The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

After reading rave reviews about this book, I came across it in my local library and grabbed it.  I am so very glad I did.  This little book is a gem, and I've heard rumors that it will soon be a movie.  But read it first!!  The story is told in the first person by a character named Don who is a genetics professor.  I'm no expert and it never is completely spelled out, but it appears he has Asperger's.  He's brilliant, organized, handsome, and he's looking for a partner.  He decides to try to find a wife, and the way in which he goes about it..... well, it's sweet and funny and very scientific.  You will love Don and you will cheer for him to find what he's looking for.  BT, you will fly through this in a weekend.  Enjoy it!  -June

The Burgess Brothers by Elizabeth Strout

It would be impossible for me to name my favorite book, but if I had to mention a few possibilities, Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout would be one.  The writing and the creativity are just amazing.  So when I saw that she had written another novel, I knew I had to read it and promptly convinced my book club to add it to the schedule.  And boy, did I want to love it.  The writing is still superb, and Strout has a way of developing characters that makes them really come alive.  But this book is hard to read.  Not only did I not like any of these well-developed characters, but I found I almost didn't care about what happened to them. 


The story is about three siblings: Jim, a successful but pompous attorney who is downright cruel to his brother and sister; Susan, a mother who just doesn't seem to have a clue about much of anything and doesn't like anyone except her brother Jim; and Bob, the sibling who has been told he killed their father by rolling the car over him and now he must have a ruined life as a result.  The storyline is all about what happens when Susan's son, Zach, rolls a pig's head into a mosque. The family tries to pull together but their dysfunction makes it awkward and almost impossible.  If the ending was supposed to be satisfying..... well, I'm just not sure it was.  While it was nice to see Jim get what he deserved, I wasn't ready to forgive him and let him move on with his life.  I don't want to give too much away so I'll stop there.  But while I think this is another exceedingly well written book, I wouldn't recommend other to rush to read it.  -June

The Pecan Man by Cassie Dandridge Selleck

Finished "The Pecan Man" last night.  A 140 page powerhouse.  Oprah or some such would be nuts not to pick-up the options for a movie.

Get it, read it.  - Tillie  

On Canaan's Side by Sebastian Barry

Why haven't I heard of this author before now?  This book was recommended to me years ago, and so I added it to my Amazon Wish List only to forget all about it.  When I was able to download it from the library, I thought it might be an interesting vacation read.  Written from the point of view of an elderly woman, the story is of her life that started in Ireland and ended up in the Hamptons.  Her story is sad and tragic, but is so well written that I could hardly put it down.  The writing style is stream of consciousness which often is impossible to follow.  But Barry does a masterful job and I really will make an effort to read something else by him.  There are several major themes to the book - loss, war, friendship, and then more loss - and it's definitely worth a read.  -June

Bossypants by Tina Fey

The perfect audiobook for a long road trip!  What more can you ask for than to have Tina tell you the story of her life and career (as only she can) while you're driving along.  She's funny, honest, and so very refreshing.  I especially enjoyed her stories about working at SNL and 30 Rock.  Definitely recommend this one.  -June

This is a Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett

A year or so ago, I had the pleasure of listening to Ann Patchett speak at a local independent bookstore.  At the time, she was promoting State of Wonder, and she entertained a large crowd with stories and a book reading.  She's the kind of speaker who really shows their personality, and her openness and honesty made us all  love her immediately. 


So when her new book, This is a Story of a Happy Marriage, was released, I knew I would have to read it.  But instead, I ended up listening to it and that is even better.  Ann Patchett reads her own book on the audiobook, and it was like listening to her talk to me for the hours I drove/walked/cleaned/whatever as I listened.  This is a book of some of her essays and articles written over years.  Some were for magazines or newspapers, and a few were written just for this book.  Don't let the title fool you; the book isn't just about marriage, although several of the articles do touch on her personal stories and her relationships.  All of them were fascinating, but I have to say my very favorite is the story about Clemson University and the speech she gave there when her book Truth and Beauty was used for their freshman required reading program.  But I think you'll love them all, and I highly recommend finding the audiobook if you can. - June

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robert Sloan

I saved this book for my vacation, and I couldn't wait to start it.  What booklover wouldn't love a book about a bookstore AND the cover said it was also a mystery.  So I loved it before I opened it up.  Yes, there is a mysterious kind of bookstore and there is a puzzle to solve, but the rest was a bit confusing and disappointing for me.  The main character, Clay, works the night shift at a bookstore in San Francisco where strange, quirky people come in to check out books that are written in code.  Clay uses all types of technology to eventually crack the code and figure out what's going on in the store and with the people involved.  Now I think I'm relatively tech-savvy, but some of the tech topics here were way beyond my understanding especially when's Clay's girlfriend (who works for Google) gets involved.  Did I like the book?  Kind of.  Would I recommend it?  Yes, to someone who is in their 20's and loves books.  I really think that's the target audience here and not old ladies like me.  - June

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

I cry in movies, but rarely do I cry when reading a book.  But during several scenes in The Fault in Our Stars, I had a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes.  And while it certainly is a sad story - what can be more tragic than children dying of cancer or anything for that matter - it also is a story about hope and love and making the most out of your life.  The narrator is Hazel, a 16-year-old girl who is fighting cancer.  She meets Augustus at a cancer support group, and they become friends and then become more than friends.  As a parent, the hardest parts for me to read were the interactions that Hazel has with her parents.  They love her desperately and yet they know what is going to happen.  Their helpless devotion to her is touching.  I believe this is considered Young Adult literature, but I think it would have to be a mature teen to read this.  I highly recommend it.  -June

The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint by Brady Udall

You know how sometimes you read a novel and a character is so real to you that he stays with you for days after you finish the book?  Well, Edgar is that character.  In fact, one of the wonderful things about this novel is that all of the characters are so real - not all likeable - but completely described.  Edgar is a young Native American boy who is an orphan.  For the first 15 years of his life, we see how he survives on his own surrounded by a cast of characters.  Despite having a mail truck roll on to his head and several other near-death experiences, he manages to keep going and keep moving.  He moves from his home with his alcoholic mother to the hospital after his accident.  From there he's sent to a school where he lives with a distant relative and then to a foster family.  The writing is fabulous.  (He also wrote The Lonely Polygamist!!)  I love the way he describes his characters.  Here is how he describes Nelson, another student in his school who torments Edgar.


"For one thing, Nelson was old; though he was in the sixth grade, Nelson was fifteen - an adult, any way you cut it.  His real distinguishing feature , however, was his size; he weighted easily over 300 pounds and was as wide as a love seat........ His head was half of a watermelon sitting on his shoulders, his fingers as thick and blunted as saltshakers, his feet so wide there wasn't a pair of shoes that would fit him; even in the midst of the coldest winter months, in ice and snow and mud, he wore flip-flops.  And Nelson was merry.  He had the look of a person prepared and willing to laugh at anything, and when he smiled his eyes would disappear into those creases of his face and his cheekbones would stand out like those on a drugstore Santa Clause."


Can't you just visualize him?  Love this kind of writing.  But the best part of the book is the ending.  And I never saw it coming.  So often, the ending to a book is disappointing or predictable.  Not this book.  Highly recommend it, and I'm sending it your way, BT.  -June

Songs of Willow Frost by Jamie Ford (audiobook)

Although I loved Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, I only give Jamie Ford's second book a C.  The story is interesting and it's obvious that the author has researched the time and location of the novel (Seattle in the 1920's 1930's).  But it's a book where everything terrible that can happen, happens.  The story is told by William, a young Chinese boy living in an orphanage, and by his mother, Liu Song (aka Willow).  Liu Song's story is made up of one tragedy after another, and while it may be a typical one of that time, it is told in such a melodramatic manner that I found it difficult to read.  The author repeated things as if the reader might not have caught them the first five times they were stated.  Plus the author teased the reader with the idea that Liu Song might eventually reveal her secret as to who is William's father, but no - she would think about telling it but always held back.  I wanted to choke her and say "Tell them!!" but she didn't.  This is not one I'd recommend.  -June

The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud

I can't wait to talk about this book in my book group.  There are several members who insist that they can't like a book unless they like the main character, and Nora, the main character in The Woman Upstairs, isn't really very likable.  In fact, at times, she's strange, creepy, and sad.  Mostly, reading about her feelings sometimes made me uncomfortable.  I found I didn't want to pick up the book and read it just because it was like spending time with an acquaintance I'm not that fond of.  And for those people who who like a plot-driven book, they won't like this book either.  There isn't much plot, and the ending, while it has a surprise or two, isn't really very satisfying. 

Nora is a almost-forty schoolteacher in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  She's never been married and has no children.  She's been a dutiful daughter and taken care of her dying mother and elderly father.  But she's one hell of an angry woman.  The book is her story and the one year she spent meeting and loving a family who moves to her town.  Yes, she was in love with the whole family.

And yet the book is beautifully written.  This is one of the few books where I found myself using the "bookmark" and "notes" feature on my Kindle.  Here are a few examples.

As she laments her life she says, "I was suddenly aware, almost in a panic - a joyful panic - of the wealth of possibility of in the world, and also within myself.  My everyday Appleton life, my phone calls to my father, my occasional beers with friends, my Saturday-morning jobs around the reservoir - what was all that but the opiated husk of a life, the treadmill of the ordinary, a cage built of convention and consumerism and obligation and fear, in which I'll lolled for decades, oblivious, like a lotus eater, as my body aged and time advanced?"

Did I mention that there are lots of long, run-on sentences in this book?  Here's another example:

"All the cliches of a city are new to any individual visitor and hence not cliches; just as love, in spite of the paltry means we have to express it, is, each time experienced, completely new: it can be pyrotechnic in its intensity or slow and tender but overwhelming, like a glacier passing over a landscape; or evanescent but glorious like the field of fireflies on Martha's Vineyard in my youth - whatever it is, each time is familiar and new at once, an overturning."

One more thing.... Nora is only in her late 30's.  Yet she describes her life as a spinster - as if her time for love and possibly a family is over.  She talked and acted like someone twice her age, and I'm sure every 30-year-old who read the book will agree. 

So, would I recommend it?  Yes, I would.  Will my book club like it?  Maybe a few will, but I have a feeling the majority will be negative.  -June

The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith

I wonder if this is the beginning of the next series of books for J. K. Rowling.  Yes, she wrote this book under the name of Robert Galbraith.  It's a murder mystery with a private detective and his assistant diligently working to solve the crime and bring the murderer to justice.  A beautiful supermodel dies and the police determine it's suicide.  Strike, the detective, is hired to investigate and see if it might be a murder.  The plot is interesting and the characters are well developed.  And the ending is surprising although it seems that questions remain especially about how Strike was able to pull all the clues together.  My only criticism is that it could have been 100 pages shorter.  There were just so many subplots involved - how strike lost his leg, his dysfunctional family history, his relationship with his former fiancée, his flirtations with his assistant, etc. etc.  None of these really have a connection to the mystery part of the story and sometimes I think they could have been just eliminated or certainly reduced in length. However, I enjoyed it.  But I'm ready for a change from the murder mystery stories.  On to something else for a while.  -June