SmallWorld Reads

The Sunday Salon: Mid-Year Review

2013-06-09T10:11:00.001-04:00

My book blogging has reached a new low in these past six months, but I'm trying to catch up with regular reviews! I am slowly, slowly catching up, but some of these links will go to amazon.com rather than my own review.

Books Read January 1–June 1

Best Books So Far

Unbroken: an absolutely stunning novel about survival and resilience during WWII (nonfiction)
The Story of Beautiful Girl: Absolutely mesmerizing story of Lynnie, a beautiful inmate at the School for the Incurable and Feebleminded; Homan, a deaf man who is also locked away there; and Martha, a widow in her 70s who becomes tangled in their lives.
Expecting Adam: Martha and John, young Harvard graduate students, find out the life-changing news: their unborn baby, a boy, has Down Syndrome. They are shocked beyond words. This is Harvard, the land of geniuses and IQs off the charts. There is no room in Harvard for anything "less" than "perfect." Terminate now, they are told over and over again. This is their family's beautiful story. (memoir)
And, well, of course I have to add To Kill a Mockingbird, which I read again while teaching American Lit. It just never loses it's magic for me.

Biggest Surprises
The good: What Alice Forgot. I almost put this one back on the shelf because the jacket description sounded silly, but I absolutely loved this story of what we'd like to keep forgotten.

The bad: Other Voices, Other Rooms. I've been wanting to read this Truman Capote novel for decades—since singer/songwriter Nanci Griffith came out with her album by the same name. She's holding a copy of the novel on the album cover. (Yes, I know there aren't "albums" anymore, but you know what I mean.) I was pretty disappointed in this short novel, which I actually bought with delight at Shakespeare and Co. Bookseller while we were in Paris.

Books Read in Book Club

Interred with Their Bones. Mixed reviews in book club, but the general consensus was similar to my review.
Moonflower Vine. Well-received. Those who read it loved it!
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Unfortunately that was a book club in which only a few members could come, so we didn't have much discussion. But this is one of my favorites! I did a paper on it in graduate school.

I must admit that I did not read the other two books for Book Club. Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods was one. I detest this book. OK, I actually only read a few chapters of it a few years ago, but I threw it across the room. I just couldn't bear to hear about a guy who can go buy anything he wants to randomly hike the A.T. because he thinks it would be a great story. My husband has a lifelong dream of hiking the A.T., so I have personal issues, I know. The other book was The Paris Wife, the story of Ernest Hemingway and his first wife, Hadley. I'd still like to read this one, but I thought I was going to be absent from book club that month. And while I didn't read The Paris Wife, we did pay homage to Hemingway's digs and neighborhood while we were in Paris.

Where Hemingway and Hadley lived in Paris

Movies/Plays from Books
• With my American Lit class, I watched The Crucible and Ethan Frome. I loved both of them, although I've seen them both before. We're going to be getting together this summer to watch To Kill a Mockingbird and a few other classic movies based on American literature.
• We also went to see the play A Raisin in the Sun at the Clarence Brown Theatre at the campus of U. Tenn. The kids seemed to like the play pretty well. I love hearing them discuss how this actor wasn't what he expected, or how a particular scene was done differently that she imagined from reading the play.
• I watched Sarah's Key finally. I liked it well enough, but it's been years since I read the book. I've heard others say they didn't like the movie at all because it deviated so much from the book; fortunately, I have a short memory for such things.
• I'm really looking forward to seeing The Great Gatsby. I re-read the novel (my old college copy) on the train from Paris to Normandy and loved it almost as much as I did way back when. I think I loved it most in college, but I remember some great discussions from my high school English class as well. We got to France right before the movie was released, and the metro was plastered with movie posters. They're excited in France, too!

Added to My TBR List

The Keeper of Secrets by Julie Thomas.
The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls by Anton Disclafani.
A Hundred Summers by Beatriz Williams
The Silver Star by Jeannette Walls
41 False Starts: Essays on Artists and Writers by Janet Malcolm
Ghost Moth by Michele Forbes
Songs of Willow Frost by Jamie Ford
And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
Riding the Bus with My Sister by Rachel Simon
The Baker's Daughter by Sarah McCoy
Clair de Lune by Jetta Carleton
In My Father's Country by Saima Wahab
Autobiography of Us by Aria Beth Sloss
Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee
Losing Julia by Jonathan Hull
Astray by Emma Donoghue
The Round House by Louise Erdrich
Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo
Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Mataxas

And last, but not least, a few more bookish photos from our trip to France!

Jesse at Baudelaire's grave

Samuel Beckett, no longer waiting for Godot

Victor Hugo's tomb marker in the crypt beneath the Pantheon

And a bit about Les Mis while in the Paris sewers. Yes, really.

My oldest, an English major, loved the booksellers along the Seine

Breathing in the history, walking in the footsteps of great writers!

We all had to buy a book or two.

Beneath the Pantheon.

And that is my mid-year update! Now, to get back to regular book reviews!

Book Review: Unbroken

2013-06-04T08:04:00.001-04:00

Since starting a year-long World War II study with my 12-year-old, I've been told many times that I must read Laura Hillenbrand's Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption. I am so glad I finally did.

This is the true story of Louis Zamperini, a punk kid turned Olympic athlete turned bombardier—and then POW. Zamperini's story is an incredible story of strength, faith, and determination on so many levels. After his plane crashes into the sea while searching for another plane, Zamperini and two other men survive and drift in a tiny raft for 47 days, drinking only rainwater, eating birds and an occasional fish, and fighting off sharks. One man dies, and eventually Zamperini and Phil wash up on land, only to find themselves at the mercy of the Japanese.

For the next two and a half years, Zamperini endures unbelievable atrocities at the hands of his Japanese captors. Although nearly all the guards are brutal, Louis becomes the particular favorite of Mutsuhiro "The Bird" Watanabe, a psychotic sadist who finds particular pleasure in torturing Louis. Starved and diseased in general, Louis endures daily beatings that leave him unconscious and psychological battering that leave him terrified but determined to survive.

When the camp was liberated in 1945, the 700 men were skeletons, battered almost beyond recognition. Louis had been pronounced dead years before, but his family refused to believe it. The world was shocked and skeptical to hear that this beloved Olympic athlete was still alive. But Louis has years of torture still to come, as his life after the war was haunted by The Bird.

To say this was an incredible story is an understatement. I don't often weep while reading, but I wept during many parts of this book. What these men endured is just mind-boggling—and how their captors could be so cruel is equally mind-boggling. It is uplifting to see how the human spirit can be so resilient, yet terrifying to imagine the flip side of that: that humans can be so vicious and inhumane.

Don't miss this book. It is an incredible story, and in spite of the subject matter, an incredibly uplifting one.

More World War II books reviewed here.

Book Review: The Dovekeepers

2013-05-04T08:16:00.002-04:00

I didn't know what I was getting into with Alice Hoffman's The Dovekeepers, but I had been told by a friend that this was her book club's favorite. And wow! She was right—this was an absolutely stunning novel.

First of all, I didn't realize when I began the novel that all roads were leading to the real story of Masada, a mountain fortress where 900 Jewish rebels held out against the Roman army until it was no longer feasible. I probably skimmed the book flaps, so I was through at least a quarter of the book before it clicked. I had to read up on Masada a bit to get some context, and that helped tremendously.

The Dovekeepers tells the stories of four extraordinary women who end up at Masada: Yael, a young woman whose father despises her because her mother died in childbirth; Revka, the Baker's Wife, who watched her daughter brutally murdered; Azizah, who is more comfortable as a warrior than as a woman; and Shirah, known as "the witch of Moab." The stories are told separately but are interconnected, all touching each other and building to an incredible ending. All but two women and five children killed themselves at Masada. As the reader figures out, two of these four women will survive. But who?

I loved Francine Rivers' Mark of the Lion series, which chronicles a similar time period. I've been immersed in Old Testament stories my entire life, but I love having the culture—the religious and social customs—fleshed out and vividly portrayed. Hoffman is simply masterful at creating this world with all its violence, passion, religious fervor, sorrow, and utter despair.

The book takes work for the reader. You have to really concentrate on the characters and carry them through from section to section, remembering who is who. This is a novel to concentrate on, not to read in snippets here and there. But it is so worth it. Highly recommended, both on a historical level and as a novel of the endurance of the human spirit.

Linked up with Semicolon's Saturday Review of Books

Book Review: What Alice Forgot

2013-04-16T07:49:00.003-04:00

I almost put this book by Liane Moriarty back on the shelf. After reading the inside flap, I thought it sounded silly and wondered why I had it on my TBR list. Plus, I didn't like the cover. But because I am determined to make a dent in my TBR list this year, I checked it out. And I'm so glad I did!

The book's description makes it sound silly and flippant, but this book is anything but silly. Alice has a terrible fall, bangs her head, and wakes up in the hospital—and she's lost 10 terrible years of her life. Alice has no memory of having become a cold, brittle, callous woman who wears expensive clothes, has a personal trainer, does her kids' science projects so they'll win everything, and has filed for divorce. She remembers only that she is expecting her first child and is blissfully married to the love of her life.

It isn't one of those terrible amnesia stories but an incredibly thought-provoking tale of: how did I become this person? How did I stray so far from who I really am—and who am I, really? I found myself rooting for the old Alice, cheering for her as she ditches her rich and snotty friends. At the same time I felt incredibly sad, knowing that her lifestyle before her head injury is so common and so damaging to kids and marriages.

In the end, it's a book largely of do-overs. What if you had the gift of being able to forget all the horrible mistakes you made in a decade—but had to forget the births of your children and all those precious memories, too?

Highly recommended.

Linked up with the Saturday Review of Books at Semicolon

Book Review: City of Thieves

2013-03-27T16:08:00.000-04:00

Lots and lots of people have told me that I need to read David Benioff's City of Thieves, and they were right. The novel is based on the author's grandfather's stories of surviving WWII in Russia. It's a stark, frightening picture of survival, but there was something terribly heartwarming about the novel.

It's during the Seige in Leningrad. People are starving, doing anything to survive. Seventeen-year-old Lev Beniov is caught trying to steal from a German paratrooper's dead body. Rather than being executed, he and another young prisoner are charged with what seems to be an impossible task: they must find a dozen eggs for the colonel's daughter's wedding cake. Lev is a shy, articulate son of a famous Russian poet; his unlikely partner is the boisterous, reckless Kolya, an army deserter.

The two take off across the city and through the countryside in search of eggs. People are starving everywhere. Lev and Kolya take incredible risks, but both are so certain that they are going to die, it doesn't seem to matter. The are completely mismatched. Where Lev lacks confidence, Kolya is bold. Where Kolya is rash, Lev is cautious and thoughtful. I liked both of them tremendously.

The story is incredibly heartbreaking but still uplifting. It's a coming of age story for Lev, a war story, and a romance all tied into one tight, beautifully written novel. Highly recommended.

Book Review: Expecting Adam—A True Story of Birth, Rebirth, and Everyday Magic

2013-03-23T09:05:00.001-04:00

"Now I think that the vast majority of us 'normal' people spend our lives trashing our treasures and treasuring our trash. We bustle around trying to create the impression that we are hip, imperturbable, omniscient, in perfect control, when in fact we are awkward and scared and bewildered. … Living with Adam, loving Adam, has taught me a lot about the truth. He has taught me to look at things in themselves, not at the value a brutal and often senseless world assigns to them."

In the memoir Expecting Adam, Martha Beck and her husband John are a young couple caught up in the crazy haze of graduate school at Harvard and new parenthood. Harvard looms like an overbearing, impossible-to-please parent in every corner of their world; the pressure to succeed at Harvard eclipses everything else in their lives. Their world consists of tag-team parenting, little sleep, constant rushing, and determination to stay on top.

And then Martha discovers that she is pregnant again, just as they were starting to figure out how to balance Katie, their toddler, with Harvard and John's new consulting job in Singapore. Martha writes that "motherhood had made me the odd person out among my classmates; they were polite and kind to me but understandably less than fascinated by the details of my life as a nursing mother. I would show up at class after a night in the emergency room, where Katie had been put through a battery of hideously painful tests to determine the cause of some raging illness, and pretend that I really cared abut the contrast between Karl Marx's view of historical necessity and Max Weber's."

Martha is violently ill during pregnancy, barely able to function. A couple of women she barely knew show up at her door, bearing food and emotional support, and she makes actual true friends for the first time in her adult life. Every day is a struggle for Martha and for John during the weeks that he is at Harvard, but they manage—barely.

Martha was violently ill during her first pregnancy, too, but this one is different. She has all kinds of dreams and intuits that something is not right with this pregnancy, and yet rather than panicking, she feels oddly comforted. She finds out much, much later, even years later, that John had similar experiences.

And then they find out the life-changing news: the unborn baby, a boy, has Down Syndrome. They are shocked beyond words. This is Harvard, the land of geniuses and IQs off the charts. There is no room in Harvard for anything "less" than "perfect." Terminate now, they are told over and over again. John's Harvard mentor, some kind of demi-god, tells John that his career is over if they have this baby.

John and Martha, though both raised in Mormon homes, aren't religious. Both are staunchly pro-choice. But the idea of aborting their baby is abhorrent to Martha and ultimately to John. They have no idea what they will do with a baby with Down Syndrome, but Martha's skills as a researcher kick in, and she finds out everything she can (which, at the time, wasn't much).

From the moment they find out they are expecting Adam, everything changes for Martha and John and Katie. They go from living a life of outrageously high expectations to a life of quiet expectation and joy.

"I really thought there would be a miracle," said John softly… "I really thought God would fix him."
I considered that for a minute. "Maybe he didn't need fixing," I said. "Maybe he's the only one of us who was never broken."
John looked at me. "Are you broken, sweetheart?"
"I was," I said. "Not anymore."
"Same here," said John. He paused, then gave me a smile—not his manic Harvard grin but a real smile, one that contained all the sorrow of the past months, along with the joy. "So," he said, "there's your miracle."

By the time Adam is born, John and Martha are changed people. They are ready to escape the Harvard life and embrace a calmer life focused on nurturing relationships. As Martha says, "I have had to unlearn virtually everything Harvard taught me about what is precious and what is garbage. I have discovered that many of the things I thought were priceless are as cheap as costume jewelry, and much of what I labeled worthless was, all the time, filled with the kidn of beauty that directly nourishes my soul."

Highly recommended. Martha's writing is fantastic and the story is one you can hardly put down.

Linked up with Semicolon's Saturday Review of Books

Book Review: The Story of Beautiful Girl

2013-03-07T08:53:00.001-05:00

Oh my goodness. Having a head cold is kinda miserable but kinda awesome—awesome because I was too miserable to do anything but lie in bed and read for two whole days. I read three novels. I'm thinking about maybe faking a cold each month.

The Story of Beautiful Girl by Rachel Simon: I can hardly even say how much I loved this. The story is about Lynnie, a beautiful inmate at the School for the Incurable and Feebleminded; Homan, a deaf man who is also locked away there; and Martha, a widow in her 70s who becomes tangled in their lives.

Lynnie and Homan are madly in love and have managed to escape the institution—but only for long enough for Lynnie to give birth to a baby girl. They seek refuge briefly with Martha, and Lynnie begs her to hide the baby. Martha does—for decades.

The rest of the novel spans 40 years or more, reflecting on Lynnie's and Homan's childhoods and reasons for being at the institution; detailing their terrible lives within the facility; following Martha and Julia's life together; and unfolding how their lives, forever intertwined, ultimately are restored.

I absolutely loved this novel. Simon is a compassionate but not overly sentimental writer. All the characters were richly drawn and practically palpable. She has obviously done tons of research on this history of mental institutions and institutional reform. I have put her memoir Riding the Bus with My Sister, her journey of riding a bus with her intellectually disabled sister, on my TBR list. Highly recommended!

Book Review: The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb

2013-02-20T19:25:00.001-05:00

Like most kids, I was fascinated with the Guinness Book of World Records, especially the editions with the medical anomalies: the Chinese conjoined twin brothers who were married to sisters, the "caterpillar" man, the lady with half a twin coming out of her belly, the tallest man in the world, and the smallest couple ever, General and Mrs. Tom Thumb. I think a part of me, as a child, never really believed those people to be real—they must be some trick of Guinness's.

But Mercy Lavinia Warren Bump—Vinnie—was a real person, and The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb by Melanie Benjamin is her fictionalized story, based on Vinnie's journals, various historical documents, and lots of imagination.

You've probably see photos of the tiny famous couple, General and Mrs. Tom Thumb. They were tiny humans (she was 2 feet, 8 inches tall), born with a form of proportionate dwarfism, touted by the great P.T. Barnum himself as "perfectly formed people in miniature." This is Vinnie's story, one of defying the odds and become first a schoolteacher and then a worldwide star, known as the "Little Queen of Beauty," who dined with royalty and attended parties with the Astors and other society kings and queens. It's also the story of a young woman torn by her love for his sister and her love for a man she can't have, a woman who can't seem to find her own real identity.

I absolutely loved this novel. Melanie Benjamin is a fabulous storyteller; Vinnie's voice comes through loud and clear. Vinnie is pragmatic, courageous, and terribly smart. I loved the friendship formed between Vinnie and Barnum, as well as the relationship—especially the moments that almost happen— with her husband, Charles Stratton (AKA, Tom Thumb).

I think Vinnie would love to know her story has been told, fictionalized though it is, and I suspect the great P.T. Barnum himself might find it amusing—and partly true. Really excellent read!

The Sunday Salon: My Ever-Growing TBR List (2013)

2013-02-17T08:11:00.000-05:00

In 2012 I added 38 books to my TBR list and marked off 19. Some year perhaps I'll challenge myself to only reading books from my TBR list so I can actually make some progress! I've adjusted my 2012 list for 2013 by marking off those books I read last year.

If you've reviewed any of these books on your blog, feel free to post a comment with the link and I'll add it to my list.
*Indicates books added in 2013

*41 False Starts: Essays on Artists and Writers by Janet Malcolm
An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith by Barbara Brown Taylor
*And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
Annie's Ghosts: A Journey into a Family Secret by Steve Luxenberg.
Aprons on a Clothesline by T. DePree
Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez
The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Philipp Sendker
*Astray by Emma Donoghue
Autobiography of a Recovering Skinhead: The Frank Meeink Story as Told by Jody M. Roy, Ph.D. (reviewed at Musings of a Bookish Kitty)
~~The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb by Melanie Benjamin~~ (read and reviewed 2/13)
*Autobiography of Us by Aria Beth Sloss

*The Baker's Daughter by Sarah McCoy

Barefoot in Baghdad by Manal M. Omar (reviewed at Bookworm's Dinner)
Before the Storm by Diane Chamberlain
The Beginner's Goodbye by Anne Tyler
*Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo

Behind the Burqa by Sulima and Hala (reviewed by Semicolon)
Blackberry Winter by Sarah Jio
Blood Hollow by W. Krueger
Blood of Flowers by A. Amirrezvani
Blood Work by M Connelly
*Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Mataxas

Book of a Thousand Days by S. Hale (reviewed on Semicolon and Maw Books)
Book of Lost Things by J. Connelly
Bootletter’s Daughter by M. Maron
Born on a Blue Day by D. Tammet (reviewed on Sam’s Book Blog)
Breakfast at Tiffany's by Capote
*Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee.
~~City of Thieves~~ by David Benioff (read and reviewed 3/13)
*Clair de Lune by Jetta Carleton

Close Your Eyes by Amanda Eye Ward
Coming Up for Air by Patti Callahan Henry
Commoner by J.B. Schwarz
Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman
A Country Doctor’s Casebook by R. MacDonald
The Dawning of the Day: A Jerusalem Tale by Haim Sabato
Deadline by Randy Alcorn
Departed, The by K. Mackel
Digging to America by Anne Tyler
Dinner with a Perfect Stranger by D. Gregory
Dough: A Memoir by Mort Zachter (reviewed by Lisa at 5 Minutes for Books)
~~The Dovekeepers~~ by Alice Hoffman (read and reviewed 4/13)
Dry Grass of August by Anna Jean Mayhew
Every Last One by Anna Quindlen (Reviewed at S. Krishna's Books)
The Evolution of Adam by Peter Enns
Executioner's Song by Mailer
~~Expecting Adam~~ by Martha Beck (read and reviewed 3/13)
Extraordinary Journey of a Desert Nomad by Waris Darie (reviewed at Maw Books)
Far to Go by Alison Pick (Reviewed by Kristina at The Book Keeper)
Family Nobody Wanted by Doss
Fatal Vision by J. McGinnis
Father, Mother, God: My Journey Out of Christian Science by Lucia Greenhouse
First Wife by Emily Barr (recommended by Fleur Fisher)
Flowers by D. Gilb
Fortune Cookie Chronicles by J. Lee
Franklin and Lucy by Joseph Persico
Gentle Rain by Deborah Smith (reviewed by Leah at Good Reads)
Ghost Map by S. Jackson
* Ghost Moth by Michele Forbes
Ghost Writer, The by J. Harwood
The Girl in the Italian Bakery by Kenneth Tingle
The Girls by Lori Lansens
Giving Up the Ghost by Hilary Mantel
Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton
Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry
Hava: The Story of Eve by Tosca Lee (added 1/09; reviewed by My Friend Amy)
Heaven by R. Alcorn
The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent (reviewed by Gautami at Reading Room)
High House, The by James Stoddard
Hiroshima by John Hershey
Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow by Susan C. Bartoletti (reviewed by Natasha at Maw Books)
Hot Zone by R. Preston (reviewed by Semicolon)
How Reading Changed My Life by Anna Quindlen (mentioned by The Magic Lasso)
Human Cargo by C. Moorehead
*A Hundred Summers by Beatriz Williams.
I Am Scout by Charles J. Shields (reviewed by Becky)
In Country by Bobbie Ann Mason
*In My Father's Country by Saima Wahab
Introverts in the Church by Adam McHugh
Iris and Ruby by Rosie Thomas
Ishmael by E. Southwark
Jesus, My Father, the CIA, and Me by Ian Morgan Cron (reviewed at Rachel Held Evans)
*The Keeper of Secrets by Julie Thomas.
Keeping the House by E. Baker
Last Chinese Chef by Nicole Mones (reviewed by Bookeywookey)
Last Days of Summer by Steve Kluger (reviewed at Thoughts of Joy)
Last Storyteller by D. Noble
Leave it to Claire by T. Bateman
Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading by Maureen Corrigan (reviewed by Literary Feline)
Left To Tell by Immaculee Ilibagiza (reviewed at Maw Books and Just a Reading Fool)
Liar’s Diary by P. Francis (reviewed by Semicolon)
Life Among Savages by Shirley Jackson (reviewed at Dwell in Possibility)
Life Is So Good by R. Glaubman
Little Altars Everywhere by R. Wells
Living End by L. Samson
Look Me in the Eye by John Elder Robison
A Long, Long Time Ago and Essentially True by Brigid Pasulka (reviewed at The Lost Entwife)
* Losing Julia by Jonathan Hull

Lost Children of Wilder by N. Bernstein
Love Anthony by Lisa Genova
Loving Frank by N. Horan
Mad Girls in Love by M. West
Man without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut
Many Sleepless Nights by Lee Gutkind
Mariner's Compass by E. Fowler
The Memory Palace by Mira Bartok
Mercy Falls by WK Krueger
Minding the South by J. Reed
Moloka’I by A. Brennert
Monique and the Mango Rains by Kris Holloway (Reviewed at The Bluestocking Society)
~~The Moonflower Vine~~ by Jetta Carleton (read and reviewed 2/13)
Mrs. Tom Thumb by Melanie Benjamin
Murder in the Name of Honor by Rana Husseini (Reviewed at Reading Through Life)
My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier (Reviewed by Reading to Know)
Night Strangers by Chris Bohjalian
The Ninth Wife by Amy Stolls
Noah's Compass by Anne Tyler
Not without My Daughter by B. Mahmoody
Other Voices, Other Rooms by Truman Capote
Papua New Guinea: Notes from a Spinning Planet by M. Carlson (reviewed by Clean Reads)
Perfect Example by John Porcellino (reviewed at The Hidden Side of the Leaf)
Please Look After Mom by Kyung-Sook Shin (reviewed at Reader Buzz)
Prairie Tale by Melissa Gilbert
Promise Not To Tell by Jennifer McMahon (reviewed at Missy's Book Nook)
Proof of Heaven by Mary Curran Hackett
Property by Valerie Martin (reviewed by The Magic Lasso)
Quaker Summer by Lisa Samson
Quilter’s Apprentice by J. Chiaverini
The Quilt Walk by Sandra Dallas
Raising Demons by Shirley Jackson
Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
Refuge on Crescent Hill by Melanie Dobson (Reviewed at Reading to Know)
The Reservoir by John Milliken Thompson
*Riding the Bus with My Sister by Rachel Simon.
Rise and Shine by Anna Quindlen
Rises the Night by C. Gleason
*The Round House by Louise Erdrich
Ruined by Reading: A Life in Books by Lynne Schwartz (reviewed on Shelf Life)
Rumspringa by Shactman
Rush Home Road by Lori Lansens
Russian Concubine by Kate Furnivall
Sailing Alone Around the Room by Billy Collins (reviewed by Just a Reading Fool)
Same Kind of Different As Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore (recommended by Stray Thoughts)
Saving Levi Left to Die by Lisa Bently
*Secret Keeper by Kate Morton
Secret Keeper by Mitali Perkins (Reviewed by Word Lily)
Secrets of Eden by Chris Bohjalian (Reviewed at In the Pages)Sentimental, Heartbroken Rednecks by Greg Bottoms (Reviewed by Sage)
Seven Loves by Trueblood
She Got Up Off the Couch: And Other Heroic Acts from Mooreland, Indiana by Haven Kimmel
The Shoemaker's Wife by Adriana Trigiani
*The Silver Star by Jeannette Walls
Slaves, Women & Homosexuals by William J. Webb
The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey.
So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell
The Soldier's Wife by Margaret Leroy (reviewed at Polishing Mud Balls)
Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill
Someone Named Eva by Joan M. Wolf (reviewed at Maw Books)
Some Girls by Jillian Lauren (reviewed by Book Club Classics)
Song of the Cuckoo Bird by Amulya Malladi
Song Yet Sung by James McBride
Songs for the Missing by Stewart O'Nan
*Songs of Willow Frost by Jamie Ford
Soon to Be a Major Motion Picture by Donna Partow
State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
Stillwater by William Weld
Stoner by John Williams (suggested by JoAnn at Every Day Matters)
~~The Story of Beautiful Girl~~ by Rachel Simon (read and reviewed 2/13)
The Strange Case of the Broad Street Pump by Sandra Hempel
Summer Crossing by Truman Capote (reviewed by CaribousMom)
Summerland by M. Cabon
Teahouse Fire, The by Ellis Avery
Stones Cry Out by M Szymusiak
Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain (recommended at Musings)
There Are No Children Here by A. Kotlowitz
Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself by Alan Alda
This Boy's Life by Tobias Wolff
Thousand Years of Good Prayers by Yiyun Li
The Threadbare Heart by Jenny Nash (reviewed at Maw Books)
Three Cups of Tea by G. Mortenson
The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht
Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum
Thousand Lives by Julia Scheeres
Time Between by Mary Duenas
To My Senses by A. Weis (reviewed by J. Kaye)
Tomorrow, the River by D. Gray
Translator: A Tribesman's Memoir of Darfur by D. Hari (reviewed by CaribousMom and Maw Books)
Trauma and Ghost Town by P. McGrath
Unbearable Lightness of Being by Kundera
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
Uprising by Margaret Haddix (reviewed by Semicolon)
Undress me in the Temple of Heaven by Susan Jane Gilman (reviewed by Book Zombie)
Very Valentine by Adriana Trigiani
The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
Well and the Mine, The by Gin Phillips (reviewed by Semicolon)
Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty (read and reviewed 3/13)
What I Though I Knew by Alice Eve Cohen
What Is What by D. Eggers (reviewed at Maw Books)
What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day by Pearl Cleage
What Peace There May Be by Susanna Brarlow
What Was Lost by Catherine O'Flynn (Reviewed at Big A, Little A)
When I Lay My Isaac Down by C. Kent
When She Woke by Hillary Jordan
When We Were Strangers by Pamela Schoenewalt
Wherever you Go by Joan Leegant (reviewed by Bibliophiliac)
Whistling in the Dark by L. Kagen
Who Killed My Daughter by Lois Duncan (Reviewed at Nonfiction Lover)
Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah
Winter Seeking by V. Wright
Winter Walk by L. Cox
Woman in White by Wilkie Collins (recommended at Rebecca Reads)
Women of the Silk by G. Tsuriyama
Year of Living Biblically by AJ Jacobs (reviewed by Andi Lit)
Years of Grace by Margaret Ayer Barnes
*The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls by Anton Disclafani.

Book Review: The Moonflower Vine

2013-02-11T20:43:00.005-05:00

I put Jetta Carleton's The Moonflower Vine on my TBR list because it was listed on The Neglected Books Page and sounded like something I would love. My book club thought it sounded so good that it made the list of 2013 books to read. The good news is: I loved it. The bad news: Jetta Carleton only wrote one other novel, Clair de Lune, which I quickly added to my TBR list.

The Moonflower Vine opens from the point of view of Mary Jo, the youngest of four daughters, as the family reunites for its annual two week vacation on the old homestead. The sisters are grown and have their own lives 11 months of the year, but for this short time, the ties of family ground them, bind them, and comfort them. The novel then backtracks to tell each family member's story in his or her own voice.

Matthew Soames is the father, a school teacher and farmer who falls in love too easily. His wife Callie is illiterate and content to be so, which frustrates Matthew. Their four daughters just don't turn out the way they imagined they would, and much of the book is about how they cope with the ups and downs of growing children who inevitably go away, whether physically or emotionally or both.

Each section tells a portion of a family member's life, a slice of something life-changing for him or her, and offers a secret that each member keeps. The stories were thoroughly engrossing and beautifully told. I wanted to savor this book, to make it last for evening after evening. Carleton is a lyrical, poetic writer who beautifully captures the smells, tastes, textures, and emotions of being a parent, a daughter, a teenager, a woman. She reminds me in many ways of Willa Cather, although this novel is less melancholy and wistful than Cather's novels.

I am definitely going to check out more of the lesser known classics on the Neglected Books Page. Who knows what other treasures await?

Book Review: Blue Shoe

2013-02-01T08:31:00.001-05:00

I pretty much love Anne Lamott. Actually, this is only the second novel of hers that I've read (Imperfect Birds was my first), but I think I can safely say that I love her (in a reader kind of way) after reading interviews and snippets of essays and these two novels. She's just has such an uncanny sense of recording those ordinary thoughts and fears that most of us have but don't really want to express.

Blue Shoe is Mattie Ryder's story. She's in her late 30s and had finally found the courage to leave her cheating, jerk husband, who almost immediately moves in with his girlfriend. She's really just trying to keep herself together for the first part of the book. That sounds kind of tedious, I know, but this is where Lamott is so amazing for me. I like details. I love Mattie's thought process, for example, about her daughter's nail-biting habits. Mattie remembers how traumatized she was as a girl when her parents called her out and humiliated her; she refuses to do this to her daughter and instead looks for other ways to break her habit. I loved this telling of good parenting. Blue Shoe is filled with moments like this.

As Mattie moves through the first year of her divorce, she starts slowly building a new life. Part of that includes discovering things about her past. Through bits and pieces of conversation, she learns that her father was not who she thought he was. She begins wondering what was really going on in the adult world when she was a child. I know that feeling so well as an adult—looking back and wondering, "what was really going on?" That part of the story was not my favorite part, but it was still intriguing.

And running through the whole novel is the struggle of the sandwich generation. How do we care for our young kids and our aging parents? How do we navigate being a good mother and a good daughter? I love the moments when Mattie looks in the mirror and tries to really see herself, wonders who she is, what others see.

This isn't a novel that reveals great mysteries or holds a series of dramatic events. It's just a novel of an ordinary woman who is pulled in a dozen different directions, who picks herself up and moves on after heartbreak, and who loves those around her deeply. Lamott is an insightful, lyrical writer, and I will be continuing on my pursuit of reading all her books.

Book Review: Interred with Their Bones

2013-01-25T08:50:00.000-05:00

The New York Times called Jennifer Lee Carrell's Interred with Their Bones a "feverishly paced action adventure." Honestly, my only feverish pace was to hurry up and finish it so that I could say "I read it" at book club.

Basically, this book is a hunt for a lost Shakespearean play, coupled with the perennial question: who really wrote Shakespeare's plays? Way too much happened in this novel. I got hung up on the little things, like how do these people afford to fly all around the world? How do they just happen to get flights so quickly? When do they sleep? Why does Kate keep involving innocent people in her quest, knowing they will be murdered? How did Kate go from being a Harvard professor to a director at The Globe in her late 20s? And how can they just leave all these dead bodies around? And has the author actually ever been in a cave? Please. You can't just go crawling around in an unknown cave and stumble upon—oh wait. I don't want to give that away. Actually, I was so perplexed that I don't even know what they found, except more dead bodies.

I know. I'm so trivial, but I have a really hard time becoming involved in a book when I am distracted by such details. Not only were too many things happening that seemed disjointed, but the characters were rather flat and terribly unfeeling. This book is compared a lot to Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, and I must say I liked the latter much better. I probably shouldn't admit to that, but there you go.

I guess if you are absolutely enthralled with all things Shakespeare, you might enjoy this for the Shakespearean discussions. But if I hadn't felt compelled to finish this because of book club, I would have thrown it across the floor by page 50. Sadly, I wasted three entire weeks of my reading life on this book—that's how long it took to conquer these 416 tortuous pages.

Book Review: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

2013-01-21T09:03:00.002-05:00

My first read of 2013 was a re-read: Anne Brontë's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. I read this years ago in a women's lit class during graduate school, and, in fact, wrote what I remember as being a darned good paper on it. Of course that was 25 computers ago and the paper is long since lost.

I'm a big fan of the Brontë sisters, and unfortunately I think Anne gets terribly neglected. Everyone reads (or says they've read) Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, but outside of English types and diehard classic lit lovers, I don't think many people know of Anne's amazing novel.

Anne exposes the ugly side of Victorian chauvinism in this novel, exposing the physical and emotional abuse that women endured by their hedonistic, spoiled husbands. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall created quite a ruckus when it was published in 1848 for its boldness and honesty.

The story centers on Helen, a young woman who has married the handsome Arthur, much against the wishes of her guardians. Even before they are married she senses that something is not right, but she goes through with it anyway. Within a month Arthur shows his true colors: he is selfish, excessive, shallow, and he is an alcoholic. (Anne's brother, Branwell, was an alcoholic.) He leaves his young wife for months at a time to party with his friends, returning diminished, ill, and crotchety.

Helen is resigned to a life of a terrible marriage until Arthur starts turning their little boy into "one of the guys," giving him wine and teaching him to curse and demean his mother.

And I'll stop here before giving anything else away. This is a fantastic novel, just as relevant today as it was 150 years ago. I can't help but be amazed at the strength of Anne's writing and her determination and courage in writing such a strong criticism of the double-standards that existed in Victorian society—and still exist today.

2012: The Year in Books (The Sunday Salon)

2012-12-29T15:12:00.000-05:00

In 2012 I read and reviewed 47 books here on SmallWorld Reads, and probably read a total of a dozen others (juvenile fiction read aloud to my youngest).

(I've been doing this for five years now. See my other Best of the Years posts.)

Top 10 Books Read in 2012

Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks. From my review: "This was our book club's read for June, and, for perhaps the first time ever, everyone not only read but loved this novel!"

The Distant Hours by Kate Morton. From my review: "The Distant Hours is a gothic novel full of mystery, suspense, romance, and hauntings. … This is one of those books that I thought about during the day and couldn't wait to get to in the evenings."

The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton. From my review: "It was just, well, it was everything I could possibly want in a novel. A mystery with a ghost story feel. Romance, lost love, found love, familial love, orphans, good guys, villains, a manor, a secret garden (and speaking of that, well-done cameos with real life figures), fairy tales, and did I mention suspense."

The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer. From my review: "I'm really quite astounded by The Invisible Bridge. The last 50 pages or so I read in a doctor's office while waiting for a friend, and I embarrassingly wept now and then. I was slightly numb when I closed the book, stunned by human resiliency as displayed in the character but also stunned by Orringer's ability to craft such a novel."

Left Neglected by Lisa Genova. From my review: "Genova has a PhD in neuroscience from Harvard, so her novels, which deal at one level with complex neurological issues, feel so completely believable. But it isn't just the medicine that's good: Genova is a fantastic writer. She can get spot-on into the heart and soul of her characters."

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson. From my review: "This was a beautifully written, lovely novel about Ernest Pettigrew, a perfectly stuffy English gentleman. This was our book club's November read, and everyone absolutely loved it."

Room by Emma Donoghue. From my review: "Who wants to read a book about a kidnapped woman and her son, who are living in an 11X11 room and visited nightly by "Old Nick"?…But if you don't meet Jack and Ma, you're missing on two wonderful, strong, courageous characters and an unforgettable, powerful, yes—positively gripping story."

The Rebel Wife by Taylor Polites. From my review: "I had a hard time putting down this post-Civil War novel. I was even reading during breakfast and lunch, which is quite an unusual feat for this mom who usually saves reading for bedtime. The novel was that engrossing."

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien. "I was hooked from the very first line, and I was reluctant to put it down each night to sleep. I carried it with me during the day when I wasn't reading it. I carried the language of Tim O'Brien—the absolutely beautiful poetry, the lyrical longing, the heartbreak."

True Sisters by Sandra Dallas. From my review: "Sandra Dallas has once again written a fascinating tale woven around a unique piece of American history. This time her subject matter takes us out of Colorado mining country to the Mormon Trail in the mid-1800s."

• FAVORITE BOOK(s) of 2012
I'm going to have to call a tie between Kate Morton's The Forgotten Garden and Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried. I can't really compare the two: one is sort of a Gothic romance/ghost story, and the other is a gritty, heart-breaking story of war. But they were both absolutely beautifully written.

* Don't Forget the Classics!
I read several classics this year. I don't count these on my Top 10 list because, well, somehow they seem to be above such things. Here are my beloved classics from this year:

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain)
Ethan Frome (Edith Wharton)
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Maya Angelou)
My Antonia (Willa Cather)
O Pioneers! (Willa Cather)
Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Robert Louis Stevenson)
Watership Down (Richard Adams)

• I added 38 books to my Ever-Growing TBR list, and I marked off 19. That means that my TBR list continues to grow faster than I can read, and it also means I read a lot of books that aren't on my TBR list. I learned about books from posts on The Sunday Salon, Semicolon's Saturday Review of Books, from various internet sources, from personal recommendations, and especially from other book bloggers.

• Below is the total list of books read, minus the juvenile fiction. Each link leads to a review or, rarely, to amazon.com if I didn't get a chance to review it. My star-ranking system is as follows: 5 stars--must read; 4 stars--highly recommended; 3 stars--enjoyable; 2 stars--ick; 1 star--no, no, no.

Linked up with Semicolon's Saturday Review of Books Best of the Year edition

Book Review: The River Wife

2012-12-29T14:30:00.002-05:00

So, I had this novel listed by "J. Agee" on my TBR list. I assumed it was by James Agee and was distressed to see, upon finding it at the library, that the author of The River Wife is actually Jonis Agee. I nearly put the book back on the shelf but decided to take a chance. After all, I must have added it to my TBR list because of someone's great review.

The novel starts with a young wife, Hedie, who finds an old diary one night while waiting for her husband to come home. The story then shifts to Annie Ducharme and her river bandit husband, Jacques Ducharme. Eventually we get to Ducharme's second wife, and then, well, I got mixed up, honestly.

I really liked the story of Annie. And I liked the stories of Omah, Laura, and Maddie, although I'm not sure I could tell you what relation they were to Jacques, Annie, and each other. The story of Hedie was also interesting. The problem for me was that I couldn't quite piece together all of the connections these women and their stories had to Jacques. I kept feeling like something was missing, that all would be revealed just around the corner.

There was so much unsaid in the novel—so much reading-between-the-lines that needed to be done. I tried, I really did. Again, I really loved Annie Lark's story, and I wish the novel could have been just about her and Jacques. This first third of the novel was beautifully written, rich in character and language. In the end, though, I felt sort of unfulfilled and a little dumb. What did I miss? How did I miss it? Ever feel like that at the end of a novel?

Book Review: O Pioneers!

2012-12-17T08:31:00.000-05:00

"We come and go, but the land is always here. And the people who love it and understand it are the people who own it— for a little while."

I'm teaching Willa Cather's My Antonia for American Lit right now, and I realized that I've never read her other most discussed novel, O Pioneers. I downloaded this copy free for my Kindle app, although I'd gladly buy it in hardback.

Such a lovely, lovely little novel. O Pioneers has the same wistful, yearning mood as My Antonia, and the main character, Alexandra, reminds one of Antonia. Both are stories of the power of the land and the struggle of immigrants, taking place in Nebraska at the end of the 19th century. Of the two, O Pioneers has the happier ending. (My students are just now reporting that "My Antonia ends so sad!")

O Pioneers centers on Alexandra Bergson, the daughter of a Swedish immigrant who becomes a wealthy landowner because of her own business acumen and foresight. Her older brothers are hard workers but lack creativity and ambition. Her younger brother is her pet—her hope for integrating into America. He goes to college and does well, and Alexandra has great hopes for his future. Of Emil, Cather writes:

"Out of her father's children there was one who was fit to cope with the world, who had not been tied to the plow, and who had a personality apart from the soil. And that, she reflected, was what she had worked for. She felt well satisfied with her life."

Things don't end up quite the way Alexandra hopes. Cather portrays Alexandra as an incredibly strong, multidimensional woman. She is well respected for her business dealings, yet loving and tender with her younger brother, the neighbor women, and Carl, her childhood friend who comes back to her in middle age.

Cather is a beautiful writer, and her descriptions of the simplicity and power of the land are amazing:

"She had never known before how much the country meant to her. The chirping of the insects down in the long grass had been like the sweetest music. She had felt as if her heart were hiding down there, somewhere, with the quail and the plover and all the little wild things that crooned or buzzed in the sun. Under the long shaggy ridges, she felt the future stirring."

O Pioneers! is a sad but beautiful novel, the kind that makes you strangely yearn for a time long ago, in spite of the hardness of the life. Highly recommended.

Book Review: Girlchild

2012-12-06T07:00:00.000-05:00

This debut novel by Tupelo Hassman is not for the reader looking for a warm and fuzzy beach read. This is hard stuff—and really, really good stuff. If you've read Dorothy Allison's Bastard Out of Carolina and Emma Donoghue's Room without ending up in a fetal position, you can read Girlchild. But be prepared.

Rory Hendrix comes from a long line of bad seeds. Her family portfolio is filled with abuse of all sorts, poverty, poor choices, drug use, unwed mothers, welfare, alcoholism, gambling, and dead ends. But Rory is resilient and, shockingly to everyone, brilliant. But is her smartness enough to save her?

She has a lot to contend with in this novel, which positively oozes poverty and desperation. Her life is hard, and her mother, though loving, makes poor choices which almost kill Rory—and certainly take away any innocence she may have had. Rory is friendless, practically parentless, and even terrified of living. But she keeps on surviving, determined to be the one to change the family cycle.

Hassman's prose is simply beautiful. She has a haunting voice, sad and cracked but determined, filled with poetry. I can't say I felt uplifted after reading Girlchild, although perhaps I felt hopeful. But to think that Rory's story is played out day after day in every town in the U.S. is heartbreaking. If you are a reader who appreciates a candid look at life below the poverty line, pick up Girlchild.

Book Review: The Rebel Wife

2012-12-05T11:49:00.001-05:00

I had a hard time putting down this post-Civil War novel by Taylor Polites. I was even reading during breakfast and lunch, which is quite an unusual feat for this mom who usually saves reading for bedtime. The novel was that engrossing.

Augusta Branson is a new widow, thrown into a world of chaos and confusion just when she thought life might be returning to some semblance of normalcy after the Civil War. Born into a wealthy, well-respected Southern family, Augusta lost seemingly everything during the war: her father, brother, and her lifestyle. She is forced by her mother to marry a Eli, a man hated by her society for his political standings.

When Eli dies of a strange sickness, Augusta quickly realizes that she knows absolutely nothing about anything—that, as a rich southern woman, she has been kept in the dark her entire life. The Judge, who has been a father figure of sorts to her, informs her that she has no money—that her husband was scoundrel. But her husband's trusted servant, Simon, has a different story. Can she trust a former slave, whom she has believed to be vastly inferior, over her kin and mentor, the Judge?

Augusta begins uncovering all kinds of truths she doesn't want to believe. She'd like to just exist in the oblivion that the doctor-prescribed laudanum brings—but can she really trust the doctor to know what's best for her? Are her servants hiding something? And most of all, how will she and her young son survive?

Polites is an excellent writer, and this story of life in a violent time of upheaval after the war is mesmerizing. Highly recommended.

Book Review: The Bungalow

2012-11-17T07:24:00.003-05:00

I had great hopes for my next foray into Sarah Jio's writing after reading The Violets of March. I really liked my first encounter with Jio with Violets of March. The Bungalow was enjoyable but lacked the excellent writing in Violets of March.

The story follows Anne, who narrates the story, beginning in 1942, to her granddaughter. Anne's an a upper-class girl who decides to postpone her engagement to a boy she's known all her life in order to join the Army Nurse Corps in Bora Bora during WWII. In Bora Bora, she soon falls in love with Westry. Through a series of miscommunications and interferences, they ultimately end up apart. Seventy years later, Anne goes back to Bora Bora to figure out what really happened between her and Westry.

This was a nice in-between read. I felt like parts of the story were missing or not told particularly well, but Jio does an excellent job of drawing rich and memorable characters. I'll read more of her novels.

Book Review: Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

2012-11-08T08:38:00.002-05:00

In this wonderfully warm debut novel, Helen Simonson introduces Ernest Pettigrew, a perfectly stuffy English gentleman. As the novel opens, Major Pettigrew has had a shock: his brother dies, and suddenly the Major, a widower, is terribly aware that he is alone in the world. His grown son is spoiled and selfish. Although he has always been proud of his own sense of duty, honor, tradition, and decorum, his life seems drab and predictable. And he can't seem to get Jasmina Ali, the Pakistani shopkeeper, out of his mind.

He finds himself going out of his way to see Mrs. Ali, who is a widow, first by sharing snippets of books and then sharing rides and walks. But as the villagers sense what is going on, they are shocked and talk quietly amongst themselves. The Major, one of their own, with a foreigner? And a shopkeeper at that?

For Major Pettigrew, being honorable is not a facade. He is appalled by the people that he considered his friends and neighbors, and his son's selfishness fills him with a mixture of despair and disgust. As various events and side stories unfold, the Major again and again chooses what is right, both for himself and for society.

This was a beautifully written, lovely novel. Simonson paints the Major and Mrs. Ali so clearly that I can perfectly imagine them. I highly recommend this witty and thought-provoking debut novel! This was our book club's November read, and everyone absolutely loved it.

The Sunday Salon: October in Review

2012-11-04T14:42:00.001-05:00

Books Read in October
The Tea-Olive Birdwatching Society: From my review: "I want to either love a book club book, or I want to hate it. Either way makes for great discussion. But this one? I don't really have a lot to say about it, certainly nothing passionate."
The Violets of March: From my review: "This is just a lovely little book with all the right ingredients: family secrets, a mystery, romance, and great writing."
True Sisters: From my review: "Sandra Dallas has once again written a fascinating tale woven around a unique piece of American history."
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. (Multiple re-read.)
The Boy Who Stole the Leopard's Spots by Tamar Myers. (Not yet reviewed.)
Frankenstein. (Abridged version with 11-year-old.)

Best Book of the Month:
I really enjoyed both The Violets of March and True Sisters, but Violets wins by a bit.

Currently Reading
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson (LOVE!)
Ethan Frome (multiple re-read, teaching for American Lit class)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (re-read, teaching for literature circle class)

Added to My Ever-Growing TBR List
Years of Grace by Margaret Ayer Barnes
Blackberry Winter by Sarah Jio
The Bungalow by Sarah Jio.
Deadline by Randy Alcorn
The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey.
The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Philipp Sendker
Girlchild by Tupelo Hassman
The Rebel Wife by Taylor Folite
The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton.
What Alice Forgot by Liane Mortiarty.

Book Review: True Sisters

2012-11-02T08:55:00.001-04:00

In True Sisters Sandra Dallas has once again written a fascinating tale woven around a unique piece of American history. This time her subject matter takes us out of Colorado mining country to the Mormon Trail in the mid-1800s.

This group of Mormon converts, including four women whose stories are told in alternating chapters, is anxious to get to the Promised Land: Salt Lake City. They set off from Iowa City for the 1,300 mile journey, and under the instruction of Brigham Young, take their few belongings (17 lbs per person) in handcarts rather than wagons.

The Martin Handcart Company is headed for disaster. They are led by an arrogant, self-righteous man, Thales Tanner, who insists that anyone who decides not to make the journey is a heretic. Although many of the people believe that they should wait until spring to make the journey, they follow him anyway, terrified that their faith would be questioned.

The people face incredible hardships on their four-month journey. The novel centers around the stories of these four women and their struggles and ultimate triumph. They lose spouses, children, health, and all their possessions, but they make it to Utah ultimately. They also lose their idea of marriage and face plural marriages, and I really liked the way Dallas handled this.

I don't love reading straight history necessarily, so I tremendously appreciate Dallas's presentation of snippets of American history told in narrative form. As always, I look forward to her next novel. Below are the ones I have read and reviewed thus far:

Book Review: The Violets of March

2012-10-27T09:32:00.002-04:00

I wish I knew whom to credit with suggesting this novel by Sarah Jio. I absolutely loved it! It isn't anything earth-shattering nor headed for classic lit status, but The Violets of March was beautifully written and mesmerizing.

In her 20s, Emily Wilson was a best-selling author with a husband formerly on the "most desirable bachelors" list. Now in her 30s, she is a one-hit wonder author who is about to sign divorce papers. She has no idea what to do to reclaim her life until she receives a postcard from her Aunt Bee, requesting that she come to Bainbridge Island in Washington. Emily hasn't been to the family's summer spot in years, but she is hit with memories of the idyllic times she spent on the island with her aunt.

Emily commits to spending a month on the island, and on her first night, she finds an old diary. She doesn't know who wrote it, but the story captivates her. In the evenings she reads the diary, but during the day she finds that the island people, including her own family, hold a trove of secrets. She also meets and old love and possibly finds a new one.

This is just a lovely little book with all the right ingredients: family secrets, a mystery, romance, and great writing. I added several Sarah Jio books to my TBR list after reading this!

Book Review: Tea-Olive Bird-Watching Society

2012-10-07T07:35:00.002-04:00

I once read a post by a blogger listing all the things on his no-no list about posting reviews, and one of them was: "Starting a review with 'I really wanted to like this book.'" He went on to say that we all want to like a book—that's why we read them, right?

But here's the thing: some books we want to like more than others. Some books we have some kind of personal relationship with before reading—it's on all the best-seller lists, your friend recommended it with highest praise, etc. Or, in this case, it's your book club's next book.

So, I really wanted to like Tea-Olive Bird-Watching Society by Augusta Trobaugh. I want to either love a book club book, or I want to hate it. Either way makes for great discussion. But this one? I don't really have a lot to say about it, certainly nothing passionate.

Tea-Olive is the tiny southern town. The bird-watching society party, a group of widowed or never-married women, was never developed much beyond the first couple of chapters and the mention of a bird sanctuary. It is in this sanctuary where the ladies spy on their newly married friend, who is in a terrible, abusive relationship with her thieving new husband. Right off the bat, I had a hard time identifying with the characters, who were all named from hymnals: Sweet Bye-and-Bye, Beulah Land, Marching to Zion. They automatically seemed goofy with such names.

I predict, however, that this book will be a big hit with my book club. It's cute. It's portrayal of domestic violence is polite—enough to make the reader sympathize with Sweet, but not so graphic that we feel outraged or contaminated. In fact, the whole book is too polite for my taste, too unrealistic.

If you liked the Miss Julia books by Ann Ross, I recommend this one for sure.

The Sunday Salon: August and September in Review

2012-09-30T13:45:00.000-04:00

Books Read in August or September
The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer: "This novel is simply brilliant, although there is nothing simple about it."
The Healing by Jonathan O'Dell: "If you liked such novels as The Help and The Kitchen House, you'll love The Healing!"
Blue Diary by Alice Hoffman: "if you can handle a grisly murder and the frightening possibility that we aren't who we say we are, you should read it."
The Lost Saints of Tennessee by Amy Franklin-Willis: "Author Amy Franklin-Willis knows tiny towns in Tennessee, but rather than make her characters fat, dumb, and full of snappy comebacks—which happens all too often in books about the south (as opposed to Southern Lit), she made them real."
Imperfect Birds by Anne Lamott: "Some books are so hard to read, not because they are poorly written or tedious but because the subject matter is just plain frightening."
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne: Multiple re-read. Taught this to my American Lit class in September.
The Midwife of Hope River by Patricia Harmon (not yet reviewed)

Best Books of the Months
August: The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer
September: Imperfect Birds by Anne Lamott

Currently Reading:
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (multiple re-read for American Lit class)
Tea-Olive Bird-Watching Society by Augusta Trobaugh

Movies-from-Books Watched:
The Scarlet Letter: Excellent movie version of the book! My students found it hilarious in some ways, but they had a great time watching it.

Added to My Ever-Growing TBR List
The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling
The Quilt Walk by Sandra Dallas
Love Anthony by Lisa Genova
Slaves, Women & Homosexuals by William J. Webb