Messenger

I've started two books in as many days and neither of them grabbed my attention. Messenger is one of the companion books to The Giver, but you don't have to read The Giver to love Messenger. I finished it fairly quickly, and I loved every minute of it. I love Lois Lowry's style of writing and the worlds she creates are so creative and entrancing.

A small boy is a messenger in his community, who accept outcasts from other towns. When the town decides to close its borders to outsiders, he starts a journey to retrieve his caretaker's daughter.

This is an incredibly easy read, and it a great short book. These are a couple gross parts as far as illness and injury are concerned but I think it would be great for anyone, especially your 8-11 year olds.

Outlander

It's been awhile since I've posted a book review because of my busy-ness and because I've yet to find a book worth taking the time to review. Outlander came to my rescue, literally and metaphorically . . .

It's 800+ pages make even the most avid reader quake in their boots, it's sheer mass made me think twice about starting the Outlander journey. In reading this massive book I received tears, out loud laughs, feelings of revulsion and a 3:00 am feeling of contentment when I finally closed the back cover.

Claire is a war-nurse in the 1940's and married to Frank. She encounters a place which takes her back to the 1700's in barbaric Scotland. She immediately puts her nursing skills to use extracting a bullet from a young Scot named Jamie. The remaining pages follow Claire and Jamie on their journeys through a Scottish castle, encounters with English dragoons, witches, monsters and more importantly one of the best books I've read in awhile.

This is only the first book in a series of 5 or 6 books, and I'll be reading them all. Outlander is definitely not for the faint of heart. It contains copious amounts of violence, sex, swearing, blood and pretty much anything that would make a book worth reading.

If you decide to accept the challenge of this book, you will be surprised how quickly it draws you in and wraps you in the history and love of a Scotland long past.

Woman's World

I came across "Woman's World: A Novel" while I was browsing at Sam Weller's Bookstore. The cover caught my attention. As I read the back, I immediately knew that this was a book that I wanted to read. The author took over 40,000 excerpts from women's magazines in the 60's and created a readable book all about a woman's life. Below is a sample from one of the pages . . .

The creativity of this author alone was enough to commit me to reading it cover to cover, but as I read I came to discover that the text that was put in, actually made the story more interesting. You may assume that eventually I didn't even notice that I was reading a collaged novel, but that never happened. It wasn't like subtitles, where eventually you forget about them, but I actually liked that they never faded into the background. It just made the story more interesting and creative. I absolutely loved this novel and would recommend it for anyone looking for a completely "novel" experience.

The Giver

I don't have a problem reading Young Adult books. I read "The Book Thief" last year and it is now one of my favorite books. "The Giver" has more than 3,000 positive reviews on Amazon, so I thought I would give it a go.

Even though it's over 170 pages, the pages are small so it's not a very long read.

The concept is about a community where everyone doesn't feel, they have strict rules, and everything is decided for you from the clothes you wear to the occupation you have. Her writing style reminds me of Stephen King, but it's a completely clean book. No swearing, sex, or violence.

One of my favorite parts of the book was reading about a character named Asher, who was always happy and who everyone loved. He was such an easygoing kid and he's the main character's best friend. I'd never heard of this book, so it gave me goosebumps.

There are two other books in the series, Gathering Blue and Messenger although I heard that they can be read independently and all three are equally great.

If you're a movie buff, this was a cross between The Island, Equilibrium and Pleasantville.

Recommended to:
Those who like a good, short read OR
Those who like fantasy/science fiction books OR
Those who are looking for a book to read with their teenagers.

Educating Esme

Everyone of us had that really awesome teacher in our school. The one that every student wanted but only the select few were lucky enough to have.

At Swope Middle School, my junior high there was a teacher who dressed in period costumes and decked out his entire classroom. When they studied the Wild West he dressed as a cowboy and made the inside of his classroom look like an old west main street complete with store fronts and porches. I always prayed that I would get that teacher, but I had a boring teacher who when we studied the Donner Party wrote each person's name of those who had been eaten on a plate next to a fork and knife. Kind of morbid for 13 year old kids.

Esme is that kind of teacher. Surprisingly you find out that aspiring to be the most awesome teacher ever wasn't her first choice. She would love to be an opera singer, or a librarian, but decided to give teaching a go. The stories are absolutely hilarious, and it will make you glad that you aren't sending your kids to a downtown Chicago Elementary School.

She approaches teaching with such creativity and bluntness that it makes me want to become a teacher myself. It's an incredibly short read, only a couple hundred pages, but the text is large and the pages are small. My only complaint is that it didn't last longer.

Season of the Witch

I just finished reading "Season of the Witch." If you like fantasy or just a good story, this is the book for you.

It's about two sisters who live together in a decrepit old house. They become suspects of a murder and a RV (Remote Viewer: Psychic) is called in to investigate. There were so many new concepts that I'd never even heard of which made this book a fascinating read. At the end of the book the author tells you that some of the more far fetched ideas were actually based on true events.

I don't want to say too much more because I don't want to give anything away, but it was a great read and I finished it in just a couple days. It does have some sex scenes which aren't too graphic.

The Fruit Hunters

I started the Fruit Hunters with some trepidation. It sounded like an interesting book, but the cover looked old fashioned and I was prepared to find a Farmers Almanac, rather than an exciting look into exotic fruit.

I completely misjudged The Fruit Hunters. While there were a few chapters that weren't as interesting as most of the chapters, it made me want to journey to far away locations to sample cloud berries. And fruit that proves that God has a sense of humor, the coco de mer is a fruit that looks like a woman's butt, but whose seeds look like fully erect penises.

There were so many interesting facts about fruit that I didn't know about, or even thought about, or even realized that I should have thought about.

When we go to Florida in April, I'm going to go the Fruit and Spice Park south of Fort Lauderdale, where you can sample more than 100 varieties or mangoes and other fruit from right off the trees.

If you're looking for an interesting read, about all things fruit including fruitarians, the "Fruit Detective" and fruit that tastes like vanilla ice cream; then this is the book for you.

Wicked

I embarked on reading Wicked because it got an amazing number of good reviews on Amazon and I hadn't heard any bad things about it. The book wasn't really what I expected . . .

The book is surprisingly more political than any other book that I've read, I guess that's not saying much since I hate politics. It goes into a lot of detail about the different political groups in Oz, their beliefs, their problems and their work either for or against the Wizard of Oz.

Dorothy is only in the book for a grand total of 5 pages, so if you're looking for something that more closely resembles the movie you loved, this isn't the book for you. I would instead suggest the musical, which is much more superficial when it comes to morals of the story and endings.

After I finished the book I went onto Wikipedia to see the plot of the musical and they were like two different things entirely! Except for a few instances where the characters or the story are similar to the book, it's completely different. It seems like the musical is much more, and should be, musical. I mean that it has more about friendships, love will conquer all and pretty musical numbers and sparkly costumes.

I'm assuming that a lot of the people that gave Wicked good reviews are either biased toward political novels, or have seen the musical before reading the book.

If you click on the title of this post it will take you to a synopsis of the book in case you just want to know what it's about.

Make of it what you will, but the sparkly shoes, flying monkey, and Wizard of Oz couldn't make this a must read.

In a Sunburned Country

I just finished a 350 page book about the dangers, wonders and comedy of the forgotten country of Australia. It's by the author of "The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid" which I enjoyed reading, but doesn't hold a candle to "In a Sunburned Country." I've always looked for a book that combines enough comedy, with the right amount of information without being daunting and overwhelming. I found that in this book.

I found myself being so intrigued by the subject matter, that I actually read the scientific names of the flora and fauna. I couldn't put this book down, and it gave me a new perspective on the country, people and enormous treasures of the Australian country. It made me want to visit, never venture there, and meet the people all at once.

Book Club

In July I started to become an avid reader. Our work had attempted to start a Book Club the year before, but it had fizzled out, and so I began the process of starting it anew.

I've taken the job of selecting books very seriously. I have a rigorous screening process before a book is selected for our Book Club.

1. I find the New York Times Best Seller Lists. I pick a couple of the more popular books.

2. I then go to amazon.com, and see how many reviews the book has received from customers. I try not to pick books that have under a couple hundred reviews.

3. I make sure that the majority of the reviews given for the book are 4 or 5 stars. If the reviews are pretty spread out in terms of 1 to 5 stars, I don't pick it. I need to find a book that will appeal to a large group of people.

4. I make sure that the book isn't sexist, meaning that I want a book that will appeal to both men and women.

5. I check the price of the book and the release date. I try not to pick things that came out too recently, because then they will be harder to get from the library. I also try to pick a book that is available in paperback so that it will be a cheaper price, although this doesn't always happen. Some books haven't been released in paperback yet.

If a book meets all these criteria and I have a strong feeling that it will be a good fit for the Book Club, I try to get it from the library and read it before I suggest it. Sometimes I like to read the book for the first time with my group, so I won't read it in advance on purpose.

After reading it, if I feel that the majority of the members will like it, then I put it on my Monthly Book List.

One of the best parts of this Book Club is the feeling when someone tells you that they absolutely loved the book that you recommended. It's become something that I cherish and it makes all the work worth it. This has actually become the highlight of my job.

You don't have to be a employee of Marriott to participate. You are more than welcome to read along with us. We have a discussion each month, and I am going to post the Discussion Questions, so that any of you can participate. Here is the link to the blog and

Happy Reading!!

http://mvcibookclub.blogspot.com/