Only Child

At our December community book club meeting, one member mentioned that she wished we had our February book selected as she'd like to read ahead. (In January, we have a meeting that I like to call "Let's Talk About Books" where we make recommendations and come up with a preliminary list from which to choose our books for the coming year. Two women suggested Only Child by Rhiannon Navin. They'd read this novel in another book club and said it made for a great discussion. Everyone was quick to agree to this book.

Having read it, I believe that the conversation about this novel should be extensive. There's so much to talk about. In the book description, it states, "Perfect for fans of Room" so I think I expected it to be more grizzly than it was. Don't get me wrong. This novel about a school shooting and the impact on the community and particular families was very disturbing. The story is narrated by six-year-old Zach Taylor who has a big heart and a capacity for compassion.

Zach has grown up with a brother with Oppositional Defiant Disorder. His brother has been seeing a therapist for years. Perhaps Zach has seen the therapist, too. Or his parents try mindfulness exercises with both Zach and his brother. He is very attuned to his feelings. In fact, he's able to assign colors to his feeling and is able to realize that sometimes he feels just one emotion. Other times, his emotions get jumbled up.

Initially, Zach thinks that being an only child will be a positive experience. Then he realizes how horrible that initial thought was. He feels guilty for feeling that. What kind of horrible brother is he? Over time, he realizes that there was so much he never said to his brother.

In the novel, Zach thinks about the song, "Ten in the Bed."

There were two in the bed and the little one said, "Roll over! Roll over!" So they all rolled over and one feel out. There was one in the bed and the little one said, "Alone at last!"

In the song the way we sang it when I was growing up, when the little one was alone in the bed, the little one said, "I'm lonely." That's how Zach feels. He states "Alone at last!" I didn't want that to happen to me, but it happened anyway. And so now I was like in this giant bed that was too big and too empty, and there was a ton of space all around me with nothing in it.

I finished reading a little over a week ago and I'm already struggling to remember some of the finer points. And our book club doesn't meet for another 6 weeks. I'm going to respond to the discussion questions in this blog post. I don't believe that I'm including any spoilers.

1. In the opening lockdown scene, Zach repeatedly focuses on external sensations - the smell of Miss Russell's breath, the stuffiness in the closet, the popping sounds coming from the hallway. What does this tell us about how Zach perceives the world? What insight does it give us into who he is as a child, and as a narrator?

Zach's descriptions of the lockdown, in the closet, allows the reader to feel as though he or she is in the closet with Zach, his teacher and his classmates. Perhaps because I did years of lockdowns as a fifth grade teacher, I could feel the tension in that small space. I could imagine the stuffiness, the weird sense of quiet. Thankfully, I can't imagine the popping sounds coming from the hallway. Zach is in tune with the world around him. We'll get rich descriptions from this narrator. He's an observant, thoughtful child. He's really in touch with his feelings and seems to have strategies for dealing with uncomfortable feelings.

2. After overcoming her shock, Zach's mom campaigns against the parents of the shooter in an attempt to hold them accountable for their son's actions. Do you agree with her, or do you think she is out of line?

I'd like to think that if I were in her place, I wouldn't be so set on holding the parents of the shooter responsible. In her case, though, especially, I think she's out of line because she is the mom to a son who can't seem to be controlled. Who has issues (oppositional defiant disorder). Her rage makes it impossible for her to see the possibility that her son does something terrible. Would she feel at fault? How responsible are parents for the actions of their children? And at what age do the parents become less responsible? 

3. Reading the Magic Tree House books aloud "to Andy" helps Zach cope with his grief. Which books have helped you through difficult times in your life?

I think have Zach read these books aloud was really genius. It also shows how in touch he is with his feelings. He recognizes that he needs to stay connected to Andy. And he's found books that promise the secrets to happiness. Zach would like to be happy again.

When I go through difficult times, I usually seek to escape through my reading rather than searching for help. Okay, that's not totally true. When I was getting divorced, I read a handbook about being divorced from a jerk... or something like that. I also read a book about children of Holocaust survivors trying to get insight into my ex-husband's mind.

4. In their review of Only Child, Kirkus Reviews said of the Magic Tree House series, "Seems like a lot of people, and not just the ones in this novel, need to reread those books." What are the "secrets to happiness"? Do you try to live by these rules? How do you think you could incorporate them into your daily life?

Wow. I already can't remember what the secrets to happiness were. I did take some notes. There are four secrets of happiness. The first one was to pay attention to small things around you in nature. To feel curious was the second one. I wish I'd taken notes of all four. I do try to live by these rules. On January 1, 2014, I started participating in a Photo a Day challenge. That has opened my eyes to the smaller things around me - in nature and otherwise. At the same time, it's increased my curiosity. And I have found that I've been a lot happy incorporating these habits into my daily life. (I wish that ePub books had a search function. I'd love to be able to locate the last two secrets to happiness.)

5. Zach uses colors to help him understand his emotions better. What do you think about Zach's justifications for his choices? Which colors would you use to represent your emotions? Do you think colors have an impact on your mood?

Zach's use of colors to represent emotions reminded me of the Disney movie, "Inside Out." In the movie, characters and colors represent the emotions. I can't remember which colors Zach used nor can I remember what colors were used in the movie. But it makes good sense to me in good places. The colors chosen made sense to me in both the novel and the movie.

I think colors probably do have an impact on my mood. The more I like the colors I'm surrounded with, the happier I most probably am. I'd use blue to represent a feeling of peace. Yellow or pink might be happiness. Green would be jealousy or envy. Black would be sadness. Orange would be confusion.

6. On page 114, Zach says, "People start to forget about you after you die and they can't see you all the time anymore. It was already happening with Andy. I started to notice that at his funeral that was on the day after the wake. Everyone was talking about Andy, but they talked about him like they only remembered some parts of him, not all the parts... . It was like they weren't really talking about Andy or they were starting to forget about what he was like." Do we do a disservice to our loved ones when we only remember them at their best?

It's natural to remember our loved ones at their best. Those are the good memories. But sometimes when we're alone, we remember the yucky stuff. That's not the stuff that we miss, though.

7. Do you think Zach should have returned to school earlier, or that he was sent back before he was ready? What role does Miss Russell play in helping Zach heal? Do you think Zach learns to trust school as a safe place again?

After going through a school shooting, how can you trust school as a safe place again? I read an article yesterday about how experiencing a lockdown (with or without a shooting) can cause psychological damage. I think there isn't enough research done on just this yet. Miss Russell acknowledges Zach's loss and gives him a little charm that she told him gave her comfort after she lost her grandmother. She was understanding of what he was going through.

As for when Zach should have returned to school, I guess I was surprised that the school didn't more aggressively offer grieving programs for the families of the victims. Zach's dad drove Zach to school for weeks, and each day he'd ask if Zach was ready to go in. And each day Zach said, "Not yet." Should there have been some gradual return? Like meeting with Miss Russell at the (new location) of the school first alone? I just don't know. But I do think he was out of school too long. He might have had an easier time handling his grief if he'd been with other children who had also experienced loss.

8. Zach suffers from survivor's guilt after Andy's death, feeling that everyone might have been happier if he'd died instead. How does Aunt Mary help Zach work through these feelings? What does she teach him about family?

I wish I could remember the specifics of Andy's sleepover with Aunt Mary, but sadly I can't. What I do remember, though, is that Aunt Mary acknowledged Zach's grief and she acknowledged that Andy was a mix of goodness and terribleness - or at least being a terrible person to be around at time.

9. Zach's TV interview is traumatic for him. If you were in his mom's position, would you have put Zach on camera? Why did she insist, and why didn't any of the other adults intervene?

I would like to think that I wouldn't even consider putting a child through the experience of the TV interview. She was grieving herself, unable to see his grieving, so set on getting back at the parents of the shooter. She couldn't see what Zach was going through. Did she think the whole family should have felt the same way that she felt? As a mom, had she been thinking, she would have realized the stress this put Zach under. And might she have worried about how unpredictable his responses to the interviewer would be? The dad didn't intervene because he was struggling just as much, but in a slightly different way. The interviewer thought this would  be a more interesting interview, good for ratings. The camera guy, Dexter, is the one who could have suggested that including Zach in the interview was probably a bad idea.

10. What do you make of Zach's perceived betrayal by Dexter? Did Dexter fail Zach when he needed a friend most, or was he just doing his job? Do you think Zach sees the situation more or less clearly because he's a child?

Zach failed to step up to the plate, but I don't really fault him. He didn't know Zach and wasn't quite sure what he needed. And he most likely didn't want to overstep his bounds. But I do think that Zach saw the situation more clearly because he was a child. He didn't have preconceived notions about how things were supposed to be. He accepted things at face value. And he was incredibly perceptive.

11. If you had to trade places with any of the characters, who would it be? Why? Who would you least like to trade places with?

I could see me in the place of one of the grandmothers, Much more easily than I could see myself - or want to see myself in the role of the teacher. I believe that I could love my grandchild in a way that my severely hurting child was unable to love or attend to his or her child at the moment. I would least like to trade places with Zach's mother, Melissa. I don't even want to imagine anything remotely like what she was going thru.

12. According to the Gun Violence Archive, nearly four thousand children and teens were hurt or killed by gun violence in 2017. Do you think there is anything we could be doing to prevent these injuries and deaths? 

GUN CONTROL. Not necessarily getting guns off the street, although I think that's what I believe in. But background checks, waiting periods, restrictions of gun ownership. There also needs to be a better awareness of mental health problems, a better way to recognize them and to de-stygmatize treatment mental health problems. There's too much anger across the board, from adults to youngsters, and lots of school shootings are caused by angry shooters. Why is everyone so angry? What is the answer to that? Gun violence has only gotten worse in 2018. How many students at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida are going through what Zach and his family are going through? And that's real life!

13. Many books have been written about school shootings but none from the point of view of such a young child. Why do you think the author wrote this book from Zach's perspective instead of an adult's? Did having such a young narrator teach you anything new about surviving tragedy?

Zach's understanding of the situation and his ability to show compassion was much more honest than that of an adult. The story was more honest this way. Had an adult narrated the story, there would have been a lot of preconceived notions included in relaying how the child viewed the situation. Children are more open to forgiveness, better able to see both sides, and they are more resilient.

14. If you could give Zach one piece of advice to help guide him as he grows up, what would it be?

I would tell Zach to hold on to the memories of having an older brother, being part of a family with two children. I'd tell him to do all he can to keep Zach alive inside of him.

One question that I have is about the affair that Zach's father had. We learn he'd had an affair with Ricky's mom. I guess from Zach's point of view, it didn't mean anything and that's why it was only mentioned in passing. It had more meaning to Ricky's mom and that is further developed.

This book was exceptionally well done. I'm looking forward to our book club discussion, but I'd recommend this book to anyone who would be comfortable reading a novel about a shooting at an elementary school, whether or not you have anyone to discuss it with. (Don't forget, you can always start a dialogue with me about any book that I review in this blog.)

You might be interested in this interview with Rhiannon Navin.

(((Semitism)))

I'm going to start my review of (((Semitism))) by Jonathan Weisman (only hours after starting my reading) with a quote from Becoming, Michelle Obama's memoir that I finished immediatlely before starting this commentary. What she says, I believe, will explain the the experience of Jonathan Weisman.

As minorities across the country were gradually beginning to take on more significant roles in politics, business, and entertainment, our family had become the most prominent example. Our presence in the White House had been celebrated by millions of Americans, but it also contributed to a reactionary sense of fear and resentment among others. The hatred was old and deep and as dangerous as ever.

I think I might have been wrong about my first thought. I now don't really think that the uptick in anti-semitism is a reaction to Obama's presidency.

My daughter was the one who pointed me towards this book. I don't know where she heard about it, but she asked me if I'd read it. I looked into it, read some of the reviews, and put it on my library waitlist. I got it fairly quickly.

Now, just several hours after completing (((Semitism))), I don't think I can accurately summarize what the book was all about. Partly, I think because of the writing. Weisman, an editor for the New York Times, wrote this in the style of a newspaper column. But newspaper columns are limited in length. This was very long, very circuitous, somewhat repetitive. I often felt I didn't have ample background information to make sense of all he wrote.

Much of the content of the book was extremely disturbing. Weisman starts out by explaining the ((())) in the title. It's an internet thing. A way for Jewish surnames to be highlighted on the internet, allowing "bad guys" to effectively search for those people. The people with the Jewish surnames are then harassed online. He included lots of nasty anecdotes.

Weisman is a secular Jew. His first wife was a non-Jew and until one of his daughters asked to become a Bat Mitzvah, he was raising his children without religion. He pretty much clumps Jews into two categories. The religious Jews who focus more on the safety of Israel than on safety here at home versus secular Jews who care most about setting a moral compass and assisting those who need a hand up. Personally, I'm conflicted on the whole Israel thing. Where do I fall between those two clumps?

Ironically - or not - this book made more sense about the Jewish/Black organization that was a big part of the novel Single Jewish Male. The logic is that all those groups threatened by "the haters" need to band together and kind of scaffold each other. He feels that the Anti-Defammation League and Southern Poverty Law Center need to be strengthened.

I can ramble on a bit more, but I'll spare you. After reading this, I feel no more nor no less threatened than I felt before I read it.

This book was published in late winter 2018. I wonder how the book would be updated if it was written after attack in Pittsburgh at the Tree of Life synagogue. Might google that now.

[Post google: I'm not sure I'm buying what he's saying now. His view seems so narrow. If you'd like to read what I just read, here's the link.]

Becoming

Politics aside, I loved Becoming. Just one day after finishing the book, I already miss my new friend, Michelle Obama. I'd love to meet her for coffee or a glass of wine.

What did I like most about it? The fact that I could easily forget that I was reading the memoir of a former first lady. It felt like I was reading about someone I grew up with in Brooklyn. Or perhaps someone I'd attended college with. I have a few years on Michelle Obama, but she was writing about things I could 100% relate to. On so many levels. She worried that readers wouldn't see themselves reflected in her life. Here is one reader that did.

Like Obama, I grew up in a family of 4 with two loving parents. With a mom who went to bat for me at school when things didn't seem quite right academically. In a working class neighborhood, not realizing how middle class our neighborhoods were until we were thrust into life at east coast Ivy League institutions. LIke Obama, I always wondered if I was enough. I worried that I was an imposter. Unlike Obama who headed straight to law school after Princeton, because that was what other people would expect her to do, I didn't apply to business school until after I'd been out of college a few months. But I went to business school because of the expectations of others and not because I thought that was really what my next step needed to be. Obama talks about "the swerve," that point in life when you do something unexpected. Because of her marriage to a loving and supportive husband, her swerve was much more of a conscious decision than mine was.

Not only did we both have children born on major holidays, our children were born on the same major holiday. "Any parent of a child born on a major holiday knows that there's already a certain line to be walked between an individual celebration and more universal festivities." How many times did I tell my son - and myself - that the Fourth of July fireworks were celebrating him?

The Obamas collected what she called trinkets for their daughters. I called them souvenirs.I had three kids so we collected snow globes, souvenir mugs and key chains!

 In the girls' rooms we'd put on a display the growing collections of trinkets that Barack made a habit of bringing home from his various travels - snow globes for Sasha, key chains for Malia.

Michelle Obama was able to get to where she got with the support of friends. She really gets what being a friend and having a friend is all about. It's about "a thousand small kindnesses... swapped back and forth and over again." She was a bit wiser than me and more assertive than me.

We were all so used to sacrificing for our kids, our spouses, and our work. I had learned through my years of trying to find balance in my life that it was okay to flip those priorities and care only for ourselves once in a while. I was more than happy to wave this banner on behalf of my friends, to create the reason - and the power of a tradition - for a whole bunch of women to turn to kids, spouses, and colleagues and say, Sorry, folks, I'm doing this for me.

Obama, like me, loves a good sitcom.

I loved the Robinson's family's take on bullies. Bullies were scared people hiding inside scary people.

Obama's explanation of why each vote counts really resonated with me. I'd heard local election stories about why each and every vote counts. But she went through the steps of why each vote mattered in national elections.

I'd seen how just a handful of votes in every precinct could mean the difference not just between one candidate and another but between one value system and the next. If a few people stayed home in each neighborhood, it could determine what our kids learned in schools, which health-care options we had available, or whether or not we sent our troops to war. Voting was both simple and incredibly effective.

 The final passage that I highlighted in the memoir was "I'm an ordinary person who found herself on an extraordinary journey." I couldn't agree more!

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

What's in a title? Ha ha. Last month, Books & Beer Club was selecting an inspirational book to read for our November meeting. November is the month we read inspirational books. I googled "inspirational books for book clubs" and this book showed up on two lists. I even made a joke about it. Two latecomers showed up after I'd already mentioned this title and made my joke. So they had no idea we'd already laughingly tossed this around. One of them said that a friend of hers had read the book and really liked it. That it's a popular book and maybe we should read it. And that's how this month's book, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life by Mark Manson was selected.

I think we're going to have a good discussion tonight. But I'm really on the fence about how I feel about this book. Is it a self-help book? Is it simply Mark Manson's memoir? And is it inspirational?

Manson makes lots of really good points about picking your battles, prioritizing in life. He repeatedly brings up entitlement. And while I agree with what he says about entitled people (clarifying that there are both negative and positive senses of entitlement), I had some trouble reading this knowing that someone my son's age is handing out this type of advice. And I'm still confounded about how Manson became an expert. Maybe I resent that he gets to make his living blogging and speaking, something that I might have preferred doing over what I actually ended up doing over the years. I'm not sure.

Not only that, but he had some really horrendous fails before he "came out on top."

There was nothing earth shattering in this book. Lots of commonsense life lessons that I learned over time. Lessons that I believe you need to experience rather than simply hear about, especially if you're young. But I did enjoy some of the anecdotes that he used to make his points.

Would I recommend this book? I'm not sure. I'm really not sure who Manson's targeted audience is supposed to be. If we have a good discussion at book club tonight, I'll highly recommend it for book clubs. Otherwise, I'm really not sure how I feel. Sorry.

Single Jewish Male Seeking Soul Mate

Last spring, after nearly a year of having no Adult Education at my synagogue, I decided that I'd take it upon myself to create a kind of Adult Education Light program. I mean, who am I to teach anything very, very serious. So far we've had a cooking class, we've watched and discussed a documentary, and in January we are going to have a book discussion. I'm hoping it will be the start of a Jewish-themed book club.

First order of business, after selecting the date to meet, was selecting the book to discuss. I asked a few of my friends for suggestions and go what you'd expect. Mostly books about the Holocaust. Those books are popular and abundant. (One year nearly all the books my community book club read were Holocaust books until someone said enough was enough. I don't know that we've read one in a long time.) But I wanted something different for this group of readers. I wanted something that might seem more relevant to us.

I started looking at lists of Jewish books, mostly from the Jewish Book Council. I read description after description of novels. I now have a short list of other books I might want to read on my own. The description of Single Jewish Male Seeking Soul Mate by Letty Cottin Pogrebin made me think that this book might be the perfect book.

Feminist icon Letty Cottin Pogrebin's second novel follows Zach Levy, the left-leaning son of Holocaust survivors who promises his mother that he'll marry within the tribe. But when Zach falls for Cleo, an African American activist grappling with her own inherited trauma, he must reconcile the family he loves with the woman who might be his soul mate. A New York love story complicated by legacies and modern tension of Jewish American and African American history, SJM Seeking explores what happens when the heart runs into the reality of politics, history, and the weight of family promises.

What Jewish person living today can't relate to some of that? Not only that, this novel combines so many different topics into one neat and concise storyline. How important is it to marry someone Jewish? As I was reading Single White Male, I was able to imagine conversations with people who might attend this new Jewish book club. I wish we were meeting sooner than the middle of January. I'm so anxious for this discussion.

Lots of Zach's issues stem from being the child of Holocaust survivors. So those would ordinarily not be issues faced by young adults the ages of my children. But my children's father was the child of Holocaust survivors and exhibits many of the traits of a survivor. That just made for one more connection that other people my age might not have been able to make.

I loved the book. I'm excited to discuss it. I hope this kicks off our Jewish book club with a positive start. And I'd highly recommend this novel for any other Jewish book club.

Our Souls at Night

I'm not sure what I thought Our Souls at Night by Ken Haruf was about, but I was anticipating a really dark story. It wasn't that at all.

The premise of the story is interesting. Two neighbors (I hesitate calling them elderly because they aren't that much older than me) lost their spouses many years ago. The neighbors knew each other but weren't friends. The woman shows up at the man's house one day and asks him if he'd like to have sleepovers at her house, not for the sex. Just for the company. It doesn't seem to take much thinking about it on his part. And that's pretty much where the story begins.

"But that's the main point of this being a good time. Getting to know somebody well at this age. And finding out you like her and discovering you're not just all dried up after all."

Interesting, right? Think about it. If you're of a certain age, how often do you get to develop a relationship with someone new? Think about the getting to know you phase. What a great feeling. Once you reach that certain age, the prospect of opening up to someone new can be terrifying, a feeling expressed by some of the other women in the neighborhood.

We learn about the marriages that Addie and Louis had. The reader is able to draw conclusions about how Addie and Louis ended up where they were at the start of the novel from bits and pieces they share with each other about their pasts.

I think this is a perfect book for my community book club to discuss. I'm one of the younger members of the book club, and fortunately, I still have my husband. But would I do what Addie does if I were in her position at her age? Frankly, I don't think so. In all my single years, I was okay climbing into bed to go to sleep by myself. My loneliness would come at dinner time more often than any other time of day. Then again, you really open yourself up when you're in bed, not quite asleep yet. You'd probably develop a truer relationship than you would just chatting over dinner. And that's what I think the title of the novel means. Our Souls at Night are our true souls. I'm really curious to hear what some of the other women in the book club have to say.

The language used by Kent Haruf is very sparse, but the story is very deep. There's not a whole lot of action. But by "eavesdropping" on Addie and Louis' conversations, we really get to know them very well.

There are three other significant characters in the novel. Ruth, an elderly woman, who is Addie's friend and another neighbor. Addie's son, Gene. And Gene's son, Addie's grandson, Jamie.

I don't want to give away the ending, but I was disappointed. No, that's not true. I was saddened. Saddened that lots of folks stories end up the way this one did.

I'd highly recommend Our Souls at Night. And I hope to add a little bit to this post after my book club discusses this next month.

 

 

 

The Storyteller's Secret

More than 24 hours after finishing Sejal Badani's The Storyteller's Secret, I'm still not sure how I feel about it.

The novel jumps between the story of Indian Amisha's story during the time of British rule in India, being retold by her beloved servant, Ravi, and the more current story of Jaya, Amisha's American granddaughter. Jaya has just suffered her third miscarriage. Her mother, Lena, had just received a letter that her father in India was ailing and she should come soon. Lena refuses to go. Jaya needs an escape so she goes to India instead.

Amisha's story is typical. The expectations of marriage and women in the mid 20th century India, relations between Indian and British towards the end of British rule, the place of the caste system. Jay's story is pretty typical, too. Modern woman, career choices, family choices, family relationships. In both cases, pretty predictable. The real story was the intersection of these two stories. But even that was pretty predicable.

Jaya's story takes place in the summer of 2000. She's a journalist and a blogger. It is important that Jaya is a writer. It's a connection to Amisha who loved to tell stories and to write. More than that was just not necessary. A few of her blog posts were included in the book and they added nothing to the story. Plus, from my recollection, blogs weren't quite mainstream in 2000 and I can't imagine reading something like her blogs at that time.

It was more of a romance than women's fiction within the genre of historical fiction. It wasn't a bad book. It just wasn't a great book.

Alternate Side

After reading two memoirs in a row, and a non-fiction book before that, I was in the mood for a good novel. Browsing the shelves on Overdrive, the title Alternate Side jumped off the screen at me. Upon closer examination, I saw that Anna Quindlen, an author I've enjoyed in the past, had written it. Borrow. Checkout. Download. It was on my bookshelf.

In case you're not familiar with alternate side of the street parking, it's a huge deal in New York City. On most streets, once or twice a week, you have to move your car from one side of the street to the other (good luck with that) so the street cleaners can come thru. In my opinion, the streets rarely look any better after this cursory cleaning. But who knows what they would look like if the sweepers never came thru. I frequently speak to my son (who lives in Brooklyn) on the phone as he's doing the alternate side parking dance. I left NYC as a young adult, had to deal with the whole alternate side thing when I was up in Brooklyn caring for my dad a few years ago. It quite often brought me to tears. It made me swear that if were ever to live in New York City that I wouldn't own a car.

Alternate side of the street parking doesn't really factor into this novel by Anna Quindlen much at all. But aspiring to get a parking spot in a private lot on the dead-end block where Nora and Charlie live does play a huge role. And what happens in the parking lot is the climax of the plot.

Alternate Side is about Nora's love affair with "the city." Nora's daughter, Rachel, is in college in New England. She brought up the fact that New Yorkers call Manhattan "the city" as if it's the only city in the world. And it's not. Yet Nora loves New York City, even as she acknowledges things about it that are not so lovable. Although she keeps those things to herself. Why? Because Alternate Side is about Charlie's desire to leave New York City and to live somewhere else. He's got a list of grievances a mile long and Nora didn't want to give him more reason to want to leave New York.

Rachel, when talking about her father and the places he'd like to move to, says, "I also think if you move to the places he's talking about moving you'll scarcely see me because why would I go there?" O-U-C-H! Is that how my children and stepchildren feel?

I left New York City shortly before the time Nora moved to Manhattan as a young college graduate. She loved it for all the reasons that I fled. And she stayed because of those reasons, and because in the interim, New York City became a much more pleasant place to live, as long as you had the money. She and Charlie had the money.

Most of the people that Nora knew were transplants like herself and Charlie, who moved into the city as young adults because that was the place to be to succeed. But her kids, her kids were able to say that they were born in New York City!

"You should get her mac-and-cheese recipe, Mom," Ollie had said once.
"Oh, my goodness, honey, that whole party is catered."
"Really?" Rachel said."It doesn't feel like it is." Which was perhaps the nicest thing a born-and-raised Manhattan child could say about a meal.

Nora and Charlie lived on a dead-end street with mostly old Victorian houses. Their house had been owned for almost ninety years by a single family. (Did I ever tell you that the family house I sold last December was my family's home from 1935 until 2014?) Some of the folks on Nora and Charlie's block still called their house The Taylor House, even though Nora and Charlie Nolan had lived there for many years.

Other themes explored in the novel are neighborhood dynamics, professional ambition, marriage, motherhood, friendship. Be sure, these are no less important than Nora's love affair with New York City. And these are universal themes But after reading reviews on goodreads, I do believe that you have to be very, very familiar with New York City, what you sacrifice and what you gain, in order to find the book realistic at all.Taken out of New York City, most of the characters are one-dimensional, but within the context of the city, they seem much more full-faceted.

I would not recommend this latest from Anna Quindlen to most. But I have recommended it to a certain friend. And I can't wait to hear what she has to say about it.

the year of less

I wish I could remember where I first learned about the year of less: how I stopped shopping, gave away my belongings, and discovered life is worth more than anything you can buy in a store. But the idea totally intrigued me. Living less. After making 3 moves in less than 18 months just over 8 years ago, I decided that less is more. With each subsequent move, I got rid of more and more belongings. In retrospect, I was a bit overzealous in getting rid of things as I was moving. Reading the year of less did make me feel a bit better about some of the things I still long for today and the fact that they are gone from my life.

Cait Flanders is in her 20s when she decides to embark on a year-long shopping ban. Her previous projects had been to get out of debt, stop drinking and get healthy (lose weight and become more active). She'd succeeded at all three of those. So when she couldn't find some kitchen utensil that she was looking for, she decided that she had way too many things and it was time to minimize.

I'm at a totally different stage of life than Cait Flanders and she's much more of a "black and white" person than I am - and I suppose a heck of a lot more OCD - yet I nodded my head in affirmation as I was able to relate to her struggles with consumerism. I'm impressed with much of what she has learned as a much younger age than when I learned similar lessons.

Cait is an avid reader. She used to buy whatever book she thought she wanted to read. But unlike in the "old days" when I was in my late 20s and loved buying books, I had to go to a book store and weigh just how much I wanted to part with my cash before I left the store with a purchase. In today's age, she was purchasing her books online, usually buying more than just one book to make sure that she could get shipping and handling down to free. Plus lots of her purchases were impulsive. It's admirable that she found good homes for most of her books that she gave away, but why was there never any mention of the library? I was in my mid-30s when I realized that I wanted to spend any "book money" on books for my kids and that I could get anything, or almost anything, I wanted from the library.

Cait realizes that a lot of the clothing in her wardrobe, pre-purge, is clothing that she bought because she wanted to be the type of person that wore those kinds of things. My younger self could certainly relate.

Which brings me to another difference in our lives. Cait is single. And even during my single days, I was raising three kids. I find it much easier to say "no" to myself when debating the merits of any particular purchase than to say "no" to a child or to a husband. And I'm not a pushover. But why should my husband or kids have to suffer my decision to be frugal?

I managed to get myself into more debt than I was comfortable with when my kids were teens still living at home. That happened, in large part, because I still co-owned our home with my ex-husband, the house needed some major work, and I was responsible for all the upkeep. It wasn't as though I'd gone on some big spending spree. When I was left with just one child at home, I decided that I had to eliminate my credit card debt. With determination and rules similar to some of the rules that Cait decided to live by during her shopping ban, I was able to get myself out of debt in less than a year. I could only buy something new if I was replacing something worn out. I could only use my credit card on household items. I wish I could remember more of my rules. I lived on a cash basis, primarily (exception was household items and anything where you could only pay by credit card - over 10 years ago there were more things you could pay without touching a credit card - like gasoline). I'd nearly eliminated credit card use and withdrew only slightly more cash from the bank each week than I had in the past. But unlike the past, when my cash was gone, it was gone until the next time I was scheduled to hit the ATM. I was really good about that. It allowed a much larger amount of money to go towards debt service.

I even put my daughter's allowance schedule on the same cash withdrawal schedule that I was on, although she eventually had credit card issues of her own. I'd go to the bank on Wednesday evenings. That way if I blew all my cash over the weekend, I only had to struggle thru three work days with little or no cash.

One thing that was totally different between me and Cait was the fact that she lost her "shopping" friends. I had shopping friends when the kids were very little and I was only working very part-time. However, I never felt pressured to buy. I always enjoyed walking thru the mall. And none of my friends ever seemed to mind. If they were talking about great buys, I'd usually just tune out. I don't think they realized that. One line that Cait used when she became sober and then re-used when she was on her shopping ban was I don't care that you still shop, so why do you care that I don't?

I feel compelled to add that Cait is Canadian. No where in her list of permitted or not permitted expenses, nor as any part of her consideration when deciding whether to quit her job to freelance, was any mention of health care and/or health care expenses. I don't believe that to be a function of her age but rather the fact that not having health insurance is a huge concern in the United States where it's a total non-issue in Canada where healthcare is publicly funded.

At the end of the book, Cait gives a list of suggestions on how the reader can start his or her own shopping ban. She gives some pointers on how you might do this with other members of your household who are part of your family budget and makes it seem as though it's optional that you all participate of whether you'll be the example and go it alone. As I read that, all I could think of was all the resentment that would build up if I was strictly limiting myself in my spending and no one else was. That would not and could not work.

I was able to retire at a young age partly because I was willing to make do with less. I rarely go shopping and with the exception of needing to own a camera, my hobbies outside of travel cost me very little money. I'm not anywhere close to living with a shopping ban, but it's much, much harder to get me to part with my money than it was when I was working.

Would I recommend this book? If you're seriously interested in seeing how someone else survived a year of living with less, you might find this interesting. But other than the list of suggestions at the end of the book, this is Cait's book, Cait's story and not a real model for living less yourself.

Bold Spirit

Bold Spirit by Linda Lawrence Hunt is the story of an immigrant mother and her teen-aged daughter walking across the country - from Spokane, Washington to New York City - in 1896. An anonymous sponsor has set forth the challenge that she would pay $10,000 to any woman who would successfully complete the journey. There were all sorts of strict stipulations and the woman needed to wear a bicycle skirt with bloomers for most of the walk. Almost like a promotional trip for the new controversial fashion.

The really story in the book, though, is how and why this story was nearly lost. Helga, a Norwegian immigrant, and her husband, Ole were suffering from tough financial times. The lure of $10,000 made Helga feel like she could save her family. She planned to earn additional money after completion of her journey by publishing an illustrated book about the walk. She documented her entire trip and she wrote lengthy letters to her family back home. Years later, she wrote her story again. Yet somehow all these written primary sources vanished (which is explained in the book). The story that Hunt presents was something that was pieced together from many secondary sources.

The story of Helga and Clara's journey was fascinating. It was like a reverse Oregon Trail story. (Boy, do I love Oregon Trail stories!) The pair had to hit all the western state capitols they walked thru, meeting with political leaders along the way. The 1896 political climate sounds very similar to our divided country, now. Helga and Clara were on opposite sides of the presidential election (between William McKinley and William Jennings Bryan). But Helga's eyes were opened to the plight of women's suffrage. Completing the walk gave Helga a new appreciation for the capabilities of herself and of all women.

Victorian views of women were that they were frail and inferior to men. I can't imagine committing to walking unaccompanied across the United States now, in 2018. Over 100 years ago, much of Helga's walk was thru wilderness! And she didn't take the trip with the support of a wagon train. She only had her daughter - who styled her hair with a curling iron regularly while they were walking - and needed to rely upon the goodness of strangers. Incredible!

But as I said earlier, the real story was the fact that after these two women took this incredible risk, the story was nearly lost. Cultural norms and expectations, family dynamics and tragedy all played a hand in the outcome. That's what I'm really interested in discussing with my book club.

The story was fascinating and I look forward to discussing this with my book club. My biggest disappointment was that we never got to hear Helga's own words and that she never got to share the story with her granddaughter, Thelma. Despite those disappointments, I would still recommend the book.

I'll end with a few things I highlighted while reading, included here more for my reference when I discuss this with my book club rather than to spark any conversation with my readers. But here you are.

She faced the question, "what does fear keep you from doing?" and decided she was unwilling to let fear or disapproval keep her from action.

In an increasingly urbanized and industrialized America, ailing farmers felt forgotten, and many joined the Populist party to fight for reform of the injustices they experienced. In routing languages, Bryan built his campaign to tap into the needs of those he called the "struggling masses" and "humbler members of society." He reaffirmed their worth to the country, citing them as the Americans who produced the crops and goods that allowed the nation to live.

He also excoriated the "capitalistic class" that "owns money, trades in money and grows rich as the people grow poor." Bryan named and identified their fears of abuse from the powerful corporate elite, from Wall Street, and from the railroad and mining magnates. Captains of industry such as John D. Rockefeller (Standard Oil), J.P. Morgan (banking financier), and James J. Hill (Union Pacific) passionately supported William McKinley and the Republican agenda, and they  wielded enormous political clout. Bryan fought openly against "the heads of these great trusts" that he believed put corporate profit above people.

McKinley proposed protective tariffs as the best way "to get work for the masses," which particularly appealed to urban factory workers in the East.

During the following spring, Helga and Clara faced the reality of being penniless women eeking out a living in New York City. ... They moved to Brooklyn to look for work because it was a less expensive place to live than Manhattan.

She had flagrantly broken the most basic code of Victorian and Norwegian motherhood: mothers belong in the home.

The humility of her destitution in Brooklyn taught her that sometimes individual effort alone was not enough in an unjust system. No matter how hard she and Clara worked in New York, with women's wages so low, she felt helplessly trapped.

The Haunting of Hill House

I was a little girl when I first watched "The Haunting" on TV with my cousin who just a few years older. We watched it again a few years later. I only remember giggling about some of the stuff and that Mrs. Dudley, the housekeeper, was really creepy. For some reason, my cousin and I referred to her as Winifred Dudley. (Was that her name in the movie? In the book she has no first name.) That made us giggle, too. I really don't remember being too scared, but maybe that's because I knew that my cousin would keep me safe.

My cousin loved all things haunted. Well, maybe not all things, but movies and TV shows. Hitchcock was one of her favorites. And I recall her telling me at least twice during the last years of her life that when she couldn't sleep that she watched "The Haunting" and thought of me. She'd then make some Winifred Dudley joke and we'd both giggle again.

It was really hard not to think of my cousin as I (finally) read Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House. I felt her making silly remarks as I was reading. That's just what she would do.

Since I'm not a horror reader, I can't really say if this classic ghost story was typical. The Haunting of Hill House is a ghost story, but it's also a story about relationships. The plot involves a doctor studying haunted houses who has rented the empty house from the current owner and has invited three younger people (two women and the nephew of the house's owner) to chronicle their experiences in the house. The relationships between the three guests ebb and flow. I especially liked the banter between Eleanor, with her vivid imagination, and Theo, who is the more worldly of the two.

I plan to watch the original movie again sometime between now and our book club meeting. From the descriptions of the movie, it seems like it is very close to the book. And I might look into a new mini-series (either Netflix or Amazon Prime) which is very loosely based on Jackson's novel.

I was the one who suggested this book for our October title. I'm really glad this was the selection. I hope everyone else agrees.

I've got a few passions in life. Reading is one of them. Photography is another. You might be able to imagine how devastated I was when my Canon DSLR fell off the tripod when I was trying to play around with night photography. My Canon is nearly 10 years old and I've had new camera lust for a long time. In fact, I'd been camera shopping for awhile, knowing that there was no way I was going to spend money on a camera when I had a fully functioning camera. Then my camera fell. And I swear, it was not deliberate. Not even subliminally deliberate. I really liked my camera.

But... I'd been (online) camera (window) shopping for awhile so it only took me about two weeks to decide that I was going to buy a Sony mirrorless ILCE. (That stands for interchangeable lens something something.) Sight unseen, I placed my order online and waited.

The camera arrived, I had it out of the box with lens attached, battery charged, within a short span of time. After just that first bit of use, I realized that this is a camera much more powerful than any I've ever used before. It could do a lot if only I knew how to do all these things!

It then took me another two weeks to decide that yes, I was going to buy a book to teach me the features of my new camera.

I don't plan to review the how-to book after I'm done reading, but just wanted to put it out there that I'm reading it. With post-its and a pen nearby.

Here's a photo that I took during my first real outing with my new camera.

I might add more photos as I go along. Or might even post about what it's like to try to learn something from a book - not my preferred learning style. I'd much rather someone tell me, show me and have me try all within a span of about 2 minutes.

I do anticipate that much of my daytime reading time will be devoted to this how-to book over the next few weeks. And I wanted you to know.

Redemption Road

Many of you who have been following me for awhile know that mysteries and thrillers aren't really my thing. But I've learned a few things by reading "The Sign of the Crime" novels authored by my friend, Ronnie Allen. I've learned that I don't have to be able to follow all the subplots early on. I have to patient and let things evolve.

That was definitely the case with John Hart's latest, Redemption Road. To say I was in a state of perpetual confusion for the first 1/3 of the novel is an understatement. But I was patient, knowing that eventually the subplots would come together - and differentiate themselves - and things would become much clearer. I'd know what I was dealing with.

Redemption Road is about murder, rape, parent/child relationships, loyalty, infidelity, police violence. I'm sure there's more that I just haven't pegged yet. It takes place in a small town in North Carolina. I'd read somewhere that the location of the setting was important to the plot. I didn't find that at all. This story could have taken place almost anywhere.

I'm afraid that I'll inadvertently give something away if I begin to explain any of the subplots. Which is why I'm not giving you any personalized sort of summary of the book. Instead, I'll just give you what I read on goodreads.

Imagine:
A boy with a gun waits for the man who killed his mother.
A troubled detective confronts her past in the aftermath of a brutal shooting.
After thirteen years in prison, a good cop walks free as deep in the forest, on the altar of an abandoned church, a body cools in pale linen…
This is a town on the brink.
This is Redemption Road.
Brimming with tension, secrets, and betrayal, Redemption Road proves again that John Hart is a master of the literary thriller.

 If you want to know more, you're going to really have to read this book.

About two thirds of the way thru the book, I started having my own thoughts on how things were going to pan out. And in nearly all cases, I was correct. I'm pretty sure that will be something many of my book club members will comment on as well.

I'm really curious, though, if tomorrow's book club meeting will be more about the specifics of the story or more about the writing style of John Hart. Either focus should lead to a good book club discussion.

I gave it 4 stars on goodreads. Mostly because I enjoyed John Hart's use of language. And because this was a book that put me out of my reading comfort zone that I didn't mind reading.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

When I woke up yesterday morning, my e-reader app told me that I had 66% of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey to get read by this evening's book club. I read during most of my normal TV time last night. I read longer at bedtime than I normally do. And I read all morning. It took me nearly 4 weeks to read the first third of the book and less than 24 hours to read the remainder.

That's not because I was totally absorbed in the book. I didn't hate it, or I would have dropped it once I saw I was having trouble getting thru it. But I certainly didn't love it. It's a classic and I was curious. That's my sole reason for sticking with it. If I didn't have people to discuss the book with, I would have had no incentive to finish it, though. So I'm glad I'll get to discuss it with my book club.

I'm writing this before heading out to Books & Beer Club so perhaps my opinion of the book might change or my thoughts might be more favorable. I'm sure I'll walk away with a better appreciation about why this book is such an important one. On one level, I know this already. But on the more self-centered level, do I really care? I kind of wish I was able to get the Sparknotes out of the library, but they're waitlisted at the moment. I didn't want to look at them when they were available prior to my reading the book.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was set in either the late 50s or the early 60s. I needed to frequently remind myself of such. The asylum where it was set is like a miniature version of society. The issues being dealt with are timeless.

I was fascinated by the Native American issues brought up in the novel. I think those wouldn't even be discussion points in a normal book club situation. But since we recently read Killers of the Flower Moon, I plan to bring up some connections if no one else does.

I'd love to hear from you if you either loved or hated this novel.

I had much higher expectations when I picked up Spencer Wise's first novel, The Emperor of Shoes. I stuck with it - even with a long wait to get the ebook back from the library after it expired. I wanted to know how things worked out. I wasn't particularly satisfied with the ending.

Wise's writing was engaging and edgy. But sometimes it just wasn't as informative as I needed it to be.

The Emperor of Shoes is sent in 2015 China. Alex, the protagonist, is 26 years old and heir apparent to his father's shoe factory in China. At first Alex is merely an observer of the factory and his father's business tactics. But after he becomes an owner - and after he starts a relationship with a factory worker (who is actually a college educated worker who has other goals in mind while working at the factory) - his eyes are opened to unethical and unsafe business practices. Not just in their shoe factory but in other factories run by expatriates. This is a novel about social justice and social change. How best to go about initiating social change.

Alex is a Boston-born Jew. His father is an ugly stereotype of a Jewish business owner. Really ugly. I'd like to think he's the exception rather than the rule. Frequently Alex tries to create an equivalency between the treatment of the Jews in Eastern Europe during the late 1800s into the early 1900s with the treatment of Chinese factory workers in recent days. He wonders if his family survived all the torture they experienced to mete out torture to others.

We see Alex change and grow over the course of the novel. But he's never terribly likable. And his father is never at all likable. We only get to know Ivy, the Chinese worker that Alex becomes involved in, in terms of the plight of the Chinese people. She was there at Tiananmen Square, and now she's using that to convince Alex of the importance of unionizing the factories. But she is so one-dimensional.

I wish I knew more specifics about the very real struggles that exist in China. I wonder if that would have enriched the reading experience for me.

While I didn't really enjoy the book, I'm sure it will weigh heavy on my mind as I decide whether or not to buy a new iPhone in the next few months.

A Disappointing Read

I'm not even sure where I picked up One Day at a Time 2017: A husband and wife's 87-day road trip through 22 states in the US on two Harley Softails by Hollie Bell-Schinzing. Did I win it in a goodreads giveaway? Was it an Amazon First Read? In any event, I had the book in my Kindle library and while I'm waiting for several books from the library, I decided to give this book a try.

This was the description on goodreads:

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to just pick up and ride your motorcycle around this big beautiful country? Hollie lives in Rochester, New York with her husband Bonz. They have been together for over 30 years. With Bonz newly retired and the kids leaving to go off on their own adventures they needed something to reconnect. Join them on their journey through 22 states, many national parks and a couple of biker rallies. Hollie requested three months off work (with no pay), and her employer was gracious enough to allow this. So that was it, June, July and August of 2017 off they went to discover not only the USA but also themselves. No real plans and no reservations, flying by the seat of their pants, join them in seeing what it is like to ride a Harley on the open road for 87 days, one day at a time. 

Top on my bucket list is to visit all 50 states. And I'd love to just pop in the car and make my way from one state to the next, covering all 13 states that I haven't yet been to. I really thought that this book would have me green with envy and ready to pack my bag and hop in the car.

My guess is that Bell-Schinzing's friends asked her to blog while on her adventure. She does mention a blog. If this book is the manuscript of her blog, okay, I get it. I blogged while on our trip to Italy 3 years ago. You can check out The Pellegrinos Do Italy here. I tried to write at least something every day. Some days I was tired and I just wanted to get something posted. I didn't proof read, I didn't care about using the same words over and over. I just wanted it posted. Other times I tried to more fully convey everything I'd experienced that day. But if I were to publish my blog and present it as a book, I would carefully proofread. I'd embellish my writing to make it more readable - and more universally interesting. Bell-Schinzing did neither.

I did wonder a couple of times if I would have found One Day at a Time more interesting if I was a biker. I'm not a biker, though. However, I've been to some of the biker spots in Robbinsville, NC that were mentioned and I do understand the attraction of those spots and how interesting they can be. You don't need to be a biker to be able to understand that.

A few times, Bell-Schinzing writes about discrimination against bikers. I suppose it exists. But the way she expressed herself made it seem as though she has a chip on her shoulder.

It turns out, too, that my husband and I were driving the Tail of the Dragon (on the NC/TN border) just a few weeks after Bell-Schinzing and her husband biked it. She mentioned that they were warned on the day before they'd planned their ride that seven people had died on the Dragon already in 2017. And that two more bikers had gotten killed on the day before their ride. I guess I'm glad I didn't know that.

There was also a bit about Graham County being a dry county and about the only restaurant in the county that serves alcohol. I knew Graham County was dry, but didn't realize that you could have a drink at a steak house located between two tennis courts. And here is a perfect example of where I wish the author had given a little bit more context and more details.

She also briefly mentions that she was a recovering alcoholic and that her husband was part Native American. So briefly that I wonder why she bothered to include those facts. Both should have been excluded or expanded. Other than knowing that Hollie and Bonz like to take naps and that Bonz needs to eat regularly, I didn't get to know either one of them as people.

When Bell-Schinzing mentions that having a Go-Pro would be fun, but how boring would it be for other people to watch her unedited videos, I wondered why she didn't feel the same way about what appears to be her unedited blog.

The details of their checking into and out of motels could have been made more interesting. The same goes for the descriptions of meals they ate and restaurants they patronized.

A brief nod is made to alcoholism on Native American reservations, but it is thrown in totally out of context. That would have been a great place to embellish.

I expected to read more about our National Parks system than I did. (My bucket list includes visiting several National Parks.)

I caught lots of typos (desert instead of dessert, things like that). She placed some cities in the wrong states. She overused the word awesome. Being more descriptive would have enhanced her writing. Ironically, in the "About the Author," Bell-Schinzing writes that she's already started on her next book but does not expect it to be out for awhile because "really good things in life take time." Hollie and Bonz returned home from their bike trip in August 2017 and this book was published in 2017. Maybe more time and some friendly editors would have helped. The story of their trip has a lot of potential. It just didn't deliver.

The book concludes with Maybe it is time to take a new look at our surroundings where we live and start to discover some of the "things to do" around our own area and continue to play tourists for a bit. Life is way too short to forget to play, while learning to live our new life one day at a time. I couldn't agree with Hollie more here!

Would I recommend? No.

The Marvelous Misadventures of Ingrid Winter

When The Emperor of Shoes expired off my iPad while I was on vacation, I had to come up with something to read - quick! I scanned thru all the books I've accumulated through Amazon First Reads and ultimately selected to download The Marvelous Misadventures of Ingrid Winter by J.S. Draggsholt.

It wasn't exactly what I expected. While it was mostly set in Sweden and the main character was totally Scandinavian, it made me realize that young mothers across the globe have more in common than the differences they might have. I could have plunked Ingrid Winter into New Jersey and the story would have made perfect sense.

This was Book #1 in a series, but it didn't seem like it. Ingrid and her husband have a little phrase they'd recite to each other when they were trying to connect. It seemed as though there should have been some back story. Actually, it seemed the back story was missing from most of the key points in the plot.

The book was silly. Ingrid Winter has a wild imagination but it seems as though she also has some skeletons in her closet. But why?

The language was very easy to read. The names were easy to follow. The translation was very well done.

But would I recommend it? Nope. Not really. Especially not to folks who buy a nice new house prior to selling - or listing - their current homes.

Swimming Lessons

I love epistolary fiction. I love when letters are used to move a story forward. I expected this to be that book. It was not.

Swimming Lesson by Claire Fuller is about family dysfunction, flailing marriages, disappearances and dying on one's own terms despite efforts from loved ones.

Letters did play a prominent role in the telling of this tale, but they were letters unsent, letters possibly undiscovered. The novel alternates between the present after (father) Gil's accident and Nan and Flora's discovery that Gil is dying and letters that (mother) Ingrid wrote to Gil years earlier, leading up to her disappearance. Ingrid writes each letter and then hides in one of the many - seriously many - books that Gil collects.

I love Fuller's use of language. It's lyrical but not in an overly flowery way. I love the use of letter writing as a way to pull in another narrator. And I loved that at the end of each letter, there was a note into what book the letter was hidden in. There was always some connection. As a book lover, I appreciated that.

But that's about all I loved. There were no characters that I found at all likable. Not that I need to like the characters in order to like the book. They're all caricatures of common characters found in other books. The older sister taking on the mom role. The younger sister never growing up. A lecherous older man. A young woman who ignores the signs. The best friends. In this book in particular, none of the characters show any growth, except perhaps Ingrid. Maybe.

What was most disappointing to me was the ending. Yes, readers learn the whole back story. But I wanted more. I wanted a different type of discovery. I wanted things that I'm not going to write about here because I don't want to spoil this book for anyone else.

HANK

I received a copy of the historical fiction HANK from a goodreads.com giveaway in the hopes that I would give it a favorable review. I really wanted to like the book. The premise sounded really good.

Thirteen-year-old Hank Kemp is four-feet-nine inches and ninety-seven pounds of pure intelligence. Despite growing up in a poverty-stricken African American community in the 1950s South, Hank still dares to dream. Although he has been abandoned by his drifter father, his hardworking mother provides an endless supply of unconditional love and support.

Shortly after he wins the spelling bee at his junior high, Hank's promising world shatters when his mother dies in a fire. Soon, his mother's friend, Lillie, takes Hank in and begins raising him as one of her own. While Hank struggles through his grief and rekindles his strong determination to succeed in life, he is helped along the way by a kindly teacher, an attorney, and the Spoorville community as they band together to keep Hank out of foster care. As his father reenters his life and Hank's journey propels him toward high school graduation and an exciting future, he learns that success is better achieved with help from those able to see what he can be.

In this inspiring coming-of-age story, a young African American growing up in the fifties America must carve his own path in life after his mother dies, with assistance from a caring community.  

My hopes and expectations were not met. First of all, I'm not 100% sure if this book was meant to be a middle grade historical fiction novel or if it was written for an older audience. My review is based on the assumption that this was a book meant to be grade by fifth graders learning about the Civil Rights Movement.

My biggest disappointment was the lack of historical context in the novel. There were passing references to historical events like school integration, the celebration of Juneteenth, the transition from party lines to dial-direct telephones. As an adult familiar with what was being referenced, I got it. I don't believe that a child would walk away knowing anything more about the south during the 1950s by reading this book other than the fact that black children in the 1950s needed to walk to school.

I don't think a child would understand the mentions of welfare or the system. As an adult, I want to know why Aunt Lillie who was relatively young with older children hadn't looked for a job prior to being told that she couldn't be a foster parent to Hank while she was collecting welfare.

There is little evidence of Hank's grief over the loss of his mother. A few times, Lillie seems as though she misses Hank's mother, Mary. This is another aspect of the story that would have benefitted from being much more fleshed out. The characters of Hank and Ruth Ann were the most developed of all the characters, but I really wanted to know them better. If I didn't know that Lillie was in her late 30s, I would have thought she was in her 60s.

After Ruth Ann moves, Mrs. Bennett (Lillie) misses her because she helped with housework. Hank and Billy Ray miss her because she used to cook for them. We are told repeatedly what a close knit family they are. Missing someone solely because of the chores that aren't getting done makes no sense.

Peck includes lots of little details that serve as distractions and don't add anything to the story. An example of this is when a different person speaks at the high school graduation than the one that was originally scheduled to speak and was listed in the program. That didn't serve to move the story ahead at all.

And finally, the paperback edition that I read was riddled with typos and capitalization and usage errors.

I think that the story of Harold Andrew Nelson Kemp Bennett held a lot of promise. The book I read would be a great starting point for his story but wasn't worthy as a finished product. I love children's historical fiction and I was hoping to find an appropriate novel about life in the south in the 1950s to pass along to my granddaughter who will be in fifth grade this coming fall. I won't be passing it on.

If Claudette A. Peck writes another historical fiction novel based on her own younger years, I would love to be a critique partner prior to publication.

Chestnut Street

I discovered Maeve Binchy as an adult. I was terribly saddened by her death in 2012. I consoled myself by knowing that I while I'd read all of Binchy's more recent novels, I hadn't read a few of her earlier ones. (To this day, I still have not read Light A Penny Candle, her first published book.

Most of Binchy's stories are set in Ireland and revolve around relationship and family issues. My favorite novel is most probably Evening Class, followed by the rest of the novels that are connected to that one. The characters and locales overlap, but the connected novels are not in any way a series.

A little over a year ago, when I was between books, searching through the online e-book catalog, I discovered Chestnut Street. Chestnut Street is a collection of short stories, all set on the same street in Dublin. Binchy would write a short story as the mood struck her and then she'd shove them in a drawer "for the future." After her death, her husband, Gordon Snell, gathered together all the stories... and voila, another Maeve Binchy book was published.

Maeve Binchy short stories are lovely. They aren't terribly satisfying, though, as one of her strengths as a writer was to develop characters and relationships. How much can you do in 10 pages or less? But a taste of Binchy is better than no Binchy at all.

This was the book that I'd pick up between books, when I could get it out of the library. Knowing it was my last "new" Binchy, I wasn't in a rush to finish it which is why it took me about 14 months to get through this not quite 400-page book.

Now to go back and read old Binchy books...

Uncommon Type

I loved this book. If you follow me on goodreads.com, you might have seen that I only gave it 4 stars. Why? If I loved this book so much? I loved it because it made me think so much of my dad. Whenever I hear the clack of a typewriter, which you rarely hear these days, I think of my dad. That was the lullaby that put me to sleep most nights of my childhood. My dad, in his study above my bedroom, typing ... something... well into the night. After my dad died, my brother and I knew that one of us was going to have to keep at least one of his typewriters. I think my brother took the IBM Selectric. Ah, the IBM Selectric. Jill, do you remember all the fun we had on that thing?

Back to Uncommon Type. I didn't even realize until I was nearly finished with this collection of stories by actor Tom Hanks where the title Uncommon Type came from. Not every story involved a typewriter. In fact, many did not. But ah... those typewriters.

Uncommon Type has 17 short stories. There are a few that involve 4 friends. The narrator, Steve Wong, MDash and Anna. There are a few that are "newspaper articles" written by Hank Fiset. The rest are kind of random and deal with things like civil war and being a refugee (I think I need to read up a little on the conflict between Greece and Bulgaria - when was that?), father/son surfing, divorce, Time Travel. Pretty random stuff. What's especially strange is that while each story wouldn't end happily ever after, once into the swing of the book, you realize that nothing bad is ever really going to happen.

Because it's a collection of short stories and because of the community book club's experience discussing Neither Snow nor Rain, I wrote at least a one sentence summarizing each and ever story. Here's hoping this will help in the discussion.

Reading this immediately after Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles, which was more a collection of short stories than an actual novel, I was hoping for something that I could really sink my teeth into. A novel. A saga. I picked up Uncommon Type rather reluctantly, especially since a fellow book club member said she really didn't like it. And while now I'm really craving something with a little meat that I can dig my brain into, I loved Uncommon Type and hope others do as well.

The Martian Chronicles

The only Ray Bradbury that I'd read prior to Books & Beer Club reading Fahrenheit 451 was (probably an abridged version of) "All Summer in a Day," about life on Venus, which I read as a fifth grade teacher with my class. I'd forgotten what planet "All Summer in a Day" was about and was excited, momentarily, thinking that it was going to be part of The Martian Chronicles.

Oh well.

I won't lie. I had a difficult time getting through The Martian Chronicles. As much as I enjoyed it piecemeal, I really wished it was more of a narrative rather than a loosely connected collection of stories about "Earth man's" experience on Mars. But in the end, I am really glad that I stuck with this and finished it.

The Martian Chronicles is set in the not so distance future (from 2030 until 2057), when people from Earth were settling the Mars frontier. It's important to remember that The Martian Chronicles was first published in 1950. I wish I had more knowledge of how certain things were back in 1950 to get a better handle on how Bradbury imagined things to be in the mid-21st Century.

In this novel, Mars is a planet full of lots of dead cities without a whole lot of Martians in 2030 and moving forward. Expeditions from Earth (from America) are trying to colonize the planet. The interactions between "humans" and Martians are quite violent. It's hard to know who is really a person from Earth versus who is a Martian in Bradbury's telling. And life on Mars doesn't appear to that different from life on Earth. Go figure!

Once the expeditions to Mars were more or less successful, transports carried building materials from Earth to Mars. But where did trucks come from? And how exactly where they fueled?

And in certain houses you heard the hard clatter of a typewriter, the novelist at work; or the scratch of a pen, the poet at work; or no sound at all, the former beachcomber at work.

Who knew in 1950 that there wouldn't be typewriters in 2034? Surely not Ray Bradbury!

The references to telephones were interesting. No mobile devices. You'd think if he could imagine rockets transporting people and things, including food, back and forth between the planets that voice communication wouldn't be tied to a wired telephone. And were there answering machines in 1950? Will you leave a message on the answering machine so she may call you when she returns?

What year did Fahrenheit 451 take place? There's mention that books were all burned in the Great Fire of 2006.

There was a chapter called "Usher II." Would that have made more sense to me if I'd read The House of Usher?

My favorite chapter was one called "August 2057 - There Will Come Soft Rains." It's about an automated house in 2057 that probably stood empty for over 20 years. Yet everything continued as it probably had for the past 20 years. I wondered how the  house was powered to go on that long. And where did the food and the cigars and whatever come from after 20 years of being abandoned?

Which brings me to the whole abandonment thing. Let's assume that people started settling on Mars in the late 2020s (which right now seems like it might as well be tomorrow). A destructive war on Earth starts in 2036 and all the Earth folks rush back to Earth? Why rush back? What did I miss in this regard? If you traveled from Earth to Mars for a new life, why would you rush back to Earth when it's on the verge of destruction?

And why did one family rush to Mars to get away from all that?

"I'm burning a way of life, just like that way of life is being burned clean of Earth right now. Forgive me if I talk like a politician. I am, after all, a former state governor, and I was honest and they hated me for it. Life on Earth never settled down to doing anything very good. Science ran too far ahead of us too quickly, and the people got lost in a mechanical wilderness, like children making over pretty things, gadgets, helicopters, rockets; emphasizing the wrong items, emphasizing machines instead of how to run the machines. Wars got bigger and bigger and finally killed Earth. That's what the silent radio means. That's what we ran away from.

I'm left to wonder whether there will be the start of settlements on Mars in my lifetime, even though I very much doubt the reality would be anything like Bradbury's vision. Looking forward to discussing this at Books & Beer Club to see how others saw the book.