My Year with Eleanor

[November 2012]

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My Year with Eleanor, Noelle Hancock

number of voters: 7

percentage of voters who finished the book: 100

highest rating: 9

lowest rating: 7.4

average rating: 8.09

*****

My Week with Noelle

I was astounded at the amount of sheer wussiness before me. —Noelle Hancock

Imagine lying on a beach in Aruba, on holiday from your job writing juicy blog posts covering the latest celebrity gossip. Your successful, faithful, and gorgeous boyfriend (“in possession of all his hair”) lounges by your side. Life. Is. Perfect.

Until the phone rings, and you learn you have been downsized.

It can be charming if you don’t have your life together in your twenties, but when people find out you don’t have some sort of direction by your thirties, they’re a little embarrassed for you. —Noelle Hancock

You are (relatively) unskilled and (completely) unemployed. After a few weeks of drowning your sorrows in liquor and/or coffee, you tell yourself it’s okay, that you’ve got a new lease on life, the world is your oyster. But the truth is you are (utterly, desperately, pathetically, embarrassingly) afraid.

I was stuck in one of those trances where it appears some invisible hand has smeared itself over your world. —Noelle Hancock

As the weeks go by, that blank sheet of future is as blank as ever, the coffee shops are all beginning to look the same, and the economy has just shed another 80,000 jobs. But surprisingly, your life is about to be saved by none other than Eleanor Roosevelt…or at least a famous quote of Eleanor Roosevelt’s, scrawled on a blackboard in pink chalk:

“Do one thing every day that scares you.” —Eleanor Roosevelt

And so you do. One scary thing. Every day. With Eleanor as your guide you tackle 365 fears—from the mundane (speaking up for yourself more) to the grandiose (shark diving, climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro).

“Do the things that interest you and do them with all your heart.” —Eleanor Roosevelt

And you write a book about it. And you become a different person than the one you were before.

I will never take any of you for granted again! —Noelle Hancock

And your readers learn so much more about Eleanor Roosevelt.

“I was so impressed by what Eleanor Roosevelt did—how her life was a fantastic example of finding perseverance.” —Angela

And your readers are inspired to conquer their own fears.

“It was like free therapy!” —Megan

And a group of women—some who have known each for years—learn that they are not just a book club… They are a group of women doing with all their hearts what interests them.

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Me Talk Pretty One Day

[September 2012]

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Me Talk Pretty One Day, David Sedaris

number of voters: 6

percentage of voters who finished the book: 100

highest rating: 8

lowest rating: 5

average rating: 6.92

*****

There are a limited number of people in the world who could pull off Me Talk Pretty One Day, an autobiographical selection of short stories that straddles topics from the devastating lows of drug addiction to the social humiliation of a turd that refuses flushing.

David Sedaris has so much Voice with a capital V that your life feels—without a hint of jealousy—wholly unremarkable in comparison. The book unfolds in chaotic bursts of nearly-normal-No-wait-this-isn’t-normal-at-all stories. It all feels larger than life and yet somehow almost completely ordinary. (You may have taken a French class, but it was never as interesting or comical. Your father may have had a nickname, but nothing as quirky as “The Rooster,” who refers to himself in the third person. You possibly have created a work of art at some point in your life, but—guaranteed—it was not a performance piece in which you heated up a skillet of plastic soldiers and poured a milkshake over your head.)

Reasons you might like this book: It is authentic, hilarious, remarkable. It is about a not-so-average average guy whose life is sometimes messy and messed up but maybe no more than you, the average reader.

Reasons you might not like this book: It is visceral, shattering, unpleasant. It is about a once drug-addicted, often messed up not-so-average average guy whose life is often well-intentioned and rarely in one piece but maybe no more than you, the messed-up reader.

Like it or not, you won’t read anything else quite like a David Sedaris book. Guaranteed.

(Milkshake not included.)

Saving CeeCee Honeycutt

[July 2012]

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Saving CeeCee Honeycutt, Beth Hoffman

number of voters: 6

percentage of voters who finished the book: 100

highest rating: 8.5

lowest rating: 6

average rating: 7.167

*****

Early on in Saving CeeCee Honeycutt, twelve-year-old Cecelia describes a moment with her mentally ill mother in this way:

“We whirled through the living room, into the dining room, and around the table. Right in the middle of a spin, Momma abruptly stopped….”

That one moment symbolizes life for CeeCee from that moment on. Momma stops—run over by an ice cream truck—but CeeCee keeps right on spinning, through a whirlwind of eccentric characters, bizarre situations, and Southern charm.

Bewildered and bemused, heartbroken and confused, CeeCee is both the observer and observed. Her life becomes a parade of events: She buries her mother, is whisked away to Georgia by a long-lost aunt, commits (in her own mind, at least) an assault by garden slug, becomes a confidante to her housekeeper, and on and on it goes.

The book unfolds like a set of short stories, dreamlike, sometimes nightmarish, but always completely, unmistakably, quintessentially Southern. A fine summer read to take you for a spin when the world around you has stopped.

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House Rules

[June 2012]

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House Rules, Jodi Picoult

number of voters: 4

percentage of voters who finished the book: 100

highest rating: 6.75

lowest rating: 4

average rating: 5.6875

*****

The Case of the Disappointed Book Club

In September of 2003, the First Monday Reading Group was formed. They met monthly, discussing and rating one book per month. The group was a success. By December of 2005, they had read 22 books, but not one of the books had ever received that elusive perfect rating—a 10.

Then, that December, came a book by Jodi Picoult titled My Sister’s Keeper. The book was a hit. It received not only the first individual rating of 10 but also the highest average rating (8.49) of any book that had come before it.

Years passed, the group became the Final Monday Reading Group, and in 2012 they decided to read another Jodi Picoult book, House Rules. It was to be the group’s 96th book. Many of the earlier group member’s had moved away or had their time occupied by other interests and responsibilities. But expectations were still piqued by the return of a Picoult title.

Those expectations would be dashed, severely. House Rules, they discovered, was exactly like every other Piccoult story: controversial topic + young love + courtroom drama + unconventional ending = bestseller.

One might argue that what some people call formula others call style or genre or niche. One might argue that the formula is the reason Picoult’s books are bestsellers. One might argue that our expectations were too high. One might argue that, yes, Picoult did indeed need every single one of those when-will-it-ever-end five hundred and sixty pages.

If that is the argument you want to make, a Jodi Picoult book is just the book for you. But if you ask the Final Monday Reading Group, we recommend that Jodi Picoult book be My Sister’s Keeper.

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The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

[May 2012]

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The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, Alan Bradley

number of voters: 8

percentage of voters who finished the book: 100

highest rating: 9

lowest rating: 6.5

average rating: 7.875

*****

She could have gagged and bound us as we walked through the door. She might have offered us parting gifts of poisoned lipstick. Thankfully Rachelia de Livre chose a chemistry display.

We met at Thurston-on-McKenzie on what could have been a dark and stormy night but was instead a balmy spring evening. Rachelia had prepared for us a reader’s delight of book-inspired décor and hors d’oeuvres. And on the discussion table sat a plate of The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie.

We ate it up. Nearly every last bit of it. We relished the quirky heroine. We delighted in the descriptions and word choices. We savored the twists of plot and turns of character.

If anything left a bitter taste in our mouths, it may have been the heroine’s young age, the too-frightening conclusion, or the unbelievability of it all. But another bite of the sweetness was enough to balance the sour.

Yes, this was a dish best served in the summer, and we were glad to have partaken. Will we have another helping of The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie? Sometimes the flavor in your mouth is just enough, and a second helping might only serve to ruin both your enjoyment and appetite. But we might just take that chance.

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Just for funsies, here are some other covers for this title (international and other editions):

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

[April 2012]

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A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers

number of voters: 4

percentage of voters who finished the book: 100

highest rating: 10

lowest rating: 9

average rating: 9.5

*****

Look at us! We are young! We read books! Not just any books. We read literature. We read postmodern literature. We read Pulitzer Prize–nominated postmodern literature.

And we love it. We love it so much that we take notes.

This book is big and tragic and rambling and brave and irreverent. And so original that you’ll be forgiven if sometimes you don’t understand, like, could someone actually hide the Statue of Liberty? is it really possible to hear Clinton’s semicolons? and what does any of this have to do with the plot anyways?

Ah, yes! The plot!

[INSERT PLOT SUMMARY HERE.] No, I won’t do it. [WHY NOT?] Because the plot is not relevent to this recap. [OF COURSE IT’S RELEVANT; IT’S THE PLOT!] But you don’t need to know the plot to know what we thought of the book. [BUT PEOPLE NEED TO KNOW THE PLOT TO KNOW IF THEY WANT TO READ THE BOOK.] But knowing the plot might also make some people NOT want to read the book. [NOW YOU’VE MADE EVERYONE CURIOUS AND YOU’LL HAVE TO REVEAL THE PLOT!] Okay, fine. The plot is:

Heartbreaking.

[CHEATER.]

Yes, heartbreaking. But also funny. Like, laughing-so-hard-you’re-crying funny. And highly informative… that is, if you’ve ever wanted to:

1. Start a magazine;
2. Audition for MTV’s The Real World; and/or
3. Sprinkle your deceased loved one’s ashes in a way that makes you look neither ridiculous nor tactless.

Then there is the writing. Did I mention rambling? It’s rambling. Stream of consciousness. Kind of like you are actually thinking the author’s thoughts yourself. At times a little long-winded, too introspective. But it is so real it bleeds. (You can actually feel its pulse.)

Listen, here’s all you need to know: It is heartbreaking; It is staggering; Yes, it is genius.

Still think you need to know the plot? Here is a drawing of a stapler:

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Somewhere Inside

[March 2012]

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Somewhere Inside, Laura Ling and Lisa Ling

number of voters: 3

percentage of voters who finished the book: 100

highest rating: 7.5

lowest rating: 6.75

average rating: 7.083

*****

The title says it all: Somewhere Inside: One Sister’s Captivity in North Korea and the Other’s Fight to Bring Her Home.

Journalists Lisa and Laura Ling offer a competent, back-and-forth account of Laura’s detainment in North Korea and Lisa’s tireless efforts to rescue her sister. But while the story is interesting and the writers capable, overall the book leaves something to be desired—mainly, any sort of understanding of North Korea and the real danger Laura Ling was in.

We are told that the sisters feared for Laura’s life, that North Korea is an awful place to be imprisoned. But, by her own description, Laura is kept in fairly tolerable conditions, treated respectfully, and allowed regular care packages from home. While that doesn’t diminish any misery she might have endured, more explanation on North Korea itself might have helped the reader understand her terror.

What the book does well is offer a glimpse into the inner workings of international relations, particularly interesting when leaders from those nations will not communicate with each other directly. Good reading for a poli-sci major, perhaps, or an especially political average citizen.

There is one issue that the Lings completely overlook. As readers we are constantly reminded of the sisters well-connectedness, yet it barely occurs to them that were it not for their social and political class they might very well be still fighting for Laura’s release. It’s an unfortunate point to overlook when the authors so freely denounce the classism of North Korea.

Ultimately this is a book about the separation of two sisters and the diplomatic posturing of two nations. It holds your attention long enough to read through to the conflict’s resolution.

{Author’s note: It’s a delicate thing to review a book about real, traumatizing events without running the risk of diminishing the trauma itself. The author respectfully recognizes the ordeal the Ling sisters endured and would like to be clear that this article is no more than a review of the book itself.}

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One Day

[February 2012]

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One Day, David Nicholls

number of voters: 5

% of voters who finished the book: 83

highest rating: 9

lowest rating: 5

average rating: 5.21

*****

Stepping over the beer bottles on the floor, we greeted each other like the old friends that we are. Some of us have known each other for years, after all, meeting at the same time each and every month. I guess the only difference between us and the characters in the books we read is… well, I suppose that depends on that month’s book. But let’s take this book, for example — One Day, by David Nicholls.

I’d like to think we’re more likable than these characters. And that we make better choices. (I hope.) What’s normal for Dexter and Emma — failed relationships, drug addiction, a whole slew of missed opportunities — is certainly not normal for us. It isn’t that the characters aren’t interesting, but whether they are likable or relatable is up for debate.

The concept of the book was interesting… visiting the main characters on the same day each year for twenty years. But even with only twenty days to work with the author could get long-winded.

Okay, so I guess we aren’t anything like the characters in One Day. But we DO meet every month! And we DO have our sad times, like when we lose a member (thankfully just to Texas and not to tragic death! We’ll miss you Joanna!). And we DO have our good times, like when we celebrate a new birth (welcome, Charles!).

And for the record, the beer bottles were decoration only, for ambiance, to complement the theme of the book. ’Cause that’s just how awesome we are. Somebody oughta write a book about us.

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The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

[December 2011]

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The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

number of voters: 8

percentage of voters who finished the book: 100

highest rating: 10

lowest rating: 8.25

average rating: 8.99

*****

Dear friend,

   I do hope this letter finds you in the best of health and surrounded by both treasured friends and treasured books. It is to these precise subjects that I find myself writing to you.

   Chance has brought to me the loveliest of books, and I am compelled to send you a copy for your very own. I am confident that you will want to make a place for it on your bookshelf.

   You see, there exists a fictional little world on the very real island of Guernsey in the English Channel. Authors Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows have imagined a cast of characters so rich and entertaining that one wishes they were real people with whom one could travel to Guernsey and visit.

   Not only are the characters rich, the story itself is rich in its own right. Set during World War II, the plot presents a very personal and moving description of life under German occupation. But despite the weighty topic, the authors manage to keep the story light without taking it lightly.

   Don’t be tempted to set the book aside because the format of a novel written via correspondence is daunting. Give it a little of your attention at the first and it will grab hold of all your attention by the end.

   Without further ado, I present to you The Guernesy Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I pray that you will enjoy it as I have, and I look forward to discussing it with you upon my next visit. Keep the kettle hot.

   With warmest regards,

   A

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Unbroken

[January 2012]

*****

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, Lauren Hillenbrand

number of voters: 6

percentage of voters who finished the book: 100

highest rating: 10

lowest rating: 8

average rating: 9.05

*****

In her book Unbroken, author Lauren Hillenbrand present the facts on the life of Louis Silvie Zamperini.

Louis grew up as a trouble maker of a kid who finally found an outlet for his energy by running track. He qualified for the 1936 Olympic games in Berlin, where Adolf Hitler took notice and requested to meet the young runner. In 1941 Louis joined the Army and eventually became a bombadier. While on a rescue mission, his plane crashed, leaving only three survivors: Louis, his best friend, and another crewmate. The three men drifted on two small life rafts for 47 days, during which time they starved, baked in the sun, fended off shark attacks, and were strafed by Japanese planes. The men eventually reached land, where they were captured and taken as prisoners of war. While languishing in some of the most brutal Japanese POW camps, Louis was assumed lost at sea and declared dead...

These are the facts of the early years of Louis Zamperini’s life. Hillenbrand tells his story with a precision for detail, but also with a storyteller’s gift for narrative. There is more to the story, which I will withhold so as not to spoil it, but even if you know the tale from start to finish you will not be disappointed with Hillenbrand’s telling. It is a testament both to Zamperini’s life and Hillenbrand’s writing that knowing the story does not lessen the book’s impact.

In her pursuit of factual precision and objectivity, Hillenbrand does not come out and say what I will tell you now: Louis Silvie Zamperini is an inspiring man who has lived an extraordinary life. Any retelling of his tale is bound to be engrossing; Hillenbrand makes it riveting.