Boarding In My Forties

A Few More From January

2012-01-31T16:08:00.000-08:00

I've read several more non-fiction books this month that I just don't have time to do comprehensive reviews on. Following is a short bit about each book just in case there are any other non-fiction junkies out there like myself.

Skyjack by Geoffrey Gray revisits the hunt for the mysterious hijacker, D.B. Cooper. In 1971, a man calling himself D.B. Cooper boarded a Northwest Orient flight in the Northwest, demanded $200,000, took the money, parachuted out of the plane and was never heard from again. The mystery of who D.B. Cooper was and the debate over whether he lived through the jump out of the airplane is legendary. If you like a real life mystery but one that still has no solution, this book is for you. The author proposes some pretty compelling scenarios for who Cooper might have been.

I hesitated to even post about this book on my blog. The Casey Anthony case is one that seems to polarize people pretty quickly. If you followed the case and wanted to know more about why she allegedly killed her daughter, this book does lend some interesting albeit theoretical insights into her mind and motivations. Sandy from You Gotta Read This I know this is right up your alley!

And last but not least is a book that tells the true story of a famous murder case on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. This book will have you questioning what having a fair trial really means and if it is possible if not likely that innocent people end up in prison for crimes they didn't commit.

In other news this week, I've received a stack of books from Harper Publishing for some upcoming TLC book tours that I will be mentioning in a post later this week. Also, my sweet partner on the Stephen King Project, Natalie from Coffee and a Book Chick sent me a book too and I was so excited to receive it. More on these books later this week...

TLC Book Tour: Night Swim by Jessica Keener

2012-01-24T14:48:00.000-08:00

Jessica Keener’s debut novel, Night Swim is the story of a family that is not what it seems. The story is told through the memories and thoughts of the 2^nd oldest child, Sarah, who must navigate her way through her own coming of age at the same time stepping around all of the things she is not to talk about or acknowledge in her family. It is the story of how she manages to survive after the untimely death of her mother and make her way through and past the horrible moment when she realizes that her mother is gone and that she is now free and obligated to be her own person for the first time.

The Kunitz family lives in a suburb of Boston, Massachusetts circa 1970 and appears to be perfect in every way. They have a beautiful home in the right kind of neighborhood with a mother who is a classically trained musician, a father who is a college professor, 4 children, and a live in maid. They throw perfect parties for their friends and neighbors. The mother keeps a perfect garden of roses that she meticulously prunes and waters. She is impeccably dressed and well coiffed at all times. On the surface, this is a family to envy. However, below the surface are many troubling hints that something is terribly wrong with this family. A father who is angry and seems ready to go off at any moment and a mother who floats through most days on a cloud of pills and alcohol are the foundation of this dysfunctional family. The children seem lost and for the most part are disconnected from each other and certainly from their parents. The family seems to move past each other, bumping into each other from time to time to make tenuous connections but never very meaningful ones. The younger children in particular seem to have retreated to their rooms to play make believe games rather than venture downstairs where life is a bit too real. The older children are left to observe, with a true sense of what their family is really like, and to live the implications of it all. The oldest boy finds his own inner peace through his musical talent and his willingness to rebel. Sarah acts out in her own way but never really until her mother is already gone.

The book takes the reader on a journey down to a place that will not prove to be a soft place to land as it hints at tragic future events and showcases the denial that seems to insure that things will come to a very bad end for all of them. Sarah's mother begins to behave in more and more dangerous ways as her addictions get the best of her. The relationship between her and her husband is fraught with complexities that only two alcoholics who both serve to enable and deny one another can create. This is a family so deep in denial that not even having their mother’s car drive off an icy road and their mother landing in the hospital is enough to shake up this family that holds their secrets with each other so tightly. When the Aunt comes to take Sarah and her brothers to the zoo right after this accident I knew this family was doomed on some level to fail. They never sat down and talked to the children about what happened. They never acknowledged, at least amongst the adults that this could have been a thinly veiled suicide attempt. They swept the whole incident under the carpet with a quick trip to the zoo and the rest was history.

If you are worried that the story seems depressing, don’t be. Sarah is a inspirational heroine and a true survivor. She finds her way in the world in spite of some pitfalls along the way. I rooted for her all the way and you will too, when you read the book. Ms. Keener seems to have hit on something that those of us who were children in the 1970’s can relate to and I though a lot about it when I was reading the novel. People simply didn’t acknowledge or talk about unpleasant things. I can still remember a neighbor of mine growing up who took to drinking too much after her son died tragically in an accident. We all knew not to knock on Adrene’s door after 3PM, not because she was drunk but because that was her “nap time” and she would be resting. I can also recall a family whose father left on an extended business trip that was really him leaving the family and filing for divorce. I think it was a full two years before that fact was actually acknowledged and even then in hushed tones.

This book will appeal to any who enjoy a coming of age story or one that deals with complex family dynamics. The characters are well fleshed out and you will love all of them or at least feel empathy for their situation. The story seemed so real to me that I felt it could have been a memoir. Everything seems so perfectly captured that I would be surprised if there aren’t some elements from Ms. Keener's own childhood in the story. As other reviewers have already suggested, this would be a great choice for book clubs since there are so many angles and elements to discuss and there really is something for everyone to relate to, even if your family was really picture perfect and not dysfunctional like this one.

I'm excited that this is Ms. Keener's first novel since I hope it means we can expect a lot more from her in the future. I will be keeping my eyes and ears open and will look forward to reading her next book. If you'd like to learn more about the book or author you can check out more on the author's website or Facebook page.

Thanks again to the folks at TLC Book Tours for giving me the opportunity to read and review this for the author's tour. If you are interested in reading how other bloggers reacted to this novel you can visit the tour schedule below.

Tuesday, January 10th: Books Like Breathing
Wednesday, January 11th: Elle Lit.
Thursday, January 12th: Reviews by Lola
Friday, January 13th: A Bookish Way of Life
Tuesday, January 17th: Coffee and a Book Chick
Wednesday, January 18th: Good Girl Gone Redneck
Thursday, January 19th: A Bookish Affair
Tuesday, January 24th: A Soul Unsung
Wednesday, January 25th: Boarding in My Forties
Thursday, January 26th: Sarah Reads Too Much
Monday, January 30th: Stephany Writes
Wednesday, February 1st: The Lost Entwife
Monday, February 6th: sidewalk shoes
Tuesday, February 7th: The Betty and Boo Chronicles
Wednesday, February 8th: Reflections of a Bookaholic
Tuesday, February 14th: The House of the Seven Tails
Thursday, February 16th: Tina’s Book Reviews
Monday, February 20th: Peeking Between the Pages
Thursday, February 23rd: Jenn’s Bookshelves

Update on Stephen King Project

2012-01-23T17:44:00.000-08:00

We've got 11 reviews posted on the Stephen King Project website so far in January. Please check out the website for more information on how you can read just 1 Stephen King book and join the Project for a chance to win prizes, plus have the opportunity to discover other readers who enjoy King. When I announced the project on this blog several of you wanted to read King but didn't want to read his horror fiction. I found a list on the message board section of Stephen King's official website that lists some of his non-horror reads. I have no idea if the list is complete but it will certainly be a good start for those of you hoping to sample King but not wanting to scare yourself too much. The great thing you will discover about King is that there really is something for everyone in his writing.

Black House (fantasy)
Blaze (thriller/mistery)
The Colorado Kid (mistery)
The Dead Zone (thriller/mistery)
Different Seasons (drama)
Dolores Claiborne (drama)
The Dark Tower series (fantasy)
Eyes of the Dragon (fantasy)
The Green Mile (drama)
Girl who Loved Tom Gordon (thriller/drama)
Hearts in Atlantis (drama)
The Long Walk (thriller)
Rage (thriller)
Roadwork (thriller)
The Running Man (thriller)
The Talisman (fantasy)

Reading and Life Influences

2012-01-15T21:23:00.000-08:00

Those of you who are regular readers of my blog will recall that my dear friend has been suffering from cancer. Last Thursday night she passed away and her long battle with a very pernicious and cruel disease came to an end. She taught me so many things these past couple of years but the biggest was that a normal day is a blessing. She longed to sit in traffic, go to work, put up with people at the office, clean her house, cook dinner, run errands, and most of all to be able to read again. She used to tell me that she wanted to hear about all of the normal things I did. I would think I was having a boring day but to her it seemed like heaven. She made me a better person as I watched her face her illness with bravery and dignity. She didn't have time for any nonsense so she said what she meant and she meant what she said. She was funny, a great mimic, kind, beautiful, generous...I could go on and on. She was a voracious reader, before her disease robbed her of most of her eyesight. Years and years ago she turned me on to the Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice. I would NEVER have picked up a book about vampires if she hadn't recommended them to me. She told me I would like them and I did. In the spirit of this book blog I will remember her with a cup of tea in one hand and a book in the other and I will reread some of the many books she recommended to me over the course of this year. Some I may write about and some I may not. The memories they evoke may be too painful and raw to share with others.

I'll be commenting on blogs and attending to this one later this week, as I feel able. I hope you will all go out and enjoy your life to the fullest. Just remember when you have a bad day that it is always a good one because you are alive. To honor my friend I will try to live every day with a smile and remember hers.

Peace,
Kathleen

A Little Bit of Hawaii

2012-01-09T06:00:00.000-08:00

Happy Monday everyone. I promised to share a few pictures from my trip to Hawaii so here they are. It was wonderful and relaxing and as always, too short. I really wish I could spend at least a month in Hawaii every year but am lucky that I get my annual 10 days. One good thing about getting older is that I will have more time to spend there!

This is one of many turtles that were hanging out on the beach in front of our hotel. I guess they come up out of the water every day to lay in the sun and sleep. I've never been this close to one of these guys and it was really cool! I also saw one swimming in the water but didn't get a picture of it.

This was the beautiful view from our lanai. I decided that these two palm trees were "mine" and took about a hundred photos of them!

This was an interesting tree on one of the golf courses we played. I can't remember what kind of tree it is but I just love it. Doesn't it look like it needs a haircut?

I finished my second book of the year this weekend. I'll be writing about it in the next couple of days. It's a book about the D.B Cooper case. For those of you who like mysteries, this is a real life one that has never been solved!

First Book of 2012

2012-01-05T13:39:00.000-08:00

My goal is to read 100 books this year. Given the reading year I had in 2011 I know the goal is borderline ridiculous but I've had plenty of years in my life when I did read 100 so I figured, why not "swing for the fences" this year? If I come up short of the 100 I know for sure I will read more than if I set a low goal and don't push myself forward. I'm sure you can all look forward to hearing me ruminate throughout the year about how far behind I am in meeting my goal!

So, here's the first one...99 more to go (she says optimistically)!

A Thousand Lives by Julia Scheeres is the story of The People's Church led by Jim Jones and the fate they met when they moved to Guyana and attempted to set up their version of a socialist utopia in the jungle. Jim Jones and his congregation had their church in San Francisco, California for many years so when the story broke that over 900 of the church members had killed themselves in a mass suicide in the jungles of a faraway country, it was front page news in the San Francisco Bay Area where I grew up. I can remember poring over the articles and asking myself how something like this could have happened and more importantly I kept asking myself WHY?

I always thought that Jim Jones was a well-intentioned minister who fell prey to drug abuse and began having more outlandish views at the end of his life. Ms. Scheeres makes the case that he was corrupt from the beginning. He began declaring himself to be God, even in the early years of his ministry. However, he did espouse a powerful message of peaceful co-existence of races during a time in the U.S when there was still segregation in churches. Many African Americans were drawn to his ministry and to his message of racial harmony as were others who looked at the world around them and wanted to make it a better place.

Jim Jones was a savvy leader. He understood he needed to be tied to the political powers in his community. He managed to get appointed to be the head of the San Francisco Housing Authority and rubbed elbows with the movers and shakers in city hall. His proximity to power allowed him to perpetrate a great deal of fraud on his congregation and get away with it. There were always complaints about the church but since he was friends with the local power brokers, they were always stamped out before they became a problem.

The people who followed Jim Jones and joined his church wanted to help others, they were searching for racial equality, and many were lonely and looking to belong. Many were those that lived on the fringes of society like ex cons, the mentally ill, the elderly. They craved love and acceptance and The People's Church gave it to them. When Jones suggested that they should go to a faraway country and set up a different kind of society where all were equal, they couldn't wait to leave.

By the time Jones moved his most faithful followers to Guyana to set up a socialist utopia, many were in too deep to become disillusioned. He controlled many aspects of their lives including who would raise their children, who they could have sex with, etc. He convinced them that the rest of the world was against them and they had to stand together or fall together. When they arrived in Guyana he confiscated their money and passports, thereby making them virtual prisoners. They were isolated from their families at home, had no way of leaving the commune and may not have even realized that they wanted to. If anyone gave any sign of trouble or started to disagree he would threaten them or simply drug them so they would become more compliant.

Doesn't it all sound crazy or unreal? Unfortunately, it really happened. 900+ intelligent, good minded, idealistic people put themselves in a position to be controlled by one megalomaniac with a God complex and a small inner circle that had their own mental health issues they were probably acting on. In the end, they all committed suicide. Many had to be forced but most did it on their own and that is the part that is the most unbelievable.

I couldn't wait to read this book when I saw it at the library. I couldn't wait to get answers to questions that I had been wondering about for over 30 years. While I think the book does an excellent job of telling WHAT happened I do feel like it fell short of explaining the WHY. Maybe it is because the WHY can never be known or understood so I can't really fault the author for that. The author listened to hundreds of audiotapes of Jim Jones and the church and went through thousands of documents so the book is well-researched and thorough. I enjoyed learning more about Jim Jones and the people who followed his ministry and ultimately sacrificed their lives for it and can recommend the book to anyone who is curious about this event and wants to know more about it.

Take a Chance on King and Join the Project!

2012-01-01T21:16:00.000-08:00

I'm so excited about my reading year in 2012 and even more so now that Natalie from Coffee and a Book Chick asked me to co-host a year-long, Stephen King reading project. Many of you who are regular readers of my blog know that I expressed an interest early in 2011 in reading all of Stephen King's works in chronological order. So far I have only read two but am so excited about the project with Natalie because I think I will be reading many more and enjoying all of you doing the same!

For those of you that think King only writes horror fiction, think again. He's written a variety of novels that include fantasy and his latest, 11/23/63 which is a time-traveling adventure. His characters are always memorable and his storytelling ability ranks up there with the best! Natalie and I would love to have you join on us this year long challenge. If you are already a King fan, it will be a good excuse to read a few that you haven't gotten around to and if you have shied away from King you can give 1 book a try (at least), expand your reading horizons, and see what you think! And, you can also watch a movie or mini-series based on his work. I can highly recommend It, Carrie, The Shining, and on and on!

Here's the details as written and posted by Natalie and a link to the website that she created for us today! Isn't that awesome? And, she created three cool buttons for you all to use! I'm excited, can you tell?

The Stephen King Project Overview

This will run from January through December 2012
Anyone can join. But you should have a blog OR an account with Goodreads, Shelfari, etc., so you can write your reviews and we can visit via the link at The Stephen King Project.
The Project will be hosted at The Stephen King Project review site. Participants should link their reviews to the Linky there.
Audiobooks count.
E-books count.

What Are the Commitment Levels?

A King Novice: 1 book
A Lil Bit of King: 3 books
A King to Balance It All: 6 books
A King Legend: 9 books
A King for All Seasons: 12+ books

What About the Movies?

Hell. YEAH. Same rules from the above apply, except...
You can mix and match but you should have more books than films in your end-of-year total tally.

What Should You Do Now?

Write an announcement post on your blog.
You don't have to put a list of books together in your announcement post. Or you can, whatever works for you.
Use one of the blog buttons below in your announcement post.
Enter the link to your announcement post at The Stephen King Project Announcement Post (not the Project Overview post).
Every time you write a review, enter the link to it for the appropriate month at the review site. (On the 1st of each month, a new entry will be posted at the review site, and you can link up your reviews there).
At the end of each month, one participant from that month will be selected via random.org and will win a book from either Kathleen or I (or we may both have a book to give you). The book may or may not be King-related.
At the end of the year, one participant from the year will win a $50 gift card!

So here are the blog buttons to choose from:

Happy New Year

2011-12-30T12:37:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year everyone. I hope 2011 has been good to all of you and that you are looking forward to plenty of good reading in 2012. I returned from Hawaii, which was a fantastic trip (photos to be posted later) and rushed forward into the Christmas holidays and getting back to work. I've been absent from my blog (obviously) but have had the chance to begin catching up on my Google Reader so some of you have no doubt been noticing that I have been commenting again.

I didn't do a lot of reading in Hawaii because we were outside swimming, kayaking, golfing, and hiking. This trip seemed to be more about activity and not as much about relaxing downtime. I managed to finish only one book which was The Post American World by Fareed Zakaria. I know this seems like a heavy read for a Hawaiian vacation but what can I say? I get into moods where the only thing that satisfies me is a good non-fiction read. If you wonder about the future of America as world power or which countries are emerging as economic leaders, this is the book for you. I found it fascinating since I was aware that China and India are both countries that are emerging and growing like crazy but I was completely ignorant about countries like Brazil and their economic role. Anyway, I realize this sort of book isn't for everyone but I really loved it.

I've neglected to write my review of We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver and now feel like too much time has passed for me to get my head around everything I wanted to say about the book after I finished it. I'll just say that the book absolutely floored me and made me think about the whole nature vs. nurture thing and how children grow up to be monsters. What role do parents play in forming an evil human being who becomes a mass murderer? Are people born bad or are they raised to be bad? I really loved that Ms. Shriver set the book up as a letter that the mother of Kevin was writing to her husband to explain what she felt her role was in Kevin's outcome and all of the mistakes that she and Kevin's father might have made. Of course things are never this simple and the book does a brilliant job of taking the reader down a path and then switching things up at the end. I know the movie is out right now and I do want to see it but might need some time to get into the right mindset. I can't imagine how powerful the film might be, after reading the novel.

For 2012 I am planning to post more and read more. I guess I say that every year but I do feel like if I don't post more there is no point to my keeping this blog and I'd really like to keep the dialogue about books going!

I'll be Here Instead of on the Computer

2011-12-08T13:36:00.000-08:00

Happy Thursday everyone! My blog will be on a brief hiatus while I am in Hawaii over the next 10 days. I've just found out that my hotel doesn't have wireless and since I have no intention of bringing, let alone using my laptop computer, I won't have the option to use my iPad to read any of your blogs or do any posting of my own. There is wireless in the common areas (lobby, pool, etc) so it's possible you might see a random post here or there but maybe this whole thing is a sign that I need to UNPLUG! I'll probably post some pics to Twitter since I can do that from my iPhone. If you follow me on Twitter (boardingforties) you might see some snapshots from my trip but I may not even be ambitious enough to manage that. I'll definitely be visiting some blogs today as I wind down at work and get ready to leave!

I hope you will all enjoy a great couple of weeks of reading and discovering new books. I just finished We Have to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver and I will have LOTS to say about that when I return!

TLC Tours: So Far Away by Christine W. Hartmann

2011-11-27T18:49:00.000-08:00

" I have frozen the moment in time. I can still see my foot raised in the air to step off the curb; see it descending slowly. And then I lost my footing - the instant I realized my sixty-six-year-old mother had decided to kill herself before she turned seventy."

Time is certain. There are no maybes; no buts, only its constant passage. It is difficult, at times, to look out the window and watch life go by you, powerless to stop it, and sometimes it is still jarring to look into the mirror to find myself changed, older than I feel. So Far Away by Christine W. Hartmann, a memoir about a daughter’s last years with her parents, encapsulates these feelings perfectly. It is a story of coping with aging parents and the looming prospect of their death. At some point we all fight against this terrifying idea, and feel powerless against the unstoppable force of time, which propels us forward whether we like it or not. Hartmann’s content is easy to relate to, but is difficult to stomach nonetheless.

Within this book’s pages I found pieces of myself, and in its words I found my own experiences mirrored in some ways. You see, I have two friends dying of terminal illnesses, both in the primes of their lives, and it is impossible to think that some day soon they will no longer be here. One is my own age, 48, and is the mother of a 9 year old little boy. The other, whose time to live grows shorter every day according to her doctors, is only 44. Both would give anything to age, to be with their children on graduation day or to teach them to drive, to wake up every morning knowing that they will be here again tomorrow, to simply live. To read this story of a woman whose mother plans to take her own life before she reaches 70, regardless of her good health, was not easy. In fact, I found myself angered by it. How could one possess something as precious and delicate as life, and choose to throw it away?

As difficult as it was for me to fathom, Hartmann’s writing drew me in. The story of her unconventional upbringing, her struggle to care for a father as he wasted away from dementia, and a mother who refused to face life plays on my worst fears of my own future with my parents. Although it was tough for me to agree with a woman who chose to end it all so soon, the book was a highly compelling read, and I would recommend it.

All in all, one frightening truth can be gleaned from this touching work:

Death is certain. There are no maybes; no buts, only its presence drawing nearer. As those we love are lost to the past, and every morning we awake we know that somehow, some way, we are more alone, we must continue onward. We must take every fresh breath of air knowing that in a moment everything changes. No day is the same as the last. We will never truly be here again.

To read what others on the TLC book tour thought of this compelling read please visit the tour stops:

Monday, November 21st: Peeking Between the Pages

Wednesday, November 23rd: I Am A Reader, Not A Writer – author Q&A

Thursday, November 24th: Life in Review

Monday, November 28th: Boarding in My Forties

Tuesday, November 29th: Book Hounds

Wednesday, November 30th: Colloquium

Thursday, December 1st: Acting Balanced

Monday, December 5th: The Lost Entwife

Wednesday, December 7th: Patricia’s Wisdom

Monday, December 12th: Book Dilettante

Tuesday, December 13th: Luxury Reading

Wednesday, December 14th: She Treads Softly

For more information on the author, please visit her website.

It's a Dog's Life

2011-11-06T16:51:00.000-08:00

Happy Sunday everyone! I hope you have all been enjoying a wonderful weekend. Fall has finally come to California. We had bits of rain over the last few days and temperatures down into the 40's at night and that is COLD for us Californians. I have to say that I am really enjoying the change in weather. It is putting me in the mood to read!

I have a few books to talk about but first I want to introduce you all to my little white dog, Bentley. He's a rescue pup from Hurricane Katrina. He is was born in Mississippi the night Katrina struck. I've had him since he was 6 weeks old and he is my boy! My son, sweetie, and myself spoil him rotten. To prove my point, take a look at the pictures from today.

This is a picture of Tom feeding Bentley a low-fat blueberry cake from Starbucks. Shouldn't every dog start out Sunday morning this way? It looks like he is getting ready to read the newspaper too!

Later today Tom made some delicious breakfast (well really brunch) burritos for us. He made good use of the left over pot roast and added scrambled eggs, guacamole, salsa, and cheese. Bentley got his own little burrito sans salsa and guacamole. Now that his tummy is full and he's had a good nap, he's going to sleep the rest of the day. That should mean a few hours of uninterrupted reading time for me!

Now for some book talk. I purchased the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson the day it came out. Being a Marketeer here in Silicon Valley I am really aware of the big influence that Steve Jobs and Apple Computer have had on the valley I live and work in. I'm a few chapters in and really enjoying Isaacson's style. He writes beautifully about things such as the start of Apple Computer that many lay people could find boring but his storytelling makes it all so interesting. I'm sad that Mr. Jobs wasn't alive to see what a great success the book has been. I am a big Apple fan and have always admired Jobs so I am sure I will be gushing about this one when I am done reading it.

In other bookish news, I am practically squealing with delight at the thought that Stephen King's latest book, 11/22/63 is coming out this week on Tuesday. This book has gotten rave reviews from many quarters, not the least of which is the New York Times. Only King could craft a story with the premise that an ordinary man goes back in time to change history and prevent the assassination of President Kennedy. From what I understand the book lacks his usual gore but has all of the other elements we King fans have come to love; quirky characters, fantasy, and just great storytelling. If you've not read King and shied away from him because you don't want to read a thriller, this might be a good book to give him a try with.

I'm off to Atlanta, Georgia later this week for a 8 day business trip. I'll probably not get the chance to post but hope to stop by and visit a few blogs. Wishing all of you the best in the week ahead!

Scary Goodness

2011-10-16T20:45:00.000-07:00

Happy Sunday everyone. I'm wrapping up a lazy weekend. I've managed quite a lot of reading this weekend. I'm almost caught up with my NY Times and I've finished reading The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly. I originally started this one back in June but after having various health problems through June and most of July I put it down and stopped reading it. I enjoyed the book and it was the perfect book to read for fun. The story was fast-paced and held my interest even though the premise was not really original and I had things figured out pretty quickly. And it was my first ever Connelly book. I think I've found a new guilty pleasure airplane author! After finishing the book I rented the movie. All I can say is read the book but don't bother with the movie. I just didn't like it. I didn't feel invested in the characters and the action fell flat. I'm glad I read the book first, otherwise I don't think I would have.

But the real reason for this post is to share my thoughts about Salem's Lot by Stephen King with you. Salem's Lot is the second of Stephen King's books to be published and I found it to be much creepier than Carrie, his first novel. There's something about small towns that always seem a bit claustrophobic to me. I think King does a fantastic job playing on the qualities of small town life that seem innocent but work well in a creepy setting. In Jerusalem's Lot (Salem's Lot for short) the town is filled with the usual cast of characters. King does a great job giving his characters those quirky little details that make them unforgettable. He's a master at foreshadowing and throughout the first part of the story I was waiting for something sinister to happen. Once the action started and I realized what was happening in the town, I couldn't wait to turn one page after another. If you don't mind a scary, creepy story you will love this one. Stephen King is a master storyteller and I am reminded why I enjoy his work so much. It is entertaining and enjoyable. This work really speaks to all of the layers of things that are happening in these charming little towns and the many undercurrents that might be going on. I think King understands these things and he plays on them in an outrageous but really creative way. Next up in the "read all of King" project is The Shining. I can't wait to reread the book and then see the movie again.

Have a great week everyone!

A Season for Scary Reads

2011-09-28T13:38:00.000-07:00

There's something about Fall and Winter that say I should be reading scary novels or cozy mysteries. With the temperatures near 90 degrees in California today it is hard for me to imagine that it is Fall. Still, I decided to nudge Fall along last night and began Salem's Lot by Stephen King. It has been almost a year ago that I announced on this blog my intention to read all of King's novels in the order they were published. Want to know how many I have managed to read this year? That would be 1, just 1 (Carrie)! So last night as I looked on my shelves for something to read and tried to imagine the start of Fall, I happened upon Salem's Lot and began reading. I'm 100 pages in and have rediscovered that King is a great storyteller. The other thing that struck me is that there is something really claustrophobic about small towns and King does a masterful job of creating a sense of a small town closing in on it's inhabitants. So far there are lots of colorful characters with interesting back stories and a delicious sense of foreboding and foreshadowing. Luckily for me I've not seen the movie so I can only guess at what might happen next and that has me looking forward to reading more when I get home from work tonight.

Hope you are all reading something that is catching your interest. Do you tend to read scary stories or cozy mysteries when the weather is cold? Have you read Salem's Lot and if so, am I in for a treat or a trick?

A Little Bit of Non-Fiction but Good Fiction on the Way

2011-09-25T21:38:00.000-07:00

Happy Monday everyone. Sorry I've been MIA lately. The good news is that I have been reading tons of books but the bad news is that I have been to busy to write about them. I've been working long days at the office so I have instituted a no computer rule for evenings at home. I just have to disconnect from the computer at some point during the day or I feel my soul will be crushed (she says kind of jokingly but not really). I've been visiting other book blogs as much as possible and leaving comments on as many as I can. My TBR list has been growing beyond what I can possibly read in my lifetime but I am so excited about some of the books that I've been reading about. Hopefully very soon I will be blogging about some of the books that I have recently added to my reading queue.

I've been obsessed with non-fiction lately and am ready to move on to lighter fare. I've always been pretty fascinated by true crime books. I can't help but analyze criminals and try to figure out why the heck they do the things they do. I should have gone to work for the FBI and been a profiler or something! I read Popular Crime by Bill James. If you are familiar with cases like the O.J Simpson case, the Menendez Brothers murder case, the story behind In Cold Blood, etc you will enjoy this analysis of why certain crimes are written about extensively and reported about in the media and what that says about our culture.

Leading up to the ten year anniversary of 9-11 I had a renewed interest in books that have been written about what happened that day. If you want to go beyond the fluffy stuff in newspapers and magazines and read all about the background of how Al-Qaeda began you should read The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright. This book won the Pulitzer Prize and with good reason. It is meticulously researched and packed full of facts and information that delves deep into the roots of the terrorists and the attacks themselves.

I also received my latest shipment from the Powell's Indiespensible program. Each month I get a signed copy of a book as well as some other gifts from Powell's Bookstore in Portland, OR. It is a great way to support an independent bookseller and to receive all kinds of bookish goodness on a monthly basis. I was thrilled to open my box today and find The Night Circus by Erin Morenstern. I've been hearing all about this one and it has all been good. And I am thrilled that my selection next month is The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides.

Hope you all have a great week. I hope to back again much sooner this time to talk about what I'm reading and what bookish things are on my mind. Thanks to my sister Vicki who reminded me Sunday at lunch that I hadn't posted since September 3rd. Happy 58th Birthday Vicki, I love you!!

What I've Been Up To

2011-09-03T12:04:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it has been almost a month since I returned from my trip to Hollywood and Lake Tahoe. We had a fantastic time seeing all of the sights and going to see Phish. It never ceases to amaze me how restorative music can be. My sweetie and I were stressed when we left on our trip. Sometimes getting ready to leave the office almost makes it seem like it isn't worth it to take the time off. But after seeing one of our favorite bands and listening to some good music we were rested, relaxed, and ready to enjoy the rest of our time off. Here's a few photos I thought I would share with you.

Excuse the fuzzy picture but I took this one from our room on the 29th floor of the Rennaisance Hollywood. Isn't that cool how we could see the Hollywood sign from our window? We had a great view of downtown Los Angeles too.

While staying in Hollywood we had to do all the tourist things like the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the Grauman's Chinese Theater where we saw cool footprints like these. Can you believe how tiny Judy Garland's feet and hands were?

There were so many stars I wanted to see but given that we were in town to see a concert I thought it only fitting that I spotted this star for The Doors. Also, I have to admit I have an enduring crush on Jim Morrison.

Here are Tom and I standing under the sign at the Hollywood Bowl. This was a concert venue that has been on my bucket list so it was really great to check it off. It was really cool to know that my mom, who spent some years of her childhood in Huntington Park, used to ride her bike up to the Hollywood Bowl with her friends in the 1940's!

We had a incredible day at LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) where we were lucky enough to see the Tim Burton exhibition. I love his movies and had no idea that he started as an animator with Disney Studios and was born in Burbank, California. What a twisted, creative, dark, fantastic mind he has and his drawings and journal entries will stay with me a long time. If you are anywhere in the Los Angeles area or plan a visit there soon I would encourage you to see this exhibit. The museum has a great regular collection too!

After the concert and the museum and the sightseeing we really needed some rest and relaxation. We spent 4 wonderful days in Lake Tahoe. We hiked, sunned ourselves on the beach, drove around the lake, and just had fun! I even had some fun playing the penny slots!

Since I've been back I have been catching up on reading blogs and have been reading several books including Stephen King's On Writing which I am almost finished with. This is a reread for me but I swear it feels like I am reading it for the first time. He has so many nuggets about writing in this book. You don't have to be a King fan to enjoy his take on his process and how we can all be better writers.

Hope you are all looking forward to the weekend. I'm off to Sacramento, California for a charity golf tournament and then home and off work on Monday. I hope to spend a few hours reading (at least) this weekend.

Gone Phishin!

2011-08-06T11:03:00.000-07:00

I'm off on another adventure. This time I will spend two nights in Hollywood, CA. I'll be seeing Phish at the Hollywood Bowl. I'm a native of California yet I've never been to the Hollywood Bowl. It's a concert venue that has been on my bucket list so I'm really excited to go and check it off my list!

I'll also be visiting the Los Angeles County Museum of Art aka as LACMA. They have a Tim Burton exhibition there right now. I can't wait to see more of his twisted artistry.

Last but not least I will spend 5 nights in beautiful Lake Tahoe. In between all of my adventures I'm sure I'll find some time to read and will visit my favorite blogs as much as possible. I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Miscellany

2011-07-24T12:21:00.000-07:00

Happy Sunday everyone. Hard to believe that it has been over a week since my last post. I had a wonderful trip to Half Moon Bay, California for my 48th birthday. I had a list of 3 bookstores that I was hoping to visit while I was there. What can I say? We had a lovely casita-style room that looked out over the 18th hole of the golf course at the Ritz Carlton. Our private patio had a lovely gas fire pit. I enjoyed the view and the fire and the wine so much that I didn't want to leave! So needless to say I never managed to get any bookstore time in.

However, I did get the most wonderful bookish birthday surprise! My sweetie bought me a color Nook. I had a Kindle that I loved and had bought back in 2009, right before a visit to Europe. There were a lot of great things about the Kindle. I think my favorite thing was that I could read in direct sunlight with no glare. That feature really came in handy when I was on the beach or out by the pool. However, now that I have my Nook, I have to say I love it even more. The color screen allows me to read magazines and to also enjoy all of the pictures that come with my New York Times subscription. My favorite thing about my Nook is the backlit screen. This allows me to read in bed at night without having the light on in my room. This is much more relaxing for me! I also love the bigger screen size.

But the best part about getting my Nook is that I was able to gift my Kindle to my 79 year old mom. She's not computer literate and still has trouble working her cell phone but she loves the Kindle. I downloaded a book by Barbara Sinatra for her, about Barbara's life with Frank Sinatra. I know my mom will enjoy the large print font as it will make it easier for her to read. I also downloaded the Bible for my dad. He's just had surgery to repair a detached retina so his vision isn't the best but hopefully when his vision is better, he will also enjoy my re-gifted Kindle.

I also wanted to mention a few more of the books that I picked up at my library's used book sale. Keep in mind that I got a big grocery bag full of books for $3.00. If you've never been to a used book sale at your local library, I encourage you to check one out! Here are a few more of the books:

Rabbit Run by John Updike
This is another one that I can vaguely remember reading in college for a Social History course. I managed to pick up a copy of the book that has the same cover that my book I read in college had. The story of an alienated 26 year old who is already experiencing what many of us would call a "mid-life crisis" is a powerful commentary on the sense of disillusionment anyone can feel when life isn't going as we planned.

Case Histories by Kate Atkinson
I read about this one at Nymeth (Ana's) blog www.thingsmeanalot.com and as I trust her opinion implicitly I added it to my list straight away. I was thrilled to find it at my library sale. Nymeth says Case Histories "is a thoughtful and beautifully written mystery novel, and one with feminist themes to boot. Needless to say, I can’t wait to read Kate Atkinson again." How can I resist a novel that gets such high praise from a well-respected book blogger?

Hope you all have had a wonderful weekend. I know many of you in the U.S are suffering from extreme heat. I hope you will find cooler weather soon or find a way to keep cool in the extreme heat. We have mild temperatures in California today and I feel guilty saying that but am enjoying it none the less.

Weekend Plans and Some of Them are Bookish!

2011-07-15T12:00:00.000-07:00

Happy Friday everyone! I am so excited for this weekend. I turn 48 tomorrow and my sweetie is taking me to a wonderful coastal community not far from where we live in the San Francisco Bay Area, called Half Moon Bay. We are very lucky to be staying at a beautiful hotel (pictured above). While the rest of the Bay Area will see temperatures in the upper 70's and low 80's this weekend, Half Moon Bay will probably only hit a high in the upper 50's. We have a room with a nice fireplace looking out over the golf course. I can't wait to explore the little town and hopefully a few bookstores, have a delicious birthday dinner, and then snuggle up and drink some good wine while sitting by our fireplace on our outdoor balcony looking out over the golf course. I have such a wonderful sweetheart who always makes me feel so special on my birthday and after all of the health-related issues I have had lately this will be a much needed opportunity to relax and enjoy life a little.

As I was reflecting on another year gone by I realized that in two short years I won't be "Boarding in my Forties" anymore. I don't plan to change my blog name to "Boarding in my Fifties" so I guess I will just continue to pose as a much younger woman! Ha

Happy Weekend everyone! I hope you all have time to read a good book!

More Books to Share From my Library Buying Binge

2011-07-13T15:13:00.000-07:00

The Poison Tree by Alan Pendergast
Okay, maybe I watched too much coverage of the Casey Anthony trial while I was sick and unable to read or do much of anything else. Or maybe this just speaks to my continued fascination with all things true crime. But when I saw this book on the table at my library's used book sale I just couldn't resist. I never tire of reading these books that delve into the minds and motivations of those that kill others. I know for some it is a strange reading genre but it has long been a genre that both terrifies and fascinates me. This particular book details the story of two teenagers who kill their abusive father. I'm not sure when I will have the stomach to read it but it will sit on my shelf and wait for the right moment.

The Rise of Silas Lapham by William Dean Howells
And now for something completely different...
I read this book in college for a Social History class. I don't remember much about it so I guess that is one reason why I picked it up to read again. It seems sad that I read this for a class and can't remember remember much about it. The book delves into what happens when someone goes from rags to riches. How are the nouveau riche different from those that come from old money? What do we get when we become rich and what do we give up? The book was written in the late 1800's but the story of what we give up when we get money or become highly successful is certainly just as relevant now.

I'll see everyone back here on Friday when I give you a preview of what I have planned this weekend in the way of bookish activities!

I'm Back

2011-07-06T12:06:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone, hope you haven't forgotten that I exist. I don't want to dwell on the personal here but because I have been absent for so long I do want to give you some information so you will understand why I have been away. Shortly after being diagnosed with severe tendonitis I developed very strange symptoms which ended up being caused by an inner ear infection. I was dizzy, tired, felt off balance, and in general was not in any way feeling like myself. I was unable to read much and had difficulty spending much time on the computer. I'm happy to report that I'm feeling much better now and ready to start blogging again!

While I was unable to read I did manage to go to my library's used book sale two weekends ago and managed to buy an entire bag of books for $3! Over the next couple of weeks I will tell you what I bought. Here are the first 3 for me to share with you.

The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
Am I the only one who has seen the play multiple times, enjoyed the music immensely, and never actually read the book? If you've read the book I would love to hear your thoughts.

The Innocent Man by John Grisham
I've never been a big Grisham fan but this is a work of non-fiction and I have heard good things about it. The story of an innocent man sent to death row for crimes he didn't commit was intriguing to me. Has anyone read this one?

Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver
I've only read Poisonwood Bible and yes, I was one who actually loved that book. I have no idea what sort of reviews Pigs in Heaven has received but thought it would be nice to read something else of Kingsolver's to determine if she is an author that I would like to explore in more depth or not. Have any of you read this one and have your explored her entire list of works? Am I in for a treat or will I be "torturing" myself for no reason with this one?

It is good to be back amongst all of you readers. If you have a blog I will be stopping by to visit and comment once again.

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Thanks for not forgetting me!

2011-06-09T20:53:00.000-07:00

Thank you to all of my loyal readers. Many of you have commented on old blog posts, tweeted me, or even sent me emails to say "hi". I'm sorry I've been so silent these past few weeks. My left arm (and I happen to be left-handed) has really been bothering me to the extent that it has been hard for me to get on the computer after spending all day on the computer at work. Last week the pain was severe enough to keep me awake at night so I finally broke down and went to the doctor. Turns out I have severe tendonitis. I'm on an anti-inflammatory and have a special strap to wear on my left arm. Hopefully by babying my bad arm the tendonitis will subside quickly. In the meantime I will blog as much as I can and stop by and visit all of my blogger friends and comment too. My arm is much better today than even yesterday so I think my limiting my computer use at night and during the day as much as possible has helped.

I've been reading loads of books while I've been away so there will be reviews and commentary coming soon. Thanks again for all of your kind thoughts and wishes. I never even knew I would be missed!

Hope you are all looking forward to a wonderful weekend. I will be heading to the Greek Theater in Berkeley to see a group called Dispatch. I love the UC Berkeley campus. It really is one of the most beautiful college campuses we have in the San Francisco Bay Area. I leave you with a picture of one of my favorite buildings on campus...the library! I might not get much reading done this weekend but I know that when I walk past the library on campus I will be inspired to read all next week!

Back From Cologne and a Slump?

2011-05-13T10:46:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone. I got back from Cologne, Germany last weekend. As nice as it is to have the opportunity to travel with my work, it is always a relief to be back home. I thought I would get tons of reading done on the plane but given that I was so exhausted when I left the States, I only managed to complete one book on the outbound journey and make a decent dent in another on my ride home. For the outbound journey I picked a fast-paced and easy read. I just can't get too deep into books when I'm on an airplane. I chose Laura Lippman's, What the Dead Know. Two teenage girls disappear from a shopping mall and are never heard from again until a young woman shows up 20 years later claiming to be one of them. The story had just the right pace to keep my interest during the long plane flight. On the way home I chose a Michael Connelly novel, The Lincoln Lawyer. I've been wanting to read the book so I can go and see the movie.

While I was in Germany the news broke about Osama Bin Laden which generated lots of reading interest for me again in all subjects related to terrorism and 9-11. Given that I was in Germany, I chose to start a book by reporters, editors, and writers of Der Spiegel magazine called, Inside 9-11 What Really Happened. The book goes into an almost minute by minute account of what happened on 9-11 and is told from all different angles. The first part of the book traces the activities of the hijackers, next you get the details on what was happening in the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center as well as on the hijacked airplanes, and just now I am starting a section of what happened in Germany immediately after the attacks when it became clear that many of the hijackers had strong ties to Germany and had gone to college and lived there for extended periods of time. I'm finding this book to be particularly interesting since it the only one I've read by authors who are not American and I think that makes a difference in how the whole story is reported.

So as I have been catching up with work and home life I have not had much time to read and comment on all of my favorite book blogs. I finally had to do something that I really hate to do which is "mark all as read". If I missed something really important, do let me know. Otherwise you should see me commenting in the next few days as I begin to catch up again!

Hope you have all had a good week or two while I've been away. I really enjoyed my visit to Cologne, even though it was for work. It is a beautiful old city with lots of great history, dating back to Roman times. I ate tons of great German food but also found an exceptional Italian restaurant while I was there called, Luciano as well as a wonderful Indian restaurant. I definitely have a few pounds to take off now. I spent several evenings strolling through the old town area and had a nice visit to the Dom Cathedral again. If you ever have the opportunity to visit Germany, add Cologne to your list of cities to visit. You won't be disappointed.

Happy Friday everyone!

TLC Book Tours - Wrecker by Summer Wood

2011-04-25T17:16:00.001-07:00

"He seemed to need to feel his body collide with the physical world to know he existed. He threw his food, sometimes; he ignored them, he drowned out the sound of their voices by plugging his ears with his fingers and singing nonsense songs; he sometimes refused to put away the toys they gathered for him; he demanded bedtime stories at breakfast and pancakes at dinner. They couldn't control him and so they gave up trying. But neither could he control them and he, too came to understand this, and the shimmering tentative thing that stretched between then those first days thickened into something workable, something like love in overalls, love with a spade in its hand."

Wrecker by Summer Wood is the story of a 3 year old boy who is born to a single mother in the 1960's in San Francisco. By the time the story opens he has already been sent to live with his Uncle and Aunt who he has never met because his mother has been taken to prison. Wrecker's mother, Lisa Fay is ill equipped to raise a child. She has good intentions but that is about all. After not even naming her son for over a year she finally gives him the name, Wrecker. I thought the name was fitting considering that he "wreaks" havoc with his new family and really everywhere he goes but along the way he brings an eclectic group of people together, bound by their love for him and for each other. Wrecker is a story that epitomizes the "it takes a village" theory of child raising.

After Wrecker's mother gets sentenced to prison he is sent to live with her sister (Meg) and sister's husband (Len). Meg has had an unfortunate accident after dental surgery and she is no longer "all there". Her husband Len doesn't have the slightest idea how to raise a child but is a man with character enough to give it a try. He picks up Wrecker in San Francisco and takes him back to his house in the Mattole River Valley in Humboldt County. This is a beautiful part of California and one which attracts people who don't want to be bothered by anyone else but it is also a place where everyone seems to know everyone else and is willing to lend a hand when needed. Wrecker couldn't have ended up in a better place. There's room enough for him to run around and a simple existence to keep things in his life from getting overly complicated.

Len doesn't understand how to take care of Wrecker and even manages to lose him the first night they are together. Wrecker has a bad habit of running off by himself. Luckily for Len he has a group of friends up the road. These four people are living together communally and have all brought baggage from their past lives to their farm, Bow Farm. Together with Len and his wife Meg these 6 people take on the responsibility for raising Wrecker. Melody becomes Wrecker's surrogate mother and in the process heals the wounds from her troubled past. Willow and Ruth are there to help whenever they are needed and Johnny Appleseed is there when Wrecker needs a strong man to teach him a thing or two.

This is a simple story but one that kept me turning the pages, anxiously rooting for these people and for the wild child named Wrecker who they took in. This story examines what being a mother really means and it also embraces the idea that a family can be any group of people who love a child and commit to raise him through his life. It is the story of the beautiful gift of being a foster parent and the miracles that can happen when people are willing to give it a try.

This book is perfect for those who will enjoy unusual characters and a story that is short on action but rich with beautifully drawn characters and a young boy named Wrecker who will will root for all the way to adulthood.

The publisher has graciously offered a copy for me to giveaway. If you are interested in reading this one please leave your name and email address so I can contact you if you win. Unfortunately the winner must have a mailing address in the US or Canada.

Please check out the other bloggers on this tour to see what they gained from reading this one.

Summer Wood’s TLC Book Tours TOUR STOPS:

Monday, April 18th: Scraps of Life

Tuesday, April 19th: Musings of an All Purpose Monkey

Thursday, April 21st: Book Club Classics!

Friday, April 22nd: Bloggin’ ‘Bout Books

Monday, April 25th: In the Next Room

Tuesday, April 26th: Life in Review

Wednesday, April 27th: Boarding in my Forties

Thursday, April 28th: Red Headed Book Child

Monday, May 2nd: Joyfully Retired

Thursday, May 5th: Rundpinne

Monday, May 9th: Caribousmom

Tuesday, May 10th: Amused by Books

Wednesday, May 11th: I’m Booking It

A Great Weekend

2011-04-23T15:56:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter to everyone! I'm looking forward to a nice weekend with family and friends before I take off to Cologne, Germany for work this week. And of course I am reading and doing bookish things!

This morning I watched one of my favorite channels...Book TV. I am a certifiable geek! If you love non-fiction like I do then this is a channel that you must know about. They interview authors, feature talks by authors, and cover all of the major book festivals in the United States. This morning I watched a great lecture by Siddartha Mukherjee, the author of the Pulitzer prize winning, Emperor of all Maladies. His epic book about cancer has succeeded in getting people talking about this pernicious disease and understanding more about it's history. I've had it on my shelves at home for awhile but haven't gotten around to reading it. After hearing the author speak, I am more excited than ever to read the book.

I've also started reading Wrecker by Summer Wood. The book is set in the San Francisco Bay Area, where I live, so the gals at TLC Book Tours thought it would be a good one for me to review. I'm two chapters in and loving the story of a little boy named Wrecker who is bringing an eclectic group of characters together to love and raise him. I'll be reviewing the book for the book tour this Wednesday so stay tuned for my thoughts about this charming (so far) read.

Last but not least, I'm writing this post from my lovely hotel room in Monterey, California. The sun is shining and I will be headed to Poppy Hills Golf Course in Carmel soon to pick up my sweetie who has spent the day golfing with his golf club. We plan a lovely evening in Carmel (eating dinner, watching the sunset, strolling the streets of downtown) and then tomorrow we'll have Easter Brunch here in Monterey before we head back home.

Life is good and I'm blessed to have a nice weekend before I have to travel to Europe for my work and spend 10 days working long hours. While I am gone I will hope to read some, post little or not at all, and visit other book blogs as much as I am able.

Happy Saturday everyone and Happy Easter!

TLC Book Tour: A Thread of Sky by Deanna Fei

2011-04-19T22:01:00.000-07:00

A Thread of Sky by Deanna Fei is the story of six women related by biology, bound by familial obligation, and separated by secrets. It is the story of the journey they take to their homeland (China) and the things they discover about each other and themselves along the way. Irene Shen's husband of thirty years has just left her and their marriage. When he is killed in an accident a short time later she has no ex-husband to hate. Instead, she is left to grieve and be angry with herself. Making matters worse is the fact that Irene's daughters blame her for everything. Her solution to all of this is to suggest that she and her three daughters, her sister, and her mother all take a trip to China together.

The characters in the novel are well developed. Each harbours secrets and each is deeply flawed in a most human way. I came to feel as though I knew characters and most of all I came to love them, flaws and all. Nora is the daughter who can't commit to her fiance and her trepidation about getting married isn't made any easier when he ends up cheating on her. Kay is the daughter who left home and went to China to connect to a sense of family and to find herself. She's idealistic and tries to lose herself in her causes. She also has struggles with commitment and settles for spreading herself pretty thin with numerous men, none of which she is really serious about. Sophie is the youngest daughter and the one still at home with her parents when the tragedy occurs. She's got plenty of issues including bulimia and really poor self-esteem. And Irene's sister Susan has plenty of issues of her own. She's a poet who is living a life of quiet desperation and quietly and at times loudly critical of her sister but unable or unwilling to look at the problems in her own life. Last but not least is Irene's mother Lin. Lin has more skeletons and secrets in her closet than all of them put together. She is the thread that ties each of the women together and the one who seems to have set in motion this strange family dynamic. One of the most compelling things about the book for me was my desire to find out what Lin was hiding from her daughters and granddaughters and why.

When Irene decides they should all go on a trip to their homeland I had high hopes for the connections they would make. They seemed so judgmental of each other and the different choices they have made. They didn't seem close, more like strangers who have a slight familiarity and are forced to deal with each other one way or the other. The author does a brilliant job of portraying the complicated relationships between sisters and between mothers and daughters. In addition she does a fantastic job of making you feel as though you are in China. The sights and smells of the places the six women visit come to life. China is definitely a main character in the story and one of the most intriguing ones for me as a reader.

As their journey progresses we learn more about each of them and how they came to be who they are. And slowly but surely the family secrets are revealed and relationships are healed. I found myself rooting for all of them.

Like all of us, our families make us who we are for better or for worse. I think this would be a perfect book for a book club to read and explore together since there are so many strong characters who will leave much for readers to interpret and discuss. I would love to discuss this with someone who is Chinese and might better understand some of the cultural things at play here. That was the only part of the book that I felt that I might have missed but I might be over thinking things too much and looking for nuances that might not have been there.

This book will be enjoyed by those who like a character-driven novel and one which is dominated by women characters. If you have ever wanted to travel to China you will also enjoy the opportunity to do so by reading about the journey these women take.

Please visit the other stops on the TLC tour to see what other readers feel about this one. Thanks to TLC for sending me the book to review.

Tuesday, March 29th: Amy’s Creative Side

Wednesday, March 30th: Write Meg

Thursday, March 31st: Chick With Books

Monday, April 4th: Rundpinne

Tuesday, April 5th: Chocolate & Croissants

Wednesday, April 6th: Bloggin’ ‘Bout Books

Thursday, April 7th: English Major’s Junk Food

Monday, April 11th: Hospitable Pursuits

Tuesday, April 12th: BookNAround

Wednesday, April 13th: Reading on a Rainy Da y

Thursday, April 14th: Peeking Between the Pages

Wednesday, April 20th: Boarding in My Forties

Thursday, April 21st: Book Journey

Friday, April 22nd: Amused By Books

Tuesday, April 26th: Good Girl Gone Redneck

Wednesday, April 27th: Book Club Classics!

Thursday, April 28th: Books in the City

Friday, April 29th: Reading Through Life

About the Author: (From the TLC website) Deanna Fei is the author of the novel A Thread of Sky (Penguin Press, 2010), a New York Times Editors’ Choice and an Indie Next Notable Book. She was born in Flushing, New York, and has lived in Beijing and Shanghai, China. A graduate of Amherst College and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, she has received a Fulbright Grant, a New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship, and a Chinese Cultural Scholarship. She currently lives in Brooklyn, New York, where she teaches in public schools and is at work on a new novel.

If you want to know more about the author, the publicity tour for the book, or read the author's blog check out her website.

Angelology Giveaway Winners

2011-04-18T17:42:00.000-07:00

Thank you to everyone who entered to win one of two copies of Angelology by Danielle Trussoni. The winners are.....

Jayayceeblog

and

MarionG

Please send me your mailing address to pizzo_kathleen@yahoo.com as soon as possible to claim your copy!

TLC Book Tour: The Long Goodbye by Meghan O'Rourke

2011-04-11T18:05:00.000-07:00

"Nothing prepared me for the loss of my mother. Even knowing that she would die did not prepare me. A mother, after all, is your entry into the world. She is the shell in which you divide and become a life. Waking up in a world without her is like waking up in a world without sky: unimaginable."

I seem to be on a roll lately with reading memoirs and most of them seem to deal with sad stories and memories but when I had the opportunity to read and review The Long Goodbye by Meghan O'Rourke for TLC Book Tours I jumped at the chance. Years ago I volunteered with Hospice and spent time with patients who were terminally ill and their families. The one thing I can tell you for sure that I discovered through my time with Hospice is that that people in this culture (Western) struggle with death and dying and talking about it is difficult if not taboo in some cases. So given that background, I was very interested to read what Ms. O'Rourke would have to offer on this subject and I was not disappointed.

The book relays her memories of her mother's last years as she struggled to live and then die with cancer. As anyone who has lived through a terminal illness with a family member knows, the process is not for the faint of heart. Watching a loved one die from a pernicious disease like cancer is literally like watching your loved one almost disappear both literally and figuratively before your eyes. Ms. O'Rourke's mother was her touchstone, her compass, her backbone, and her cheerleader. Little wonder then that watching her mother slowly waste away was almost more than she could bear. I don't think I will be spoiling things too much to tell you that her mother passes away about halfway through the book. From that point on the book is focused on what the author went through as she moved through the grieving process. People often think that when a personal is terminally ill you are "prepared" for them to die. I can tell you that based on my personal experience, this is not the case. When someone dies, no matter how long you might have been expecting it, it is a sudden loss and your very foundation is shaken. Ms. O'Rourke writes beautifully and poetically about this process. And like all voracious readers like myself can relate to, she searches for answers about how to grieve and how to help herself by reading books. This book doesn't have a set ending and how can it? For all of the talk about the stages of grief, there is never an end to it. Time makes it easier but the loss is never something that one can completely come to terms with. The author writes honestly about all of her feelings and holds nothing back. It is refreshing, in this culture where we really do have such trouble expressing our thoughts about death and dying, to find a book that faces all of these things head on. The book was gut wrenching for me to read as I couldn't help but think ahead to the time when I will lose my own mother who is now nearing 80 years old. If you have already lost a parent, this book might be difficult to read but I think it would be healing as well.

I'm sure there will be many interesting perspectives on this book. Please stop by the other blogs that are participating on this tour to read what they think. Additionally the publisher has allowed me to give away one copy of the book to a lucky U.S reader. Please leave a comment with your email address if you are interested in entering the drawing for the book and your mailing address is in the U.S. I will pick a winner next week and announce them on this blog.

TLC Book Tours TOUR STOPS:

Monday, April 4th: Along the Way

Tuesday, April 5th: Sophisticated Dorkiness

Wednesday, April 6th: Seaside Book Nook

Thursday, April 7th: In the Next Room

Friday, April 8th: Patricia’s Wisdom

Monday, April 11th: Colloquium

Tuesday, April 12th: Silver and Grace

Wednesday, April 13th: Boarding in my Forties

Thursday, April 14th: Overstuffed

Friday, April 15th: A Chick Who Reads

Monday, April 18th: Reviews from the Heart

Tuesday, April 19th: Life.. With Books

Wednesday, April 20th: BookNAround

Thursday, April 21st: Reading on a Rainy Day

Friday, April 22nd: Rundpinne

Monday, April 25th: not that you asked

Tuesday, April 26th: Book stack

Wednesday, April 27th: The Avid Reader’s Musings

Review: Separate Kingdoms by Valerie Laken

2011-03-27T21:19:00.000-07:00

I've always enjoyed a good short story but I can't remember the last time I had the opportunity to read a collection of them. So when TLC Book Tours gave me the chance to review Separate Kingdoms by Valerie Laken, I jumped at the chance. According to the book jacket on the copy I received,

"In one way or another these are love stories, tales of the ways humans reach beyond their own borders, desperately trying to navigate the rough territory that stretches between one human kingdom and the next. Laken's misplaced, misfit characters are damaged and scarred, and their bodies fail them; they are torn between the wonders of the world and the adventures of the mind. They travel and flee, struggling against their isolation to locate a place like home, ultimately reaching for the connection that will make them whole."

I read this quote AFTER I read the book and I'm glad. I don't usually like to read anything that will put a certain picture into my mind about what the book is about. I like to figure it all out as I go along. As I was reading I was trying to think of the thread that pulled all of the stories together. I figured a collection of short stories that have been put into a book with a title should have a thread of commonality, right? I found myself struggling to figure it out and finally decided to take each story as a standalone and dissect it and decide whether or not I enjoyed it. In Family Planning I thought about the lesbian couple who are in Russia to adopt a baby. There was such an emotional divide between them that I felt sorry for the baby who they would adopt and make part of their dysfunctional family. The story of the blind boy, Anton, in Before Long seemed to me to be a universal story about a boy trying to be grown up, trying to fit in, and pushing against the boundaries of his mother's love. In Spectators we meet a couple who have had to face the wife becoming an amputee. How do you bridge the divide between you when everything you were has changed and therefore everything about your marriage has changed? What do you do when one of you wants to go on as though nothing has happened and the other can't go on at all? Laken takes all of these situations and really plumbs the emotional depths and heights of each situation and creates compelling stories for each. I really appreciated the connection I was able to make with each of the characters and invest in each of their situations even though the stories were short.

By far my favorite story of the eight in the book, and the one that captured my imagination the most, was God of Fire. Ellie's father is lying in the hospital in grave condition. As he fights for his life she is left to remember who he used to be and square her memories with the man who is lying helpless at death's door. She meets other people in the hospital who are also there to wait vigil with their family member. When one man asks her to tell him about her dad she thinks, "I would like to tell him that my father tucked me into bed at night and took me for bike rides. That he taught me to fish or smoke or mix drinks, that he knew my nightmares or at least my phone number. But he didn't. I rub my eyes. He liked to burn things." As you soon discover, her memories of her childhood are of being afraid while her mother's memories are the memories of a wife and mother in denial. Ellie tries to bridge the gap and connect with her dad but even in his incapacitated state he manages to control and abuse. And Laken also gives us a parallel story of the father and where he is and what is happening in his mind as he lays there. The whole was completely fascinating to me.

After reading and thinking about all eight stories I can say that the book jacket blurb resonates with me as a reader. Still I'm glad I didn't see the blurb until after I'd made my own mind up. If you enjoy reading stories that are character-focused and hone in on the emotions and expectations of human beings, you will enjoy this collection of work. If you decide to read Separate Kingdoms, please let me know what you think about it. To find out what other book bloggers think, please plan to visit everyone on the tour stop:

Tuesday, March 29th: Unabridged Chick

Wednesday, March 30th: Boarding in My Forties

Tuesday, April 5th: A Fanatic’s Book Blog

Monday, April 11th: StephTheBookworm

Wednesday, April 13th: Life In Review

Tuesday, April 19th: Booksie’s Blog

Wednesday, April 20th: Rundpinne

Thursday, April 21st: Lit and Life

Friday, April 22nd: Book Reviews by Mo lly

Friday, April 22nd: In the Next Room

Commentary: Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

2011-03-24T14:23:00.000-07:00

As regular readers of my blog will be aware, I finished Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay some weeks ago. So why you might be asking did it take me so long to write about it? I have many excuses but the honest answer is that I really struggled with how to convey my feelings about this one. You see, I liked the book and I also hated the book. Here's why...

Part of the book is the story of a little ten year-old girl named Sarah and what happens to her and her family after the July 1942 round up of Jews in the Vel'd'Hiv area of France. During the round up the French police took Jewish families and either killed them or shipped them off to concentration camps. Sarah instinctively knows that something is really wrong as she and her family are being gathered together by the police and locks her younger brother in a cupboard in her family's apartment to hide him and to protect him. She fully intends to come back for him in just a few hours time. She can't imagine that she and her family will never again return to the apartment together. My heart was aching as I read about Sarah, her journey to the camps, and her absolute heartache over her brother in the cupboard. I couldn't imagine what it would be like to try to go to sleep every night and wonder whether my beloved brother was still alive, hungry, scared, or even dead in the hiding place where I left him. If the book had simply told the story of Sarah I would have been content. Unfortunately, the book is not just Sarah's story and so we come to the part of the book that I hated...

In May 2002 on the 60th anniversary of the Vel'd'Hiv Julia Jarmond is a journalist tasked with writing a story about this "delicate" part of France's history. She learns about Sarah's family and goes off in search of Sarah and what happened to all of the others who were rounded up on that shameful day. Of course as it conveniently turns out, her in-laws just happen to have a relationship to the apartment that Sarah's family were forced to abandon on that fateful day. From here we get page after page of Julia and her unhappy marriage, her unwanted pregnancy and so on and so on and so on. The whole time the book was focused on Julia I wanted to scream "WHAT ABOUT SARAH?". The modern story just didn't work for me. In fact in some parts I felt like I was in the middle of a very schmaltzy made for TV movie.

So I leave this book with mixed feelings. So have any of you read Sarah's Key? Did I miss something that would change my mind? Do tell!

Review and Giveaway: Angelology by Danielle Trussoni

2011-03-20T18:35:00.000-07:00

The Nephilim were on the earth in those days. That was when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. The Nephilim were the heroes of long ago. They were famous men. Nephilim were also on the earth later on. Genesis 6:4 Bible, New International Version

This verse from the Bible always fascinated me. Growing up in church I always wondered about this passage. I also wondered about the story of Jacob wrestling with an angel and the angel Gabriel who told Mary she would bear the son of God. No one I asked could ever give me a plausible explanation for these stories or scriptures. I always wondered where the angels went. Did they die out or were they all up in heaven? Why didn't they announce anything anymore or appear on earth in modern times? Maybe Danielle Trussoni, the author of Angelology, read that scripture and heard the bible stories and used to wonder what it meant too. If so, she has spun a fantastical tale of angels that had me sitting on the edge of my seat in some parts, feeling like I was back in school and slogging through a boring History text in others, but ultimately frantic to reach the climax of the book.

Evangeline has been a Sister of Perpetual Adoration at St. Rose Convent since she was 18 (she's 23 years old when the story opens) but she's been living at the convent since the age of 12. Her father dropped her off to be raised and protected by the sisters in the convent. The reasons why she needs protecting are made clear after she receives, what appears to be an innocent inquiry about correspondence between the deceased Mother Superior of the convent and Abigal Rockefeller. When an art historian by the name of Verlaine is hired by Percival Grigori to found out more about the connection between Ms. Rockefeller and the convent we are propelled into an adventure that stretches thousands of years into the past and propels the reader and Sister Evangeline into an uncertain future. Sister Evangeline soon finds herself in the middle of a long standing conflict between a mysterious organization, the Society of Angelologists, and the offspring of the angels and humans, the Nephilim. Who knew that the Nephilim have lived among us for thousands of years, stirring up trouble and altering and influencing world events? This is the world of Angelology and while it might sound completely implausible, it made for a exciting read. The story traces the history of Evangeline's family, who we soon learn have a long history with the Nephilim. And we also learn the story of Percival Grigori, once one of the most powerful and beautiful of all angels, but now a broken, sick, mere shadow of his former greatness. And it is ultimately the connection between these two families that comprises the backbone of the story and the mystery that surrounds them all.

Unfortunately while I like fast-paced thrillers thisone was just a bit too erratic for me for me to say Iloved it. Some parts had me getting in the groove of reading a suspenseful thriller but just when I started to enjoy it, the author had me bogged down telling me history lessons of the Nephilim when all I wanted was more of the central plot line. I also wish I had realized that there was a sequel coming to this one. Just when I was anticipating a great end with closure for me as a reader, the book just ended. Although I didn't love the book I liked it enough to plan to read the sequel. I've heard people say that this book reminds them of The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown. I never read that book so can't say but if you like a thriller that doesn't always go at a breakneck speed and a book that delves into an intricate history of mythology and religion, this is a book you will enjoy.

Thanks to TLC Book Tours for inviting me to be part of this tour. Please visit all of the other tour stops for this on the official tour page. You can learn more about the author on her webpage at www.danielletrussoni.com .

Last but not least, if you are interested in winning a copy of the book, please leave a comment and tell me why you'd like to read it. I will enter you in the drawing to win one of two copies being given out by the publisher. The drawing is open to residents of the U.S and Canada. I will draw the two winning commenters at the end of next week and announce the winners on this blog.

Commentary: You Don't Love This Man by Dan DeWeese

2011-03-07T16:28:00.000-08:00

You Don't Love This Man by Dan DeWeese opens with the main character Paul's three year old daughter Miranda disappearing on Halloween night. I was riveted by the description of a man who was frantic to find his daughter. I was surprised when he got home, found his daughter in the backyard, and never mentioned to his wife what had happened. Who is this man? Why didn't he tell his wife that he lost track of his daughter? Why wasn't his wife out trick or treating with him and their daughter? What the heck is going on here? The book quickly fast forwards 20+ years in the future. His daughter is getting married and the bank where he is the branch manager has just been robbed. Would you believe the person who robbed the bank on his daughter's wedding day is the same man who robbed the bank 25 years earlier and pistol whipped Paul? From here we go back and forth in time. How did Paul come to work at the bank? How did he and his wife meet and marry? Why did they divorce? Who is Paul and why should the reader care?

The whole time I was reading the book I kept thinking of what Henry David Thoreau said, "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them." Paul is living a life of quiet desperation. He's in a job where he feels disrespected and marginalized. He's spent his whole life feeling insecure and trying to please other people. He has plenty to be angry about. Between his home mortgage and the home equity loan he took out on his condo to pay for his daughter's wedding, he owes the bank where he works more than he has been paid in the 25+ years he's been working there. His daughter is marrying his best friend and he has plenty of reason to think that isn't a good idea. His ex wife disrespects him and shows no regard for his opinions or ideas. This isn't an unusual way to treat an ex but in Paul's case she treated him the same way when they were married. Paul has floated through life, pretending to get along and go along, and has avoided conflict at every turn. The result is that Paul isn't really living life at all.

The book moved quietly along with me desperate to know what would happen to Paul. I wanted him to get angry, get happy, get something, feel something, feel anything! I was rooting for him and curious to see what the significance of the bank robberies and the bank robber would be. When I turned the last page of the book I was satisfied, deeply satisfied. If you enjoy a slow moving, contemplative, cerebral read that is character and not plot driven this is a book you will also enjoy. If you are like me and you are always wondering why people do the things they do and how did they get to be who they are, this book will make your reading day. I'm excited that this is the author's debut novel. I look forward to seeing what he will have for us next time around.

I'd like to thank TLC Book Tours for inviting me to review this book. Those gals at TLC always seem to find the books that are perfect for me as a reader. Please check out the tour page for more information on the book. I would also take the time to visit the other blog stops on the tour. I have a feeling there will be many interesting opinions about this one.

Tuesday, March 1st: Colloquium

Thursday, March 3rd: Book Club Classics!

Tuesday, March 8th: Sara’s Organized Chaos

Wednesday, March 9th: Booksie’s Blog

Thursday, March 10th: Boarding in My Forties

Monday, March 14th: Rundpinne

Tuesday, March 15th: Amy’s Creative S ide

Thursday, March 17th: Literate Housewife

Monday, March 21st: StephTheBookworm

Tuesday, March 22nd: Stephany Writes

Thursday, March 24th: Teres a’s Reading Corner

Wednesday, March 30th: Books Are Like Candy Corn

Thursday, March 31st: Lisa’s Yarns

From the book jacket: Dan DeWeese teaches writing at Portland State University. His fiction has appeared in Tin House, New England Review, Washington Square, and other publications. In 2009, he created Propeller, an art, film, and literature quarterly magazine, for which he serves as editor-in-chief.

This and That

2011-03-05T22:50:00.000-08:00

Happy Saturday everyone. I'm happy that my long and stressful work week is over and I get to enjoy some rest and relaxation. I finally had a chance to do some reading today. I've been working on You Don't Love This Man by Dan DeWeese for an upcoming TLC book tour. The book is moving slowly for me but in a good way. I'm taking lots of notes which is always a sign that I will be happy with the book when I am finished with it.

I finally have my new computer set up and I love it. I purchased a MacBook Pro. I love the fact that I can take it anywhere and not have to use my laptop from work. There are so many programs on the computer that I don't know how to use. I'm going to need to schedule a "get to know my computer" day very soon. Hopefully the fact that I have a new computer will mean that I will blog more often. My old computer just couldn't be upgraded anymore and was giving me a lot of trouble. I feel inspired to write a lot more now that I have the new one!

Please check out Stacy's blog, A Novel Source. She writes great reviews and always has something interesting to say about what she's been reading. She was kind enough to interview me for a feature she calls her Sunday Serenade. It was really fun to answer her questions about me and my reading habits. I hope you will enjoy getting to know Stacy's blog and more about me.

Tomorrow I plan to finish reading You Don't Love This Man and hopefully start one of my stack of library books I brought home last week. I'll also be taking my son out in the car to practice driving for his driving test this week. If all goes well he will have his license on Tuesday. I'm really excited for him to reach this milestone and also excited because I will cut down on my morning commute since I won't have to drive him out of my way to his school but will be able to go straight to my job instead.

Hope you all have a great weekend with lots of reading time!

Commentary: Devotion by Dani Shapiro

2011-03-01T20:57:00.000-08:00

Have you ever started to read a book and after a few pages you felt like the book was speaking directly to you? Devotion by Dani Shapiro was that kind of book for me. Ms. Shapiro was raised Jewish but never really felt a connection to her beliefs. As an adult she explored other things such as Yoga but it took her son developing a seizure disorder which could have left him permanently brain damaged and her contentious and painful relationship with her mother for her to reach a crisis point and begin searching for something to believe in. Devotion chronicles her search and the answers she found in her faith and in herself.

In the beginning of the memoir she talks about being carried along in life by a list of things to do, surrounded by sticky notes with reminders of errands and bills to pay, feeling overwhelmed by everything and underwhelmed by life. "Could I find and hold onto a deeper truth than the whir and strum of my daily life, which seemed designed to ensure that some day I would wake up--after the years of packed lunches and piano practice and rushed dinners--and wonder where it all had gone?"
As soon as I read these words I knew I was hooked. I have often wondered myself what my life really means when I am in the midst of rushing around and kicking up an awful lot of dust and not sure what I have to show for it. And to top it off, Ms. Shapiro is middle-aged as am I and has asked almost verbatim the same questions I have been asking myself these past few years. While on a retreat in the country she thinks:

"Who was I, and what did I want for the second half of my life? I mean I was in the middle of life, the middle of midlife, the middle of a midlife crisis. I had been shaped by choices and decisions, not all of them conscious. I had turned left instead of right; had taken (or not taken) the trip, the flight, the challenge, the chance. Everything I had ever done had led me here--and while here wasn't a bad place at all, it also wasn't enough. Some essential piece of me was missing, and in the quiet of the country I had an opportunity to figure out what, exactly, that missing piece was."

And given that I have had some of the same thoughts as I have reached my forties and almost fifties, I found the connection I was making to her book to be powerful and palpable. But don't worry if you aren't a woman and you aren't middle aged. This book has something for everyone. We all want something to believe in and at different times in our life will go after deeper answers. We can all relate to doing things out of tradition and then one day waking up and wondering why we are doing things a certain way or thinking a certain way. Ms. Shapiro's journey, while personal to her, is one that I can relate to and many of you will too.

The book is honest, incredibly honest. She doesn't hold anything back as she shares her greatest fears and hopes. And while she finds her answers she isn't smug about it. She seems to realize that her answers may be fleeting and as she enters another time in her life she may renew her search for answers again as her circumstances change and the questions she has does too.

I'd like to thank TLC Book Tours for giving me the opportunity to read this book. It was a book that came at the right time for me and one which has me pondering how I might pursue answers to some of these same questions that I have for my life. Please visit the other bloggers who are participating on the tour. I read two of the other reviews today and both of them spoke about how the book meant something to them personally and for different reasons than my own. This is what I believe makes this book such a powerful read.

To find out more about the author you can visit her website, read her blog, find her on Facebook, or follow her on Twitter @DanijShapiro. This book would be an excellent choice for a book club to discuss and Ms. Shapiro is open to doing conversations with book clubs via Skype. For more information about this you can fill out a request on her website.

Reality is Broken Giveaway Winner Announced!

2011-02-22T17:00:00.000-08:00

The winner of Reality is Broken is Vasilly from 1330V. Congratulations Vasilly. I will send you an email or Tweet so you can email me your shipping information.

A Look Ahead

2011-02-11T12:18:00.000-08:00

Happy Friday everyone! I hope you've all enjoyed a wonderful reading week. I managed to finish Sarah's Key by Tatiana De Rosnay for my in-person book club meeting tonight. I'll follow up with a review in the next few days. I enjoyed the book even though at times the plot seemed a bit contrived and the story seemed to veer into soap opera land a few times. I'm still formulating my ideas and will certainly have more after I have the discussion with all of my bookish friends tonight.

This week I also bit the bullet and got on Twitter. You can follow me @boardingforties. So far I have connected with some of you and am enjoying the experience of finding my way around a new technology. If there are any "must follow" bookish Tweeters that I need to know about, do let me know.

Last but not least, I realized as I was going through my notes in my reading journal that I never reviewed The Wilderness by Samantha Harvey and I really want to share my thoughts with you on this one. The book details a man's slow mental slide due to Alzheimer's. The book is a heart wrenching journey to go on but I'm glad I forced myself to get through it. I will plan to do a mini-review at the very least next week. Has anyone else read this one? If so, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

I hope you are all looking forward to a weekend filled with plenty of reading. I'll be catching up on my NY Times and deciding which book to read next. And I will also be catching up in my Google Reader!

Commentary: This Book is Overdue by Marilyn Johnson

2011-02-07T05:00:00.000-08:00

I have a confession to make. I have a major crush on my library. My mom started taking me to the library before I could read. I have a million fond memories of weekly trips to the library with my mom. I started out with picture books and graduated to chapter books. By the time I was in junior high I was all over the library and checking out books on as many subjects as I could get my hands on. In high school I was too "cool" to be seen in the library at my school but not too cool to hang out on a regular basis at my local library branch. As an adult I am still hugely in love with my library. I don't let more than a few weeks go by without a trip to the library to cruise around and look for new books to read. And if the library is my love, I am a loyal partner. I still go to the same library I've been going to most of my life. I have a library less than a mile from my house but still drive 20 minutes to go to the library where I've spent so many precious hours as a kid. So imagine how excited I was when Trish Collins from TLC Book Tours invited me to participate in the book tour for This Book is Overdue - How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save us All by Marilyn Johnson. This book is a love letter to libraries and librarians everywhere and I enjoyed the heck out of it.

Ms. Johnson's book celebrates libraries and librarians everywhere and details a library landscape that is undergoing a major transformation. The library isn't just for books anymore. Now you can check out music CDs, eBooks, go to an author reading, check out magazines, "rent" DVDs for free, and meet members of your community. And forget those old card catalogs, it's all digital now. The library is a "wired" place where you can surf the internet and check out a stack of books all at once thanks to RFID technology. Librarians are getting younger and they are tech savvy. The librarians of the future will be part IT part librarian, according to Ms. Johnson.

There are great examples in the book of how libraries are using technology to morph the services they offer their patrons. Ms. Johnson does a great job highlighting how libraries are changing. She also befriended many librarians and has great inside scoop type stories that make the book fun to read. For instance, did you know that people poop (and not in the bathroom) in the library? Okay, I know that sounds crazy, but it's true and it happens all over the country. I know it is a bit of a salacious factoid for me to bring forward but it really blew me away that people would do that.

In their "spare" time, librarians are fierce protectors of our constitutional right to privacy. When the Patriot Act passed, librarians everywhere were up in arms. They don't want to get a knock on their door from the FBI and have to cough up your check out records and they are willing to lawyer up and refuse to do it, all in the name of freedom. The book details the case of 4 librarians, dubbed the Connecticut Four who fought back against a request to release computer records identifying someone who had used the library internet. You have to read the book to find out what a hopelessly convoluted situation they found themselves in. The story of these 4 brave librarians will make you stand up and respect your librarian even more than you might already.

If you have a love affair with your library like I do, you will love this book. If you are not a regular library patron, this book will inspire a whole new respect for your local library and the lady or man who sits behind the desk there. For more information on the author you can visit her website. She can also be found on Twitter. Please also visit the tour page. There are a whole list of other bloggers who have already or will soon review this book. There are so many angles you can take in discussing this book and I can't wait to see what everyone else will have to say.

Review: Half in Love by Linda Gray Sexton

2011-01-30T11:27:00.000-08:00

When I was approached by TLC book tours to participate in the book tour for Half in Love by Linda Gray Sexton I jumped at the chance. The book is a memoir of the author's childhood and young adulthood spent with her mother, the Pulitzer prize winning poet, Anne Sexton. Her mother committed suicide when the author was in her early twenties but only after numerous attempts prior to this and a series of hospitalizations for depression and other mental illness. This book explains how her mother's suicide became a legacy that she passed down to the author. The author vowed never to put her own children through what her mother had put her through but that is exactly what she ended up doing. I had to understand why and so the book for me was a way to satisfy my own curiosity and also a way for me to gain a greater understanding about suicide. Consider these statistics that the author lists in her book:

In the United States someone commits suicide every seventeen minutes.

Nearly one million people worldwide take their own lives annually

There is twice as much suicide in America as there is homicide

Ninety percent of the people who commit suicide suffer from a mental illness, such as major depression or bipolar disorder.

Fourteen million Americans suffer from a major depressive disorder each year, and 730,000 of them make a suicide attempt.

Because suicide is so prevalent it only makes sense for us to understand it more so we can work to prevent it. In my own life I have known two people who committed suicide. They were both boys that I went to high school with. My uncle also tried to commit suicide but was unsuccessful (luckily) and a lady who worked for me had a brother who committed suicide. For these reasons I went into the book with more than a little curiosity about the subject. The author holds nothing back in her book. The memories she shares are honest and painful. Her insights into what her mother was going through must come from her own struggles but she describes them so poetically. It makes the book a beautifully disturbing read.

"When my mother took an overdose, Death came into the room and stood at the foot of her bed. When my father, or my Nana, or her best friend, took her to the hospital, Death waited on the threshold and watched for his opportunity. Sometimes Death lived at our house, slithering between the big bottles of her sleeping pills and tranquilizers, twining around the packs of cigarettes and bottles of booze. Death was the itinerant salesman, always knocking on our green front door. My mother never failed to let him in." This passage really made me wonder what it must have been like to grow up surrounded by the spector of Death. In another passage she says "With my mother it was different: the possibility of her death lived in every breath I took." How in the world would any child be able to grow up like this and not be damaged?

Ms. Sexton developed a co-dependent relationship with both of her parents. She describes bartending for her parents. Her parents would drink and fight. The fights would often end in physical violence with her father hitting her mother. She and her sister would huddle upstairs to listen and wait to see if they would need to intervene by calling the police. The household was completely chaotic and no one ever sat her and her sister down and explained what was wrong with her mother and no one seems to have thrown them much of a lifeline. Hard to believe then that by middle school Ms. Sexton idolized her mother but this is how co-dependency can work.

When Ms. Sexton marries and has children she vows to herself to never put them through what her mother put her and her sister through. She tries to be the perfect wife. She works hard at being a writer and makes sure to put a wonderful meal on the table each night. Unfortunately the same demons that chased her mother are chasing her and it isn't long before she succumbs to depression and mental illness. She attempts suicide several times but unlike her mother is able to get help and pull herself back from the brink. This memoir is gut wrenching to read. She describes her suicide attempts, right down to how the razor blade felt as she ran it down her wrists to cut herself. But this book is so important because it shines a light on a subject that is still taboo. By sharing the most private moments of her and her family's life she gives voice to something that needs to be heard, to be examined, to be understood.

Please read the book and visit the author's website. There is some great information up there and also some wonderful photos of her writing cottage where she works as well as her garden. It is rare for an author to share so much but by doing so I am sure she heals herself more and more each day. It is life affirming to see her website and know that she is alive and well.

To read the other reviews of this book on the TLC Book Tour, please visit the tour page. I will be interested to hear what others take from this book and interested in any comments any of you have about this.

The Death Instinct by Jed Rubenfeld

2011-01-25T05:00:00.000-08:00

Thanks to TLC Book Tours I was given the opportunity to read and review The Death Instinct by Jed Rubenfeld. The Death Instinct is a book that is hard for me to classify. It is part mystery, part thriller, part historical fiction but all parts enjoyable!

The book opens in 1920 in New York City with a bombing (based on actual events) on Wall Street. By a random coincidence, Detective James Littlemore and his friend Dr. Stratham Younger find themselves on Wall Street on the morning of the bombing. Dr. Younger is accompanied by his love interest, Colette Rousseau who seems to have some kind of connection to the tragic events. The book moves forward in time with Littlemore on the trail of whoever is responsible for the bombing while Younger and Rousseau deal with her being kidnapped and then pursued by some very nefarious characters. How all of these events and circumstances are tied together leaves the reader wondering and certainly held my interest throughout.

The book moves backward in time to World War I and Ms. Rousseau's back story, including how she became acquainted with Dr. Younger. Along the way we are treated by the inclusion of such characters as Sigmund Freud who happens to be Dr. Younger's friend and is called in to help figure out why Ms. Rousseau's little brother doesn't speak. We also learn that Ms. Rousseau was a protege of Madame Curie. So amidst a romping good story we also get a lot of interesting factoids about psychoanalysis, repressed memory, and radiology as well as some riveting World War I battle scenes.

In real life the mystery of who bombed Wall Street was never solved but in the story Mr. Rubenfeld offers a plausible explanation for what might have happened. He manages to take real life events and embellish them with interesting characters and plenty of action to keep the reader engaged. This book will appeal to those that enjoy historical fiction mysteries. The story is fast paced enough so you could enjoy this book on an airplane trip but complex enough to enjoy anytime.

This is Mr. Rubenfeld's second book. The first, The Interpretation of Murder also featured the characters of Littlemore and Younger. I will definitely plan to read this first novel and any others that Mr. Rubenfeld has in store for us in the future. On a side note, I discovered quite by accident that Mr. Rubenfeld is married to Amy Chua author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, the book which has provoked such lively discussion lately in the media. While it isn't at all germane to the discussion of The Death Instinct, I just thought I would include that fact as an interesting bit of trivia. According to the book jacket, Mr. Rubenfeld is "a professor at Yale University Law School and one of the country's foremost experts on constitutional law. He wrote his undergraduate thesis at Princeton University on Sigmund Freud."

Please visit the TLC Book Tours page for a schedule of the other blog stops on the tour. I'm quite sure this book will inspire a variety of opinions which I look forward to reading, along with you. For those of you interested in reading the book, the publication date was January 20, 2011. The book is published by Riverhead Books and is available in hardcover. I was lucky enough to receive an uncorrected proof for review from TLC.

Reality is Broken by Jane McGonigal

2011-01-19T12:00:00.000-08:00

Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better And How They Can Change the World by Jane McGonigal is a book that was not even on my radar screen. If you had asked me a month ago if I would have even been interested in the book's subject, I would have said NO. But when I was approached to be part of the book tour and actually read the summary about the book I was instantly compelled. I've seen my teenage son be riveted by his video games and become quite animated when he's talking to me about them. Of course as a voracious reader I'd much prefer he be excited about a book but you can't have everything, can you? In any case I was fascinated to learn how games could be beneficial to society. I've also thought of my son's playing video games as detrimental to him and never considered any other point of view. Jane McGonigal's book has absolutely floored me in the best possible way. My whole opinion of games and gaming has been flipped on it's head.

Check out the following staggering statistics that are in the book and then tell me that any of us can afford to ignore the potential of the gaming community and games in general:

"Hundreds of millions of people worldwide are opting out of reality for larger and larger chunks of time. In the United States alone, there are 183 million active gamers (individuals who, in surveys, report that they play computer or video games "regularly" - on average, thirteen hours a week). Globally, the online gamer community - including console, PC, and mobile phone gaming - counts more than 4 million games in the Middle East, 10 million in Russia, 105 million in India, 10 million in Vietnam, 10 million in Mexico, 13 million in Central and South America, 15 million in Australia, 17 million in South Korea, 100 million in Europe, and 200 million in China." I must have read this paragraph 20 times. I kept thinking I had to be reading it wrong. I couldn't imagine this many people being active games but the statistics are there and show how pervasive this pasttime is on a global scale.

In the book, the author poses the question, "What if we decided to use everything we know about game design to fix what's wrong with reality? What if we started to live our real lives like games, lead our real businesses and communities like game designers, and think about solving real-world problems like computer and video game theorists?" Rather than fight against the propensity for people to enjoy games, why not work with that and harness that power and energy for the greater good? Ms. McGonigal does a wonderful job of convincing me that it could really happen. We could really solve problems through games.

If you are skeptical, please read the book. If you are already a gamer and believe in the power of games, read the book and find out how what you are doing could become even more powerful. There are many examples of how games have already been utilized to do some really cool things. For instance, who can't get excited about helping with world hunger? Free Rice is a game that asks you to answer some multiple choice vocabulary questions. If you get the answer right you earn virtual grains of rice. Those grains of rice are then converted into real rice that is donated to the United Nations Food Programme. So people who love games are happy to play and see how many answers they can get right. Earning those virtual grains of rice are like points and who doesn't want to earn points or win prizes, even if they are virtual? Advertisers donate the money to buy the rice. They pay for ads that appear on each of the quiz pages. So who knew that a virtual game could help solve world hunger? This is just one way that our propensity for playing games has been put to good use.

There are so many great examples in the book about how the power of gaming has already been used for the betterment of society or to help solve a specific problem. You will be blown away by some of the uses of games that you have probably never heard of before. The author made the whole subject so accessible for me. I felt like she was in the room talking to me and sharing all of her knowledge on the subject. Consider this, according to McGonigal "by age 21 the average young American has spent ten thousand hours playing computer and video games. This is the same amount of time an average American student spends in the classroom from fifth grade and high school graduation." Why not harness all of that time, all of that power for something good?

The publisher of Reality is Broken has been kind enough to offer a giveaway that is open to all of my readers that reside in the U.S and Canada. To enter to win a copy of the book, simply leave a comment with your email address. I will pick one winner at random and notify you via email. If you don't respond within 48 hours to my email notification, I will pick another winner. Good luck everyone!

Thank you to TLC Book Tours for offering me this book for review. Please go and visit their website to read all of the other reviews of this book. I'm quite sure there will be many interesting opinions about this one. I'm only the second stop on the tour so I'm looking forward to reading what everyone else has to say too!

Finally...Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

2011-01-11T09:38:00.000-08:00

I’ve been promising a review or at least some commentary about Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver and now I have finally gotten around to it. I read this book while in Hawaii during the Thanksgiving holidays so it has been almost 2 months since I finished it. I was so moved by the book that I really wish I would have written my review immediately but I was on holiday and too busy in the sun having fun to make it a priority. The effect that the book had on me has certainly faded but it still continues to come to mind on an almost daily basis.

Have you ever wanted to re-do something in your life? I know after my divorce I used to wish I had never met my ex-husband, let alone married him. I used to play the “what if” game and imagine my life without that one really monumental mistake. But I never wanted to undo it since my son was born from that relationship and he is the most precious thing in the world to me. So if I undid one thing bad I had to realize that I would undo something really good. And that is how life is, I think. If we make a step one way that causes us pain it only means that we gain something from it, even though we don’t always know what that might be. I had a friend who was killed on a business trip. He got on the subway in Boston with some other work colleagues and ended up being the victim of a random shooting. I used to think how different things would have turned out if he had only taken a cab instead of that damn subway or if instead of staying overnight on a Saturday to save the company money, he would have just come home. But after reading Before I Fall I have to wonder if making a different decision would have saved his life but caused all kinds of other bad stuff to happen. Anyway, this is the kind of thoughts you will have if you read this book. Forget the fact that it is a YA novel and focuses on a teenage girl and her “mean girl” friends. This is a book that will make you question your own life and how you live each day and for that reason I can highly recommend it, even if you don’t usually read YA.

Samantha Kingston is the quintessential mean girl. She hangs out with 3 other girls that are even meaner than her. She goes through life, saying and doing whatever she wants. Her and her friends rule the school and sit at the top of the social ladder. They belittle and demean anyone who isn’t in their group and never have any qualms about it. It is hard to sympathize with her but when she gets in a car with her friends after a party and dies, you do think of what a waste it is for a young woman to die before she realizes that she can be a much better person. When Samantha wakes up in the morning after the accident it is the same day all over again and she still seems to be alive. She ends up being trapped in a cycle of repeating the last day of her life over and over again. Once she gets past her disbelief at the situation she finds herself in, she begins to try and do things differently in order to change her ultimate outcome. She decides she won’t be a mean girl anymore and will be a better person on her last day. Won’t changing who she is and the decisions she made change the outcome? You’ll have to read the book to find out. But on her journey to change the outcome she goes over every detail of that day and thinks about how to live it better and ends up reliving it multiple times with the outcome changing in surprising ways.

Don’t be afraid to pick this one up. I’m a middle aged woman whose high school years are long in the past and this book spoke to me in more way than one. I'm pretty confident it will do the same for you if you give it a try. And if you know a teenage girl, run to the bookstore to get this one for her!

Sometimes you Need to Read a Fairy Tale

2011-01-05T11:04:00.000-08:00

Happy 2011 Everyone!

I can't believe it is the beginning of a new year and this is my first post. I had good intentions to post sooner but sometimes life gets in the way. We all make excuses but if I share an average day of mine with you maybe you will be able to cut me some much needed slack? Yesterday I woke up at 5AM, got ready for work, commuted to work for 1+ hour, worked all day and had lunch at my desk, left at 5PM to go to my son's basketball game, got there at 6:15PM, got home at 9PM, cooked dinner, cleaned up, and fell into bed exhausted at 11PM just to start it all over again this morning! Today is better since there is no game and I can have some free time tonight for reading. In any case I know we all hate excuses but thought I'd give mine anyway! My philosophy is to read when I can and not be too hard on myself. I know you are all really busy too and appreciate you faithfully reading my blog when you probably have much better things to do!

Over the holidays I was feeling stressed and was way behind with EVERYTHING. I wanted to read A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens and started to but just couldn't stay focused on it so I read a fairy tale instead! I actually went to the library and got a really lovely book by Trina Schart Hyman, The Sleeping Beauty. I had to dig around the children's section to find it but I am so glad I did. As you can see from the photo the illustrations are simply beautiful and the retelling of the old, familiar tale is so good. I felt so much calmer after reading the book. Maybe I was reconnecting to my childhood or maybe just taking a few minutes to savor a lovely book brought me peace. In any case, I highly recommend the book whether or not you are stressed! One of you fellow bloggers recommended this book and author some time ago. I wish I could remember which one. If it was you, please let me know!

Hope you all have a great week. I'll be back here again soon!

Happy New Year

2010-12-30T14:43:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all enjoy a safe and peaceful holiday. I'll be staying close to home this year and getting my thoughts together for the things I hope to accomplish in 2011. I don't make formal resolutions but do spend several days around the holiday reflecting on the prior year and making plans for the new year. I'll be back in a few days with a review, some reading news on books I am reviewing for some upcoming book tours, and some thoughts on where I want my blog and my reading to take me this coming year.

Thank you to all of my loyal readers who keep sticking around even when my posts are dismally infrequent!

Some Sunshine for a Cold Winter day

2010-12-19T16:27:00.000-08:00

Happy Sunday everyone. I've been busy getting ready for the holidays. I started the week out reading quite a bit but ended with a book reading wimper. I ploughed through about 10 magazines this morning but couldn't seem to focus on my book, A Tale of Two Cities. Tis the time of year to be distracted, I guess. I thought I'd share some pictures of my recent trip to Hawaii with all of you. Hopefully the sunny pictures will have you dreaming of warm places and escaping the cold weather where you are. I'm dreaming of going back again already!
Doesn't it seem a bit weird that I was in a sundress and bathing suit, posing in front of a Christmas tree? It sure seemed strange to me, but I loved it!

This is me at Luana Hills Country Club in the middle of our golf game. Luana Hills is referred to as "Jurassic Park" by locals because the foliage around the course looks a lot like what you might remember from the movie. I wish I could have captured the expansive beauty of the place but my cheap little digital camera just couldn't do it justice.Me and my sweetie Tom at Ko'Olau golf club enjoying another round of golf. It had rained 3 inches the night before we played so the course was very, very wet. We were just about the only people out on the course and that suited us just fine.

One of many beautiful sunsets we enjoyed while we were in Hawaii. I don't care how many of these I have the privilege to see, I never get sick of them.

While in Hawaii we did very little. We golfed two days and other than that we just layed around at the beach or hotel pool. I read a lot of newspapers on my Kindle and read one book. It was nice to do nothing for a change.

Hope you all enjoyed a brief glimpse into my personal life and the pictures of me. Now you have a face to put to "Boarding in my Forties". I'll be back in a few days with more a more bookish post!

Some Bookish News

2010-12-14T21:09:00.000-08:00

I had good intentions this past weekend, I really did. I was going to get several blog posts written and one of them was going to include a few photos from my recent trip to Hawaii. Well unfortunately other things came up and I just didn't get around to meeting my goals. So pictures from Hawaii and a review of Before I Fall by Lauren Olivier are still on their way. In the meantime I wanted to share some news about a few recent book acquisitions with you.

I won a copy of My Lost Daughter by Nancy Taylor Rosenberg from Stacy over at A Novel Source. I was so excited to go to my P.O. Box recently and find a thick package that looked, felt like and turned out to be a book! When you get a chance check out Stacy's blog. I never miss reading it and was really excited to have won the book. The novel is a legal thriller and will be the perfect way to pass time on a cold winter's night.

I jumped on the Oprah book club bandwagon and purchased A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. I've never read A Tale of Two Cities and have always wanted to. I started it at lunch today and am so far at least, enjoying it. Great Expectations will be a reread for me. I enjoyed it the first time I read it and will be interested to see what my older self might think of it now. I've always wanted to participate in one of these mass group reads. There are weekly emails from Oprah.com that will send material, food for thought, discussion questions, etc on the books so reading them at the same time as Oprah has distinct advantages. When Oprah announced her latest book club selection she confessed to never having read Dickens before. It just goes to show you that there are so many books that it is impossible to have read everything, even when you are Oprah...ha!

Last but not least I purchased The House at Riverton by Kate Morton during a recent bookstore outing. I've heard so many good things about this one and am really looking forward to reading it in the future. I don't buy many books these days but this one proved irresistable for me. A story about an aristocratic family and a mysterious death that changes everyone's life forever has gotten rave reviews. I'm looking forward to seeing what I will think about it.

And one last thing to share with all of you. My teenage son who is not known for being much of a book reader was recently inspired to read after seeing a movie. He stayed home from school sick one day last week and watched all of the Lord of the Rings movies which inspired him to want to read the books. He was frantic by the time I got home because he couldn't find our copy of The Fellowship of the Rings and didn't want to start out of order with The Two Towers. I made a special trip to the library with him yesterday to get him the book. He brought it home and STILL hasn't opened it. Any of you that currently have or have had teenagers in the past will probably SIGH right along with me on this one. I don't plan to say anything but hope that he will get inspired again and actually open the book. I sure hope he doesn't have to get sick again in order to feel like reading. I keep hoping someday he will be more of a reader, I certainly raised him to be one.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend and a good start to your week. I look forward to sharing more with you in the next few days.

Happy Reading!

I Did Come Home

2010-12-10T12:24:00.000-08:00

Happy Friday everyone! I did make it back from Hawaii last weekend but between work and running my son all over town to his basketball games I have not had any time to write. I'm hoping to write a few posts this weekend, one of which will be my thoughts on Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver. This was the one book I started and actually finished on my Hawaii trip and it left me sobbing in my bed early one morning. So suffice it to say, I've got some thoughts to share with you. I also hope to get the pictures out of my sweetie's camera so I can upload a few of my favorite shots to share with you from our trip. I might even come out from behind the curtain and share one or two of me (we'll see). In the meantime, I have managed to get up to December 3rd in my Reader. I entertained the notion of "marking all as read" but I just couldn't do it. I don't want to miss out on anything that happened while I was gone. What if I don't read about that ONE book that would knock my socks off if I read it? I'm commenting on as many of your posts as I can but I'm sure I'll end up having to read more than I comment on. Bear with me as I get caught up!

Hope you are all looking forward to a wonderful weekend. I'm gearing up for the holidays this weekend (finally) by putting up the tree. My son has been bugging me all week so I really need to do it. I can't wait to get excited for the upcoming holiday and to read more this weekend than I've had a chance to do lately.

Thanksgiving in Hawaii

2010-11-24T09:00:00.000-08:00

I am blessed to be able to spend Thanksgiving in Hawaii this year. I'll be gone for 10 days and will be unplugged as much as possible but will get by to see as many of you as I can while I am gone. My blog will be mostly quiet unless I get ambitious and post the odd photo or two or maybe a reading update. I'm hoping to get quite a few books read but am happy to also sit and do nothing for a good part of the time. Sometimes doing nothing but staring at a beautiful sunset is good for the soul. I'll be back in action in time to wrap up my reading for 2010, set reading goals for 2011 and to start getting into the holiday spirit.

Aloha!

Film School - Mutiny on the Bounty

2010-11-22T12:02:00.000-08:00

Happy Monday everyone. I'm happy to report that my son and I finally had time to watch the next film in our Film School series. If you are new to my blog, my teenage son and I are watching each of the Academy Award winning Best Pictures films together. Along the way we are having great conversations and learning a lot about life and each other in the process. This time we watched the 1935 Best Picture winner, Mutiny on the Bounty. Like each of the other films we have seen so far, this one was also based on a work of literature. I love getting to tell my son that as it reinforces the value of literature which can be a bit lost on young people who spend half of their time texting, perusing pages on Facebook, or watching videos on You Tube. The film is actually based on a trilogy of novels by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall. The books are Mutiny on the Bounty, Men Against the Sea, and Pitcairn Island. After enjoying the film I'd be interested in at least skimming the three novels. I'll have to see if I can get them at my local library. I can't dare hope that my son might actually want to read one or more of them!

Now, back to the film. Mutiny on the Bounty tells the true story of the H.M.S Bounty that sailed from England in 1789 and never returned. After arriving in Tahiti one of the officers on board, Fletcher Christian (played by Clark Gable) led a mutiny against the captain. The ship's captain (Captain Bligh) was a notoriously cruel captain who seemed to revel in punishing the men aboard his ship. His sadistic nature was only encouraged by the common practice in the British Navy at that time of using corporal punishment to keep the crews on ship in line. After being routinely beaten, starved, and watching many of their colleagues die from the harsh punishments, it didn't take much to push the crew over the edge. What happens after the mutiny is just as interesting as what preceeded it. The destinies of Bligh and Christian were much different than I would have guessed going in to the film.

According to the IMDB website, this film marks the only time in Oscar history that 3 actors were all nominated for Best Actor from the same film. This in fact led to the creation of the category of Best Supporting Actor. Other fun facts from the film according to IMDB:

- Clark Gable had to shave his trademark mustache to play Fletcher Christian but it paid off with him being nominated for Best Actor. I have to say that I found him just as handsome as ever even without the facial hair! What do you think?

- The film had a budget of almost $2 million. That seemed like an awful lot to me but I'm not sure how it compared to other films from the time period.

- The movie was filmed over a 4 month period in all kinds of locations but being a California native I was interested to learn that they filmed parts of it in Monterey Bay and San Francisco.

- Charles Laughton who played Captain Bligh was actually deathly afraid of the ocean and was seasick the whole time they were filming. I think this actually assisted him in coming across as a most unpleasant character.

My son enjoyed the first part of the movie the best. He liked the depiction of the tension leading up to the revolt. He loved seeing Captain Bligh get his comeuppance although it was somewhat short lived. He thought the scenes on the ship seemed pretty realistic given they didn't have the ability to have all of the special effects that they do now. He, like me, thought the scenes on Tahiti were the weakest since none of the native people looked very native for the most part and that bugged him a lot. Given that the story was based on true events you can't really quibble with the plot but they did seem to emphasize the love story plot line for Clark Gable even though it wasn't really one of the more interesting parts of the story overall.

My son continues to re-think his whole attitude about old movies, especially the black and white ones. He said this movie was "cool" and "beast". In case you aren't familiar with the peculiar speech habits of teenagers this translates to "he liked the film and would recommend it to others.

Next up in our Film School is the 1936 Best Picture, The Great Zigfield. It will be interesting to see how we fare with a musical after the swashbuckling adventure we just enjoyed.

Denial by Jessica Stern (Thoughts)

2010-11-18T16:36:00.000-08:00

Jessica Stern is a world-renowned expert on violence, served on the staff of the National Security Council during the Clinton administration, lectures at Harvard, and was the victim of a horrible crime at the age of 15. A few years ago I read her book, Terror in the Name of God - Why Religious Militants Kill. Those of you that read my blog know that I am fascinated by what motivates terrorists and terrorism. I've read a lot of books on the subject of terrorism and this one by Stern is one of my favorites. She interviewed Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and anti-abortion terrorists to find out why they do what they do. She delved into their hearts and minds and tried to identify root causes and motivations. What fascinated me most about the book was how she went to so many dangerous places and interviewed dangerous and evil people and she did it all without seeming to blink in the face of that danger. I remember wondering at the time how a young woman could be so brave and how she could withstand such pressure. Well as it turns out her own trauma resulting from a rape at the age of 15 (her sister was also raped) helps explain how she is able to put herself into such dangerous situations. While she might be greatly disturbed by something as mundane as a ticking clock she will not be at all fazed by meeting with a terrorist. Turns out this sort of thing is not unusual with sufferers of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or people who have been victims of violent crime.

The book Denial is her journey to make peace with her past and to learn the identity of her rapist. With the help of a friend who is a police officer she was able to read the files about her rape and to eventually discover the identity of the man who raped her. Along the way she confronts her father who was overseas when she and her sister were raped and didn't come home for several weeks after the crime. She also is able to talk to many people who knew her rapist, who died before she knew his identity and could have the chance to confront him. She studies him and his motivations much like she would study a terrorist. What she discovers is fascinating and frightening. The book is a powerful look at how denial is both a defense mechanism and also a destructive force in people's lives and in the life of a family. After retracing all of the steps of this incident and coming to terms with how her father handled it the author seems to have found closure.

The subject matter is a difficult one but reading about how this courageous woman came to terms with her past trauma is inspirational and in the end, uplifting.

Thanks for the Books

2010-11-13T21:39:00.000-08:00

Happy Weekend everyone. I've been remiss in participating in Mailbox Monday lately so thought I'd put up a weekend post with my latest acquisitions so I don't forget yet again!

The lovely Alice from Hello, My Name is Alice has sent me 3 Karen E. Olson books in the Tattoo Shop Mystery series. Alice is a wonderful blogger friend and talented writer and photographer. If you don't already read her blog, please go and check it out. Thank you Alice for the books that I won in your giveaway. I'm excited to read them. I can't resist a series with a tattoo artist who solves mystery as the main character.

I also received Sea Escape by Lynn Griffin. Unfortunately I can't find a record of the lovely blogger who sent them to me. If you are reading my blog and you sent me the book, please let me know so I can credit you and send people over to check out your blog. The book jacket says Sea Escape is "an emotional, beautifully imagined story inspired by the author's family letters about the ties that bind mothers and daughters". I love reading stories that explore family relationships so I think I will enjoy this one.

What Would My Forty Something Year Old Self Say?

2010-11-11T13:54:00.000-08:00

Ever look back on some of the reading choices you made when you were younger and cringe? It’s hard to believe now but I actually used to read and enjoy Danielle Steele and Jackie Collins in my early twenties. I’m sure a lot of people still do enjoy these novelists but given that I tend to read much more non-fiction or dark fiction, I can’t imagine that I used to enjoy these light, romantic, and highly predictable books. One of my other favorite authors from this time was Stephen King. He was as delicious to me as candy on Halloween or your first piece of chocolate after a diet. I must have torn through at least ten of his books before I moved on to other things. Recently with the RIP challenge going on I decided to go back and read Stephen King. What would my forty something year old self think of my twenty something year old self’s reading taste? And I also decided that I might begin to read all of his novels in order of their being published. So first up was Carrie, his novel published in 1974. Ironically enough I never read this one as a twenty something; I cheated and saw the movie instead. I suppose that kind of behavior might have been all too typical for my twenty something year old self!

Stephen King originally threw the beginning of Carrie in the garbage. He credits his wife Tabitha, also a writer, with digging it out of the trash and encouraging him to finish it. Well let me just say that I’m darn glad she did. Carrie tells the story of Carrie White, an awkward and socially inept high school senior, who is ridiculed and picked on regularly by her classmates at school. Carrie is being raised by her religious fanatic and probably certifiably insane mother. Unfortunately, Carrie isn’t destined to grow up, get away from her crazy mother, and find her true beauty in college. She has built up a lot of anger at her years of abuse at the hands of her schoolmates and she also just happens to be a Telekentic (she can move things with her mind) and when she gets angry her power is at its most potent levels. I’m sure by now you have guessed that Stephen King has a blast imagining and writing about the havoc that this unique set of circumstances unleashes on a high school, a town, and even Carrie’s mother. The novel could be just a cheap thrill ride with a tragic ending but instead King manages to humanize Carrie and while the circumstances are quite bizarre I think a lot of people can relate to being the kid who doesn’t fit in during high school or the kid who was popular but might not have been particularly kind to the kids who weren’t. When Carrie is invited to the prom by one of the most popular boys in school I wanted to tell her not to go. I wanted to tell her to stay home and plot her escape from her mother and from the small town people who had never given her a chance. Having seen the movie I knew this was the beginning of the end and the thing that would finally push her completely over the edge. Even knowing what was going to happen did not lessen the enjoyment of reading Stephen King at his best with his over the top descriptions and his revelations of his characters’ thoughts as they move through the action sequences.

If you like thriller fiction you will like this one but I think you can also like this one if you are not normally a fan of this genre but would like to read something that can be viewed as a satirical look at high school and the random way some are chosen to be popular and some are not. If you do read it, let my forty something year old self know what you think about it. Next up in my quest to read King in order of publication is Salem’s Lot, yet another of his books made into a movie, this time a mini-series for television. Luckily for me I never saw the movie so will enjoy the story for the first time when I read the book.

Film Club: Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?

2010-11-01T12:10:00.000-07:00

I'm sure many of you thought I feel off the face of the earth! I spent the last several months completely bogged down at the office and while I was reading books and commenting on your blogs, I just wasn't feeling like I wanted to post much on my own blog. Today I thought I'd kick off November with a Film Club post. This time my sweetie, Tom was the one who got to watch with me. And the movie was Whatever Happened to Baby Jane. Tom said it was one of his mother's favorite movies and I must say I have enjoyed it each time I have watched it too. When I was little it used to scare the daylights out of me but in a foreshadowing of my future and life long penchant for scary books and movies, I would watch it anyway!

The movie tells the story of Jane Hudson who was a famous child actress named Baby Jane and her sister Blanche Hudson. Like most child stars Baby Jane became a has been who has had trouble adjusting to life as an adult. Her sister Blanche lived in her shadow when they were children but ended up becoming a successful actress in her own right as an adult. The bitter sibling rivalry and jealousy between sisters comes to a head after Jane is responsible for crippling her sister in a drunk driving accident. The movie captures a period of just a few days in the ladies lives as Blanche tries desperately to get her sister, who is now completely unhinged, some much needed help and Jane continues to unravel before our very eyes. Bette Davis gives a superb performance as Jane Hudson. She is completely convincing as the diabolical, child-like, evil, mentally unstable former child star who seems to revel in torturing her sister in a myriad of ways. She made herself completely ugly in every way to play the part. Joan Crawford plays her sister Blanche and does a good job portraying the long suffering sister who is now confined to a wheel chair and literally confined to her bedroom. Needless to say that all is not what it appears and the dynamic between the two sisters is worth watching the film for. I was curious to see who might have won the Best Actress Academy Award in 1963 (the year the film was released) since Davis' performance was so powerful. Anne Bancroft won for The Miracle Worker, another great performance but hard to see how surpassed Davis' in this film. This was the perfect movie to watch the night before Halloween. And while it didn't scare me like it did when I was younger I did get creeped out...in a good way. Watch this movie if you enjoy a suspenseful, action-packed film with a few twists and turns along the way. If you are a Bette Davis fan you have probably already seen this film but if you haven't run to wherever you get your DVDs from and get this one as soon as possible!

Interestingly enough, as always seems to be the case, the movie was based on book, this time on one by the same name. Whatever Happened to Baby Jane by Henry Farrell was not a bestseller at the time it was written but definitely helped spawn one of the more interesting films from 1963 that I have seen. I've put the book on my list to check out at a future date. I'm sure the book fleshes out the complicated family dynamic better than a short two hour film can do.

In other Film Club news, The Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) was delayed from Netflix. Hopefully we will receive it in the next week or so so my son and I can continue our project. My son will have his driver's license in February and I have a sneaking sensation that he won't be around the house quite as much after that happens!

Hope you are all enjoying a wonderful beginning to your November. In California it is sunny and in the 70's today after rain sprinkles on Saturday. I head to Hawaii in three short weeks and am looking forward to getting some much needed reading time in.

Commentary - Perfection by Julie Metz

2010-10-12T16:55:00.001-07:00

Perfection by Julie Metz is the memoir of a woman, who after losing her husband, discovered that their life together was not what it seemed. When Julie’s husband dies of a heart attack in his early 40’s her family, friends, and neighbors all rally around her and her young daughter. In the midst of her grief at this sudden loss she begins to discover that her husband had a secret life. Because her husband isn’t around to question, she painstakingly reconstructs all she can about his affairs and discovers five different women, including one of their closest friends, who he had relationships with. The book details their courtship, marriage, and what happens after his death as she investigates each of his affairs and makes contact with and confronts each of the women in turn. This book made me really root for the author at times. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for this woman who had to learn all of these things after her husband’s death and deal with grieving her husband and the marriage she never really had plus begin to contemplate her future life as a single mother. But, I also found myself judging her and feeling angry with her for some of her actions. It seemed like she overlooked so much and was in denial when all of the signs of her husband’s infidelity were swirling all around her and she chose to keep her head safely buried in the sand. There were red flags in the beginning of their relationship like the fact that when she met her husband he was at a party with his then girlfriend but asked her out anyway. The old saying, “once a cheater, always a cheater” came to my mind when I read this part of the book but I also know that many people have cheated on past boyfriends and girlfriends but it doesn’t necessarily follow that they will cheat on their spouse. She seemed to spend too much time being angry with all of his mistresses but I understood that she was really redirecting the anger at her husband and the feelings of betrayal he left her with on these women. And while her husband can easily be dismissed as a narcissistic, self-absorbed, serial cheater and liar I thought the author lied to herself as much as her husband lied to her. The other thing that drove me crazy was that she immediately begins pursuing relationships with other men and I thought she would better serve herself and her daughter to deal with her own issues before jumping back into relationships. See what I mean about being judgmental as I was reading this?

However, after reading the complete memoir I realized that it doesn’t matter if I think I would handle something differently than she did. We’ve all made mistakes in relationships and we’ve all had our moments of denial. Her journey to get closure was her own and she could only do it her way. As I finished the book I was realizing how much I appreciated her honesty in the book. She certainly owns some of the bad decisions she made and doesn’t demonize her husband. She sifts through their marriage and manages to find all the good to go along with the bad. The title of the book got me thinking about the impossible standard we sometimes put on ourselves as women; to be perfect wives, mothers, friends, etc. Striving for perfection usually breeds the opposite in our lives and in our relationships as was the case here. I decided to see what else I might be able to find out about the author and discovered the website about the book. On the website Ms. Metz talks about the title of the book,

“The title was partly ironic given the darkness of the first parts of my story. I think women are struggling with this idea of perfection, trying to have it all: perfect bodies, relationships, kids, jobs, houses. The pressure to be perfect creates a lot of misery and shame and I believe it ultimately leads women to make poor choices as they try to hide the parts of themselves or their lives they feel are less than perfect. I wanted to find a way to redefine perfection.”

This quote really summed up my take away from this powerful memoir. If you would enjoy reading about a woman’s personal journey through grief, loss, and infidelity, this book will resonate with you. If you do read the book I would love for you to direct me to your review or email me with your comments. I'd be interested to hear other perspectives on this one.

Film School: It Happened One Night

2010-09-26T21:01:00.003-07:00

It is hard to imagine but I had never seen It Happened One Night before. Today it was almost 100 degrees here in California and I was still recovering from the nasty virus I picked up this week. It seemed the perfect day to stay inside with the air conditioning on and watch movies. And, my son and I have been so busy with work, school, and life that we haven't sat down to watch a movie together in ages. I told him if we don't start watching the Academy Award winning films at a faster pace we won't have our film project done before he heads off to college in 2012. For those of you who are new to this blog, my son and I started a film project where we plan to watch the Academy Award winning films from 1930 to today. Along the way we hope to have lively discussions and learn a bit about film.

I don't know what I expected about this movie. For some reason I thought it was a dramatic movie but instead it was a lighthearted romantic comedy. The movie tells the story of a rebellious heiress named Ellie Andrews. As the movie opens she has just married King Westley without her father's permission. When he takes her to his yacht to hold her against her will and keep her from her husband, she jumps overboard and begins the adventure of a lifetime. On her way to New York to reunite with her husband she meets Peter Warne, played by Clark Gable. Peter just happens to be a newspaper reporter who has just been fired. When he discovers that he has met the story of a lifetime he decides to stick with Ellie and help her make it to New York. Along the way the movie charts a somewhat predictable path with Peter and Ellie starting out by not liking each other and then discovering they are in love. My son was amazed that they showed Claudette Colbert undressing down to her slip. I was surprised, but pleased, that they showed Clark Gable without his shirt off. We both agreed that this movie was definitely a 1930's version of a chick flick. Unlike some of the other films we have watched this one didn't result in a deep philosophical discussion or history lesson but it sure was a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon together.

For those of you hoping to make a connection to literature, you will be happy to know that the movie was based on a short story called Night Bus, written by Samuel Hopkins Adams and originally published in the 1933 Cosmopolitan magazine.

It Happened One Night won every major Academy Award in 1934 including Best Picture, Best Director (Frank Capra), Best Actress (Claudette Colbert) and Best Actor (Clark Gable).

Next up in the film project will be the 1935 Best Picture winner, Mutiny on the Bounty.

Update on His Mother's Son

2010-09-17T10:45:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I posted about my latest read, His Mother's Son by Cai Emmons. I conjectured that the author had gotten her story idea from the true life case of Kip Kinkel, the young man who killed his parents and then went to school and killed two students. His older sister was away at college at the time and much was written about her as the survivor of this tragedy. Well I decided to find the author's email, write her and ask her if she based her book on the case. And guess what? Ms. Emmons graciously emailed me back and confirmed that she got her idea from this case. I just love how a seed of a story can be planted by a current event and then grow into a wonderful book, all at the hands of a talented author like Ms. Emmons. And I also love when authors are accessible like this to their readers. She's got a blog if you are interested in knowing more about her and reading more about her work.

In more bookish news, I am jumping on the Oprah bandwagon again and off to the bookstore to purchase Freedom by Jonathan Franzen. It was already on my list and now I can't resist the urge to buy this most hyped book of late. I normally shy away from books that are the most hyped but after reading some of the reviews of this one, I just can't resist reading a tale of suburban angst! I'm also hoping to pick up Stephen King's first novel, Carrie as well as his second, Salem's Lot. While I am not participating formally in Carl's RIP challenge, I am planning to read a few books that would fit the challenge. Carl's is one of my favorite challenges of the year. I always discover tons of great books from all of the participants. As I listened to Eva's Library Loot vlog this morning she mentioned something about liking to read an author's books in order so as to see how their writing progressed through the years. I always get great ideas from Eva and this is yet another one. I like the idea of doing this with Stephen King as we head into gloomy weather that is perfect for reading scary stories!

We have rain in the forecast here in "sunny" California so I just might get started on Carrie this weekend! Happy Friday everyone.

Review: His Mother's Son by Cai Emmons

2010-09-13T17:09:00.000-07:00

After a long reading drought punctuated by my delving into some pretty heavy nonfiction reads, I found my way to a fiction book that satisfied my incessant need for "heavy"subjects while also allowing me to lose myself in a nice fictional read. His Mother's Son by Cai Emmons is the author's first novel and after reading this one I will be eager to see what she does next.

Jana Thomas is a wife, mother, and an ER doctor. She is also a secret keeper and someone that has a dark and tragic past. She has a new name and a new life but her memories are old and they haunt her. Her son Evan is a bright, inquisitive, precocious, sensitive and energetic child. Jana's brother Varney was much the same growing up and he ended up in prison for doing the unspeakable, killing their parents and well as a few people who got in the way. Jana plows through her days in a constant state of hyper vigilance, worrying over every little thing her son says and does. She is always on the look out for signs that her son is beginning to turn out like her younger brother did. Jana's husband Cooper is a long suffering, supportive man who has no idea of his wife's past. It doesn't take a genius or give anything away to say that it is only a matter of time before Jana's past catches up with her and she is forced to face her demons. Anyone who is a parent will relate to wondering if your child is normal. But in Jana's case this question is one that keeps her up at night.

The author lives in Oregon and was probably influenced by the true story of teenager Kip Kinkel (from Oregon) who killed his parents and then went to school and killed two students and injured 25 others. He came from a normal (by all accounts) home and had an older sister, Kristen who was away at college at the time. While he had been a bit troubled, there was nothing to indicate that he was getting ready to do something so violent. As the only surviving member of the family his sister faced a lot of questions and criticisms about signs that her parents and she must have missed. If you are interested to learn more about this case you can find some pretty interesting information, including an interview with his older sister Kristen on the PBS website.

This book tells the story of what it might have been like for Kip's older sister to grow up and try to hide from her past, start a new life, and then have a son who she would worry over. The premise is interesting and thought-provoking and had me thinking (once again) about family history and how much it can influence our lives.

This book will appeal to those who enjoy a psychological thriller with some domestic drama thrown in for good measure. The other thing I liked about this book, but others may not, was the ending which leaves you (the reader) to imagine how things are finally resolved with Jana and her past and present lives. I found this book on a recent trip to the library and am pleased to now recommend it to all of you.

A Non-Fiction Wrap Up After a Long Absence

2010-09-06T10:46:00.000-07:00

I'm way behind on commenting on all of your blogs but will be caught up soon. I'm also behind in responding to your comments on my blog but will also get to those soon! I've been doing quite a bit of reading but mostly getting caught up with my NY Times again and reading lots of non-fiction. For some reason I've really been in the mood to read about stuff that's real.

In other news I had a tooth pulled last week which ended up being quite the ordeal. I had to go under sedation which left me feeling like crud for a few days after and then the antibiotic made me sick. Needless to say I lost a few days and am very happy to be back and feeling good again! Now that my son has been back in school for two weeks we are slowly getting into the routine so I am feeling a bit less scattered and am getting organized again. My work is going to be super busy between now and the end of October so reading and blogging will be my sanity between now and then. I'm looking forward to a trip to Hawaii in November and can't wait to get off the work "treadmill" for awhile and take a much needed break! In the meantime I will be blogging whenever I can.

Here's a few of the non-fiction reads that have been keeping me busy lately:

The Ground Truth, the Untold Story of America Under Attack on 9/11 by John Farmer
I'm one of those people that has read just about every book written about the 9/11 attacks on America. I am also one of those people who read everything I could get my hands on about Osama Bin Laden, terrorism in general, Afghanistan, etc. etc after the 9/11 attacks. I learned a lot and have committed myself to studying all I can about the subject of terrorism. This particular book was written by the Senior Counsel to the 9/11 Commission. I can't say that it broke any new ground for me. But if you've not read much on the subject of what happened that day and would be interested in a blow by blow description, this is the book for you.
The Cult of the Suicide Bomber
I found this DVD at the library and me and my son watched it. Narrated by Robert Baer, a former CIA agent and self-proclaimed Mideast expert, the DVD traces the roots of the first suicide bomber back to Iran and goes into suicide bombings in Israel and Lebanon. The DVD discusses cultural and religious reasons why young men and now women are willing to give their lives for their cause. If you are looking for some background on this subject as I was, this DVD is a good place to start.
Perfect Soldiers by Terry McDermott
If you've ever wanted to know more about the backgrounds of the 9/11 hijackers, this is probably the quintessential book that has been written up to now. The book isn't able to give extensive information on all of the young men who participated since little is known about some of them. But this book does a good job of tracing the childhoods and young adulthoods of many of them and shows how they went from being college students with religious fervor to the men who flew the airplanes on 9/11 and sacrificed their lives for their "cause".

Patty's Got a Gun by William Graebner
Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area I was very aware of some of our local terrorists like the Weather Underground and the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) who kidnapped Patty Hearst. I've always been fascinated by Patty Hearst's story. How she went from being kidnapped to participating with her radical captors is a subject that I've read everything I can get my hands on. I've talked to my son a lot about this U.S based terrorism since I think it is important for him to understand that there are terrorists in every country and they are NOT all Islamic by religion or cause even though that is the main focus in the media these days.

I spent several hours organizing my book shelves today and realize I have tons to read right here at home. I might have to slow down on my trips to the library and read off my shelves for awhile!

Back to Reality

2010-08-22T21:38:00.000-07:00

This weekend was all about getting ready to go back to reality. My son starts his junior year of high school tomorrow so we were busy buying school clothes, supplies, and getting his hair cut. Tomorrow at 6AM when the alarm goes off I will mark the end of summer. Luckily my son has a great attitude about starting back to school. He's excited to see all of his friends again, some of whom he hasn't seen all summer. He's in a private school so some of his friends live pretty far away and since he doesn't have a car yet, he doesn't get to see them that often. I'm sure his excitement will be short lived once the homework assignments start!

On the book front I was thrilled to go to my post office box and find Coop by Michael Perry that was sent to me by Jenners at Find Your Next Book Here. If you haven't had the chance to check out her blog yet, please do. She has a wicked sense of humor and very eclectic reading taste. I can guarantee you will be smiling after you read her blog.

I also managed to finish a childhood favorite. I guess after my big car break in fiasco I was looking for a comfort read so I choose an old favorite from my childhood, The Luckiest Girl by Beverly Cleary. I think the first time I read the book I was about 10 or 11. The book was published in 1958 so it is the equivalent of Leave it to Beaver in terms of its sensibilities about things. Shelly Latham goes to live with her mother's college roommate and her family. She dates the star basketball player until she realizes the nerdier guy is really her true love. I finished the book in two short sittings and it really cheered me up. The book is utterly ridiculous in so many ways but completely indicative of the time it was written.

When you need a comfort read what do you choose?

Hope you all have a great week. I hope to post about a few nonfiction books I've read in the last couple of weeks. I'm reading a book about Patty Hearst right now. I guess after The Luckiest Girl I was ready for something a bit heavier!

New Acquisitions and a Library Trip That Never Was

2010-08-16T21:24:00.000-07:00

After my eventful weekend I was looking forward to getting off work today and going to the library. I imagined myself walking around the stacks looking at books and taking as much time as I needed to decide what I wanted to bring home with me to read. I knew that being at the library would calm my nerves and get my evening off to a great start. I imagined myself coming home and sitting outside in my comfy chair and starting a new book. Unfortunately I drove to my library only to find the parking lot empty. Apparently they are replacing their RFID technology and were closed all day today. I was deeply disappointed and feeling a bit blue. I called two other libraries in my area hoping they would be open but they are both closed on Mondays. My son suggested we go to the bookstore instead. While I haven't called for an outright ban on book buying I have tried to slow my purchases down quite a bit so I was more than a little reluctant to give in to this impulse. Given what happened over the weekend I decided I could at least go to the bookstore and look and buy a few trade paperbacks. Here's what I ended up buying. I'm happy to say that I took advantage of the buy 2 get 1 free. Now who can resist one book for free??

The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly
Books whispering to a lonely and grief stricken 12 year old boy whose just lost his mother? David finds himself in a world that is full of monsters and heroes all ruled by a king who keeps his secrets in a mysterious book (paraphrased from book jacket). I really couldn't resist the opportunity to lose myself in a fantasy world that sounds deliciously intriguing.

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
I've heard about this author from so many bloggers lately but Ana from Things Mean Alot wrote the review of this author's work that absolutely convinced me to not leave the store without one of her books. Luckily for me the bookstore had one book on their shelves and I think but am not positive that this is the one that Ana told me to read first? There's wizards and witches and girl named Sophie that I think I am going to want to be when I grow up! Again, I can't wait to get lost in a fantasy world right now.

The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs
What happens when a man tries to spend one year of his life following all of the edicts set out in the Bible as literally as possible? The book sounds funny and more than a little irreverent but the book jacket says it will appeal to secular as well as religious people so hopefully I won't find it offensive and can take it for what it is, a lighthearted look at things that some people can take a bit too seriously.

Oxygen by Carol Cassella
A woman doctor loses a patient and faces a professional crisis at the same time her family life is falling apart. This is either going to have me wishing I didn't buy this one or I am going to love this book. I hope it is the latter.

Thanks again to everyone who left such kind comments on my blog yesterday. I failed to say that 4 other cars were broken into so I can't take it personally since it was clearly a random act. My car is safe and sound in the garage tonight so I am feeling much better. Still I can't lie, I am sleeping with one eye open and feeling a bit disillusioned. I'm sure I will process things and feel better in time. I'm determined to read more than ever this week so I can get lost in another world for awhile each night before I go to sleep.

Hope you are all having a good week. If you've read any of these books I'd love to hear from you!

Derailed

2010-08-15T21:23:00.000-07:00

I had every intention of reading my head off this weekend and I was definitely planning to write several posts that I could have in my queue, ready to go. Instead I went to get in my car yesterday and found that my car had been broken in to for the 2nd time in less than two weeks. Less than two weeks ago I left a tote bag picnic bag that my company handed out in my car. I went out to my car in the morning and someone had broken my passenger backseat window and taken the bag. I felt violated and angry but mostly I found it amusing. They grabbed a picnic bag thinking that it was a laptop! I found a mobile glass repair business that came to my office and fixed my window for $125. I was getting ready to go out of town for the weekend, I was in a great mood, and this little pitfall was not going to get me down. This weekend my attitude was decidedly different. This time my Ipod and my satellite radio were stolen out of the glove box. You would think after what happened the first time I would have taken all the valuables out of my car. I was naive enough to think that if they were out of sight they wouldn't bother breaking into my car. And I also naively thought that lightning would never strike twice. Boy was I wrong. This time I was upset, frustrated, and extremely angry and sad. What started out as a beautiful summer day turned into a nightmare. I had to get my window (this time the driver's side window) repaired and face running at the gym without my Ipod, not to mention look forward to my long commute without my favorite tunes playing on the radio. It may sound shallow but these things were really bugging me. I was definitely having a pity party. Luckily for me my sweetie came in like the knight in shining armor he is and made everything better. He arranged to have my window fixed, set me up with a new satellite radio and ordered me a brand new Ipod Touch which I was able to pick up yesterday evening. So what started out as a horrible day ended sweetly with me knowing that my guy is always in my corner no matter what! I don't know what I did in my life to deserve such a wonderful guy but it must have been something good!

The sad thing about all of this is that I live in a nice neighborhood and pay a huge premium to live in a "safe" gated community. I think that is what made things even harder to intellectualize. I'm thinking it might be time to move after the first of the year. To say the universe is trying to tell me something is putting in mildly! So once again I am making excuses instead of posting about books. It's Sunday night and I am finally getting ready to sit down and read awhile. I'm sure you will be hearing from me again soon and next time it will be about books!

I hope you all had a great weekend and are looking forward to a wonderful week!

Yes, I am Still Alive!

2010-08-11T16:28:00.000-07:00

If you are reading this, you haven't given up on me yet! I'm thankful to have such loyal readers who continue to come back time and time again even when my posts are sporadic at best. I have a million excuses for why I have been more silent than not lately:

1. I was on vacation for over a week without internet access and then was away last weekend again.
2. I've been working about 60 hours a week in my Marketing/Advertising job and just don't feel like reading or writing more words when I get home in the evening.
3. I'm in a summer slump!
4. I'm busy spending time with my son before he goes back to school on August 23rd

Etc, etc, etc ad naseum!

I know none of these excuses count for much since we are all busy and have other things we have to, need to, or want to be doing. So thank you for hanging in there with me. I'm really hoping to get a few posts written this weekend so I'll have some in the queue. I realize it is hard to be a loyal follower when nothing shows up in your reader day after day after day.

I have been taking time here and there during my work hours to read all of your blogs and to comment on as many as I can. You all continue to inspire me in a million different ways and for that I am most grateful.

Mailbox Monday

2010-08-01T21:22:00.000-07:00

I finally had a chance to catch up on some things this weekend. I discovered 3 books that came to me in the month of July that I never mentioned here:

The Heart is Not a Size by Beth Kephart
This one came to me from Nicole at Linus' Blanket.
This is a story about friendships and the secrets that can tear them apart. This YA novel looks to be a book that I can read quickly but sounds like one that will have me thinking for a long time. Thank you Nicole for sending this one to me!

Getting a Grip2 - Clarity, Creativity and Courage for the World we Really Want by Frances Moore Lappe
This one was sent to me from the author who has written 18 books including, A Diet for a Small Planet. According to the book jacket the book "challenges us to re-examine outdated assumptions about who we are and how the world works". Thank you Ms. Lappe for sending me your work. I look forward to reading it and offering you my feedback.

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
Thank you Teresa from Shelf Love for sending me this one. This is a real chunkster and will have to wait for the right moment for me to tackle it. I've heard this one is a challenge and I look forward to reading it and seeing what I think about it when the moment is right.

Mailbox Monday is being hosted by Chick Love Lit this month. Check out her blog and all of the other Mailbox Monday participants here.

I Tried, I Really Did!

2010-07-30T14:10:00.000-07:00

When I returned from vacation with 1000+ posts in my Google Reader I was determined to read them all. And I tried, I really did! But after slogging through the pile of posts all week long and commenting on as many as I could, I had to throw in the towel. So I did something that pained me greatly, I marked "all as read". Don't take it personally if I didn't comment as much on your posts these last couple of weeks. I was already behind with things before I left on vacation and things just went downhill from there after I returned. So now I will start fresh this weekend, have a chance to enjoy reading and commenting on all of your latest and greatest blog postings, AND most importantly actually post up some content of my own. After all I'm not just a blog READER, I'm supposed to be a blog WRITER too!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend planned. After camping for 8 days, I'm happy to be home, catching up on laundry and household chores, maybe having a picnic, seeing my newest Great Nephew, and hanging out with my sweetie and my son.

Want to Take a Thrill Ride?

2010-07-28T08:00:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the folks at TLC Book Tours I had the opportunity to read an exciting, suspenseful, interesting, thrilling book about the theft of a Rembrandt that has far reaching consequences for everyone who comes in contact with it. The book is called The Rembrandt Affair by Daniel Silva. And while Mr. Silva has written dozens of books, this was my first experience with his work and I was not disappointed.
Rather than write a review the folks at TLC Book Tours have requested asked those of us participating in the tour to answer a series of questions. So here goes:
If you were to write a blurb in fewer than three sentences for The Rembrandt Affair, what would it be.Take a roller coaster ride through multiple countries and cities as Gabriel Allon, master spy, assassin, and art restorer tracks down a stolen Rembrandt. The painting is not only a masterpiece it was also a bargaining chip that once saved lives and spent others. You'll travel through multiple countries on a thrill ride as you race along with Gabriel in his pursuit of justice.

Gabriel Allon is a talented spy and assassin, but also a master art restorer. If you could have two careers that seem to be complete opposites, what would they be?
I'd be the owner of a bookstore and a detective. I'm not sure that they are complete opposites but I'd love to do both of these jobs so I've picked them anyway.

What three words would you use to describe the character of Gabriel Allon?
Based on my impressions of the character I would say intelligent, brave, and ruthless.
The Rembrandt Affair takes the reader all over the world. Of all the locations mentioned, which would be your ideal vacation spot?
This is such a tough one because I want to go to all of the places that were featured in the book. But if I have to pick one I'd say Lake Geneva in Switzerland. The descriptions in the book are so beautiful and my grandfather was born and raised in Switzerland so I'd love to visit and vacation there one day.

Art theft plays a major role in the novel. If no crime were involved, what piece of art would you like to have in your home?
I could list hundreds of pieces of art that I'd love to own! But again, if I only have to choose one I would say Mary Cassatt, Child in a Straw Hat. When my mom and I went to the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. she told me that the little girl in the painting reminded her of how she looked as a child. So it would be really special for me to have this piece in my home and have a nice memory of my mother.
Zoe Reed is a powerful female character in the novel. Tell us about an influential woman in your life.
I'd have to say my mom for instilling a love of reading in me and encouraging me to be intellectually curious.
Who was your favorite "good guy" in The Rembrandt Affair and why?I'd say that Gabriel Allon is a "good guy" and he was definitely my favorite character in the novel. I'm really looking forward to reading some of Daniel Silva's other books that feature him as the lead character.

All of the technology in the novel is real. Does any of it surprise you?
There is a lot of high tech gadgetry and James Bond style spy stuff in the novel but none if it surprised me or seemed that far fetched.
What celebrity would play Gabriel Allon if The Rembrandt Affair were on the big screen?
I can't think of anyone that would be the perfect Gabriel. When you all read the book you can let me know what you think.

Which fellow book-loving, blogging friend do you think would enjoy The Rembrandt Affair? I'd like to tag Molly at My Cozy Book Nook to receive the book from Putnam. She says she has been "obsessed with art fiction lately" and I think she'd enjoy it.
Thanks again to Lisa Munley and TLC Book Tours for giving me the opportunity to discover another author whose works I look forward to reading more of!

Back to Civilization?

2010-07-24T20:47:00.001-07:00

I'm back from my trip to Burney Falls, California. We (my sweetie and I) had a week of camping and fishing fun. We even snuck in a few rounds of golf at a few local courses. Mostly we just enjoyed the incredibly slow pace and being away from the hustle, bustle, and stress of our everyday lives. I've included a few pictures here. One is of my sweetie. While the weather was close to 100 degrees, the water temperatures are in the low 40's so we both wore our waders to go fishing the last couple of days. And I had to include the picture of my sweetie reading since he rarely, if ever, has a chance to do that at home. You can see the book I was reading, The Rembrandt Affair by Daniel Silva. It was a fast-paced thriller mystery that made it easy to read by the campfire at night. Unfortunately our days were so jam packed with outdoor activities, I never had the chance to read The Passage by Justin Cronin but it is next up in my queue if all goes well this week.
Camping is always good for my soul so I came home today feeling rested and ready for what my work week will bring. And my 16 year old son had a chance to miss me and appreciate his mom while I was away. He'll be leaving on a short summer trip with his dad this week and then we will be resuming our Film Club project. It is amazing how fast the summer is going. I just ordered his textbooks for school today and once school starts on August 23rd my summer is all but over.

I hope you have all had a good week. I came back to over 1000+ items in my Google Reader but have started reading and commenting so hopefully you will be getting a "visit" from me on your blogs really soon. After being unplugged for a week it was really fun to come home last night and start reading all of your wonderful posts!

A Blogging Slump Before Vacation

2010-07-11T21:04:00.001-07:00

I've been reading but just haven't felt like writing about it. I'm not sure why I'm in a writing slump but I just am. I've read several good fiction books and quite a few non-fiction ones that I have enjoyed. My son and I have watched several movies that have inspired us to read books and to research such diverse subjects as artificial intelligence and the Holocaust. My son has two books to read for his summer reading that I might just read along with him. He's set to read Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriett Beecher Stowe and Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin. I'm sure that both of these will have us involved in some interesting discussions. And I'm getting ready to go camping for 8 days. I'm hoping I'll not only get lots of reading done but also get inspired to write some blog posts. I'll be bringing the It book of the summer, The Passage by Justin Cronin. I can't wait to see if I agree with all of the other reviewers out there that have given this one rave reviews. I'll also be finishing The Rembrandt Affair by Daniel Silva which will be hitting stores on July 20th. Stop back by my blog on July 28th for a special post about this book. Thanks to TLC Book Tours for sending me this one to review.

In the meantime, I'll be stopping and visiting your blog as much as possible and leaving comments. And hopefully getting over this writing slump!

Janeology - Does Family History Determine our Destiny?

2010-07-01T17:19:00.000-07:00

We all grow up with the weight of history on us. Our ancestors dwell in the attics of our brains as they do in the spiraling chains of knowledge hidden in every cell of our bodies. ~Shirley Abbott

(quote from the author's latest blog post)

Can you imagine your wife killing your child? How could you cope with the emotional turmoil of losing not only a child but having to come to terms (well really, how could you) that your wife who you love is the one culpable in their death? In the book Janeology by Karen Harrington, Tom Nelson , not only has to cope with all of the above, he also stands accused of “failure to protect” for allowing his wife Jane, who he supposedly should have know was unstable, to continue caring for their children. The book traces his legal fight to clear his name and to uncover why his wife did what she did. His attorney hires a woman who specializes in retrocognition. This psychic ability allows her to touch a person’s belonging and sense all of the emotions and history associated with them. When she studies Jane’s keepsakes from her family she finds much in the family background of Tom’s wife to explain how she became the person she did, a woman who want to kill her own children. I was absolutely fascinated by the family stories as Mariah, the retrocognitionist, unveiled each generation’s dysfunction. The book represented the best of both worlds for me. On the one hand it was a bit of a legal thriller with a fast-paced story line. On the other hand it was a family history which delved into the many interconnections between family members and how decisions that one member of the family make end up affecting future generations.

I believe that family history can become a family’s destiny so the idea that this woman was a product of her family background (even from many generations in the past) rang true to me. It did make me wonder about the family history of people who stand accused of the most heinous acts and how that history becomes rooted in their DNA and affects their behavior. This is a fascinating, if highly speculative field of study. This book, like all good books do, got me thinking and wanting to learn about a diverse number of subjects that relate to the story and the premise of the novel. If I find any good non-fiction books on the subject you can be sure I will be reviewing them here.

I’m so happy I discovered Janeology by reading the author’s blog . I read this book almost all in one sitting on my Kindle. I found myself speeding along, wanting to know what the outcome would be. I won’t spoil the ending but will tell you that it’s ambiguity satisfied me completely. I look forward to future novels by Karen Harrington. If you want to learn more about the author and her book you can check out her blog, Scobberlotch.