heard a good enough reason for her to commit suicide, is there ever one? and 2) I wish I had known as a teenager what I know now and simply ignored all of the gossip and backstabbing, I would have been much happier. It is an interesting book. I definitely would have picked this one up in high school.

Book Exchange/The Christmas List

I think we all agreed that The Christmas List was a trite piece of trash but we were thankful in the busyness of the season that it was a quick, easy read.

The Book Exchange and Potluck was AMAZING!!! The food, the company, the hilarity! You ladies are all incredible! We had some of the most amazing food...Shrimp Scampi, Antipasto platters, artichoke dip, italian sausage and peppers, spagetti, bruschetta, french bread, wine, tiramasu, coconut cake, gingerbread...it was all wonderful! I am sure I forgot something but I know it was all delicious!

I am looking forward to another incredible year. Look to the left for the new list of Book Genres for the year. That's right, I said it, g-e-n-r-e...deal with it! Ciao!

Joy School by Elizabeth Berg

Do you ever sit down to read a book and decide to like it before you even read the first page? I did this with Joy School. It is written from the perspective of a 13 year old girl who moves to a new school and falls in love with an older man. Her love is unrequited and never once through the entire book did I question that the story wasn't written by a thirteen year old. I liked this book. It isn't earth shattering but Berg is an insightful and comfortable writer which made this story enjoyable.

Shrimp Scampi Gambino Style

Sorry, but I don't have a picture of the scampi. I do have a picture of the cover of the book I got the recipe from, The Mafia Cookbook, by Joseph "Joe Dogs" Iannuzzi. This is more than a cookbook, it is full of stories both inside and outside the mafia, he eventually testifies in eleven different mob trials and goes into the witness protection program. These recipes are tested on the mobsters and the FBI agents assigned to protect Joe. It's a fun book! This recipe he made for Anthony "Fat Andy" Ruggiano, a Gambino capo, Checko Brown, a Colombo family soldier, and Skinny Bobby DeSimone, who after eatting this could no way be skinny! Here is the gut busting buttery goodness that is Shrimp Scampi Gambino Style:

2lbs shrimp

3/4lb (3 sticks, yikes!) softened butter

3 shallots chopped fine

4 cloves garlic , crushed & chopped fine (I used a few more)

Juice of 1/2 lemon

2tbls chopped fresh parsley (I used basil instead)

1/2c plain bread crumbs

1 egg yolk

2tsp Red Devil hot sauce (I used Franks Red Hot)

Salt & pepper to taste

Clean & devein shrimp, place them in a large flat pan. Mix butter, shallots, garlic, lemon juice, parsley, bread crumbs, egg yolk, hot sauce & salt/pepper in bowl (I used my hands). Spoon over raw shrimp. Place under broiler for 3-5min, checking occasionally so they do not overcook. Spoon excess melted sauce (BUTTER!) over shrimp & serve. I warmed this up the next day over pasta...mmmm, butter & shrimp & pasta & wine....

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

This book was in the running for our mystery selection in October so it has been on my radar and I've seen it at Target for a while. The synopsis on BN says: A spellbinding amalgam of murder mystery, family saga, love story, and financial intrigue.It’s about the disappearance forty years ago of Harriet Vanger, a young scion of one of the wealthiest families in Sweden . . . and about her octogenarian uncle, determined to know the truth about what he believes was her murder.It’s about Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently at the wrong end of a libel case, hired to get to the bottom of Harriet’s disappearance . . . and about Lisbeth Salander, a twenty-four-year-old pierced and tattooed genius hacker possessed of the hard-earned wisdom of someone twice her age—and a terrifying capacity for ruthlessness to go with it—who assists Blomkvist with the investigation. This unlikely team discovers a vein of nearly unfathomable iniquity running through the Vanger family, astonishing corruption in the highest echelons of Swedish industrialism—and an unexpected connection between themselves.

This book starts out a little too slow for my liking but eventually picks up. I really enjoyed the characters, especially Lisbeth. I wanted to know more about her and why she is the way she is. The novel can be a bit graphic at times when dealing with a murder scene and leaves you with some unanswered questions about motivation for the crime and Lisbeth, she's the biggest mystery to me. I'm hoping that The Girl Who Played With Fire, the second book in the trilogy, gives some answers and insight to Lisbeth. One side note, the author, Stieg Larsson, wrote all three books, turned in the manuscripts to the publisher, then died of a heart attack a few days later so he never saw his words published and to the acclaim they were received. I'll have this at the next book club to submit to the underground.

Fanny Hill Meeting

Book of erotica from the 1700's - $10
One penis cake complete with blue veins and vermillion head - $10
Petticoats for all to throw over their heads - $40
Night of hilarity with the ladies of Book Club - PRICELESS

The Book of Lost Things

BN synopsis: High in his attic bedroom, twelve-year-old David mourns the death of his mother, with only the books on his shelf for company. But those books have begun to whisper to him in the darkness. Angry and alone, he takes refuge in his imagination and soon finds that reality and fantasy have begun to meld. While his family falls apart around him, David is violently propelled into a world that is a strange reflection of his own -- populatedby heroes and monsters and ruled by a faded king who keeps his secrets in a mysterious book, The Book of Lost Things.

When I first picked this book up, I thought it was maybe a book for young adults, but couldn't find the YA on the book. I then saw that this book won the Alex Award in 2007 which honors adult books that appeal to teen readers. I can see how it would appeal to teens, it takes all the fairy tales we grew up with and twists them into what David, the main character, imagines them to be if they were real. In his fantasy world, Snow White is extremely fat and the dwarfs feel oppressed by 'her' and call themselves Comrade Brother One, Two, Three, etc... It is a little violent and would recommend this for adults and about 8th/9th grade and beyond and has a surprisingly sweet ending.

The Know-It-All

I'm sure we all remember the set of Encyclopedia Britannica's on the book shelf in the back of our 5th grade class room when we had to do our first research paper on a country and their import/exports, I know I do. A.J. Jacobs, the author/subject of The Know-It-All, takes the Britannica and all the knowledge within, and sets about with a singular goal, to read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica from A-Z, about 33,000 pages. The synopsis from BN: Early in his career, A. J. Jacobs found himself putting his Ivy League education to work at Entertainment Weekly. After five years he learned which stars have fake boobs, which stars have toupees, which have both, and not much else. This unsettling realization led Jacobs on a life-changing quest: to read the entire contents of the Encyclopedia Britannica, all 33,000 pages, all 44 million words. Jacobs accumulates useful and less-so knowledge, and along the way finds a deep connection with his father (who attempted the same feat when Jacob's was a child), examines the nature of knowledge vs. intelligence, and learns how to be rather annoying at cocktail parties. Part memoir/part-education (or lack thereof), it's an entertaining (and alphabetical) look at the true nature of knowledge.

I really enjoyed this book, it was out loud funny and an easy read. Jacobs really does go through from A-Z, letting the reader know about a-ak (the first word) while giving us his thoughts on the words, information he learns and insight as to what is going on in his own life as he goes through the books. I recommend this book and will bring it to the underground.

The Billionaire's Vinegar: The Mystery of the World's Most Expensive Bottle of Wine by Benjamin Wallace

From B&N: “Part detective story, part wine history, this is one juicy tale, even for those with no interest in the fruit of the vine. . . . As delicious as a true vintage Lafite.” —BusinessWeek

The Billionaire’s Vinegar tells the true story of a 1787 Château Lafite Bordeaux—supposedly owned by Thomas Jefferson—that sold for $156,000 at auction and of the eccentrics whose lives intersected with it. Was it truly entombed in a Paris cellar for two hundred years? Or did it come from a secret Nazi bunker? Or from the moldy basement of a devilishly brilliant con artist? As Benjamin Wallace unravels the mystery, we meet a gallery of intriguing players—from the bicycle-riding British auctioneer who speaks of wines as if they are women to the obsessive wine collector who discovered the bottle. Suspenseful and thrillingly strange, this is the vintage tale of what could be the most elaborate con since the Hitler diaries.

This book is an interesting peek into the world of wine, old wine and the lengths people will go to obtain a piece of history. I learned more about wine from this book than I will probably ever need to know. I personally cannot imagine paying thousands of dollars for bottles of wine either for drinking or display. I have tried some very expensive wines at dinners with my husband. Though I have not tried 200 year old - $156,000 wine, in my opinion, an $800 bottle of wine can taste just as good/bad as a $10 bottle of wine. I think this was one of the points of the book. If you believe that wine tastes better because it costs more, then it does taste better...to you. It is the author's belief, and mine as well that things like wine are meant for enjoying. And, mysteries about wine should be enjoyed too. However, I prefer a smoking gun (cork?) at the end of a mystery, this ending was a little to ambiguous for me. If you like wine, I would recommend this book simply for the information and the history, Wallace does a great job explaining every detail.

Drowning Ruth by Christina Schwarz

Drowning Ruth opens in 1919, on the heels of the influenza epidemic that followed the First World War. Amanda, who is a nurse suffering from an unknown ailment causing nausea and frequent "nervous" episodes, returns home to live with her sister Mathilde on a farm by Lake Nagawaukee in Wisconsin. Within a year, though, her beloved sister drowns under mysterious circumstances. And when Mathilde's husband, Carl, returns from the war, he finds his small daughter, Ruth, in Amanda's tenacious grip, and she will tell him nothing about the night his wife drowned. Amanda's parents, too, are long gone. "I killed my parents. Had I mentioned that?" muses Amanda.

"I killed them because I felt a little fatigued and suffered from a slight, persistent cough. Thinking I was overworked and hadn't been getting enough sleep, I went home for a short visit, just a few days to relax in the country while the sweet corn and the raspberries were ripe. From the city I brought fancy ribbon, two boxes of Ambrosia chocolate, and a deadly gift... I gave the influenza to my mother, who gave it to my father, or maybe it was the other way around."

I liked this mystery. The author is very good at releasing small breadcrumbs of truth along the way but saves the answer to the mystery of whether Amanda killed her sister until the very last page. I would recommend this book on a cold, blustery day with a fire and a nice, hot cup of tea.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

I was really looking forward to reading this book, especially since the first sentence is, "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains." I was looking for fast paced action packed Austen. Instead, I got an agonizingly slow moving read. The scenes with the zombies, or 'unmentionables', and how Elizabeth and Mr Darcy fight the zombies are fun as they are both trained in 'the deadly arts'. There are a few lines that had me snicker but they are few and far between. I can totally see this becoming a movie. I also saw that later this month the same publisher is coming out with Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monster. I think I'll skip that one.

Bright Shiny Morning by James Frey

I was initially hesitant to pick this book up because the controversial author, James Frey, wrote A Million Little Pieces which was heart wrenching 'memoir' of addiction and rehab that blurred the lines between fact and fiction. I read a review of this novel (it really is a novel) when it first came out and the reviewer liked it. The New York Times - Janet Maslin,
"The million little pieces guy was called James Frey. He got a second act. He got another chance. Look what he did with it. He stepped up to the plate and hit one out of the park. No more lying, no more melodrama, still run-on sentences still funny punctuation but so what. He became a furiously good storyteller this time."

This is a fast paced quick read. Frey tells several stories about the people who live in Los Angeles. From a young couple from the Midwest escaping west, to a homeless alcoholic on the Venice Boardwalk who lives in a bathroom, to a iconic movie star whose homosexuality is hidden from public view. The author also interweaves stories or history of Los Angeles, from the founding in 1781 through the Rodney King riots. Living in LA for years, several of the locations and people were familiar to me and some of the stories stayed with me for a few days and left me wanting more.

Passing the torch

DiscoSplitz (a.k.a. Tracy) will be taking over authorship of the blog for a while. Otherwise, we'll never get updated on Book Club Meetings, Book Picks, etc.

Love you all - Burpykitty (a.k.a. Michelle or Library Mistress as Bethany calls me)

The Girl from Junchow by Kate Furnivall

The Girl from Junchow is the sequel to The Russian Concubine. The plot of this novel has been woven into Stalinist Russia and the way the author portrays the time period is incredible. The book continues the struggles of Lydia, a teenage Russian refugee brought up in 1920's China, as she returns to Russia in search of her imprisoned father. She is accompanied by her half-brother Alexei and friend Liev. Her Chinese lover from the first book becomes a much more believable character in this book. There are also numerous secondary characters which Furnivall develops well. All in all a great historical fiction.

Highwire Moon by Susan Straight

This book had me from the moment I opened it. It is the story of a young Mexican-Indian girl, Serafina who in California illegally. Due to her inability to speak Spanish or English, (she speaks an Indian dialect) she is violently separated from her beloved three year old daughter, Elvia. The story picks up, 15 years later with Elvia, pregnant, and desperate to find her mother. She thinks her mother left her because she didn't want her anymore. At the same time Serafina is trying to find the daughter she has never stopped thinking about.

Susan Straight writes so compellingly that we are willing to look at things we would normally never want to see. I cannot recommend this book highly enough, although I know it is a bit bleak for some readers. I would encourage even them to read it because of the hope and love that permeates this book.

The descriptions of migrant camps and border crossings make you feel as though you are there. I have no idea how the author got some of the details she put into the book.

The book is set in South Riverside County. Readers from this area will recognize many landscape markers, and the Indian tribes names.

I knew instinctively how this book would end. I was right and wrong at the same time. You will be to, no matter how you think it will end.

Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

Aaaahh...Book Club. What a wonderful evening! We had, for the first time in a long time, every member present...oops, except our newest member Meredith but we have only met her once. You all know what I mean! The theme for Something Wicked... was Carnival. We had warm pretzels with mustard, spicy-candied pecans, apples with caramel dip, hot dogs and french fries, pinwheel pasta salad, green salad with fruit, roasted corn on the cob, Lynchburg Lemonades and Peanut Butter/Chocolate Fudge. Everything was delicious, of course!
The Book? It was well-liked by everyone, some more than others. There were a few of us who found it hard to get into but enjoyed it anyway. I personally loved this story. I thought it was creepy and scary but poetic and beatifully written at the same time. We all agreed that it would have been a better choice for October but...cest la vie. As always, we all had a wonderful time! As Bethany put it,"this is home."