I was taken by surprise by this book.
The format is brilliant, the chapters alternate taking place in the present and in the past as Victoria tells her story. In the beginning I was sucked in but at the same time related almost too much to the broken and unlovable way she feels.
As a foster child Victoria ends up with Elizabeth and learns all about the Victorian language of flowers and how to communicate using them. Elizabeth also tries to teach Victoria about love but she isn't ready yet and Victoria ends up back in a group home.
As an 18 year old aged out of the system Victoria is on her own and unprepared for the world. But somewhere in her heart the time with Elizabeth lingers. As she gets to the part of her story where she explains what happened when she was removed from what could have been her forever home she begins to understand she is capable of love even though it scares the bejezzus out of her and everything in her wants her to run.
By about 3/4 into the book I found it very painful to read, I was feeling so much for Victoria and had to close the book but it only lasted a couple of minutes because I needed to keep going and know if she was ok.
There is a listing in the back that is Victoria's list of flowers and their meanings and I found that very interesting. What a lovely way to tell someone how you feel about them, even when it's not so nice.
(Finished August 27, 2013)
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Monday, August 26, 2013
Find Me by Debra Webb
On page 77 I thought to myself that I had this all figured out and I was a bit annoyed to have it so soon. But I kept reading because I enjoy Debra Webb's style. She writes a good sex scene, her female leads are damaged but strong woman who learn that to let love in doesn't diminish their strength and she writes mystery that is tension filled.
As I kept reading there are plenty of clues that point to my theory being correct and I was thinking that while I liked the story and wanted to know what the heck everyone in this town had hidden I was feeling disappointed and smug. Until the reveal started. And then I was glad because while I was in the right ballpark I didn't hit a homerun.
So far I have been enjoying her books. They make for nice breaks from heavy school related or emotionally rough reads.
(Finished August 26, 2013)
Also by Debra Webb
Nameless
Faceless
As I kept reading there are plenty of clues that point to my theory being correct and I was thinking that while I liked the story and wanted to know what the heck everyone in this town had hidden I was feeling disappointed and smug. Until the reveal started. And then I was glad because while I was in the right ballpark I didn't hit a homerun.
So far I have been enjoying her books. They make for nice breaks from heavy school related or emotionally rough reads.
(Finished August 26, 2013)
Also by Debra Webb
Nameless
Faceless
Saturday, August 24, 2013
Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power by Rachel Maddow
This was a laying out of facts in the least dry history lesson you can get. The premise here being that the way wars or military operations are started now is not how the framers of our constitution intended. The bottom line being that one person should not wield that much power and that the legislative branch is to act a system of checks and balances in the President's ability to send out men and women in the military into combat.
What this book wasn't was a bashing of our military or a definitive statement against ever putting them into action.
Rachel Maddow writes the way she speaks on her show. She uses whit and sarcasm and a lot of well documented facts to lay out her points.
Very informative and very well done.
(Finished August 24, 2013)
What this book wasn't was a bashing of our military or a definitive statement against ever putting them into action.
Rachel Maddow writes the way she speaks on her show. She uses whit and sarcasm and a lot of well documented facts to lay out her points.
Very informative and very well done.
(Finished August 24, 2013)
Sunday, August 18, 2013
You're Not You by Michelle Wildgen
Ogres, onions and this book. What could they possibly have in common? They all have layers.
This book surprised me. When I read the back of the book I half expected this to be a formulaic tale of a flighty young woman who sees the error of her ways and finds herself growing up after she starts caring for a woman with Lou Gehrig's Disease. I say half expected because this book was given to me by my friend and fellow reader Rachel and she doesn't strike me as the kind who likes that kind of easy wrap up and wouldn't warn me I would feel some tough emotions while reading it if that had been the case.
Bec is the young woman in college hating her major and sleeping with a married teacher. She and her childhood friend are roommates and she still has no idea what she wants to be when she grows up. When she takes a summer job being a caregiver for Kate it changes her in ways she never expected.
Kate was diagnosed with ALS 2 years before Bec becomes her caregiver. Until her diagnosis she was a happily married, young, beautiful and vibrant young woman. Her disease has progressed fairly quickly and she is just about fully paralyzed and has a lot of trouble being understood when she speaks.
Over there time together an intimacy develops between them. An uneasy trust that comes from Bec doing things for Kate that aren't easy for either of them creates a bond and a love that takes them both by surprise.
One of the wonderful things about this book is that Bec isn't all of a sudden this selfless person who doesn't blink an eye at the things she needs to do for Kate. She is hesitant, unsure, embarrassed and even annoyed at times. She comes off the page as real and honest, thinking things that most people would think in her shoes, like how hard it is for her to touch Kate during showers and helping her go to the bathroom. Bec always does what she needs to but is, at least in her head, honest about how this isn't fun or pretty.
Evan is Kate's husband and his role in the story raises thought provoking questions and the way a terminal disease diagnosis touches the life of the spouse of the sick person. What are they expected to sacrifice and for how long? What is reasonable when it comes to their needs?
The way Wildgen uses descriptions of food and their tastes and smells and the act of shopping for and preparing it is sensual and adds a depth to the world taking place between the covers of this book. Color, sound, taste, they are like characters vital to the story and add such depth.
I felt extremely raw and unnerved by the end of this book. This isn't a criticism but more a testament to the way the story was so vivid and uncensored.
(Finished August 17, 2013)
This book surprised me. When I read the back of the book I half expected this to be a formulaic tale of a flighty young woman who sees the error of her ways and finds herself growing up after she starts caring for a woman with Lou Gehrig's Disease. I say half expected because this book was given to me by my friend and fellow reader Rachel and she doesn't strike me as the kind who likes that kind of easy wrap up and wouldn't warn me I would feel some tough emotions while reading it if that had been the case.
Bec is the young woman in college hating her major and sleeping with a married teacher. She and her childhood friend are roommates and she still has no idea what she wants to be when she grows up. When she takes a summer job being a caregiver for Kate it changes her in ways she never expected.
Kate was diagnosed with ALS 2 years before Bec becomes her caregiver. Until her diagnosis she was a happily married, young, beautiful and vibrant young woman. Her disease has progressed fairly quickly and she is just about fully paralyzed and has a lot of trouble being understood when she speaks.
Over there time together an intimacy develops between them. An uneasy trust that comes from Bec doing things for Kate that aren't easy for either of them creates a bond and a love that takes them both by surprise.
One of the wonderful things about this book is that Bec isn't all of a sudden this selfless person who doesn't blink an eye at the things she needs to do for Kate. She is hesitant, unsure, embarrassed and even annoyed at times. She comes off the page as real and honest, thinking things that most people would think in her shoes, like how hard it is for her to touch Kate during showers and helping her go to the bathroom. Bec always does what she needs to but is, at least in her head, honest about how this isn't fun or pretty.
Evan is Kate's husband and his role in the story raises thought provoking questions and the way a terminal disease diagnosis touches the life of the spouse of the sick person. What are they expected to sacrifice and for how long? What is reasonable when it comes to their needs?
The way Wildgen uses descriptions of food and their tastes and smells and the act of shopping for and preparing it is sensual and adds a depth to the world taking place between the covers of this book. Color, sound, taste, they are like characters vital to the story and add such depth.
I felt extremely raw and unnerved by the end of this book. This isn't a criticism but more a testament to the way the story was so vivid and uncensored.
(Finished August 17, 2013)
Thursday, August 15, 2013
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
My new school, Mount Holyoke College, has this thing called Common Reading. There is a book selected and the entire student body reads it and participates in discussions. This book is the choice for this school year and the author will be speaking on campus.
The only thing that kept be from giving this book 5 stars is the one draw back I found and while it fits with the tone and feel of the book it was something that felt like enough of a downside to make it a 4.5 star rather than 5. There is some Spanish and since I don't speak it I had to use a translation page if I wanted to know what I was reading. For the most part in the context of the English around the words and phrases I was able to get the gist of it but I mostly wanted to know exactly what was being said. I didn't always do it but when I was reading at home I did.
The story itself I really, really liked. Oscar is such a sad, sweet, nerd and a bit of a loser. His mother has a tortured past and her sins and burdens very much color the way she mothers her children. His sister fares much better than he does but she doesn't have an easy go of it by any stretch of the imagination. The story of Oscar and his family is weaved in with a lesson on the history of the Dominican Republic, both politically and culturally. It was really very interesting. The tragic history of the family, the cultural belief of curses and the time in history important to the story weave together using flashbacks, footnotes, a narrator in the present helping to tell the story years after the big event of the tale and is very effective making Oscar feel real and jump off the page. There are a lot of nerdy references to things like Watchman, Lord of The Rings and D&D.
I liked Junot Diaz' writing style and his liberal use of "bad" language. I have a pretty sever potty mouth so I loved that he does too. However, I should say that there is a quite heavy use of the "n" word. It felt right in this context because it was conversational in the way the black population seems to have reclaimed the word for use among themselves.
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao really was a pleasure to read even with the occasional language barrier.
(finished August 15, 2013)
The only thing that kept be from giving this book 5 stars is the one draw back I found and while it fits with the tone and feel of the book it was something that felt like enough of a downside to make it a 4.5 star rather than 5. There is some Spanish and since I don't speak it I had to use a translation page if I wanted to know what I was reading. For the most part in the context of the English around the words and phrases I was able to get the gist of it but I mostly wanted to know exactly what was being said. I didn't always do it but when I was reading at home I did.
The story itself I really, really liked. Oscar is such a sad, sweet, nerd and a bit of a loser. His mother has a tortured past and her sins and burdens very much color the way she mothers her children. His sister fares much better than he does but she doesn't have an easy go of it by any stretch of the imagination. The story of Oscar and his family is weaved in with a lesson on the history of the Dominican Republic, both politically and culturally. It was really very interesting. The tragic history of the family, the cultural belief of curses and the time in history important to the story weave together using flashbacks, footnotes, a narrator in the present helping to tell the story years after the big event of the tale and is very effective making Oscar feel real and jump off the page. There are a lot of nerdy references to things like Watchman, Lord of The Rings and D&D.
I liked Junot Diaz' writing style and his liberal use of "bad" language. I have a pretty sever potty mouth so I loved that he does too. However, I should say that there is a quite heavy use of the "n" word. It felt right in this context because it was conversational in the way the black population seems to have reclaimed the word for use among themselves.
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao really was a pleasure to read even with the occasional language barrier.
(finished August 15, 2013)
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
Life in a Jar: The Irena Sendler Project by Jack Mayer
Seldom if ever do I call a book perfect but this one was.
I had never heard of Irena Sendler until this book was picked as August's book for one of the bookclubs I am in.
What an amazing woman and what an amazing group of teens.
Like the <a href="http://www.whitwellmiddleschool.org/?PageName=bc&n=69258">paperclip project</a>, The Irena Sendler Project is taken on by a group of Christian kids in a place with little or no Jewish population and with little or no people of color. These girls and their teacher took what could have been just another history project and turned it into something amazing. Their project helps heal an entire nation and bring recognition to a woman who never asked for it out but deserves it so much.
Irena was a brave woman whose heart told her that to do nothing made her as bad as the criminal Nazis who invaded her city of Warsaw. She took her work as a social worker and used it and connections she made to help get 2,500 Jewish children out of the ghetto and saved them.
This books is about Irena but it also about the teens who brought her story to the world. And they are a heartwarming group of kids.
(finished August 6, 2013)
I had never heard of Irena Sendler until this book was picked as August's book for one of the bookclubs I am in.
What an amazing woman and what an amazing group of teens.
Like the <a href="http://www.whitwellmiddleschool.org/?PageName=bc&n=69258">paperclip project</a>, The Irena Sendler Project is taken on by a group of Christian kids in a place with little or no Jewish population and with little or no people of color. These girls and their teacher took what could have been just another history project and turned it into something amazing. Their project helps heal an entire nation and bring recognition to a woman who never asked for it out but deserves it so much.
Irena was a brave woman whose heart told her that to do nothing made her as bad as the criminal Nazis who invaded her city of Warsaw. She took her work as a social worker and used it and connections she made to help get 2,500 Jewish children out of the ghetto and saved them.
This books is about Irena but it also about the teens who brought her story to the world. And they are a heartwarming group of kids.
(finished August 6, 2013)
Saturday, August 3, 2013
The Dinner by Herman Koch
I don't know how to say anything about this book without spoiling it and it really needs to not be spoiled or it loses a lot.
I will say that where you start on the first page and think you are heading is nowhere near where you will find yourself on the last page. This is one messed up story.
Bits I can give you are jealousy between brothers, parenting, marriage and OH CRAP REALLY?!
Yes that's all really vague.
I didn't love this but I liked it and it wasn't a waste of time. It really is a crazy story and the fun of it is the twistyness.
(finished August 3, 2013)
I will say that where you start on the first page and think you are heading is nowhere near where you will find yourself on the last page. This is one messed up story.
Bits I can give you are jealousy between brothers, parenting, marriage and OH CRAP REALLY?!
Yes that's all really vague.
I didn't love this but I liked it and it wasn't a waste of time. It really is a crazy story and the fun of it is the twistyness.
(finished August 3, 2013)
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