Book Reviews: Three Books

 

"This is a good one, Mom."

1. The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Read this for a book club. I liked the book but was a little disappointed in the character development. I didn't feel particularly attached to any of the characters. That said, it's a book about slavery, something I need to try to understand more fully. Each time I read a book such as this, I learn more and am reminded of just how heinous (and complex) an institution slavery was. It is a reminder of how and why we still struggle with our attitudes and racism here in the U.S.

2. The Seed Keeper by Diane Wilson

I loved this book! It's a book about so many things: relationships, family, history, trauma, and plants. I gained a new appreciation for our environment and our ties to plants and animals. Please read this book!

 

3. Swede Hollow by Ola Larsmo

This book is about Swedish immigrants who came to Minnesota in the late 1800s and settled in an area of St. Paul called Swede Hollow. It is a real area that contained poor housing and often experienced floods along with contaminated creek water that they relied on. After many years of Swede Hollow being an actual neighborhood, the city finally condemned it, and it no longer is a developed area. The area still exists, now empty of people, and I have been curious about its history; I was happy to find this book. It follows Swedish immigrants from their arrival in the U.S. in the late 1800s through their struggles, joys, and sorrows up to the modern day. It is fiction but some of the characters and the historical events were taken from Minnesota's real past.

Fun fact: tomorrow morning my book group will meet at Swede Hollow Cafe in St. Paul.. yes! It's near the real Swede Hollow!

Book Review: Brideshead Revisited

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

Greater minds than mine have dubbed this book one of Waugh's finest achievements. Waugh himself was very proud of it and stated that only about six Americans will understand it. In that case, I believe I am in good company. I am not part of the six.

If you asked me, I would tell you this book is about friendship, love, family, religion, and lost people searching for meaning. Waugh himself says it is about religion. It's a story of a family and a few of their friends at the end of WWI in England, continuing up until the beginning of WWII. Brideshead is their family mansion.

Parts of it made for a good story; parts I had to slog through. I was happy when I reached the end.

Book Review: Two Books

When I Was White by Sarah Valentine

In this memoir, Valentine describes growing up in her white, suburban family in the Pittsburgh area. It isn't until she is 27 that her mother tells her that the father who raised her is not her biological father and that her biological father was African-American. Valentine knew she had been viewed as "different" while growing up, but race was never discussed in her family. She has never put her "different-ness" into words for herself. It comes as a shock to her, though it explains her ponderings about herself, to realize that she is of mixed race.

In America where race has always been such a big thing, the fact that her family never discussed it was a huge disservice to Valentine, depriving her of the opportunity to fully understand herself and her heritage. In fact, the most they ever seem to say about race is to forbid her from dating anyone who is not white.

For many years, Valentine works on self-realization and searching for the identity of her biological father. Her family could have spared her so many years of angst.


Mr. g: A Novel About Creation by Alan Lightman

Mr.g lives in the Void with his Aunt Penelope and Uncle Deva. He is bored, so decides to create a universe. First he makes times, then space, then matter. Then he makes a chair for his aunt. As solar systems and galaxies begin to form, he is delighted and intrigued with what he has created. It's a whimsical/scientific/philosophical look at creation. After some of the planets are populated, a satan-like being questions Mr. g about humans' free will and encourages Mr. g not to interfere. Mr. g is saddened by suffering so struggles a bit with that option.

The book includes a lot of scientific processes and philosophical questions that we have all pondered such as: what is life? Why are we here? Why is there suffering? What is space? How can we begin to imagine the great emptiness and void?

It could have been interesting and humorous and fun, but instead it plodded along and was not something I wanted to spend my time reading. I only finished it because it was for a book club. None of us particularly liked it, though we understood its presentation of our unanswerable questions.

This time you get a non-book-related photo. It's my great-niece in Nebraska, sporting her Minnesota Vikings shirt and resting on the quilt I made for her. Adorable, yes?

Home Body

I am turning into a hermit. I like to stay home. I don't like to go out much. I like to stay in my sewing room and sew.

Lately I have been listening to a lot of podcasts while I sew. I discovered a few that I really like. I think the best one I have listened to is from CBC - Canadian Broadcasting Company. It's about a whole family of kids who were removed from their home and adopted out separately. As adults they all get back together except for one, Cleo. This story is about their search for her.

CBC does a really nice job, and there are no ads. I mostly listen through the one called "Someone Knows Something." It focuses on cold cases. I didn't realize this about myself, but I guess I'm kind of a cold case/crime stories junkie. I especially like them when they come to some sort of resolution. It's odd, because I don't like to read crime stories and books. But I'm liking the podcasts, and I like to watch TV shows such as Dateline and 20/20 (putting up with their dragged out, repetitious style).

While I listen to podcasts I make quilt tops and blocks:

This one was made by someone (not sure who) at our recent Sunshine retreat. I quilted it.

Today I'm going out to meet with my book club. That will be fun. When I come home, guess what I will do?!

Book Review: Girl in Green

Girl in Green by Derek B. Miller

This book is a fictionalized tale of true events. It is very well done and a good sort of "mystery" though it is not classified in the mystery genre, I don't think. It involves a journalist and a soldier in Iraq. Some of the policy and descriptions of various warring groups gets pretty complicated, but I didn't let that bother me. The story is very well told and intriguing, though saddens me.

It's painfully clear that America (as usual) went blundering into the region of Iraq, Afghanistan, etc., without a clear understanding of the cultures, languages, reasons for clashes, and why a number of techniques other than bulldozing our way in might have worked better. We are such cowboys. It is very disheartening.

The girl in green shows up a couple of times, an innocent bystander amidst warring factions. Desire to "save" her drives the two main characters. The story plays out from there, with lots of complications and interesting twists and turns.

I like Miller's writing. This is the second book of his I have read. There's usually an odd character (after all, Miller is Norwegian - there's my stereotype), but it's not so odd as to be unbelievable. He has a good grasp on what makes humans tick.
P.S. I found out that Miller was born in USA but lives in Norway, so is he American or Norwegian? Whatever he is, he has a good understanding of both cultures.

Book Review: Fall of Marigolds

A Fall of Marigolds by Susan Meissner - read for a book club discussion


There are two main characters, separated by 100 years. One is a nurse who works at the hospital on Ellis Island in 1911. The other is a young mother who works in a fabric shop in NY (2011). They each in turn have possession of the same scarf with marigolds on it. The scarf is a symbolic piece that moves through the whole story.

Both characters have loved and lost. They are searching for ways to carry on with life after their loss and in fact, for permission to carry on with life and what to do with their memories and broken hearts. Indirectly, the scarf plays a role in their search for answers.

I enjoyed reading this book; it was entertaining and interesting. I liked the setting of Ellis Island. The story poses some life questions that one can ponder, as well as ethical questions causing one to wonder "what would I do in that situation?". Not a book of great depth, I would rate this as a good, fun read for its time, and containing some good discussion points.

This is Todd Bol, the founder of the Little Free Library movement. He died of cancer in mid October, 2018. His love of literacy and community has spread all around the world with his little libraries and the sharing of books.

Book Review: Little Fires Everywhere

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

This is a book about families, relationships, friendships, life styles, and choices. Most of the characters are teenagers, and the other main characters are moms in two separate families.

I liked this book, but I didn't love it. I wanted to love the characters more than I did. I only liked one or two of them. The sheltered and privileged lives lived by most of the characters led to close-mindedness. Yet they thought they were wonderfully settled and clear thinkers. That was probably one of the points of the story. New residents of the town help the long term residents' minds crack open, but not very wide. These transformations require much time, I guess. But do they have to? Is my mind as open as I think it is?

This was a book club read; I'm eager to hear my club members' thoughts. If you read the book, tell me yours as well.

This is my son's friend, all grown up and a good daddy.

Book Review: Radium Girls

The Radium Girls by Kate Moore
Wow! This non-fiction book was so interesting, and it was so awful. I mean, the injuries and illnesses and agonizing deaths these women endured made for hard reading. And yet, I was intrigued.

Starting in 1917 when radium was a new "miracle agent" they started using it in paint to make clock dials glow in the dark. It was applied by young girls and women in a factory by brush, which they put in their mouths to make the brush tip as thin as possible. The book looks at this history in two locations: Orange, New Jersey and Ottawa, Illinois.

After a while, the women started getting very sick. Horrendous damage was done to their bodies. Guess what the response of the employers was. Yeah, it was aggravating to read that, too. The practice of "tip pointing" by mouth continued for many years, even when the industry should have known better.

This is an important part of our history and led to better protection and safer working conditions for employees. The strength and courage of the women involved was completely amazing. Though the story took place in the USA, this book was written by a Brit. She purposely wrote it in novelized style, through the eyes of the girls and women involved. It's not a dry history at all but is an interesting story that will grab your attention. (And watch for a couple of British phrases that reveal it wasn't written in USA. Made me smile.)

I have been loving reading outdoors during our lovely spring weather.. however, so far I have always been safely in a chair on the ground.

A Little Knitting

I have done very little knitting this year, but tonight I finally finished this scarf. I'm also working on a prayer shawl that is regular size yarn with smallish-size needles. That thing will take me forever. I like it, but I'm a slow knitter, and it has been in progress for six months and is about half done. So you can guess approximately when I'll finish it. I'm persisting, though. Next one I make might use some chunky yarn so it goes faster.

Did you visit my blog on Friday, hoping for a book report? Sorry I didn't have one ready. I'm re-reading Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. It's a long book; I have to have it done by next Sunday for a book group discussion. Hopefully I can tell you about it this coming Friday. (I read it years ago, but couldn't remember much detail, and I knew I wanted to re-read it anyway. I was glad my book group chose it. Kingsolver is one of my favorite authors.)

Have a great week! I get to have a tooth pulled on Wednesday! Ewww.

Friday Books: Two Rivers

This week I finished reading Two Rivers by t. greenwood. Without knowing anything about it, I suggested this book for my online book club.

This would be a good book to read while on vacation or on a long road trip. It is engaging, the story has interesting twists and turns, it keeps the reader's interest, it contains some social issues one can ponder, and it is a quick read. It can be completed in a couple of days.

It takes place in Vermont in a small town where two rivers converge. It begins with a train wreck, and the story goes from there, with families, friends, and some unanswered questions being cleverly woven together as the stories unfold. I liked the book, but it doesn't make my favorites list. I give it 4 stars.

Now I'm looking forward to our discussion with my book club.

Friday Books

I finished a book, but that's all I'm going to say.

Then I started two others: a friend told me about a free book at Amazon Kindle. My Sister's Voice by Mary Carter. I "bought" it (for $0) and am almost done reading it. I'm really enjoying it. It is about a Deaf woman who discovers at age 28 that she has a twin sister who is hearing. Very interesting story and well done. A lot of times books about deaf people are sappy, assume the reader knows nothing, or they are just not well told. This one is not any of those. It was definitely worth the price, and I'm glad I found it. (Thanks, KR.)

Another book I have started is Lost in Shangri-La by Mitchell Zuckoff. It is for a book group at goodreads dot com. I'm only about 1/5 of the way into the book, but am enjoying the story so far. It is a true story about a plane crash at the end of WWII, and I am eager to get back to it and see what happens next.

Friday Books

Lately I have been on a huge sewing spree... having a blast, but it leaves very little time for reading. Mostly I read in bed just before my eyes slam shut, a very inefficient way of making it through a book.

I'm currently reading Gravesavers by Sheree Fitch. It was chosen as a book club selection at my online group, but people had a hard time finding a copy. I guess it is out of print. Because of that, a different book was chosen. However, I found Gravesavers quite easily at Amazon... I got it for one penny! Plus $3 or $4 shipping, of course. Because I had a copy, I decided to go ahead and read it, to see what we missed.

I'd never heard of the book before, but am enjoying it. I'm about halfway through now. It's a modern story of a family who suffers a miscarriage, and they send their daughter to live with Grandma for the summer. Interwoven is an older story of immigrants coming via ship to North America from Europe. Both story lines are enjoyable, and I'm wanting to get back to the book to see what happens, and how the story lines merge, as I assume they will. But that darn sewing keeps interfering with my reading time.

Can anyone send me hours 25-30 for a day or two so I can get this book completed?

Friday Books

This week I did a lot of reading while we were vacationing at the lake.

I finished Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese (paperback). Great story teller! It grabbed me.... but not always. Sometimes I just loved the story and could hardly put it down. Then I'd get to another boring part and feel disappointed. There was too much detail at times, and excuse me, but just WAY too many strange coincidences. These things are possible in life, but not every time one turns around. Crazy. My aunt whose opinion I regard very highly thinks this books is one of the best EVER. She has read it three times. I guess I'll just have to disagree with her on this one because of my above objections. It has the possibility to be the best, with some slicing and editing. This author can tell a GREAT story.

I read The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey (Kindle edition). This is a true account of a woman who is stricken with a debilitating disease, keeping her bedridden. A friend brings her a plant and a live snail. This is the story of her "friendship" with a live snail while bedridden. It's cute, touching, and you'll learn a lot about the life of a snail. A short book, easy to read in a day.

Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy by Kraybill, Nolt, and Weaver-Zercher (hard cover) was for our book group at church. The book has three authors, one whose name contains a "Z," so I'm using it as my "Z" book on my A-Z challenge. It's the story of the shooting that took place in an Amish school, and the forgiveness that the Amish community extended to the shooter's family. Very interesting book. I learned much about Amish culture and religious practices. It also spurred probing into my own thoughts on forgiveness. It's something I would like to see more of in our culture (instead of so much revenge), but it's also quite a complicated topic. Good food for thought in this book.

If a Tree Falls: A Family's Quest to Hear and Be Heard by jennifer Rosner (Kindle). A family discovers that their new baby is deaf. The book chronicles their struggles. The author looks into her family tree and discovers several deaf ancestors, then writes a fictional account of her deaf ancestors' lives, embedded into this book as her "journal entries." As someone who works in the field of deafness, I was a little disappointed with some of their decisions, though I know it can be very confusing for families who suddenly find themselves faced with this unknown. I also wonder about the "results" she claims they get from hearing aids and a cochlear implant. But overall, it was interesting and a good read. The family is close knit and doing their best to embrace deafness in their midst.

Friday Books

This is Lily.. she and her daddy are reading a book that I sent to her. Sweet!

I'm going to try to remember to use Friday as my "talk about books" day. I expect I'll forget sometimes, but I'll try to be as faithful as my failing memory will allow.

I am currently reading Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese. My one-book-a-year book club is reading this one. We'll meet in October to discuss it. It's my annual cousins' retreat where we eat, laugh, and discuss one book. Once a year. It rocks. So far I am enjoying the book, and I know if I could just get myself to sit down for an extended period and bury myself in it, I'll get hooked. I am only 9% into the book so far. It's good, but I've been distracting myself a lot.

At goodreads(dot)com I joined a "Senior Citizens" group (we still feel young) that decided to do one book per month. We just wrapped up discussion on our second book. It has been so much fun! I enjoy hearing what the other women have to say about the book. Even if it is a book I wasn't crazy about, I enjoy hearing what they came up with and what they think about various characters or plot lines. (Men are welcome,too; they just haven't joined the group yet.)

I find it hard to set the proper timing for when I should read books. I just requested two books from the library; they are for September and October for the above on-line group discussion. But I am also reading Cutting for Stone which will be discussed in October. Cutting for Stone is over 600 pages long! So if the two library books get put on hold for me too soon, they'll be due back before I get to them, and I don't like to re-new, knowing that others are waiting for the same book.

Also, when do I fit in the book for church group? AND the whole congregation has TWO books that we are encouraged to read starting this fall.

Oh, problems, problems. I know. I have really serious ones. Here are the books I need to read in the near future:
Amish Grace by 3 authors whose names I have forgotten: for book discussion group at church in September
Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen for on-line September discussion
Gravesavers by [I forgot] - was the first book chosen for on-line September group, but it is hard to find (out of print, maybe?) - so only those of us who were able to find it are going to read and discuss it.. AND will read the new September book which is Peach Keeper.
Lost in Shangri-La by Mitchell Z-something - for on-line discussion in October
Cutting for Stone by Verghese - for cousins' annual retreat/book discussion in October
Soul Mountain by Gao Xingjian - to fit my need for an author whose name begins with X, for my A-Z author challenge which ends in December
and the two books that our whole church congregation has been offered.. one is fat!

I need to turn myself into a hermit and just READ for a solid two months, don't you think?

God is Gracious, God is Good

A friend and her family have recently been through a major, life-altering experience. I didn't know a thing about it, but knew from various hints that something was going on. She told me about it recently, and I was floored. Really moved.

It was a shocking thing, yet joyful at the same time. I'm sorry I can't tell you what happened, because it's not my business to tell. But I'm feeling really overwhelmed with the emotions they have all been through.

The impactful thing is the support of friends and help from God. It amazes me to see this in action and to witness the ripple effect of doing God's love through hands-on work. It helps more than just one or two people who are on the receiving end. It even helps me as a listener and after-the-fact recipient of the love. God is gracious, God is good. Thank you, my friends who have shared this with me in many ways, directly and indirectly.



As for sewing and knitting, wow... I've been so busy I've barely had time to do my fun creative work. I did manage to make two more dish cloths. Some of us were asked to knit some for the church kitchen as they were down to only one dish rag. I had one done that I donated immediately, and then made these two.

Here's the conundrum: in the past I donated knitted dish rags to the church kitchen. Just slipped them into the drawer. Later I peeked, and they were gone. So when asked recently, I donated that one immediately and wondered if it would get used. Yesterday I looked in the drawer, and it was gone! There were only a few store-bought rags. Is someone helping herself (or himself) to the hand-knitted dish rags?? I have asked several people to help me knit some, but I don't want to have us do all the work just to pad someone's drawer at home. Not sure what to do about this.



Last night our book group went out for dinner together. It was lots of fun! These are some awesome and beautiful women! (That's me in the middle.)