Creating a Reading List for 2014

What will our book club read in 2014?  Club members are checking out certain books to see if the rest of us would be interested in selecting them for 2014. Linda is checking out Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear. Tom read Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls and reported that he loved it. And I am reading Bel Canto by Ann Patchett.

I am on page 56 and I am loving it so far. Bel Canto is loosely based on the hostage crisis in Peru in December 1996 when members of Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) took hundreds of high level officials as hostages while they were attending a party at the Japanese Ambassadors residence.  President Fujimori sent in Peruvian troops in April 1997 and freed the hostages. One hostage died and all the MRTA members were killed.  In Bel Canto, however, a group of young armed bandits have entered the residence of the Vice President of an unnamed Spanish speaking South American country and are holding the guests hostage. Their intent was to kidnap the President but the President happens to be absent because he chose to stay home to watch his favorite soap opera that night.

Our club meets next Friday to discuss Blood of the Prodigal: an Amish Mystery.

Fancy Pants Jonah

Jonah, son of Bishop Eli Miller, was a rebellious Ohio Amish child who loved to wear "fancy pants".  When he had a chance to do his Rumschpringe or Rumshpringa (from the verb rumspringen meaning "to jump around"), he never wanted to return to his community. He was banned by his father, the Bishop, and shunned by the community.  I have just finished reading Blood of the Prodigal, an Amish Country Mystery. 

This is actually our book club pick for October.  It is a murder mystery that starts off with the thoughts and feelings of Jonah's ten year old son Jeremiah who is being raised by his grandparents. Jonah takes his son and leaves a note for Bishop.  The Bishop-grandfather seeks help from a local pastor and also from a college professor to locate the grandson. He does not want the help of the police. I loved the unexpected twists to this very short story, 230 pages.

I found the Amish life portrayed in this book very interesting. For readers who do not know, "Rumshpringe" is  a period for Amish adolescents to experience the world of the non-Amish, called the "English",with the hope that they will eventually return to the community to take Amish vows of commitment through baptism. I certainly did not know that any form of adolescent rebellion or exploration of freedom in the non Amish world was acceptable as part of Amish culture. 

I will seek out the next book in the series, Broken English. There is a sneak peek of the first chapter at the back of this book and it opens with violence from a criminal just released from prison.