Faye, Faraway

I enjoyed Helen Fisher's Faye, Faraway so much more than I anticipated that I would. It's a time travel fantasy about a 37-year old woman who sorely feels the loss of her mother who died when she was 8-years old. She was taken in by loving neighbors who eventually adopted her. At 37, she's in a loving marriage with a guy whom she adores and two kids who are the world to her. 

We're given little information about what Faye's life was like as a teenager or young adult. The fact that two of her best friends are from her college days makes me think that, although she missed her mother, she didn't have too terrible a life.

An old photo and a beat-up cardboard box stir up an intense longing in Faye for her mother. Somehow, thru fantastical means, Faye is transported back to the 1970s where she has the opportunity to meet her mother as well as her younger self.  In the beginning, I wondered how hokey the book was going to be. But because Faye finds time travel as fantastical as I did as a reader, it really works.

There were some wonderfully written passages in the novel that I've bookmarked so I can read them again. And again. And again. They were thoughtful and loving and they really spoke to me as if they were written for me.

It's a novel about faith, friendship, mother-daughter relationships and love. It's a story of guardian angels.

After my mom was hospitalized at what turned out to be the end of her life, we kind of wondered where her engagement ring was. My dad said she often hid it when she left the house so we were looking in what we thought might be "great" hiding places. No luck. At all. On the night of her burial, I was sitting in the dining room of my childhood home. My 104-year old house. People were walking around and the floors were creaking more than with just my dad, my brother and I tottering around. A hollow glass heart that I don't think we'd noticed tumbled down from the top of a secretary desk kept in the corner. It rolled across the floor. As I picked it up, my mom's ring fell from the hollow part of the heart and into my hand. It was a sign that my mom was looking over me. This morning, after I put down Faye, Faraway, the first thing I spotted was the hollow heart which now sits on my dresser. To make me feel the love of my mother in a more concrete way than just through memories. Not related to the novel... or is it?

This also confirmed that while I say I really don't like the genre of fantasy, I do like the sub-genre of time travel when the themes of the story of themes I enjoy reading about. I loved The Time Traveler's Wife, 11/22/63, and most recently Kindred.

I'd highly recommend Faye, Faraway.

The Personal Librarian

Having grown up and lived in and around NY for most of my life, I'd heard of the Pierpont Morgan Library and was familiar with stories about JP Morgan. I was, however, totally unfamiliar with the story of JP Morgan's personal librarian. But apparently so were many other people.

Marie Benedict had the idea for The Personal Librarian but felt that a white woman would have trouble doing justice to the story of black Belle da Costa Greene. Her agent found her Victoria Christopher Murray to work as her co-author. The story about their partnership in the authors' notes at the end of the novel was very interesting.

JP Morgan was a financier and collector. He hired a librarian away from Princeton University on the recommendation of his nephew, Junius, to help him curate his collection.

Belle da Costa Greene was a woman working in a high powered position in the early years of  the 20th century. She had extensive knowledge, impeccable taste and was a shrewd negotiator. But Greene also had a secret. Her name at birth was Belle Marion Greener and she is the daughter of "colored" civil rights activist, Richard Greener. As difficult as it was for Belle to hold this position as a woman, she never would have been able to hold this position had anyone, most especially JP Morgan, known that she was a "colored" woman.

Belle's parents were up and coming in the 1870s. Richard Greener was the first colored person to graduate from Harvard College. He went on to graduate school and was teaching at the University of South Carolina when the Civil Rights Act of 1875 was overturned in 1883. The couple and their one child moved to the family home of Belle's mother. Eventually they moved to NYC with their enlarged family because they sensed that racial discrimination in the south and in Washington, DC was going to get worse than it was. Belle's mother decided that the only chance her children had for a future was to pass as white. Belle's father who had built his career on advocating for the rights of blacks was unable to go along with this way of life. The parents separated. Belle's, her mother and her siblings changed their last name and hinted towards Portuguese in their lineage to account for their olive skin coloring.

The book had two big story lines. One was about Belle's rise as JP Morgan's personal librarian and the building of his world class collection. The other was about Belle's life as a colored woman living as a white woman. At first I thought that Belle, who tells the story in first person, harped a lot on her secret. Until I realized how huge it must have been for a colored woman to live as a white woman. It was and is something that I can't imagine. This aspect of the novel gave me lots to think about.

There were other subplots focusing on women's suffrage, anti-Semitism, and the whole upper class art scene. Readers of historical fiction and those who enjoy reading about women who were ahead of their times will enjoy The Personal Librarian.

Now I need to remember that I'd  like to see the library the next time I'm visiting New York City, whenever that might be.

Hazel's Theory of Evolution

I was reading a novel about books that deal with journaling and Hazel's Theory of Evolution by Lisa Jenn Bigelow was mentioned. I hadn't read a middle grade novel in quite a while so checked the library. It was available. I borrowed it and read it, really not knowing what to expect.

Here is the description from goodreads.com:

Hazel knows a lot about the world. That’s because when she’s not hanging with her best friend or helping her two moms care for the goats on their farm, she loves reading through dusty encyclopedias. But even Hazel doesn’t have answers for the questions awaiting her as she enters eighth grade. How can she make friends in a new school where no one seems to understand her? What’s going to happen to one of her moms who’s pregnant again after having two miscarriages? Why does everything have to change when life was already perfectly fine?

As Hazel struggles to cope, she’ll come to realize that sometimes you have to look within yourself—instead of the pages of a book—to find the answers to life’s most important questions.

Hazel’s Theory of Evolution is a genuine, thoughtful, and ultimately uplifting novel about learning to flourish no matter what changes life throws your way.

What a truly thoughtful novel that might not be appropriate for all middle grade readers. Or younger middle grade readers. Yet this is a novel I would highly recommend. It deals with friendship in a way that really touched my heart.

Due to a bussing issue, Hazel is at a new school for eighth grade, separated from her best friend. One of her moms is pregnant again and Hazel is having a very difficult time dealing with her worry, after the mom's previous two miscarriages. Her brother should have started Stanford but has deferred for a year for reasons that Hazel is not quite sure about. That's a lot for a young teen to deal with on her own, without her best friend by her side.

I loved Hazel's smartness. I loved Hazel's love of family. I loved reading about Hazel's family's life on a farm. And I loved reading about Hazel's developing friendships with Yosh and Carina. The book deals with contemporary issues of race and sexuality and gender identity and disability as well as children caring for their parents. All are handled in a very sensitive, honest way.

I'm not sure that I'd say that this has anything to do with journal writing. Hazel doesn't keep a journal, but rather starts working on a book modeled by one of her favorite science books.

While George was about the challenges of allowing others to accept you as transgender, giving me a better understanding of the struggles faced by transgender youth,  Hazel's Theory of Evolution has such an inclusion of characters. They add to the story, but that isn't what the story is about. Quite a different novel than George.

I Alone Can Fix It

The subtitle of this political non-fiction says it all - Donald J. Trump's Catastrophic Final Year.

Prior to picking up I Alone Can Fix It by Carol Leonnig  and Philip Rucker, I thought I'd heard most of what was covered in the book. And I had. But it was a quick, easy read (perhaps because I had heard so much already) and gave a slightly deeper coverage to things I was already aware of. As I read through the book, I'd actually be able to recall when most of the events covered in the book took place.

Having said that, not much else to say about this one.

If you're interesting in getting a little deeper, you might be interested in reading this one. If you're not... then pass this one up.
 

Three More Months

I selected Three More Months by Sarah Echavarie as my free Amazon Prime First Read selection. I loved the idea of getting to spend three more months with a loved one who has died.

I wasn't crazy about the novel, though. Chloe is busy with work, keeps putting off a visit home. Then she gets the phone call. Her mother has been rushed to the hospital from work. Chloe rushes home, about a two hour drive from where she currently lives, but doesn't get there in time. Her mother is gone.

She and her brother are having difficulties coming to grips with the situation. Understandably so. Chloe goes  to bed in tears one night, wakes up the next morning, and her mother is still alive. Was her mother's death a bad dream? Maybe it was a wake-up call that she needs to spend more time with her mother. Was waking up to her mother alive a good dream? Was she living in a parallel universe? Whatever it is, it gives Chloe more time to monitor her mother's health and spend some time with her.

It rarely seemed like Chloe and her mom were enjoying each other's company during this time period. And while I found the dialogue refreshingly authentic, the characters in this novel spoke the way people I know might speak, the character development was pretty shallow. I finished this a couple of days ago and I already can't remember the brother's name. He was the least developed character which led me to think that none of his actions made any sense. I thought Three More Months was going to be a tear-jerker. I was disappointed that I just didn't care enough.

It was a free book. It was an easy fiction to read as I was also reading I Alone Can Fix It, preparing to pick up The Count of Monte Cristo. But would I recommend it? Nope.

Fresh Water for Flowers

Valerie Perrin's Fresh Water for Flowers is simply a beautiful book. Originally written in French, I read the book in translation. I'm sure it is equally beautiful in its original language.

This novel almost defies description, though. It's a novel about tragic loss and grief, about couples growing apart, but it's also about friendship and memories and the strength in the rituals of mourning.

This is the story of Violette Toussaint, the caretaker of a cemetery. It's the story of how Violette came to be the caretaker, the differences she makes in the lives of those who work at the cemetery and those who pass through its gates. There's also a little bit of a mystery involved.

Violette had a tragic youth, got married young, and had a child of her own. She isn't sure what she is deserving of and she feels like she has to learn how to love. It's through her interactions with those who visit her at the cemetery that she comes to appreciate her place in life.

I'd highly recommend this one.

 

Color Me In

I saw this young adult novel recommended on an email from the Jewish Book Council. I thought after the "weightiness" of The Weight of Ink, something more contemporary and shorter might be appreciated for our next synagogue book club meeting. Now that I've read it, even though I enjoyed it, I'm not sure if it's the best choice for this particular book club.

Color Me In is the coming of age story of a 16-year old Nevaeh Levitz. Growing up in an affluent NYC suburb, attending a prestigious private school in Riverdale, Nevaeh never considered her bi-racial roots beyond feeling like she didn’t really “fit in” with her peers. She never even really considered that her very best friend, Stevie, is also bi-racial and facing some of the prejudice that she is able to avoid.

When Nevaeh’s Black mom and White Jewish dad split up, Nevaeh and her mom move in with the mom’s family in Harlem. At the same time, her dad decides that even though Nevaeh is past Bat Mitzvah age, this is a ritual he wishes her to partake in. Now Nevaeh is really forced to come to terms with who she is.

Nevaeh develops a relationship with non-traditional Rabbi Sara while preparing for her Bat Mitzvah. For the sake of the synagogue book club, I wish that this part of the storyline had been more developed. Much more of the story is about Navaeh's realizations of how much easier her life has been because she can pass for White. Thinking outside of just the book club, I really did appreciate the way that Diaz dealt with many of the race issues. 

I also really liked that Color Me In was not predictable. I had a preconceived notion of how the novel would end and it did not end that way.

For the next two months, I will keep my fingers crossed that the members of the book club will have some appreciation for this young adult fiction since I was the one to recommend it.

It Can't Happen Here

Goodreads can sum up It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis far more succinctly than I could hope to.

"The only one of Sinclair Lewis's later novels to match the power of Main Street, Babbitt, and Arrowsmith, It Can't Happen Here is a cautionary tale about the fragility of democracy, an alarming, eerily timeless look at how fascism could take hold in America. Written during the Great Depression when America was largely oblivious to Hitler's aggression, it juxtaposes sharp political satire with the chillingly realistic rise of a President who becomes a dictator to "save the nation." Now finally back in print, It Can't Happen Here remains uniquely important, a shockingly prescient novel that's as fresh and contemporary as today's news."

I first spotted this novel in Barnes & Noble sometime prior to the 2016 election. It put a little shiver of fear in me at the time, but I didn't even want to go down that road so didn't even consider reading it. Now, feeling as though democracy is as frail as its ever been in my lifetime, I decided to take a second look.

I found It Can't Happen Here a little difficult to read. The sentences were long, I didn't understand some of the historical references and often had no clue if characters were from real life or totally imagined. Once I realized how I could skim without losing the drift of the story, that's what I did. Another thing that made this difficult for me to read is that it was overtype satirical. Like ridiculous. Like spread out the satire a little bit or something! But satire was piled on.

There were so many passages in the novel that I highlighted because they were so relevant to today. I won't bore you with all 30-something that I highlighted, but I will share two with you.

• He believed that dissent - even a cranky, erratic, eccentric, old-fashioned version of it - was not disloyalty but at the heart of an American democratic identity. 
  This is so counter to those who say, "If you don't like it here, leave." I don't believe that's in the spirit of democracy. If you don't like it here, but this is your country, voice your dissatisfaction and work towards improving things. Don't just walk away - and don't allow yourself to be chased away.
  
  
• ... most of them newspapermen, disliked the smell of him more than before they had met him... Even they, by the unusual spiritedness and color of their attacks upon him, kept his name alive in every column...
  If that's not descriptive of the trump era, than I'm not sure what is!

That's as political as I care to get here. If anything that I've written intrigues you, you might want to take a look at this classic novel. I expected to lose sleep with worry and finish up with a increased sense of dread. That didn't happen, although the book did give me some things to think about... and more things to throw about while conversing about politics with my husband or kids.

 

The Good Sister

Sally Hepworth's novel, The Good Sister, is billed as a psychological thriller. I don't know that I'd necessarily agree. There was plenty of psychological fodder, but to me thriller makes me feel like I'm going to sitting on the edge of my seat waiting for something terrible to happen. I just didn't feel that way reading The Good Sister.

I did, however, enjoy The Good Sister from the first page to the last. It was an easy to read novel. And while I thought it was somewhat predictable, I was really curious to see how Hepworth was taking the story from point A to point B. And I was also really curious about how it might conclude.

Rose and Fern are twin sisters in their early 30s. Their mother had "an accident" when the girls were teens and it doesn't seem as though their childhood was particularly good. Now, Rose is married and desperate to have a baby. Fern has sensory issues, is single, lives a very regimented life. But she gets the idea that perhaps she can have a baby and give it to Rose. Fern knows she'd never be capable of raising a child on her own. Only problem is, Fern doesn't date.

Rose is some sort of interior designer and Fern works in a library. Her life is very structured. She eats dinner with Rose three nights a week, does yoga every morning, visits their mother once a week. Until... homeless Wally walks into Fern's library. There's just something about Wally.

At the start, the reader is left to wonder who is the good sister and who is the evil sister. As I said, I figured that out pretty early on and my interest that kept me turning the page was trying to understand why she was the bad sister and how the story was going to move forward.

My book club selected this novel and I'm looking forward to discussing.

What's kind of funny is that I'd recently read The Reading List, a story that takes place in a library. And lots of this story takes place in the library where Fern works. I love a good library story!

Better to Trust

It's always fun to win something, right? There was a giveaway for an Advanced Reader Copy of Heather Frimmer's new  novel, Better to Trust. Imagine my delight when I was notified that I won one of two copies of the book being given away. Since I've been doing most of my reading on the Kindle - and this was a paperback - I waited to start until we headed to the beach in September. I was engaged from page one. It took me longer to finish than it should have because once home, I really had to find time to finish a paperback book. This weekend was that time!

Once trust is broken, how easy is it to get it back? Better to Trust is a family drama. Alison has a bleed on the brain, needs surgery, decides to go with her brother-in-law, a famed neurosurgeon, even though a few people suggested that it was a terrible idea for Grant to operate on a family member. Meanwhile, Grant had his own secrets which made him truly not a good choice for the one to perform the surgery.

While Grant and his wife, Cynthia, Alison's sister, are preoccupied worrying about Alison, their daughter Sadie feels rejected. She's also really missing her Aunt Alison. Sadie makes a new friend who is not the best influence. Lots of trust issues erupt once Sadie and Piper start spending more time together.

Meanwhile, after surgery a rift develops between Alison and Cynthia who had previously been very close. What will it take to repair their relationship?

Finally, there's the issue of trust between Alison and her husband, Michael. Alison has got a secret, but does she blow things up while Michael has been so attentive to her during her rehabilitation after surgery?

I got sucked into the story from the first page. A well-developed story with interesting characters. My favorite character of the whole novel was Nate, the elementary school-aged son of the caregiver Alison had after she got home from the hospital. He reminded me of how much I miss having kids in my life.

I do have one complaint about the book related to the structure. The story had two converging timelines, starting in March, when Alison first got sick, and then another timeline several months later. The two timelines weren't distinct enough and sometimes it got confusing about what time period I was reading about, even though each chapter heading was dated. I think it might have been easier to read if the story had been told chronologically. Small complaint.

I'd recommend this one.
 

The Girl Who Wrote in Silk

 

After the second person raved about The Girl Who Wrote in Silk by Kelli Estes within the course of a week, I figured this was a book to read. When I checked goodreads, I saw that I'd put it on my list of books to read in 2016, shortly after it was first published. As an older book, it was very easy to pick it up from the library immediately.

What a great book. It was very loosely based on the conditions for Chinese in the late 1800s, after the implementation of the Chinese Exclusion Act, a racist anti-Chinese immigration policy. I really had no idea of the horrific acts performed as a result of this act.

Mei Lein and her family are forced out of their home (and business) in Seattle. Somehow Mei Lein survives and starts a new life on Orcas Island, one of the San Juan Islands, currently just a ferry ride away from Seattle. Mei Lein's life as a Chinese woman in Washington in the 1880s is very difficult. After the birth of her son, she is determined that her son knows the story of his Chinese family and starts creating the story by embroidering on silk.

Fast forward over 100 years. Inara was left her aunt's estate on Orcas Island. Inara and her sister are exploring things around the estate as Inara is deciding whether or not she will give up a coveted job with Starbucks to fulfill her aunt's dream of turning the estate into a B&B. Her sister trips over a loose step and by digging further, Inara discovers a package hidden under the step containing a well-wrapped, well-preserved sleeve that appeared to come from a Chinese robe. Curious about the sleeve, Inara reaches out to a professor at the University of Washington who might help guide her research. Who created the sleeve? Why was there just a sleeve and not a whole robe? And why was it hidden there?

The stories alternate and eventually we learn the connection between Mei Lein's story and Inara's story. And it isn't pretty. But the novel is incredibly engaging and I tore through it very quickly. I would highly recommend.

The Reading List

After finishing The Weight of Ink, a very hefty read, I was glad that next in my "to be read" pile was The Reading List. It's a new novel by Sara Nisha Adams. I might have read about it in Renee's Reading Club on Facebook or it might have been part of a list of good summer reads. Wherever I picked up the idea to read it, I'm glad I did.

The Reading List is not a light and fluffy book, but it was easy to read. It was a novel about the power of books and the place of the library in the lives of a community. It's also about personal connections. It's also about grief.

A bunch of folks in Wembley found a list of books to read in random spots. Some of the people who found a copy of the list were readers, but many were not. It helped that I'd read all but one of the books on the list, but I don't know that it's necessary to have read them in order to enjoy this novel.

As I've shared before, I am a reader, but my husband is not. This quote from the book really screamed out to me.

"She was my wife, I should have paid attention to the books she liked. I liked  to watch her read, but never asked her what was happening in her books. I feel silly starting to read storybooks at my age." "It's never too late to read stories." "Stories feel so weird. Like seeing someone else's life that ou are not meant to. Being nosy!"

Over the past year, my kids and I have talked more and more about what we're reading. I was telling them about The Reading List when one of them asked me what my favorite book is. They might as well have asked me which one of them was my favorite child. There's no way to answer. Then my son said, "Well, you've read so much during the pandemic. What's one book that stands out to you that you've read over the past year and a half?" I did some thinking and eventually settled on Anxious People by Fredrik Backman. My comment when finishing that one was "Brings into focus what really matters." 

The conversation, though, has me thinking about what my favorite books might be. Like if I were to write up a list of books that I think others might find helpful, what books would I include? What books have helped me? I will probably keep thinking of this over the coming weeks and months.

The author shared what would be HER list of books she'd put on a book list which were quite different from the books her character selected for the list used in the novel. The books on her list are books that inspired her to want to be a reader and eventually a writer. I've copied down that list since unbelievably, while I've heard of several of the book, I haven't read a single one on her list!

1. Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake
2. Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things
3. Zadie Smith, White Teeth
4. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah
5. Katherine Heiny, Standard Deviation
6. Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance
7. Hiromi Kawakami, Strange Weather in Tokyo
8. Angela Carter, The Magic Toyshop
   
9. Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
10. Attia Hosain, Sunlight on a Broken Column
11. Ali Smith, There But For The

There were a few other quotes that I highlighted, but strictly because of the text-to-self connections that I was able to make.

She loved this flat because her daughter had made it her own, and Naina had always prided herself on letting her daughters do what felt best for them, and making a space in the world for themselves. "Because if you don't, who will?" she used to say.

I don't often say that, but I always think that about my daughters and their choices.

He only wished that when Naina had gone, too, Naina had been there holding his hand. Leading him through his grief step by step.

This is another thought I often have. Like how would I have possibly made it through the deaths of my parents without having my cousin at my side. But then when my cousin died, who was there to help me make it through that grief?

He knew the world Priya was in right now. There was something magical in that - in sharing a world you have loved; allowing someone to see it through the same pair of spectacles you saw it through yourself.

Readers are never at a loss to find things to talk about with other readers. Ever. "Whatcha reading now?" Sharing books you've both loved. Sharing book recommendations.

And finally:

"I worried that you needed someone to take care of you after Mummy died, but I didn't give you the credit that you could take care of yourself, and when I tried to look after you, I forgot how to keep you company. I'm sorry." 

I'm sorry, Dad. After Mom died, you seemed so lost. I wanted to take care of you the way that you took care of me. In those first few weeks before we found out that you were sick, I should have more fully enjoyed spending time with you rather than worrying about how you were going to survive once I went home. Then, you were sick, and I really did need to, not necessarily take care of you but, advocate for you at the hospital and at the nursing home. I'm so glad, though, Dad, that during those 4 months, we really did get to keep each other company. And I think we did a good job of that.

I highly recommend this novel! This was Adams' debut novel, but she's got another one coming in the spring, The Shared Garden. I'm anxious to learn what that one is about. 

 

 

 

The Weight of Ink

 

I thought I'd written up a quick review about The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish after I finished reading. But I must have written the little blurb that went in our synagogue newsletter since this is the book we'll be discussing at our next book club meeting.

Set in London of the 1660s and the early 2000s, Kadish alternates between the stories of Ester Velasquez and Helen Watt. Ester is a Portuguese emigrant from Amsterdam and Helen is a university historian at the end of her career. The novel centers on the discovery of a cache of Jewish documents accidentally discovered by one of Helen’s former students as he and his wife prepare to start major home renovations. Helen takes on American assistant Aaron, and eventually they are in a race against another team of historians to get to the deeper story of the documents. Who was the author? Why were they hidden? What significance do they have today?

It’s quite an ambitious historical fiction novel (in other words fairly long) but it’s so full of very different subplots. One of my favorites was how Ester and her household navigated The Great Plague of London 1665. It was interesting to make comparisons from London life during The Plague to present life during Covid-19.

A major theme of the novel was the roles of women in both 2000 and the 1660s. I was able to understand Helen's choices but that's probably since I'm from the same era. Ester's choices were so much more limited and as such, the choices she does eventually make seemed so extreme.

There’s philosophy, romance, a connection to Israel. I would definitely not call this a "Jewish" book. There are references to Spinoza and Shakespeare. All in all, I found it an interesting read and I hope my fellow book club members agree. If you enjoyed People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks, you'll enjoy The Weight of Ink.

I've promised my group that we'll select something more contemporary and a little less "weighty" (pun intended) for next time.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Books & Beer Club reads a banned book each September for Banned Book Week. A few of the classics were selected, but I threw out The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie because that was the banned book that several in my little book club were planning to read for our October meeting observing Banned Book Week. I wanted to read True Diary, but I'd already read and selected The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison as my banned book for October. Figured I could do double duty... True Diary has such awesome reviews.

Then why is it banned? There's profanity, alcoholism, sexuality and violence. I still don't understand what makes those things ban-worthy. This novel is autobiographical, using most characters who are composites of people the author grew up with, and I'll bet it comes very close to reflecting the life of a Native American, an Indian, coming of age in the 1990s on a reservation in Washington State. The author is an Indian and was raised on the reservation.

Junior - or Arnold - comes from a loving family. He lives with his alcoholic father, his mother, his grandmother and his older sister, Mary. If they have nothing else, they have love. And they have each other. Junior was born with health problems and as such, he's the target of many of the bullies on the reservation. The kid bullies - and some adult bullies. Junior is also smarter and more curious than probably all the people on the reservation. He's a reader. A real book lover. Junior's best friend is Rowdy whose home life is not nearly as loving or peaceful. Rowdy is one angry kid, but he's Junior's devoted protector.

The Diary covers Arnold's first year in high school. He starts at the school on the reservation, but after an incident happens on the first day, he transfers to the white high school 22 miles away from where Arnold lives. He works to be accepted at his new school and to still feel a part of the reservation. It's not as easy as one might imagine.

The book is engaging from the start. It's a novel about some pretty heavy, serious stuff but written in a lighthearted humorous manner that makes it easier to read, although that doesn't diminish the seriousness of what Alexie is sharing. Big themes in the novel are bullying, racism, alcoholism, grief, and the meaning of friendships and family. There's also a far share of teenage angst. After all, Arnold is 14-years old.

Junior is also a cartoonist. That's how he handles much of what churns through his mind. Junior's cartoon creations are excellently brought to the pages of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Ellen Forney who somehow gets into Junior's brain as she puts marker to paper. Markers are not her usual medium but they were most probably Junior's. The cartoons come off as being very authentic.

I hope the Books & Beer folks enjoy the book as much as I did. There's certainly a lot to talk about.

Life From Scratch: A Memoir of Food, Family and Forgiveness

 

Once again, when I read the blurb about Life From Scratch: A Memoir of Food, Family and Forgiveness by Sasha Martin, I didn't read carefully enough. I thought it was going to be about the author trying to cook a dish from every cuisine worldwide. It turns out, that was the purpose of her writing a book. But that this book was about much, much more. It's about what drove her to even attempt such a project. Once I was about a quarter of the way into the book, I went back to goodreads to see what I'd misread. Turns out that the blurb really didn't give much information. So I started skimming the reviews. That's when I truly realized my mistake.

A few of the reviewers likened this to The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. Only with food. I tend to agree. There were very many differences, but the vibe was the same. Kids neglected by mother (or parents), trying to come to terms with that while forging ahead in life. Unlike The Glass Castle, Life From Scratch resonated with me. In the past 30-something years of my life, food has played a much more important role than it did in the first 30-something years. Food can be a connection to others, a way to armchair travel, a way to express love.

Sasha and her brother Michael grew up with their single mom who marched to the beat of a different drummer. They were very poor, but because of their mom's creativity and quirkiness, they didn't even realize it. In their small nuclear family, food was important. Events were marked by food. The mom made sure that Sasha and her brother understood their Italian and Hungarian roots - through food.

For about two years, Sasha and Michael were bounced from one foster home to another when the "system" deemed their mom unfit to raise them. When Sasha was nine-years-old, the mom's best high school friend and her husband agree to become the kids' guardians. The family moved from Boston, where their home with their mother was, to Atlanta and eventually, after tragedy strikes, overseas. Sasha is physically and emotionally abandoned by her mother. She leads a troubled teenaged life and only seems content when she's in the kitchen cooking.

Sasha comes into a bit of money when she's at loose ends after college and she decides she's going to use half the money to go to the Culinary Institute of America. She leaves for the first summer to complete an internship in Tulsa and ends up staying in Tulsa and creating a new life. Only after Sasha and her husband have a baby does Sasha realize that food might hold the key to being able to truly move forward. That's when the idea of cooking herself around the world comes in.

When I realized that their was a blog that came before the memoir, off I was to explore the blog. It's called Global Table Adventure and if you are at all into cooking or ethnic foods, it's a worthwhile site to explore. There are some interesting recipes with some beautiful photographs, plus there's a little bit of story telling.

Another memoir this one reminded me of was The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels. Even though I enjoyed Life From Scratch and found The Pioneer Woman irritating. Whose table would I rather sit down to eat at? Sasha's. Hands down. But the same idea, figuring out how to move forward with your life with the help of food.

I'd recommend Life From Scratch.

The Reckoning

 

I gave Mary Trump's latest, The Reckoning, only 3 stars on goodreads, but that's mostly because it wasn't the book I was hoping to read. I was looking forward to reading a guide on how to go about healing from all that we've dealt with the past however many years. It wasn't that. She talks about the trauma that COVID and her uncle's presidency added to many of us. But she doesn't tell us how to move forward.

Mary Trump does an excellent job outlining the traumas we have faced as a nation since our inception. Actually, it goes back even further than that. Back to us stealing our land from those who were here before us.

Our country has a less than glorious past. We as Americans, collectively, have considered our nation a great one. Our past, however, has so much that is not great. Events and believes that should bring us pause. That's what Trump's book guides readers through. I guess that's the reckoning. To acknowledge what has happened before, to make actual amends, rather than simply focusing on trying to move forward with blinders on.

One thing that I did while reading was look back on my 11 years of teaching fifth grade social studies. For 10 of those years, I covered Westward Expansion, the Civil War, and then Social Justice - as opposed to the Civil Rights Movement or social injustice. I was thankful for the freedom that I had while teaching those topics. I didn't try to indoctrinate students into holding my view. I encouraged questioning and analysis so my students could come to their own conclusions. It sounds like so much of what I covered - and how I covered it - would be off-limits right now. That made me incredibly sad. And grateful, in a sad way, that I'm no longer in the classroom.

Mary Trump is incredibly smart with an excellent way with language. This was an excellent history book and one that I would encourage anyone to read.

Some of My Best Patients Were Animals

August is southern author month for Books & Beer Club. Last month, one of our members suggested that we read a new book by a local author, K.C. Nayfield. Nayfield is a local veterinarian who had put together a collection of stories about his over 30 years as a veterinarian. Our member seemed pretty confident that the author would be happy to attend our August meeting.

I've only had one pet, a cat, and he only had one veterinarian in all the years he was part of our family. So my experience with veterinarians is pretty limited. The book is a collection of articles that had been in our local paper over the years. Some were adapted for the book. Others went in the book as they'd been in the paper. Nayfield called the book "fact-tion" as all the stories were based on truth, but some of them were embellished much more than others.

I didn't know that while I was reading the book. While I was reading I had clear preferences for the stories about Nayfield becoming a veterinarian and the stories that were about the personalities of the pets - or their owners. It was full of local culture. I wasn't really interested in the technical medical stuff. But now that I understand how the book was put together, it makes sense that some of that medical stuff was included. There were also stories about his time volunteering his services in both the Bahamas and in Cuba which I found fascinating and inspiring.

It was a pleasure meeting with the author last night. It gave a much better insight into the book, into his experiences. 

Milk Fed

I do my own sort of doom-scrolling probably about once a day and while I'm scanning the headlines for (mostly bad) news, I often come across literary reviews and articles with book recommendations. Milk Fed by Melissa Broder came up on several of those lists in the spring and early summer. I requested it from the library and it became available shortly after I got home from vacation. Judging from the blurb on goodreads, it didn't sound like a perfect fit for me, but I was intrigued. 

Here's the blurb:

A scathingly funny, wildly erotic, and fiercely imaginative story about food, sex, and god from the acclaimed author of The Pisces and So Sad Today.

Rachel is twenty-four, a lapsed Jew who has made calorie restriction her religion. By day, she maintains an illusion of existential control, by way of obsessive food rituals, while working as an underling at a Los Angeles talent management agency. At night, she pedals nowhere on the elliptical machine. Rachel is content to carry on subsisting—until her therapist encourages her to take a ninety-day communication detox from her mother, who raised her in the tradition of calorie counting.

Early in the detox, Rachel meets Miriam, a zaftig young Orthodox Jewish woman who works at her favorite frozen yogurt shop and is intent upon feeding her. Rachel is suddenly and powerfully entranced by Miriam—by her sundaes and her body, her faith and her family—and as the two grow closer, Rachel embarks on a journey marked by mirrors, mysticism, mothers, milk, and honey.

Pairing superlative emotional insight with unabashed vivid fantasy, Broder tells a tale of appetites: physical hunger, sexual desire, spiritual longing, and the ways that we as humans can compartmentalize these so often interdependent instincts. Milk Fed is a tender and riotously funny meditation on love, certitude, and the question of what we are all being fed, from one of our major writers on the psyche—both sacred and profane.

 

There were parts of the book that I found interesting (like when discussing the Palestinian issue with Miriam's family). There were other parts where I wanted to scream to Miriam and tell her what to do - or what to not do. Many issues were resolved within the novel but with no explanation at all of how they were resolved. That's what I found most lacking.

It was a quick easy read. I enjoyed Broder's writing style. 

Next...

The Plot

 

Somehow in the preparation for vacation and subsequent return, The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz got lost in the shuffle. It's really not a book to be overlooked.

The Plot is a mystery novel about a novel. The main character is Jacob Finch Bonner, an author who was more or less a one-hit wonder. (He adopted the name Finch because of his love of To Kill A Mockingbird.) After his mostly ignored second book, he goes on to teach writing at a writing workshop. Because, well, if you can't write, you can always teach writing. He meets a student, a really cocky guy who has a way with words and a great idea for a novel.

A few years later, working at another writing retreat, he meets another arrogant writer which makes him thinkin about the first cocky guy. Thinking about the plot of that guy's novel, he's surprised he'd never heard of it. he googles the writer only to learn that he died shortly after they'd met.

Bonner takes the plot idea and writes his own novel, stealing the plot that simply couldn't fail. It becomes a best seller. THE novel of the season.

I don't want to give anything else away. I will say that the ending of the novel left me a little flat. However, what a fun book to read. It was really interesting to see how Korelitz gets from here to there in her plot line. Not great literature. Not something I'd normally read. But I would recommend this one.

Vacation Read 3: The Things We Cannot Say

Last month, upon completion of The Warsaw Orphan by Kelly Rimmer, I realized that I'd never read her first Holocaust novel, The Things We Cannot Say. The two are somehow connected although for the life of me right now, I can't remember what the connection is. 

I can, however, tell you that I liked The Warsaw Orphan and I really liked The Things We Cannot Say.

The Things We Cannot Say has two main storylines. One is Alina's story set in Nazi-occupied Poland. The second story is set in the present. Alice is struggling in her married life, is overwhelmed parenting two exceptional children, and her grandmother Hannah is dying.

Hannah has just had another stroke and is most likely at the end of her life. She has lost the ability to speak. Alice's son, Edison, is a non-verbal boy on the austism spectrum who communicates with Alice via an app on his iPad. Alice realizes that she might be able to communicate with her grandmother using the same app. Once she does, Hannah has a request. She wants Alice to go to take a trip to Poland for her. She  wants photographs of her home, but the rest of her requests are lost in translation.

Usually when I'm reading a novel that has dual timelines and stories, I find one more engaging than the other. In this case, I was equally captivated by the raw emotions of both. I'm pretty sure I cried reading both narratives. This is a novel about relationships, about love, about commitment. I would highly recommend The Things We Cannot Say.

I do have one minor "complaint" though. Rimmer is an Australian author. Alice and her family live in Winter Park, Florida. Some of the words used in Alice's story were Australian and not American English. Like bench for kitchen counter and lounge for couch. It didn't detract from my enjoyment of the novel at all.
 

Vacation Read 2: The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany

 

The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany was recommended as a great vacation read. And why not? Lori Nelson Spielman's novel is about an Italian family that's been cursed over the generations. The second-born daughter in each family is cursed in that she will never find love.

Emilia, a second-born daughter, is pretty content working as a baker at her grandfather's Brooklyn deli. (Yes, I loved that she lived and worked in Brooklyn.) Her younger cousin, Lucy, also a second-born daughter, is hungry for love. Lucy (and her mother) are sure that the curse is real.

Their great aunt, Poppy, also a second-born daughter, wants Emilia and Lucy to accompany her on a trip to Italy. She insists that she's going to meet the love of her life on the steps of the Ravello Cathedral on her eightieth birthday. In doing so, the curse will be broken. Her goal is to prove to Emilia and Lucy that it is possible to find love.

I had thought that The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany was going to similar to Our Italian Summer. I read that one in March. That novel which had me feeling no sense of Italy was about the relationships between a mother, a daughter, and a granddaughter. I thought  The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany was going to be more about the relationships between the great aunt and her two nieces than a romance. (I mean really... YIKES! Two romance novels in a row!) They weren't similar at all. And unlike Our Italian Summer, The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany gave me a much better feel for Italy. 

This novel had more depth than what I think of as a typical romance. I liked the characters (except for the grandmother... she reminded me of a witch from the start) and I was rooting for the Poppy, Emilia, and Lucy.

I probably enjoyed reading this one on vacation more than I might have enjoyed it reading it at home. But isn't that often the case?

Vacation Read 1: People We Meet on Vacation

Doesn't People We Meet on Vacation sound like a great book to read on vacation? It was, even if Emily Henry's newest novel, People We Meet on Vacation, wasn't as much as the people that you meet on vacation. More about  the people you go on vacation with.

Poppy and Alex meet on the first day of college. They're coincidentally from the same small town. The two of them couldn't have been more opposite. Then... on the last day of freshman year, the driver that Poppy was sharing a ride home with was none other than Alex. They connected on the ride home and spent time over the summer vacation together.

Poppy has never felt at home in their small town which probably contributed to her strong sense of wanderlust. She convinces Alex to go on vacation with her. And that starts a new tradition. Every summer after, the two of them go on vacation together. They travel on the cheap until Poppy gets her dream job as a travel writer. She actually gets paid to "go on vacation." Then she's able to treat Alex to a great trip on her job. For a few more years. Until things get weird between the two of them and the summer vacations end.

She's got her dream job, living in her dream city, but she's just not happy. Her best friend, Rachel, asks her what she felt was missing in her life that used to make her happy. She realizes that without the possibility of a summer vacation with Alex, that's what she is lacking. Out of the blue, she texts him and asks him if he's free to go away for a few days. I'll spare you the rest of the story.

I loved reading about some of the adventures that Poppy and Alex had on their trips. There's a loose reference to the title when Poppy is able to be whomever she wants to be while on vacation. Almost like a character. And as much as she loves seeing new places, she loves the interactions that she has with people while she's traveling. I'm not much of a romance novel reader so this whole creating a new persona to interact with people you're going to meet was my favorite part of the novel.

I read Henry's novel, Beach Read, in October. Of the two, I preferred People We Meet on Vacation.
 

A Gentleman in Moscow

 

A friend gave me her copy of the Amor Towles historical fiction, A Gentleman in Moscow, a little over 4 years ago. I started it almost immediately. I was flying up to New York and now I had something to read on the plane. I was thoroughly engrossed for the 2 hours on the plane. I didn't pick it up while I was away, then my flight home was delayed until the overnight hours and I decided I'd rather sleep than read on that flight. Imagine that! Once home, I struggled with it, put it down, picked it up, and about a year later, I dropped it. For some reason,  I held on to her book.

Fast forward to a few months ago and one of my book clubs selected A Gentleman in Moscow to discuss in September. Hey, look at that. I still had a copy of the book. I decided I would try again. It did not take me too long to remember exactly what it was about it that I didn't like. I mostly read for a few minutes before bed every night. A Gentleman in Moscow is the type of novel that needs to be read in big solid chunks of time. I remembered that if I read a little bit, when I next picked up the novel, I'd have to go back pages and pages to pick up the train of thought. Once I remembered that this time, I decided that at a minimum I'd read a full chapter each time I picked up the book. And if I couldn't, I'd need to be prepared to backtrack the next time I picked it up.

It was never about the story - or the characters - or the history - that made me give up on it three years ago. It was that it required a certain kind of time commitment to reading that I haven't had in years.

I liked the story. It takes place over about 30 years in Russia, post-revolution. Alexander, former "Count" has been placed on house arrest at the Metropole, the elite hotel in Moscow before and after the revolution. He'd become one of the "former people," an aristocrat from tsarist times who was now a has-been. Always a gentleman, he is determined to make the best of his circumstances while restricted to life in a (formerly) luxurious hotel.

I loved the characters. Yes, I even loved to hate the bad guy characters. The characters were so incredibly well-developed as were the relationships amongst the characters. The Count developed meaningful relationships with people he probably would not have had he not been restricted to the hotel. For me, that was the beauty of this novel and that's what kept me reading (and re-reading). 

There's so much to discuss about this book. I'd highly recommend A Gentleman in Moscow for book clubs. I could see discussing the ending for hours and hours! But there's so much more to discuss than just that.

The Engineer's Wife

This evening, my Books & Beer Club will be discussing The Engineer's Wife by Tracey Enerson Wood whether I am there or not! Hoping that I am there to participate. I was very interested in reading this book once I saw that this was their selection. I'm a sucker for books about Brooklyn. About the Brooklyn Bridge? Even better!

I love the Brooklyn Bridge. I grew up riding across it, looking at it from afar. I made up stories in my head about the bricked-in arches on the approaches to the bridge. I read and love David McCullough's The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge. I went to the fireworks celebrating the bridge's centennial in May 1983, not realizing there was a similar celebration 100 years earlier for the opening of the bridge.

At dusk, the bridge was cleared, and a stunning fireworks display exploded from the towers, the center of the bridge, and from boats on the river. The colorful extravaganza could be seen for miles across the newly united cities.

Surprisingly, I didn't walk across the Brooklyn Bridge until the summer of 2008, but I've since walked across it several more times. While reading this novel, I wanted to zip myself up to New York and walk across the bridge once more.

Possibly the last walk across the bridge,
in the rain, June 2015

First walk across the bridge,
August 2008

   

 

I wish I could remember more about what I learned in the David McCullough book. I knew that Roebling had gone to RPI, the same institute of higher learning that my husband at the time had attended. And I thought I knew that Roebling died before the opening of the bridge and that's why his wife had to take over. Not sure where that thought came from!

The Engineer's Wife is the story of Emily Warrens Roebling, wife of Washington Roebling, son of John Roebling, the inspiration behind the idea of a bridge spanning the East River to connect New York (city) and Brooklyn, then its own city. John dies before ground was broken for the bridge and Washington takes over. Wash suffers from caisson's disease, also called decompression sickness which happens when a person comes from below the surface of the water to above too quickly from his many trips down to the support of the Brooklyn side of the bridge. 

Emily was never your average late 19th century woman. She walked to the beat of her own drummer and strongly believed that women were capable and equal to men. When Wash gets too sick to go to the job site regularly (or at all), Emily first becomes his messenger and then his de facto representative. She studies engineering on her own, running the business side and learns to make engineering decisions on her own or with the input from others on the job.

Besides being at Emily "on the job," it's also about the emotional aspects of being a woman in the second half of the 19th century. She's got excellent role models in her mother and her mother's friends. Her marriage is untraditional and has many challenges of its own.

Some of the book got a little too technical for  me but those parts really were important to the telling of Emily's story. There were some Civil War references that I found interesting. I didn't love how the author would jump ahead quickly with no real transitions and at times her writing was a bit too cumbersome for me. But she captured the essence of the time and the place. Plus this was an easy book to sail through.

Reading this also made me think about Harriet and Isabella, an historical fiction novel about Henry Ward Beecher, brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe. He was mentioned in passing in this book a couple of times.

More photos... just because.

The Seven Day Switch

After reading The Bluest Eye, I decided that I needed something much, much lighter. I went thru my Kindle library, spotted this title that I'd gotten as an Amazon Prime First Read that sounded pretty light. I mean, a book that is likened to Freaky Friday, that sounds pretty light, right?

I was afraid this novel would be a light romp about the "mommy wars." It's about new-to-the-neighborhood, Celeste, the uber stay-at-home mom of 3, and workaholic Wendy, mother of 2 who are polar opposites and unwilling to give the other the benefit of the doubt. Sparks fly whenever they're together.

At a kids sports program potluck fundraiser, both Celeste and Wendy bring their own versions of sangria. Competitive much? Wendy's was the typical type that the sports parents always request but Celeste's was a pink version made with some artisanal obscure vodka. Of course, Wendy tasted Celeste's on the sly. Of  course. Both women drank a little bit too much so weren't surprised when they woke up hungover the next morning. What did surprise them, though, was that they woke up in each other's beds, in each other's bodies, next to each other's husbands.

You know the phrase, Don't judge a man until you have walked a mile in his shoes? That's basically what this novel was about. In other words, don't make a judgement about how another woman might mother since you really don't know what goes on in her house behind closed doors.

That's only true until you switch bodies with someone. Then you have a right to judge. Sort of. Well, at least until understanding sets in.

I remember thinking when I downloaded this e-book that in my 60s I'm probably too old for storylines like this one. And maybe I am. Had I read this book when I was in my 30s or 40s, it probably would have hit a little too close to home. At my age, I was able to read it both for enjoyment and for it to spark some recollections.

I thought about being the married mother of three who might as well have been a single parent for all the help with childrearing and household things I got from my former husband. While I was still married, I worked part-time as a travel agent. This brought back memories of not fitting in with the full-time working moms nor with the stay-at-home moms. The full-time working moms considered my job a hobby and the stay-at-home moms wondered why I bothered working just to cover the cost of childcare. I then thought about determining what my choices might be once I was truly a single mother. Would my work as an independent contractor travel agent and trainer of travel agents be enough to provide for my family's needs? Child support was a help but it wasn't enough. I realized that I enjoyed the training part of my work much more than the booking of trips. (Although I will also love researching for trip planning. That is now a hobby.) At the same time, I realized that I truly enjoyed volunteering in the classrooms of my children. That's what made me consider going back to school to become an elementary school teacher. YES! I thought about all this as I was reading The Seven Day Switch.

I did have one kind of funny memory pop up while I was reading, too. When the kids were little, we belonged to our local Jewish Community Center. We probably spent nearly as many waking hours at the JCC as we did at our house. We'd frequently see this mom and her two kids at the JCC. The mom had some impressive career in her family's business. She was always neatly dressed, in full makeup. The kids were always well behaved. In the snack bar while my kids were eating chicken nuggets, her kids were eating hummus and carrots. They never seemed rushed. The dad would often show up as well. That's how they got dubbed as "the perfect family." I'd talk to a good friend of mine who didn't live near me and she'd hear all about "the perfect family" to the point that she'd ask about them if I didn't bring them up in conversation. I had not thought about "the perfect family" in quite some time. Now I really wonder what life was like behind their closed doors. Who am I kidding? They were probably perfect behind closed doors. Ha ha.

Quick entertaining book to pick up if any of what I've written about strikes your fancy.

 

The Bluest Eye

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison has been on my "to be read" list for years. Since my daughter worked on the play back when she was working in theater. Shortly after I first read Beloved. I finally picked it up now because one of my book clubs is discussing banned books in October. We're all reading George by Alex Gino and then in addition, we're each supposed to pick another banned book that we've never read before. Perfect opportunity for me to read The Bluest Eye.

I found this a book that was disturbing to read. I keep debating in my head whether The Bluest Eye or Beloved tells the more horrific story. The experience of reading both was the same. I'd pick up the book. Read a little bit. Then need to put it down.

The Bluest Eye is the story of Pecola Breedlove, an 11-year old girl in Ohio who comes from a family devoid of love, where ugliness and violence seem to rule. Spoiler alert: Pecola gets raped by her father. Pecola thinks if only she had blue eyes, her life would be perfect.The story told in an interesting way, with different sections of the book focusing on one character or another with whom Pecola interacts.

While I don't think any book should be banned, I can see what might be objectionable to some readers. There are many teachable moments in any controversial book. In this case, there can be discussions about race. Why were there no dolls of color until recently making white, blond, blue-eyed dolls a standard of beauty? What does lack of parenting do to a person? What about poverty? If a person objects to the language and sexual explicitness of the novel, then don't pick it up to read on your own. There are so many books. On your own time, for your own pleasure, pick your own book. There is much to be learned by reading The Bluest Eye. Life isn't all Shirley Temple dolls and happy moments. Nor are the stories that can be told.

The craft of the novel is something to talk about, too. Why did she choose to present the material in the manner that she did? There were messages imbedded within the rich language.

Pecola's story is based in Ohio. But parts of the story goes to the South in the early 20th century so we get a little taste of that setting as well. 

This is a story about  a lonely, vulnerable girl.

I gave The Bluest Eye only 3 stars on goodreads because of how disturbingly difficult it was to read. I know that if I were reading it for a book club where we had all read The Bluest Eye, my opinion of the book would change because there is so much powerful material to discuss. On second thought, I'm going to revise my rating to 4 stars because this is a novel that is going to stick with me and I'm sure it will come up in conversation with some of my more readerly friends.

 

Get a Grip, Vivy Cohen

 

I decided that I needed a little bit of a break, wanted to read something that would be quick and easy, so I looked for a middle grade chapter book. Not sure how I found Get a Grip, Vivy Cohen on the library website but it seemed like it would fit the bill. It's also a epistolary novel, which you must know that I like a lot.

As a former fifth grade teacher, when I read a middle grade chapter book I read it as an adult reader, but I also think about how a fifth grader might read this book. Normally, I either like a book or dislike a book. In this case, I found Get a Grip, Vivy Cohen interesting but I'm not sure that it would hold the attention of most fifth graders.

Vivy Cohen is an 11-year old Jewish girl who loves baseball, just like her dad and her older brother. She met a pitcher when she was 8-years old who gave her tips on how to pitch a knuckleball. She has practiced and now she can pitch a knuckleball. (I'm not even sure if that's the correct terminology - pitch a knuckleball or throw a knuckleball?)

Vivy is also on the autistic spectrum. As part of her social skills group, she's asked to write a letter to someone. She writes to the baseball pitcher, now an MLB player, that she'd met three years earlier, never expecting him to write back. After the first letter, she continues writing. She's very surprised after a few of her letters, she finally receives a letter back from the pitcher, VJ. (Both Vivy and the pitcher have the initials VJC which I thought was kind of cute.) At about the same time, Vivi is invited to be on a Little League team. She's the first girl she knows to play baseball and not softball.

Vivy is able to express herself in writing to VJ far better than she can express herself orally to anyone else so he becomes her sounding board. She often asks for his advice and then rejects it. She's dealing with being on a team for the first time, facing a bully on the team, a brother who is increasingly distant, along with everything else an autistic sixth grader might be dealing with.

As an adult, I found it interesting, especially if how Vivy describes her feelings are actually those that a child on the spectrum would feel. I didn't find her at all engaging or even particularly likeable. Her character was well developed on many levels where I found the character of VJ extremely flat. Yes, I realize this was a book about baseball, but sometimes there was just too much baseball. I just didn't care about that. We eventually find out why Vivy's brother is distancing himself and I found that whole storyline unnecessary. It was more a mention than a storyline so why bother.

I  learned some new things but this isn't a book I would recommend.