Deb's Book Reviews

A good book review by a trusted friend is essential, especially if you only have time to read one or two books a month. I hope this new series of mine will help all the bookworms out there find some interesting titles. These volumes were selected by members of my women's book club, who I trust completely, and enjoy spending time with once a month (if I don't see them around town.) If you have some good titles by or about women, let me know. Maybe we can make a big list.

So, in honor of the Lawton Women's Book Club, here are some reviews. I hope you enjoy them.
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September, 2009 we read a light memoir by Doris Kearns Goodwin, called Wait Till Next Year. It's a book about growing up on Long Island. And yes, Doris LOVES baseball, and is very knowledgeable. But the baseball doesn't bog down the story. It brought back many fond memories to many in our group - we had numerous things to talk about.

Our book club is not meeting in July and August 2009, but I will continue reading and writing reviews. Brooks is such a good author, I decided to read another one of her books, March, a Civil War historical fiction about the father figure in Little Women.

I guess I skipped writing a review for our 2009 May and June books, Ladies of Liberty (by Cokie Roberts) and Home (by Marilynn Robinson). Ladies of Liberty is a scholarly work about the early First Ladies of American. Home was completely depressing, and I didn't get too far through it. For vacation, I picked up a book that was set in the 17th century, about a housemaid in England during a year of plague, called Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks. It was fantastic!

We were treated to Virginia Woolf's, To the Lighthouse, for April 2009. Such a unique writer!

I just finished March 2009 book club selection. Great title: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. The subject is actually more serious than the title lets on.

Couldn't get into the book chosen for February - glad I didn't buy it!

Also by Erdrich, The Master Butchers Singing Club was a recommended book worth the read! The plot involves a love triangle, their families and friends, dealing with hardships after World War II in a small North Dakota town.

January's book club is meeting tomorrow to talk about The Plague of Doves, by Louise Erdrich. Can't wait to hear what everyone thinks about this great storyteller.

Decemeber 2008 book: another eastern non-fiction the book club read was Scheherazade Goes West, by Fatema Mernissi.

November 2008 book: Infidel, by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, is an autobiography about a young Islamic woman from Africa.

Marketing and selling your handmade jewelry is a quick read on marketing, specifically designed for jewelry artists.

Just finish a novel by Senator Fred Harris, Following the Harvest, a coming of age story of a boy on a harvesting crew in 1943.

So many people are talking about August, Osage County that I decided to see what this Pulitzer Prize winning play was all about.

In July 2008, our book club didn't meet, but I read two great books Reading like a writer: a guide for people who love books and for those who want to write them by Francine Prose and The Widow's War by Sally Gunning.


June 2008 Book of the Month ** The far traveler: voyages of a Viking woman, by Nancy Marie Brown.

May 2008 Book of the Month ** Nuns: a history of convent life, by Silvia Evangelista