NCRL’s  first author program will be next Sunday.  Seattle author Sarah Jio will be reading from her second book, The Bungalow.  Her first novel The Violets of March was published April 2011.  Her second novel The Bungalow was published the following December.  She has been busy!!  I hope she talks a bit about her writing process. I read both of her novels last weekend.  The Violets of March was my favorite. It takes place on Bainbridge Island.  I was born and raised in Seattle and enjoy novels that take place in and around Seattle. Both novels are romance/mysteries with the first being a little more mysterious!! The Bungalow takes place during World War II.  Two young women from Seattle who have just graduated from the nursing program decide to become army nurses.  They are stationed in Bora-Bora.  Both books were fun quick reads.  A nice way to spend a snowy weekend!!  Sarah will be at the Wenatchee Public Library on Sunday January 29^th 1:30 – 3:30.  Hope many of you can join us to welcome this author to Wenatchee. 

My Ten Favorite Books I Read in 2011

I have already wrote about some of my favorite books.  State of Wonder, The Crying Tree and Strangers at the Feast are certainly on my list of favorites. The other seven are:

Wench, Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, The Radley’s,  Every Last One, My Name is Mary Sutter, The Memory Palace, and The Magician’s Assistant.

Wench is the first novel by Dolen Perkins-Valdez.  It takes place before the Civil War and is the story of four women. Each summer these women are brought to a resort in Ohio the Tawana House.  These women are the black enslaved mistresses of  Southern plantation owners. Lizzie, Reenie, and Sweet are regulars.  They have become friends over the years and enjoy visiting  with each other during this summer vacation.  This summer there is a new woman which they befriend and she begins talking about freedom and running away. This puts a whole new twist on the women’s summer vacation.

Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson is an enjoyable book about the retired Major Pettigrew.  He lives in the small village of Edgecombe St. Mary in the English countryside.  I love books that take place in England.  He lives a quiet life but then becomes friends with Mrs. Jasmina Ali, a Pakistani shopkeeper.  They both love literature and they are both lonely as their spouses have died.  They have a nice relationship which is possibly growing into something more but then of course in this small village the rumors start flying. Like Wench this is also the authors first novel.

The Radley’s by Matt Haig was a pleasant surprise. This takes place in England.  Peter works at a medical clinic Helen is a homemaker.  They have two teenagers, Rowen and Clara,  your average British family.  Well not quite, they have a secret, Peter and Helen are vampires.  They have resisted their temptations for years so that their children can have normal lives.  But then the unthinkable happens and their lives change.  This was actually a delightful book .

Every Last One by Anna Quinlan is an amazing novel.  The reader learns early in the novel that something tragic is going to happen to the Latham family.  Mary Beth and Glen have three teenage children, their daughter Ruby and twin sons.  Alex and Max are not identical twins.  Alex is popular and good at sports, Max is a geek.  Throughout the story I am wondering what the tragic event will be.  About the first two thirds of the story the author is acquainting the reader with all of the characters. We learn a lot about their personalities and their life as a family.  Then finally the tragic event happens and oh my goodness!!  Although I had been trying to guess what is was I was not prepared.  I actually had to close the book to get away from it for a bit.  I cannot remember the last time I had such a reaction to a book.  It is beautifully written and well worth your time to read.

My Name is Mary Sutter takes place during the Civil War.  This is Robin Oliveira’s first novel.  Mary Sutter is a young midwife who lives in Albany.  She wants to study to become a doctor.  Because she is a women she had been refused by the medical college and by the town surgeon.  She runs away to Washington so that she can help the wounded soldiers.  She works with a doctor in extremely unsanitary conditions.  This novel also takes the reader right onto the battle field.  I like books about the Civil War.  This is a whole different take on the war.  A very good read!!

The Memory Palace is a memoir by Mira Bartok.  Mira’s mother, Norma Herr was a piano prodigy.  She was also schizophrenic.  Mira and her sister eventually had to change their names and cut off contact with their mother for their own safety.  Unlike her older sister, Mira keeps in touch with her mother through mail.  At the age of forty Mira receives words from the homeless shelter where her mother has been staying that she is dying.  She and her sister go to the hospital to be with their mother.  Although this is a sad story it is beautifully written.  

Like Bel Canto and State of Wonder The Magician’s Assistant was hard to put down.  It is full of interesting characters.  Sabine, the magician’s assistant, has been in love with Parsifal since her early twenties, when she became his assistant.  The first line of the novel tells us that“Parsifal is Dead”.  There are many surprises in this story.  Parsifal told Sabine that he had no family but after his death she learns that he has a mother and two sisters in Nebraska.  Most of the story takes place in Nebraska and Sabine learns some amazing things about Parsifal’s life.

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett was one of the favorite books that I read in 2011.

Marina Sinh works for the Vogel Pharmaceutical Company in Eden Prairie Minnesota.  She is sent to the jungles of Brazil to check the progress Dr. Annik Swenson’s research project. Dr. Swenson is researching the post-menopausal  fertility of the women of the Lakashi tribe.  These women are bearing children well into their 70’s and even older.  Dr. Swenson has been in the Amazon for many years without reporting on her progress.  Marina also has a personal reason to accept the assignment.  Her lab partner, Anders Eckman, was sent on the same assignment months earlier and never returned.  The Company received a brief message from Dr. Swenson stating he had died of a fever. Marina wants to find out more details for herself and his grieving widow.

This novel takes the reader into the Amazon jungle.  Marina arrives at her final destination on a pontoon boat.  She is minus her luggage which the airlines lost and never found.  She finds herself in an area of snake infested rivers, malarial swamps and cannibals.

As always in Ann Patchett’s novels there are many interesting characters, from the bohemian couple who seem to protect Dr. Swenson from outsiders to Dr. Swenson herself. This is also a novel with many surprises, an amazing journey for the reader.

SEATTLE AUTHOR COMING TO WPL

I am pleased to announce that Sarah Jio will be coming to the WPL on Sunday January 29th, 1:30 to 3:30.  Sarah is a local author living in Seattle.  Her first novel. The Violets of  March was published last April and it was chosen as the Best Book of 2011 by Library Journal.  The novel takes place on Bainbridge Island. Emily Wilson has come to Bainbridge Island to spend a month with her great-aunt to heal after some problems in her life. Emily discovers a diary from the 1940’s which has some connections to her own life.  Her second novel, The Bungalow, will be published on December 27^th.  The Bungalow is a saga of thwarted love, murder, and a long-lost painting. Sarah will be reading from this novel.  A Book for All Seasons will be selling her books.  Hope to see all of you at our first author reading of the New Year. 

The Time in Between by  Maria Duenas is an enjoyable book.  It reminded me of reading books like A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, To Kill a Mockingbird and Rebecca. Books that are some of my favorites and I would love to reread.  Books that I read for pure entertainment.  The  Time in Between is one of these books.

Sira Quiroga lives in Madrid with her single mother.  She knows nothing of her father.  Her mother is a seamstress and when she is fourteen years old she becomes her apprentice.  At age twenty her life is mapped out for her, including a future marriage to a young men she has known forever.

Then two events happen that change the course of her life.  Her mother takes her to meet her father and she also meets and falls in love with an attractive salesman.  It is the beginning of the Civil War in Madrid.  Sira and her handsome salesman move to Madrid.

This is the start of many problems for her.  While in Madrid eventually on her own she meets many interesting people and rebuilds her life. 

This book spans the Spanish Civil War to World War II.  If you want to lose yourself in a good book this is the book for you!!

The Well and the Mine is Gin Phillips first novel.  It takes place in 1931 during the depression. The Moore’s live in Carbon Hill Alabama.  Albert works in the mines.  He and his wife have two daughters and a son.  Tess the younger of the two girls loves to sit on the back porch near the family’s well.  The well is a comfort to her.  Then one night when she is nine years old she sees a woman drop a baby until the well.  At first no one believes Tess but then the baby is found.  This is the story of the two sisters trying to find out who the baby belonged to and why the baby was put in the well.  It is the story of the men working in the mines and their families that worry about them and it is a story of the depression.  A very good book.  Gin Phillips next novel Come In and Cover Me will be published in January. I am looking forward to reading it.

If you are not a member of a club this Winter would be a wonderful time to start a book club or join an existing club.

If you and your friends would like to start a club and receive your books from NCRL

I will need the following:

a contact person

how many members in the club

the day of the month that you will be meeting

also please name your club

I need a list of the books you would like to read, you may call me or email me, my phone number and email address are on NCRL’s website on the book club page.

The list of book club books are also on this page.

Once I have the list I will schedule the books and the books will be sent to your library branch each month.

If you would like to join an existing club I do have many clubs that are accepting new members.

Please call or email if you have any questions.

There are many good reasons to join a book club.  It is an opportunity to get together with friends once a month. You might learn new, interesting thing about your friends as you are discussing the books and you might learn some new things about yourself.  You will find that you will enjoy the books more as you discuss them with friends. And being in a club will encourage you to read more. Also when you are a member of a book club you often read books that you normally would not choose for yourself.  Last summer my book club read Bel Canto, by Ann Patchett. This novel has been on the book club shelves forever and has been extremely popular. I never had the desire to read this book.  Reading the back cover I read as far as “It is a perfect evening -until a band of gun-wielding terrorists takes the entire party hostage”.  I thought no, no, no, this is not the book for me.  I do not want to read about terrorists.  When one of the members of my club chose the book I thought, well this is okay, it is a popular book club selection so I should read it.  I have to say I am so glad that I read the book.  It was a story of two different groups of people, upper class people from all over the world, most of them did not speak the same language, and then there were the terrorists many of them young kids coming from very poor situations.  This was a novel about the bonds and friendship that grew with these upper class people and the terrorists.  As they lived together for many months they grew to like and care about each other.  Many hoped the situation might last forever. It was a great book to read and we had one of our best books discussions.  I do have to admit the only reason I read the book was because I am a member of a book club. 

I just finished reading The Paris Wife by Paula McLain.  This is the story of Hadley Richardson’s courtship and marriage to Ernest Hemingway.  Hadley was Hemingway’s first wife.  Since the marriage only lasted five years she is barely mentioned in his biographies, so Paula McLain felt compelled to write a novel about her time with him.  The novel takes place in Paris during the Jazz Age.  The Hemingway’s are part of the group known as the “Lost Generation” or the expatriates.  Some of the other people in the group included Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, Ezra Pound, Sherwood Anderson and F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.  I have always been in awe of this group. This was a wild era and the young couple found themselves right in the middle of the craziness.  This is a different love story beautiful but also sad. I enjoyed the novel. I like reading historical fiction.  Now I want to reread some of  Hemingway’s novels, especially The Sun Also Rises.  He wrote this in the same time period and the characters in his novel are based on these friends.  I recommend this book especially if you are a Hemingway fan.

It is hard to believe that summer is over with this beautiful September weather and tomorrow already October 1^st!!  I hope everyone had a wonderful summer and that you read some good books.  I had a great summer which included a cruise to Alaska the first week of July.  I took a few books with me but did not do a lot of reading!!  However the rest of the summer I read!!!  I love sitting on my deck reading until the sun goes down.  Some of the books that I read were:

The Ten Year Nap by Meg Wolitzer is about a group of educated women who decide to raise their children and not work outside of the home. It is the story of four friends who live in New York.  They have been stay at home mothers for ten years.  They left jobs as corporate lawyers, investment bankers and film scouts.  They really did not plan to be out of  the work force for a decade and now at age forty they feel a bit lost without professions and must confront the choices they made.  It is an entertaining book.

The Girl Who Fell From the Sky by Heidi W. Durrow tells Rachel’s story.  She is the daughter of a Danish mother and a black G.I.  Her parents have split up and her mother brings her and her siblings to America to live.  Rachel is the only survivor of a family tragedy.  Her African American grandmother who she has never met gets custody of her and she moves cross country.  Rachel lives her childhood hoping her father will come and take her to live with him.  She now lives in a mostly black community and struggles with the question whether she is black or white, plus she is struggling with all the unanswered questions surrounding the tragedy.  It is an interesting book.

Strangers at the Feast by Jennifer Vanderbes takes place on Thanksgiving day.   It is not a normal Thanksgiving for the Olson clan.  Ginny has decided that she would like to host the meal instead of the traditional meal at her parent’s home.  Ginny has just adopted a young girl from India, which surprised the family. This will be the first time the family meets their new member.  Ginny also has just purchased an older home, which needs a lot of work.  The holiday falls apart when the family finally discovers that the oven is not working and in the early evening they move all of the food over to Ginny’s brother’s home.  The reader learns a lot about each member of the family throughout the book.  There is a bit of a mystery about the adoption.  The brother Dennis and his wife are having marital problems due financial troubles.  The parents Eleanor and Gavin both reflect on their changing lives.  Meanwhile there is a second story about a young man named Kijo and his grandmother who has lost her home.  This of course ties in with the Olson family and moving the Thanksgiving dinner to the brother’s home turns the holiday into a tragic event.  This is a book that is hard to put down!

The Hundred Foot Journey by Richard C. Morais  begins in India and ends in Paris.  Hassan Haji is born in Mumbai.  His family owns a restaurant.  They are forced to leave India. They settle in London but there are more problems and they eventually end up in the French village of LumiEre.  Here they meet Madame Mallory, a French chef, who is not happy that they open a restaurant across the street from hers.   Eventually she realizes the talent that the young Hassan has and takes him under her wing.  This is the story of  Hassan’s life in the culinary world.

The Red Thread by Ann Hood is the story of six couples adopting baby girls from China.  Maya runs the adoption agency after losing her baby daughter.  She wants to bring happiness into other peoples lives.  This tells the stories of the adoptive parents and also  the heartbreaking stories of the mothers who must give up their babies. The Chinese legend of the red thread is that our children are connected to us by an invisible red thread.   A good book and a fast read.

This is just a few of the books that I read and enjoyed this summer.  I hope that all of you had a great summer discovering new books.

NCRL’s Book Club collection can be found on our website.  On the right side of our home page click on How Do I, then click on Join a Book Club, scroll down and you will find the book club collection.  Right now the list is a little overwhelming, in the near future we will be tweaking it a bit, dividing the list into fiction, non fiction and classroom collections.  Each month new books are added to the list.  These are books that are requested by our book clubs.  A few of the books added this month are:

“At Home- A Short History of Private Life” by Bill Bryson, this is indeed a history of his private life.  The author walks the reader through his home, explaining how important each room is to him and his family.  If you have read any of Bill Bryson’s books you know he is witty and entertaining.

“Left Neglected” by Lisa Genova  tells the story of Sarah, a wife, mother of three and a successful business women.  She is in a car accident and is recovering from Left Neglect, a neurological impairment.  Sarah must decide where her priorities lie as she struggles through this problem.  Lisa Genova also wrote “Still Alice” which is a book club favorite.

“The Tiger’s Wife” is by Tea Obreht.  She is considered one of the New Yorker’s twenty best American fiction writers under twenty.  This novel takes place in a Balkan country.  Natalia is a young doctor working at an orphanage.  There are secrets that she has not been told about at the orphanage, involving a family digging in the surrounding vineyards. She also has a mystery of her own regarding her grandfather’s resent death.  I have not read this novel but it is certainly is on my list of books to read.

“The False Friend’ is by the author of “Bee Season”, Myla Goldberg.  This is a psychological drama.   Two 11 year old girls, who are best friends and rivals, go into the woods and only one comes out.  One girl disappears and for 20 years the other girl blocks out how it happened.  Twenty years later this young woman returns to her hometown to tell the truth which her family and friends refuse to believe.

“Life” is a memoir by Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones.  He writes about marriage, family, tours with the Stones, his estrangement from Mick Jagger and their reconciliation.  If you are a Stones fan this is a must!!!

All of these books are available in the book club collection.