January's pick

OR...

An easy read for this harried, Christmas season.

I don't know about you, but I LOVED Beverly Cleary books when I was young.

So, when I heard Beverly had written an autobiography/memoir (what is the difference?), I knew I had to read it.

It's a super easy read--I, the non-reader in the club--finished in a few short hours.  It gives you some insight into how Beverly came up with some of Ramona's antics.

Doesn't she just look like Ramona?

Enjoy!

December Pick

Seventeen-year-old Jenna Fox awakens after more than a year in a coma to find herself in a life—and a body—that she doesn't quite recognize. Her parents tell her that she's been in an accident, but much of her past identity and current situation remain a mystery to her: Why has her family abruptly moved from Boston to California, leaving all of her personal belongings behind? Why does her grandmother react to her with such antipathy? Why have her parents instructed her to make sure not to tell anyone about the circumstances of their move? And why can Jenna recite whole passages of Thoreau's Walden, but remember next to nothing of her own past? As she watches family videos of her childhood, strange memories begin to surface, and she slowly realizes that a terrible secret is being kept from her. Pearson has constructed a gripping, believable vision of a future dystopia. She explores issues surrounding scientific ethics, the power of science, and the nature of the soul with grace, poetry, and an apt sense of drama and suspense. Some of the supporting characters are a bit underdeveloped, but Jenna herself is complex, interesting, and very real. This is a beautiful blend of science fiction, medical thriller, and teen-relationship novel that melds into a seamless whole that will please fans of all three genres.—Meredith Robbins, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis High School, New York City

NOVEMBER'S BOOK - A Vintage Affair

A Vintage Affair

by

Isabel Wolff

Synopsis

Every dress has a history. And so does every woman.

Her friends are stunned when Phoebe Swift abruptly leaves a plum job at the prestigious Sotheby’s auction house to open her own vintage clothing shop in London—but to Phoebe, it’s the fulfillment of a dream. In the sunlight-flooded interior of Village Vintage, surrounded by Yves Saint Laurent silk scarves, Vivienne Westwood bustle skirts, cupcake dresses, and satin gowns, Phoebe hopes to make her store the hot new place to shop, even as she deals with two ardent suitors, her increasingly difficult mother, and a secret from her past that casts a shadow over her new venture.

For Phoebe, each vintage garment carries its own precious history. Digging for finds in attics and wardrobes, Phoebe is rewarded whenever she finds something truly unique, for she knows that when you buy a piece of vintage clothing, you’re not just buying fabric and thread—you’re buying a piece of someone’s past. But one particular article of clothing will soon unexpectedly change her life.

 

Thérèse Bell, an elderly Frenchwoman, has an impressive clothing collection. But among the array of smart suits and couture gowns, Phoebe finds a child’s sky-blue coat—an item with which Bell is stubbornly reluctant to part. As the two women become friends, Phoebe will learn the tale of that little blue coat. And she will discover an astonishing connection between herself and Thérèse Bell—one that will help her heal the pain of her own past and allow her to love again. (from bn.com)

Anne's pick for October

Those Who Save Us
By Jenna Blum


Family secrets of Nazi Germany are at the core of this powerful first novel told in two narratives that alternate between New Heidelberg, Minnesota, in the present, and the small town of Weimar near Buchenwald during World War II. Trudy is a professor of German history in Minnesota, where she's teaching a seminar on women's roles in Nazi Germany and conducting interviews with Germans about how they're dealing with what they did during the war. But her mother, Anna, won't talk about it, not even to her own daughter. Trudy knows, she remembers, that Anna was mistress to a big Nazi camp officer. Why did she do it? Was he Trudy's father? The interviews are a plot contrivance to introduce a range of attitudes, from blatant racism to crippling survivor guilt. But the characters, then and now, are drawn with rare complexity, including a brave, gloomy, unlucky rescuer and a wheeler-dealer survivor. Anna's story is a gripping mystery in a page-turner that raises universal questions of shame, guilt, and personal responsibility. --Hazel Rochman Copyright 2004 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

This is for Pam...

Annell's Pick for September

Synopsis:

Jane Hayes is a seemingly normal young New Yorker, but she has a secret. Her obsession with Mr. Darcy, as played by Colin Firth in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, is ruining her life. No real man can complare.

When a wealthy relative bequeaths her a trip to an English resort catering to Austen-crazed women, Jane's fantasies of meeting the perfect Regency-era gentleman suddenly become realer than she ever could have imagined.

Dear Unpaid Administrator

We think you're awesome. Plus also could you add "the crocodile on the Sandbank" and "grime and Punishment". Plus also I am looking at you right now and I think your pony tail is cute.

Celia's August Pick

Caravan by Dorothy Gilman

Synopsis

"A lushly romantic adventure story set in the North African desert in 1914, told by the impeccable Lady Treal as she reminisces in her London town house about her decidedly peccable past...Well-written, expertly plotted, perfectly paced."

NEWSDAY With her anthropologist husband murdered and their caravan stolen by fierce Tuareg tribesmen, Caressa's choices are death or a life of slavery. Concealing her dangerous beauty beneath the faded robes of an Arab boy, she embarks on the adventrue of her life, harassed by vicious nomads, slave traders and the envious witch doctor, Isa. Only a handful of carnival magic tricks stand between her and oblivion. Then she discovers an inner magic so mysteriously compelling that the desert people call her a sorceress. With it she will secure her freedom and discover the love of her life.... (from bn.com)

Lauri's pick for July

Magic Study

by Maria V. Snyder

You know your life is bad when you miss your days as a poison taster...

After saving the Commander's life, Yelena is set free - though she must leave Ixia. But with less than a year to learn to get her magic under control or be destroyed by the other wizards for disrupting the order of things, she's nervous. She's anxious as well about finding the family she was stolen from 14 years ago. Going to her birth country of Sitia is almost like going to another world, and she finds it difficult to accept the changes she's going through. Especially as she gets involved with the exiled prince of Ixia who wants her help to lead a coup against the Commander and her mentor, Valek. Everyone in the South believes she should hate the North, but though she had some bad times, the North is filled with people and things she loved as well. And Yelena finds that her independence and growing powers make it difficult to fit in anywhere.

Susan's pick

Our new look

Many thanks to Annell for our new logo (or really our FIRST logo) and the fabulous bags!



We really ARE sorta naughty now!

Pam's Pick for May

After loosing her boyfriend and her job in one fell swoop, Noreen finds it hard to know what the next step is-never mind take it. For the first time in a great many years, Noreen has time to herself. So she puts on a new pair of sneakers and a seriously outdated pair of exercise pants, and walks.

It isn't long before she's joined by neighbors Tess and Rosie, two women as lost as she is. As the Wildwater women walk and talk, and talk and walk, they tally their steps, share their secrets, and begin putting their lives back together. And along the way, they learn what women everywhere are finding out-time flies, and getting fit is actually fun when you're walking with friends.

New Rule

At the end of every book club, Celia must turn out her pockets. Everyone in favor, say "aye." (I mean silverware is one thing, but she was trying to make off with my CAR.)

Jennifer's April Pick - (with the help of a ghost writer)

The Spellman Files

by

 Lisa Lutz

Synopsis

Meet Isabel "Izzy" Spellman, private investigator. This twenty-eight-year-old may have a checkered past littered with romantic mistakes, excessive drinking, and creative vandalism; she may be addicted to Get Smart reruns and prefer entering homes through windows rather than doors -- but the upshot is she's good at her job as a licensed private investigator with her family's firm, Spellman Investigations. Invading people's privacy comes naturally to Izzy. In fact, it comes naturally to all the Spellmans. If only they could leave their work at the office. To be a Spellman is to snoop on a Spellman; tail a Spellman; dig up dirt on, blackmail, and wiretap a Spellman.

Part Nancy Drew, part Dirty Harry, Izzy walks an indistinguishable line between Spellman family member and Spellman employee. Duties include: completing assignments from the bosses, aka Mom and Dad (preferably without scrutiny); appeasing her chronically perfect lawyer brother (often under duress); setting an example for her fourteen-year-old sister, Rae (who's become addicted to "recreational surveillance"); and tracking down her uncle (who randomly disappears on benders dubbed "Lost Weekends"). But when Izzy's parents hire Rae to follow her (for the purpose of ascertaining the identity of Izzy's new boyfriend), Izzy snaps and decides that the only way she will ever be normal is if she gets out of the family business. But there's a hitch: she must take one last job before they'll let her go -- a fifteen-year-old, ice-cold missing person case. She accepts, only to experience a disappearance far closer to home, which becomes the most important case of her life.

The Spellman Files is the first novel in a winning and hilarious new series featuring the Spellman family in all its lovable chaos.

The Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs

It is a tale of transformation, of finding the extraordinary in the ordinary, of the wonderful things that can happen anywhere to anyone. In Sassafras Springs, MO, in the summer of 1923, Eben McAllister, 11, is fascinated by the Seven Wonders of the World. Pa assures him that there are marvels right under his nose. In fact, the man challenges him to find Seven Wonders in seven days in Sassafras Springs. If Eben can do so, his father will buy him a ticket to visit his cousins in Colorado where he'll be able to see a mountain. Perfect for reading aloud. (Blatantly lifted from Amazon's website, FYI)

Funnel cakes!

Here is the recipe for funnel cakes:

1 egg
3/4 cup milk
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt

Heat 1 1/2 to 2 inches of oil to 350 degrees.
In medium bowl, beat egg with milk. Stir in the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Mix until smooth. Pour 1/4 cup of batter into a funnel, with finger covering the little hole. Drop batter into hot oil, making snake-like coils. Cook about two minutes on each side. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and enjoy. This recipe makes 6 funnel cakes.

February

When Hazel Marie Puckett and her nine-year-old son, Little Lloyd, show up on Julia Springer's doorstep in Abbotsford, North Carolina, Miss Julia receives the shock of her long and proper life. After 44 years of marriage to pillar-of-church-and-community Wesley Lloyd Springer, she discovers that while she had assumed he was working late at the family bank, he was engaged in other, more carnal, pursuits. For, as Hazel Marie shyly explains, Little Lloyd is Miss Julia's late husband's son. His arrival in Miss Julia's life sets off a chain of events that involves a hypocritical minister, a violent beating, a crooked televangelist, a high-speed car chase, a kidnapping, and a surprising revelation about her late husband's will. Miss Julia not only speaks her mind but also comes to a deeper understanding of the meaning of love, friendship, and trust.

This is for Candy...

Candy entered a contest that will (hopefully) help her get her book published. And in order to do this, she needs to link back to the contest on her blog. Since she is one of our most illustrious bloggers, she thought it would be appropriate to blog it here. We also thought it would be appropriate (and it could get us a little more traffic). Although Jennifer's family has done a fantastic job of boosting our non-club member postings (some of them have posted more than some of our members), if we get readers that aren't related to any of us, it might give us some street cred.

Here is the link to the contest. Although Candy might not like this, if any of you have a COMPLETED YA or MG book (whatever that is, said the non-reader), follow the link to enter the contest. But since none of us naughties have a completed book of any kind (other than Candy), I think she is safe.

Kidlit Contest

PS-How do you like that I change from first to third person as it suits us?