Author: booknutgirls

booknutgirls http://thebooknutdotcom.wordpress.com I read. I blog. I sell books. I chauffeur my kids. What more do you need to know?

The Mermaid Chair

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My dear husband gave me the chance this week to go to the library sans the kids. Made me ecstatic wandering the stacks without having to check every 30 seconds what the dear girls have gotten in to. Okay, only my 2 year old. The older ones are pretty responsible.

Still, I wandered looking for something to read (I even took my trusty list of recommendations, but none of them really sounded “right” at the moment. Speaking of recommendations, someone posted a comment a while back about an author who was a “modern day Jane Austin”. I know I wrote the name down, but can’t find it anywhere, and am too lazy to go searching through my blog looking for the comment. If you’re out there… PLEASE tell me who the author is!)

I discovered that Sue Monk Kid’s Secret Life of Bees was in, and it’s been on my list for a couple of years. But The Mermaid Chair was right next to it, and frankly, it sounded more interesting to me. So I got it instead.

First, let me say that I think Kidd is an excellent writer. Beautiful prose, very evocative imagry. And very Southern, which I loved.

But, this book made me peevish.

The story in short: Jessie is feeling despondent in her marriage and finds answers/escape/salvation when she visits her mother (who had cut off a finger with a meat cleaver on purpose) at her childhood home on Egret Island (off of South Carolina). It’s more complicated than that, of course, and it involves a monk. But that’s the basic jist of it.

I was talking to my husband about it after I finished last night (I liked the ending, by the way), and he suggested that I felt peevish because it’s asking some hard questions. And ones I relate to. I’ll be married 13 years this August (13 years on the 13th!). Am I happy in my marriage? Yes. Am I still my own person, though? Will I end up in 7 more years feeling like Jessie: trapped, despondent, an extension of my husband and children rather than my own person? How do I avoid that? I lay awake while feeding the baby early this morning thinking about all the ways in which I could find something that is myself , that isn’t “mom” or “wife”. And I haven’t found the answers yet.

I thoroughly admire what Jessie did in the end: she jettisoned her old life and found a new place for herself in her marriage, in the world. (I don’t approve of how she went about it, but it’s only a book, and it’s silly to pass judgment on fictional characters anyway.) I hope my life doesn’t come to that, though. I want to be able to keep what I’ve got, but find some… solitude of being, I think is what the characters called it.

But, then, isn’t that what we all want?

Three Cups of Tea

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I’m torn about this book. As a book, it’s less than remarkable — the writing is sometimes gushy and melodramatic, and has an odd rhythm to it. But, as a person, Greg Mortensen is remarkable. His story is what kept me reading this, not the writing by David Oliver Relin.

In a nutshell: Three Cups of Tea is the story of how Greg Mortensen went from being a mountain climber (who only held down jobs in order to finance his next climbing expedition) to being the director of the Central Asia Institute, with the primary function of building schools, especially for girls, in rural Pakistan and now Afghanistan. And it’s remarkable what he went through in order to accomplish this goal. He started small — building one school for a village that helped him recover after a failed attempt at climbing K2 (in the Karakoram mountain range, I think).

The baby’s crying, so this will be short… it’s a remarkable book if only for the story. At the very least, it’s a remarkable cause, which makes for a remarkable story.

Home Buying for Dummies

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I was reading this book, and C came in, read the title, and said, “But Mommy, you’re not a dummy.”

That had nothing to do with anything, but I thought it was funny.

I’ve been up to my ears in home-buying stuff for the past week and a half, ever since my husband took a job at Friends University in Wichita, Kansas. Yes, we’re leaving the small town living of the past 5 years and moving back to the big(er) city. It’s both exciting and kind of stressful, and here’s where the really helpful dummy book comes in.

We really wanted to buy a house right off the bat, but after reading this book (true, we did get tons of advice from family and friends that helped!), we’ve decided to wait. It’s a great book (I’ve never read any of the Dummies books before) — helpful, in plain English, resourceful, and chock full of good advice. Much of which we’re going to take.

In the end, I got what I wanted out of this book; I now know a bit about what it takes to buy a home for the first time. And, unfortunately, it’s got me a bit stressed out. On top of that, I’m a visual person; I can’t read something and be calm about it. I didn’t understand the whole preganancy and labor thing until I went through it the first time. Reading the What to Expect When You’re Expecting book didn’t do much for me. It’s the same reason I’m down on parenting and self-help books. They really don’t help me much. But, for something like buying a house, while I still have to experience it to fully understand it, it’s nice to have a bit of a guideline to help me along. I think I’d like it even better if the authors — Eric Tyson and Ray Brown — would come to Wichita and hold my hand while we do this.

I guess that’s what family and friends are for (even if it is via email). 🙂

The Lightning Thief

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This is the best youth fiction adventure book I’ve read since Half Blood Prince.

Really. I couldn’t put it down.

Basically, the book — by Rick Riordian, which on the back says he’s the author of the Tres Navarre series; I don’t read mysteries, but I guess they’re supposed to be good — is about Percy Jackson, who ends up being a demigod. Or, as they call it, Half-Blood. It’s an origin book: Percy goes from delinquent child to child of a Greek god, and then goes on a quest with two friends — another demigod and a saytr — to save the world. Honestly, though, I can’t do it justice here. It’s a great book. Fun, funny, exciting, and packed with references to Greek myths. (I LOVE the idea that Hades is under LA. Touche, but funny.) And I’m not even up on my Greek myths. I passed it along to M, who shares her father’s love of all things mythological. She’s excited to read it… and I’m betting she just loves it.

And it’s a series. Gotta find Book 2. (Though it’s not often that a series holds itself all the way through, but this one set it up quite nicely, so I’m hopeful.)

Zorro

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I feel like there should be some sort of exclamation point: Zorro! It’s not something you just casually say.

This book by Isabel Allende has made the rounds (well, a couple other people have read it): both Allison and Lisa have reviewed it. In fact, it was Allison’s review that sent me searching for the book. I figured it fit right in with my light and fluffy regiment. And, I was right.

I really enjoyed the first half of the book. To sum up: it’s the Zorro origin story. Deigo de la Vega, the son of a Spanish soldier (who becomes a wealthy landowner in California) and a Native Amerian. He grows up respecting both Spanish and tribal culture, yet sees the injustice in the way the Spanish treat the native populations. He’s educated in Barcelona, makes a couple of enemies, has to vacate quickly, makes a long voyage back to California, and once there, saves his father from prison. Whew. (All in a day’s work, right?)

I enjoyed the childhood of Diego de la Vega. There were strong female characters, Diego was an interesting person, and I liked his relationship with Bernardo. But… as he got older, it got less interesting. The whole escape from Barcelona was just forced, and long. I did like parts, but I found I had to force my way through chapters. And then it quickly wraps up in the end. Too much buildup, not enough pay off. Still, the ride was enjoyable, for the most part.

Lisa said that it wasn’t nearly as good as Allende’s other one, House of Spirits. I’ll see if I can find that one. Because Zorro wasn’t a bad book. I guess I just wanted something more.

The Shakeress

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I found this book by Kimberly Heuston interesting, for many reasons. First, because I found it in Chinaberry, which isn’t unusual in itself. But this isn’t a typical Chinabery book. They’re ususally about fairies or princesses or Mother Earthy type stories. This isn’t any of those. To be sure, it’s got a strong female lead — Naomi — but it’s a lot more religious than I expected.

The basic plot — Naomi’s parents and youngest brother die in a fire and she and her remaining three siblings, after a stint with unwelcome relatives, end up in a Shaker community. After four years there, Naomi decides it’s time to leave, and heads to Vermont to start a medical “practice”. There she meets and falls in love with a nice young man (of course), but (and here’s what threw me), she decides in the end to be baptized a Mormon and head to Kirtland.

What? Where did that come from?

Yes, folks, the Mormon missionaries show up, and convert the family Naomi is living with. There’s even a passage quoted from Alma, as well as a lenghthy discussion of Joseph Smith and revelation in general. And I found it in Chinaberry, not Deseret Book.

All that said, I do have issues with the book — the missionaries are way too contemporary; they sound like the 19 year olds we send out now, not the missionaries of the 19th century. And the plot was uninvolving, though interesting at some points. And her whole conversion really came out of nowhere. And then the book just kind of ended. So, I guess it really wasn’t all that great.

But it was interesting to realize that Chinaberry was selling a Mormon book.

A true book nut

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Since milestones are a big deal…

I’ve read 100 books since I’ve started this blog.

Give the girl a prize. 🙂

The breakdown (and this betrays where my interests are):

Adult fiction: 26
Non-fiction: 22
Youth fiction: 53

(actually that’s 101, but who’s really counting.)

Now, on to the next 100!

Black Beauty

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I am not a horse person.

There are some people in this world — my sister, for one; a couple of my daughters for another — who love horses. Adore horses. Me, I could care less.

As a result, I never read Anna Sewell’s Black Beauty as a kid. Never even considered it, a or remembered I hadn’t read it. Then my mom sent it for Christmas (go Mom!) and I finally got around to reading it (I was in between library books and looking for something to read).

In the end, I kind of liked it. It was interesting reading a book from a horse’s point of view, and Black Beauty was an interesting horse with an intersting life. It did get kind of slow in parts, but thankfully, the chapters were short, and there was usually something interesting in the next one.

Not bad, for a horse book.

I Guess not Everyone is a Jane Austen book

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some of us are Charlotte Bronte ones.

I found this quiz from the other Bookworm (I guess determining which Bookworm is the “other” depends on which one you read more) via turtlebella. I found it fascinating that I ended up as Jane Eyre (which I haven’t read since high school). Actually, it got me remembering which characters I most wanted to be growing up. I really wanted to be Jo from Little Women. Either her, or Anne Shirley. I loved Jo’s determination, and willingness to put her family first. And I loved Anne’s imagination.

Who did you end up as? Was there a character from literature you particularly relate/d with?

The Jane Austen Book Club

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I’ve discovered that my library is a haven for fluffy books. Serious literature and out of the way books, not so much. But potboilers, best sellers and all manner of romance novels, they’ve got in abundance. So, I guess it was no surprise that they had this one by Karen Joy Fowler (whom I’ve never heard of, but I guess has written a bunch of romance books).

Anyway. Basic plot: Six people — five women (two best friends, one eccentric old lady, one daughter and one high school French teacher) and one man — get together once a month to discuss one of Jane Austen’s books. Not much there. Still, it worked. Fowler’s basic premise (not to be confused with plot, because there really isn’t one: they talk, someone falls in love with the man, one woman’s husband leaves her then comes back, the French teacher’s mom dies… pretty mundane stuff) is that everyone has an Austen book. Each of the chapters focused on one person, and gave them a book to do it by. Jocelyn has Emma (she’s a matchmaker, always trying to set people up, and running the world). Bernadette has Pride and Prejudice (that chapter was set at a formal dance/fundraiser). And so on. It made me wonder what my Austen book is. (There should be an internet quiz for that: Your Austen is Persuasion. You are long-suffering and kind, but often put upon by your family and friends. You do your best given the circumstances. Don’t give up hope: it all will work out in the end!)

Oh, and a couple of the book group questions in the back got me thinking, too: ” Austen lovers and science fiction readers feel a similar intense connection to books. Are there more book communities you know of that engage with a like passion? Why these and not others?” and “Many science fiction readers also love Austen. Why do you suppose this is true? Do you think many Austen readers love science fiction?”

What do you think?