In a World of Peculiars, Hollows, Wights, Ymbrynes

I am in a time loop in a world of peculiars; disaffected peculiars, who wanted to become immortal and instead turned into hollows;wights, who are in a purgatory-like state, and ymbrynes,who protect peculiar children and who can transform into birds. In this time loop, the peculiars relive the same day every day so they never age. The protagonist, Jacob, can pass through the loop freely from the present to the past and back again.

I am reading the fantasy fiction of Ransom Riggs titled, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, written for young adults. I like the pictures in the book because they make the story seem real, seem possible. The cover is great because it is creepy. I was expecting a scary ghost story but it is more about adventure. We don't get the 100 year old history of the hollows and wights until page 254 close to the end of the book.

I would rate this book 31/2 stars out of 5 even though I have not finished reading it. I find the resolution is taking too long. I am on page 323 and am rushing to complete the end. I like most of what I have read but am not committed enough to this story. This is not one I would recommend for members of my book club. When I get to the end, I will determine  if I want to read the follow up book, Hollow City.

Reading Tyrant's Daughter with the Book Club

I am reading a very interesting novel, The Tyrant's Daughter by J. C. Carleson, with the Book Club. It's written for teens. The protagonist is Laila, a Middle Eastern teen, who is in exile in the USA with her Mom and brother courtesy of the CIA. Interestingly, the writer is a former CIA agent. The story so far is all about Laila and her family adjusting to life in the USA and her coming to the realization that her recently deceased Dad was not a King but a Dictator in their un-named Middle Eastern country.  The themes I have detected so far have to do with trust and change. As Laila tells us on page 95, everything has been turned upside down for her family, her head and her heart.  I like how the chapters are brief and how the story flows. My guess is that Laila's Mom has been charged by the CIA to win the trust of some of her countrymen and spy on them. I am on page 119 and am eager to find out where the story is really leading me.

Book Club Pick: Fault in Our Stars

Our book club pick this month is the young adult novel,The Fault in Our Stars, about a teen girl fighting cancer.  There is also a movie out now based on this book.  I am at page 114 and Hazel, the teen battling cancer, wants to visit the reclusive writer of her favorite book, Peter Van Houten,  in Amsterdam with her new-found friend and love interest, Gus. Interestingly, Van Houten's book is about a girl who died of cancer and her story ends in the middle of a sentence to emphasize that the protagonist died or became too sick to complete her thought. Hazel wants to know "the rest of the story" such as what happened to the protagonist's Mom and her possibly con artist fiance.  It is odd that Hazel who is depressed about her own cancer diagnosis would choose Van Houten's book as her favorite.

This book is not as depressing as I thought it would be. It has a 4 1/2 star rating on amazon but I am not sure yet how I feel about it to give it my own rating.

Two coincidences occurred while reading this book.  One was that yesterday that Malaysian Airline that was shot out of the sky was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpar.  I pause to express condolences to the families of all the passengers on that flight. Second, just minutes ago today, in the middle of my reading and listening to the TV, comedian Tig Notaro, a cancer survivor walked on the set of a talk-show to talk about her life with cancer and comedy. What message is the universe giving me?

Book Suggestions

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, a young Adult novel just made into a movie, was suggested for our bookclub. This article by Brenna Ehrlich is suggesting additional Young Adult books  such as The Future of Us.

For people like me who loved Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, this site is suggesting we would like this psychological thriller, The Silent Wife by A.S. A. Harrison.

Here is my book suggestion. I think if you liked Gone Girl, you readers will like, The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty.  In that book, the husband confessed in writing to a crime he committed as a teenager.  The wife finds the sealed letter that says it is only to be opened on her husband's death so she does not open it. She mentions finding the sealed letter to him on the telephone and he returns home early from his business trip.  He acts as if the letter were not important but he goes into the attic to search for the letter the next morning.  His action only indicated to his wife that the content of the letter was very significant to him. Read the story to find out what crime was committed and how it all turns out.

Book Club Selection: Last Message.

I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning reading Half of a Yellow Sun. It made me laugh, cry and feel disgust. The storyline in this book reminded me of Left to Tell, a past book club selection, about the genocide in Rwanda.  Here is a memorial that took place recently in Rwanda. War is a horrible beast. 

It was well worth staying up most of the night to complete the reading of Half of a Yellow Sun. When I thought the main characters were all safe, something else happened to shatter that view. It was a roller coaster ride with these characters.  I loved the messages about love, war, and family. Now on to the next book.

I am now reading Last Message, in my lunch break, by Shane Peacock. It is a Young Adult fiction and it is our book club selection for this month.  There are seven books in the series and each book is written by a different author.  Peacock's book is number 6. This is unusual for me. Adam is the narrator and he is being sent on an adventure in France by his deceased grandfather,  David McLean.

Book of the Month: Revolution

It's been a while. I am still reading but have not had time to blog about my readings. Our club chose Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly for the month of August. This is a Young Adult book. I could not identify with the teenage angst in the first 60 pages of the book. The book became interesting to me when the main character, Andi Alpers, a teenaged musical genius went to Paris and found a diary, written by a teenager named Alexandrine, in a guitar case. The diary was all about her life during the French Revolution and specifically her connection with the royal family.   I would give this book 41/2 out of 5 stars.

Great Idea to Promote Reading

What a great idea to promote books and reading! The Seattle Public Library system will be hiding 1,000 books around town for young people to find, read, and re-hide for other young people.  The Theme for its annual Summer Reading Program is Century 22: Read the Future. Little Brother is one of the Young Adult books that will be hidden.

Adults Reading Young Adult Books

Oh no! This columnist, Joel Stein, thinks that adults should read only adult books and forget about the teen books such as Hunger Games and books in the Twilight series.  I just finished reading the fifth and last book in the Boy Sherlock Holmes series by Shane Peacock targeting young adults.   They were all good reads but I prefer the first two in the series.  Sorry Joel but I am not with you. The Hunger Games is on my list of books to read this year.

What Should Our Book Club Read Next?

Our book club is trying to decide what to read next.  These books listed below are suggestions we have so far.  You will notice that they are mostly Young Adult fiction:
 
How Angel Peterson Got His Name   is Kathy's pick.

Prince of Mist by Carlos Ruiz Zafon is Linda's pick but it has many 3 star reviews on amazon.

Death in the Air, Young Sherlock Holmes 2nd mystery is my pick because I enjoyed the first one.

This one is not Young Adult; the setting is Japan,Wind Up Bird Chronicle, but it is over 600 pages long.

We will decide at our next meeting.

Book club meeting at Matt's Italian & Pizzeria

We met for the second time at Matt's.   There were 8 of us; the first in a long time we have had such a good turn out.  It was difficult to talk so that everyone could hear at once.  We need round tables in restaurants for large groups. Once again I ordered spinach & mushroom pizza just added tomatoes and shared it with Linda.  Next time I'll try the calzone with spinach with the 2 cheeses; I know one was ricotta.  

Yes, we want to meet at Matt's again.  We have changed our meeting place for the fourth time.  We like good books and we like good food.

As usual, very little discussion of the book itself.  We all loved the Young Adult book,  Eye of the Crow by Shane Peacock dealing with the first Sherlock Holmes mystery.  We all thought the writer's obvious tribute to  Arthur  C. Doyle, where one of the characters was a Andrew C. Doyle, was a good touch.  The description of London during that period and the tension in the storyline were very well done.  Most of the chatter was about Christine relocating to California and Carol who will be joining our group. 

Linda wanted us to know that she was enjoying Carlos Ruiz Zafon series of Young Adult books.  The club loved Shadow of the Wind by this author. It was magical, gothic, and suspenseful.  She said he had four books  for Young Adults.  I found the first two in the series, The Prince of Mist    and The Midnight Palace  in English on amazon. The other two listed on amazon are in Spanish, Las Luces de Septiembre and Marina.

Our next book for August is The Passage by Justin Cronin.

The Boy Sherlock Holmes Series

We will meet on the fourth Friday this month to discuss the first of four books in The Boy Sherlock Holmes series.   So far all the book-clubbers have enjoyed Eye of the Crow, the first case, and some have moved on to Death in the Air.  We do not exclude the Young Adult category from our list of books to discuss. Read an excerpt of Eye of the Crow here. 

The Birds and Young Sherlock Holmes

Just started The Eye of the Crow.  Abundant use of bird symbolism in the few pages that I have read.  Crows are usually symbols of death and magic.  The teen aged Sherlock is quite fond of these carrion eating crows.  In this story they follow him around as he plays hooky from school.  In the first few pages of the story, Sherlock reads a newspaper article about a murder of an attractive young lady.  Sherlock spots a crow in the newspaper's photo of the deceased girl.  Sherlock's Dad just happens to have an interest in ornithology and works with doves, symbolic of peace.   I will see in the next few days how this story develops.

Personal note: I first started this blog some years ago for my book club so that I could be more proficient with the new social media.  More recently, I started a twitter account for the Okefenokee Toastmasters Club (#oketoast) for the same reason.  Today I came across this blog,  23 Things For Professional Development.   I have read about 23 Things before but this seems to be an updated version and I am going to try to participate as much as I can.  Already, I posted comments on two blogs to spread my online wings and in accordance with "Thing 2" - Establish an online presence.

Book Club Blog selection

Here is what book lovers over at Book Buddies are reading for October: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith (1896-1972), a book that was first published over 60 years ago.

Going by amazon.com, this book would fall in the category of Young Adult, for readers 10 years old and older.

By the way, Book Buddies already read and discussed The Help back in July. That is our pick for our meeting in October.

Harry Potter series

I agree; Jo Rowling, also known as J.K.Rowling, has done more to promote literacy than anyone on the planet. So many children tacked those huge volumes of the Harry Potter series. Read her interview with Oprah. Watch the trailer to a Potter movie.