Book #88 of 2010

Book #88 of 2010 was ... "Bijou Roy" by Ronica Dhar.

When her beloved father dies of multiple sclerosis in Detroit in 1999, medical student Bijou makes the journey with her family back to his homeland in Calcutta to sprinkle his ashes in the Ganges. He had always told her about his political activism in the 1960s, about meeting his wife in Paris and their coming to America. But why did he leave Calcutta and never go back there to his Bengali family?

I loved this tale of one woman's search for her own identity amongst the expectations laid out by her family and culture. Dhar weaved both past and present events - which gives the reader the ability to see the "whole picture". I found the last chapter to be particularly strong - but I won't give it away.

Up next is "The Girl Who Chased the Moon" by Sarah Addison Allen.

Prayers for Crew

Please help us storm the gates of Heaven with prayer for my friend's two-year-old nephew Crew. Even if you don't believe in praying, send whatever positive thoughts you can to Crew and his family. He was diagnosed with Stage IV Neuroblastoma at the age of 6 months and finished treatment in 11/09. On 9/16/10 an MRI scan revealed a spot on his brain. He is getting an angiogram on the that spot today at Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville.

You can friend Crew on Facebook and follow his progress:
http://www.facebook.com/notes/crew-thayer-bradford-buchanan/crews-scan-results-92110/103861039677668#!/profile.php?id=100001624060713&ref=mf

Book #87 of 2010

Book #87 of 2010 was "Thin, Rich, Pretty" by Beth Harbidon.

Twenty years ago Holly and Nicola were the awkward outsiders at summer camp, and rich and popular Lexi was their nemesis. As adults, all three women are having trouble finding their place. Holly, a successful gallery owner, is struggling with her weight and a manipulative boyfriend. Nicola tries to revive her slumping acting career with plastic surgery, making her just another pretty face. Lexi is left nearly penniless and with few real-world skills after her father's death. Through a chance meeting, Holly and Nicola find out Lexi was not nearly as charmed as they thought, and they set out to right a wrong they committed as kids.

A light read about what makes us truly happy - Money? Love? A perfect body? The three main characters each had and lost what they thought made them who they are only to get it back in a new way. 

Up next is "Bijou Roy" by Ronica Dhar. I am excited to read this book because it received a good review from Abraham Verghese, the author of one of my favorite books "Cutting for Stone".

Book #86 of 2010 ...

Book #86 of 2010 was ... "Faithful Place" by Tana French.

Back in 1985, Frank Mackey was nineteen, growing up poor in Dublin's inner city, and living crammed into a small flat with his family on Faithful Place. But he had his sights set on a lot more. He and Rosie Daly were all ready to run away to London together, get married, get good jobs, break away from factory work and poverty and their old lives. But on the winter night when they were supposed to leave, Rosie didn't show. Frank took it for granted that she'd dumped him-probably because of his alcoholic father, nutcase mother, and generally dysfunctional family. He never went home again.
Neither did Rosie. Everyone thought she had gone to England on her own and was over there living a shiny new life. Then, twenty-two years later, Rosie's suitcase shows up behind a fireplace in a derelict house on Faithful Place, and Frank is going home whether he likes it or not. Getting sucked in is a lot easier than getting out again. Frank finds himself straight back in the dark tangle of relationships he left behind. The cops working the case want him out of the way, in case loyalty to his family and community makes him a liability. Faithful Place wants him out because he's a detective now, and the Place has never liked cops. Frank just wants to find out what happened to Rosie Daly-and he's willing to do whatever it takes, to himself or anyone else, to get the job done.

I, apparently, am dense because I didn't figure out whodunit until near the very end. I enjoyed this mystery from start to finish.

Up next is "Thin, Rich, Pretty" by Beth Harbison.

And now the books!

Book #85 of 2010 was ... "The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate" by Jacqueline Kelly

As the only girl in an uppercrust Texas family of seven children, Calpurnia, 11, is expected to enter young womanhood with all its trappings of tight corsets, cookery, and handiwork. Unlike other girls her age, Callie is most content when observing and collecting scientific specimens with her grandfather. Bemoaning her lack of formal knowledge, he surreptitiously gives her a copy of "The Origin of Species" and Callie begins her exploration of the scientific method and evolution, eventually happening upon the possible discovery of a new plant species. Callie's mother, believing that a diet of Darwin, Dickens, and her grandfather's influence will make Callie dissatisfied with life, sets her on a path of cooking lessons, handiwork improvement, and an eventual debut into society.

Callie is a sweet, lively character - sort of a Texas Laura Ingalls with more spunk. She feels restricted by the role expected of her at that time and longs for something more.

Book #86 of 2010 was ... "City of Night"(Frankenstein #2)" by Dean Koontz.

They are stronger, heal better, and think faster than any humans ever created–and they must be destroyed. Not even Victor Helios–once Frankenstein–can stop the engineered killers he’s set loose on a reign of terror through modern-day New Orleans. Only the one-time “monster” Deucalion and his all-too-human partners, Detectives Carson O’Connor and Michael Maddison, stand in their way. But as the three race to uncover the true dimensions of an age-old conspiracy, they will discover that Victor’s new, improved models have infiltrated every level of the city’s society . . . and far beyond.

I am still deciding if I like this series of books. Its not particularly well written and the characters are one dimensional. Helios is an egomaniac of such great proportions as to be almost absurd. I think if you like Koontz, you will probably like this series. If not, there are better monster books out there. Of course, I will still continue to read them because I have to know how it ends.

Book #87 of 2010 was ... "The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives" by Lola Shoneyin.

When Baba Segi awoke with a bellyache for the sixth day in a row, he knew it was time to do something drastic about his fourth wife's childlessness. Meet Baba Segi ... A plump, vain, and prosperous middle-aged man of robust appetites, Baba Segi is the patriarch of a large household that includes a quartet of wives and seven children. But his desire to possess more just might be his undoing. And his wives ... Iya Segi — the bride of Baba Segi's youth, a powerful, vindictive woman who will stop at nothing to protect her favored position as ruler of her husband's home. Iya Tope — Baba Segi's second wife, a shy, timid woman whose decency and lust for life are overshadowed by fear. Iya Femi — the third wife, a scheming woman with crimson lips and expensive tastes who is determined to attain all that she desires, no matter what the cost. Bolanle—Babi Segi's fourth and youngest wife, an educated woman wise to life's misfortunes who inspires jealousy in her fellow wives ... and who harbors a secret that will expose shocking truths about them all.

There's no doubt Shoneyin is a gifted writer. However, the coarse language and situations in this book can be a real distraction at times. I think the book is still worth reading but be warned that it can be a little "risque" at times in its harshness.

Up next is "Faithful Place" by Tara French.

And the angels rejoiced ...

My laptop is finally back home with me and *knock on wood* appears to be fixed. Can I get an "AMEN"?

I don't know where to start with my posting because some of you care about the books and some of you care about my personal updates (Hi Katie!). I guess I will go with pictures of the kids from their first day of school.

This, my friends, is classic Jake face.

So happy for the first day of school!

The second day dawned with a little more enthusiasm ... or at least they got better at faking it.

We are two weeks in and so far all is well. Jake started third grade and he is in the gifted program and advanced math class. No surprise the kid is smarter than me, now we just need to work on the social skills. Molly is in kindergarten and she seems to like school. She is playing soccer for the first time and she is also taking a gymnastics class.

She was mad that her uniform was too big.

So that should pretty much bring you up to speed on the kids. The dog, well she's just happy to still be alive.

As for me, I have been reading of course! Stay tuned for the next post with the list of books I have read most recently.

Computer woes and 9 new books

Something is wrong with my laptop monitor. Its giving me a moment's reprieve to do some work on it but it could crash at any time. So instead of reviews, I am just going to list the last several books I have read. Hopefully I can get this fixed and be back in the saddle.

So here is what I have read since I last blogged:

#76 Some Things That Stay by Sarah Willis

#77 Prodigal Son (Dean Koontz's Frankenstein, #1) by Dean Koontz

#78 Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage by Elizabeth Gilbert

#79 Who Do I Lean On? (A Yada Yada House of Hope Novel) by Neta Jackson

#80 The Last Will of Moira Leahy by Therese Walsh

#81I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced by Nujood Ali

#82 Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls

#83 The Big House: A Century in the Life of an American Summer Home by George Howe Colt

#84 The Blessings of the Animals by Katrina Kittle

So there ya go ... I am now reading The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly.

Book #75 of 2010

Book #75 of 2010 was ... "Look Again" by Lisa Scottoline.

Ellen Gleeson was balancing life as a single mother and a feature reporter as well as could be expected. She had taken on single parenthood voluntarily, having fallen in love with her adopted son, Will, now three, when he was a very sick infant. A have-you-seen-this-child postcard featuring a child who could be Will’s twin catches Ellen’s attention, and while she should be pursuing her assigned story about the emotional effect of Philadelphia’s high teenage murder rate, she instead becomes obsessed with the missing child and with pursuing more details about Will’s background. Her questions multiply when she learns that, just three weeks after she adopted Will, the attorney who handled the proceedings killed herself. Where is the birth mother, and why doesn’t her family seem to know that she was pregnant? The answer only leads to danger, but Ellen, her reporter’s instincts on high alert, is hell-bent on finding the truth, no matter the cost.

This was the first book by the author I have read. While it was a quick read it was not a satisfying one. The events don't seem plausible and the ending was just ridiculous. I would have preferred the author not force such a " happy ending".

Up next is "Prodigal Son" by Dean Koontz. It is a series based on his take of the Frankenstein story -- but set in modern times.

Book #74 of 2010

Book #74 of 2010 was "Crow Lake" by Mary Lawson.

Here is a gorgeous, slow-burning story set in the rural badlands of northern Ontario, where heartbreak and hardship are mirrored in the landscape. For the farming Pye family, life is a Greek tragedy where the sins of the fathers are visited on the sons, and terrible events occur offstage.

Centerstage are the Morrisons, whose tragedy looks more immediate if less brutal, but is, in reality, insidious and divisive. Orphaned young, Kate Morrison was her older brother Matt's protegee, her fascination for pond life fed by his passionate interest in the natural world. Now a zoologist, she can identify organisms under a microscope but seems blind to the state of her own emotional life. And she thinks she's outgrown her siblings Luke, Matt, and Bo who were once her entire world.

Lawson is one of the best writers out there right now. She does not write cheerful tales about hardworking farm folk but instead her writing is rather gritty - and often harsh. If you enjoy character studies, you will enjoy Lawson's writing.

Up next is "Look Again" by Lisa Scottoline.

Book #73 of 2010

Book #73 of 2010 was ... "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett.

hree ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.

Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen’s best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody’s business, but she can’t mind her tongue, so she’s lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.

The one thing I didn't like about this book is that it had to end. An excellent first novel from a truly gifted writer.

Up next is "Crow Lake" by Mary Lawson.

Long time no blog ... Books #71 and #72

I've been slacking in my book updates, forgive me. I've got some weird medical issues that have been consuming a lot of my time and my mind. Of course nothing short of death would stop me from reading so ...

Book #71 of 2010 was "The Girl Who Played with Fire" by Stieg Larsson.

Mikael Blomkvist, crusading publisher of the magazine Millennium, has decided to run a story that will expose an extensive sex trafficking operation. On the eve of its publication, the two reporters responsible for the article are murdered, and the fingerprints found on the murder weapon belong to his friend, the troubled genius hacker Lisbeth Salander. Blomkvist, convinced of Salander’s innocence, plunges into an investigation. Meanwhile, Salander herself is drawn into a murderous game of cat and mouse, which forces her to face her dark past.

These books are not for everyone - the violence portrayed is extremely brutal. Typically this is a not a genre I would even consider but something keeps drawing me back to the books.

Book #72 was "The Other Side of the Bridge" by Mary Lawson.

Two brothers, Arthur and Jake Dunn, are the sons of a farmer in the mid-1930s, when life is tough and another world war is looming. Arthur is reticent, solid, dutiful and set to inherit the farm and his father’s character; Jake is younger, attractive, mercurial and dangerous to know – the family misfit. When a beautiful young woman comes into the community, the fragile balance of sibling rivalry tips over the edge.

Then there is Ian, the family’s next generation, and far too sure he knows the difference between right and wrong. By now it is the fifties, and the world has changed – a little, but not enough.

These two generations in the small town of Struan, Ontario, are tragically interlocked, linked by fate and community but separated by a war which devours its young men – its unimaginable horror reaching right into the heart of this remote corner of an empire.

This is definitely one of my top 10 favorite reads of this summer. This is not a fast-paced novel which was nice after "The Girl Who Played with Fire" but it was a satisfying read.

Up next is "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett. I am probably the last person on earth to have read it.

See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil ...

Or something like that.

Books #69 and #70 of 2010

Book #69 of 2010 was a teen novel "Shiver" by Maggie Stiefvater.

Grace, 17, loves the peace and tranquility of the woods behind her home. It is here during the cold winter months that she gets to see her wolf—the one with the yellow eyes. Grace is sure that he saved her from an attack by other wolves when she was nine. Over the ensuing years he has returned each season, watching her with those haunting eyes as if longing for something to happen. When a teen is killed by wolves, a hunting party decides to retaliate. Grace races through the woods and discovers a wounded boy shivering on her back porch. One look at his yellow eyes and she knows that this is her wolf in human form. Fate has finally brought Sam and Grace together, and as their love grows and intensifies, so does the reality of what awaits them. It is only a matter of time before the winter cold changes him back into a wolf, and this time he might stay that way forever.

If you like the teen angst of Twilight, you will probably like this book. I have read that Stiefvater wrote this book before Twilight was a twinkle in Meyer's eye so you could say she started the supernatural trend. "Shiver" is certainly not an earth shattering read but it was entertainment.

Book #70 of 2010 was "Mudbound" by Hillary Jordan.

It is 1946 in the Mississippi Delta, where Memphis-bred Laura McAllan is struggling to adjust to farm life, rear her daughters with a modicum of manners and gentility, and be the wife her land-loving husband, Henry, wants her to be. It is an uphill battle every day. Things started badly when Henry's trusting nature resulted in the family being done out of a nice house in town, thus relegating them to a shack on their property. In addition, Henry's father, Pappy, a sour, mean-spirited devil of a man, moves in with them.

The real heart of the story, however, is the friendship between Jamie, Henry's too-charming brother, and Ronsel Jackson, son of sharecroppers who live on the McAllan farm. They have both returned from the war changed men: Jamie has developed a deep love for alcohol and has recurring nightmares; Ronsel, after fighting valiantly for his country and being seen as a man by the world outside the South, is now back to being just another black "boy."

Told in alternating chapters by Laura, Henry, Jamie, Ronsel, and his parents, Florence and Hap, the story unfolds with a chilling inevitability.

This is one of the best books I have read in a long time. I knew from the first paragraph that I'd be drawn in. Jordan has a gift for writing and I look forward to her future novels.

Up next is "The Girl who Played with Fire" by Stieg Larsson.