Wednesdays with David: The Boxcar Children

The Boxcar Children Series

By Gertrude Chandler Warner

From our shelves/borrowed/from the library

The story: "One night, four children stood in front of a bakery"...you remember, don't you? The Boxcar Children series tells the stories of four siblings - Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny. The children are orphans who find refuge in an abandoned boxcar. They are happily living together until they discover that their grandfather has been looking for them all along. They move to his mansion, but their adventures are not over yet!

Mama opines: Didn't everyone love this series as a child? I wanted to start reading these books with David (we needed a break from the Magic Treehouse!) but I didn't have the first book. My best friend lent it to us and we jumped in. We are currently reading our third book, but we are reading a bit out of order. My collection began with the sixth book, so we read #1, then #6, and now #2 and #3 have arrived at our library. 

I think these books are great for teaching siblings to work together and get along. The Boxcar Children are so incredibly resourceful. Their favorite thing is basically to figure out how to live on their own by finding or building what they need. It's funny though, that when I read them as a child I didn't realize that they were taking place so long ago. But this reading, I realized we were talking about the end of carriages and the beginning of 'automobiles.' It's lots of fun for me the second time around and for David as he experiences it for the first time.

Thoughts from David: I like it because they are the best best books because they might be going from one to eleven. (Wait until he finds out that there over one hundred!)

Favorite part: When they find that kid on the island

Friends, have a very happy Thanksgiving tomorrow. 

David and I are grateful for each one of our readers who visits us here to read our thoughts about the books we love. Happy Reading and Happy Turkey Day!

Review: The World is Bigger Now

The World Is Bigger Now

An American Journalist's Release from Captivity in North Korea

By Euna Lee with Lisa Dickey 

Broadway Books 2010

306 pages

Won from Alita of Alita Reads

Americans held their breath when they learned that Euna Lee and Laura Ling were captured by North Korean authorities and held indefinitely. The journalists had been gathering stories of people fleeing North Korea's oppressive regime. When they briefly crossed the border from China into North Korea, they were apprehended by soldiers. Lee and Ling were separated and faced interrogation and the uncertainty that they would ever see their families again. The World is Bigger Now is the story of Lee's experiences in North Korea and the ways in which she was changed forever.

This is an interesting read but it lacks any real tension. Even if you didn't follow the news closely, you can tell just from the cover that Lee will be released from her imprisonment. Lee also writes with some journalistic detachment. While you may be interested in her story, you never feel really invested in her. Part of this may also be self-preservation. I can only imagine how difficult it must be for Lee to revisit the darkest days of her captivity, so far away from her husband and daughter. 

The most interesting part of this book is learning the stories of the North Korean refugees who were interviewed by Ling and Lee. They believed in the film they were making when they started, but as they met people who had fled for their lives they found renewed commitment. I think that anyone reading this will finish the book with a deeper understanding of the current situation in North Korea. That being said, Lee does a wonderful job of showing a human side to her captors. Even while they are holding her captive, she finds moments to share with these people who are simply doing their job. 

The World Is Bigger Now is an inspirational book. It's a story about a woman who trusted in God to get her through incredible circumstances. Lee's faith is an integral part of how she got through her ordeal. It's a realistic look at belief, though. Lee's relationship with God is ultimately strengthened through this  experience, but it's a journey that has many bumps along the way. As she sits alone and wonders what her future will be like, she can't help but wonder if God has abandoned her. While this book has faith running throughout the whole story, it can be appreciated by readers of all beliefs. 

This is a good read for anyone who is interested in the plight of the North Korean people. While Lee is not the most captivating writer, her story is still inspiring for the ways in which she truly committed to the people she had interviewed, the kindness she bestowed on her captors in spite of everything, and the ways in which her experiences caused her to reevaluate what is truly important. 

It's Monday and it's almost Thanksgiving!

Hey fellow bibliophiles. What have you been up to? This week has been a bit crazy. We went to a wedding and then out to dinner with another couple and then we celebrated my aunt's birthday. And then of course, there is all of the usual work and David going to school and church and laundry and life.

I'm excited about two of my sisters coming home from college for Thanksgiving and having a few days off this week - I think we all need it! We will be celebrating Thanksgiving at my grandmother's with twenty other people or so. I'm making pumpkin crunch cake. Yum. What are your plans for Thursday?

Read This Week:

Redwall
By Brian Jacques


In The Country of Last Things
By Paul Auster

Reading Now:

Full Disclosure
By Dee Henderson


Posts from this Past Week:
It's Monday
Reviews of The Last Tycoon and Wish You Were Here


Up Next:

Antarctica On a Plate
By Alexa Thomson

What are you reading this week?

Review: Wish You Were Here

Wish You Were Here

By Stewart O'Nan

Grove Press 2002

517 pages

From my bookshelf

Emily Maxwell is meeting her family for one final summer at the house on the lake. After the death of her husband, she plans to sell the summer home that holds so many decades of memories. Emily makes the trip with her sister-in-law as each remembers the man who meant so much to them. They are joined by Emily's son Ken, who is trying to decide if his love for photography is enough to justify his decision to quite his job. Ken bring his wife Lise and two children. Last to the party is Meg, who was always Emily's problem child. She hopes this trip will help her move on from the end of her marriage and connect to her children, who seem increasingly distant. One week at the lake house with the Maxwell family is a revelation about the ways in which our families members disappoint each other and the bonds that cannot be broken. 

I read Wish You Were Here primarily because I heard rave reviews about its sequel Emily, Alone. It felt wrong to read that book without reading the first book. This was an excellent choice. Wish You Were Here is a great book. It is one of those rare stories that seems to be about the minutiae of life, but it is ultimately about the ways in which our families shape us.

This novel had so much in common with The Red House, a book I read earlier this year. But this one was superior in every way. Wish You Were Here is devastatingly real. This is a family mourning the loss of a husband, a father, a brother. It's about appreciating the people you love and the time you had with them, but not until it's too late. It explores a mother's disappointment that her children did not become all she dreamed that they could be and the children's knowledge that their mother feels that way. It delves into the competition between a sister and a wife and how both can feel that one man belongs to them because he did...but for different times in his life. The insights into family dynamics that O'Nan makes between the covers of this book are stunning.

Mr. O'Nan is one of those wonderful authors who can inhabit the mind of anyone - an elderly woman who doesn't know how to hold her tongue, a grown son trying to balance his passion for photography and the need to support his family, and a teenage girl who feels like the ugly duckling in the shadow of her beautiful older cousin. The movement between the characters is effortless and it is just as heart wrenching to live in the mind and heart of Meg as she tries to pick up the pieces of her broken family as it is to witness Emily wonder how she will be remembered. 

"That way of life seemed unthinkable now, antique, and yet it had been hers, was still the guide and yardstick she relied on. She wondered if the children would remember her the same way, these strange corn cakes hopelessly old fashioned.

Of course. She would be their past. Time was not a circle or a line but a kitchen, a lamp, an armchair."

Wish You Were Here is a gorgeous novel. The characters are intricate, and their relationships will make you smile in recognition and consider your own family. This is the perfect read for a lazy summer day or an endless winter evening. If tales of the connections and complications of family are your kind of reading, this is a book you don't want to miss. 

Review: The Last Tycoon

The Last Tycoon

By F. Scott Fitzgerald

Charles Scribner's Sons 1941

190 pages

From the library

The Last Tycoon is F Scott Fitzgerald's final novel. It is largely unfinished, but the edition I read includes his notes detailing his plans for the rest of the story. This book is based on Fitzgerald's experiences in Hollywood and it centers around Monroe Stahr, one of the last moguls in the golden age of movies. Stahr's whole life revolves around the studio until he happens to see a woman who reminds him of the love he lost. 

Similarly to Tender Is The Night, this novel is narrated by a young woman with a fascination with our protagonist. Cecilia Brady is the daughter of another powerful producer who attempts to explain why Stahr was one of the last great producers in Hollywood. This device seems strange to some readers, but I found it a wise choice. Stahr needs to maintain some mystery and Fitzgerald achieves this by distancing him from the readers a bit. Cecilia knows and admires Stahr and we see a different version of him through her eyes than we would if he narrated his own tale. 

Fitzgerald gives us an insider's look at the inner working of the Hollywood studios of the past through both Cecilia's eyes and Monroe's. We see Stahr interact with all sorts of film people from extras to camera people to directors. While many movies depict the glamour of old Hollywood, this novel shows the loneliness of truly being invested in making art. Stahr gives everything he has to the movies, working all hours and often sleeping on the couch in his office. Through this story, Fitzgerald asks a question that plagues authors, musicians, and artists: Is it possible to commit to both your art and to another person? 

It's fascinating to read Fitzgerald's notes and look at the direction he planned to take this story and his characters. I wonder what he would have changed, had he lived to complete the novel. The chapters we do have contain intriguing characters and a flow and cohesion in his writing that is sometimes lacking in his other works.

The Last Tycoon gives readers a wonderful and terrible taste of what might have been if Fitzgerald had not died so tragically young.  In the middle chapters, it has the same magic as The Great Gatsby. Reading this book will remind you of Fitzgerald's genius and make you mourn the novels he might have written. 

For the last selection in my "reading F Scott in a year" adventure, I think I'm going to pick up a biography. Any suggestions? 

It's Monday and my best friend is here!

Hello, there. How was your week? Ours has been busy and I am really happy because my best friend has been here visiting for the past few days. We have been friends since high school and although we live in different states now, I'm always so glad when we can fit a few days into our busy lives. This might help to explain why I am still reading the same book. It could also have something to do with the mountain of reviews I have to catch up on. Oops....

Still Reading:

Redwall

By Brian Jacques

Posts From This Week:

It's Monday

October Wrap-Up

Wednesdays with David: Who Is Coming to Our House?

Review of The Imperfectionists

Up Next:

In the Country of Last Things

By Paul Auster

What are you reading this week? 

Review: The Imperfectionists

The Imperfectionists

By Tom Rachman

Dial Press 2010

269 pages

From the library

The Imperfectionists, the debut novel from Tom Rachman, follows the staff of an English newspaper based in the city of Rome. Each chapter focuses on one person integral to the publication of the paper - Lloyd Burko, the Paris correspondent desperate for relevance and a relationship with his son; Kathleen Solson, the editor-in-chief who discovers her husband is having an affair and contemplates one of her own; Winston Cheung, the inexperienced Cairo stringer who worries that his job has already been taken by someone more experienced; and Oliver Ott, the publisher who can never hope to fill the shoes of his grandfather who founded the newspaper. Together, these vignettes give the readers an intimate view into the everyday workings of a newspaper and the complicated lives of the employees who work there.

There is also a lot to be found on these pages about the evolution of print media. We get snippets of the Ott family history and discover how and why Cyrus Ott founded this newspaper. As time passes, Rachman shows us how the newspaper changes and how it stays the same, much to its detriment. While I don't imagine that this story is indicative of all newspapers, it does make you think about the tremendous change we have experienced as readers in just the last 50 years or so. While everyone read and trusted the newspaper in the 1950s, few people turn to print media now as their main source of news. 

While each chapter focuses on just one character, you do find small glimpses into the history and relationships of other characters. When I closed the book, I felt like I could go back and immediately read it again to find new insight into the ways that these characters impact each other, both professionally and personally. Perhaps best of all, Rachman managed to surprise me again and again with twists of plot and character I didn't see coming. When that is done the right way, it's a lovely experience for a reader. 

The characters are brilliantly constructed. Each one has a very distinct voice and personality and you will find yourself invested in their lives in spite of (or perhaps because of) their very obvious flaws. As you start to read a chapter, you may find some characters unlikable, but Rachman is very skilled at peeling back the layers to show you the humanity of each of these people. By the end of their stories, you will be intrigued by them and care for them.

The Imperfectionists is an excellent debut and it's easy to forget that it is, in fact, Mr. Rachman's first novel. He loves these broken, floundering characters so much that you can't help but do the same. When I finished this book, I had one of those rare, wonderful moments where I was sorry a book was over and so sad that there were no other books by this talented author for me to enjoy. This book is an exquisite look into our triumphs and failures as human beings.