Murder on Astor Place: A Gaslight Mystery by Victoria Thompson

Overview: Sprinkled with fascinating details of turn-of-the-century New York City, Thompson's old-fashioned mystery takes the reader from the mansions of Fifth Avenue to the flophouses of the Lower East Side. Sarah Brandt is a midwife who has been estranged from her wealthy family for years. When Alicia VanDamm, a young woman from a prominent family, is murdered, Sarah must return to the upper-class society she has scorned to find the killer. Haunted by her past and disgusted by police department corruption, Sarah takes it upon herself to avenge the girl's death. Annoyed at first by her interference, Detective Sergeant Frank Malloy asks for Sarah's help only when he has been taken off the case at the request of the victim's scandal-fearing family. The feisty midwife and the ambitious policeman grudgingly become allies in their search for justice. Sarah and Frank are appealing characters, and the author develops their rapport subtly and believably. In this first installment in a new series of historical mysteries, Thompson vividly re-creates the gas-lit world of old New York, concluding her mystery with revelations that will shock even 20th-century readers.

My review: This is one those mysteries from my running list I keep of books to read. While it's short book, 278 pages, and a fast read I thoroughly enjoyed the characters and the story. While both lead characters have their faults you find yourself liking them and wanting to spend more time with them. Fortunately we can do that as there a several books on this series back list.

While I did have my suspicions about a major character they weren't completely confirmed until the last 50 or pages of the story and even then there was a twist or two I hadn't picked up on earlier in the book. If the rest of the books in this series continue to be this entertaining one could spend many enjoyable reading hours with Sarah and Frank.

Mary, called Magdalene by Margaret George

Overview: Of all the women in the Bible, perhaps no one's presence has been as constantly reinterpreted as that of Mary Magdalene. Was she a prostitute? A prophet? In Margaret George's epic historical novel, Mary, Called Magdalene (Geroge's previous subjects include Henry VIII, Mary, Queen of Scots, and Cleopatra), Mary comes alive as one of Jesus' first believers, a woman of infallible visions and a faith that earns her the title "Apostle to the Apostles." With numerous biblical and scholarly texts serving as the core of this intriguing woman's story, George recreates the world of Galilean fishermen and the oppressions of the Jewish people under Roman rule. Cast out from her family after Jesus expels the demons that have ravaged her mind, Mary follows the man from Nazareth until they receive attention from the skeptical hordes and the Roman magistrates controlling Jerusalem.

Mary, from beginning to end of this giant undertaking, is a woman who struggles to reconcile her absence from her young daughter's life with the chance to be part of something important. Through the lens of her ever-inquisitive mind, the story covers the formation of Jesus' ragtag band of disciples and the crucifixion, and ends with Mary's mission as the head of the Christian church in Ephesus, where she died at the age of 90. What makes this a compelling read is that Mary's story connects humanity with faith in a way that's possible to understand, whatever our contemporary beliefs.

My review: I didn't really get into this book until after Mary's childhood when she is 17 and about to be married. After this point it's book I couldn't put down. While the author readily admits that she had to construct a childhood based on facts from that time period the story still has a very authentic feel. Once she becomes an adult, married with a child of her own the story picks up speed. Her life is one that she lived with passion, longing and love.

This book is interesting, enlightening and inspiring. While passages contain Jesus' teachings it is in no way preachy. Rather His teachings are integral to her story and give the reader an understanding of the part that Mary played, and continues to play, in this story that is still very much with us today. While I was somewhat familiar with Mary's place in history I didn't realize the scope of her involvement with Jesus and His story. Though I remember some of His teachings from childhood Sunday school it was very intriguing to read these "bible stories" in a fictional book and from an adult point of view where the concept of time and place is better understood.

While I have other works by this author in my TBR pile, mainly historical England, and at first wanted to put this book down I'm very pleased that I finished it because I would have missed a very good book.

City of Glory by Beverly Swerling

Sequel to City of Dreams by Beverly Swerling.

Overview: Swerling sets her enthralling follow-up to City of Dreams against the backdrop of the War of 1812, when New Yorkers are suffering the dire economic effects of a British blockade of American ports, and talk of secession is rife. In Manhattan, the wealthy and unscrupulous trader Gornt Blakeman is the leader of the secessionist schemers. Blakeman's nemesis, and Swerling's larger-than-life hero, is surgeon and patriot Joyful Patrick Turner. Having lost a hand to a British cannonball earlier in the war, Joyful returns to Manhattan to start over as a "Canton trader." When Blakeman tries to rally New Yorkers to secede and kidnaps Joyful's sweetheart, the comely and headstrong Manon Vionne, Joyful races to expose Blakeman's treachery and rescue Manon from his clutches. Swerling's swashbuckling tale brings old Manhattan vividly to life, throbbing with restless energy and populated with a diverse and intriguing cast of characters: both real (John Jacob Astor) and richly imagined.

My review: While I enjoyed City of Dreams I liked City of Glory so much better. Having a story with so much history and so many participants is much easier follow over the 10 days this story takes place than the 130 or so years of her first book. While only 2 main characters carry over you could read this book as a stand alone.

One of my issues with her first book and, integral part of that story, were the medical scenes of which there are only a couple in this sequel. Rather these characters are involved with trying to keep a new nation together in a time of crisis. Her characters come to life and the time in which they live is described with such attention to detail that one would believe they were actually there. The story is very entertaining and moves along.

Talking Back...to Presidents, Dictators, and Assorted Scoundrels by Andrea Mitchell

Overview: Andrea Mitchell's first foreign posting was covering the Jonestown massacre in Guyana - after her predecessor had been murdered. She's gone on to become on of the most respected reporters on TV, present as the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the funeral of Yasser Arafat and extracting unexpected answers from interviewees ranging from Fidel Castro to Hillary Clinton. In this riveting memoir, Mitchell tells the story behind those stories, candidly discussing the professional challenges of her marriage to Alan Greenspan and explaining what it's like to be in the news as well as cover it.

My review: This book was very up and down for me. Quite honestly I probably wouldn't have finished it I hadn't been reading it for "Go Review That Book!" on Librarything.com. I found the first half of the book very slow going and not much to keep up my interest level. I'll admit that I find the politics of the Middle East very messy and confusing and all most of her introduction is spent covering Condi Rice and the Middle East mess. If the book had continued down that route I was done.

But fortunately she moves on and that is where the interest level for me picked up some. This isn't a book for telling the juicy details and spreading gossip but she provides some interesting insight into the lives of the Regans and Clintons. I got a better understanding of why these couples came across to the American public as they did whether for better or worse. Her revelations about the political process behind scenes was entertaining.

It was an OK book but not a real page turner.

Tuna Night

Tuna night draws a big crowd in our house. We have to be careful how loudly we say "tuna" as some have learned the word and will come running from anywhere thinking it's on the evening menu.

A pile of kittens

This is Daisy's brood. Notice the little black boy in the middle. We're not sure where he came from. Daisy is totally white and so are her daughters. The lone boy in the group was named Black Jack and adopted by co-workers along with 3 of his sisters.

Rudy - Mommy's Bad Boy

Rudy is Mommy's bad boy but she loves him dearly. He came into an already established feline household (8 "siblings") and tried to be alpha cat. He tried, and still does, to boss the others around. The girls slap back at him and the boys walk away.

Ori - Garage Boy

Ori - we refer to him as "Garage Boy" or "Yard Boy". We rescued him from my hubby's work place. He's always been an outdoor cat and Management was going to call the Human Society and have him taken away. We brought him home to live with our feline family and he's been here over 6 years. He lives in our garage and supervises my hubby when he's working in the garage or the yard, hence his nicknames.

Moloka'i by Alan Brennert

Overview: Brennert's sweeping debut novel tracks the grim struggle of a Hawaiian woman who contracts leprosy as a child in Honolulu during the 1890s and is deported to the island of Moloka'i, where she grows to adulthood at the quarantined settlement of Kalaupapa. Rachel Kalama is the plucky, seven-year-old heroine whose family is devastated when first her uncle Pono and then she develop leprous sores and are quarantined with the disease. While Rachel's symptoms remain mild during her youth, she watches others her age dying from the disease in near total isolation from family and friends. Rachel finds happiness when she meets Kenji Utagawa, a fellow leprosy victim whose illness brings shame on his Japanese family. After a tender courtship, Rachel and Kenji marry and have a daughter, but the birth of their healthy baby brings as much grief as joy, when they must give her up for adoption to prevent infection. The couple cope with the loss of their daughter and settle into a productive working life until Kenji tries to stop a quarantined U.S. soldier from beating up his girlfriend and is tragically killed in the subsequent fight. The poignant concluding chapters portray Rachel's final years after sulfa drugs are discovered as a cure, leaving her free to abandon Moloka'i and seek out her family and daughter. Brennert's compassion makes Rachel a memorable character, and his smooth storytelling vividly brings early 20th-century Hawaii to life. Leprosy may seem a macabre subject, but Brennert transforms the material into a touching, lovely account of a woman's journey as she rises above the limitations of a devastating illness.

My review: I loved this story. From start to finish it touches a piece of your heart and moves you in so many ways: anger, fear and hope, to the millions of emotions in between. It's a roller coaster ride of believing we did the right thing and knowing that maybe we didn't but ultimately believing we tried our best with the knowledge we had. You feel for the people who are taken from their families, forced to live in a isolated world and the relationships they forge full of love, compassion and, most of all, family both on Moloka'i and "outside." It's a story of hope, love and faith, in yourself and in others.

This book is rich with Hawai'ian lore and the history of Leprosy (the disease and treatment). It's a study in our relationships with people we fear due to our own lack of knowledge. It is a wonderful history lesson, a piece of American culture that I'm not sure many know about. It's not story to be hidden away. It needs to be told, if only so that we can learn about treating others with dignity and respect. In places the treatment these lepers received from others reminds me of the treatment we show to AIDS patients. We shun what scares us or what we know little about when we should show compassion to all.

Series Reading

Mystery series I've started or would like to start:

Amazon - US
Albert, Susan Wittig - China Bayles mysteries
Alt, Madelyn - The Trouble with Magic - 1st in the series
Clement, Blaize - Dixie Hemingway mysteries
Damsgaard, Shirley - Charmed to Death- 2nd in the Ophelia & Abbey series
Donati, Sara - Into the Wilderness series
Fforde, Jasper - Thursday Next mysteries
Gardner, Ashley - Mysteries of Regency England
Harris, C.S. - Captain Lacey mysteries
Harris, Rosemary - Pushing Up Daisies - 1st in the Dirt-y Business series
Hunter, Erin - Warrior series (cats, YA)
Johnston, Linda O. - Nothing to Fear but Ferrets - 2nd in the pet sitter series
Morris, Gilbert - Jacques & Cleo cat mysteries
Raybourn, Deanna - Silent in the Sanctuary - 2nd in the Julia Grey series
Stevens, Rosemary - Beau Brummell mysteries
Sweeney, Leann - Pick Your Poison - 1st in the Yellow Rose series
Thompson, Victoria - Murder on Astor Place - 1st in the Gaslight series

Amazon - UK
Gregory, Susanna - Matthew Bartholomew chronicles
Gregory, Susanna - Thomas Chaloner chronicles
Grace, C.L. - Katherine Swinbrooke medieval mysteries
Knight, Bernard - Crowner John mysteries
Martson, Edward - Elizabethan Theater mysteries
Martson, Edward - Christopher Redmayne series
Rickman, Phil - Merrily Watkins mysteries
Sansom, C.J. - Shardlake series

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortensen & David Relin

Overview: Some failures lead to phenomenal successes, and this American nurse's unsuccessful attempt to climb K2, the world's second tallest mountain, is one of them. Dangerously ill when he finished his climb in 1993, Mortenson was sheltered for seven weeks by the small Pakistani village of Korphe; in return, he promised to build the impoverished town's first school, a project that grew into the Central Asia Institute, which has since constructed more than 50 schools across rural Pakistan and Afghanistan.

My review: I absolutely loved this story. In fact, so much, that I put everything else aside, except work, to finish it and then I didn't want it to end. And thank heavens it doesn't. Greg continues his unselfish work on behalf of the people who live at "top of the world" in the most inhospitable environments. This man talks the talk and walks the walk, especially in places that most of us fear to tread. From start to finish this story is revelation of what people can do for one another if only we could see beyond ourselves. Yes this book is about building schools, work programs, and water projects. But really it's about so more. It's about caring for others a world away and helping them help themselves without imposing our beliefs. So much can be accomplished for so little. The people who live in these villages really are no different from you and I. They want the same things as we do: to provide food and shelter for their families, educate their children and most of all provide more opportunities than they themselves had so that new generations have a brighter future. If you think everything in the world has gone to hell and the evening news isn't worth watching pick up this book and think again.

2007 Book Reviews

Most of my book reviews for 2007 are posted at http://360.yahoo.com/woodbear97

I only moved to my current site, The Printed Page, at the beginning of November. I elected not to move the other reviews.

December '08 dinner

Date/Time: Thursday, 12/18
Time: 530pm
Place: Texas Roadhouse/Meridian
Book: Thirteen Moons by Charles Frazier

Will Cooper narrates his own story in retrospect, beginning with his days as an orphaned, literate "bound boy" who is dispatched to run a musty trading post at the edge of the Cherokee Nation. Nearly nine mesmerizing decades later, Will is an eccentric elder of great accomplishments and gargantuan failures, perched cantankerously on his front porch taking potshots at passenger trains rumbling across his property (he owns "quite a few" shares of the railroad). Over the years, Will—modeled very loosely, Frazier acknowledges, on real-life frontiersman William Holland Thomas—becomes a prosperous merchant, a self-taught lawyer and a state senator; he's adopted by a Cherokee elder and later leads the clan as a white Indian chief; he bears terrible witness to the 1838–1839 Trail of Tears; a quarter-century later, he goes to battle for the Confederacy as a self-anointed colonel, leading a mostly Indian force with a "legion of lawyers and bookkeepers and shop clerks" as officers; as time passes, his life intersects with such figures as Davy Crockett, Sen. John C. Calhoun and President Andrew Jackson. After the Civil War, Will fritters away a fortune through wanderlust, neglect and unquenched longing for his one true love, Claire, a girl he won in a card game when they were both 12, wooed for two erotic summers in his teen years and found again several decades later.

November '08 dinner

Date/Time: Thursday, 11/20
Time: 530pm
Place: Asian Fusion/Meridian (Eagle/Franklin; btwn Krispy Kreme & Denny's)
Book: Alphabet Weekends by Elizabeth Noble

Natalie and Tom have been best friends forever, but Tom wants them to be much more. When Natalie's longtime boyfriend walks out on her just when she thinks he's going to propose, Tom offers her a different and wildly romantic proposition. He suggests that they spend twenty-six weekends together, indulging in twenty-six different activities from A to Z, and at the end of that time Tom's convinced they'll be madly in love. Natalie, however, is not so sure.
As Natalie's touring the alphabet with Tom, her mother's going through her own romantic crisis—while Tom's unhappily married sister-in-law, Lucy, struggles with temptation. And over the course of six amazing months, three generations of passionate dreamers are going to discover that, no matter how clever they are, love—and life—is never as easy as A, B, C . . .

November '07 dinner

Date/Time: Thursday, 11/15 CANCELED - See everyone next month!
Time: 530pm
Place: Outback Steak House (Cole/Overland, Boise)
Book: Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Relin

Some failures lead to phenomenal successes, and this American nurse's unsuccessful attempt to climb K2, the world's second tallest mountain, is one of them. Dangerously ill when he finished his climb in 1993, Mortenson was sheltered for seven weeks by the small Pakistani village of Korphe; in return, he promised to build the impoverished town's first school, a project that grew into the Central Asia Institute, which has since constructed more than 50 schools across rural Pakistan and Afghanistan.

December '07 dinner

Date/Time: Thursday, 12/13
Time: 530pm
Place: Outback Steak House (Cole/Overland)
Book: Moloka'i by Alan Brennert

Brennert's sweeping debut novel tracks the grim struggle of a Hawaiian woman who contracts leprosy as a child in Honolulu during the 1890s and is deported to the island of Moloka'i, where she grows to adulthood at the quarantined settlement of Kalaupapa. Rachel Kalama is the plucky, seven-year-old heroine whose family is devastated when first her uncle Pono and then she develop leprous sores and are quarantined with the disease. While Rachel's symptoms remain mild during her youth, she watches others her age dying from the disease in near total isolation from family and friends. Rachel finds happiness when she meets Kenji Utagawa, a fellow leprosy victim whose illness brings shame on his Japanese family. After a tender courtship, Rachel and Kenji marry and have a daughter, but the birth of their healthy baby brings as much grief as joy, when they must give her up for adoption to prevent infection. The couple cope with the loss of their daughter and settle into a productive working life until Kenji tries to stop a quarantined U.S. soldier from beating up his girlfriend and is tragically killed in the subsequent fight. The poignant concluding chapters portray Rachel's final years after sulfa drugs are discovered as a cure, leaving her free to abandon Moloka'i and seek out her family and daughter. Brennert's compassion makes Rachel a memorable character, and his smooth storytelling vividly brings early 20th-century Hawaii to life. Leprosy may seem a macabre subject, but Brennert transforms the material into a touching, lovely account of a woman's journey as she rises above the limitations of a devastating illness.

October '08 dinner

Date/Time: Thursday, 10/16
Time: 530pm
Place: Chili's (by the Towne Square Mall/Boise)
Book: Comeback by Claire Fontaine and Mia Fontaine

A nightmarish saga of a teenage runaway in L.A. ends triumphantly thanks to love and support from her screenwriter mom and stepdad. At 15, Mia gets involved in a dangerous drug and Wicca scene, stunning her successful, controlling mother, Claire, and stepfather, Paul. But the signs were in place earlier, after Mia's history of being sexually abused by her biological father, a violent, vindictive drug user whom Claire left with difficulty. Sent to Indiana to live with Claire's sister, Mia starts using cocaine heavily and even gets arrested. When the destructive behavior (including self-mutilation) accelerates, Claire and Paul send Mia to the unlikely Morava Academy, in the Czech Republic, a kind of Spartan military institution where 50 teens are rigorously monitored and reprogrammed. Meanwhile, back in L.A., the parents undergo an intensive group therapy called Discovery to learn to shed guilt for their daughter's behavior, and also forgive her. Oddly, Morava is soon shut down after allegations of staff abuse, but Mia goes through a brilliant turnaround at Spring Creek Lodge in Montana. Mia's desperate diary entries appear between Claire's lively, angry, sarcastic narrative, allowing mother and daughter to maintain a heart-wrenching, honest dialogue.

September '08 dinner

Date/Time: Thursday, 09/18
Time: 530pm
Place: McGrath's Fish House (Edwards Theaters/Boise)
Book: The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs

Georgia Walker's entire life is wrapped up in running her knitting store, Walker and Daughter, and caring for her 12-year-old daughter, Dakota. With the help of Anita, a lively widow in her seventies, Georgia starts the Friday Night Knitting Club, which draws loyal customers and a few oddballs. Darwin Chiu, a feminist grad student, believes knitting is downright old-fashioned, but she's drawn to the club as her young marriage threatens to unravel. Lucie, 42, a television producer, is about to become a mother for the first time--without a man in her life. Brash book editor KC finds her career has stalled unexpectedly, while brilliant Peri works at Walker and Daughter by day and designs handbags at night. Georgia gets her own taste of upheaval when Dakota's father reappears, hoping for a second chance.

August '08 dinner

Date/Time: Thursday, 08/21
Time: 530pm
Place: Johnny Carino's (Edwards theaters, Boise)
Book: I, Mona Lisa by Jeanne Kalogridis
Alternate books: The Dowry Bride by Shobhan Bantwal or The Mapmaker's Wife by Robert Whitaker

Set against a backdrop of political and religious conflicts in 15th-century Medici-ruled Florence, identifies the subject of Leonardo da Vinci's painting as Lisa di Antonio Gherardini. Lisa was the daughter of Madonna Lucrezia, wife of a wealthy wool merchant who also enchanted both da Vinci and Lorenzo de' Medici's brother Giuliano, murdered by conspirators in 1478. Giuliano's assassination—and the later murder of Lucrezia—presage a reign of religious terror led by a monk known as Savonarola and the retreat of the Medicis in the face of invasion from France's King Charles. An adult Lisa attracts the romantic attentions of a young Medici scion, whom she marries for love. (His father, Lorenzo, commissions her portrait from da Vinci.) But violent events soon separate the couple and a brutal Savonarola follower tells Lisa that her husband is dead—and her father's life in danger—unless she marries him instead. Lisa survives, an avenging angel, proving herself worthy of da Vinci's immortal artistry.

July '08 dinner

Date/Time: Thursday, 7/17
Time: 530pm
Place: Qdoba (NW corner of Eagle/Overland) - Canceled
Book: Lost and Found by Carolyn Parkhurst

Heres a fast-paced novel featuring a reality TV show that is like The Amazing Race and Treasure Hunt combined. Contestants have personal secrets and have been chosen specifically because producers hope that they will spill their guts for ratings. The action focuses on four characters. Justin and Abby are a married couple, a lesbian and a gay man who have renounced their lifestyles and proudly carry the banner of their newfound faith while they both struggle to remain straight. Although described as young, these two seem much older than their years in their pursuit of a traditional marriage. Meanwhile, the mother-daughter team of Laura and Cassie deals with the fact that the girl gave birth without anyone even noticing that she was pregnant. When she is given the chance to choose a different teammate–and does–emotions and rivalry ratchet up exponentially.

Daisy & Lupe

Meet Daisy and Lupe (mother and daughter). This is Daisy in one of her rare "mothering" moods.

DD, Lupe and Callie

These are 3 of our nine feline children. From left to right: DD, Lupe and Callie. DD and Callie are mother and son. Callie "adopted" Lupe when Daisy didn't want to deal with her kids.

City of Dreams by Beverly Swerling

Overview: The tapestry of early American society is hung out for a fresh viewing in this ambitious historical novel of 1660s New Amsterdam. The English Turners are brother and sister, surgeon/barber and apothecary. Devoted to one another, Sally and Lucas quickly learn to make their way in the harsh, prosperous new world, aiding the Dutch governor Stuyvesant's family and making their reputation in the bargain. Then Lucas sells Sally in marriage to Jacob Van der Vries, a cruel, foolish physician, in order to save her life, Lucas says, but she believes it is to buy his lover's freedom to marry, and she never forgives him. This rift begins a feud between the Van der Vries (later Devreys) and Turners that lasts through the American Revolution. Colorful characters vie with historical figures for attention on this broad stage: there's Jennet, Sally's great-granddaughter, who marries a wealthy Jew; Caleb Devrey, Jennet's first cousin, who loved her as a boy, but becomes her bitterest enemy; Morgan, Jennet's son, a privateer and patriot; and Morgan's best friend and former slave, Cuffy, whose fate is bound to Morgan's by love, hate and the same woman the gorgeous Roisin Campbell aka Mistress Healsall. The healing profession is carried down through each generation of Turners and Devreys, and Swerling's descriptions of early operations with crude instruments are detailed and riveting.

My review: Overall I enjoyed this book. The story was easy to get into and for the most part flowed from generation to generation. When she skipped the 2nd generation except for a few mentions here and there I realized she did so in order to move the story along. The story takes place over 137 years, I believe, so the author puts a lot into her story. She covers the birth of New York City to the birth of a nation. At times I got lost with who belonged to which of the 2 main families involved and had to review the family feuds. There is a mixture of American history along with the birth and advancements in the medical field in America. She traces the differences between surgeons and physicians and the specific practice of each field. She also includes the history of apothecaries (pharmacies).

If you're the person who watches the emergency room scenes on ER through your fingers when they start showing the blood, especially if you have an HD TV, you might want to skip some of the surgery scenes in this book. I'll admit some of those scenes made my toes curl and appreciate the marvels of today's medical science.

I have the second book in the series, Shadowbrook" in my TBR pile and have included it as part of my "Back To History" Challenge for 2008.

June '08 dinner

Date/Time: Thursday, 6/19
Time: 530pm
Place: Dickey's BBQ (NW of Eagle/Overland on south side of the street)
Book: Intuition by Allegra Goodman

A struggling cancer lab at Boston's Philpott Institute becomes the stage for its researchers' personalities and passions, and for the slippery definitions of freedom and responsibility in grant-driven American science. When the once-discredited R-7 virus, the project of playboy postdoc Cliff, seems to reduce cancerous tumors in mice, lab director Sandy Glass insists on publishing the preliminary results immediately, against the advice of his more cautious codirector, Marion Mendelssohn. The research team sees a glorious future ahead, but Robin, Cliff's resentful ex-girlfriend and co-researcher, suspects that the findings are too good to be true and attempts to prove Cliff's results are in error. The resulting inquiry spins out of control.

May '08 dinner

Date/Time: Thursday, 5/15
Time: 530pm
Place: Whitewater Pizza (Meridian)
Book: The Hindi-Bindi Club by Monica Pradhan

The age-old intergenerational struggle between mothers and daughters gets a curried twist in Pradhan's debut, in which the subcontinent meets the modern West. As children, first-generation Americans Kiran Deshpande, Preity Chawla Lindstrom and Rani McGuiness Tomashot gently mocked their Indian mothers, collectively nicknamed "The Hindi-Bindi Club" for their Old World leanings. Though the three are now successful adults, they aren't necessarily seen as such by their parents. For starters, none married Indian men. But now, Kiran's parents may get their chance to "semi-arrange" a marriage for their divorced daughter as she considers the possibility that there may be something to the old ways. Preity, mostly happily married to business school beau Eric, carries a small torch for a long-lost love—a Muslim her parents didn't approve of—and considers seeking him out. Meanwhile, rocket scientist Rani's passion for art starts to pay off as she becomes spiritually listless.

April '08 dinner

Date/Time: Thursday, 4/17
Time: 530pm
Place: Qdoba (Meridian)
Book: Wild Swans by Jung Chang

Bursting with drama, heartbreak and horror, this extraordinary family portrait mirrors China's century of turbulence. Chang's grandmother, Yu-fang, had her feet bound at age two and in 1924 was sold as a concubine to Beijing's police chief. Yu-fang escaped slavery in a brothel by fleeing her "husband" with her infant daughter, Bao Qin, Chang's mother-to-be. Growing up during Japan's brutal occupation, free-spirited Bao Qin chose the man she would marry, a Communist Party official slavishly devoted to the revolution. In 1949, while he drove 1000 miles in a jeep to the southwestern province where they would do Mao's spadework, Bao Qin walked alongside the vehicle, sick and pregnant (she lost the child). Chang, born in 1952, saw her mother put into a detention camp in the Cultural Revolution and later "rehabilitated." Her father was denounced and publicly humiliated; his mind snapped, and he died a broken man in 1975. Working as a "barefoot doctor" with no training, Chang saw the oppressive, inhuman side of communism. She left China in 1978 and is now director of Chinese studies at London University.

March '08 dinner

Date/Time: Thursday, 3/20
Time: 530pm
Place: Texas Roadhouse (Meridian) - new location
Book: Summer People by Brian Groh

Nathan Empson lands in Brightonfield Cove, Maine, with the intention of sorting out his life—his last relationship faltered, he dropped out of college, and he wants to be a graphic novelist—while caring for Ellen Broderick, an ailing elderly Cleveland woman who summers there. His caretaker responsibilities are more demanding than he'd imagined, and through time spent with Ellen, Nathan befriends Eldwin Lowell, an Episcopalian pastor with a drinking problem and a depressed wife, and Leah, the nanny to Eldwin's children who becomes the necessary love interest. As the weeks tick by, Nathan learns intriguing bits about Ellen's past, agonizes over his romantic and artistic woes and, among other things, gets beat up and watches a house burn down.

February '08 dinner

Date/Time: Thursday, 2/21 - Canceled
Time: 530pm
Place: Texas Steakhouse (Meridian)
Book: The Guardian by Nicholas Sparks

Julie Barenson's young husband left her two unexpected gifts before he died - a Great Dane puppy named Singer and the promise that he would always be watching over her. Now four years have passed. Still living in the small town of Swansboro, North Carolina, twenty-nine-year-old Julie is emotionally ready to make a commitment to someone again. But who? Should it be Richard Franklin, the handsome, sophisticated engineer who treats her like a queen? Or Mike Harris, the down-to-earth nice guy who was her husband's best friend? Choosing one of them should bring her more happiness than she's had in years. Instead, Julie is soon fighting for her life in a nightmare spawned by a chilling deception and jealousy so poisonous that it has become a murderous desire...

January '08 dinner

Date/Time: Thursday, 1/17
Time: 530pm
Place: Johnny Carino's (Edwards, Boise)
Book: Pope Joan by Donna Cross

Cross makes an excellent, entertaining case in her work of historical fiction that, in the Dark Ages, a woman sat on the papal throne for two years. Born in Ingelheim in A.D. 814 to a tyrannical English canon and the once-heathen Saxon he made his wife, Joan shows intelligence and persistence from an early age. One of her two older brothers teaches her to read and write, and her education is furthered by a Greek scholar who instructs her in languages and the classics. Her mother, however, sings her the songs of her pagan gods, creating a dichotomy within her daughter that will last throughout her life. The Greek scholar arranges for the continuation of her education at the palace school of the Lord Bishop of Dorstadt, where she meets the red-haired knight Gerold, who is to become the love of her life. After a savage attack by Norsemen destroys the village, Joan adopts the identity of her older brother, slain in the raid, and makes her way to Fulda, to become the learned scholar and healer Brother John Anglicus. After surviving the plague, Joan goes to Rome, where her wisdom and medical skills gain her entrance into papal circles. Lavishly plotted, the book brims with fairs, weddings and stupendous banquets, famine, plague and brutal battles. Joan is always central to the vivid action as she wars with the two sides of herself, "mind and heart, faith and doubt, will and desire." Ultimately, though she leads a man's life, Joan dies a woman's death, losing her life in childbirth. In this colorful, richly imagined novel, Cross ably inspires a suspension of disbelief, pulling off the improbable feat of writing a romance starring a pregnant pope.

2008 BC Reading List

Hi ladies,

As all of you are much better at using the public library than I am I'm listing all our books for 2008 so that you can get on waiting lists if need be. I will still put together a blog entry by month with book/dinner details but this will give you a head start. If I list books that some of you have read or heard something not so good about please let me know and I can make a change. My TBR (to be read) pile is bulging with books. So check back periodically for updates.

** Really I swear those books just jump off the shelves and beg to go home with me. **

January (1/17) - Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross (fiction; may be based on historical facts)
February (2/21) - The Guardian by Nicholas Sparks (get the hankies out) (fiction)
March (3/20) - Summer People by Brian Groh (fiction)
April (4/17) - Wild Swans by Jung Chang (non-fiction)
May (5/15) - The Hindi-Bindi Club by Monica Pradhan (fiction)
June (6/19) - Intuition by Allegra Goodman (fiction)
July (7/17) - Lost and Found by Carolyn Parkhurst (fiction)
August (8/21) - I, Mona Lisa by Jeanne Kalogridis (fiction with historical happenings of the time used in the story)
September (9/18) - The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs (fiction)
October (10/16) - Comeback by Claire Fontaine & Mia Fontaine (non-fiction)
November (11/20) - Alphabet Weekends by Elizabeth Noble (fiction)
December (12/18) - Thirteen Moons by Charles Frazier (fiction)

I'm listing alternate reading selections in case we change our minds from those listed above. These selections aren't nearly as diverse as our list for 2008 and reflect some of my personal reading tastes right now.

Alternates: 1- Marley & Me by John Grogan; 2 - Around the Next Corner by Elizabeth Wrenn; 3 - Saving Fish From Drowning by Amy Tan; 4 - The Book of Loss by Julith Jedamus; 5 - The Dowry Bride by Shobhan Bantwal; 6 - The Russian Concubine by Kate Furnivall; 7 - Resurrection by Tucker Malarkey; 8 - Beneath A Marble Sky by John Shors; 9 - Sheer Abandon by Penny Vincenzi