Reading List 2009

In 2009, we read 10 books, all with ratings between 3.1 and 4.7, so no real duds. Here's the list in order from low to high:

Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet   3.1
The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti   3.2
Saving Fish from Drowning by Amy Tan   3.3
North River by Pete Hamill   3.5
Run by Ann Patchett   3.5
The Ghost by Robert Harris   3.6
Beach House by Jane Green   3.6
People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks   3.8
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski   4.0
Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett   4.7

My personal favorites here were Pillars... (much longer than most we take on!) and People of.... which fascinated me. I found them both to be "page turners"! I have no idea how Edgar... ended up in second place as it is probably my least favored of this list, and maybe ALL our lists! (Too "doggy" for me!). I remember liking the other books but don't really remember characters and plots that well. Born on a Blue Day is the only nonfiction of the year, a memoir written by the author and quite memorable and worthwhile because we learned a great deal which was indicated by the subtitle, Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant.
Some of us went to see the movie based on The Ghost and found it suspenseful and pretty true to the novel.

The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs---October, 2012

Our Page Turners group gave The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs a 4.5 out of 5. Most of us in the group thought it was hilarious in many parts and thought-provoking in others. The majority of our members are Christians but none seemed to be offended by the premise or the silly results of applying the commands of the Bible literally. At least one person thought it was too silly and did not finish. Another did not find it all that well-written but most of us loved it, rating it 4 or 5. Some of the members said it made them laugh out loud and more than one made someone else listen to portions of it. We did agree that more conservative Christians might not find quite so much humor.

I found a discussion guide and a very interesting Q and A with the author regarding the book at the following site:
http://www.ajjacobs.com/books/yolb.asp?id=guide

We generally take turns providing refreshments for the group and occasionally we try to fit the food or drink to the theme of the book. I made "scripture cake" for this meeting---what could be more perfect? This is sort of a fruity, spicey cake with figs, almonds, raisins, cinnamon and other spices. Tasty but a little labor-intensive. The recipe gives scriptures that mention ingredients and you are meant to look them up in the Bible. There are several variations of the recipe: just Google Bible Cake or Scripture Cake.  I used one with a "cheat sheet"!  We had grape juice to drink---wine would have been better but we meet in the church at 10 in the morning, for goodness sake!

A few in the group had heard about a related book: A Year of Biblical Womanhood: How a Liberated Woman Found Herself Sitting on Her Roof, Covering Her Head, and Calling Her Husband Master by Rachel Held Evans. Some of us saw the author on the "Today" show but one brought an article from Sojourners, November, 2012. An interview with the author informs us that Ms. Evans had read Mr. Jacobs'  book about living Biblically and was taken with the idea of how different it would be from a woman's perspective. Apparently Ms. Evans is a Christian, as opposed to A.J. Jacobs self-description, a "reverent agnostic." I am going to read this one. I wonder if others in our group will, too.

Reading List 2008

Our Park Lake Page Turners began in January of 2008 so I am WAY behind in starting a blog! I think I will use this first post to blitz through that first year. Here are the books we chose in the order we rated them, least favorite first:

• The Manny by Holly Peterson  1.8
• Thirteen Moons by Charles Frazier  2.5
• Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert   2.8
• Rise and Shine by Anna Quindlen  2.8
• Sister Mine by Tawni O'Dell  3.3
• Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult  3.5
• Whitethorn Woods by Maeve Binchy  3.5
• The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards  3.6
• The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian  3.7
• Marley and Me by John Grogan  4.0
• Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen  4.8

If memory serves me (it doesn't always these days!), we started the year with Water... and loved it so much---nothing else came close to measuring up!
Eat, Pray... was one we didn't much care for because we thought the main character was too self-absorbed. Later on some us saw the movie and decided we liked it better and enjoyed Julia Roberts as Elizabeth.
Though we didn't love Thirteen... most of us were glad we read it. We learned a lot about the Cherokees.
The Double... was interesting, kept referring to or mirroring The Great Gatsby which most of us could not remember. We thought perhaps we should read the latter and then reread Bohjalian's book. We actually did read The Great Gatsby in 2011. Wonder if any of us reread The Double....---I know I didn't.
Marley... was just a fun read, hilarious in parts!
The Memory Keeper's... had a gripping plot but a rather dark subject.
The others were not very memorable except The Manny and that's because we still use it as a standard for a bad book!