Book Talk

One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd was our recent book club selection (after the first pick, available on e-readers only, was nixed).  I'm glad we had to go with the second choice because this is a book I'd seen many times but had never been compelled on my own to select.  In 1875, the Cheyenne Indians made a request to President Grant that one thousand white women be sent to marry and reproduce with Cheyenne men so that their children would have the same rights and access to education as other white children.  In real life, the US Government officials didn't follow through with sending the women, but this book is based on the premise that they did.  For her own reasons, May Dodd is among the first group of white women sent to marry the "savages", and she chronicles her experiences in a journal that is read and reprinted many, many years later.  History meets a woman who was an absolute modern-day pioneer in her own right in this excellent novel.

The Murderer's Daughters follows two sisters after their lives are turned upside down the day their father murders their mother.  They deal in very different ways with living in an orphanage, becoming foster children, growing into adults, and coping with the loss of both of their parents.  The story alternates between the viewpoints of the two sisters: one who has made a habit of visiting her father in prison for thirty years, and one who refuses to acknowledge his presence at all.  I enjoyed that this was a fairly easy, quick read, but I felt like the details could have been more evenly distributed.  As the book neared the end, it seemed like the author just skimmed the surface.  The characters ended up being predictable and sometimes irritating; for me, the story definitely left something to be desired. 

 

I finally finished The Hunger Games trilogy.  Steve and I went to see the movie a couple weeks ago, and even though he hadn't read the book, he loved the movie as much as I did.  I am going to go against popular opinion and say that Catching Fire, the second book, was my favorite of the three.  Mockingjay was the first book I read on my new Kindle ... the perfect pick!

Every woman I know is talking about Fifty Shades of Grey.  Two months ago I hadn't heard a thing about the trilogy, and now I can't find myself in a conversation where it doesn't make an appearance.  Someone told me last week that the author's style of writing is fantastic, and that I would really appreciate that quality in the books.  Somehow I don't think women are flocking to the Grey books because they are so well written.  And I'm not convinced they are for me.  However, knowing my inability to pass on the books that everyone is talking about (except for the Twilight series - yep, passed on it without apology or regret), it's possible that my next Book Talk post will include my raving praise for the books that are keeping women turning the pages way past bedtime.

"Books are the plane, and the train, and the road.  They are the destination, and the journey.  They are home."
Anna Quindlen