My next three

Here are my next three reads, put in order by my eldest son, Strat.

The Drowning Tree by Carol Goodman
I can't remember why I chose this one, other than the fact that I own it, so I assume that I saw it at the Friends of the Library store for extremely cheap (the most I ever pay for a book there is $2 and I really have to want it to pay that steep a price - ha). Strat thought enough of the summary on the back cover to place it first on the list, though. I am about 100 pages in, and so far, so good.

The Secret Lives of Dresses by Erin McKean
I saw this one online and was immediately intrigued. When I saw it at the Friends store, I was shocked and excited! Grandmother-granddaughter relationship, vintage clothing store and histories of the clothing that passes though them all. Can't wait to read this one!

Midwifes by Chris Bohjalian
I am really no fan of Oprah's Book Club because I get the feeling that all of her books should come with a razor blade. This one, however, caught my eye despite this dubious distinction. About a delivery-gone-bad and the subsequent legal actions. Midwives are not commonplace in the south, where belles like to have their babies in a sterile environment, then be served three meals by someone in scrubs while wearing a fashionable Tyvek bracelet. This will be good reading.

And what do all three of these books have in common? They are from my library shelf, all trade paperbacks, and will eventually end up on paperbackswap.com. I am so glad to get rid of my physical books. Not so I can be free of them, but so I will have room for more, of course!

Tuscaloosa by W. Glasgow Phillips

Summary:
On the verge of entering whatever "high society" Tuscaloosa, Alabama, has to offer a young man in 1972, Bill Mitchell falls in love with an inmate at his father's mental institution. Now Bill must either muster the courage to elope with his love or accept a prescribed--but unwelcome--role within the Southern patriarchy.

This book was not a stinker, but it was just a few notches above it. Like a well-dressed, but still white trash, woman. It was clear to me that the author grew in his prose as the book was being written. It went from fairly straight-forward dialogue to the main character developing an idiosyncratic conversational style. See my Shelfari review below for the comparison.

My review: 2 stars
A young man works for his father at a mental institution in Tuscaloosa, AL, taking care of the grounds. He falls in love with one of the patients, his mother runs off with another woman in town to form a biracial-lesbian-Thelma-and-Louise pair, there is a woman in town whom everyone assumes he will marry, and his best friend blows up building and sets police cars on fire.

Sounds intriguing, doesn't it? Well, I have summarized the entire book in the above paragraph. It's a weird little book, short read, with semi-clever dialogue. Speaking of dialogue, it morphs as the story progresses to sound like the narration from an episode of "My Name is Earl".

I probably won't read more by this author. While reading about him, I found that he made a film, short, or some such other media, in which he fought off ninjas with his genitals. Enough said.

A New Nook in the Family

My mom is getting a Nook for her birthday!

Actually, she already has it, but is leaving it in the box and (I guess) will wrap it for her birthday.

She finally broke down and borrowed mine, and she figured out that she was not going to delete everything off of it, or break it in two, or blow it up when she pressed a button.

I am proud of her and can't wait until she gets to use her own. haha

Black Out by Lisa Unger

Summary:

When my mother named me Ophelia, she thought she was being literary. She didn’t realize she was being tragic. On the surface, Annie Powers’s life in a wealthy Floridian suburb is happy and idyllic. Her husband, Gray, loves her fiercely; together, they dote on their beautiful young daughter, Victory. But the bubble surrounding Annie is pricked when she senses that the demons of her past have resurfaced and, to her horror, are now creeping up on her. These are demons she can’t fully recall because of a highly dissociative state that allowed her to forget the tragic and violent episodes of her earlier life as Ophelia March and to start over, under the loving and protective eye of Gray, as Annie Powers. Disturbing events—the appearance of a familiar dark figure on the beach, the mysterious murder of her psychologist—trigger strange and confusing memories for Annie, who realizes she has to quickly piece them together before her past comes to claim her future and her daughter.

My review: 4 stars
Excellent mystery! I was interested in the story until the end, it was neither predictable nor boring. It was full of surprises and intrigue. A murder, a stolen identity, a past you can't escape, your protector is also your husband, a daughter named Victory with some question as to who her father is...I loved the book and will read more by this author.

Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom

Summary:

This true story about the love between a spiritual mentor and his pupil has soared to the bestseller list for many reasons. For starters: it reminds us of the affection and gratitude that many of us still feel for the significant mentors of our past. It also plays out a fantasy many of us have entertained: what would it be like to look those people up again, tell them how much they meant to us, maybe even resume the mentorship? Plus, we meet Morrie Schwartz--a one of a kind professor, whom the author describes as looking like a cross between a biblical prophet and Christmas elf. And finally we are privy to intimate moments of Morrie's final days as he lies dying from a terminal illness. Even on his deathbed, this twinkling-eyed mensch manages to teach us all about living robustly and fully.

My take:

It took me one day to read this book and it was a WOW book. While there are a few things with which is disagree regarding spiritual ideas, but core of this book, if taken to heart, could change a reader for the best.

I liked the layout of the book, first of all. I liked that there was a prologue, then the chapters were numbers based on the number of week it was in their meeting sequence. Then there were short interim parts between the chapters which were written in italics. They either told of a time in the past that would set up the next chapter, highlighted something going on at the time of the next chapter, or it reflected on the next chapter, but at a later time. I liked the writing style very much.

When I was finished with the chapter that detailed the last of Morrie's three interviews with Ted Koppel on Nightline, I decided to put the book down and look for the interviews on YouTube.

There were all three interviews on YouTube, all in one sequential file, in nine parts. It was very moving, touching, funny, sad, poignant. Morrie was so right: Once you know how to die, you know how to live. I think he was very right.

While I am sorry to see someone like Morrie die, it makes me wonder how many other Morries are out there, and what impact they are having on lives around them. On the other hand, and not so optimistic, is the question of how many Morries there are out there who are dying alone, without anyone with whom to share the lessons they have learned throughout their lives.

My review: 5 stars, and listed as a favorite
Wonderful, wonderful. So much to be learned and put into practice from a man who has lived a full life and embarks to make sure he dies a full death. Death really separates the wheat from the chaff of life, and Morrie had much of it down before his diagnosis. After his diagnosis, he simply honed his life more quickly. A great tale of friendship, redemption, life lessons and living with as few regrets as possible. This one will stay on my shelf, ready to be read again and again.

Winter Reading Challenge!

As most of you know, I participated in a summer reading challenge on my Bibliophile book group through Shelfari. It was very excellent and proved to be surprisingly motivating. the core challenge totaled seven books, and there were six mini-challenges, making the total thirteen books. That's a pretty good pace for three months.

And speaking of pace, I have hit my reading stride nicely, I think. I am watching much less television and really concentrating on my reading list. It is very nice to read so quickly and have the satisfaction of seeing that TBR list dwindle. Well, at least a little. I continue to add books faster than I am able to cross them off!

In reviewing the challenge page on Bibliophile today, I noticed that the leader of the challenge is planning on a winter challenge, too! I was so happy to read this!I almost think that I need to start a list of books in the order that I want to read them, but then I start feeling boxed in. And, while I love my  lists, that may be one that I don't really enjoy. I am very excited about another challenge!

Winkie by Clifford Chase

Summary:

In Cliff Chase's scathingly funny and surprisingly humane debut novel, the zeitgeist assumes the form of a one-foot-tall ursine Everyman — a mild-mannered teddy bear named Winkie who finds himself on the wrong side of America's war on terror. After suffering decades of neglect from the children who've forgotten him, Winkie summons the courage to take charge of his fate, so he hops off the shelf, jumps out the window, and takes to the forest. But just as he is discovering the joys and wonders of mobility, Winkie gets trapped in the jaws of a society gone rabid with fear and paranoia.

Having come upon the cabin of the mad professor who stole his beloved, Winkie is suddenly surrounded by the FBI, who instantly conclude that he is the evil mastermind behind dozens of terrorist attacks that have been traced to the forest. Terrified and confused, Winkie is brought to trial, where the prosecution attempts to seal the little bear's fate by interviewing witnesses from the trials of Galileo, Socrates, John Scopes, and Oscar Wilde. Emotionally gripping and intellectually compelling, Winkie exposes the absurdities of our age and explores what it means to be human in an increasingly barbaric world.

My take: 2 stars
The summary above is overly generous. "Scathingly funny": Not even close. More like "Nails-on-a-blackboard irritating". This part is true: "trapped in the jaws of a society gone rabid with fear and paranoia." The only piece I wrote down from this book was when the prosecutor was interviewing an army general on the witness stand:

"...they are nothing less than an army of supercombatants, trained to maim and kill." The general revealed his next chart. "And created, we believe, by a scientific process we don't yet understand, but which might well involve the use of stolen children, combined with DNA from a local animal, such as a snake or rodent or, just as likely, a drug-resistant micro-organism, such as smallpox or anthrax."

So, this is a fine statement on the way things are quickly becoming, with all reason going out the window when the media gets hold of the next big threat. Take swine flu, for example. Swine flu is no worse than the regular flu, which kills immuno-compromised people each year. However, there was a HUGE media campaign to the point of hysteria about it. Totally uncalled for.

While I appreciate the author's over-the-top examples of societal maladies, they were a bit tooooo over-the-top for me. I wanted to slap silly the defense attorney, then shake him by the shoulders until his head rolled off onto the floor. I wanted to put the prosecutor through a tree shredder. I wanted to take the judge and ram that gavel right up his robed rectum.

In short, I hated everyone. Winkie was okay, but let's face it: he's a teddy bear. Who can hate a teddy bear?
I am glad this one is over and I plan to never read another by this author.

The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards

Summary:

Kim Edwards’ stunning family drama evokes the spirit of Sue Miller and Alice Sebold, articulating every mother’s silent fear: what would happen if you lost your child and she grew up without you? In 1964, when a blizzard forces Dr. David Henry to deliver his own twins, he immediately recognizes that one of them has Down Syndrome and makes a split-second decision that will haunt all their lives forever. He asks his nurse to take the baby away to an institution and to keep her birth a secret. Instead, she disappears into another city to raise the child as her own. Compulsively readable and deeply moving, The Memory Keeper’s Daughter is an astonishing tale of redemptive love.

My review: 3 stars
This was a bit heart-wrenching in that it probably really happened in the 1960s and before. Children with Downs Syndrome were often just thrown away, whereas now they are simply aborted. It is a strong statement in the book that, in our desire to create perfect lives, we so very often rid ourselves of the things that would make them that way. The struggles in the family that gave up the child, as well as the struggles of the family that raised her, were very real. However, there was a bit of, what I felt was, contrived struggle (like the affairs) and some things that were just ridiculous (like a 25 year old having gray hair). Other than those very few things, it was a fairly good book.

From Wikipedia: A made-for-television movie premiered on Lifetime Television on April 12, 2008. The film's cast includes Dermot Mulroney as David, Gretchen Mol as Norah, and Emily Watson as Caroline. The adolescent and adult Phoebe is played by Krystal Hope Nausbaum, an actress with Down syndrome. The movie dispenses with characters Doro and her father Leo as well as Rosemary and her son Jack.

Books used in old Hanes stockings ads

 

The copy says, "You can read about women who are unforgettable, disarming and a not-so-quiet sensation, or become one by wearing new MYSTRECE. If you dipped your legs in liquid chiffon you'd get the fit, the look, the utter cling of MYSTRECE. And for pennies more you get that Hanes exclusive: No run can grow past the nude heel and demo toe.

I love this angle in the advertising! I wonder how many pairs of hosiery it sold!

John Carter of Mars by Edgar Rice Burrows

When I went to see the new Rise of the Planet of the Apes movie, I saw a trailer for a future movie titled John Carter. What an odd title for a movie, especially since it's not based on a historical character like Rob Roy, Ali, Ray, Che, or Bobby. This made me wonder: who IS John Carter?


As it turns out, it's a sci-fi series written by Edgar Rice Burrows. Does that name sound familiar? It should! He is the author who developed Tarzan.

John Carter is a series based on what Burrow called "Barsoom", his vision of a dying Mars.

A tidy summary from Wikipedia:
A Princess of Mars, the first novel in the Barsoom series, is a stand alone piece. However it connects with the following two novels, The Gods of Mars and The Warlord of Mars, to form a trilogy (although there is a ten-year gap between the first and second). The trilogy focuses on Earthman John Carter and Martian princess, Dejah Thoris, with Green Martian Tars Tarkas making frequent appearances. John Carter and Dejah Thoris's son, Carthoris is also introduced as a minor character in The Gods of Mars, as is Thuvia.

While John Carter appears in many of the Barsoom series, he does not make it to all eleven of the books.

All-in-all, I don't think I would be interested in seeing the movie, which stars no one with whom I am familiar except Willem Defoe and Thomas Haden Church. This movie summarizes the first book, the stand-alone novel Princess of Mars. However, I will probably read it. The fact that it was published in 1912 makes it all the more intriguing.

As a side-note, Princess of Mars was made into a movie in 2009, starring Antonia Sebato Jr. as John Carter and (of all people) Traci Lords as Princess Dejah Thoris. I suspect this new one (can I call it a remake if only two years have passed?) will be quite a bit lower key, with the absence of a notorious porn star.

Green Angel by Alice Hoffman

Summary:

Left on her own when her family dies in a terrible disaster, fifteen-year-old Green is haunted by loss and by the past. Struggling to survive physically and emotionally in a place where nothing seems to grow and ashes are everywhere, Green retreats into the ruined realm of her garden. But in destroying her feelings, she also begins to destroy herself, erasing the girl she'd once been as she inks darkness into her skin. It is only through a series of mysterious encounters that Green can relearn the lessons of love and begin to heal enough to tell her story.

My review: 3 stars
Really fast little book to read. It was surprisingly enchanting for me. I liked the symbolism and the external show of internal emotion. I liked the metaphor of loss of oneself in the midst of great grief. I liked the communion of person with nature and animal. There was so much symbolism in this book that is worth a deeper look. On the surface, the coming to grips of a young girl with overwhelming anguish and grief to find her place and rediscover herself was story enough to love.

Movie: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Here is yet another book I have read this month that I find is being tossed around for the big screen. From a 2010 article in The Huffington Post:
Oprah Winfrey is joining with Alan Ball to produce an HBO film based on the nonfiction best-seller "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks."

The network said Wednesday that Ball, creator and executive producer of HBO's drama series "True Blood," will develop the project with Winfrey and her Harpo Films studio.

From Oprah's site:

Harpo Films topper Kate Forte also began chasing the rights in January after reading the book. Once Ball and Forte realized they were going after the same property and had a similar vision for turning it into an HBO movie, it was a no-brainer to join forces.

"Once Alan came aboard, it gave Rebecca the comfort of knowing that she'd found the perfect combination of producers and the perfect home for her story," Forte said.

Now that HBO's deal to option the book is closed, the partners are about to begin recruiting a screenwriter. Winfrey, Forte, Ball and Macoissi will exec produce for Ball's Your Face Goes Here banner and Harpo Films.

Ball and Forte were effusive about how Skloot's book easily lends itself to a screen adaptation. "It's an incredibly visually exciting story," Forte said. "The science of it all is told in an amazing way."

Forte noted that Winfrey read the book in one sitting. "She couldn't put it down," she said.

Ball couldn't say enough about how excited he is to work with Winfrey and Forte on such a significant project. Immortal Life is high on HBO Films' priority list, given the auspices.

"This is going to be a journey that we'll all remember for the rest of our lives," Ball predicted.

Is it just me, or are people STILL making money from Ms. Lacks cells? Maybe they are paying the family this time. It reminds me of a quote I wrote from "Major Pettigrew's Last Stand":

"We are all small-minded people, creeping about the earth grubbing for our own advantage and making the very mistakes for which we want to humiliate our neighbors." Major Pettigrew, pg 249

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson

Summary:

Written with a delightfully dry sense of humour and the wisdom of a born storyteller, Major Pettigrew's Last Stand explores the risks one takes when pursuing happiness in the face of family obligation and tradition. When retired Major Pettigrew strikes up an unlikely friendship with Mrs. Ali, the Pakistani village shopkeeper, he is drawn out of his regimented world and forced to confront the realities of life in the twenty-first century. Brought together by a shared love of literature and the loss of their respective spouses, the Major and Mrs. Ali soon find their friendship on the cusp of blossoming into something more. But although the Major was actually born in Lahore, and Mrs. Ali was born in Cambridge, village society insists on embracing him as the quintessential local and her as a permanent foreigner. The Major has always taken special pride in the village, but will he be forced to choose between the place he calls home and a future with Mrs. Ali?

My take: 4 stars

Very nice! The story of a stalwart Brit and a proud Indian falling in love later in life. What a wonderful story! Nice character development, pulling me into loving or despising them. However, the joy for me in this book was the writing. Wonderful descriptions without being verbose. Nice use of metaphors without being cliche. A pleasure to read, with a heartwarming story only adding to the experience. I will definitely read more by this author.

I found this pic depicting one reader's vision of the Major and Mrs. Ali. I can see it so

clearly in my mind in much the same way that I wanted to post the picture.

While the book started a little slowly for me, the more I read, the more I wanted to read. I was so drawn into the story that I cheered when the Major wanted to slap his son, but refrained from doing so. I laughed when Mrs. Ali was so bold with the Major in the end (you'll seen what I mean when you read it). I was so glad of what finally became of the Churchills.

This story speaks of materialism, love, greed, career-building, bigotry, family, tradition, grief, religion ... you can see that there is something for everyone here. And, by the way, a movie is also in the works for this book.

Miss Peregrine: The Movie?

Twentieth Century Fox has acquired the movie rights to Ransom Riggs' book, "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children." Riggs, the author, is not writing the screenplay, so who knows how true to the book it will be. When asked who should play Miss Peregrine, he thought Tilda Swinton would be a good choice. He said that she is "elegant and birdlike".

You remember Ms. Swinton as the White Witch in The Chronicles of Narnia movies. She had a main role in the first one, with cameos in the next two. She is also scheduled to star in the film adaptation of the book "We Need to Talk About Kevin" by Lionel Shriver.

I'm also glad to report that Riggs indicated that he is currently working on a sequel to Miss Peregrine's Home. Excellent news since so much was left unanswered and there are so many more adventures to be had!

The Violets of March by Sarah Jio

Summary:
In her twenties, Emily Wilson was on top of the world: she had a bestselling novel, a husband plucked from the pages of GQ, and a one-way ticket to happily ever after.

Ten years later, the tide has turned on Emily's good fortune. So when her great-aunt Bee invites her to spend the month of March on Bainbridge Island in Washington State, Emily accepts, longing to be healed by the sea. Researching her next book, Emily discovers a red velvet diary, dated 1943, whose contents reveal startling connections to her own life.

My review: 3 stars
Good, forthright romance novel. The mystery takes a bit of a backstage here, I think. The parallels between old flames and current was a little grating, as was the stubborn pride of the character Esther. So much could have been avoided and mended if she had just taken a deep breath and listened on more than one occasion. It was a nice summer book and fast read. I will probably read another by this author, and if it goes down the same path, will cross her off my list. That is what keeps me from giving more stars to this one.