Monday babble

I am excited to be starting my first face-to-face bookclub.  I chose The Hindi-Bindi Club by Monica Pradhan as the first book. I welcome any advice on how to run this since I am a newbie.  Other than that, I am starting First Darling of the Morning: Selected Memories of an Indian Childhood by Thrity Umrigar.  This is the only one of her's that I haven't read yet, and she never disappoints me.

August Ratings

Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea  5/5...loved it!
Under the Lemon Trees by Bhira Backhaus 3.5/5
While I'm Falling by Laura Moriarty 4/5
Saturday by Ian McEwan 3.5/5
Columbine by Dave Cullen 5/5 (superior)
The Island by Victoria Hislop 4/5
Between the Assassinations by Aravind Adiga 5/5
I'm Down by Mishna Wolff 3.5/5
Bombay Time by Thrity Umrigar 4/5

finished The Island

I was able to finish The Island last night. This story was rich with history, and I think that those who are interested in what happened with the leper colonies won't want to miss it. The story jumped from past to present, but focused mainly on the past, both in the leper colony on the island and in the Greek town just off of the island. Some parts were really pretty slow, but it all tied together well at the end.
I would rate it a 4/5 simply due to the parts that dragged. Now I am off to choose another one...

Currently reading

The Island by Victoria Hislop

Description:

The Petrakis family lives in the small Greek seaside village of Plaka. Just off the coast is the tiny island of Spinalonga, where the nation's leper colony once was located--a place that has haunted four generations of Petrakis women. There's Eleni, ripped from her husband and two young daughters and sent to Spinalonga in 1939, and her daughters Maria, finding joy in the everyday as she dutifully cares for her father, and Anna, a wild child hungry for passion and a life anywhere but Plaka. And finally there's Alexis, Eleni's great-granddaughter, visiting modern-day Greece to unlock her family's past.

finished Columbine

Columbine by Dave Cullen

Description:

When we think of Columbine, we think of the Trench Coat Mafia; we think of Cassie Bernall, the girl we thought professed her faith before she was shot; and we think of the boy pulling himself out of a school window -- the whole world was watching him. Now, in a riveting piece of journalism nearly ten years in the making, comes the story none of us knew. In this revelatory book, Dave Cullen has delivered a profile of teenage killers that goes to the heart of psychopathology. He lays bare the callous brutality of mastermind Eric Harris, and the quavering, suicidal Dylan Klebold, who went to prom three days earlier and obsessed about love in his journal. The result is an astonishing account of two good students with lots of friends, who came to stockpile a basement cache of weapons, to record their raging hatred, and to manipulate every adult who got in their way. They left signs everywhere, described by Cullen with a keen investigative eye and psychological acumen. Drawing on hundreds of interviews, thousands of pages of police files, FBI psychologists, and the boy's tapes and diaries, he gives the first complete account of the Columbine tragedy.

My rating: 5/5

Although it wasn't easy to read some of this content, I thought that this was an amazing book. The author not only handled the details well, but he also broke the events down into chunks that were easier to digest. There was a lot of information about the survivors that I had never heard. I couldn't put it down once I started it, and I'm glad that I decided to read it.

finished Saturday

I finished Ian McEwan's Saturday last night. I have mixed feelings on this one. There was definitely the keep-you-reading suspense throughout the story. I had a hard time walking away from the book because I knew something big was going to happen to bring the events of this one day together. At the same time, the stream-of-consciousness writing style had its ups and downs. Yes, his moral dilemmas were very interesting, but reading 20 pages before the next comment in the actual conversation that was happening was a bit much for me at times too.
How to rate it? For my own taste, I'd say 3.5/5. I'm sure that others I know would rate it much higher.

Currently Reading

Saturday by Ian McEwan

Description:

This story follows an ordinary man through a Saturday whose high promise gradually turns nightmarish. Henry Perowne–a neurosurgeon, urbane, privileged, deeply in love with his wife and grown-up children–plans to play a game of squash, visit his elderly mother, and cook dinner for his family. But after a minor traffic accident leads to an unsettling confrontation, Perowne must set aside his plans and summon a strength greater than he knew he had in order to preserve the life that is dear to him.

Just finished Under the Lemon Trees by Bhira Backhaus

This is a story about a traditional Indian family living in California, and the conflicts that the daughters face as they try to follow their family traditions, includng arranged marriages, while they desire to live more American lifestyles. I tend to gravitate to this type of story as the differences in the cultures fascinate me. I enjoyed the characters in this story, but at times it was a slow read for me. Although it doesn't stand out as one of my favorites in the genre, I still enjoyed it. My rating: 3.5/5

While I'm Falling by Laura Moriarty

According to Amazon, I should have this book by tomorrow. So I think I'll stick to magazines for the night and wait it out.


I am wondering if anyone is feeding my fish over there....

My Rating: 4/5

Although I am always impressed with the characters that Laura Moriarty creates, the plot of this novel just didn't grab me as her two previous books did. It felt like a story that I have read several times before. I thought it was good, not great.

Working my way through Girls of Riyadh

I'm at the point with this book where I will probably gobble it up in every spare moment until I am finished. The format is very unique. It's written as postings to a yahoo group, which is near and dear to my heart, about the lives of her personal friends. It's definitely an interesting look at the culture of Saudi Arabia. Back to reading....

Finished on Sunday morning, my rating: 5/5
Loved this book! It was both sad and funny, and I adored every character. I would suggest this book to anyone who enjoys reading about other cultures.