November & December Picks

Last night GAB met to discuss The Shining...I'll blog about that in a bit. After our discussion we decided to choose 2 books (which seemed like a daunting task because for the past 2 months it has taken us at LEAST an hour to chose our next pick), one for November and one for December. Surprisingly we found 2 after only 1 trip around Borders!



For November we will be reading Valley of the Dolls. One thing is for sure, being in this Book Club is making me read more variety than I would normally read on my own!! We opted for a "light read" for November because our December pick will take us a few weeks to get through. Here's the synopsis for Valley of the Dolls.

Dolls: red or black, capsules or tablets; washed down with vodka or swallowed straight-for Anne, Neeley and Jennifer, it doesn't matter, as long as the pill bottle is within easy reach. These three women become best friends when they are young and struggling in New York City and then climb to the top of the entertainment industry-only to find that there's no place left to go but down-into the Valley of the Dolls.

I've been longing for us to choose a classic, so here we go, Valley of the Dolls is "The All-Time Pop Culture Classic"!!

We opted to choose 2 books last night because when we meet in December it will be for dinner and a Secret Santa gift exchange. We knew we wouldn't be at Borders with millions of books to help us make our decision...so last night we settled on The Pillars of the Earth as our December pick. Here's a synopsis of Pillars:

The novel The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett was a historic novel set during the 12th century. It centered on the lives of several people from different section of society and how the turbulent times of the English Civil War were affecting their lives. The book also concerns the building of the Kings bridge Cathedral and the murder of Thomas Becket. (For some reason this is the best synopsis I could find...)

There you have it. These 2 books will round out GAB's book selections for 2009. It's been a fun first year and we're looking forward to more fun in 2010!!

What The Dead Know

We at GAB have read chick-lit, we've read light hearted mysteries, we've read feel-good, friendship books, we've read political novels and even one that would fall under the adult best seller list.

This month we're going to embark on something darker than anything we've read. Here's a brief synopsis of What the Dead Know:

Thirty years ago, the Bethany girls, ages eleven and fifteen, disappeared from a Baltimore shopping mall. They never returned, their bodies were never discovered, and only painful questions remain. Now in the aftermath of a rush-hour hit-and-run accident, a clearly disoriented woman is claiming to be Heather, the younger Bethany sister. Not s shred of evidence supports her story, and every lead she reluctantly offers takes the police to another dead end - a dying, incoherent man; a razed house; a missing grave. But she definitely knows something about that terrible day - and about the shocking fissures that the tragedy exposed in the foundation of a seemingly solid family.

Hardesty Regional Library just notified me that my copy is ready for pick-up...I'll be heading there within the hour!

May's Book of the Month

After 2 months our book club met again tonight! We did something a little different tonight. Usually we meet at Bona and discuss our book over a cup of coffee. Tonight we met at Borders and chose our book from the store shelves. We got our drinks and discussed American Wife then we perused the "Borders Book Club", "New Release" and "Top Picks" sections of the store. We returned to our table with about 15 books to choose from. We then pulled out our phones and started reading reviews of the books we were considering. Finally we chose Love Walked In by Marisa De Los Santos. One of the reviews of this book said it was "a chic-lit with a little more meat." We are meeting again in 3 weeks due to Memorial Day and End-of-the-Year events with our kids, we needed something short and easy to read.

Now to address the picture...that's our book of the month along with the great Thirty-One bag we all got...yes, we're book club nerds. :-) They actually are really cute.

Here's what Love Walked In is about:

When Martin Grace enters the hip Philadelphia coffee shop Cornelia Brown manages, her life changes forever. But little does she know that her newfound love is only the harbinger of greater changes to come. Meanwhile, across town, Clare Hobbs-eleven years old and abandoned by her erratic mother-goes looking for her lost father. She crosses paths with Cornelia while meeting with him at the cafe, and the two form an improbable friendship that carries them through the unpredictable currents of love and life. Invoking classic movies to illuminate the mystery and wonder of love in all its permutations. LOVE WALKED IN is an uplifting debut that marks the entrance of an enchanting literary voice.

Belong to Me is the next book that follows these characters...GAB will most likely read that too, but for May we're embarking on a love story starting out in a 20th century icon...a coffee shop.

GAB's Book of the Month for April is...

American Wife...

It was my (Whitney) month to choose a book for us to read and I chose American Wife. I'm easily influenced by advertisements so after seeing American Wife on a few book lists as well as on Amazon I knew it would be the book I would chose when my turn came around. Here's a brief synopsis of the book:

A kind, bookish only child born in the 1940s, Alice Lindgren has no idea that she will one day end up in the White House, married to the president. In her small Wisconsin hometown she learns the virtues of politeness, but a tragic accident when she is seventeen shatters her identity and changes the trajectory of her life. More than a decade later, when the charismatic son of a powerful Republican family sweeps her off her feet, she is surprised to find herself admitted into a world of privilege. And when her husband unexpectedly becomes governor and then president, she discovers that she is married to a man she both loves and fundamentally disagrees with-and that her private beliefs increasingly run against her public persona. As her husband's presidency enters its second term, Alice must confront contradictions years in the making and face questions nearly impossible to answer.

Happy Reading!!
Whitney