Count Down

 This month's book club is so exciting....we are going to be joined by the author, Laurie Stevens (or Laurie Price to us insiders!)

 Don't be late....Noreen is the hostess on Oct 14th.  BE THERE!

Did anyone miss the fact that our Kathy had a significant birthday?

Dark Before Dawn

Guest blogger - Noreen

Book Description

Publication Date: June 24, 2011

High in the Santa Monica Mountains near Los Angeles, grisly murders are taking place. On each of the victim's bodies a note is left for L.A. Sheriff's detective, Gabriel McRay. The killer's identity is locked in the suppressed memory of a horrifying trauma from Gabriel's own childhood. Teamed with his forensic pathologist girlfriend and his pyschiatrist, Gabriel runs two parallel investigations. The first: a dark journey into the terrifying recollections of his past and the second, the hunt for a serial killer who seems to know more about Gabriel... then he knows himself.

Editorial Reviews

"Memorable characters, macabre scenes and a dazzling portrayal of reality will leave readers anxious for book two in the Gabriel McCray series." - Kirkus Review

"Readers will relate to the San Francisco and Los Angeles settings, and Stevens' allusions to "Cask of Amontillado" (an Edgar Allen Poe short story) and Frankenstein craft a story immersed in theater, disguise and secrecy." - Kirkus Review

"Stevens sets the stage for graphic sensory details and a fast-paced, tantalizing mystery that utilizes her passion and research in forensics and psychology." - Kirkus Review

"A great twisting plot. Crisp, true dialogue. Bravo!" - Beverly Ovelin, author "The Good Side of Bad"

About the Author

Laurie Stevens has written numerous stories and articles for local and national publications. She has written for television and co-wrote and produced the stage play, "Follow Your Dreams." "The Dark Before Dawn" is the first novel in the Gabriel McRay detective series and has earned the Kirkus Star of Merit and was named to Kirkus Review's "Best of 2011".  Laurie is really Laurie Price.  She is married to Steven Price, my cousin's son.

Learn more about Laurie at www.lauriestevensbooks.com  She is an accomplished writer and a lovely woman!

Grey or is it RED?

50 Shades of Grey

Barnes & Noble posed a $41 million net loss in the quarter ending in July. However - America's demand for the steamy 50 Shades of Grey trilogy helped B&N post quarterly numbers which exceeded the company's expectations.

  Oh yeah everyone is talking about it.

Pop culture.....and fantasy? Yep! We had a lively chat and lots of giggles. Some members not only finished the book but read on to #2 and #3.  

(need I mention we had about 50 shades of blush at the table?)

Instead of trying to recall all our comments....why not watch a professional read from the book?

We had a great time! wonderful food too!

Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to continually be part of unanimity. 

Christopher Morley, writer (1890-1957)

 

August Thought

July Report

Ann Patchette has come and gone, pretty much in a State of Wonder. Those who finished the book were in a minority. There were no rave reviews....a few gave it an  OK.    

Next up, (no pun intended) Aug 25th,  Roz has selected our next read, Fifty Shades of Grey by E L James.  This is the first book of a trilogy which is  "The book being read by every woman in America",  as reported on TV talk shows! The trilogy is commonly referred to as "Mommie Porn"  to which James takes exception.

British Author EL James

Interesting choice for a book club (we are not alone in selecting this book) because we spend a lot of time   reading  about liberated,  independent women!

You might ask is it porn?  Read this review 

A  few more  reviews you may enjoy:

The semi-famous Three Grandmothers review the book:
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/entertainment/2012/06/three-grandmothers-review-50-shades-of-grey/

Newsweek published an article:
http://www.heroesandheartbreakers.com/blogs/2012/04/newsweek-says-fifty-shades-of-grey-is-working-womans-fantasy-of-submission

Interesting quote:

"I’'ve never read “50 Shades of Grey,” but trust a co-worker, who says she wanted to “stab her eyes out” while reading it with her book club.

A reader of this blog has a higher opinion of the book, saying “The 3-book series begins with Anastasia Steele, a young woman, meeting and falling for millionaire Christian Grey, a gorgeous man with a dark past who draws her into his world of BDSM.”

Whatever you think of the novel, it’s certainly getting people’s attention. “50 Shades” has sold 20 million copies and surpassed “Harry Potter & The Chamber Pot of Smelly Secrets” as the fastest-selling paperback of all time." check this link

Ann Patchett

Deb has selected State of Wonder by Ann Patchette for our next read. Not our first book by Patchette we all read Bel Canto. 




Read the partial reviews below. Click on links for the entire review.  Warning, the links may have spoilers.

The following is an excerpt from the NY Times Book Review June 2011

"Dr. Marina Singh, the 42-year-old research scientist who is the heroine of “State of Wonder,” Ann Patchett’s most far-flung yet somehow least exotic book, is in her office at a large pharmaceutical company in Minnesota when the bad news arrives. Marina does unremarkable research on cholesterol. She is having an unremarkable affair with Mr. Fox, the company’s C.E.O. The bland, far-from-fantastic Mr. Fox arrives to tell her that her research partner, Dr. Anders Eckman, has died of a fever in a remote part of Brazil."


Evidently this all happens on the second page of the novel.


Taken from The Guardian, UK 2011: 


In the disenchanted millennial world, the American search for wonder centres on the very large and the unimaginably small. At one pole, there's the globe as playground, the hunt through the shrinking wildernesses for whatever magic may somehow lie hidden beyond the totalising reach of GPS. At the other extreme, there's the seething world below eye level, the microscopic life of cells and bacteria. Ann Patchett's sixth novel, State of Wonder, merges the two kingdoms in the story of a pharmacologist, Marina Singh, who travels into the Amazonian jungle to spend time with the mysterious Lakashi tribe.