I Love You Rituals by Becky Bailey

I recently took a 6 week Love & Logic parenting class. Our city's public school system did it for free (which warms my cheap, penny-pinching heart) and I went with a couple friends who have similarly aged kids. It gave me some desperately needed skills for dealing with Stinky's recent brush with the terrible twos and things have been running much more smoothly around here lately.

Our instructor heartily recommended I Love You Rituals by Becky Bailey as a complement to Love & Logic. I had a gift card to Barnes and Noble so, rather than get it from the library like I would normally do, I just bought it. I hoped it would be the kind of book I'd like to keep on hand for quick reference when I needed it.

Thus far it has not disappointed. As I read through the rhymes and games I knew Stinky would love them all. She gives specific ideas for things you can do with your child but also gives ideas for creating your own. I've used several of her rituals over the past few weeks and have come up with a couple of my own. Our mornings are much more pleasant when I start them with a loving ritual instead of not very nicely asking Stinky to go back to bed because it's freaking 6 in the morning. We have weathered several pre-naptime tantrums with the help of her sweet revised nursery rhymes.

Some of the games and rhymes seemed silly to me as I was reading them but they work when done with a 2 1/2 year old. If you have younger children this is a great book for helping you bond and build trust and all those other lovely happy things you want in your relationship with your babies.

Karen by Marie Killilea

A few weeks ago I was talking to the lovely EK and somehow we got to talking about reading and the mail and whatnot and we ended the conversation by deciding to start sending packages of books or other fun things to each other. I started by sending her an ARC of Matched by Ally Condie. She reciprocated by sending me an old, slightly battered copy of Karen by Marie Killilea. And I'm already planning my next three packages to her and have decided this was pretty much the best idea ever. Getting a (mostly) unexpected package from a friend is enough to completely make your day.

Karen is an incredibly charming book. It's the true story of a little girl growing up with cerebral palsy in the 1940s when no one really knew what it was or what to do about it. When it became apparent that something was wrong with their baby girl, Marie and Jimmy Killilea were told to put her in an institution and forget about her as people with cerebral palsy "have no mentality."

The story of Karen's growth and development and her family's fierce loyalty and fight on behalf of those with cerebral palsy is so sweet. But what has really struck be about this book is how different the field of medicine has become over the past 60 years. After giving birth, Marie stays in the hospital for at least a week and spends most of that time away from her baby. Karen's doctor suspected she had cerebral palsy, possibly for a long period of time, but didn't tell her parents about it until they begged him to tell them why their almost year old daughter was still laying there like an infant. There have been so many little things that just boggle my mind and make me grateful to live when I do (and that I'm healthy and so are my children).

A lovely read, perfect for lounging on the couch and enjoying the cool, rainy days we had this week!

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

From Goodreads:

Katniss Everdeen, girl on fire, has survived, even though her home has been destroyed. Gale has escaped. Katniss's family is safe. Peeta has been captured by the Capitol. District 13 really does exist. There are rebels. There are new leaders. A revolution is unfolding.

It is by design that Katniss was rescued from the arena in the cruel and haunting Quarter Quell, and it is by design that she has long been part of the revolution without knowing it. District 13 has come out of the shadows and is plotting to overthrow the Capitol. Everyone, it seems, has had a hand in the carefully laid plans -- except Katniss.

The success of the rebellion hinges on Katniss's willingness to be a pawn, to accept responsibility for countless lives, and to change the course of the future of Panem. To do this, she must put aside her feelings of anger and distrust. She must become the rebels' Mockingjay -- no matter what the personal cost.

*just a smidge spoilerish. Stay away if you want to come to the book knowing nothing.


About 10 pages in to Mockingjay I was very worried. It was weak, almost painfully so. Katniss's self-pitying navel gazing was not what I had come to expect from the Hunger Games series and I found myself slogging. I had expected to sit down and devour this in a day while neglecting my children and personal hygiene so I was really disappointed when the first chapter, only 15 pages, took me a full day to get through.

Fortunately, after a slow start in the first few chapters, Collins brings the action, which is where she really shines. Unfortunately, Mockingjay is definitely the weakest in the series. It's a fine end to the journey and with any other author I would likely be satisfied but since I know what Collins in capable of I found myself disappointed. I remember sobbing over deaths in the previous books but found myself completely dry eyed this time around and thinking, "I should be devastated over this!" but I wasn't.

Although it doesn't stand up to the previous two, there is plenty to love here. Katniss finally pulls herself together and once again becomes the reluctant hero we know and love. Finnick and many of the other supporting characters are fabulous. I really loved the ending. I kind of expected Collins to go a bit darker but I will never argue with a happily-ever-after.

An Original Review

I just finished Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass. I....didn't get it. Occasionally there would be a section that I'd be like, "Hey! I think I know what he's talking about!" and then it would lapse back into Greek and my eyes would glaze over and I'd fall asleep. Which is why 86 pages took me about 2 weeks to read.

But! My edition includes some of the poem's original reviews from 1855 when it was first published, both the positive and the not so positive. I read this one and laughed out loud:

It is impossible to imagine how any man's fancy could have conceived such a mass of stupid filth, unless he were possessed of the soul of a sentimental donkey that had died of disappointed love. This poet (?) without wit, but with a certain vagrant wildness, just serves to show the energy which natural imbecility is occasionally capable of under strong excitement.
-Rufus W. Griswold

Awesome.

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

From Goodreads:

This extraordinary work chronicles the crack-up of Esther Greenwood: brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, successful - but slowly going under, and maybe for the last time. Step by careful step, Sylvia Plath takes us with Esther through a painful month in New York as a contest-winning junior editor on a magazine, her increasingly strained relationships with her mother and the boy she dated in college, and eventually, devastatingly, into the madness itself. The reader is drawn into her breakdown with such intensity that her insanity becomes completely real and even rational, as probable and accessible an experience as going to the movies. Such deep penetration into the dark and harrowing corners of the psyche is rare in any novel. It points to the fact that The Bell Jar is a largely autobiographical work about Plath's own summer of 1953, when she was a guest editor at Mademoiselle and went through a breakdown. It reveals so much about the sources of Sylvia Plath's own tragedy that its publication was considered a landmark in literature. 

To be perfectly honest I fully expected to loathe this book.  It sounds so horribly depressing and I much prefer sunshine and rainbows.

And then I read it in one day (almost to the neglect of my children) and LOVED it.

Esther's descent into madness, to me, didn't feel dark or depressing or horrific. The way she tells her story feels a bit like someone telling you about their recent vacation. It's sort of a personal narrative with feelings and whatnot but without the darkness and dramatics you would expect from someone falling into serious mental illness.

What I really loved, though, is that Plath brought her poetry into her writing. She is probably mostly remembered for this novel, but she was first and foremost a poet and it shines through in her prose. There were a few bits I read over and over just because I loved the wording or the imagery. One of my favorites:

Marco hooked an arm around my waist and jerked me up against his dazzling white suit. Then he said, "Pretend you are drowning."

I shut my eyes, and the music broke over me like a rainstorm.

I LOVE that.

Well played, Sylvia Plath. Well played.

The First Year of Homeschooling Your Child by Linda Dobson

From Goodreads:

Are you considering homeschooling for your family? Today, many parents recognize that their child's school options are limited, inadequate, or even dangerous, and an increasing number are turning to homeschooling. But where do you start and how do you ensure the highest-quality educational experience, especially in that pivotal first year?
This comprehensive guide will help you determine the appropriate first steps, build your own educational philosophy, and discover the best ways to cater to your child's specific learning style, including:
·When, why, and how to get started
·The best ways to develop an effective curriculum, assess your child's progress, and navigate local regulations
·Kid-tested and parent-approved learning activities for all age levels
·Simple strategies for developing an independent child and strengthening family and social relationships 

I have been waffling about possibly homeschooling my kids since before Wes was born. My biggest problem is just that it's overwhelming. There are so many different philosophies and curriculum and STUFF. I couldn't figure out where to even start.

I happened to grab this book just because it was there while we were waiting to watch a movie at the library. As it turns out, it was a perfect starting place. It lays out the different basic homeschooling approaches and gives an example of a day in the life of each. It's also incredibly reassuring and filled with blurbs from homeschooling parents who share their, "What I wish I had known"s. It sets realistic expectations and discusses socialization at length, which is one of my major concerns.

I was worried I wouldn't be able to read straight through since it looked like it might be exceptionally boring, but that wasn't a problem at all. As soon as I finished it I put her other book about homeschooling in the early years on hold at the library.

I did notice a bias toward the Unschooling philosophy, though, which is not necessarily a direction I'm leaning. I would have preferred a more unbiased approach but I still found this book incredibly helpful and reassuring. It's a great resource for those who are considering giving it a go and need a little help finding some direction.

Throwing in the Towel: Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy

I put Jude the Obscure on my 2010 Classics To-Read list mostly because, for a couple months during my pregnancy, I was working really really hard at getting Aaron to get on board with Jude for Baby 2's name (still love it but Aaron just couldn't do it. Too much like Judy, which is a word he occasionally uses for a certain female body part).

I have been trying for weeks to read this book. I have renewed it from the library as many times as I'm allowed to but you know what?

I hate it. I gave it an honest try but it has killed my will to live and I am giving myself permission to just give up on it and return it to the library and never think of it again.

Apologies to Thomas Hardy and my friends who actually really like this one. I can't do it! I'm moving on.

Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert

From Goodreads:

This beautifully written, heartfelt memoir touched a nerve among both readers and reviewers. Elizabeth Gilbert tells how she made the difficult choice to leave behind all the trappings of modern American success (marriage, house in the country, career) and find, instead, what she truly wanted from life. Setting out for a year to study three different aspects of her nature amid three different cultures, Gilbert explored the art of pleasure in Italy and the art of devotion in India, and then a balance between the two on the Indonesian island of Bali.

As the book is divided into three parts I will likewise divide my review in three.

Italy:
In theory Elizabeth went to Italy to eat herself silly and pursue pleasure for 3 months. I was hoping this section would be like Molly Wizenberg's A Homemade Life where she'd be like, "This thing happened, and I felt like this, but there was food! Let me tell you all about the food!" and you get to vicariously eat amazing things. Instead, Gilbert spends much of the first third of the book telling her back story and being like, "blah blah divorce, blah blah depression, blah blah loneliness." Every once in a while she'd delve into a glorious description of the FOOD and I'd perk up and be like, "FINALLY! Tell me alllll about the pizza! And the pasta! And sweet heavens, please describe the desserts!" And then she'd go back to whining.

Eat: FAIL.

However, I loved the following concept from the Italy section:

"...every city has a single word that defines it, that identifies most people who live there. If you could read people's thoughts as they were passing you on the streets of any given place, you would discover that most of them are thinking the same thought. Whatever that majority thought might be--that is the word of the city. And if your personal word does not match the word of the city, then you don't really belong there."

The man who explains this concept to her says that Rome's word is SEX. The Vatican's should be FAITH but instead it is POWER. They decide New York's word is ACHIEVE and LA's is SUCCEED. I loved pondering this concept, trying to come up with words for my city, my family, and my self.


India:
The Italy section took me several days to read but the India section I easily plowed through in one evening. It was easily my favorite part of the book. I absorbed her talk of Yoga, enlightenment and meditation like a sponge, comparing and contrasting to my own faith and beliefs. I was completely fascinated and surprised by how much was compatible with my own belief system. I'm still not real tempted to run off to an Ashram, but I was fascinated nonetheless.

I especially loved when she discusses the concept of the turiya state, which is a state of constant bliss. She says,

"...most of us have been there, too, if only for fleeting moments. Most of us, even if only for two minutes in our lives, have experienced at some time or another an inexplicable and random sense of complete bliss, unrelated to anything that was happening in the outside world. One instant you're just a regular Joe, schlepping through your mundane life, and then suddenly--what is this?--nothing has changed, yet you feel stirred by grace, swollen with wonder, overflowing with bliss. Everything--for no reason whatsoever--is perfect."

As I read that I went, "I KNOW EXACTLY WHAT SHE'S TALKING ABOUT." And that made me happy.

This is also the section of the book where Gilbert stops feeling sorry for herself, and I always like when that happens.

Pray: WIN


Indonesia:
This section was just sort of...there. She was supposed to spend her time in Bali discovering how to balance the things she learned in the previous two countries and I suppose she did but I was just kind of bored by it all. At this point I was plowing through just to finish. Also, file under Things I Never Never Never Needed to Know About Anyone: the things you fantasize about while taking care of your own business. She mentioned Bill Clinton and I wanted to vomit.

However, I did love the description of the "baby ceremony." Apparently the Balinese revere babies under 6 months of age as minor deities and therefore do not let them touch the floor. At six months they hold a fancy little ceremony where the baby's feet are finally allowed to touch the ground and they are "welcomed to the human race." It's such a sweet idea and Gilbert describes the ceremony in wonderful detail.

Love: EH.

So we've got one Fail, one Win, one Eh. If I could give half stars on Goodreads I'd give it 2 1/2 out of 5 but I can't so I was nice and gave it 3 instead. The whole idea of the book really appeals but I felt like, aside from the India portion and the parts I mentioned liking, it generally fell flat.

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

From Goodreads:

Sometimes only remembered for the epic motion picture and "Frankly ... I don't give a damn," Gone with the Wind was initially a compelling and entertaining novel. It was the sweeping story of tangled passions and the rare courage of a group of people in Atlanta during the time of Civil War that brought those cinematic scenes to life. The reason the movie became so popular was the strength of its characters--Scarlett O'Hara, Rhett Butler, and Ashley Wilkes--all created here by the deft hand of Margaret Mitchell, in this, her first novel. 

This was the longest. book. ever. And I loved it so much that I was STILL sad when it ended.

Where do you even start with a book like Gone with the Wind? With how amazingly fabulous and vibrant and well drawn the characters are? Or with how you were constantly amazed at how perfectly the movie went with the book? Or how in love you are with Rhett Butler? Or how just generally AWESOME the whole thing is??

I both love and hate Scarlett. I love her because she's strong and a survivor and I hate her because it took her 1000 pages to let go of stupid Ashley Wilkes. Paul Newman once said of staying true to Joanne Woodward, "Why go out for hamburger when you have steak at home?" Dude. Ashley Wilkes is hamburger. Rhett! There is your steak, my friend. Swoooon.

Character awesomeness aside, it was fun to suddenly side with the South during the Civil War. History class can only help you understand so much. I remember learning about how the South was fighting to preserve their way of life and I sort of got that but it was reading about how much things changed from that first barbeque at Twelve Oaks to trying to keep Tara afloat to the fall of the "Old Guard" that really drove it home to me. I even sympathized with the South. I GOT why the Civil War was so devastating. Finally. I'm a little slow.

There are few books I bother buying because, hi, that's what the library is for. But this? This I must own. It's one of those books that totally sucks you in and spits you out emotionally drained and a little dazed because, whoa.

I'm now going to go watch the movie. And then I'm going to read it again.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

From Goodreads:

Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger.
Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.
Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.
Minny, Aibileen’s best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody’s business, but she can’t mind her tongue, so she’s lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.
Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed. 

The Help, like The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society before it, got a lot of buzz that for some reason had me assured that I would not care for it. I am so weird that way, but I just think they are never going to live up to the hype. And then I'm all surprised when they do.

My sister got it for my mom for Mother's Day and I was at their house and needed a book to read while nursing and it was just THERE so..I read the first chapter. And I totally stole it so I could finish it.

There was so much in this book that could have gone wrong, like the changing narrators or the southern accents (they can be so hard to read when written phonetically), but none of that tripped me up. I love that it was about race relations during a particularly volatile time in America's history but was also about women and the relationships we have with one another. It was both funny and heartbreaking. And generally really impressive for a debut novel.

I want the three narrators to be my neighbors and we'll be the type of friends who always leave their back doors unlocked in case there is gossip or cooking to be shared and I will gain 50 pounds because they deep fry everything. I just loved them.

I think my favorite part was when two white women are "worried about" another friend whom they believe is mixed up in the civil rights movement. "The racists," they whisper fearfully, "They're out there!" But one of those women is probably the most racist character in the book. I thought that small scene summed up so much in such a small interaction and Stockett does really well with those kinds of details.

 Just a generally awesome book.

Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw

From Wikipedia:

Professor of phonetics Henry Higgins makes a bet that he can train a bedraggled Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, to pass for a duchess at an ambassador's garden party by teaching her to assume a veneer of gentility, the most important element of which, he believes, is impeccable speech. The play is a sharp lampoon of the rigid British class system of the day and a comment on women's independence, packaged as a romantic comedy.

Who DOESN'T love this story?? It's been a long time since I've seen My Fair Lady but now I'm itching to rent it.

Pygmalion is just a fantastic play. There's a quote on the back cover of the copy I got from the library that really sums it up for me:

[George Bernard Shaw is] The most influential writer of his age...His plays can scarcely prove other than lastingly delightful since they are the product of vigorous intelligence joined to inexhaustible comic invention.
-J.I.M. Stewart in the Oxford History of English Literature

Exactly. It's witty and funny and the characters are so likeable and the whole thing is generally delightful. And I can't read it without singing, "Just you wait, Henry Higgins, just you wait!" which just improves the experience. This one goes on my hypothetical favorites list.

The Secret History of the Pink Carnation by Lauren Willig

From Goodreads:

Deciding that true romantic heroes are a thing of the past, Eloise Kelly, an intelligent American who always manages to wear her Jimmy Choo suede boots on the day it rains, leaves Harvard's Widener Library bound for England to finish her dissertation on the dashing pair of spies the Scarlet Pimpernel and the Purple Gentian. What she discovers is something the finest historians have missed: a secret history that begins with a letter dated 1803. Eloise has found the secret history of the Pink Carnation the most elusive spy of all time, the spy who single-handedly saved England from Napoleon's invasion.
The Secret History of the Pink Carnation, a wildly imaginative and highly adventurous debut, opens with the story of a modern-day heroine but soon becomes a book within a book. Eloise Kelly settles in to read the secret history hoping to unmask the Pink Carnation's identity, but before she can make this discovery, she uncovers a passionate romance within the pages of the secret history that almost threw off the course of world events. How did the Pink Carnation save England? What became of the Scarlet Pimpernel and the Purple Gentian? And will Eloise Kelly find a hero of her own?

 I think it's kind of funny that all the descriptions of this book focus on Eloise when she's hardly in the book at all. The Secret History of the Pink Carnation focuses the vast majority of its 450 pages on Amy Balcourt and Richard Selwick, fictional historical characters contemporary and associated with the (also fictional) Scarlet Pimpernel in the early 1800s.

I haven't had a whole lot of luck with historical fiction in the last year. Most of what I've picked up has been mediocre to downright painful. I attributed this to my own personal preferences since Janssen loved A Curse Dark as Gold and Ten Cents a Dance while I thought they were...not good.

So I was surprised by how much I enjoyed The Secret History of the Pink Carnation. Perhaps it's because this is thoroughly a quick-read love story in historical fiction's clothing. It's not trying to teach you anything about Napoleonic France or tell the story of how Bonaparte tried to invade England through fictional characters (although, a little more historical stuff would have been fun), it just revels in its lovey-dovey-ness while occasionally throwing in a name you know from history class. It's much more chick-lit-y than historical fiction-y.

My one complaint (and it's a biggie) is that it occasionally veers into..ahem...romance territory. If you know what I mean. Love scenes in any genre make me twitchy but in books they're especially bad and this book is no exception.

Romance scenes aside, it's a great beach read. Or middle-of-the-night-nursing read. Whichever.

The Lions of Lucerne by Brad Thor

From Goodreads:

In this incredibly fast-paced thriller, a conspiracy hatched close to the Oval Office results in the kidnapping of the president and the slaughter of a company of Secret Service agents commanded by ex-Navy SEAL Scot Harvath. The story careers from the ski slopes of Utah to the top of Switzerland's Mount Pilatus and sets Scot on an impossible mission: recover the president, evade renegade Swiss spy Gerhard Miner and his cadre of trained agents, and elude the American conspirators who are hot on his trail. Framed for murder, his reputation in tatters, his former colleagues turned against him, Harvath finds an unlikely ally in a beautiful Swiss prosecutor who's been checkmated by Miner once too often. Together they play a high-stakes game of mixed "doubles" to save the president and uncover the conspiracy. Brad Thor's debut novel is a tightly wound spy tale that makes up in excitement what it lacks in subtlety and character development.

Ah, Brad Thor. My dad loves his stuff so I've picked up a few of his novels since they're always laying around my parents' house.

Brad Thor novels are pretty much 24 in book form. Scot Harvath might as well be Jack Bauer. They are both agents doing classified government work. They are both always right about everything. They both must always go rogue at some point. They both always say, "With all due respect," when they are about to tell the president or some other high ranking official that they're stupid or crazy or both. They both get the crap beat out of them on a regular basis yet still manage to scale mountains/beat people senseless/save the world fresh off their deathbeds. And they're both awesome.

This isn't exactly the most intellectual of reading but it is so fun. I've loved all the Brad Thor novels I've picked up and I know I'll happily borrow any others I find on my dad's desk. They're fast paced and full of twists and the guy gets the girl and and the bad guy goes down hard. What's not to like?

The Eternal Ones by Kirsten Miller

When Janssen came to visit last weekend she brought me an extra ARC she had of The Eternal Ones by Kirsten Miller (coming out in August). I haven't read anything in like a month so I was excited to have some nice fluffy YA reading to plow through and hopefully get me back into the swing of things.

(I get a bit spoilerish at the end so I marked that paragraph with **. If you don't want me to spoil any of the book for you just skip that part)


From Goodreads:

What if love refused to die?

Haven Moore can’t control her visions of a past with a boy called Ethan, and a life in New York that ended in fiery tragedy. In our present, she designs beautiful dresses for her classmates with her best friend Beau. Dressmaking keeps her sane, since she lives with her widowed and heartbroken mother in her tyrannical grandmother’s house in Snope City, a tiny town in Tennessee. Then an impossible group of coincidences conspire to force her to flee to New York, to discover who she is, and who she was.

In New York, Haven meets Iain Morrow and is swept into an epic love affair that feels both deeply fated and terribly dangerous. Iain is suspected of murdering a rock star and Haven wonders, could he have murdered her in a past life? She visits the Ouroboros Society and discovers a murky world of reincarnation that stretches across millennia. Haven must discover the secrets hidden in her past lives, and loves¸ before all is lost and the cycle begins again. 

 ARCs are kind of funny to read because there are always typos and it always kills me and then I remember that they will likely be fixed by the time the book is actually released. So I always end up having issues with ARCs that are kind of irrelevant. So yes, there were typos. A lot of them, actually. But most if not all will be gone by August and I need to get over it.

 The story itself was just what I was looking for. A fairly easy and light read with a nice little love story that didn't feel completely recycled from ten thousand love stories before it. I thought the reincarnation stuff was kind of fun and I loved that I was still rather unsure about who to trust until close to the end (although some of it was obvious and I was like WHY ARE YOU TALKING TO HIM?? and then I'd smack myself in the forehead).

**One thing I really didn't care for was the element of evil. I loved that Snope City was one of those crazy religious bible belt places and of course there needed to be an element of opposition, but the bad guy didn't need to actually be Satan himself. It felt a bit off kilter with the rest of the book when any number of bad guys or even the grandmother would have served just fine. Also, I didn't love the ending but I think that particular resolution was necessary just because it's a YA book. Had it been an adult book or, you know, real life, it probably wouldn't have turned out quite so neat and happy.

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

I'm ashamed to say that my sole knowledge of Treasure Island comes from the muppet version. And I happen to LOVE that movie, which is part of the reason I added the book to my list.

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it off-screen. It's a fairly quick read but full of adventure and swashbuckling and general awesomeness. Long John Silver (who was so well embodied by Tim Curry in the muppet version that I couldn't envision him any other way throughout the book) is such a perfect villain. Charming, with a real streak of humanity, and a sort of shifty-eyed-ness that makes it so you're never really sure which way he's leaning.

I listened to the book on Playaway which I think was the way to go. I wasn't tripped up by all the sailing terms like some of the reviewers on Goodreads mentioned and all the pirates had appropriately pirate-y voices. Plus the narrator was a good one, and that always makes such a difference.

It didn't even occur to me when I added Treasure Island to my 2010 Classics List that it might also be a fitting addition to my Boy List. But, by golly, I am really looking forward to listening to this one again with my boys in a few (ten) years.

Doomsday Book by Connie Willis

From the back cover:

For Kivrin, preparing for on-site study of one of the deadliest eras in humanity's history was as simple as receiving inoculations against the diseases of the fourteenth century and inventing an alibi for a woman traveling alone. For her instructions in the twenty-first century, it meant painstaking calculations and careful monitoring of the rendezvous location where Kivrin would be retrieved.
But a crisis strangely linking past and future strands Kivrin in a bygone age as her fellows try desperately to rescue her. In a time of superstition and fear, Kivrin-barely of age herself-finds she has become and unlikely angel of hope during one of history's darkest hours.

*A bit spoilerish. Proceed with caution

I had never even heard of Connie Willis, but apparently she's Kind Of A Big Deal in the sci-fi world. I picked up Doomsday Book as research for my own novel but it took me a really long time to get around to picking it up because, at 578 pages, I found it a bit daunting. And I had never bothered to look up a review so I had no idea if it was even a halfway decent book.

It's a really good book. The author spent five years researching and writing and the depth of her research shows. The descriptions of medieval life (and death) are rich and realistic. Her characters are vibrant and her main characters are well rounded. The really minor characters do tend to be one dimensional (and sometimes a bit like broken records) but it's a minor quibble.

The plot delves into "the ageless isues of evil, suffering, and the indomitable will of the human spirit" (from the back cover) in a way that doesn't sugarcoat or pretty up harsh realities or try to find meaning in something beyond human understanding. Part of me wants to say that this book has a dark streak, but really? It's not so much dark as realistic. *The last half of the book consists of a lot of people dying of the plague and all the nastiness that goes along with that. And, considering how many times I've learned and read about the plague, I was surprised to realize that this was the first time I felt any pity for its victims (I am apparently dead inside). Willis spares no one who honestly should have died. There are no miracles, no deus ex machina, just reality (you know...aside from the time travel bit). It's depressing but strangely refreshing.

This book isn't one I'd universally recommend. Willis could have used an editor who was a bit more liberal with the red pen and I could see some readers getting bored, but it totally sucked me in. Research-wise, it wasn't as useful as I had hoped, but still one that was definitely worth reading.

These is My Words by Nancy E. Turner

From Goodreads:

In a compelling fiction debut, Nancy E. Turner's unforgettable These Is My Words melds the sweeping adventures and dramatic landscapes of Lonesome Dove with the heartfelt emotional saga of Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All.

Inspired by the author's original family memoirs, this absorbing story introduces us to the questing, indomitable Sarah Prine, one of the most memorable women ever to survive and prevail in the Arizona Territory of the late 1800s. As a child, a fiery young woman, and finally a caring mother, Sarah forges a life as full and as fascinating as our deepest needs, our most secret hopes and our grandest dreams. She rides Indian-style and shoots with deadly aim, greedily devours a treasure trove of leatherbound books, downs fire, flood, Comanche raids and other mortal perils with the unique courage that forged the character of the American West.

Rich in authentic details of daily life and etched with striking character portraits of very different pioneer families, this action-packed novel is also the story of a powerful, enduring love between Sarah and the dashing cavalry officer Captain Jack Elliot. Neither the vast distances traveled nor the harsh and killing terrains could quench the passion between them, and the loss and loneliness both suffer only strengthen their need for each other.

While their love grows, the heartbreak and wonder of the frontier experience unfold in scene after scene: a wagon-train Sunday spent roasting quail on spits as Indians close in to attack; Sarah's silent encounter with an Indian brave, in which he shows her his way of respect; a dreadful discovery by a stream that changes Sarah forever; the hazards of a visit to Phoenix, a town as hot as the devil's frying pan; Sarah's joy in building a real home, sketching out rooms and wraparound porches.

Sarah's incredible story leads us into a vanished world that comes vividly to life again, while her struggles with work and home, love and responsibility resonate with those every woman faces today. These Is My Words is a passionate celebration of a remarkable life, exhilarating and gripping from the first page to the last.

Oh my word is this ever a five star book. Janssen reviewed it on her blog a while ago and then told me that I needed to ignore the painful title and get reading. It took me a while, but I finally got around to it and holy heavens, I freaking loved this book.

I loved the evolution of Sarah's writing as she got a little older and more educated through her reading. I loved her gumption and grit and passion. I loved the verisimilitude and the fact that her whole story took place not too far from where I live now so I could totally picture the ranch and the cholla and the flooding from the rains and all of that. I loved that I could relate to her teenage angst as well as her later trials as a mother. I love that, even though she looked at her sister-in-law as the type of person she'd like to be, I looked at her as the type of person I'D like to be.

I loved the love story. LOVED the love story. Like I wanted to grab Aaron and be like, "YOU BE JACK ELLIOT AND I'LL BE SARAH" except he would have been really confused and wandered off with a slightly scared look in his eye. Plus I know nothing about cattle ranching, but you know what I mean. Maybe.

Anyway, this is one of those that when people ask me what to read I will throw this book at them as fast as I can and tell them to get cracking. It's beautifully written and heart warming and rending and one of those that just sticks with you because it is just that good. And then makes you bawl at the end because that's what good books do.

These is My Words easily waltzes its way into my top ten.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

The Goodreads description is not actually a description of the book, so if you'd like a synopsis you can find a good one here on the Wikipedia page.

I wanted to like this one so much more than I did. I mean, it's WUTHERING HEIGHTS, a book that must be discussed only in tones of hushed reverence with proper respect.

And really, it was fine, just not amazing. The writing itself is exceptional but I struggled with the story. I never felt an ounce of love or admiration or anything positive for Catherine or Heathcliff. They were pitiful, self-involved creatures and Heathcliff was just plain violent and nasty. What is there to like?? Their only redeeming attribute was their love for one another and it's hardly portrayed at all before moving on to all the death and vengeance and whatnot. And, except for Hindley, none of Heathcliff's victims deserved what they got, especially since he mostly went after the innocent children of his supposed tormenters. I just felt like there was so little to redeem the story.

A major part of the problem here is one of incorrect expectations. Wuthering Heights is so often portrayed as a love story but it really is not a love story at all. Like .0126 of the story is anything to do with love while the rest is about violence and abuse and weakness and revenge. Sure, all this comes about because of love, but it is not a love story. And I sort of knew that but I still expected more than there actually was.

I did enjoy the ending though. Heathcliff (spoiler alert) really really needed to just die. I was so done with him. And I was glad that Cathy and poor Hareton had a happy ending. It left a better taste in my mouth there at the end than I was expecting. It would be even better if that obnoxious servant Joseph died at some point as well. Every time he opened his mouth I skipped over what he said because a. it was unintelligible and b. he never had anything of worth to say.

I can see why this book is a classic though. The story is haunting and the writing is beautiful. The setting is stark and unforgettable. The 1939 film adaptation is one of my mom's favorites and I'm looking forward to watching it. Probably not a book I'll read again though.

Super Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner

From Goodreads:

The New York Times best-selling Freakonomics was a worldwide sensation, selling over four million copies in thirty-five languages and changing the way we look at the world. Now, Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner return with SuperFreakonomics, and fans and newcomers alike will find that the freakquel is even bolder, funnier, and more surprising than the first.

Four years in the making, SuperFreakonomics asks not only the tough questions, but the unexpected ones: What's more dangerous, driving drunk or walking drunk? Why is chemotherapy prescribed so often if it's so ineffective? Can a sex change boost your salary?

SuperFreakonomics challenges the way we think all over again, exploring the hidden side of everything with such questions as:

• How is a street prostitute like a department-store Santa?
• Why are doctors so bad at washing their hands?
• How much good do car seats do?
• What's the best way to catch a terrorist?
• Did TV cause a rise in crime?
• What do hurricanes, heart attacks, and highway deaths have in common?
• Are people hard-wired for altruism or selfishness?
• Can eating kangaroo save the planet?
• Which adds more value: a pimp or a Realtor?

Levitt and Dubner mix smart thinking and great storytelling like no one else, whether investigating a solution to global warming or explaining why the price of oral sex has fallen so drastically. By examining how people respond to incentives, they show the world for what it really is – good, bad, ugly, and, in the final analysis, super freaky.

Freakonomics has been imitated many times over – but only now, with SuperFreakonomics, has it met its match.

I love books that challenge my perceptions and make me think of things in a totally new way. Both Freakonomics and Super Freakonomics do that for me. And they do it in a way that is well written and entertaining and sometimes laugh-out-loud funny (the economic impact of a pimp is referred to as the "pimpact").

And as someone who generally finds economics deathly boring and too complex (with apologies to my economics professor father-in-law)(whom I've never taken a class from) the fact that I can really get into and understand these books is a testament to their awesomeness. The authors explain economic principles in a brief, concise way that is followed up by a really memorable example that helped me go, "Ah yes, I get that now." I kind of felt the way I did when reading Bill Bryson's A Brief History of Nearly Everything...like maybe I've just had the wrong professors and the stuff that made me want to throw myself out a window in college could actually be really interesting and worth delving into.

An excellent way to begin my 2010 reading.