Sigh. People are all about the Kindles, Nooks, iPads these days… everyone forgets about the books! Even though I have a Kindle (although I hardly ever use it) I still loveeeee the feel of flipping the pages of a real book. Lucky me, I got all these best sellers for Christmas to read in my free time (what’s free time…?)!
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker
Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt
Have you read any of these books?
Filed under book club
For our book club this month, we read Taylor Armstrong’s memoir “Hiding from Reality – My Story of Love, Loss, and Finding the Courage Within”. It was a really quick read (let’s be honest, Taylor is no Shakespeare) but it definitely kept our attention for several reasons. First, obviously, she stars in the hit TV show “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” which is a guilty pleasure of each of ours. Second, her storyline in the last season of the show centered around the suspicion, mystery, and eventual discovery of her late husband’s abuse but never really dove into the details of the situation. Third, the topics of abuse, fame, pretentious lifestyles, etc. were hard to put down.
Taylor goes into every detail about her traumatic childhood, her self-esteem issues, her dependency issues growing up with dozens of inattentive boyfriends, and her horrific marriage to Russell Armstrong, the quiet, reportedly abusive husband to a Housewife that America quickly learned to hate. Taylor’s intentions are good in writing this book – she aspires to inspire abused women to find their voice and find the strength to leave their respective relationships. Taylor never found the courage to completely shut Russell out of her life, and by the time she finally began to find her own direction in life, the damage to Russell’s ego and reputation had been done.
While this was not the most poetic, well-written novel we’ve ever read, it definitely was interesting and made for some great conversation. If you are a fan of the show or are looking to get a glimpse of the mind of a victim of a terribly abusive marriage, we recommend this book.
A group of our friends decided to create a book club post-college to stay in touch and have a reason to drink wine. This month’s book was No One Is Here Except All of Us by Ramona Ausubel. We wanted to post some pictures from our meeting and give you a summary of the book we read because it was simply amazing. It was a Holocaust story, but it was an interesting angle. It told the story of people who were disconnected from the center of the Holocaust and were affected in ways that no one would have thought of. They were isolated from the big cities, never heard of a concentration camp, yet their lives changed 100%. It was sort of a weird concept for a book–create another world by telling stories and keeping their minds off of their imminent demise, but Ausubel is such a wonderful writer it was easy to see past the strange concept. Her writing is so beautiful I can honestly say that it was a pleasure to read. Highly recommended!
