Little Bee Review

We don't want to tell you what happens in this book.

It is a truly special story and we don't want to spoil it.
nevertheless, you need to know enough to buy it, so we will just say this:

This is the story of two women. Their lives collide one fateful day, and one of them has to make a terrible choice, the kind of choice we hope you never have to face. Two years later, they meet again - the story starts there ...


Once you have read it, you'll want to tell your friends about it. When you do, please don't tell them what happens. The magic is in how the story unfolds.


The first thing you have to get use to is the language used. Half of the book is told by a refugee Nigerian girl, Little Bee, and she thinks and talks like a refugee, although she has learned English and she is quite good at it, even if she doesn't understand all that she says or hears. The other half of the book is told by a white Britain woman, so her story is easy to follow, once you figure out where you are picking up at.

Also the ending of this book...is no ending at all...it just ends. My thoughts from this ending is that they learn to face their demons and to stop running from them. Really the only refreshing point in this book is, Charlie, the little four year-old who goes the whole summer as batman fighting puffin, penguin, and all the baddies.

Really I don't recommend it at all, but you be your own judge. It will be interesting to see what this book club says about it, maybe me and Erica are clear over in left field on our feelings of this book compared to everyone else. OR Everyone else has been brainwashed by the Baddies...Erica and I decided to join the Library's Book Club and give it a shot. January's book was Little Bee by Chris Cleave. Frankly I found this book, nowhere near what the outstanding reviews I read or the praise for it. It was a FLAT OUT depressing book. You might argue, well Marlynn you are 6 months prego and your hormones are bouncing all over, but Erica agrees, and she's not having hormone issues like me. Really we can't determine what the point of this book is. It's between: one, all the ways to kill yourself or two, learning to move on or three, to quit running from your demons and face them.

A Woman of Substance

Determined to rise above all that she has ever known, a young and impoverished Emma Harte embarks on a journey first of survival, then of unimaginable achievement. Driven to succeed, the iron-willed Emma parlays a small shop into the world's greatest department store and an international business empire: Harte Enterprises.
Unhappily married twice, loving only the one man she can never marry, personal happiness eludes her. Harte Enterprises, the realization of her grand dreams, is her all: her heart, her soul, her life. When those closest to her threaten to destroy her empire through their greed and envy, Emma brilliantly outwits her enemies. She wreaks her devastating revenge on those who would betray her in a way only she knows how.
Drawing us into the mesmerizing life of a remarkable woman who dared to seize a dream and was willing to pay any price to make it come true, Barbara Taylor Bradford's deeply involving novel is a celebration of an indomitable spirit.

This time for Book club we are reading "A Woman of Substance" by Barbara Taylor Bradford. This book is going to be the Sept/Oct book, since its such a looooong book.

It is a good book, although I don't believe I would classify it as a favorite. It is about a young lady, Emma, who comes from the lowest of lowest class in the English Class system, and how she works her way to the very top and becomes a very rich and powerful woman. It is amazing how she was able to do what she did all on her own and still raise the five kids that she did.

My only thought with this book was that Emma was to busy making a living and securing her childrens future, to really enjoy life with her children. You know the saying "Don't get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life." I feel that children should have to work at making their own living so their life is more fullfilled. Its just like John Wayne says in the movie McClintock to his daughter, about only giving her and her husband only a small percentage of what he actually owned, because he loved her. He says (I'm praphrasing here) that there is nothing more beautiful then what grows between a man and a woman with all the growing they do together when they have to work together for a common goal.

I feel that Emma's children always had all they ever needed, so they grew up to be wastes and only being greedy, that they didn't have the substance that their mother had in her. That was really my only beef with the book is how she neglected her children of a life with a loving and attentive mother, she gave them everything else.

This book is interesting in the climb and social change that Emma does and how she does it and it shows that anybody can do it you just have to set your mind to it.

19 Minutes

In this emotionally charged novel, Jodi Picoult delves beneath the surface of a small town to explore what it means to be different in our society.
In Sterling, New Hampshire, 17-year-old high school student Peter Houghton has endured years of verbal and physical abuse at the hands of classmates. His best friend, Josie Cormier, succumbed to peer pressure and now hangs out with the popular crowd that often instigates the harassment. One final incident of bullying sends Peter over the edge and leads him to commit an act of violence that forever changes the lives of Sterling’s residents.

Even those who were not inside the school that morning find their lives in an upheaval, including Alex Cormier. The superior court judge assigned to the Houghton case, Alex—whose daughter, Josie, witnessed the events that unfolded—must decide whether or not to step down. She’s torn between presiding over the biggest case of her career and knowing that doing so will cause an even wider chasm in her relationship with her emotionally fragile daughter. Josie, meanwhile, claims she can’t remember what happened in the last fatal minutes of Peter’s rampage. Or can she? And Peter’s parents, Lacy and Lewis Houghton, ceaselessly examine the past to see what they might have said or done to compel their son to such extremes.

Nineteen Minutes also features the return of two of Jodi Picoult’s characters—defense attorney Jordan McAfee from The Pact and Salem Falls and Patrick DuCharme, the intrepid detective introduced in Perfect Match.

Rich with psychological and social insight, Nineteen Minutes is a riveting, poignant, and thought-provoking novel that has at its center a haunting question. Do we ever really know someone?

This was a wonderful book! If you want a good deep novel to read pick this one. It is a very thought provoking book that makes you really think about how what is said and done to others or to yourself does affect them/yourself.

It was really big on the sterotyping done by kids from elemetary to high school. And I couldn't help but think "was school really all that bad?" I really don't know if it was the school I went to, the class I graduated with or what but I don't think it really was as bad as the book says. But maybe I just wasn't a picked-on student and I didn't hang out with the crowd that did most of the picking on, so I didn't realize it was happening.

One thing this book made me realize is the importance of having a good parent/child relationship, and that also after a certain age they are their own person and they will make their own choices and us as parents have to accept that. One thing is for sure, this book made me realize the 2 year old stage isn't all that bad and I'm not ready for all the emotional drama that comes with having teenagers.

Want more reviews go here. There is a lot of good and bad ones.

I'm in love with this book club, even though we don't have many show up, I love the different styles of books that come forth and many are ones I would never pick up to read. This one is an example of one of those types.

Since everyone seems to have such busy lives and we don't get a very high turnout at our club meeting I started an online discussion forum. We are still going to be doing the hard in person meetings, they are just so fun! But maybe we can get some more discussion this way. So come join us at Let's Get To Reading.

The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Society

Summary: “ I wonder how the book got to Guernsey? Perhaps there is some sort of secret homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers.” January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she’s never met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written inside a book by Charles Lamb….As Juliet and her new correspondent exchange letters, Juliet is drawn into the world of this man and his friends—and what a wonderfully eccentric world it is. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society—born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi when its members were discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island—boasts a charming, funny, deeply human cast of characters, from pig farmers to phrenologists, literature lovers all.Juliet begins a remarkable correspondence with the society’s members, learning about their island, their taste in books, and the impact the recent German occupation has had on their lives. Captivated by their stories, she sets sail for Guernsey, and what she finds will change her forever.

This was July's Book Club book. It was quite a delightful book. It does take a few pages to grasp a hold of who the characters are and how the book is written.

It is written as a series of letters from different people to this lady Juliet. She through these letters you see how she discovers more about herself and has changes to her life that couldn't happen anyway else. I'm really not good at writing reviews so if you want to know more about this particualar book check out Booking Mama's Review of it.

You should check it out, its defintaly an interesting and different read.

The Hunger Games

Summary: In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she is forced to represent her district in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before -- and survival. -- Scholastic

June's Book is The Hunger Games by Suzann Collins. It is an edge of your seat kind of book. There's a little bit of everything mixed in; love, comedy, death, the whole works. Want to know a bit more about this book? Check out Bookin Mama's blog she gives a great overview of it.

Book Club

So me and a couple of friends started a book club last month. So i thought I would post what books we are reading and my thoughts on them.

April~ Band of Sisters, by Annette Lyon. This book is about five women who give each other support and act as a sounding board at their weekly lunches, when their husbands unit is deployed to Afganistan. This book made me appriciate those wifes whose husbands do serve in any kind of military unit. The heartache and loneliness they feel, yet the pride they have in their husbands is tremendous. This story is fictional yet based upon true events. It is a really good book.

May~ The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey. This book is wonderful. I heard so many good things about it that I decided to check it out, and its the book we choose for May. The sad thing about this book, is I already knew the principles talked about in it, even knew how to apply them, have even tried to a couple times. But this book is written very bluntly that I've decided to apply the principles right now. So we are going to be tightening our belts a little tighter and get our tractor paid off this year and my school loans by next Aug. (I actually think we will and can have it done sooner!) Then in about seven years we will have our farm paid for!!!!

I will continue to post what books we read.