"The Giver" by Lois Lowry

"The Giver" by Lois Lowry

I read this book a long time ago when I was in junior high, and when I read it I had a hard time following along. I only really remembered one very disturbing part that had me a little iffy about picking it up again.

But I picked it again a few weeks ago because it was my book club title (which I can't attend again this month, it's killing me). After reading several dystopian books in recent years--such as Hunger Games, Uglies, Divergent, etc.--I was surprised to see that this followed the same vein. You learn about the world of Jonas, a boy preparing for his 12th year, when he will be assigned his job in society that he will be trained for and fulfill the until he is deemed too old to continue. You learn this society is unique right off the bat, when Jonas is startled and frightened by an airplane overhead, which is followed by a public announcement on the speakers for the citizens to ignore the errant plane, and that the pilot was sure to be released. To be released is a great shame, banishment from home and culture.

As an adult, I enjoyed the book much more than I did after my first reading. The horrible scene I remembered still broke my heart, but I could see it in a broader scope than I could nearly 20 years ago.

"Heaven is Here" by Stephanie Nielson

"Heaven is Here" by Stephanie Nielson

Does this title look familiar?!  It should.  My dear friend Micaela reviewed it back in February.  I've been curious about it since she reviewed it because it's a memoir, and that's kind of my "thing" lately.  But Micaela wasn't raving about this book, so I was hesitant to dive into something I might not like.  And I have a weird thing about "churchy" books...I usually don't like them, so I find myself skirting away from them.  But, ta-da! it was this month's book club book, so I took a chance on it.

The beginning of the book is a bit syrupy.  I interpret that as Stephanie having the gift of seeing life through rose-colored glasses.  Stephanie lived her entire life, until she was a mother of two, in Provo, Utah.  I lived several years of my life in Utah County, from 9 years old to 22, so I'm pretty familiar with the world she grew up and lived in.  Before my family moved to Utah we lived in St. Louis, so Utah was a huge culture shock for me.  I finally admitted to myself as I read this book (which made me really inspect some deeper parts of my heart and history) that I never really fit in with the Utah scene.  When I moved with my husband and infant daughter to Boise, Idaho, almost 10 years ago, I finally felt like I had found an environment I could thrive in.  (I hope none of my Utah friends are hurt by this confession--if it weren't for you those years would have been wholly unbearable.) It was an environment Stephanie thrived it, but it produced perpetual challenges for me. Once I moved outside of "the bubble," when I came to Idaho, I felt freed from that.  I found more people like me.  (Not that Idaho is wildly different from Utah.  But on the other hand, it is.)

I don't blame Stephanie for her charmed life leading up to the accident. She and I are different people who have lived different lives in different circumstances.  I do not, in any regard, mean to undermine or reduce the significance of her accident and what she has gone through to recover her life.  I loved this book and her story.  I never cried as much in any other book as I did in this one--and for those who know me best, that's saying something.  I am not a cryer.

However, I had experiences earlier in my life that taught me things about who I am and what I'm made of at a younger age than she did.  No, I never went through the harrowing and life-threatening ordeal she went through, not even close.  But because of who I am and the life I had, I learned of lot of those lessons about self-worth and value at an earlier age.  I'm not saying I'm better than anyone because of that, but I was sorry it took a plane accident and months of agonizing recovery for her to learn those essential, divine truths about herself.  But like she says in her epilogue, God has a plan for each of us.  And hers is exceptional.  She's a fighter, she's an overcome-er.  

Yes, I wept during this book.  A lot.  It was so tender.  I cried because I couldn't fathom the physical pain she endured.  I cried because I understood feeling depressed and worthless.  I cried because I have four babies of my own, and have questioned if I'm the mother they deserve.  I cried because she triumphed over the countless, mammoth hurdles in her path.  I cried because of her testimony.  I cried when she felt like she couldn't endure one more day, because I knew she could pull through.  I cried for her husband, who had to be strong for everyone while going through his own hell, because I have felt like I've played that roll in my life as well.  I appreciated how vulnerable and honest Stephanie was.  It is never easy to unearth the deepest, most intimate parts of yourself and expose them to the world.  But after the accident, she never had the luxury of hiding who she was--her face will never blend in with the crowd.  For her to have the strength to share herself as she did in the book, I am grateful.

I thought the title was cheesy before I read the story.  Stephanie shared similar sentiments when her editor suggested "Heaven is Here" for the title.  She said she finally agreed to it because she realized hers is a story of choosing to be happy and thankful despite your circumstances.  And she's right.  But I thought it pertained more to a specific part of the story after her accident.  When she was in the induced coma, Stephanie spent time with her grandmother, who had passed away years before.  But when it was time for Stephanie to wake up, she had a choice:  she could return to her body and her family, or she could stay with her grandmother. And she chose life.  Because here on earth with her beloved husband and children, that was heaven.  We can make our own heaven in our own homes.  It's not easy, as Stephanie and her family well understands, but we can do it.

"The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls

"The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls

I. forgot. to. review. a. book!  I knew there was one I had read during the busy part of summer that I never wrote about! I recently asked for memoir/biography recommendations on Facebook and my cousin said "The Glass Castle" in a comment, then it hit me like a flash of lightening!  The title I forgot to review!  I'm glad she brought it up, because it really was a moving read.  It's just that my mommy brain has too many holes in it.

"The Glass Castle" is a memoir.  One of Walls' earliest memories is boiling hot dogs for herself for lunch on a gas stove top.  At the tender age of three.  Let that sink in for a minute--a three-year-old handling gas flames and boiling water, unsupervised.  Her little dress catches on fire and her mother rushes in from the other room, where she had been painting.  She puts out the fire but recognizes little Jeannette is in need of medical care.  She borrows a neighbor's car to rush her to the hospital, where she is treated for a few weeks for her burns that cover much of her torso.  Until her father decides he's fed up with doctors and their western medicine.  He decides to check Jeannette out of the hospital "Rex Walls style," grabbing his daughter from her hospital room and heading to a get-away car.  Just one of the anecdotes of Wall's unconventional upbringing.

Unconventional?  Certainly.  Neglectful?  Absolutely.  Abusive?  Too a degree, I'd say.  Many readers would argue that the intensity of the neglect inflicted upon Walls and her three siblings was abuse.  But the children were never beaten by their parents, however, they were put in countless compromising situations that put their mental, emotional, and physical well-being at risk.  Story after story in Walls' arsenal of personal history left my jaw scraping the floor.  I cannot fathom any parent putting their children through the conditions the Walls children had to endure:  not enough food, inadequate clothing, parents splurging money on booze and art supplies instead of providing for basic needs, moving frequently to avoid run-ins with authority, a house so poorly insulated that icicles formed on the inside walls, using a bucket for a toilet inside the kitchen.  It goes on and on and on.  

I was constantly expecting a diagnosis of some mental or emotional disorders for the parents, but it never reached that point.  The children lived with their parents' illogical and selfish choices until they were old enough to fly the coop.  One by one, they left home and went to New York City, where they scraped a living for themselves and finally got to live in a way they chose.  Just when they thought they're getting control of their lives again, Rosemary and Rex follow their children's lead and come to New York, also.  Jeannette has to learn how to deal with her parents in her new life and the new roles she's adapted to.

This book will constantly surprise you.  Truth is stranger than fiction in this case.  And the story-telling is so comfortable for the reader to dive into.  Despite the horrific tales, you can also cheer when Jeannette overcomes her obstacles.  I can't overemphasize how impressed I was with the almost objective way Jeannette recreated her childhood experiences.

"A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith

"A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith

When I saw this book at my September book club, my first reaction was how thick it was.  It was nearly 500 pages!  As of yesterday, I was only 150 pages into it, so the past two days have been a whirlwind of flipping pages and ignoring my kids (to a degree).  My 3-year-old's encounter today with an inky stamp left her looking like Ronald McDonald.  Mom's a book addict and hates going to book club with the book unfinished:  guilty as charged.

This title is one I have always heard of, but knew nothing about.  It's the story about little Francie Nolan, a girl who grows up in the slums of Brooklyn, collecting gum wrappers and other rubbish off the streets to trade in for pennies to put in a little tin can bank hammered into the floor of the closet.  The story is largely biographical of Betty Smith.  It follows Francie starting at age 11, and following up through her 16th birthday, shortly after the start of WWI.  I adored the glimpses into life of the Nolan family, despite their constant hardships.  Franice's mother, Katie, had to clean houses to earn their rent, and when her father, Johnny, happened to get a gig as a singing waiter, there was sometimes enough to eat.  But Johnny was an alchoholic and undependable for steady income.  You'll meet Francie's eccentric Aunt Sissy, as well as other Nolan and Rommely family members who probably act a lot like people you're related to.

"A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" is more than a "coming of age" story.  It's a snatch of American history, a story still touching readers 70 years later.  I appreciated the window into Francie's life from nearly 100 years ago.  So much has changed, but so much has remained constant.  I guess when it was first published in 1943 it was considered scandalous, but those "shady" aspects of the book are something I can relate to, because reading these passages echo of controversies my generation sees every day.   Not only could the story be eye-opening to the past and still feel familiar, Smith's writing style is simply classic.  Her gift of story-telling pulls in the reader.  It was comfortable, humorous, heart-breaking.

I told myself I was going to make note of passages as I read this one.  The writing was so lyrical and pictorial I wanted to remember it.  But it was a library book and I read it so fast, that I only wrote down two passages.  So, here they are, two token lines to represent the heart of this treasured book.

"Katie had the same hardships as Johnny and she was nineteen, two years younger.  It might be said that she, too, was doomed.  Her life, too was over before it began.  But there the similarity ended.  Johnny knew he was doomed and accepted it.  Katie wouldn't accept it.  She started a new life where her old one left off" (97).

"'You married him.  There was something about him that caught your heart.  Hang on to that and forget the rest'" (102).

"The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho

"The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho

Apparently, I'm one of the last people on the planet to hear about this guy or read this book.  Since I've had it from book club, I've told several people what I've been reading and most of them stopped me mid-sentence to gush, "Oh!  I LOVED that book!"  It played part in that strange phenomena, the one where you never hear a particular word/trend/place, but the moment you learn about it you see it EVERYWHERE. That was my experience with this book.  And happily so.

***MUSHINESS WARNING***

read at your own risk -- consider yourself warned

This book was an answer to prayer.  I believe I am a spiritual person; I have a tendency to see/feel God's love in small ways and "insignificant" things.  I am always deeply touched when I'm blessed with the recognition of God's tender mercies (I like to call them "love notes") in the little ordinary things in life.  I said this book was an answer to prayer, though not a prayer I put into words using my own cognition; it was a prayer that bled from my heart.  There was an unexpected turn of events in the life of my family recently. Not earth-shattering, although heart-breaking.  At the beginning I cried and prayed for days that, selfishly, the event would reverse and things could go back to the way I wanted them.  Then I prayed for understanding, patience, comfort, the ability to have God's grace in my heart so I could exercise forgiveness.  My heart ebbed and flowed with peace and pain, gradual healing mingled with reminders of the sorrow. So when I read the pages of this book, it was not like finding a fill-in-the-blank answer that I'd been hunting for. Rather, it was a calming whisper from my Father in Heaven that He understood my pain, but that He knew I could endure it with His endless love.  I don't understand many things about this universe, but He understands all, and I'm in His watchful care.  I don't know if everyone who reads this book will experience anything similar to what the book did to me.  I would call it a lengthy parable instead of a novel.  But I cannot deny that the very day when I found myself at the lowest low I had experienced in a long time just happened to be the day I cracked open this book, without having an inkling of what it contained inside.  It was a miracle.  And I was filled with love to buoy me through my storm.

I'm not going to tell you what the book is about--I'll let you discover that for yourself.  But I want to share some quotes and passages that were significant to me.

p 47 - It was if the world had fallen silent because the boy's soul had.  He sat there, staring blankly through the door of the cafe, wishing that he had died, and that everything would end forever at that moment.

p 64 - He was actually two hours closer to his treasure...the fact that the two hours had stretched into an entire year didn't matter.

p 69 - "I guess you don't believe a king would talk to someone like me, a shepherd," he said, wanting to end the conversation.

"Not at all.  It was shepherds who were the first to recognize a king that the rest of the world refused to acknowledge.  So, it's not surprising that kings would talk to shepherds."

p 75 - But all this happened for one basic reason:  no matter how many detours and adjustments it made, the caravan moved to the same compass point.  Once obstacles were overcome, it returned to its course, sighting on a start that indicated the location of the oasis.

p 76 - "But that disaster taught me to understand the world of Allah:  people need not fear the unknown if they are capable of achieving what they need and want.

"We are afraid of losing what we have, whether it's our life, or our possessions or property.  But this fear evaporates when we understand that our life stories and the history of the world were written by the same hand."

p 77 - "Once you go into the desert, there's no going back," said the camel driver.  "And when you can't go back, you have to worry about the best way of moving forward.  The rest is up to Allah, including the danger."

p 85 - "Because I don't live either in my past or my future.  I'm interested only in the present.  If you can concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man.  You'll see there is life in the desert, that there are stars in the heavens, and that tribesmen fight because they are are part of the human race.  Life will be a party for you, a grand festival, because life is the moment we are living right now."

p 87 - Maybe God created the desert so that man could appreciate the date trees.

p 89 - Meanwhile, the boy thought about his treasure.  The closer he got to the realization of his dream, the more difficult things became.  It seemed as if what the old king had called "beginner's luck" was no longer functioning.  In his pursuit of the dream, he was being constantly subjected to tests of his persistence and courage.  So he could not be hasty, nor impatient.  If he pushed forward impulsively, he would fail to see the signs and omens left by God along his path.

God placed them along my path.  He had surprised himself with the thought.  Until then, he had considered the omens to be things of this world.  Like eating or sleeping, or like seeking love  or finding a job.  He had never thought of them in terms of a language used by God to indicate what he should do.

p 98-99 - "Now, I'm beginning what I could have started ten years ago.  But I'm happy at least I didn't wait twenty years."

p 103 - "The secret is here in the present.  If you pay attention to the present, you can improve upon it.  And, if you improve upon the present, what comes later will also be better.  Forget about the future, and live each day according to the teachings, confident that God loves his children.  Each day, in itself, brings with it an eternity."

p 115 - "It's not what enters men's mouths that's evil," said the alchemist.  "It's what comes out of their mouths that is."

p 120 - "You must understand that love never keeps a man from pursuing his Personal Legend.  If he abandons that pursuit, it's because it wasn't true love...the love that speaks the Language of the World."

p 122 - "Don't say anything," Fatima interrupted.  "One is loved because one is loved.  No reason is needed for loving."

p 125 - "Everything you need to know you have learned through your journey."

p 125 - "And what went wrong when other alchemists tried to make gold and were unable to do so?"

"They were only looking for gold," his companion answered.  "They were seeking the treasure of their Personal Legend, without wanting actually to live out the Personal Legend."

p 127 - "The wise men understood that this natural world is only an image and a copy of paradise.  The existence of this world is simply a guarantee that there exists a  world that is perfect.  God created the world so that, through its visible objects, men could understand his spiritual teachings and the marvels of his wisdom.  That's what I mean by action."

p 130 - "Tell your heart that fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself.  And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second's encounter with God and with eternity."

p 132 - "Every search begins with beginner's luck.  And every search ends with the victor's being severely tested."

p 141 - "There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve:  the fear of failure."

p 156 - "'Everything that happens once can never happen again.  But everything that happens twice will surely happen a third time.'"

"The Rent Collector" by Camron Wright

"The Rent Collector"

The Cow.  She is one of the most despised and dreaded persons at the Stung Meanchey dump in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where she collects rent from the people living in flimsy dwellings within the dump.  Living in a dump?!  Yes, where human waste, toxic pollutants and trash combine, the underprivileged masses live and work.  They sort through the mounds of refuse for items that are of worth to scrap collectors.  They get enough money to buy food from the vendors near the dump, and enough money to pay The Cow in exchange for the right to sleep in the confines of Stung Meanchey.

Another woman resides in the dump, Sang Ly.  She lives there with her husband and sick little boy.  She detests The Cow (named Sopeap), not because she must give her precious rent money every month, but because The Cow is rude, heartless, and demanding.  But one day The Cow spots something in Sang Ly's shack:  a book that had been found in the dump that the illiterate Sang Ly kept for the pictures to show her son.  At the site of the book Sopeap moans and cries, leaving Sang Ly disturbed by this unfamiliar version of the dreaded rent collector.  Sang Ly offers the ugly old woman the book, and as The Cow quietly shuffles away, Sang Ly has an epiphany:  Sopeap can read!  Sang Ly strikes a deal with the prickly Sopeap for reading lessons, and thus begins a beautiful exploration of a human mind into the world of literature, and the truth of Sopeap's past.

There are also parallels between this book and "The Elegance of the Hedgehog" that thrilled me.

For anyone who enjoys reading as much as I do, this story about someone discovering not only how to read but how reading literature can change one's soul will be an enlightening experience.  This is not a true story but it is based on real individuals in Cambodia.  Camron Wright's son filmed a documentary called "River of Victory" about the people living in Stung Meanchey, and this story evolved from that film.

Some of my favorite quotes from the book:
~"Sometimes broken things deserve to be repaired."
~"Sang Ly, we are literature--our lives, our hopes, our desires, our despairs, our passions, our strengths, our weaknesses.  Stories express our longing not only to make a difference today but to see what is possible for tomorrow.  Literature has been called a handbook for the art of being human."
~"Whether we like it or not, hope is written so deeply into our hearts that we just can't help ourselves, no matter how hard we try.  We love the story because we are ... Cinderella."
~"It doesn't matter where you live, Sang Ly, it is how you live."
~"Fear will flee.  You will always wake up when morning comes."
~"I still awake every morning to a dump that is smoky, but through the smoke, I've seen some of the most amazing sunsets."

"Big Stone Gap" by Adriana Trigiani

"Big Stone Gap"

First off, the author's name is a mouthful!  Can you say that five times fast?  I can't.  Oye!

This is a darling story about 35-year-old Ave Maria Mulligan, who lives in the small Appalachian town Big Stone Gap, Virginia.  She's resigned her role in life to be the town's summer play director, pharmacist, and spinster.  But shortly after her mother's death, secrets about Ave Maria and her mother begin to surface, changing how Ave perceives who she is, who were parents were, and where she came from.  With new understanding about herself, Ave has to decide what to with the new version of herself.

This book was thoroughly entertaining.  I've talked about a book drawing me in, like water being absorbed into a sponge.  This book did it from page one.  The characters are genuinely characters!  Each one is unique and genuine and play their role in the town.  I loved the quirkiness of the town population, the genuine feel of community.  

I loved Ave.  I'm a 32-year-old married woman, but there were many things I could relate to with Ave.  It's a woman thing.  No matter where we live or our situation in life, there are things we're going to relate to.  I'm a woman and I love a romance story that exists for the sake of the romance, for the chase and the mystery and drama.  This story dives into family relationships, and I found a lot of truth in what Ave discovers about a grown-up child's relationship with his/her parents.

I love what Ave learns about her Italian heritage.  My grandmother was a first-generation Italian-American, and a lot of the things Trigiani describes as Italian characteristics I have often seen in myself, such as being very expressive and talking with my hands.  Little things like that my husband doesn't understand about me, but I don't know how to communicate with the world without those habits!  hah!

I enjoyed everything about this book.  For the sensitive reader, I'll warn you there are some sexually suggestive passages, mild language, and pre-marital intimacy.  

There are three more books about Ave Maria:  "Big Cherry Holler," "Milk Glass Moon," and "Home to Big Stone Gap."  I'd love to read more about Ave.  As I've learned more about Trigiani, I'm excited by the number of highly acclaimed books she's written--and I'm surprised I've never heard of her before.  I think this is an author I'd like to explore more.  You should, too.

"The Hobbit" by J. R. R. Tolkien

"The Hobbit"

I have four weeks between my book club nights, but for some reason this month I procrastinated the majority of this book until the last two days before our discussion.  I read "The Hobbit" in a great whirlwind, and in fact, the last 20 pages I borrowed my mom's "speed reading" trick of reading on the first and last lines of each paragraph to get the gist of what's going on.

I read "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy about 8 years ago.  Okay, that's a lie.  I read the first two and threw my hands up shortly into the third.  I think I might have mild ADD, because the long descriptive passages in Tokien's books are hard for me to plow through.  I need more dialogue to keep things going, and those moments aren't as common.  But I persisted through "The Hobbit."  I think it was easier because I was slightly more familiar with the story line from watching the cartoon version as a child.  But of course that cartoon was incomplete, but I found the parts of the story that were new to me were really the highlights because I didn't know exactly what was coming.  For example, I loved Beorn, the bear-man.  I loved his character and morphing qualities, his hospitality to Bilbo and the dwarfs, and how he followed them through part of the forest.

My very most favorite part of this story was Bilbo's transformation from being the little bumbling hobbit who fretted over his forgotten handkerchief to the individual who became the leader in fulfilling the plans to restoring the dwarfs' treasure and kingdom.

I saw the movie a few months ago, not knowing it was only a third of the story.  I was slightly appalled that "The Hobbit" book was to become a movie trilogy.  But now that I have read it, I totally understand and I'm eager to see the other cinematic installments.

"Life of Pi" by Yann Martel

"Life of Pi"

Seven years ago when my strapping 1st grade son was a tiny little newborn, I read "Life of Pi."  I loved it.  Fast-forward to a few months ago when my husband and I were in the movie theater and the previews started rolling.  All I needed to see was a zebra swimming within the hull of a ship and I started bouncing in my seat chanting, "Life of Pi!  Life of Pi!" and nearly ripping his arm off in my excitement.  Then my book club selected it for this month's read.  Then the person who was going to host the discussion forgot she was going to be in Mexico on vacation during our club meeting (how do you FORGET a trip to Mexico?!) and would be unable to fulfill her obligation, so I volunteered to take her place.  And I just finished reading it during a luxurious soak in my bathtub.

There were a few details I remembered from my first read-through, but all things considered, I might as well have been reading it for the first time for all I'd forgotten.  It's a story within a story within a story.  Once you get through it and understand the conclusion of the tale, you'll want to go back and reread it to see the symbolism and symmetry you weren't looking for the first time.  Unless you're incredibly intelligent and caught it all the first time, which I am not and did not.  I loved the facets of the story of religion and survival.  Being a religious person myself, I loved Pi's reaction to the different churches and perspectives on deity.  The Indian culture, the boat sinking, the animals, survival, Richard Parker.  This story was so inventive and dimensional and lovely.  I hope this is one you follow through and read, then come back and tell me what you think.

No, I haven't seen the movie yet!  It actually came out on video today (well, the day I'm writing this, not the day you're reading it, hehehe).  I don't know when I'll get around to seeing it, but I hope it's soon.  When I do see it I'll be sure to come back and let you know what I think, because I know that's important to you.  When I present this discussion to my book club, I plan on serving...drum roll please...pie!  (I can reveal that because by the time this publishes, book club will be long past and over with and no surprises will be spoiled.  Although, I'm pretty sure pie isn't that clever for refreshments.  I just revel in my own silliness.)

Long live Pi!

"The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver

"The Poisonwood Bible."  Where to start?  I wonder if I'm bothered with seasonal affective disorder, or if I'm just plain grumpy.  Because whenever I start asking myself what I'm going to write in this review, the answers aren't pretty.  I simply didn't like it.  It wasn't 100% awful, but I wasn't fond of it.

I had a hard time jumping into it.  A book needs to pull me in, make me hesitate to come up for air.  But this had no draw.  I forced myself to read through it like swimming in cement.

I hated The Reverend Nathan Price.  I mean, I think the reader is supposed to hate him.  I'd really be afraid of the mental stability of anyone who liked Nathan Price.  But he was such an unforgivable character.  He didn't change or learn or adapt.  He was psychotic.  He made me angry.  He didn't understand anything about human beings, American or African.  Zero redeeming qualities.

I also struggled with Orleanna Price until the middle of the book, where she finally gets to explain why she is who she is and how she got there.  I could forgive her zombie behavior after that.  She earned some redemption.

I felt nothing but sympathy for the poor daughters, who had no choice in ending up in Africa.  The twins I think had the purest souls, and Rachel was just vain and ignorant.  I was proud of Adah for moving past her deformity and allowing herself to create a new identity, and I felt pity for Leah for choosing a love and a life where she could never totally belong in any world.

There was no happiness in the book.  No hope.  No silver lining, not even a tarnished one. Everything was malaria and deadly politics.  That's not very generous of me.  But what about a happy scene (or two?) to propel the reader through all the poverty and illness?  I know the depictions of African history were real; life wasn't fair at all and always an uphill battle for survival. But the harsh reality doesn't mean they never had happy moments.  The book got me thinking about life and humanity, of course, but it was generally depressing.  Thank goodness for Rachel's narratives for some comic relief, which were only funny because she herself was a parasite trying to survive, not because she had two brain cells to rub together to spark her own wit.

And it wasn't what I would call a sad book.  Yes, there were many deaths and tragedies and set-backs.  But  to be sad there has to be some happiness sprinkled in it.  It was uninspiring.  And I think writing, no matter what genre, should inspire or motivate the reader in some form or measure.  And this book didn't just miss the mark, it wasn't even aiming in the right direction.

"The Wednesday Wars" by Gary D. Schmidt

Finally, I'm posting again! It's been awhile and I've left most of the work to Amy for about a month... or more... I'm horrible at the procrastination thing. Or good at it, depending on how you view it. ;)

Now onto my book!

"The Wednesday Wars"

Holling Hoodhood is a seventh grader at the beginning of the school year in 1967. He knows that his teacher, Mrs. Baker, hates his guts. Every Wednesday, the Catholic and Jewish kids leave school early for Cathechism and Hebrew School. Holling is the only Presbyterian in his class and doesn't get to leave school early. Mrs. Baker chooses to teach him EXTRA Shakespeare. And that's just the start of his worries with her.

I LOVED this book! I loved how each character developed and how you saw life different through Holling's eyes by the end of the book. I loved Mrs. Baker's intuition and loving personality. I loved the relationship Holling and his sister develop. I loved how even though he may have had a lot of influence from the one person that didn't change, he chose to be different. I connected with him. I connected with Mrs. Baker. I laughed a lot and cried some. It was funny and insightful. Very well written. Definitely worthy of it's Newbery status. I highly recommend picking this book up! You won't want to put it down.

"My Antonia" by Willa Cather

"My Antonia"

Because the holiday season is simply ridiculously busy, my book club always skips the December meeting.  I got "My Antonia" in November and we'll discuss it at our January meeting.  I only finished the book last week.  I could have been a really fast read, but, as I've stated, the holiday season is ridiculously busy, so I had to pace myself.  But I finally finished!

The book is an American classic, and I looked forward to reading it because I've never read Willa Cather.  I'd say her books are sort of "Little House"-ish in the genre.  "Antonia" is narrated by a young male character, Jim, who goes to Nebraska to live with his grandparents the same time Antonia and her family move from Bohemia.  There are many anecdotes about farm life and growing up in a small country town, as well as Jim's friendships with Atonia (Toni) and other immigrant girls.

I liked the open and honest writing style.  The story isn't very complicated, and the characters are genuinely developed.  But I was disappointed when I finished because there was no great climax, no grand finalé.  The story has a nice beginning, middle, and end, but none of it was particularly engaging.  I wouldn't call it boring,  because I was curious how the story wrapped up.  It was just a very mild ride.

"The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" by Alexander McCall Smith

"The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency"

Um, this post was scheduled to go up ten days ago.  But, apparently, it did not.  Boo to you, Blogger.

This is a new author and new series for me--I hadn't heard of either before.  On a scale from 1 to 10, I'd give it a 6.5/7.  I enjoyed the story, but it wasn't a hard-to-put-down story.  However, when I did make time to read it, the chapters flew by quickly, and I liked that.  Precious Ramotswe opens a private detective agency in her village in Botswana.  She has a series of cases and investigations that allow the reader to glimpse into the African culture, which is relatively unfamiliar to me.  I'll confess, more than once during Smith's descriptions of the Kalahari, the opening theme song from "The Lion King" played in my head.

One thing I did like about Romatswe was her internal struggle about changes in culture.  She often reflects how things are best done in the traditional Botswana way.  She doesn't like the gradual Americanizing she sees creeping into her homeland.  However, she's a paradox to her own thinking.  More than once she encounters people who find it peculiar that a woman is taking on a traditionally male occupation.  When this happens she asks if they have ever heard of Agatha Christie.  For her to break this mold is acceptable in her eyes, but she frowns upon similar changes around her.  Maybe I'm reading way too into this, but Precious Ramotswe is a fat African woman who travels in a small white van as she conducts her investigations.  I remember in 7th grade English we watched "Star Wars" and my teacher, Mr. Schroeder, explained that the Storm Troopers' uniforms were white with black showing from beneath, symbolizing their dark motives beneath a cloak of righteous changes.  So, in my mind, some analytic part of my seventh-grade subconscious latched onto this fat African lady in a small white van imagery, in the way it reflects her wanting to hang onto the old traditional ways inside, but ways on the outside are adapting to western culture whether you want it or not.  Maybe that was a gross over-generalization of a culture to which I am grossly ignorant.  I'm not trying to say anything about African culture, just an insight into Romatswe's struggle with culture adjustments.

"These is My Words," "Sarah's Quilt," and "The Star Garden" by Nancy E. Turner

   

"These is My Words" 

"Wait a second!" I can hear you thinking.  Micaela just reviewed one of those books by that author!  Well, ladies and gentlemen, lovers of good books, that's because we read the same book!  She actually read it a while before me, but she only just wrote her review of it.  I read it this past month for my book club then hosted a discussion on it last night.  (I learned if I write reviews on book club books before I go to book club, some of my friends already know what I'm going to say, and then I feel ridiculously redundant.)

I did pick up this book because Micaela liked it so much.  I also enjoyed the story of Sarah Agnes Prine, who is in fact the great-grandmother of the author.  Although "These is My Words" is heavily fictionalized, Sarah Prine was a genuine pioneer in the Arizona Territories in the late 19th century.  The story is 20 years of Sarah's diary, from 1881-1901, beginning when she's 17 years old.  She recounts a myriad of characters and experiences from the pioneer trail and life in the territory, love and loss, hardship and victory.

As the diary begins, Sarah's thirst for knowledge is evident, even though her use of language is rough.  As the story develops and Sarah forges her own path, so does the language mature and become more polished.

"Sarah's Quilt"

"Sarah's Quilt" picks up a few months after "These is My Words" ends.  Although it's still written in a diary format with dated entries, it read less like the style of the first book and more like a first-person narrative novel.  Book 1 reads how someone would speak to a friend, a little choppy and very informal.  But that's what made it an endearing method of story-telling.  "Sarah's Quilt" and "The Star Garden" are still from Sarah's perspective, but they are far more technically correct as far as writing style goes; a bit of the familiarity is lost.

"Sarah's Quilt" is only about 6-8 months in duration, and it's as long as the 20 years covered in the first book.    It's detail-rich.  "The Star Garden" covers a period of 5 years following "Sarah's Quilt."  I like how the 2nd and 3rd books let the reader follow how Sarah and her family change and grow, especially  how children and different relatives have their own stories going on.

"The Star Garden"

Although I liked all three books, "These is My Words" was my favorite, and I think "The Star Garden" was a tad indulgent of the author.  I mean indulgent the same way Simon Cowel used indulgent to describe the way some singers on American Idol sang because they liked the sound of their own voice.  Am I coming through loud and clear?

Turner has another book, "The Water and the Blood."  I will probably read it someday.  Once you find an author you enjoy, it's fun to explore all their works.

Left Neglected by Lisa Genova

"Left Neglected"

Sarah Nickerson is used to multitasking as the VP for marketing of a high-profile consulting firm in Boston, MA and a mom to three young children. Her busy life comes to an abrupt halt when she has an accident and suffers severe brain damage. Her diagnosis: Left Neglect. The left side of her world becomes non-existent and she has to retrain her brain to remember the left.

The author has a neuroscience doctorate from Harvard and I feel like her experience(s) helped her be able to tell this fictional story accurately. It was hard to understand that somebody could just lose the left of their whole world. Not only is Sarah not aware of the left side of her body, there is not a left side of the room, plate, book, etc. She can't even understand the meaning of "turn left". I can't imagine not knowing that my left existed!

I couldn't help but laugh a little at the beginning when she is comparing herself to stay at home moms and that she was shocked to find out that a lot of women have degrees and choose not to work. I wonder if this is a bit of the author's own perspective on SAHMs. I'm one of those degreed women who choose to stay at home, so I didn't relate to this woman who worked 80+ hours a day and just barely made it home in time to read bedtime stories. ;) However, I enjoyed seeing her inner transformation as she was willing to slow down and re-evaluate what really matters in life.

The most interesting part of this book was that I have a friend who goes to church with me that was diagnosed with Left Neglect when she was 21. We were able to talk to her during our book club about what she experienced. She said the book was very accurate in describing what having Left Neglect feels like. It was neat to get a first-hand perspective on this neurological syndrome.



"Robinson Crusoe" by Daniel Defoe

Book club is tomorrow, so I didn't finish this book with much time to spare!  I would never have pulled it off if I hadn't listened to the CDs.  If I were reading a hard copy, it would have taken me a loooooong time.  I think I enjoyed it more as I listened to it than I would have if I read it. It's long, it's old, it's wordy.  But I liked the grandfatherly voice telling me the story.

I didn't know this was one of the oldest books printed in the English language, so that made it more interesting for me to read.  I mean, this book is nearly 300 years old!  There are not many books that old that people still read and know the general story line.  Another thing I didn't know what how religious this book was.  It accounts Crusoe's sins and conversion to Christianity, and the character elaborates in great detail his feelings on repentance and providence.  One negative to listening to this book than reading it was I missed out on noting all the quotes or passages that moved or inspired me.  There are two that I manage to remember:

"I have...often observed, how incongruous and irrational the common temper of mankind is, especially of youth, that reason which ought to guide them in such cases, [namely] that they are not ashamed to skin, and yet are ashamed to repent; not ashamed of the action which they ought justly to be esteemed fools, but are ashamed of the returning, which only can make them be esteemed wise men." 

and
 
"It is never too late to be wise."


There were parts of the book that rankled, but they couldn't be helped.  If you consider when the book was written compared to the modern era we live in, there are just simply going to be points that will be perceived as politically incorrect.  First, the treatment of animals.  I am NOT an animal activist.  I don't like cats and dogs.  My family maintains a small fish tank and my children understand that is the extent of pet ownership we'll ever reach in this home.  But when they kill the lion but refuse to eat the meat, or tease then shoot the bear, these were both senseless and unwarranted instances of animal abuse.  (I have to keep telling myself it's just a story and not take it too seriously.)  I was also frustrated that Friday talked about the bears on his homeland of Trinidad.  I'm not an island girl, but my instinct told me bears do not reside in the Caribbean.  I did several online searches about the wildlife in Trinidad and nowhere did I find bears listed as natural inhabitants of that island.  I also asked my husband, who lived in Jamaica for two years, if there were bears in the Caribbean and he was fairly certain there were not.  And after the instances of animal abuse and incorrect accounts of island wildlife, I didn't like that once Friday was rescued by Crusoe, Friday instantly submitted himself to a Master.  I didn't like Crusoe automatically presuming ownership of another man, which Europeans seemed so fond of doing to less-developed civilizations.  But, that's just a reflection of the era in which the book was written and the world Defoe knew.

All in all, I did enjoy the core of the book, which is Robinson understanding his dependence on God.  No one sat there and told him God saved him and providence supplied his safety and needs, but he learned it himself through his own survival and began to see God's instructing Robinson in His own manner and methods.

"Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America" by Barbara Ehrenreich

I was excited for this book club book, to move away from a novel and into an investigative-journalism piece.    I have no idea who the author is; apparently she's written a NYT's Best Seller or two and she writes for several big magazines, such as Time.

I'm not a politically minded person.  Nor do I understand economics well.  This book was published just after I finished high school, so I know at that time in my life I was only really aware of surviving my first semesters at college and sustaining my dating life.  I have a slightly better grasp of economic stability since being a mom and home-owner, but really for me all I need to know is how to make my husband's paychecks stretch over the span of the month.  But Ehrenreich got a better glimpse into American economics when she abandoned her affluent writer's lifestyle and chose to work minimum wage at three different jobs in three different cities, trying to survive and find housing for a month, trying to keep her head above water.  Her first stint was at a few restaurants and hotel service in Key West, Florida; then she joined The Merry Maids and volunteered at an Alzheimer's center in Portland, Maine; she wraps up her experiment in the Twin Cities, Minnesota, working at Walmart.

I am a stay-at-home mother with four children; my husband works two jobs.  We both have bachelor's degrees.  We have a mortgage.  Money always seems to be a playmate in a game of tag; sometimes we feel sufficient but often we feel like we're chasing our goals instead of realizing them.  But Barbara reveals a lifestyle that's entirely foreign to me.  I mean, sometimes we're short on money but I've never once doubted having food to eat and a home and changes of clothes and gasoline for our vehicles.  Even if my husband suddenly became unemployed tomorrow, I know we have family who would let us stay with them and share their own resources until we got back on track.  This book opened a new perspective to me, and it's disturbing to think there's so much more of this than I see in my cushy little middle-class suburb.  It's one of the problems America likes to ignore.

These are eye-opening anecdotes and should be read and considered, not ignored.  I wish the author would have dismissed the use of occasional obscene language and chosen more intelligent words, but in a way, her choice of low language reflects the lifestyles she depicts.  For the serious topic it's a quick read, and it's already changed the way I interact with service workers I encounter at the check-out when I buy groceries or ask a Walmart associate where I can find masking tape.

The Vow: The True Events that Inspired the Movie by Kim and Krickitt Carpenter With Dana Wilkerson

I loved this book! The faith that this couple had going through this ordeal is truly amazing. Kim and Krickitt had been married for only 2 months when they were in a horrible traffic accident going home for Thanksgiving. Krickitt sustained massive brain damage and wasn't expected to live for longer than a few hours. After she was able to speak, they realized that she had no memory of the events of the last year and a half- the time frame where she met, dated, got engaged and married to her husband!

Amy had seen the movie a few weeks ago and we compared the book to the movie. EVERYTHING was changed!! The city they lived in, the accident, they NEVER got a divorce (that's the whole point of the title-they kept their vow to each other and to God), the relationships that they had/have with their in-laws is very strong and I could go on. The book is mostly written from Kim's perspective. I kept waiting to hear from Krickitt to see how she felt after the accident. There are some of her journal entries added, but that's really all from her perspective. However, after finishing the book, I think hearing it mostly from Kim didn't detract from the message.

I just love reading about real stories of the amazing challenges and trials people face in life and how they overcome those trials through their faith in God and help from others. It was very refreshing to read a book that bore witness to the fact that God does exist and there are miracles happening everyday. I highly recommend reading the book.

"The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde

"Dorian Gray" is a title my book club had tossed around from time to time when we needed to come up with more books for our to-do list.  Before reading it, my only familiarity with the book/character came from the movie "A League of Extraordinary Gentlemen," and I don't really even remember much about the movie or what role Dorian played.  I had also never read Oscar Wilde before, so I was interested in it.

Dorian Gray is a up-and-coming bachelor in England.  He has recently befriended an up-and-coming painter, Basil, who finds inspiration in Dorian's delightful good looks.  Lord Henry Wotton is also a friend of Basil, but there is nothing good about him, except perhaps being good at confusing truth for lies.  Henry's influence is immediately toxic for Gray, who bemoans the portrait Basil made for him and curses the fact that the portrait shall always remain pure and untainted while he will go on in life and age and become unwholesome to look at in time.  If only the case were reversed; if only Dorian could maintain his youth and handsome looks while the portrait receives the brunt of aging.

And just that happens.  And that's the end of my disclosure.

At some point during our book club discussions the host usually asks, "Did you like it?"  The reactions to this one were largely negative.  It's a dark story, and no happy ending.  But I liked it for its symbolism.  And the book made me ask how much of Dorian Gray can I see in myself?  How much of Dorian Gray is in all of us?

"The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie" by Alan Bradley

A mystery!  I don't often pick mysteries for my own reading so when we had a choice for the next book club pick I voted mystery.  I'm so glad I did!  I didn't read this one, I downloaded the audio onto my iPod.  The narrator had such a charming accent.  I loved listening to it.  In fact, I went to my library's website to see if they had any other books by Bradley because I enjoyed "Sweetness" so much, and I found out there's a sequel!  I'm on the waiting list for the CDs and I can't wait to listen to that charming narrator again.  Well, I hope it's the same narrator, at any rate.

I felt the book was a combination of recent books I've read, "Hedgehog" and books by Kate Morton.  "Hedgehog" because the story is told through the eyes of an intelligent 11-year-old girl (although this girl isn't bent on her own destruction).  Kate Morton's stories come in because the story takes place at a grand old English manor that had been in the family for centuries; and for the mystery component.  Flavia de Luce, a child chemist, takes it upon herself to resolve her father's name when he's accused of the murder of a college acquaintance who was found dead in the estate's cucumber patch.  She's very precocious and gets herself in and out of several scrapes while collecting evidence and solving who really killed the ginger-haired man.

It was an excellently spun story with unique characters.  That's a huge selling-point in any book I read; how real are the characters?  Maybe that's a reason I hated "Gay Neck" so much.  It was so bland because there was virtually no character development to add flavor to the story.

Go read "Sweetness."  I'm sure it's a book you won't regret getting to know better!