Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher

This book should be required reading for anyone in academia.  Or anyone who has ever had to write letters of recommendation for people who you don't really recommend.  Or really this should be read by everyone because it is so darn funny.  The entire book is a series of letters written by an aging, cranky English professor.  It is so hysterical that I had to stop reading it in public because I was embarrassing myself as I laughed out loud.  The professor has an ex-wife, a girlfriend, and a department head also receive his rambling, witty correspondence.  But the best ones are his letters of recommendation.  (I can hear you laughing from here, BT)  -June

The Old Neighborhood by Avery Corman

This book came out in 1980, and I stumbled across it through Book Bub.  Lately I've found several good books that have popped up there, and the price is certainly right.  Some of the selections are pretty lame, but this one was definitely a winner.  It's all about Steve Robbins, a guy from The Bronx who wants to succeed in advertising.  We follow his career as he climbs the corporate ladder and achieves his dreams.  The author creates some wonderful characters and interjects humor throughout the story.  It's a quick read but I loved every page.  Highly recommend.  -June

The People in the Photo by Helene Gestern

This is a quick read written entirely in letter/email form.  It's a story of family secrets, and how they can affect the family members.  Helene's mother died when she was only 3, and she wants to know more about her.  Her father and stepmother wouldn't answer her questions about her mother, and now that they are not around to help her, she is researching on her own.  She begins a correspondence with Stephane who lives in England and who's father knew Helene's mother.  Their letters are a bit formal and stuffy, but as they begin to uncover some of the mysteries of their parents, their relationship changes.  What they uncover is not earth shattering, but it is an interesting, well-written book.  Recommended.  -June

Why Can I Be You by Allie Larkin

I need to stop looking at book reviews from readers.  This novel receives rave reviews, and I just have to assume that they are all written by 18-20 year olds.  Since I am a few years north of that age, I had a hard time relating to the characters in this novel.  It's definitely chick lit - and although well written, it's so far fetched that it is simply silly.  (Although someone somewhere loves it enough to make it into a movie!  Coming soon!)  Basically, it's the story of a young woman who goes on a business trip after being dumped by her boyfriend, and she is mistaken for someone else by a group of friends attending a high school reunion.  Instead of correcting them, she decides to play along and become someone else for a week.  Believable?  No.  I suppose there's a message in there - we should be happy to just be ourselves and not try to someone else - or something like that.  But it was all just too predictable and fluffy for me.  -June

The Pecan Man by Cassie Dandridge Selleck

Thanks, Tillie, for a good recommendation.  This is an interesting book about an elderly Southern white woman who is looking back on her life.  Many years ago, she hired a black, homeless man to work in her yard, much to the horror of friends and neighbors.  After that, there's a murder, a car accident, and a prison sentence - and most of all, lots of secrets.  It's well written, and definitely recommended.  BT, it's coming to you along with another one of Tillie's recs that I just couldn't get into.  See what you think.  -June

The Position by Meg Wolitzer

I had the chance to see Meg Wolitzer at a book reading when The Interestings was being released in paperback.  She was a vibrant and entertaining speaker, and I thoroughly enjoyed hearing her talk about her books.  And I really liked The Interestings.  So when I saw one of her earlier books available through Book Bub for $1.99, I grabbed it.  Besides, the premise sounded very promising.  Four siblings (age 6 to 16) discover that their parents have written a sex "how-to" book complete with drawings of themselves in the act.  Once the children make this discovery, the author moves from one family member to the next about 30 years later.  I suppose it could be said that their parents' book had a profound influence on their lives, and perhaps in some ways it did, but for the most part, the book becomes a character study of each of the grown children and their parents.  I love the way Meg Wolitzer writes.  She develops her characters so you know them and understand them.  I really enjoyed this one and now want to read more from this author.  - June

The Aviator's Wife by Melanie Benjamin

Months ago, I tried to listen to the audio version of The Aviator's Wife but found that I was totally frustrated with the author's writing style.  So imagine how excited I was when this book appeared on my Book Club list.  Perhaps, I thought, I'll like it better if I'm reading it rather than listening to it.  And yes, I did.  But only because when the author wrote something that she'd already told the reader 5 other times, I was able to skip forward easily to the next page.  For example, how many times would you think she had to tell us that Charles Lindburgh had a cleft chin?  The answer - 9 times.  Most readers might have picked that up after the first or second time, but just in case you're an idiot, the author makes sure you know about it.  Or how about the number of different types of "grins" that either Anne or Charles gave each other.  Stupid grin, proud grin, surprising grin, carefree grin, earnest grin, toothy grin, tomboyish grin, jaunty grin - and the list goes on and on.  Let's just say there was a lot of grinning going on even though it turns out that Charles Lindburgh was a jerk.  All that being said, I did find that the story told was interesting.  The parts of the book that were based on fact (the flights they took, the kidnapping, the obsession by the press) were fascinating.  Perhaps I would have been better off reading a good biography on Anne or Charles rather than a fictionalized version told as if Anne was writing it herself, grinning and admiring Charles cleft chin. - June

Still Life with Bread Crumbs by Anna Quindlen

I love Anna Quindlen.  I love the way she writes and the stories she tells.  And this one was one of her best, although many online reviewers disagree.  When's the last time the main character in a book was a 60-year-old woman who leads a full, productive life?  Generally, books about women of a "certain age" are told in a series of flashbacks where we learn about their life in the rearview mirror.  But as a 60-ish woman myself, I say us geezers still have a little gas in the tank.  And in this novel, Rebecca is still going strong.  She may have a few setbacks in her career and her personal life (who hasn't?), but as we learn about her and the friends and family around her, we feel we are living along side her.  Some say the book is sappy.  OK.  Maybe I was in need of a bit of sap.  But I loved it and highly recommend it.  -June

The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd

Just before I started this book, the Great8 took a trip to Charleston.  We had a wonderful time, and while we were there, we took two tours.  One was a walking tour led by a knowledgeable and articulate Southern lady who told us all about the Charleston way of life, the visits by George Washington, and the fires and earthquakes and plagues.  She also mentioned two prominent free black men who owned a hotel and started an orphanage.  No mention of slavery.  The second tour was a carriage tour where we had a chatty young man who told stories about the various occupants of the mansions we drove by.  Very entertaining even if the stories were totally fiction.  When we got to the end of the carriage tour, one of the Great8 asked our guide to take our picture.  Realizing his tip depended on it, he jumped from the carriage, grabbed the camera, and instead of the usual "Say Cheese", he said "Say slavery sucks!"  I think we laughed the kind of laugh you do when you know someone is trying to be funny but isn't. 


When I got home, I started reading The Invention of Wings which is a fiction book based upon the Grimke family, a prominent Charleston family from the early 1800's.  The book focuses on Sarah Grimke who ultimately becomes one of the first and only female abolitionists.  We also follow Handful, a Grimke slave who, like Sarah, is bright and ambitious but cannot fulfill her dreams. 


There have been lots of books about the South in the pre-Civil War period, but I really think this one is wonderful.  Maybe it's because I had so recently seen the neighborhood where Sarah and Handful lived, but I highly recommend this one. And I can't help but wonder how Sarah would have responded to the casual prompt of "slavery sucks". -June

The Edge of the Earth by Christina Schwartz

What is it about living in a lighthouse that appeals to me?  I know I'd go mad after a few days of that intense isolation, but there's this romantic-sounding life surviving by the ocean that appeals to me.  There's a historic lighthouse in Door County that has docents who live there for a week at a time and give tours.  No electricity.  No indoor plumbing.  And they have people waiting in line to do this.  I'm not one of them.


Back in the late 1800's, Trudy and her husband are assigned to a lighthouse off the coast of California.  She's a bright, inquisitive young woman and soon she is studying all the creatures who live in and near the water.  There's another family who also live on the island and work at the lighthouse, and so her life becomes entwined with theirs. Yet as bright as Trudy is, she seems blind to the flaws of her husband.  He's a jerk, and although she questions his behavior at times, she somehow rationalizes it to herself.  Enjoyed the book very much but found myself skimming over some of the scientific information.  Again, it seems the author did a ton of research and wanted to be sure to get it all into the book somehow.  But I do recommend it.  -June

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

You can't help but notice the covers of this authors books.  I think she's written several and all the covers have the titles in large letters and her name below - no picture or anything to give you a hint as to what the book is about.  Somehow I thought it was just light romantic stuff, and while it isn't award winning fiction, this book was good.  Yes, it's a tad predictable but still worth reading.  Louisa is a young English woman who takes a job caring for a young man who was injured in an accident and is not a quadriplegic.  They come from very different worlds and backgrounds yet they find a way to get past all of that and connect.  I don't want to tell more, but if you're looking for a quick, light read, this might be it.  -June

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

There are just so many books about World War II out there that I didn't think I wanted to read another one.  So when the first friend recommended it, I filed it away and forgot about it.  But after two or three more recommendations (one person even saying it was the best book she'd read in years), I bought it.  And I'm glad.  The story follows primarily two people; a young, blind French girl, and a young orphaned German boy.  When the book begins, they are just 8 or 9 and it follows them until they are around 16 or 17.  It gives a different slant to the war than most other books, and the writing is quite good.  It's very hard to put down, and I highly recommend it.  -June