Virtual Book Club

The book club that I am in- hosted by Sheila of One Person's Journey Through a World of Books- met last night to review The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent. While I did not personally think it was a great book it seemed to get decent reviews from the other members of the club. At the end of the review we usually rate the book on a 1-5 scale. There were a lot of 4's going around the table. I ended up rating it a 2.5. (see review here).

The floor was then opened up for nomination's for next months read. A long time ago we decided that the February book should be a romance read in honor of Valentine's Day. However, many of us do not particularily care for a straight bodice ripping romance book. So, most of our nominations this month do not fit into the romance category but here they are:

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare- Teenager Clary discovers she can see supernatural beings that no one else can, gets drawn into the world of the Shadowhunters (teens who kill demons and monsters) and learns that her mother is mysteriously connected to all the strange happenings around her. (Publisher's Weekly)









Blue Like Jazz By Donald Miller- Miller is a young writer, speaker, and campus ministry leader. An earnest evangelical who nearly lost his faith, he went on a spiritual journey, found some progressive politics and most importantly, discovered Jesus' relevance for everyday life. This book, in it's own elliptical way, tells the story of that journey.(Publisher's Weekly)












The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordin- The escapades of the Greek Gods and heroes get a fresh spin in the first book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, about a contemporary 12-year old New Yorker who learns he's a demigod. (Booklist)







Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford- Henry Lee is a 12-year old Chinese boy who falls in love with Keiko Okabe, a 12-year old japanese girl, while they are scholarship students in a prestigious private school in World War II Seattle. Henry hides the relationship from his parents who would disown him if they knew he had a Japanese friend. (Schoolibrary Journal)







Dear John by Nicholas Sparks-The story of John Tyree, a young soldier home on leave, and Savannah Curtis, the idealistic college student he falls in love with during her spring vacation. Over the next several years, the couple is seperated by John's increasingly dangerous deployments. When 9/11 occurs John is faced with the difficult decision to choose between love or country. And like all those left behind Savannah must decide to wait or move on.







Push by Sapphire- Precious Jones, 16 years old and pregnant by her father with her second child, meets a determined and highly radical teacher who takes her on a journey of transformation and redemption.









What I Did For Love by Susan Elizabeth Phillips- Georgie York, once the costar of America's favorite television sitcom, has been publically abandoned by her famous husband, her film career has tanked, her father is driving her crazy, and her public image as a spunky heroine is taking a serious beating. What should a down-on-her-luck actress do? Not go to Vegas...not run into her detestable former costar, dreamboat-from-hell Bramwell Shepard...and not get caught up in an ugly incident that leads to a calamitous elopement.







Let the Great World Spin by Collum McCann- It's August of 1974, a summer "hot and serious and full of death and betrayal", and Watergate and the Vietnam War make the world feel precarious. A stunned hush pauses the cacophonous universe of New York City as a man on a cable walks (repeatedly) between World Trade Center Towers. This extraordinary, real-life feat by French funambilist Philippe Petit becomes the touchstone for stories that briefly submerge you in ten varied and intense lives- a street priest, heroin-addicted hookers, mothers mourning sons lost in war, young artists, and a Park Avenue judge.


Now this is where you come in with the Virtual Book Club. Have you read The Heretic's Daughter? What were your thoughts and what would you rate it? And if you were in our book club, which of the above books would you have voted for?