Tuesday, November 30, 2010

November's Book of the Month

Hello Everyone! I chose the picture posted above because it reminds me of reading to my daughter Mareena when she was little. Every afternoon until she was about eight or nine years old, we would take one of her books that she wanted to read or that she was reading and we would curl up together on my big bed. 

We would spend an hour or so reading a chapter of her book, and then take a nap together. Her absolutely favorite author at that time was an English author named Enid Blyton. Ahh, nice memories...

My picks for 'Books of the Month' will be decidedly more adult these days, but they will be from almost any genre. November's Book of the Month is: 


One True Thing: A Novel by Anna Quindlen
Published as: One True Thing in 1994
Publisher: Random House



Birth Name: Anna Marie Quindlen
Born: 8 July 1952 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Canonical Name: Anna Quindlen
Pseudonyms: None

One True Thing: A Novel by Anna Quindlen was the sixty-first book that I read in 2010. I have had two copies of this book on my TBR shelf since March 5, 2010 and it took me ten days to read. I sent the paperback copy of this book off to another good home on August 10, 2011. Although, I'm planning to keep the second copy of the book for a little while longer and maybe read it again at some point in the future.

Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

Friday, November 26, 2010

Anna Quindlen - One True Thing: A Novel

61. One True Thing: A Novel by Anna Quindlen (1994)
Length: 289 pages
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Started: 16 November 2010
Finished: 26 November 2010
Where did it come from? From a Library Book Sale
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 1 October 2010
Why do I have it? I like contemporary fiction and I read and enjoyed Blessings by the same author in the past.

A young woman sits in jail accused of murder. While she claims that she is in fact innocent of the charges against her, she also says that the crime was actually an act of mercy. She tells everyone who will listen that she may know who committed the crime.

When Ellen Gulden first learns that her mother, Kate, is suffering from cancer, the disease has already become far advanced. Actually, she has always held a special place within her family. As the oldest of three children, Ellen has always been seen as the high achiever of the family; her father's intellectual match, and the person who is most caught in the middle between her parents. So, when her father insists that Ellie quit her job and come home to care for Kate, she feels obligated to fulfill her father's wishes.

However, while everyone else sees Ellen's role in the family as that of the dutiful daughter, she sees herself as very different from her mother. Kate Gulden was always the talented homemaker, the family's popular center, its one true thing. Ellen secretly believes that she will never truly measure up to her mother, no matter what she does. Yet as she begins to spend more time with Kate, Ellen learns many surprising things, not only about herself but also about her mother, a woman she thought she knew so well.

As the days progress for Ellen and Kate, the life choices both women have made are reassessed in this deeply personal and poignant novel, a work of fiction which is inbued with richly detailed and profound insights into the complex lives and relationships of men and women. I have to say that while this book dealt with a very heavy subject, it was still very well-written. In my opinion, Ms. Quindlen treated such a difficult subject with a certain amount of tenderness and sympathy for all involved.

To be perfectly honest, while I came to understand the main character by the end of the story, I would have to say that she didn't have the most appealing personality to start with. I found her to be somewhat annoying and self-absorbed; although she became a more sympathetic character to me the further that I read. I would also say that my initial impressions would perhaps have to be deliberately created by the author. I would give this book a definite A+!

A+! - (96-100%)


Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

Monday, November 1, 2010

Reading Wrap-up for October at Moonshine and Rosefire


Hello everyone out there and I hope that you all had a terrific reading month for yourselves. I am known as Rosefire around the Internet and this is my new personal reading blog. I originally posted my reviews over at my daughter's blog, Emeraldfire's Bookmark but am now in the process of transferring them all over to my own blog. My daughter makes blogging look like so much fun that I thought that I would try it out for myself! :)

Anyway, I started out October with about 651 unread books lying around the house and ended the month with 646 books unread. All of the books that I acquired this month came from Bookmooch and a Library Book Sale that we went to on the 1st.

Let me try to break down the influx for you:

Changes to the TBR pile 


Read from my TBR pile (Yes! I am a reading machine :))
Memories of Midnight by Sidney Sheldon
- The Architect by Keith Ablow
- The Ruins by Scott Smith
- Still Talking by Joan Rivers and Richard Meryman
- The Sight of the Stars by Belva Plain 

Added to my TBR pile (oh well, you win some and you lose some! :))
- Random Winds by Belva Plain
- One True Thing by Anna Quindlen

Taken off my TBR pile and sent to a new home (Yay! Happy Dance! :))
- Brain by Robin Cook
- The Advocate's Devil by Alan M. Dershowitz
- Denial by Keith Ablow
- Immoral Certainty by Robert K. Tannenbaum
- Houses of Stone by Barbara Michaels
- The Body in the Bouillon by Katherine Hall Page
- His Way: The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra by Kitty Kelley
- Julia by Peter Straub

Well, there it is...the breakdown! All in all, a very good reading month for me. Here's a further breakdown:

Books Read: 5
Pages Read: 1,683
Grade Range: A+! to B+!

So, there you go! The reading month that was October. I hope that you all had an equally good reading month; if not a little better. :) See you all next month! :)



Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight