A Reliable Wife

Host: Vanessa Kesterson
Book: A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick
Meeting Date: Saturday, July 14, 2012
Time: 10:30 AM
Location: Jenny's (Lodi)
Synopsis:
He placed a notice in a Chicago paper, an advertisement for "a reliable wife." She responded, saying that she was "a simple, honest woman." She was, of course, anything but honest, and the only simple thing about her was her single-minded determination to marry this man and then kill him, slowly and carefully, leaving her a wealthy widow, able to take care of the one she truly loved. What Catherine Land did not realize was that the enigmatic and lonely Ralph Truitt had a plan of his own.

Room

Host: Lisa Noma
Book: Room by Emma Donoghue
Meeting Date: Sunday, December 11, 2011
Time: 12:30 PM
Location: Janet's (Lodi)

Synopsis:
In many ways, Jack is a typical 5-year-old. He likes to read books, watch TV, and play games with his Ma. But Jack is different in a big way--he has lived his entire life in a single room, sharing the tiny space with only his mother and an unnerving nighttime visitor known as Old Nick. For Jack, Room is the only world he knows, but for Ma, it is a prison in which she has tried to craft a normal life for her son. When their insular world suddenly expands beyond the confines of their four walls, the consequences are piercing and extraordinary. Despite its profoundly disturbing premise, Emma Donoghue's Room is rife with moments of hope and beauty, and the dogged determination to live, even in the most desolate circumstances. A stunning and original novel of survival in captivity, readers who enter Room will leave staggered, as though, like Jack, they are seeing the world for the very first time.

The Nanny Diaries & The Pilot's Wife

Host: Mary Kennard
Book: The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus
The Pilot's Wife by Anita Shreve
Meeting Date: July 29, 2006
Location: Mary's (Manteca)

The Nanny Diaries Synopsis
Based on the real-life experiences, the inside story on the real lives of the rich and privileged from the women who know all the secrets - the nannies. The Nanny Diaries deftly skewers the manner in which America's over-privileged raises les petites - as if grooming them for a Best of Show competition. A poignant satire, it punctures the glamor of Manhattan's upper class to tackle head-on the truer state of backstairs Park Avenue.

RATINGS
7 of 11 members voted.
14% gave this book 5 stars
28% gave this book 4 stars
57% gave this book 3 stars

The Pilot's Wife Synopsis
The Pilot's Wife by Anita Shreve—an engrossing thriller woven between the pages of a stirring meditation on love and betrayal. With one late-night knock on her door, Kathryn Lyons's worst fears as a pilot's wife come true: Her husband, Jack, has died in a mid-air explosion off the coast of Ireland. Later, a phone number found among Jack's papers leads Kathryn to London and the unfathomable truth about her husband's secret other life. A second wife and two young children are just the beginning of what Jack was hiding in England. With each staggering revelation, Kathryn must reconcile her memories of the man she loved with the disturbing portrait unfolding before her.

RATINGS
4 of 11 members voted.
75% gave this book 2 stars
25% gave this book 1 stars