I am running around and jamming as much reading in as I can! Just read at DR.’s office, now reading and making late risers some breakfast.
I am reading A Dual Inheritance by Joanna Hershon.
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Spring 2013 #Readathon Introduction
2 CommentsAnd it begins!
Introductory Questionnaire
1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?
Northern New Jersey…brrr!
2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?
I am hoping to get to Z by Theresa Anne Fowler.
3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?
Do I have to choose one?
4) Tell us a little something about yourself!
I am a high school history teacher turned stay at home mom.
5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to?
I am a read-a-thon virgin!
Dewey Read-a-thon is this Saturday
2 Comments
Ok- so I missed World Book Night (had never heard of it until yesterday…), so I decided I would try something new this week and I signed up for the Dewey Read-a-Thon. It is happening this Saturday and I am so excited to do it. I am going to try to read as much as possible, but have already overheard certain disturbing things from the other members of this family-words like: LAX game, painting, doctor appointment, etc. Looking back, maybe trying to devote an entire Saturday to reading when I have others to consider-two busy, non driving teenagers, two big, extremely hairy dogs, and a husband who works hard all week and likes to do things on weekends- was NOT my brightest move. Ugh.
I am going to do my best to do as much reading/posting/cheering that I can get in, @!?#!!
For anyone interested in reading along, cheering, or just more info, you can visit-
Good Luck and Happy Reading!!!!
And Then I Found You
2 CommentsThe April She Reads Book Club Selection
And Then I Found You
by Patti Callahan Henry
published by St. Martin Press
2013
Summary: Kate Vaughan is no stranger to tough choices.
She’s made them before. Now it’s time to do it again.
Kate has a secret, something tucked away in her past. And she’s getting on with her life. Her business is thriving. She has a strong relationship with her family, and a devoted boyfriend whom she wants to love with all her heart. If Kate had ever made a list, Rowan would fill the imagined boxes of a perfect mate. But she wants more than the perfect on paper relationship; she wants a real and imperfect love. That’s why, when Kate discovers the small velvet box hidden in Rowan’s drawer, she panics.
It always happens this way. Just when Kate thinks she can love, just when she believes she can conquer the fear, she’s filled with dread. And she wants more than anything to make this feeling go away. But how?
When the mistakes have been made and the running is over, it’s time to face the truth. Kate knows this. She understands that a woman can never undo what can never be undone. Yet, for the first time in her life she also knows that she won’t fully love until she confronts those from her past. It’s time to act.
Can she do it? Can she travel to the place where it all began, to the one who shares her secret? Can the lost ever become found?
And Then I Found You gives new life to the phrase “inspired by a true story.” By traveling back to a painful time in her own family’s history, the author explores the limits of courage, and the price of a selfless act. — St. Martin’s Press
My Review
For Kate, the first day of spring held more than blooming daffodils. It was still a day of firsts. Kate had a ritual, a sacred ritual. She made sure that she did something she’d never done before, something that would count as new on the first day of spring. Six years ago she’d opened her boutique. The year before that she ran a marathon with her sister. Of course there was that trip to California with Norah. Then four years ago the midnight swim in the darkest water with Rowan, the first time he’d visited her in South Carolina. It didn’t matter what she did or said or saw as long as it hadn’t been done, or said, or seen before.
I thought And Then I Found You was very enjoyable read. Katie and Jack are childhood friends and high school sweethearts. After college, they grow apart when Jack goes to law school and then into practice in Alabama and Katie becomes a councilor for troubled girls in the southwest. When Jack informs Katie he is getting married, she goes to see him one last time. A few months later, she realizes she is pregnant-and Jack is already married. Katie chooses to give the baby up for adoption, even though her family, especially her parents, urge her to keep the baby. She believes this is the best solution, even though she knows it is the hardest fro her to live with. Thirteen years later, Katie is living a good life, running a successful boutique and in a serious relationship with her boys friend Rowan. Every year on the first day of spring, their baby’s birthday, she exchanges letters with Jack. This year, she also finds an engagement ring in Rowans nigh stand. She realizes she can not move forward with Rowan until she settles her past and she travels to Birmingham to see Jack. This begins a whole new chapter, that will eventually reunite her with the daughter she gave up thirteen years earlier.
Henry explains in a letter to her readers that this book is loosely based on a true story that happened to her family. Over twenty years ago, her middle sister placed her baby for adoption. She states that this was the “most heartrending, courageous, and difficult decision she had ever made…”. Over two years ago, Henry was received a friend request on Facebook from a young girl with the same birthday as the baby that was adopted. Reading this book, one can feel the pain and conflict that goes into this amazingly difficult decision on each side of the equation. Katie struggles with giving up her daughter, always wondering if it was the right decision, if her daughter is happy. We also see how hard it is for the adoptive family to allow their daughter to reconnect with her birth parents.
While I enjoyed reading this book very much, there were a few issues I had. Jack seems very excited and happy to see Katie after thirteen years, but when she tries to see him after that, he continually pushes her away. On the other hand, her boyfriend Rowan, who says he wants to be supportive of Katie (and has a ring in his drawer), acts like he can’ stand to be near her much. The two men need to realize how awesome Katie is.
I read this book as a part of the She Reads book club.-http://www.shereads.org/2013/04/april-book-club-selection-4/
Stop by there and read the reviews by other bloggers are saying about this novel.
Author Patti Callahan Henry
Life After Life
5 Comments
Life After Life
by Kate Atkinson
published by Little, Brown, and Co.
2013
Summary
On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born, the third child of a wealthy English banker and his wife. Sadly, she dies before she can draw her first breath. On that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born, lets out a lusty wail, and embarks upon a life that will be, to say the least, unusual. For as she grows, she also dies, repeatedly, in any number of ways. Clearly history (and Kate Atkinson) have plans for her: In Ursula rests nothing less than the fate of civilization.
Wildly inventive, darkly comic, startlingly poignant — this is Kate Atkinson at her absolute best, playing with time and history, telling a story that is breathtaking for both its audacity and its endless satisfaction. (from Goodreads)
My Review
“What if we had a chance to do it again and again, until we finally did get it right? Wouldn’t that be wonderful?”
I heard so much about this book, that I was very excited to read it. While I thought the writing was terrific, in the end, I did not love the story. Ursula lives many lives. The first time she is born, the doctor is not there due to a bad snowstorm and she dies when the umbilical chord is wrapped around her neck. In the next chapter, the doctor arrives in time.The baby survives. “She observed the turn of seasons for the first time. She was born with winter already in her bones, but then came the sharp promise of spring, the fattening of the buds, the indolent heat of summer, the mould and mushroom of autumn.” She survives a few years, until she drown in the ocean with her sister Pamela. In the following chapter, a gentleman, who happens to be on the beach painting, saves their lives. Thie is the flow of the book, how small chances and choices affect our entire lives. Ursula is then possessed with a sixth sense for danger- a sort of deja vu.
I enjoyed reading the book very much, but had a feeling of frustration for Ursula. I wanted her to be happy, and never sensed she was. This sense of sadness struck me-“She had had affairs over the years … but she had never been pregnant, never been a mother or a wife and it was only when she realized that it was too late, that it could never be, that she understood what it was that she had lost. Pamela’s life would go on after she was dead, her descendants spreading through the world like the waters of a delta, but when Ursula died she would simply end. A stream that ran dry.”
I would recommend reading this book. It was a first rate example of what historical fiction should be. The writing was really wonderful, and many people loved the story.
Rating- 3.5 out of 5
Honestly, do you keep reading it?
23 Comments
I am very lucky to be currently reading The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin, with some very interesting books waiting in the wings! BUT, I did have a patch recently where I started a few books I just could not get into. It made me wonder what other book lovers out there feel about this. What do you do when you realize you are just not enjoying reading a book? Do you power through? Or give it up? I read for pleasure- and most of the time, reading gives me great pleasure. But I have at times had to put a book down and walk away from it. Sometimes, it is just not an interesting topic. Or it is TOO cookie cutter. There are so many books out there, I feel that I might be missing a great story by sticking with something I am not enjoying.
But this does have a big downside. I can recall many books that I started and stopped, only to try again and realize I loved them. This was true with two of my favorite books- The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and The Book Thief. I could not get into either at first. I put them both down for a long while, only to realize when I did read them in entirety that they were wonderful!
So, the question is to all book lovers-what do you do?
Silver Linings Playbook
4 Comments
Silver Linings Playbook
published by Sarah Crichton Books
2008
Meet Pat. Pat has a theory: his life is a movie produced by God. And his God-given mission is to become physically fit and emotionally literate, whereupon God will ensure a happy ending for him — the return of his estranged wife Nikki. (It might not come as a surprise to learn that Pat has spent time in a mental health facility.) The problem is, Pat’s now home, and everything feels off. No one will talk to him about Nikki; his beloved Philadelphia Eagles keep losing; he’s being pursued by the deeply odd Tiffany; his new therapist seems to recommend adultery as a form of theraphy. Plus, he’s being hunted by Kenny G!
In this enchanting novel, Matthew Quick takes us inside Pat’s mind, showing us the world from his distorted yet endearing perspective. As the award-winning novelist Justin Cronin put it: “Tender, soulful, hilarious, and true, The Silver Linings Playbook is a wonderful debut.” (from Goodreads)
My Review
I started to enjoy this story almost as soon as I began reading it. Silver Linings Playbook is a fast read, and it is very easy to get into. The only drawback for me was not knowing why Pat had ended up in a mental facility. It almost seemed there was a bit of brain damage, the way he was so childlike and unknowing of the world around him and of passing time.
The characters in this book draw you in and make you root for them to succeed. Pat is working very hard on “being kind, not right”. The relationships in this book are touching, messy, and feel real. I love the way Pat interacts with his mother and brother, who are there for him and help him. Pat and his Dad, though, have a very difficult relationship, and the fact that it is not all cleared up and perfect at the end makes it even better. I think, perhaps, the character that really stayed with me was Tiffany. In Tiffany, we see how grief can truly rip a life apart, and the wonder of the human spirit, to fight to come back from despair.
I loved this book. It was a little darker than I had anticipated. I am looking forward to discussing it for my local bookclub next week. I have not seen the movie yet, but do want to. My mom-always trust her when it comes to books- said it was very good, but of course, not as good as the book.
rating-3.5 out of 5
Love This…
2 Comments
When I finish up the LAST ski weekend, I will finally have time to spruce up the site, and post my review of Silver Linings Playbook. Until then, enjoy a little Colin Firth…. he so gets the reading thing
The Storyteller
5 Comments
The Storyteller
by Jodi Picoult
published by Atria
2013
Summary
Sage Singer befriends an old man who’s particularly beloved in her community. Josef Weber is everyone’s favorite retired teacher and Little League coach. They strike up a friendship at the bakery where Sage works. One day he asks Sage for a favor: to kill him. Shocked, Sage refuses…and then he confesses his darkest secret – he deserves to die, because he was a Nazi SS guard. Complicating the matter? Sage’s grandmother is a Holocaust survivor.
What do you do when evil lives next door? Can someone who’s committed a truly heinous act ever atone for it with subsequent good behavior? Should you offer forgiveness to someone if you aren’t the party who was wronged? And most of all – if Sage even considers his request – is it murder, or justice? (from Goodreads)
My Review
I really looked forward to reading this book, as I have been a fan of the author for a long time. The first book I read by Picoult was My Sister’s Keeper, and I immediately set forth to read everything she wrote. I love the plot twists, and the moral questions she makes you face with each story. Her novels never have a clear heroin/hero or villain, because, just like in real life, there are many sides to people, both good and bad. The Storyteller, follows this path, but is the most different of her novels. I found, sadly, that Picoult’s later novels began to fell formulaic, but not The Storyteller.
The story begins with Sage Singer, a reclusive young woman, who hides herself and the scars on her face, in the kitchen of a bakery. She sleeps all day, bakes at night, and tries to interact with as few people as possible. She only ventures out socially to a grief group, where she continues to mourn the death of her mother. There she befriends Josef Weber, a ninety+ year old gentleman, and pillar of the community. They begin to talk and meet outside of the group, and a friendship forms. Everything is looking fine, until Josef asks Sage to kill him-confessing that he was a Nazi SS guard in a concentration camp.
Horrified, Sage decides to alert the authorities, only to discover it is difficult to get anyone to notice. Eventually, she is referred to Leo Stein in the Department of Justice, who takes an interest in her case. At the same time, Sage begins to question her own grandmother, Minka, about the Holocaust. Sage has known Minka is a survivor, but refuses to discuss the past. Leo and Sage realize that Minka and Josef might share more than Sage, and beg Minka to tell her story.
This is the point in the book that I became so caught up, I actually had to force myself to put it down for a break. The way Picoult tells Minka’s story, intertwining it with Josef’s, and Sage’s, is amazing. I have read many stories of the Holocaust, and the camps-including most recently The Lost Wife-which I loved. The Storyteller tell the tale from both the perspective of a young Jewish girl who goes from the Lodz Ghetto, to Auschwitz, and that of Josef, the Head Guard in charge of women at the camp. . We see Minka’s whole life before her-her studies, friends, love interest, and family-all be ripped away from her. When it can’t get any worse, it does. Through it all she survives.
On the flip side, we see a young man pulled into the Nazi party and rise through the ranks. We watch the humanity drain from him. Josef shows us how someone can just stop feeling anything at all, will do anything just to get through each day.
My favorite quote from this book- “History isn’t about dates and places and wars. It is about the people who fill the spaces between them.”
I do not want to give away the end of the story. I would definitely recommend this book.
rating- 5
(out of 5)
Turn the Page Reviews 