So last Wednesday we held our February meeting where we discussed the book "How To Be a Woman" by Caitlin Moran.  

I think it would be safe to say that the club had trouble connecting to this book.  When asked if anybody liked the book, I don't think anybody raised their hand.  A few people even said that they gave up reading it after the first few chapters.

It's not that this book didn't have good points.  Many of the topics Moran talks about led to some very interesting conversations (especially the chapters about deciding to have children), but most of those conversations were not really centered about what she specifically wrote.  Overall, we felt that Moran's book really wasn't the guidebook to be a woman in general, but more of a guidebook to be a woman like her.  

I wish I had a more eloquent review for the site, but there's really not that much to say.    Most of us gave the book a one or a two stars on Goodreads.  Hopefully we will have more to say on next month's book.

Sometimes our January books are the hardest to get through.  Because we meet on the first Wednesday of every month, we are often reading the book the month before.  This means that our January book often has to compete with the chaos that goes on at the end of the year (closeouts at work, holiday parties, holiday trips, etc.)  This can be especially hard when you have a really heavy read at the end of the year.  Fortunately this year our January book was "Hannah's Dream" by Diane Hammond.

As you can tell from the cover, "Hannah's Dream" is all about elephants - more specifically, one elephant named Hannah.  For over 40 years, Hannah has been the only elephant at the Max L. Biedelman Zoo.  Her only constant companion is her zoo-keeper Sam, who won't retire until he knows that someone will be there to look after Hannah when he's gone.  Meanwhile, a new director of the zoo is making Hannah's the new focus of the zoo marketing campaign.  Will the zoo do what is right for Hannah, or will it do what it can to hold on to its start attraction?

"Hannah's Dream" was one of the lighter books we've read this year.  While there were some serious moments in the book, something about remained very hopeful.  Hannah is a very sweet and lovely animal who does have a sparkling personality, and the Max L. Biedelman zoo is filled with a very quirky selection of staff and visitors.  It's not really hard to guess what is going to happen, but you can tell that there is a lot of fun to be had getting there.  As someone who spent the month of December glued to the Hallmark Channel and its Christmas movies, I mentioned that it would be a perfect candidate for adaptation for one of its movies (or depending on the edit, it could be a perfect choice for Lifetime).  

It's a simple tale, it doesn't share that complicated grit that was present in "Water for Elephants".  Perfect for a light read.  I listened to the audiobook version on my drive to see my family and I have to admit that the narrator did a fantastic job of bringing the story to life, especially distinguishing all the different characters (of which there were many). 

People in the club mostly gave it 3-4 stars out of 5.  One thing we we were all surprised about was the fact that this was the first in a series and that the next book was focusing on a killer whale ("Friday's Harbor").  If you like happy stories about animals and looking for a light read, you are really going to like "Hannah's Dream".

Today's Throwback Thursday Book is "The Light Between Oceans" by M.L. Stedman.  If you visited our site anytime in December, you know that this was our December book choice.

Former member Debra described the book perfectly on her Goodreads review " Heart wrenchingly beautiful novel about loves lost and moral sacrifices made for one's children."  I would also want to add that it deals a lot with the theme of isolation, especially feeling isolated in your troubles even when your loved ones are around you.   

This is definitely a book about extremes.  Living in a world where we are constantly connected, it's difficult to imagine what it would be like to live out on an island for years at a time with very few visitors.  It's definitely an extreme situation in and of itself.  This intensifies as each event transpires.  There were points while I was listening to it, that I wanted to yell out at the characters to just stop and think about what they were doing.  It's definitely one of those stories where the characters have to figure out what is the best thing to do even though nothing is a good choice.  By the end of the book it was hard not to feel exhausted from following what happened.  

One thing we did agree on was that we thought the author was a little heavy handed with description.  While her language was poetic, there were a couple of places where she laid it on very thick, causing you to think the story was about to go in one direction, but then it just stopped, with nothing coming of all the build up.  Sara noted that she found it difficult to like any of the characters - because even the "'good people' were too spineless and too martyr-like".  Rina gave the book bonus points for including a map (although she did say that she would have liked the map more if it had been the map of the island that the characters drew in the book).  I listened to the audiobook, which was narrated by an Australian.  While this upped the authenticity quotient, this made it harder to understand when he was reading whispered conversations or breathy female characters.

Overall the club liked the book.  Nobody overwhelmingly loved or hated it.  Most of us gave it 3 or 4 stars. 

Today's Throwback Thursday takes us to the very recent past: yesterday.  Yesterday was the first Wednesday of the month which meant that it was book club night.  Our November book "Glitter and Glue" by Kelly Corrigan, nominated by our member Alison.  

In the middle of "Glitter and Glue" Corrigan recalls a lecture in college where her professor explained a theory: "More often than not, it's the readers - not the writers - who determine what a book means.  The idea is that readers don't come blank to books.  Consciously and not, we bring all the biases that come with our nationality, gender, race, class, age.  Then you layer onto that the status of our health, employment, relationships, not to mention our particular relationship to each book - who gave it to us, where we read it, what books we've already read." (page 145 of Kindle version)   This theory was very evident in our discussion last night, as we all reacted to the book by looking at our relationships with our own parents, as well as our status as parents, parents-to-be, or non-parents.  

One of the most discussed questions was did parents have to choose between being the glitter or the glue; could parents be both or neither.  It seemed like we all had our own different opinions that we based on our own experiences.  It was truly an interesting discussion, and by the end of the meeting member Julia summed it up perfectly by saying, "Now I really wish I could meet everyone's parents."

Overall the club liked the book.  On the goodreads 5 star scale, the book got mostly 4's and 5's.  Emily described it as "both a love letter to your mother and your children".  The one thing we all did agree on is that it will get you thinking about your mother.


Club News:
November marked the 2 year anniversary for members Alison and Jeanette.  On a sad note, this was the last meeting for members Stephanie and Debra.  We wish them nothing but the best in their future endeavors.

The big news was that November marks the 10th Anniversary of the NoVA Lit Chicks.  While none of our members today were at that first meeting, we continue to carry on the tradition of sharing literature and friendship.   To all Lit Chicks past and present, thank you for helping to make the club what it is today, and here's to another 10 years of reading together.

A Brief Summary -  Connie's life is coming apart. Her thesis advisor at Harvard tells her that her thesis won't stand without the discovery of new first person source while her mom is insisting she move out to Salem, MA for the summer and clean up her grandmother's deserted house which is facing foreclosure.    Reluctantly she packs things out and moves out to the little house, determined to sort things out.  While cleaning, she finds a small key with an even smaller piece of paper inside of it which reads "Deliverance Dane".   Suddenly finding the identity of Deliverance Dane and figuring out why she left the key is all that matters to Connie.  

Most members liked the book, the couple of us who enjoy fantasy books enjoyed it a lot. We read this after reading a series of heavy books and I think it was just what we needed to lighten things up without being too fluffy (this is about as chick lit as we get as a group).  This wasn't a scary/spooky book, but it was filled with moments of suspense.  One of the things that the club liked most were the flashback scenes to the past, in fact many members would have liked more of those.  Howe really created an interesting history of magic that felt very real and natural.  I think one of her best choices was setting the book to take place during the summer, when ghosts and monsters are one of the last things on your mind.  It would have been really easy to set it during the fall, when the weather in Massachusetts brings an other-worldliness to everything, especially in a town like Salem, but I think it would have made the story feel a bit cliched.   The success of this book depends on the reader feeling like there is a balance between Connie's real-life problems and the mystery of Deliverance Dane's journal so when they do all merge it makes sense.  If you are a person who enjoys tv shows/movies/books that mash realism with the supernatural and you like female heroes (like in Buffy the Vampire Slayer or the movie Practical Magic), you will probably enjoy this book a lot.  

You can check out Howe's following books "The House of Velvet and Glass" and "Conversion" at Goodreads.  You can also find her on twitter (@katherinebhowe).