AtomicKnits

Some Girls: My Life in a Harem

Some Girls by Jillian Lauren was not a work of literary genius, but it was a pretty good story and quick read.  This story spans about 18 months and describes the author's experiences while being a "party guest" for Prince Jefri of Brunei. I liked how Lauren seems to have no regrets about this part of her life, and doesn't necessarily describe her experience has a sex worker as being a "bad" thing.  What I was disappointed about was the fact that I didn't feel like the author was in a better place or learned any important lessons at the end.  I feel like she just went over to Brunei, got tons of money, and then proceeded to blow it all on fashion and still have no clue about what she wanted to do with her life. I can't blame her for the gobs of money part, but I would have bought my luggage at Target instead of Louis Vuitton and saved the rest.

The House of the Spirits

The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende is a pretty epic book.  It's about the lives of the Trueba family and their lives in Chile during a pretty tumultuous period of time. The patriarch, Esteban Trueba is pretty much an asshole.  His character grows and changes throughout his life, but still a giant A at the end. All of the women in this story are great with the exception that they let Esteban boss them around. The women all have a magical side, and it's unclear whether it's entirely charm or maybe some real magic.  I like that!  The writing is also very rich which caused me to have to re-read parts, especially at night, but made for an excellent time. I would recommend this book to anyone to likes reading about families (especially women's relationships) and political history.

The Alchemist

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho was pretty cool.  It was a very quick read, and it had a lot of good lessons to learn. The story is about following your dreams.  Something that I, personally, am really scared of doing.  It talks a lot about what can happen to you if you don't follow your dream, and the awesome things that can happen to you if you do.  It didn't talk a lot about what you have to do to overcome all of your fears before you can follow a dream, which, I guess, is what I'm really looking for. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who thinks they are just average and not meant to do anything great. This story definitely reinforces the fact that everyone does have a purpose, and that purpose only needs to be important to YOU. Sometimes we need to be reminded. I know I do!

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows was recommended to me by one of the ladies at my knitting group.  She described it as "such a sweet book," and it is exactly that. I really liked it. It was a quick read, all of the characters were nice people, and there was a love story.  There was also a lot of history about the German occupation on Guernsey during World War II.  The story was told entirely in letters, so that was pretty cool, so everyone sounded all flowey and quaint. I hope they make a movie out of this one, and get some really hot guy to play the male lead.

Children of the Mind

I finally had a chance to read the 4th and last book in the Ender Quartet, Children of the Mind, by Orson Scott Card.  I think this one is my third favorite in the series (my least favorite being Xenocide). I am pretty happy with the way things ended up - happily ever after for the most part.  I don't really have that much to say about this, it was a good read. It pretty much just tied up all of the open story lines pretty nicely, which is kind of annoying, but I am satisfied.

The Lacuna

This month's book club pick was The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver. I was really excited to read this book, because I have never read one of Kingsolver's books. Everyone I know that has says they are great. Characters in the story included Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, who I learned a lot about in college. I thought this book was pretty good. I really liked the main character, Shepherd. He grew up in Mexico with his mother, and eventually became the cook for the Rivera household. He was also a cook/secretary for Leon Trotsky, who sayed with the Rivera during his exile from Russia. Toward the end of his life, he moved back to the states and became a successful writer. He became a product of his surroundings by the end of the story for sure, and that was sad.  The way that Kingsolver writes completely lets you into the Shepherd's mind. I was really captured, and I liked him. One of the things I really liked about this book was the way it contrasted Mexico and the United States during the World War II era. It was interesting to read about the differences between the people and the governments of these two countries.  Also, if Shepherd could have had more love affairs with dudes on the down low, I would have appreciated that too.

The Master and Margarita

I get why this book is popular, but The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov was not by cup of tea.  I think if I knew more about the Bible or the legends that this story was based on, then I think I may have enjoyed it, but I don't and I didn't. This was not a long book, but it took me forever to get through. I found it really hard to remember the characters, and the things that happened were just boring. I'm sure I would feel differently if I were an intellectual fancypants, but I think it's ok for me to just not like this book. The reason I wanted to read this book was for the magical-ness of the characters and events. I wish this book didn't have that stuff in there, because I wouldn't have wanted to read it in the first place if that were the case.

The Shipping News

Justin got a copy of The Shipping News by Annie Proulx, so I decided to give it a read. I have sort of been wanting to read it for a while. You know, it thought it was just ok. I liked all of the Newfoundland stuff and I liked all of the fishing stuff and the small town 'salt of the earth' themes, etc. I wanted more drama and tears than what I got. I wanted the daughter, Bunny, to really be crazy, and I wanted deep dark family secrets to emerge and actually have an effect on the characters. I'm thinking I may enjoy the movie more.

Olive Kitteridge

The latest book club pick is Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout.  This is a collection of short stories that all share a character - Olive Kitteridge.  I really enjoyed this one a lot.  All of the characters were very New England-ey and the writing style was just really enjoyable.  I felt like I could related to some of the characters in this book a lot.  A lot of them have stayed in their home towns for their whole lives and expected their kids to do the same also.  One part of the book really got me.  Olive and Henry's son Christopher gets married and moves out of the house that his parents built for him to go to California with his new wife.  Olive and Henry are just so crushed by this and it always comes up throughout the entire book. I wonder if that's how my family feels about me and my brother moving far away.  It made me sad. I don't think that Christopher should have stayed in that town forever, but it just made me sad.  A lot of the themes in this book were along those lines.  Even though some of them were sad, I still really liked reading the whole thing. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes crazy New England up-tightness and reading stories about families.

Xenocide

Xenocide, by Orson Scott Card is the third book in the Ender series.  This book took be a bit longer to get through.  It was not as fast-paced, and had some heavier sci-fi theory mixed in.  I still really enjoyed it, though. Ender is in his 60's, living on Lusitania, and Congress decides they are going to blow the planet up, because it holds a virus that can kill humans.  The humans on Lusitania are alive, because they take all these supplements and eat special foods.  The virus is essential to the survival of the piggies, the native species.  So, the whole argument is to either kill all of the piggies to save the humans, or vice versa.  Also, the buggers are there. Yeah, they've been resurrected, but they can leave whenever they want since they can build a starship in like two seconds. I was also happy when Ender's wife totally went bananas. FINALLY. I never really liked her. I think I'll read a few other books before reading the next Ender book. This book was awesome. If you thought that the first two Ender books were too "mainstream" then you may like this one a little bit better.