Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum Series

I have been re-reading Janet Evanovich's series about the character Stephanie Plum. There are fourteen books and I have been reading them one after the other starting at One for the Money. I am currently waiting for Hard Eight to arrive. I have convince Mandy to read them too. She loves them as much as I do and we are having a great time laughing our way through the books.

Stephanie is a wonderful character. She is of course the main character of the books and she is torn between loving two men, Ranger and Joe Morelli. I love them both as well. Ranger is perfection. He has the body of a weight lifter and wears expensive all black clothes. He drives expensive cars and never makes mistakes. Everything about him is sexy and smoking hot. Joe is from Stephanie's neighborhood and has a hot Italian temper. They fight and make up, they have known one another their entire lives and seem inevitable. Yet, a part of Stephanie doesn't want to become her mother and marry Joe in a way feel like becoming her mother.

Stephanie is a bounty hunter. Her life is dangerous and fun. She is seemingly not wanting to grow up and punch a clock. Liking the adventure of her current profession. I like reading about it too. Her hero is wonder woman. Mine too.

Instead of Stephanie, I feel like I most closely identify with her mother. Lord help me. I have been inspired to wash windows, and get the dinner on the table by six every night. Stephanie's mom is so cool. She rocks as a home maker. The house is spotless and the meals are so great that her grown daughter can't help but stop by and for dinner several times per week. I have always been a little laissez faire about housework and cooking. I mean I do it, but I don't put my heart and soul into it. Lately I have been putting more effort into it and I am feeling really good about how great our house looks and how great we are eating. I have even been making homemade from scratch desserts, yum.

I used to be a bit of a wild child. Liking adventure and danger. Now I am getting excited about learning how to make a pineapple upside down cake. Doesn't that sound good? I have never had one. But, it is Stephanie's favorite. I am not even ashamed about not identifying with Stephanie so much as with her mother. Although I would much rather read a book about Stephanie than about her mother.

What about you? Do you miss your inner Wonder Woman? Or are you still finding the bad boys and the adventure in life to be most alluring?

Stephenie Meyer Twilight Series

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One of the benefits of having a daughter who read nearly every book in the library is that she recommends to me her favorites and I always have a pile of great books to read next to my bed. Over our recent vacation I read the first book in Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series. A book named Twilight. I could not put the book down and by the end I missed the characters so much I had to read the next two books, New Moon and Eclipse. The next book Breaking Dawn is coming in August and a movie based on the first book is being made. For more info and links go to stepaniemeyer.com

I have to tell you that I am actually missing the characters after having read those three books back to back over the past few weeks. I feel like a member of my family has moved away.

The main character of the books is Bella, a teen aged girl who is a junior in high school. Just like my daughter. Bella is a wonderful character, very richly developed as are all the characters in the book. Bella grew up in Phoenix with her mother but her mother remarries Bella decides to try living with her father in a small town in Washington State. A very rainy, cold, gloomy town in Washington state. As she starts her new life with her dad, she encounters vampires and later werewolves. Bella is always close to danger and nearly gets herself hurt or killed all the time. A great series full of adventures and suspense. I liked the first book best and the second book least. I cried from beginning to end, big, soaking my shirt crying. I can't wait for the last book. Mandy and I are hoping our local bookstore will let us in at midnight to get the next book.

It is nice to have something to read that Mandy and I can talk about and enjoy. She likes sharing her books with me and I love having someone recommend to me these great books. It seems like the books I find on my own are never as good as the ones many suggests.

What Kind of Reader Are You?

I got this one from Katya:

What Kind of Reader Are You? Your Result: Literate Good Citizen You read to inform or entertain yourself, but you're not nerdy about it. You've read most major classics (in school) and you have a favorite genre or two.
Dedicated Reader
Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm
Book Snob
Fad Reader
Non-Reader
What Kind of Reader Are You? Create Your Own Quiz

BookWormsRus October books choices

For Kim...

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. They sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don't know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing: just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they were wearing, a cart of scavenged food-and each other.

The Road is the profoundly moving story of a journey. It boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, but in which the father and his son, "each the other's world entire," are sustained by love. Awesome in the totality of its vision, The Road is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable of: ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and the tenderness that keeps two people alive in the face of total devastation.

The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar

Poignant, evocative, and unforgettable, The Space Between Us is an intimate portrait of a distant yet familiar world. Set in modern-day India, it is the story of two compelling and achingly real women: Sera Dubash, an upper-middle-class Parsi housewife whose opulent surroundings hide the shame and disappointment of her abusive marriage, and Bhima, a stoic illiterate hardened by a life of despair and loss, who has worked in the Dubash household for more than twenty years. A powererful and perceptive literary masterwork, author Thrity Umrigar's extraordinary novel demonstrates how the lives of the rich and poor are intrinsically connected yet vastly removed from each other, and how the strong bonds of womanhood are eternally opposed by the divisions of class ad culture.

She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb

"Mine is a story of craving: an unreliable account of lusts and troubles that began, somehow, in 1956 on the day our free television was delivered..."

Meet Dolores Price. She's thirteen, wise-mouthed but wounded, having bid her childhood good-bye. Beached like a whale in front of her bedroom TV, she spends the next few years nourishing herself with the Mallomars, potato chips, and Pepsi her anxious mother supplies. When she finally rolls into young womanhood at 257 pounds, Dolores is no stronger and life is no kinder. But this time she's determined to rise to the occasion and give herself on more chance before really going belly up.

In his extraordinary coming-of-age odyssey, Wally Lamb invites us to hitch a wild ride on a journey of love, pain, and renewal with the most heartbreakingly comical heroine to come along in years. At once a fragile girl and a hard-edge cynic, so tough to love yet so inimitable loveable, Dolores is a poignantly real as our own imperfections. She's Come Undone includes a promise; you will never forget Dolores Price.

The Other Mother Gwendolen Gross

Gross's third novel (following Getting Out) documents the front lines of the Mommy Wars, but its real strength lies in exposing the complex inner battlefields motherhood can open up. Eight months pregnant Amanda, a successful children's book editor and dedicated New Yorker, picks up with her lawyer husband and moves to suburban Teaneck, N.J. Her new neighbor, Thea Caldwell, is a full-time mother of three who still lives in her childhood home and who arrives bearing brownies. When the newcomers take extended shelter in the Caldwells' basement following a damaging storm and, later, when Amanda hires Thea as her newborn's nanny, the growing intimacy between the two breeds resentment, bitterness and misunderstandings. The series of external crises designed to create tension and suspense are, in the end, less compelling than the women's own inner demons, revealed through alternating, and overlapping, first-person narration. Jersey resident Gross shows the strife between SAHMs (Stay at Home Moms) and WOTHs (moms who Work Outside the Home) to be a lot more nuanced than it's often portrayed.

Between, Georgia

Written by Joshilyn Jackson - Between, Georgia is the story of Nonny who was born in the small town of Between. Nonny's biological mother conceled her pregnacy and gave birth to her at the home of her mother's least favorite family the Fretts. The Fretts adopt Nonny and when her biological grandmother finds out the animonsity between the families only increases.

The Frett family has money, the keep a clean house, and are respected members of the community. The Crabtree family, Nonny's biological family are poor, dirty and live life on the fringes of society. Hey. this could be my story. I enjoyed the rich descriptions used in the story. The neighborhood which was walking distance from the house where Nonny grew up, the houses surrounding her biological family home, had burned out houses, abandoned houses, the inside of the home was also described in vivid details. The squalor of poverty and knowing this is where you come from. Having those people want you to acknowledge your connection to them, while this squalor feels foreign to you. Meanwhile, the adopted family feels foreign in many ways too.

I loved the way that the story was told, it brought to life a lot of the things I felt being an adopted child. Feelings of not really belonging with the adopted family or with the biological family. Questioning, who am I - a product of my genes or a product of my upbringing? Never really knowing. There is also a lot of action toward the end, I was bawling my eyes out, but not in a bad way. You have to read it to understand. So go and read it. now for the question . . .

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1. According to one theory, our identity is shaped by our genes, immutable and unchanging. Others argue that our character is informed by our experiences, upbringing, and surroundings. Discuss the idea of "nature versus nurture: as it applies to Nonny and her two families in Between, Georgia. Which do you think played a bigger role in the formation of your own character and identity?

Book Worms R US

In September we read two books, Flirting with Forty and Between, Georgia. The discussion for Flirting with Forty is taking place at Kim's blog, Wheaties2bk, and can be found here.

I think I was the only one to participate in that discussion. There is no reason you can't still swing by and leave your thoughts. I also wrote a general book review and impressions about Flirting with Forty on my blog here. I enjoyed Flirting with Forty very much and the discussion about women and happiness that ensued.

Now it is time to discuss Between, Georgia. I am hoping that we can have more of a discussion than we have in the past. I guess we all come to the book club for different reasons. Most of us come to get recommendations for new reads, and that is fine. But, I really enjoy the discussion part and that seems to have been lacking. In an effort to get more of a discussion going, I am going to host the discussion for Between in a little bit different way. I am going to post my review of the book and answer to one question my blog tonight at 7 PM central time. You are welcome to come joining the discussion live. Or stop by anytime and leave your thoughts. If you read Between and want to answer one of the other questions, I am encouraging you to write a blog post on your blog, give your general thoughts about the book and/or answer one of the questions from the back of the book. I will link to all the people who participate in the discussion on my post, just let me know in the comments or via an email. If you haven't read the book you are still welcome to participate, my discussion question tonight will be on the topic of nature vs. nurture. Something we all have an opinion about.

We also need to pick a book for October, oops a little late notice. Send me an email, leave me a comment, let me know your recommendations for books to read in October. I will also be putting up a new pick a book poll tonight during our discussion. The poll will be open and submissions allowed until everyone has had a chance to participate.

Poor yourself a glass of wine, grab some munchies and let's get together and have a live book club tonight.

Sorry for the late notice, I realize that I will most likely be on my own. Next month we will have more notice and I know that all of you have plans on Friday nights.

Did I tell you there would be prizes? Anyone who stops by and leaves a comment on the Between, Georgia post tonight between 7 -9 PM tonight is eligible to win a used copy of either Between, Georgia or Flirting with Forty your choice. I will mail you my copy. See you tonight.

Are you happy?

I finally finished reading Flirting with Forty, one of our BookWorms R Us books, the discussion of this book will be hosted by the lovely Kimberly, thanks Kim. I wanted to jot down a few of my thoughts now before I forgot them all. I was coerced into reading this book before reading the book I voted to read for September by both Kimberly and Angel, who promised me it would be a steamy romance. While there was a romance and there was some lovin' it was not in my opinion a romance novel and sadly there was no gratuitous sex.

I did not care for the main character Jackie at all, she drove me crazy and I just wanted to shake her. This did not keep me from reading the book or enjoying the story throughly. Surprisingly. It was a great story, full of suspense, a real page turner. I always enjoy a book that keeps me interested, keeps me guessing. Just one more chapter I have to know what is going to happen. That was there in Flirting with Forty.

There was more, however, than a compelling plot and a mildly steamy romance. There were some deep and provocative questions that our Jackie pondered and I pondered right along with her. The main pondering was about happiness. Are you happy? Do you smile, laugh, enjoy your life? Is that responsible, to be happy? Is it selfish? What kinds of sacrifices are you willing to make to be happy? Because let's face it, if you are a mom or a caregiver of any kind, putting yourself first has the consequence of putting someone else second. Can you do that? Are you willing to do that? Where is the balance? Where do you draw the line?

We all say that we need to take care of ourselves. But, it is hard, there is a consequence for always putting ourselves second, but there is also a consequence for putting our kids second.

I did a great deal of thought this subject throughout the book. I really enjoyed Flirting with Forty and I am looking forward to the discussion. Next up is Between, Georgia.

Are you happy?

By the Light of a Night Light

Last night I put Lily to bed at about 8:30PM then I laid down for a quick nap before having to pick up Mandy from school at about 10PM. They had an away volleyball game, so the poor girl left the house at 6AM and did not return home until after 10PM and still had to do homework. Poor girl.

When Mandy and I got home, I heard noises coming from Lily's room. She was having quite the conversation, two hours after I had put her to bed. I popped my head in to see what was up. Lily was on the floor reading a book to her Lamby by the light of her night light. Around her on the floor were dozens of books, I am assuming books she had previously read. It really cracked me up, she is only four and doesn't actually know how to "read", but there she was sneaking books late at night. Just like I did as a child and her sister still does. She knows all her books by heart and reads them with quite a bit of dramatic interpretation.

She was still mad at me this morning when she woke up for making her stop. First words out of her mouth were a continuation of our argument about going to bed the night before. I sometimes feel bad about forcing my kids to put the books down. The other day while Lily and I were having a room cleaning battle I was tempted to take away all her books until she assisted in the cleaning up, but I did not go quite that far. I did however load a butt load of baby dolls and their accessories into a garbage bag. I am pretty sure the books would have made more of an impact on her level of compliance.

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BookWormsRus - book club

August book club discussion is up at Angel's place. For September we are reading both Flirting with Forty ... by Jane Porter and Between, Georgia ... by Joshilyn Jackson. Feel free to read both or just one.

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Any volunteers for hosting either of these discussions in Sept?

September BookWorms poll

***updated: I have added one more book and reset the poll due to technical difficulities. Please consider the new book and recast your vote.

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Here is a list of the book which have been recommended for our September selection:

In Porter's second dip into the chick lit pool (after The Frog Prince), Seattle single mom Jackie Laurens begins wondering how important happiness is: divorced with two kids and a thriving decorating business, she assumes she's happy, but can't help feeling like something's missing. When her married friend, Anne, arranges for the two of them to indulge in a Hawaiian getaway in honor of Jackie's 40th birthday, Jackie agrees. Anne backs out at the last second, but Jackie decides to suffer through the vacation solo. Hawaii is gorgeous, but the hotel pool deck groans under the weight of middle-aged men whose coarse chutzpah is only overshadowed by their flabby bellies. Just before she resigns herself to the depressing prospects, she meets Kai, a sexy, tan and much younger surfing instructor. Life doesn't get better, only more complicated as Jackie tries to balance the sultry, sweaty joys of Hawaii and Kai with the obligations of motherhood. Porter's romance roots show in the gratuitous sex scenes and in how easily tears flow from Jackie's eyes, but this book fits the bill as a calorie-free accompaniment for a poolside daiquiri.

"Mine is a story of craving; an unreliable account of lusts and troubles that began, somehow, in 1956 on the day our free television was delivered." So begins the story of Dolores Price, the unconventional heroine of Wally Lamb's She's Come Undone. Dolores is a class-A emotional basket case, and why shouldn't she be? She's suffered almost every abuse and familial travesty that exists: Her father is a violent, philandering liar; her mother has the mental and emotional consistency of Jell-O; and the men in her life are probably the gender's most loathsome creatures. But Dolores is no quitter; she battles her woes with a sense of self-indulgence and gluttony rivaled only by Henry VIII. Hers is a dysfunctional Wonder Years, where growing up in the golden era was anything but ideal. While most kids her age were dealing with the monumental importance of the latest Beatles single and how college turned an older sibling into a long-haired hippie, Dolores was grappling with such issues as divorce, rape, and mental illness. Whether you're disgusted by her antics or moved by her pathetic ploys, you'll be drawn into Dolores's warped, hilarious, Mallomar-munching world.


There's "no such thing as a town smaller than Between," Joshilyn Jackson writes about the setting of her new Southern novel. It's not awfully far from Athens, Ga.; it's surrounded by pines and threatened by kudzu. Its major attraction is a museum devoted to porcelain dolls and butterfly farming: "a must-stop spot for the kind of people who liked to pack up a camper and go see freakishly large balls of tinfoil."
Between is also the home of the Fretts and the Crabtrees, who are like the Montagues and the Capulets, only more eccentric. The Fretts are "meticulous to the point of mental illness," Jackson writes. If they ever cuss, they use only cuss-words that appear in the Bible. They have money; they create order. The Crabtrees, meanwhile, live in squalor and chaos, sloping in and out of common-law unions and borderline felonies. The primal Crabtree landscape is a helter-skelter vision of "rusted-out bodies of cars and partial cars, heaps of old lawn mowers, fridges, gas stoves, and chunks of various engines." Crabtree men don't ask for dessert; they holler, "Baby Jesus, but I [expletive] need some pie."

A faithful summary of Between, Georgia would have to go on for pages to honor its enormous cast of quirky characters and its breathlessly intricate plot. But what you need to know is that the narrator, a spirited young woman named Nonny, was born a Crabtree and raised as a Frett. Her adoptive mother and aunts, in their tidy print dresses and orthopedic shoes, are naturally at odds with her Crabtree grandmother and a slew of redneck Crabtree cousins. But an attack by a vicious Crabtree dog brings the families together and sets the action going.

There's also Nonny's husband, Jonno, physically irresistible and ethically deficient, from whom she'll be divorced as soon as they can stop having "goodbye sex" and get to their court date in Athens. Jonno plays in a rock band called X. Machina -- as in deus ex machina, an ancient Greek plot-resolving device that comes in handy when this book reaches full gallop.

Jackson, whose first novel was gods in Alabama, has a gift for juggling a zillion movable parts. Adept at the kind of farce that requires characters to hide from each other in the bushes, she's also good at poignancy and at darker scenes of mayhem. There's so much back-story that it takes the reader a while to get oriented, but once you've got it straight, Jackson produces an astringently humorous performance.

Though Between hasn't the emotional depth that occasionally enriched gods in Alabama, it's equally dotted with Southern "characters." A favorite: the airhead virago Amber DeClue. Please let Scarlett Johansson play her if there's a movie so she can deliver the line: "I have to go iron my hair."

(is this the correct book - I couldn't find one called Finding Peyton Place???) With her mother deceased and her older sister suffering similar symptoms, successful 30-something novelist Annie Barnes turns detective—Erin Brokovich-style—when she reluctantly returns to her "stifling, stagnant, and cruel" New Hampshire hometown of Middle River in Delinsky's diverting latest (after The Summer I Dared). A company town dominated by Northbrook Paper Mill, owned by the powerful Meades, Middle River's real claim to fame, according to Annie and other townspeople, is that it was the model for the once notorious bestseller Peyton Place by Grace Metalious. Annie's neighbors are equally sure that she's returned to dig up their dirt, and, like Metalious, write about it. Though Annie is less concerned with gossip than possible mercury poisoning, Metalious speaks to her from beyond the grave, egging her on in her investigation. The plucky heroine also begins a flirty e-mail conversation with a Deep Throat who calls himself "TrueBlue" and hints at Northbrook Mill's dark doings. And against all odds, handsome Meade scion James seems to be an ally in her environmental crusade. Readers with an appetite for light fare will find all the right ingredients—romance, mystery, suspense, sisterly rivalry and a thoroughly happy ending.

Harry Potter, no spoilers

We had every intention of going to the big costume party at Barnes and Noble. There was a great deal of weather and we opted for the Wal-Mart down the street instead. We lined up, hundreds of people all around the store, we got our books and lined up again, paid and left. Not a lot of fuss. Most people were in their PJ's and flip flops. At home Mandy read the first two chapters aloud, I couldn't hold my eyes open any longer and went to bed. She is still reading, only breaking long enough for 5 hours of sleep, she has to work this afternoon or she would have pushed through. I am still waiting for the mail woman to bring me my copy from Amazon. I wanted to have a back up just in case.


Jeff said that driving home from work yesterday the DJ told everyone the ending of the book. I am not listening to radio or tv until I am done. Mandy says it is action packed.

Jeff, Lily and I had to take our three month old lawn mower to be fixed. It will take three weeks. We lost the receipt and have to pay for our repairs. It has already been two weeks since our last mow.


On the way home we stopped at the farmers market. We got some fresh tomatoes, watermellon, goat feta cheese, in a italian seasoning. I stopped and got some lettuce at the grocery store and some french bread. We stopped by the specialty meat shop and got some crab bisque. What an amazing lunch. Book should be here at any moment. Maybe I will go sit by the mail box. Or read Mandy's copy while she is at work. Hope you are enjoying your copy. To all my friends who have re-read the previous book or books, you are so smart, Mandy had to explain what was going on to me as I forgot so much. I am thinking after I am done, I may go back and do the whole series all together to really get all the details. I really can't bear for it to end, if Harry is grown up so is Mandy.

Feminize-my made of word of the day

While Mandy and I are the world's biggest Harry Potter fans, Jeff is only lukewarm. He hasn't read the books and that may be why. He feels that Harry is a bit on the sensitive-girlie-man-weak side. I tell him this is due to the fact that the movies don't do a very good job of capturing Harry, not as good a job as the movies. But, I wonder...

I have noticed that I have a very hard time identifying with female characters in novels written by men. Even my beloved Anna Karenina one of my all time favorite books, I did not identify with any of the women in the book. In fact I very much disliked all the women. However, I loved each of the men, even though they were all flawed, they still came across as people with whom I could identify. Curious.

I can remember from a couple of years ago when I was taking a Fiction, Poetry and Drama course -my first college course, three months after Lily was born after more than 10 years away from the books. We were discussing The Chrysanthemums by John Steinbeck you can read it here, if you are so inclined, and I just couldn't get into the discussion. I really did not care for the woman in the story Elisa. My teacher patiently explained to me, a lover of biographies of feminists, that life was different for women back then and that Elisa didn't have choices. I was thinking that the women I have met and read about from this era were fabulous, I had so much sympathy and only kind thoughts, but Elisa just rubbed me the wrong way. Could it be because this character was created by a man? This is what I have always thought, pretty sexist of me I know.

What about you, have you ever been able to identify with a female character from a book written by a man? Movies don't count because the female actress has a chance to feminize the character.

July Book Club Discussion

Lorelei has posted the discussion questions for the July book club here. Feel free to stop by now or whenever you finish the book and join in the discussion. Lorelei has added a book worms r us category to her blog so you can easily find this discussion when you are ready to contribute.

I haven't started it yet, I am a bit scared that it will be an upsetting book and make me cry. But, I am going to go outside my box and read something I wouldn't have picked for myself. That is after all what the book club is about.

I have also added a chat box to the side of my blog. Here you can read or add to the discussion of books you are reading that we as a book club are not reading. Gives you a chance to get recommendations from our fellow book lovers and of course to give recommendations. Maybe when I get a chance I will make a list of the books that have been recommended by our fellow book worms along with their thoughts so we can have a reference to check out whenever we are in the market for a new book. I will have to think about how to do it? For now we have a chat box. Lorelei also has a category on her blog called book reviews where she has reviewed many books and you can always go over there to find her thoughts on many of the books she has read.

Six days until Harry Potter.

BookWormsRus - book club: The Last Girls by Lee Smith ~ Discussion

Post your thoughts about the book in the comments here. Below are the discussion questions found at the end of the book, post your thoughts in the comments below each question. You don't have to have actually read the book to participate, most of the topics use the book as a jumping off point for interesting topics.

Question # 1

Harriet dubs the four women on the river cruise "the last girls." What does she mean by this name? How is The Last Girls an appropriate title for the novel?

Question # 2

Author Lee Smith writes The Last Girls in the third person, but devotes chapters to different, alternating points of view. What affect does this shifting narrative viewpoint have on the story? How does Smith make each narrative voice a distinctive and unique one?

Question # 3

What do the four "last girls" have in common? How has each changed since her first trip down the river? Is there one character here that forms the emotional center of the book? If so, who is it, and why?

Question # 4

How does the riverboat cruise compare with the first trip that the girls took down the river? How does Mr. Gaines, the professor that inspires the raft trip, affect them-both academically and on a personal level? What expectations do the women have on each trip? How do the two voyages each constitute a rite of passage?

Question # 7

The novel features excerpts of Baby's poetry and Anna's romance novels. What does the inclusion of this writing add to your understanding of both these characters? Why don't you see passages by Courtney, Catherine and Harriet? What do you imagine that their writing would be like?

Question # 8

Harriet, Catherine, Anna, Courtney and Baby each come from very different family backgrounds. In which ways do their families shape the girls' personalities? Who is more apt to rebel against her family, and who strives to make them proud? By your estimation, who is the closest at achieving a happy medium between the two?