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Ban This Book

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5M4B disclosure

Let me start this review the way I start off many reviews of middle grade novels, especially if I haven’t read one in a while, and especially when they are the kind of books I enjoyed as a young reader: books featuring strong girls, maybe a little quirky, and if there is some sort of book subplot — all the better (Another recent read The Losers Club hit these marks as well).

Every day after school, Amy Anne heads to the library to hang out for a while and check out a new or favorite book. One day she gets there and her very favorite, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E Frankweiler, is not on the shelves because it was challenged and the elementary school board removed it and several other books from the library.

Mrs. Jones invites Amy Anne to speak at the board meeting in defense of the book.

“Are you crazy, Mrs. Jones? Me, get up in front of a bunch of adults and tell them why that book is my favorite book? Do you have polka dots on the brain? I can’t do that!”

That’s what I wanted to say.

Instead what I said was, “Okay.”

(Page 15)

Middle grade fiction often has some sort of quirky device, and in this book it’s that we get to read what Amy Anne wants to say, and also what she really says. I’m sure this is quite relatable to kids who often feel they don’t get their say, or to anyone who is too shy to express what they really feel.

Amy Anne, along with the help of friends, come up with a plan to make sure that every book is available to anyone who wants to read it.

Ban This Book is rounded off with other great characters — best friend Rebecca, lawyer-in training, librarian Mrs. Jones with a heart as big as her crazy patterned dresses, Trey who goes from nemesis to ally, and Amy Anne’s frazzled parents.

The reason that Amy Anne escapes to the library each day (telling her parents that she’s in after-school clubs) is so that she can have some peace and quiet. At home, she shares a room with one of her younger sisters, and the other sister is all over the place. When Amy Anne reaches her breaking point, she finally says what she really thinks — that she hates this family! I thought that this was so realistic and handled in a sensitive yet honest way (and of course it was resolved that she doesn’t really hate her family, but she’s awfully frustrated by them).

I loved this book — the idea that kids can be agents of change and that speaking up is good for them and those around them. It was sweet and funny and suspenseful as we waited for the resolution of the problem.

I realized after this book sat on my nightstand for a while that Alan Gratz also wrote Prisoner B-3087 which was one of my favorite reads the last time I was a Cybils judge. It’s historical fiction and has a totally different feel, so I was pretty impressed!

Emma in the Night

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5M4B disclosure

It wouldn’t be summer without a page-turning psychological thriller, right??

It’s not always my favorite genre, because they can be quite dark, but twists and turns and pages that beg to be turned are quite appealing, especially when I have lots of time to read.

Cass and Emma are sisters who disappeared three years ago when they were 15 and 17 years old. There was an extensive investigation, but there weren’t a whole lot of leads. Any that were explored by special agent Leo Strauss and Dr. Abby Winter, forensic psychologist, did not lead to answers.

Abby took a special interest the case, because their mother, Mrs. Judith Martin, displays classic traits of a narcissist. Abby recently published a paper on the connection between narcissistic mothers and their daughters, and as the daughter of a narcissist herself, she has a personal connection. She wonders if there’s a connection between Judy’s behavior and the girls’ disappearance.

Emma in the Night did have some disturbing plot points, but it wasn’t overly explicit. It did carry the trademark dark feeling from the very beginning. I knew that I couldn’t trust Cass or maybe the mother 100%, but I wasn’t sure why, except that it just didn’t seem right.

The story is advanced in alternating chapters from Abby’s and Cass’s points of view. Leo’s and Abby’s investigation and hunches finally help them solve not only the who, what, and where, but the why as well. The ending did not feel rushed or pulled out of thin air as they sometimes do in these cases. The perspective of a true psychologist elevated the back story in this psychological thriller.

As my summer winds to a close, I have enjoyed squeezing in some great reading this month taking on all 3 Triple Threats in the Pop-up Blog Tour. Click the link for more information about Wendy Walker and Emma in the Night. You can also read my review of The Goddesses.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

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5M4B disclosure

When Monique Grant gets the opportunity to interview Hollywood starlet Evelyn Hugo, now in her 70s, she jumps at the chance, knowing this will make her career as a writer. Evelyn is auctioning off some of her most famous gowns to raise money for breast cancer research, and the reclusive star has agreed to a story. But Monique is unprepared for what Evelyn is actually offering her– the chance for an authorized biography, with all proceeds to go to Monique herself. It’s a deal that would establish her career and make her millions.

Evelyn has always been beautiful, genetically blessed with bronzed skin and blonde hair, dark eyebrows and a stunning body. Even from a young age, she learned quickly that her main weapon in life was her sexuality, and that her choices were limited to demanding things in return for it or giving it away for free. Leaving behind her abusive father and dead-end life in Hells Kitchen, New York, she makes her way out to Hollywood with her first husband, a man she married for convenience, her ticket across the country. As she begins to find her way onto the silver screen, the studio discretely pays off her first husband for her to very publicly fall in love with her second husband, a co-star with whom she falls madly in love. Mild spoiler, although you find this out relatively early on: In spite of her 7 marriages, the big secret of Evelyn’s life is that she is bisexual, a fact she hid from the public, in part through her many marriages to a string of men. In fact, of the 7 marriages, all but 2 were for show only, and the ones that weren’t were unhappy. Evelyn’s true love was another actress, and throughout their lives they break up and make up, always coming back to each other.

All fiction is, in one way or another, didactic, and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is no exception. It teaches that you have to do whatever is right for you, and you have to figure out how to manipulate circumstances and people in your favor, because no one else will do it for you. Not an original thought, maybe, but Monique dutifully learns her lesson, letting go of her marriage and figuring out how to manipulate both her magazine and Evelyn so that she won’t lose a paycheck. It’s an interesting look at Hollywood’s golden age from the inside, but I didn’t really warm to any of the characters.

Have I Finally Outgrown Young Adult Literature?

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Windows-and-mirrors

As a book reviewer,  a member of the kidlit blogging community, and a mom who has always been active in her children’s reading lives, I’ve long enjoyed reading middle grade novels, young adult novels, and everything in between. Reading about tweens and teens in a wonderful authentic voice helped prepare me for my daughter’s adolescence. Sometimes we would read aloud together (either aloud or the same book independently), which frequently opened the door to conversation or just shared interest.

Books are mirrors and windows. That means that we read either to reflect our own lives, or to peer into the lives of others. I always found comfort and pleasure in young adult novels, remembering what it was like to be a teenager (a mirror), but also peering into the future of my own daughter (a window).

Keep reading at 5 Minutes for Mom to find out how — and maybe why — things have changed for me, and what I’m doing about it.

My (not so) Perfect Life

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perfect life

5M4B disclosure

Katie Brenner–sorry, make that Cat! Cat Brenner–is living the dream. A country girl raised by a single father after her mother’s death, she always dreamed of living and working in London, and now she does! Sure her commute is an hour and a half of misery, crammed with all of humanity into a hot noisy tube, and sure her job is very junior and often ignored, and sure her shared flat is filled with boxes of whey ordered by a roommate who’s planning to sell it, so that Cat can’t actually reach the stove to fry her eggs for an exciting and mindful supper. But Cat is still careful to make sure her instagram feed is full of trendy restaurants, photographed from the outside since she can’t afford to actually eat there, and other artfully-composed shots of a fake life. It’s easy for Cat to see other people’s perfect lives, whether that’s her college friend Fiona whose life in New York is filled with weekends drinking pink martinis with friends to jaunts to the Hampshires, or her boss Demeter with her gorgeous family, glossy hair, and evenings spent representing the company at exciting and expensive events.

Demeter is a mixed bag, in Cat’s opinion. She has a hard time remembering Cat’s name, for instance, and there are rumors of her losing emails and messing up accounts. On the other hand, she’s brilliant. Cat’s learned so much about branding from her. Still, it’s pretty brutal when Demeter fires Cat–and to add insult to injury, can’t remember if she’s done it or not. The timing couldn’t be worse. Cat has just started getting involved…maybe…with Alex, attractive, rich, connected, and she’s sure she felt a spark.

Cat ends up leaving her dream and returning to the family farm in Somerset, where she lets her hair go curly, gains 5 pounds eating her stepmother’s freshly-baked scones, and reverts to her earlier nickname of Katie. She can’t stand to let down her dad though, who’s always been so proud of her, so she spins the tale that she’s on a 6-month sabbatical, and helps her parents start a “glamping” business, complete with yurts, activities for all ages, and an outdoor shower–rustic but still glamourous. She uses all her hard-won skills to create marketing materials and after a write-up in the Guardian, the family find themselves fully booked for the summer. But when Demeter and her family show up as campers, Katie’s desperate to hide.

Hilarity ensues, as Katie gets a bit of her own back on her old boss. But deeper things are going on as well. Is Demeter’s life as perfect as Katie thought it was? Is Katie’s as bad as it seemed?

Sophie Kinsella (of Shopaholic fame) is adept at creating characters that are funny, quirky and appealing, and her latest work is no exception. Her books are humorous and light but manage to still communicate deeper truths–the importance of family, of being true to oneself, and how to navigate the murky waters of social media, for example. My (not so) Perfect Life is an enjoyable read that nonetheless manages to stick around in the reader’s mind.

 

What’s on Your Nightstand, January 31

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Nightstand82

I read less than normal this month, and it’s not because I was watching too much TV, so I’m okay with that. I don’t have many hard and fast this month, so I’m hoping to do some catching up, and maybe read some backlist titles that I’ve been hoping to get to.

I look forward to checking out what you are reading. Maybe I’ll get some ideas. Link your post up below:

What Falls From the Sky, a Five-Star Read

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what-falls-from-the-sky

5M4B disclosure

What Falls From the Sky is the most beautiful book I’ve ever seen. When I got the email pitch to review the book, the cover captivated my heart. Once I received it in person, I continued to react with joy to the cover. I don’t think of myself as a visual person, but this book cover knocks me out. The subtitle clinched it: “How I disconnected from the internet and reconnected with the God who made the clouds.” After reading it, I can attest to the accuracy of the subtitle with one caveat. Those reading it might assume it’s a spiritual memoir — and yes, that is part of Esther Emery’s story of a year without the internet, but I am afraid that will turn away readers who are not spiritual, and it shouldn’t. There are books written which are meant to persuade, but this is a memoir which exists to share one woman’s experience. There isn’t an ounce of judgement or preachiness about her choices at all. In addition to eschewing the internet, and searching for God, she also becomes a vegan. Meat-eaters wouldn’t avoid this book for that reason, and I’m urging agnostics and those who are firmly plugged in to view the book with the same open mind.

When I’ve shared with friends that I was reading and enjoying this book so much, I wanted to follow up quickly and defensively with “Don’t worry! I’m not quitting the internet, and I’m not going to start telling the world that they should quit the internet.” I’m not. That said, I think that one of the things that attracted me to Esther’s story was the knowledge that for me “trying to finish reading the internet” as she references was her practice before her experiment, never leaves me feeling satisfied. I love the internet. I love being able to connect with friends (though, as she realized, hiding behind screens can get in the way of real connection sometimes), I love the convenience of shopping online and banking online and doing research about vacations and products. Netflix streams wirelessly from wherever it comes to my TV or tablet many more hours that I might want to admit. I love the internet. Even before I read this book, I had purposed to turn it all off more and listen to music (or — okay — maybe a podcast that was also made possible by the internet) or read a real book with real words (again — possibly on an electronic device). And do you know what I found? I found space, space in my heart and in my mind and my intentions. I have made more connections with people — and yes, with my God. I have made more, better, time for myself with exercise and other hobbies. I haven’t changed much in my day, but any time I let go of the escapism of the internet just a little bit, I always discover something.

Esther Emery began this memoir and this experiment in the midst of a complete life change. She was a new mom, trying to repair a marriage, freshly relocated from west coast to east coast, experiencing a change in identity from playwright and director to stay-at-home mom. All of these changes would have resulted in some type of change — they would have to — but she maintains that to find herself, she had to shut down those faceless connections from whom she sought approval or identity or her blog, as well as the chaos that comes from that relentless stream of information. It began when she decided to cancel her cell phone, because that was also something that defined her in her previous life as a theater person. The silence was a condemnation of her new choice, so she got rid of it, and then went the next step of going dark completely.

The words inside are as beautiful as the cover, I’m happy to report. There are no forced giant a-ha moments, just this one unusual introspective year in the life of a woman. I will let her words speak for themselves:

  • I feel crazy — and simultaneously awesome. Maybe this is how those genius artists of the history books always felt. Where I had the Internet, with it’s obsessive photographers …and the steady stream of attacking, flashing advertisements, now I have something I am learning to call silence (page 27).
  • When I first told (my husband) my plan to go for a year without internet, he said, “You’re trying to live in 1980 for some reason.” Now he seems to like 1980 well enough. I cook. I spend less money. I notice when he comes home from work. And, since we’re not both trying to finish reading the internet every night, we go to bed earlier, and together, which comes with certain advantages. Less internet, more sex. Who knew? (page 65).
  • …this is the prize I won for everything I lost in these last six months. I learned how to unplug without disconnecting. I learned how to be fed like a plant, from underneath. I feel a thrill. The air is dry. My hair is lying down. We have come home (page 159).

Everything, Everything

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everything-everything

I bought this book on Kindle back in October when it was on special. I think it was as a precursor to the release of Nicola Yoon’s newest novel in November, The Sun is Also a Star. That novel is on my to-be-read list, due to the amazing praise it’s gotten, and because I did enjoy Everything, Everything so much.

I’m going to use the amazon description, because it’s good. It describes the plot, hinting at what’s to come without giving away too much.

My disease is as rare as it is famous. Basically, I’m allergic to the world. I don’t leave my house, have not left my house in seventeen years. The only people I ever see are my mom and my nurse, Carla.

But then one day, a moving truck arrives next door. I look out my window, and I see him. He’s tall, lean and wearing all black—black T-shirt, black jeans, black sneakers, and a black knit cap that covers his hair completely. He catches me looking and stares at me. I stare right back. His name is Olly.

Maybe we can’t predict the future, but we can predict some things. For example, I am certainly going to fall in love with Olly. It’s almost certainly going to be a disaster.

This novel is a great YA offering. There’s the heroine battling a disease, the bad boy with a tragic family situation, the strong mother-daughter relationship put in crisis by the daughter’s desire for something more, some romance, some deception — it’s all there.

I laughed, and I also got caught up in the emotion. This was a nice quick read, and puts Nicola Yoon on my list of authors to enjoy.

The Mothers, a 5 Star Read

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An intense and beautiful debut novel about the lives of two young women, often interpreted through the eyes of their elders.

Brit Bennett’s debut novel The Mothers is a quietly intense character-driven novel that follows the lives of two African-American young women from late adolescence through adulthood. Though not terribly similar at first glance, Nadia and Aubrey form a bond that becomes more complicated as the years go by.

Seen through the eyes of the woman elders in their church community, Nadia and Aubrey are alternatively topics for gossip, pride, shame, and pity. Their insight is given in a first person narrative voice that reads as a wise collective, though certainly influenced by their own generational experiences. They both introduce Nadia and cast a judgement that will burden her for the remainder of the novel in this lyrical and beautiful passage (pg. 2):

She was seventeen then. She lived with her father, a Marine, and without her mother, who had killed herself six months earlier. Since then, the girl had earned a wild reputation– she was young and scared and trying to hide her scared in her prettiness. And she was pretty, beautiful even, with amber skin, silky long hair, and eyes swirled brown and gray and gold. Like most girls, she’d already learned that pretty exposes you and pretty hides you and like most girls, she hadn’t yet learned how to navigate the difference. So we heard all about her sojourns across the border to dance clubs in Tijuana, the water bottle she carried around Oceanside High filled with vodka, the Saturdays she spent on base playing pool with Marines, nights that ended with her heels pressed against some man’s foggy window. Just tales, maybe, except for one we now know is true: she spent her senior year of high school rolling around in bed with Luke Sheppard and come springtime, his baby was growing inside her.”

Honestly, I was blown away by the second page of this novel.

While the focus is on Nadia as the primary protagonist for much of the novel, Aubrey spends time in the spotlight after her friendship with Nadia brings her to the page. Her story is, in many ways, an opposite one from Nadia. While Nadia wants to escape and pushes away those closest to her, Aubrey longs for connection and the security that can be found from settling down in one place, especially after spending most of her childhood in transition. In the end, they come to share something that just cannot be shared, and the effect is heartbreaking for them both.

Bennett’s writing absolutely shines; it seems as if she couldn’t have picked more perfect words to convey this story. The narrative voice is compelling and distinct, portraying the elderly women in the shadows telling the tale. There are universal elements to Nadia and Aubrey’s experiences as young women, but there are also particular details that ground them specifically in a contemporary black community. There’s a certain fragility to all of the relationships portrayed here, both romantic and familial, and that sense kept me at a constant heightened level of nervousness as I read. I think it’s impossible to enter these characters’ world and leave without having made an emotional connection.

Though “The Mothers” of the church share a certain judgement of Nadia’s choices, Bennett writes her personal struggles so tenderly that the narrators’ opinion only serves as one voice, not the definitive one of the story as a whole, creating an interesting dynamic in the storytelling.

I cannot recommend this novel highly enough. I had only a vague sense of the buzz around the book before I spotted it on the library shelf, but I’m happy to add my own voice to its praise.

What’s on Your Nightstand, September 27

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Nightstand82

Oops — a little late today, but not forgotten (completely).

I have gotten into a good Fall reading groove, even though temps here in Houston are barely out of summer mode. How about you? Does Fall cause you to get your reading groove on? For  whatever reason, summer did not, but because I have several deadlines and maybe because of a change in schedule, my reading will increase?

Reading about what others are reading always inspires me as well, so link up your recent or proposed reads below.

Commonwealth by Ann Patchett

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commonwealth

5M4B disclosure

I’ve been wanting to read Ann Patchett for a long time, and Commonwealth is the first novel I actually got my hands on. From what I understand in reading the reviews, this is a bit different from some of her other novels, at least in setting.

This is set in suburban Virginia — the Commonwealth of Virginia — and involves two families whose lives become intertwined after Bert Cousins shows up at co-worker Franny “Fix” Keating’s party for the christening of his second daughter. When Bert meets Fix’s wife Beverly, he feels something for her and knows his life has changed. Bert and Beverly deciding to be together doesn’t just change their life, but the 6 children in the two families. This is basically their story.

I enjoy character-driven fiction, and this novel definitely falls into that category. It was a slow start for me, and it wasn’t until about a 1/3 of the way in that I felt the need to keep going. The beginning in particular has a very bleak and factual tone. I didn’t connect to the characters, and I certainly didn’t like them. I read novels with unlikable characters all the time, because that is the reality of the human condition.

Ultimately this is a novel of the human condition, following children over decades (maybe 50 years or so? This is actually one of my issues with the novel is that I never felt I truly understood where we were in time). It’s told in a non-linear way, so we piece the story together, as we find out what has bonded and divided them over the years, and how their childhoods have affected who they have become as adults.

Patchett is a great writer. That’s one thing I know for certain after my first experience reading her work. Though it didn’t grab me immediately, it was definitely an ultimately satisfying read. The characters have stuck with me. I think that I will read another of her novels when I’m in the mood for good literary fiction.

Find out more at the TLC Book Tours page.

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Are You Still Coloring Your Stress Away?

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Mine

5M4B disclosure

If you aren’t coloring, it certainly is not because you haven’t given the trend any thought. But I ask “still” to those of you who tried out the new leisure activity and are maybe looking for something new. Or maybe — like me — you forgot how satisfying it was to do something with your hands while you are watching your favorite shows.

I just recently tried out a new type of coloring book, Inkspirations. I am about to take a long car trip, and I am looking forward to doing some more designs while I listen to music or podcasts or audiobooks. I love to color to engage a different part of my mind while I’m watching TV or listening to the radio. These designs are among the best I’ve seen, and focusing on scripture is an added bonus.

Please click over to read my full post at 5 Minutes for Mom about Inkspirations. See more about what makes this one unique.

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Find out more at the TLC book tours page.

Jonathan Unleashed

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jonathan unleashed

Jonathan doesn’t really like his life. His job is boring and soul-sucking, his relationship with his girlfriend could be described as the same on a bad day. In reality, things aren’t all that bad. He’s got a good NYC apartment (though he might be kicked out at any moment when the owner makes parole). He gets to work with his best friend and enjoys.cycling to work. He is comfortable with his girlfriend, and they understand each other.

Then Sissy and Dante enter his life. They are his brother’s dogs who he agrees to keep for the 6 months his brother is working out of country. Jonathan knows nothing about dogs, but he can’t seem to shake the fact that they aren’t happy, that they want something more. He even asks the vet how to determine and what to do if they hate their lives. That is where Jonathan Unleashed comes in.

It becomes obvious that Jonathan is projecting his own dissatisfaction onto his dogs. And then his dogs begin the process of changing things on his behalf, or at least trying — and succeeding — with making it more palatable. There is a slight suspension of disbelief required, but it’s totally in line with the satirical feel of the novel.

Author Meg Rosoff makes some interesting observations about the way most of us live our lives. She also characterizes Sissy and Dante in a way that dog-lovers will appreciate. For example, this scene when Jonathan continues to take the issues of his dogs’ perceived unhappiness to the vet:

“I think maybe they’d prefer a better owner. Someone more accomplished.”

She [the vet] frowned again. “The whole thing about dogs is that, within fairly broad criteria, they love their owners. Dogs are loyal. Generally uncritical” (page 97, ARC).

Meg Rosoff has apparently written many award-winning YA novels, but I was unfamiliar with her. I liked her writing, but this one didn’t quite hit all the right buttons for me. There’s only so much satire I can take, and I think this just went slightly over. I didn’t love this book, but I liked it. The last third was excellent, when Jonathan’s life spins even more out of his control, which forces his hand in dealing with the dogs and his job and his perfect, but not entirely desirable girlfriend Julie.

Connected Underneath

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Connected Underneath

5M4B disclosure

Maybe I’ve seen too many horror movies, but the title Connected Underneath conjures up images of sea monsters and submarines. Conversely, Linda Legters’ new literary novel has inner demons and a motorcycle.

Theo owns one of the last video stores in the small town of Madena in upstate New York, where secrets abound. His adopted 15-year-old daughter, Persephone, is becoming increasingly distant, and he’s not aware of the collage of tattoos spread across her back, obtained by trading sex with the tattoo artist. Unsure where to turn Theo approaches Natalie, Seph’s birth mother, who gave her up for adoption as an infant, but hasn’t told Theo the whole truth about Seph’s father.

Theo’s visit to Natalie is observed by Celeste, wheelchair-bound and confined to her home by a condition that might just be in her head. The novel is narrated by Celeste and it’s clear all doesn’t end well for those involved, except maybe Celeste herself, which makes her a somewhat unreliable narrator. Her self-imposed isolation has caused her to create a fantasy world about those she views through a vent, which makes her involvement in the final events of the story even more poignant.

Connected Underneath focuses on the secrets surrounding Seph, both those withheld from her and those she holds herself.

The characters in Connected Underneath are desperate to connect and go to great lengths to do so, even those who hold themselves at a distance from others. Maybe especially them. The prose is lyrical and moving, intelligent without being condescending. The plot moves at a quick pace toward a conclusion you see coming but are powerless to stop.

I highly enjoyed Connected Underneath and am thankful to TLC Tours for providing a copy for my review.

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My Summer Reading List

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I wrote up a foolproof summer reading plan for moms at 5 Minutes for Mom today. Please check it out, especially if you don’t feel like you have time to read.

One of the steps in my plan is Be Prepared. Part of being prepared is having a list. The other part is having the books. So, in addition to my review reading, here are the 3 books I hope to read this summer:

Year of Yes

year of saying yes

I have been interested in Shonda Rhimes’ project memoir for some time. I am not assuming it will change my life, but I think I’ll get a kick out of it, and maybe it will push me out of a rut or two. I ordered this book from a third-party seller at amazon. It’s on the way. I think it’s the kind of book I can read here and there, or who knows? I might read it all at once!

The Martian

the martian

My daughter and her friends were excited to see this movie. Like any good booklover, she started reading it when she heard the movie was coming out. I ended up watching the movie recently, but the book has been on my bookshelf ever since she finished it. She said it really fleshes out the movie and gives more sciencey details. I’m looking forward to it.

Surprised by Oxford

suprised by oxford

This book about a woman’s journey to faith has been on my Kindle forever. I’m not sure how long, but I know years. I am fairly certain it was the result of one of Lisa’s Nightstand posts, and was perhaps seconded by a few, so I finally bought it, hoping that would make me read it. When trying to take my own advice I gave others for the foolproof summer reading plan, of picking and book you’ve been wanting to read, I immediately thought of this book.

Be sure to join us for What’s on Your Nightstand on May 30 (the last Tuesday of every month) to get some ideas of your own or to share yours!

Lawyer for the Dog

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lawyer for the dog

5M4B disclosure

I started reading this book a while ago, but had to put it down when deadlines hit me. Recently I was clearing out around/under/beside my bed, and I “found” it (Please tell me I’m not the only one). I have been enjoying light fiction lately (life is heavy enough, you know?), so I picked it up and finished it.

Lawyer for the Dog is a story about yes — a dog who gets a lawyer — but there’s a lot more to it than that. Sally Baynard’s ex-husband is the judge in a divorce case where the two parties are most contentious over the dog Sherman. They can’t agree on anything, and since the dog can’t speak for himself, the judge appoints counsel Sally to represent the dog’s best interests. Is he doing this because he wants an excuse to spend with Sally? Because he never stopped wondering “what if”? Maybe.

And Sally — does she accept the case because she wonders the same? Perhaps.

Things get a little more complicated when Sally finds herself interested in Sherman’s vet who is also a witness. But then again, Sally is used to complicated. She enjoys her work, even if many of her clients’ lives are trainwrecks. Her mother is living with her, and that’s getting more difficult as her mental deterioration continues. She promised her she’d never put her in a home, but would her mother even know any different?

Having helped care for my grandmother as she became less and less mentally stable, it was this storyline that really resonated with me. Author Lee Robinson (herself an attorney) must also have experience with dementia or Alzheimer’s, because the characterizations — of both the caregiver and the patient — were spot o.

Robinson’s second novel Lawyer for the Cat just came out, and I think I’ll be getting to it soon.

The Precious One

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precious one

5M4B disclosure

We are all familiar with second chances, with a father who finally finds and accepts love and happiness with a new wife and child, or with a woman who’s screwed up relationship after relationship until she finally settles down and lives in joy. These stories are a standard trope of modern literature. But what happens to those first, failed people? How do they grow up and move on? In her latest novel, Marisa de los Santos takes a look at both a first and a second family, and what happens when fate, in the form of an irascible, arrogant elderly man, brings them together.

Eustachia, known as Taisy, and her twin brother Marcus were abandoned by their father Wilson Cleary when they were 18. He had always been an absent father, but now he makes it official–and makes it abundantly clear that they are the ones who have failed him, who have not lived up to their potential but have instead been ordinary and disappointing. 18 years later, they’ve moved on, at least somewhat. Marcus is a successful man in the field of finance, and Taisy has become a ghost-writer with a string of well-selling books to her name. She tells her friend that in all her life, she has only loved 3 men; her father in spite of his flaws and rejection of her, her twin brother, and her high school love Ben.

Meanwhile, Willow is the child of Wilson’s second family, beloved and sheltered. Raised by a young artist mother, who suffers from somnambulism and vagueness, and at the focused point of Wilson’s high demands, at 16 she is highly educated but has been homeschooled and sheltered from her peers, so that she’s awkward and skittish.

One day Taisy gets a call out of the blue from Wilson. He’s had a heart attack and his health is frail, and he wants her to ghost-write his memoir, which he will essentially dictate. This means that Taisy will have to not only visit but stay with Wilson, Caro, and Willow. Meanwhile Willow is dealing with public high school for the first time, and she’s having a hard time navigating it all. Her only ray of sunshine, the silver lining behind the clouds, is her sympathetic AP English teacher, Mr. Innes. The two of them eat lunch together every day, while Willow pours out her soul into his sympathetic ear. The story is told from both points of view, and de los Santos does a masterful job of characterization on the two of them, deftly navigating their awkward meetings (Willow is not used to sharing Wilson’s attention; Taisy is patient with Willow but recognizes the chasm between them can be bridged).

The Precious One is classic Marisa de los Santos. I really like her writing. She comes up with plots that are complex and realistic, and she can string together words to produce phrases that just sing. An example: “He smiled the kind of smile that is the reason for wars and poetry.” (p. 296) But she is beginning to cliche herself. Things you find in a de los Santos novel are all here–young love, high school students who get really excited over classic literature and the fact that light acts as both a wave and a particle (!!!), estranged family members, people in their 30s who made mistakes around the ages of 17-22.

I love her writing. I stay up late to find out what happens. But her characters are all a bit too distinct to her, if that makes sense. People do change and grow, but I found it completely unrealistic–to the point of distraction–that Willow could change that much between September, when the novel opens, and Thanksgiving weekend, when they are all together in an awkward but ultimately happy home. Willow’s character initially was so well-drawn, pitch perfect, but she should have changed like that over several years, maybe never quite that much. And de los Santos’ high school boys are not like real high school boys. I know. I had one who loved to read and think and was very well educated (he grew up in the French system overseas, where they read Descartes and Balzac in middle school) and he is remarkable, yes, but nowhere near as mature as the high school boys in this novel, who are more mature and unselfish than most 30 year olds.

I both loved this book and was exasperated by it.

Note: You can read Jennifer’s review of the hardback version here.

 

Saturate Field Guide: Principles & Practices for Being Disciples of Jesus in the Everyday Stuff of Life

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5M4B disclosure

I believe that the reason we are left here on earth after we come to know Jesus and are adopted into his family is so that we can tell others about him. Knowing Jesus should change every single aspect of how we live our lives, from how we respond to small things like irritating cashiers or drivers who cut us off, to our attitudes towards the poor or to refugees, to even rethinking our political views.

Saturate Field Guide is a new study put out by pastor and church planter Jeff Vanderstelt, along with his co-author, Ben Connelly. In it, they invite readers to experience something deeper. They not only make the case that knowing Christ should change our entire lives, which is, um, kind of what the Bible says, but they also have put together a small group study to help you and your friends or family grow in this area.

For far too many Christians, the idea of being part of a church simply means attending a Sunday morning service, maybe a small group or a sprinkling of special events each year. Is that what God had in mind for his bride, the Church, when he sent his son to save her? they ask. And if you are squirming a wee bit in your chair right now, as I am, you already know the answer.

Click over to 5 Minutes for Mom to read an interview with the authors to find out more about this book.

All Stories are Love Stories

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all stories are love stories

5M4B disclosure

The simple cover of All Stories are Love Stories is quite descriptive. What kinds of things make those marks? Earthquakes and heartbeats which indicate life and the absence of which indicate death.

This book is set in the present day on Valentine’s Day. A massive earthquake hits the city of San Francisco which the reader experiences through a motley crew of survivors. There are quotes referring to the last big earthquake in 1906 at the beginning of many of the chapters.

This is very much realistic fiction, but the element of this huge natural disaster pushes it into another realm, adding more interest for me, and of course a source of dramatic tension.

Max and Vashti are high school sweethearts, but an unexpected event and tragedy pulled them apart all those years ago. Vashti married, but when her husband died, she kept dreaming vividly of Max. Her sister dares her to just go see him and talk to him.

Gene and Franklin are dealing with different life issues. Gene is up for tenure in his teaching job, and sick of the commute to Franklin’s inn. Franklin’s health is deteriorating, and Gene wonders if maybe a promotion will be the push they’ve needed to move out of the city once and for all.

To say that disasters make one assess their life is trite, but aphorisms exist for a reason — they are true. The characters each think about who they are and who they want to be, strengths and weaknesses — sometimes internally and other times in conversation with fellow survivors.

I was not familiar with the author Elizabeth Percer, but her writing has earned her many accolades. She writes well, and I liked the way she created such a rich and unparalleled setting. The ending felt rushed to me, and some of the neat bows that tied up the storylines came out of nowhere, but I did enjoy the multi-chapter epilogue that helped the story arc beyond the one day.

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The Pocket Wife

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the pocket wife

5M4B disclosure

Celia Steinhauser is found dead in a pool of her own blood in her house late one evening by her husband Ronald. Dana Catrell is awakened from her drunken nap by the sound of the siren, and she hurries down the street to see what has happened. She and Celia were just together, drinking too much sangria. Dana thinks they fought but doesn’t remember much else.

Dana has had a hard time, especially since her only son left for college. She feels like a pocket wife**. Whenever she calls her husband Peter, even for something as important as to report the murder of their neighbor, he never has time to talk to her. If he does make time, he slips her (the phone) into his pocket until he can leave his meeting or get off his phone call so that he can give her some attention.

She feels herself slipping into madness, a feeling she remembers from a breakdowns she’s had in the past, though not for many years. She undertakes her own investigation which only leads her to question her own role more closely.

The Pocket Wife follows detective Jack Moss’ investigation into this murder. Instead of there being no suspects as is sometimes the case, there seem to be too many. Dana herself fears she did it and just can’t remember. Peter seems awfully shifty and more concerned about talking to Moss than an innocent person should be. Of course there’s always the husband: Ronald is caught in several lies, has revealed that their marriage was in trouble, and doesn’t really have an alibi.

Author Susan Crawford kept me turning pages. I read the bulk of this novel on a flight, and I’m glad this was the book I brought along, because otherwise I might have sat as stone on my sofa as I needed to find out the resolution to this story. Throughout the novel, I felt as if I knew who the murderer was at different times, but never with complete certainty. She deftly doled out clues and once the true culprit is revealed, it holds up against the narrative.

When I was writing up the review for this paperback release, I noticed that Elizabeth reviewed the book last year when it was released in hardcover. Read her review — they’re always excellent — for another perspective. Realizing that my friend had read the book made me want to discuss it with her, which led me to believe it would be a great book for a book club. You could easily discuss who you thought was guilty and why, who the good guys and the bad guys are, and the question that I kept pondering: were Celia and Dana really friends, and if they were, why did Dana downplay their friendship?

In the notes at the end of the book, the author explains the pocket wife, yet another topic that bears discussion:

I think one of the reasons women are so interested in the meaning of the title is that on some level they already know what it means. They have experienced pocket wifery themselves, or maybe they’ve watched a friend underplay her intellect at a neighborhood barbecue or douse her ambitions with one too many eggnogs at her partner’s Christmas party.

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