“There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island.” ~Walt Disney
I always have a stack of books at my bedside…. some are borrowed from friends, some are old favorites, and several are from the library (if you are waiting for a specific book “on hold”, it may be on the floor beside my side bed!) . I also have my book journal nearby. I have been keeping a book journal off and on for at least 10 years now. Have you ever been asked to recommend a book? a specific type of novel? a specific author? Have you ever wanted to buy someone a gift of a very particular story…. but for the life of you, you cannot remember the stinkin’ title?? (maybe that’s just me because I’m getting old!) Well…. my book journal helps me keep track of the books I read so I can then share them with others. After joining facebook, I added “Goodreads” to my profile and keep track of the books there, too. So, you can keep up with my books here – or on facebook – or just ask me!
“A room without books is like a body without a soul.” ~ Marcus T. Cicero
I will try and post my recent reads more often than yearly – but really felt like posting my books of 2010 all at once. When I started this blog, I also started one called “Paula’s Bookshelf”… but I’m just gonna consolidate into one blog. It’s funny – when I started both the blogs, I couldn’t figure out how to connect and link the two – so I kinda stopped posting on the bookshelf blog. Now, I know how to connect the two, but I’d rather just put it all on one blog. You probably didn’t need to know that, but I’m in a writing mood…. so, there ‘ya go! I think if we kept having days off school, I could write an entire novel. Having plenty of sleep and plenty of time to get the necessary things done AND still have time left over to do some things I actually WANT to do (like, write!) is a wonderful gift. Usually, Sean and I leave the house for school/work at 7:30-ish am and, between after school programs I teach, doctor’s appointments, Katie and Sean’s after school commitments and practices, and traffic – we usually don’t get home until after 6:15pm. Monday through Friday. That leaves very little time to do the necessary tasks let alone anything I might want to do fun “fun”.
I’m not complaining – I know I am lucky to have a job in this economy – especially a job I love …. okay, maybe I am complaining a little bit. The older I get, the more I realize there are tons of things I like to do other than stuff that revolves around school or my children. Crazy concept, huh? For so many years, everything revolved around school and the kids. And I loved putting 300% into my teaching and my family…. and I just always thought it would be that way. But recently – especially since recovering from my illnesses – I’ve realized there are a whole bunch of things I want to do for ME!! It’s insane! And I’ve actually begun to think I may just not be that 40 year-veteran educator that never quits – I always figured I would be – that I’d teach until the day I died. Not now. I may be able to retire from teaching in 4 to 5 years with my full state pension and I’m really thinking I will. There is so much else out there to do and experience…. so much! It’s all just out there waiting!!
Anyway… kinda got off track there, didn’t I? This post is supposed to be about the books I read in 2010. Maybe I was getting to the point that I would love to have the freedom to WRITE a book, or even just read more books!? Yeah – that was probably where I was headed!!
“If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Couldn’t believe when I actually counted them, (Sean couldn’t believe I actually did count them, let alone keep track of them so I could count them – he thinks I’m pretty weird sometimes!) – I read 24 books in the calendar year 2010. The last time I read this many books in a year was Sean’s first year, 1998. In 1998, I think I read almost 40 books and in 1999 I read about 35. How? Who knows – had to be the nursing. With being on bed rest for the first few months of 1998 and then on maternity leave and nursing – I read like crazy! Neither Katie nor Sean would “let” me talk when they nursed, but I could read. I could even read out loud to them from my book – but no talking or chatting to other people. It was interesting. So… I read! A LOT! Keep in mind, Sean nursed until he was 2-1/2 years old, so I read a lot from 1998 through 2000. Then, with a 2-1/2 year old and a kindergartener, reading for pleasure for myself – sort of came to a grinding, halting stop! I read many books – but most were, of course, of the little people variety. Which, by the way, I also love to read. Ever since a college class at UT on Children’s Literature – I have been hooked on little people books. And there are very few things more fun than reading out loud to children. I love it! Now, for some of you out there, 24 books in a year is a slow year. But for me – it’s pretty good. I hope I am able to read as many, maybe more?, in 2011.
“Literature is my Utopia.” ~ Helen Keller
I am going to list the books chronologically starting with the first ones I read in January 2010. I am including the cover image and the write-up from Goodreads. I have also included a short personal review from me…the notes I wrote in my book journal after reading the book. Those comments will follow the Goodreads review. And finally, I will give the book a ”♥” rating. From three ♥♥♥ to 5 ♥♥♥♥♥ depending on, duh, my experience with the book. Why won’t there be any one ♥ ratings? Good question! I’ve gotten to a point in my life where if I am not enjoying a book by a 1/4 of the way in, I probably won’t keep reading it. Life is too short to spend it dragging myself through a book just because someone else might have said I should. If I have the gut feeling I am going to like the book, but for some reason (life, for example) I am having a difficult time getting into it – then I’ll set it aside and try again later. That was the case with “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”…. started it 3 times and put it back down 3 times before my life was in the right place for me to sink into it and then – I really liked it. And in case you are wondering, NO!, I do not own all these books. I check them out from our fantastic, incredible Rio Grande Library System here in Albuquerque (no late fees!), or borrow them from friends.
“A book is like a garden carried in the pocket.” ~ Chinese Proverb
Paula’s Books of 2010
JANUARY 2010
“Girls in Trucks” by Katie Crouch ♥♥♥
Sarah Walters is a less-than-perfect debutante. She tries hard to follow the time-honored customs of the Charleston Camellia Society, as her mother and grandmother did, standing up straight in cotillion class and attending lectures about all the things that Camellias don’t do. (Like ride with boys in pickup trucks.)
But Sarah can’t quite ignore the barbarism just beneath all that propriety, and as soon as she can she decamps South Carolina for a life in New York City. There, she and her fellow displaced Southern friends try to make sense of city sophistication, to understand how much of their training applies to real life, and how much to the strange and rarefied world they’ve left behind.
When life’s complications become overwhelming, Sarah returns home to confront with matured eyes the motto “Once a Camellia, always a Camellia”- and to see how much fuller life can be, for good and for ill, among those who know you best.
Girls in Trucks introduces an irresistable, sweet, and wise voice that heralds the arrival of an exciting new talent.
Good – interestingly written. Some chapters caught me off guard with their voice. Quick read.
“The Wednesday Sisters” by Meg Waite Clayton ♥♥♥
Friendship, loyalty, and love lie at the heart of Meg Waite Clayton’s beautifully written, poignant, and sweeping novel of five women who, over the course of four decades, come to redefine what it means to be family.
For thirty-five years, Frankie, Linda, Kath, Brett, and Ally have met every Wednesday at the park near their homes in Palo Alto, California. Defined when they first meet by what their husbands do, the young homemakers and mothers are far removed from the Summer of Love that has enveloped most of the Bay Area in 1967. These “Wednesday Sisters” seem to have little in common: Frankie is a timid transplant from Chicago, brutally blunt Linda is a remarkable athlete, Kath is a Kentucky debutante, quiet Ally has a secret, and quirky, ultra-intelligent Brett wears little white gloves with her miniskirts. But they are bonded by a shared love of both literature–Fitzgerald, Eliot, Austen, du Maurier, Plath, and Dickens–and the Miss America Pageant, which they watch together every year.
As the years roll on and their children grow, the quintet forms a writers circle to express their hopes and dreams through poems, stories, and, eventually, books. Along the way, they experience history in the making: Vietnam, the race for the moon, and a women’s movement that challenges everything they have ever thought about themselves, while at the same time supporting one another through changes in their personal lives brought on by infidelity, longing, illness, failure, and success.
Humorous and moving, The Wednesday Sisters is a literary feast for book lovers that earns a place among those popular works that honor the joyful, mysterious, unbreakable bonds between friends.
A fun, silly, girly book about love and friendships among women and mothers.
FEBRUARY 2010
“The Horse Boy” by Rupert Isaacson ♥♥♥♥♥
When his son Rowan was diagnosed with autism, Rupert Isaacson was devastated, afraid he might never be able to communicate with his child. But when Isaacson, a lifelong horseman, rode their neighbor’s horse with Rowan, Rowan improved immeasurably. He was struck with a crazy idea: why not take Rowan to Mongolia, the one place in the world where horses and shamanic healing intersected?
THE HORSE BOY is the dramatic and heartwarming story of that impossible adventure. In Mongolia, the family found undreamed of landscapes and people, unbearable setbacks, and advances beyond their wildest dreams. This is a deeply moving, truly one-of-a-kind story–of a family willing to go to the ends of the earth to help their son, and of a boy learning to connect with the world for the first time.
WOW – really touching. Reads almost like fiction. I really want to meet this boy and his father and mother, and Betsy. Truly a love story – why else would these parents take on that incredible task but for their deep, abiding, unconditional love of their son. The documentary movie was phenomenal – I saw it after reading the book.
“Breakfast with Buddha” by Roland Merullo ♥♥♥♥♥
When his sister tricks him into taking her guru on a trip to their childhood home, Otto Ringling, a confirmed skeptic, is not amused. Six days on the road with an enigmatic holy man who answers every question with a riddle is not what he’d planned. But in an effort to westernize his passenger—and amuse himself—he decides to show the monk some “American fun” along the way. From a chocolate factory in Hershey to a bowling alley in South Bend, from a Cubs game at Wrigley field to his family farm near Bismarck, Otto is given the remarkable opportunity to see his world—and more important, his life—through someone else’s eyes. Gradually, skepticism yields to amazement as he realizes that his companion might just be the real thing.
In Roland Merullo’s masterful hands, Otto tells his story with all the wonder, bemusement, and wry humor of a man who unwittingly finds what he’s missing in the most unexpected place.
LOVE! LOVE! LOVE! this story. I want to KNOW these two men. I wanted to be in the car with them. I want to sit with them, listen to them, do yoga with them. Just be present.
MARCH 2010
“The Weight of Silence” by Heather Gudenkauf ♥♥♥♥♥
It happens quietly one August morning. As dawn’s shimmering light drenches the humid Iowa air, two families awaken to find their little girls have gone missing in the night.
Seven-year-old Calli Clark is sweet, gentle, a dreamer who suffers from selective mutism brought on by tragedy that pulled her deep into silence as a toddler.
Calli’s mother, Antonia, tried to be the best mother she could within the confines of marriage to a mostly absent, often angry husband. Now, though she denies that her husband could be involved in the possible abductions, she fears her decision to stay in her marriage has cost her more than her daughter’s voice.
Petra Gregory is Calli’s best friend, her soul mate and her voice. But neither Petra nor Calli has been heard from since their disappearance was discovered. Desperate to find his child, Martin Gregory is forced to confront a side of himself he did not know existed beneath his intellectual, professorial demeanor.
Now these families are tied by the question of what happened to their children. And the answer is trapped in the silence of unspoken family secrets.
Very intense. I read it in 3 days – which is quite unusual for me during the school year. Powerful story. Well written.
APRIL 2010
“Restoring Grace” by Katie Fforde ♥♥♥
In the irresistible new novel by the bestselling author of Paradise Fields, pregnant Ellie needs a place to stay and Grace needs a lodger in the wonderful but dilapidated house she has inherited. Both of them need a friend.
Sweet little story. Quick read. A friendship born of circumstance – often the best kind!
JUNE 2010
“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” by Stieg Larsson ♥♥♥♥
Mikael Blomkvist, a once-respected financial journalist, watches his professional life rapidly crumble around him. Prospects appear bleak until an unexpected (and unsettling) offer to resurrect his name is extended by an old-school titan of Swedish industry. The catch – and there’s always a catch – is that Blomkvist must first spend a year researching a mysterious disappearance that has remained unsolved for nearly four decades. With few other options, he accepts and enlists the help of investigator Lisbeth Salander, a misunderstood genius with a cache of authority issues. Little is as it seems in Larsson’s novel, but there is at least one constant: you really don’t want to mess with the girl with the dragon tattoo.
Really great book – once I finally got into it. Superbly crafted characters and an incredibly complex story line.
“A Little Love Story” by Roland Merullo ♥♥♥♥♥
Janet Rossi is very smart and unusually attractive, an aide to the governor of Massachusetts, but she suffers from an illness that makes her, as she puts it, “not exactly a good long-term investment.” Jake Entwhistle is a few years older, a carpenter and portrait painter, smart and good-looking too, but with a shadow over his romantic history. After meeting by accident – literally – when Janet backs into Jake’s antique truck, they begin a love affair marked by courage, humor, a deep and erotic intimacy… and modern complications.
FABULOUS!!! Roland Merullo is now one of my favorite authors. This was such a beautiful “little love story” – just like the title says. So sweet and wonderful and loving. I love how he writes – so detailed, but with such ease and grace and total understanding.
JULY 2010
“Golfing with God” by Roland Merullo ♥♥♥
In a previous life, Herman “Hank” Fins-Winston had been a golf pro—an excellent teacher of the game who never quite made it on the circuit, having missed his one real shot at greatness. He now lives in a lovely condominium on the thirteenth fairway of one of heaven’s 8,187 golf courses. God and His closest companions, you see, play the game often. And though Jesus never bothers to keep score, Buddha never takes a practice swing, and Moses doesn’t consider it cheating when he parts the courses’ water hazards, they all take the sport very seriously. In heaven, even God replaces His divots.
Hank’s afterlife takes an unexpected turn when he is summoned to help a player whose game is in a slump. To his dismay, his new pupil is God Himself. Or Herself. Depending on the day. As they play the most heavenly courses in paradise and back on earth, Hank realizes that it’s he who’s learning the lessons—about fearing failure, about second chances, about the connectedness of all living things, about not taking the next breath for granted, and about our God-given ability to improve ourselves—one stroke at a time.
Very interesting take on Heaven and God…. pretty humorous at times – especially if you are a golfer!
“The Wildwater Walking Club” by Claire Cook ♥♥♥
Just put one foot in front of the other. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? But when Noreen Kelly takes a buyout from her job of eighteen years and gets dumped by her boyfriend in one fell swoop, she finds it hard to know what that next step is-never mind take it. At first Noreen thinks maybe her redundancy package could be an opportunity, a chance to figure out what to do with the rest of her life while her company foots the bill. Sure, she may have gotten high to “Witchy Woman” and grooved to “Sweet Baby James” back when James Taylor had hair, but she isn’t ready for her AARP card. Not yet.
But it’s the first time in a great many years that Noreen has time to herself-and she has no idea what to do with it. When she realizes that she’s mistaken her resume for her personality, Noreen knows that she has to get moving, so she puts on a new pair of sneakers and a seriously outdated pair of exercise pants, and walks. She doesn’t get very far at first-just to the end of her street, Wildwater Way-but she perseveres, and when she’s joined by her neighbors Tess and Rosie, Noreen realizes that walking is not an extreme sport. It can actually be fun.
As the Wildwater women walk and talk, and talk and walk, they tally their steps, share their secrets, and learn what women everywhere are finding out-that time flies and getting fit is actually fun when you’re walking with friends. Throw in a road trip to Seattle for a lavender festival, a career-coaching group that looks like a bad sequel to The Breakfast Club, a clothesline controversy that could only happen in the ‘burbs, plenty of romantic twists and turns, and a quirky multigenerational cast of supporting characters, and the result is anexperience that’s heartfelt, exuberant, and above all, real.
Very much a women’s book. It was good – not great – but an enjoyable, quick read. Makes me wish I had a group of women to talk and walk with daily.
“Handle with Care” by Jodi Picoult ♥♥♥♥♥
Every expectant parent will tell you that they don’t want a perfect baby, just a healthy one. Charlotte and Sean O’Keefe would have asked for a healthy baby, too, if they’d been given the choice. Instead, their lives are made up of sleepless nights, mounting bills, the pitying stares of “luckier” parents, and maybe worst of all, the what-ifs. What if their child had been born healthy? But it’s all worth it because Willow is, well, funny as it seems, perfect. She’s smart as a whip, on her way to being as pretty as her mother, kind, brave, and for a five-year-old an unexpectedly deep source of wisdom. Willow is Willow, in sickness and in health.” Everything changes, though, after a series of events forces Charlotte and her husband to confront the most serious what-ifs of all. What if Charlotte should have known earlier of Willow’s illness? What if things could have been different? What if their beloved Willow had never been born? To do Willow justice, Charlotte must ask herself these questions and one more. What constitutes a valuable life?
Brittle bone… friendships… shoulda’-woulda’-coulda’?… medical ethics… early termination… ANOTHER fascinating story by Jodi Picoult. I LOVE her books and how she can touch on all the intimate details of such public situations. And I love how she writes – from the different points of view.
“Olive Kitteridge” by Elizabeth Strout ♥♥♥♥
At times stern, at other times patient, at times perceptive, at other times in sad denial, Olive Kitteridge, a retired schoolteacher, deplores the changes in her little town of Crosby, Maine, and in the world at large, but she doesn’t always recognize the changes in those around her: a lounge musician haunted by a past romance; a former student who has lost the will to live; Olive’s own adult child, who feels tyrannized by her irrational sensitivities; and her husband, Henry, who finds his loyalty to his marriage both a blessing and a curse.
As the townspeople grapple with their problems, mild and dire, Olive is brought to a deeper understanding of herself and her life–sometimes painfully, but always with ruthless honesty. Olive Kitteridge offers profound insights into the human condition–its conflicts, its tragedies and joys, and the endurance it requires.
Quite interesting. One woman’s story woven throughout 13 different stories. This woman is not very likable – but by the end, I was hoping good things for her. Very much worth the time to read.
AUGUST 2010
“The Girl Who Played with Fire” by Stieg Larsson ♥♥♥♥♥
Part blistering espionage thriller, part riveting police procedural, and part piercing exposeé on social injustice, The Girl Who Played with Fireis a masterful, endlessly satisfying novel. Mikael Blomkvist, crusading publisher of the magazine Millennium, has decided to run a story that will expose an extensive sex trafficking operation. On the eve of its publication, the two reporters responsible for the article are murdered, and the fingerprints found on the murder weapon belong to his friend, the troubled genius hacker Lisbeth Salander. Blomkvist, convinced of Salander’s innocence, plunges into an investigation. Meanwhile, Salander herself is drawn into a murderous game of cat and mouse, which forces her to face her dark past.
Even better than the first!!! MUCH better! This one pulled you in from the very beginning and never let go!
“House Rules” by Jodi Picoult ♥♥♥♥♥
When your son can’t look you in the eye . . . does that mean he’s guilty?
Jacob Hunt is a teen with Asperger’s syndrome. He’s hopeless at reading social cues or expressing himself well to others, though he is brilliant in many ways. But he has a special focus on one subject—forensic analysis. A police scanner in his room clues him in to crime scenes, and he’s always showing up and telling the cops what to do. And he’s usually right.
But when Jacob’s small hometown is rocked by a terrible murder, law enforcement comes to him. Jacob’s behaviors are hallmark Asperger’s, but they look a lot like guilt to the local police. Suddenly the Hunt family, who only want to fit in, are directly in the spotlight. For Jacob’s mother, Emma, it’s a brutal reminder of the intolerance and misunderstanding that always threaten her family. For his brother, Theo, it’s another indication why nothing is normal because of Jacob.
And over this small family, the soul-searing question looms: Did Jacob commit murder?
This time it’s Asberger’s Syndrome. Mental health, legalities, ignorance, tolerance, acceptance, family, loyalty. I have a nephew with Asberger’s and I have always respected and admired my brother and sister-in-;law for how beautifully and gracefully and respectfully they have raised their son. I read this quickly because I HAD to know what happened. I think it also gives me another insight into working with my own students who have Asberger’s and other forms of Austism.
“My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey” by Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D. ♥♥♥♥
On December 10, 1996, Jill Bolte Taylor, a thirty-seven- year-old Harvard-trained brain scientist experienced a massive stroke in the left hemisphere of her brain. As she observed her mind deteriorate to the point that she could not walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of her life-all within four hours-Taylor alternated between the euphoria of the intuitive and kinesthetic right brain, in which she felt a sense of complete well-being and peace, and the logical, sequential left brain, which recognized she was having a stroke and enabled her to seek help before she was completely lost. It would take her eight years to fully recover.
For Taylor, her stroke was a blessing and a revelation. It taught her that by “stepping to the right” of our left brains, we can uncover feelings of well-being that are often sidelined by “brain chatter.” Reaching wide audiences through her talk at the Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) conference and her appearance on Oprah’s online Soul Series, Taylor provides a valuable recovery guide for those touched by brain injury and an inspiring testimony that inner peace is accessible to anyone.
A friend recommended this book. His brother-in-law suffered a debilitating stroke that changed everyone’s life around him in an instant. Sadly, he died within 5 months. This story was amazing. Extremely eye-opening and informative and full of insights we often don’t get in regards to stroke. A little dry at times – loads of medical information, necessary but makes for slow reading. Just found out it’s being made into a movie directed by Ron Howard.
SEPTEMBER 2010
“Men and Dogs” by Katie Crouch ♥♥♥
When Hannah Legare was eleven, her father went on a fishing trip in Charleston Harbor and never came back. And while most of the town and her family accepted Buzz’s disappearance, Hannah remained steadfastly convinced of his imminent return.
More then twenty years later, Hannah’s new life in San Francisco is unraveling. Her marriage is on the rocks; her business is bankrupt. After a disastrous attempt to win back her husband, she is shipped to her mother’s home to “rest up,” and she is once again sucked into the mystery of her missing father. Suspecting that those closest to her are keeping secrets — including Palmer, her emotionally closed, well-mannered brother, and Warren, the beautiful boyfriend she left behind — Hannah sets out on an uproarious, dangerous quest that will test the whole Family’s concept of loyalty and faith.
Funny, weird story about a girl and her search for her father – and what she finds instead.
“My Name Is Memory” by Ann Brashares ♥♥♥♥♥
From the New York Times-bestselling author of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and The Last Summer (of You and Me) comes an imaginative, inspired, magical book-a love story that lasts more than a lifetime.
Daniel has spent centuries falling in love with the same girl. Life after life, crossing continents and dynasties, he and Sophia (despite her changing name and form) have been drawn together, and he remembers it all. Daniel has “the memory”, the ability to recall past lives and recognize souls of those he’s previously known. It is a gift and a curse. For all the times that he and Sophia have been drawn together throughout history, they have also been torn painfully, fatally, apart. A love always too short.
Interwoven through Sophia and Daniel’s unfolding present day relationship are glimpses of their expansive history together. From 552 Asia Minor to 1918 England and 1972 Virginia, the two souls share a long and sometimes torturous path of seeking each other time and time again. But just when young Sophia (now “Lucy” in the present) finally begins to awaken to the secret of their shared past, to understand the true reason for the strength of their attraction, the mysterious force that has always torn them apart reappears. Ultimately, they must come to understand what stands in the way of their love if they are ever to spend a lifetime together.
A magical, suspenseful, heartbreaking story of true love, My Name is Memory proves the power and endurance of a union that was meant to be.
LOVED THIS STORY!!! This love story is timeless, tragic, uplifting, dangerous, heart-wrenching and beautiful: all at the same time. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. I want to read it again.
OCTOBER 2010
“The Rest of Her Life” by Laura Moriarty ♥♥♥
In The Rest of Her Life, Laura Moriarty delivers a luminous, compassionate, and provocative look at how mothers and daughters with the best intentions can be blind to the harm they do to one another.
Leigh is the mother of high-achieving, popular high school senior Kara. Their relationship is already strained for reasons Leigh does not fully understand when, in a moment of carelessness, Kara makes a mistake that ends in tragedy — the effects of which not only divide Leigh’s family, but polarize the entire community. We see the story from Leigh’s perspective, as she grapples with the hard reality of what her daughter has done and the devastating consequences her actions have on the family of another teenage girl in town, all while struggling to protect Kara in the face of rising public outcry.
Like the best works of Jane Hamilton, Jodi Picoult, and Alice Sebold, Laura Moriarty’s The Rest of Her Life is a novel of complex moral dilemma, filled with nuanced characters and a page-turning plot that makes readers ask themselves, “What would I do?”
Good – not great. Mother-daughter issues. Read this right after “My Name Is Memory” – not sure any book would have wowed me after that one. I liked it enough to read another one of hers, though.
“While I’m Falling” by Laura Moriarty ♥♥♥
Ever since her parents announced that they’re getting divorced, Veronica has been falling. Hard. A junior in college, she’s fallen in love. She’s fallen behind in her difficult coursework. She hates her job at the dorm, and she longs for the home that no longer exists. When an attempt to escape the pressure, combined with bad luck, lands her in a terrifying situation, a shaken Veronica calls her mother for help – only to find her former foundation too preoccupied to offer any assistance at all. But Veronica only gets to feel hurt for so long. Her mother shows up at the dorm with a surprising request – and with the elderly family dog in tow. Veronica soon finds herself with a new set of problems, and new questions about love and independence. Darkly humorous, compelling, and filled with crystalline observations, While I’m Falling takes a deep look at a relationship between a mother and a daughter when one is trying to grow up and the other is trying to stay afloat.
Better than the previous Laura Moriarty book I read. I liked these characters – I could really feel for them. Another mother/daughter book – more humor this time… probably why I liked it better.
NOVEMBER 2010
“Blessings” by Anna Quindlen ♥♥♥♥
Late one night, a teenage couple drives up to the big white clapboard home on the Blessing estate and leaves a box. In that instant, the lives of those who live and work there are changed forever. Skip Cuddy, the caretaker, finds a baby girl asleep in that box and decides he wants to keep the child . . . while Lydia Blessing, the matriarch of the estate, for her own reasons, agrees to help him. Blessings explores how the secrets of the past affect decisions and lives in the present; what makes a person or a life legitimate or illegitimate and who decides; and the unique resources people find in themselves and in a community. This is a powerful novel of love, redemption, and personal change by the Pulitzer Prize–winning writer about whom The Washington Post Book Worldsaid, “Quindlen knows that all the things we ever will be can be found in some forgotten fragment of family.”
Lovely story – seemed like a place I would love to live – with some quite interesting and unique characters. I cried at the end.
“Gods in Alabama” by Joshilyn Jackson ♥♥♥
When Arlene Fleet headed off to college in Chicago, she made three promises to God: She would never again lie, never fornicate outside of marriage, and never, ever go back to her tiny hometown of Possett, Alabama (the “fourth rack of Hell”). All God had to do in exchange was to make sure the body of high school quarterback Jim Beverly was never found. Ten years later, Arlene has kept her promises, but an old schoolmate has recently turned up asking questions. And now Arlene s African American beau has given her a tough ultimatum: introduce him to her family, or he s gone. As she prepares to confront guilt, discrimination, and a decade of deception, Arlene is about to discover just how far she will go to find redemption–and love.
Interesting – I liked the characters and the flow of the story. It’s amazing the assumptions we make and how they drive our choices and our lives. I just loved the title – very fitting.
“Making Toast: A Family Story” by Roger Rosenblatt ♥♥♥♥♥
“How long are you staying, Boppo?”
“Forever.”
When his daughter, Amy—a gifted doctor, mother, and wife—collapses and dies from an asymptomatic heart condition, Roger Rosenblatt and his wife, Ginny, leave their home on the South Shore of Long Island to move in with their son-in-law, Harris, and their three young grandchildren: six-year-old Jessica, four-year-old Sammy, and one-year-old James, known as Bubbies. Long past the years of diapers, homework, and recitals, Roger and Ginny—Boppo and Mimi to the kids—quickly reaccustom themselves to the world of small children: bedtime stories, talking toys, playdates, nonstop questions, and nonsequential thought. Though reeling from Amy’s death they carry on, reconstructing a family, sustaining one another, and guiding three lively, alert, and tender-hearted children through the pains and confusions of grief. As he marvels at the strength of his son-in-law, a surgeon, and the tenacity and skill of his wife, a former kindergarten teacher, Roger attends each day to “the one household duty I have mastered”—preparing the morning toast perfectly to each child’s liking.
With the wit, heart, precision, and depth of understanding that has characterized his work, Roger Rosenblatt peels back the layers on this most personal of losses to create both a tribute to his late daughter and a testament to familial love. The day Amy died, Harris told Ginny and Roger, “It’s impossible.” Roger’s story tells how a family makes the possible of the impossible.
Beautifully told story. I read several parts of it out loud to Toby and the kids. I laughed out loud. I cried. I wanted to eat breakfast and have some of Boppo’s perfect toast. I want to know how they are all doing… a sweet and powerful story of love.
DECEMBER 2010
“Knit Two” by Kate Jacobs ♥♥♥♥
Five years later, the members of The Friday Night Knitting Club celebrate the stresses and joys of being mothers, wives, daughters and friends.
Another Friday Night Knitting Club book. The writing is not going to win any Pulitzer Prizes or National Book Awards – but I love these women! I love these books! They are quick and easy reads that make you feel good and loved.. and important as a woman. I love the ease of the stories and the connections of the women…. and now, a few men! I want more!! AND…. I want my own knitting store.
“Julie & Julia: 365 Days, 524 recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen” by Julie Powell ♥♥♥♥♥
With the humor of Bridget Jones and the vitality of Augusten Burroughs, Julie Powell recounts how she conquered every recipe in Julia Child’sMastering the Art of French Cooking and saved her soul.
Julie Powell is 30-years-old, living in a rundown apartment in Queens and working at a soul-sucking secretarial job that’s going nowhere. She needs something to break the monotony of her life, and she invents a deranged assignment. She will take her mother’s dog-eared copy of Julia Child’s 1961 classic Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and she will cook all 524 recipes. In the span of one year. At first she thinks it will be easy. But as she moves from the simple Potage Parmentier (potato soup) into the more complicated realm of aspics and crepes, she realizes there’s more to Mastering the Art of French Cooking than meets the eye.
With Julia’s stern warble always in her ear, Julie haunts the local butcher, buying kidneys and sweetbreads. She sends her husband on late-night runs for yet more butter and rarely serves dinner before midnight. She discovers how to mold the perfect Orange Bavarian, the trick to extracting marrow from bone, and the intense pleasure of eating liver. And somewhere along the line she realizes she has turned her kitchen into a miracle of creation and cuisine. She has eclipsed her life’s ordinariness through spectacular humor, hysteria, and perseverance.
She is such a funny and entertaining writer! I have to admit, though, throughout the entire book I pictured “her” as Amy Adams — the actress who played her in the movie. I laughed out loud OFTEN at her hysterical and often cranky, take on life and cooking and marriage. I was surprised there wasn’t more on Julia Child in the book – I had seen the movie first, so I expected more of Julia Child herself. I still enjoyed it. And, her story was one of the catalysts for me to start my “365 Thank You Notes” project. 365 notes is nothin’ compared to 524 recipes…. incredibly difficult french recipes!
