September'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. September's Book of the Month is: 

Henry and Clara by Thomas Mallon

Published as: Henry and Clara: A Novel in August 1994

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Birth Name: Thomas Mallon

Born: 2 November 1951 in Glen Cove, New York

Canonical Name: Thomas Mallon

Pseudonyms: None

Henry and Clara by Thomas Mallon was the seventy-seventh book that I read in 2012. I had had this book on my TBR bookshelf since October 10, 2007 although I didn't actually read it until September of 2012. It took me three days to read this book and I sent it off to another good home on September 19, 2012.

Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

Banned Books Week - September 30, 2012 to October 6, 2012

Banned Books Week is an annual event that was launched in 1982 celebrating "the freedom to read". Typically held during the last week of September, it highlights the value of free and open access to information, bringing together the entire book community - librarians, booksellers, publishers, journalists, teachers, and readers of all types - in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular.

Banned Books Week marks its 30th anniversary this week, with libraries and bookstores around the nation celebrating "the freedom to read". Banned Books Week will be honored with displays of censored/banned books, read-outs and more, according to the ALA.

Since 1990, the ALA has recorded more than 10,000 book challenges, according to The Charleston Gazette, with the most recently challenged title being Fifty Shades of Grey and its sequels written by E. L. James. The 10 most challenged titles of 2011 are:

1. ttyl; ttfn; l8r; g8r (series) by Lauren Myracle
Reasons for challenge: offensive language; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group

2. The Color of Earth (series) by Kim Dong Hwa
Reasons for challenge: nudity; sex education; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group

3. The Hunger Games (trilogy) by Suzanne Collins
Reasons for challenge: anti-ethnic; anti-family; insensitivity; offensive language; occult/satanic; violence

4. My Mom's Having a Baby! A Kid's Month-by-Month Guide to Pregnancy by Dori Hillestad Butler
Reasons for challenge: nudity; sex education; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group

5. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Reasons for challenge: offensive language; racism; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group

6. Alice (series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Reasons for challenge: nudity; offensive language; religious viewpoint

7. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Reasons for challenge: insensitivity; nudity; racism; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit

8. What My Mother Doesn't Know by Sonya Sones
Reasons for challenge: nudity; offensive language; sexually explicit

9. Gossip Girl (series) by Cecily Von Ziegesar
Reasons for challenge: drugs; offensive language; sexually explicit

10. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Reasons for challenge: offensive language; racism

While I haven't read any of these books, I have read other books that have been censored or banned in other years for certain reasons. Over the following week, I will highlight different posts featuring interesting trivia about Banned Books Week.

Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

Elizabeth Strout - Amy and Isabelle

83. Amy and Isabelle by Elizabeth Strout (1998)
Length: 304 pages
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Started: 28 September 2012
Finished: 30 September 2012
Where did it come from? From a Library Book Sale
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 10 October 2007
Why do I have it? I like contemporary fiction and Elizabeth Strout is a new author for me.

Amy Goodrow, a shy high school student in a small mill town, falls in love with her math teacher, Thomas Robertson. What passes for a while as just a simple high school girl's secret crush, crosses from fantasy into reality when Thomas and Amy begin a secret love affair with each other. When this emotional and physical trespass is discovered, it brings disgrace to Amy's mother, Isabelle, and intensifies Isabelle's feelings of shame about her own past.

Mother and daughter - whose relationship was initially extremely close - suffers an almost physical blow, as both Amy and Isabelle retreat into icy silence towards each other. Amid the minor problems faced by many of the citizens in Shirley Falls, Maine, Amy and Isabelle have a more private misery: a seemingly unbridgeable chasm has opened up between them and nothing will ever be the same again.

I thought that this was a wonderful book, a superlative book. The characters were entirely believable and the book was written with incredible feeling and attention to detail. In my opinion, Elizabeth Strout did an excellent job in getting into her characters heads and describing their motivations. I give this book an A+! and have placed two more books by Elizabeth Strout - Abide With Me and Olive Kitteridge on my Wish List.

A+! - (96-100%)

Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

Thomas T. Noguchi, M. D. and Joseph DiMona - Coroner at Large

82. Coroner at Large by Thomas T. Noguchi, M. D. and Joseph DiMona (1985)
The Coroner Series Book 2
Length: 249 pages
Genre: True Crime
Started: 24 September 2012
Finished: 28 September 2012
Where did it come from? From a Library Book Sale
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 10 October 2007
Why do I have it? I like true crime and have always been curious about the cases mentioned in this book.

In this sequel to Coroner, Thomas T. Noguchi, the former Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner for the County of Los Angeles from 1967 to 1982, delves into some of the history of forensic science as well as a number of the curious or unusual celebrity deaths throughout the years. From the influential Claus von Bulow case to the murder of Dorothy Stratten; from modern-day murder cases to forensic puzzles throughout history, Dr. Noguchi offers his own professional interpretation and expertise in each case.

I have had this book sitting on my downstairs bookshelf for almost five years and have to say that I never even picked it up until Tuesday night. I had brought this book upstairs about a week ago, as I hoped to read it sometime within the next month. I really enjoyed this book and wish I hadn't waited so long to read it. It was really very good and I have put Thomas T. Noguchi's memoir, Coroner, on my Wish List. I give Coroner at Large an A+! and am definitely looking forward to perhaps reading Coroner some time very soon as well.

A+! - (96-100%)
   
Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

Teresa R. Andrews - Shades of Souls Passed: True Accounts of Ghostly Encounters in Madison County, New York

81. Shades of Souls Passed: True Accounts of Ghostly Encounters in Madison County, New York by Teresa R. Andrews (2010)
Length: 81 pages
Genre: Horror
Started: 24 September 2012
Finished: 25 September 2012
Where did it come from? Many thanks to Teresa for sending me a copy of this book to read.
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 21 September 2012
Why do I have it? I like horror and Teresa R. Andrews is a new author for me.

This is a collection of true accounts of ghostly encounters in Madison County, New York. Madison County is located in central New York State - east of Syracuse, north of Binghamton and slightly north of due west from Albany. Whether it is a malevolent poltergeist, a mischievous little girl playing hide and seek, or a gardener simply going about his business, the lost souls that wander through Madison County remain unseen until one day, or night as the case may be, they decide to make themselves known to the living. Whatever the case, you may be sure that when you turn out your light tonight and cuddle into bed, you won't be the only one in your room - even if it looks as if you are alone.

I must say that while I don't consider myself extremely open to the paranormal, I certainly do believe that the paranormal exists. I have even had at least two experiences that I couldn't explain to myself through earthly means. When I was about nine or ten years old, my family and I were living in a town in Manchester known as Pendlebury, about three miles northwest of Salford, England. Pendlebury is perhaps better well-known historically for the Trials of the Pendle Witches - which occurred in 1612, and are among the most famous witch trials in English history.

So, my family and I lived in a centuries-old house that my mother was completely convinced was haunted. I had never really had any paranormal experiences myself in that house until I was ten years old. It was early on a Saturday morning and I was 'sleeping in', but was actually reading in my bed. Everything was quiet in the house and for some reason I looked up at my open bedroom door. A second or so later, a ghostly man just popped his head inside my door! :)

He and I locked surprised glances with each other for about three seconds and then he vanished and I went back to reading my book. He was dressed in 17th-century clothing (although at ten years old, it just registered as old-fashioned clothing to me): wearing a cutaway coat and a monocle, I'm sure that he was fully dressed, however I can't remember what he was wearing in the style of breeches, trousers or whatever it was. I remember my mother constantly questioning me about this apparition when I mentioned that I had seen him sometime later that day.

As I have said already, I don't completely deny the existence of the paranormal and have had one other strange experience that I couldn't explain, happen to me as an adult - the jukebox at my restaurant suddenly turned on by itself. It was closing time and no one else was in the bar area except myself at the time. I have to say that I was totally terrified, and felt that there was a presence there that would harm me if I stayed any longer.

I really enjoyed this book. It was well-written, and easy reading for me and I must say a big thank you to Teresa for sending me a copy of her book to read. I give this book a big, blazing A+! and would definitely recommend this book to other readers.

A+! - (96-100%)

Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

Stephen King - Full Dark, No Stars

80. Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King (2010) 
Length: 560 pages
Genre: Short Story
Started: 20 September 2012
Finished: 24 September 2012
Where did it come from? From Price Chopper
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 20 September 2012
Why do I have it? I like short stories and have read and enjoyed several books by this author in the past.

'I believe there is another man inside every man, a stranger...' so writes Wilfred Leland James in the early pages of the riveting confession that makes up '1922' - the first of five mesmerizing tales from Stephen King. All these stories have the prevailing theme of retribution. For Wilfred James, that stranger is awakened when his wife Arlette proposes selling the family homestead and moving to Omaha, setting into motion a gruesome chain of murder and madness.

In 'Big Driver', a cozy mystery writer named Tess encounters the stranger along a back road in Massachusetts when she takes a shortcut home from a book-club engagement. Violated and left for dead, Tess plots a revenge against her attacker so ruthless that it brings her face-to-face with another stranger; the one inside her soul.

'Fair Extension' involves making a deal with the devil. Dave Streeter is dying from cancer when he meets a traveling salesman by the name of George Elvid along a road in Derry, Maine. When George Elvid sells Dave a 'life extension', Dave is 'miraculously' cured from cancer and is provided a rich recompense for a lifetime lived that is full of resentment.

In 'A Good Marriage', while her husband of twenty years is away on one of his many business trips, Darcy Anderson searches for batteries in their garage. Her toe knocks into a box under her husband's worktable, suddenly revealing the horrifying stranger within his soul and utterly shocking Darcy to her core.

In 'Under the Weather', Brad's wife, Ellen isn't feeling too well one morning. So, being the good husband he is, Brad decides to let her sleep while he goes off to work. His only concern is that the people coming to check on the noxious smell that permeates the apartment building where they live will wake up Ellen when she desperately needs her rest.

I caved, I admit it! I was doing so well, reading books that had been on my bookshelf for an incredibly long time - then one trip to my local grocery store causes me to slip off the bookshelf! :) I am so glad I did, though. This book was much longer than the ones that I usually read, but I found it totally engrossing! It reached out and grabbed me from the first sentence, and wouldn't let me go until I turned the last page. I have said before that although I like Stephen King as an author, I am not always entirely sure whether I will enjoy his books all the time. However, this book is definitely a keeper for me and I give it an A+!

A+! - (96-100%)
   
Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

Sue Miller - The Good Mother

79. The Good Mother by Sue Miller (1986)
Length: 310 pages
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Started: 17 September 2012
Finished: 20 September 2012
Where did it come from? From Paperback Swap
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 24 February 2010
Why do I have it? I like Sue Miller as an author and had read and enjoyed While I Was Gone by the same author.

Recently divorced, Anna Dunlop has two passionate attachments: Molly, her four-year-old daughter, and her lover, Leo, the man who has made her feel beautiful - and sexual - for the first time in a long, long time. Swept away by happiness and passion, Anna feels that she has everything she needs in her life. Almost blind to certain changes around her, Anna will soon find that these shocking changes will threaten her new love, her new "family" and will eventually force her to prove she is a good mother.

I am not entirely sure, but I think that I may have read this book many, many years ago. Some of the scenes in it seemed slightly familiar to me, but I don't think that my having read it before affected my rereading of the book too much - I still couldn't remember the ending of the story! :)  I loved this book and give it top marks, even though I found the sex scenes in the book almost too graphic for me. 

I understand that the book needed to be graphic to make the plot work, however I guess I was just not that used to having such scenes be so descriptive. I found this book to be well written and very engrossing though, and would certainly recommend this book to other readers. I give this book an A+! and look forward to reading more books by Sue Miller in the future.

A+! - (96-100%) 

Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight