Julie’s Comments (group member since Feb 25, 2016)

Julie’s comments from the Topeka & Shawnee Co. Public Library group.

'Scarlett O'Hara was not beautiful, but men seldom realized it when caught by her charm as the Tarleton twins were.' Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

I finished Laura McHugh's Arrowood last night. I loved this suspenseful, gothic tale of a broken woman returning to her childhood home in Keokuk, Iowa where her toddler twin sisters were kidnapped years ago. Sort of a cross between Gillian Flynn's Dark Places and V.C. Andrew's My Sweet Audrina (and those are compliments!)

I just read my first Ron Rash book - Above the Waterfall - over the weekend and loved it. The characters, the setting, the lyrical writing...I'm definitely going to check out his other books.

Gone with the Wind is one of my all-time favorite books, but I don't have the same love for the movie. I feel the movie does a disservice to both Rhett and Scarlett by having Rhett declare his love for Scarlett very early on in the relationship (the dance at the armory, I think) whereas in the novel Scarlett is genuinely clueless about his true feelings since he disguises his love so well. Also, I don't think the movie should have cut Wade Hampton and Ella Lorena because Scarlett's maternal feelings, or lack there of, are very relevant to her character. But I loved the costumes!

I usually have three going at one time because I bring home way too many books from the library. I find the new ones so tempting that I'll start right away even though I'm still in the middle of another one. I know a book is really compelling if I stick with it - and only it! - until I finish.

Abigail wrote: "I tried reading a book by Robert Liparulo called Germ, but I didn't get very far into it. As I remember it, it was a fiction book about someone using biological weapons to kill people. His descript..."

Oh, I definitely agree about the graphicness - is that a word? - being a game changer in my reading. I can handle things being alluded to ("the body was dismembered") or even a clinical description ("the arm was severed below the elbow joint") but if blood, gore, screaming, axes getting stuck in arm gristle, etc. are involved then I might skim, skip, or return the book!

Deb wrote: "I remember being glad that I was listening to Immaculée Ilibagiza's book about the Rwandan genocide because that meant I only had to deal with it 15 minutes at a time. That way I could leave the ch..."

I did go back to A Mother's Reckoning and finished it. It really was very disturbing but by the end I was utterly convinced that the Klebolds did a wonderful job parenting the child they thought they had.

I just finished the excellent The Shut Eye by Belinda Bauer. An irascible, yet curiously likeable, DCI investigates the disappearances of a young girl, a toddler, and an apricot poodle. Creepy dolls and psychics also play a part! I'm currently reading Curtis Sittenfeld's riff on Pride and Prejudice - Eligible. This modern-day retelling of P & P takes place in Cincinnati (!) and the Bennett sisters are exactly how I would imagine their 21st century American selves; Kitty and Lydia, for example, are unemployed Crossfit enthusiasts who eat Paleo. I just started but I'm loving it so far.

Isn't this like choosing your favorite child?! But at the top of my list would be:
1) Gone with the Wind
2) My Antonia
3) Gone Girl
4) Harry Potter series
5) One Child by Torey Hayden

I remember reading Columbine by David Cullen and reaching a point where the hate and vitriol of the young killers just became too horrifying. So I suppose it isn't surprising that I've reached that point in Sue Klebold's moving account of her son's role in the Columbine killings A Mother's Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy, only this time I'm overwhelmed by the idea that your beloved child, a child you thought you intimately knew, could commit such an unspeakable act. I'm at the point where Sue Klebold is viewing the so-called Basement Tapes and realizes that yes, her son, her baby really was responsible. I was so overwhelmed that I couldn't continue. Have you ever read something so disturbing that you just couldn't finish?