What the Dead Know...Review

In 4 words...DON'T READ THIS BOOK! 'Nuff said.

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!

These Past Couple Months...Whitney's Reviews

I was completely surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. I love mysteries, but was a little leery of one written from an 11 year old's perspective. BUT, she was so eleoquent that I forgot all about her age in the first chapter.

Between her outstanding detective skills and her keen mind for chemistry I fell in love with young Flavia de Luce! I can't wait to see what kind of journey she and ALan Beadley will take me on next time!

In July GAB read Firefly Lane. It was a great book about a 30 year friendship. Nothing extremely devestating or exciting happened throughout most of the book (However, I did find myself laughing out loud and wiping away a tear on more than a few occassions). It was just a well written story about 2 girls, their friendship and their lives (together and apart). Scenarios the "could" happen kept popping into my head as I read, but Kristen Hannah did a fabulous job of keeping her characters consistent. To date, this is my favorite book we have read!

Was it Worth It??

Yesterday I worked at Scholastic's Semi-Annual Warehouse Clearance Sale. I had been looking forward to it ALL week, until Saturday morning. I was scheduled to work from 12pm until 6pm that day. I'd had a crazy busy week and just was not looking forward to being at this sale for 6 hours. But, I went because I said I'd be there and I wasn't going to cancel the day of.

Things were a little awkward when I was there because it was obvious that other 6 workers knew each other and worked year after year together. At first time went by REALLY slow! But a few people I knew came to shop and I had people to talk to!

I knew that I would get $10/hour in books for working, but I kept asking myself, "Is this worth it?" Well, here are the titles I walked away with:

1. The Bobbsey Twins Ready to Read

2. A Very Special Snowflake

3. Little Miss Star

4. What Do You Call A Rhyming Riddle?

5. Firebears The Rescue Team

6. Bodies: Peel Back the Layers from the Outside In!

7. Highschool Musical 3 Picture Book

8. United States of America Jigsaw Book

9. Baby Mouse Queen of the World

10. Roscoe Riley Rules #1

11. The Magic Tree House: Dragon of the Red Dawn

12. Amazon Fever

13. Star Wars Last of the Jedi

14. Magic Tree House Reswarch Guide: Penguins and Antarctica

15. Ashes of Roses by Mary Jane Auch

16. The Foreshadowing by Marcus Sedgwick

17. Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse

18. Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi

19. Gregor the Overlander

20. Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

21. Inkspell by Cornelia Funke

That's $120 worth of books that I got for FREE...well, actually for $60 of Scholastic credit (everything was at LEAST 50% off) for working from 12pm-6pm. So back to my original question...Was it worth it?...yes, yes indeed it was!

New Beginning Hesitations

I might be weird and this might sound completely absurd, but I'm going to share anyway...

If I'm going to spend time reading a book I want to make sure it's worth my while. I'm a busy mom with 3 kids, a part-time job and I hold a position on the Exec board at my boy's school...so when I read I don't want it to be a waste of time. I'm always fairly certain the book I'm about to read will be good. But there's always that "period" at the beginning of each book I read that I question my decision to read that particular book. VERY few books have hooked me within the first few pages. Twilight and An Offer You Can't Refuse were two books that had be from the beginning. Sadly, The Sorcerer's Stone took me 2 tries and encouragement from a dear friend (Thanks Lisa) before I made it through.

So what's it like for you...aside from Book Club picks, when you read a book are you hooked immediately, because after all, it was your choice to read the book? Or are you a bit skeptical when beginning something new. It's fine if I'm the only weird one...I'm content with my quirkiness. :-)

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.

American Wife-Whitney's Review

I DID IT! I made it ALL the way through the 555 pages of this book JUST in time for Book Club! There was a period of time when this task seemed pretty daunting! I've learned my lesson about choosing a book without seeing it in person. It was long, but I'm glad I've read it.

I'm going to state up front that I'm weird about the books I read...I tend to judge books by their covers...and I prefer books to be broken up into chapters. American Wife was NOT broken up into chapters. It was broken up into 4 parts. There were "natural breaks" within these parts, but I look forward to the close of a chapter and the start of another. That threw me off a bit at first.

Okay, enough about my weirdness...on to American Wife. This book covered a longer time span than I thought it was going to. It starts when Alice is a child and ends when she's in her fifty's. We learn a lot about Alice and who she is in the first part of the book. There's also a tragedy that takes place in the first part. This tragedy becomes a huge part of who Alice is...things happen because of this event that wouldn't have happened otherwise. In the second part of the book Alice meets Charlie...her husband who becomes Governor then President of the United States. For me the second and third parts of this book were the peaks of the book...the fourth part is pretty anti-climatic. But, that was because of my expectations. I expected this book to start with Alice and Charlie already together then focus on his campaign trail and move right into him becoming President and Alice becoming the First Lady. I just thought Sittenfield would spend most of the book with Alice and Charlie in the White House...I was disappointed to find that the highlights of the book took place in the second and third parts.

Even though I expected something different I am glad I read the book. I like a lot of conversation in my books and this one did not have much conversation, rather A LOT of description. There were parts that I skimmed to get to the next event.

What I did love about this book is that Curtis Sittenfield described Alice and who she was and that character never wavered. Alice stayed true to herself and I found myself respecting her.

This book won't make it to my "Would Read Again" list, but I'm happy to have it on my "have read list".