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Books

The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
Oh man, this book.  I think I cried through the last quarter.  So terribly sad.  (How did I keep reading through it?)  I think you can classify this as historical fiction based in WWII.  
Last sentence in the book:  I am haunted by humans.  

Dreams from My Father - Barack Obama
This was another book club choice, which I read, and then found out I couldn't go because I was traveling for work.  Bummer, but I enjoyed the book anyway.  
Pretty positive no other President has a background similar to Pres. Obama's upbringing.  As I kept reading, I kept thinking, 'he became president!!?!!?!!!'  It's amazing and shows you shouldn't discredit anyone.

I Sailed with Magellan - Stuart Dybek
This was a book club choice as well.
Honestly, I was the only one who finished it as the other girls weren't into it.  One of the girls opened it up with feeling that it was racist and negatively portrayed women.  I did agree there weren't strong female characters.  After we discussed the author's introduction of different races in one of the short stories specifically (because most of them read the first one) we started talking about how the adult shouldn't have led the kids into the other neighborhood where they were in danger.  At the end of the story the main character ended up playing with a kid from the other neighborhood in a fire hydrant.  
One of the girls in the group said:  I think it means maybe the adults have it messed up and kids have it right.

Five Star Billionaire - Tash Aw
Well, this one definitely wasn't uplifting.  Based in China, pretty sure all the characters' cracking points were documented in this book.  Imagine Love Actually minus the love and happiness.  Each chapter is written from a different character, which at the beginning is a bit confusing, but that works it's way out.
I will note this is the first book I read through the library's electronic download, which was pretty great.  I still had to wait a bit of time before I got the email it was available for me, but no complaints.  And, no, I didn't download the app they recommended.  I just read it in the web browser. 

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle - Barbara Kingsolver
This book makes me want to preach.  But let's be real, nobody really wants a preacher.  This one is all about eating locally.  It's pretty much a perfect read as farmer's markets come back!  I know I'm not near a perfect steward of this, but it definitely makes me think more about my choices & I'm hoping to be more conscious of this.  Allow me to leave you with a few points:

  • take advantage of farmer's markets.  seriously, they're everywhere.
  • "Eaters must understand, how we eat determines how the world is used."
  • I loved how she brought up how certain foods make you think of certain people and how they (or you with them) made things and still do.  A few people if I played the first food to come to mind along those lines:
    • Mom-zucchini bread
    • Grandma R. - cinnamon rolls and stolen (honestly, this list could go on for awhile)
    • Grandma C. - orange cinnamon rolls and Aunt Jemima pancakes.  Clearly, we had a lot of breakfast with her.
The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt
I'm sure you heard of this one by now, it seems everyone seems to be talking about it.  And I get it.  It's one of those books you don't want to put down.  I would often think of it while doing other things and just want to read the book.
Definitely a lot of foreshadowing.
It was not an uplifting book per say and just as it sort-of was, it just became super real.  Not bad real, but real.
This book is relatively long and as I was reaching the point where I was ready for it to be over twists I wasn't expecting came in and it got me thinking...

If you're interested in joining our book club, we're meeting on June 8th at 6pm in Lakeview.  Discussing Lives of Girls and Women.

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