Book Club: September Edition

First an introduction. I run the Book Club at my local library. It meets once a month and is open to anyone who wants to attend. Books are chosen by the members two months in advance (in September we picked November's book) and no matter how much I wish it, book selection is not solely my choice. The result of that is books I would not normally choose for myself. Sometimes I love them (The Help by Kathryn Stockett, despite the recent craze, actually is good), and sometimes I can't stand them, but can still see how they would appeal to some people.



It's a pretty cover at least.
Kinda.



Which brings us to September's Book Club selection:

Heart and Soul by Maeve Binchy

Set in Dublin, Dr. Clara Casey is tapped to build a Heart Clinic using an existing building and limited resources. What follows is a story about the community of friends and the far reaching positive effects created by the clinic's staff and its patients.

While the idea of this novel is a good one, the weaving of a bunch of small stories into an overall community story doesn't work for me here. It didn't really for my book club either. Their major complaint of this book was that there were far too many characters to follow and that by the time you finished one person's story, you'd forgotten the previous ones. While keeping up with the characters was a challenge, I found that overall the stories in the book weren't really believable. Normally that wouldn't be a problem in a fiction book, however it seemed as though that that was something the author was going for. Also with her writing she tended to flat out tell me things about a character when I wish she'd just shown me through the characters words and actions.

Is this your cup of tea?

Obviously this book was not my cup of tea to begin with, so I won't over criticize an author for choosing to write about subjects that don't really interest me. And I will recommend this book for those of you who need a feel good novel about a community looking after each other and the stories of the diverse lives of the people in the community.

Essentials

In order to be an efficient reader as a mom you must have the following essentials:

I'm not from Austin, but I dig the look of this card!

A library card. People are always on the look out for free entertainment. Look no further, the public library has books, movies, cds, public computers, ebooks, programs (especially children's programs), and a team of people who are just dying to connect you to the resources you need. Here enters some bias, I am a librarian myself. But really, if you love to read books or watch movies then the library is a more cost effective way of pursuing those interests.

The next essential is only for those of use who have a smartphone, or an e-reader device:

This is the Overdrive App.

Overdrive is the software that allows libraries to checkout ebooks and audiobooks to its patrons. It will work with PCs, Macs, all ereading devices, smartphones, and mp3 players. Frequent users of this service will also be happy to note that digital libraries now play nice with Kindle devices.

Why am I plugging ebooks? Simple. The first couple of months of my sons life, I spent a lot of time rocking him to sleep. A book would have been too awkward to hold in one hand while also holding him, but my iPhone, fit nicely into my palm, and I usually had it nearby anyway to log his feedings or call my mom with a question. My iPhone also lets me read late at night when I'm up with my son without having to turn lights on and disturb my husband. I still read print books, still love the smelling and feeling of holding them in my hand, but if reading a book on a device is what I have to do to read a book conveniently sometimes, then that's what I'm going to do. 

Lastly, once you start reading books, you'll notice that over time you have a hard time remembering if you've read certain titles or only thought about reading them, and that entire plots of books will escape your brain. To counteract this:

This site just launched a reader's advisory feature that so far is pretty spot on.

Goodreads is a great place to log books you've read and books you want to read. Rate the books you've read, write up a quick review and magically you'll be able to at least remember having picked up the book at some point. It is also useful if you're stuck choosing which book you want to read next since you have access to user reviews, as well as the new reader's advisory feature. There are other websites like this out there, LibraryThing, Shelfari, but I enjoy the Goodreads interface. Also LibraryThing, while a great site, charges you after 200 books. This mom has over 500 books on her Goodreads and no money to spare, sorry LibraryThing.

Those are the bare essentials! Get reading!

http://www.goodreads.com/
http://www.overdrive.com/  (search for your local library)
AND GET A LIBRARY CARD! ONE FOR YOU AND ANOTHER FOR YOUR CHILDREN.