Read Watch & Wine

Check out this latest episode, when the ladies of Read, Watch, and Wine review the book "Boy Erased: A Memoir" by Garrard Conley.

Boy Erased tells the story of Jared (Hedges), the son of a Baptist pastor in a small American town, who is outed to his parents (Kidman and Crowe) at age 19. Jared is faced with an ultimatum: attend a gay conversion therapy program - or be permanently exiled and shunned by his family, friends, and faith. Boy Erased is the true story of one young man's struggle to find himself while being forced to question every aspect of his identity.

Did the Read, Watch and Wine Crew like it or dislike it. You have to listen to find out. Tune in to hear the discussion, and we would love to hear your opinion the book to movie transition.

Publisher Summary:

The second book in the Fifty Shades Trilogy. 

When a wounded Christian Grey tries to entice a cautious Ana Steele back into his life, she demands a new arrangement before she will give him another chance. As the two begin to build trust and find stability, shadowy figures from Christian's past start to circle the couple, determined to destroy their hopes for a future together.

Dont forget to check out the review of Book 1 Fifty Shades of Grey. 

Contains Spoliers

A Dog's Purpose is a 2010 novel written by American author W. Bruce Cameron.  The book chronicles a dog's journey through four lives via reincarnation and how he looks for his purpose through each of his lives.

Theo Decker, a 13-year-old New Yorker, miraculously survives an accident that kills his mother. Abandoned by his father, Theo is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. Bewildered by his strange new home on Park Avenue, disturbed by schoolmates who don't know how to talk to him, and tormented above all by a longing for his mother, he clings to the one thing that reminds him of her: a small, mysteriously captivating painting that ultimately draws Theo into a wealthy and insular art community.

The story revolves around a predatory shapeshifter which has the ability to transform itself into its prey's worst fears, allowing it to exploit the phobias of its victims. IT mostly takes the human form of a sadistic, wisecracking clown called "Pennywise". The protagonists are The Losers Club, a group of outcast kids who discover Pennywise and vow to destroy him by any means necessary. The miniseries takes place over 2 different time periods, the first when the Losers first confront Pennywise as children in 1960, and the second when they return as adults in 1990 to defeat him a second time after he resurfaces.

It is a 1986 horror novel by American author Stephen King.

The story follows the experiences of seven children as they are terrorized by an evil entity that exploits the fears and phobias of its victims to disguise itself while hunting its prey. "It" primarily appears in the form of Pennywise the Dancing Clown to attract its preferred prey of young children.

Publishers summary

Meet Ove. He’s a curmudgeon—the kind of man who points at people he dislikes as if they were burglars caught outside his bedroom window. He has staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. People call him “the bitter neighbor from hell.” But must Ove be bitter just because he doesn’t walk around with a smile plastered to his face all the time?

Behind the cranky exterior there is a story and a sadness. So when one November morning a chatty young couple with two chatty young daughters move in next door and accidentally flatten Ove’s mailbox, it is the lead-in to a comical and heartwarming tale of unkempt cats, unexpected friendship, and the ancient art of backing up a U-Haul. All of which will change one cranky old man and a local residents’ association to their very foundations.

Publishers Summary

Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: her predominantly white, suburban private school and her poorer, mostly black neighborhood. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Everyone wants to know what really went down that night, and the only person who can speak up is Starr. But what she says—or does not say—could destroy her community and even endanger her life.

Review contains spoilers

Publishers Summary

Bernadette Fox is notorious. To her Microsoft-guru husband, she's a fearlessly opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle, she's a disgrace; to design mavens, she's a revolutionary architect; and to 15-year-old Bee, she is her best friend and, simply, Mom.

Then Bernadette vanishes. It all began when Bee aced her report card and claimed her promised reward: a family trip to Antarctica. But Bernadette's intensifying allergy to Seattle--and people in general--has made her so agoraphobic that a virtual assistant in India now runs her most basic errands. A trip to the end of the earth is problematic.

To find her mother, Bee compiles email messages, official documents, and secret correspondence--creating a compulsively readable and surprisingly touching novel about misplaced genius and a mother and daughter's role in an absurd world.

Publishers Summary;

As a young boy, William Kamkwamba read about windmills and dreamed of building one that would bring electricity and water to his village in Malawi, a country withered by drought and hunger. In 2002, when his country was stricken with a famine, William's family's farm was devastated and his parents were left destitute.

Review contains spoilers.