On The Side Erin

For my neighborhood book club pick this past month we read "Dishwasher" by Pete Jordan. It was a great book that I probably never would have picked up and read had it not been for the fact that it was picked out for me. It is about a guy who really doesn't know what he wants to do with his life, so he kind of makes the joke-goal that he wants to wash dishes in all 50 states. The book is non-fiction, and is about all the people he meets and things he does while traveling around the country. The book is fun and lighthearted -- I mean what type of guy really has a life's ambition to be a dish washer -- but his stories are great and it's interesting to see how he gets around and picks up different jobs and then just leaves and moves on to a different state when he gets bored.



The next book we have picked is "Little Heathens, Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression" by Mildred Armstrong Kalish. It's another non-fiction book about, like the tagline leads you to believe, growing up on an Iowa farm during the Great Depression. I'm excited to read this book - the New York Times picked it as one of the 10 best books of 2007.

I've got a lot to read - better get reading!

October 1st Pick

I thought it was time to read a mystery. It also helps that it is the month for scariness, Halloween is here. I wanted a change of pace, to read a book that is not usually on a book club list. I had no idea what writer to choose from and wanted to try someone new, so I asked around at the used book store that I go to and this was the majority choice. One Shot is a Jack Reacher novel and I was told that you do not need to read them in order, they all stand alone. I chose this one and from the synopsis it sounds really good:

One heartland city thrown into a state of terror. But within hours the cops have it solved: a slam-dunk case. Except for one thing. The accused man says: You got the wrong guy. Then he says: Get Reacher for me.

Sounds good. Anyone else want to read this mystery with us??

On The Side

I had an interesting experience reading this book and wanted to share it with you. The Red Tent is a fictional version of the story of Jacob and his family, more specifically his only daughter Dinah,from Genisis in the Bible. I know the Bible story well and thought this might be an interesting book to read. As it turned out it was a very emotional and disturbing book for me to read. It was very hard for me to remember that is was a fictional version. I have strong feelings and views of the Bible story and so it was hard for me to read about this version of the story. I felt that the author took to many liberties with the story. I realize that this book IS fiction, but for some reason I could not take it as so. I have too strong of feelings for the Bible and this hindered my regard for the story. I think if this book had been about anything other than a story taken from the Bible then I would have easily been able to enjoy it. It evoked so many strange and weird feelings in me. I can not remember feeling all of those emotions from any other book. Some people might find that to be enough to read a book just so they can get all of those emotions, but I did not like it. Has anyone else read this book? I would love to know what you thought about it and see if you were able to enjoy it for itself and not based off of the Bible version as I did.

I really don't want you to think this is not a good book because it is. It is a good read and the author writes really well. If you can think of it as fiction then you will really like it. I just could not remember that she was writing it from a fictional stand point and that is why I had issues about it.

September 15th Pick + From Page to Screen

This book is Erin's pick for the month, but I am writing about it since she is swamped with sewing her Superhero Capes. I know she picked this book because she had seen it around and heard people talking about it. The story is about every woman's fear: what would happen if you lost your child and she grew up without you? We will have to find out.

From the Page to the Screen:

It seems like alot of the books were have or are reading is being made into a movie and this month's pick is no exception. Lifetime made this movie and aired it in April of this year and I have tried to find when it will be re-airing but I have not been able to find out. I have Netflix and found out you can rent the movie, and it comes out on DVD on October 7th. It stars Dermot Mulroney ("The Wedding Date"), Gretchen Mol ("3:10 to Yuma") and two-time Oscar nominee Emily Watson.

The Time Travelers Wife - review

** REVIEW CONTAINS PLOT SPOILERS **

What to say? I loved reading this book, but now that I am finished I am mad at the book. I am getting tired of people always dying and there being sad endings. Why must that be? Can't anyone write a really great book and it have a happy ending? What is wrong with a happy ending? NOTHING.

Enough of that. OK. This book was really good. Claire and Henry are so cute together and I loved all the time that they spent together when Claire was younger. Sometimes I got confused when the "Henry's" would met up and be together and talk about everything, but it made for an interesting point of view. It was kind of cute to see Henry when he was little.

The love that Henry and Claire had for each other was palpable. I was totally drawn into it. They really were meant to be together. Everything that Claire knew about Henry, she knew him since she was 6, still made her want to be with him and not want to fight the system. What is love if not that? I don't know how I would feel being told and always knowing that I would be with this person and feeling like the choice was taken out of my hands, but Claire did not feel that way. She wanted Henry from the first time she saw him, which is really sweet.

Poor Henry. Having to lose your feet because of a time travel gone wrong, when he always would tell Claire that his feet is what saves him, without them he would be nothing. Little did he know that he would eventually be without them and this would be his downfall. How can you escape when you can't get up and run, only crawl away? You can't. It was a little weird to find out that he was shot and killed my Claire's own Dad in a hunting accident. You wonder if her father knew when he met Henry (once they met up in real time and were dating) that this the the man I killed when Claire was younger??? We will never know. Interesting though.

This book will hold a little place in my heart. I really liked that it was different, but I might be upset for awhile about Henry dying in the end. I wonder if I will want to see the movie when it comes out since I know the ending is really sad? I don't like sad endings.

The Rest of Her Live - Review

Overall I liked the book "The Rest of Her Life" by Moriarty. I think that the book started off a lot better than it ended ... even though I liked the ending. I think that the book was a lot like a Jodi Picoult book in that it took an interesting situation (in this a teenage girl accidentally hits and kills a girl with her SUV) and shows all views of it from the people surrounding the event.

I almost preferred the secondary storyline about the mothers life growing up. I think that was a little more interesting and gave us insight to her character.

I just kept expecting this book to "grab" me like it did in the first few chapters, and it never really did that. Did I enjoy it? I did. Would I read it again? Probably not. But I'm glad I read it. It made me think - and not all books do that.

September 1st Pick + From Page to Screen

I picked the Time Travelers Wife because I had heard about it for a long time now and it always sounded like my kind of book, but I never read it. It is about a Chicago librarian with "Chrono Displacement" disorder. He disappears without warning and finds himself in the past or future, usually at a time or place of importance in his life. Apparently this causes problems with his marriage, what wife wouldn't be upset if her husband kept disappearing? It is a love story that I am really excited to read. I really hope that it doesn't have a sad ending like the last love story that we read, we will have to wait and see.

From Page to Screen:

I found out that it is being made into a movie and it is supposed to be released this December! It stars Eric Bana & Rachel McAdams. I am so excited to see it, I should probably wait until I read it to say that though. I always try to read a book before I see the movie, so this is perfect timing for this months pick.