the one about despair.

This was not a book to read Thanksgiving week.  The December pic for my Stillwater book club was A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick.  Worst. Book. Ever.

I'm going to give away the whole book right here so no one EVER has to read it.  The main character has a god awful mother who mistreats him.  He develops a sexual addiction and traipses all over Europe finding a countess to marry.  The countess then cheats on the sex addict and has a baby boy with the gardener.  The sex addict beats the Boy.  The countess dies.  The Boy then spends his eternity attempting to kill said sex addict.

It really just disintegrates from there.

The writing is terrible.  Third person that sounds like "he did this and then she did that."

on page 281, "it was just a story about despair."

Um. Maybe you could have started out with that disclaimer and saved us all the trouble.

the one I want Kate to read.

I just finished Ms. Hempel Chronicles by Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum.  Love. Love. Love.

This book reminds me what it was like to be a middle school counselor and how absolutely raw and genuine those kids were.  I miss those exhausting, exhilarating days now and then.

My favorite line:
"this was a feeling that Ms. Hempel couldn't shake: a conviction that she spent her days among people at the age when they were most purely themselves.  How could she not be depleted when she came home, having been exposed for hours, without protection, to all of those thrumming, radiant selves?"

This is a lovely book.  And the voice of a middle school teacher is spot on.  Like being in the trenches again.  A must read.

the one that confused me.

I just finished the novel White Teeth by Zadie Smith.  I'm not sure I have the words or the energy to discuss the confusion I'm feeling about this book.  Discussions on immigration, militant Islam and a crazy Freudian family. 

Too many characters, too many pages. 

I've read other Zadie Smith and I like her wry wit.  I just didn't get this book. 

But I did finish it.  I can say that much. 

the ones I never thought I'd read

I know how this looks but bear with me . . . because life is good.

I just finished:
Down Came the Rain by Brooke Shields (and her editor)
It Sucked and Then I Cried by blogger Heather Armstrong
Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed by Mo Willems

Brooke's book just made me angry at Tom Cruise and incredibly empathetic for her struggle (minus the baby nurse, luxury CLEAN condos and oodles of support).

Naked Mole Rat made Matt and I laugh out loud. We read it to Maren. She didn't get it. BUT hopefully someday she will rather read than scream. 

It Sucked and Then I Cried was SO crass and hilarious. Had I read this book two months ago, I would have disparaged it. Now I have a sailor's mouth worse than anyone I know, have lost all modesty about my body and have reached even lower expectations about the cleanliness of my house. Impossible! 

I'm not depressed but I can see how incredibly easy it would be to enter that state. If Little M hadn't taken to the swing this week, I might have completely lost my marbles.  I totally get it now, mothers and fathers of the world. And I will never, ever again look smugly at the screaming toddler in line at Target.


I no longer have to write a book about having an infant because it's already been covered here.  My favorite chapter of It Sucked was "Her Screamness Who Screams a Lot Every Day With the Screaming" followed by "I Never Thought I Would Become This Woman".

Ditto.  Nuf said.