Review: Professors' Wives' Club by Joanne Rendell

Last year, I added Professors' Wives' Club by Joanne Rendell to my list of book club ideas. This addition was based on a recommendation from Julie at Booking Mama. My LOLAs book club added it to this year's schedule. And even though I am no longer local to the LOLAs (boohoo), I am trying to read what they read.

I am glad I did!

Summary: A debut novel about the intertwining lives of college faculty wives.

Nestled among Manhattan University’s faculty housing, there is a garden where four women will meet—each with a scandalous secret that could upset their lives, destroy their families, and rock the prestigious university to its very core.

With its maple trees, iron gate, and fence laced with honeysuckle, Manhattan U’s garden offers faculty wives Mary, Sofia, Ashleigh, and Hannah much needed refuge from their problems. But as Mary’s husband, the power-hungry dean, plans to demolish their beloved garden, these four women will discover a surprising secret about a lost Edgar Allan Poe manuscript—and realize they must find the courage to stand up for their passions, dreams, and desires.

I enjoyed these ladies! They were quite interesting, had real issues within their marriages and their lives, and I could easily see them as being people that I know. I especially could relate to the beginning when they meet - they've all used this small garden for quite some time but always keeping to themselves until one day... How many things do I do that I never actually talk to anyone while I am doing them? (Not so much now in the new place as I am desparate to meet new folks! LOL) But really. How many times have I gone to the grocery or the park with my kids, taken a book and just read, not talking to those around me. Or even soccer practice, for that matter. Anyway, I digress from the review...

This book is one where you want to know more of what happens 'after'. I could see them all growing throughout the book and wonder how that will affect their future selves. I definitely recommend reading The Professors Wives Club. I need to find out what the LOLAs thought of it!

Rating: 4.5/5

Review: Midwives by Chris Bohjalian

The November book for LOLAs is Midwives by Chris Bohjalian. I read the entire book on my Oprah-given Kindle - my first book on the Kindle. I will review the Kindle later this week.

Midwives was just okay for me. It took me a long time to get into the book. I don't know if part of that was learning the new way to read via the Kindle or just the book. Here's the summary:

The time is 1981, and Sibyl Danforth has been a dedicated midwife in the rural community of Reddington, Vermont, for fifteen years. But one treacherous winter night, in a house isolated by icy roads and failed telephone lines, Sibyl takes desperate measures to save a baby's life. She performs an emergency Cesarean section on its mother, who appears to have died in labor. But what if--as Sibyl's assistant later charges--the patient wasn't already dead, and it was Sibyl who inadvertently killed her?

As recounted by Sibyl's precocious fourteen-year-old daughter, Connie, the ensuing trial bears the earmarks of a witch hunt except for the fact that all its participants are acting from the highest motives--and the defendant increasingly appears to be guilty. As Sibyl Danforth faces the antagonism of the law, the hostility of traditional doctors, and the accusations of her own conscience, Midwives engages, moves, and transfixes us as only the very best novels ever do.

The story is narrated by Connie, the fourteen-year old daughter of the midwife Sybil Danforth. Connie's voice is a high point for me in the novel. I did get to know Connie and felt what she described. But I don't feel like her character was shared enough. In the telling of her mother's story, we get small glimpses of the girl but not the anguish, worries, scared feelings that I would imagine she would be feeling.

Nor do we really get that from her mother's voice. At the beginning of each chapter, we get a glimpse of Sybil through an excerpt of her personal notebooks.

Maybe it's because I love to read courtroom dramas that this book didn't grab me. Because the courtroom pieces are not all that suspenseful. And since the characters were not that deep either, I don't feel like I connected well with them.

It was a good book, one I am not sorry I read. It just wasn't great. It will be fun to see what the other LOLAs have to say about it. We will be meeting the second week of November. Maybe I missed something that our discussion will bring to light and change my view of the book? It's been known to happen.

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

I just gotta have it!

I am catching up on the blog reading and came to this from another Michele with only one L at The Readers Respite. She regularly shares unique bookmarks she comes across. When I saw this one, I LOVED it! Think I need to go buy one! It's on Etsy.



Actually I did go buy it!!!!

Review: Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs

Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs is October's LOLAs book club book. As I was way down on the request list at the library, I ended up getting an audio version and listened to the majority of it when I traveled to Ohio by myself two weekends ago. I finished it in bits chauffeuring the kids around town. I am writing this review before my book club meeting so I don't get clouded by other's thoughts. We are meeting tonight - hopefully I'll remember to write down other thoughts and insights to add to this review.

My initial thoughts on this memoir are: "Did this really happen?"; "Wow, what a horrific childhood!"; "Every other word was a swear word!".

"Did this really happen?"
The summary of the book from the author's website: RUNNING WITH SCISSORS is the true story of a boy whose mother (a poet with delusions of Anne Sexton) gave him away to be raised by her psychiatrist, a dead-ringer for Santa and a lunatic in the bargain. Suddenly, at age twelve, Augusten Burroughs found himself living in a dilapidated Victorian in perfect squalor. The doctor's bizarre family, a few patients, and a pedophile living in the backyard shed completed the tableau. Here, there were no rules, there was no school. The Christmas tree stayed up until summer, and Valium was eaten like Pez. And when things got dull, there was always the vintage electroshock therapy machine under the stairs...

RUNNING WITH SCISSORS is at turns foul and harrowing, compelling and maniacally funny. But above all, it chronicles an ordinary boy's survival under the most extraordinary circumstances.

Since there hasn't been any news about this not being true, I am sure it is. But it's a definite story that no one would ever want for themselves. The summary is a good one and I don't know that I can add more without giving away a bunch of the book. It is definitely an intriguing memoir and draws you in even as you are wanting to distance yourself from the reality of it.

"Wow, what a horrific childhood!"
Many folks, including myself, have had childhoods that were not as nice as we are hoping we are giving our kids. I would venture to guess more folks have had dysfunctional childhoods than not - abuse, divorce, moving, mean neighborhood kids, gangs, etc. But I cannot even but any of those on the same level as what happens to Augusten. He goes from one very dysfunctional, not safe environment into an even worse one, growing up in the house of his mother's shrink. I still cannot imagine the depths of the sadness and the, what I can only think to call horror, of growing up in that situation.

To gather more information for this review I was exploring the author's website. Mr. Burroughs has quite a lengthy and very interesting biography written on his website. It was well worth the time to read that after reading about his childhood.

"Every other word was a swear word!"
I don't know if it would have been as noticeable when reading but in the audio version, it felt like there were more swear words than other words. I realize in the messed-up, truly dysfunctional lifestyle that the author is describing that swear words are just words to use. But, for me, it took a conscious decision to ignore them and not base my reaction to the book and the life story being told on the use of the foul words. I will be interested to know if it was as noticeable to those in my book club that read the book.

Overall, I can see why this book was on the best seller list for so long (four years!). It is definitely a memoir that draws you in and won't let you go. I'm excited to go tonight to have some chili, puppy chow and a great discussion!

Rating: 3/5 stars

My book club ideas - check them out!

I keep reading reviews of books that I think would be a great book club book. And I don't have a way to keep track of them in an easy-to-find (for me) manner. So I created a new blog!

Check out Michele's Book Club Ideas!

I will be posting books and links to reviews that look like great books for a book club to discuss. I will include the review and blog I originally read the review on, any author information, other reviews I find, and whatever else I can come up with!

I will also be posting information on books that my book clubs read, including any comments from other members that they'd like to share.

My goal is that this is a reference for you and for me when we are looking for ideas for book club choices.

I am hopeful that other readers will send me information to include in this blog to make it an even better resource for all of us.

To keep up to date with the book club ideas:
- You can add the feed of the book club blog to your feed reader with the link on the book club blog.
- You can check the book club ideas from time to time via the link to the left on this main blog.
- And if I add a bunch of books, I may put up a reminder post here too.

Thanks for your help!