Jude Deveraux or Dick Francis?

We have a decision to make. Karen is not recommending, for our book club discussion, the Jude Deveraux that she read recently. She and Linda are recommending a Dick Francis book published 2006 titled Straight. Kathy is recommending her Jude Deveraux book titled Knight in Shining Armor.

So here are our choices, on one hand we have historical romance fiction, Knight In Shining Armor

On the other hand, we have murder mystery, Straight. In addition Linda says, "How's this for an opening sentence: "I inherited my brother's life. Inherited his desk, his business, his gadgets, his enemies, his horses and his mistress. I inherited my brother's life, and it nearly killed me."

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet will be our June selection, giving our members time to get this newly published book (January, 2009).

What are you reading?

I am reading The Piano Teacher: A Novel by Janice Lee. The setting is Hong Kong in the 1950's.

Take a look at this link that gives my tips for a successful life. What do you think?

Hatshepsut

Did you see the latest National Geographic (April 2009)? It features The She-King of Egypt ... Pharoah Hatshepsut http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/04/hatshepsut/brown-text. We discussed a time travel novel featuring Hatshepsut at our book club meeting in September 2006, Reflections in the Nile by J. Suzanne Frank.

Fan Fiction

Fan Fiction, also known as fanfic and sometimes written as fanfiction, is my new word for the day. One of the reviewers on amazon referred to the book, March by Geraldine Brooks, as falling into the genre of fanfic. Fan Fiction are new stories created as "offshoots " by fans of someone else's original fiction. March, for example, is an offshoot of Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. Fanfic writers are really targetting fans of the original work.

Frankly, I am not enjoying March. Mr. and Mrs. March are not likeable characters and the story has too many uninteresting details some of the details about the civil war are gruesome. The story introduces Grace, a biracial slave, in the first chapter and I liked that the story links back to Grace at the end. I appreciate the detailed research that went into writing this novel but it was not an enjoyable read for me.

Celebrity Authored Books

On television, anything related to celebrities seems to be popular, for example, Dancing with the Stars which airs tonight. Well I noticed that in the latest People magazine there are a number of new books being featured that have been authored by celebrities. There are books by singer Marie Osmond, and actors Cloris Leachman, Michael J. Fox, and Marlee Matlin and they all have very good ratings on amazon.com and in People.

World's Most Infamous Family: The Bin Ladens

We read and discussed the book, Inside the Kingdom by Carmen bin Ladin, former sister- in-law to Osama, way back in Januray 2005. Carmen met her husband in the country where she was born and raised, Switzerland. The book was fascinating and gave a good description of her life in Saudi Arabia. Now I see, in the current issue of People magazine, that there is a new book out titled, The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century by Steve Coll. Amazon readers have rated it an overall 4.5 stars out of 5.