It's Monday - let the insanity begin!

Hello, ladies and gentlemen. How is it going?

This week was a bit rough. I caught a nasty cold, although I am happy to report that I am now on the upswing thanks to my good friends Mucinex and Dayquil. Now it is time for things to officially get crazy. I have a few more presents to buy and then it is time for lots of wrapping. We are also hosting a Christmas Open House for our church family this weekend and then we will be hosting Christmas dinner at our place. Let the insanity begin!

Read This Week:

First Impressions
By Charlie Lovett


The Underground Girls of Kabul
By Jenny Nordberg


Posts from this Past Week:
It's Monday
Top Ten Tuesday: New to Me Authors
Review of Dear Committee Members


Reading Now:

Caleb's Crossing
By Geraldine Brooks

Up Next:

My True Love Gave To Me: Twelve Holiday Stories
Edited by Stephanie Perkins


What are you reading this week?

Review: Dear Committee Members

Dear Committee Members

By Julie Schumacher

Doubleday August 2014

181 pages

From the library 

Jason Fitger is an English professor at Payne University, specializing in creative writing. His department is under siege as the administration cuts funds and faculty and debris rains down on their head from the renovations to the economics offices. Fitger was once a member of the esteemed "Seminar," which seems to be an allusion to one of the prestigious MFA programs around our country. He can't seem to shake the relationships that shaped his life at that time as he still pines for the approval of their adviser and reaches out to the other students for advice, assistance, and sympathy.While Fitger's own writing career is somewhat derailed, he still can recognize a promising writer when he sees one...and when he doesn't.

The story of this professor is told through a series of letters to his fellow faculty members, to old friends and lovers, and to the committees of the graduate programs, writing fellowships, and internships that his students hope to gain. Dear Committee Members is a book that will make you laugh in recognition while also sparking a deeper look at our current higher education practices.

The epistolary novel is not for every reader and certainly not for every writer. The difficulty lies in bringing a character to life solely through their correspondence. For Professor Fitger, who has recently been burned from a very unfortunate reply-all situation, hand-written letters are an important means of expression. He is sarcastic and snide as he criticizes the lack of support from the university for the professors and students, but willing to take responsibility for his own failings. Most of all, his blunt honesty in the recommendations that he writes for his students shows his commitment to their education and to their futures. Fitger sees no problem in stating that a student did poorly in his class or that another deserves better than the job she is trying to nab. But he also writes to the mental health services on campus on the behalf of a student and tirelessly tries to find funding for a writer he believes can make it big.

Julie Schumacher has created a true curmudgeon of a character. But he is grumpy because he cares - because he has witnessed too many writers who didn't get the book deal, too many professors fight to teach the classes that matter, and too many students in his department take terrible jobs in unrelated fields. This is the perfect book for anyone who has had a teacher who opened their eyes or the professors who are doing the world-changing every day in our colleges and universities.

Top Ten Tuesday: New to Me Authors Read in 2014

Putting this post together was fun and it opened my eyes to what kind of reading I have been doing this year. I thought I read a lot of new authors but when I looked at it, I read many books by authors I had read before. 

Here are ten authors whose work I read for the first time in 2014:

Fiction

1. Chris Cleave
I had Little Bee sitting on my shelf for a while and finally decided to give it a try. Reading this story devastated me in the best of ways and I love knowing that he has two other books for me to read!
Books tbr: Gold and Incendiary


2. Sarah Beth Durst
The Lost was a bit out of my comfort zone, but I'm so glad I gave it a try. Durst brings a new world to life while referencing beloved tales like Peter Pan and The Wizard of Oz. She has several other books but I am really waiting impatiently for the sequel!
Books tbr: Chasing Power, Conjured



Non-fiction and Memoir

3. Leslie Jamison
The Empathy Exams was a sleeper hit when this book of essays struck a chord with readers. It's one of those books I want to enthusiastically push into people's hands with the warning that it will make you reflect on the way you interact with others and it just might make you a kinder, better person.
Books tbr: The Gin Closet


4. Micha Boyett
Found: A Story of Questions, Grace, and Everyday Prayer is a beautiful look at the ways we can connect with God throughout the mundane and repetitive parts of our lives. Boyett doesn't have any other books yet, but this girl is hopeful!

5. Shauna Niequist
In Bread and Wine, Shauna Niequist easily combines a cookbook, a memoir, and advice about living an open and inviting life. Shauna seems both wise and totally relatable.

Books tbr: Bittersweet, Cold Tangerines, and the upcoming Savor

Historical Fiction

6. Anthony Doerr
All the Light We Cannot See is a National Book Award finalist for very good reason. Doerr portrays two children growing up during WWII and the intersections between art and science and kindness and evil are breathtaking.
Books tbr: About Grace, Memory Wall, and The Shell Collector


7. Erin Lindsay McCabe
I Shall Be Near To You was one of my favorite novels of 2014. McCabe brings a young couple to life as the wife follows her husband to the battlefields of the Civil War.
Books tbr: Next novel is in the works!


8. Ariel Lawhon
The Wife, The Maid, and the Mistress is a fictional look at a real-life mystery. Lawhon's passion for history and these people is evident on every page. The coolest part of the story is that a descendant of one of the characters in this book actually contacted Lawhon recently!
Books tbr: Hindenburg is coming soon!


9. Genevieve Valentine
The Twelve Dancing Princesses set during the Roaring 20s = The Girls at the Kingfisher Club. It's magical and wonderful.
Books tbr: Mechanique 


10. Nicola Griffith
There are not too many books out there about the 7th century. Hild will introduce you to an unforgettable heroine and immerse you in a fascinating time period.
Books tbr: The Aud Series



What new authors did you discover in 2014?

         

It's Monday and we have had a lot of celebrating!

Hello again! This has been quite the week.

David turned seven so we celebrated with his friends on the actual day and then celebrated with family on Saturday. He also got to go see New Jersey author Dan Gutman (author of the My Weird School series) at our local library and have his books signed. We have to start them young, right?!?

With everything going on this week, I only read one book. On the plus side, my desire to review books seems to be coming back. I think I might actually catch up this week!

Read This Week:

Some Luck

By Jane Smiley

Posts from this Past Week:

Birthday Boy!

Reviews of Everything Beautiful Began After and A Map of Betrayal

November Wrap-Up

It's Monday

Reading Now:

First Impressions

By Charlie Lovett

Up Next:

The Underground Girls of Kabul

By Jenny Nordberg

What are you reading this week? 

Birthday Boy!

Today is the seventh birthday of a certain member of our household. We are having a few friends over to celebrate after school and then we will celebrate with the family this weekend.


To my dearest little big boy,

Happy Birthday!

I am having such a fun time watching you grow up.

Look! They let us take home this baby!

                           
I love discovering your passions along with you and watching you learn new things.

You make your daddy and me laugh almost every day with your wise beyond your years exclamations.

I hope you love being seven. I hope you that you grow taller and stronger (although you could hold off on the being as tall as your mom thing for a few more years). I hope you learn new things about this great big world of ours and about yourself. 

I love you so much and I am so proud of you.

Your Mama

Mini-Reviews: Everything Beautiful Began After and A Map of Betrayal

Everything Beautiful Began After 
by Simon Van Booy

One summer in Athens, three young people meet and become inseparable. Rebecca is an artist who has left her past behind in an effort to discover who she is and what she wants from life. George hopes to find a connection in ancient languages that he hasn't been able to find from other people. Henry is an archaeologist whose bravado and confidence hide a dark secret.

Simon Van Booy is a master of writing lovely stories. His prose is simple but breathtaking and his tales themselves are timeless. Rebecca and George and Henry could be people from any time, exploring new places, learning new things, and finding the people who will shape their lives. 

The timelessness of the story is in direct juxtaposition to the meticulous sense of place. While the characters in this book will travel to many places, most of the story takes place in Rome. The sweeping vistas, noisy tourists, and historic sites seem to come to life right before your eyes.

I love reading the work of Simon Van Booy. There is a sincerity that permeates every sentence of his stories; an acknowledgement that each of us will face both divine joy and unspeakable grief during our lives. Everything Beautiful Began After invites the reader to let themselves be shaped by this difficult and wonderful life.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       A Map of Betrayal

by Ha Jin

Gary Sheng was a man with dual allegiances, dual families, and dual lives. He lived in the United States and worked as a translator at the CIA, which gave him the ability to leak information to the Chinese government. He married an American woman and has a daughter named Lillian. But all the while, he could not forget his first family back in China. A grown-up Lillian learns about his duplicity by reading his journals after he has died. She decides to reach out to her father's first family and try to piece together the truth.

A Map of Betrayal moves back and forth between Lillian's quest in the present and her father's life in the past.The entire novel has a sense of reserve throughout, even as Lillian learns her father's darkest secrets and finds that they have implications for her family. At times, it felt as if Lillian's interest in Gary was academic and part of her research as a professor instead of personal. I learned a lot about China and Gary's pain about living two lives is fully realized, but I never really empathized with the characters. 

November Wrap-Up

source

So now that we are officially in holiday mode, what have you been doing? Are the decorations up? We have most of our decorations up but we still need to get a Christmas tree! The Christmas songs are on pretty much 24/7 around here. My current favorites are Here with Us and Winter Song.


Books reviewed in November: 5
Pages read: 1,595
Fiction/non-fiction: 4/1
Male authors/female authors: 4/1
My books/library books/books for review: 2/0/3
Most-read November review: Persepolis
Favorite November read: Little Bee


Ouch. I knew the reviewing hadn't been going so well, but I didn't realize it was this bad until I started working on this post. I just don't seem to have a lot of time or motivation to write reviews lately. I hope to catch up with some mini-reviews and have a better month in December!

What was the best book you read in November?