The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

"They don't walk like ordinary dogs, but leap and somersault like an apostrophe and comma."
"They grow up and they grow down and grab the earth between their hairy toes and bite the sky with violent teeth and never quit their anger."

It's lines like those that make this a pleasure to read. Sandra Cisneros draws you in right from the introduction. You want to see things with her eyes. And that is exactly what happens in the pages of The House On Mango Street. It's like someone is talking and you can see what they are talking about but then you blink and the story and scenery change, then you blink again and another story and scenery change, blink-change, blink-change....And each time you are drawn in. Sometimes it is funny, sometimes it is lovely and sometimes it is really sad. But always it is something you want to look at carefully, taking in each and every detail and you want to listen so closely you can taste the words, you want to do this before it changes again because while you can't wait to see what's next you don't want to leave the current story.


I found this book on a table of beach reads. The blurb on the back of the book felt like a challenge, "Acclaimed by critics, beloved by readers of all ages..." so of course I had to grab it. What a good thing I did.

(Finished July 31, 2014)

The Aviator's Wife by Melanie Benjamin

This was a book club pick and was on my radar so I gave it a go.

Let's get out of the way the did or didn't I like it question...yes, I liked this book very much. It was well written and very quickly does it make you forget that it is a novel. Melanie Benjamin writes in such a way that it makes this very readable and draws the reader in.


Now, the content. Using actual events and non-fiction writing about Anne and Charles this novel tries to paint a picture of Anne Morrow Lindberg and her life as the wife of one of the most famous men of the day.

She starts out the shy daughter of a diplomat and becomes the wife of the most famous pilot pretty much ever. He isn't a warm man, he doesn't show any real emotion and despises it in Anne and so forbids it. Even when their child is kidnapped and killed.

The story here touches on how he controlled her, including making her share his views and she allows it. She doesn't find her own voice and strength in time to tell him she doesn't share his views on Hitler and Jews. She isn't innocent, she knows it is wrong but doesn't (can't?) stand up to him.

He is not a likable character/person and at times it becomes difficult to like her. But in the end I found I did like her very much. I know what it is like to feel weak and have that reenforced by those who it benefits to have that feeling remain in place. In this telling she finds her footing and begins to stand up to him in her own way. But through it all she seems to realize she loves him even as she dislikes him.

(finished July 30, 2014)

The Silkworm (Cormoran Strike #2) by Robert Galbraith

This is the second book written by J.K. Rowling using the name Robert Galbraith. The first was The Cuckoo's Calling.

Here again is a mystery that will please those frustrated by always figuring out who the big bad is very early on. The relationship/chemistry between Robin and Strike is wonderful. Not too much tension where you spend the entire time wondering if they are going to fall into bed but not too cold that it feels forced or fake. There is what feels like a real friendship growing. It remains to be seen if it will go the way of Bones, Moonlighting or when Harry Met Sally. Ok, that last one isn't a crime fighting team but they did start as friends and fall in love. 

In this story a writer who isn't very well liked, rightly so since he is kind of a douchecanoe, is found murdered in a horrific way. Was it because of the manuscript he had recently finished? Was it because he stepped on one too many toes? Was it the wife, spurned once too often?  

I'm not telling. I will say that I am looking forward to reading more about Robin and Strike. 

(finished July 28, 2014)

The Cuckoo's Calling (Cormoran Strike #1) by Robert Galbraith

I grabbed this book awhile back when, like many HP fans, I found out that Galbraith was J.K. Rowling writing under a pen name. I didn't read it until now because, to be honest, I couldn't get into and still have not been able to go back to Casual Vacancy and I didn't want to dislike anything she wrote. But now that I have finished this one I am so glad I pulled it out of my stack.  


The Cuckoo's Calling was everything a mystery should be and everything the first in a series should be. The character of Cormoran Strike is fleshed out enough here to make you want to come back and spend more time with him. His assistant Robin is really likable and she represents the reader who wants to be the Watson to Sherlock as she becomes very valuable to Strike.

The story was well done and did the "who done it" splendidly. I usually figure out the "who" pretty early on when reading mysteries but not this time. I am not ashamed to admit that for the first time in a very long time I didn't see it until the reveal began. And I love that!

I will be starting book 2, The Silkworm, the right away.


(finished July 22, 2014)

An Invisible Thread: The True Story of an 11-Year-Old Panhandler, a Busy Sales Executive, and an Unlikely Meeting with Destiny by Laura Schroff, Alex Tresniowski

Who knew that brown paper bag lunches could be a way of saying "you're loved" but to 11 year old Maurice that is exactly what they say.


Busy single well off white woman Laura almost walked past the boy destined to be her child because she was, like so many, immune to the daily sounds of the world beyond her bubble of personal space. But something about the boy calling out for spare change on that NYC street corner stopped her and she went back and offered to by her him lunch.

What began with a Big Mac that day turned into a lasting relationship that saved them both. Maurice learned what it is to feel human and Laura learned her troubled upbringing led her to help a young boy the world would have otherwise tossed aside. In return she was saved too.

At the end of this book I was crying, there is a letter from Maurice to Laura and it is powerful.


I almost walked past this book in the store but the NYC skyline always tugs at me and there it was on the cover. I stopped, picked it up, read the back, saw the NoKidHungry (something the Congressman I intern for is a huge supporter of) stamp on the cover and had to grab it. From the opening lines of the introduction I was hooked.

It's nice to read about normal people doing something just because it is right. Laura did that. And her and Maurice both were changed for the better because of she stopped that day in 1986.

(finished July 16, 2014)