the one I read in 2012.

What a ridiculous drought.  Learning how to be a literate working mom is no easy gig.  I just realized that my last post was in August 2011.  And while I've been sporadically digging into the pages and posting on Goodreads, I'm not finding the same kind of joy in reading.  I can't sit still and I can't get consumed by words.  When I can't even get into an Anna Quindlen memoir, something is terrible wrong.

Intervention needed stat.


I read Behind the Beautiful Forevers for my book club.  The book was amazing but deserved a bit more attention from me to truly appreciate.  We had a most insightful discussion around issues of poverty and the world beyond the United States.

I am determined to come back to the book this summer.

There's been a whole lot of llama, llama around here.

the one that reminded me of Harvard

Granted, I am a college counselor . . . but this book (Crazy U) by Andrew Ferguson was AWESOME.  Everything I learned at the Harvard Institute on College Admissions two summers ago was detailed in this book.  I wish I could put this book in the hands of every junior parent preparing for an empty nest.  I wish I would have written the book.  Part research, part memoir.  Better than your average prep book.

College admissions is (for lack of a better term) insane.  It's an industry and there is deception and drama and so much money.  I get nervous when I think how expensive college will be for Maren someday and then I realize that education is changing and fast.  It's just too hard to predict what lies ahead.

Is college the next bubble to burst?  Hmmmm . . . makes for an interesting read.

p.s. yes, I'm very sad that I will be starting a "book diet" next week when I head back to work. boo.  hoo.

the one that has me moving to Paris.

I know, I know . . . . another Paris book.  So cliche.

But there really is something about French culture that appeals and (at times) repels.  I love how French girls consider their skin to be so pristine and "enjoy the physical and emotional value of unfettered, ritualized body care."  I love how they eat cheese as dessert, never the appetizer.  I love how birthdays are simple, at-home affairs with little old cakes and a single present.

They're serious those French gals though.  They know their current events and they would never get caught watching Real Housewives.  Too many museums to hit & ballets to attend.

Here's the thing.  I didn't even like being in Paris.  It scared me a little.  But it also inspired me.  I aspire to "bien dans sa peau" or "to feel good in one's skin." At ease in body and soul.  One day I'll get there . . .

 

the one about Cinderella.

Peggy Orenstein's book "Cinderella Ate My Daughter" was good but a little fluffy & preachy.


Packaging Girlhood comes more highly recommended.  


 I like this JK Rowling quote better. 
"I’ve got two daughters who will have to make their way in this skinny-obsessed world, and it worries me, because I don’t want them to be empty-headed, self-obsessed, emaciated clones; I’d rather they were independent, interesting, idealistic, kind, opinionated, original, funny - a thousand things, before ‘thin’. And frankly, I’d rather they didn’t give a gust of stinking chihuahua flatulence whether the woman standing next to them has fleshier knees than they do. Let my girls be Hermiones, rather than Pansy Parkinsons. Let them never be Stupid Girls."

the one that hit home.

i'm not sure why I read "the long goodbye" this weekend.  it wasn't intentional.

you see, my mom died three years ago today.  and here i am writing a blog post on a grief book.  i'd like to think reading mom w/cancer books will be a phase for me but it's unlikely.  losing your mom is not a phase you grow through.  it sticks.

this book is reminiscent of Joan Didion's "the year of magical thinking" and Romm's "the mercy papers".  If these books irritate you, then don't plan to lose someone you love.  They are raw.  So is the experience.

the long goodbye is less about the dying, more about the grief.  The notion that: "I am becoming someone whose mother is dead."  O'Rourke explains that you don't just mourn the dead person, you mourn the person you got to be when the lost one was alive.  a daughter knows what it is like to be "unmothered."

i've made huge steps forward in my grieving.  but have yet to go through all the plates and the scarves and the teaching memorabilia that i just can't bear to part with.  and i still believe that my mom is alive in butterflies and fireflies.  the magic of this, the comfort . . . is slowing wearing away.

o'rourke is a poet and "the long goodbye" a poem.  maybe i have a poem to write too.

the one that made me nostalgic about books.

I was just at the small town Newport library today and learned it was going to close.  Sad, sad, sad.  I have overly fond memories of getting book suggestions in the library of Westview Elementary and weekly trips to the public library in Burnsville and reading among the pillows and nooks at Normandale Hills.

Don't even get me started on the Scholastic book order that came every month.

It kills me that they are taking books out of schools.

The Reading Promise was such a wonderfully sweet book about the relationship between a girl, her dad and books.  I thought this was yet another memoir that didn't need to be written but was pleasantly surprised.  Alice Ozma is precocious and unique and smart.  Her dad taught her to exclaim over thunder strikes and make friends with spiders.  I laughed out loud several times when reading and almost cried.

Such a surprise this book.  LOVED.  IT.

the one that felt extreme.

I love that Amy Chua wrote her Battle Hymn b/c it made me react and then really think.

I.E. when she rejected her daughters' birthday cards and tried forcing Lulu to eat caviar.  And it really creeped me out when she kept talking about OUR violin or took her daughter out of recess and art class to get in more practicing.  But it wasn't so much the actions she took that caused me alarm but the tone.  And one sentence the author stated really stuck out:  "the truth is I'm not good at enjoying life."

I'm hearing (MPR) that Americans are over concerned with being Happy. Happy. Happy and thus creating a generation of kids that can't deal with unhappy or plain old mediocre.

So many perspectives.  Where will I fall as a mom?

Easy book to read and would be an excellent book club discussion.  We all have childhoods to dig through.

the mysterious one.

I'm not funny and I don't like mysteries.  But I was and I did, Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie would be an incredibly good book.  The heroine is a plucky little British girl who has a passion for chemistry and rides around on a bike named Gladys.  I really liked Flavia.  She reminded me SO much of Harriet the Spy from way back.  I just wasn't that interested in the plot and stamps, unfortunately.

But do read this book (and the de Luce series) if you want a light, interesting read.

the one that is causing anxiety.

And in sharp contrast to the lovely tennis memoir I read over the 4th weekend.
A perfectly fine book with a few parenting gems that I ought not gloss over.

You Are Your Child's First Teacher by Rahima Dancy
written by a wise, old Waldorf midwife
(who lost me when she encouraged not to push reading.  get it, got it Heidi.)

I REALLY need to stop reading books that emphasize how you will irrevocably screw up your kid if you send them to daycare during the first three years.

the one that brought me back.

I really loved reading Andre Agassi's Open.  He took me by surprise.  I celebrated his victories and bemoaned all his losses.  As always, Sampras :) But what I liked most was the feeling of nostalgia hearing names like Chang & Courier & Edberg (my love!) & Wheaton & Krickstein.

And remembering that Agassi married Brooke Shields for like a day and was rumored to date Babs.  I think he'd be a hard guy to live with, yes? But how perfectly perfect that he ends up with Graf.

At times I felt like I was reading a gossip column.  But I have to say, there was really a lot of meat to this book.  I got a true sense for how Andre's life and psyche have evolved over time.  What a wonderfully complicated person he is.

It was fun reading this during Wimbledon.  Which sadly, I only watched for a few minutes.  They just don't make tennis stars like they used to.

the one I regret.

I grew up with Elizabeth & Jessica Wakefield, the creepy blonde twins from Sweet Valley.  And just finished Sweet Valley Confidential: Ten Years Later.  I feel old.

Jessica is still as mean spirited and shallow as before and Elizabeth seriously needs to get a clue and then a backbone (in that order).  Jessica steals Todd Wilkins (Elizabeth's fiancee) and Elizabeth's LIKE "oh whatever, they're in love."  This book is JUST terrible and not only because LIKE is used every other sentence.  The characters were truly awful back then and they ALL come back.

If you want to read a poorly written, poorly edited soap opera, go for it!  I regret reading this but I really couldn't help myself.  And yes, I'm going to read the Sisterhood 10 years later book too.

the one by Pema.

i don't think i'm the enlightened type.  although I'd really like to fashion myself a Buddhist yogi.  i really can't sustain it though.

i just finished Taking the Leap: Freeing Ourselves from Old Habits and Fears.  if you're reading the kindle edition and it's dragging, know that it finishes at 75%.  what a surprise!

the book mostly taught me about pausing.  "pausing becomes something that nurtures you; you begin to prefer it to being all caught up."  i used to be VERY bad at pausing.  i'm learning now . . .

and some practical advice: "the next time you're getting worked up, experiment with looking at the sky."

Chodron likens nasty thoughts to getting a "poison ivy" of the brain.  you just keep scratching and scratching to no avail.  that made sense to me and for awhile when i thought about work or Matt's work or crying babies or money or cloudy skies . . . i thought of poison ivy and how i was just adding aggression to the world.

and then i got bored with all that thought and went back to my worry.

i liked this book.  i wish i liked it more.

and for a change of pace, I'm reading Sweet Valley Confidential next.  Love those Wakefield twins!

the one by the Latina author

i have never read an Isabel Allende book and I felt a little left out as I read The Sum of Our Days (a memoir).

two cool things about Isabel Allende:
1) she starts all her books on January 8th, a most auspicious day
2) since she fled Chile in 1973, she has worked to establish her "tribe" in Marin County

I want a tribe.  And I want to live in Marin County.  Because then I might just "run into" Anne Lamott and Isabel Allende when they hang out at the Book Passage.

This memoir made me want to pick up Daughter of Fortune sooner rather than later.  What an interesting, feisty, mystical woman . . .

i'm still here.

the reading has slowed down a bit as Maren speeds up.  she's crawling and standing and all kinds of good tricks. and I'm spending more time in the garden and less between the pages.

but it's raining outside today and because rain = books in my mind . . . i got a little nutty and actually started a goodreads account for Maren.  i want to keep track of our reading together. 

we'll be starting a Baby Storytime class at Red Balloon this week.  i know i'll have all kinds of books i want to shop for.  and favorite aunts might want to buy.  hint.  hint.  hopefully her account will help us keep track.

anyways, feel free to friend Maren Prestegaard if you want to follow our literary journey!

the one about rebirth.

I know there are many Barbara Kingsolver fans out there.  And I am now hopping on the bandwagon.  She may sit next to Anna Quindlen at my imaginary dinner party.  I loved Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.  Next up, The Bean Trees.

I just finished Prodigal Summer and absolutely delighted in the strong, female characters.  But, I loved all the characters really.  The coyotes even and the snakes too.  So much to glean here.  This was a book to relish. 

I hope I will read it again and again . . .

the one I never would have read.

I love book clubs.  Peer pressure is generally not good.  But when applied in book clubs, it's a beautiful thing.  Never in a million years would I have finished Jayber Crow without a reason, a purpose.

Jayber Crow is a very, very slow read people.  Like swimming in molasses.  And I really don't like molasses.  But there are little silver linings sprinkled all throughout the book. 

It's a great book to read if you're disillusioned with modern life or need a reminder that we each have a calling or purpose.  Jayber lives by the less is more philosophy and is a cure for what ails if you are moving too fast in life.  I can't quite imagine Port William but I relate a bit when I head North and take residence on my parent's couch.  Or drink blueberry lemonade on a friend's back porch on the first lovely night of the summer.

Only 9 ratings on this book on BN.  I feel like I should get a prize for finishing this one.

the one that screams Wimbledon.

I finished Crooked Little Heart by Anne Lamott some time ago. 

Quick thoughts:
I used to love playing tennis.  I remember how stressful it was sometimes to announce line calls.  And I remember how awful it was to cheat like Rosie did at times.

Anne Lamott writes so deliciously.  I just want to sink into every one of her novels, no matter how dreary the subject or lackluster the writing.  This was not her BEST book but it was SO comfortable.

I like how Elizabeth takes her daughter away to the tide pools when she needs a safe place to talk.  I hope (above all) that I allow Maren a quiet place of her own to think and be centered.  My quiet place was sitting on the dock at our cabin.  I would never have escaped middle school if not for my alone time watching the waves come in.

the one where Laura really grows up.

I'll be honest.  I finished this book weeks, possibly months ago.  I'm not reading Little House to Maren anymore before she goes to bed.  She now likes her own board books (which all revolve around the topic of sleep typically) before I put her down.  I moved the chair out of her room and into our bedroom.  And while this seems like a teeny weeny change we're talking a major shift here.

Little Town on the Prairie makes me sad b/c Laura is all grown up and has lost some of her spirit.  She's obsessed with autograph books and the town's new literary society.  Mary has gone off to school and Almonzo is now on the scene as a romantic suitor. 

Maybe it's the prospect of Laura becoming a cynical old teacher.  Or the fact that I'm just SO into these Goodnight everything books.  But I just cannot pick up These Happy Golden Years.

the one about nothing.

I finished the book I Remember Nothing by Nora Ephron at the lake this weekend.  I was gifted the book by a fellow book club member. 

It's hard to be overly enthusiastic about this book.  It's barely 100 pages and (without being too cliche) I honestly remember nothing about the read.   I loved You Got Mail but feel like Nora is writing for another audience.  One that doesn't blog and is not a personal friend of Arianna Huffington.

Maybe a good audio book? or something to hold on to while floating in a pool?  Moving on . . .

the one about the holocaust set in Mpls.

Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum

haunting book about the German resistance in World War II.  switches between Buchenwald in the 1940s and current day professor of German history with Jewish ties.  found myself skimming through the present day story except for when i-94 and Lake of the Isles were mentioned.

good book but really nothing can compete (in my mind) with The Book Thief.