The Call

Thoughts  The Call by Yannick Murphy,  Harper Perennial 2011, 225 pages (if you count the cow on the very last page.  Which I do.)

MOTIVATION for READING this now:  My friend Nancy gave me this.  Thanks Nancy!   And it being short and I am on a roll this September, I decided to start it now.   Why pick over Fire Season, another book gift from Nancy?  I don’t know.  Probably because I actually picked this one up and opened it.

WHAT’s it ABOUT: A large-animal veterinarian in a small Vermont town, reports on the calls he makes for his job plus happens to mention other thoughts and stuff that happens to him, his family, and his community.  He has a BIG heart.

I personally think the back cover says TOO MUCH.   I also do not ever (ok, rarely) read the press & praise quotes at the front of a book.  Nancy’s rec was good enough for me.

WHAT’s GOOD:   Our vet worms his way into your heart.  He is a good father and an off-beat guy.  This book explores so many topics and yet is simple, funny and provocative.

WHAT’s NOT so good:   I really struggled with the layout at first.  It is setup as a log of call reports.  He tells who calls him for vet services and what happens, as well as remarks on what he is thinking or what else happens that day or on the drive to the call, etc.   So the format is …   different.

FINAL THOUGHTS:   It is a warm family small-town community story and I recommend it.  I really did enjoy this much more than I expected to after that point 20 pages in when I almost gave up.   It builds and builds to a very nice reading experience.

RATING:   Four slices of pie!   Something Vermont-related:  perhaps Blueberry with Maple Syrup?  and lots of whipped cream.

OTHER REViews:

Beth Fish Reads gives this a glowing review and explains more than I do so do pop over and read this.

The BlueStocking Society - also explains this well and offers valuable critique of writing skill and a lil bit of criticism

Nancy at Bookfoolery  – OOPS!  Has she not yet reviewed this?!??!

Fyrefly’s Book Blog Search for this title.

BOOK GIVEAWAY!!   I will be figuring out how to either make a form to do a nice giveaway or choose randomly from people who comment here that they want the book…   or both?   Nah, don’t have time to figure out the form.  If you think you want this book – you have until Monday Oct 3 at NOON to leave a comment – you get only ONE chance – telling me whether or not IF you saw a space ship, would you tell anyone?  and be sure that the comment either has your email address or twitter name for contact.  

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Copyright © 2007-2011. Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club.  It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

The Hunger Games

Thoughts  The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Scholastic 2009, 374 pages, first in a series of 3

I was on an unexpected trip out to Western Kansas and my iPad was losing charge so I desperately needed a paperprint BOOK to read. While frantically perusing the shelves at the Midway Chicago airport, trying to recollect the authors names* that I keep saying I want to read, my eyes fell upon The HUNGER GAMES.

“YES!”

Grabbed it, plunked down a $20 bill and ran back to the gate.  I started immediately.    I read after being told to queue up (Southwest style).   I politely smiled and only showed the cover to the gentleman attempting to converse with me, “What are you reading?”  [I suppose I was rude, since I usually love to engage in such conversation and initiate many in this very same manner!]  I kept reading through take-off and only later, upon hearing that beep-tone that we are are free to unhook our seatbelts, did I see others standing up to gather their overhead luggage.  Oh.  We had landed.

It being midnight, I was not up to reading more during the hour drive home.   But I did manage a few more pages before succumbing to sleep.   I was able to finish the next day.

RATING:  four slices of pie.   Peeta could bake me a gorgeous pie, I expect.

Clicking on the book cover above or on this sentence will take you to the goodreads.com synopsis.  I figure I am one of the very few people left in the world who has not read this already and certainly many of you who are frequent visitors here know what this dystopian thriller is about.  If you are not a frequent visitor here and do NOT know about this trilogy, wow!  and welcome.   Clicking on THIS sentence will give you the results of Fyrefly’s book blog review search for this title.

Do I have to read the next book before I can select a Team Peeta or Team Gale?!

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Copyright © 2007-2011. Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club.  It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Left Neglected

Thoughts    Left Neglected by Lisa Genova,2011 by Gallery Books, 322 pages

MOTIVATION for READING this now: I loved Still Alice, Genova’s debut and am fascinated by the brain, so OF COURSE, I wanted to read this. When I told my neighbor she should read Still Alice, and she did; she then purchased Left Neglected, read it, loved it, gave it to me. Boy was that an awkward sentence…   Anyway, if you saw my previous post, you know that I put three books on the floor — all books I want to read NOW and let my puppy pick.  She chose this.

WHAT’s it ABOUT:  An ambitious high-striving career woman with three kids and a husband just as driven as she is finds herself a survivor of a scary car crash.  However.  Her bump to the head has left her with a condition called ‘Left Neglect’.  This story of her challenges to understand what is going on with her brain and how/if she manages to recover and move on.  I cried.  You know I cried!    sniff, sniff.

WHAT’s GOOD:    Genova really gets into the heads of her protagonists.  Told in first-person account, this book gives the reader w a real sense of what is important to — crap!  I already forgot her name!   Sarah, I think.  (huh.) —  Where was I?  She is driven, has extreme type A personality traits, loves her kids and is exhausted trying to keep all the balls in the air.  She finds out the painful way which balls are glass and thus shouldn’t be dropped and which balls are allowed to drop and (maybe) bounce.   This book is easy to read and yet delivers understandable information on a medical condition that is not well-known.   Genova excels at doing her research and seamlessly weaving it into the story without bogging it down in details.   I also loved the Boston setting even if I can barely state that I am Boston-knowledgeable.   Perhaps it was because I recently drove from Boston College to Copley Square (and parked at the Prudential Bldg Shopping Complex!) and also had a friend spend some time at Spaulding Rehab Hospital which is where Genova researched the therapy for Left-Neglect.

WHAT’s NOT so good:   Minor, very picky minor issue?   I suppose that it could be classified as a “wrong-headed person gets attitude-adjustment” kind of story but that’s OK.  It is well-written and entertainingly educates on fascinating science-y stuff.

FINAL THOUGHTS:  I will gladly read any more books published by Lisa Genova.   She’s very nice in person, too.   I got to meet her at a Still Alice book event in Chatham Mass.

RATING:   Four slices of pie!   Something Vermont-related:  perhaps Blueberry with Maple Syrup?  and lots of whipped cream.

OTHER REViews:
Books on the Brain
Reading on a Rainy Day
Bibliophile By the Sea
Fyrefly’s Book Blog Search for this title

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Copyright © 2007-2011. Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club.  It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Esther Picks a Book

I let Esther pick my next book:

Left Neglected by Lisa Genova.  I loved Still Alice! Good pick, Esther-Babe.

Review coming soon…

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Copyright © 2007-2011. Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club.  It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Happy Simon Van Booy Day

Today is Simon Van Booy Day!  At least in Middleboro, Massachusetts, where I am meeting with my book club to discuss Everything Beautiful Began After.

I get to bring along my mother.    I made her read Everything Beautiful Began After as soon as she got off the plane from Kansas.

But what will be so thrilling (and obnoxious), is that I will be able to show off and say I met Simon Van Booy last week.   He was kicking off the Author Talk Series at the Boston Public Library.  I coerced Nancy the BookFool to go with me as we braved the wet rainy streets and highways to drive into Boston to meet with him and hear his talk.

We had a blast!

Here are a few pics:

Photo credit for first two pics goes to Nancy.  I snapped the last one.

Happy BBAW and Happy Simon Van Booy Day!

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Copyright © 2007-2011. Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club.  It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Happy BBAW!

Happy Book Blogger Appreciation Week!   Congratulations to all the winners and everyone nominated for being a terrific book blogger.  Of course, there are many many of you wonderful book bloggers that deserve accolades so here is your big cheer:

Cheers!  
Just click on the BBAW button at the top of this post to go to the official page and learn about all the wonderful things going on this week.
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Copyright © 2007-2011. Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club.  It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine

Thoughts    The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine by Alina Bronsky, Europa Editions 2011 (orig 2010),262 pages, THIRD book to complete (I think) the Europa Editions Challenge

OK. This is one wild weird strange but compelling story! I kept wondering where it was going. I was both appalled and impressed by Rosy. And I had to keep reading just to find out WHAT THE HECK IS going to happen here?! When it was all over, all I could think was, “Well, that was strange.”  I enjoyed it.

I am just going to pull the first sentence and the last paragraph from the goodreads.com blurb (which you can also get to by clicking on the book cover above):

Rosa Achmetowna is the outrageously nasty and wily narrator of this rollicking family saga from the author of Broken Glass Park.

oooooooooooooo Anyone read Broken Glass Park, also published by Europa?   I will read it someday.

Told with sly humor and an anthropologist’s eye for detail, The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine is the story of three unforgettable women whose destinies are tangled up in a family dynamic that is at turns hilarious and tragic. In her new novel, Russian-born Alina Bronsky gives readers a moving portrait of the devious limits of the will to survive.

RATING:   Four slices of pie. A savory beet pie? I can’t recall reading about any pies served in this – which is most unlike me not to notice, or there just weren’t any…    

o

Thank you Softdrink!!!   xoxoxo

and then I ‘playfully shoved it on’ Nancy:  Read her awesome review of this by clicking on this sentence.   and keep reading, it’s at the end of her short update…

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Copyright © 2007-2011. Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club.  It should not be reproduced without express written permission.