Review: The Song of Achilles

The Song of Achilles

By Madeline Miller

369 pages

Harper Collins 2012

From the library 

The Song Of Achilles is the debut novel of Madeline Miller and the winner of this year’s Orange Prize. Ms. Miller takes the story of the Greek hero Achilles and gives it new life with exquisite characterization and beautiful prose. This time, the story is told from the view of Patroclus, a young prince banished from his home. Patroclus becomes a ward of King Peleus, father of the golden boy Achilles. The boys become closer than anyone could have imagined. When King Menelaus calls upon an old oath, Achilles and Patoclus journey to Troy. But their lives are not their own – the gods have already determined their destiny.

While reading this book, I had to remind myself that this is Miller’s first novel. This is a great book. Miller has taken a few lines of The Iliad and brought them to vibrant life. While Homer gives us the basic details of plot, we never understand why Achilles relates the way that he does to the events of the Trojan War. By filling in the backstory and the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus, the efforts of Achilles, Patroclus, and the other Greeks to overcome the decisions of the gods becomes inspiring and heartbreaking.

The relationship between Achilles and Patroclus is created incredibly well. As children, they are very different. It has been foretold that Achilles will be the greatest warrior of his generation.  Patroclus is weak and awkward around other people. He expects to keep his head down and avoid attention. When Achilles takes interest in Patroclus, their friendship gives him the confidence to stand up for himself and the people who he loves. Their relationship slowly and realistically grows from friendship to love. Miller does an excellent job showing the awkward moments of a new relationship and the beauty of enduring love.

“I could recognize him by touch alone, by smell; I would know him blind, by the way his breaths came and his feet struck the earth. I would know him in death, at the end of the world.” 

Ms. Miller has written an amazing debut novel. She manages to take a classical tale that has been read for generations and make it her own without deviating from the original. Her beautiful language, compelling storytelling, and complex characters will compel you to keep turning pages, even when you fear you know how the story will end. The Song of Achilles is for readers who love mythology, who love history, and who love a well-crafted, beautiful story. 

Review: A Soft Place to Land

A Soft Place to Land

By Susan Rebecca White

Touchstone April 2010

352 pages

From my shelves

Ruthie and Julia are half-sisters, but closer than most siblings. Their love is strengthened by the intense bond of their parents, Naomi and Phil. But when their parents die in a plane crash, the girls are devastated to discover that their parent’s will dictates that they be split up.  Julia is sent to live with her father and stepmother and Ruthie lives with her aunt and uncle. A Soft Place to Land follows the sisters through the next twenty years as their lives continue to impact each other, even when they are miles apart.

So many modern novels seem to encompass the time between the 1990s and the late 2000s. This time period is ripe with many events that were life-changing for the people who experienced them. In this novel, because Ruthie and Julia lost their parents to a plane crash, the focus is on other plane accidents. Ms. White  weaves the lives of the girls into the tragedy of 9/11 and the heroic efforts of Captain Sullenberger, who got his plane full of passengers to safety. Unfortunately, it comes across as a bit obvious when every event with a plane is important for the characters in this book. Instead of being clever, it becomes obnoxious.

The relationship between the two sisters is well-written. In the beginning of the novel, Ruthie has a hard time tracking down her rebellious older sister. But when Julia finally gets the message that all is not well and her little sister needs her, she is there at her side in moments. Like any sibling relationship, they have their ups and downs. They fight, they make up, they need each other at certain times, and they can’t escape the connection that they have with each other.

But while the relationship may be clear, the sisters themselves are often not. White gives us a few chapters with the sisters and then jumps ahead in time. She does this multiple times in the book. By the time you feel you are beginning to understand who the girls are at this time in their lives, they have aged and changed again.   It is difficult for the reader to relate to Julia, because we only see her through the eyes of her sister. However, the frequent changes in time make it difficult to really care for Ruthie, either.

A Soft Place to Land is a good book that takes an honest look at the bond between sisters and the ways that children and adults view their parents. But its frequent change of time and place coupled with the author's choice to make every obvious connection prevents it from being a great one. 

Wednesdays with David: Animals 1, Books 0

Sadly, we have no book to share with you today. David enjoyed the company of his Grammy, an aunt, and other assorted friends on an excursion to the safari at Six Flags.
So...we want to know what you have been reading with your son, your granddaughter, or the kids that you babysit. What children's books should we read next?

Happy Reading!

Review: The Siren of Paris

The Siren of Paris

By David LeRoy

335 pages

Book provided by Book Promotion Services

The Siren of Paris is a novel about a young man caught up in the violence and betrayal of World War II. In the late 1930s, Marc travels to Paris to study art. He falls in love with one of the models in his class and is beginning to feel at home in his new city. But the war is encroaching on Paris, and it is not long before Marc is losing friends, doubting the woman he loves, and deciding where he stands in the war between good and evil.

This self-published novel really exhibits the amount of time and effort that its author took with his research. Mr. LeRoy takes his readers through the streets of Paris and shows the way the Parisian people were ignorant of the true toll of the war before it rolled down their own streets. He also uses many events of the time period, some that are well-known and some that are less known. I think even readers who are fond of World War II novels will learn about the underground resistance in Paris and the wartime tragedy of the RMS Lancastria.

The Siren of Paris jumps around a lot. It starts at the end and then goes back through the story. The transitions often struck me as awkward. I felt as though the previous section hadn't really ended and I was suddenly reading about another day or another character.

The beginning device in the novel is indicative of how many characters are thrown into this novel. Marc is making friends and acquaintances from the moment he gets to Paris, and it can be confusing. The sheer volume of characters makes it difficult to really connect with them. Unfortunately, it also contributes to distance from our protagonist. While I was interested in him, I never really found myself fearing for him or anxious to find out what would happen next. 

I think Mr. LeRoy has some serious potential as a writer of historical fiction. His passion for history comes through on every page of meticulous research. While The Siren of Paris struggles with transition and character development, it is a book that sheds new light on lesser known historical events and the blurring of lines between good and evil during times of war. 

To the ladies and gentlemen of the FTC: I received this book from the author and Book Promotions Services in exchange for a review. The opinions expressed here are my own. 

It's Monday and we are busy!

Hey there, bibliophiles. How is it going? This has been a crazy week! I apologize for some spotty posting this week. We were having some computer issues, but we are back up and running. 

This week saw us visiting (and loving) a preschool with David and then prepping and carrying out a concert at our church. My husband was the man in charge and I sang and played piano, among some other things. We had a local pizza place selling pizza and a few vendors. We managed to avoid any real rain, and it was a great event. I think the Summer Sounds Concert will become an annual tradition at our church. Then we had the the hubby's parents, and his brother, wife, and little guy over for dinner. Suffice it to say that we are tuckered...but it's been a really good week. 

Read This Week:


The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
By Rachel Joyce


The Red House
By Mark Haddon

Posts from this Past Week:
It's Monday
Reviews of Ivanhoe and The Fault in Our Stars

Reading Now:

Tender Is The Night
By F. Scott Fitzgerald

Up Next:

The Discovery of Jeanne Baret
By Glynis Ridley

Check back later on Monday for my post on The Siren of Paris. What did you read this week?

Review: The Fault In Our Stars

The Fault In Our Stars

By John Green

Penguin 2012

313 pages

From the library

The Fault in Our Stars is the story of Hazel, a teen surviving thyroid cancer. While attending her lame support group, she meets a boy. Augustus is quirky and sarcastic, just as she is. Hazel and Augustus start to hang out, and then to fall in love. But this is a book about kids with cancer. It is full of oxygen tanks, hospital visits, and the uncertainty that any of them will see tomorrow. This is an amazing novel, an examination of the way we must laugh in times of grief and live boldly in spite of our inability to escape death.

This is my first book by John Green and I was completely impressed. Amidst hundreds of young adult books about apocalyptic battles, vampires, and witches, it’s refreshing to read a book about teens dealing with real problems.  His characters are wonderful – they feel real, like people you might know and hang out with. They are sarcastic but heartfelt, wrong and wronged, smart but not obnoxious, and alternatingly heartbroken and optimistic. I also loved that these teens had real relationships with their parents. They fought and they got on each other’s nerves, but it’s refreshing to see parents and children who actually seem to like each other most of the time.  

John Green also takes time within this book to pay tribute to the things that get us through our darkest days – the book we read again and again or the video game we play until we feel better able to deal with awful situations. A good portion of the plot deals with the determination of Hazel (and subsequently Gus) trying to find out what happens to the characters in a beloved novel. Mr. Green subtly slips in questions about what makes the book you read – is  it the author’s intention or what you have in your heart and mind as you turn the pages?

The Fault in Our Stars does not shy away from the emotion of living with a terminal disease, but it never becomes mawkish. It’s interesting to read from the point of view of the sick person. So often we read from the perspective of someone watching a loved one suffer but, with Hazel as our narrator, we understand the terrible knowledge that comes with illness. There is a current of fear running throughout the story– worry that you are the one who will break the hearts of everyone you love, worry that you can’t get too close because you won’t be here for long.

This is a sad book. Books about kids with cancer are inherently tragic. But it’s also a book that affirms our collective will to live, to live well in however many days we are given on this earth. It’s a book about first love and forever love, the love between friends and the love of family. This is a book I can see myself going back to time after time for its wit, for its characters, and for its heart. The Fault in Our Stars reminds me of everything that young adult literature can be. 

Review: Ivanhoe

Ivanhoe

By Walter Scott

Dodd, Mead, and Company 1943

500 pages

From the library

My first experience with the story of Ivanhoe was as a child when my parents got me a bunch of Illustrated Classics. I loved Ivanhoe and read it over and over again. As an adult, I was excited to experience the work in its entirety and see the difference between the sanitized children's version and the full novel.

I have to give the Illustrated Classics some respect here because they managed to fit all of the major plot points into that slim volume. Ivanhoe tells the tale of a young knight who is disinherited by his father because of his love for his father’s ward Rowena and his determination to follow King Richard, even if it means losing his fortune and taking part in the Crusades. Ivanhoe returns home to reclaim his title and his love, but his attempts are complicated by the scheming Prince John, a determined Templar, Robin Hood, and a beautiful Jewish healer.

For a book entitled Ivanhoe, we get surprisingly little time with our hero. This novel can truly be called an ensemble piece. We spend a lot of time with Ivanhoe’s father Cedric, some of his servants, and perhaps the most time with the villains of the piece. By doing this, Walter Scott gives a detailed picture of medieval life, that of the master and servant, the Christian and Jew; even if he himself admits that his details may not be 100 percent historically accurate.

And speaking of the Christians and Jews, you have to read this novel while remembering that this was a very long time ago. While Scott makes Isaac and his daughter Rebecca complex characters that are easy to relate to, most of the Christian characters are not so gracious. It can be difficult to stomach just how nasty some of them are just because of Isaac and Rebecca’s Jewish faith. I also have to admit that as a woman, I found Scott’s portrayal of them to generally fall flat. There are three women who appear in this novel. The two women who make up the love triangle with Ivanhoe leave something to be desired. While Rebecca does have some spunk and a little personality, we are informed that Rowena is simply spoiled and accustomed to having her way because of her beauty and position.

Walter Scott is big on the descriptions. As you read, you will know the most minute detail of everyone’s clothing, the architecture of every building, and the topography of every piece of land that the characters traverse. He also likes to throw in some history and analyze major battles, political rivalries, and oh, some random tidbits that you may find interesting (he certainly does).

But lengthy descriptions aside, this is a great story. It has knights and battles, tournaments and castles afire. And sometimes the book can be downright funny, especially when we are following the misadventures of various servants and yeomen. You can find the origins of so many of our notions about the medieval time period here. If you really want to take your time with a classic and get involved with many characters and plot lines, Ivanhoe is a great choice. 

It's Monday...what have you been reading??

Hello, bookish friends! How are you doing? The husband, the sister, and I had a wonderful time seeing Into the Woods in Central Park on Monday. It was an amazing production. If you live in the NYC area (and are willing to sit in line for half of the day) you should definitely check it out. The show is all about fairytales, and the characters include Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, and Jack (the kid from that whole beanstalk debacle). Here's a picture of one scene. I don't have any personal pictures - the Shakespeare in the Park people are notoriously strict about not allowing audience members to take pictures.

The Baker and his Wife agonize over the price of 'a cow as white as milk'
and young Jack wonders if he can part with his best friend.
source

Also, if any of you live in Central NJ, I will be performing in a music festival this Saturday afternoon. It should be a good bunch of performers. If you are in the area and interested, send me a message and I will let you know the details.

Read This Week:

A Soft Place to Land
By Susan Rebecca White


The Song of Achilles
By Madeline Miller


The Siren of Paris
By David LeRoy

Posts from this Past Week:
It's Monday
Wednesdays with David: The Dump Man's Treasures 
Reviews of The Chaperone, Girl Meets God, and Gone Girl

Reading Now:

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
By Rachel Joyce

Up Next:

Tender Is the Night
By F. Scott Fitzgerald

What did you read this week?

Review: Gone Girl

Gone Girl

By Gillian Flynn

Crown June 2012

432 pages 

From the library

I know that you all have heard about this book. It’s the 'it book' of the year, the one that everyone is talking about. Writers like Tana French and Kate Atkinson are singing its praises on the back of the book. You know six people who stayed up all night to finish this book. You are currently number 457 in the library queue to finally find out what happens in this book!

So…I’m going to tell you, because I’m a good book blogging friend like that. This book is divided into three sections and each one alternates between the perspectives of husband Nick and wife Amy. Nick’s sections take place in the present as he leaves for work on the day of his fifth wedding anniversary. He returns home to find his house trashed and his wife gone. Amy’s part is told through journal entries dating back to the very beginning of their relationship.  As the police and Amy’s parents search for the missing girl, secrets come to light that seem to implicate Nick in his wife’s disappearance. Nick vows he had nothing to do with it and wants nothing more than his wife’s safe return. But if Nick didn’t kill his wife, then where is she?

Ok, so I’m not going to tell you everything. Trust me when I say that you would hate me a lot if I revealed all of the dark twists and amazing turns. You would also be reading a review that was several thousand words long.

This book is possibly the darkest and most twisty story that I have ever encountered. Author Gillian Flynn must have had a great time consistently overturning the reader’s perception of what was happening. By switching back and forth between Nick and Amy, neither of whom is always truthful, the reader is constantly working to figure out what is actually happening and who they are rooting for in this strange and very broken relationship. After both Nick and Amy lose their jobs and they move back to Nick’s boyhood home to care for his sick parents, the marriage begins to disintegrate because of faults of both husband and wife. While this novel is a thriller, it’s also an examination of the many ways a marriage can crash and burn.

Gone Girl can have a suffocating effect on its reader. As you follow Nick and Amy’s descent into a very intricate web of deception, it can feel like the walls are closing in on you and you are about to be left in a very dark, uncomfortable place. But the feeling of disorientation is tempered just a little by the sheer genius of what you are experiencing.

This is not the book to read if you have a weak stomach. Or if you like to know what is going on at all times. It’s not the book for you if you don’t appreciate being manipulated. You won’t like it if you hate unreliable narrators or main characters who are plain unlikable. But if you want to have your literary world upended time and again and to be completely stymied by the literary brilliance of an amazing writer, Gone Girl is a book you don’t want to miss. 

Review: Girl Meets God

Girl Meets God

By Lauren F. Winner

Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill 2002

296 pages

From the library

Lauren Winner has always been a spiritual girl. When she discovered that she was not truly considered Jewish because her father was the Jewish parent, she went to the mikvah and became a Jew. As she begins to immerse herself in her Jewish faith, she has a dream. This dream leaves her certain that Jesus Christ was the Messiah and that he was calling her to follow him. Girl Meets God is a collection of essays detailing the journey Lauren made from Judaism to Christianity and the many things the two faiths hold in common.

Lauren is a very affable narrator, in great part because she is honest about her own failings and questions. She recognizes that her friends feel that she is inconsistent and wonder if she might become a Buddhist next. She also admits her own downfalls, confessing her struggles with sex to a priest and explaining her mistaken idea that Christians would be better than their Jewish counterparts.

“I expected that, in Christendom, I would find an endless supply of, well, people just like me: devoted and hard-working intellectuals nobly spurning lucrative careers in law and medicine to hunch over desks in unheated, cramped garrets, furthering the pursuit of human knowledge and thinking rigorously about everything all the time. I was, of course, disappointed, in the church and in myself; Christians are just as anti-intellectual and materialistic as Orthodox Jews, and I’m no nobler than the rest.”

Ms. Winner also incorporates her own background, weaving history and literature throughout the book. The book is set up in short vignettes, following the liturgical calendars of both Christianity and Judaism. Some of them are specific to the holiday she is celebrating, but others are just snapshots of the ways in which her spiritual pursuits have changed her life. She’s my kind of girl, with her bookshelves overflowing and piles of books decorating every room in her apartment. One of my favorite passages is the one where Lauren refers to God as the first and greatest author.

“God is a novelist. He uses all sorts of literary devices: alliteration, assonance, rhyme, synecdoche, onomatopoeia. But of all these, His favorite is foreshadowing. And that is what God was doing at the Cloisters and with Eudora Welty. He was foreshadowing. He was laying traps, leaving clues, clues I could have seen had I been perceptive enough…Nothing came of the pamphlets, or the cross, or the midnight Mass, but that is how the clues God leaves sometime work. Sometimes nothing comes of them. Sometimes, as in a great novel, you cannot see until you get to the end that God was leaving clues for you all along.”

Girl Meets God is a great read for anyone who is passionate about their faith or anyone interested in spiritual memoirs. Lauren Winner is an engaging narrator and a talented writer. At its core, this memoir will remind you that it is ok to ask questions about your beliefs and that other people are walking the same path that you are traveling. 

Wednesdays with David: The Dump Man's Treasures

The Dump Man's Treasures 

By Lynn Plourde

Illustrated by Mary Beth Owens

Down East 2008

A book gifted to our bookshelves

The story: Mr. Pottle is the man who runs the town dump and is called the dump man by the residents. Mr. Pottle loves retrieving things from the trash, especially discarded books. He gives the book to the local children and senior citizens. One day, the dump is closed and Mr. Pottle is nowhere to be found. The children know that something is wrong and set out to figure out what has happened to their beloved dump man, discovering a big secret in the process.

Mama opines: This book makes me cry a little every single time that we read it. Mr. Pottle is a character to adore and I love what this book says about community, about helping others, and about the magic of reading. The illustrations are lovely and there is so much for kids to look at on each page. It's a beautiful story that deserves a place on your bookshelf.

Thoughts from David: Because it’s very interesting because nobody knows that I know about the dump man’s treasures.

Favorite: My favorite part is when, at the end, the cat is on the table and the dump man is reading a book with a kid. 

Happy Reading!

Review: The Chaperone

The Chaperone

By Laura Moriarty

Riverhead June 2012
371 pages

From the library

Cora Carlisle is a woman settled into her ways. She lives in Wichita with her successful lawyer husband Alan, and her two nearly grown sons. She is content to spend her days managing her household, working for various charities, and catching all of the local gossip. But one day, she hears that brash and beautiful Louise Brooks is going to an elite dance school in New York City. Louise’s mother is searching for a chaperone for her young daughter. Cora jumps at the chance, eager to travel back to New York City and find answers to questions she has buried for many years. The few weeks that Louise and Cora spend together in New York will change their lives in ways they could not have imagined.

This novel, by Laura Moriarty, is loosely based on truth. There was a beautiful young woman named Louise Brooks who was the biggest star of silent film in the 1920s and 1930s. But this story does not really belong to Louise – this story is Cora’s. She begins the book as a thirty-six year old woman who has become comfortable with routine, despite the routine turning out to be much different than she imagined as a girl. She is hiding a lot of secrets and Moriarty brilliantly teases them out one by one, giving the reader a much different picture of Cora on page 100 than they had on page 1.

This book covers many years and deals with a lot of different historical issues. We go from very minute everyday details like the type of undergarments Cora wears to hot button topics of the period such as the treatment of immigrants and homosexuals. We see the transition from silent films to talkies, the collapse of the stock market, and the emergence of the Dust Bowl in the Midwest. Cora is an able narrator through these turbulent years because she is open to change. When the times are changing, so is she as she finds the confidence to change her mind and speak out for the things she holds dear.

When writing a review, one often emphasizes the author’s ease in characterization or beautiful writing or setting the place. In this case, it’s impossible to pick just one. The characters seem like people you actually know and you want so badly for them to realize their potential for success and happiness. The large swath of history is covered so artfully that it doesn’t feel forced and the reader is able to take in the rich descriptions of New York City and the Midwest. Moriarty’s writing is perceptive and skilled and the story speeds along in her talented hands. You may need to remind yourself to put the book down and do things like eat or shower. It seems so easy to just read a few more pages or one more chapter. 

I picked up this book because I had been reading rave reviews all over the internet. I’m happy to add mine to the bunch. Laura Moriarty has written a great piece of historical fiction with The Chaperone. Add it to your stack of summer reading. I promise you won’t be disappointed. 

It's Monday and we are going to New York City!

Hey everybody! How are you? As you read this, the husband, the sister and I are most likely camped out in Central Park so we can go and see Into The Woods tonight. Hooray! We are celebrating my sister's birthday by sitting in line reading before enjoying some Sondheim in Central Park. 

This past week, the smallest reader in the house had a ton of fun at Vacation Bible School. My house is newly decorated with various crafts involving fish, crabs, and sharks and those catchy songs may never leave my head. 

Also, we read some books this week. I know, I know, you are shocked....

Read This Week:

Ivanhoe
By Walter Scott



The Fault in Our Stars
By John Green


Posts from this Past Week:
It's Monday
Wednesdays with David: The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore
Review of The Chosen, Second Nature: A Love Story, and Angelmaker


Reading Now:

The Song of Achilles
By Madeline Miller


Up Next:

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
By Rachel Joyce


What did you read this week?

Review: Angelmaker

Angelmaker

By Nick Harkaway

Alfred A Knopf March 2012

478 pages

From the library

Joe Spork will do anything to avoid taking up the mantle of his father, the gangster Matthew “Tommy Gun” Spork. Instead, he spends his days repairing clocks just as he was taught by his grandfather. But all of that is about to change. When an elderly lady brings a strange box to him, she also brings a succession of strange and dangerous characters to Joe’s door. His client is not a dotty old lady. She is Edie Banister, a retired spy. And the box she brings is not an ordinary mechanism, but a device that could end the world as we know it. As Joe unknowingly sets events into motion, he will have to decide if he can save Earth by himself or if he can trust the unsavory collection of mobsters, lawyers, and bombshells who soon invade his life.

Harkaway has done an amazing thing in making every single character that graces these pages a captivating one. In some moments, we are in as much awe as Joe that these vibrant people are concerned with a man who repairs clocks and tries to keep his head down. It’s difficult to pick a favorite character in a novel that gives you a nonagenarian spy, a beauty with more moxy than any heroine of film noir, a snarky lawyer, and a criminal with a heart of gold. The good guys have the best of intentions (even if they are thieves) and the bad guys are oh so bad. All of them feel so realistic that you might expect them to knock on your door any day now (although the way this novel goes, it’s probably best if they don’t…you don’t want to set the end of the world in motion.)

The author of this wonderful story has a true gift for description. He takes the reader from the mysterious Night Market, a hangout of the underworld, to the lavish palace of the Opium Kahn, Shem Shem Tsien. There is the perfect balance between creating rich and enticing worlds without slowing down the action of the story. This ambitious book could perhaps be categorized as dense. The reader is treated to so many plots that it could make your head spin. But somehow Mr. Harkaway keeps you on track and, as it turns out, each bit of plot is integral to this imaginative tale.

Have I mentioned that this novel also has a wry sense of humor? This book and the inhabitants of the world between its pages never take themselves too seriously, even when the things happening around them are deadly serious.

“At this attempt to lift his mood, Joe Spork has somehow had enough. He loves Mercer like a brother, but sometimes the plummy, playful verbiage is obnoxious. It conceals emotion. Actually, it mocks emotion, the better to pretend to be above it. Joe Spork jackknifes to his feet and grabs his coat. He has no clear idea of where he will go, but he wants out, out of this ludicrous mayhem and back to his old cosy life. Perhaps he will take a ship to India and open a shop in Mumbai. Perhaps he will shave his head and make clocks in a monastery, or marry a Muslim girl and move to Dubai, where they have a decent respect for clockwork and automata and the men who produce them. Perhaps he will just run through the wet, uncaring streets of London until his furious confusion abates. He doesn’t know what he will do, but being locked up in this cellar is no answer to what rides him, that much he is certain of. He wants Ari to sell him cat poison. He needs to call Joyce and tell her Billy Friend is dead. He needs to see his mother. He needs to sleep.

It would be very nice if someone would hug him, just for a minute.”

So often, tales of really thrilling adventure lack intelligence or characters that you really care about. But who said we couldn’t have it all? Angelmaker succeeds at being a smart spy story with well-developed characters and heart. This is one of my favorite reads this year. 

Review: Second Nature: A Love Story

Second Nature: A Love Story

By Jacquelyn Mitchard

Random House September 2011

From the library 

364 pages

When Sicily Coyne is in middle school, she finds herself in the midst of a giant fire. Her firefighter father saves her life, but loses his own. Sicily is left with horrific scars, even after years of surgery. Sicily has grown into a confident young woman in spite of her disfigured face. She is thrilled about her upcoming wedding to a childhood friend, until she learns a shocking secret about his connection to the day that changed her life forever. Her life is in shambles. The pain of betrayal compels Sicily to pursue a controversial surgery that could give her a new face.

Jacquelyn Mitchard explores what would happen if someone who had been considered ugly and a social outcast for most of her life could become beautiful in just a few days. How would your life be changed? Would you be a different person?  How would the people who have always been by your side react to you now? How do you perceive the new people who come into your life? There is a lot going on in this story. There are some very serious questions about medical ethics that Mitchard raises through this book. As an author, she does not answer them for the reader. Instead she invites you to consider the questions and come to your own conclusions.

This is my first time reading a novel by Ms. Mitchard and I really enjoyed it. Her writing flows effortlessly and she excelled at adding new layers to the plot. I was surprised several times by where the story went. That being said, my favorite part was the character of Sicily. She is unlike any character I have ever experienced in a book. Many people would fold under such intense circumstances and hide from the world. Sicily has an acerbic wit that dares you to tell her that she cannot do what anyone else can. But it hides an intense vulnerability. She is a protagonist that you will admire and root for.

Sicily realizes, “Not until I was grown did I begin to understand that a crisis without margins is intolerable to the human temperament. People expect you to get better, and I wasn’t going to. People expect you to have a fighting spirit, and I didn’t…The biggest tragedy about tragedy is this truth: It’s tedious. People can’t stand to feel obliged for a long time. If you ever have a lingering illness, try not to linger too long. You’ll wear out your welcome. That’s not bitterness talking. It’s experience.”

My only disappointment is the ending of this book. I obviously don’t want to reveal it here, but suffice it to say that I don’t enjoy open-ended conclusions. After spending an entire book with a group of characters, I really want to know about their happy or unhappy endings.

Second Nature: A Love Story is a great book that will have you speeding to the end to find out what happens to Sicily, a character who demands that you pay attention to her and her story. I would love to read another book by Jacquelyn Mitchard soon. Any suggestions? 

Wednesdays with David: The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

Written by William Joyce

Illustrated by William Joyce and Joe Bluhm

Atheneum Books for Young Readers 2012

From the library

The story: Morris Lessmore is a man who loves books. When a freak storm blows him and all of the words in his book away, he sets off to be reunited with the words he loves so much. A chance encounter with a woman flying by book will change his life forever.

Mama opines: David and I both adore this book. We've been reading it every day since we got it from the library. The story, the language, and the beautiful illustrations will completely captivate anyone who understands really loving a story. It will make you and your little one laugh and cry, because it's one of those books that appeals to children on one level and adults on a whole different one. When you finish reading it, you can watch the Academy Award winning short that it inspired here.

Thoughts from David:I love it because the title is Morris Lessmore. 

Favorite part: The whole thing except when I cried.

David is having a great time attending Vacation Bible School this week. His mama is enjoying the quiet mornings! Happy reading, friends. 

Review: The Chosen

The Chosen

By Chaim Potok

Ballantine Books 1995

283 pages

From my bookshelf

When Reuven Mathler is hit in the face by a baseball lobbed by his opponent Danny Saunders, he expects to hold a long and bitter grudge. Instead, Danny comes to the hospital to apologize. Reuven accepts, and the two begin a deep friendship that is tenuously balanced on their differing families and beliefs. Reuven is the son of a professor and a follower of Zionism. Danny is being groomed to take over his father's position as a rebbe to the Hassidic people. As the two boys become closer, they discover that their lives are worlds apart in spite of living with just a few streets between them.

I can't believe I haven't read this book before now. It's really beautiful. Potok writes wonderfully intricate characters. The characters in this book are so sure of their beliefs that when they fail them, they do not know where to turn. This book is especially poignant for those of us who have a religious upbringing. There comes a moment for each of us where we have to leave the faith of our parents behind. We either make the beliefs our own or we abandon our faith. Reuven and Danny are at this exact moment. Reuven is enjoying his father's new confidence in him and the adult conversations that they have about religion and world events. His new relationship with his father and his faith guide him toward becoming a rabbi. Conversely, Danny is expected to become a religious leader of the Jewish faith, but his father's distance and refusal to consider the relationship between psychology and faith cause Danny to question his beliefs and his future. 

I think one of the reasons that I related to this book so much is because I am the daughter of a religious man myself. Our family spent many evenings debating theology over the dinner table or being quizzed on obscure passages from the Bible. Obviously our quizzes were much less psychologically scarring and we have a good relationship with our father, but I understand that elation of making your father proud in the subject that he holds dearest. There is a bond created when you feel that a parent sees you as an intellectual equal and they give you advice that you will keep with you forever. 

For example, Reuven's father reveals to him that the distinction between things that are important and things that are frivolous is not as great as we think. "Reuven, as you grow older you will discover that the most important things that will happen to you will often come as a result of silly things, as you call them - 'ordinary things' is a better expression. That is the way the world is."

This is a book to be read slowly, to be savored. Mr. Potok has written a lovely book about the moment when you begin to understand your parents and they begin to see you as adults. It's about the time when parents realize their limitations - the things they cannot do for their children, no matter how hard they might wish to do them. It's a novel about the truest kind of friend; the one who remains after a fight, after your world has fallen to pieces, the one who falls right back into place as if nothing had happened. This book will resonate with anyone who is a parent, anyone who has parents, and any person who is deciding what beliefs are really their own.

I was excited to discover that there is another book about Reuven and Danny. Their friendship continues in The Promise. I am intrigued to see where Potok takes this very realistic and complicated relationship.

Have you read The Chosen? What did you think of it? 

It's Monday and August is here!

Hello, everyone! How is your August going so far? The husband and I celebrated our anniversary this weekend with dinner out and a trip to hear Ingrid Michaelson in concert. We are so thankful to have our parents close by who are willing to have our little guy spend the night at their houses!

Thank you to everyone who had kind words for my family and me last week. Some things are definitely getting better, so thank you for your prayers and thoughts!

Read This Week:

The Chaperone

By Laura Moriarty

Girl Meets God

By Lauren F Winner

Gone Girl

By Gillian Flynn

Posts from this Past Week: 

It's Monday

Telegraph Avenue #5

Wednesdays with David: A Bad Case of Stripes 

July Wrap Up

Reading Now:

Ivanhoe
By Walter Scott

Up Next:

The Fault in Our Stars
By John Green

What are you reading this week?

July Wrap-Up

Books Reviewed: 8
Pages Read: 2813
Fiction/Non-fiction: 7/1
Female authors/male authors: 3/5
My books/library books: 6/2
Lindsey's favorite book in July: Code Name Verity

Books reviewed by David: 3
David's favorite book in July: The Night Pirates

What was the best book you read in the month of July??

Wednesdays with David: A Bad Case of Stripes

A Bad Case of Stripes

By David Shannon

The Blue Sky Press 1998

Borrowed from Aunt Sara

The story: Camilla Cream loves lima beans, but she cares too much about what other people think to actually eat them. As she tries to pick the perfect outfit to impress all of her classmates, she suddenly grows multi-colored stripes all over her body. The doctors and specialists can't figure out how to cure her and every remedy gives her a new addition - viruses, berries, more colors, and even a tail. Could the little old lady at the front door know what to do?

Mama opines: This book will make your little one laugh at the funny transformations that poor Camilla goes through. The pictures are wonderful.  More than that, it will hopefully remind them that they do not have to please other people. Camilla is a big people pleaser, but she learns through this adventure that it's ok to march to your own drumbeat. If your child likes lima beans though, you may have to have them on hand for dinner after reading this book!

Thoughts from David: I like it because, well, A Bad Case of Stripes is my favorite book. Camilla turns all sorts of colors and looks like a beautiful rainbow!

Favorite part: She turns into a medicine, into a giant pill!

Happy Reading!