WAY Overdue for a Book Post!!
#16
Title: Firefly Lane
Author: Kristin Hannah
Pages: 481
Grade: A+
Reason: Pleasure
Summary: Book Description
From the New York Times bestselling author of On Mystic Lake comes a powerful novel of love, loss, and the magic of friendship. . . .
In the turbulent summer of 1974, Kate Mularkey has accepted her place at the bottom of the eighth-grade social food chain. Then, to her amazement, the “coolest girl in the world” moves in across the street and wants to be her friend. Tully Hart seems to have it all---beauty, brains, ambition. On the surface they are as opposite as two people can be: Kate, doomed to be forever uncool, with a loving family who mortifies her at every turn. Tully, steeped in glamour and mystery, but with a secret that is destroying her. They make a pact to be best friends forever; by summer’s end they’ve become TullyandKate. Inseparable.
So begins Kristin Hannah’s magnificent new novel. Spanning more than three decades and playing out across the ever-changing face of the Pacific Northwest, Firefly Lane is the poignant, powerful story of two women and the friendship that becomes the bulkhead of their lives.
From the beginning, Tully is desperate to prove her worth to the world. Abandoned by her mother at an early age, she longs to be loved unconditionally. In the glittering, big-hair era of the eighties, she looks to men to fill the void in her soul. But in the buttoned-down nineties, it is television news that captivates her. She will follow her own blind ambition to New York and around the globe, finding fame and success . . . and loneliness.
Kate knows early on that her life will be nothing special. Throughout college, she pretends to be driven by a need for success, but all she really wants is to fall in love and have children and live an ordinary life. In her own quiet way, Kate is as driven as Tully. What she doesn’t know is how being a wife and mother will change her . . . how she’ll lose sight of who she once was, and what she once wanted. And how much she’ll envy her famous best friend. . . .
For thirty years, Tully and Kate buoy each other through life, weathering the storms of friendship---jealousy, anger, hurt, resentment. They think they’ve survived it all until a single act of betrayal tears them apart . . . and puts their courage and friendship to the ultimate test.
Firefly Lane is for anyone who ever drank Boone’s Farm apple wine while listening to Abba or Fleetwood Mac. More than a coming-of-age novel, it’s the story of a generation of women who were both blessed and cursed by choices. It’s about promises and secrets and betrayals. And ultimately, about the one person who really, truly knows you---and knows what has the power to hurt you . . . and heal you. Firefly Lane is a story you’ll never forget . . . one you’ll want to pass on to your best friend.
Review: I LOVED this book. I've been waiting two years for Hannah to put out something new, and she really did it with this one. I love that she's a Northwest writer...I'm not SUPER familiar with Seattle, but I'll be moving to that area soon. The girls' hometown is Snohomish, and then they live in Seattle (and NYC). The story was just incredible, and really emotional.
#17
Title: Daisy Miller
Author: Henry James
Pages: 59
Grade: B+
Reason: School
Summary: Book Description
"Daisy Miller" is Henry James's classic story of a young American woman who while traveling in Europe is courted by Frederick Winterbourne. Originally published in The Cornhill Magazine in 1878, "Daisy Miller" is a novel that plays upon the contrast between American and European society that is common to James's work. The title character's youthful innocence is sharply contrasted with the sophistication of European society in this fatefully tragic tale.
Review: My favorite thing about this book is all of the symbolism in it. It's great practice for someone trying to learn how to read symbolic literature. I liked Daisy a lot and hated Winterbourne and all of the stodgy expats. I have such a hard time with classic lit because women's rights at the time the books were written were so limited, and I just want to hate everyone who treats women as secondary.
#18
Title: Light of the Moon
Author: Luanne Rice
Pages: 386
Grade: A
Reason: Pleasure
Summary: Book Description
New York Times bestselling author Luanne Rice transports readers across the sea in this moving, magical tale of a lonely woman with a promise to keep. Set in a landscape of stunning natural beauty, Light of the Moon is a chronicle of mothers and daughters, friendship and family, and an electrifying love that illuminates a path through heartbreak and loss…and will shine in your memory long after the final page.
Spurred by her mother’s dying wish, Susannah Connolly has traveled from her lifelong home on the Connecticut shoreline to the fabled French Camargue, to see its famous white horses and find a mysterious saint linked to her family’s history. An accomplished anthropologist, Susannah has always been confident of her ability to navigate anywhere on the globe. But in the wake of a failed love affair and grieving the loss of her mother, she is adrift and uncertain, seeking only time alone to dig deeply into the personal archaeology of her own life.
American-born Grey Dempsey had come to the Camargue as a journalist, fell in love with a celebrated Romany rider, and suffered a devastating loss of his own. Now he operates a ranch as he struggles to raise his spirited but troubled young daughter who, after a terrible night years ago, fears the horses she once loved.
Within their bittersweet private orbit, in the midst of the endless silvered marshlands, Susannah Connolly will find a part of herself she hadn’t known she had lost. And here she will find herself embraced by a circle of strong and passionate women bound together by their abiding faith in the legendary slave-saint Susannah seeks and in the miracles she is said to still perform for those who believe. Yet old secrets swirl within the fog-shrouded landscape, betrayals that may be beyond the power of any saint, or supplicant, to repair.
Singular, lyrical, Light of the Moon is Luanne Rice at her most spell-binding, as she explores-as only she can-how sometimes to find your way home you must travel far away.
Summary: Another wonderful story. I loved the setting and all of the horses and riding. The love story was sweet and interesting, but the most important part for me was Sari's journey back into the real world. The ending was fantastic. =)
#19
Title: Fever 1793
Author: Laurie Halse Anderson
Pages: 251
Grade: A-
Reason: Pleasure
Summary: Amazon.com
On the heels of her acclaimed contemporary teen novel Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson surprises her fans with a riveting and well-researched historical fiction. Fever 1793 is based on an actual epidemic of yellow fever in Philadelphia that wiped out 5,000 people--or 10 percent of the city's population--in three months. At the close of the 18th century, Philadelphia was the bustling capital of the United States, with Washington and Jefferson in residence. During the hot mosquito-infested summer of 1793, the dreaded yellow fever spread like wildfire, killing people overnight. Like specters from the Middle Ages, gravediggers drew carts through the streets crying "Bring out your dead!" The rich fled to the country, abandoning the city to looters, forsaken corpses, and frightened survivors.
In the foreground of this story is 16-year-old Mattie Cook, whose mother and grandfather own a popular coffee house on High Street. Mattie's comfortable and interesting life is shattered by the epidemic, as her mother is felled and the girl and her grandfather must flee for their lives. Later, after much hardship and terror, they return to the deserted town to find their former cook, a freed slave, working with the African Free Society, an actual group who undertook to visit and assist the sick and saved many lives. As first frost arrives and the epidemic ends, Mattie's sufferings have changed her from a willful child to a strong, capable young woman able to manage her family's business on her own.
Review: For some sick reason, I've always liked reading books about plagues and epidemics. This book was really good for that! Anderson is a great writer, too, and the research done for this book was really thorough.
#20
Title: Knights of the Hill Country
Author: Tim Tharp
Pages: 233
Grade: B+
Reason: School
Summary: From Booklist
In the hill country of Oklahoma, where high-school football ranks "next to God and country, and truth be known, sometimes came in first," Hampton Green is a star linebacker of the Kennisaw Knights, and he feels the weight of carrying on his team's fifth undefeated season like "one hell of a big sack of rocks." Things are heavy at home, too, where he often finds his single mother with a new guy. Blaine is Hamp's teammate and best friend, but he doesn't understand Hamp's interest in Sara, whose wild hair and baggy clothes separate her from the football players' girlfriends. Tharp's debut novel is a sensitive portrait of small-town life and a young athlete's growing awareness that he is more than just the sport he plays so well. Taut scenes on the football field and the dilemmas about choosing what feels right over what's expected are all made memorable by Hamp's unforgettable, colloquial voice, which speaks about feelings and football with the same unwavering, fully realized personality. A moving, sensitive debut from a writer to watch.
Review: When I first started reading, I didn't think I was going to like this book. I thought it was all about football, told from the perspective of someone who speaks with pretty bad English. I loved the book, though. It brings up a lot of themes of loyalty, such as what loyalty really means, and about being true to yourself. Hampton is a really likeable character, and he grows so much throughout the short novel.
#21
Title: Oliver Twist
Author: Charles Dickens
Pages: 480
Grade: B+
Reason: School
Summary: From Library Journal
Oliver Twist was Dickens's second novel and one of his darkest, dealing with burglary, kidnapping, child abuse, prostitution, and murder. Alongside this gallery of horrors are the corrupt and incompetent institutions of 19th-century England set up to address social problems and instead making them worse. The author's moral indignation drives the creation of some of his most memorably grotesque characters: squirming, vile Fagin; brutal Bill Sykes; the brooding, sickly Monks; and Bumble, the pompous and incorrigibly dense beadle.
Review: Oliver is such a lovable character. I really like the way Dickens writes, in a humorous and fairly easy to read way. This book had a very interesting story with a good amount of suspense and outrageous characters. Highly recommended to anyone who'd like to read more classic lit. =)
Next:
For Brit Lit: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
For American Lit: Joaquin Murieta by John Rollin Ridge, followed by Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain.
For Young Adult Lit: A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly, and Becoming Naomi Leon by Pam Munoz Ryan.
For Pleasure: Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella
Title: Firefly Lane
Author: Kristin Hannah
Pages: 481
Grade: A+
Reason: Pleasure
Summary: Book Description
From the New York Times bestselling author of On Mystic Lake comes a powerful novel of love, loss, and the magic of friendship. . . .
In the turbulent summer of 1974, Kate Mularkey has accepted her place at the bottom of the eighth-grade social food chain. Then, to her amazement, the “coolest girl in the world” moves in across the street and wants to be her friend. Tully Hart seems to have it all---beauty, brains, ambition. On the surface they are as opposite as two people can be: Kate, doomed to be forever uncool, with a loving family who mortifies her at every turn. Tully, steeped in glamour and mystery, but with a secret that is destroying her. They make a pact to be best friends forever; by summer’s end they’ve become TullyandKate. Inseparable.
So begins Kristin Hannah’s magnificent new novel. Spanning more than three decades and playing out across the ever-changing face of the Pacific Northwest, Firefly Lane is the poignant, powerful story of two women and the friendship that becomes the bulkhead of their lives.
From the beginning, Tully is desperate to prove her worth to the world. Abandoned by her mother at an early age, she longs to be loved unconditionally. In the glittering, big-hair era of the eighties, she looks to men to fill the void in her soul. But in the buttoned-down nineties, it is television news that captivates her. She will follow her own blind ambition to New York and around the globe, finding fame and success . . . and loneliness.
Kate knows early on that her life will be nothing special. Throughout college, she pretends to be driven by a need for success, but all she really wants is to fall in love and have children and live an ordinary life. In her own quiet way, Kate is as driven as Tully. What she doesn’t know is how being a wife and mother will change her . . . how she’ll lose sight of who she once was, and what she once wanted. And how much she’ll envy her famous best friend. . . .
For thirty years, Tully and Kate buoy each other through life, weathering the storms of friendship---jealousy, anger, hurt, resentment. They think they’ve survived it all until a single act of betrayal tears them apart . . . and puts their courage and friendship to the ultimate test.
Firefly Lane is for anyone who ever drank Boone’s Farm apple wine while listening to Abba or Fleetwood Mac. More than a coming-of-age novel, it’s the story of a generation of women who were both blessed and cursed by choices. It’s about promises and secrets and betrayals. And ultimately, about the one person who really, truly knows you---and knows what has the power to hurt you . . . and heal you. Firefly Lane is a story you’ll never forget . . . one you’ll want to pass on to your best friend.
Review: I LOVED this book. I've been waiting two years for Hannah to put out something new, and she really did it with this one. I love that she's a Northwest writer...I'm not SUPER familiar with Seattle, but I'll be moving to that area soon. The girls' hometown is Snohomish, and then they live in Seattle (and NYC). The story was just incredible, and really emotional.
#17
Title: Daisy Miller
Author: Henry James
Pages: 59
Grade: B+
Reason: School
Summary: Book Description
"Daisy Miller" is Henry James's classic story of a young American woman who while traveling in Europe is courted by Frederick Winterbourne. Originally published in The Cornhill Magazine in 1878, "Daisy Miller" is a novel that plays upon the contrast between American and European society that is common to James's work. The title character's youthful innocence is sharply contrasted with the sophistication of European society in this fatefully tragic tale.
Review: My favorite thing about this book is all of the symbolism in it. It's great practice for someone trying to learn how to read symbolic literature. I liked Daisy a lot and hated Winterbourne and all of the stodgy expats. I have such a hard time with classic lit because women's rights at the time the books were written were so limited, and I just want to hate everyone who treats women as secondary.
#18
Title: Light of the Moon
Author: Luanne Rice
Pages: 386
Grade: A
Reason: Pleasure
Summary: Book Description
New York Times bestselling author Luanne Rice transports readers across the sea in this moving, magical tale of a lonely woman with a promise to keep. Set in a landscape of stunning natural beauty, Light of the Moon is a chronicle of mothers and daughters, friendship and family, and an electrifying love that illuminates a path through heartbreak and loss…and will shine in your memory long after the final page.
Spurred by her mother’s dying wish, Susannah Connolly has traveled from her lifelong home on the Connecticut shoreline to the fabled French Camargue, to see its famous white horses and find a mysterious saint linked to her family’s history. An accomplished anthropologist, Susannah has always been confident of her ability to navigate anywhere on the globe. But in the wake of a failed love affair and grieving the loss of her mother, she is adrift and uncertain, seeking only time alone to dig deeply into the personal archaeology of her own life.
American-born Grey Dempsey had come to the Camargue as a journalist, fell in love with a celebrated Romany rider, and suffered a devastating loss of his own. Now he operates a ranch as he struggles to raise his spirited but troubled young daughter who, after a terrible night years ago, fears the horses she once loved.
Within their bittersweet private orbit, in the midst of the endless silvered marshlands, Susannah Connolly will find a part of herself she hadn’t known she had lost. And here she will find herself embraced by a circle of strong and passionate women bound together by their abiding faith in the legendary slave-saint Susannah seeks and in the miracles she is said to still perform for those who believe. Yet old secrets swirl within the fog-shrouded landscape, betrayals that may be beyond the power of any saint, or supplicant, to repair.
Singular, lyrical, Light of the Moon is Luanne Rice at her most spell-binding, as she explores-as only she can-how sometimes to find your way home you must travel far away.
Summary: Another wonderful story. I loved the setting and all of the horses and riding. The love story was sweet and interesting, but the most important part for me was Sari's journey back into the real world. The ending was fantastic. =)
#19
Title: Fever 1793
Author: Laurie Halse Anderson
Pages: 251
Grade: A-
Reason: Pleasure
Summary: Amazon.com
On the heels of her acclaimed contemporary teen novel Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson surprises her fans with a riveting and well-researched historical fiction. Fever 1793 is based on an actual epidemic of yellow fever in Philadelphia that wiped out 5,000 people--or 10 percent of the city's population--in three months. At the close of the 18th century, Philadelphia was the bustling capital of the United States, with Washington and Jefferson in residence. During the hot mosquito-infested summer of 1793, the dreaded yellow fever spread like wildfire, killing people overnight. Like specters from the Middle Ages, gravediggers drew carts through the streets crying "Bring out your dead!" The rich fled to the country, abandoning the city to looters, forsaken corpses, and frightened survivors.
In the foreground of this story is 16-year-old Mattie Cook, whose mother and grandfather own a popular coffee house on High Street. Mattie's comfortable and interesting life is shattered by the epidemic, as her mother is felled and the girl and her grandfather must flee for their lives. Later, after much hardship and terror, they return to the deserted town to find their former cook, a freed slave, working with the African Free Society, an actual group who undertook to visit and assist the sick and saved many lives. As first frost arrives and the epidemic ends, Mattie's sufferings have changed her from a willful child to a strong, capable young woman able to manage her family's business on her own.
Review: For some sick reason, I've always liked reading books about plagues and epidemics. This book was really good for that! Anderson is a great writer, too, and the research done for this book was really thorough.
#20
Title: Knights of the Hill Country
Author: Tim Tharp
Pages: 233
Grade: B+
Reason: School
Summary: From Booklist
In the hill country of Oklahoma, where high-school football ranks "next to God and country, and truth be known, sometimes came in first," Hampton Green is a star linebacker of the Kennisaw Knights, and he feels the weight of carrying on his team's fifth undefeated season like "one hell of a big sack of rocks." Things are heavy at home, too, where he often finds his single mother with a new guy. Blaine is Hamp's teammate and best friend, but he doesn't understand Hamp's interest in Sara, whose wild hair and baggy clothes separate her from the football players' girlfriends. Tharp's debut novel is a sensitive portrait of small-town life and a young athlete's growing awareness that he is more than just the sport he plays so well. Taut scenes on the football field and the dilemmas about choosing what feels right over what's expected are all made memorable by Hamp's unforgettable, colloquial voice, which speaks about feelings and football with the same unwavering, fully realized personality. A moving, sensitive debut from a writer to watch.
Review: When I first started reading, I didn't think I was going to like this book. I thought it was all about football, told from the perspective of someone who speaks with pretty bad English. I loved the book, though. It brings up a lot of themes of loyalty, such as what loyalty really means, and about being true to yourself. Hampton is a really likeable character, and he grows so much throughout the short novel.
#21
Title: Oliver Twist
Author: Charles Dickens
Pages: 480
Grade: B+
Reason: School
Summary: From Library Journal
Oliver Twist was Dickens's second novel and one of his darkest, dealing with burglary, kidnapping, child abuse, prostitution, and murder. Alongside this gallery of horrors are the corrupt and incompetent institutions of 19th-century England set up to address social problems and instead making them worse. The author's moral indignation drives the creation of some of his most memorably grotesque characters: squirming, vile Fagin; brutal Bill Sykes; the brooding, sickly Monks; and Bumble, the pompous and incorrigibly dense beadle.
Review: Oliver is such a lovable character. I really like the way Dickens writes, in a humorous and fairly easy to read way. This book had a very interesting story with a good amount of suspense and outrageous characters. Highly recommended to anyone who'd like to read more classic lit. =)
Next:
For Brit Lit: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
For American Lit: Joaquin Murieta by John Rollin Ridge, followed by Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain.
For Young Adult Lit: A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly, and Becoming Naomi Leon by Pam Munoz Ryan.
For Pleasure: Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella