Book Number Four

In Dreamers of the Day, Russell shifts her gaze to the Middle East, specifically to the 1921 Cairo Peace Conference, where a group of high-profile Europeans met to decide the fate of the region in the aftermath of the First World War. Didn't like the protagonist Agnes Shanklin, a 40 year old spinster, who has a personal awakening and traipses all over the Middle East with her dachshund Rosie. Agnes is an atheist. I understand why after surviving the loss of her family to the influenza and the vagaries of World War I. However, her disdain for Jerusalem and the casualness of her affair with German spy Karl didn't entice me. I don't know enough about history to find this book charming (Lawrence of Arabia was appealing but Winston Churchill seemed like a pill). Overall, I thought the novel was terribly preachy. Yes, dreamers of the day are dangerous men. We get it.

I have loved Mary Doria Russell's novels. This was my least favorite as of yet.

Book Number Three

Against my better judgment, I read this book. It was written up in the New York Times and truly was a well written memoir. One often wonders how true to form memoirs are and (for the author's sake) I hope some of it was made up. Unfortunately, Robin Romm's experience of her mother's cancer diagnosis when she was age 19 and the nine year battle that followed hit home for me. She might has well have written about the last nine years of my own life, my memoir.

Robin felt a bitterness towards hospice that I did not experience but the rawness of her feelings struck a chord. She remembers the way her mother's piercing looks went right through her as if her mom were staring at something beyond. She talks about what it was like to be around so many healthy people in their twenties, happy and lucky, while her entire world was falling apart. She describes how every moment has an intensity to it: "I would shake my head and feel the hurt in my throat become my throat, until even my skin radiated with pain." Robin feels a deep kinship with her mother and recognizes that her mom is the only person who will ever love her selflessly. With her loss, Robin is a changed person.

I am so thankful for the honesty and courage it took to write this memoir. If anyone wants to know what it felt like for me to lose my mom, they need simply to read this book. The experience was profound and indescribable - except that Robin Romm just described it for the world to know and understand.

Book Number Two

Interesting facts but not enough to inspire change. Embarking upon the Nutrition Program at Corepower Yoga, I hoped Dr. Hyman's new book would empower me to finally kick the sugar habit. Unfortunately, post-cleanse and post reading of the UltraMind Solution, I relished every last morsel of the brownie I ate last night. And then paid for it this morning with headaches, lethargy and a crummy mood. It's all true folks. Food is medicine and this book details exactly what that nasty white stuff does to our bodies. Frightening really.

Book Number One

Felt lukewarm about this book. Read the book for my Stillwater book club. Missed the discussion because I was taking part in the Corepower Yoga Nutrition program. Club members felt overall that Wroblewski was overambitious in the design of his first novel and wished that the novel had ended when Edgar returned. I personally loved Almondine and was devastated when he died but more so when Edgar left him behind. Overall, it was hard to love the characters and particularly Claude and Edgar's mother.

I wouldn't necessarily recommend especially if one is not too fond of dogs. Luckily, I am fond.