Drumroll please....

This month, Heidi selected the book Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani. Trigiani, herself a native of Virginia, writes about small-town life in the Blue Ridge Mountains. As members of a small community, we should have a lot to relate to when it comes to the eccentricities of rural life. The Goodreads synopsis reads, "Ave Maria Mulligan is the town's self-proclaimed spinster, a thirty-five year old pharmacist with a "mountain girl's body and a flat behind." She lives an amiable life with good friends and lots of hobbies until the fateful day in 1978 when she suddenly discovers that she's not who she always thought she was. Before she can blink, Ave's fielding marriage proposals, fighting off greedy family members, organizing a celebration for visiting celebrities, and planning the trip of a lifetime—a trip that could change her view of the world and her own place in it forever." Trigiani has received an abundance of praise for her books and the club is excited to become a part of her fanbase.

Our next meeting will be on 8 June 2013 from 1-3 PM in the Ladysmith branch meeting room.

Divergent

For the most part, club members agreed that Kill Me if You Can was a little too “adult”, with scenes of sexuality and incest that made this particular book an uncomfortable read.

The good news is that we read two books for May, and the second title, Divergent, was absolutely fantastic. Everyone loved Divergent and a few members have already started reading the second installment, Insurgent. **Warning: here be spoilers** Even with all of the enthusiasm, Divergent still only earned about 4 out of 5 stars; there were some moments when Beatrice (or Tris) acted a little dense. At times, it was obvious to the reader that her love interest, Four, was trying to protect her. Tris had a hard time seeing the “big picture” politically-speaking, that to be Divergent and have enough brain power to manipulate simulations is a dangerous notion to a government that wants to turn the Dauntless into mindless drones. Pride kept Tris striving to be at the head of the pack, when common sense dictates that she ought to feign a bit more weakness and compliance. Still, Divergent proved great discussion-fodder, bringing out the conspiracy-theorist in all of us. The romance was also just right, enough to relieve the tension but not so much as to make anyone uncomfortable, always ending with some fiery kisses and imaginings about a shirtless Four on the part of the reader. **Spoilers over**

After the third of Roth’s books, Allegiant, is released, it might be worth dedicating another meeting to discussing the completed trilogy. And if you haven’t already, take the Faction quiz on the official Divergent facebook page. It’s fun to have something to really get into again, rather like The Hunger Games.

And our next book is....

Actually, this month, we have two.

At the request of our youngest member, we will be reading Kill me if you Can by James Patterson and Marshall Karp. Matthew Bannon, a poor art student living in New York City, finds a duffel bag filled with diamonds during a chaotic attack at Grand Central Station. Plans for a worry-free life with his stunning girlfriend Katherine fill his thoughts--until he realizes that he is being hunted, and that whoever is after him won't stop until they have reclaimed the diamonds and exacted their revenge.
In addition to Kill Me, we will also be reading Divergent, the first in a new trilogy by Veronica Roth. In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue--Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is--she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.Both books promise exciting plots and have gotten very good ratings on Goodreads. Our next meeting will be on Saturday, May 18th at the Ladysmith branch from 1-3PM.

The Casual Vacancy

The general consensus of last Saturday's meeting was that The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling was only "okay". While Heidi felt that the book got more easy to understand as the story went on, the whole group agreed that the story got off to a very slow start. There were simply too many characters to keep track of, the British slang got confusing, and some of the adult themes seemed just a bit too - well - adult.

We felt that Rowling was trying far too hard to sound like an adult writer, to break away from the sort of young adult, fantasy, family-friendly writing that she had done with the Harry Potter series. Her depictions of sex, violence, drug use, and language seemed mostly unnecessary; like Kyra said, "It's like someone trying to sound smart by using a bunch of big words they just looked up." And actually, it seemed as though Rowling had done a bit of that, too.

Overall, the book was probably a solid C-. It had a story that eventually got resolved and a few interesting moments and characters, but the ins and outs of English small-town politics were little more than a complicated distraction around Rowling's (somewhat poorly organized) depictions of suburban duplicity. What she managed to capture in the very first chapter of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (the two-faced nature of a nosey neighbor, trying to hide their dirty laundry) took Rowling an entire novel to accomplish this go-round, and it was still only so-so.

However, those of us who have read the Harry Potter series all agreed that nothing could ever really make us think less of good ol' Jo. We'll just have to remember her for the good times.

Passing the Torch

Hey y'all!

Most of the members already know me, but for those who don't - I'm Jessica and I am now the library liaison for the Book Club. Megan recently got a promotion, which is good news for her, but sad news for all of us who love her, as it means all of her time will be occupied at the Bowling Green branch from now on. Hopefully, she will still have the time to attend our meetings as a member and maybe enjoy it even more, now that the responsibilities have been passed to another.

And on that note, I'll give you a little bit about myself: I'm a student at the University of Mary Washington, slated to graduate this May. I'll earn my BA in English and am planning to go on to graduate school to become a fully-fledged librarian. I plan to be at Caroline Library, Inc. for a very long time. I like fantasy novels (Harry Potter, the Lord of the Rings), science fiction, Doctor Who, and most sub-genres of Young Adult fiction. I love travel and crafts and sweet tea and, of course, books.

I hope that the book club can continue to be as awesome as Megan always made it, but we've got such a good group of readers that I have very few reservations about how things will progress.