Annette's Book Club Ratings for 2013
Annette's 2013 Book Club Winners and Losers
Here are our
book club members’ average ratings of those books on a scale of 1-5 with five being the best rating.
A woman marries a man she barely knows and moves to the Colorado Territory where she faces adversity on the new frontier and in her home. Mattie is an optimistic breath of fresh air even through her trying times.
This is the story of a German couple who immigrates to the United States in the early 1900s and settles in Beatrice, Missouri. The book lyrically dances through three generations of the Meisenheimers and their experience in what started as a strange and foreign land and becomes home. It is at times funny and sad, filled with colorful and memorable characters, all expressed in a luring voice that kept us turning the pages. A Good American is A Good Book!
An unusual magical circus set in tones of black and white opens only at night. The spectacular circus itself is only a sideshow to the main storyline, where a wager involves the lives of two people who eventually become attractions in the circus. Imaginative and interesting!
||||(4)
After his wife passes away cantankerous, old Rucker
Blakeslee marries a much younger woman to the dismay of his family. This book
is a humorous ride back to the South in the early 1900s.
A man blinded at the age of three regains his sight as an adult in his forties. Read about the challenges he faced growing up blind and new obstacles that his sighted world brings him. A true and amazing story.
||| (3.5)
A dark story of two sets of conjoined twins born 80 years apart. Slowly their mysterious stories unwind in an eerie tale that’s disturbing, intriguing, and suspenseful.
Set in eighteenth century France a baby is born with an unusual sense of smell that eventually leads him to murder. This is not an action-packed murder thriller. It’s a thought-provoking book about a man with an unusual talent that is also a curse.
Don’t
belong to a book club of your own? Join
ours by reading along with our book selections that are posted on the home page
side panel of this blog. Send me your
comments before the review date and I’ll include them in the blog post.
While
we all enjoy discussing our book club selections, most of the members try to
find time to read our own book choices.
Below are other books members have read and enjoyed in 2013.
Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende
Spanning four decades, this is the story of a slave and a man who runs a plantation on the island of Saint-Domingue, Zarite. It’s a
saga of love, loss, determination, and traditions in the late 1700s.
The Descendants by Kaui Hart Hemmings
While a man’s wife lies in a coma, he must deal with his unruly
teenage daughter, relatives who control a large portion of Hawaii's pristine real estate,
and the revelations of his wife’s infidelity. (The book club member read this book after she watched the movie, and found that while the movie was good, the book was better.)
Trilogy: Fever Dream, Cold Vengence, &
Two Graves by Lincoln Child &
Douglas Preston (Pendergast Series)
In Fever Dream, Special
Agent Pendergast discovers his wife was murdered. A decade after her death he learns about her guarded
secrets. In Cold Vengeance he seeks revenge, which is not as easy as he thought. The
third book, Two Graves, offers another twist in this trilogy, which I
will not give away here.
A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
The first book in a fantasy epic where summers last decades,
winters can last a lifetime, and a struggle for the Iron Throne has begun.
City of Thieves by David Benioff
A novel about two men who are
sentenced to death in Leningrad (St. Petersburg), Russia during WWII. They are given a one chance for
survival: get a dozen eggs for a Soviet
officer for his daughter’s wedding. It’s
an almost impossible request that leads the two into heartbreaking and dangerous adventures.
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
A fascinating read about Henry VIII and two of the women in
his life: Catherine and Anne Boleyn.
Strife, power, murder, ambition, and passion all play into this 1500s historical
fiction.
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
On their fifth
wedding anniversary, Amy mysteriously disappears. Her husband, Nick, is a
suspect, but did he really do it? “A
nerve-fraying thriller that confounds you at every turn.”
One more thing—
I hope you have enjoyed the 100+ book reviews and
recommendations I have posted in 2013.
While I have had great fun in sharing my love of books, I will be
slowing down on my posts. I will still
pass on my book suggestions, just at a much more relaxed and sporadic pace. An easy way to learn of my new reviews is to follow me by email where you will
automatically be sent my posts as they are released. You can sign up on the side panel of the home page.
Wishing you a
very Merry Christmas with a stocking full of books and a happy, healthy new
year!
Happy Reading!
Annette
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