It's Monday and everyone is sick

My week. Well, my big kid is on antibiotics for strep. Between the snow and the sick days, he only went to school two out of the last five days. Then when he was starting to feel better and actually go back to school, little girl got a stomach bug. I think I have attained some new sort of parenting level when my toddler threw up down my back. Yup.

I managed to post a few things this week, only because of scheduled posts. It was a pleasant surprise to see my reviews of Gold, The Wrath and the Dawn, and Kitchens of the Great Midwest show up, since I had forgotten about writing and scheduling them!

What have I been reading lately? Well, I read Drew Barrymore's Wildflower while sitting up with a feverish kid, and then read Felicity and 2 A.M. at the Cat's Pajamas.

               

My plan for this week is to read The Hours Count, historical fiction about a neighbor to the Rosenbergs, and Making It Home.

                

What are you reading this week? 

Mini-reviews: The Wrath and the Dawn & Kitchens of the Great Midwest

You've heard this story before. A king marries a new woman each day only to kill her the next morning. A brave girl volunteers to be the new bride in order to save her kingdom. But you've never heard it quite like this. Shahrzad has a broken heart after her best friend is the latest victim of the Caliph's edict. She decides to volunteer as the newest bride, but she doesn't plan to die the next morning. She plans to murder the king. Instead, she finds herself telling him a story...a tale so intriguing that Khalid allows her to live in order to hear its end. But as the nights go by, both the murdering king and the would-be assassin bride find themselves falling in love. When Shahrzad discovers what is really happening in her kingdom, will she be able to carry out her plan?

I picked up The Wrath and the Dawn because I am a huge fan of all things Sheherazade and One Thousand and One Nights related. This book was perfect because it was similar to the original tale, but Renee Ahdieh really takes it in a different direction. It hooked me in early and soon I was ignoring my responsibilities in order to finish the story. There is magic and romance and Ahdieh beautifully conveys the beauty of the palace, the surrounding village, and the desert that lies beyond both. The characters are really interesting and while I plan to read the second story, I would even pick up additional books that feature the supporting characters. The Wrath and the Dawn is the perfect book to lose yourself in for a weekend.

The Wrath and the Dawn
By Renee Ahdieh
G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers May 2015
388 pages
From the library

Lars and Cynthia seem to have a charmed life. They have just welcomed their first child, a daughter named Eva, into the world. They share a passion for great food and wine. But then, seemingly out of the blue, Cynthia runs off with a sommelier. She leaves only a half-hearted apology that she needs to find what makes her happy. Lars is determined to make his daughter happy and teach her the joys of cooking and enjoying good food. As Eva grows up, she discovers that food will play a vital role in her life - inspiring her, challenging her, and ultimately leading her to become one of the most infamous and sought after chefs in the country.

I promise I haven't ruined the plot for you with the above description - it's on the book jacket. But what I am about to write may spoil some things for you if you like to go into a book with no knowledge of it. [Spoilers ahead] You have been warned.

The charm of Kitchens of the Great Midwest is threefold. First, J. Ryan Stradel has crafted characters you will adore. They don't always do the right things, and they make stupid decisions. But they have heart and good intent and such big dreams to fulfill. Secondly, Stradel goes ahead and makes the state of Minnesota a character. It's not by taking readers through sweeping vistas or over rolling plains. Instead, Eva discovers her home state through food. She learns to love and cook the dishes that the people around her adore and, in doing so, we learn about the people who live in Minnesota. Lastly, Stradel has conceived a really fascinating and brilliant scheme for telling a story. Each section is from the point of view of a different character. While this initially threw me off, I soon found myself wishing for more time with Eva's dad, a high school boyfriend, a jealous rival and of course, Eva herself. I am utterly impressed by an author doing something new in fiction and doing it so wonderfully.

Kitchens of the Great Midwest
By J. Ryan Stradel
Pamela Dorman Books/Viking July 2015
310 pages
Read via Netgalley

Review: Gold

Kate and Zoe are competitive cyclists. They met at the age of nineteen when they both make the national program. They start training under the same coach, flirting with the same guy, and doing whatever it takes to get to the Olympics. Thirteen years later, the best friends are looking at the race that will be their most important and probably their last. The 2012 Olympics are on the horizon and Kate and Zoe are determined to race. Kate is trying to train all the while caring for her daughter who is fighting cancer. Zoe will do anything to win, including damaging her relationships and throwing her own safety and sanity aside. Will the Olympics bring the friends closer together and give them one last shot at glory, or will it tear them apart forever?

This story takes a friendship and places it in a unique context. I didn't know too much about competitive cycling, and I have to confess I haven't given much thought to the intense training that goes into becoming an Olympic athlete. While I will never walk into a stadium to the cheers of thousands, I think all parents can relate to the constant tightrope walk between the needs of our children and our own needs.

Like many books, this one oscillates between the past and the present. Cleave is expert at giving you tiny snippets of the past that illuminate the current storyline in really interesting ways. It's impossible not to care for Kate, her husband Nick and daughter Sophie, Zoe, and even their coach. If you have read a book by Cleave before, you know that he is a fan of the surprising twist. That certainly happens here, but the thing that really kept me turning pages was the fact that I didn't know how the story would end...and I wasn't sure which woman I wanted to win the gold. This book is not just for cycling or Olympics fans; it's a story for anyone who enjoys nuanced, fascinating characters and a compelling story. 


Gold
By Chris Cleave
Simon and Schuster July 2012
324 pages
From my shelves

It's Monday, so let's talk books and things!

Hi again. It's been a crazy few days, right?

In the interest of honesty, I haven't been out of the house since I got home from work on Friday night. We got quite a bit of snow this weekend. There has been a lot of reading, sitting around in pajamas, and I may have made some muffins which are rapidly disappearing. It appears that the fun isn't over quiet yet, since we got the message today that school is cancelled on Monday. Of course, D decided to celebrate his impending day off by spiking a fever, so things can only get better from here...

On the blog this week, I posted reviews of Advent In Narnia, Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library, and A Curious Beginning. I also did my weekly check-in for Alexander Hamilton. We will be reading it for the next five weeks or so...

I read The Queen of the Night, which was great. It's like tumbling down a rabbit hole, where our narrator is led to recount story after story. Trust me, you will be happy to follow her into a circus tent, the back room of a brothel, or the glorious stage of a Paris opera house. Then I read The Memory Keeper's Daughter, which has been sitting on my shelf for longer than I want to admit.

                

Next up for me is Wildflower by Drew Barrymore and Felicity, Mary Oliver's latest collection of poetry.

               

What are you reading this week?

Mini-reviews: Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library and A Curious Beginning

Kyle Keeley is good at making jokes and good at playing games. He especially loves the games of local legendary game-maker Mr. Lemoncello. When he discovers that the inventor himself is sponsoring the reopening of their local library and has created an overnight game for twelve lucky kids, Kyle knows he has to be a part of it. The children are told that they must use all of the resources of the library to figure out how to escape from being locked inside. 

I think Grabenstein deserves some credit here for both realizing the power of libraries' history and the capabilities they may have in the future. Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library references your childhood favorites, but it also imagines the ways that technology could be used to enhance and interact with those stories.

If this book had been out when I was in elementary or middle school, I think it would have been a favorite. Since I am about two decades older than that age group, I will say that it was a fun way to spend an afternoon and I would wholeheartedly recommend it to any young reader who loves adventure, whether they know all of the wonders a library can hold or will discover them for the first time through the clever games of Mr. Lemoncello.


Escape From Mr. Lemoncello's Library
By Chris Grabenstein
Random House Books for Young Readers June 2013
304 pages
From the library

Veronica Speedwell is at a turning point in her life. Her aunt has passed away and she is ready to pursue her love of science around the world. But before she can leave, her home is ransacked and a mysterious baron says that she is danger. He promises to reveal everything he knows about what is going on and how it connects to Veronica but before he can tell her, he is murdered. Veronica must team up with the baron's eccentric friend Stoker to figure out who is after her and what they want.

Veronica is a very spunky heroine. She does things like taking lovers in foreign lands or telling off the local parson when he disapproves of her behavior. It makes for a lot of fun, but I was waiting for some consequences for her nontraditional choices. Of course, this is fiction, so people may disapprove but no one actually gets in the way of Veronica's independence. 

The mystery is good here, but the real draw is the dynamic between Veronica and Stoker. Both characters are stubborn and feisty. Watching them come to care for each other is the highlight of this story. 


A Curious Beginning
By Deanna Raybourn
NAL/Penguin October 2015
337 pages
Read via Netgalley

Hamilton: Chapter 10-14

 

Hello, fellow Hamilton lovers. It's that time of the week again when we talk about the joys and sorrows involved in reading Ron Chernow's door stopper of a biography. 

I have to confess that this was the first week when reading felt like a bit of a slog for me. I don't know if it just my being tired, or the fact that these four chapters have a lot of political details with fewer witty remarks. 

So...let us review what happens in chapters 10 through 14!

Chapter 10 revolves mostly around the exploits of Alexander Hamilton, lawyer. We learn a little about Hamilton sticking up for what he thinks is right yet again, even to the detriment of his own reputation. In this case, he thought that the way Americans treated the defeated Tories said a lot about who Americans wanted to be. He defended people both through his writing and in court. One case involved a loyalist woman who had fled her home, but wanted back rent from the people who moved in during the war. All in all, he represented almost 50 similar cases. AHam certainly didn't worry about taking the unpopular stand, did he?

This is also the chapter where we get Aaron Burr's sad back story. Suffice it to say, it is almost as awful as Hamilton's. His parents and three grandparents all died in less than two years. Baby Burr was a sad orphan just like his fellow lawyer and future nemesis. 

The reading this week was also the first moment when I felt less than charitable towards our friend Ron Chernow. At the beginning of chapter 11, he writes, "In all, Alexander and Eliza produced eight children in a twenty-year span. As a result, Eliza was pregnant or consumed with child rearing throughout their marriage, which may have encouraged Hamilton's womanizing."

Hold up, Ron. Are you speculating Hamilton couldn't keep his pants on because Eliza was caring for their children? Because she had perhaps "let herself go?" 

 

No, no, Ron. Let's not go there. Especially when you go on to say how Eliza took care of all those kids, ran the whole household, and designed patterns for furniture in all her spare time. And also, she had a "perpetually busy husband."

Moving right along now. Now it's time to talk about slavery. Historians are fairly sure the Hamiltons did not have slaves, but Angelica and her husband and Eliza's parents most certainly did. So did George Washington. And so did many of the members of the New York Society for the Promoting the Manumission of Slaves, which Hamilton joined in 1785. It's fascinating and disheartening to see how many slave owners realized it was awful and tried to get rid of it gradually. They would get to keep their slaves, but maybe they could get rid of it in a generation or two.

In chapter 12, we learn about the long, slow road to the Constitutional Convention. Chernow does a really good job of conveying how little certain founders wanted a national government to have great power and how easily things could fall apart if the states had no responsibility to the country as a whole. The true miracle of the Constitution is that every signer made compromises for the good of their new nation. 

The last two chapters are about The Federalist Papers. As we all know, Hamilton was non-stop and wrote the 51 of the essays. Then Chernow covers all the drama of the ratification of the Constitution. Hamilton was doing his best to convince his fellow New Yorkers while hoping to hear that Madison had succeeded in Virginia. When the Constitution was ratified, Hamilton hit the apex of his fame and fandom. In fact, "admirers wanted to rechristen the city "Hamiltonia."" How sad are you that NYC isn't named Hamiltonia?

The last chapter is mainly about Washington becoming the first president and Hamilton becoming the treasury secretary. The best moment, as usual, isn't really about Hamilton. Instead, the Schuyler sisters shine again. Apparently Angelica dropped her garter (is that easy to do?) on the dance floor. Hamilton picked it up and gave it back. Angelica teased him that he wasn't a Knight of the Garter. Peggy shot back that he would be a Knight of the Bedchamber, if such a thing existed.

Can you possibly wait for next Thursday, girls and boys? Stay tuned for more history, scandal, and sass.

Review: Advent in Narnia

Heidi Haverkamp has written a devotional for Advent that centers around beloved novel The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. In the first chapter, she writes, "...Advent is like Narnia in more ways than the weather. It's a magical time, set apart from ordinary time: we listen to special music; we decorate our homes, streets, and clothes; we eat particularly delightful and delicious foods. We experience a heightened sense of excitement and expectation. Those expectations are not only about the giving and receiving of gifts but also about Advent and Christmastime offering us a glimpse of a world that's kinder, more just, and more joyful than the one we usually experience."

This was a great Advent pick. Themed devotionals like this one can get bogged down in the minutiae of the book or it can make half-hearted connections between a theme and a book. In this case, there was so much to draw from The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe that really connected with the Advent themes of waiting, trust, and joy. The questions for reflection at the end of each chapter will actually make you think about the things that might hold the place of Turkish delight in your life, what it means to "keep awake" to await the return of God (or Aslan), and what aspects of Advent make you curious and full of wonder like Lucy.

Advent in Narnia has been set up for both individual and group use. While it works wonderfully as a solo study, there are also suggestions for doing it with a group and finishing the study by watching the movie. Each chapter of the devotional matches up with chapters of The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe and passages of Scripture.

I would highly recommend Advent in Narnia to any reader looking for something special for the holiday season. It made me see Advent and Christmas through new eyes, while giving me the warm, safe feeling of being back home in the much-beloved Narnia. 


Advent in Narnia: Reflection for the Season
By Heidi Haverkamp
Westminster John Knox Press September 2015
96 pages
Read via Netgalley