My Cozy Book Corner: 2015

Thursday, December 31, 2015

2016 Book List

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

I don't but I might be grouped in the people called "Dreamers" by Coates in this letter to his 15 year old son which may have been sparked by his son's reaction to the death of Michael Brown.

However, I didn't grow up privileged (well privileged outside the fact that I have "white skin"). I grew up in an abusive home in New York City Public Housing in Brooklyn NY, a.k.a. The Projects. My bridge between the two worlds that Coates writes about in not just where I or how I grew up but that my oldest child is a young black man. When he was little he was cloaked in the protection my skin offered him. But now he is on his own in a place where I am not known to those around him. When he walks down the street there is nothing to identify him as the child not only of a black man but of a white woman. So when it is dark and he is walking down the street do people cross afraid of him? Do women in elevators with him hold their purses closer and tighter because they only see his skin and know nothing of the sweet little pre-school child who broke his mother's heart when he told her he couldn't marry her when he grew up because he was going to marry the little girl in his class? Do police officers see him as a threat because he wears a hoodie or looks like the vague description of a criminal because of his shared skin color but no other similarity?

Coates writes to his son what it was like growing up in a black body in West Baltimore. How he has always had this fear deep in his bones that his skin would cause his death or destruction.

While this is raw and painful it is an important read for all people of all shades. If you are unable to relate to his fear or upbringing and so the current outcry over the deaths of young men at the hands of police or by supposedly well meaning neighborhood watchers is hard for you to fully comprehend then you need to read this. If you feel dirty and shamed than you are getting it. But I don't think Coates wants to shame you, I think he wants you to understand. Because with understanding comes change. If you do relate than you will find you are not alone. Where ever you are and who ever you are, this book will leave you feeling the love of this man for his son and a sadness over the fear and anger. I hope it will move you and open your eyes.

(finished December 31, 2015)

Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg by Irin Carmon, Shana Knizhnik

R.B.G.
Ascetically this book is wonderful! The chapter titles are done my a female graffiti artist and are inspired by the lyrics of songs by Notorious B.I.G.
The pictures are a great insight into the woman.

But her story...oh her story. From her beginnings in my hometown, Brooklyn NY all the way to the Supreme Court of The United States...motherhood, an amazing marriage that should be looked at as an inspiration, teaching, speaking out for those who are treated unfairly because of their gender...she is a whirlwind.

There are details about her life outside of the law, her journey to the highest bench in the land despite major obstacles, cancer, loss, even her workout routine (the woman can do pushups)....

She is a really quite amazing!! She is the Notorious R.B.G.

(finished December 29, 2015)

Monday, December 28, 2015

You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) by Felicia Day

What do you imagine a conversation with Felicia Day is like? I imagine it as one long thread of speech bouncing from topic to topic barely stopping to breathe.

When I picked up her book You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) my imaginings were confirmed in the intro by Joss Whedon.

Back in 2005 I started playing World of Warcraft and have been playing on and off ever since. I discovered Felicia back when her show The Guild was new and totally loved it and the video Do You Want to Date My Avatar.

She talks openly about her upbringing and how unconventional it was. She is very open about her addiction to gaming and how it let to The Guild...she shares her crippling anxiety and weighs in on gamergate.

But overall her message here is be you, because you are the only you and normal is overrated anyway.

She is brave, funny, interesting, smart (she has degrees in math and music), talented, and human, very human.

(finished December 28, 2015)

A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra

I have never read a book that at times I was laughing and horrified on the same page. The ugliness of war set the stage for this story even as it is the story of love and survival. The thread that binds the stories of the people who live in the 379 pages is the mystery of Natasha that means everything to Sonja.

If you could look at life from above as it unfolds and could see the way people weave into and out of each others lives, see the invisible threads that connect people in ways they may never know you would have Marra's story.

The words on the page are beautiful even as they describe brutality and ugliness. I know this sounds like it isn't possible, but trust me it is.

I found this read a slow burn...I am not sure when it happened but at some point during my reading I because invested and emotionally stricken. I didn't want to put it down but I had to so I could breathe and believe for a few minutes that everyone and everything would be ok.

The story of Haava and Sonja takes places over 5 days but the chapters jump back and forth in time and woven into the story are little pieces of where the future takes the people in the story. None of them are like abrupt breaks in the story but are subtle images of life yet to come.

(finished December 28, 2015)

Thursday, December 24, 2015

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

I read Eleanor & Park and Fan Girl and really enjoyed them so when Carry On was published I figured it for a sure bet. Carry On is the story of Simon Snow and crew which was the story in Fangirl that Cath was a fangirl of.

There are some things that bothered me from the beginning

The opening reeks of Harry Potter
A young person who at age 11 finds out about being magical
A secret school kids go to so they can learn magic
A super smart female best friend
A friendship with a school staff member that takes care of animals
A powerful headmaster who at times is withdrawn and distant
A fellow student set up to be the enemy of the main character
Being the chosen one

But the more I read the more I was able to not get past but put up with the similarities to the Harry Potter universe.

Simon and Baz are roommates who it seems can't stand each other. Simon is the chosen one according to The Mage. There is a brewing war between the old families and The Mage. When the truth about Simon is revealed there are more than magical repercussions. Carry On is also a story about friendship and accepting yourself and your friends for who they are.

(Finished Dec 24, 2015)

Monday, December 14, 2015

Mrs. Roosevelt’s Confidante (Maggie Hope Mystery #5) by Susan Elia MacNeal

Mrs. Roosevelt’s Confidante is the 5th book in the Maggie Hope Mystery series.
This time around Maggie is back in the U.S.A with Mr. Churchill just after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Churchill has come to work out war details with F.D.R. as the U.S. enters the war. While there Maggie is pulled into the mystery surrounding the death of a woman, Blanche, who was working for The First Lady. The death of Blanche, the upcoming execution of a sharecropper, and the entrance of America into the war are all somehow connected. Can Maggie figure it out? And what about rebuilding her relationship with John?

There is a little bit of a back story involving Maggie's parents that feel extra to this story and more like setup for book 6, which is fine with me. More Maggie can only be thought of as a good thing. These are pretty easy, fast reads that are enjoyable but don't require a lot of time or effort, just good ol' escapism.

(Finished December 14, 2015)

Meet Maggie in Mr. Churchill's Secretary
More Maggie Mysteries:
Princess Elizabeth's Spy
His Majesty's Hope
The Prime Minister's Secret Agent

Friday, December 4, 2015

The Last of the President's Men by Bob Woodward

Bob Woodward writes about the man who outed the existence of Nixon's White House tapes in The Las of the President's Men

Alex Butterfield shares his unpublished memoir as well as many documents from his time serving at the pleasure of the president. It is fascinating to read these memos and letters. Woodward's telling of Butterfield's place in the Watergate era feels like coming full circle from the work done with Bernstein on the original articles they wrote for The Washington Post when the story originally broke.

The memories Butterfield shares with Woodward are truly fascinating and this is book is not at all dry and boring history. Woodward's writing style is that of an expert journalist, interesting, concise, and engaging.

If you have any interest in politics, history, or just like a good bit of story telling this is a safe bet.

(finished 12/4/15)

Saturday, November 14, 2015

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (The Tales of Dunk and Egg #1-3) by George R.R. Martin

The stories here take place many, many years before the story told in the Song of Ice and Fire series.

In the days when Targaryens still sit on The Iron Throne a new hedge knight named Dunk finds himself with a little bald squire named Egg. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is made up of three stories, The Hedge Knight, The Sworn Sword, and The Mystery Knight. All three tales are interesting and spin out some of the history of Westeros and you can feel the changes coming that lead into the current set of stories. Don't worry, you won't get 6 pages about every damn meal here, but you will find the expected adventure, intrigue, treacherous acts, and excitement.

As enjoyable as the stories were, the illustrations by Gary Gianni are worth mentioning. They are a wonderful compliment to the words on the page with them.

If you are a fan of Game of Thrones you will I think enjoy this trip into the past of the world we fans love, if you have yet to jump into the stories this can be a good introduction to the world of Stark, Targaryen, Baratheon, and Lannister.

(Finished November 14, 2005)

Monday, October 12, 2015

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews

Curiosity got the better of me because the reviews of this book mention a comparison to The Fault In Our Stars. This book is nothing like that book other than the fact that both have a female character with cancer.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is a dark, sarcastic, often uncomfortable story written by Greg. Greg, an overweight, very awkward, high school senior, is friends but not friends with Earl and they make shitty movies together. Earl is a foul mouthed bad tempered kid from a very dysfunctional family. Rachel is a girl who Greg is forced to be friends with by his mother when Rachel is diagnosed with Leukemia. They used to be almost friends but Greg messed that up and would have rather not be friends with her now, but how do you say no to being friends with a girl who is dying? She is the only one who likes Greg & Earl's films.

There are parts of this story that are awful, both in writing and in content but that is intentional since the story is told by Greg as a book is writing. He knows he isn't a writer any more than he is a film maker. He doesn't think anyone will even read his story so admits he says things because of the feeling of having no audience. And it works. You get the feeling that high school is filled with land mines and booby traps just waiting to blow you to bits that will take the entirety of your adulthood to fix.

There are no warm fuzzier to be found here, it is grit and gross and sad and funny.

(Finished October 12, 2015)

Sunday, August 2, 2015

Day Four (The Three #2) by Sarah Lotz

While this is a sequel to The Three don't expect to pick up with the same characters.

The first 3 days of a cruise on the ship The Beautiful Dreamer are uneventful and average. But something happens on Day 4 and spiral downward over the next few days. There is a small fire in the engine room, eventually the power goes out, the bathrooms stop working, and no way to contact anyone for help. Oh and there is a murderer on board. And the ship might be playing host to some restless spirits. Day Four has the taste of conspiracy theory story, paranormal mystery, and a bit of Lord of the Flies thrown in for good measure.

There isn't much more to be said without giving away the story. I liked The Three better but this was a creepy twisty story that is worth the read.

(Finished August 2, 2015)

Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Armada by Ernest Cline

From the author of Ready Player One come Armada.

I liked this book, but honestly not as much as Cline's debut novel.

Back are references to the geek past. This time the focus is mainly on the alien invasion and space adventure genre of books, movies, and video games.

Armada is the name of a video game played by main character Zack and much of the world's population. He ranks 6th on the all time best list of the players. Tera Ferma is a companion game that fights similar alien invaders but from the ground. When he was a baby Zack's father died in a "shit plant explosion" leaving Zack alone with his mother and boxes of his fathers belongings. These include video games, VHS tapes of movies and tv shows. And a notebook filled with what looks like an insane conspiracy theory.

The theory is that video games where players battle alien invaders and movies and tv shows about these invaders are the governments way of preparing people for an inevitable alien invasion and training people to fight the aliens.

And guess what? It turns out to be true and Zack gets recruited to join a world wide military force to help defend earth. There are a lot of battle scenes and they are quite detailed, as battle scenes tend to be. But these involve computers, video game consoles, virtual reality, and drones.

There are some twists in Zack's story but I won't spoil you. As I said, I liked Ready Player One better but I enjoyed Armada.

(Finished July 29, 2015)

Sunday, July 19, 2015

One Last Thing Before I Go by Jonathan Tropper

This was my first Jonathan Tropper read. I want to read and saw the movie This Is Where I Leave You. I really liked the movie and hear the book was very good. This book was similar in style, sarcastic, irreverent, moving, and thought provoking.

The ending made me drop the book and feel a WTF moment and it is the only thing that kept me from giving it 5 stars on Goodreads.

What if your life was a mess and it was completely your fault. What if you lived in a crappy apartment surrounded by other people who also fucked up their lives. And then what if you found out you were dying unless you had an operation. Would you wise up, have the operation, and then make things better? Or maybe you would think that the only way to make things better was to not have the operation because if you were well you would go back to being the same hot mess you were before you got sick.
This is what One Last Thing Before I Go is all about.

Past his prime one hit wonder rock star Silver has messed up his marriage and been a shitty father. Then he finds out he needs heart surgery or he will die, soon. And his 18 year old daughter is pregnant and has come to him for support, even after he has never given her reason to think he would be would be there for her. And his ex-wife is about to get remarried. So he chooses to not have the surgery. He thinks having it will make him continue to be the crap man he has been.

I was moved by Silver, and angry at him, and pulling for him. I liked him but hated him. And I wanted him to be ok.

(Finished July 19, 2015)

Friday, July 17, 2015

Midnight and the Meaning of Love by Sister Souljah

The story of Midnight, who is a side character in the book The Coldest Winter Ever, begins in Midnight and then continues here.

To begin reading his story you need to put aside any credibility issues his age will cause you to feel. Yes, it could feel like there is no way someone as young as him could do these things. Put try not to focus on the number and just think of him as young. It is also the 1980's and the world was a different place then. A young person could get on a plane and travel alone with very little trouble then. Trust me, I know, after all when I was 10, in 1981, I ran away from home and managed to buy a ticket, get on a plane, and fly from NY to CA alone. I have been on my own since I was 15. So just put aside the 2015 mindset that a 14-15 year old couldn't live the life Midnight was living.

You also need to put aside your own world view, thought on religion, thoughts on women's independence...this isn't a story about if it is right to have more than one wife, if the Muslim faith is good or bad...it is the story of how one young man lives and loves as he feel the things young men feel and he tries to live according to his faith the way he knows it, the way he was taught it from birth, which was not in America but rather in Sudan.

Also, religion and lifestyle aside, some of what he is capable also defies what one would think possible, but there this is much like other fictional character, they are able to do things we air breathing mortals who do not live on the pages of a book only wish we could do.

And lastly, Sister Souljah could be called the hip-hop version of Jane Austen or George R. R. Martin, in that she will write as Austin did, many paragraphs about the color of the sky or the decoration of a room, or like Martin 6 pages about every damn meal. But it isn't crippling. For instance when she writes about what Akemi's room looks like, the stained glass, you can really see it.

If you can do those things you will enjoy Midnight's story. It is erotic, violent, heartfelt, and filled with love at its heart. He is a young man who loves and respects women even if it seems like he is out to be in control of them. He is just doing and thinking what his faith tells him is the right way. It can be jarring if you hold different beliefs, but it gives insight to a lifestyle that may be different than anything you know. And isn't that a good thing? A story that is entertaining but also could be a window into a world that is not your own?

(Finished July 17, 2015)

P.S. There is a liberal use of the "n" word in both books telling Midnight's story. As a white woman, even though I am the mother of a young black man, it never felt comfortable to read it because I felt like I was saying it in my head, but in the context of the story is fits, but I still won't ever use the word.

Sunday, July 12, 2015

Istanbul Passage by Joseph Kanon

Just after the end of WWII there are still some operations taking place, Jews being helped to safety. Negotiations with Russia and Germany for how things will run in peace time. Trading of spies and secrets. It is not really over for those in Istanbul. Among the populous is Leon. He works for R.J. Reynolds. But he is also involved in the underworld of backdoor deals, courier for a man in the American Consulate. He also has a wife who hasn't spoken since a horrible incident involving a boat of Jews she was helping to leave. She lives now, silent and locked away in her mind in a clinic while Leon gets caught up in a case.

Russians, Romanians, and Americans want this one particular asset. Leon was tasked by Tommy King to meet this asset and move him to his next stop as he is being sent to the U.S. supposedly with valuable information. But when the pick up goes horribly wrong Leon's life is changed.

Istanbul Passage takes place over the course of a few days as Leon tries to figure out what to do with the man he is left looking after, what to do about the incident in the docks, what to do with and how to do the new job he has been given, and who is anyone he can trust.

This is a slowly unfolding, tense drama filled with intrigue. This isn't a fast paced, action packed adventure, it is a slow burn, more Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy than it is Mission Impossible or a Jason Bourne story. But it is well told and satisfyingly stressful story.

(Finished July 12, 2016)

Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Midnight by Sister Souljah

Oh the buy 2 get 1 free table at Barnes & Noble...Oh how it gets me every time. Often I use it to get books I have been waiting to read for awhile, but sometimes I find books that I might never have come across otherwise. This was one of the later.

I read the back of the book and the setting was the setting of my childhood, the Brooklyn projects, and the time the story is set in was the years of my early teen years, as a matter of fact Midnight and I were born in the same year. While reading the exploits of 14 year old Midnight I was revisiting much of where my 14 year old self was at the same time. It was surreal, I could see the streets, hear the sounds. Sister Souljah had me back in 1985 NYC.

At times 43 year old me was thinking there was no way a 14 year old could be doing these things...then I remembered me at 14 almost 15. I was running around NYC by myself, riding the subway, hanging out in East New York, exploring Greenwich Village, going to Coney Island...

Midnight is way to tough and grown up for someone so young. But I knew boys like him and boys like those he tried to avoid back then. And it isn't so far fetched to think this was happening to any of them. When you are forced to grow up, you do. And so many young people in the projects are grown before they are of legal age.

This was a gritty read, a coming of age story unlike any I have ever read before. A young Muslim man comes to America with his pregnant mother from Sudan to escape danger there. He wants so badly to do what his father has taught him is right, to live by the tenants of his faith. He cares for him mother and once she is born his sister. He becomes the protector of his family at the tender age of 7 and by the time he is 14 almost 15 he is more man than any male in his neighborhood. He works, he loves, he protects, he struggles to do what is right in the face of danger and temptation. He does a couple of awful things to protect what is his, but he is really a very good human and it makes him an intriguing character.

This was my first Sister Douljah book but it won't be my last. If nothing else I need to know what happens to Midnight.

(Finished July 8, 2015)

Sunday, July 5, 2015

The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story by Diane Ackerman

I stumbled across this non-fiction book when it was sitting on a table of free stuff at Barnes & Noble. I hadn't heard of it before but I have an interest in stories about Jewish heritage, that tell stories about survivors of the Holocaust, and tell stories about those who at great risk to themselves helped Jews survive WWII. This sounded like it fit into that interest so I grabbed a copy.

The Zookeeper's Wife is Antonia. She and her husband Jan (the zookeeper) lived on the grounds of the Warsaw Zoo. They cared deeply for the animals in their charge. Antonia even hand raised orphaned babies and cared for injured or sick animals in their home. She was very interested in animal behavior, she too the time to learn how they thought and formed the most interesting bonds with the animals. Jan ran his zoo in such a way that human visitors and animals were cared for and respected. There is a good deal in this book about the creation of the zoo and about the animals it housed. At times it might seem dry or leave you wondering why so many details instead of talking about the heroic acts that were happening. I wondered it while reading, but in the end I think it was because it helped explain the choices made, how Antonia was able to reason out how to handle certain situations, and it was capturing a history that might have been lost otherwise. But also, and maybe most importantly, it was what was real and important to Jan and Antonia.

When Germany under the rule of Hitler invaded Poland, when the Jews were forced into the ghetto, the zoo became an important hub of the underground movement to save as many Jews as possible. Some Guests came to stay for much of the war years, others stopped only long enough to be safe while longer term arraignments could be made. One of the people who made a pit stop at the zoo was Irene Sendler, herself a hero, saving many Jewish children, and the subject of the book Life in a Jar:The Irena Sendler Project.

What this couple did, what this woman did, because most of the time it was just her, her husband was away from the zoo working in order to allow them to feed themselves and the Guests, sneaking Jews out of the Ghetto, and later fighting with the Underground. Antonia was the housewife and conductor of what was going on at home. She kept people fed, hidden, calm, and even happy at times. She was the backbone of their operation and because of what they did, hundreds were saved, and of all those who stayed with them all but one family survived the war years.

These stories, people who risked everything, to help those who were being hunted in order to be destroyed, they need to be told, they deserve to be told.

(Finished July 5, 2015)

Thursday, July 2, 2015

Crazy Rich Asians (Crazy Rich Asians #1) by Kevin Kwan

I heard about this book on NPR and it intrigued me.
I devoured this 527 page novel as if it were a pile of satay in the Singapore food stalls Rachel and Nick visit. And it was delicious.

Crazy Rich Asians is part over the top soap opera, part love story, part satire. The book could have been titled Crazy, Rich, Asians because Nick's family could defiantly be called crazy and they are very, very, heck they are obscenely rich. They think nothing of spending $200,000 on a dress and $50,000 on shoes, and a million on jewelry in one breathe and then pretend they aren't rich in the next. And while it is campy and over the top, it is fun and fabulous. Kevin Kwan spins a tale of manipulation, love, friendship, a $40 million wedding, and makes it fun to read even as you loathe some of the people in the world he created. And at times feel a little envious....

I didn't know there was going to be a book 2 when I bought this months ago but now that I read I can't wait to get my hands on the next part of the story, I want to spend more time with Rachel and Nick, and Astrid the only "normal" people in the story, but I want to read more about Nick's outrageous family too.

(Finished July 2, 2015)

Wednesday, July 1, 2015

The House I Loved by Tatiana de Rosnay

I read and really enjoyed other books by Tatiana de Rosnay (A Secret Kept and Sarah's Key), so I have had this sitting in my pile of books waiting to be read. I finally got to it.

And it is as tragic as you'd expect if you read Sarah's Key. It starts out feeling like a book about saving a house that was a home to a family for generations, where a woman was welcomed in and finally part of a loving family, where life is lived and loss is mourned. And it is that.

But it is also a book about love. Real and deep love. And painful secrets kept to protect loved ones. While hiding in the cellar of her husband's family home in 1860's Paris Rose is writing to her husband, who happens to have died 10 years prior. She is catching him up on what has happened since he left her. Their home is about to be torn down in the redesigning of the city. She tells him of the people she has bonded with and how it helped save her life when she was forced to live without him. And she hints at something painful she needs to share with him.

As her writing unfold we learn all about Rose and eventually her painful secret is told as time marches towards the destruction of her house.

(Finished June 30, 2015)

Monday, June 29, 2015

Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison by Piper Kerman

Aside from the title, some familiar names like Piper, Crazy Eyes, Larry, Pennsatucky, a guard with a bushy porn-stache, a nun, a yoga lover, and a transgender diva there is not much in the book Orange is the New Black that will also be part of the Netflix series of the same name. This is not to say that the show isn't enjoyable, it is. But the book is so much more!!

In between telling us about her time in Danbury Federal Prison, Piper Kerman, a Smith graduate who made some admittedly bad choices, tells about how much she learned about herself, the kind of person she wants to be, the amazing women who helped her survive prison, and the sad state of a system that does very little if anything to prepare low-level, non-violent, offenders survive after they go home.

If you are expecting the sexy or violent episodes seen in the show you will be sadly disappointed. There was much by way of artistic license taken with the creation of the Netflix series. There are a few familiar incidents in the book but they were highly doctored and sexed up or made more violent for the screen. However, you will find heart and soul in the pages of the real Piper's story. I found her much more likable on paper. Larry was too, as were many of the women she writes about.

And she has a message in her book, the prison system needs serious reform. If you don't already believe that reading her book will make you a believer.

(Finished June 29, 2015)

Sunday, June 28, 2015

In the Unlikely Event by Judy Blume

Yet another book that follows threads of interconnected lives, and I love it.

During a short period of time beginning in late 1951 into early 1952 there are three plane crashes in Elizabeth NJ. During this time Miri is 15 years old and falls in love for the first time. She learns that not everyone tells the truth all time, even those who we love the most, and she learns about life while surrounded by death.

In the Unlikely Event left me feeling like I did when I was young and was reading Judy Blume books (Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret; Deenie; Blubber; Forever; Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great; Then Again Maybe I Won't; Tiger Eyes; and way before my time Wifey). I felt like someone understood me and my peers, someone could capture our voices and feelings, and it was glorious to know we weren't freaks but even if we were we weren't freaks alone. She did it again here, she captured the intensity of the feelings teenagers feel, but she also writes about the intensity and fear adults feel, and if that's not enough, she visits how those teenage feelings touch us when as adults we revisit the people and places of our youth.

I think it's time to reread some of the books I loved by her as a youngin' and read the adult books I haven't read yet.

(Finished June 28, 2015)

Friday, June 26, 2015

Loving Frank by Nancy Horan

In 1903 Frank Lloyd Wright designed a home in Oak Park for Edwin and Mamah (May-muh) Cheney. Frank and Mamah fell in love and ended up leaving their spouses and children to be together.

Loving Frank draws upon documents written by Mamah, writings by and about Frank, newspaper articles, and writings of the period to put together a picture of their time together.

Nancy Horan tries to capture the voice of a woman who was a wife, mother, lover, suffragette, an intellectual...a woman trying to find herself and her voice in a time when women were barely allowed a voice need mind control over their own destiny.

This is a work of fiction that weaves in fact where ever possible. Did the conversations written here between Mamah and Frank happen? Maybe, who knows, but they feel real, and that is Horan's intent. Why did these two people leave their families to be together? What is more important, love, self, children, spouse?

There were times I cringed at the choices Mamah and Frank made. But one thing was clear, they loved each other so deeply, often times so intwined they couldn't see where one ended and the other began.

In among the fictionalized aspects of the story there are some interesting facts about Wright's architectural work in Oak Park and the home he built to live in with Mamah in Green Springs WI, his personality, and his money troubles. Now I am left feeling curious about them both and want to know more.

While not always sympathetic or likable they were real and made choices that many had to live with. It was a chance to see the ripples their stone made in the pond.

(Finished June 26, 2015)

Sunday, June 21, 2015

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

The connections between people, the way we touch each other's lives before we meet or without meeting at all, is fascinating.

Station Eleven is rooted in these threads. In the future the world's population has been decimated by a mutated strain of swine flu. In this post-apocoliptic world there is a traveling theater group called The Symphony. They are a rag-tag group of musicians and actors that travel from settlement to settlement playing music and performing Shakespeare's plays.

Our POV* character is Kristen who was a child actress when the pandemic started. Right as the flu was spreading across Russia and Europe she was in Toronto as part of the cast of King Lear. The king was being played by an aging actor, Arthur Leander, with a string of ex-wives and a young son he doesn't see enough of. Arthur is very kind to Kristen, giving her his attention and two comic books, Station Eleven numbers 1 & 2, that were drawn by his first ex-wife Miranda. On this last night before a packed house Arthur has a heart attack on stage. In the audience is Jeevan who is a former paparazzo, former entertainment reporter, and current paramedic student. He runs on stage and gives Arthur CPR. This is the beginning of the story and the threads that run through it.

The story jumps from Year 25 after the end of the world as we know it, the day of Arthur's death and the early days of the new world. Slowly the connections between the characters is unraveled and we see how their lives and deaths are important to the others and are leading some of them towards each other.

Go on and get your hands on a copy and read this book.

(Finished June 20, 2015)

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

Going back and forth from August 1944 and the 5 years leading up to it the story of French Marie-Laure and German Werner are on a collision course. She is a young girl who at the age of 6 went blind. He is a young boy who is an orphan living with his sister in a children's home.

Their stories are drawn together by the thread of Marie-Laure's great-grandfather's radio broadcasts which influence the life of Werner. He being German and aryan looking as well as being a wiz with radios gets sent with many young German boys to a school where they are trained to fill out the ranks of the German army during WWII. She flees Paris with her father after it becomes too dangerous. By very different paths they both end up in Saint-Malo.

Along the way there is the search for a gem that a dying German officer believes will save his life. His search has his story crossing into Werner and Marie-Laure's.

The way this story is told, jumping back and forth was really well done. When you are going through our day to day business of living you never know how what you are doing and going through might be having an effect of the lives of others near and far. When you are in the middle of things you can't see or imagine the big picture. Here we get to be observers of the big picture as it unfolds and can see the threads connecting these characters.

All the Light We Cannot See is also a story about how the accident of birth place and time can have such a major impact on who we turn out to be and the way we experience events. Werner and Marie-Laure are living through the same war but from different sides and it gives perspective on events as well as how people become who they do. Werner's story doesn't have becoming a member of the Nazi machine involved in the camps but you can see how the boys he was in school with who did go that way did so.

All of this well done story is told in some really beautiful writing.

(Finished June 15, 2015)

Friday, June 5, 2015

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

Finding out what happened to the dog, the details of the curious incident, is really not the point of this novel even if it starts out seeming that the mystery of who killed the dog is the main point of Christopher's story.

While the word autism is never used, it is pretty clear that Christopher has an ASD (autism spectrum disorder). Mark Haddon captures the tone, speech pattern, thought processes, and distinctive behaviors of an ASD teen so perfectly it was almost painful to read. By that I mean, as the mom of a child with an ASD I could relate to what I was reading and it made my heart hurt for Christopher and his parents.

It isn't easy parenting a child who can't tolerate your touch, can't verbalize love, and all of the other practical issues that come with them. Christopher won't eat certain color foods, can't have foods touch, has colors that he hates, can't stand being touched, and has a hard time with strangers and new people. But Christopher is also very smart and wants to sit his A level math exam.

When he lost his mother he and his father were managing pretty well on their own. That is until Christopher finds a neighbor's dog dead from an attack with a garden fork. Christopher is determined to be a detective and solve the crime. What he ends up solving is a mystery he didn't know existed and it changes his entire life.

The pain of not being able to hold your child when they are sad, sick or in pain is heartbreaking. Trying to parent a child under the best of circumstances isn't easy but when you have a child with autism it becomes infinitely harder, the more sever the symptoms the harder it becomes to parent. Haddon not only captures Christopher perfectly, he captures his parents perfectly as well even as he presents them from Christopher's point of view.

(Finished June 5, 2015)

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

The Book of Life (All Souls Trilogy #3) by Deborah Harkness

As I mentioned in my reviews of book 1 and book 2 I had some misgivings during them that was going to end up like reboots of Twilight. Both times my fear was unfounded and I never felt it this time around. By the time I was into book 3 I was feeling the dread I feel anytime I read a book, or last book of a series, I am really enjoying. I want to keep reading to see how it ends but I am dreading leaving the world and characters so I am tempted to slow down, but can't because of the need to know what happens.

Now that I am done with the world of All Souls I already miss Diana and Matthew. I want more of the relationship that was coming for Marcus and Phoebe. I want to know if Gallowglass gets to be happy. I want to know how Jack is and heck, I even miss Baldwin!!!

I ended up being pleasantly surprised by the series. Harkness spun a tale that by degree pulled me in and left me wanting more.

Beyond just a love story between a witch and a vampire the All Souls trilogy was a story about the strength found in looking past what makes us different and seeing what binds us. It is a waring about mixing up justice and revenge and the fine line between love and hate.

Well done sister MoHo!!

(Finished June 3, 2015)

Monday, June 1, 2015

Shadow of Night (All Souls Trilogy #2) by Deborah Harkness

Some of the same misgivings I felt when reading A Discovery of Witches cropped up while reading Shadow of Night, a vampire and the one he loves not being a vampire, a central command type group not happy about it and coming after them...but again the fear of a Twilight type tale were unfounded.

The second piece of the tale of Diana and Matthew is an interesting historical fiction, it takes places in Elizabethan England and spends time in Prague. Still looking for the manuscript that started their tale in modern times they travel by magic back. Unlike most time travel tales where you can't run into your past self this story says that going back in time by magic displaces the you that would be found there. This sets up a new kind of challenge because anything you do won't be known when you return to the future and the displaced you returns.

While the couple gets to know each other they learn to share their burdens and secrets, how to be a team, and how to love and forgive despite the outside forces trying to stop their love and end their lives.

(Finished May 31, 2015)

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

March: Book Two (March #2) by John Robert Lewis, Andrew Aydin

Picking up where March: Book 1 ended this time Congressman Lewis tells of his time as a Freedom Rider, becoming head of the SNCC, beatings, jail time, and the August 1963 March On Washington.

Of all those who spoke that day John Lewis is the only one still alive.

None of this is pretty, in fact it is quite brutal. But it is important to know what people did to others who they felt were less than human because of the color of their skin. Because the past is ugly doesn't mean it should be swept under the rug and denied. Rather it should be studied, and each generation should learn the lessons and strive to do better than those who came before. It is the only thing that will bring about peace and equality.

Read this. Please.

(Finished May 27, 2015)

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

March: Book One (March #1) by John Robert Lewis, Andrew Aydin

Book 1 of a trilogy of graphic novels telling the story of Congressman John Lewis, what he witnessed and the part he played in the civil rights movement.

Book 1 starts with some background on his childhood, such as when he was a child he wanted to be a preacher and used to practice preaching to his chickens.

As a young college student now he gets to meet Dr Martin Luther King Jr. which is an exciting event. Congressman Lewis also takes part in the early sit-ins at lunch counters in Montgomery. He gets arrested and witnesses the ugliness of segregation first hand. But interspersed in the events in this first volume are scenes that take place in 2009 in the Congressman's office as he talks to a woman and her two young sons who have come to DC and he gets ready for a special event.

These promise to be important books. Using the graphic novel style of writing makes these accessible to todays teens who may not be as informed as they should be on these events. It is really important to make sure these events are remembered and the participants honored.

(Finished May 26, 2015)

A Discovery of Witches (All Souls Trilogy #1) by Deborah Harkness

I read this book, book 1 in a trilogy because I have a thing for autographed books and for reading the work of alumna of what has become my beloved school, Mount Holyoke College. While I was in the Odyssey Bookshop they had autographed copies of book 3 so I bought it. Then my friend Liz gave me book 1.

When I started reading this book I wasn't sure I liked it. There were little tinges that brought to mind Twilight. The story of a Vampire getting involved with someone who wasn't one. But it was short lived. The more I read the more I liked it.

What A Discovery of Witches turned out to be on the surface is a supernatural story full of magic, witches, vampires, and daemons living among humans. It is also seems to be about Diana, an extremely reluctant witch, Matthew, a very old, very powerful vampire, and the rules that govern the interaction between the different non-human members of the population.

What the story really is under the surface is a story of prejudice and fear of those who are different and not fully understood. It is the story of love in the face of opposition and danger. And yes, it is a supernatural story filled with creatures and magic.

What started for me as a maybe turned out to be quite enjoyable and left me wanting more.

(Finished May 26, 2015)

Sunday, May 24, 2015

The Astronaut Wives Club: A True Story by Lily Koppel

I've had this on my want-to-read list for quite some time, but when I saw it was about to be a TV series I felt the need to read it before the show aired. I am very glad I did.

When the first men to join the NASA program as astronauts were announced, as much attention and scrutiny if not more was focused on their wives. They had to be the epitome of the perfect 1950's housewives well into the 1960's and 1970's.

Most of the book tell the story of the original seven wives:

Rene Carpenter (wife of Scott Carpenter)
Trudy Cooper (wife of "Gordo" Cooper)
Annie Glen (wife of John Glenn)
Betty Grissom (wife of Gus Grissom)
Jo Schirra (wife of Wally Schirra)
Louise Shepard (wife of Alan Shepard)
Marge Slayton (wife of Deke Slayton)

They were later joined by among others, Janet Armstrong, Marilyn Lovell, and Joan Aldrin.

These women met with presidents, kings, and movie stars. They were shadowed by a crew from Life magazine. They were expected to behave a certain way and support their husbands no matter what. They were part of an elite club that was at once supportive and competitive. It was believed that the better the marriage appeared the more likely the best space flights assignments would be given to their husbands. Some of them truly had loving marriages but many were a mess. Infidelity was rampant in these marriages but divorce was unthinkable.

But these women, oh how strong they were. Their husbands were so often absent from their homes, they were practically single mothers. And even when the men were home on weekends NASA admonished the wives to not bother the husbands with household chores, problems with the children, or any other mundane things. They were basically to feed their men well (steak and eggs was a big thing), and let them be.

Over the course of their time as NASA wives Kennedy was assassinated, so was MLK Jr and RFK, the war in Vietnam raged on, feminism was becoming a real movement, and they were discouraged from modernizing their attitudes, they kept beehive hairdos longer than anyone. But they formed a bond, were not as blind or naive as people thought, and most of them survived and did it well. Some became widows and eventually many divorced.

I do not know how they will be portrayed on the upcoming television version but Lily Koppel does a beautiful job telling their story. These are amazing women!!

(Finished May 23, 2015)

Thursday, May 21, 2015

Ink and Bone (The Great Library #1) by Rachel Caine

I got to read this as before it was released as part of Penguin Books first to read program. It was in a galley form and a PDF, so I read it on my tablet. I tell you that last part because it was really interesting to be reading an electronic document and not a physical, paper book of this particular book given the story.

The Great Library is headquartered in Alexandria, Egypt and the rest of the world has daughter libraries. The only place where there are physical, original, ink and paper, leather covered, real, books is in The Great Library. People are not allowed to own originals. Instead there are these things that look like books called blanks. When you want to read something you use a blank to call it up and it appears in the blank, you read it and then it is gone, your book, your blank, is empty again.

In this world the biggest black market is in books, rare and ancient books, and smuggling is a dangerous occupation. There are also people called burners who think burning books is a political statement protesting against The Great Library.

And among those seeking books are creepy people called Ink Lickers who get their hands on books and then eat them. It is considered a great perversion to those who reside in this world.

In between chapters are interesting notes between the hierarchy that give glimpses into the back room secrets of society.

With this as the backdrop a young man from a smuggler family becomes a student of The Great Library with instructions to help his father use this position to help smuggle books when possible. But what young Jess finds is much more than he ever imagined, danger, murder, war, lies, secrets, and maybe even redemption.

This was a great start to a new series and I am anxiously awaiting more.

(Finished May 21, 2015)

Someday, Someday, Maybe by Lauren Graham

I picked this one up without reading the summary on the back or knowing anything about it except that the author is Lauren Graham. I loved her on Gilmore Girls and Parenthood and figured I'd love her as a writer. I wasn't disappointed.

The style of her writing reminded me of Caprice Crane. The main character is a 20-something, quirky young woman who is not exactly comfortable in her own skin but is trying to be. Crane does it better but Graham is pretty good.

In Someday, Someday, Maybe we meet Franny, an aspiring actress living in Brooklyn NY (my hometown) who is almost at the end of her self-imposed "make it or go home" deadline.

Franny live with her best friend Jane who is working as an production assistant on a real movie set and their third roommate Dan an aspiring screen writer who gave up his premed track to write a science fiction script. She attends acting classes, works as a waitress at a comedy club, and goes on auditions. She is pretty funny, even when she isn't trying to be, especially when she isn't trying to be.

Will she make it, get her big break before her deadline? Does it matter if she does?

While I will admit this wasn't the end all be all of books I have read, I enjoyed it and would read more by Graham is she ever wrote more.

(Finished May 19, 2015)

Sunday, May 17, 2015

The Hundred-Foot Journey by Richard C. Morais

The trailer for the movie made me want to read this book, but it was not at all what I expected, thought I am not sure exactly what I expected.

It is a fairly quick read and at first glance feels a little shallow. By that I mean the number of years covered in about 270 pages means there is not a lot of detail in any one year of Hassan's journey.

And it is a journey. From India to London to Lumire in the French Alps and finally to Paris. Hassan losses his mother and home land and finds his passion for cooking. His family is crazy, loud, colorful, and they really love each other. There is not a lot of deep diving into the everyday workings of the relationship he has with them but it is of vital importance, especially with his father. You end up with a good understanding of how they all fit together.

The biggest thread that runs through his life is the need for feeling at home when you have lost the land you feel in your bones is home. Food is a main character and used to tell the tale of Hassan's trek from cooking Indian food in a family run establishment to a Michelin Star chef in Paris.

Glossed over, and the one area I wish was explored more, is how the loss if his mother and his need to be successful has kept him from creating a family of his own.

I really did enjoy the story, even though I had to skim over some of the names of foods and places because I don't read (or speak) French. Oh and I am craving curry now.

Now I am interested in seeing the film and see how this translates to the screen.

(Finished May 17, 2015)

Saturday, May 16, 2015

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

You're life has fallen apart, you don't want to tell anyone so you try to keep your routine. And so you ride the train everyday and your attention is drawn to a couple you can see everyday as you pass their home. You get a glimpse lasting a few seconds to a minute at a time and your create a life for them in your imagination. Then something happens, you see something you wish you hadn't.

That is the setup for The Girl on the Train. If you liked Gone Girl you will like this. It is a similar formula, one story told from the point of view of different characters and they all head towards what really happened and you don't know who is reliable or if anyone is.

Rachel is a mess. She drinks too much, so much so that it has left her with huge blank spots in her memory. She has lost everything that mattered to her. So when she sees a chance to add some purpose back into her life she takes it. But it goes nothing like she expected it and what happens next is a dizzy, crazy trip into the case of a missing person.

Take a ride on the crazy train!!

(Finished May 15, 2015)

Friday, May 15, 2015

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

Have you ever read a book that when you are done you miss the world within the book? This is one of those.

An Ember in the Ashes has everything I look for in a book that starts a series, well drawn characters, raising thought provoking questions, and an interesting world.

Some of the big questions Tahir raises in her pages are; is too much knowledge a bad thing, and when one group of people are out of control and are overtaking others in abusive ways and then the others rise up and win their freedom but then enslave their former tormentors, how long, for how many generations, should this go on before it stops being protective retribution and becomes a recreation of what they went through...

The chapters alternate POV's between Laia, a scholar who lost her grandparents and whose brother is being held in prison by the Martial Empire, and Elias who is about to graduate from the Empire's elite warrior training academy.

It isn't easy to write in different voices but Tahir does it really well, Laia and Elias have very distinct personalities that come across very clearly. The story is so well written that when I finished the book and closed it I was immediately missing them and the world they live in. I want to know what happens next, I want to spend more time with them and can't stop thinking about the questions raised.

(Finished May 8, 2015)

Monday, May 11, 2015

Dorothy Must Die (Dorothy Must Die #1) by Danielle Paige

We all know the story of Dorothy and her trip to Oz, munchkins, good witches, bad witches, flying monkeys, and loyal friends made of tin, fur, and straw.

But what if there is more that happens after "There's no place like home"?

What if Dorothy comes back, and what if she gets hooked on magic and wants it all for herself? And what if she becomes a horrible person and does horrible things? What if Glinda is working with Dorothy? And what of Scarecrow is a straw version of Dr. Frankenstein but worse?

And then what if what we know as good and evil gets flipped and Amy, a new visitor from Kansas lands in OZ and it more Mad Max than Lollypop Guild?

That's what you have here. And it is really an interesting retooling of the classic story.

It is not perfect. At times I found myself rolling my eyes at Amy's thoughts and wishing the writing was better, typically when it is about Amy and her feelings for boys. But then the story would pick back up and get rolling again. It really is an interesting concept, reexamining what makes someone good and what makes them evil, what is good and what is right, flipping our ideas on their head.

I liked this enough that I am anxious to read book two as well as the prequel stories which started as e-books and have been published together in one paperback edition.

Not the best writing in the world but the story made up for it.

(Finished May 11, 2015)

Friday, May 8, 2015

The Three: A Novel (The Three #1) by Sarah Lotz

My friend Ann recommend this one. I am not sure if I should thank her, heck, I'm not sure you should thank me for passing on the recommendation to you, however, I am sure you should read this book.

The Three are the survivors of plane crashes. But not just any plane crashes. On one day there are 4 plane crashes. Three of the crashes have one survivor. One child. There is a suspected 4th survivor but no one can find this one.

There are people who think this was an alien controlled set of incidents and the children were switched with aliens pretending to be the kids.

There are people who think these crashes are the beginning of the end signaling the rapture is about to begin and that the children are the horseman of the apocalypse referred to in Revelation.

Then there are those who think these are just children who were lucky enough to survive tragedy.

But then strange things begin to happen around them.

So who are they really? How did they survive?

The style of this novel is that it is a novel within a novel. The story of the children is weaved together by an author telling the story of the crashes and the life of the children and those around them after the crash. It is an interesting style and added to the tension built throughout the reading of this one.

This is a good, creepy, mind-fuck of a book.

(Finished May 8, 2015)

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri

I first became aware of Jhumpa Lahiri when my friend Beth insisted I read interpreter of maladies. I then went on to read Unaccustomed Earth.

For my third voyage I visited The Lowland. The story of two brothers so connected yet so far apart is everything I have come to love about Jhumpa. The story jumps ahead at times, leaving blanks in the story, but you won't mind. It is something she does very well and if you've read any of her short stories you will be familiar with the feeling, the feeling of jumping into the lives of the characters, getting a glimpse of a time in their story then jumping back out.

While this is supposed to be the story of two brothers and the different paths they take and how their loves converge again I felt like is was more the story of what it means to be a mother and what happens when loss gets in the way of the job. From the mother of the brothers who set the story in motion, then to her daughter-in-law, and finally her granddaughter it is the women who have the most depth and it really is their story.

The history of India that is used at the back drop for the story was as much a character as the people and it was very interesting yet often sad.

A lot of emotion was felt while reading this novel.

(Finished May 1, 2015)

Sunday, April 26, 2015

The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon

The Winter People is a tale told not just from multiple perspectives but also across time.

The story of Sara and her daughter Gertie takes place in 1908 while the story of Ruthie, her mom, and her sister, and newly widowed Katherine take place in the present. As the sections move back and forth in time they are on a collision course.

This is a ghost story and the story of a mother's love and loss. It is all at once creepy, mysterious, beautiful and heartbreaking.

It is also the story how sadness and grief can lead to desperate actions the repercussions of which can be long lasting even to the point of outliving us.

(Finished April 26, 2015)

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

The Boston Girl by Anita Diamant

From time to time I read a book where I find myself truly loving a character and knowing I would be friends with her/him if they jumped out of the book and into my world. Addie Baum is such a character.

The story of a Jewish family that comes to the US and settles in Boston is told through the words of old Addie telling the tale to her granddaughter.

Addie is braver and more amazing than she seems to know but there can be no doubt as you read her story. Her mother has nothing but disdain for her, her father is so out of reach he seems like a ghost in the story, her sister Betty has escaped by moving out, and Celia is a tragic figure.

The city of Boston is like a character in Addie's story and it is a lovely bit of writing that make it so. You will feel the city breathe along with the human characters.

Addie grows from scared young girl who just wants to go to school to become a confident and wise woman.

Take a trip into Addie's past, it is painful, beautiful, and powerful.

(Finished April 19, 2015)

The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black

I as already familiar with Holly from reading The Spiderwick Chronicles with my son but after reading The Coldest Girl in Coldtown I was sold on Holly Black as an author I enjoyed reading for my enjoyment too.

The Darkest Part of the Forest was really fun to read. It is a fairy tale with fairies, haunted woods and all the fantasy folks that typically in habit it, a mysterious casket with a horned boy sleeping in it, and a town full of humans. However this fairy tale isn't just a story parents tell their kids to get them to behave, it is all true!!!

Hazel and Ben are teenage siblings that live in Fairfield, a community where not just the children believe in enchanted woods, the adults do too. Hazel is a warrior and Ben has a powerful music that soothes the savage beasts.

With all this fantasy world as its backdrop The Darkest Part of the Forest is also a coming of age teen love story.

Visit the forest, you won't be sorry.

(Finished April 1, 2015)

Promises I Can Keep: Why Poor Women Put Motherhood before Marriage by Kathryn Edin

I read this for my Work, Women, and Family class.

It is an interesting idea to explore, who do poor women have babies and often never get married.

Some of the women will make you angry, some will make you sad, but mostly they will make you rethink your preconceived ideas about this group. Many of the women find themselves looked down upon while their children's fathers get pats on the back for having all these children.

While many of them are very young when they begin having children not all of them are teen moms. Quite a few are in their 20's, 30's, and even 40's.

A really insightful though not pretty look at the topic.

(Finished March 20, 2015)

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

The Second Shift: Working Families and the Revolution at Home by Arlie Russell Hochschild, Anne Machung

I read this for my Work, Women, and Family class.

The premise is that women who are mothers and work outside the home work a second shift when they get home from work in order to take care of their home and children.

The books tells the story of some couples who and how they navigate this second shift.

I found it an interesting read but it also made me a little angry and some of the men and some of them women too. But the idea of a second shift and how to more equally share the responsibility that comes with rising a family when both parents work sparked conversation and debate in my class. It also provided some really good food for thought.

(Finished February 27, 2015)

Tomboy: A Graphic Memoir by Liz Prince

I was walking around at The Odyssey (independent bookstore across the street from campus). I saw the cover of this book and it jumped out at me.

Dakota has been going through a struggle with gender identity and we had been talking about the past year spent living as "he" but now feeling like that didn't fit so we were going back to calling her "she".

I saw the cover of Tomboy and it jumped out at me. So I picked up the book and read the inside front and back cover. This book felt custom made for my sweet kid. So I bought it and was so excited to get home.

Dakota read it first. Then she loaned it to our LUK worker Kathy (who we are so lucky to have) and now I have read it.

It's a graphic novel about Liz, who spent her life feeling like she was not "girly" and was more interested in things people were trying to tell her were for boys. She didn't like makeup, dresses, and the thought of needing a bra was horrific.

She much preferred her baseball cap, comfy men's t-shirts, baggy boys jeans, and ghostbuster toys.
It took her a very long time to feel comfortable in her own skin and realize that she was a she, just not by society's definition of what made someone a girl.

(finished March 17, 2015

Monday, February 9, 2015

The Price of Motherhood: Why the Most Important Job in the World Is Still the Least Valued by Ann Crittenden

This is the first book of the semester I had to read for my class The Psychology of Work, Women, and Family.

To say that the findings Ann Crittenden writes about made me angry would be an understatement. She was moved to write about the price paid by mothers and other caregivers when after leaving The New York Times she was asked if she "used to be Ann Crittenden."

Women, even those with degrees from prestigious schools, make less and move up the corporate ladder slower than their male and their childless female counterparts.

Caregiving, those who provide childcare for children that are not their own, and mothers who devote themselves full time to raising their children, are considered unskilled labor.

Stay at home mothers don't have any kind of protections if they get injured on the job, they don't get retirement benefits of their own from social security, and woe to them if they get divorced because the courts offer little or no protection.

Crittenden lays out facts and statistics, she speaks with real women and shares their stories.

While most of the studies she quotes were done in the very later 90's they are still very relevant. A very interesting even if frustrating read. I hope you feel moved to want to help make changes to the system. I am not sure how but I know I am on the look out for the opportunity.

(Finished February 7, 2015)

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Neil Patrick Harris: Choose Your Own Autobiography by Neil Patrick Harris

I read a fair number of biographies and memoirs.

This was unlike any I have ever read!!

NPH gives his story in a clever way that shares some details about his life to date but also throws in some silly side trips into a fictionalized what if I made a different life choice way.

When I was young I read the choose your own adventures and that is the style he writes his book in. At different points you can choose to skip to different moments in his life or see what would happen if you had lead him down a different path. Maybe it would be death, maybe it would be flipping burgers...who knows...

What you end up with is a fun read that at the end of the day gives you some insight into the life of the fabulous NPH, his sweet husband David and their twins.

(Finished January 21, 2015)

Food: A Love Story by Jim Gaffigan

This is Gaffigan's second book. If by some chance you've never heard of him, he is a stand up comedian who I like to call the food whisperer. A large part of his shtick is talkinh and whispering lovingly about food.

I really enjoyed his first book Dad Is Fat and so I had high expectations for this one.

It wasn't as funny. But it did have a good number of laughs. Mostly though I found it a little chuckle worthy but filled with jokes we all make in some form or another about food, restaurants, and eating.

I didn't laugh out loud the way I did when reading Dad Is Fat but maybe that wasn't the intent here. Maybe he was just being snarky and observational.

Not a bad read but not as good as I had hoped.

(Finished January 19, 2015)

Saturday, January 17, 2015

The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom

This was the book pick for book club this month. I don't think I would have had it on my radar otherwise so thank you Kate.

We can all agree slavery was an awful part of US history. This story takes us inside life at a plantation through the story of Lavinia. She is a young Irish girl whose parents die on the ship over and so she ends up living on a plantation in Virginia.

Lavinia lives in the kitchen house with Belle. Belle is the daughter of the plantation owner but since her mother was a slave she is too. There is also Mama, Papa, Uncle Jacob, Ben, and twins Beattie and Fanny. They take in Lavinia as one of their own.

While there is hardship, cruelty, pain for the people who are the property of the Captain, there is also much love.

Lavinia is told that family is more than blood ties but it is over a number of years that she learns the true meaning of that statement.

A powerful story and a great book despite the ugliness it contains.

(Finished January 17, 2015)

Thursday, January 15, 2015

The Tower, the Zoo, and the Tortoise by Julia Stuart

This book reminded me a little of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. It has the same slow burn feel to it, there is mystery as to what happened to the main character's son, and the characters begin to grow on you. Harold Fry was better but this wasn't bad.

Set in the Tower of London the main story is the story of Beefeater Balthazar Jones and his wife Hebe. The cast of characters is rounded out by the rest of the inhabitants of the Tower community and Hebe's coworker at the London Underground Lost Items department.

The amazing list of things that get turned into the lost items department is one of the best parts of the read.

Balthazar and Hebe lost their young son Milo and the loss has put a dent into their deep and long lasting love.

The story of what loss can do to people is the backbone of this tale and while it unfolds the time spent with the rest of the characters runs from aggravating to charming.

The story of tower chaplain Septimus Drew is quite interesting.

I will admit that the while the facts about the history of the Tower of London was interesting, at times it felt like too much.

Overall a pretty good read, but it wasn't perfect.

(finished January 15, 2015)

Sunday, January 11, 2015

The Prime Minister's Secret Agent (Maggie Hope Mystery #4) by Susan Elia MacNeal

In the 4th Maggie Hope mystery Maggie is recovering from the events of her undercover assignment in Berlin back at the training facility in Scotland.

There are a few threads woven together this time around...and here is something MacNeal has been doing well throughout this series...the reader knows what is going to happen but the characters don't and it creates a really great bit of tension.

In this volume it is approaching December 7, 1941, there is some kind of weird stuff happening with sheep, and Maggie's dear friend Sarah is among some women who have been poisoned.

The only complaint I have here is that there isn't another Maggie Hope story until Fall.

(Finished January 11, 2015)

His Majesty's Hope (Maggie Hope Mystery #3) by Susan Elia MacNeal

Maggie Hope is back. First she cracked a code and saved a church while working for Churchill as a secretary, then she saved Princess Elizabeth, and now she is going to Berlin on an undercover assignment.

McNeal again spins a tale filled with intrigue and danger. In the third book in the series we get to know more about Maggie's family including a big surprise.

So far this has been a really well done series that has left me wanting more. Maggie Hope is a great character and going along with her as she breaks into traditionally male roles has been a great ride, sometimes scary but always interesting and exciting.

(Finished January 10, 2015)

Friday, January 9, 2015

To Save a People by Alex Kershaw

Most people have heard of Oskar Schindler but not many have heard of Raoul Wallenberg. This is his story. It is also the story of the thousands of Jews who were spared death at the hands of Adolf Eichmann in Hungary because of the young Swedish diplomat.

At great risk to himself and with no desire for reward Wallenberg intervened time and time again during the bloody summer of 1944. He faced down Eichmann and members of the Arrow Cross to save such a great many people.

Then the Soviets finally arrived which was supposed to bring safety and liberation. That was when the mystery began. What happened to Wallenberg at the hands of the Soviets?

Those he saved never forgot him and neither will you after reading this.

(Finished January 9, 2015)

Princess Elizabeth's Spy (Maggie Hope Mystery #2) by Susan Elia MacNeal

Maggie Hope is back for another assignment. After her success breaking a code as Mr. Churchill's Secretary she is now posing as a maths tutor for the princess Elizabeth at Windsor Castle.

Proving again that women can do anything men can do Maggie isn't perfect but she is good and smart.

MacNeal spins a good tale and the mystery is well drawn. The tension is thick right up until the end and beyond thanks to a big cliffhanger.

I am looking forward to starting book 3.

(Finished January 7, 2015)

Monday, January 5, 2015

2015 Book List

Missed my goal of 60 by 6 books. I think had I not had such a rough semester and spent over a month sick near the end of the year I would have passed my goal. (12/31/15)

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

At first I wasn't sure if I liked this one. It took about 100 pages for me to start to really get into it and then I couldn't put it down.

What if you were born, died, and then born again....over and over? That is what happens to Ursula. She is born February 11, 1910 and dies before she can breathe. Then she is born again. Every time she dies it is at a different point in her life and she is immediately born to live her life over again. Each time her life and the life of those she come into contact with turns out a bit different depending on the choices made.

At some point she begins to remember having lived this life before in a hazy deja vu way and that too changes outcomes of the current timeline.

While each run through has its share of tragedy there are so many interesting thoughts woven in. If someone you love and trust turns away from you is it the situation and time or is it the person's character? Or is less simple than that? What does it mean to be a mother? What does it mean to be a family? How much of a ripple effect does even the most seemingly insignificant action have?

(Finished January 5, 2015)

The Ice Dragon by George R.R. Martin

I will read anything by Martin that has to do with Westeros which is why I grabbed a copy of this very thin book.

It is listed as a YA novel but it is really more of a short story for young readers, it clocks in at about 120 pages and I read it in a short time.

The art work by Luis Royo is beautiful and worth seeing.

The Ice Dragon is the story of Adara who is a child of winter and her love and sacrifice. She also gets to ride an ice dragon, and hey, who wouldn't want to ride a dragon?

(Finished December 30, 2014)

The Secret Place (Dublin Murder Squad #5) by Tana French

I love the way Tana French writes so I was looking forward to reading book 5 of the Dublin Murder Squad series.

My favorite thing about mysteries is not figuring out the who in who-done-it. Part way in I thought I had it and while I was correct I ended up still enjoyed the unfolding of how and why.

In The Secret Place the world of teen girls and the angst they suffer and cause each other to suffer is the world where the murder of a teen boy takes place. The creep factor inherent in the world of mean girls drips off the page and that is meant as a compliment to the writing. There were times I wanted to slap more than one of the characters. At a school where the headmistress is determined to protect the rich girls and their families someone has committed a murder and for a year has gotten away with it. They would have continued to remain free if not for the daughter of a police officer figures it out and wants justice for the dead and those who loved him. But is she really guided by the desire for justice or does she have something to hide?

While this is the 5th in a series (In The Woods, The Likeness, Faithful Place, Broken Harbor) it wouldn't be confusing to start here. Each story stands alone and what makes it a series is that it follows those who are part of or want to be part of the murder squad, names thread through the books but the stories can be read out of order without difficulty.

(Finished December 30, 2014)