Welcome to Storie delle Sorelle

Welcome to the blog for SdelleS. To learn more about our book club check out my first blog entry or read about our members. Or check out our ReadingGroupGuides.com interview here! Using the links to the right, you can browse the books we've read and rated or visit some of my favorite sites for book clubs on the web. How about some questions to consider as you read a book? This site is meant to provide a wealth of information for all readers so I hope you enjoy your visit! Please post a comment or contact me with any questions or thoughts. :)

Friday, August 21

Meeting Recap: That Guernsey Book

Our August pool party book was nominated by Jennifer - The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. Annette hosted our meeting at her house by the pool.

The weather was absolutely gorgeous! Several members brought friends to this meeting since it seems that everyone and their mother (or mother-in-law) has read this book and wants to talk about it.

All of one of the gals at the meeting enjoyed this book. Most of us REALLY liked it, some thought it was good, and one didn't like it at all.

Topics we discussed included:
  • books written in epistolary format - did we like that about this book? Most of us said yes.
  • characterization - we disagreed over whether the characters were or were not well developed through the letters they wrote
  • individual characters - who we liked, who we didn't
  • the history of Guernsey - none of us were familiar with this part of WWII history so there was a lot to learn
  • WWII - we talked about concentration camp experiences, food shortage, the evacuation of children, and much more
  • the authors - their relationship, who wrote what, etc.
  • and much, much more
Annette took pictures at the meeting but I haven't gotten them from her yet. I'll post them as soon as I do!

This is another of those books with an excellent marketing team behind it. There are TONS of great resources available - I highly suggest checking out the book's website if you haven't already.

Here's a clip of Annie discussing the book.



I had the opportunity to interview her by phone. Check back at my book blog on 8/27/09 to see what we talked about. Or click here to read my review of this book.

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Our next meeting will be on Sept. 16 when we'll discuss Melissa's nomination, Till We Have Faces, by CS Lewis. We will also choose our next three books and do some additional admin stuff so please try to be there if you can!

Thursday, August 20

Mid-Year Ratings Update

I haven't been posting our group's rating of the books we've read, simply because I've been behind in compiling them. So here is a list of everything we've read so far this year, how many people read it, and our average rating.*
  1. Interpreter of Maladies, by Jhumpa Lahiri
    11 readers - ratings = 9.5x1, 9x4, 8x4, 7x2
    average = 8.3

  2. Change of Heart, by Jodi Picoult
    12 readers - ratings = 8x1, 7x3, 6.5x1, 6x1, 5.5x1, 4x1, 3x1, 2x2, 0x1
    average = 4.8

  3. The Bean Trees, by Barbara Kingsolver
    7 readers - ratings = 8x1, 7x1, 6x4, 5x1
    average = 6.3

  4. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz
    7 readers - ratings = 8.5x1, 7x2, 6.5x1, 6x1, 5x2
    average = 6.4

  5. Queen of the Road, by Doreen Orion
    11 readers- ratings = 7x2, 6x2, 5x3, 4x2, 3x1, 2x1
    average = 4.9

  6. Little Bee, by Chris Cleave
    10 readers - ratings = 9x5, 8.5x1, 8x3, 7x1
    average = 8.5

  7. The Art of Racing in the Rain, by Garth Stein
    10 readers - ratings = 10x2, 9x2, 8x3, 7.5x1, 7x1, 6x1
    average = 8.3

I'm working on a recap of our most recent meeting - hopefully it will be up soon.



* FYI, we rate on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest score possible.