A Life of Books

Jack Kennedy Elusive Hero

2012-01-15T07:51:00.000-08:00

Jack Kennedy Elusive Hero by Chris Matthews is one of the best books that I have ever read, bar none. And I am not even a big fan of non-fiction reading! I should not have been so surprised at what an excellent writer Chris Matthews is, because he is an outstanding journalist, but this book out-surpassed my expectations!

By the time Jack Kennedy ran for President of the United States, I was ten years old. My grandfather was the political writer for our local newspaper, my mother was a precinct captain, and my grandmother was County Treasurer. So I had some experience with listening to political conversations around the family. Interestingly, my family were all strict Republicans. Then Jack Kennedy came along and my mother adored him! I remember quite clearly as a child frightened during the Bay of Pigs incident and our practicing getting under our desks at school. And then that horrible day in 1963, when I was a freshman in high school, and we learned that President Kennedy had been assassinated. I remember my aunt telling us about my uncle who was in his car driving somewhere when he heard the news on the radio and he pulled the car over and sat and sobbed, unable to drive. That was how it affected people.

So when I heard Chris Matthews being interviewed about his new book, I had to read it. Something old pulled me to the story.

This is not a book about Jack Kennedy being assassinated. It is not a book about any of the speculations, rumors, or gossip about Jack Kennedy. It is a book about who he was. Jack Kennedy loved history and as a child read historical biographies voraciously. He said that the reason people read biographies is to answer the question "What was he like?". This is what Chris Matthews set out to do with his book on Jack Kennedy. And the answers were fascinating.

This book is based on in-depth interviews with those who knew and worked closest with Jack Kennedy, friends and former staffers. Most of the book is about his live leading up to becoming President. I was fascinated with how he slowly and painstakingly campaigned for years leading up to the election. I don't know that there was ever a time following his service in World War II that Jack Kennedy did not plan to be President of the United States. The history of those times is amazing and Jack Kennedy's judgement and wisdom to lead us as a country was extraordinary; even when he erred, he learned and never made the same mistake. He held to what he believed was right, even when others advised differently. I was especially taken with his stance and fortitude dealing with the civil rights issues.

"He loved courage, hated war, lived each day as if it were his last." As Matthews writes, “I found a fighting prince never free of pain, never far from trouble, never accepting the world he found, never wanting to be his father’s son. He was a far greater hero than he ever wished us to know.”

Great, great book.

Patron Saint of Liars

2012-01-09T12:06:00.000-08:00

I have read several of Ann Patchett's books and, so far, Patron Saint of Liars is my favorite. Interestingly, it was her debut novel!

An old hotel in Habit Kentucky became St. Elizabeth's, a home for unwed mothers run by nuns. Rose Clinton was married and living in California when she found that she was pregnant. She got into her husband's car and began driving across the country without informing anyone of what she was doing. She arrived at St. Elizabeth's, with the intent of giving up her baby and moving on with her life. While she was staying there, she became an assistant in the kitchen, soon taking over all of the cooking as the staff began to realize that she had a talent for it. After Rose's baby was born, she decided to keep the baby and was allowed to remain at the Home to work in the kitchen. The older groundskeeper had befriended Rose and fell in love with her. Rose married him and she and her baby, Cecilia, lived with him in his small house on the grounds. Sadly for Rose, her past caught up with her in the end.

The book seemed to insinuate that girls/women who go to these homes are "liars". I have found it interesting in my genealogical research that the few times that I have attempted to research women who went to unwed mother's homes, the women usually gave false names, making it extremely difficult to trace them. So perhaps by the very nature of the process, they start out with lies. They lie to their family and friends, often to the father's of the babies, and then lie about their circumstances to the other girls at the home. And there are probably millions of cases where the women have never told anyone about having the baby, sometimes taking the secret to their grave. Certainly, Rose was deceptive as soon as she learned she was pregnant, by leaving her family without telling them she was having a baby, then arriving at St. Elizabeth's and being both deceptive and evasive there. Then she married (even though she was still married to her husband in California) and her new family knew nothing about her past life.

Very interesting to consider all the factors involved! The book was really well-written. I did not find Rose to be an especially likable character, but I found her quite interesting. Good book!

Lost Memory of Skin

2012-01-09T11:31:00.000-08:00

I read Lost Memory of Skin by Russell Banks on my Kindle last month. I thought that the premise of it sounded interesting. The story deals with sexual abusers and homelessness.

I was somewhat disappointed in the whole book, although parts of it were interesting. The whole sadness of homelessness and how people end up in that situation is thought-provoking. In this book, the Kid (as he is called through-out the book) is a convicted sex offender who lives in what I would consider a colony of sorts under a causeway in south Florida. The colony of people who live there are all convicted sex offenders, who cannot find anywhere else to live, due to the restrictions of not being able to live near children, schools, etc. The Kid is a young man, just out of his teens, who had a sexual relationship with an underage girl. That seemed, to me, to rather set him apart from the others that he lived with. He seemed to be more a victim of circumstances.

The police raid the camp/colony and the Kid ends up meeting the Professor, an extremely obese college professor who claims to be doing research on homelessness and sex offenders. The relationship between the Kid and the Professor is interesting and as the Kid learns more about the Professor, the Kid has to deal with those issues.

I found the book to become weaker and weaker as the story went on. Parts of it were interesting, probably only due to my own past experiences working with clients. The story does raise the issue of how to house sex offenders in society after they have completed their prison time. But it doesn't take a whole book to address that issue.

The List

2012-01-08T09:13:00.000-08:00

Right before Christmas I saw Martin Fletcher, foreign correspondent for NBC News, on the Today show discussing his new book, The List. I was so struck by his story that I had to read the book. If I recall correctly, he said that when his father died in 2005, Martin was clearing out his father's belongings and in a nightstand drawer he found a list. As he studied it, he realized that it was a list of names of all of his father's family members who had disappeared during the Holocaust. Every name had a line crossed through it. On the other side of the piece of paper were listed all of Martin's mother's family members who had disappeared during the Holocaust. I don't remember for sure, but I believe that there might have been one or two survivors on his mother's list, because I remember him saying that his father would put a check mark by the name if the person had survived. I was especially struck by the thought of what it must have been like for Martin to have discovered this list and not realize that his father had been working on that list for the past sixty years.

The interview with Martin Fletcher was so interesting to listen to. I felt like the interviewer didn't quite get it as they kept referring to it as a book about the Holocaust and Martin would correct them saying that the book was not about the Holocaust, it was about after the Holocaust...how the time after the Holocaust affected people as they struggled to learn if family members had survived, where the family members might be, and trying to build new lives for themselves. One reviewer wrote that she remembered her own family in London doing the same and it wasn't until 1971 that they learned what had become of the last family member that they were searching for.

As Martin researched for the book, he also discovered more information about a plot in London by Palestinian Jews to assassinate Britain's foreign minister, so he included that in the story, that added some very interesting history and suspense to the story.

The List, by Martin Fletcher, is a fictionalized novel based on his family's story, as they struggled to begin their new lives in London after World War II. George and Edith were Austrian refugees living in London in 1945, awaiting the birth of their first child. It was difficult for them to experience their great joy at bringing a new life into the world while they were vigilantly searching for word of what had become of their family members, learning of deaths of so many others. They wondered how they were going to survive living in London where Georg could not find a job. On top of that there appeared to be growing anti-Semitism in London, as servicemen returned and were unable to find jobs and housing, and the Jewish refugees were being blamed for taking jobs and housing away from them.

In the story, Edith's cousin, Anna, is located and comes to London to stay with Edith and Georg and begin her new life. Anna had been with Edith's family when they were taken away by the Nazi's, and knew some of what had become of Edith's family. She thought that perhaps Edith's father had survived the Holocaust, giving Edith great hope that perhaps her "Papi" was still alive.

Meanwhile, Georg learned of the plot to assassinate the British foreign minister and struggled with wanting to stop the assassination, yet not betray the Jewish faction behind the plot.

The story is heartbreaking and hopeful and inspiring. It certainly made me think about what it must have been like, not knowing what had happened to family members. And, sadly, that even now in 2012, there are still many people who have not been able to learn about what happened to their family. Devastating.

The List is a very interesting, readable book that tells an important story that we all must learn and remember.

My 22 Favorite Books of 2011

2012-01-07T12:03:00.000-08:00

Yes, the list is twenty-two. I know it is pathetic that I can't even narrow it down to twenty, but what's a reader to do? Here's the list of my favorite books read in the past year:

The Swan Thieves-ElizabethKostova

The Heretic’sDaughter-Kathleen Kent

Wench-DolenPerkins-Valdez

Room-EmmaDonoghue

ThreeJunes-Julia Glass

Cuttingfor Stone-Abraham Verghese

WinterGarden-Kristin Hannah

TheForgotten Garden-Kate Morton

DrowningRuth-Christina Schwartz

OliveKitteridge-Elizabeth Strout

TheKitchen House-Kathleen Grissom

Scout,Atticus & Boo-Mary Murphy McDonagh

TheDevil’s Dream-Lee Smith

Mudbound-Hillary Jordan

MyOld True Love-Sheila Kay Adams

TwoRivers-t.greenwood

FallOn Your Knees-Anne-Marie MacDonald

TheGift of Peace-Joseph Cardinal Bernardin

TheLast Days of Ptolemy Grey-Walter Mosley

TheArt of Fielding-Chad Harbach

Homerand Langley-EL Doctrow

ThePatron Saint of Liars-Anne Patchett

I think that the list is a nice mix of both old and new books. I am kind of sad to say that only two of the twenty-two are nonfiction. I am going to try to do better with that this year!

What's that? You need it narrowed down? Ok, out of the above list, here are the top eleven:

Room-EmmaDonoghue

ThreeJunes-Julia Glass

Cuttingfor Stone-Abraham Verghese

DrowningRuth-Christina Schwartz

OliveKitteridge-Elizabeth Strout

Scout,Atticus & Boo-Mary Murphy McDonagh

Mudbound-Hillary Jordan

TwoRivers-t.greenwood

TheLast Days of Ptolemy Grey-Walter Mosley

Homerand Langley-EL Doctrow

ThePatron Saint of Liars-Anne Patchett

Still not narrow enough? This is the best that I can do:

Room-EmmaDonoghue

DrowningRuth-Christina Schwartz

Scout,Atticus & Boo-Mary Murphy McDonagh

Mudbound-Hillary Jordan

ThePatron Saint of Liars-Anne Patchett

You will just have to read them for yourselves if you want to make the list smaller...I just can't choose.

I Love December!

2012-01-07T11:26:00.000-08:00

My birthday and Christmas are in December and that meant books, books, books for me! I got some money from my parents for my birthday, and quickly went to Barnes and Noble and bought myself a gift card with the money! And am doing the same with money that I received for Christmas! What better gift than one of books? And then for Christmas, I also received 3 books that I had asked Santa for! Here is a list of the books that I acquired in the month of December:

Little Heathens by Mildred Armstrong Kalish

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

The List by Martin Fletcher

Jack Kennedy by Chris Matthews

The Time of Our Lives by Tom Brokaw

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Diodon

Lincoln by David Herbert Donald

On Canaan's Side by Sebastian Barry

Children and Fire by Ursula Hegi

So far, I have completed reading Little Heathens (for book group this week) and The List (to be reviewed this week on this blog). I am currently reading Jack Kennedy and am thoroughly enjoying it. I have found it interesting that four of the nine books are nonfiction, which I don't usually tend to read, although I always have great intentions of reading more nonfiction. The List is a novel, but is based on real life, so it is not counted as nonfiction, but it almost is!

And then, to top it off, one of my absolute favorite gifts that I received for Christmas was a new tote bag that is a To Kill A Mockingbird theme!!! I love it!!!

3 Books Read on My Kindle

2011-11-19T07:57:00.001-08:00

Yes, these are the first 3 books that I have read on my Kindle. It is hard to adjust to just saying that! I do enjoy reading with the Kindle, but I miss having the actual books. Two of the three books are books that I would consider purchasing at some point to have on my shelves. Why does that sound so strange to me? Anyway, it was nice having the books on my Kindle for my recent trip to Mexico...

The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach was a book that my high school book friends had chosen. It was a good choice. I love baseball and there is enough baseball interaction in the book to make me happy! It was also interesting that the book started out talking about a baseball field in Peoria, Illinois, which is where I am from! But whether you are a baseball fan or not, this story is one that I think would keep a reader quite engaged. It is not really about baseball, but rather about friends, family, commitments, and ambitions.

Henry Skrimshander is recruited to play shortstop for Westish College, a small college in Wisconsin. Henry is a quiet, mild-mannered young man who becomes a big star for the team, and appears to be destined for the big leagues. Henry's dream is to play for the St. Louis Cardinals and the scouts begin watching him. However, when Henry makes a routine throw that goes afoul, lives are dramatically changed. Henry begins a downward spiral of self-doubt, while those closest to him are also affected by the throw.

One of the things that I found interesting about the book was Henry's "Bible", The Art Of Fielding by a fictional retired short shop. Henry carried the book around with him and referred to it often, taking the lessons in the book to heart. I also thought that the names the author gave the characters were quite interesting: Henry Skrimshander, Pella Affenlight, Geurt Affenlight, Owen Dunne and Mike Schartz are the main characters.

As I said, all of the characters are affected by the outcome of the one bad throw that Henry made...a throw that changed lives. The book was a very interesting concept and one that I found very enjoyable to read!

Next, I read Homer and Langley by E. L. Doctorow, which was another book group choice. And another excellent choice. I really liked this book! And it made for a great discussion! I had not realized that the story was a fictionalized account of real people until after I had finished the book. I may have to reread it now just based on that new knowledge!

In the book, Homer and Langley Collyer are brothers who live on 5th Avenue in New York in their deceased parent's grand mansion. Homer had gone blind as a boy, so was fairly dependent on his brother Langley. Langley had served in WWI and had returned home damaged by mustard gas. The brothers live pretty much as recluses, although Homer did work at one point playing music in a theater until talking films came out. Homer did have some meaningful relationships with people who were in his life at various periods, but Langley appeared to have difficulty with relationships. Langley collected newspapers and trash that might one day be useful. Langley's purpose in life was to come up with a timeless newspaper, which could replace all newspapers. Thus he collected and studied all the newspapers he could get, and catalogued news items in an effort to put them into his timeless newspaper. The idea, to me, seemed to be that history repeats itself...nothing is ever really new. So all events could go into this one newspaper, and then there would not be a need for other newspapers. That may not really make a lot of sense, but that is an example of how out there Langley appeared to be in the book. The book went through the years of the 20th century, as the brothers struggled with their existence. Langley refused to pay bills, so all utilities were turned off over the years.

The story was very sad, especially at the end, but was a very interesting read. Since I have read the book, I came across a review that Pete Hamill had done where he tells about the real story of the brothers. In the book, the brothers live into the 1960's, but in real life, they died in 1947. Hamill wrote:

"Far away in Brooklyn, the emerging myth of the Collyer brothers was made personal to us because one of our neighbors, a detective named Joe Whitmore, was assigned to the investigation. "You never seen anything like that place," he told my father one morning, while I listened in awe. "It's like a trip to Purgatory." His eyewitness accounts of filth, rats, newspapers stacked to ceilings, pianos everywhere (14 of them), a Model T automobile, and narrow tunnels through the densely packed trash were verified by the newspaper stories. Or, rather, Joe Whitmore verified the newspaper stories.

The cops found Homer first. He was propped up in a chair, crippled and twisted by rheumatism, his hair wild and white, his beard falling below his chest. He wore only a tattered blue bathrobe. He had starved to death. They didn't find Langley for another three weeks. Despite reports of sightings all over New York and as far away as Atlantic City, his body lay only eight feet away from Homer's, crushed by thick walls of trash he had rigged as a booby trap. Rats had been dining on his aging flesh."

Enough said.

And the third book I read on my Kindle was The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, which was recommended to me by my ten year old grandson! I had never read it, but had read lots of reviews of it by other bloggers, so I was curious to read it for myself. I wasn't disappointed...it was a good book, although I thought the ending was a little bit of a let down. It is the story of a young boy, Nobody Owens, called "Bod", whose family was murdered when he was a baby, and he is being raised in the graveyard by the ghosts who live there. Bod is in danger, however, if he leaves the graveyard, because Jack, the man who killed his family, still wants to kill Bod.

The book has many good lessons to teach. Each of the ghosts have their own stories of life in other times. As Bod gets older, he realizes that he is missing out on life and wants to experience for himself the lives that the ghosts have already lived. The book is about Bod learning how to live in the real world. A good read.

Quite a variety

2011-10-19T13:25:00.000-07:00

Yes, I have another backlog of books to blog about. I swear my life seems to get busier and busier. I am reading more and more, which is a plus. I finally broke down and joined the electronic book world with the purchase of a Kindle. I have been quite quiet about it...there seems to have been some shame involved on my part, but I have to admit, I really do like it. I am not convinced that it will ever take the place of holding a good book in my hand, but for traveling (of which I do quite a bit even if it is weekends visiting my kids) it is wonderful! And it is very easy to use and easy to read with, so I am pleased with it. I am reading a book on it right now and am leaving on a trip to Cancun in a couple of weeks, so I will load a couple of books on it for that trip!

The two books that I have read for my book groups are Fall On Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald, and Mudbound by Hillary Jordan. I had just read Mudbound last summer, but read it again for my book group. Again, a great book! (my review of it was in my blog on 14 July 2011) The book group really liked it and we had wonderful discussion...I highly recommend it!

I had read Fall On Your Knees about 13-14 years ago, and remembered that I had really liked it, so I was pleased that it was chosen for our book group. It's a long book (508 pages) and very dark and disturbing with themes of secrets, incest, rape, abuse, etc. However, Ms. MacDonald's writing is beautiful and I found quite easy to read, although the book has to be read fairly slowly in order to catch all that is happening in the story.

It is a story about the Piper family who live on Cape Breton Island (which is off of Nova Scotia). There are four girls in the family, each with their own darkness chasing after them. To say that the parents were dysfunctional is meaningless, because their characters went so far beyond just dysfunction. The father of the family, James Piper, seems to be the catalyst for all that happens in the book. Needless to say, he is not a likable character. However, each of the girls are quite interesting, each in their own way. They each found their individual ways of survival and some of the book is quite funny.

This book group did not like the book. They found it disturbing and difficult to read. Several did not finish it. I don't know what this says about my taste in books, but I really liked it! I like books that have lots of character development and this one does!

Next I read The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey by Walter Mosley. I had never read any of his work, but I will be reading more of it...I loved this book!

Ptolemy is a 91 year old man, suffering from dementia and loneliness. He lives in a small apartment by himself and has a nephew who comes by to look in on him and help him out with errands. When Reggie suddenly doesn't come by anymore, a friend of Reggie's family, 17 year old Robyn, begins helping out with Ptolemy, cleaning his (incredibly) filthy apartment, grocery shopping, etc. Ptolemy volunteers for an experimental medical program that will shorten his life, but will bring back his sharp mind for the time that he does have left to live. He investigates the mystery of his nephew's death and decides to take justice into his own hands, feeling that it is up to him to take care of the family he has left. Through-out the book, Ptolemy remembers wisdom spoken to him by his childhood mentor Coydog McCann, who was murdered.

It is a fascinating, and moving book. The difficulties and struggles of aging are very touchingly narrated and Ptolemy is a very likable character. Great book!

Lastly, I finished The Gift of Peace by Joseph Cardinal Bernardin. Cardinal Bernardin wrote this book during the last two months of his life, telling the story of the last three years of his life, including the false accusation of sexual misconduct and his diagnosis of cancer. It is a very simple and moving book; I did not find it sad at all, but very uplifting. Cardinal Bernardin's faith is inspirational and the work that he did for others is even more inspirational. This is not really a book about dying. It is more about living. His sharing about his difficulty with prayer at times is so easy for others to relate to. He was a great man and through this little book, he will continue to touch others for many, many years. (Joseph Cardinal Bernardin died in 1996)

Bel Canto and Fragile

2011-09-22T07:51:00.000-07:00

I read Bel Canto for one of my book groups this month. I don't think that I had read any books by Ann Patchett before. And I am not sure if I will read another one now or not, but I think that I will.

Bel Canto is a story about relationships during a hostage situation. It takes place in an un-named country in South America where a famous opera singer, Roxanne Coss, is appearing and performing for Mr. Hosokawa, a Japanese businessman, who is celebrating his birthday. The party begins elegantly, until suddenly terrorists appear, planning to take the President of the country as a hostage. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on who you were, The President had not come to the party, so all the guests are taken as hostages. The guests who are not deemed as necessary for the cause are released, leaving about 60 hostages, representing various countries.

As the months pass, relationships develop between the hostages and the terrorists, many of whom are young adults and seemingly fairly innocent. I found the development of the relationships interesting and the author did a good job developing the various character, although, honestly, I did not find myself especially caring about anyone of them in particular.

I had a difficult time getting into the book until about the middle of it. Then I was terribly disappointed with the ending of the hostage situation, and even more disappointed with the Epilogue.

So would I recommend the book? I'm not sure. Half of my book group LOVED the book, the other half felt as I did. I will admit that the book made for great discussion for the group! Since I felt like Ms. Patchett did so well with character development, I probably will read another one of her books, which I have sitting on my To-Be-Read pile already!

Fragile by Lisa Unger came out last year, and I was happy to borrow it from my daughter to read. The story is about Charlene, a girl gone missing in a small town, that brings up memories for the adults of another young girl, Sarah, who went missing years ago and was found dead. The story does a good job combining the adults who were friends of Sarah's and their children who are friends of Charlene. Charlene is the girlfriend of Ricky, who is the son of Jones and Maggie Cooper. Jones is the lead detective on the case, and Maggie is a psychotherapist who works with adolescents and families. Both Jones and Maggie had been friends with Sarah and now, their son is involved with another girl's disappearance.

I loved how the two stories were intertwined in the book. And I was intrigued to read Chapter One of Ms. Unger's next book, Darkness, My Old Friend that was featured at the end of Fragile. It is about Jones Cooper, taking place a year after the story in Fragile! Definitely on my To-Be-Read list!

Somewhat behind...

2011-09-15T14:12:00.000-07:00

I have fallen behind in my book blogging....but have been reading more, so no complaints! Being in three book groups keeps me busy...I find that I have to carefully organize my reading in order to meet the deadlines. And, happily, I have still found time for some of my "own" reading! So that being said...two of these three books were for book groups.

Commencement by J. Courtney Sullivan is the story of four girls who meet in college and stay connected after college. They are the usual mix that one meets in college...all different, from different families and homes and mindsets. The women face all of the usual challenges: to marry or not, to have a child or not, to work or not, etc. This is the author's debut novel and I wasn't terribly impressed. I had trouble caring about any of the characters, and found the stories of each fairly predictable. Just not my kind of book, I guess. It was chosen for one of my book groups and was a book that none of the group had read, so we went into it blindly. Always a risk.

One of my other book groups chose Two Rivers by t. greenwood. I had read it this a couple of years ago and really liked it. My blog for it was on January 26, 2009 if anyone cares to go back and read it. From the Barnes and Noble site:

"T. Greenwood's new novel is a powerful, haunting tale of enduring love, destructive secrets, and opportunities that arrive in disguise . . ."

An excellent book, great story, great writing! I recommend it!

I just finished Shadow Tag by Louise Erdrich. I almost always like her books and this one was no exception. I found it to be an excellent portrayal of a marriage unraveling, and how it affects all in the family.

Irene discovered that her husband, Gil, was reading her private journal, so she started writing in it for him for him to read, in an effort to manipulate him into letting her go. Irene wanted out of the marriage, so she set about it by writing things that would upset Gil. Of course, Gil could not confront her about what she wrote or then she would know that he had been reading her journals. Meanwhile, Irene began keeping another journal for herself. Shadow Tag goes back and forth between her writings in the two journals.

Irene and Gil have three children, who, of course, are witness to all of the animosity, fighting and violence that went on in the marriage. The author does an excellent job with the children's emotions and feelings.

I have to admit that I found the end of the book to be quite surprising, although the more I have thought about their relationship, perhaps I shouldn't have been so surprised. I liked the way she ended the book after the surprise. (You will just have to read it to know what I am talking about!). Good book!

A Separate Country

2011-08-31T14:14:00.000-07:00

A Separate Country by Robert Hicks is what I chose to take with me on a recent trip to the Missouri Ozarks. It was a great choice! After visiting New Orleans for the first time ever this past June, this book evoked so many thoughts about the city! As the subtitle reads "A Story of Redemption in the Aftermath of the Civil War", this is the story of a man trying to find redemption for his decisions. This is a fictionalized account of the life of Confederate General John Bell Hood, who was the last of the leading Confederate Generals to surrender in 1865. The War had been hard on Hood who lost the use of his left arm and later lost his right leg. He was a controversial General, appearing willing to recklessly risk his troop's lives and he left the War with a rather mixed reputation, following the loss of thousands under his command.

John Bell Hood (pictured at the right) was originally from Kentucky, but once the Civil War ended, he decided to settle in New Orleans, where he met and married Anna Marie Hedden. He and Anna Marie had eleven children in ten years. A good part of the book is about their love story through-out their marriage. John was not a business man, but he attempted to brokerage cotton and insurance; however, in 1878 yellow fever came to the city and as people either died or left the city, businesses failed and John lost everything. Over the next couple of years, yellow fever continued to devastate the city. General Hood began helping with the sick, leaving his family for long periods of time. It appeared to me that he was attempting to make amends for his War record.

There are many strong characters in the book, especially the close childhood friends of Anna Marie's who play central roles in the story, as General Hood's past catches up to him.

The story is a very sad and tragic one, but Robert Hicks tells it in a fascinating way. I loved all the different descriptions of New Orleans and could picture right where he was talking about. As others have remarked, this book is one about New Orleans, almost as much as it is about General John Bell Hood!

and the reading continues...

2011-08-08T13:46:00.000-07:00

I wish that I would read more, but I keep getting caught up in my genealogy, my grandchildren, my gardens, etc. There is never enough time in my day! Being retired is hard work sometimes! Anyway, I got through two more books recently.

The first book is My Old True Love by Sheila Kay Adams (published 2004). I got this at a book sale last year and finally got around to reading it and I really liked it! It is another book that is based on the oral history of the author's family, which I always find interesting.

The story begins in 1854 in the Appalachian mountains when Arty Norton is nine years old and her widowed aunt dies giving birth to a baby boy. The baby is named Larkin and Arty's family take him to raise. Arty thinks of him as her very own baby and he calls her "Amma" for "mama". Arty's brother, Hackley, and Larkin grow up together as best friends. Predictably, both Larkin and Hackley grow up to fall in love with Mary. Mary only has eyes for Hackley despite his womanizing, which continues after their marriage. As the Civil War approaches, Hackley signs on and Larkin is left to take care of the women in the family, including Mary, who he is still in love with. Hackley dies, and Larkin and Mary marry.

The story is told through Arty who is a very bright and insightful female, who spares no words or opinions. Arty continues to worry over Larkin through-out his life and sees what is going on with everyone. She tells the story of mountain living, including the hunger, hardships, struggles and love.

The funny thing is that after I finished this book, I was aware of thinking (but not actually saying out loud) in the manner of speaking that the mountain people used in the book. A sign that I really took the book in!

Unfortunately, the next book I read I didn't care too much for, although I did finish it, but I'm not sure why. I think that I kept thinking that this couldn't really be going on. The book I read was The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold. The first sentence of the book:

"When all is said and done, killing my mother came easily."

Well, that was an interesting beginning...but I never really got the point of the whole story. The whole book takes place in twenty-four hours. Helen Knightly got a call from her mother's neighbor concerned about her mother's behavior, Helen rushed over to her mother's home. Her mother, as we learn through-out the story, was a beautiful but mentally ill woman with whom Helen had never had a good relationship with. But as the only child, after Helen's father died, Helen was left with the care of her mother. Her mother lived in her own home, but Helen watched over her., and dementia had started to be taking over her mother. I guess this particular day, Helen had had enough and she killed her mother. The story does not improve after this...

Remarkable Creatures

2011-07-23T13:35:00.000-07:00

I just finished Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier. It also is a story loosely based on real characters. Born in 1799 young Mary Anning survived being struck by lightning as a baby, and appeared to be an unusual young girl. She had a knack for finding fossils along the cliffs and beaches of Lyme Regis. One day she met a young spinster, Elizabeth Philpot, who had moved to Lyme with her sisters. Mary and Elizabeth shared an interest in searching the beaches and cliffs for fossils. Elizabeth was more interested in fish fossils, while Mary searched more for other fossils. They learned from each other and spent hours each searching in silence, but with each other, developing a lifelong friendship. They were from two very different worlds, yet their common interest forged genuine caring for each other. Mary discovered dinosaur fossils and set the geological world upside down with her finds, although most of the men of that time were very reluctant to acknowledge that a woman had accomplished what she had.

The book is a great example of friendship between women and what great things were accomplished by women in a field that women had dared not enter! I quite enjoyed this book!

From an interview of the author about Remarkable Creatures (taken from the Barnes and Noble website):

"In one corner of the museum there was a small display about a woman named Mary Anning. In 1811 she and her brother found a complete specimen of an ichthyosaur, an ancient marine reptile which no one knew had even existed. (They thought it was a crocodile.) The discovery of such a creature challenged commonly held beliefs about the creation of the world. At that time there was no concept of extinction -- it would have been considered blasphemous to suggest that God might have created animals that He then allowed to die out as if they were mistakes.

Mary had no idea of the controversy her "crocodile" would set off. She was simply finding and selling fossils to make a living. That was what drew me to her story: she was a working-class woman holding her own among middle-class male scientists. There was something special about her -- underlined by the fact that she survived being struck by lightning as a baby. Indeed, some suggested that made her more intelligent."

Grieving and 2 mysteries

2011-07-23T13:28:00.000-07:00

Yes, I am in mourning. Borders is officially closing. What am I to do? I am afraid that the future will soon be a Kindle, or some such device. I plan to hold out as long as I can, however. I want to hold the book I am reading! I will be returning to Barnes and Noble, my old stand-by. And, luckily for me, I have discovered a wonderful used bookstore, The Book Nook, that I have begun frequenting. And, of course, there are libraries. I need to put the closing of Borders in perspective, but oh, how I will miss it! I really love Borders! So sad.

But back to book blogging...one of my book groups chose The Hangman's Daughter by Oliver Potzsch for this month's read. Apparently it is a popular book club choice, but I had not heard of it. It is a rather long book (435 pages) and is a historical novel, based loosely on the author's family, which I found quite interesting.

The story takes place in 1659 in Germany. A young boy is pulled from the river with a crudely made tattoo on his shoulder. The local hangman, Jacob Kuisl is called in to investigate if the tattoo is related to witchcraft. The town is frightened even more than usual because the town had gone through witch hunts and d trials seventy years earlier and the town people did not want a repeat of that. Soon, however, more children are found with the same tattoo, most of them orphans. And some of the children are murdered.

As the local hangman, part of Jacob's job is to torture and execute people. He is asked to torture the local midwife, who delivered his children, in order to make her confess to being a witch. Once he makes her confess, he will have to execute her and the towns people will then be able to rest easy. But Jacob does not believe that she is guilty of being a witch or a murderer, and sets out to try to find who is behind the mystery. His daughter, Magdalena and her friend, Simon, help Jacob determine what has been happening in the town.

This is a good mystery, and as I said, is loosely based on the author's ancestry. I think what I found most interesting is that it never occurred to me that some one's occupation would be "hangman". It was not a coveted position! People feared the hangman.

I chose to read a mystery again and found Gone, Baby, Gone by Dennis Lehane. He had authored Shutter Island, which I read earlier this year and enjoyed, so I thought that I would try another of his books. And I had noticed that they had made a movie of this book, so I decided to read it first!

It is a story about a child gone missing, with the twist that perhaps the child was kidnapped/taken to protect it from it's mother. I enjoyed the story and have noticed that there is a sequel coming out.

A good, easy read.

Scout, Atticus & Boo

2011-06-28T14:14:00.000-07:00

I can hardly describe how excited I was to see the book Scout, Atticus & Boo by Mary McDonagh Murphy at my favorite Canton, Illinois library! I had read about it last year when it was coming out, and then had totally forgotten about it. In honor of To Kill A Mockingbird's 50th anniversary, Ms. Murphy interviewed 26 various influential people (all in their own way) about their experiences of reading To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Anyway, the interviews are fascinating to read. I especially enjoyed the ones by Tom Brokaw, Lee Smith, Oprah Winfrey, Alice Lee, Wally Lamb and Mary Badham (who played Scout in the movie). I was sad that Gregory Peck is not around to add his opinion of the book!

I am sure that faithful readers of this blog have picked up that To Kill A Mockingbird is my all-time favorite novel (as the movie is also my all-time favorite). I was either 11 or 12 years old when one weekend I was (as usual) spending the weekend with my grandparents. My lovely, wonderful grandmother (see picture circa 1960) had the paperback edition of To Kill A Mockingbird laying out on the table, as she was in the midst of reading it. I picked it up, and may not have put it down for the rest of the weekend. I was absolutely enthralled with the book and finished it before it was time to go home. That was about 50 years ago! Just another reason to love my grandmother!

Jump ahead about 11 or 12 years, and I was pregnant with my first child. If the baby was a boy, he was to be called "Jem". I had a girl, so no Jem! But, again, that's how much I loved that book!

This past Christmas, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of To Kill A Mockingbird, I gave each of my 3 children copies of both the book and the movie, telling them that it is one of my legacies to them to be sure that they had my favorite book and movie!

As you can see, I feel strongly about To Kill A Mockingbird! And now to have found a book where others are talking about their experiences of reading the book??? Heaven! I loved reading the different interviews. And I was so struck with the similarities, both among the interviewees and my own experiences of reading the book. I would say that most of those interviewed first experienced the book around the same age that I did, which I thought was very interesting! And like some, my first reading of the book, was primarily about the children, Atticus, and Boo Radley. It wasn't until later readings that I fully experienced and appreciated what Ms. Lee was telling about the South.

If you are a fan of To Kill A Mockingbird, read Scout, Atticus and Boo. You will definitely appreciate all the various opinions. Just a word of warning, however: after reading it, be prepared to re-read the book and watch the movie!

The Kitchen House

2011-06-24T09:53:00.000-07:00

One of my daughters recommended The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom after she had read it for her book group. I initially had some trouble getting interested in the book, but stuck with it and soon was unable to put it down! The Kitchen House begins in 1791 and is narrated alternately by the two main characters, Lavinia and Belle. Lavinia is an orphaned seven year old indentured servant at the Tall Oaks plantation in Virginia. Belle is the daughter of the master of the plantation and of one of his slave mistresses. Belle works in the kitchen house and when Lavinia arrives, Belle becomes a big sister/mother to Lavinia. Lavinia is raised among the kitchen house slaves, who become her family. The book covers about twenty years as Belle and Lavinia go on to live different but intertwined lives. As Lavinia becomes older, she is sent to live with her mistresses' sister and her family, where she is taught how to live in the "white world". Eventually, Lavinia makes her way back to Tall Oaks as an adult. Meanwhile, Belle is left at Tall Oaks to endure a slave's life there.

Over the twenty years the violence, and corruption of the plantation is a strong contrast to the love and sense of family that exists on the plantation. It was very interesting to read about slavery in the early 1800's, compared to most of what I have read of slavery during the Civil War times.

Belle and Lavinia were both very interesting, likable characters. I really cared about what happened to them. I would love to read a sequel to this book to learn of what became of all of the characters. All of the characters were interesting and rather well-developed by the author....at least enough so that the reader is left wanting more information about them!

I found the Author's Note at the end of the book to be quite fascinating. She wrote:

A few years ago, my husband and I restored an old plantation tavern in Virginia. While researching its past, I found an old map on which, near our home, was a notation: Negro Hill. Unable to determine the story of its origin, local historians suggested that it most likely suggested a tragedy."

She went on to say that after a few months of pondering Negro Hill, she was inspired to begin writing a story about it, which became the prologue of the book. From there, the book began to take off in her mind!

I am so envious of anyone who can write a book! Why can't I be so inspired and able? Thank goodness, there are many that can do that!

Olive Kitteridge

2011-06-24T09:25:00.000-07:00

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout was chosen as the June read for one of my book groups. I had read this book in April of 2009 and did a blog posting about it dated April 29, 2009. I loved the book then and I loved it even more with this second reading! If you haven't read it, give it a try! And don't give up early on with it, it gets better and better! I would love to hear reader's thoughts about the book and particularly about Olive herself!

PS-the book made for great discussion in our book group!

Some early summer reading

2011-06-24T09:18:00.000-07:00

I have been gone on vacation so I have gotten a little behind in my blogging! However, I have finished three good books while missing!

Drowning Ruth by Christina Schwartz was chosen for the June selection for one of my book groups. I had read it several times, but it was years ago. The book was published in 2000 and was an Oprah pick. I have always loved this book, so I was quite pleased when my group chose to read it. It is primarily the story of Amanda Starkey, a nurse during WWI who becomes overwhelmed with her duties, and flees home to Nagawaukee Lake, where she goes to live with her sister Matilda and her young niece, Ruth. Matilda's husband, Carl, is off fighting in the War, so the three females live together. One evening in the winter of 1919, Matilda disappears, and is later found beneath the ice where she has drowned. Over the next few years, Amanda works hard at keeping her secrets, both about Matilda's death, and about Amanda's own past.

The story is told in chapters by different characters, moving back and forth in time. Eventually, the family secrets are revealed and as they are, you learn the truth about the night that Matilda drowned.

The story has been described as "a gripping psychological thriller" and I would concur with that! Each time I have read this book, I have enjoyed it more! Fascinating characters!

Next, I read Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. I realize that I may be the last woman on earth to have read this book, so I won't go into it too much. I don't know what my reluctance was to read it, but I thoroughly enjoyed the story! I love stories told by elderly people as they tell about their pasts! Briefly, the story is told by ninety year old Jacob as he recalls being a young man who joined the circus when he was unable to complete his veterinary schooling during the great Depression. Jacob was employed to care for the circus animals. Jacob meets up with the various circus characters, and falls in love with Marlena, who is married to August, a trainer who is struggling with severe mental health issues. The circus acquires Rosie, a difficult elephant, who in the end is Jacob and Marlena's salvation!

And then I read The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff. I struggled a bit with staying with this book for a while in the beginning, but I ended up liking it! It is the story of Willie Upton, a graduate student in archaeology who became pregnant with her married professor while on a dig in Alaska. Willie returns home to Templeton, New York on the very same day that a huge monster dies in Lake Glimmerglass in Templeton. Willie's family has lived in Templeton for generations and she thinks that she will be safe to hide out there while trying to figure out what to do with her life. However, after arriving, Willie's mother, Vi, informs her that the story about her unknown father has been a lie, and that her father was someone who lived right there in Templeton.

Willie decides that she needs to learn the truth about her ancestry and begins doing research about her family. Dark secrets begin to be revealed, some mysteries are solved and you learn that there are more monsters than just the one from the lake! Good story!

Two Novels Russian

2011-05-24T11:06:00.000-07:00

Instead of the Irish Reading Challenge, I should have found a Russian Reading Challenge. Of the last five books that I have read, three have taken place or been about Russia during World War II. And while I love reading books about the Civil War, I am not a big fan of WWII books, so it is interesting and odd that my reading has taken this turn. Two of the three books were books chosen by my book groups!

I read City of Thieves by David Benioff for one of my book groups. It takes place in Russia during WWII and is a novel based on the author's grandfather's experiences surviving the war. Seventeen year old Lev decided to remain in Leningrad during the siege, even though his mother and siblings left. Lev is caught taking items from a corpse that lay in the street. He and another young boy are taken together to the Colonel to await sentencing by him-which is usually execution. However, the Colonel's daughter is getting married and a dozen eggs are needed for the wedding cake. Lev and Koyla (the other boy) are given one week to find and bring back a dozen eggs, and if they are able to do so, they will be spared execution.

The week passes with the boys experiencing horrendous conditions and they end up behind enemy lines, and become involved with others in trying to kill the German commander.

I had a hard time staying and finishing the book. It was a bit too gruesome for me and, as stated, I don't have an interest in Russian war history. I only finished it because it was for book group. Luckily, for me, it was a fairly short read. I will admit that it was very well written. If anyone had an interest in Russian war novels, this was be an excellent choice!

So then, I went off to the library in search of a book to read and saw a book by Chaim Potok that I had not read: Old Men at Midnight. I had read many of Chaim Potok's books years ago and really liked them, so I checked this one out.

It wasn't really about old men at midnight. It is three stories that are linked together by the listener of the stories. The stories are all about WWII. It is the third story that is about an old man at midnight.

The listener of the stories is a Jewish women, Ilana Davita Dinn. In the first story, "The Ark Builder, Ilana is a recent high school graduate tutoring sixteen year old Noah, who is a recent arrival from Poland to New York, where he lives with his aunt and uncle. Ilana is hired to teach the boy English. Throughout the story, you learn that Noah was the only Jew from his town to survive the Holocaust. Noah slowly opens up to Ilana and shares about his friendship with the caretaker of his village's synagogue.

In the second story, "The War Doctor", Ilana is a graduate student who meets a visiting lecturer, Leon, and becomes interested in his story of his survival of the both World Wars in Russia under Stalin. Leon had been saved by a Jewish doctor during WWI, became a KGB interrogator, and then encountered the doctor after WWII when Stalin had physicians imprisoned. Leon himself is Jewish and is never sure when/if that is going to become an issue under Stalin's regime.

"The Trope Teacher" is the third and final story. Ilana is now a well-known author and moves to a house next door to Benjamin Walter, a renowned history professor. Benjamin is trying to write his memoirs and cannot seem to remember his earlier years. Through their friendship, Ilana begins to help him recall important events during his earlier years. Benjamin had been sent to study Torah with Mr. Zapiski during one summer. Mr. Zapiski had served in World War I with Benjamin's father, and Benjamin begins to examine what the war experience must have been for the two men. Benjamin is the old man at midnight, who is often up late either taking care of his ill wife, or trying to write his memoirs.

As I have always found, Mr. Potok's book was very easy to read and very interesting. He is such a great author. Sadly, he died in 2002. I highly recommend any of his books!

Heaven Is For Real

2011-05-11T11:47:00.000-07:00

One of my book groups chose Heaven Is For Real for our May meeting. It was an excellent pick. I can't take any credit for it, however, since I had not been at the last meeting! I was glad that they had chosen this book, as I had been hearing quite a bit about it from people on my Cursillo team, and I was curious to read it and see what all it was about.

Heaven Is For Real by Todd Burpo is "A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back". Todd Burpo is young Colton's father and he is also a minister. When Colton was four years old, he became ill and after a few days it was found that he had a ruptured appendix. Following surgery, over the next couple of years, Colton began describing his experiences during the surgery, including watching the doctor operate on him and describing his dad's actions while surgery was going on. Over time, Colton began sharing other interesting items, such as meeting his sister in heaven, a sister that he had no prior knowledge (his mother had miscarried the baby), and then began talking about Pop, his great grandfather, who had died thirty years before Colton was born. Colton shared a lot about his experience in heaven with Jesus and how Jesus loves children.

The book invites very interesting discussion. Of course, it is easy to be skeptical of Colton's experiences, wondering if they are influenced by his father's vocation. I found the book to be very interesting and I found myself wondering over parts of it for several days after reading it.

The book is an easy, quick read and I thought made for good thinking!

Veil of Roses

2011-05-05T08:30:00.000-07:00

Veil of Roses by Laura Fitzgerald was loaned to me by a friend last summer when I had forgotten to bring something to read as we left for the pool. I never got to it that day, but held on to it and finally read it last week. Veil of Roses is a debut novel and is an easy read. I did find it quite interesting to learn a bit about life in Iran for women.

Tamila (Tami) Soroush is living in Iran with her parents, who had returned to Iran from the United States when Tami was a very young girl. Her parents soon regretted their decision to return and were hopeful that their daughters could leave someday and enjoy the freedom that the US offers. Tami's older sister had left Iran fifteen years earlier and never returned. On Tami's twenty-fifth birthday, her parents gave her a one way ticket to her sister's home in Arizona. She had three months to find a husband while in the US or she would have to return to Iran.

Tami's sister worked hard at finding Iranian men for Tami to meet and marry. Tami was willing to go along with a marriage, as long as it meant she could stay in the US. Tami began attending English as Second Language classes and making friends there. She met a young man working at the local Starbucks and began feeling attracted to him, while continuing to search for an Iranian man to marry. Tami also began pursuing photography and experiencing all of the freedoms that we take for granted.

I found the story to be quite predictable, but I did enjoy learning more about Iran and thinking about all of the freedoms that we have.

Catching Up!

2011-04-21T14:38:00.000-07:00

I have been lost in the early 1800' s for a few days with my genealogy research and have neglected to keep up with my book blogging! I have read several books and am dragging myself away from the 1800's to catch up with my present!

Two of the books were for each of my book groups. Unfortunately I had to miss book group when they discussed Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah. I was really disappointed that I missed the meeting because I was anxious to discuss the book with them!

Winter Garden begins with two young sisters who, along with their friend Jeff, are putting on a play, re-enacting a story that their mother has ofter told them. The girls, Meredith and Nina, observe their Russian born mother, Anya, become angry and upset and watch her walk away. Anya often tells them stories about a young girl and a prince. The girls thought that their mother would be pleased that they were putting on a play of the story. The relationship between the young girls and Anya is complicated. Anya appears to be quite cold and un-involved with the children. However, their father, Evan, has always been their constant. The girls are never able to understand the love between Evan and Anya, when he is so warm and caring and she is so cold.

The girls grow up and live their separate lives. Nina becomes a photographer journalist and travels the world, keeping herself unattached emotionally. Meredith marries Jeff, the friend who was also in the play as a child, and they have 2 children now in college. Meredith works with her father in the family business. Unexpectedly, Evan becomes ill and on his deathbed he makes Anya promise to tell the girls the ending of the fairy tale story that she would tell them as children. However, Anya never told them the ending of the story.

The story Anya tells is about a young girl in war-torn Leningrad sixty years earlier. As Anya slowly tells them pieces of the story, the daughters begin to wonder if it is Anya's story. Nina and Meredith begin to research those times and begin to uncover their mother's past.

This quote from the back of the book kind of sums all of it up:

How can a woman know herself...if she doesn't really know her mother?

Makes you think, doesn't it?

I have to admit that I really liked this book, except for the ending. The last chapter, Chapter 26, throws in an ending that I just found too unbelievable. I guess that I don't want to go into it and spoil the read for others, but if anyone has read this book, I would be interested in anyone else's take on it. I would and do recommend the book...it was a good read and I thought it did a good job exploring mother-daughter/mother-child relationships. I will definitely read more of Ms. Hannah's books.

Next I read Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese. Outstanding book. I can't even say enough about how good this book is. And the funny/odd thing is that I totally resisted reading it It came out two years ago and I would pick it up every once in awhile at the book store, look at it, and put it down. Fortunately for me, my book group chose it for the April reading, so I read it!

It is a rather long book and I am not sure that I would be able to do it any justice in trying to tell you the story. The book is really the story about several people and they could all be books by themselves. As a teaser, I will tell you that it is basically the story of twin boys, Marion and Shiva who were born attached at the head. Their parents were an Indian nun, Sister Mary Joseph Praise and a British surgeon, Dr. Thomas Stone. The twins were born in Ethiopia, which is where most of the story takes place.

It is a story of love, medicine, betrayal and grief as the book follows the two boys throughout their lives.

If you are looking for a great book to read, add this to your list!!!

I just finished The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton. It is another long book, but a good story. I enjoyed it alot. It is the story of a very young girl who is abandoned on a ship from England headed to Australia. All she arrives with is a small white suitcase that contains some clothes and an illustrated book of fairy tales. When she arrives in Australia, she is all alone and the dock master takes her home, expecting to find out who is looking for her. However, that doesn't happen and so he and his wife raise the little girl and call her "Nell". When Nell turns twenty-one, she is told by her parents that she is not their child and she is informed of the circumstances. Nell begins to search for her identity, going to England and learning some information about her birth family. Nell decides to go back to Australia and pack her things and go to England to live. However, once she returns to Australia, her estranged daughter shows up and leaves Nell's young granddaughter, Cassandra, to live with Nell. So Nell never returns to England and never tells anyone about her search. Upon Nell's death, Cassandra finds out pieces and takes up the search.

The story is a good mystery, with some genealogical searching going on...just my cup of tea, as the English would say!

Bloodroot

2011-03-26T11:42:00.000-07:00

Bloodroot by Amy Greene is the author's debut novel. I had been wanting to read it for some time, and finally got to it. It was a quick read and at one point, I even checked to see if it was a Young Adult novel. That seems foolish since the content of the story wouldn't really be appropriate for young readers, but the Ms. Greene's writing style seemed quite simple to me. I also had a bit of trouble following the story, as it would seem to rather abruptly change perspectives, being told by different people and at times, I could not figure out who the person was telling the story. She did eventually get around to letting the reader know, but I found it confusing. However, after saying all of this, I found myself thinking about the story quite awhile after I finished it, which is an indication of a good book for me! And actually, the story was very good.

From the back cover of the book:

Myra Lamb is a wild girl with mysterious, haint blue eyes who grows up on remote Bloodroot Mountain. Her grandmother, Byrdie, protects her fiercely and passes down "the touch" that bewitches people and animals alike. But when John Odom tries to tame Myra, it sparks a shocking disaster, ripping lives apart. Bloodroot is the dark and riveting story of the legacies-of magic and madness, faith and secrets, passion and loss-that haunt one family across the generations.

That is what initially attracted me to the book. And it sums it up well.

Chapter One is told alternately by Byrdie Lamb and Doug Cotter. Byrdie is Myra's grandmother, who has raised her. Doug is a neighbor on the mountain, who has loved Myra since they were little kids. Byrdie and Doug are dealing with the fact that Myra has fallen in love with John Odom and both are afraid that he will take Myra away from Bloodroot Mountain. Chapter Two is then narrated by Johnny Odom and Laura Odom Blevins, the twin children that were born to Myra and John Odom. Chapter Three is told by Myra Odom, and the Epilogue is told by John Odom.

For me, Bloodroot was primarily about mother and child relationships. The story takes place in the mountain country of Tennessee. Byrdie had lost all of her children, then raised her granddaughter, Myra. Myra left with John and their relationship quickly became abusive and difficult, which resulted in Myra being lost to Byrdie. After much abuse, Myra got away from John, then lost her children. Her children ended up paying a high price for John and Myra's past.

I feel as if I am being very vague about the story, but I don't want to give anything away. I was impressed with how Ms. Greene ended the book, and as I said, I kept thinking about the story after I finished it, even as I was reading my next book! Do I recommend the book? Yes, I highly recommend it. I think that it would make a good choice for a woman's reading/book group!

Three Junes

2011-03-16T09:19:00.000-07:00

Three Junes by Julia Glass is incredible for a debut novel. Actually, I would consider it incredible even if it weren't a debut novel! This was our March pick for one of my book groups, and a wise choice it was! We had a great discussion about the book and the numerous nuances occurring through-out the story. There is really alot going on in this book as you begin to think through it. It may seem as if nothing is really going on (no huge plot) but the characters are so well-defined and interesting, that the book held my attention all the way through and I was rather sad to have it end.

As the title implies, the book is about three Junes covering ten years of the McLeod family. It is divided up by the three Junes. The first June (1989) is about Paul McLeod, a Scotsman recently widowed, who is on a group tour of Greece. This section of the book is where Paul reminisces about his marriage and his three sons. The second June (1995), begins with Paul's death and the family gathering at their home in Scotland. This section is primarily seen through Paul's eldest son, Fenno, a gay man who had long ago moved and settled in New York. The third and last section (1999), takes place in New York, where Fenno meets Fern, a woman who had met Fenno's father Paul in Greece in 1989.

Of course, the above is a very simplistic summary of the book. Ms. Glass' prose is beautiful and is very easy to read, although some of it needs to be re-read because of the beauty and wisdom in it.

"Mind what you love. For that matter, mind how you are loved."

The book touches on so many different emotions and relationship issues, including fidelity, loss, love, gratitude, and grief. It includes issues of AIDS, sperm donation, children, parents, lovers, and siblings. Some things remained unknown/unresolved in the story (like whose lipstick did Paul leave to Fenno?), but those issues resulted in great book group discussion!

Congratulations to Darin Strauss

2011-03-11T10:06:00.000-08:00

I posted on this blog on January 3 of this year about a memoir, Half A Life by Darin Strauss, that I had read. I just thought that the book was outstanding. Well, today I read that it has won the 2010 National Book Critics Circle Award for memoirs. Excellent! Good decision, NBCC!

If you haven't read Half A Life, I highly recommend it. If you haven't seen my post about it, you can go here to see it:
http://alifeofbooks.blogspot.com/2011/01/half-life.html

Room-Awesome novel!

2011-03-07T09:56:00.000-08:00

Upon the recommendation of a good friend (and a great reader...well, she is also a great friend!), I got Room by Emma Donoghue from the library. Once I started it, I absolutely could not put it down! A great read! It was just fascinating!

Today I am five. I was four last night going to sleep in Wardrobe, but when I wake up in Bed in the dark, I'm changed to five, abracadabra. Before that I was three, then two, then one, then zero. "Was I minus numbers?"

The book opens on Jack's fifth birthday. Jack was born in Room and that is the only place he has ever been. He lives there with his Ma, and once in awhile Old Nick visits, but Jack stays in Wardrobe when Old Nick visits Ma.

Ma has been held captive in Room for seven years. She and Jack have spent every single moment of Jack's live together. She has taught him to read and has taught him games to play and made his life as "normal" as she possibly could. But as Jack turns five, Ma decides that he is old enough to help her with their escape. What is unknown to her is how difficult it will be if the plan succeeds, and they enter Outside.

The whole novel is narrated by Jack, which I found to add to the profound impact that the novel had on me. Room opens up so very many questions about survival, love, and perseverance. I am hopeful that this will be one of my book group choices, because it will make for such wonderful discussion!

Excellent book! Thanks, Lynn!

Two Books about Women

2011-02-23T10:44:00.000-08:00

February's pick for one of my book groups was an Irish novel, Annie Dunne by Sebastian Barry. It was a great pick, as it led to insightful and lively discussion. Rather surprising for such a small, unassuming novel!

The main character is, of course, Annie Dunne, a simple Irish woman in her 60's living on a small farm in rural Wicklow with her cousin, Sarah. The story begins in 1959. Annie has never been married, and spent years living in her sister's home as a housekeeper. When her sister died, Annie's brother-in-law remarried, and sent Annie away, as she was no longer needed. She was then homeless, and was invited by Sarah to come and live with her. One day, her nephew, whom she helped raise while her sister was ill, came to ask if Annie would care for his son and daughter over the summer. The children add a whole new dimension to Annie and Sarah's lives and Annie is surprised at her deep feelings for the children. However, this pleasure is threatened when Annie learns that Sarah is being courted. Old feelings arise in Annie.

This was really a quite fascinating book, with many sub-themes going on. I loved how Annie incorporated things that her grandfather used to say and do into her everyday life. The language and prose of the book is beautiful. One of the very interesting things noted after reading the book, is that the children never were named. They were always referred to in the book as "the boy" or "the girl".

All in all, an excellent book!

I followed Annie Dunne with Alice Hoffman's latest book, The Red Garden. Each chapter of the book takes place in a different time period, going from 1750 to sometime in the 2000's. All of the stories are about the town of Bearsville, MA (later changed to Blackwell in 1786). In 1750, Hallie married William Brady and he led an expedition that landed in the area that Hallie named Bearsville, because of the bears there. In the first story we are introduced to Hallie and the others who stayed in Bearsville. Hallie helped the others survive their first winter in Bearsville. After the first winter, Hallie started a garden where the soil was as red as blood and everything grown there was red.

Each chapter was about descendants of the founders of Bearsville. I did have a little trouble with following who was who, but finally let that go, and just enjoyed the stories. It was very interesting how Ms. Hoffman tied all of the stories together, and to see how the world events over the years affected this small town and it's people. This book also had lovely language and prose. I enjoyed the book!

$13.50 bought all of this! Library sales rule!

2011-02-09T07:15:00.000-08:00

Two weekends ago, I had noticed in the Bloomington Illinois newspaper that there was a library sale going on the following weekend. As I found myself over there last weekend, I headed to Crossroads, where the sale was going on. I was incredibly impressed with the sale. Not only was it well organized by categories, the fiction section was also organized on shelves by author. I was in heaven!!! As I browsed, I became more and more excited...there were really, really good books there! Already, I was planning for my next visit in June when the sale was again. I needed to be more organized in my search and have a list of authors with me!

However, I ended up being quite pleased with what I did end up getting, especially the very last book I found. I am listing all of the books that I purchased, along with the blurb from the back of the books, in order for you to see what attracted me to the choices:

1. Life Sentences by Laura Lippman

Author Cassandra Fallows believes she may have found the story that could become her next bestseller.

2. The Seduction of Water by Carol Goodman

Iris Greenfeder, ABD (All But Dissertation), feels the "buts" are taking over her life: all but published, all but a professor, all but married.

3. A Death In The Family by James Agee

On a sultry summer night in 1915, Jay Follet leaves his house in Knoxville Tennessee to tend his father, whom he believes is dying.

4. People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

Hanna Heath, an Australian rare book expert, has been offered the job of a lifetime: analysis and conservation of the famed Sarajevo Haggadah, rescued from Serb shelling during the Bosnian war.

5. Remember Me by Trezza Azzopardi

Set in England against the backdrop of WWII, Remember Me is a story of pursuit of stolen goods, of missing years, and of one woman's forgotten history.

6. The Live You've Imagined by Kristina Riggle

Have you ever asked yourself, "what if?"

7. Broke Heart Blues by Joyce Carol Oates. It didn't even matter what the blurb said. I love her books!

In the heat of a languid July, fresh from Las Vegas, John Riddy Hart drives into the quiet upstate town of Willowsville, New York.

8. Three Junes by Julia Glass. This was an amazing find for me and the last book that I found. I had just looked for it that afternoon at Borders, willing to pay $25 for it, but they did not have it. It is the March pick for one of my book groups. Found it for $1.50!

So I headed home (actually to my daughter's home) feeling triumphant with my wonderful finds that cost me all of $9.50!

But wait, the weekend got even better. Sunday we went to a Pancake Breakfast in the small town where my daughter lives, and their library was selling books! So for another $4, I got the following:

1. Cast Two Shadows by Ann Rinaldi

It's 1780, and war has come to Camden, South Carolina.

2. My Old True Love by Sheila Kay Adams

The Stantons and the Nortons were families in the truest, oldest sense; extended networks of kin stretching across the mountains, everyone within hiking distance.

3. The History of Love by Nicole Krauss

Leo Gursky is trying to survive a little bit longer, tapping his radiator each evening to let his upstairs neighbor know he's still alive...

4. Burning Bright by Tracy Chevalier

No. 13 Hercules Buildings, Lambeth, 1792.

And there is it. My haul of reading from the past weekend. Now added to my already full pile of TBR books. When will it stop? As long as library sales continue, I will be buying books!

Wench

2011-02-09T06:33:00.000-08:00

During our recent blizzard here in the Midwest, I read Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valdez.
I had come across it at the bookstore and from the blurb on the back:

Situated in Ohio, a free territory before the Civil War, Tawawa House is an idyllic retreat for Southern white men who vacation there every summer with their enslaved black mistresses. It's their open secret.

I was hooked! The story sounded very interesting. But even more interesting was that at the end of the book, I read the Author's Note that reported that Tawawa Resort did actually exist. As Ms. Perkins-Valdez stated, the resort was located near Xenia, Ohio. It was opened in 1852, and was actually used as stated: for Southern white men to vacation with their slave/mistresses. After it closed, it became the Ohio African University for several years, then was purchased by the African Methodist Episcopal Church and became Wilberforce University. As the author wrote, "it continues to be the nations' oldest, private, predominantly African American university. It is believed that the children of the unions between the slave women and the slaveholders were among the early students at the university."

The book is a fictionalized account of four black women who were slaves and were brought to the resort by their owners each summer for the years that the resort was open. The story is a fascinating look at the years right before the Civil War broke out and how the women considered what it might mean to be free. After all, while being there at the resort they were in Ohio, a free territory. As events occur, the women are caught up in the tragedies that occur, and each have to consider what freedom would mean, both good and bad, for each of them.

The book is a fascinating look at pre-Civil War history. It made me think of Beloved and The Help, with all being such important studies of our history and of great survival.

Reading During a Blizzard

2011-02-01T13:10:00.000-08:00

Yes, the Midwest's Blizzard of the century has begun. I celebrated with reading Genealogical Resources of the Civil War Era by William Dollarhide. While I realize that not many of this blog's readers are going to be interested in this book, it still deserves a mention!

The book is divided into four sections: Introduction, Resource Groups, Statewide Name Lists, and Best Resource Centers. It appears to be quite comprehensive with good suggestions for online sources as well as library/book sources. It covers both Union and Confederate service records.

I have been especially interested in Missouri Confederate records for the past few years and I was impressed with Mr. Dollarhide's list of resources.

I would definitely recommend this book to any genealogists researching Civil War service history of ancestors.

The Heretic's Daughter

2011-01-31T09:18:00.000-08:00

The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent is written with an interesting perspective. It is a historical fiction novel (right up my alley!) that takes place during the Salem Witch Trials. The story is told through the daughter, Sarah, of Martha Carrier.

The book begins with a letter written in 1752 from Sarah to her granddaughter. In the letter she explains that included with the letter is "my own written history", and thus, the book begins. The story starts in 1690 when the Carrier family is moving from Billerica to neighboring Andover to live with Martha's mother. Smallpox is prevalent in the area and any new visitors or settlers to the area are not welcome, due to the fear of people bringing smallpox to the community. So right from the beginning, the Carrier's are not made welcome. Soon, smallpox does arrive, and Sarah and her baby sister are sent back to Billerica to Martha's sister's family in hopes that the disease will not reach them.

Sarah's family is interesting. Her mother, Martha, is not very affectionate with the children and Sarah finds that she loves living with Martha's sister's family, where much affection is shown, and she has a cousin, Margaret, that Sarah becomes very close to. Sarah's father, Thomas Carrier, is a mystery to Sarah. He is a giant of a man, who seems to have a mysterious, forbidden past. Sarah has two older brothers, along with her baby sister.

After Sarah and her sister had been away for a few months, they were returned home to the family. Sarah was not happy about leaving her aunt's family, especially Margaret.

Over the next year, hysteria begins to rear up, as young girls begin accusing others of being witches. By 1692, Martha is accused of being a witch and is taken away from the family's home and put in prison. Shortly before Martha is taken away, she tells Sarah what is happening and directs Sarah to commit heresy. As Martha predicted, soon Martha's children are also accused and Sarah and her brothers are also put in prison, accused of witchery.

This was a fascinating story, based on true facts. Interestingly, the author of the book is a direct descendant of Martha Carrier.

January's Reading (so far!)

2011-01-27T11:18:00.000-08:00

I read The Girls from Ames by Jeffrey Zaslow for one of my book groups. It is a book that I had considered reading ever since it came out, but had never gotten around to it, so I was pleased when it was chosen as one of our reads.

The book is a non-fiction story of a forty-year friendship between eleven girls/women who grew up in Ames, Iowa. As expected, all eleven did not remain in Ames as they grew up and they ended up in eight different states. All of the eleven stayed in contact with each other and once a year as many of them as possible would meet up somewhere for a long weekend. As you can imagine, over the forty years, they shared many joys and tragedies. Most married and had children. There were divorces and deaths. And there was enduring friendship and support.

I think that most women reading this book could identify with it, even if you only had one very best friend growing up. Reading it brought back lots of memories of friends.

The only fault that I can find with the book is that it seemed to be too long. About half-way through, I felt bogged down with all of the details. Yet, saying that, I did enjoy the book.

For my other book group, we read Black Girl/White Girl by Joyce Carol Oates. Ms. Oates is one of my favorite authors and I had not read this book, so again, I was pleased with the choice.

This was a very interesting book and led to great discussion in the book group. It is the story of two young women, Genna and Minette, who end up roommates their freshman year of college in 1975. Partly through their freshman year, Minette died in a mysterious accident. Fifteen years later, Genna is still trying to make sense of the relationship that they had.

From the back of the book:

In 1975 Genna Hewett-Meade's college roommate died a mysterious, violent death partway through their freshman year. Minette Swift had been assertive, fiercely individualistic, and one of the few black girls at their exclusive, "enlightened" college-and Genna, daughter of a prominent civil defense lawyer, felt duty-bound to protect her at all costs. But fifteen years later, while reconstructing Minette's tragic death, Genna is forced to painfully confront her own past life and identity...and her deepest beliefs about social obligation in a morally gray world.

Neither Genna nor Minette came across as likable characters. They both had deep flaws that set them up for their tenuous relationship. And, in the end, it appears that the story may really be about Genna's father!

Very interesting book. I did not find it very similar to Ms. Oates' other works, although the character flaws may be somewhat similar to characters in her other books.

Next I read The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova. Excellent read!

One day Dr. Andrew Marlowe (a psychiatrist) receives a phone call from a colleague requesting Dr. Marlow to take on a patient who had been arrested for attacking a painting at the National Gallery of Art. The patient was Robert Oliver, a well-respected artist in his own right. Dr. Marlow is also an artist, so he is quite interested in admitting Robert to his clinic and working with him. However, Robert is not responsive to anyone and basically refuses to talk. As Dr. Marlow begins to unravel the mysteries surrounding Robert, he gets pulled in to Robert's life and his obsessions with the distant past.

The story is quite a good mystery with some twists and turns. I enjoyed it immensely!

And my most recent read was The Lake of Dreams by Kim Edwards. Ms. Edwards wrote The Memory Keepers Daughter, which I had liked very much, so I was quite excited to see that she had a new book out. This book was fascinating for me as it involved genealogy research!

It is the story of Lucy Jarrett who returns home from Japan for a visit after having been away for quite awhile. Her father had died under strange circumstances ten years earlier and she returned home to find that her mother was not only seeing someone, but was considering selling the family home. One night, Lucy was wandering around the home and noticed a lock on a window seat that she had never noticed before. Inside, Lucy discovered some objects that revealed a hidden family history. As Lucy researches the information she becomes more involved in the history (the curse and glory of all genealogists!) and continues to unravel long ago secrets that evetually affect her family now.

This was a good "story of love lost and found".

I need to add a sad note to the end of this post. Reynold Price died last week. He was one of my all time favorite authors, who I consider one of the best Southern authors ever. If you haven't read any of his books, I highly recommend them. I have been reading his memoir Clear Pictures for the past month off and on, so will review it soon. Reynolds Price 1933-2011.

2011 Reading Challenges

2011-01-14T12:52:00.000-08:00

Though I haven't joined the official 100 Books Challenge for the year, it is my personal challenge for myself. If I am to complete it, I need to get a move on it....so far this year I have only read 3 books (to be reviewed next week). But I am quite excited to announce that I have joined the Irish Reading Challenge!

And I already have my first book for the challenge! The February book for one of my book groups is Annie Dunne by Sebastian Barry. I would welcome any other suggestions, as I have committed to reading 4 books for the Challenge.

To join this Challenge or to read about it, go here: http://booksandmovies.colvilleblogger.com/2010/12/06/announcing-ireland-reading-challenge-2011/

My Top 21 Books of 2010

2011-01-03T14:30:00.000-08:00

Yes, it says Top 21. I just couldn't narrow it down to Top 20! It was a good reading year, although I don't believe that I made my 100 books read goal that I had set. I came in at around 75 books read. I will try to do better this year!

Top 21 of 2010

The Glass Castle-Jeanette Walls

Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet-Jamie Ford

The Blue Orchard-Jackson Taylor

A Thousand Splendid Suns-Khaled Hosseini

The Girl Who Played With Fire-Stieg Larsson

Beach Music-Pat Conroy

The Cellist of Sarajevo-Steven Galloway

Little Bird of Heaven-Joyce Carol Oates

Annie’s Ghosts-Steve Luxenberg

The Paperboy-Pete Dexter

Return From Heaven-Carol Bowman

Blood Memory-Greg Iles

The Greatest Generation-Tom Brokaw

The Thirteenth Tale-Diane Setterfield

The Last Child-John Hart

The Other Side of the Bridge-Mary Lawson

The Odd Sea-Frederick Reiken

The Devil’s Punchbowl-Greg Iles

Gilead-Marilyn Robinson

Faithful Place-Tana French

Half A Life-Darin Strauss

It was really fun finding new-to-me author Greg Iles's books this past year. I am anxiously awaiting his newest one due out in the next couple of months!

Books from October

2011-01-03T13:42:00.000-08:00

The September choice for my evening book group was The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein. I had not read it before, mostly because I am not an "animal person" and didn't care to read a story told by a dog. Well, I have learned a lesson...be more open...if a book is touted as good, try it!

The story is told by Enzo, a lab terrier, whose owner is Denny, a race care driver. Enzo shares Denny's love of racing and follows racing as closely as his owner. Enzo loves to watch TV and the taped races that Denny watches. Denny marries Eve and they have a daughter, Zoe. Enzo is constantly frustrated that he can't speak because there is so much that he could tell Denny about what is going on, and, besides that, Enzo has many questions that he cannot ask! He also laments his lack of opposable thumbs.

Enzo has learned from TV that when dogs die, they return to earth as a person. He is anxious for that to occur and hopes that when he would return he would be able to meet up with Denny. When Eve starts not feeling well, Enzo is unable to tell Denny what is happening with her. Things continue to fall apart and Enzo stays faithful to Denny, trying to help him through the rough patches.

Some of the story is hard to swallow, primarily because Denny allows things to happen, especially with his in-laws, but all-in-all, the story is a good one and you just can't help but love Enzo!

The next book "read" was Tom Brokaw's The Greatest Generation, which I listened to as an audio book. It is important to note that I love Tom Brokaw, so being able to hear his voice reading his book was amazing to me! I loved the book...it's full of stories about men and women who served during World War II. In the stories, Tom tells of their wartime service and then how their lives played out after the war. It is a very moving, entertaining, and informative book. It certainly adds to one's appreciation of the sacrifice that all of our men and women have given in the service, in any of the wars that have occurred.

Lastly, I have re-read The End of Overeating by David A. Kessler. It is a very eye-opening book talking about the food industry and how they have developed foods that keep people wanting more. Basically, if sugar, salt and fat are added and added, layered and layered on foods, people continue to want them. A very interesting book that may change the way you look at food, both at the supermarket and in restaurants. I didn't like the emphasis on dieting and restricting food, although I did understand the concept. I am just working on a more kind way of looking at eating.

All in all, some good reading. Now I am returning to another mystery of Greg Iles!

Half A Life

2011-01-03T13:34:00.000-08:00

I had put Half a Life by Darin Strauss on my Christmas list this past year after reading a review of it done by Nancy Pearl. And I was lucky enough to receive it Christmas morning! I read it quickly and it is among the very best books that I read in 2010.

This is a memoir written when the author was thirty-six years old. When he was eighteen years old he accidentally hit a classmate while he was driving a car and she was on a bicycle. The girl swerved in front of the car and there was nothing that the driver could do. The girl died.

The book tells about the next half of the author's life, living with this tragic accident. As the book began "Half my life ago, I killed a girl." The book is an examination of Mr. Strauss' life after the accident and how he came to terms with the tragedy.

There are great lessons to be learned in this book. It is not a sad book, but a book of hope. The part of the book that impacted me the greatest was this: "But we keep making our way, as we have to. We're all pretty much able to deal even with the worst that life can fire at us, if we simply admit that it is very difficult. I think that's the whole of the answer."

As a therapist, I have seen probably thousands of times, that as a person is able to just admit the difficulty of events, situations, etc., they are able to move on. Things can't always be resolved as we would like, but being able to admit that it is just hard can work wonders!

I highly recommend this book to anyone. Great book!

Two More Books for December

2011-01-03T13:20:00.000-08:00

1) Something Missing by Matthew Dicks. This was a book chosen by one of my book groups for our December meeting. I found the concept intriguing! It is the story of "A career criminal with OCD tendencies and a savant-like genius for bringing order to his crime scenes." Martin has been stealing from people for years and had never been caught. The twist is that he only steals from the same people over the years. They are considered his "clients". Martin does very thorough inventory of everything in his client's homes, then only steals what he think that they won't miss. And he usually only steals things that he needs. For example, he might steal a couple of cups of laundry detergent, two or three rolls of toilet paper, etc. Once in awhile, if he comes across something of value, he will monitor his client's use of the item for several months and if it is something that they rarely or never use, he will steal that and then sell it on EBay. Things get complicated, however, when one day he sees someone else leaving a client's home and follows the burglar and finds out who he is. Martin then determines that his client may be in danger. But how to deal with this? He has never met his clients face-to-face and to warn his client would give himself away.

This was a really fun book to read and as we discussed at book group, it started us thinking about how one often can't find something or thinks that they have more than they do of something...do we have our own Martin?

2) Brooklyn by Colm Toibin. I was a bit disappointed with this book, but some of that disappointment is due to my expectation of the book because it was about an Irish girl. I love all things Irish (my Murphy heritage, I guess). Eilis Lacey was born and raised in a small town in Ireland. One day, her family informed her that she is to go to America, sponsored by a priest who had been in their town visiting. The priest arranged for her passage to Brooklyn and located both a job and housing for Eilis. Eilis did not want to leave Ireland and her family, but felt as if she had no choice. The book does a good job describing her passage over to the US. When she arrives in Brooklyn, she began work at a large department store and fell in love with Tony. One day, tragic news arrived and Eilis had to make some hard decisions about her future. It was kind of a simple story and was actually well-written. I guess I just wanted a little more from it.

First Half of December Reading

2010-12-16T14:23:00.000-08:00

Last year around this time, I had presented three books to my book group to chose from for the December selection. Gilead by Marilyn Robinson was one of the three books presented, but not chosen. This year it was my turn again and I presented Gilead again and to my great pleasure, it was chosen. This was the third time that I have read Gilead (because I just really like it!). It won the Pulitzer Prize in 2005.

Gilead is the name of a town in Iowa where the Rev. John Ames was raised and still lives in the story. He is writing a journal to his young son (seven years old) because Rev. Ames doesn't seem to have long to live. He is about eighty years old and is having some heart issues. He wants to write a journal for his son to read, hoping to tell his son all that he would have told him if he were alive. It is a story of three generations: Rev. Ames' father and grandfather, along with his own views and opinions. The history told in the story is fascinating. It goes from the Civil War to the twentieth century. The journal also spends a lot of time discussing Jack Boughton, the son of Rev. Ames' best friend (who is also a reverend in Gilead). It is a novel that explores the relationships between sons and fathers in a very intimate, revealing way.

Two side notes: 1) I was very disappointed to have to miss the book group the evening that they discussed Gilead. I am hopeful that perhaps we can discuss it briefly at the next gathering. 2) Ms. Robinson's next novel, entitled Home is a continuation of Gilead and, in my opinion, even better than Gilead. However, I would strongly recommend that the novels be read in order.

I was anxious to read Tana French's latest novel Faithful Place. Ms. French also wrote In The Woods and The Likeness, both of which I thoroughly enjoyed. Faithful Place did not disappoint. Like her first two novels, it takes place in Ireland and is a mystery story.

Frank Mackey is a detective who had grown up poor in Faithful Place, part of Dublin's inner city. As a very young man Frank fell in love with Rosie Daly and they made plans to run off to London to marry and live together. The night that they were to meet and head off, Rosie never showed up. It was always assumed that she had gone off without Frank and no one ever heard from her again. Frank waited all night for her and when morning came and Rosie had not shown up, Frank left and never returned home. Twenty-two years later, Rosie's suitcase was found behind a fireplace in an old abandoned house where Frank and Rosie would sometimes go. Frank's sister contacted him and Frank returned home to try to find out what had become of Rosie.

This was a good mystery story and I am already looking forward to Ms. French's next novel!

Lastly, I read Crow Lake by Mary Lawson. I had recently read The Other Side of The Bridge by Ms. Lawson and enjoyed her style of writing. Crow Lake is also a story that takes place in Canada and is a good family study.

The Morrison family consists of the parents and four children. Education has always been highly valued by the family and when the story begins, the oldest of the four children, Luke, is getting ready to head off to college. Before Luke can get off, his parents are killed in an accident and Luke decides to give up his opportunity in order to stay there and keep the family together. It is a great sacrifice and he is totally unequipped to handle the two youngest children, seven year old Kate and Bo, who is still a young baby. The second oldest child, Matt is in high school. Luke's expectation is that Matt will go on to college. However, things don't go as planned and Kate ends up being the one in the family who gets her college education. Throughout the story, Kate struggles to make sense of the events that occurred when tragedy of another family intersected with their own tragedy.

Another good book!

I have to share my good fortune here...I recently had a birthday and received gift cards to my favorite bookstore! How lucky am I???

Real Food and The Devil's Punchbowl

2010-11-30T14:09:00.000-08:00

I searched several different bookstores and finally found a copy of Nina Planck's book, Real Food. I can't remember where I saw/read it being recommended, but I found it to be an interesting read. Of course, as you can imagine, the book is the author's defense of eating "real food". Which I totally agree, is a good way to eat, no question about it! However, I imagine that it would be rather difficult to locate raw milk to drink and, if I am not mistaken, it seems to me that grass-fed meat is fairly expensive. Yes, I know that the cost is probably worth it...I just don't know if I am willing to pay the cost yet. I may try some...it's possible that the taste would make the cost worth it.

The book is 275 pages long, with another 55 pages of references, etc. The main gist of the book is on page 273, where there is a paragraph of the author's recommendations for eating. As you would guess, she recommends generous amounts of fruits and veggies, wild fish and seafood, grass-fed meat, full fat dairy (ideally raw), only traditional fats, whole grains and legumes, cultured and fermented foods, and unrefined sweeteners.

The book makes a compelling case for eating this way and there is a lot of interesting information about each topic. I'm glad that I read it, and I will give consideration to her suggestions.

And once again, my wonderful library had another great Greg Iles book for me to read...The Devil's Punchbowl. It is another mystery set in Natchez, Mississippi with Penn Cage as the lawyer/author hero, dealing with several issues, including dog-fighting, kidnappings, etc. It was a great read and I am anxiously awaiting the sequel that Mr. Iles has promised. It is supposed to be out in 2011! I won't go on more about the book, since I have read and reviewed so many other of his books. Suffice to say, I really enjoyed this one!

Two Out of Three Ain't Bad

2010-11-18T13:46:00.000-08:00

I just finished three novels that I blindly chose from the library...that is, I had never heard of either the titles or the authors. Turned out that I really enjoyed two of them, and the third wasn't too bad. I will begin with my "not too bad" read:

The Blindness of the Heart by Julia Franck had a very interesting premise. The novel begins in 1945 and takes place in Germany. A young mother, Helene, leaves her seven year old son in a railway station. This is after they have survived the "horror and deprivation of the war years." Helene never returns for her son. Then the story goes back into Helene's childhood beginning before WWI. It actually was a fairly interesting story, but I wanted it to tie up with the beginning of the book in a more definitive way. The book did win the German Book Prize and was a finalist for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize.

Next I read The Other Side of the Bridge by Mary Lawson. I enjoyed this book very much, and will try to find her first book, Crow Lake to read. This novel begins in the 1930's with two brothers, sons of a local farmer. One brother, Arthur, is the responsible, hard-working son. The other brother, Jake, is charming, undependable and good-looking. A defining moment occurs that changes everyone and everything for the brothers and their parents. (which I don't want to give away). Later, a beautiful girl arrives in town and both brothers are quite taken with her. Then the story moves ahead twenty years later, and a young boy in town goes to work for Arthur on his farm, and the past begins to unravel. A very good read!

Lastly, I read The Odd Sea by Frederick Reiken. This was also a very capturing read. It is the story of Philip Shumway, a thirteen year old boy whose sixteen year old brother, Ethan, who just disappears one day without a trace. It is a story about how a family survives having a missing child and/or sibling. Philip and his three sisters try to make sense of Ethan's life and his disappearance, while his parents struggle each in their own way to survive the loss. I found this book to be very meaningful and not sad and depressing, as the topic would lend itself to be. I liked it very much.

My favorite of the three? I would chose The Other Side of the Bridge! It is really enjoyable to find new-to-you books (that is, ones that you have never heard of before) and find that you really liked them!

Way Behind!

2010-11-03T12:16:00.000-07:00

I am way behind in blogging about my reading, so this blog will be a synopsis of the four books that I have read lately. I batted 50% on these...two good, two not so good.

1. I Am Not A Serial Killer by Dan Wells-This was read for one of my book groups. I didn't realize that it was a Young Adult book, but while reading it, I complained to my husband that it read like one. Turns out that it was! Anyway, I pretty much enjoyed it until about the middle of the book, when it is revealed who/what the serial killer is. Suffice to say, I'm just not into monsters and demons.

2. The Emigrants by W. G. Sebald-I had read a very positive review of this book and was really looking forward to reading it. Sadly, I read about 3/4 of it and just couldn't gather up enough interest to finish it. It is four separate stories about four Jewish emigrants in the twentieth century.

3. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield-Now this was a good book! I loved the story...it combined genealogy, mystery and family relationships! Right up my alley, so to speak! An elderly, highly popular author, Vida Winter, hires a young biographer/bookstore worker to write Vida's biography. Vida is ready to tell the truth about her mysterious past before she dies. I highly recommend it for a fun read!

4. The Last Child by John Hart-This was a long book, but I have to admit that I never guessed the ending as I read it...it kept my interested and curious. It is the story of a thirteen year old boy whose twin sister went missing a year ago. Johnny Merriman is determined to find his sister and finds himself in some hard places as he works to find what has become of her. Again, I highly recommend it!

I don't like that I only enjoyed two of the last four books that I have read. I need to chose better! Wish I knew the secret of choosing just the right book every time!

Greg Iles' novels

2010-10-12T10:49:00.000-07:00

I know that I keep writing about mystery novels by Greg Iles. Because I keep reading them. I just finished two more: Mortal Fear and Dead Sleep. Somehow, someway, his novels have captured me. Thankfully, there are still more for me to read! One of the things that I love about his novels are that they are set in the South, usually Mississippi, and for whatever reason, I am always attracted to Southern novels (prior life?). Anyway, if anyone is interested, here is a link to his website: http://www.gregiles.com/books.htm

Four More Books

2010-09-15T09:25:00.000-07:00

Yes, it is now the middle of September...I went to Orlando over Labor Day weekend specifically to visit the new Harry Potter park. It did not disappoint! It was great fun and I had a wonderful trip with my daughter, daughter-in-law and grandson.

While in Orlando, I began reading My Name is Mary Sutter by Robin Oliveira. I had seen quite a few reviews on it and when I saw it available at my library, I snatched it up and took it with me on my trip. Luckily, I had brought another book, too, because Mary Sutter was a disappointment. Admittedly, I didn't finish the book. I read over half of it (a good try, I feel) and I just never cared about Mary or anyone else in the book. Mary Sutter learned midwifery from her mother, but she wanted to learn more and become a doctor. She was unable to get accepted into medical school or to apprentice with a doctor, primarily because she was a woman. When the Civil War broke out, she made her way to Washington DC to nurse wounded soldiers, still intent on becoming a doctor. Since I didn't complete the book, I don't know if she ever realized her dream. Nor did I care! Not a good sign for a book!

So then I began reading The Appeal by John Grisham. This book was given to me as a retirement gift over a year ago, and I still hadn't gotten to it. It was a small paperback, so thankfully, it fit well in my luggage and made the trip to Orlando with me. I have read some of Grisham's other books, and none have ever grabbed me as much as A Time To Kill. This one didn't either, but I did find this book to be very interesting. The story centers around a case against a chemical company and is about the law, money and politics. While I realize that the novel is fiction, my guess is that it is a pretty accurate portrayal of just how politics, law and money prevail in this country. I was fascinated with how Grisham told the story of how a court seat could be obtained. I suspect that the fiction is right on the truth! Very interesting. I was, however, quite let down by the ending, which only suggests my desire to have everything turn out right and fair! Good book.

Back to the library for my next two books. After The Appeal, I returned to Greg Iles and chose Turning Angel. Another great read by Iles. He is turning into one of my favorite mystery authors (not that I really had one). In Turning Angel, Iles returns to Natchez, MS and to his earlier character, Penn Cage (from The Quiet Game). This time Penn's old friend Drew Elliot is accused of murdering his son's babysitter who Drew is having an affair with, and he asks Penn to represent him as his lawyer. This is a long book, but worth the time!

It is another of Greg Iles' books that I could not put down! Great mystery, and I love the portrayal of Natchez. I have never been there, but am planning a trip to New Orleans in the next year or so, and plan to go to Natchez just from reading his books!

And the last book that I have read is The Violin of Auschwitz by Maria Angels Anglada. It is a very small book and was a quick read. It is typical of many Holocaust books that I have read. That being said, it was a good story. It is about a violin-maker in a concentration camp and his struggle to survive. He is assigned to build a violin for his survival. Would I recommend it? Probably not, but only because there is nothing new or exciting about it.

I am getting ready to start The Art of Racing in the Rain which is the book chosen for my book group that meets next week. Again, it is one of those books that has been out for awhile and I just never got to reading, so I am happy that it was chosen. When we meet next week, it is my turn to present three books to be voted and chosen for our November meeting. Can you guess what will be the three I will choose to present?

The Quiet Game

2010-09-02T12:13:00.000-07:00

After having read Blood Memory last week, I went on to my local library to see if they had any more books by Greg Iles. Imagine my surprise when I saw almost a whole shelf of books by him! I was thrilled! I chose The Quiet Game to read and I chose a winner! Great mystery story set in Natchez, Mississippi.

Penn Cage has returned to Natchez with his four year old daughter, Annie, to stay with his parents for awhile. His wife, Sarah, died seven months earlier and he is a bit overwhelmed with dealing with both his feelings and Annie's emotions. He wants Annie to have some time with his mother, and for both he and Annie to begin some healing. However, upon his return, Penn learns that his father, a well-loved local doctor, is being blackmailed. As Penn, a former prosecutor-turned-author, begins to investigate what is happening with his father, he comes face-to-face with an unsolved thirty year old murder, involving a black man, the FBI, local judges, etc. The black man was killed in 1968 between the time of the killings of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy. Is there a connection?

Meanwhile, there are some romantic things going on also. A lost love from twenty years ago, and a brand new love interest.

This book has many twists and turns and kept me up reading late every night until I finished it. I really like his writing. As soon as I finish my next book, it will be back to the library for another of Greg Iles' books!

Summer Cabin Reading

2010-08-24T12:14:00.000-07:00

I am spending the week at my parent’s summer place on a lake in southern Indiana with lots of reading time available. So far, I have read three books. The first two books I had gotten at the Goodwill shop and had never heard of either of them.

The first book that I read was Surrender, Dorothy by Meg Wolitzer, which came out in 1999. I was completely under whelmed by this novel. The funny thing is that when I checked on Amazon what year the novel was published, I noticed that it is now out-of-print and my first thought was, oh, I better hold on to this book! On second thought, however, why? I didn’t care that much for it.

Thirty year old Sarah is still in school, a graduate student studying Japanese history. She is beginning to think that she might always be in school. Her best friend is Adam, a gay playwright who has had his first major success. The story takes place as the month of August begins, the month when Sarah and Adam, along with Maddie and Peter always rent the same beach house. Maddie and Peter are married and have a seven month old baby, so the baby, Duncan, is new to their summer arrangement. Also, this particular year, Adam has invited his newest boyfriend, Shawn, who is also staying at the house. They all meet at the summer house sometime after lunch. Sarah and Adam spend the afternoon unpacking and napping, while waiting for the others to arrive.

The group fixed a late dinner consisting of lobster and beer, and then later in the evening, they decided that they wanted ice cream from the local ice cream shop. Adam and Sarah go out for the ice cream, and on the way home, Sarah is killed in a car accident.

All of this occurs in Chapter One. The rest of the book is about how Sarah’s mother, Natalie, copes with her daughter’s death. Sarah and Natalie were uncomfortably close, telling each everything (including their sexual exploits) ever since Sarah was a young girl. Understandably, Natalie is devastated by Sarah’s death, and even refuses to allow Sarah’s friends to attend the funeral. After the funeral, Natalie decides to go to the beach house to stay with Sarah’s friends in order to know/learn everything about Sarah’s life.

The rest of the book is about the week that Natalie is there at the beach house and how each of the people there deal with the loss and grief. I just didn’t connect with it. It may have been from the inappropriate, strangling relationship that Sarah and Natalie had. I’m not sure. I just didn’t care much for the story.

“Surrender, Dorothy” was the greeting that every phone call began with between Natalie and Sarah. It was about their shared passion from the movie The Wizard of Oz. I found that rather symbolic, both in terms of their relationship and in Sarah’s death. But certainly an odd, strange way to begin every single phone conversation.

The second book that I read was Blood Memory by Greg Iles, published in 2005. I could not put it down. Great story!!

The first line of the book: “When does murder begin?” That got my attention!

Dr. Catherine (“Cat”) Ferry is a forensic odontologist, which means that she specializes in bite marks. Cat is well-respected in her field, but her private live is a mess. She is alcoholic and has been quite sexually active over the years. She is presently involved with a married police detective, and has learned that she is pregnant. There is a serial killer in New Orleans, where Cat lives and as she goes to each murder scene, she begins getting more disturbed with anxiety attacks, then passing out at one sight. Cat flees to her childhood home in Natchez.

Cat’s father was murdered when she was eight years old at the family home in Natchez. She quit speaking for a year following his murder. She was raised by her mother and they lived in the slave quarters of her grandfather’s home. The grandfather is a very domineering, well-connected surgeon in Natchez.

When Cat arrives at her home, she leaves her bag of forensic chemicals in her room and the housekeeper’s great-granddaughter accidentally spills some of the chemicals on the floor. Two bloody footprints show up on the carpet. She begins to wonder if the footprints are related to her father’s murder decades ago.

Cat begins to have recurring nightmares, and begins to put some pieces of her past together. Meanwhile, the investigations of the murders in New Orleans are pulling her back there, too. Soon, it appears that the murders in New Orleans may be related to Cat’s history.

This is a book that delves into fascinating psychological issues, including disassociation and repressed memories. I loved it. And I couldn’t put it down! I have to admit that it was quite evident to me early on who had killed her father and why, but that did not diminish my enjoyment of the book at all…Great read!

And the third book that I finished is When You Eat at the Refrigerator, Pull Up a Chair by Geneen Roth. As you may know, I read Women Food and God a few months ago (also by Ms. Roth) and loved it. I had read some of her other books years ago, and, obviously, at the time, did not put them into practice! Anyway, When You Eat at the Refrigerator is “50 Ways to Feel Thin, Gorgeous, and Happy (When You Feel Anything But”. It consist of 50 short chapters each devoted to removing obstacles that keep us from realizing who we really are and what our loves and strengths are.

I found this book to be very practical and very thought-provoking. Randomly, some of the examples of the chapters are: Cultivate Curiosity, Act on Your Own Behalf, Carry a Chunk of Chocolate Everywhere, Wear Your Special Occasion Clothes Any Old Day, Lagniappe, When Things Begin To Fall Apart, Let Them…and so many more chapters. You get the idea!

Whether you are focused on losing weight, or on feeling better physically or emotionally, I think that this book has much to offer. Right now I would say that the chapter that has had the biggest impact on me is Be Fully Present for Five Minutes Every Day. The point of that for me was to appreciate what is happening in my life right at the present moment instead of being caught up in what has happened in the past or what will happen in the future. Just enjoy RIGHT NOW!

I found this to be a book of very relevant wisdom for happiness. Ms. Roth is a humorous, wise writer!

So that is what I have read over the past few days. I am still here at the cabin for at leasst another day, perhaps two. What to read, what to read???

The Exile of Sara Stevenson

2010-08-18T10:16:00.000-07:00

I sometimes (okay, often) wish that I were an author. Then I would feel more like I have the right to be somewhat critical of other's writing. But then again, I am a reader, so I guess that gives me some rights!

The Exile of Sara Stevenson by Darci Hannah is a "historical novel", taking place in 1814-1815. I didn't care too much for the writing. I stuck with the story waiting to see the promise of "boundaries between time and space unravel to forge an incredible connection between a woman and a man many years apart" (from the back cover). That sounded pretty fascinating to me. It ends up that it just didn't grab me. I never found the story to be very believable.

Sara is a young women of a wealthy Scottish family who fell in love with Thomas Crichton, a common sailor. She became pregnant with his child and they made plans to run off to be married, but the day that she is to meet up with Thomas to run away, he never comes. Her family sent her away to an island to have the baby. Sara continued to believe that Thomas would come and find her and take her away. Meanwhile, upon the island is the lighthouse keeper, William Campbell. After some time, Sara began to have interest in William. About that time, letters began to arrive for Sara from an antiquarian from Oxford that contain some clues about Thomas.

I won't tell anymore of the story so if anyone cares to read the book, I won't spoil the ending. Suffice to say, I was very disappointed with the ending. I thought it was very weak.

Beatrice and Virgil

2010-08-18T10:03:00.000-07:00

Ok, I have to confess it right here and now: I have not read Life of Pi by Yann Martel. So I had no expectations for Beatrice and Virgil (also by Martle) when it was chosen by my book group for our August meeting. Sad to say, that after reading Beatrice and Virgil, I am still no closer to wanting to read Life of Pi.

Beatrice and Virgil is a very interesting book, in that there is so much to ponder and discover. I am sure that if I read it over and over, I would find more. I think that there are many layers to the story. My simple version of the story is that it appears to be an allegory for the Holocaust.

from the front inside cover:

"Fate takes many forms...When Henry receives a letter from an elderly taxidermist, it poses a puzzle that he cannot resist. As he is pulled further into the world of this strange and calculating man, Henry becomes increasingly involved with the lives of a donkey and a howler money-named Beatrice and Virgil-and the epic journey they undertake together."

Henry is an author who is working on a "flip book" about the Holocaust and the publishers are not interested in his book. One day he recieved a large envelope with a copy of a short story by Gustave Flaubert, "The Legend of Saint Julian Hospitator." Parts of the story were high-lighted. Also in the envelope were papers clipped together that seemed to be parts of a play about Beatrice and Virgil-a donkey and a monkey. There was also a note, asking for help.

Henry tracks down the sender of the envelope and finds an older man who has a taxidermist shop. Thus Henry's adventures begin.

For me, the most interesting part of the book were the last few pages where "Games for Gustav" are. I found them profound, disturbing and very moving. I will list the first one for you. There are 13 of them.

Game Number One:

"Your ten-year-old son is speaking to you. He says he has found a way of obtaining some potatoes to feed your starving family. If he is caught, he will be killed. Do you let him go?"

And they get harder than that as they go along.

I know that this is not much of a review for the book. I just found it too complicated and confusing to try to tell much of the story. Do I recommend the book to readers? No, I can't think of anyone that I would recommend this book to. However, I am glad that I read it. It certainly made me think.

Two Suspense Books!

2010-08-11T11:41:00.000-07:00

I just finished 2 suspense/mystery books, not my usual genre, but they were both good. To add to the pile, we also watched both versions of Cape Fear in the last week! Maybe it is the heat that is getting to us. We need good diversions!

I finished the trilogy with The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson. It ended up being my least favorite of the three. It was a very good story, but way too "wordy"...it seemed to me that the story could have been told in a 1/3 of the book size. In this story Lizabeth Salander does not play as prominent role as she did in the first two books, although, of course, the story centers around her. The story was basically everyone trying to figure out how the government maintained such a large cover-up for so many years. That is the incredibly simple version of my summary of the book!

We watched the movie Shutter Island recently and I decided that I wanted to read the book to see if there was more to it. Oddly enough, this is one of those very rare times that the movie was better than the book. The book was ok and I kept trying to figure out if I would have liked the book better if I had not seen the movie, but I don't think so. The story is of a Federal Marshall who goes to help find an inmate that has gone missing on Shutter Island. The island is home to a prison for the criminally insane. It is a really good story that has some good twists to it in the end. If you are into psychology, etc. see the movie! I guarantee you will enjoy it! The book? Again, not as good as the movie.

My new reading chair...on my new reading porch!

2010-08-10T08:15:00.000-07:00

Check out my new reading chair! My wonderful husband screened in the porch off of our bedroom this month and, of course, it makes for the most wonderful reading area! So the search for the best outside reading chair began...I found just what I wanted at Target on-line! In my favorite color! Now if the heat would just subside, I could spend hours out there!

July's reading

2010-07-31T05:54:00.000-07:00

I read 4 complete books in July, plus half of 2 other books. Not as much reading as I would hope for, but I have noticed an increase in my reading the past couple of weeks. My husband just this past week screened in the back porch that is off of our bedroom. I envision it as a summer reading room. I am in the process of searching for the perfect porch chair for reading. Right now I am leaning toward a yellow Adirondack chair with foot rest. Any other suggestions?

In July I read the following:

1. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. From Wikipedia I learned that Mr. Toole wrote the book before he committed suicide in 1969. His mother found "a smeared carbon copy of the manuscript" and took it to Walker Percy, who read it and liked it. It was published as a book in 1980 and won the Pulitzer Prize the following year.

Oddly enough, I had never read the book and owe my friend Gretchen a huge bow of gratitude for suggesting and lending the book to me. The story takes place in New Orleans and, though I have not been there (yet!), it seems to offer great portraits of the city, especially the French Quarter. Ignatius J. Reilly is an over-educated, single, very overweight man, who lives with his widowed mother. Circumstances occur that cause his mother, Irene, to insist that Ignatius go out and become employed. The book is about the adventures that happen while Ignatius works, covering much of the "lower depths" of New Orleans. It's hilarious!

2. Annie's Ghosts by Steve Luxenberg is a fascinating book. I had read about it on-line somewhere related to genealogy and ordered it from half.com. It is the story of how the author learned shortly before his mother's death, that she had not been an only child as she had always presented to family and friends. When she was almost eighty years old, she casually mentioned to her doctor that she had had a disabled sister who had been sent away when she (the sister) was two years old. The doctor's office mentioned this to the author. Since his mother was in such fragile health, he was not comfortable questioning her about it, and it wasn't until after her death, that he began searching for information. What he learned was stunning for the family.

This book is an excellent example of good genealogical research. I was enthralled with the whole story. It was even more meaningful because of some family "secrets" very similar that I have unearthed in my family research!

3. The Paperboy by Pete Dexter was our July book group read. Another fascinating book, this one a novel. It was published in 1995. From the back cover of my copy:

"The sun was rising over Moat County, Florida, when Sheriff Thurmond Call was found on the highway, gutted like an alligator. A local redneck was tried, sentenced and set to fry.

Then Ward James, hotshot investigative reporter for the Miami Times, returns to his rural hometown with a death row femme fatale who promises him the story of the decade. She;'s armed with explosive evidence, aiming to free-and meet-her convicted 'fiance'.

With Ward's disillusioned younger brother Jack as their driver, they barrel down Florida's back roads and seamy places in search of The Story, racing flat out into a chocking head-on collision between character and fate as truth takes a back seat to headline news..."

That's the simple take on the book. There are many things going on in this book. The development of the characters is excellent. The brothers seem to have some fatal flaws to deal with, their father being one of those flaws! After having read the book, and discussing it with my book group, I am eager to re-read it at some time. My take on Ward was that he was an alcoholic, gay man who had not yet come out and that was the explanation for his distance from people. Surprisingly, some in my book group felt that he had Aspberger's and that was the explanation. That had not occurred to me. I must re-read this book!

4. Lastly, I had begun reading My Sister LIFE by Maria Flook. This was a book that I read about a third of, and moved on to another book. I just couldn't get into it enough to stay with it. It is about the disappearance of the author's fourteen year old sister. Sounded good, but...I just kept getting bogged down in it.

I am now about half-way through The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest...more on that to come!

For right now, back to searching for that perfect chair.....

My Latest Reads

2010-06-30T15:41:00.000-07:00

I read several reviews of My Name is Memory by Ann Brashares and was very interested in reading it based on its premise. So when I was at the bookstore and holding it in my hands, reading the cover blurb, I just had to have it. $28 and I still had to have it.

Yes, I am a believer in reincarnation. And, as the blurb begins: "A magical story that changes the way we understand the world and proves the power and endurance of a love that is meant to be." And so the story begins.

Here's how the book begins:

" I have lived more than a thousand years. I have died countless times. I forget precisely how many times. My memory is an extraordinary thing, but it is not perfect. I am human.

The early lives blur a bit. The arc of your soul follows the pattern of each of your lives. It is macrocosmic. There was my childhood. There have been many childhoods. And even in the early part of my soul I reached adulthood many times. "These days, in every one of my infancies, the memory comes faster. We go through the motions. We look oddly at the world around us. We remember."

It grabbed me immediately. Unfortunately, it didn't last for long.

Lucy Broward is graduating from high school and desperately wants her high school crush, Daniel Gray, to really notice her. At the last dance of the year, Daniel does notice her, but the interaction between them leaves her confused. Why did he call her Sophia? Well, you can guess that...

Daniel has the "memory". He remembers his past lives and his one true love, Sophia. He can recognize old souls that he knew in his past. But he and Sophia have never been able to get together and experience their true love. Now he has found Sophia in Lucy and he was unable to play it cool with her at the dance, but came on too strong and scared her off.

The book explores some of Daniel's past lives and does give some good information about the beliefs/theories of reincarnation. However, I just didn't care for the way that the story was written. Because of my interest in reincarnation, I finished the book, but my heart was never really in it.

And I could have bought us dinner with the $28.

Upon finishing the above book, I began reading Joyce Carol Oates' newest book, Little Bird of Heaven. I had some trouble initially getting into the story, but I ended up liking the book quite a bit. I do like her style of writing!

The story is primarily told through Krista Diehl, the daughter of Eddie and Lucille of Sparta, New York. A local singer/waitress, Zoe Kruller, is found killed and Krista's father is the last person to have been with her, shattering his families world as they learn of Eddie's infidelities. Eddie is a "person of interest" in the case, along with Zoe's estranged husband. Neither are listed as "suspects", just "persons of interest" and for years, that is how the case remained.

Zoe had a son, Aaron, who Krista had a crush on. Krista's brother Ben was in the same class in school as Aaron. Through high school, Aaron terrorized Ben in retaliation for what Ben's father had done with Aaron's mother.

The story covers about 20 years following the murder and does a really nice job telling the aftereffects of tragedy on the surviving family members.

Good book!

So, two books read, one book recommended. I hate that. I want to love every book I read! Is that too much to ask? (yes, I know that it really is).

On a last note: I headed to Goodwill the other day to build up my To Be Read list (I always come close to a panic without several books waiting for me in the wings) and came out of there with 8 books for under $8. Hooray! My catchs? I got the following:

Love Medicine, My Last Days as Roy Rogers, Surrender Dorothy, Blood Memory, Fault Lines, Light on Snow, I Been in Sorrow's Kitchen and Licked All the Pots, and Safe Houses.

Has anyone read any of these? Would love to hear what your thoughts are...what should I read next?

I need some help here!

2010-06-21T10:45:00.001-07:00

Why do I sometimes get comments that come out like this:

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It is happening on all 3 of my blogs...do I need to change something? It doesn't happen all the time, but every once in a while.

My Vacation Reading

2010-06-16T08:20:00.000-07:00

I just returned from a week at Disney World and , believe it or not, got 2 books read. Mostly on the airplanes or in bed at night!

I read South of Broad which is the latest of Pat Conroy's books. While I thought that it was good, after just finishing reading Beach Music by him, it didn't begin to compare. So I was a little disappointed. However, by the middle of the book, the story picked up and I enjoyed the book more.

It is a story of a family who suffered the tragic loss of a son to suicide. Steve left behind his parents and his younger brother. The book does a good job delving into the aftermath that occurs for the years following a loved ones suicide. The story is told by the younger brother, Leopold Bloom King. He finds a good group of friends in high school and the book is the story of the next twenty years of their lives and how the past affects the present.

As always, Pat Conroy leads the reader into the South, with this story based in Charleston, South Carolina. The characters are well-developed in the story and I felt like I knew all of them well. And I can't wait for his next book, although it will probably be quite a while, as I have read that he writes his books in longhand!

The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway was our book club pick for June. It is the story of when Sarajevo was at war in 1992 and twenty-two people were killed while waiting in a line for bread. A well-known cellist decided to play Albinoni's Adagio in G Minor on his cello for twenty-two days at the site where they were killed in honor of them. Three characters are featured in the book. Kenan is a young man with a family who goes out into the war-torn city every four days to get water for his family and an elderly neighbor. Dragan is an older man who works at a bakery and tries to care for his wife. Arrow is a young woman who has become a sniper trying to get those attacking the city. Each chapter tells about one of the three characters and how they are surviving the war each day.

For me the book was basically a testimony to the human spirit. Each of the characters seemed to struggle with thoughts of life and death, bravery and cowardice as they maneuvered through each day.

The book is a short read, but very moving. I recommend it!

Beach Music

2010-06-02T17:03:00.000-07:00

I mistakenly got Beach Music by Pat Conroy at the library last week. I meant to get his newest book, but forgot the name of it and got Beach Music instead. As I began reading it, I was aware of some things sounding very vaguely familiar. I looked and saw that it was written in 1995. Then I realized that I even had it on my bookshelves. I had read it 15 years ago! I don't know how I forgot that I had read it, because it ended up being one of the best books that I have ever read. It is a great book. I felt like I disappeared into it for the past week. It is so good!

As the back of the book states it is "the story of Jack McCall, an American expatriate in Rome, scarred by tragedy and betrayal. His desperate desire to find peace after his wife's suicide draws him into a painful, intimate search for the one haunting secret in his family's past that can heal his anguished heart."

The story is about a Southern family, South Carolina to be exact. The McCall family consists of five brothers, their mother Lucy and their father who never stops drinking. Jack is running from his wife's suicide, yes, but he is also running from his father, his brothers, his friends, the Holocaust and Viet Nam. He took his young daughter, Leah, to Rome to escape all. However, his mother, Lucy, becomes ill and Jack is called home. And so it all begins. The past begins to unravel. As it must for any healing to occur.

Some of the most moving writing:

"Jordan told me he broke down when he heard those words,spoken aloud, the ones he always believed in his heart to be true. He felt himself break open in a deep undiscovered place, one of the dark spaces he had created for himself as a boy. He had wept enough in his life to keep a small aquarium of saltwater fish alive, but the tears had been fierce and private. In front of this small, kind doctor he felt them run down his face in hot spillings. The tears came fast because the secret was out and this odd-shaped unassuming man had gotten his mother to admit their mutual nightmare at last."

"She didn't notice that I was weeping until my brothers grew quiet. We stopped dancing and I sat down on the porch steps. My child held me as the song her mother and I had loved best in the world completely undid me. I could bear the memory, but I could not bear the music that made the memory such a killing thing."

And on and on...I was so touched by this book. There must have been some reason that I ended up reading this book again.

Pat Conroy's writing is exquisite. I was so totally drawn into the story. Prince of Tides has always been one of my favorite books and I will be re-reading it this summer. I have begun the newest book, South of Broad, that I originally set out to read. I miss Jack McCall already.

Three Books and No Real Winner

2010-05-26T12:51:00.000-07:00

I have read three books this past month of May and none of them really grabbed me. I gave up on one of them. The other two were worth reading.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley is the book I quit. I read 224 pages, over half the book and I just never got into it enough to care about the characters or the plot. I love the cover of the book and had read some good reviews, so I bought it. Bad decision. Since giving up on it, I have read reviews that have agreed with me. So I don't feel like I am losing my taste in books...it just wasn't my "cup of tea". For those who care, it is the story of a young girl, Flavia, who aspires to be a scientist and, it seems to me, also a detective. She discovers a dead bird on her doorstep with a stamp stuck through it's beak. Then, the same day, she discovers a man dying in the family's garden. Flavia sets out to learn more about the man. I believe that this is the beginning of a series of books about Flavia (although I'm not certain of that, and don't care enough to actually find out!).

I next read Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada. It was an interesting book, and I did finish it, but I am still on the fence about it. What interested me the most was reading on the back cover that the author wrote the book "in a feverish twenty-four days, soon after the end of World War II and his release from a Nazi insane asylum. He did not live to see its publication." The book is 509 pages (and not large print by any means).

It may be a classical type book...I guess that I just need more time to think about it. The story is based on a true story which occurred during Nazi occupied Germany. It basically is the story of a couple who stood up for what is right and what they believed in, after they received the news that their only child/son had been killed in the war.

I think that I would recommend this book, just with the caveat that it is a very long book.

Lastly, I read Still Alice by Lisa Genova. I had heard and read so much about this book that I had great expectations for it, and the book just didn't meet my expectations. I had avoided reading it for quite some time, but one day it just appealed to me and I read it.

The story is about 50 year old Alice, a psychology professor at Harvard, who begins to be aware of memory problems. She is diagnosed with early onset of Alzheimer's. The book tells of the struggles of Alice, her husband John and their three grown children as they deal with the diagnosis and the in-their-face reality of Alzheimer's affecting their wife/mother.

For some reason, I had thought that the story was a true story and that the husband narrated it. I was totally wrong. It is a novel and told by Alice herself. I found the writing to be rather simplistic and never felt like I really knew the characters. It was an easy read and there is a lot of information about Alzheimer's in the book. Again, I guess that I would recommend it, also.

Appetites-On The Search For True Nourishment

2010-05-18T14:53:00.000-07:00

Appetites seems to be a less-known work of Geneen Roth's. After reading Women Food and God, I began to work on the concepts of being kind to myself and listening to my body and taking care of it. I happened across this book and I am glad that I found it. There is much wisdom in this book. It is not quite like her other books...it is not directly about eating, food, etc. It really struck me as a book about finding your true self. It is primarily Geneen's story of her journey in learning who she was.

It is a very easy book to read. It really held my attention and I found it very insightful. An example:

"Despite my valiant efforts to the contrary, I know that the purpose of life is not to be safe. It is to be open. To be dedicated to the truth, to the joy as it streams through your life. Because if you are not, then no matter what you have, you will always want more, you will be forever hungry. And if you are, then no matter what happens, you will one day discover that you are who you have been hungering for. It has been you, not the food you eat, the clothes you buy, the people you love, the money you make. For lifetimes, for eons, for as long as it takes for a mountain to become a mountain, it has always been you. You are the feast. You."

I really love the way she writes. Her words speak to me. Geneen tells of her struggles, especially when she was ill for several years and questioned who she was without hair! She tells of many different examples of others struggling with issues of "who am I now" after hearing and/or suffering various debilitating problems. Perceptions and perspectives. Geneen's writing seems to put the words that we are looking for in our searches.

House Rules

2010-05-05T08:28:00.000-07:00

House Rules is the newest book out by Jodi Picoult. It is about an eighteen year old boy with Asperger Syndrome who is accused of murder when his social skills tutor is found dead and all clues lead to him.

Jacob Hunt lives with his divorced mother and his fifteen year old brother, Theo. Live is difficult living with Jacob. He is both the sweetest boy in the world, and very difficult if anything in his life is changed or disrupted. Only certain color foods and clothes are allowed each day of the week (ie. Thursday is brown day-he will only wear brown, and dinner is steak, baked potatoes, gravy and brownies. Friday is a little more difficult-that is blue day!).

Jacob is fixated on crime scene/forensics. He is an expert on the subjects. He figures that the police could learn a lot from him if they would listen.

The story is told from several points of view. Each chapter is told by either Jacob, his mother Emma, his brother Theo, or by his attorney Oliver.

Ms. Picoult appears to have done an excellent job researching Asperger's and autism. There was a lot of good information about these disorders in the book, so if you are curious about Asperger's, this book, although it is fiction, would be quite educational. I thought that the ending of the book was a little weak, but all in all, an interesting book.

Little Bee

2010-04-26T06:49:00.000-07:00

Little Bee by Chris Cleave came out in 2008 and I have heard different people talk about it, but no one ever seemed real crazy about the book. I finally picked it up, and I have to agree with popular opinion (among my friends). I think.

There are definitely parts of the story that are very thought-provoking and I have a feeling that Little Bee may stay with me for quite awhile.

Little Bee is from Nigeria and the story starts with Little Bee's voice talking from a detention center in England. She has been there for the past two years. The story begins with:

"Most days I wish I was a British pound coin instead of an African girl. Everyone would be pleased to see me coming."

And that's pretty much how the story goes. It is the story of Little Bee, who met (although I use the word 'met' reluctantly given the circumstances) Sarah and Andrew, a couple from England on vacation, on a beach in Africa a couple of years earlier. Two years later, after Little Bee leaves the detention center, she goes to find Sarah and Andrew. The book is both the story of initially meeting them and of the present after she leaves the detention center.

The book is narrated by both Little Bee and Sarah in alternating chapters. Sarah and Andrew have a four year old son, who is having a Batman phase. Little Bee connects with him in a special way, that I thought really added to the story.

I don't want to tell more about the story in case you, the reader, decide to read the book. It is a story of hope, but also has some pretty horrifying events. I think that it is a good story of resilience and, ultimately, hope despite everything.

Skinny Bitch

2010-04-21T16:04:00.000-07:00

A no-nonsense tough-love guide for savvy girls who want to stop eating crap and start looking fabulous!

That's the sub-title for the book, Skinny Bitch, by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin. I had never read any of their books, but this title intrigued me, so I picked it up. It was a quick read, and there is a lot of good and very interesting information in the book.

However, as a warning, if you haven't read any of their books before, the language is surprising and somewhat harsh, especially when you aren't expecting it. It was quite a shock after having just read Women Food and God (by Geneen Roth), which is a very gentle, kind, nurturing book. Skinny Bitch is a right-in-your-face kind of book. Yet, has pretty much the same message as anything else you might read about eating/dieting, etc.

Including "You are what you eat." I was really glad that I didn't have bacon for my breakfast this morning.

In terms of good sense, the book tells you (in no uncertain terms) to give up soda, dairy, meats, sugar, etc. The premise is become vegan. And, honestly, after reading what they described about the slaughterhouses, I gave it serious thought. But I am not there at this point, as I settled in with a great hamburger for dinner tonight! There really is a lot of good, and important information in the book and I am considering to begin to put some of what I read into practice. I have already cut down to one diet soda a day (usually) and I am thinking that I may let go of that.

It is an entertaining book. And I did learn quite a lot from it!

The Great Gatsby

2010-04-21T15:51:00.000-07:00

Yes, you read the title right. I recently read The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It was the April choice for my book group. I had read it about 35 years ago and remembered nothing from it, so it was really like reading it for the first time!

My impression? Good book! I liked it a lot. I especially enjoyed having it be discussed by my book
group...amazing what others might see in a book that you have missed or wondered about! Great discussion on why is this book considered a classic? and on the various characters in the book and who liked what character and didn't like what character.

For those who may have not ever read The Great Gatsby, it is a story based in the 1920's on Long Island, NY. It is told by Nick, a newly moved-in neighbor to Gatsby. Jay Gatsby is pretty much a mystery to everyone, but very generous with his wealth. He has lavious parties each weekend, with the alcohol freely flowing. But no one knows where he came from and how he got his money.

Soon Nick meets his neighbor and is pulled into his life. Turns out that Nick has a cousin, Daisy, who lives across the water from Gatsby. Daisy is married to Tom Buchanon. Tom is having an affair with Myrtle Wilson. Nick learns that Gatsby has been in love with Daisy for years, having met her in KY (where she is from) before he left to serve in WWI. When he returned from the war, Daisy had married. And Gatsby had never gotten over her.

I won't share the ending, but suffice to say, it is thought-provoking.

After about the first third of the book, I was wondering what the big deal was. I wasn't especially interested in finishing the book. However, after that, I thought that the story got much better and, as I said, I ended up really liking it. I was very glad that I had reread it and may even go on to read more Fitzgerald!

Any suggestions? What is/was your favorite Fitzgerald novel?

Day After Night

2010-04-20T10:35:00.000-07:00

Anita Diamant's newest book, Day After Night, kind of let me down. I just didn't think that it was nearly as well written as The Red Tent, although I have to admit that it has been quite a while since I read The Red Tent. But I was very impressed with it and it stuck with me for a long time. I don't think that Day After Night will, but since I just finished it last night, I don't know that for sure.

The premise of the book is a story of four women who meet at Atlit, a detention camp for European Jews coming to Israel after the war (WWII). Apparently, those coming into Israel after the war were placed there for however long it took to find a kibbutz for their home. I had never heard of such a camp, so that was quite interesting. The women make the point of discussing how they were put into these camps surrounded by barbwire fences, just like the death camps that most of them had survived. Naturally, many of those entering the detainment camps became very upset and frightened when they saw the barbwire fences. They had great difficulty understanding that now they were safe in such a place.

Each of the four women have different stories on how they survived the war years. They try to find ways to spend their time in the camp while waiting for their home assignment. They become friends and make plans for their futures together.

I didn't feel like the characters were very well-developed. I don't feel like I know who each of the women were, before and after the war.

I did like the way the book ended, however. The Epilogue was good.

All in all, I would rate the book as fair. Not great, but an ok read.

Another new bookcase!

2010-04-17T07:31:00.000-07:00

I forgot to post a picture of the new cabinet/bookcase that my husband made for me! He, as usual, designed it himself and I think that it is incredible. And the best part is, I need to buy more books to fill it up!!!

The Girl Who Played With Fire

2010-04-12T08:59:00.000-07:00

If you have read The Girl With the Dragon Tatoo by Stieg Larsson, RUN, don't walk, but RUN, to get The Girl Who Played With Fire!!! And if you haven't read The Girl With The Dragon Tatoo, what are you waiting for??? Get you to the nearest library, bookstore, reader friend, etc. and read it!!! Because after you read it, you must then read The Girl Who Played With Fire!! It is that good!

Can you tell that I really liked this book? It is a great psychological mystery. I loved the way the author developed the characters and the story. It kept me wanting to read more and more later and later into the night!

The same main characters are present as main characters in both books. Mikael Blomkvist company Millenium is planning to publish a book exposing sex trafficking in Sweden. His magazine is going to run an article about it the same time the book comes out. Before that happens, the two authors of the book are murdered. The same evening, Lisbeth Salander's guardian is murdered. Lisbeth is connected by evidence to all the murders and she goes underground. Mikael is trying to solve the murders and to find Lisbeth. To do both, Mikael and Lisbeth both need to dig into Lisbeth's past.

Great book!!!

The third of this trilogy is now out called The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest. It is a continuation of the first two books.

From the website http://www.stieglarsson.com/

Stieg Larsson (1954-2004) was a Swedish writer and journalist.
Prior to his sudden death of a heart attack in November 2004 he finished three detective novels in his trilogy "The Millenium-series" which were published posthumously; "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo", "The Girl Who Played With Fire" and "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest". Altogether, his trilogy has sold more than 12 million copies worldwide (summer of 2009), and he was the second bestselling author in the world 2008.

STIEG LARSSON, 1954-2004

Before his career as a writer, Stieg Larsson was mostly known for his struggle against racism and right-wing extremism. Starting in the late 1970's, he combined his work as a graphic designer with holding lectures on right-wing extremism for the Scotland Yard. During the following years he became an expert on the subject and has held many lectures as well as written many novels on the subject. In 1995, when 8 persons were killed by neo-Nazis I Sweden, he was the main force behind the founding of the Expo-foundation, a group intended on exposing neo-Nazi activity in Sweden. From 1999 and on, he was appointed chief editor of the magazine Expo.
During the last 15 years of his life, he and his life companion Eva Gabrielsson lived under constant threat from right-wing violence.

Women Food and God

2010-04-11T12:09:00.000-07:00

Women Food and God: An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything by Geneen Roth is quite simply, an amazing book! And, in a way, a very simple book. And, in a way, a very complicated book. I guess it just depends on how you want to look at it!

Ms. Roth has written several books in the past about eating. I think that perhaps this latest one may be a sum of all her books...the wisdom is incredible. While reading it, I often had to stop and just contemplate on a sentence.

She writes regularly for Good Housekeeping magazine and I love her column in there. However, when I read the article featuring her and Women Food and God in last month's Oprah magazine, I began to cry. It was eeery. Her words just totally spoke to me and I knew that I had to get the book!

The premise is (at least for me) basically to stop dieting and pay attention to what I am feeling. As I said, a simple concept on the outset, but when you start to try to practice it...not so simple! One of the main things recommended to do is to eat without any distractions and pay attention to what you are eating. I have been amazed at how difficult that is for me. I live for distraction apparently. To just sit at the table with me and my food is torture! But I am slowly starting to be able to do it. And what I am finding when I do it, is that I don't need to eat nearly as much food as I usually eat.

That's enough about me...this is about the book! Just letting yourself sit and identify and feel feelings is not a new idea, but one that needs to be constantly brought to us. Allowing yourself to feel your feelings is freeing in so many ways and the book has lots of examples of this.

My book is underlined and marked up all over the place. An example (from page 32): "Women turn to food when they are not hungry because they are hungry for something they can't name: a connection to what is beyond the concerns of daily life.". And another (page 80): "When you no longer believe that eating will save your life when you feel exhausted or overwhelmed or lonely, you will stop. When you believe in yourself, more than you believe in food, you will stop using food as it it were your only chance at not falling apart." And these are just the beginning of the wisdom that is in this book!

What I took most from the book is KINDNESS. I need to practice being kind to myself until I become kindness itself.

This is a wonderful book...run to the store!

The Lost Hours

2010-03-23T10:23:00.000-07:00

The Lost Hours is by Karen White, who also wrote The Memory of Water. I enjoyed The Lost Hours very much! It was a book that kept me up late reading! A sure sign of a good book!

Piper Mills lost her parents in a car accident when she was about six years old, leaving her with a childish belief that nothing bad would ever happen to her again since the worst thing that could happen to one had already happened to her. She was raised by her grandparents and they taught her to ride horses. She became quite good and was an Olympian hopeful, when tragedy again struck Piper's live and she was almost killed by a fall from her horse. She was left with serious injuries and would not ride again. She had spent the last few years doing genealogy for other people. When her grandfather died,she returned to Savannah and the home that her grandparents had left her to recover and heal.

The home that was left to Piper was the home where she was raised. Her grandmother was still alive in a nursing home but with Alzheimer's disease. After Piper moved to the house, she met with the attorney, who gave Piper a gift that her grandmother had left with him for safe keeping. It was a small gold charm, with nothing else, no chain, no note. Soon Piper remembered when she was 12 years old that she and her grandfather had buried a small box of her grandmother's in the backyard.

The following day Piper begins going through the house and looks in an old trunk where her grandmother kept her knitting materials. In there Piper finds a very small baby blue sweater. Later that day, another attorney brings over an envelope for Piper. Inside is a letter written to someone named Lillian and a key. When Piper goes to visit her grandmother, she takes the sweater and tries to ask her about it. Then she returns home to find the buried box. It contains torn scrapbook pages, a photo and a newspaper article.

After all of this, Piper then discovers a hidden room in the attic. All of this leads her to wanting to learn more about her grandmother's life.

The premise of the book is:

"Every woman should have a daughter to tell her stories to. Otherwise, the lessons learned are as useless as spare buttons from a discarded shirt. And all that is left is a fading name and the shape of a nose or the color of hair. The men who write the history books will tell you the stories of battles and conquests. But the women will tell you the stories of people's hearts."

Great book!

The Elegance of the Hedgehog and more

2010-03-17T07:03:00.000-07:00

Have you read this? It was first published in France in 2006, and published in English in 2008. I checked on the author, Muriel Barbery, on Wikipedia and learned that she has degree in philosophy. That certainly explains the direction of the book!

I found The Elegance of the Hedgehog very philosophical. And lest you are looking for a plot in the book, that is the plot.

I struggled somewhat with the first half of the book. Lots of words, not much else going on.

The story is told by two females, Paloma, a quite intelligent, but lonely 12 year old girl, and the other a 54 year old widow named Renee. Renee is the concierge for the building where Paloma lives. Paloma considers herself highly intelligent, much more than anyone else in her family, despite the fact that her mother has a PhD in literature and her sister is attaining her advanced degree in philosophy. She describes her family as rich. In contrast, Renee considers herself poor, but very intelligent. She works hard at keeping her knowledge of anything a secret from all, but her one friend, Manuela.

Both Renee and Paloma are very lonely. They have spent their lives keeping themselves separate from others, thinking that no one else could understand them. Paloma has plans to set her apartment on fire (when no one is present), then go off and quietly die by taking pills. She has the date planned. It seemed to me that the whole plan was based on teaching her family "something". Both Renee and Paloma think that others don't understand them and in reality, it seemed to me, that it was they who do not understand others. They seemed to have closed themselves off from others an don't give others any chance of getting to know who they really are.

Thankfully, by the middle of the book, a new tenant moves into the building and becomes the binding between Renee and Paloma. Kakuro Ozu has moved to France from Japan and it seems instantly recognizes both Renee and Paloma for who they are.

For me, once Kakuro entered the book, things began to get interesting and, in a sense, more real.

I liked the way the book was laid out, with each chapter told only by either Renee or Paloma. Different font was used for each of them, which helped the reader identify who was narrating. The other interesting thing was that the title of each chapters. Renee's chapters were titled appropriately with whatever thoughts/events that were being discussed. Paloma's chapters were titled as "Profound Thought" going from "Profound Thought #1" to "One Last Profound Thought".

My last Profound Thought? Interesting book.

Another book that I have just devoured is a cookbook called yummy Potatoes. Need I add, that I love potatoes? I would like to say that I am going to do a Julie/Julia and try every recipe, but I know myself and that really is probably doubtful...a nice goal, but I don't want to hold myself to it, then be let down! I will let you know if, in actuality, it really happens! It's a gorgeous book and the recipes sound divine (did I mention that I love potatoes?).

Well, if you read my last post, you will know that I have been wondering about names of book groups. I asked my group last night if the group had a name. It doesn't. And no one seemed interested in naming the group. Which is fine with me, because I kind of feel like, what do you do with a name? Maybe it helps unite groups or something, but I really don't think that the group that I am with needs uniting! I am still curious about other groups names, however. I just think that it is interesting to see what groups have chosen.

Names for book groups

2010-03-16T12:05:00.000-07:00

Does your book group have a name? Ours doesn't, or at least no one has told me if it does! I am going to start a poll right here, right now:

WHAT IS THE NAME OF YOUR BOOK GROUP?

Meanwhile, my book group meets tonight so I am going to bring it up. I am sure that they will appreciate the new person's curiosity! Actually, I am no longer the newest person in the group, so I don't have that dubious honor anymore.

So, send in your names, please. I promise that we (well, at least my group) will not steal any names from other groups! This should be an interesting poll!

Two Books to finish up February

2010-03-03T11:17:00.000-08:00

I did well with my reading this past month of February. I finished 7 books this month! I finished up the month with A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini and Without A Backward Glance by Kate Veitch.

I have felt quite left behind in not reading A Thousand Splendid Suns before this. I know a good number of people who have read it and really liked it. I know why I resisted. I don't usually care to read books about other countries. I know this says something about me, but I'm not sure what! However, witha lot of countries, I know that I get very confused with foreign (to me) names (proper names and city names) and that is a big part of why I avoid "foreign" books. I will admit, though, that I really enjoyed reading A Thousand Splendid Suns, and felt as if I really learned from it about some of the country of Afganistan.

The book came out in 2007, and I feel as if I was the last person on earth to have gotten around to reading it. (As an aside, I have a number of "old" books that I want to read, and came to the conclusion the other day, that is what retirement is for....to catch up on all the books that I haven't been able to get to!). Anyway, if you haven't read the book, it is the story of 2 women, who end up married to Rasheed, a very abusive man. The older woman, Mariam, married him when she was young and was not able to have children. About 20 years later, he marries a young woman, Laila, who marries him in order to have a father for her unborn child. She pretends that the child (a girl) is his, believing that the real father is dead. She later becomes pregnant by Rasheed and has a son.

The story was somewhat upsetting to me, just because of all of the abuse that was portrayed. It is also a story of great love, especially when either Mariam or Laila attempt to protect each other from Rasheed. In the end, Mariam sacrifices everything for Laila and her children.

It was a very good book and I do recommend it. And I thank my daughter for recommending it and loaning it to me to read!

The other book that I just finished was Without a Backward Glance. It was a simple read, yet I really enjoyed the story and have thought about it often since finishing it. The story takes place in Australia and it is the story of 4 children whose mother left them on Christmas Eve one year, when they were all quite young. She disappeared and was never heard from again. Their father, Alex, struggled to raise them and the oldest daughter, Deborah, was put into the role of taking care of the children and the house.

Now it is many years later, and Alex is struggling with the beginnings of dementia. One night at a dinner party, James, one of the now-grown children, relates the story of his mother leaving and is aware of one of the dinner guests appearing rather upset by the story.

I don't want to tell too much of the story, but James finds their mother and all of the years of pain, suffering, questions, etc. come to surface for the 4 children.

It was really quite a good book, and portrayed family relationships very well.

This was a book that I got in a sale bin at a bookstore.

The Spark

2010-02-16T12:10:00.001-08:00

Wrapped up reading another book today that I have been reading off and on for a few weeks. The Spark is by Chris Downie, found and CEO of Sparkpeople.com. The book is touted as "The 28 day breakthrough plan for losing weight, getting fit, and transforming your life."

What I especially like about the book is that it is motivational, rather than dictating what you can and can't do or eat. It is divided into 2 parts with Part I being The Fuel for Improvement System and Part II is The SparkDiet.

Part I starts with The Fuel for Improvement System. Part I is 5 chapters, each building upon themselves. It tells some of Chris Downie's own story and how he got to where he is now. Very impressive and down-to-earth. The 5 chapters are: The Fuel for Improvement System, Focus, Fitness, Fire, Positive Force.

Part II begins with The SparkDiet. Again, 5 chapters, which are: The SparkDiet, Fast Break, Healthy Diet Habits, Lifestyle Change and Spread the Spark.

As I said, the book doesn't tell you what to eat or not eat. It encourages you to set goals, small and large and work toward them. Their concept is positive and motivational and makes good sense.

It's a book that I will pick up now and again when I am in need of motivation. I use their web-site daily so I am very familiar with The Spark (go to : sparkpeople.com) and very impressed with the whole concept. I like the positive motivational attitude that prevails through-out the site.

Lord knows, we all need some positive motivation going on!

THE GIRLS WHO WENT AWAY The Hidden History of Women who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades before Roe v. Wade

2010-02-16T09:58:00.000-08:00

Ann Fessler, the author of The Girls Who Went Away, wrote this book after working on interviewing women who surrendered children for adoption. She was doing an audio and video project on the subject, and apparently, the topic grew into a book! Ms. Fessler is also an adoptee, who after years, decided to search for her birth mother.

I found the book fascinating. I have worked with women the past 20 some years, counseling in a drug rehab program, so I have had a lot of experience working with women, both as adoptees and as mothers who have given up children or as women trying to decide what to do once they find they are pregnant. I had never read anything that has come close to actually touching what these women have gone through, until I came across this book.

The book consists of interviews of women of all ages, who "gave up" their babies. I will never be able to hear the term "gave up" in the same way. These women did not "give up" their babies. In almost all cases, the decision was made for them, they had no say in it, and they most certainly did not willingly give up their babies. Incredibly sad.

I was struck by many things in the book. One was how secret everything was kept, especially up to maybe the 1970's. The older women who were interviewed who had babies in the 1930's and 1940's spoke of the absolute secrecy that was imposed and instilled in them for the rest of their lives. Once the baby was born, the family never, ever spoke of it again. And the mother was expected to never, ever tell another living soul that she had a child that was given up.

Even some of these women who went for therapy for their depression later in life never told the therapist about having the baby. Ms. Fessler wrote:

"The symptoms described by the women I interviewed are precisely the same as those of the surrendering mothers chronicled in professional studies of their grief. Many women had experienced several-and some nearly all-of the following symptoms: depression; damaged self-esteem; persistent guilt, shame, and self-loathing over 'giving away' their child; an enduring sense of emptiness and loss that is not erased by having other children; persistent loneliness or sadness; difficulty with intimacy, attachment, or emotional closeness; lack of trust; anger; severe headaches or physical illnesses that cannot be explained or diagnosed; and occasionally posttraumatic stress disorder, characterized by extreme anxiety, panic attacks, flashback , and nightmares."

And yet, the women walked around in their everyday lives never sharing the biggest loss that anyone could ever experience.

A few of the women spoke of how shortly before their mothers (or someone close to them) died, their mother had apologized or at least acknowledged the fact that the woman had had a baby, and how just that little bit of acknowledgment lead to some tiny healing for them.

I have come across some instances of adoption in my genealogy work, and have found it incredibly frustrating. One of the frustrations is that as the book points out, the women were did not use their real names while in the maternity homes so that no one would later know who they were. And the other hard part is that everything is SO secret! Even 60 years later, an adoption will not be acknowledged. Unbelievable!

The book does an excellent job telling the pain of losing a child, not through death, but through adoption, knowing that the child is out there somewhere.

I know that there are a lot of thoughts on whether mothers and children should try to find each other and those are tough calls. Hopefully, open adoptions address some of these hard issues. But if there is one thing that needs to be learned after reading this book, is how important it is to address the shame and secrecy of giving up a child for adoption. Just because the baby is gone, none of the feelings are gone.

Again, really good book! One of those books that I found in the sale aisle at Barnes and Noble.

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane

2010-02-14T13:14:00.000-08:00

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe has been on my "interested in reading" list (in my head) for a long time, so when I saw it at the library the other day, I picked it up. It turned out to be a quick read.

The book is the story of Harvard graduate student Connie Goodwin, who has just earned her Masters degree and is ready to begin her PhD program. She planned to spend her summer doing research for her doctorate, but plans changed when her mother asked her to go clear out her grandmother's old home near Salem. The house is hidden away, rather falling apart, with no electricity or phone. Connie goes to spend the summer there and while going through things finds an old note that sparks her interest. The note has the name "Deliverance Dane" on it. Connie assumes that it is a person's name, so begins to do some research trying to learn who that might be.

I loved this part of the book, because this is where Connie starts doing some genealogical research. And, as would be suspected, giving that the story takes place near and in Salem, Mass., the Salem Witch Trials come into play.

Most of the story is about Connie trying to find Deliverance's book. She isn't sure what kind of book it is. On probate records, it is listed as a "receipt book". It takes quite a bit of detective work to locate where an over 300 hundred year old book might be.

I found the book fun to read, but rather predictable. Certainly not one of the best books that I have ever read, yet, I would recommend it for fun, light reading. And I love the cover of the book!

What another book club has read...

2010-02-12T08:44:00.000-08:00

I received an e-mail from my mother's 1st cousin, Joan, who sent me a list of what her book club has read. It is a very interesting list and there are definitely some books that I want to read myself, especially after reading her comments on them! Isn't it fun to see what other book clubs have chosen?

Joan and her husband moved from here to Massachusetts after her husband retired. They have been out there about 20 years (maybe?). Joan and my mother grew up together and were always close. I love Joan! She was always an adult that I could connect with when I was a child. I love that we still have such a connection and enjoy many of the same things. Joan is what I aspire to be: an interesting person!

Anyway, here is the list that she sent me:

Hi, Sue, Here are some of the books my book club has read in the past couple
of years. I thought you might be interested. ... Newest read on top.

Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracey Kidder (very pertinent right now)

When Everything Changed by Gail Collins (loved this, loaning it to all my women friends)

Readings on the Women's Suffrage Movement (Eighty Years and More by E.K. Stanton) (This was read on-line)

Banquet at Delmonico's by Barry Werth (not great)

The Monuments Men by Robert Edsel (wonderful)

The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason (don't remember it much)

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson (wonderful)

Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin (wonderful)

Free Lunch by David Cay Johnston and/or (don't remember it much)

Swimming Against the Tide by Jim Hightower

The Hemingses of Monticello by Annette Gordon-Reed (very long and not well written)

Brain Rules by John Medina (didn't read)(or the other brain book, I don't have the name of)

The Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell (interesting)

Still Alice by Lisa Genova and/or Everyman by Philip Roth (read both)

Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan (informative)

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (read something else instead)

The Last Fish Tale by Mark Kurlansky (about Gloucester and fishing industry)

The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama (wonderful)

The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins (interesting)

The Nine by Jeffrey Toobin (about the supreme court, well-written)

Circling my Mother by Mary Gordon (haunting)

The World Without Us by Alan Weisman (the following are before I joined the club)

Will in the World by Stephen Greenblatt

Salt by Mark Kurlansky

Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond

Rembrandt's Eyes by Simon Schama

The Inferno by Dante (Robert Pinsky translation)

Desert Queen by Janet Wallach

Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer

Thucydides: An Introduction for the Common Reader by Perez Zagorin
Don Quixote by Cervantes

Mao: The Unknown Story by Jung Chang

The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time by Jonathan Weiner

Daughter of Persia by Sattareh Farman Farmaian

The Orientalist: Solving the Mystery of a Strange and Dangerous Life by Tom Reiss

Acts of Faith by Philip Caputo

Ali and Nino by Kurban Said

So, what books on this list inspire you to go out and read? I especially am interested in reading When Everything Changed and Circling My Mother. More books for my TBR list!

The Blue Orchard

2010-02-11T12:59:00.000-08:00

I saw this book while cruising through Barnes and Noble one day and the topic caught my attention. The book is a novel based on the author's grandmother's life during the first 50 years of the 20th century. Jackson Taylor's grandmother (Verna)was born to Irish immigrants and was raised in poverty. At the age of14, Verna had to leave school to help support her family. She was hired out to live with a family and do housework, etc. The man of the house began taking liberties with the young girl and Verna ended up pregnant. As her family realized that she was "in trouble", she was offered ways to end the pregnancy, and the baby was "spontaneously" aborted. Sadly, in the next couple of years, she becomes pregnant again and desperately wants to marry the father of the baby, who finally admits to her that he is already married. Verna had the baby, but asked her mother to raise him while she continued to work at her various positions.

Thus began the next 30 some years of Verna's working days. She continued to find positions as needed, but as the Great Depression worsened, jobs were harder to find. While helping out at a hospital following flooding, Verna met Dora who talked about wanting to become a nurse. Verna began to consider becoming a nurse herself and decided that she wanted to pursue it. She began to save money in order to pay for the schooling.

After Verna became a nurse, she learned that Dora was taking care of women at her apartment for a black doctor in town who was performing abortions. Verna eventually began helping Dora, until the doctor asked her to get her own place and start doing the same. The nurses made really good money doing this and the temptation was too great.

The book is really about vastly different relationships, including Verna's relationship with the Dr., her son that she did not raise, her husband, and her family. It is also about determination and "doing what is needed". The author did a really good job portraying the different relationships in the story.

I was struck with some of the author's writing...some examples:

After learning of a death of a friend who she cared deeply for: "There is no substitute for character and you never know where you'll find it. I weep at how many deaths we all endure before our own takes us."

Later, after the beloved Dr. had died: "When I was a child, loss was like an autumn leaf being carried downstream. I thought if one could just run swiftly enough, losses could be regained. As I matured the stream widened, the current grew stronger. Suddenly the losses weren't just leaves of branches but small bushes, one's innocent, my favorite schoolbooks, and even my ability to see; blind by the time I became an adult, I found that loss grew into a powerful, wide river; deep, swift, muddy, it swept away my past, my youth, and left me with a child who couldn't yet swim. Then I realized that there was no riverbank to climb up to, that what we're swimming in is not a river at all but an enormous gulf along the curve of a continent. I can and must choose either to get swept out to sea by the grief of it all, or to swim for as long as my body can endure.
All of a sudden I know that there is nothing wrong with me. It's just that my grief started early anticipating this season for mourning."

And at the end: "Already I know the baby has changed everything. There is something about finally seeing the proof that I am a grandmother that makes me stand prouder, as though the maturity, wisdom and hard work of my life have finally been tallied in my favor"....."I can't believe when I hold her small warm body in my arms how much she means to all of us. I can't help but think of all the unborn whose mothers don't know what to do with them, and here is one that has made such a difference. A baby can be a terror or it can be a dream. All I can do is weep for it all, the confusion, the mystery, and the bittersweet miracle."

This book is truly an amazing story. The author did a good job researching the events that occurred and made the story very readable.

I won't forget Verna for a long time.

Another 2 books

2010-02-06T07:30:00.000-08:00

I finished 2 books yesterday. One was Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger and the other was The Pioneer Woman Cooks by Ree Drummond. Guess which one I liked and which one I wanted to throw in our lake? I will give you a clue. I LOVED The Time Traveler's Wife...Loved it...cried-hard-at the end of it.

Well, sadly, in my opinion (and apparently many others opinions), Ms. Niffenegger's second book did not live up to expectations. Not even close. I found it somewhat interesting at first, as it is about 2 generations of twins, which always fascinates me. However, it soon went downhill. I was VERY disappointed and quite confused. And really sorry that I bought it!

The book is a story about twin girls, Julia and Valencia, who inherit their aunt's flat in London. Their aunt Elspeth is their mother's twin, whom they do not ever remember meeting. The girls are from the Chicago area, so moving to London was thought to be quite an adventure. The aunt's caveat that the girls parents were never to be allowed into the flat was intriguing, at first. It turns out that Elspeth is haunting the flat and watching and learning about the girls.

Two other people live in the building; Robert lives downstairs and was Elspeth's (younger)lover. Martin lives upstairs and suffers from severe OCD. The two men become involved in the girl's lives.

From here, the story got bizarre and not well-written and confusing. I don't want to tell more of the story, in case anyone wants to read the book. If you do read it, let me know...I have a burning question...why did Jack call Edie "Elspeth" on the plane home? I didn't get it.

So, I think it is pretty well established that Her Fearful Symmetry was not the book that I liked!

The Pioneer Woman Cooks was a fun book to read, that I got from the library. It is basically a cookbook, but with pictures and commentary from the author who married her "Marlboro Man" and moved from the fast life to the country with him and 10 years later, had 4 children and was an established Pioneer wife! Recipes sound wonderful, full of butter and cream, nothing low-fat, as she is clear to tell the readers! I am anxious to try her Perfect Pot Roast!

More This and That!

2010-01-26T14:42:00.000-08:00

On Christmas Eve we give a hand-made gift to whomevers name was chosen earlier. It is a 50 year old tradition in my family, only for adults. This past Christmas (2009) my husband had our son-in-law Kelly's name. His gift to Kelly was a promise of helping him build new built-in bookcases in their home. As you can see, after 3 long weekends at their house, the bookcases turned out great. Kelly was left to stain and varnish them! I love new bookcases! The best thing to come out of this project was that it got my husband busy working on new built-in cabinet/bookcases for our house! I can't wait to have those finished and be able to put up a picture of them!!

I went to Barnes and Noble today while I was in town and came out with 3 books to read! The first, I have already started: The Girls Who Went Away by Ann Fessler. It is about "the hidden history of women who surrendered children for adoption in the decades before Roe v. Wade". I also picked up: The Blue Orchard by Jackson Taylor and My Sister, My Love by Joyce Carol Oates.
All 3 books just looked really good to me! I love having good reading await me!

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

2010-01-26T12:27:00.000-08:00

This was a good book! Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford was recommended to me by my daughter and she lent me her copy. It was a book that her book group had read.

The story is about a young boy (Henry)of Chinese parents who begins a relationship with a young girl (Keiko) of Japanese parents. Both of the children were born in the United States after their parents immigrated. The story takes place in Seattle during WWII.

Henry's parents insisted that he only speak English, even though they did not understand or speak English. He was not allowed to speak Chinese to them. So he grew up feeling quite isolated in his home. He was their only child and had no one at home that he could talk to. His father was very anti-Japanese and spent his time focused on what the Japanese armies were doing. Henry kept his friendship with Keiko from his parents as long as he could.

Soon Keiko and her family were evacuated to internment camps and eventually over time, Henry lost touch with Keiko.

Jump to 1986. Henry's wife had recently died and his son was away at college. One day, Henry heard that the new owner of the Panama Hotel in Seattle had discovered boxes, suitcases, etc. in the basement of the hotel left there by Japanese families who had been evacuated during the war. There is a possiblity that Keiko's family's belongings are there and thus sets the stage for the story.

There are several things going on in this story. I had never really read anything about the internment camps that were developed and used during the war, so that was intriguing to me. But along with the sweet story of young love, there was a very strong theme of how families communicate with each other, and how that can have such a powerful impact on the family members. Clearly, the lack of communication in Henry's family would have an obvious effect on him. It played out in his relationship with his own son. Very interesting!

This book was quite interesting and a quick read. I recommend it for when you are in-between books and need something light to read!

Early Predictions Announced for 2010 Pulitzer Prize

2010-01-26T06:36:00.000-08:00

Yep, the early predictions are in, folks, and I am feeling rather left out since I haven't read any of them! Thank goodness I already had plans to head into town this morning to Barnes and Noble with my gift card! Although, I have to admit, at times I have not been impressed with some of the Pulitzer winners. Of course, then at other times, they have chosen books that I love.

Anyway, here is a part of the announcement along with the list:

We plan to release an adjusted list in late February or early March, and then a final list several weeks before the actual award is announced. The final prediction model will be based upon analysis that ultimately incorporates over 30 independent or predictor variables such as newspaper notable and best book lists; other awards and award nominations for 2009; and authors previously nominated for the Pulitzer and other awards.

Those caveats aside, the top 16 books written in 2009 that we predict to win in 2010 according to this early model are (in order of probability):

1. My Father's Tears: And Other Stories by John Updike
2. Lark & Termite by Jayne Anne Phillips
3. Homer & Langley by E.L. Doctorow
4. The Humbling by Philip Roth
5. The Maple Stories by John Updike
6. American Salvage by Bonnie Jo Campbell
7. Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
8. In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin
9. The Red Convertible by Louise Erdrich
10. Chronic City by Jonathan Lethem
11. A Good Fall by Ha Jin
12. Dear Husband by Joyce Carol Oates
13. Little Bird of Heaven by Joyce Carol Oates
14. Spooner by Pete Dexter
15. The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
16. Generosity: An Enhancement by Richard Powers

You can read the whole article at:
http://www.pprize.com/Discussions.php/2010-Prediction

If you have read any of these, I would love to hear comments! I will let you know what I read from the list!

The Piano Teacher

2010-01-18T12:34:00.000-08:00

I just finished The Piano Teacher and was terribly disappointed in it. I have heard lots of raves about it and I just didn't find it all that good. Actually, until I was about 2/3 through the book, I was pretty bored with it. It did get better at the end.

The story takes place in Hong Kong and jumps back and forth to before World War II and after the war. Will Truesdale comes to Hong Kong in about 1942, right before the Japanese invasion of China. He falls in love with Trudy, who is half Chinese, and quite a social entity in the area. During the occupation, Trudy disappeared.

Ten years later Claire comes to Hong Kong with her husband for his business. Claire becomes a piano teacher for a young girl and is somewhat befriended by the family. The wife in the family was a cousin to Trudy. Claire becomes involved with Will and begins to learn some of what all had happened during the Japanese occupation.

For me the novel was really about the choices and decisions that one makes in life and how those can affect your future. Somehow, the writing just didn't touch me.

Two Books

2010-01-12T10:30:00.001-08:00

I read the curious incident of the dog in the night-time by mark haddon last week. It was good, and quite interesting. It was also a quick read. Basically about a 15 year old autistic boy, struggling with life in general, his parents separation in particular. And, of course, solving the mystery of who killed his neighbor's dog.
Good book.

I just finished reading The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. I really enjoyed it and I hate to say this, but reading it kept making me think of when I was reading A Million Pieces by James Frey. I kept wondering if all of this was really true...these poor kids lived through such neglect and poverty.

The book is a memoir of a young girl growing up in an incredibly dysfunctional family. Being the therapist that I am, I couldn't help but continue to diagonose the characters, especially the parents, through-out the book. Sad thing is, I have had many clients who have lived these kind of lives. As the book shows, people are very resilient.

There were three girls and one boy in the family. Lori was the oldest, followed by Jeannette, then Brian, then Maureen. Jeanette was always her dad's favorite, primarily because she would always agree with him and go along with whatever he was saying or doing.

The book begins with Jeannette's earliest memory...of being on fire. She was three years old, boiling hot dogs on the stove for herself, while her mother was in the other room singing, working on one of her paintings. Jeannette spent six weeks in the hospital, having skin grafts, etc. and after six weeks, her father decided that she was ready to leave and took her home.

"A few days after Mom and Dad brought me home, I cooked myself some hot dogs, I was hungry, Mom was at work on a painting, and no one else was there to fix them for me.
'Good for you,' Mom said when she saw me cooking. 'You've got to get right back in the saddle. You can't live in fear of something as basic as fire.'"

And that was just the beginning...

Very interesting book and another quick read. I recommend it.

Odds and Ends

2010-01-06T12:30:00.000-08:00

I have finished 2 books since I last posted. I read The Gifts of War by Mackensie Ford, and The Bluest Eyes by Toni Morrison. Was not especially impressed with either.

Gifts of War is about WWI, a Christmas Eve truce in the trenches, and a promise made and broken. It begins with a promise in the trenches during a one night truce to a German soldier (Wilhelm) to take his picture back to his girlfriend in England. Of course, when Henry goes to find the girl, named Sam, he falls in love with her. Unbeknownst to Wilhelm, Sam has had his baby, a son named Will. Henry meets Sam and pursues her, even though she tells him about Wilhelm and how she is waiting for his return. Henry never tells her that he knows/met Wilhelm. And so the story goes...

I thought that the story had great potential, but it pretty much let me down.

The Bluest Eyes was ok, but I just loved Beloved and Song of Solomon so much, that I found this book to be disappointing. I think that I must like when Ms. Morrison goes into the "spirit" world somewhat.

On a different note, I actually signed up for the Read 100 books in 2010 Challenge! I don't know what possessed me although I have been feeling as if I have been letting myself down with my lack of reading. I used to read like a fiend and I miss it. Now that I have retired, I thought I would get back to it, but it seems like I am always doing something else, often involving the computer! So I am pushing the envelope and going for the challenge. If you are interested in joining, go to this site:

http://j-kaye-book-blog.blogspot.com/2009/11/new-2010-reading-challenge-100-reading.html

Review of 2009

2010-01-03T09:02:00.000-08:00

Well, I only read 50 books last year. Doesn't that sound lame? It gives me incentive to read more this year! Anyway, below are the books that I read last year that I rated "Excellent". 20 out of 50 isn't too bad! That would be 40% of what I read! I believe that only 10 of the 20 came out in the past year and that the other 10 were "older" books.

Anyway, I am really looking forward to more reading in 2010. Please send suggestions if you have read a really good book!

My favorite reads of 2009:

The Tenderness of Wolves-Stef Penney

Two Rivers-t.greenwood

Song of Names-Norman Lebrecht

The Likeness-Tana French

Song Yet Sung-James McBride

Olive Kitteredge-Elizabeth Strout

On The Black Hill-Bruce Catwin

Loving Frank-Nancy Horan

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo-Stieg Larsson

Eat Pray Love-Elizabeth Gilbert

Bright Shiny Morning-James Frey

Prodigal Summer-Barbara Kingsolver

The Help-Kathryn Stockett

Poisonwood Bible: Barbara Kingsolver

She’s Come Undone-Wally Lamb

Wolf Whistle

The Hour I First Believed-Wally Lamb

Song of Solomon-Toni Morrison

The Stolen Child-Keith Donahue

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society-Shaffer

Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T07:08:00.000-08:00

I finally settled on my goal for 2010 after great thought! My goal for 2010 in all areas of my life is:

KEEP IT SIMPLE

No more making myself crazy trying to reach certain goals or objectives...just do the best I can and be happy! I don't need to commit to reading a given number of books this year. Just read and enjoy! Read what I choose to read! Doesn't that sound fun?

Of course, I choose to be a member of my book group and commit to reading whatever book is chosen each month...because it is my choice to do so! I also joined one book challenge for 2010...my first ever. I like the idea of broadening my reading choices...again, because I choose to do so!

KEEP IT SIMPLE

I love it!!!

The Year That Follows

2009-12-19T10:52:00.000-08:00

I was up until 1 am last night finishing The Year That Follows by Scott Lasser. Was it really that good to keep me up so late? No. We were out until midnight, so I was just doing my usual bedtime reading and wanted to finish it so that I could get to another book!

The book had an interesting premise: a woman trying to find her dead brother's baby.

Divorced, Cat Miller went to visit her 40 year old brother Kyle in New York and at dinner he told her that his ex-girlfriend had just had a baby and he thought that he was probably the father. The next morning, Kyle headed to a meeting in the World Trade Center. It was September 11, 2001. Cat looked/waited for Kyle briefly, then realized that she just wanted to head home to her young son, Connor. She finally was able to get a rental car and headed home to Detroit.

Over the next year, Cat searched for Kyle's ex-girlfriend, wanting to know if her brother had left a child. She searched the NY paper every day, and finally after a year, there it was....the girlfriend had also died on 9/11.

Meanwhile, Cat's father, Sam is living on the West Coast, 80 years old and not in good health. He has kept a secret from Cat all of her life and is feeling the need to tell her. He asks her to come out to CA to visit, not telling her that he is not well. Cat has not told Sam about Kyle's child.

I won't divulge the rest of the story, but I guess that the 2 secrets somehow play into each other. I never cared enough about the characters to really sit and analyze the story. Maybe I am not giving the book enough credit, but I just wasn't really taken with it. Not great writing. Not bad writing. I cared enough to finish the book to see how it ended, but didn't care enough to spend time thinking about it! Which, after having lost 2 brothers in the past 20 years, is rather sad that the book didn't touch something in me. And believe me, it isn't hard to reach that pain, so I think that tells something about the book.

I would give it a "pass over".

First Book Challenge

2009-12-17T10:46:00.000-08:00

I did it! I joined my very first book challenge! I joined the What's in a Name? 3 Challenge over at: http://whatsinname3.blogspot.com/.

The challenge only involves 6 books (only, I say? check with me at the end of 2010), so surely I can manage that! It may be more of a challenge than I realize. The challenge is to read books that have the following in their names:
1) Food (rats, I just finished The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society-so it won't count for 2010)

2) Body of Water

3) Title (ie. President, Queen, Mr. etc)

4) Plant

5) Place Name (city, country, etc)

6) Music Term (rats again, I just finished Song of Solomon)

Of course, right now I am blank on what to read, other than books that I have already read. But I am looking forward to the challenge of finding books for the categories.

BTW-I am open to suggestions!

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

2009-12-14T13:24:00.000-08:00

While in Mexico laying on the beach one afternoon over Thanksgiving, my daughter asked me if I had read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. I had not. She had just read it for her book group and loved it. Upon my return to the States, I was checking out some of my favorite book blogs and found that Susan at You Can Never Have Too Many Books had written about the book at:

http://susanflynn.blogspot.com/2009/12/guernsey-literary-and-potato-peel-pie.html

So I headed to the library and checked it out and just finished reading it this afternoon. Like Susan, I stayed up very late a couple of nights reading it, but last night fell asleep with only 3 pages to go!

I have to confess that at page 150, I wondered what all the fuss was about. The story was good and I found the whole occupation of the island of Guernsey fascinating, but I didn't get the huge fascination with the book. Then I came to page 151, and broke into tears! And then I got it!

The book is a series of letters between Juliet, who is an author in 1946 from London seeking a new topic for a book, and the chance acquaintance that occurred when Dawsey Adams, a resident of Guernsey, writes her a letter. It seems that he came upon an old book Juliet had owned and he is requesting more information about the author of the book. They begin corresponding with each other and Juliet slowly learns about Guernsey being occupied by the Nazis during the war. Some of the residents of Guernsey rather unknowingly formed a Literary Society and so then Juliet begins corresponding with some of the other members also.

Soon, Juliet decides to write about the Guernsey residents experiences and she goes to Guernsey to meet them all. Meanwhile, the entire book is letters between different people, including her best friend, and her publisher.

It is a very heart-warming and heart-breaking book, both at the same time. It is a quick read and I liked it very much. Thank you, Susan and Emily, for your wonderful recommendations!

Bookstore gift card!

2009-12-05T12:30:00.000-08:00

I turned 60 years old this week. Don't know how that happened, but it's true! I got a $100 gift card to Barnes and Noble for my birthday! What a great gift! Especially for a reader who has retired and is trying not to spend so much on books as in the past! I am so excited that I feel like I may hoard it, afraid to actually spend it. What if I spend it, and then there are more books that I want...??? Hmmmm....I will be very careful on what books get purchased with this great gift! Not just any book will do, especially if it is a book that I can read from the library...see my dilemma? What a great problem!

On another note, I have already researched and purchased a book for each of my 4 grandchildren for Christmas. The oldest 2 are becoming great readers, while the youngest 2 love being read to, so they show great promise at being readers also! Such fun. And now both of my daughters are also in book groups! And my son read the whole time in Mexico! I think that I did it...I raised readers!!! Hooray! Interestingly, all 3 of their spouses are also big readers. Now, if I could just get my husband to read a book....

Song of Solomon

2009-12-05T12:08:00.000-08:00

Well, it seems like I have been away from here forever! We spent Thanksgiving weekend weekend in Mexico with our family (kids, spouses and grandkids) and I am still recovering (in terms of laundry, cleaning, etc.) on top of getting the house ready for Christmas!

While in Mexico, I read Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon, written in 1977. At my book group last month we voted to read The Bluest Eye for January and I remarked on how much I loved Beloved. One of the group members asked if I had read Song of Solomon and thought that I would really like it. I did! He was right!

It is the story of Macon "Milkman" Dead searching for who his family was and, ultimately, who he is, struggling to understand his family history. It is a story about love, loss, family, grief, and history, especially slavery.

Ms. Morrison's characterization of the people in the book is fantastic. You get such a vivid portrait of each character...so well-developed. Even their names are amazing....Pilate, Hagar, Guitar...great characters.

I do have to admit that the first half of the book was a bit slow-moving. Not enough to have lost me, but the second half of the book really begins to pull you in as Milkman begins to learn about his family's past.

I am anxious to read The Bluest Eye to see if it is as good as the others that I have read by Ms. Morrison.

The Missing

2009-11-22T12:58:00.000-08:00

Seems like a long time since I have posted here...I got off to a rough start after my last post. Started 2 different books, and gave up on them. But I got The Missing by Tim Gautreaux from the library, and it was a stick-to-it! I had read his earlier book, The Clearing, and so I felt pretty good about trying it...and it was a good one.

The story is of Sam Simoneaux, whose family was murdered when he was an infant. He was raised by his aunt and uncle in a loving home, and never gave much thought to the fact that they were not his parents. When Sam grew up, he joined in the fight in WWI, and ended up saving a young child before he left France. He returned to the States, married, and became a floorwalker at a department store in New Orleans (where he was from). One day, a little girl, three years old, was kidnapped from the store and Sam was fired for not following proper protocol. He was told that if he found the child, he could have his job back.

The child, her brother and her parents were musician/entertainers on a boat that traveled up and down the Mississippi. Sam figured that someone had seen the child on one of the boat's stops and so, he got hired on the boat and became friends with the family. Most of the story is about the search for the little girl.

As Sam searches for the child and watches what the family is going through, he begins to question his own background and starts to ask questions about his family, their murder, and the murderers.

It is a good story and I liked how the story of the missing child played into his own deepest (and unknown) feelings. I like his writing style, and how he writes about the South, but I did feel that the book got a little bogged down at times. However, with perseverance, it was a good read.

2 Books

2009-11-11T08:57:00.000-08:00

I read Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson. It was for my book group. Interesting book, non-fiction, and certainly not one that I would ever have picked up on my own to read. I had trouble getting into it, but because it was for my book group, I stuck with it, and surprisingly, that was a good choice! It got much better and I ended up enjoying the story. Learned lots, as I did not know anything about deep sea diving.

The story is about weekend divers who discovered a WWI German U-Boat off the coast of New Jersey in 1991. Yet, all records indicated that there was never a submarine sunk there. The book alternates between the men diving to find treasures and the search to learn what boat this is, then who was on the boat. There appeared to be great reverence for the bodies that have laid undersea for the past 50 years, and some of the divers became intent on learning more about the submarine crew.

I especially found the search for the historical records and families most interesting, since the searches were very much genealogical in nature. Right up my alley!

It was a good book and I recommend it!

Last night I completed The Weight of Silence by Heather Gudendauf. It was an easy read, good story, nothing too deep (pun intended!). Two little girls go missing one early morning, assumedly together. One of the little girls has been selectively mute for the last 3 or 4 years. It really was a story about a marriage and its effect on the wife and children. Husband was an abusive alcoholic. As I said, it was an easy read...each chapter was told by different characters: the mother, the missing daughter, the son, the police officer, the father of the other missing girl.

The ending was rather predictable, I thought. I won't tell the ending, but just say that I was pretty sure it wasn't who was the obvious.

The Hour I First Believed

2009-10-26T13:32:00.000-07:00

This is an amazing book! The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb is 723 pages long (hardback). There were a couple of reasons why I had not read it before. 1) it is always presented, at least it seemed to me, as a book about Columbine, and I just didn't want to read and revisit that horror, and 2) as much as I love long books, I find them incredibly difficult to read when I am reading in bed! Anyway, after having just read She's Come Undone, and having already have read I Know This Much Is True, I couldn't resist reading his latest work. And, boy, was it worth it! This book combines many of my passions...psychology, addiction and genealogy! [ok, addiction as a passion sounds pretty weird...just that working with addicted women was my life's work...]

Columbine is a central part of the story, especially the aftermath of Columbine. How being there plays into people's lives for always. Caelum Quirk (I love the name Caelum!) and his wife Maureen were teachers at Columbine. Caelum was gone the day of the shootings, tending to the death of an aunt out east, when he heard the news and got a flight straight back to Colorado and desperately searched for his wife. She had hidden in a cabinet in the library during the shootings and survived. However, the Post Traumatic Stress of that almost destroyed their lives.

Caelum and Maureen decide to leave CO and go out to the east coast to Caelum's family farm that he inherited from his aunt. As they struggle to make it there, addiction comes into play and wreaks havoc, as it will. Meanwhile, Caelum rents out the top half of the farm house to a couple escaping Katrina. The woman is working on a doctorate in Women Studies and begins (with Caelum's permission) to go through his grandmother's old papers. His grandmother had begun a local women's prison many years before, with the focus being "A woman who surrenders her freedom need not surrender her dignity." In the papers are letters dating back to the Civil War and forward in time. The papers begin to tell the story of who Caelum's parents were and how his family evolved into what it became.

This, as I said, was just an amazing book. I finished it yesterday and am still thinking about it.

In an afterword, the author said that it took him 9 years to write this book. Yikes. That sounds unbelievable, except that there is so much in the book, that I understand that it would take a long time.

I highly recommend the book if you haven't read it already! Now I am thinking that I need to re-read I know This Much Id True.

In case you are interested.....

2009-10-21T07:55:00.000-07:00

Met with my book group last week and it was my turn (my first time!) to present books to the group. We present 3 books, then vote on which to read. My book is for our December meeting. I presented the following 3:

The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue

In The Woods by Tana French

Gilead by Marilyn Robinson

I love all 3 books, but really wanted The Stolen Child to be chosen, since I have never had anyone to discuss it with and I found it fascinating...and it won the vote! Hooray! Then the anxiety kicked in...will they like it, will I still like it, was it a bad choice? etc. etc. I am eager to read it again, which always gives one a slight advantage in discussion of the book, I think, but that will help the discussion, I guess.

It was an interesting experience presenting the books. Gilead is one of my top 5 favorite books (I have read it twice), so I would have been happy if they had chosen it, but after reading Home, the follow-up book, I thought Home was even better! But I didn't want to suggest that they read Home before Gilead, so I didn't present Home. And In The Woods is just a great mystery story! However, another group member had presented it before, and, again, it was not chosen.

[In case you are new to this blog and are interested in my thoughts of the above mentioned books, I reviewed The Stolen Child on 3/27/08, Home on 9/23/08, and In The Woods on 7/7/08. I haven't done a review on Gilead, since I read it before the blog began.]

In a totally unrelated topic, remember how excited I was to be thinking about helping with our new library, serving on a committee or whatever? Well, no one has ever called me. It is very disappointing. Perhaps they still will, but I'm not holding my breath! I had volunteered for the fund-raising committee and they have had several events. Apparently they didn't need my help! Guess they just don't know what they are missing! I like books. I'm a good person. Well, ok, I like books.

Wolf Whistle

2009-10-15T11:56:00.000-07:00

Wolf Whistle by Lewis Nordan was the latest book read for my book group. We met this week to discuss it and the book was a great one for discussion. It is the kind of book that before joining the group, I would have wished that I had a group to discuss it with. My book group is so good; it is amazing to hear all that each person gets out of each book. We have great discussions!

Wolf Whistle is based on the true story of Emmett Till, a young black boy who was murdered in Mississippi in 1955 for supposedly whistling at a white woman. The two men responsible were acquitted for the murder. Lewis Nordan grew up near the place that all of this occurred and the story is about the murder.

The character's name who is killed is Bobo, who has come to Arrow Catcher, Mississippi to visit from Chicago. He carries a picture of a white woman in his wallet and tells the boys that it is his girlfriend in Chicago, buy it is really a picture of Hedy Lamar. "Bobo said 'That's some good white stuff.'" trying to impress his new friends. Being from Chicago, he did not realize that down in Mississippi there is no joking around about blacks and whites being together.

One day, Lady Montberclair ("she was modern") went into the Red's Goodlookin Bar and Gro to buy tampons. Apparently, Bobo's friends dared him to ask her out or something and he went on in there.

"Everybody else heard it, though, what that spotey little shine did, dared to have did. Runt Conroy sure heard it. Runt heard it and wondered if he could teach his parrot to say hubba-hubba. His parrot couldn't say a word, only sound that durn retarded parrot could make was a noise like a cash register. Maybe it could learn hubba-habba.

Gilbert Mecklin heard it, the housepainter, just about the time he was helping his blind daddy come back up the steps. Gilbert didn't have time to pay it no mind, but he heard it. Heard him whistle, too. Wolf whistle, real low."

Solon Gregg had just arrived back in town and he heard it too. He began confronting Bobo, when Lady intervened and told Bobo to go get into her car.

Solon Gregg is protrayed as the trashiest of all white trash. He sees an opportunity to make some money and goes to Lady's husband with information that she was seen riding around with a young "buck" in her car. Lady's husband is who decides that Solon needs to take care of the situation for him.

This book is somewhat difficult to read because of the violence and just plain ignorance that is portrayed. It is quite horrifying, yet the real story is also, so I don't think that it should be down-played.

There is a great deal of symbolism in the book and quite a bit of humor. It's an interesting read. It was written in 1993 and won the Southern Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction.

I recommend it!

The Lace Reader

2009-10-13T09:16:00.000-07:00

"My name is Towner Whitney. No, that's not exactly true. My real first name is Sophya. Never believe me. I lie all the time.
I am a crazy women...That last part is true."

So begins The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry. Why couldn't I keep remembering the first couple of lines of the book? It really would have made it so much easier...well, I think it would have. Maybe not.

The story takes place in Salem,MA where Towner returns after learning of her aunt's disappearance. Her female part of the family has a history of being lace readers predicting the future (yes, reading lace, something along the lines of reading tea perhaps), and her aunt Eva, who is missing, has been an active lace reader for years. Towner also has the ability to read lace, but has suppressed it.

Towner's mother, May, runs an abused women's shelter on an island off the coast of Salem.

Towner left home at 17, going as far away as she thought she could...California. Turns out that Towner has quite a history of mental illness. The book focuses a lot on Towner and her twin sister, Lyndley. According to Towner, Lyndley was given away to May's sister and was raised by her and her abusive husband, Cal. Lydley was sexually abused by her father and killed herself in front of Towner. Again, this is according to Towner. There is a group of religious fanatics led by Cal trying to rid Salem of witches. They are suspected to have killed Eva.

There is a surprise twist to the end of the story. However, I think that if I went back and reread the book, it probably is quite evident, but maybe not. It is the kind of book that really needs to be reread in order to understand all that you just read! But I didn't enjoy it enough to want to go back and reread it. Even after I finished it, the ending confused me. That's why I wish that I had kept it in my head the whole time that Towner lies. I think that the mental illness would be more apparent to me a second time. (well, obviously!).

There is a lot of interesting stuff going on in the story...it is very much involved in the history of Salem and the promotion of the perception of witches in Salem. I found that very interesting. I am also curious about lace reading.

Do I recommend the book? Not really. However, I do think that it would make a very interesting book for a book group to discuss!

A Life of Books

Jack Kennedy Elusive Hero

Patron Saint of Liars

Lost Memory of Skin

The List

My 22 Favorite Books of 2011

I Love December!

3 Books Read on My Kindle

Quite a variety

Bel Canto and Fragile

Somewhat behind...

A Separate Country

and the reading continues...

Remarkable Creatures

Grieving and 2 mysteries

More Great Summer Reading

Scout, Atticus & Boo

The Kitchen House

Olive Kitteridge

Some early summer reading

Two Novels Russian

Heaven Is For Real

Veil of Roses

Catching Up!

Bloodroot

Three Junes

Congratulations to Darin Strauss

Room-Awesome novel!

Two Books about Women

$13.50 bought all of this! Library sales rule!

Wench

Reading During a Blizzard

The Heretic's Daughter

January's Reading (so far!)

2011 Reading Challenges

My Top 21 Books of 2010

Books from October

Half A Life

Two More Books for December

First Half of December Reading

Real Food and The Devil's Punchbowl

Two Out of Three Ain't Bad

Way Behind!

Greg Iles' novels

Four More Books

The Quiet Game

Summer Cabin Reading

The Exile of Sara Stevenson

Beatrice and Virgil

Two Suspense Books!

My new reading chair...on my new reading porch!

July's reading

My Latest Reads

I need some help here!

My Vacation Reading

Beach Music

Three Books and No Real Winner

Appetites-On The Search For True Nourishment

House Rules

Little Bee

Skinny Bitch

The Great Gatsby

Day After Night

Another new bookcase!

The Girl Who Played With Fire

Women Food and God

The Lost Hours

The Elegance of the Hedgehog and more

Names for book groups

Two Books to finish up February

The Spark

THE GIRLS WHO WENT AWAY The Hidden History of Women who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades before Roe v. Wade

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane

What another book club has read...

The Blue Orchard

Another 2 books

More This and That!

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

Early Predictions Announced for 2010 Pulitzer Prize

The Piano Teacher