by Susan Beth Pfeffer
ages: 13+
First sentence: “Lisa is pregnant.”

This book terrified me.

Seriously. I started reading it on Saturday, and by the time I had read the first third, I was freaking out. We’re going to DIE; we HAVE to stockpile food; there’s NO WAY we’ll survive in a catastrophe. I started making lists (at least I didn’t go out and spend hundreds of dollars. Yet.) of things we need to be able to make it; I was completely convinced the world was going to end.

I suppose I should fill you in on the story… Miranda and her family — mom, older brother Matt and younger brother Jonny — live a normal life in a small town in Pennsylvania. She deals with the everyday school stuff; with the tragedy of a friend’s death; with just the little normal, everyday things. And then an asteroid hits the moon. It wasn’t supposed to be a big deal; everyone went out to watch the event. But, the asteroid was bigger than expected, or had more force than expected, and the moon slipped out of orbit (never mind that it’s probably scientifically improbable; Pfeffer had me completely convinced that it WAS going to happen. Soon.). Suddenly life as Miranda knew it was gone (along with all the islands, and many, many people). And that’s just the first couple of chapters.

The rest of the book is Miranda and her family’s efforts to survive. Because I was so terrified, I put the book down on Saturday and had to work the courage up to finish it yesterday. (I almost didn’t, which would have been worse, I think, than finishing it.) But I’m glad I did. The intensity subsided, and what I was left with was a tale of human beings working, learning, adapting, and succeeding and failing in turns. It’s a very human book — in that, I mean it shows us at our best and worst, soaring and falling, giving and taking. I was completely gripped by Pfeffer’s writing; it was very, very real (obviously, as evidenced by my first reaction to it), very, very moving, and very, very terrifying.

I’m not sure I can say I love this book — how can I love something that fundamentally terrified me? — but it’s an excellent catastrophe story; an excellent portrait of a family learning to work together in the face of a rapidly changing, and ever harsher, world. An excellent book.

(I’m not going to read The Dead and the Gone, though. Or not for a while, at least. Curiosity might just get the better of me.)

Starting with the quote of the week… I was searching for something evocative, something that felt like spring, and I found it in The Lord of the Rings, of all places:

Do you remember the Shire, Mr. Frodo? It’ll be spring soon. And the orchards will be in blossom. And the birds will be nesting in the hazel thicket. And they’ll be sowing the summer barley in the lower fields… and eating the first of the strawberries with cream. Do you remember the taste of strawberries?

We had several people finish in the last week or so: Mrs. B, Joanna, Cafe Shree, and Bybee. Thanks so much for participating!!

And on to reviews:

Cafe Shree took us to China this week with Love in a Fallen City, by Eileen Chang. She writes, “was very interested in her portrayals but became depressed with the sense of futility, the sense of being trapped by tradition. She writes of despair, of the past and the future with such beautiful words I almost forget that the plot is depressing.”

Kim went to Asia, also, visiting Korea in Still Life with Rice by Helie Lee. She writes, “Though this book doesn’t always seem to be really well written, I thought the content made up for it. I really enjoyed learning more about the history and culture of this divided nation but the truly compelling part of the book was the relationships of the family members.”

Nicole read Blessed are the Cheesemakers, by Sarah-Kate Lynch (the title makes me giggle). She describes it this way: “It only took me a week to read this cute, fun story about 2 quirky, old Irish cheese making men. Their dairy farm/cheese making sanctuary is where people who have nowhere else to go wind up. I liked reading all of their little stories, and appreciated the 3 farm cats named Jesus, Mary, and All The Saints. There is a bit of magic a la Chocolat which I thought was neato.”

And since one Sarah-Kate Lynch book was not enough this week, Tiny Librarian read By Bread Alone. Her final verdict (oh, but do go read the rest of the review, too): “The book is definitely an ode to bread, so don’t read it if you’re on the Atkins Diet! If you only have time for one foodie read, go for Blessed Are The Cheesemakers, but this one is worth a read, especially if you’re a baker and/or a bread-lover.”

Erin read The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen, by Jaques Pepin (ah-ha! We made it to France!). She writes, “Interspersed among his cooking tales and the outline of his one-of-a-kind career path are his favorite recipes and French cooking techniques. These gave the book a personal touch, as if all were hand-copied—complete with whimsical sketches and doodles!—straight from Pepin’s family recipe cards.”

Speaking of French cooks, Bridget read Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously, by Julie Powell. Bridget writes that while she enjoyed it, overall, “The only thing about this book that puzzled me was how Powell and her husband managed to afford the expensive and/or exotic ingredients for Child’s recipes. Her descriptions of their jobs does not make it sound like they were raking in huge salaries, or even that they had some kind of cushion in the form of a bank account or family money they inherited. I know that even basic ingredients on special at the grocery store can often leave you making choices of what you really need as opposed to what you would like to be able to buy. And she was doing all of this in New York City, which has a variety of places to shop, but is not an inexpensive place.”

And, while we’re in France, Becky read Chocolat, by Jeanne Harris. She writes, “My thoughts? Well, I didn’t hate it. But I sure was hoping to like it more than I did. With a name like Chocolat, I expected it to be, well, delicious.”

Heather read Rosewater and Soda Bread, by Marsha Mehran, the sequel to Pomegranate Soup. She writes, “This book is like having a gourmet meal for $15. It’s light but has substance. It’s honest and pure and delicate and delicious…. The food featured in the story isn’t a metaphor within the story so much as it is a metaphor for the entire book. I didn’t read this book, I consumed it.”

That’s a good place to stop. Happy reading this week!