Our book club is a monthly book club in conjunction with our online discussion forum. If interested in joining my book club, email me at cardinspired@gmail.com for more information.

Stop by the Group's Discussion Forum: Click Here

Discussions for the book of the month starts on the 15th of each month. Join in the discussion!

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

September Book Suggestions - July 29 to August 1st

Members. . . please comment on this post with your "book title", "author", and a link to a website that provides a synopsis of the book and a review if available.It's that time again. It's book selection time.

For the month of August. . .the book genre will be "Thriller/Mystery". This is a very broad genre so it's up to you on what you define as a "Thriller" or "Mystery. To help you out a bit. . .you should visit the Barnes and Noble or Amazon website and search under "Thriller" or "Mystery" and if you want to focus on best sellers, narrow down your search to that category.

You may also search the Internet for book lists or book guide specially in the genre that is chosen for the month. Here are a few book guide sites that you may want to look at. Keep in mind, there's many of them so what I list below are a few I found online to help you out:

Amazon
Book Browse - Thriller
Book Browse - Mystery

You may also find book guides and book list at the library or at the book store.When choosing a book, choose a book that "you" want to read, not what you think others may want to read. The reason for this is well, we all don't know one another personally.

Although your book may not be chosen, I want you to be excited about reading the book. If your book isn't chosen, well obviously you can read it on your own or suggest it at another time.Please do a little bit of research before suggesting a book. Sometimes availability may be a problem. Choose a book that is widely available. For example, don't choose a book that is so old that it may no longer be in circulation!! Can't wait to see what you all come up with!!

Friday, July 17, 2009

Day #2 Discussions - Elizabeth Edwards Resilience

Click Here for Day #2 Discussion

For new members, you will need to register to post your discussion.

The discussions are open to the public. If you read the book, stop by the forum and discuss the book with us .

The discussion format will be a in a one to two questions per day format. There will be a total of 3 days starting from July 15 to July 22.

Each member or participant, answers the question and it's recommended that members start an active discussion with other members or participants.Each day two new questions will be posted, i.e., Day #1 Discussion, Day #2 Discusion, etc. for a series of 7 days.

Here are a few suggestions to get the discussions going:

Do you agree or disagree with the member's analysis?

Elaborate further with your own views in regards to a member's post.

Compare and contrast with a member's analysis of the question.Ask additional questions of the member to explain her/his answers further.Please note. . .the discussion will be active in the "discussion section" of this forum (see side bar - click on either the "Home" or "Discussion" tabs")

You may answer one or both questions. For members or participants, please respond to any of the other members answers so we can get an active discussion going.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Day #1 Discussions - Elizabeth Edwards Resilience

Click Here to enter the discussion forum.

For new members, you will need to register to post your discussion.

The discussions are open to the public but non-members will be moderated. Stop by and join in the discussion if you've read the book.

The discussion format will be a in a one to two questions per day format. There will be a total of 3 days starting from July 15 to July 22.

Each member or participant, answers the question and it's recommended that members start an active discussion with other members or participants.Each day two new questions will be posted, i.e., Day #1 Discussion, Day #2 Discusion, etc. for a series of 7 days.

Here are a few suggestions to get the discussions going:

Do you agree or disagree with the member's analysis?

Elaborate further with your own views in regards to a member's post.

Compare and contrast with a member's analysis of the question.Ask additional questions of the member to explain her/his answers further.Please note. . .the discussion will be active in the "discussion section" of this forum (see side bar - click on either the "Home" or "Discussion" tabs")

You may answer one or both questions. For members or participants, please respond to any of the other members answers so we can get an active discussion going.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

August Book of the Month - Sundays at Tiffany's by James Patterson

Margie's Selection:

Sundays at Tiffany's
by James Patterson

Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Vision (June 1, 2009)

Jane Margaux is a lonely little girl. Her mother, a powerful Broadway producer, makes time for her only once a week, for their Sunday trip to admire jewelry at Tiffany's. Jane has only one friend: a handsome, comforting, funny man named Michael. He's perfect. But only she can see him. Michael can't stay forever, though. On Jane's ninth birthday he leaves, promising her that she'll soon forget him.

AN UNEXPECTED LOVE Years later, in her thirties, Jane is just as alone as she was as a child. And despite her own success as a playwright, she is even more trapped by her overbearing mother. Then she meets someone–a handsome, comforting, funny man. He's perfect. His name is Michael...

AND AN UNFORGETTABLE TWIST This is a heartrending story that surpasses all expectations of why these people have been brought together. With the breath taking momentum and gripping emotional twists that have made James Patterson a bestselling author all over the world, SUNDAYS AT TIFFANY'S takes an altogether fresh look at the timeless and transforming power of love

Source: James Patterson Website

Reviews:

Amazon
Barnes and Noble


Sunday, July 5, 2009

August Book Selection Voting - 07-05-09 to 07-08-09

Below are the August's book suggestions that were chosen by club members.

August's book genre is "Romance"

For August's book suggestion, please review the books below.

Members, please vote on the book you would like to read for August's Book of the Month. Every member should vote including those who suggested a book.

For those who suggested a book, you may vote for you own book or vote for a book suggested by the other members.I provided a video interview by the author or a video related to the book. The ones that don't have a video, I could not find a video for the suggested book.

To vote, members please comment on this blog post and not on the forum. Voting will begin July 5th to July 8th. Voting will close at 11:00 pm PST June 8th. If there's a tie, I will make the final decision. I will post the selected book for August Book on July 9th. Thank you for voting!!

Wendy's Selection:

On Mystic Lake
by Kristin Hannah


Paperback: 448 pages
Publisher: Ballantine Books (April 27, 2004)

Annie Colwater's husband has just confessed that he's in love with a younger woman. Devastated, Annie retreats to the small town where she grew up. There, she is reunited with her first love, Nick Delacroix, a recent widower who is unable to cope with his silent, emotionally scarred young daughter. Together, the three of them begin to heal. But just when Annie believes she's been given a second chance at happiness, her world is turned upside down again, and she is forced to make a choice that no woman in love should ever have to make. . .

Source: Reading Guides

Reviews:

Amazon
Good Reads

Tracy's Selection:

The Pact
by Jodi Picoult

Mass Market Paperback: 512 pages
Publisher: Avon; Very Good edition (August 29, 2006)

In this contemporary tale of love and friendship, Jodi Picoult brings to life a familiar world, and in a single terrifying moment awakens every parent's worse fear: We think we know our children… but do we ever really know them at all?

For eighteen years the Hartes and the Golds have lived next door to each other, sharing everything from Chinese food to chicken pox to carpool duty-- they've grown so close it seems they have always been a part of each other's lives. Parents and children alike have been best friends, so it's no surprise that in high school Chris and Emily's friendship blossoms into something more. They've been soul mates since they were born.

So when midnight calls from the hospital come in, no one is ready for the appalling truth: Emily is dead at seventeen from a gunshot wound to the head. There's a single unspent bullet in the gun that Chris took from his father's cabinet-- a bullet that Chris tells police he intended for himself. But a local detective has doubts about the suicide pact that Chris has described.

The profound questions faced by the characters in this heart-rending novel are those we can all relate to: How well do we ever really know our children, our friends? What if…? As its chapters unfold, alternating between an idyllic past and an unthinkable present, The Pact paints an indelible portrait of families in anguish… culminating in an astonishingly suspenseful courtroom drama as Chris finds himself on trial for murder.

With this riveting psychological drama, Jodi Picoult explores the dynamics of intimate relationships under stress-- from the seemingly inexplicable mind of a teenager to the bonds of friendship and marriage. Few writers have such a gift for evoking everyday life coupled with the ability to create a level of dramatic tension that will keep you up reading late into the night. The Pact is storytelling at its best: wonderfully observed, deeply moving, and utterly impossible to put down

Source: Jodi Picoult Website

Reviews:

Amazon
Trashionista Review

Amanda's Selection: **Amanda selected any book from Richard Paul Evans so I chose the one with the highest rating

The Gift
by Richard Paul Evans

Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster; 1ST edition (October 9, 2007)

There is no hurt so great that love cannot heal it.

Nathan Hurst hated Christmas. For the rest of the world it was a day of joy and celebration; for Nathan it was simply a reminder of the event that destroyed his childhood until a snowstorm, a cancelled flight and an unexpected meeting with a young mother and her very special son would show him that Christmas is indeed the season of miracles.

Source: Barnes and Noble

Reviews:

Barnes and Noble
Amazon

Margie's Selection:

Sundays at Tiffany's
by James Patterson

Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Vision (June 1, 2009)

Jane Margaux is a lonely little girl. Her mother, a powerful Broadway producer, makes time for her only once a week, for their Sunday trip to admire jewelry at Tiffany's. Jane has only one friend: a handsome, comforting, funny man named Michael. He's perfect. But only she can see him. Michael can't stay forever, though. On Jane's ninth birthday he leaves, promising her that she'll soon forget him.

AN UNEXPECTED LOVE Years later, in her thirties, Jane is just as alone as she was as a child. And despite her own success as a playwright, she is even more trapped by her overbearing mother. Then she meets someone–a handsome, comforting, funny man. He's perfect. His name is Michael...

AND AN UNFORGETTABLE TWIST This is a heartrending story that surpasses all expectations of why these people have been brought together. With the breath taking momentum and gripping emotional twists that have made James Patterson a bestselling author all over the world, SUNDAYS AT TIFFANY'S takes an altogether fresh look at the timeless and transforming power of love

Source: James Patterson Website

Reviews:

Amazon
Barnes and Noble

Theresa's Selection:

Black Hills
by Nora Roberts

Hardcover: 480 pages
Publisher: Putnam Adult (July 7, 2009)

A summer at his grandparents' South Dakota ranch is not eleven-year-old Cooper Sullivan's idea of a good time. But things are a bit more bearable now that he's discovered the neighbor girl, Lil Chance, and her homemade batting cage. Even horseback riding isn't as awful as Coop thought it would be. Each year, with Coop's annual summer visit, their friendship deepens from innocent games to stolen kisses, but there is one shared experience that will forever haunt them: the terrifying discovery of a hiker's body.

As the seasons change and the years roll, Lil stays steadfast to her dreams of becoming a wildlife biologist and protecting her family land, while Coop struggles with his father's demand that he attend law school and join the family firm. Twelve years after they last walked together hand in hand, fate has brought them back to the Black Hills when the people and things they hold most dear need them most.

An investigator in New York, Coop recently left his fast paced life to care for his aging grandparents and the ranch he has come to call home. Though the memory of his touch still haunts her, Lil has let nothing stop her dream of opening the Chance Wildlife Refuge, but something...or someone...has been keeping a close watch. When small pranks and acts of destruction escalate into the heartless killing of Lil's beloved cougar, recollections of an unsolved murder in these very hills have Coop springing to action to keep Lil safe.

Lil and Coop both know the natural dangers that lurk in the wild landscape of the Black Hills. But now they must work together to unearth a killer of twisted and unnatural instincts who has singled them out as prey

Source: http://thebestreviews.com/book20795

Reviews:

Errant Dreams Review
Amazon

Dianne's selection:

The Princess Bride
by William Goldman

Mass Market Paperback: 512 pages
Publisher: Harcourt (October 8, 2007)

Originally published in 1972, William Goldman's delightful abridgement of S. Morgenstern's classic tale of true love and epic adventure, The Princess Bride, has reached an enormous audience, thanks greatly to Rob Reiner's wonderful film version featuring Robin Wright, Mandy Patinkin, Andre the Giant, and William Goldman's sharp and vivacious screenplay. If you enjoyed the movie, you're certain to treasure the newly published 25th-anniversary edition for many years to come. It's a delightful, romantic, and entertaining read

Source: Barnes and Noble

Reviews:

Amazon
Barnes and Noble

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Review: Dead & Gone by Charlaine Harris

Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris:

Synopsis:

For Sookie Stackhouse, the day to day activities of the vampire and were communities in and around Bon Temps, Louisiana, are of vital interest, She's blood-bound to the leader of the vamps, a friend to the local were pack, works for a man who is shifter, and has a brother who is a were-panther…

But for most of the humans in Bon Temps, the vamps are mysterious seductive creatures-and they don't even know about the weres.

Until now. The weres and shifters have finally decided to follow the lead of the undead and reveal their existence to the ordinary world.

At first it seems to go well. Then the mutilated body of a were-panther is found in the parking lot of the bar where Sookie works. The victim is someone she knows, so she feels compelled to discover who-human or otherwise-did the deed.

But what she doesn't realize is that there is a far greater danger than the killer threatening Bon Temps. A race of unhuman beings--older, more powerful and far more secretive than vampires or werewolves-- is preparing for war. And Sookie will find herself an all-too human pawn in their battle…

Source: http://www.lovingtruebloodindallas.com/2009/02/dead-and-gone.html

Review by Theresa:

Those who follow Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire (Sookie Stackhouse) series are well aware that the 9th book in the series was released on May 5th, 2009.

In breathless anticipation, I pulled my copy up on my Kindle at about 5:30 AM that morning and was done by 7PM the following day. As usual, I found the book too short and wanted MORE, but that's really my only complaint.

At this point in the series, most fans have developed attachments to the characters and are sad when something bad happens to one they care about or elated when a storyline involving them goes the way they'd hoped. In a world with so many characters and threads, there will always be both disappointed and happy readers. With DAG, this is fairly evident from the chatter on the review sites and on Ms. Harris' forum. Practically no one is in the middle...they either love this book or they hate it.

As a fan of Eric, I LOVED this book!! I found the developments in his character and relationships lusciously satisfying. His scenes, sadly short in the last book, were my favorites in DAG. The viking is BACK in a gracious-plenty sort of way.

That said, there are some very dark aspects to DAG. Secondary characters, some of whom I liked, are murdered in atrocious and taboo-breaking ways. More are hurt and treated cruelly. The violence level is pretty high and shocking, although when vampires, werewolves and fey are involved, should anyone be surprised by this?

There are, as always, threads left dangling at the conclusion...enough to keep the boards humming with speculation until #10 is released in 2010.

If you haven't read the previous 8 books, you really need to do so before reading Dead and Gone. There are far too many different characters and backstories to start the series with this book. And the books are also not to be confused with the HBO series Trueblood. Season 1 is based on the first book, but it has taken some of the characters & relationships in different directions.

I recommend this book to those who have read the previous novels and especially to those who like Eric. Those who haven't read the previous books won't enjoy this one. Start with Dead Until Dark.