Julie's Review: Little Women

Summary: In picturesque nineteenth-century New England, tomboyish Jo, beautiful Meg, fragile Beth, and romantic Amy come of age while their father is off to war. ~amazon.com It's about family, love, dedication and following your heart.

NOTE: This was to be a group review but Jenn is in the middle of a torturous move and Lisa's job keeps her swamped, so you get me!

Julie's Review: Is it wrong to say that I love the movie but like the book? Is that heresy? It's not that the book wasn't wonderful, it was, but in really did drag in parts. Maybe it's a book to be read when you are a young adult or at least the ages of the girls in the book (12-16), I'm not sure. Jo is still my favorite character in the book and I still can't stand Amy. Actually, I think the book cemented the fact that I really can't stand her.

What I did appreciate most about the book was the descriptions of that era and the fact that the book is semi-autobiographical. I can't imagine sending my husband off to war and to essentially be destitute without his income. Which begs me to wonder why Hannah is still with them?

I still don't like that Jo ends up with her Professor and that Amy ends up with Laurie, but at least I knew that going in.

I will read this to my daughter when she is of the right age because I think it has its merits. Especially on helping others and being a good, kind person.

Julie's Final Take: 4.5/5

Our Next Book Club Pick

If you missed out on joining us with our last book club novel, the next Girls Just Reading Book Club pick is Little Women (Signet Classics) by Louisa May Alcott.

Summary: In picturesque nineteenth-century New England, tomboyish Jo, beautiful Meg, fragile Beth, and romantic Amy come of age while their father is off to war. ~amazon.com It's about family, love, dedication and following your heart.

I picked the book upon recently viewing the movie and thought "Well, maybe I should read the book. The book is always better." Although Laurie will always be a young Christian Bale to me.

Please join us on reading one of the all time classics about the March women. We plan on being done with the book by late August. If you care to, leave a comment letting us know that you'll be joining us for the discussion.

June Book Club Pick

June is here and the Girls Just Reading Book Club plans on having China Lake finished by the end of the month. If you'd like to read it with us, there's still plenty of time!

Read more about the book here: China Lake by Meg Gardiner

Group Review: Sing Them Home

Summary: Sing Them Home is a moving portrait of three siblings who have lived in the shadow of unresolved grief since their mother’s disappearance when they were children. Everyone in Emlyn Springs knows the story of Hope Jones, the physician’s wife whose big dreams for their tiny town were lost along with her in the tornado of 1978. For Hope’s three young children, the stability of life with their preoccupied father, and with Viney, their mother’s spitfire best friend, is no match for Hope’s absence. Larken, the eldest, is now an art history professor who seeks in food an answer to a less tangible hunger; Gaelan, the son, is a telegenic weatherman who devotes his life to predicting the unpredictable; and the youngest, Bonnie, is a self-proclaimed archivist who combs roadsides for clues to her mother’s legacy, and permission to move on. When they’re summoned home after their father’s death, each sibling is forced to revisit the childhood tragedy that has defined their lives.


Jenn's Review: This is not a book I would typically pick up on my own. I don't particularly care for family sagas, I have enough drama in my own family, thank you very much. That being said, although it took me a while to get into it, I didn't mind this one too much (I know, I know, not a ringing endorsement, but this isn't my genre).

The book starts with a discussion of the dead mothers and fathers of the world roaming the earth which I found odd and a little unnecessary. (More is not always better, sometimes it's just more.) The novel could have stood on it's own without this, in my opinion, and I felt that it detracted more than it enhanced.

Then Kallos allows us into the lives of each of the siblings, who are far from likable. Granted, the tragedy of their childhood shaped their lives, but their self absorption makes it hard to feel empathy for any of them. If it weren't for flashbacks courtesy of the pages of Hope's diary, I don't think I could have warmed up to any of them. However, seeing them through Hope's eyes, helps endear them to the reader slightly.

Still, I have issues with realism in the book. (Perhaps that's my trouble with contemporary fiction in general.) Bonnie riding around town finding legible bits of paper from diaries destroyed 26 years ago is too much of a stretch for me. And I find it hard to believe that someone wouldn't have tried to find her help... especially Gaelan's former high school sweetheart, the psychiatrist. The ending seemed all too abrupt and thoroughly neat for me too; I like things sussed out a little better than that.

Jenn’s Final Take: 3.5/5

Julie’s Review: I will admit when Lisa chose Sing Them Home as her book club pick, I was hesitant. It definitely wasn’t something that I would have picked up off the shelf and purchased, but isn’t that really the purpose of a book club, to force you to go outside your comfort zone? Sing Them Home started off strangely for me; I didn’t really care for the forefathers ghost theme and was scared that it was going to be a bit too mystical for me, but while it was woven throughout the book, it was in small enough doses that I did not feel that it overpowered the novel. Essentially, this is a family saga about how to learn from your past, heal from it and move on. I don’t even think that we fully understand how one event in our lives truly does shape our future self. That being said I do think that you can move on from that and to me that is what Sing Them Home is about.

Hope Jones was taken from her kids during a tornado in 1978 and now as adults, Larken, Gaelen and Bonnie all suffer the long lasting effects. What is interesting is how each of the children was affected by it. Larken substitutes her need for love by eating, Gaelen becomes obsessed with his physique and his bedroom prowess, and Bonnie seems to be stuck at the age of 10 where everything has a mystical, magical, and fantastical aspect to it. These are not easily likeable characters, each on of the children self-absorbed in their own way and yet none of them moves far away from Emlyn Springs. In fact, Bonnie still remains in town as their own “Flying Girl”. Giving an explanation to “Flying Girl” would be giving away a good tidbit in the story but I do believe that it ties directly into Bonnie’s personality. I couldn’t really identify with any of the characters in particular but I did enjoy the journey that each of them took us on. My least favorite was probably Bonnie and that was because I really just wanted her to grow up and act her age.

I did enjoy getting to read Hope’s diary and getting to know the younger versions of Larken, Gaelen and Bonnie. I think Larken was especially affected by her mother’s death in ways that she doesn’t even know or understand. I do agree with Jenn that these characters were self-absorbed but I think it was a coping mechanism. We did see each of them grow by the end of the book and to me that is what matters. One passage in the book really spoke to me:

“There’s suddenly this compulsion-not just to be a “good” mother,
but to be the “best” mother. No one expects fathers to be perfect. Fathers
are not bombarded with images of themselves, serenely cradling a newborn,
lounging about, immaculately and stylishly clad with their equally pristine
toddler” ~page 210

This is so true, even today. We see it on tv shows, movies and probably in our daily lives as mothers. There are always those moms that you perceive to be perfect and have it together. Its human nature to be competitive but that kind of stuff will drive you mad. I found it interesting that some things really don’t change decade to decade.

There are a couple twists in the book that I didn’t see coming and one that left me wanting more of a reason for the character thinking that way and we never went back to it during the novel. What I truly enjoyed about the book, though, are the Welsh traditions and culture. To me these were an integral part of the novel and whom the characters were.

Overall, I truly enjoyed this novel and more than likely will be purchasing Ms. Kallos’ book Broken for You when I am done with my very big “To Be Read” pile.

Julie’s Final Take: 4.5/5


Lisa's Review:

I can’t even tell you the reasoning behind my picking Sing Them Home as our book club pick, but it’s getting pretty obvious that I am easily swayed by well reviewed books. Now I didn’t really love this book and normally that wouldn’t be a problem, but for some reason I can’t really pinpoint my issue. I join my friends in saying that the beginning was a bit strange and certainly wasn’t necessary to the story, even though the author did make an effort to tie things together in the end.

Ultimately, this one gets an “eh” from me. I was certainly expecting more. I kept waiting for something to happen and though something did happen, it wasn’t powerful enough and I was still thinking “so what”. I get the feeling I was supposed to be moved to tears, but maybe I’m just too far gone on the cynicism scale. There was some unevenness to the plot, some things dragged out and some things just happened. More than once I found myself inferring that a certain event had occurred. Of course, I don’t need everything spelled out, but I don’t want to guess either. Strangely though, I still found myself compelled to read, this very long book (543 pages!). Something kept drawing me back - Kallos’ writing style I suppose. There’s a certain poetry to the prose and I particularly enjoyed reading Hope’s diary entries.

As much I want to wholeheartedly recommend this book, I can’t quite work up all of the required enthusiasm, so read at your own risk.

Lisa’s Final Take: 3.25/5

*Did you read it? Feel free to join the discussion by adding a comment. Let's get a dialogue going!

Girls Just Reading Book Club Expands

Four years ago, the girls of Girls Just Reading and our friend started a virtual book club (see our explanation here).

When Girls Just Reading came into being we tried to bring our virtual book club to you by doing group reviews of our Book Club Picks. Now we're taking it to another level.

Along with our "Currently Reading" selections you will also find our next Book Club Pick and our due date so you can read what we're reading and be ready to post your comments! Our next pick is Sing Them Home by Stephanie Kallos and we plan to be ready to discuss it around the first week of April. We look forward to your point of view!

Girls Just Reading Book Club

Sometime last year, Julie, Lisa, another friend, and I decided we wanted to start a book club. This is logistically difficult as we all reside in different areas of the east coast, which makes our little book club not-so-traditional; our book ‘discussions’ range from message boards to emails and tend to be more comments and reviews than discussions. How does that fit the mold of a book club, you might ask? Well, it introduces us to books we may not have picked up on our own, which, in my mind, should be one of the main functions of a book club.

Now with our Girls Just Reading site in place, we thought it might be an interesting exercise to do group reviews of our book club picks. Our first pick for this site is A Thousand Splendid Suns.