Secondhand Book Club

November's Book: The Zookeeper's Wife, a War Story by Diane Ackerman

2009-10-30T18:38:00.005-05:00

After a few months off we are finally ready to start the book club up again! Our next selection is The Zookeeper's Wife. The rules have changed a bit.. so check your email for the scoop. Our 'welcome back' book for November is The Zookeeper's Wife, by Diane Ackerman.

Synopsis: A true story — as powerful as Schindler's List— in which the keepers of the Warsaw Zoo saved hundreds of people from Nazi hands.

When Germany invaded Poland, Stuka bombers devastated Warsaw — and the city's zoo along with it. With most of their animals dead, zookeepers Jan and Antonina Zabinski began smuggling Jews into empty cages. Another dozen guests hid inside the Zabinskis' villa, emerging after dark for dinner, socializing, and, during rare moments of calm, piano concerts. Jan, active in the Polish resistance, kept ammunition buried in the elephant enclosure and stashed explosives in the animal hospital. Meanwhile, Antonina kept her unusual household afloat, caring for both its human and its animal inhabitants — otters, a badger, hyena pups, lynxes.

With her exuberant prose and exquisite sensitivity to the natural world, Diane Ackerman engages us viscerally in the lives of the zoo animals, their keepers, and their hidden visitors. She shows us how Antonina refused to give in to the penetrating fear of discovery, keeping alive an atmosphere of play and innocence even as Europe crumbled around her.

synopsis taken from : http://www.powells.com/biblio?isbn=9780393061727

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon

2009-05-02T00:27:00.002-05:00

Synopsis:
This brilliant epic novel set in New York and Prague introduces us to two misfit young men who make it big by creating comic-book superheroes. Joe Kavalier, a young artist who has also been trained in the art of Houdiniesque escape, has just smuggled himself out of Nazi-invaded Prague and landed in New York City. His Brooklyn cousin Sammy Clay is looking for a partner to create heroes, stories, and art for the latest novelty to hit America the comic book. Inspired by their own fears and dreams, Kavalier and Clay create the Escapists, The Monitor, and Luna Moth, inspired by the beautiful Rosa Saks, who will become linked by powerful ties to both men.--Source

"Get you Thinking" Questions on Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

2009-05-01T23:27:00.001-05:00

1. What was your overall opinion of the book? Would you recommend it to others?

2. Which section of Elphaba's life did you find most interesting: childhood, teen/college years, or adult life?

3. Was there anything we can learn about Elphaba's relationship with Glinda?

4. Evil came up a lot throughout the story, questioning what it was exactly or if it really existed. What is your opinion of Evil?

5. Frex and Turtle Heart had an interesting relationship... do you think there was any sexual tension there? Why do you think Frex loved Turtle Heart?

6. What was your feelings on Elphaba's family members: Frex, Melena, Nessarose, Shell, and Nanny?

7. How in the world did Elphaba not know she birthed her son, Liir, after the death of Fiyero?

Selection for April: Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire

2009-04-03T21:56:00.003-05:00

April's selection will be Wicked. This book I am sure will have some great discussion points. It is a truly wonderful book and I hope you all enjoy it!!
From Publishers Weekly:
Born with green skin and huge teeth, like a dragon, the free-spirited Elphaba grows up to be an anti-totalitarian agitator, an animal-rights activist, a nun, then a nurse who tends the dying?and, ultimately, the headstrong Wicked Witch of the West in the land of Oz. Maguire's strange and imaginative postmodernist fable uses L. Frank Baum's Wonderful Wizard of Oz as a springboard to create a tense realm inhabited by humans, talking animals (a rhino librarian, a goat physician), Munchkinlanders, dwarves and various tribes. The Wizard of Oz, emperor of this dystopian dictatorship, promotes Industrial Modern architecture and restricts animals' right to freedom of travel; his holy book is an ancient manuscript of magic that was clairvoyantly located by Madam Blavatsky 40 years earlier. Much of the narrative concerns Elphaba's troubled youth (she is raised by a giddy alcoholic mother and a hermitlike minister father who transmits to her his habits of loathing and self-hatred) and with her student years. Dorothy appears only near novel's end, as her house crash-lands on Elphaba's sister, the Wicked Witch of the East, in an accident that sets Elphaba on the trail of the girl from Kansas?as well as the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodsman and the Lion?and her fabulous new shoes. Maguire combines puckish humor and bracing pessimism in this fantastical meditation on good and evil, God and free will, which should, despite being far removed in spirit from the Baum books, captivate devotees of fantasy.

http://www.amazon.com/Wicked-Life-Times-Witch-West/dp/0060987103

Selection for March, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

2009-03-01T13:13:00.004-06:00

This month I decided to reach down to more of a "classic" from 1953 and picked Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451.

Amazon.com Review:
In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury's classic, frightening vision of the future, firemen don't put out fires--they start them in order to burn books. Bradbury's vividly painted society holds up the appearance of happiness as the highest goal--a place where trivial information is good, and knowledge and ideas are bad. Fire Captain Beatty explains it this way, "Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to more popular songs.... Don't give them slippery stuff like philosophy or sociology to tie things up with. That way lies melancholy."

Guy Montag is a book-burning fireman undergoing a crisis of faith. His wife spends all day with her television "family," imploring Montag to work harder so that they can afford a fourth TV wall. Their dull, empty life sharply contrasts with that of his next-door neighbor Clarisse, a young girl thrilled by the ideas in books, and more interested in what she can see in the world around her than in the mindless chatter of the tube. When Clarisse disappears mysteriously, Montag is moved to make some changes, and starts hiding books in his home. Eventually, his wife turns him in, and he must answer the call to burn his secret cache of books. After fleeing to avoid arrest, Montag winds up joining an outlaw band of scholars who keep the contents of books in their heads, waiting for the time society will once again need the wisdom of literature.--Neil Roseman --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

I hope everyone enjoys a little scifi this month! Happy reading! :)

Short Review of Special Topics in Calamity Physics

2009-02-16T12:43:00.003-06:00

Special Topics In Calamity Physics.. hum.. what can I say about this book? My advise to those of you reading and getting annoyed (I was getting annoyed)? Hang in there! The ending is really good, and worth trudging through the wordy beginning and annoying citations. The citations were cute at first, but got a little distracting. I admit this one went slow for me.. the other books we have chosen I finished very quickly. It's slow because of the writers style.. which is quirky and sometimes overdone in my opinion. The plot is really very interesting, and the story kept me moving, even if I was reading at a snails pace. The last hundred pages were much better, the ending is pretty thrilling, and the plot really takes off at the end. Let me know what you all think.. I am dying to hear some reviews of this one! Were you annoyed like me or did any of you LOVE the writers style?

Autobiography

2009-02-13T11:21:00.003-06:00

Okay, so I've only started reading this month's book but it got me thinking about autobiographies for some reason. I guess it's because she mentions them in the first page or 2, but I was thinking maybe it would be a good idea to write one. Just to keep, not to publish, of course. The content will not be interesting enough for the average Joe, but maybe my future children or grandchildren will find it somewhat interesting how we lived back here in the "stone age."

I would start now, and lay it out in parts. Part 1 would be as far back as I can remember through graduating collage. Then Part 2 could be life after collage through my childrens' graduations from whatever, then Part 3 could be life again without kids and retirement. :) See, I figure I can remember more about my past if I start now, then, add to it as my life progresses, so it's more like me at that time and not an old kook looking back at life. So, I guess it would be a diary of sorts, but no daily entries. It would have stages-of-life entries, the 3 parts.

I don't know, is this dumb? Would my future family even care? I do wish I knew more about my family, so I'm hoping my opinion passes through my bloodline. :)

2009-02-02T19:01:00.002-06:00

I am actually going to read this one! I need to take my lunch break and pick it up at the Library!

Special Topics In Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl - February Selection

2009-01-30T23:36:00.004-06:00

This month's selection is Special Topics In Calamity Physics, by Marisha Pessl.
From back cover: "Calamity Physics: The resulting explosion of energy, light, heartbreak, and wonder as Blue Van Meer enters a small, elite school in a sleepy mountain town. Blue's highly unusual past draws her to a charismatic group of friends at St. Gallway (see page 2, "wild, wayward youths," Everyman Parenting) and their captivating teacher, Hannah Schneider. A sudden drowning, a series of inexplicable events, and finally the shocking death of Hannah herself lead to a confluence of mysteries. And Blue is left to make sense of it all with only her gimlet-eyed instinct and cultural lexicon to guide her."

Review:
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Pessl's stunning debut is an elaborate construction modeled after the syllabus of a college literature course—36 chapters are named after everything from Othello to Paradise Lost to The Big Sleep—that culminates with a final exam. It comes as no surprise, then, that teen narrator Blue Van Meer, the daughter of an itinerant academic, has an impressive vocabulary and a knack for esoteric citation that makes Salinger's Seymour Glass look like a dunce. Following the mysterious death of her butterfly-obsessed mother, Blue and her father, Gareth, embark, in another nod to Nabokov, on a tour of picturesque college towns, never staying anyplace longer than a semester. This doesn't bode well for Blue's social life, but when the Van Meers settle in Stockton, N.C., for the entirety of Blue's senior year, she befriends—sort of—a group of eccentric geniuses (referred to by their classmates as the Bluebloods) and their ringleader, film studies teacher Hannah Schneider. As Blue becomes enmeshed with Hannah and the Bluebloods, the novel becomes a murder mystery so intricately plotted that, after absorbing the late-chapter revelations, readers will be tempted to start again at the beginning in order to watch the tiny clues fall into place. Like its intriguing main characters, this novel is many things at once—it's a campy, knowing take on the themes that made The Secret History and Prep such massive bestsellers, a wry sendup of most of the Western canon and, most importantly, a sincere and uniquely twisted look at love, coming of age and identity. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
http://www.amazon.com/Special-Topics-Calamity-Physics-Marisha/dp/B001OMHTZM/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233380785&sr=8-1

Cheap and Fun Way to Trade Books Online!

2009-01-01T21:33:00.004-06:00

While I have not tested this site out myself, it looks like a really fun way to get books on the cheap! And by cheap I mean for the price of postage only! Check out http://www.paperbackswap.com/index.php and let me know what you think. If you test it out, please blog about your experience so our members will know what to expect!

Once you register for free, you then post books you no longer want...and trade them for books you do want. You pay only shipping, the site provides the packaging. This works perfectly with our eco theme!

The Story of Junk by Linda Yablonsky-January Selection

2009-01-01T16:55:00.002-06:00

This month's selecton will be The Story of Junk by Linda Yablonsky.

Synopsis from the back cover:
New York City, 1986. The world is made of junk: junk bonds, junk food, junk powder. Anyone can be a junkie. Or a cop. At least that's how it seems to a young woman who is cooking up heroin deals for some of the cultural heroes of the moment: her friends. One of whom may not be entirely friendly.
The odyssey that has brought her here - from a Philadelphia suburb to a SoHo walkup, from the Golden Triangle to the darkest recesses of her soul- is The Story of Junk.

I am especially excited about this book as it gives an insider's look at being a junkie in the 80's pop era! Sure to be a fast paced, good read!

Happy Reading!

Sneaker Fox's Fingersmith Review... In a Word..Lovely

2008-12-14T21:16:00.006-06:00

I finished Fingersmith this weekend, and it was great. Sarah Waters is a genius when it comes to dialogue. She captures so much detail and feeling in her dialogue, which really makes this book fly by. I don't know what I was expecting from my first Sarah Waters novel, but I was not expecting such a thrilling second half! The first half is heartwarming and insightful, while the second half is extremely fast paced and thrilling. The plot twists come suddenly and are suprising. I was blind sighted, which does not happen that often. I can't wait to read more books by this author.
The author was born in 1966 and has to date written a total of 4 novels. Her other works include Tipping the Velvet, Affinity, and her newest novel The Night Watch. She has been awarded much critical acclaim for all of her novels both from mainstream media and from the gay and lesbian comunity.
Bottom line.. I can't wait to read her other novels and can only hope they are as detailed and beautiful as Fingersmith. You will love it!

Sources used:
http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth03a23o034012634831

http://www.sarahwaters.com/biog.htm

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters - December Selection

2008-12-02T21:01:00.006-06:00

December's book club selection will be Fingersmith by Sarah Waters. In searching for suitable books for our club I explored reading lists online. Fingersmith was on the Orange Prize for Fiction's "50 Essential Reads by Contemporary Authors". This list oddly enough contained last months selection as well :). http://www.listsofbests.com/list/99

I'm excited about this months selection, and I am sure it will lead to some lively and opinionated discussions!!

Booklist review from Amazon.com:
From Booklist
Waters' third novel, set in Victorian England, opens when Sue Trinder, an orphan raised by a band of thieves, is recruited by Richard Rivers, a con man known as Gentleman, to help him in his quest to marry Maud Lilly, an heiress living in isolation in the country with her eccentric uncle. Maud stands to inherit a small fortune when she marries, and Gentleman intends to marry her, steal her inheritance, and imprison her in a madhouse. Sue agrees to pose as a maid to Maud and to gain her confidence. But Sue finds Maud sweet and trusting, and, to her surprise, she begins to fall in love with Maud and have serious misgivings about Gentleman's plan. But Sue only knows a small part of the scheme, and it will affect both her and Maud in ways she does not realize. The intricate plotting and startling revelations will keep the reader enthralled, rapidly turning the pages to get to the exciting conclusion. Waters' gripping, engrossing thriller would make the Victorian master of suspense, Wilkie Collins, proud. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Amazing Read!

2008-11-07T20:32:00.003-06:00

AMAZING BOOK. My plan this week was to only get through the part I needed to be able to participate in the live chat, but I could not stop. It probably didn't help I had 2 days off in a row in which I could read most of the day. :) The second section is probably my favorite. It is definitely the I-can't-put-you-down-you're-so-good section. LOVE IT!

Okay, question though. I still don't understand the huge problem churches have due to it's "Atheist nature". It really didn't have an atheist nature. It was more like an "organized religion blows, but there is a God" type theme. I guess in that nature I could see how religious groups had issues with it. It very much made the church into the bad guy, lemming creator. Honestly, what's so wrong with atheism, though?

My all-time favorite thing about this book, though, is it's ability to stretch the imagination. It gives just enough details to let you imagine what's going on, how people act, and how this world functions, but not so much that you can't create them in your own way. Having watched the movie, as well, made me able to put voices with the characters in my head, which is always fun. :)

I dunno, what do you guys think?

The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman - November Selection

2008-11-02T13:58:00.005-06:00

For the opening book of the Secondhand Book Club, we are going to read The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman. It is the first book in the His Dark Materials series and is shadowed by controversy with the opening of the film last year.

Synopsis from book cover:
Lyra Belacqua is content to run wild among the scholars in Jordan Collage, her dæmon familiar always by her side. But the moment she hears hushed talk of Dust, an extraordinary particle, she's drawn to the heart of a terrible struggle—a struggle born of Gobblers and stolen children, witch clans and armored bears. And as she hurtles toward danger in the cold, far North, young Lyra never suspects the shocking truth: her destiny must be fulfilled not in this world, but far beyond.

Editorial reviews:
"Extraordinary storytelling at its very best." —Detroit Free Press

"The Golden Compass is one of the best fantasy/adventure stories that I have read. This is a book no one should miss." —Terry Brooks

"As always, Pullman is a master at combining impeccable characterizations and seamless plotting, maintaining a crackling pace to create scene upon scene of almost unbearable tension. This glittering gem will leave readers of all ages eagerly awaiting the next installment of Lyra's adventures." —Publishers' Weekly