Review: Faithful

Faithful by Alice Hoffman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really like Alice Hoffman's writing style. I don't know what it is that grabs me but I start a book by her and don't put it down until the wee hours of the morning when I'm finished. She somehow taps into the subconscious reasons we do things and end up with a well written narrative that somehow gives the reader hope and perspective. This book is about Shelby who begins by identifying and defining herself by an event that was tragic for another family. She drifts through the next few years without making a definite plan and finds herself beginning to make plans, realizing how others' love for her is more defining than what she has done, and eventually finding perspective and and gratitude for those who loved her when she didn't love herself.

It's a complicated story of finding yourself through the tumultuous young adult years with the added burden of guilt but well worth the read. I highly recommend it.

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Review: News of the World

News of the World by Paulette Jiles
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a delightful book that I knew nothing about when I picked it up. It is a historical novel set in Texas following the Civil War. The land is lawless in most places and plagued with corruption or no government. In some parts, the Civil War still burns.

The real story is of Captain Jefferson Kidd, a 71 year kid veteran of 3 wars, and a favor he agrees to do for a free black man (not fictional). A 10 year old child has been turned over by the Kiowa Indians and needs to be returned to her kin, deep in Texas. It's a very long trip and Johanna is Kiowa in all was but by birth. A sweet friendship develops between the cranky old man and wild child. Told with humor and heartbreaking honesty, I only put the book down to sleep and to go to work.

Highly recommend. I can also see it made into a movie. Perhaps on the Hallmark channel. The book is written in a way that it played across my mind in movie format.

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Review: My Last Continent

My Last Continent by Midge Raymond
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I don't know how the author pulled this off with all the skipping around in time but it made perfect sense. I read ENDURANCE, the true account of Shackleton's attempt to cross the South Pole, years ago. It was completely fascinating, exhausting, and uplifting. There was no doubt in my mind that the Antarctic is beautiful, fragile, yet brutal and fierce.

This is a novel that introduces more detail to the beauty of the Antarctic and the harsh realities and plight of the penguin in the changing climate and introduction of ships and people. Yet the environmental part was introduced so seamlessly, I was too fascinated by it to yell "Tree Hugger!"

I like trees. I like penguins. I believe in being environmentally responsible. I live with carnivores. I'm more of a herbivore only because hyperemesis during pregnancies ruined the meat eating experience for me. But go ahead and eat that steak. I eat my chickens' eggs. I'm okay with the annual deer hunt as long as I don't have to eat the deer. Or kill and clean the deer.

But there was much more to the book. There was the human factor - the story of Deb and Keller; their reasons for choosing the desolate and beautiful southern tip of the earth. Solid story line. There is also a shipwreck which is really where the story begins and ends. Deb's POV begins with today then quickly slips to five years ago, the day of the shipwreck. Then the story backtracks and builds again to the shipwreck. It's kind of a cross between Shackleton's own ship imploding from the pressure of the ocean ice, and the Titanic hitting an iceberg. Both are catastrophic yet, if it happens in Antarctica, there are the added interest of shelves of ice to walk on, get stranded upon, icebergs calfing or tipping, orcas, penguins, wind, freezing rain, hypothermia, water freezing below 32 degrees due to salinity, different ice consistencies, and so many more details I would not have considered. Nor can I reveal for fear of spoiling the book.

Great read.

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Review: By Your Side

By Your Side by Kasie West
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Kaiserslautern West writes the cute romances I'd be happy for my kids to read. This book was a little slow to start for me but once there was a change of scenery, it picked up and I enjoyed it to the end.

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Swear on This Life by Renee Carlino

Swear on This Life by Renee Carlino
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Cute story but just misses the mark for me. Too cute. All the loose ends wrapped up perfectly. Not my cup of tea.

Commonwealth by Ann Patchett

Commonwealth by Ann Patchett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Very well written and so very clever. The author uses the reader's power of deduction to tell the story. There are many protagonists but none too similar to have to double check. The author leaves a trail of bread crumbs to link the chapters and the story together. Do not put the book down for too long or you will miss some of the more delightful bread crumbs. The book covers decades and the cast of characters is basically introduced in the first chapter; some concretely, others abstractly but by the end the reader knows every one of them.

Completely enjoyable book. In part, because of the clever way it is told.

The Last One by Alexandra Oliva
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Great premise. Cross between Survivor and Hunger Games and an Apocolypse book. What is real? I can honestly say that I really didn't know until well into the book. I understood Amy's reasoning for the way she approached every new challenge. The story unfolds in such a way that the reader is as much lost as Amy until the reader makes a decision whether or not it is real or not. 

Karolina's Twins by Ronald H. Balson

Karolina's Twins by Ronald H. Balson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a book I could not put down. I have read many accounts of the Holocaust but this one had a fresh perspective. Told by an 89 year old survivor, the protagonist provides a personal narrative that reeled me in.

Lena was a youth in a small Polish village when the Nazis arrived. Her experiences are unique because she spends time hiding, she lives in a ghetto, she finds love, works with the Resistance, and is sent to a concentration camp. The narrative lacks the violent and disturbing details of abuse that is often included in books on the Nazis during WWII. It isn't absent, by any means, but the story is gentrified by innuendo. Regardless, it's still a difficult read knowing the subject matter.

The court case was interesting and well presented. I thought that Arthur's character was flat and predictable. But the core of the book, Lena's narrative, made the book impossible to put down. Well timed, it never drags and stays true to historical events.

The most striking moments were Lena's recollection of returning to her village after the Russians liberate them. Her description of the town square nearly broke my heart. How she returned to the concentration camp that was emptied and deserted. Very moving.

Highly recommend this book.

The Lost Girls by Heather Young

The Lost Girls by Heather Young


Covering two time periods, a great aunt recounts the story of one summer at a lake in Wisconsin in notebooks in a house that is falling apart and cold. In the meantime, the grand niece is holed up in the house with her daughters, running from crazy people in her life.

I liked both stories and found the unfolding of the mystery to be well paced. I didn't see a strong connection between the two stories except that both women are flawed and not always likeable and make really poor choices. Good book with two interesting storylines that left me scratching my head.

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Interesting and engaging story from start to finish with the added complication of String Theory and quantum physics, none of which I understand. That said, the book and story is not difficult to read or follow. With so many different contingencies, where does one reality begin and another diverge? Jason Dessen is looking for HIS reality because any other reality presents him with a life he doesn't want but one Jason already took his reality. How does he get it back? Interesting twists and turns.

Mischling by Affinity Konar

Mischling by Affinity Konar
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Loosely based on a couple of actual twins that survived Mengele's experiments, this book tells the story of Stasha and Pearl, identical twin sisters. What is unique about this book is that it is told through the POV of 12 year old girls in Aushwitz and the POV of twins that share a connection of which Mengele was studying. If one twin is maimed, does the other twin experience the pain? What happens when one twin is put in an isolated cage and experiments on?

Mengele is painted in all his clinical and apathetic glory yet strangely enamored by his twins. At the same time, seeing them as near pets. Although pets would be treated better.

The book is difficult to rad due to the subject matter. On the other hand, the author carefully intimates about some of the more horrible details that a person with more knowledge on the subject will understand while a younger audience might miss it. Not that the book is lightweight by any means. Simply that 12 year old protagonists describing some things won't understand all of it and that uncertainty is carried over to the reader with careful consideration.

Excellent historical information told in a unique manner. Must read.

Faithful by Alice Hoffman

Faithful by Alice Hoffman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really like Alice Hoffman's writing style. I don't know what it is that grabs me but I start a book by her and don't put it down until the wee hours of the morning when I'm finished. She somehow taps into the subconscious reasons we do things and end up with a well written narrative that somehow gives the reader hope and perspective. This book is about Shelby who begins by identifying and defining herself by an event that was tragic for another family. She drifts through the next few years without making a definite plan and finds herself beginning to make plans, realizing how others' love for her is more defining than what she has done, and eventually finding perspective and and gratitude for those who loved her when she didn't love herself.

It's a complicated story of finding yourself through the tumultuous young adult years with the added burden of guilt but well worth the read. I highly recommend it.

Harmony by Carolyn Parkhurst

Harmony by Carolyn Parkhurst
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

This is a very interesting story with well written perspectives and characters. I read an advanced reader's copy so it will probably be more smooth when it comes out, but very good premise.

The book is told from different perspectives; Alexandra, a mother of two daughters. One has a diagnosis of PDD-NOS. the other is neurotypical. The main perspective is by 11 year old Iris, the NT child. Then there is Tilly, the different one. The family (including a father) sell everything to start a camp called Harmony targeting children who are different or on the autism spectrum.

I think the author does an exceptional job describing a parent's thought process and the simultaneous reactions to both protect and to punish a quirky child. To be honest, what parent hasn't watched their particularly quirky, anxious kid and questioned if he or she might be PDD? When you've seen one autistic child, you've seen one autistic child. Not otherwise specified.

As a guidance counselor in a middle school at the end of the year, I am preparing my spreadsheets for the high school counselors as I pass my students on. I stopped using boxes and check marks long ago. They are meaningless. How do I convey to the high school counseling office with simple check marks that J. has only been speaking for a year and he mostly echoes what you say but he needs the modeling to help him ask questions? Or that M. does very well in school, identifies himself as high functioning and needs his lunchtime to come to your room to decompress with a computer game. He calls it his sanctuary and does not wish to interact. That he is a deeply feeling being but unable to express it? How do you communicate that when the students call out a greeting to him, it is not collegial but mocking? Yet when he sits at the piano he communicates and expresses perfectly through his fingers? Or that when C. does not answer immediately, he is processing. His thinking skills are sharp but his processing is very slow.

These are unique students on the autism spectrum. The only thing they have in common is their extreme difficulty in interacting with others and they have all used their clothing as tissues and are unable to understand that others are repulsed by it. But they are each precious and unique.

The very best part of the book is the end where Parkhurst likens PDD as having a child with wings. If I could summarize it, I would but it beautifully illustrates how parenting a child with autism means that we have to change the rules to fit their special abilities to fly or have wings. If you read nothing else of the story, read the end.