We will be reading
The Distant Hours
by Kate Morton for the month of August.
Check back July 22 for the choice and voting for the month of September.
Happy Reading!
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Voting for August
Here are our two choices for August's selection.
The Paris Wife
A deeply evocative story of ambition and betrayal, The Paris Wife captures a remarkable period of time and a love affair between two unforgettable people: Ernest Hemingway and his wife Hadley.
Chicago, 1920: Hadley Richardson is a quiet twenty-eight-year-old who has all but given up on love and happiness—until she meets Ernest Hemingway and her life changes forever. Following a whirlwind courtship and wedding, the pair set sail for Paris, where they become the golden couple in a lively and volatile group—the fabled “Lost Generation”—that includes Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, and F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.
Though deeply in love, the Hemingways are ill prepared for the hard-drinking and fast-living life of Jazz Age Paris, which hardly values traditional notions of family and monogamy. Surrounded by beautiful women and competing egos, Ernest struggles to find the voice that will earn him a place in history, pouring all the richness and intensity of his life with Hadley and their circle of friends into the novel that will become The Sun Also Rises. Hadley, meanwhile, strives to hold on to her sense of self as the demands of life with Ernest grow costly and her roles as wife, friend, and muse become more challenging. Despite their extraordinary bond, they eventually find themselves facing the ultimate crisis of their marriage—a deception that will lead to the unraveling of everything they’ve fought so hard for.
A heartbreaking portrayal of love and torn loyalty, The Paris Wife is all the more poignant because we know that, in the end, Hemingway wrote that he would rather have died than fallen in love with anyone but Hadley.
Voting starts now and will go through June 30th.
The Distant Hours
by Kate Morton
by Kate Morton
September 1940, and in the skies above the Weald of Kent the Battle of Britain
rages. On a moonlit night on the grounds of Millderhurst Castle, twelve-year-old
Queenie sits high in the branches of an oak tree waiting impatiently for the
dog-fighting to begin. The unimaginable happens—an enemy plane crashes in the
wood where she’s perched. The family takes in the injured pilot, expecting him
to die that very night. But he recovers and his life will forever alter the
family’s destiny.
September 1959, Queenie is now a successful playwright in London. She
receives word that her father is dying and she heads home for the first time in
nearly twenty years. Memories wait around every corner, including an unspeakable
death and a heartbreaking disappearance.
Morton once again enthralls readers with a richly atmospheric story featuring
characters beset by love and circumstance and haunted by memory.
The Paris Wife
by Paula Mclain
A deeply evocative story of ambition and betrayal, The Paris Wife captures a remarkable period of time and a love affair between two unforgettable people: Ernest Hemingway and his wife Hadley.
Chicago, 1920: Hadley Richardson is a quiet twenty-eight-year-old who has all but given up on love and happiness—until she meets Ernest Hemingway and her life changes forever. Following a whirlwind courtship and wedding, the pair set sail for Paris, where they become the golden couple in a lively and volatile group—the fabled “Lost Generation”—that includes Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, and F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.
Though deeply in love, the Hemingways are ill prepared for the hard-drinking and fast-living life of Jazz Age Paris, which hardly values traditional notions of family and monogamy. Surrounded by beautiful women and competing egos, Ernest struggles to find the voice that will earn him a place in history, pouring all the richness and intensity of his life with Hadley and their circle of friends into the novel that will become The Sun Also Rises. Hadley, meanwhile, strives to hold on to her sense of self as the demands of life with Ernest grow costly and her roles as wife, friend, and muse become more challenging. Despite their extraordinary bond, they eventually find themselves facing the ultimate crisis of their marriage—a deception that will lead to the unraveling of everything they’ve fought so hard for.
A heartbreaking portrayal of love and torn loyalty, The Paris Wife is all the more poignant because we know that, in the end, Hemingway wrote that he would rather have died than fallen in love with anyone but Hadley.
Voting starts now and will go through June 30th.
Rating System
So I have been thinking that it would be fun to have a rating system for our books. Something to just get a feel for what you thought or felt about it right off the bat. I am a member of the website Goodreads and I thought we could just use their rating system. So here it is (I am also going to post it on the sidebar for permanent reference.)
5 stars - I loved it!
4 stars - I really liked it.
3 stars - I liked it.
2 stars - It was ok.
1 star - I didn't like it.
5 stars - I loved it!
4 stars - I really liked it.
3 stars - I liked it.
2 stars - It was ok.
1 star - I didn't like it.
Bloom Commentary
Who all has finished the book? I just finished it the other day. I would love to hear what everyone thought about it. Same thing, put our comments under the comment part so those who haven't read it can't see them!
Jamie
Jamie
Friday, June 1, 2012
July Book Selection
Our July book selection winner, by a vote of 3 to 2, is Peppermints in the Parlor by Barbara Brooks Wallace.If you have any suggestions you would like added to our book list for future voting be sure to leave it in a comment and I will add it to the list. Just so everyone knows, I have been putting the books that are not the winning selection back on our list for the chance of being selected again. Voting for our August book selection will begin June 24th.
It has also been awhile, or at least it seems like it has been awhile, since we vote on our June selection, so just a reminder that (can you believe it?) it is June already and we are reading Bloom by Kelle Hampton.
Happy Reading!
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