OPTION #5

Jacob Jankowski says: "I am ninety. Or ninety-three. One or the other." At the beginning of Water for Elephants, he is living out his days in a nursing home, hating every second of it. His life wasn't always like this, however, because Jacob ran away and joined the circus when he was twenty-one. It wasn't a romantic, carefree decision, to be sure. His parents were killed in an auto accident one week before he was to sit for his veterinary medicine exams at Cornell. He buried his parents, learned that they left him nothing because they had mortgaged everything to pay his tuition, returned to school, went to the exams, and didn't write a single word. He walked out without completing the test and wound up on a circus train. The circus he joins, in Depression-era America, is second-rate at best. With Ringling Brothers as the standard, Benzini Brothers is far down the scale and pale by comparison.
Water for Elephants is the story of Jacob's life with this circus. Sara Gruen spares no detail in chronicling the squalid, filthy, brutish circumstances in which he finds himself. The animals are mangy, underfed or fed rotten food, and abused. Jacob, once it becomes known that he has veterinary skills, is put in charge of the "menagerie" and all its ills. Uncle Al, the circus impresario, is a self-serving, venal creep who slaps people around because he can. August, the animal trainer, is a certified paranoid schizophrenic whose occasional flights into madness and brutality often have Jacob as their object. Jacob is the only person in the book who has a handle on a moral compass and as his reward he spends most of the novel beaten, broken, concussed, bleeding, swollen and hungover. He is the self-appointed Protector of the Downtrodden, and... he falls in love with Marlena, crazy August's wife. Not his best idea.

For more information search this title at Amazon.com

Thanks Ryan Walsh for the recommendation!

OPTION #4

Settle down to enjoy a rousing good ghost story with Diane Setterfield's debut novel, The Thirteenth Tale. Setterfield has rejuvenated the genre with this closely plotted, clever foray into a world of secrets, confused identities, lies, and half-truths. She never cheats by pulling a rabbit out of a hat; this atmospheric story hangs together perfectly.
There are two heroines here: Vida Winter, a famous author, whose life story is coming to an end, and Margaret Lea, a young, unworldly, bookish girl who is a bookseller in her father's shop. Vida has been confounding her biographers and fans for years by giving everybody a different version of her life, each time swearing it's the truth. Because of a biography that Margaret has written about brothers, Vida chooses Margaret to tell her story, all of it, for the first time. At their initial meeting, the conversation begins:
"You have given nineteen different versions of your life story to journalists in the last two years alone."
She [Vida] shrugged. "It's my profession. I'm a storyteller."
"I am a biographer, I work with facts."
The game is afoot and Margaret must spend some time sorting out whether or not Vida is actually ready to tell the whole truth. There is more here of Margaret discovering than of Vida cooperating wholeheartedly, but that is part of Vida's plan. The transformative power of truth informs the lives of both women by story's end, and The Thirteenth Tale is finally and convincingly told

For more information search this title at Amazon.com

Thanks Laura for the recommendation!

OPTION #3

The story follows 100 years in the life of Macondo, a village founded by José Arcadio Buendía and occupied by descendants all sporting variations on their progenitor's name: his sons, José Arcadio and Aureliano, and grandsons, Aureliano José, Aureliano Segundo, and José Arcadio Segundo. Then there are the women--the two Úrsulas, a handful of Remedios, Fernanda, and Pilar--who struggle to remain grounded even as their menfolk build castles in the air. If it is possible for a novel to be highly comic and deeply tragic at the same time, then One Hundred Years of Solitude does the trick. Civil war rages throughout, hearts break, dreams shatter, and lives are lost, yet the effect is literary pentimento, with sorrow's outlines bleeding through the vibrant colors of García Márquez's magical realism. Consider, for example, the ghost of Prudencio Aguilar, whom José Arcadio Buendía has killed in a fight. So lonely is the man's shade that it haunts Buendía's house, searching anxiously for water with which to clean its wound. Buendía's wife, Úrsula, is so moved that "the next time she saw the dead man uncovering the pots on the stove she understood what he was looking for, and from then on she placed water jugs all about the house."

For more information, search this title at Amazon.com

Thanks Laura for the recommendation!

OPTION #2

Customer Review:
Like all respectable vampire tales, this one spans centuries. However, that is where the similarity ends because I have never read a vampire tale quite like this. The protagonists span three generations. I can see someone turning this book into an epic movie or mini series. Each generation has one or more of its own historians. All are looking for the real Dracula (Prince Vlad Tepes) for both professional and personal reasons. The search for the truth will take them to several different countries and to journeys of self discovery that none anticipated. Readers I must warn you that if you are hoping for a romance novel, this is not it. There are several love stories woven within and through the primary story, but as compelling as they may sometimes be (I wept at page 526), they take a back seat to the search for the "Dark Prince". This is an adventure but not in the usual sense as there is really not much action (until near the end). Remember, these are historians so you can imagine their method of searching. I did not find this novel "Genuinely terrifying" as quoted from the Boston Globe but I agree it is "A thrill ride through history" as stated by the Denver Post. If you love history, traveling, and emersion into other cultures, you will love this book. It will feel as if you have been on an exotic vacation. Warning, I found the first half of the book difficult to read. Elizabeth Kostova is a stickler for details (possibly in the excess) and I found it hard to form attachments to the characters. The initial moving back and forth through different events within several generations was a bit confusing, but if you can hang in there, by the second half of the book you should have a strong bond to one or more of the protagonists and you will be thankful for the details that brought you to that realization. This is a book that should make you think, "It could happen". I can even see readers who tend to enjoy non-fiction more than fiction finding merit and a great deal of fun in following our heroes through situations that are exotic and yet, believable. What do our heroes find? I am not one to be accused of creating spoilers. My personal joy is in sharing a book with someone and then watching them discover the prize for themselves. I will tell you that what they find is quite fascinating so enjoy. Oh, and with all the historians in this story, I put this question to you. Who is THE Historian?

For more information, search this title at Amazon.com

Thanks Laura for the recommendation!

OPTION #1

Previously posted Wednesday, January 20th.

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.

For more information, search this title at Amazon.com.

Thanks Kris, for the recommendation!

Confused????

Ok, here's the gist.
I sent out an email to notify you guys that I was posting these OPTIONS for our next novel. I know I called it a "challenge", well that was really just me trying to get your attention.
Yay! It worked! :)


So here's what I'm going to do. I will post each OPTION as individual entries. Read them, tell me what you think of each book. And from your opinions I will choose our next book and meeting date...hopefully.

Sound good? Hope so, cause that's what I'm doing!



Enjoy,
Sararose

Readers!!! Please pay attention!!

Ah, now that you're all here.

I have received a few short lists of books you are all interested in. Thank you to those who love me and make my life easier! :)

I have looked over every book and now I am stumped as to which to pick.

So, over the next few days, I will be posting reviews and summaries of these books. All of them sound wonderful to me and which ever we pick I know will be great!

So, to start it all off, here's the first option!

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.

For more information, go to Amazon.com

Thank you, Kris, for this suggestion!

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT ON YOUR OPINION OF THIS NOVEL.

more will be coming. check back everyday^.^ if you're loyal

Help!!!

When's the next meeting? What's the next book?
You know, Sararose, you're supposed to know this.
Yes, but I want a happy book this time and I can't find one!!
You do have a tendency to choose depressing books!
I know! I need help! Will you help me look for a happy book to read?
Sure. I think I may know a couple.
Yay! You're amazing! Thank you so much! Just email OR COMMENT with recommendations.
Sure sure. No problem!

So, this is a shout out for people to let me know of some good, uplifting novels. I've received a few titles I need to look up, but I'm looking for more options for future meetings! Help me out people! This will also help me figure out what you guys like to read!
It would be great to get some comments going on this thing, and feel free to email, its up there.

As for the next meeting, well, I need a book. I shooting for late February. Send in those book reccs!

Thanks guys!
Sararose

Fin

Ah, finally finished that book. I was so worried I wasn't going to finish it! I put post-it notes half way through each part of the book, with designated days. I was a day behind. But I read all day, and now I'm finished!

When I started the book, I didn't think it was all that sad. Liesel is a happy girl, living in a depressing era, but her story wasn't sad. Not until the end that is. When I closed the back cover, I immediately ran downstairs to hug my mother. Hugs cure everything! :)

Well, I hope people enjoyed this book. Bad choice for the holiday season, I know. But it was a good book, nonetheless. It's been a while since I've felt this empty after finishing a book? Does anyone else get that feeling after they complete a novel they've been reading for a while? Kind of empty and sad? I use to all the time. After I would finish a book, I would have to take maybe a 3 day break before I picked up another one. Quite an interesting habit it was....

Anyway, the meeting is still planned for this Saturday, January 9th at 2:00 pm, I may have to move it to 3:00 pm, but I'll let you all know.

Until then,
Happy reading.

Sararose