The Perks of Being a Wallflower/Stephen Chbosky/213 pages

Charlie is a sensitive, intelligent, troubled outcast who is afraid of starting high school, so he writes letters anonymously to someone he heard was a good listener. Through these letters, Charlie documents his freshman year, although he starts by talking about how his middle school years ended with the suicide of a close friend and how that broke apart his group of friends. So, he's starting high school with no friends and a reputation of being a freak. He eventually makes friends with a group of seniors who introduce him to new things.

This book was made into a movie by the author last year. I would be interested in seeing how this series of letters translates to the big screen. It's a YA selection that deals with teenage angst.

Never Let Me Go/Kazuo Ishiguro/288 pages

Kathy, Ruth and Tommy are students at Hailsham, an exclusive board school in England. It is very secluded, and the students never leave the grounds. As the story unfolds through the eyes of a grown-up Kathy, it becomes clear that there is something very strange about the school, the staff and the students. The students are treated as though they are very special, and there is no contact or mention of any parents. As the students get a little older, there is some mention of "donations", but it isn't explained to the reader. The second part of the novel deals with these three students moving on to the next step of their journey by going to the Cottages. There, we learn more about the future of all the students. The final section of the book deal with the trio as adults and their ultimate fate.

This is my book club's selection for December. I found it to be very slow-moving and vague. It took quite a while to find out what was really going on with the students. Near the end of the book, there was a discussion about the ethics of the "program" and that did open up an opportunity to see some parallels to our world. This has been made into a movie, and I've ordered it on Netflix, so I'll be interested to see how it translates to film.

A Man Book Prize Finalist

The Bone Collector / Jeffery Deaver 421 p.

Extremely fast-paced mystery. Introduces Lincoln Rhyme, ex-head of NYPD forensics. Rhyme is now a quadriplegic with nothing but time on his hand until asked to review a crime-scene report about a buried corpse at the deserted West Side railroad track. The body of a man kidnapped with a woman co-worker from the airport on the eve of a great UN doings. UNSUB 823 plants ingenious clues at each new crime scene forcing Rhyme and his team to analyse trace evidence very rapidly. Plot twists and subplots complicate the story.

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Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe / C.S. Lewis 198 p.

During WWII, when children are playing hide-in-seek end up in a wardrobe, they are transported to Narnia where the wicked White Witch “stonifies” her enemies and keeps the country in winter without Christmas. Falling for Turkish delight, Edmund becomes her informant. The rest of the children, Susan, Lucy, and Peter, work with Aslan, the lion, to free the country. Aslan surrenders his life to the White Witch for Edmund’s. Peter leads the army again the witch’s forces. Edmund atones for his misplaced allegiance during the battle for Narnia. Aslan rises from the dead. He releases all from their stone jails. The children mature as the Kings and Queens of Narnia. When they find their old wardrobe, they pop back into their own land and time.
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Painted House / John Grisham 388 p.

Luke Chandler, age 7, tells of his life on cotton farm in rural Arkansas in the 1950’s where his parents and his grandparents struggle to harvest the cotton and to scrape a living from the farm. They hire Mexicans and hill people to pick the cotton. For six weeks, they pick cotton in the heat and the rain. Luke sees and hears of things 7-year olds don’t need to see…a man beaten to death, then another murder, birth of a child. He continues the house painting started by a hill people’s son. With the flood, the lowland cotton is destroyed. The story ends with Luke’s parents decide to move to the city to work in a factory.
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84, Charing Cross Road / Helene Hanff 97 p.

From NYC, Helene Hanff inquires about second hand books from a bookstore at 84, Charing Cross Road in London. Thus starts a long correspondence with Frank Doel of Marks & Co. You follow a loving exploration of out-of-print “Olde English books” as well as a witty, charming relationship between Frank, the staff at Marks & Co. and Frank's family.
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84, Charing Cross Road

Alias Madame Doubtfire/ Anne Fine 199 p.

Daniel Hilliard, unemployed actor and father of three conceives Madame Doubtfire when Miranda, his ex-, desires a housekeeper to take care of their children instead of Daniel. Madame Doubtfire is perfection with the children, housekeeping, and light cooking. Tells the story of a divided family and fumbles and blunders into what just might make a peaceful solution. I kept seeing Robin Williams. Some of the dialogue actually made into the movie.
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Terms of Endearment / Larry McMurtry 410 p.

Flirtatious widow Aurora Greenway of Houston is imperious and acerbic. She’s a widow who harps to her daughter, Emma, to diet. She doesn’t get a long with her son-in-law Flap. She seems to need to be the center of attention. Even so, she has many suitors, including the General, a neighbor. Ah, and the happenings between her maid and Rosie’s husband get embroiled into her life. The good widow is somewhat comic in her dealings with her suitors, till sadness comes when her daughter gets cancer. For those readers who enjoy remarkable characters with interesting dialogue.
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Angels & Demons / Dan Brown 430 p.

Robert Langdon, Harvard symbologist and art historian, gets a late night call from Maximilian Kohler, director of CERN's Geneva particle-physics research complex. A murdered physicist and a quantity of anti-matter stolen with the only clue, Illuminati, branded on the dead man is the case. With only six hours, Langdon with dead man’s daughter race to neutralize the antimatter before it is destroys the Vatican. Playing with The Illuminati involves lots of cat and mouse games with the lives of four cardinals, all papal candidates, hanging in balance. A fast-paced thriller. Readers of Brown’s Da Vinci Code may enjoy this. Readers who enjoy detail about Vatican, its buildings, fine art, and papal conclave practices may enjoy this, too.

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Absolute Power / David Baldacci 469 p.

Luther Whitney’s in a fix. He’s a three-time loser cat burglar. He’s about to complete a heist when he becomes the clandestine observer to the secret service agents killing of a young woman caught defending herself with a letter opener against an attacker—the U.S. President. The Chief of Staff decides to blame a cat burglar and sanitizes the crime scene missing the blood stained letter opener. Whitney just barely escapes with the opener. Just when the president decides to silence Whitney, Whitney learns just how corrupt and amoral is the president. Whitney decides to play games. Fast paced with plenty of side plots. John Grisham readers who like a down-to-earth hero caught in impossible situations with complex multiple plots may enjoy this.
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Inkheart / Cornelia Funke 534 p.

Young Meggie lives a quiet life with her bookbinding father, Moe. Moe discovers he has a strange power—he can read into life characters from a book and some into the story. And out comes the evil Capricorn from Inkheart. Dustfinger comes too. Both want Moe to read the story aloud. Capricorn wants the powerful Shadow to come to life; Dustfinger longs to return back. Capricorn sets his henchmen to fetch Moe. Meggie, her aunt, Dustfinger, Moe are all set out on an adventure of a lifetime.
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After dark, My Sweet / Jim Thompson 133 p.

Ex-boxer William (Kid) Collins drifts. With his diagnosis of mild multiple neuroses and mild criminal tendencies, he is not missed when he escapes from mental hospitals. He meets alcoholic Fay Anderson who convinces him to help fix up her house. There “Uncle Bud”, ex-cop, talks them both into kidnapping a rich boy. “Kid” Collins tells the story in the first person. He gives his take on the happenings. Written showing the dark gritty side of three down and out damaged characters.
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Anne of Green Gables / L.M. Montgomery 382 p.

Little does Matthew Cuthbert know how life on Prince Edward Island is going to change when he and his sister, Marilla, adopt Anne Shirley off the Canadian orphanage in spite of them needing a boy to help with the chores. Anne’s talkativeness, optimism, and spirit, charm Matthew. Marilla agrees to give Anne a trial and comes to agree to let her stay. Anne though blessed with gift for fantasy really does her best to follow Marilla’s rules but finds herself embroiled in many escapades that rival Lucille Ball antics. She serves her best friend, Diana Barry red currant wine instead of the nonalcoholic raspberry cordial which sends an intoxicated Diana home to a mother who forbids any more contact with Anne. School brings a rivalry between Anne and Gilbert Blythe and continues through most of the book. Anne’s story is continued by Anne of Avonlea.

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Beezus and Ramona / Beverly Cleary 183 p.

Four year old sister of nine-year old Beezus drives her crazy. Ramona does so many annoying, impulsive, discomforting antics like asking to have the same story read over and over and over until father says he doesn’t want to hear it again; and, when Beezus brings Ramona home from the public library with a new story book Ramona writes her name on every page with crayon; and, then there is Beezus’ birthday where Ramona bakes her rubber doll into the cake. Ramona has some delightful explanations that seem so logical that you can’t help but laugh. This is quite a humorous story. Cleary is right on in her characterizations of the sister.

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From the mixed-up files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler / E. L. Konigsburg 162 p.

Twelve-year-old Claudia Kincaid decides to do something that will demonstrate her value in the family—she’s running away. But it must be someplace comfortable—she’s not into roughing it. She takes her nine-year-old brother Jamie along not for his company but for his bankroll. She plans and plots. And it’s off to New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art when they become involved in a mystery involving the Angel which may or may not be by Michelangelo. A delightful humorous story of real and likeable characters.
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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows/J.K. Rowling/965 pgs(LP)

For many years I resisted reading this series even though I enjoyed the movies. Finally last November I crumbled under my daughter's prodding and started with the first book and loved them. This final chapter in Harry Potter's saga took him and his friends through trials and tribulations and surprising revelations. A little uneven, and all the loose ends get tied up in a bit of a rush at the end, but you won't find a better, faster reading escape into a fascinating fantasy world. This book was made into a 2-part movie; the second coming out this July.

Framed / Frank Cottrell Boyce 306 p.

Dylan Hughes, only boy left in Manod, meets the curator Quentin Lester when he shows up with London's National Gallery paintings to store in an abandoned slate mine. This is top secret. Lester decides that Dylan is a kindred art loving spirit when he meets Dylan's chickens named after Renaissance artists (really after the Teen-Age Ninja Turtles - but Lester doesn't know about the Ninja Turtles). Dylan look for ways to turn the Snowdonia Oasis Auto Marvel around...an urgent need as his father has abandoned the family when the business is about to be foreclosed. Lester decides to share a few of his treasures with Dylan which morphs into the entire community. A charming story of how paintings influence people. I especially liked how the painting The Umbrellas by Renoir so affected Dylan's mom that she buys up umbrellas to share with the townsfolk. Be ready for questions about the paintings discussed.

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