Book Club: Burton Valley Book Club, Lafayette, CA. A member's. Judy A. Remmick-Hubert's, book reviews on books the club has read and remarks to the kind of discussion created by the reading.
Last Updatead: 10 Oct 2001
Oct
Crazy In Alabama
Mark Childress
This is a book filled with dark humor from the moment the young boy Peejoe's brother aims a gun at him and few minutes later his aunt pulls out of a tupperware bowl the head of her husband whom she had killed to a black boy having been killed by the local whites to the final scene of Peejoe who has grown up and is writing screen scripts for movies in Hollywood. To most of the group who read this book, they felt that the author Mark Childress had created it for the sole purpose of a having it made into a movie. All of us agreed that Childress had hold of some very interesting characters and could have written a book with greater depth but he didn't. Tonight the group sees the movie. Surprise, surprise, surprise.....
It held many worthy points to discuss. Light and quick read. Majority enjoyed it.
Nov
The Reader
Bernhard Schink
I'm not sure if the translation from German to English has given the author's written work justice. It's about a teenager who has fallen in love with a woman who shows him how to have marvelous sex.... She leaves the city without a word to him and the teenager is crushed and turns into a young man who finds it impossible to love as passionately as his first love with the older woman. The authors twist appears when the woman, whom he had loved, is tried as a war criminal for having been a guard at several concentration camps during WWII. The story is not complicated. Often times is , too, redundant. Again, if a good editor had taken this under his / her wing, it could have been a excellent read.
Dec
Heat Wave
Penelope Lively
About a woman who's husband had been a womanizer, and, as she sits and writes her book she sees through her window her daughter and grandson waiting for the husband and father. She fears the worst: she thinks her daughter's husband has become a womanizer and his visits to London are not just business trips. The story is about how she deals with her daughter and her husband that summer as a mother and mother-in-law. Book club ladies found it interesting and discussion was good. I, however, didn't like it.
Jan
Into the Forest
Jean Heyland
This was very enjoyable read about two sisters who are forced to survive in California house tucked some 20 or 30 miles from a coastal town and the rest of the USA that has fallen apart politically and socially.
It causes one to think about how prepared a person and family are for any kind of disaster.
Feb
Confederates in the Attic
Tony Horwitz
Mar
Coast Road
Barbara Delinsky
Light read. An ex-husband is thrown back into the lives of his ex-wife, his two daughters and their friends when the ex-wife has been in an auto accident and lies in the hospital in a deep coma.... Many subjects are touched and worth discussing in a group.
April
Beach
Alex Garland
This book is often compared with the Lord of the Flies, I'll let you be the judge. I, thought it fell short. The characters created by Garland are caught on it's own beach in a distant place by a group of young people who wanted to create their own life style next to a cultivated marijuana fields that wasn't their own.... Events lead to a conclusion that gave it a cruel and twisted ending. It leaves the reader feeling uneasy almost to the point of being very disturbed and sadden. Therefore, the author did exactly as he strived to accomplish and for this I give the book a thumb up.
May
Paradise Lost
Peter Scharag
California ranked among the top 10 states in spending per-student each year but thirty years ago we passed Prop. 13 and it changed everything. Schrag presents his views on: (1) how and why California ended up with its present situation with it's schools that are over crowded, outdated, and in need of repair; (2) why we can't pay our teachers enough money to keep the best teachers teaching; and (3) the loop holes which have permitted "big businesses" and the "rich" from paying their share.... If this book would have had a serious editor and convinced Scharag in grouping his thoughts and his propositions into some kind of order, this would have been a good read, however, there wasn't, he didn't and it's ended up being just another reference book few will bother to read from cover to cover.
June
Dinner
Book Title
Author
Sept. 1997
We brought to our meeting our choices of the year and decide which ones we will read.
Oct.
Frankenstein
Mary Shelly
Excellent Discussion. It has many layers of thought and quite symbolic. Learning about the author's life with Shelly, the famous poet, is just as interesting. I had greatly benefited from my son's interpretation he gave in a "paper " he had written in 1990 which caused me to read it the second time after 30 years. The third read, for the club, brought to me even more depth to Mary's story.
Nov.
A Very Long Engagement
Sebastion Jsptidoy
Interesting Discussion. Based on a true story about about men who did/or did not maim themselves so they could leave the trenches of hell of WWI and go home. They were arrested and became prisoners of their own soldiers and this tory then goes into how the French generals decided to use them to rekindle a war that had languished and grown stale. Goes into their lives and has an interesting end.
Dec.
Gift From the Sea
Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Old book with themes [love, peace, faith, hope] which is still relevant today for the woman who enjoys her inner self as well as her relationship with the world in which many of us live.
Jan. 1998
Angela's Ashes
Frank McCourt
The Irish in the group claim this is an excellent portrayal of the lower class Irish. I thought it was a little long, however, there are passages I shall always remember. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize.
Feb.
Romance Reader
Pearl Abraham
Excellent discussion. Learned about a Jewish family and their way of living shown more vividly by one of the daughters, the main character, who rebelled toward many of the traditions and how her own romantic view of life didn't turn out like the romance books she read without permission and approval of her parents and her religious community.
March
World Lit Only By Fire
William Manchestor
Not one of his better books. A good read for historians but too text like for average readers. Did create good discussion in our group.
April
Life Estates
Shelby Hearon
About two old friends who were very believable. Good discussion which bring out the personality and lives of those discussing the book.
May
Daughter of Time
Josephine Tey
"A who done it" : Did King Richard III kill the two little princes who should have ruled England or was it his successor or ....? Couple of weak links as to giving the credit to others which could have been avoided. Interesting way to handle history through modern characters, also, dealing with misconceptions of history created by historians in power One needed historical background to understand fully who was who and who was doing what to whom. A good book which causes a person to go out and find out more about Richard III and the little princes of the tower.
I don't think most younger readers would not appreciate this dated style of writing nor the English author's daring to voice a theory King Richard III may have not been the horrific villain portrayed in English history. Criticism of famous people have become the fashion in the 1990s and no longer are certain historical characters "untouchable" in society as they were in Josephine Tey's time.
June
Dinner
Sept.
Discussed the books we'd read for the year.
Oct.
Tuesday with Morrie
Mitch Albom
All enjoyed. Great discussion. Gave it to my 30 year old son and he enjoyed it as much as I. A true story about a successful man who visits one of his old college professors, who is dying. The successful man takes time from work and family to continue his visits with Professor Morrely on Tuesdays and his life is forever changed. A quick read.
Nov.
Tortilla Curtain
Boyle
Perhaps the topic is unfashionable but created interesting discussion. Story is about two families, a wealthy white family living in the lap of luxury and a Latino family who has crossed the border illegally. Their lives touch and various events occur that stirs the emotions of the reader.
Dec.
Weight of Water
Anita Shreve
This is a quick read. A page turner. Others thought it a little too contrived. About a read murder of a Norwegian family, accept one, who escaped. It occurred in the late 1800s. This story in 1990s is investigated by a fictional woman photographer who is assigned to take pictures of the murder site which was on an isolated island on the east coast of the USA. I enjoyed the many parallels of the real people with the fictional characters.
Jan.
Aguerra Sisters
Christina Garcia
........Didn't read....
Feb.
A Fine Balance
Rohinton Mistry
About India
Learn a great deal about India and it's culture. A good read but a long one.
March
In Pursuit of Reason
Noble E. Cunningham
Excellent general information of the history of Thomas Jefferson's political accomplishments
April
Advise and Consent
Classic that has been pushed away and fallen out of favor..... Those who lived through that time, the 1960's, will have a easy read, those who are too young to remember will find a world not so different from today.
May
Monkey Bridge
Lan Cad
Interesting twists of a mystery unraveled by a young Vietnamese girl who migrated with her mother to the USA after the Vietnam war. Her thoughts carry us back into time and into the family secrets which are caught the fabric of political conflicts, revenge and war. The present was touching the conflicts of a young girls reach into the American society but having difficulty because of her Vietnamese culture, religion and habits.
June
Dinner
One of our own members, Diane K. Inman, of the Burton Valley Book Club has published her own book which I readily recommend for those interested in art , it's history and "wildfowl". It is not just well written, she took the time to find and duplicate marvelous works of art by Harry Curibux Adamson.
Adamson had been considered one of the finest waterfowl artists in the world and "....without a doubt, Adamson's work has contributed to the overwhelming acceptance of wildlife in the 20th century" wrote Diane K. Inman, author.
THE ART OF HARRY CURIEUX ADMASOM
by
Dianne K. Inman
With an Introduction by David A. Maass
*
**The book can be purchased through Barnes and Nobel.**
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