Tag: Book Club

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus on April 5th, 2022 Genres: Fiction Pages: 390 Format: Paperback Source: Book Club Buy on Amazon Goodreads Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing as an average woman. But it’s the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one: Calvin Evans; the lonely, brilliant, Nobel–prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with—of all things—her mind. True chemistry results. But like science, life is unpredictable. Which is why a few years later Elizabeth Zott finds herself not only a single mother, but the reluctant star of America’s most beloved cooking show Supper at Six. Elizabeth’s unusual approach to cooking (“combine one tablespoon acetic acid with a pinch of sodium chloride”) proves revolutionary. But as her following grows, not everyone is happy. Because as it turns out, Elizabeth Zott isn’t just teaching women to cook. She’s daring them to change the status quo. Laugh-out-loud funny, shrewdly observant, and studded with a dazzling cast of supporting characters, Lessons in Chemistry is as original and vibrant as its […]

Posted August 13, 2022
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The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont

The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont Published by St Martin’s Press on February 1st, 2022 Genres: Fiction Pages: 320 Format: Paperback Source: Book Club Buy on Amazon Goodreads Nina de Gramont’s The Christie Affair is a beguiling novel of star-crossed lovers, heartbreak, revenge, and murder—and a brilliant re-imagination of one of the most talked-about unsolved mysteries of the twentieth century. Every story has its secrets. Every mystery has its motives. “A long time ago, in another country, I nearly killed a woman. It’s a particular feeling, the urge to murder. It takes over your body so completely, it’s like a divine force, grabbing hold of your will, your limbs, your psyche. There’s a joy to it. In retrospect, it’s frightening, but I daresay in the moment it feels sweet. The way justice feels sweet.” The greatest mystery wasn’t Agatha Christie’s disappearance in those eleven infamous days, it’s what she discovered. London, 1925: In a world of townhomes and tennis matches, socialites and shooting parties, Miss Nan O’Dea became Archie Christie’s mistress, luring him away from his devoted and well-known wife, Agatha Christie. The question is, why? Why destroy another woman’s marriage, why hatch a plot years in the making, […]

Posted April 4, 2022
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Wish you were here by Jodi Picoult

Wish you were here by Jodi Picoult Published by Ballantine Books on November 30th, 2021 Genres: Fiction Pages: 336 Format: Paperback Source: Book Club Buy on Amazon Goodreads A deeply moving novel about the resilience of the human spirit in a moment of crisis. Diana O’Toole is perfectly on track. She will be married by thirty, done having kids by thirty-five, and move out to the New York City suburbs, all while climbing the professional ladder in the cutthroat art auction world. She’s not engaged just yet, but she knows her boyfriend, Finn, a surgical resident, is about to propose on their romantic getaway to the Galápagos—days before her thirtieth birthday. Right on time. But then a virus that felt worlds away has appeared in the city, and on the eve of their departure, Finn breaks the news: It’s all hands on deck at the hospital. He has to stay behind. You should still go, he assures her, since it would be a shame for all of their nonrefundable trip to go to waste. And so, reluctantly, she goes. Almost immediately, Diana’s dream vacation goes awry. The whole island is now under quarantine, and she is stranded until the borders […]

Posted February 28, 2022
6 Comments

Library Card August 2021

Greetings all you lovely humans! Can you believe it’s August already? Where does time fly to? And are you actually having fun? We all know the saying Time flies when you are having fun. Time’s just flying. Having fun doesn’t seem to be a requirement anymore. How was your month of July on the reading front? It appears as if our July Library Card was more of a guideline than an agenda to follow. Oh well, we did still read a couple of books. I’ve got no idea what the August winds will blow in with it, but it still won’t stop us to “visit” our virtual library and fill our library card. My Mommy is very slowly but surely busy sorting out our “library”. Her Kindle is mostly sorted out now and we still need to tackle the TBR list on Goodreads and then of course all the physical books that are currently in storage. So those will have to wait a couple of months. Thankfully we still have Book Club to get some physical books from. Here’s our Library Card picks for August: Book Club Update: We are still busy reading Midnight at the Bright Ideas […]

Posted August 6, 2021
15 Comments

The Rose Code by Kate Quinn

The Rose Code by Kate Quinn on March 9th 2011 Genres: Historical Fiction Pages: 624 Format: Paperback Source: Book Club Buy on Amazon Goodreads 1940. As England prepares to fight the Nazis, three very different women answer the call to mysterious country estate Bletchley Park, where the best minds in Britain train to break German military codes. Vivacious debutante Osla is the girl who has everything—beauty, wealth, and the dashing Prince Philip of Greece sending her roses—but she burns to prove herself as more than a society girl, and puts her fluent German to use as a translator of decoded enemy secrets. Imperious self-made Mab, product of east-end London poverty, works the legendary codebreaking machines as she conceals old wounds and looks for a socially advantageous husband. Both Osla and Mab are quick to see the potential in local village spinster Beth, whose shyness conceals a brilliant facility with puzzles, and soon Beth spreads her wings as one of the Park’s few female cryptanalysts. But war, loss, and the impossible pressure of secrecy will tear the three apart. 1947. As the royal wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip whips post-war Britain into a fever, three friends-turned-enemies are reunited by […]

Posted July 17, 2021
12 Comments

Library Card – May 2021

Greetings all you lovely people! I’ve been eying all your gorgeous monthly wrap-up posts and your plan-to-read posts for a while now. It really is a way to streamline your month just a little bit better. As you know, my Mommy means the world to me, but she can also irritate the living daylight out of me. Mostly because she is so ridiculously unorganized. How she ever manages at school and with running a library and her own business, really is beyond me. She never, ever knows what is going on in her reading life. She’s got this amazing system at school for the students to control their library books and cards and she always knows exactly what book is with what student and where their library cards are. It’s an easy enough system with each child being assigned a barcode to a little stick that they can decorate as they want. And then it hit me! That’s what we need! We need our very own library card. And I’ll take possession of it and make sure my Mommy sticks to it. If she doesn’t, I will penalize her the same way she penalizes the kids at school when their […]

Posted May 6, 2021
7 Comments

Mini Reviews: Britt-Marie was here, The Thursday Murder Club & The inaugural meeting of the Fairvale Ladies Book Club

Greetings you all! No, it’s not quite a Sunday Post today, we don’t have enough to tell you. At least nothing new. Mommy still works hard and there’s not enough hours in the day to get to the blog as much as we would love to. I can tell you that she does stay on schedule with reading though, and that’s why we decided to start this new monthly feature here on the blog. Please tell me you love my graphic? I thought I was very clever. Get it? Mini Reviews = Minnie Mouse. I really wanted to make a graphic with me catching Minnie Mouse and dropping her on a book, but Mommy just gave me a thrown and a stern no. The idea of this monthly post, will be to feature the books we’ve read from Book Club for the month. Yes, sometimes we do write full reviews on our Book Club books, but most of the time, there’s only time for a short, mini review. Mommy took 4 books for Book Club this month, but we only finished 3. Believe me, that was quite the accomplishment if you take the month she’s had. […]

Posted February 28, 2021
12 Comments

Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys

Salt to the Sea by Rita Sepetys on February 02, 2016 Genres: Historical Fiction Pages: 391 Format: Paperback Source: Book Club Buy on Amazon Goodreads While the Titanic and Lusitania are both well-documented disasters, the single greatest tragedy in maritime history is the little-known January 30, 1945 sinking in the Baltic Sea by a Soviet submarine of the Wilhelm Gustloff, a German cruise liner that was supposed to ferry wartime personnel and refugees to safety from the advancing Red Army. The ship was overcrowded with more than 10,500 passengers — the intended capacity was approximately 1,800 — and more than 9,000 people, including 5,000 children, lost their lives. Sepetys (writer of ‘Between Shades of Gray’) crafts four fictionalized but historically accurate voices to convey the real-life tragedy. Joana, a Lithuanian with nursing experience; Florian, a Prussian soldier fleeing the Nazis with stolen treasure; and Emilia, a Polish girl close to the end of her pregnancy, converge on their escape journeys as Russian troops advance; each will eventually meet Albert, a Nazi peon with delusions of grandeur, assigned to the Gustloff decks. Paperback 390 pages Read 09 August 2016 Published February 2016 Goodreads Blurb: Winter, 1945. Four teenagers. Four secrets. Each […]

Posted August 12, 2016
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When God was a Rabbit – Sarah Winman

When God was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman Published by Headline Review on May 12th 2011 Pages: 341 Format: Paperback Source: Book Club Buy on Amazon Goodreads This is a book about a brother and a sister. It’s a book about secrets and starting over, friendship and family, triumph and tragedy, and everything in between. More than anything, it’s a book about love in all its forms. In a remarkably honest and confident voice, Sarah Winman has written the story of a memorable young heroine, Elly, and her loss of innocence- a magical portrait of growing up and the pull and power of family ties. From Essex and Cornwall to the streets of New York, from 1968 to the events of 9/11, When God Was a Rabbit follows the evolving bond of love and secrets between Elly and her brother Joe, and her increasing concern for an unusual best friend, Jenny Penny, who has secrets of her own. With its wit and humor, engaging characters whose eccentricities are adroitly and sometimes darkly drawn, and its themes of memory and identity, When God Was a Rabbit is a love letter to true friendship and fraternal love. Funny, utterly compelling, fully of […]

Posted May 2, 2016
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The girl who saved the king of Sweden – Jonas Jonasson

The Girl who saved the King of Sweden by Jonas Jonasson Published by Fourth Estate on April 24th 2014 Genres: Fiction, Humor Pages: 421 Format: Paperback Source: Book Club Buy on Amazon Goodreads Just because the world ignores you, doesn’t mean you can’t save it . . . Nombeko Mayeki was never meant to be a hero. Born in a Soweto shack, she seemed destined for a short, hard life. But now she is on the run from the world ‘s most ruthless secret service, with three Chinese sisters, twins who are officially one person and an elderly potato farmer. Oh, and the fate of the King of Sweden – and the world – rests on her shoulders. On June 14th, 2007, the King and Prime Minister of Sweden went missing from a gala banquet at the Royal Castle. Later it was said that both had fallen ill: the truth is different. The real story starts much earlier, in 1961, with the birth of Nombeko Mayeki in a shack in Soweto. Nombeko was fated to grow up fast and die early in her poverty-stricken township. But Nombeko takes a different path. She finds work as a housecleaner and eventually makes […]

Posted April 23, 2016
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Tag: Book Club

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