Belletristic Skirt Society: April and Oliver

The month of May was my month to pick a title.  I chose 

April and Oliver

by Tess Callahan

Since I usually write my thoughts about the books the other girls pick, I thought it might be nice to get a different perspective this month.  I actually found the book on Julie's Good Reads page, so it is kind of fitting for her to pass along her review.  You've met Julie before, here on Paper Wings, she guest posted last August giving us a fabulously southern fried green tomatoes recipe. YUM. Check it out here if you missed it last year.

Here is Julie with her handsome husband, Kevin! :)

Ok, so here's Julie........

I don’t remember what actually drew me to this particular novel, but it had been on my “to read” list for a couple years. Obviously, I was in no hurry to read it. Then Tracy it selected for the Belle Skirts to read.

April and Oliver is a dark story of a dysfunctional family and their experiences with tragedy. The theme of the book is loss and grief, and how everyone deals with it differently. It is also about how friendships change and develop over time. In the beginning, the book was a little confusing due to jumping around in different time periods, but the beautiful prose made up for it. Callahan did an exquisite job writing this story. The scenes were surreal and the characters were well developed, the only problem I had was truly connecting to the characters.  April and Oliver were both sensitive and intelligent, but many of their life choices were a little far-fetched.  It seemed to take April a long time to grow up and deal with her life.

There is a lot of sexual tension between April and Oliver as the book description implies, but I had a hard time getting past the fact that they were cousins, albeit step-cousins. There were a few twists in the story, but much of it was predictable. This being said, I would still read another novel by this Callahan if she writes another. Overall, I give April & Oliver three stars. 

There you have it! Thanks Julie for writing this for me, especially in the summer time when us teachers are suppose to be "off." :)

June's pick is

The Handmaid's Tale

by Margaret Atwood

Happy Summer Reading!

Tracy

Belletristic Skirt Society: Into the Forest

For the month of April, the Belle. Skirts read 

Into the Forest

by  Jean Hegland

It was Rondi's month to host. 

 Isn't she pretty? :)

Here's what Amazon had to say about it:

Set in the near-future, Into the Forest is a powerfully imagined novel that focuses on the relationship between two teenage sisters living alone in their Northern California forest home.

Over 30 miles from the nearest town, and several miles away from their nearest neighbor, Nell and Eva struggle to survive as society begins to decay and collapse around them. No single event precedes society's fall. There is talk of a war overseas and upheaval in Congress, but it still comes as a shock when the electricity runs out and gas is nowhere to be found. The sisters consume the resources left in the house, waiting for the power to return. Their arrival into adulthood, however, forces them to reexamine their place in the world and their relationship to the land and each other.

Reminiscent of Margaret Atwood's A Handmaid's Tale, Into the Forest is a mesmerizing and thought-provoking novel of hope and despair set in a frighteningly plausible near-future America.

Ok, so I am not totally sure how I feel about this book.  I enjoyed reading it, and I found the plot line to somewhat parallel the plot line of Impatient With Desire. I thought it was interesting, and I liked the characters....it's just that... I don't know. There was something missing. At least to me there was.  I didn't care for the ending, either. I felt kind of ripped off, and left hanging. HOWEVER, it was good, and I didn't have to make myself read it.  I wanted to keep going. Does that make sense at all?

May's pick is

April & Oliver

by Tess Callahan

Stay tuned, and keep reading!

Tracy

Belletristic Skirt Society Meeting: Unbroken

For the Month of March, the Belle Skirts read

 Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption

By Laura Hillenbrand.

(The author of Seabiscuit)

It was Amy's month to host.

Kudos, Amy. :)

Here's what Amazon had to say about it....

On a May afternoon in 1943, an Ary Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood.  Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared.  It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane's bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard.  So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Second World War.

The lieutenant's name was Louis Zamperini. In boyhood, he'd been a cunning and incorrigible delinquent, breaking into houses, brawling, and fleeing his home to ride the rails.  As a teenager, he had channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics and within sight of the four-minute mile.  But when war had come, the athlete had become an airman, embarking on a journey that led to his doomed flight, a tiny raft, and a drift into the unknown.

Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, and a foundering raft, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and beyond, a trial even greater.  Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor; brutality with rebellion.  His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will.

In her long-awaited new book, Laura Hillenbrand writes with the same rich and vivid narrative voice she displayed in Seabiscuit. Telling an unforgettable story of a man's journey into extremity, Unbroken is a testament to the resilience of the human mind, body, and spirit.

Oh. My. Goodness. This man's story is AMAZING! It's mind blowing what he went through, and how he held onto the hope that he would make it through. The story alone is gripping, and very well written. 

Go. Find. This. Book. 

AND READ.

That's all I can say.

April's book is

Into the Forest

by Jean Hegland

Stay tuned!!! (And read UNBROKEN!!)

Tracy

Belletristic Skirt Society Meeting: Impatient with Desire

I know I have mentioned that I am in a book club before, but I don't think I have given much detail.  My book club consists of 7 fantastic ladies, and we call ourselves the Belletristic Skirt Society.

We have been meeting for almost 7 years! Needless to say, we are a very tight knit group . Each month a different member "hosts" the club meeting. She gets to pick the book for that month, and what we have for dinner. We all bring different parts to make the dinner (and dessert!) complete. We eat dinner, and talk about what has been going on in our lives. Then over dessert we discuss the book. A lot of times, the host will find book club questions for the book to start the conversation.  At the end of the meeting, we rate the book, and write the score down in our club record book.

We have a group page at 

goodreads

You can check out all the books we have read, and see what we rated them.

Now that you have been introduced to the Belle. Skirts, I wanted to share what we read for the month of February.

This is Angela, and February was her month to host. Angela picked the book

Impatient with Desire: The Lost Journal of Tamsen Donner

by Gabrielle Burton

Here is a brief description found at Amazon.com
The Donner Party
You know how some died.
Here's how some lived. 

"My heart is big with hope and impatient with desire."
--Tamsen Donner, a letter to her sister

In the spring of 1846, Tamsen Donner, her husband, George, their five daughters, and eighty other pioneers headed west on the California-Oregon Trail in eager anticipation of new lives in California. Everything that could go wrong did, and an American legend was born.

The Donner Party. We think we know their story--starving pioneers trapped in the mountains performing an unspeakable act to survive--but we know only that one harrowing part of it. Impatient with Desirebrings to stunning life a woman--and a love story--behind the myth. Historians have long known that Tamsen kept a journal, though it was never found. In Impatient with Desire, Burton imagines this lost journal--and paints a picture of a remarkable heroine in an extraordinary situation.

I really enjoyed this book. Being a fan of historical fiction, this book was very intriguing, and I couldn't put it down! It was a quick, easy read, yet not as light as many easy reads are. It is amazing what the Donner Party went through, and heart breaking to imagine being, like Tamsen, a mother just trying to keep her family alive.

 The format of the book was really well done, also. The book begins with the family already trapped in the mountains, and easily entwines the past before the journey began as well as major events during the journey.

This is a MUST READ!

Our March book choice is 

Unbroken: A World War II Story Of Survival, Resilience, And Redemption

by Laura Hillenbrand

We meet at toward the end of the month, so stay tuned to see what we all thought!

Enjoy the weekend-

Tracy