Recent Reads

Mayflower

This book read a little like a text book at times, but I personally found it fascinating. I learned so much from this book. For example, I NEVER knew that the pilgrims sold Native American's into slavery. This is a great, though slightly heavy at times, historical read.

Little Bee

I'm not sure that I can recommend that anyone read this book, simply for the fact that as a very empathetic person, this book was very emotionally difficult for me to read. It was this month's SDBBE selection and the subject is VERY tough. It is about the attrocities that occur in Africa and one girl's personal story of horror. There is no salvation, there is no joy in this book. It left me greatly disturbed, gave me nightmares and panic attacks. It was very well written and told a great story but the emotional price was too high for me. It left me feeling weak, and hopeless, and ineffective. Knowing what is going on over there, and not being able to do anything about it. It was very disturbing to me.

Saavy


This was our neighborhood book club selection for this month. I really enjoyed it. I so desperately needed something light and witty after reading "Little Bee" which put me in such a dark place emotionaly. This is a fun youth literature book about a family with special powers. Their powers begin on their 13th birthday and the main character in the book drags a group of siblings and friends on an adventure trying to get to her father who has been in an accident and is now in coma in the hospital. She believes her "Saavy", or special power, will be to save her father. There are some really funny moments and it's a great, light, easy read. Very enjoyable!

Dear America- Diary of Margaret Ann Brady
These books are written for youth, but if you haven't ever read one, I highly recommend them. I buy them at my local thrift whenever I find one, I absolutely love them. This one is about a girl named Margaret Ann Brady, she is a ladies' companion abord the RMS Titanic. These books are all written in journal form. And they teach kids history at the same time as telling a great story. Aside from this one we have read one about a Japanese boy in an internment camp in California during WWII. One about a boy that went with the Donner Party. And next up we are reading about a little blonde girl who was kidnapped and held captive by the Indians during the pioneer era.

Recent Reads

Have been doing a bit of reading lately. The problem with me and books, is that I tend to get addicted to whatever I am reading and I ignore everything else until I am done with my book. And heaven help us all if I have another book ready and waiting to dive into as soon as I am done with my current selection!

My most recent reads are as follows...

A Vintage Affair

This one was loaned to my by my friend Becky (I need to give her money for the late fee from the library, oops). I enjoyed it, but it was a little sad. Her best friend dies and she blames herself. Then she meets an elderly woman who has a similar story, she failed to save her best friend and was mistakenly responsible for her capture by the German Army during WWII. Through sharing their stories, the two women help each other to heal.

Absolutely Normal Chaos by Sharon Creech

I picked this book up because it is by the same author as "Walk Two Moons" and "Ruby Holler" but I have to say, I didn't like it! I thought it was boring and predictable. Oh well, they can't all be winners right? The only amusing part about this book is that it parallelled "Walk Two Moons" it had some of the same characters and happened close to the same time. But that was pretty much the only thing I liked about it.

Master by Toni Sorensen

I started this book around the 4th of July and I read about 80% of the book really quickly. But then I got to the part where Christ's appostles start to realize that the reason Jesus becomes so fervent and tireless in His ministry is because He knows he running out of time. And I know what is coming, and I don't want to go there, so I have been stalling, and dragging out the end of this book. But I am now forcing myself to finish it. As much as I can't bear to read about the torture and crucifiction of Christ, I need to finish the book.

And last but not least, my most recent SDBBE book club selection...
I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak

I have to admit that the fact that there was a playing card on the cover, and the page in the middle that I opened up to read contained a card game, I thought this book was going to be about Poker and I had absolutely NO desire to read it! Then I decided I had better get started so that I could pass it on to the next person and in the front read what Britt had written about not liking the book etc. Then I really didn't want to read it. But guess what? I loved it from the first page. I couldn't see what she didn't like about it because I was entertained from the beginning. One of my favorite things about this book had nothing to do with the author himself, but with Britt, the one who selected this book for our book club. She had gone through and used white out on all the swear words (And there were a LOT of swear words!). Some of them were already filled in with substitute words, but others were left blank and it was fun filling in the blank spots, kind of like a mad lib =0)

Here is a little peek inside "I Am the Messenger" so you can see what I mean.


Anyway, this book is about a guy who is present during a bank robbery. When the burglar bungles and drops the gun as he exits the bank, he runs out and picks it up and uses it to hold the guy until the cops get there. It's his first heroic act. Shortly after, a playing card shows up with three addresses. He has no idea what they mean, but when he starts to investigate, he discovers that at each address, there is someone who needs to be helped in some way. Once he has helped them all, another playing card arrives with three more missions and so on. It takes him on a journey of self discovery and despite all the swearing, I thought it was a pretty good book.

Epic Update

I haven't been crafting much lately because my craft room has been torn up since the 16th of June so that it could serve as a guest room for the past month. My guests are all now gone *Sniff* and I will start putting my craft room back together (Have to, have a swap quilt due out in the next few days!).

In the meantime I have been working on my hexagon flowers. I now have all of the outsides put together and have started adding the centers. I don't like this part, so I strongly suspect it will go much slower than making the flower outsides did. However, I am really driven to get this quilt done, so we will see which wins out, my desire or my sloth LOL


Here is a little peek at the eight flowers I have done so far. I think I am going to absolutely love this quilt!


I've also been doing some reading. I finished "Walk Two Moons" for the SDDBE book club and loved it so much I went out and bought my own copy. Even though it's a juvenille fiction I highly recommend it. It was an enjoyable, gripping book with a sad ending that gives you that snotty, unattractive, sobbing cry.


In fact, I loved it so much that on a recent trip to the thrift with my sister, I saw the authors name on a book and just grabbed it, didn't even look to see what it was about it, I just bought it LOL. It's another great story, thankfully without the snotty sobbing cry at the end, though there are some tense parts. And apparently I'm not her only fan. When I set the book on the counter at the checkstand the man behind me started to enthusiastically tell me how much I would enjoy it =0) I plan to read more of her books as well, and my 11 year old is now reading Ruby Holler and begging to stay up later so he can keep reading.

Also at the thrift I found these three Cath Kidston-ish plates. I have no idea who makes them, on the back it says MSE Dishwasher safe china. I put a temporary halt on my plate buying freeze and bought them to display on the shelf of my Vintage play kitchen. I don't know who makes them, but I think they're stinkin' cute!


This month we have had trips out of town, visits, pool parties, and BBQ dinners with family, and this week I had a sweet visit from my BFF Brandy Ann.



She moved to Chicago about eightish years ago, and I miss her desperately. The boys were so excited to see her kids, they don't remember them much, but we used to get together for playdates back in the day, and I enjoyed getting a little snuggle time in with "Scooter". I was really sorry to see them pull out of the driveway and wish our visit could have been longer.


Also recently, these boys had their first day of school! I now have two sixth graders and a fifth grader. I don't know when they got so old, it snuck up on me! I start back to work next week and I am dreading it, I have really come to enjoy my time at home =0P Especially since I have the most hated part of my job every single week this year instead of twice a month. NOT looking forward to that! But it will be good to get up and moving again, I have gotten really lazy in these weeks off.

Hope you have all had a fabulous summer as well!

Books

It's been a long time since I posted about what I'm reading, and it wasn't because I wasn't reading, just because I forgot. I do that a lot...forget things. I hate that.

Right now I am reading book club selections. I am currently in two book clubs.

#1- Our neighborhood Bookclub
We take turns chosing books and we meet at the park at the top of the hill and chat, and have treats. I look forward to it every month. I love these ladies. We are currently taking a break for the summer, next month is my month to chose the book and I have chosen Cane River by Lalita Tademy. It's about several generations of slave women and though it's kind of an epic novel, it's one of my all time favorite books. I love books that make me see things from another point a view, and consider it in a new way.



#2 SDDBE- I don't even know what that stands for, but this is my first time in this bookclub. These ladies are all spread out and I am just now getting to know them. The interesting thing about this book club is that, since we can't get together to discuss the books, and we're not all reading the same books at the same time, we write our thoughts in the books. I can't wait to get my own book back and see what everyone thought of it!

The girl who mails to me lives in Reno, Nv. It's like Christmas getting packages in the mail, don't you think? I just got her book in the mail a few days ago and she has chosen "Walk Two Moons" by Sharon Creech. I am really excited about this book. I was subbing in a classroom last year and the teacher was reading this book to her class. I read several chapters of it, and it really intrigued me, I wrote down the title of it so that I could hunt it down later and read it, now I don't have to because It's Apryl's book this month. She has done the hunting for me =0)



And MY book choice for SDDBE is another Juvenille Historical Fiction (I love historical fiction, can you tell?) It's called "Someone Named Eva" and it's about the Holocaust, but in a different way. This young Czech girl is kidnapped from her family and taken to a center where she is trained to be the perfect German girl because her blonde hair and blue eyes fit the Aryan Ideal. She is then adopted into a German family where she feels torn apart inside because she's trying not to forget who she really is, but starts to love her German family, who are kind to her and treat her like their own daughter. It's an interesting look at both sides of the picture, and you really can't decide how you feel for her other than sympathetic.



Have you read any of these? I would love to hear what you thought about them!

Recent Readings

I have been in dire need of some fluff lately. It seems like all of my recent reading endeavors have ended in boredom and frustration, I have been unable to find a book that I can really get into for ages.

I picked this book up at my local thrift probably six months ago, primarily because it had "Jane Austen" in the title, and it has been sitting on my bookshelf patiently waiting. I finally got around to reading it last week and I wish I had picked it up long ago. It was light, fluffy, and enjoyable if not a tad predictable. But in my stressed out life, it was just what the doctor ordered.


Following that, I picked up a few books from the library and read "Good Hope Road" in about two days. It was fluff with a darker side, some sad story lines, but all in all a great book. About overcoming our own prejudices and insecurities.


I recommend both of these, if you decide to read one of them, I would love to know what you think.

Memories of an old friend

When B and I were dating, many moons ago, I had the chance to meet his Aunt Norma and his Uncle Delbert. I loved them instantly, they reminded me of my Great Grandparents and I felt like I had come home again when I was in their presence.

We didn't see them often, maybe only 5-6 times in about ten years, but Norma did something totally unusual for my generation, she wrote letters.

Every couple of months I would receive a card in the mail and in it was a sweet note, asking how things were going. I don't think she ever even knew how much her notes meant to me. They would stay posted on the fridge until the next note came along to replace it, then they would be tucked away in a box for safe keeping.

Eventually B and I got married, she wrote notes to me about heartbreak, infertility, compassion, I felt like I knew her through her letters and that despite the vast difference in our ages, we were friends.

As B and I finally had children, her notes were full of advice, old wives tales, and wisdom she had gained from her own years as a young mother. Some things were outright laughable ( put a bar of soap under the crib mattress to help them sleep through the night or some such) and others were answers to questions I had lurking in my mind. I appreciated all of her insight and her willingness to share with me.

In return I sent her pictures of the boys, silly stories about their escapades and my concerns for the world that my children would grow up in.

Over time she became more frail and the letters stopped coming. I missed them terribly. I missed my friend.

Then the day came when they moved her and her sweet, quiet husband from their home and into a care center. As their things were sifted through and sent on to new homes, some of those things found their way into my home, and my life, where I have a constant reminder of the people that I loved. A dresser in Pf's bedroom, an ornate, gold mirror in mine, and most cherished of all, a box of her books.

True to Norma's nature she shared herself through the books she read. Every single curse word was blacked out with a permanent marker. I would laugh every time I stumbled upon a black rectangle where a disapproved of word had been removed from the text. And most cherished of all, her thoughts were written beside the text in random places.

She would write notes to the next reader on the inside flap, telling what she liked or didn't like about the books, she would leave little comments in the margins when something touched her, or piqued her interest, or irritated her.

After years of her silence, it was like I had found my friend again.

Norma has been gone now for several years. I still think of her often. I hope she knows that I loved her and that I miss her.

Today, I read my friend Becky's blog and found something that brought a smile to my soul. She is a member of a book club. Each member of a small group chooses a book to read, as they read they leave little notes for the next readers, and pass the book along when they finish. I am intrigued, I really want to join this book club. But alas, I am a commitment phobe. It would mean multiple trips to the post office, and I seem to have some not exactly rational issues when it comes to the post office, I break out in a cold sweat just at the thought. Am I up for this challenge? *Sigh*

I miss Norma.

The Next Thing On My List

This book was a fairly light read, I read it in a day and I enjoyed it.

The book is about June, a woman in her 30's who is living a stagnant life. She decides to lose the ten pounds that have creeped up on her and joins Weight Watchers, after the meeting is over, one of the other attendees, Marissa, is walking home so June kindly offers to give her a ride.

Sadly, there is an accident on their way home and Marissa dies. Included in the contents from June's car is Marissa's purse that has been dumped out and June finds a list of 20 things that Marissa wanted to do before her 25th birthday and June keeps it, thinking that it will be too painful for the family to see it.

On the six month anniversary of the accident and Marissa's death, June visits her grave, she is battling guilt and the feeling that the wrong person survived the accident. She feels it unfair that she, with her boring and purposeless life walked away, while Marissa who had dreams and goals died.

She decides to complete Marissa's list herself and the book is about the journey it takes her on. It is fun, and funny, and surprising in places. At times a little predictable, but over all a good read, I give it four stars.

Odd Mom Out

I picked up this book because the premise was something I could relate with, a mom who doesn't quite fit in.

I do have to say that if I wasn't desperate for something to read I probably would never have finished this book, it took me a loooong time to get into it.

The beginning of the book is about a single mom and her daughter who move from New York to Seattle and the daughter has no friends, she is desperate to get in with the "In" crowd and blames her mom for the fact that she doesn't fit in. The mom is different and she doesn't care, she rides a Harley and doesn't do the room mom thing. The daughter thinks this is why the popular girls don't want to be her friends. About 30 pages in I just wanted to grab the little girl by the shoulders and say "Popular girls are being jerks because you give them the power to treat you like crap, they aren't going to accept you, give up and make other friends, you are acting pathetic and it's getting on my nerves!"

The book does get better about half way through when it is no longer journaling the daughter's pathetic attempt to weasel in with the popular girls. But the ending SUCKS. It gets you interested and then all of the sudden, without further explanation it just ENDS. I hate that!

Along Comes A Stranger

This book is fluff at best. Light easy reading, easy enough to follow in the middle of the bleachers at basketball practice. A light piece that can be read in a single afternoon.

I picked this book up because it was one of the Reader's Choice Candidates at the library and I always try to read them all.

It was entertaining but not stimulating. There was no mystery to it at all, I knew right from the first introduction of Tom Baxter how the book was going to end.

I did enjoy the history lessons regarding the battlefields in Wyoming, and I did enjoy the paleontology tidbits included but over all, if you are looking for anything more than fluff, don't waste your time.

My biggest complaint was the cussing in this book. How many times can you take the Lords name in vain in 258 pages? I think Ms. Lawson set a new record. That was annoying.

Obert Skye...the experience

So yesterday my children came home from school clamoring for attention and the chance to tell me all about what had happened that day.

A famous author had come to their school, they got to meet him, and he talked all about his books and told them he was going to be at Barnes and Noble that night and could we please go? Please please please please please???????



The author was Obert Skye, writer of the Leven Thumps series. B readily agreed to take the boys to B&N that night to get our copy of "Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo" autographed. I was worried about going, worried about exposing my children to someone "famous", worried about them feeling let down when they realize that famous people usually aren't that nice in real life, but we went anyway.



B&N had it together, I was very impressed. We got a wrist band as we walked in the door and were told that we could wander around and shop or participate in the activities they had planned for the event and they would call us up in groups of ten to have our books signed and meet the author. The boys got their faces painted then we headed over to another corner where they could throw a soft rubber frisbee thing through a hole in a large poster and win a "Foo Flyer" (A rubber frisbee). We stood in line behind the most fabulous ladies, they made the whole experience so fun for us and I am so glad for the chance we had to meet them. They were all dressed like characters from the book and their enthusiasm and excitement were contagious. One was dressed as Clover, one as Winter and one as Leven him (Her) self.



When it was our turn to throw, all three ladies in front of us missed...again, they had already been through the line several times waiting for a chance to win. All three boys also missed and rushed back with the ladies to get in line again, no one stuck around to see me toss the frisbee through the hole. Poor "Winter", she was so envious of my cool rubber frisbee! We all went through the line again and once more, Winter and her companions missed, once again the boys missed, and once again, I got the frisbee through the hole (I KNOW! I was shocked too!).

The announcement came over the intercom for our number group to get in line for our turn with the author and it turned out that Winter and company close to us in line. I talked K into giving our second "Foo Flyer" to Winter, who wanted one so badly. After all, we had two, and she had none. He agreed that that was a good idea and gave the Frisbee to our new friend, she was so excited.



Later that night our neat friend won one of the prizes in the costume contest. She received a totebag containing a t-shirt and a key, a very special key, I was so envious because it is a NEAT key. If you have read book two, you know the key unlocks a secret. She already had a key, she had been given one by the author a few years ago when he came to speak at her school.

As we met Obert Skye, all my fears were laid to rest. He was not at all what I feared he would be. He was very nice, very personable. He seemed genuinely pleased by K's adoration and praise, he shook K's hand and signed everything put in front of him without complaint. He also gave me two posters, signed, to hang in our library at school, what a fun surprise! He was so nice and friendly, not at all snobby, condescending, or standoffish and many celebreties are. It was a genuine pleasure to meet him.



As we were leaving, we once again bumped into our friends Winter and company (Did I mention Winter is also an Elementary school teacher?) and the most unexpected thing happened. She gave her second key to our family. What a generous gift. My children were over the moon, it was the best thing that had ever happened to them and they were all arguing over who got to take it to school and show it to their class the next day.



They all three showed the key around their classes today and shared their experience at the book signing last night. It was such a wonderful experience.



Sincere thanks to our friends "The Characters" for their generous gift, you have no idea what it means to our family. We are truly grateful and it was such a great object lesson to our children about the value of sharing what they have with others. I told them that it was their generous hearts being willing to share their bounty (AKA the extra Foo Flyer) with others that had allowed them to be the recpients of the special key, something that very few people have, so it is even more special. That because they were generous, she was generous in return. They made her happy and she in return gifted us with a key and something much more precious to us, the meories of the fun we had, that were ten times greater because she and her children were there and shared their enthusiasm and joy with us. Thank you.

The Kommandant's Girl

This was a wonderful book, I highly recommend it.

It is about Emma, a few short months after her marriage, the Nazi's invade Poland and she is forced into the Jewish Ghetto. Her husband, a resistance fighter, vanishes in the middle of the night and she is left all alone.

She meets Marta who introduces her to the resistance, they smuggle her out of the ghetto and she gets a job working as the assistant to one of the highest ranking Nazi leaders.

She is forced to make decisions and to do things that go against what she believes in all in an effort to obtain information and help the resistance.

Pick it up and read it, it is worth the time spent.

Recent Reading

I have been sick all week, the boys were kind enough to share their horrible cold with me. So between hacking up a lung and sleeping of the cold medicine induced stupor, I have been doing a lot of reading.

First of all, Night, Dawn, Day by Elie Wiesel


This is one of the few books I have been unable to finish. Just over a year ago, I joined an online book club, this is one of the very first books they chose to read. I went to the library website and put it on hold, I was #132 on the wait list. It took over a year for the book to get to me. I started reading it because the ladies in my book group had talked so much about it, and I just can't finish it. It is a book without hope. It gave me nightmares and broke my heart. It is a true account of a jewish boys experience in a concentration camp. I feel as if I am letting him down by not finishing the book, but I just can't do it.

A Tree Grows In Brooklynn


Another sad and depressing book. Throughout this entire book I kept waiting for something good to happen, and for her to actually be happy about it. It never happened. I won't say that the book wasn't interesting, and it was well written, but the entire book is about hardship and unhappiness. Even when things finally go well for her, she is unhappy. And she falls in love in the matter of a few hours and spends her life pining for a looser who totally used her, while there is a wonderful man who loves her just standing there waiting for her attention.

And last of all...Forgive Me

Another depressing and sad book about the horrors of apartheid in South Africa. There are some gruesome descriptions and heartbreaking moments in this book, but it was well written, captivating and eye opening. Being the ignorant American that I am, I had no clue that these things were going on. I think of my cousin who spent two years in South Africa, and the things he may have seen and I understand a little more why he never talks about his time over there. Out of the three books, this one would probably be the one I recommend to other readers. We all need to stop and open our eyes to the world around us.

And with this, I am off to find some light hearted chick lit! I need a break after these three.

Water For Elephants

I actually finished this book about a week ago and have just never gotten around to posting about it yet.

This book was definately engaging. It sucked me in and kept me there. I didn't like some of the language and there were some parts that were cringeworthy (abusive situations) and made me want to jump into the novel myself and put a stop to it.

Over all, it was a good read.

Before I Wake

Before I Wake is the most recent book I have read. It's one of those books that sucks you in and wraps little tentacles around your heart.

I like the way it was written, each chapter is written from the perspective of another character in the book so you go round and round and get all different views of the story. Very intriguing.

Very sad story, about a little girl who is hit by a truck. What happens to her? What happens to the man driving the truck? It tells their stories. Then one day the girls nurse notices her arthritis is gone. She tells her sister and asks her to come visit. The sister is miraculously cured of cancer. Is this little girl working miracles?

A man comes and claims to be a priest, there to examine this case and decide it's validity, but he isn't who he says and rather than validate the miracles occurring, he wants to destroy this family.

Meanwhile the family is trying to destroy itself without any outside help.

How does it end? Read it and find out... it is worth the time invested.

Nineteen Minutes

Just finished another book. I read this because the peas kept talking about how incredible it was and how it was such a good book.

It was well written, it really made me think and re-evaluate how I might react to some situations.

But it was a very sad and depressing book. It's about a boy who after being bullied his entire life walks into a school and shoots a bunch of people, is captured by the police, and goes to trial.

All it did was make me worry about every little thing I say to my kids (Both my own, and the ones at school). Am I damaging them emotionally? Am I building their self esteem or bringing it down? Do I let them fight their own fights, or try to rescue them from situations? I am just confused, and terrified of screwing up my kids now.

A lot of people really loved this book. It just made me question everything I have ever done as a mother.

Come Back

I just finished reading "Come Back" by Claire and Mia Fontaine.

This is one of the most powerful and moving books I have read in a long time. This book touched my heart in so many ways and really opened my eyes.

The book is a true story written by a mother (Claire) and her daughter (Mia) about Mia's battle with the emotional trauma of child molestation that drove her to drug use. It is written from both the perspective of the mother, and of the daughter as they fight to bring her back from the brink of self destruction.

It talks about the "Program" she went through to overcome the reasons behind her drug use and regain her life.

I highly recommend it!