It's Monday--What are you reading and Book Club

It's Monday, What are you Reading is a weekly meme hosted by Sheila from Book Journey.  I love it.  I just love posting books  that I've read and that I'm going to read.
It's a weird obsession we have, isn't it?
Weird but so much fun...with so many nice people!!





This past week, I've finished:


A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash.

I loved this book.  I listened to it on audio and I absolutely loved it. While I love holding a book in my hand, I can also appreciate the power of audio and being an active listener.
Once about 25 years ago, I took a class at the community college on "How to Read aloud".  I loved the class and I don't mind reading aloud to  kids--I love it in fact, but to adults?  Soon after the class, I read aloud to the Handyman on a road trip.  I was reading "Anything for  Billy" by Larry McMurty.  He kind of made fun of  (in a nice way...as nice a way as you be while humiliating someone.  HA--I say that for his benefit, as he is reading this right now) my different voices and my facial expressions--which we had been taught to do in class.   We soon switched to audio books on long road trips.
My point?  The narration was GREAT in this book!!  It pulls you in and you become a very active listener. 
(Thanks to Bermudiaonion for the recommendation.  I actually want more because I loved that book so much.  that was a hint.)

I finished:

22 Britannia  Road by  Amanda Hodgekenson

I liked this book.  It was another take on the aftermath of WWII.  It was a quick read also.  It kind of dragged at the end, but overall a good story.

and I just finished:

The Chosen by Chaim Potok

I enjoyed this book very much.   It's an older book, published in 1967.  It's always sitting on the  "read this" table upstairs in Barnes and Noble, so I thought I should.  My daughter in law said it was one of her favorites too.
It was the story of two sons, two fathers, two different ways of life.  Two different ways of Jewish Life...which for those of us who aren't Jewish could be a real eye opener.  I'm so glad I've had an interest in religion throughout my life and I do understand some of the differences...because I've READ about them.    I think this is a good book on understanding those differences and about having compassion, and also about friendship and a coming of age story .  Wow--that's a lot of themes running thru one book.
One small part of the book which I found really interesting was the opposition to the making of Israel after WWII within the Jewish Community itself. There were both pro Israel and con Israel within the community.   Understanding why, tho is quite fascinating.

That's what I read last week, and for this week:
I am listening to:

Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Killer...so far, it's  okay.

and I'm reading:

Wife 22

Hopefully I'll have good things to report next week.  About books I mean. 

 I always have good things to report....like...

It's 100 degrees out!  But it's a DRY HEAT, so I understand that is a good thing.

I don't know quite how to segue into book club.  I LOVE my book club and my bookclub friends, as you know.

Last month for the Lit Wits Bookclub we read....(big sigh).....that one that everyone except book bloggers is talking about.   It has the words  50 and Shades and Gray in the title?

YES...THAT ONE.

I had to read it for bookclub, because I made the commitment to read book club books, even if they are not something I wanted to,  and while it was not the book for me  (Horribly written and just stupid) there are tons of women who are loving it.  And I don't know why. It amazes me.

Anyway,  book club was very fun that night ---and while some of my friends did love it, some didn't read it and some laughed their way thru it, it did make for a fun evening.

At one point, I said,  but it's not well written at all and my friend Robin said, "Of course it's not well written, it's a smut book!!"   and we all laughed our arses off. 

So, I would say that for us Lit Wits, we kind of took that book as a farce.  And with that understanding of it (farcical)   it  was fun to discuss and laugh about.

We laughed even harder when we saw the dessert for the evening....

I will leave you with the cake we had for  'that' book.  (it looks kind of like an owl or a penguin, but it's a woman.    ~smiles~)