Since our last post...

Hey All,

It's been a while since we have had a new post, but the Lit Chicks are still here reading.  I'm Emily and I am a new contributor to the NoVA Lit Chicks Blog (but a long-time member of the club).  We are going to try to be better about keeping our website and our twitter feed up to date.  We have also created a NoVA Lit Chick Tumblr where we have all kinds of fun posts about books.

So here is a rundown of what we have since our last update, which was a while ago.  I'm including a brief summary of the books as well as a summary of our club's reactions.

• "The Secrets of Mary Bowser" by Lois Leveen - Inspired by the true story of a freed black woman from the Richmond, VA area who goes back to being a slave so she can spy on the President of the Confederacy Jefferson Davis.  Most of us found it entertaining by light on historical accuracy

• "Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness" by Susannah Cahalan - Memior of a promising up-an-coming journalist who finds her world turned upside down by a mysterious illness.  Calahan did a really great job of balancing the narrative between the emotional impact of her disease as and explaining the science behind it.  

• "The Beekeeper's Apprentice" by Laurie R. King - The first book in a mystery series about Mary Russell, who as a young girl meets a retired Sherlock Holmes.  He trains her and later they become partners in mystery solving (sorry John Watson - although he does appear too).  The mystery lovers of the club really loved it.

• "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" by Ransom Rigg - Jacob goes searching for the orphanage for extremely gifted children that his late grandfather told him tales about, but he's not the only one looking for it.  While the pictures scattered throughout the book are a little creepy, the story wasn't.  It's a well written YA fantasy thriller and several members are looking forward to the follow-up books.

• "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson - The detailed tales of the birth of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair and the beginning of the serial killer H.H. Holmes.  It was a very long and descriptive book; however members who are history wonks really enjoyed it.

• "Mornings in Jenin" by Susan Abulhawa - This tale chronicles the lives of the Abulhejas, a Palestinian family who is uprooted from their ancestral homeland at the beginning of the Israel/Palestine conflict.  Abulhawa does a good job of capturing both loss and hope.

• "Serena" by Ron Rash - George Pemberton brings his new bride to the North Carolina forests to help him rule his lumber empire.  George soon finds out that Serena will let nothing stand in her way, even him.  This story was really well written, but also extremely dark and twisted. Not a good read for people who are squeemish.

• "Mirror, Mirror, Off the Wall: How I Learned to Love My Body By Not Looking At It For a Year" by Kjerstin Gruys - Years after recovering from a eating disorder, Kjerstin Gruys finds herself possibly heading down that path again as she prepares for her wedding.  This is the true story of the drastic measures she took to preserve her sanity and a look at body image and marketing issues in western culture today.  Some people loved this book, some people really hated this book.  It was one of our more heated discussions.

• "The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane" by Katherine Howe- Connie's life is coming apart. Her thesis advisor tells her that her thesis won't stand without the discovery of new first person sources, and her mom is insisting she moves out to Salem for the summer and clean up her grandmother's deserted house so they can sell it before the bank forecloses on her.  Can she get things back together?  This was a nice lighter read, with a little bit of fantasy thrown in.

• "The Homecoming of Samuel Lake" by Jenny Wingfield - After losing his congregation, Samuel Lake and his wife Willadee Moses have to move back in with her family.  Overall people liked it, but the story did get a bit dark at times.

• "The Orphan Master's Son" by Adam Johnson - This is the tale about how one man rises through the ranks to become one of North Korea's premiere assassins, all to have it threatened when he falls in love with an actress.  Some people liked it, but many of us found this book hard to read through.

• "Dancing on Broken Glass" by Ka Hancock - Mickey and Lucy are happily married, despite the roadblocks set up by their crappy DNA.  Their able to do this because of a set of rules they established to help them deal with their challenging set of problems, but one day they find these rules have been thrown out the window.  Members describe this book as being raw, sad, and emotional - one of the more tear-jerking books that we have read.

• "Norwegian Wood" by Haruki Murakami - This book details the sexual awakening of a Japanese boy who has fallen in love with his late best friend's girlfriend.  While amazon describes as a coming-of-age tale, we found it to be mostly the author's chance to talk about wanking off, A LOT.  We weren't big fans of this book.

• "Night Film" by Marisha Pessl - Scott McGrath's life was turned upside down years ago when he pursued an expose on cult horror film director Stanislas Cordova.  He finds himself revisiting  that chase after the director's daughter is found dead - supposedly by suicide.  The story is a serious mind-trip.  Members found it entertaining, although a bit long. 

• "Goldfinch" by Donna Tartt - Theo, who loses his mom in an accident, is taken in to live by a rich family in Manhattan.  As he grows up, he finds himself pulled into the underworld of art.  This was a LONG book, that many members still haven't finished (me included), but the people who did finish seemed to find some good parts of the book.  

• "The Rest of Her Life" by Laura Moriarty - On the last day of school, Leigh's daughter Kara accidentally hits and kills one of her classmates with her family's SUV.  The book details how Leigh's family deals with the repercussions of the accident and how Leigh struggles to communicate with her daughter.  Most of us felt that it was an ok book.  Well written, but it didn't present anything new.  It felt very similar to many Jodi Picoult's books.

• "Shadow of the Wind" by Carlos Ruiz Zafon - When asked by his father to select a endangered book that he will protect for rest of his life Daniel chooses "Shadow of the Wind" by Julian Carax,  After learning that there is a mysterious figure out in the world who has made it his mission to destroy everything ever written by Carax, Daniel sets out on a goose chase to find out all he can about Carax so he can stop this man in his tracks.  Readers who like mystical realism or historical fiction (it covers Spain during its civil war and the years after) will should like this book. Club member Stephanie called it one of the best books she's read in a long time.  
• "Palisades Park" by Alan Brennert - Eddie Stopka biggest dream is to work at Palisades Park Amusement Park.  One day he makes it a reality, shaping the lives of his future family.  This is a story about dreams- making them happen and letting them change.  You definitely get a feeling that this book is tribute to not only the amusement park, but also to a piece of time in Brennert's life.  We had read and loved Brennert's book "Molokai" (about a lepur colony in Hawaii) years ago.  While that book felt very raw and real, "Palisades Park" felt very idealized and polished.  Still, it's a great read, especially if you are looking for something more hopeful and light.

So that is what we have read during this last year.

Other club news:

• Hello's:  This year we have welcomed our new member Julia.  She's a native of the NoVA area.  She recently lead her first discussion when we read "Shadows of the Wind"
• Goodbye's: This year we lost/are losing two of our two-year members: Kim left in May and Stephanie is leaving in November.  Both ladies received great job opportunities that require them to move away from NoVA.  We're really happy that they are achieving all professional success, but I can tell you that we miss/will miss them both. 

We do currently have a membership slot open.  If you are looking for a book club, please visit our "Join the Lit Chicks" page to find out more about how to become a member.  

We're looking forward to starting this blog back up and keeping you up-to-date on what is happening in the NoVA Lit Chicks.  Later on this weekend I'll be writing about what books we have coming up. If there is anything you would like to see, please let us know in the comments.  Also remember that you can check us out on Twitter and Tumblr.

Thanks!
Emily

NVLC Spring Blog Cleaning

Happy 2013 NVLC Friends and Fans!  Our year is already off to a great start.  Here's a recap of our book discussions this year so far.

1. Let's Pretend this Never Happened by Jenny Lawson (January 2013)

Carrie chose this memoir by the "Bloggess" and most of the women found it hilarious.  Frankly, I couldn't stand it, but some members liked it so much they are new converts to Ms. Lawson's blog.

I was crying from laughing! - Lorene

Hilarious. Without a doubt the funniest book I have read in years, if not ever. A few of her episodes (Beyonce, the chicken shiv, turkeys, OD-ing on Ex-Lax, etc) had me laughing until I wept. I can only hope that her often referenced "second book" will actually become a reality soon. Until then, her blog will suffice.

I highly recommend to anyone looking for an easy, light read with lots of laughs. If you are easily offended by swearing or sexual innuendo, DO NOT READ THIS BOOK!!!!!! I will say that stuff usually bothers me, but it came off more as her style of writing and less as crass. Either way, consider yourself warned.  - Stephanie

2. Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult (February 2013)

Jeanette's first time hosting and leading the discussion and she did an excellent job!  This book was about a murder mystery in Pennsylvania Amish country.  The interplay between a Philadelphia attorney and the local Amish was entertaining and the group gave it average reviews.

"Picoult now explores the complex choices of the heart for a young Amish woman -- the compelling journey of discovery for an urban lawyer who befriends and protects her."  (Goodreads.com)


      3. The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway (March 2013)

Kim's first time leading the discussion and she too did an excellent job!  Rina hosted at her house.  The group definitely enjoyed this short, yet powerful, book.  I read it about a year ago and loved it then.  "A spare and haunting, wise and beautiful novel about the endurance of the human spirit and the subtle ways individuals reclaim their humanity in a city ravaged by war." (Goodreads.com)

Kim picked this book based her personal and professional attachment to this area of the world, and her perspective from having lived in the Balkans made for an even better discussion.


A compelling read. Prior to reading this, I didn't know a lot about the Siege of Sarajevo. Although this is fiction, I felt it had a lot of elements of realism--not just in the descriptions of the activities, but also the complex character studies and the human emotions and insecurities of the characters. It was a quick read, and I was sucked right in. Enjoyed this book. - Dustina

       4.  The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng (April 2013)

This month was my pick, and I tried to choose a book that had excellent reviews on Goodreads and Amazon....and one I'd never heard of.  This was a long, dense, but beautifully written story with lots of complexity and character depth.  Not everyone made it through the whole book, but it seemed that those who read the whole book did find it enjoyable.  If nothing else, it made me look up Penang in Wikipedia to find out where it was :-)

"The Gift of Rain spans decades as it takes readers from the final days of the Chinese emperors to the dying era of the British Empire, and through the mystical temples, bustling cities,and forbidding rain forests of Malaya."  (Goodreads.com)


Looking forward to our next quarter of books!

NVLC Fall Catch-Up Blog

Wow!  Hard to believe the last time I updated our blog was in July.  Here's a quick catch-up blog in advance of the NoVA Lit Chicks October meeting tomorrow night. 

1.  The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka (July 2012)

Of course this was my pick....and I failed to keep up with the blog to go with it.  Overall, I think the group enjoyed the book.  This was a quick read that I enjoyed, and I think Oprah summed it up best:

“Spare and stunning. . . . By using the collective ‘we’ to convey a constantly shifting, strongly held group identity within which distinct individuals occasionally emerge and recede, Otsuka has created a tableau as intricate as the pen strokes her humble immigrant girls learned to use in letters to loved ones they’d never see again.” —O, The Oprah Magazine

2.  The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt (August 2012)

Lauren chose this book, and it's odd that we would have two westerns in one year (see: True Grit in March 2012), but the general consensus on this book was positive.  Rina (possibly Lorene?) made the interesting point in asking if our opinion of the characters would change if we considered them as older men (instead of younger men). 

3.  Also at the August meeting we welcomed two new members, Lorene and Kim!  Looking forward to Lorene's first book pick in this upcoming quarter. 

4.  Russian Winter by Daphne Kalotay (September 2012)

Dustina's book choice was revised at the August meeting since her original pick wasn't available at the library.  Russian Winter won the re-vote.  We seemed to struggle with getting through this long novel and the back and forth between reality, Russia, and memories.  Most members did finish the book and enjoyed the plot twists at the end.  

5.  More new members!  We welcomed Rina's friend Jen to the NVLC at the September meeting!

Tomorrow night we'll hold our October meeting where we'll discuss this month's book, A Crime in the Neighborhood, and choose our picks for November, December, and January. 

My NVLC new-quarter-resolution is to update the blog more :)