Spring is finally in the air, and we enjoyed a lovely evening on Friday with this month’s book, “The Art of Racing in the Rain,” by Garth Stein.  (See my review under Reviews to the right.)

Most of us have pets and realize the tremendous impact they have on our lives.  The book is in the dog’s point of view, and I found that quite refreshing.   The dog’s name is Enzo, a Lab Terrier mix (although on my book is a picture of a Golden Retriever – a little confusing – but it might be a good Jeopardy question – “What type of dog was Enzo in ‘The Art of Racing in the Rain,’ a Golden?  Wrong!”).  Sorry, I digressed.

My Golden has cancer and will only be with us for a little while longer.  He has been with us for 12 years, and he’s the first real pet we’ve had as a family.  Our sweet golden has seen us through some good and bad times, and he’s always there for a hug or to curl up at your feet, our constant companion.  I can only hope that our dog has the same fate as Enzo in the end.

Enjoy!

No Ides of March for our book club this cold and dreary day.  No, we had a wonderful time at a sushi restaurant and welcomed a new member to our club.   Our book was “Trapeze,” by Simon Mawer.  Of course, any and all historic fiction is so exciting to me, but some of the members struggle a bit with it.  That is why it is so important to be part of a book club to read outside your favorite genres.  I would never have read some of the books we have, and I’m so glad I did.

“Trapeze,” takes place in Great Britain and in Nazi-occupied France during WWII.  The book honors the bravery of the women who were intensely trained and dropped into France (there were  actually 39 specially trained operatives and 12 of them were murdered after they were captured by the Nazis).   To bring us into their incredible world Mawer focuses his story on Marian Sutro.  See my book review on under Mawer on the right.  This was a fascinating and thoroughly enjoyable book for me, and if your book club likes historic fiction you should definitely put it on your list to read.

We’ve decided that April’s book will be “The Art of Racing in the Rain,” by Garth Stein.  Till next month….

Dawn hosted book club this month and our book was “The Leading Indicators,” by Gregg Easterbrook.  We had to cancel book club on January 25 because of weather and the following Friday was in February.   That’s what happens when you live in the Northeast!

The book is a good pick for book clubs.  The story is a modern day parable – hoping to impart some life lessons.  Discussion about this story will be interesting because it will tap your own personal beliefs and those can be very different from each other.  (See my book review under Reviews.)

Book club was cancelled this month because of weather!

I read two interesting books this month that would be good for book clubs who like historical nonfiction.

The first was “Murder of the Century,” by Paul Collins.  This is a true story about a murder that occurred in 1897.  Two human arms attached to a human chest wrapped in oilcloth were found floating in the East River around the piers on June 26.  Then, a family picking berries in the Bronx farmlands found a human midsection wrapped in oilcloth.  Add these body parts with the sensational battle between Pulitzer and Hearst, and you have quite a tale.  What I found the most fascinating was how the media was so involved in the police investigation, even the autopsy.

The second book was “Death in the City of Light:  The Serial Killer of Nazi-Occupied Paris,” by David King.  This is another true story of a serial killer named Dr. Marcel Petiot, who was charged with 27 murders during the Nazi Occupation of Paris.  Imagine coming upon a home with numerous body parts buried and burned all over the entire property (and it wasn’t the Nazis).  Now imagine you are the head of the Brigade Criminelle in Paris during the time, and had the task of finding the killer (Massu).  This book is not a quick read, the facts don’t lay out like a nice fiction thriller.     In time of war the normal structure of civilization falls away and chaos takes over for a while.   Petiot was in jail when Paris was liberated, but then Massu was arrested and charged as a Nazi sympathizer.  Massu was cleared of all charges, but wasn’t in charge anymore.  How would the trial go?  Interesting read, but so many questions remain and no one left to answer them.

We are moving ahead with 2013 and starting our reading with “The Leading Indicators,” by Gregg Easterbrook. Come and join the fun.

Our annual holiday party was a great success.  We are all looking forward to a new and exciting year with hope and love for all.

We finally had book club this month. We had to cancel a few times because of Hurricane Sandy. As always, even with the limited number who could come to book club it was fun. We did David Talbot’s “Season of the Witch.” I like historical books to begin with, but this was as magical as the City it depicts. I don’t know how the City make it through. Maybe it was a good book for us to read at this time, because we were all dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

“Season of the Witch,” is not only entertaining, but it will lead to engaging discussions for your book club (see my review on the right).

For all of you hit hard with Hurricane Sandy, I send you my prayers and hope you will be able to return to some sort of normalcy soon.

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Love, love the fall.  We had to postpone our October book club to November 2.  Too bad.  Our book in November is “The Season of the Witch: Enchantment, Terror, Deliverence in the City of Love,” by David Talbot.

It will be our book club’s last book this year.  We have a holiday party in December.  With all the time off from book club books I’ve been busy collecting some interesting thrillers.   I’m looking so forward to Nelson DeMille’s new book “The Panther,” coming out this week.  John Corey is back fighting terrorism.  I recently purchased two books that look interesting:  “Death in the City of Lights” by David King, and “The Murder of the Century,” by Paul Collins.   Both books are true stories of murder and mayhem.  “Devil in the White City,” is my favorite in this genre, and it always amazes me that the true stories are worst then anything Stephen King can think of.   And my absolute favorite good guy is back (Agent Pendergast) with “Two Graves,” Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.  I absolutely love this whole series and hope they continue for a long time.

I just finished the third book in the Game of Throne series, and have started on the fourth book.  Yikes, I’ve got some reading to do before book club starts up in January.

Happy Halloween!

Went to a restaurant on Friday, September 21 for book club and almost all of book club was there.  That’s the trouble with having a life outside of books it sometimes gets in the way.

Our book was “Gone Girl,” by Gillian Flynn.   See my review under Reviews on the right.  There was mixed feelings about this book especially the end.  It does for marriage what “Fatal Attraction,” did for affairs.  You can’t say too much because you’ll give away the story.   One thing I can state for certain is that you will read it fast.