Theme Thursday -- Body Parts -- Wicked by Gregory Maguire

Hosted by Reading Between the Pages

Rules:

*A theme will be posted each week on Thursday
*Select a conversation/snippet/sentence from the current book you are reading that features the theme
*Post it and don't forget to mention the author and title of the book
*Event is open for the whole week
*Link back to Reading Between the Pages

This week's theme is body parts.

"Well, practice makes perfect, and more than once I've been called a perfect asshole."

~page 368, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire

How could I resist using this line for this week's theme? :)  This was a re-read for me, as it was chosen for this month's book club.  It's never going to be my favorite book, but I think I enjoyed it more this time than the first -- and I know there are allusions I'm still missing.  What have some of you thought of this one? 

Wondrous Words Wednesday -- Marvering

Kathy over at Bermudaonion's Weblog hosts Wondrous Words Wednesday. If you come across a word (or two) while reading that is new to you and would like to share your new knowledge, then hop over to Kathy's place and link up!

 

My word comes from Remembeing Hypatia by Brian Trent:

Marvering: the process of rolling hot glass on a metal surface to add a skin of cool semi-solid glass that allows control over the rate at which a bubble within the glass expands. [from The Free Dictionary]

Context:  (p.187)

"I sealed the gold jar myself last night," Zeno persisted, following him as he went to the marvering table to roll the bottom of the vase he was making.

About the book:  

 
Remembering Hypatia is my book club book for May.  It is historical fiction centered around the Alexandria Library and one of its teachers, Hypatia, a philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician.  I didn't love it at first and it's poorly edited (typos and poor word choice, not over-arching theme kind of stuff) but at the end I found myself caring about the characters and saddened at what a few obsessed and angry people can destroy.  I'm glad I read it, if only to know more about an amazing woman who really existed.

Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris

Dead until Dark by Charlaine Harris was my book club book this month.  I'm actually the one who brought it as an option after several friends kept wanting me to try it.  Sorry folks, I just didn't love it.   Didn't really like it, to tell the truth.

It's the first in Harris' Sookie Stackhouse series, upon which HBO's True Blood series is based.  Sookie is a cocktail waitress from Bon Temps, Louisiana.  Vampires have recently come out of their coffins (get it?) and Sookie's been eagerly waiting to meet one.  Her wish comes true when Bill wanders into her bar -- and the bonus is that, unlike most people she encounters, she can't hear his thoughts.  Zany hijinks ensue.  (Translation:  I can't be bothered to recount more of the storyline.)

The best part for me was Sookie's ability to read minds -- perhaps because I didn't know that was a part of the storyline.  I was able to predict a certain character's alter ego -- also my favorite character -- or  at least my favorite after Harris killed off the member of Sookie's family I'd been enjoying getting to know. 

I'm not sure why I was so turned off -- I know that Sookie and Bill's relationship is everything I tend to hate about most paranormal-regular Jill relationships in this genre.  (Bottom line is, I don't find being in a relationship with someone you're afraid of (even part of the time) to be an awesome thing.)  Beyond that issue, though, I just didn't care about the book -- I didn't hate it, but it's just not my kind of fluff.

It's somewhat rare for me to start a series and not want to finish it or at least read a few more before I decide for sure.  This is going to be one of those times -- Sorry Sookie.

Book Beginnings & Friday 56 -- Packing for Mars by Mary Roach

Hosted by Katy.
How to participate: Share the first line (or two) of the book you are currently reading on your blog or in the comments. Include the title and the author so we know what you're reading. Then, if you feel so moved, let us know what your first impressions were based on that first line, and let us know if you liked or did not like the sentence.

To the rocket scientist, you are a problem.
~Packing for Mars:The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach



Hosted by Freda.
Rules:
*Grab a book, any book.
*Turn to page 56.
*Find any sentence that grabs you.
*Post it.
*Link it here.


"We would need fifty grams of whiskey!"
~Packing for Mars:The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach

This was my (real-life) book club book for January.  We meet on the 27th to discuss.  As always, Mary Roach (Bonk, Stiff) doesn't disappoint. She has a knack for delving into topics others seldom touch and sharing what she learns with her reader in a way that never fails to entertain -- this time her topic is space exploration. I'll be interested to hear what my housemates (who both work at Lockheed Martin) think of the book. 

The Godmother by Carrie Adams

As the cover of The Godmother by Carrie Adams says, "Tessa King has seven best friends, four godchildren, and one big wish -- to have a life of her own."   This is the September book for the Authors by the Alphabet Book Club.


From Amazon:

While 30-something Londoner Tessa King questions her no-strings-attached lifestyle, she also witnesses her friends' difficulties in marriage and parenthood while playing godmother to their broods. Nick and Francesca battle to keep their sullen teenager out of serious trouble; Billy, a single mom, can't break ties to her now remarried ex-; Helen and Neil, fairy tale parents to twin boys, are hiding something; successful Claudia and Al struggle to conceive; and Ben and Sasha have no plans to have children. But Ben also happens to be Tessa's best friend, and perhaps the love of her life. When tragedy eventually strikes the group, bonds are tested, and Tessa is forced to re-examine what she thinks will really make her happy. A painful look into the fears, doubts and desires that make and break marriages, this debut novel from Londoner Adams is notches up from the usual chick and mom lit fare.

I agree that The Godmother is more than a simple chick lit novel -- I don't usually go in for full-fledged chick lit -- shoe shopping and hair crises just don't speak to me.  My own life is in such a state of flux that the emotions and experiences Adams writes about resonated with me.  Tessa's melancholy and regret were realistic without turning whiny. 


It's been a while since I've read a book with so much blatant foreshadowing -- some of which I found a bit much, ("She felt she knew him better. Turned out she was right." p. 31)  but some that really added to the poignant tone that kept me reading ("I have gone over that moment in my mind a thousand times since and I swear I saw her laughing.  Now I realize that I was seeing only what I expected to see.  Even though I was distrustful of it at the time and would have loved to have seen something else, I couldn't.  I was programmed not to. And that is why, even now, knowing what I know, my memory can only recall her laughing as Neil pulled her back inside the house." p 51-52)

Read The Godmother for a good reminder that life is lived once and that, no matter how much you envy someone else's life, there is always something to be appreciated in your own.

The Owl and Moon Cafe by Jo-Ann Mapson

I read The Owl & Moon Cafe this book several years ago and re-read it this week for October's book club.  I was happy to re-read it and experience the four-generation, female-heavy cast of characters all over again. 

 The book opens with Mariah Moon, who has just lost her job as a college professor.  We soon meet Gammy, Mariah's grandmother, Allegra, Mariah's mother, and Lindsay, Mariah's twelve-year-old daughter.  The women own and run The Owl and Moon Cafe in the Monterey Bay area in California -- which means you will find yourself wishing for a personal chef whipping things up in your kitchen the whole time you are reading. 

This book contains hope of all different kinds and hope of all different kinds is exactly what I need in my life right now.  Besides, who doesn't love a man with a Scottish accent? 

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler -- August's Book Club Book

This is my book club book for August.  Way to go Angela for picking a winner!  Octavia Butler is a well-known sci fi author but I have the impression that Kindred is a slight deviation from her normal work.

The year is 1976.  Dana, a black woman in Los Angeles has just celebrated her 26th birthday and is in the process of moving into a new house with her white husband when she gets dizzy and finds herself on a riverbank in antebellum Maryland where she saves a little boy from drowning and then wakes up back in her own house. As the story progresses, and Dana continues to be pulled from her life in 1976 to save the boy, Rufus, again and again (as he grows into a teenager and then into a man) Dana realizes that he is her ancestor. Sometimes her husband is pulled along with her on the journey, sometimes he is left behind (both in 1976 and in Rufus' Maryland).

This book was a very quick read for me.  Kindred is enriched by Butler's research and a list for further reading is included at the end of the book.  There was also a reader's guide/questions and I meant to include a few questions here, but it is already back at the library!