Aaaaaaand... we're back!

Hi Everyone!  (Is anyone still there?)  I'm sorry for my unintentional Sabbatical from Book Club activity! I had some family issues and had to pare our activities down to the very bare minimum in order to get through the days, but I am ready to come back to my previous life!

I am putting together a list of upcoming reads, and was wondering if you had any suggestions?  I thought we'd start out super easy in coming back from the break with a short read.  I found the suggestion in the Daring Book for Girls under the heading of "Books that all girls should read" and it looks pretty good (and short!)

If you are interested in continuing with the Book Club, the April book will be:

Behind Rebel Lines: The Incredible Story of Emma Edmonds, Civil War Spy

What else should we put on the Docket?

Book Reviews

I hope you are enjoying Follow the River, but in the meanwhile, I thought I'd put up some book reviews from the past year.

Here are some from our friends here on the book club (Andrea, you are an honorary member...) that I put up without their permission, so give me a holler if you want this off.

Ashlee's 2010 book review

Andrea's 2010 book review (part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6)

Shayla's 2010 book review (part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6)

And if there's anyone else out there with a review, let me know and I'll put it up!


And here are some very random lists of the best of the best from 2010 lit.

Amazon's Best Books of 2010

NY Times top 10 of 2010

Best of 2010 from Fiction Award Winners

Publisher's Weekly

NY Times best illustrated children's books

More Children's books

Publisher's Weekly best of Children's books

ALA's best young adult books

Goodreads best of YA books for 2010

Amazon YA books

I don't know about you, but my "to-read" list just got about a mile longer.

Not much to do with Anything...

... But, I've been actually thinking about reading Wives and Daughters lately so I think that would be fun, but any book is fine. 

Speaking of which, has anyone seen/read North and South? The book is by the same author of Wives and Daughters and if you loved Pride and Prejudice, you'll love this one. 

Actually, it's similar to Pride and Prejudice in the way that The Lightning Thief is similar to Harry Potter. They both have similar plots and characters, but they are both VERY good in different ways. The same is with North and South and Pride and Prejudice. 

The similarity doesn't bother me though, does it bother other people? 

I know this is random but it was just on my mind. 

Book Recommendations?

Hi all!

I hope you have gotten a copy of The Lightning Thief and are enjoying it thus far. In the meantime, I was wondering what your favorite book is and why (I know it's hard to choose just one, so if you must put several, then you must :). Then we will all have a trusted resource for a good book recommendation...

As for me...

(and I know Ashlee agrees with me on this one) The Book Thief is by far my favorite book to date. Great writing style, very unique narrator (death), great relationships (her and her papa), gripping story, and although it has a weighty subject material, it still leaves you better than when you picked it up, and makes you feel good and realize what is important in life.

It also depends on what "favorite" category you are talking...

favorite light reading with a cute love story: anything Shannon Hale, especially Book of a Thousand Days

favorite classic: that's a toughy... maybe Tale of two cities, or Little Women

favorite self-help type book: Thinking Body, Dancing Mind

favorite children's book: The Ordinary Princess

favorite book growing up (that I read 100 times): Girl of the Limberlost

so.... a penny for your thoughts...