Review of Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House

Shoot, I must have misplaced my paper with the rankings. Most people rated the book about a 7. Liz, I think, said 8. Melissa and Maria saw it as a precursor to other scary stories, like The Shining. Though, The Haunting of Hill House wasn't that scary. More spooky. Was the actual house the source of the evil? Ellyn says - you should never start a sentence with "no offense, but..." Also, one of her friends was snuggling with a "roof rat" in Florida. Leigh says Superior Oil was actually giving her a hard time about her energy consumption! Hmmph. Superior has gone downhill since they joined up with CKSmith. Ellyn likes Noar's, Liz likes something else - was it Mass Energy? You pay a yearly fee and they charge you 40 cents off the going rate? Michele says her mom and sister arrived safely at her house and will be staying for an undetermined amount of time. Melissa says Intel helps AMD with technology in order to help them stay in the market. (Tony's boss denies it.) Sorry if I forgot something. I like that roof rat story. I found the ratings. Michele-7 Maria - 7 Liz - 8 Leigh - 7 Ellyn - 6 Melissa - 7 Andrea - 7

February Title

Here's the title I selected for our February meeting: The Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst. Happy Holidays!!! -Claudi M.

Sorry Michele! Spelled your name wrong.

Dec meeting recap

Book: Life Among Giants Ratings: Leigh-4 Nans-7 Liz-7.5/8 Michelle-6 Melissa-6 Lori-7 Claudi-6 Maria-hadn't read enough to rate Andrea-7 Ellyn-9 Jan book: Otherwise Normal People, by Aurelia Scott Everyone have a wonderul Christmas and New Year's. See you all in Feb.!

January 2014

 Leigh will be hosting to discuss her pick for January, Otherwise Normal People: Inside the Thorny World of Competitive Rose Gardening by Aurelia Scott.  

October Book Club

It was a pleasure to meet in Nans new house. Everyone was amazed that she'd unpacked so quickly and that her home was so inviting given that she'd only moved in a super short time.  The bar was set mighty high....

The food was delicious as usual. Apparently we all had a sweet tooth as well since all but one dish was sweet!

The book, Vampires, Vikings, and Mailmen was a challenging book to finish an the ratings reflected that fact. No names will be used to protect the innocent.

6.5 - liked it after she got into it after page 200
3 - higher if edited a bit more
2 - not finished reading
2.5 - Chief needed more dimension, Hard to follow story line
2 - The story telling was hampered by the poor editing and mechanics
4 - Entertaining for a guy - some things didn't make sense
4 - Thought there was too much detail on things that weren't needed and wanted more detail on characters
2 - nothing linked up - jumped around  - told us but didn't show us

Next up is Andrea with Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson.

December book is Life Among Giants by Bill Roorbach.

September book club book and a bonus

If you too want to make Glow in the Dark Jello, here is the link.

September's book will be The Last Town on Earth by Thomas Mullen. This is the one we will talk about.

Bonus  book is The Round House by Louise Erdrich. Good book and an excellent example of a strong voice for a character. This is just a good book I previewed.

~Michele

June's Selection

Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures  by Vincent Lam

Our entire club was able to meet for the review of this month's selection, including Melissa's mom Linda who thrilled us all with her provocative, yet accurate performance depicting the trials and tribulations faced by so many in the medical field.

Overall, the book received fairly negative grades.  We agreed that the author just fell flat when he was trying to bring his characters to life.  The characters were not developed enough to neither love or hate any of them.  They came off as empty shells and leaving all of us wanting to know more, or feel something for anyone that was more than a fleeting feeling at the moment.  We agreed there was no story arch-and the collection of short stories was not adequately strung together to make a cohesive story or fluid experience.  The ending was abrupt and left us wanting more.

Ratings:
Lee (6):  enjoyed some of the characters, but really need more information to care about them.  She was totally crushing on Siri.

Melissa (4.5):  thought there could have and should have been more.  There were elements were Lam almost "teased" you with the idea that things were going to come, but then fell flat and left you hanging.  Hated the ending! 

Michele (4):  though it was unsatisfying.  Not coherent, the author had no vision or voice.  There was no story arch.  Overall, the entire story and it's characters were very "beige"

Maria (4.5):  had trouble getting over the "purple parrot" element-this muddied and confused any sense of meaning.  She did like the schizophrenia story line

Ellyn (3):  The character of Ming really bothered her and gave the impression that the author had issues with woman.  The characters were very 1 dimensional.

Liz (5):  There were scenes and characters I could have cared about-but without the development there just wasn't enough.

Andrea (7):  giving it the highest rating of the group found the book overall interesting and entertaining

Nans (N/A):  did not complete book at the time of our meeting

Lori (5):  I gave this book a rating of 5 because it was not what I thought it would be...in a bad way.  For someone who never reads book jackets, I finally did, got excited for the proposed plot, and than felt incredibly disappointed through the reading.  BOOO to false advertisement!!!

Linda (not the highest rating)  based strictly on the high-brow, yet interesting discussion of ours.

Thanks for coming everyone-see you next month!!!!

 Beautiful Creatures review

So at a smaller meeting last night, do to life arranging conflicts we met at Liz's house and discussed the book 'Beautiful Creatures'.  The general feel was that we all enjoyed the book, but found that a couple of days after reading it, we didn't remember as much as we had with previous books.

Leigh- 8, I pretty much read it in one feel swoop, would like to read the rest of the series.
Melissa- 6.5- liked it but didn't love it.
Nans- still working on the book, but enjoying it, she said.
Andrea-  5- Thought that there were a lot of dangling tidbits that needed to be better wrapped up and  that the lack of resolution on little issues throughout the book was frustrating.
Liz- I think deferred since she had read it when it first came out.
Michele- a weak 7 average, she gave one aspect a 6 and another an 8- no interest in reading the rest.
Maria- 7.5 enjoyed the book but felt it didn't stay with her, but tempted to read the rest of the series.
Ellen- busy chaperoning the very tiring 4 day field-trip.
Lori- 8 is currently reading the rest of the series.

Next meeting will be on May 2nd at 7:00, at my house discussing the book 'The Art Forger' by B. A. Shapiro.


Lori's Book for June is 'Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures' by Vincent Lam

First time posting -- wish me luck!

Ratings from last meeting, on The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao:
Maria-9
Ellyn-6
Leigh-4
Liz-didn't read it
Nans-withholding rating until she's done
Andrea-5.5
Michelle-didn't read it
Melissa-5
Lori-2

Comments ranged from "like a snake crawling though glass" to "couldn't put it down," so we're all over the place!

May Book

For May, the book selection is:

The Art Forger ; A Novel, by Barbara Shapiro

It is a 2012 release, but there are currently 12 of 93 copies available through CWMARS.  I don't expect any trouble getting our hands on this book over the next couple of months! 

August Book

I'm way ahead of schedule and have chosen my book for my next turn which I believe will be August, so here's the heads up.  :)

Sandman Slim
by Richard Kadrey

Galway Bay by Mary Pat Kelly

February 2013
Discussion 
In general everyone liked the book. Melissa read it in 2 days and rated it 9! The ratings ran from 5.5 to 9 and the average was 7.125.

We all enjoyed the first part of the book that was set in Ireland. There was a noticeable difference in the pace of the story between the Ireland/Michael story and the Chicago/Patrick story. Michele thought the author should have actually split the story into two separate books. The second half had a lot less detail than the first, even though it covered many more years. Sometimes things were a little jarring, like when Honora’s brother’s children show up with Patrick.

We wanted to hear more about the romance of Honora and Patrick. Melissa wanted a naked man to emerge from the sea. Lori thought the descriptive writing made you feel you were there.

We learned a bit about history. Wow, the English truly hated the Irish and wanted them to die! Chicago was really involved in the Civil War. Irish soldiers from the north and south had to fight each other, but hoped to reunite after the war and invade Canada.

 Description
In a hidden Ireland where fishermen and tenant farmers find solace in their ancient faith, songs, stories, and communal celebrations, young Honora Keeley and Michael Kelly wed and start a family. Because they and their countrymen must sell both their catch and their crops to pay exorbitant rents, potatoes have become their only staple food. But when blight destroys the potatoes three times in four years, a callous government and uncaring landlords turn a natural disaster into The Great Starvation that will kill one million. Honora and Michael vow their children will live. The family joins two million other Irish refugees--victims saving themselves--in the emigration from Ireland. Danger and hardship await them in America. Honora, her unconventional sister Máire, and their seven sons help transform Chicago from a frontier town to the "City of the Century." The boys go on to fight in the Civil War and enlist in the cause of Ireland's freedom. Spanning six generations and filled with joy, sadness, and heroism, GALWAY BAY sheds brilliant light on the ancestors of today's forty-four million Irish Americans--and is a universal story you will never forget.

April Book

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl. 

Next Books

Upcoming Months

·         Februray Book: “Galway Bay” by Mary Pat Kelly (chosen by Andrea) – Meeting Thursday, Feb 7

·         March Book: “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” by Junot Diaz (chosen by Ellyn) – Meeting Thursday, March 7

·         April Book: TBD (chosen by Leigh)

When It Happens To You

Book Discussion

·         In all, members gave the book favorable reviews stating it to be a quick and interesting read. 

·         We liked seeing the different points of view from different characters and how they tied together.

·         Some would have liked a few more chapters on other characters (Milo, Theresa) and most of us were interested in knowing more about Oliver/Olivia.

·         We discussed how you never know what’s going on in other people’s lives or what their situations are – we haven’t walked in their shoes.

·         Ratings averaged a 6.78 out of 10 with Michele ranking it a 5 and all other members giving it a 7.

Recipe

Black Bean Paste

1 1/2 cups cooked black beans (canned are fine) - I used Goya 15.5 oz and drained the liquid

1 tsp ground coriander

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1 bunch cilantro (leaves and stalks, about 1 oz), rinsed and chopped

juice of 1 lime

1/4 tsp salt (maybe use less if beans have salt?)

Pulse in a food processor - leave chunky if you like. To make the full recipes quesadillas, spread between 2 corn tortillas, top with a little salsa and sharp cheddar and heat on both sides. 

Book Club Meeting Notes

Discussion started with details on book club logistics.

·         Book choice/hosting order will start new for the New Year and proceed alphabetically (order specified in the members list above).

·         Blog to be set up by Michele.

o   Cute name needed.  “Not Your Mama’s Book Club” was the most popular option.  Later the name “Book Club. Period.” was tossed out with amusement but not discussed.  Please email Michele right now (Go ahead!  Click Reply!) with your vote on which name you’d prefer.

o   Blog will track current and upcoming book selections and our opinions on each, as well as keep a record of which books have been read and by whom they were chosen.

·         Because it is sometimes difficult to find a good book that at least one person hasn’t already read, a book can be picked as long as not more than two members have read it.  (0-2 good, 3 or more bad.)

·         In order to have time to receive and read the book, each member should make every effort to have a title chosen 6-8 weeks before their hosting date.  We started this right away with both Andrea and Ellyn choosing books.