Alderwood Wives Book Club: 3 Reviews

I've been a bad blogger. I hate to throw out excuses, but April has been one busy month so far. We had a few great days of warm weather :) that got us kick-started on rejuvenating our back yard (pictures to come soon), and then when the cold weather came back I could barely motivate myself to sit on the couch and mope.

I'm going to ease back into blogging with an easy post. I'm 3 months behind in book club reviews. So here it goes...

January: The Book Of Negroes, by Lawrence Hill - We were on the fence with this one. Some of us loved it, but most thought it dragged on. As a group we regretted reading it right after A Long Way Gone, since it de-sensitized us to the content. The novel follows the life and journey of an African girl/woman forced into slavery in the South East US.
The writing style is nice, but it's a big book, so if you're a slow reader I'd pass on this one. I give it a 3/5 (I didn't finish it)





February: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan: A Novel, by Lisa See - This was my first pick for the club. It is one of my favorite books of all time and the best of Lisa See's offering. I think everyone agreed with me so I will safely pass on a 5/5 rating. The story is set in remote 19th-century China and follows a deep friendship of two women who endure footbinding, arranged marriage and social codes of conduct. Each page is filled with foreign mystery, yet feelings true to any culture.




March: The Help, by Kathryn Stockett - Unanimous: Great Read! 3 unforgettable women in Mississippi in the 60's: 2 maids and 1 trust fund cotton farm heiress. The novel is filled with humour and hope, about mothers, daughters, caregivers and friends. Each voice keeps the storyline fresh and has you coming back for more. 4/5 stars from me.

Alderwood Wives Book Club Review: A Long Way Gone

This review is tough. Some of us really liked our December book,  A Long Way Gone, by Ishmael Beah, and some of us weren't too keen on it. A few ladies found it "hard to get into".  However, those of us who read it in 2-3 days (including myself...up until 30 mins before book club :p) were able to really sink into this memoir.

It's a little different reading a Biography. What got me was the author's age. He was born in the same year I was. Everything that happened to him, all of the tragedy and horror of the 90's in Sierra Leone, happened during my life time. While Ishmael was dodging bullets I was having recess with my friends. While Ishmael slept outside exposed to the elements I was playing with barbies in my own bedroom. While Ishmael was eating unripe bananas and oranges I was eating KFC and Doritos at the wavepool with my cousins. You get the point.

I'm not going to lie, the content disturbed me at times and I wanted to pretent it was fiction. But nope, it's a real story and I personally found it very powerful.

Ishmael, your life definitely has a purpose. Thank you for sharing your story with me! Tonight I will pray for everyone struggling in Civil Wars in Africa and around the world.

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As always, if you'd like to follow along with our book club, here are our next three picks:

• January: The Book Of Negroes, by Lawrence Hill
• February: The Help, by Kathryn Stockett
• March: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan: A Novel, by Lisa See

A Hilary Book Review: Mini Shopaholic

OMG, she did it again! If you are a Sophie Kinsella fan (who isn't?) & mommy (or not mommy) I highly recommend adding Mini Shopaholic to your collection.

It has all of the usual Becky Brandon (nee Bloomwood) drama with the perfect dose of motherhood. At times the content scared me, since I can totally see Madelyn as a little Minnie Brandon one day, but not enough that I didn't want to keep reading. Doesn't Luke Brandon always sound so dreamy too?

If you are looking for the perfect gift to get your girly-girl gal friend this Christmas, this is a pretty good option.

Thanks for lending it to me Katie!

Happy reading!

Alderwood Wives Book Club Review: Sarah's Key

The book club is on a roll!!! We just finished another amazing read in November with Sarah's Key: A Novel, by Tatiana De Rosnay.  19 readers on Amazon gave it 4.5 stars; our club definitely agrees with this rating.  Maybe there is something wrong with us, but we all seem to crave heart-wrenching stories of love and separation.

Sarah's Key is based in Paris, France over two time periods: 1942 (during the Nazi Occupation) and 2002. I don't think I want to write anymore because I don't want to spoil this good read. However, I will say you should carefully choose when/where you are going to get lost in this novel. I wrongfully chose my Cuba vacation and it cast a bit of a sad cloud over two days on my trip. But don't worry, it was the good kind of sad cloud, and I was back to feeling fine right after when I started indulging in Sophie Kinsella's latest Mini Shopaholic (thanks Katie!).

Here are the picks for Dec & Jan if you want to follow along with our book club:

• December: A Long Way Gone, by Ishmael Beah
• January: The Book Of Negroes, by Lawrence Hill

A Hilary Book Review: The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society

When I started, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer, I didn't know what the heck to think of it. Basically, it's a set of fictional letters and telegrams from the late 1940's, post WW2, set in London and a small Island in the English Channel. I had never read this style of book before and found the first 50 pages were a struggle. However, once I fell into it, I looked forward to reading a letter or two each night before bed.

Like a cup of tea, this book needs to be sipped slowly. (I think it took me 4 months to reach the end). Once I was accustomed to it's fresh style, I found I needed to allow enough time between the events to let them sink in. It's a great glimpse of what pre-computer communication was all about: you had to wait a day, or two, or three, to get a response to your telegraph.

Over the course of 250 pages, letter by letter, I slowly fell in love with the main character, Juliet Ashton, and all of the members of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society. The characters have so much humanity after surviving many brutal years under the Nazi Occupation. It's a story of love, friendship, survival, and staying true to oneself. And the end...I am sooo happy to report it's one of those endings that made me hug the book when I was done.

When I finished this book, all I could think to myself was, this really was a Delightful book (and I never use the word delightful :) ).

Alderwood Wives Book Club Review: Secret Daughter: A Novel

Last night our book club met to discuss our second book: Secret Daughter: A Novel, by Shilpi Somaya Gowda. This one had an amazon rating of 4.5 stars. Our club unanimously, "LOVED IT", and gave it 5/5 stars.

Secret Daughter was a fast read due to it's emotional pull. As a mother it gave me the urge to start co-sleeping with my baby again. Even those without babies were brought to tears by this powerful story of mother love. The contrasting settings of Mumbai and San Fran were also great elements of the book, as was the multi-character perspective. Another plus are the shorter chapters: I could always finish a chapter (or 2 or 3) before lights out.

Everyone (except me) came prepared with great suggestions for our next book. We ended up with a lineup to take us through January! Here is our list if you'd like to follow along:

• November: Sarah's Key: A Novel, by Tatiana De Rosnay
• December: A Long Way Gone, by Ishmael Beah
• January: The Book Of Negroes, by Lawrence Hill

And for fun, some of us are going to read The Book Of Awesome, by Neil Pasricha. Apparently it's a pretty funny collection of short articles to read.

Happy Reading!

Updates...

Update on Cloth Diapers:

2 out of 3 nights Madelyn has peed through her cloth diapers. What a pain in the butt. Lucky for me it doesn't wake her up in the middle of the night, she's just so warm & toasty in her Grobag, it's just such a drag to have to change a crib sheet. So, we are going to use Lila's mom's suggestion and go with Pampers at night.  I have also scraped pre-scrubbing the poo diapers and am just tossing them in the front loader and using the sanitize option. Everything comes out sparkling clean. Yippee.

Update on Alderwood Wives Book Club:

If you are not already following along with our September book YOU NEED TO. Secret Daughter: A Novel, by Shilpi Somaya Gowda. This one is a keeper. I am half way through and don't want it to ever end.

Update on Fall jeans or stretchy pants 4ever?:

I found the compromise. They're called Jeggings. Even though Gwen Stefani's into them, I can't do it. Sorry fashionista's, I'm a laggard again.
ps. bought a new pair of TNA stretchy pants last week.

Update on The heartbreak of a Mini-Nursing Strike:

Case solved. My lactation consultant came over yesterday and it turns out Madelyn was never on a strike...my milk supply has just been sucking. It's okay though, she has me taking some herbalistic remedy that should have things flowing again in no time. I'm starting with Fenugreek and Blessed Thistle until the magic potion arrives. Bring on the donuts, my appetite is going to be huge!

Alderwood Wives Book Club Review: The Wonder Spot

I started a book club this summer with some of the other moms & working gals in our 'hood. I was in a book club in CT (another fabulous idea from Jessica!), and it was so much fun I couldn't live without it up here in Canada. It's not so much the book gossip or feeling in tune with my personal Oprah that I love, it's just fun to be in a club and have a ladies night on my calendar once a month.

We had our second meeting last week to discuss our first book: The Wonder Spot, by Melissa Bank. I give this book 2 stars. boo. I am shocked to see that on amazon 95 reviews averaged 3.5 stars. Comments from our club meeting: "the book lacked substance", "nothing really happened", "it was like a flat road", "the main character was whiny", "anticlimactic". My personal main criticism is that the main character lets a lot of sh*tty people in her life. The entire time I was reading it I wanted to jump into the page and slap her across the face and scream, "Wake up, it's your life, no one else cares"... Anyway...the reason this book gets a 2/5 from me is because I actually finished it. Not just because I had to for book club; I really was hoping something exciting would happen. If I can say anything positive, I did enjoy parts of the authors style. She writes some pretty funny metaphors that had me lol.  If I didn't have mommy-brain this morning I would write some of them down for you. Oh well.

The club agreed we need something a little meatier for our next read, something like The Time Travellers Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger. So we decided on Secret Daughter: A Novel, by Shilpi Somaya Gowda. Hopefully this book will live up to it's amazon rating of 4.5 stars. So far I'm 18 pages in and loving it! Seems like it's going to be a real tearjerker for me.