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.

Book Twenty Seven

12/30/2008 – Letter From Point Clear by Dennis McFarland*
Why: Gift from Erica. She called it chick lit.
Emotions Felt: kinda intrigued, mostly bored. Quick read though . . .
Remaining Questions: who really cares. Just didn’t like the book
The older Owen siblings--Ellen and Morris--long ago left behind their gracious family home in Alabama in favor of the northeast. But when they learn that their wayward baby sister Bonnie has moved back into the old place with her new husband, a local evangelical preacher, they head home to perform a rescue. Upon their arrival, they find Bonnie reformed, and pregnant. But she hasn't yet broken the news to her husband that her brother Morris is gay, and the preacher soon begins a campaign to rescue him.

Book Twenty Six

12/19/2008 – Here if You Need Me by Kate Braestrup***
Winner of the 2007 Discover Award, Nonfiction
Kate Braestrup was living an enviably happy life as a wife and mother, when one morning her beloved husband was killed in a traffic accident. Fighting her grief, she decided to follow his dream -- and became a chaplain to the game warden service in their Maine community.
Why: Pretty obvious. Needed inspiration and comfort after my mother’s death. Came highly recommended by the Red Balloon Bookshop.
Emotions Felt: I didn’t cry and I didn’t have an Oprah lightbulb moment but I did enjoy the honest, simple observations that she made about life. It made me feel that life really does go on. The book gave me pause when she spoke about her views on heaven and made me question my draw to Unitarian Universalism. I still want to believe in a Christian heaven though I doubt it really exists. I loved being able to ride along in the car as she experienced the up and down days of a game warden. The kind of author that you would really like to meet someday and talk more to.
Remaining Questions: How did she really get through the icky days after her husband’s death. I’m glad she made it through but heard more about the other side than the actually coping with the tragedy.
Who Would Like This Book: Not sure, but I sure did.

Book Twenty Five

12/11/2008 – Loving Frank by Nancy Horan**
Why: Heard about it all over (Red Balloon recommended)
Emotions Felt: anger at Mamah for leaving her children and claiming feminism as a cause. Astonishment at the ending and hard to believe it actually happened.
Remaining Questions: Really, did it really happen at the end? What happened to Frank Lloyd & Edwin Cheney afterwards. I’d like to visit Taliesen sometime if it has been rebuilt.
Quotes: none to recall
Who Would Like This Book: good, diverse book clubs for discussion. I did not like it nearly as much as the reviews have but acknowledge it as a quick read and interesting discussion of Frank Lloyd Wright, a man I knew nothing about. I have to say I thought both Mamah and Frank Lloyd incredibly selfish. I just couldn’t stand them unfortunately.

Book Twenty Four

12/5/2008 – The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay***
Why: Kate Nelson recommended it for our Stillwater Book Club. One of her mothers (son is a Nat’l Merit Scholar) said it was their top book club read ever.
Emotions Felt: reflection, lots of it. Bored at times but loved the characterization. I felt I really knew Peekay and his role models (Doc, Hoppie, etc.) I liked how Peekay seeing the snake served as an omen. It reminded me of my own snake sighting in the summer of 2007. I thought some of the happenings in the book were a little too neat. How he fought his wet nurse’s son. How he met the Judge in the end of the book. I agree that the book might have had more power had the last 15 pages been left off but understand that these events were also a part of his story.
Remaining Questions: Why did he hate his Mom so much? More of this story line would have been interesting. Was this novel really autobiographical? Is the sequel actually good? Is the movie okay?
Quotes: First with the head, then with the heart (Hoppie)
Who Would Like This Book: real readers

Book Twenty Three

11/30/2008 - My Life in France by Julia Child *
Why: I was pulled by the allure of France and cooking to learn more about this famous chef. I heard good things about the book while in Red Balloon – that it was a love story. Rachel picked it for what turned out to be our last official Vanaheim book club.
Emotions Felt: boredom, perhaps jealously but maybe just disbelief that someone would spend her days at cooking school and be so utterly free of commitments or worries
Remaining Questions: How did it end? I guess the book completes her life, including her sojourn to popularity in America and her husband’s death. I didn’t finish because I got bored with the quail and rabbit and other game meat. The chapters were too long.
Who Would Like This Book: Sarah loved it. Couldn’t quite understand why but she had her reasons.

Book Twenty Two

11/16/2008 – I See You Everywhere by Julia Glass **
Why: I have loved Julia Glass since Three Junes. She’s my second favorite author really next to Anna Quindlen. I was surprised to hear she had a new novel out and picked it up knowing little about it. I wouldn’t let myself read the reviews until I was finished and then was not surprised to see the comparisons with good chick lit.
Emotions Felt: The beginning was a little slow and I was confused about the direction of the plot. I could tell there was animosity between the sisters but didn’t understand it. I was remained interested because the author’s wording is so poetic and yet I think she took liberties at some points, waxing and waning a bit much. Too many men, so much so that I started to forget the characters. And I hate that Louisa ended up with a man from her suicide survivor’s group. A little too neat and tidy. I still don’t understand the title exactly which annoys me. I kinda think I missed something. And yet, I read and I read and I read. Pleasantly.
Remaining Questions: What happened to Roy? I liked him.
Favorite Quotes: I liked the part when Clem talked about her life going two ways and trying to catch up with her alternate life. I related. I hated the part when Louisa identified Clem’s dead body. It was too close to home right now and I started to cry.
Who Would Like This Book: I don’t think anyone would love it so I hate to recommend. But, at the same time, no one could say it sucked.