Harvesting the Heart (Jodi Picoult)

Because Paige O'Toole's mother abandoned her and Paige's father at a young age, she has been left with a lifetime of empty, longing memories and curiosities about what would possibly cause a mother to leave her child. Because of the scar left on her by this abandonment, Paige develops a proclivity for running herself. Though she has a wonderful and supportive father, as soon as she graduates from high school, Paige runs away from home to pursue art school...

And then she meets Nicholas. Nicholas, the cardiothoracic surgeon. Nicholas, the (not by much) older man. Nicholas, her knight in shining armor. 

They have a wildly brief courtship and marriage, and just as Paige is about to be on the brink of starting the art school she always dreamed of, they have a son. Max is the love, delight, and the great terror of Paige's life. Overwhelmed by the demands of motherhood, her perceived loss of herself, and by an increasingly unhappy marriage, Paige does the one thing Paige knows how to do. She runs. She runs far away from what and who she has, at the same time running toward who and what she wants. 

I love Jodi Picoult. This wasn't my favorite of her works, as in my opinion it was a bit lengthy at the expense of precision. Still, pretty good for some heavy mom-introspection. 

 

Harvesting the Heart (Jodi Picoult)

Bossypants (Tina Fey)

Good for reflection as working moms and GREAT for a laugh, Bossypants is by far one of the most entertaining autobiographies I've ever read. With her classic wit and hilarious sarcasm, Tina Fey sends readers to the floor in all-out gut chuckles over her antics, experiences, and observations. She tells her side of the whole Palin impersonation gig, shares insight into work on the SNL set, and gives her inner monologue on the conflict (every working mom's conflict) between a desire to work and a desire to be with her children. It's a short, light read and you close it (or click out, in case of e-readers) with a greater respect and appreciation for Tina Fey's work than ever before. 

Just do not, don't even think of it, ask her about her scar. 

What scar? 

Yeah, that's what I said! 

 

 

Bossypants (Tina Fey)

The Help (Kathryn Stockett)

Of all the books I read, there are precious few that grab hold of my heart the way this one has. I have not fallen so deeply in love with a book like this since To Kill a Mockingbird. The hubs was privy to many of the hilarious occurrences buried in these twenty or so odd chapters, and I love him for always listening when I started out with "You are not gonna believe what Minny Jackson has done to Miss Hilly Holbrook now!"

Set in the tumultuous 1960's in the even more volatile city of Jackson, Mississippi, this is the tale of a blossoming novelist and her desire to write about the precarious relationship between white ladies and their black maids. "The help" finally get their chance to tell their side of the story, but it is not without consequence for these truly brave women of Jackson.

Like all great novels, The Help is wondrously complex, with its side stories twisting and turning all over one another in one red hot mess. Skeeter is a new graduate with no prospects for a husband and, much to her momma's chagrin, is itching to put her shiny new English degree to use. While writing for the town paper, Skeeter's eyes become opened to the injustice of the way black people are treated. She begins to question the lines that have always been so clearly assumed between the white family and the help. Aibileen is one of the first maids willing to share her stories, and is soon followed by several others, all with the strictest condition of anonymity. They all have much to lose if they are discovered.

There are some truly lovable women in this book. Minny, Aibileen, and Skeeter are just the kinds of characters you love to love. Hilly, Stuart, and Elizabeth are simply the ones you love to hate. Regardless of which side they are on, every character is distinctively complicated. Their natures and their situations would easily give way to endless discussions in a book club or high school lit class.

I'm definitely filing this one under "Favorites." :)

For more about the author: http://www.kathrynstockett.com/ 

I also just discovered that The Help is coming to a theater near you in August! :)

The Help (Kathryn Stockett)

20 Boy Summer (Sarah Ockler)

Anna and Frankie are best friends and have grown up together, spending their whole lives as next-door neighbors. The one and only secret that they have between them is Anna's crush on Frankie's brother, Matt, and his reciprocated feelings. Anna and Matt fall in love, and plan to tell Frankie about their relationship...until Matt's very sudden death. Anna stows Matt away in her heart and grieves alone with her secret, all while trying to help her friend deal with the loss of her brother. Frankie's parents are of very little help to their daughter as they are cycling through their own waves of despair. 

Frankie deals with Matt's death by closing herself off from the world and becoming barely recognizable to her family and friends. Perpetually living on the dangerous edge, her newest wild notion is a competition between herself and Anna, in how many guys they can meet in the 20 days of their summer trip to the beach. An attempt to lose themselves in a sloppy mess of boys proves to be both an adventure and a mistake. 

Eventually, Anna and Frankie have their first real conversation about Matt, and it becomes evident that this book is not about whether friendships can withstand secrets, it's about whether friendships can survive secrets revealed. The answer for Anna and Frankie will surprise you. 

*I won this book in a giveaway over at this blog, along with some homemade oatmeal soaps, some fun office supplies, and a lovely bookmark. Isn't it super fun to win something? It's even better to win something that you actually like. Thanks again, @mrsookworm! :) Y'all be sure to check out her blog, too.

20 Boy Summer (Sarah Ockler)

So Long, Insecurity (Beth Moore)

The women's ministry at my church often meets to discuss books or Bible studies. Beth Moore is by far one of our favorite authors, primarily because not only does she consistently point readers to the Creator and true source of help/wisdom/healing/peace, she is also discerning, authentic, funny, and wise. Recently we read So Long, Insecurity. In this book, Beth tells us what security is, and what it is not.

It's no secret that largely because of the misery mainstream culture projects, many women are plagued with insecurity. It is downright scary, however, to read about and consider just how that insecurity manifests itself in our lives. It can lead to perpetual misery, a controlling nature, being a painful perfectionist, mistrust of everyone around you, rudeness, issues with intimacy, constant fear of loss, and so much worse. Insecurity affects the way you act with your spouse, your children, your friends, your co-workers, and even your acquaintances. Beth, who has devoted her life to serving and ministering to women, guides the reader to uncovering the source(s) of insecurity and dealing with it in order to reclaim a life full of true peace and liberty. She does delve into how men and their personalities/attitudes relate to our security, and she poses the interesting question of whether we have been and should be treating the men in our life as gods or as devils (the correct answer, by the way, is neither).

Every single chapter is brimming with note-worthy quotes, but one of my favorites was Chapter 15, titled "Looking Out for Each Other." In this section, Beth writes that oftentimes it is women who are causing insecurity in other women, leading to a deeper pit of insecurity. She calls all of us ladies to respect one another in unity and sisterhood, specifically to:
-Stop making comparisons.
-Start personalizing other women.
-Stop tripping another woman's insecurity switch.
-Be examples of secure women. She elaborates in Chapter 14 (my most favorite section) that for our own freedom and peace we should actively seek to be examples of secure women, but mostly for the sake of our daughters, nieces, sisters, cousins, and granddaughters. How much easier our little girls will learn to live a life of security if they see it demonstrated daily in our lives!

Reading through this book is a very unique and personal experience, and it can be rather messy. Discussing it in a group of women was not an easy thing, but the wisdom within brought healing to many.

So Long, Insecurity (Beth Moore)

Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)

The 5 Bennett girls are looking for love. Their mother will stop at nothing to see her daughters happily (or, ok, maybe even just slightly comfortably) married. It's set somewhere in England around the late 1800's, so they can't text, tweet, or Facebook. Therefore, they spend the bulk of their days writing letters, reading letters, planning balls, and hashing over every single detail of every single moment they were in the presence of their potential suitors. They plot and plan and hope and wish, and everything in life pretty much is all wrapped up in the boys. It is definitely a story about girls who are trying to land husbands. The differences among the Bennett sisters and their respective characters/personalities/moral standards and convictions are vast and starkly contrasted. One sister (Jane) is so good-hearted that she can't bear to think poorly of anyone, even when she is given factual evidence which proves certain individuals are conniving/manipulating/lying dogs. Yet, another sister (Lydia) is considered quite the raucous hoodlum, and at one point spontaneously runs off to shack up with a soldier. My favorite sister is Elizabeth. She's respectable and honorable, considerate of her friends and family, yet she is not a girl who will be pushed around. She knows how to stand on her own two feet, but she knows how to do so in a bold yet well-spoken manner. I would like to be friends with Elizabeth. 

The boys, as it turns out, are for the most part fairly good guys. They are good to the girls, and usually all have their best interests at heart. The intertwining of the girls' varied match-ups (and failed match-ups), doused with the culture and society of the Victorian era, made Pride and Prejudice quite a story, and one in which you can't help but root for the girls to get their guys. 

Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)

There's a Princess in Me! (Sheila Walsh)

Shouldn't every girl feel like a princess? 

Gigi is a character who tells, via rhyme, all the ways that there is a princess in her...despite all her failings and imperfections. As she describes her mistakes, she also shares that her free gift is the promise of being a child of God's, of being His princess. There are verses included to explain these promises from the Lord. (Colossians 3:12, 1 John 3:1)

He looks past the mess.

He says she is precious.

He declares that there is a princess in her!

I think the nicest touch is the mirror on the front of the book, so that every little girl can see herself with the title There's a Princess in Me proclaimed over her face! 

There's a Princess in Me! (Sheila Walsh)

I Love My Hair! (Natasha Anastasia Tarpley)

 This book is for every little girls of African descent  who wishes their hair was more like other ethnicities on the planet, which is apparently more common that I thought.

Keyana takes us through the process of her mother fixing her hair, including the soothing application of coconut oil and the harsh tugging and pulling of the comb. She describes how her mother can weave her hair into a soft, fluffy bun, she can let it be free, she can part and braid it in straight lines "like the way we plant seeds in our garden,"and she can braid it into tiny little sections with click-clacky beads on the end. Keyana tells about how she felt when other kids teased her about her hair, but that her parents assure her that her hair is a blessing, and to be proud of her hair means to be proud of where she came from.

 I love that this book can be used to help all girls, regardless of their race, remember that their hair makes them beautiful!

In the Author's Note, Tarpley tells readers about how she struggled with and against her hair for years, trying chemicals to straighten it and cutting it super short. Eventually she came to peace with her hair just as it was meant to be, which is what she passes along to other girls who want their hair to be something it's not, and was never meant to be.

I Love My Hair! (Natasha Anastasia Tarpley)

If I Stay (Gayle Forman)

Mia is a senior in high school whose entire family is in a tragic car accident. Mia's parents are killed immediately, and her brother dies soon after the wreck. Mia is in a comatose state, but has a sort of "out of body" experience as she struggles with the decision to wake up and face life, or die. I realize that's such a harsh description, but this is a pretty harsh book. Forman describes pain and suffering, and even love in a way I rarely have read.

There is more to Mia, and to If I Stay, than just the accident, or her family. She is a master cellist, and is anticipating entrance to Julliard in the fall. Music seems to be a common and strong theme in this book, because all of the major characters have their own respective identities tightly connected to the music they prefer. Mia's mom and dad are former punk rockers who are pretty free-spirited and rebellious in their parenting. Mia's boyfriend, Adam, is the lead guitarist in a rock band that has recently signed with a record label in Seattle. The emphasis on music is what pushes this book just a tad in standing out among other young adult literature. I love it. Music is a very, very important part of teenagers' lives. Well, even on a greater level, I believe that music helps shape the culture of a society. I like that Forman uses music to show how individuals are different, yet basically the same in so many ways.

Language is harsh, and I'm just not a fan of blatant profanity, because to me there is an infinite number of better word choices. Yet, in If I Stay, at least I understand how the author uses it to characterize those in her book. Mia's mom dropping some bombs in casual conversation with her teenage daughter show that she is a very different sort of mother. Better? Great? Example for others? Hmmm...not so sure I would go that far. But it does show how because her family is very different, Mia also is a very different and complex young woman. That is what keeps the very basic plot of "will she choose to live or choose to die" going for 200 pages.

If I Stay (Gayle Forman)

Certain Girls (Jennifer Weiner)

Ahhhh.....how glorious and free it is to read solely for entertainment! To me, it is like taking deep, cleansing breaths. There are few things more relaxing than reading just for fun. I've been so desperate for a recreational read that I bought Certain Girls completely on impulse in a moment of weakness. Shame on me for not going to the library! ;)

I liked many things about this book. Cannie (Candace) Shapiro Kreshevelansky is a wife, mother, and writer, whose "one great novel" was written in her anger over being abandoned by her own father and by the father of her child. Hence, ten years later there are many things about that book that she regrets, and has determined to shield her daughter from both the contents and the media backlash of it all. Unfortunately, her daughter (Joy) has determined to both read the book and sort through what is real and what is fiction in the story, which causes just a smidge of mother-daughter tension. Additionally, Cannie and her husband Peter (an overwhelmingly happy and in-love couple) are also seeking to have another baby through surrogacy, which is an element that weaves in and out of the plot and eventually ties it all together in the end. All the characters are Orthodox Jews, and a central focus of most of the book is Joy's bat mitzvah.

I liked that there was huge growth in every single character in the book, and the theme that there are many ways to make a family. I enjoyed the mother-daughter relationship (good, bad, and ugly), and the tale of planning Joy's bat mitzvah. I learned quite a bit about modern Jewish culture, and about surrogacy. I found it rewarding to watch Joy grow from a bratty little preteen to a young woman to be proud of. I loved Cannie's personality, with her quick wit, quicker tongue, and her absolute devotion to her child.

I did have some difficulty with the somewhat frequent uses of unnecessary profanity, which I've noticed is a trait of Weiner's main characters. What was perplexing about Cannie was that it wasn't even fitting with her character. Perhaps it was a tool to demonstrate that Cannie is multifaceted...I don't know.

All in all, nice read! I'm happy to move on.

Certain Girls (Jennifer Weiner)

The Witch of Blackbird Pond (Elizabeth George Speare)

I listened to this one on CD. When I first picked it out, the cover art and title gave me the impression that this might be some flavor of a Salem witch trial story. In actuality, TWoBP was full of surprises.

Set somewhere in the late 1700's, 16 year old Kit Tyler was raised as royalty by her grandfather on the island of Barbados. After his death, she takes a ship to Connecticut to meet her only living family. Kit is in for quite a shock when she and all 7 of her fru fru-filled trunks get to the rigid Puritan settlement, and quickly realizes that life in Connecticut won't be much like life in Barbados.

Though her independent spirit and outspoken nature are appreciated and loved in Barbados, in Connecticut her "strange" ways quickly land her a witch accusation, and her friendship with a Quaker woman in the town (also an outcast) doesn't help much either.

One of this book's many surprises was that intertwined with the ridiculous witch hunt, Kit's adventurous voyage from Barbados, and a plague of fever that struck the colony, was a triple sided love story involving 3 guys, Kit, and her 2 cousins.

There are too many fun little details that would ruin the book if I were to share them, but overall this is a very interesting and "feel-good" kind of book, as everything turns out A-OK in the end.

The Witch of Blackbird Pond (Elizabeth George Speare)

Sing Down the Moon (Scott O'Dell)

Sing Down the Moon is an incredible portrayal of a (yet another) nasty snapshot of United States history involving the treatment of various Indian tribes in the west. O'Dell follows a young Navajo girl throughout her daily chores of herding sheep, when she is captured by Spanish slave traders, being reunited with her tribe, and their subsequent "relocation" (along with hundreds of thousands of other Native Americans). I tell you, the way the Indians were treated by the US Government in the 1800's was despicable. There are prominent and eery similarities between the Holocaust and the Trail of Tears or The Long Walk.

I definitely anticipate using this with students. The way Sing Down the Moon is written presents students with a rare inside look into this aspect of American history.

Sing Down the Moon (Scott O'Dell)

Mom...and Loving It, by Laurie Hilliard and Sharon Autry

This is hands down one of the best books for mothers today. It is written in a simple and very practical format, without any loss of Biblical principles and their application to today's busy moms. In every chapter there are guiding questions that lead you to examine why you do what you do for your husband, your kids, yourself, and gives very concrete suggestions for making you stop and appreciate motherhood as the blessing and opportunity that it is. Throughout the book, you analyze guilt grenades (like lack of family time, dealing with angry outbursts, and the stay at home or go to work debate), the effect of the media on us and our families, and the effects of kids on marriage. I especially liked the appendix at the close of the book with a list of many great resources listed. ;)

Mom...and Loving It, by Laurie Hilliard and Sharon Autry

The Last Sin Eater, by Francine Rivers

Cadi is a young girl whose family is living in the mountains somewhere around early 20th century. Her parents don't seem to care a thing about her, and she thinks it's because her younger sister died while in her care (sort of). She carries around a tremendous amount of guilt for her sister's death, and thinks that the Sin Eater is the one who can help her get rid of her guilt. The Sin Eater (in keeping with mountain community culture) is a person whose job is to take in the sins of the newly dead through a ritual involving bread and wine. Along comes a prophet/missionary (called the Man of God), whose very presence causes the violent leader of their community to forbid anyone's contact with the man. Cadi is drawn to him, and as a result she and several others are saved as they hear the good news about the real Sin Eater. Her choices cause a chain reaction that unveils the deepest and darkest secrets of their settlement.

The book was heavy on the dialect dialogue, which is probably a good reason to listen to the audio version. It was okay, but not my favorite Francine Rivers. Overall rating: good, not great.

The Last Sin Eater, by Francine Rivers

True Believer, by Virginia Euwer Wolff

When I was in library school, I read an insane number of books. Kids' books, young adult (AKA "teen") books, books for discussions, advanced copies of books for review, books for presentations, books about books, books about choosing books, you get the picture...

Needless to say, it could be a little overwhelming at times! I can honestly say, though, that 99% of the time I always managed to get my books read, whether through skimming and scanning, listening to audio versions during my commute to and from classes, but mostly by adjusting to the demands by becoming a sort of speed reader. One time I found myself listening to one book on CD while reading another book (Make Lemonade, by Virginia Euwer Wolff) for discussion during class later that day. It was ridiculous to attempt, but desperate times call for desperate measures. The result was that I don't recall very much at all about either one of those books, though I'm sure they were noteworthy for some reason or another.

True Believer is the sequel to Make Lemonade, and part of a trilogy.I listened to it in the car on the way to and from school. There were several cryptic remarks from the author that made me wish I had paid closer attention to the first book in the series. I'm not sure what I missed in book number 1, but in this book Lavonne is an underprivileged high school girl whose passion is to go to college. She has some typical girl-stuff going on in her life, like being desperately in love with a boy who just isn't interested, being nervous about a dance, and trying to figure out who her real friends really are. She's also dealing with some grown-up issues like helping take care of the small children of a struggling single mother. Overall, I'd say it's good, not great....maybe I'd feel differently if I actually read the first book! ;)

True Believer, by Virginia Euwer Wolff

One Butt Cheek at a Time: Gert Garibaldi's Rants and Raves by Amber Kizer

This funny little snack of a book was on the "New Releases" shelf in my favorite public library last week. In this first publication by Kizer, readers get a hilarious and all-too-honest picture of high school. Remember those "good old days?" When girls obsessed over every minute detail of their appearance, and boys obsessed over chasing the most recent object of their affections? How about remembering the rampant availability of drugs and the eating disorders and the insane idiocy (or so we thought) of everyone over the age of 18? What about over-analyzing every single detail of a conversation with your love interest, and feeling miserable when you were the fifth wheel in your group of friends? It's funny how we forget those things about high school, even when it hasn't been too terribly long that we've been out.

Gert helps us with that. As the main character, Gert takes us through the first half of her sophomore year in high school and consequently through some pretty major events in her life...learning how to pluck her eyebrows, getting in her first relationship, mortification at the hands of a teacher, sex ed, and dealing with being single and yet supportive of her best friend's newly found love (her best friend is Adam...his boyfriend is Tim).

Like high school, Gert's "rants and raves" are pretty raw. Like things that occur every day in high school, Gert's stories can be fairly offensive to those of us who are so removed from that setting. Consider yourself warned...but be ready to laugh your head off, too!

One Butt Cheek at a Time: Gert Garibaldi's Rants and Raves by Amber Kizer

Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation by Cokie Roberts

Look, I'm no feminist. I might be one of those who believes that every man and woman are equal, and equally capable, but I also know that guys and girls are different. We each have our own strong points, and as a matter of fact it is pretty genius how one gender complements the other. Good job, Creator.

Don't let this book title put you off. I will admit, I was a little hesitant at first because it seemed as though it would be pushing women as the superior beings and how America would never have existed without chicks. Roberts does a good job, though, of interweaving both the men and the women who were vital to the start of our country.

I listened to this on CD during morning and afternoon commutes, and since auditory processing isn't exactly my strong point, I have already forgotten some names and dates. The general gist of it is that while so much attention is given to historical men in American society, we don't ever really even think about the women. That really is true, too. There are countless biographies of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, and George Washington...but what about the women in their lives? Who do we think did their laundry and ran their households, raised money, and tended to their wounds while they were off winning the nation's independence?

Did you know.....

• that women served as spies for America during the Revolutionary way, traveling back and forth carrying information generals? There was one woman in particular who was caught by British troops, and while they were waiting for another woman to come search her, she ate the paper with the message on it. She delivered the intel later...verbally.
• there were several women whose fundraising efforts were one of the main reasons why America won the war for independence?
• educated women like Abigail Adams, Eliza Pinkney, and Deborah Read Franklin wrote letters and essays and crafted pamphlets that contributed to the colonies' desire to become a self-governing nation? Most of the time they had to use male or anonymous pen names, but it is important to note that it was their thoughts and opinions and ideals that drove so many to give their lives for liberty.
• that once America was established, women were an integral part in the construction of our nation's principals?
• there were bad girls back then, too? One woman, Maria Reynolds (naughty chick that she was), was used to set up Alexander Hamilton in an affair that was intended to ruin him politically.

That's only the icing on the cake. It's no wonder that George Washington himself referred to the women of America as the "best patriots America could boast."

Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation by Cokie Roberts

Kira-kira by Cynthia Kadohata

Katie Takeshima is the middle child in a Japanese American family of 5. She suffers from "middle child" syndrome in that she constantly alternates between mimicking her older sister in everything, yet serving as a second mother to her youngest brother. Katie struggles with feeling like there is nothing special about her, when it is actually she who holds her family together during their darkest days.

Written from Katie's point of view, the book alternates between funny little memoirs of family camping trips or her uncle's mishaps and the very serious story of her older sister's battle with cancer and her parents' financial struggles.

The title of the book is the Japanese word for glittering. In her younger days, it is Katie's favorite descriptive word for things like the ocean and the sky. By the end of the book, it serves as a reminder that-despite the terrible things that have happened to her family-she can still choose to live a happy life.

Kira-kira by Cynthia Kadohata

The Mermaid Chair

Despite the intended purpose of this blog (discussing literature related to education), I have to include one that is just a good, plain, brain-break read. Sue Monk Kidd is the author of The Secret Life of Bees, which IS a young adult novel, and a new favorite of mine. Her newest work is The Mermaid Chair, and is the story of a middle-aged woman struggling to regain her sense of self after devoting the larger portion of her life to her family. There are a few intriguing turns of events that lead to her self-discovery, including traveling back home to take care of her mother who has a scary habit of chopping off her fingers (yeah, I know) and falling in love with a Benedictine monk (yeah, I KNOW!).

Caution: once you begin this book, you will be consumed with it until its conclusion. Do not attempt to read it if you have an important event or deadline looming. Save it for the beach!

The Mermaid Chair