JUNE 2020

Hello Book Lovers!

Last Thursday night we met at the home of Geri Christensen. We started on the back patio, but it became too windy and cold so we moved into the house.  Here are the books we discussed:

BETH HEDENGREN

FOR ALL THE SAINTS, a history of the Church in New England. How they built the Church there and the people that would come to Harvard and go and greet the new students and integrate them into the Church. Wonderful stories. Story of milkman called to work with investigators. Every Wednesday night members brought friends to this meeting to learn about the Church. Over 600 baptisms in two years’ time.

LANI PACKARD

SWINDLE by Gordon Norman, a book for teens. About two 12 year old youths who go to abandoned house and they want to take a stand. He finds baseball card in the house and tries to sell it to an oddities place and they are cheated. He comes up with elaborate plan with kids to all these skills to steal the card back.

THE STORY GIRL by Lucy Maud Montgomery. Makes nature seem like magic. All the characters live in 1800’s. They often live in family of farmers. They do chores and sit in orchard and talk and make daisy chains. They come up with funny ideals like dream journals, etc. Very cute, wholesome and sweet.

MARLENE MATHESON

RISING OUT OF HATRED by Eli Saslow. About a boy who had his father and uncle were head of Ku Klux Klan. So he grew up going to these meetings and believing in white supremacy. He was hosting a poscast with his dad for years and years. Then he went to college and started meeting people and became friends with a Jewish man and someone from South America and different minorities. He started realizing how he had hurt them, that they were good people. He started changing his mind and when he finally had his decision made he told the family and caused such a disruption of the family. It is what his family was based on. He rose out of hatred and went to another college and changed his life. He couldn’t believe how Donald Trump came in and started awakening all the things about hatred. It’s very interesting to see how that develops.

HARRY POTTER by J.K.Rowling, Book One. I Enjoyed listening to it because of the voices and I now understand how it all got started. I was happy with just listening to half.

UNKNOWN VALOR by Martha McCallum. Excellent. She did a lot of research on Iwo Jima and the World War II. She tied personal stories to of several people.

BELGRAVIA by Julian Fellowes

THE SAINTS, book one.

RIVER by Dean Hughes. (From Deseret Bookshelf.)

MARYANN STEVENS

SATURDAY BIG TENT WEDDING by Alexander McCall Smith 3.5 stars.

NINE PERFECT STRANGERS by Leanne Moriarty. 3.5 stars. Very suspenseful.

THE SUMMER OF SIXTY-NINE BY Ellen Hildebrandt. 3.5 stars

BRAIDING SWEETGRASS by Robin Wall Kimmerer 3 stars.

GERI CHRISTENSEN

ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL by James Herriott  4 strs.  A wonderfully entertaining book written by a country vet who lived and practiced on the Yorkshire Dales during the 1930's, 40's and 50's. The stories are all true and are told with wit, compassion and charm. I love this series. 

THE GREAT ALONE by Kristin Hannah. 3.5 stars. The story of a family homesteading in Alaska. Rather depressing but intriguing. 

EYE OF THE STORM by Jack Higgins. 3 stars.  Typical Jack Higgins story. Very fast-paced and exciting in parts. I love the books written by this author, although some are better than others. My favorite is THE EAGLE HAS LANDED.  

THE AMAZING MRS. POLIFAX by Dorothy Gilman.4 stars.  Once again the irrepressible Mrs. Pollifax, that very special agent with her own very special brand of logic, is off on an incredible escapade of international intrigue . . . from the exotic towns and countryside of Turkey to a mysterious rendezvous with a gypsy caravan.