On the bookshelf

My last book on the nightstand, The Postmistress, by Sarah Blake, a was a big fail. About 3/4 of the way through, it got rough to read so I had to take it in small bits... but then, it was due back at the library, and I wasn't liking it enough to hang on. So, we move on.

I ended up ordering these three books from Amazon. Just got them today. All three are next up, but not sure which to tackle first.

Suggestions?

PS: I also am adding this to my list. Super excited to read that one! Anyone read it?

On the bookshelf

As I sit here, wishing that I was lounging, with my face in my book, I realize that I have been lax in putting my reads up here. (Doods, this IS important for me to do... because when you ask me for book recommendations - or, if I have read a particular book - my old, unable-to-retain-information brain needs someplace to check. Der.)

Reading now:

So far, so good. Relatively quick read. Wish I was reading instead of doing what I am doing, remember?

 

Description from Amazon: Weaving together the stories of three very different women loosely tied to each other, debut novelist Blake takes readers back and forth between small town America and war-torn Europe in 1940. Single, 40-year-old postmistress Iris James and young newlywed Emma Trask are both new arrivals to Franklin, Mass., on Cape Cod. While Iris and Emma go about their daily lives, they follow American reporter Frankie Bard on the radio as she delivers powerful and personal accounts from the London Blitz and elsewhere in Europe. While Trask waits for the return of her husband—a volunteer doctor stationed in England—James comes across a letter with valuable information that she chooses to hide. Blake captures two different worlds—a naïve nation in denial and, across the ocean, a continent wracked with terror—with a deft sense of character and plot, and a perfect willingness to take on big, complex questions, such as the merits of truth and truth-telling in wartime.

On the bookshelf

Just read:

From the book's website: 

To five-year-old-Jack, Room is the world....

It's where he was born, it's where he and his Ma eat and sleep and play and learn. There are endless wonders that let loose Jack's imagination-the snake under Bed that he constructs out of eggshells, the imaginary world projected through the TV, the coziness of Wardrobe beneath Ma's clothes, where she tucks him in safely at night, in case Old Nick comes.

Room is home to Jack, but to Ma, it's the prison where she's been held since she was nineteen-for seven long years. Through her fierce love for her son, she has created a life for him in that eleven-by-eleven-foot space. But Jack's curiosity is building alongside her own desperation—and she knows that Room cannot contain either indefinitely....

Told in the inventive, funny, and poignant voice of Jack, Room is a celebration of resilience-and a powerful story of a mother and son whose love lets them survive the impossible.

This is an awesome, quick summer read told by Jack from in and out of "Room". I was  touched by the amazing love between Jack and Ma, and I was most inspired by Ma's calm, strength, and unwavering steadiness throughout the book.

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Next up: 

From the author's website:

Not long after Rhoda Janzen turned forty, her world turned upside down. It was bad enough that her husband of fifteen years left her for Bob, a guy he met on Gay.com, but that same week a car accident left her injured. Needing a place to rest and pick up the pieces of her life, Rhoda packed her bags, crossed the country, and returned to her quirky Mennonite family's home, where she was welcomed back with open arms and offbeat advice. (Rhoda's good-natured mother suggested she get over her heartbreak by dating her first cousin—he owned a tractor, see.)

Written with wry humor and huge personality—and tackling faith, love, family, and aging—Mennonite in a Little Black Dress is an immensely moving memoir of healing, certain to touch anyone who has ever had to look homeward in order to move ahead.


Tell me, what are you reading this summer?

On the bookshelf

Just read:

Description from Publishers Weekly:

At the start of this steamy woman's novel from Hilderbrand (The Castaways), recently divorced Birdie Cousins is busy planning the September wedding of her older daughter, Chess, at the family house on Tuckernuck, a privately owned island near Nantucket. Birdie hopes to spend some quality time with Chess on Tuckernuck in July, but then Chess breaks her engagement to her consummate Ivy League golden boy fiancé, Michael Morgan. Michael fatally plunges off a Utah crag just when Birdie acquires her own new beau--a married man with a wife stricken with Alzheimer's. Birdie, Chess, and their support team--Birdie's computer-guru younger daughter, Tate, and Birdie's bohemian widowed sister, India--hare off to Tuckernuck. There hunky handyman Barrett Lee flutters hearts and dampens underwear in a breathless month of supercharged estrogenic imbalances. This never-never land portrait of the rich and randy will please those looking for a satisfying beach read.

This was a take it or leave it book. It was predictable, and personally, I wanted more of a definitive conclusion for each of the main characters.

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Next up:

From the book's website:

To five-year-old-Jack, Room is the world....

It's where he was born, it's where he and his Ma eat and sleep and play and learn. There are endless wonders that let loose Jack's imagination-the snake under Bed that he constructs out of eggshells, the imaginary world projected through the TV, the coziness of Wardrobe beneath Ma's clothes, where she tucks him in safely at night, in case Old Nick comes.

Room is home to Jack, but to Ma, it's the prison where she's been held since she was nineteen-for seven long years. Through her fierce love for her son, she has created a life for him in that eleven-by-eleven-foot space. But Jack's curiosity is building alongside her own desperation—and she knows that Room cannot contain either indefinitely....

Told in the inventive, funny, and poignant voice of Jack, Room is a celebration of resilience-and a powerful story of a mother and son whose love lets them survive the impossible.

What are you reading now and what is next on your list? My stack is dwindling and I will need some more suggestions soon!

On the bookshelf

Having spent two days traveling to/from Memphis, I had lots of reading time this past week. I actually finished two books - both of them EXCELLENT!

Let me start with "House Rules" by Jodi Picoult. I have ready many of Picoult's books, and this is by far my favorite! It is a MUST READ!

And, yesterday I devoured "The Middle Place" by Kelly Corrigan - all in one day. I love how Corrigan writes (she seems just like a friend) and her story is so easy to relate to.

Just read:

Newspaper columnist Corrigan was a happily married mother of two young daughters when she discovered a cancerous lump in her breast. She was still undergoing treatment when she learned that her beloved father, who'd already survived prostate cancer, now had bladder cancer. Corrigan's story could have been unbearably depressing had she not made it clear from the start that she came from sturdy stock. Growing up, she loved hearing her father boom out his morning HELLO WORLD dialogue with the universe, so his kids would feel like the world wasn't just a safe place but was even rooting for you. As Corrigan reports on her cancer treatment—the chemo, the surgery, the radiation—she weaves in the story of how it felt growing up in a big, suburban Philadelphia family with her larger-than-life father and her steady-loving mother and brothers. She tells how she met her husband, how she gave birth to her daughters. All these stories lead up to where she is now, in that middle place, being someone's child, but also having children of her own. Those learning to accept their own adulthood might find strength—and humor—in Corrigan's feisty memoir. [Synopsis from Amazon.com]

HOUSE RULES is about Jacob Hunt, a teenage boy with Asperger’s Syndrome. He’s hopeless at reading social cues or expressing himself well to others, and like many kids with AS, Jacob has a special focus on one subject – in his case, forensic analysis.

He’s always showing up at crime scenes, thanks to the police scanner he keeps in his room, and telling the cops what they need to do…and he’s usually right. But then one day his tutor is found dead, and the police come to question him. All of the hallmark behaviors of Asperger’s – not looking someone in the eye, stimulatory tics and twitches, inappropriate affect – can look a heck of a lot like guilt to law enforcement personnel -- and suddenly, Jacob finds himself accused of murder. HOUSE RULES looks at what it means to be different in our society, how autism affects a family, and how our legal system works well for people who communicate a certain way – but lousy for those who don’t. [Synopsis taken from Author's website.]

Up Next:  

 

My Glamour and REAL SIMPLE magazines. It is going to be another cRaZy week/weekend, so I need to give my grey matter a rest. When I am done from my rest, I will likely visit Friday Reads which is an awesome place to see what others are out there reading.

 

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I am so close to moving up from #13, but I need your clicks! XXOO

 

Epic Fail

Epic fail:  I started reading this (Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls) but was then distracted by a book that someone brought to our community group through church (see below). I tried to extend my loan from the library by another couple of weeks, but some other diligent reader was waiting for my copy, so I had to return it today. Boo! One day I will get back around to finishing this. It was good while it lasted.

Just read:

At its heart, Red Like Blood is the over-arching story of the Bible, the story of salvation: the amazing grace of God in Jesus Christ impacting our brokenness, drenching us in forgiveness and mercy. It is told through the lives of two men a prodigal and a pastor s kid whose broken lives are forever stained the color of grace as they are confronted by the One who meets them in their hopelessness and despair, bringing redemption and healing. Red Like Blood chronicles the power of the gospel in all of its life-changing fullness. It is a story that should challenge, encourage and empower us all. [Synopsis taken from Amazon's Product Description.]

Oh, and one of the authors happens to be our pastor at church. Many of the true stories in the book have been told by Joe during his sermons, but it is always encouraging to hear of God's amazing grace.

Reading now:

HOUSE RULES is about Jacob Hunt, a teenage boy with Asperger’s Syndrome. He’s hopeless at reading social cues or expressing himself well to others, and like many kids with AS, Jacob has a special focus on one subject – in his case, forensic analysis.

He’s always showing up at crime scenes, thanks to the police scanner he keeps in his room, and telling the cops what they need to do…and he’s usually right. But then one day his tutor is found dead, and the police come to question him. All of the hallmark behaviors of Asperger’s – not looking someone in the eye, stimulatory tics and twitches, inappropriate affect – can look a heck of a lot like guilt to law enforcement personnel -- and suddenly, Jacob finds himself accused of murder. HOUSE RULES looks at what it means to be different in our society, how autism affects a family, and how our legal system works well for people who communicate a certain way – but lousy for those who don’t.  [Synopsis taken from Author's website.]

On the bookshelf

Just read:

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lack, by Rebecca Skloot

Anne @ the white words highly recommends! Fascinating story.

Non-Fiction: Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor black tobacco farmer whose cells—taken without her knowledge in 1951—became one of the most important tools in medicine, vital for developing the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping, in vitro fertilization, and more. Henrietta’s cells have been bought and sold by the billions, yet she remains virtually unknown, and her family can’t afford health insurance. [ Author's Website ] 

Next on the bookshelf: 

Half Broke Horses, by Jeannette Walls

"Those old cows knew trouble was coming before we did." So begins the story of Lily Casey Smith, Jeannette Walls's no-nonsense, resourceful, and spectacularly compelling grandmother. By age six, Lily was helping her father break horses. At fifteen, she left home to teach in a frontier town—riding five hundred miles on her pony, alone, to get to her job. She learned to drive a car and fly a plane. And, with her husband, Jim, she ran a vast ranch in Arizona. She raised two children, one of whom is Jeannette's memorable mother, Rosemary Smith Walls, unforgettably portrayed in The Glass Castle.

Lily survived tornadoes, droughts, floods, the Great Depression, and the most heartbreaking personal tragedy. She bristled at prejudice of all kinds—against women, Native Americans, and anyone else who didn't fit the mold. Rosemary Smith Walls always told Jeannette that she was like her grandmother, and in this true-life novel, Jeannette Walls channels that kindred spirit. Half Broke Horses is Laura Ingalls Wilder for adults, as riveting and dramatic as Isak Dinesen's Out of Africa or Beryl Markham's West with the Night. Destined to become a classic, it will transfix readers everywhere.

On the bookshelf

Everyone is always looking for the next good book to read. I have had some great reads lately, so while the streak is good, I thought I would share.

Reading now:

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot

Non-Fiction: Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor black tobacco farmer whose cells—taken without her knowledge in 1951—became one of the most important tools in medicine, vital for developing the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping, in vitro fertilization, and more. Henrietta’s cells have been bought and sold by the billions, yet she remains virtually unknown, and her family can’t afford health insurance.   [ Author's Website ]

Just Read:

Still Alice by Lisa Genova

Fiction: Alice Howland, happily married with three grown children and a house on the Cape, is a celebrated Harvard professor at the height of her career when she notices a forgetfulness creeping into her life. As confusion starts to cloud her thinking and her memory begins to fail her, she receives a devastating diagnosis: early onset Alzheimer's disease. Fiercely independent, Alice struggles to maintain her lifestyle and live in the moment, even as her sense of self is being stripped away. In turns heartbreaking, inspiring and terrifying, Still Alice captures in remarkable detail what's it's like to literally lose your mind... [ Author Website ]