Sarah's Key by Tatiana De Rosnay

Title: Sarah's Key

Author: Tatiana De Rosnay

Genre: Fiction

ISBN-10: 0312370849

ISBN-13: 978-0312370848

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

Pages: 320

Rating: ★★★★★

started: Aug. 30th, 2011

finished: Sept. 5th, 2011

A very sad story of during one of our disturbing history...

I've always been drawn to the literature written about the Holocaust and this book is definitely one of those books that I would have regretted if I hadn't read it. I thought I knew pretty much of what had happened back then but I guess I am still clueless since the story of Sarah's Key is completely new to me. It was a great book because it taught me something that I was totally oblivious to and because, although the story itself may be fiction, it had a great storyline. I loved how the author went back and forth in time to tell the story of the past and the present. Though I wished that the narrative could have been more affective if she had wrote it in first person instead of third for Sarah's part of the story, but that's just my opinion. The book totally transformed me to that time and situation while I was reading it, absolutely absorbing and therefore hard to put down. It was disturbing and unsettling to find out about the ugly history however, we should "remember (and) never forget" the hideous part of our history so that we never make that kind of mistake again.

Sarah's Key is based on a 10 year old girl named Sarah, who lives in Paris during the time of WWII.   

July 19th Meeting

BLUE BLOODS by Melissa De La Cruz

Hey guys.. Our last meeting was just Dana and me.. =(

we didn't reallyl like the book.. though we wanted other opinions but there wasn't anyone to give..

Anyhoo... My opinion of this book is..

I thought it approached the whole vamp story from a very different perspective..now that was brilliant.. but.. well, other than that it was really badly written..

I was able to read it in 2 days and yes it's an easy read.. but 2/3rd of the words were to do with fashion..

And to tell the truth.. I'm not a fashion gal... not really into it.. I wear anything and everything that looks pretty or good on me.. and don't really care about the labels.. but this author kept on going and going about what the characters are wearing that I got confused whether I was reading a fashion magazine review on what the hollywood stars wore or an actual fiction book that was supposed to be about vampires.

June 28th Meeting

CHILD 44 by Tom Rob Smith

This book is a page turner... there were some times where I thought something was amiss.. but still it is a great thriller, nonetheless.

It took me on and off about 2weeks to finish it... yes, if you do have the time just for reading you'll probably be able to finish it in 2 days.. or if you're a fast reader.. even less. It's about 400 pages long or more I can't remember the exact number of pages.. but that's not really important.

Our meeting took place at our hangout "Take Urban" same time.. and there weren't many of us since Sandra and Susan were out of town.. WE MISS YOU GUYS!!! Mitzi, you're greatly missed, too.

So, there was Dana, Rebecca, Bernadette, and me.. just us 4 girls.. we had a little chit-chat about the book and after our little discussion we headed to the bookstore to pick out our next book.. and we did have some trouble choosing what to read.. but we did come up with the next 2 books. Our next book, for July 19th, is Blue Bloods by Melissa De La Cruz. And our next one after that is called The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan and we don't really have a date set for that one yet.. but we'll come up with one..

Hope you all have a great week.. Happy reading everyone!

June 14th Meeting @ Sanbon

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

And to fit the occasion, we had a picnic style meeting which was perfect~!
We all met up at Sanbon station, got some food from E-mart and headed up to the foot of the mountain... I brought the mat and we settled down in a very quiet place.
It was different from our other meetings because there weren't much people around and less noise (practically no noise). Cool mountain air and terrific scent of nature.. it was very relaxing.
We had a wonderful discussion. Wish you were there~

August 10th Meeting - The Tale of Despereaux

Book : The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo

Attendee : Amber, Matt, Susan, Mitzi, Amy, & me.

Location : Sadang St. (line#2&4) Cafe Hobby

This meeting's book was a children's story and a very cute one at that.

I'd totally want to read it to my future children for bedtime story. The story unfolds with a mouse named Despereaux that was born different from other mice. He appreciates things that ordinary mice wouldn't and falls in love with a princess, the Pea. It is a mouse tale where he goes through obstacles to finally reach his ultimate dream. It's a story of a very brave and chivalrous mouse.

Universal Studio has made it in to an animation and by viewing the trailer it seems pretty good. It's coming out this Christmas.. you might want to check it out yourself.

http://www.thetaleofdespereauxmovie.com/

Isn't he just ADORABLE?! That's baby Despereaux.. when he was born with his eyes wide open.

November 25th Meeting!

Book : "The Master and Margarita" by Mikhail Bulgakov
Attendees : Aaron, Liz, Susan, Catherine, Karen, & moi

Yes, couldn't finish it.. since I got my book about a week before the meeting..
and yes, I just can't stand the work load that my work is giving me.. I mean working there isn't that bad but it's the extra things that I have to do.. Anyhow, that's neither here nor there.

I think most of us didn't like it cus it was hard to get through. After all, it is a Russian literature. I'd have to actually sit down and read it 'cause I do want to read it. I read about 2 chapters or so.. but not more than that... I think it's for the best if I save it for later to finish it. I don't think I'll be reading it any soon..

I think I'm coming down with another flu, and it doesn't feel good at all. I'm so glad that I'll be on a week break starting Friday.. Oh, what a relief.

November 5th Meeting!

Book : "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close" by Jonathan Safran Foer
Attendees : Liz, Susan, Catherine, Karen, & moi

The attendance was not really what I expected but oh well, it does happen.
I think we'll have more people join us on our next meeting. Seriously, for me it was really hard to get to the meeting since I wasn't feeling all myself that day. Still am a bit under the weather, really. Am feelling really fatigue and worn down. Anyhow, my report on the meeting....

Like I said and as we had promised we met at our usual meeting place, though Liz was so nice and went ahead to the Puffin Cafe and got us a nice big table. I was late, yes AGAIN, though this time it wasn't because I woke up late or was being lazy, though most of the time I'm not, anyway, since I wasn't feeling so good and my vision I guess kind of failed me I took the wrong bus and went in a totally different direction instead of where I was supposed to go. Now, if I had noticed it earlier I guess there might have been a chance for me to go back and get on the right bus, however, it was too late when I realized I was on the wrong bus and I had to take another bus, then go undergound which I don't enjoy too much lately and get to Kangnam Station.
Felt so bad because nobody at the coffee shop knew how to get to Puffin cafe and Liz was waiting for all of us to get there.
Be that as it may, we all got together in one piece and started to order our brunch and discuss about the book.

Owing to the fact that my weeks from late October (and it seems to me my hectic crazy schedue will continue to be so until the beginning of next year) has been so busy, yes I know it's a bad excuse but it is the truth, I could not finish reading the book. =(
I feel terrible. Though, I did get half way through. So, I'll be posting my review a bit later. Like I mentioned, I am a little bit preoccupied lately.

We did have a splendid discussion, I think.(I was abit out of it, but it was still good nonetheless) Sadly, we didn't have any discussion questions, (Should take into consideration that if we don't have any quesitons at the back of the book prepare before hand.. used to do that but forgot this time) Everybody seemed to like the book. Yes, I did too, though I'd like to save my review.

We stayed quite a long time can't remember till what time but we did spend couple of hours there. Then headed to Itaewon and went our own ways. Me, I had a concert to go to. It was the St. Marc Little Boys Choir, the boys who were in the movie 'The Chorus' (2005). It was a French movie and I think they were awarded something, can't quite remember what exactly though. I haven't seen the movie yet, but it is one of the movies that is on my list to watch.

The Concert was superb! The first song, don't know the name of it, made me weep. Ok, it does sound bad, huh? Well, I couldn't help it their voices were so angelic, so pure, and moving. It really touched the core of my heart, squeezed it and made me get goosebumps all over my body. Now, that was not because I was sick. It was really magnificient. They really touched me. And it wasn't just the first one that made me shed tears there were others.. maybe I'm just too sensitive but it was fabulous to go and listen to them sing.

October 14th Meeting!

Book : "In the Company of the Courtesan" by Sarah Dunant
Attendees : Liz, Kasia, Susan, Aaron, Catherine, Karen, Maggie, & moi

We had an excellent meeting yesterday, even though there were people that didn't finish the book completely.
4 new members(Aaron, Catherine, Karen, & Maggie) joined us on that day and our discussions were very dynamic, also thanks to Liz reading out the discussion questions. Since this book was our last book we also decided upon our next few books and couple of dates to go along with it.

The books we've decided on for our next meeting, which will be held on November 4th, is "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close" by Jonathan Safran Foer. The next meeting after that will be on November 25th and the book we'll be discussing is "The Master and Margarita" by Mikhail Bulgakov. And the book after that is "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini. We haven't come up with a date for this book yet, but it will be sometime early December.

After the discussion we went down to Kyobo bookstore, did some book shopping and went to grab something to eat at Dos Tacos. It was a wonderful meeting and I hope everyone will show up on the next as well!

a day at "What the Book"

October 3rd, 2007
I met up with Liz to have lunch at Buddha's Belly and after we satisfied our appetite we headed for 'What the Book'. Now, since I forgot to organize my books and sort out the ones that I didn't want and bring in for the trade.. I just went up and put our new ad up on the board!!! Whoopy! Doesn't it look great? Well, had to shift some ads around since the original ad was just a piece of paper from my notepad and it didn't take as much space as this one.. but it looked good..
Anyhow, you all should have seen the original. It was printed out on a glossy paper so it looked all professional. Hehe~
Well, So there it is.. whoever is interested in the club will hopefully see it and have the courage and enough interest to contact.

2nd September 30th Meeting!

Book: "Comfort Woman" by Nora Okja Keller
Attendees: Liz, Kasia, Susan, Leonie & moi

The meeting was held at the same place as usual with the usual members and a new member, Leonie. Welcome to the group, by the way. I was expecting more people to show but I guess they had other things to do. It was great to have the meeting just for the sake of meeting everyone, like always, plus we had a great discussion.

We first waited awhile for more people to show but no show so we started with our discussion.

I'm hoping that we'll have more people next time.

1st September 16th Meeting

Book: "You Remind Me of Me" by Dan Chaon
Attendees: Liz, Kasia, & moi (Susan, unfortunately, couldn't make it)

The process of getting there was so frustrating because the traffic was so bad and when I got off the bus to transfer to another one, I accidently got on the wrong one and ended up somewhere else totally and had to figure out to get to the meeting place.. But I did finally get there and it was so great to see Liz and Kasia already settled down. (Sorry for being almost an hour late ladies!!! will try to be punctual) After meeting the girls we went to Quiznos, the joint next door, to get a bite to eat. AND we followed our routine of going down to the bookstore and look at some books that were on the shelves... or should we say stacked...

Our meeting, even though there were only 3 of us, went nicely, I think we did have a good discussion.
We all finished the book (I did mostly and had to skim through the last bits..) but it was great. Liz seem to love the book, me, it ain't my favorite but it was a good read. I will definitely go back and reread the section that I skimmed through. Done that, I'll write a proper review of it.

Bookleaves

What is bookleaves, you ask?
It's the name of my treasured book club.

When I first came to Korea in 1998, everything was so different and alien: people, places, custom and culture. Being a Korean and looking like one but not having lived in it does make a huge difference. Making friends and meeting people, probably was one of the hardest thing to do. Fortunately though, I did start attending a school and tried to get involved. So for a while the urgency of being in a book club wasn't that important, since I was reading on my own time and was busy sorting out some troublesome part of my life (there were some personal issues to be handled back then).

Anyhow, when I finally brought myself to look for a group, and yes there was one that I did find, I didn't get a single reply for months. That really got me worked up and decided 'heck, I'll make my own, surely there must be people out there who'd be interested in joining a book club'. And YES! there was. After putting the ad for some months out in the classified section I finally started getting emails from people who were interested and we decided to meet up to talk about making it real. Our first meeting was in June 2005.

The meeting was great there were about 6 people to start off with and we first decided on a book and the next meeting date. Then we made a group in Yahoo! in order to get in touch with people easily. I constantly got emails from people who were interested and some came, some never showed up. Many of our members have left Korea and our little club after completing their contract and at the same time many have joined.

Our group is practically open to everyone and anyone. The only thing that we ask for is that the person who joins must love to read and discuss about it. Yes, it has been my experience that some people join for the purpose of practicing English and that does irritate me a lot and sometimes I feel like I'm discriminating my own race. However, the whole purpose of this group, the reason I made this group is to get people who enjoy reading and discussing about books together. As well as meeting people from all walks of life and share thoughts and talk about everyday life. A club where you can relax and be comfortable in.

It has been over 2 years since the group's been active and I think we're doing pretty good with it. There has been a lot of change in members but still I think the groups doing great. If any of you out there who live in Korea, near Seoul to be exact, please don't hesitate to come by our group. We usually meet once a month, sometimes twice, depending on the book, and people's schedule. It's always a Sunday and we're pretty flexible on time, though we tend to lean towards the earlier hours of the afternoon. At the meeting we usually hang around at a coffee shop talk about the book of the meeting and other books that we'd like to share. Then depending on the time and how hungry everyone is we get a bite to eat. The decision on what to read depends on the members, sometimes we take turns and at other times we talk about it think of a whole bunch of books we're interested in and choose from that pile. We always decide about 3 or 4 books and the date respectively so that we don't make plans on those dates and we can all be there.

To find out more about the group, just write to bookleaves@gmail.com