The Book Club- Mary Alice Monroe

# of book read so far this year: 11th in the month of November

Title: The Book Club

Author: Mary Alice Monroe

Year Published: 1999

Rating (1-10): 7

Date Finished: 11/29/07

Genre: contemporary fiction

# of pages: 352

Number in Series: not part of a series

Where did the book come from: I checked it out from the library

Why I read it: I was looking at someone's shelf on Shelfari recently and this book caught my attention. I thought the synopsis sounded good, kinda similar to Thursdays At Eight by Debbie Macomber, so I decided to read it.

Blurb (story line): a group of 5 women who are good friends, and in a book club. All of them have different backgrounds, and all of them are going through different stages in their lives. Midge is Single, an aspiring artist, and in the story her mom wants to move back to Chicago. It is then that Midge realizes how much older her mother has gotten. Eve loses her husband to a heart attack and must deal with the pain and then move on with her life. Her husband was a doctor so she wasn't working before..she goes through some big changes...gets a job, moves to a smaller apartment, and even meets a guy at her work, who she ends up getting into a relationship with. Toward the end of the book, she even goes back to school to update her teaching certification. Annie is an attorney, who never really thought about having children before, but suddenly she desperately wants them. She has a really hard time getting pregnant, until she discovers she has cancer and must have her uterus removed. She definitely goes through tough times in her marriage during this time, and her marriage almost ends, but they pull through. Gabriella's husband loses his job, which puts stress on the entire family. Doris finally admits to herself that her husband is unfaithful and that there's really no love between them. She divorces him and gains a new outlook on life.

My personal thoughts and comments: I will saw that I was somewhat dissapointed in this book. I thought it would be more like Thursdays At Eight, where they all came to book club meetings and talked about life. It really didn't focus much on the book club, it focused more on the womens' lives OUTSIDE the book club. I didn't really care for Annie....she seemed way too self-centered. There always seemed to be a competition between her and Doris and that got old. I liked Eve, and the book seemed to leave Gabriella out a lot of the time. I think I most identified with Madge. The book was good, but it seemed to drag on in certain parts. I do not regret reading it though.

The Christmas Shoes- Donna VanLiere

# of book read so far this year: I haven't really kept good track this year, but For the month of November it is #10
Title: The Christmas Shoes
Author: Donne VanLiere
Year Published: 2001
Rating (1-10): 10
Date Finished: 11/22/07
Genre: not sure, I'd call it inspirational fiction, perhaps
# of pages: 129
Number in Series: 1 in the Christmas Hope Series
Where did the book come from: I checked it out at the library
Why I read it: I had been browsing online looking for Christmas books and thought it looked good, then someone in one of my book clubs mentioned it.
Blurb (story line): Two main characters Robert- a workaholic who's marriage is falling apart, and Nathan who's 8 and is losing his mom to cancer. Robert has it all, and doesn't realize how much he really has until he comes close to losing whats most important. It takes Robert and Nathan running into each other in a store to make Nathan realize what is really important in life.
My personal thoughts and comments: A Very Quick read....I put this book right up there with the Richard Paul Evans series I've been reading.....it definitely kept my attention and both stories were touching. I can't wait to continue with this series.

A Christmas Promise- Thomas Kinkade

Author: Thomas Kinkade

Year Published: 2004

Rating (1-10): 9

Date Finished: 11/21/2007

Genre: Inspirational fiction

# of pages: 298

Number in Series: 5

Where did the book come from: Checked it out from the library

Why I read it: It was recommended to me by Peg from my Friends_Through_book_reading group, and ever since reading the first books, I've been hooked on this series

Blurb (story line): Main things that happen in this book include Lynn coming to Cape Light trying . She is pregnant and trying to escape an abusive husband. She doesn't tell anyone her true identity and when she thinks they've found her, she runs away...Luckily Reverend James, another newcomer, finds her and is able to bring her back just in time. Dan and Emily get married and invite the entire town of Cape Light to attend their wedding. Sam and Jessica finally get pregnant again, after having Jessica has a miscarriage. Shortly after, they decide to become foster parents to Darrell an 11 year old boy who was sent to New Horizons center.

My personal thoughts and comments: I really enjoyed this book just as much as the the other books in this series. I will definitely be sad when I'm done reading the two books I have left. Since I read this book and the next book out of order, I was still anxious to find out who Leigh's baby was, I thought it might have been the baby that Emily found in the manger in the next book, but it wasn't. In this case, even though I read the books out of order, there were still plenty of surprises.

The most surprising was on Emily's wedding day. Lillian gave Emily away during the ceremony.

"Who gives this woman away to be married?" Reverend Ben asked.

"I do" Her mother said firmly. She turned to face Emily and Emily saw her mother's chin quiver. Her mother touched her shoulder then leaned forward and kissed her on the cheek. "Be happy, dear. You've earned it" she said quietly.

Then she took Emily's hand and gave it to Dan. "Take good care of her. She's a Jewel, you know."

I was shocked to see this coming from Lillian, of all people. This was one of the rare times she actually showed affection toward anyone.

Life On the Refrigerator Door by Alice Kuipers

# of book read so far this MONTH: 8

Title: Life On the Refrigerator Door

Author: Alice Kuipers

Year Published: 2007

Rating (1-10): DEFINITELY a 10!!!!!

Date Finished: 11/20/07

Genre: Comtemporary Fiction

# of pages: 240

Number in Series: not part of series

Where did the book come from: I have had this book on hold for a couple months and was at the library yesterday looking at the new books and THERE IT WAS

Why I read it: This book was recommended to me by a friend in one of the online book/reading groups I belong to.

Blurb (story line): This is a story written in the form of notes passed between Mom and Daughter (Claire). Mom has just been diagnosed with Breast cancer, and she is also the single mom of teenager Claire, who is a typical teenager dealing with school, friends, new boyfriend.

My personal thoughts and comments: I really enjoyed reading this book. I think I finished in about two hours...I laughed several times. The ending was sad, but I thought the author did a great job expressing the thoughts/feelings of a teenager as well as the mom who was going through cancer treatments. I thought this was a very clever idea and will definitely give this to my mom to read.

Christmas Wishes by Debbie Macomber

This included Christmas Letters and Rainy Day Kisses-

Christmas Letters is about K.O who's a medical transcriptionist and looking for a job in PR. She also writes Christmas letters for people who don't have time to do it themselves. Dr. Jeffries is a child psychologist who believes that children should not have any boundaries, which K.O. strongly opposes. K.O's sister, however, loves the book and is raising her twin daughters with the beliefs expressed in this book. Dr. Jeffries happens to be K.O'S neighbor, and they eventually admit their attraction for each other.

Christmas Letters was the Christmas book that Debbie Macomber wrote in 2006. I had started to read it then, but I just couldn't get into it, so I gave up. I really don't know what my problem was. I started reading it again and I really enjoyed it. This story is set on Blossom Street, which is another one of my favorite series by her. It mentioned some of the Blossom Street landmarks that I'd heard about before. I'm now anxious to go back and skim through those books to see if they mention Dr. Jeffries. That name sounded really familiar to me, so I'm thinking they might have. I also think Debbie should write the next book in the Blossom Street series and include this:

It should include a knitting class at A Good Yarn and Katherine and LaVonne should be the students in the class!!!! I seem to recall one of them mentioning that they wanted to sign up for a knitting class!!! It could also talk about her and Wynn's married life and starting a family. Just a thought. I'm actually surprised that since this book came out in 2006, that she didn't include these two new characters in Back on Blossom Street.

Rainy Day Kisses-

Suzanne is stuck babysitting her 9 month old neice, who cries all night, keeping her neighbor awake. He comes over to see what all the noise is about and ends up falling asleep on the couch. It is after this weekend that they start spending more time together and their attraction to each other grows. They eventually get married and start a family of their own.

I thought this story was hilarious as well and I think it made Christmas Wishes a great book to read. It wasn't too heavy and it was entertaining and funny. It might have been a little predictable, but it did have a very happy ending.

Glad Tidings by Debbie Macomber

This book includes two stories. There's Something About Christmas and Here Comes Trouble. In There's Something about Christmas, Emma, a reporter for a local newspaper, has to interview the 3 finalists in a Fruitcake contest. She goes and interviews each one and learns that there is a story behind the way each of them make their fruitcakes. Also, in the beginning of the book, she hates Christmas and hates celebrating, since she lost her mother. She is also estranged from her father. In order for her to get to the interviews, she has to fly in this tiny two seater plan with Oliver....which leads to the two of them falling in love and Jessica ends up really enjoying Christmas because she has someone to spend it with. They eventually get married, and in the epilogue they are 3 months pregnant with their first child.

Timepiece by Richard Paul Evans

This was the story based on the diary that David Parkin kept. Things that stick out in my mind was when their daughter was killed in a fire caused by Arsonists. and how David and Mary dealth with that.

Also, when Mary gave Richard this special timepiece to give his daughter Jenna on her wedding Day.

I am eager to read the next book in this series, The Letter and to see what that story will be about.