Book Club Extraordinaire - BExtraordinaire Blog

Family Secrets in Florence Adler Swims Forever by Rachel Beanland

1/18/2021

Florence Adler Swims Forever by Rachel Beanland is based on the author's true family story. The novel takes place in 1934 in Atlantic City, New Jersey and is told through the eyes of nine-year-old Gussie, Florence's niece. Florence Adler is a swimming star and determined to be the first Jewish woman to swim the English Channel. During a practice swim in the Atlantic Ocean a tragic accident occurs resulting in Florence's death. Florence's mother, Esther, decides to keep the news about her death from Florence's very pregnant sister, Fannie, who is in the hospital on bedrest. Fannie has already lost one baby and Esther does not want to cause her any additional stress. An elaborate scheme is hatched to keep the secret.
I highly recommend this book. You will not be able to put it down. Read more about this engrossing book at Simon and Schuster.

Neruda and Allende Together

1/5/2021

A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende is another masterpiece from one of my favorite writers. Allende tells the story of over 2,000 refugees that fled Spain for Chile during the occupation by Franco and his Nationalist forces during the Spanish Civil War. Many of the refugees were personally selected by the famous Chilean Poet Pablo Neruda to cross the ocean on the S.S. Winnipeg in which he chartered for the voyages. Allende novel spans the years from 1938 to 1994. She weaves Neruda's poetry throughout the book. I enjoyed this book for the storytelling and the poetry, making this book a powerful read. NPR has a wonderful review, 'A Long Petal of the Sea' Finds Love in a Time of Chaos by Marcela Davidson Aviles.

Importance of Friends

12/21/2020

Rules for Visiting written by Jessica Frances Kane is a lovely book about the importance of friends. The book beautifully opens with a snippet from Virginia Woolf's 1931 book Waves.

Thus I visited each of my friends in turn, trying, with fumbling fingers, to prise open their locked caskets. I went from one to the other holding my sorrow -- no, not my sorrow but the incomprehensible nature of this life -- for their inspection. Some people go to priests other to poetry; I to my friends.

May Attaway, 40 year old, a university gardener, who over the years has grown more comfortable with plants than people, does just that. She goes on a hero's journey and visits one by one old friends she has not seen in years. She seeks to finds herself, and along the way undergoes a life-altering transformation.
One of my favorite parts of the book is the inclusion of descriptions and illustrations of trees. I recommend this sweet little book.

The Book of Lost Friends

12/4/2020

I chose The Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate to read because I thoroughly enjoyed Before We Were Yours about the corruption scandal surrounding the Tennessee Home Children’s Society. The Book of Lost Friends takes us to Louisiana in 1875 during the time of reconstruction after the Civil War. It tells the story of Hannie, a freed slave, whose mother and family were taken and one by one sold as slaves. Hannie is determined to find her family. She uses the “Lost Friends” advertisements published in Southern newspapers after the Civil War to help families reunite with their loved ones. The novel alternates between 1875 and 1987. In 1987 outsider, Bendetta Silva, moves to a rural town in Louisiana to teach in an impoverished school. In a desperate attempt to motivate her students, she uncovers the town's dark secrets hidden in a run-down plantation.
Read more about this novel at the Reading Ladies Book Club. Lisa Wingate takes us back to a dark time in our nation’s history and weaves a tale of enduring power.

Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane

11/7/2020

Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane is a heartbreaker. Forgiveness, love, mental health and martial relations are all themes in this novel about two families forever bound by tragedy. Two rookie police officers, Francis and Brian, met on the the job. They share ties to Ireland. Francis, an immigrant and Brian born in the US and grew up in Ireland. Coincidentally, they both with their families move to the gentile suburb of Gillam and find themselves next-door neighbors. They have children of the same age, Brian and Anne have a son, Peter and Francis and Lena have a daughter, Kate. Their children form a strong friendship. When they are fourteen, a terrible accident happens that tears the families apart.
"And then there's Anne, living with mental illness: In a jittery and terrifying scene that weds the mundane to the mad, we enter into Anne's mind on New Year's Eve 1990, when she makes a trip to the local supermarket deli counter, takes her number, waits, and, then, with mounting rage, comes to believe that everyone else in the supermarket is in cahoots to prevent her from buying her cold cuts."
Read more in the NPR review by Maureen Corrigan, Ask Again, Yes is a Profound yet Unpretentious Family Drama.
This book shines a spotlight on mental illness and love that lives throughout adversity.

Deep River by Karl Marlantes

11/7/2020

Do you want a remarkable family saga you can settle in with for some time? Deep River written by Karl Marlantes and its 724 pages will keep you captivated from the beginning to the end.
The story begins in early 1900's in Finland under Russia occupation. Members of the Koski family, brothers- Ilmari and Matti and their sister, Aino are forced to leave Finland. They head to the United States and settle in southern Washington state near the Columbia River. The brothers work in the logging industry and Aino takes on the challenge of organizing the workers to fight against the poor and dangerous conditions in the industry. Aino emerges as a strong female character based on the Finnish mythical "Kalevala" and on Marlantes' grandmother and aunts. "My grandmother didn’t actually get thrown in jail [in “Deep River” Aino is imprisoned by Finland’s Russian occupiers, then tortured and raped, then jailed again in America], but she was a communist. The Daily Worker was on the kitchen table. Most Finns brought socialism over from Finland — they came from an oppressed country."
Read more about the novel in the review from the Seattle Times, Deep River is an Epic Tale of the Wobblies and the Will to Survive.

A Mother's Fierce Love in The World That We Knew

9/30/2020

Wow, what a book! Alice Hoffman's The World That We Knew is an incredible story about a mother's fierce love to protect her 12-year-old daughter, Lea, from the evil being wrought by the Germans during World War II. Berlin in 1941 is a dangerous place for Jews. Lea's mother, Hanni Kohn is desperate to find a way to get her daughter out of harm's way. She seeks out a rabbi with mystical powers to create a golem, a mythical creature made of mud and clay as Lea's guardian. The rabbi's wife refuses on behalf of her family. Ettie, the rabbi's 12-year-old daughter confides she has watched her father and is willing to help, knowing as a woman, she would be committing blasphemy.

Hanni was not going to trust a male monster to care for her daughter and insists it must be a female. "It must be a woman. A mother figure who would feel not a forced duty, but real, tangible love. To make sure of this she has saved a vial of tears, which she now poured over the creature's eyes. See as I see. Do as I would have. Be who I might have become."

When the creature named Ava comes to life, Hanni begs Ava for one thing, to love her as if she were your own. "I want you to feel what I feel. Do you understand what I mean? Real love. That is what I feel for my daughter, and what I will always feel for her, no matter what happens. Even when I am no longer here." Ava assures her with tears in her eyes.

I can't praise this book enough. It is a tightly knitted story of being human and feeling unbreakable love.

Rock on with Daisy Jones and the Six

9/5/2020

DAISY JONES & THE SIX by Taylor Jenkins Reid is a blast from the past. It follows the story of a 70's rock and roll band named Daisy Jones and the Six. The book reveals the band members, agents, and other supporting characters through interviews. The writing feels authentic and had me scratching my head as to why I didn't recall this group. I wanted to listen to their music and travel back to the 70's only to find out it is all fiction. At the back of the book there is even an album song list with lyrics from their breath-through album, Aurora. This book is a New York Times Bestseller and is a Reese's Book Club pick. “I devoured Daisy Jones & The Six in a day, falling head over heels for it. Taylor Jenkins Reid transported me into the magic of the ’70s music scene in a way I’ll never forget. The characters are beautifully layered and complex. Daisy and the band captured my heart, and they’re sure to capture yours, too.” —Reese Witherspoon

Amazon Video has bought the rights to the book and will produce a 13 episode mini series starring Riley Keough and Camila Morrone and directed by Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine production company.

The Vanishing Half

8/19/2020

I recently read an interesting book titled The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett. It is a Good Morning America Book Club Pick and a New York Times Best Seller. It is set in Mallard, Louisiana, a small ideological community of light skinned blacks. Dark skinned blacks are not welcome in this small town. The book focuses on the lives of two twin sisters, Desiree and Stella. As the girls grow up they are stiffed in the small town and as soon as they are old enough they run away to New Orleans. Their paths part, one sister moves to DC and married an abusive dark skinned man and the other passes herself off as white and marries a white man.

From the June 3, 2020 NPR review by Heller McAlpin, The Vanishing Half, Counts the Terrible Costs of Bigotry and Secrecy.
"In Mallard, nobody married dark," Bennett writes starkly. Over time, its prejudices deepened as its population became lighter and lighter, "like a cup of coffee steadily diluted with cream." The twins, with their "creamy skin, hazel eyes, wavy hair," would have delighted the town's founder.

It is an intriguing story of secrets, identity, racism, and family ties.

Airplane Crash and its Aftermath

8/12/2020

Here I go again reading a book about an airplane crash when flying. Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano is an amazing book about a 12 year old boy, Eddie who is the only survivor of an airplane crash. He is now the "Miracle Boy." The story is told in chapters alternating between the time during the flight and after the devastating crash. The characters are vivid and honest. The novel grapples with the heartbreak and healing and the human spirit. I highly recommend this incredible read.

Favorite quote: The air between us is not empty space.

From NPR review written by Helen McAlpin
Dear Edward is in part a tale of survivor guilt, which is fueled by the weight of oppressive, often bizarre expectations on the miracle boy, especially from the families of victims who want him to fulfill their loved ones' dreams and plans. "Stop expecting me to have hidden powers, okay? I'm not a freaking wizard," he explodes at one point. It takes Edward years to learn to live with the aftershocks of the tragedy and absorb the liberating fact that, far from being chosen for a special purpose, his survival was just "dumb luck."