31 Days of Pinterest, Day 3

I actually read this book in the summer while camping at Champion Lakes but we all know that my blogging skills got kind of swept under the rug for a few months. I pinned it to my board, called The Written Word - which is where I put really good books I have read, things about books, or books I want to read.

This book was amazing. I have such great luck with the books I bring camping that it is almost why I want to go each year!  This one though, I have had a hard time reading anything since... I have a book hangover!  It was so moving and the story told just right.  It was one of the rare books that would actually be a (gasp) good movie!

This is what Goodreads has to say about it, reader gave it 5 stars and it is well worth every one!

For fifty years, Anna Schlemmer has refused to talk about her life in Germany during World War II. Her daughter, Trudy, was only three when she and her mother were liberated by an American soldier and went to live with him in Minnesota. Trudy's sole evidence of the past is an old photograph: a family portrait showing Anna, Trudy, and a Nazi officer, the Obersturmfuhrer of Buchenwald.

Driven by the guilt of her heritage, Trudy, now a professor of German history, begins investigating the past and finally unearths the dramatic and heartbreaking truth of her mother's life.

Combining a passionate, doomed love story, a vivid evocation of life during the war, and a poignant mother/daughter drama, Those Who Save Us is a profound exploration of what we endure to survive and the legacy of shame.

See you tomorrow!  Tina

Secret Daughter

By Shilpi Somaya Gowda 

Moving between two worlds and two families, one struggling to survive in the fetid slums of Mumbai, the other grappling to forge a cohesive family despite their diverging cultural identities, this powerful debut novel marks the arrival of a fresh talent.

Literally just put it down after reading the whole book today.  I do not normally do that but I didn't want to stop reading, it was so good! One of the best books I read all summer!

Totally recommendable.

:o)  Tina

The Glass Castle

by Jeannette Walls

Jeannette Walls grew up with parents whose ideals and stubborn nonconformity were both their curse and their salvation. Rex and Rose Mary Walls had four children. In the beginning, they lived like nomads, moving among Southwest desert towns, camping in the mountains. Rex was a charismatic, brilliant man who, when sober, captured his children’s imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and above all, how to embrace life fearlessly. Rose Mary, who painted and wrote and couldn’t stand the responsibility of providing for her family, called herself an “excitement addict.” Cooking a meal that would be consumed in fifteen minutes had no appeal when she could make a painting that might last forever.

Later, when the money ran out, or the romance of the wandering life faded, the Walls retreated to the dismal West Virginia mining town—and the family—Rex Walls had done everything he could to escape. He drank. He stole the grocery money and disappeared for days. As the dysfunction of the family escalated, Jeannette and her brother and sisters had to fend for themselves, supporting one another as they weathered their parents’ betrayals and, finally, found the resources and will to leave home.

What is so astonishing about Jeannette Walls is not just that she had the guts and tenacity and intelligence to get out, but that she describes her parents with such deep affection and generosity. Hers is a story of triumph against all odds, but also a tender, moving tale of unconditional love in a family that despite its profound flaws gave her the fiery determination to carve out a successful life on her own terms.

This was a great book - my library did not have it in forever so CH managed to find me a pdf online and I read it that way - not so fun, since I had to expand every page on my little iPhone before I could read it. After reading Half Broken Horses, I had to read it.  It was great book though, highly recommendable and very enjoyable.

Read it.  It's worth your time!  :o)  Tina

Fill in the Blank Friday

How is it Friday again?  Holy.  Seriously.  I swear ever week goes by more quickly than the last.  Pretty soon the week will seem one day long.

This week I got lots sewn - which is always a good thing - but not much else done. I am going to post about that on Sunday - I am going to try to get myself organized into a bit of a schedule and post certain things of certain days - like Tootie Tuesday and Fill in the Blank Friday...  What do you think, good idea or not?

1. Over this labour day weekend I will be going swimming (weather permitting), sewing, doing some cooking to freeze for the upcoming busy weeks - school and the kids (mostly Penelope's) activities starting. More than anything this will be a Suzy Home-maker kind of weekend for this busy working Mum. :o)

2. With the political debates going on right now, my thoughts are Huh? I am Canadian, I couldn't care less what is going on down there as long as they do not blow us up, or get themselves blown up because I live pretty close to the boarder!

3. Today I am worried about my earning potential for the Autumn. I need to make some decisions and decide what I want to do with myself to make money to support my family and still do what I love. My friend Rita's Facebook status the other day read "I feel like I'm at a cross roads in my life. I know what and where I want to be, just not sure how to get there." I commented " I wish I were at the crossroad - I am still wandering around trying to find it!! :p"  If I could sew and blog for a living that would be my dream come true - I just do not know how to get there, so perhaps I am closer than I think!

4. The best thing I've cooked recently was roast chicken with all the fixings - mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, corn - yummers. The Little Man's friend was over for dinner and he said "Wow, this is like Thanksgiving!". I was going to make chicken stew - chicken pot pie without the pie - but I ran out of time this week. I wanted to try to make these little biscuit things out of the left overs.

5. The last thing I bought was breakfast for me and Nag! $2.95 for eggs, toast, hash browns and two slices of really delicious bacon. I would have paid that just for the bacon. :o)

6. The best movie I saw this summer was ParaNorman - I don't even remember any of the the other movies I saw but that was at the theatre (which I rarely go to), in 3D, and with the shorties so it was memorable. And the movie was pretty good - it was like a horror movie for little kids. Penelope turned to me at one point and said "This is going to give me nightmares for sure!"

7. The best book I read this summer was hmmmm. I think the best book I read was The Glass Castle - which I just finished and am going to blog about for tomorrow's post. I read Half Broke Horses both are written by Jeanette Walls) in the spring and loved them both. Overall last summer's reading - Any Known Blood, The Book of Negros, Middlesex, The Memory Keeper's Daughter, and Water for Elephants.

So I am leaving you for now, but I have lots of other posts for you soon.  Promise.  :o)  Tina

The Weird Sisters

by Eleanor Brown

The Andreas family is one of readers. Their father, a renowned Shakespeare professor who speaks almost entirely in verse, has named his three daughters after famous Shakespearean women. When the sisters return to their childhood home, ostensibly to care for their ailing mother, but really to lick their wounds and bury their secrets, they are horrified to find the others there. See, we love each other. We just don't happen to like each other very much. But the sisters soon discover that everything they've been running from-one another, their small hometown, and themselves-might offer more than they ever expected.

I enjoyed this book but I kept expecting something bigger to happen.  It kept me reading because I could see a little of myself in each of these women, I suppose that was the idea.  It was not read it again good, but I would pass it on to a friend.

Next I am finally reading the Glass Castle, by Virigian Wells who wrote Half Broke Horses, which I loved.

Happy reading -

:o)  Tina

A Walk to Remember

by Nicholas Sparks

Every April, when the wind blows from the sea and mingles with the scent of lilacs, Landon Carter remembers his last year at Beaufort High. It was 1958, and Landon had already dated a girl or two. He even swore that he had once been in love. Certainly the last person in town he thought he'd fall for was Jamie Sullivan, the daughter of the town's Baptist minister. A quiet girl who always carried a Bible with her schoolbooks, Jamie seemed content living in a world apart from the other teens. She took care of her widowed father, rescued hurt animals, and helped out at the local orphanage. No boy had ever asked her out. Landon would never have dreamed of it. Then a twist of fate made Jamie his partner for the homecoming dance, and Landon Carter's life would never be the same. Being with Jamie would show him the depths of the human heart and lead him to a decision so stunning it would send him irrevocably on the road to manhood.

This is the same guy who wrote The Notebook (which I have not read but have watched and it was SO good), it was pretty good but I expected to at least have a lump in my throat.  And although, I did enjoy it, it did not invoke any emotion. It was worth my time, but not making it onto my recommended reading list.

:o) Tina

War Brides

by Helen Bryan

With war threatening to spread from Europe to England, the sleepy village of Crowmarsh Priors settles into a new sort of normal: Evacuees from London are billeted in local homes. Nightly air raids become grimly mundane. The tightening vice of rationing curtails every comfort. Men leave to fight and die. And five women forge an unlikely bond of friendship that will change their lives forever.

I liked this book - it kept me reading and I was still thinking about it the next day.  Always the sign of a good book.  When I was finished reading, I was wanting to know more about the characters lives, but instead I had to move onto the next book.  I was, after all, camping. 

:o)  Tina

The Known World

by Edward P. Jones

This book won a Pulitzer so I felt like I had to like it and kept reading.  I got about 2 thirds of the way through and just couldn't waste my time for one more page. The idea behind the story seemed like it would be very interesting but the writing went here and there and everywhere without ever leaving me to feel like I really got the point.  This far into a book I am supposed attached to the characters - I love them and am starting to pace myself with the book so that my time with them lasts longer....  not the case.  My time is too valuable to have continued.  Having said that, if you have read it and feel differently, please tell me.  Give me a reason to finish this book!

:o)  Tina

Escape

by Carolyn Jessop

Escape exposes a world tantamount to a prison camp, created by religious fanatics who, in the name of God, deprive their followers the right to make choices, force women to be totally subservient to men, and brainwash children in church-run schools. Against this background, Carolyn Jessop’s flight takes on an extraordinary, inspiring power. Not only did she manage a daring escape from a brutal environment, she became the first woman ever granted full custody of her children in a contested suit involving the FLDS. And in 2006, her reports to the Utah attorney general on church abuses formed a crucial part of the case that led to the arrest of their notorious leader, Warren Jeffs.

Love this topic. Love it! It grips me. It tears at my heart strings and blows my mind. I love Sister Wives but this is apples and oranges. Sister Wives is just a little confusing but pretty much just like me and CH only with more of me... Carolyn Jessop and the other women - and the children - that are part of this group are nothing like the Sister Wives family. Nothing.

This book clearly details the horrors that this woman and her children suffered before she made her brave and heroic escape. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good people story.

I am looking forward to reading her second book, Triumph, when I can get my hands on it.

:o) Tina

The Birth House

by Ami McKay

The Birth House is the story of Dora Rare, the first daughter to be born in five generations of Rares. As a child in an isolated village in Nova Scotia, she is drawn to Miss Babineau, an outspoken Acadian midwife with a gift for healing. Dora becomes Miss B.’s apprentice, and together they help the women of Scots Bay through infertility, difficult labours, breech births, unwanted pregnancies and even unfulfilling sex lives.

Filled with interesting and surprising details, The Birth House is an entertaining tale of the struggles women have faced to have control of their own bodies and to keep the best parts of tradition alive in the world of modern medicine.

I enjoy reading about people and that aspect of this book did not disappoint me in the least.  It was, overall, a good book, I would give it a 4. Not sure than I would read it again, glad I did, wasn't sorry to read the last page.

Happy Reading!

:o) Tina

Half Broke Horses

by Jeannette Walls

I have not posted about a book in ages.  I think the last book I read worth posting about was The Help and everyone and their dog read and posted about that - right? Although just before I read this book I read Sister Wives which was okay, I suppose I could have written a post about that but to be honest I had nothing worth saying.  I really love the show, Sister Wives, on TLC and it answered a lot of questions about the people in the show but it is not a general interest book by any stretch.

I was stumped at what to read so I posted on my Facebook wall for suggestions and got lots, hopefully enough to get me through summer, it is after all the reading season. Often when you read one book it leads you to another, so I should be good for a while.

Half Broke Horses was really good in the same way that The Book of Negros and Middlesex were good.  I have decided that I do have a preferred genre for books - I like stories about people.  Not people in space ships or solving mysteries but about their everyday lives.  Having said that, I don't mind a little science fiction every now then - I am fascinated with mystical creatures and time travel. Historical fiction is pretty great too when it is telling the story of the lives of people in during that time, real or imagined.

So, I don't pretend to be a book critic or even a book clubber with a lot of insight and analysis of the books I read so I am am not going to go on about it but I will say, that this book is worth reading. It is an interesting story with few twist and turns that leave you shaking your head in wonder at the way people lived 100 years ago and how spoiled people are now.  There is no big dramatic event and nothing that is going to make you cry but you might chuckle a little and also be left shaking your head at how amazingly simple things were.

I am going to read The Glass Castle next, I am glad I read this first - read them both and you will know why. 

Happy reading!

:o)  Tina

Were You Wondering?

I have not been posting about the books I have been reading, because I have not really been reading much.  I read a big string of really great books, and have been in a bit of a slump since.  If you have any recommendations for something I will not be able to put down, I am all ears.  For the last three weeks I have been reading The DaVinci Code in hopes of discovering some big secret.  :o)

Love Times Three? Really?

Love Times Three: Our True Story of a Polygamous Marriage by Joe Darger

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I am really interested in polygamy so could not wait to read this book and bought the Kindle version for my iPhone.

Polygamy is interesting to me in part because it is different and I do not understand it and also because I am fascinated by religion and its ability to guide a person to make unorthodox choices having said that, I felt that it was lacking. It told the story of how they all got together and yadda yadda, but I wanted to know how they really felt. I wanted to feel what they felt -happy, sad, JEALOUS, whatever - and I did not get anything from it. When I had finished reading it I felt more like I had read the outline for a book rather than the actual book...

If you are nosey like me I don't know if I would recommend this book as the need to want to know more may drive you to spend many hours on YouTube searching for more information (like me!).

:o) Tina

An Known Blood

by Lawrence Hill

I am now a huge fan of this writer!  I read this back to back with The Book of Negros and loved both of them.  Although I liked The Book of Negros a little more (I felt it had better flow) I will still give this book a high recommendation.  Lawrence Hill's style is great - I have always heard that it is easier to write what you know, and both books that I have read of his have been about writers.

This book is about a man named Langston Cane V his quest to learn more about his family - in particular, the four Langston before him. In his search he uncovers some less than desirable family history, repairs his relationship with his father, and finds a bit of himself.  Over all a very good human story - just how I like them.

:o)  Tina

The Book of Negroes

by Lawrence Hill

I am on such a roll with excellent books - thanks in large part to my good friend Karen.  This was another story about someone courageous - my favorite kind of book.  I honestly, could not put it down.

It is the story of a woman who was taken from Africa as a child and sold into slavery and her remarkable life's journey. I loved it from the first word until the last.

Read it - you will love it too.

:o)  Tina

Middlesex

by Jeffrey Eugenides

I could not put this book down, it was a great read. It was descriptive enough to keep you interested, to allow you to clearly envision the atmosphere and location of the events that were taking place without boring you half to death (it has happened, I skip ahead).  This is the kind of book that when you are finished reading it you skip ahead to the really interesting parts in the next book you read.

Jeffrey Eugenides also wrote the Virigin Suicides which I think I might read - or watch again.

Its a 5 for sure!

:o)  Tina

The Memory Keeper's Daughter

by Kim Edwards

This book was some serious reading.  I liked it for its humanness and hated it for its sadness and loneliness.  The premise of the story is that of a man struggling with an enormous secret that he kept in an effort to protect someone he loved and the consequences of that secret.  He was sad man; lonely and always searching for something in his life that he never really found.

You can read more about the book here.

*PS After my rant in my Water for Elephants post about being a reading poser, when I searched for an image for this post I found out this book is a movie too!  Came out in 2008 as a TV movie, I am going to check see if they have it on Netflix!

*PPS I watched Water for Elephants.  It was good, but not The Notebook good like I was hoping for.  I am sure I would have thought so if I had not read the book first.  So if you have not seen, nor read.  SEE FIRST READ SECOND.

:o)  Tina

The Castaways

by Elin Hilderbrand

This was a good book - but not Water for Elephants good.  I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more if I had not just read Water for Elephants (which was amazing).  It was a good book to read while lying on a blanket in the sun - one eye on the kids and one eye on the book.  Worth picking up for a beach weekend.

The basis of the book is the death of two friends from a group of friends and the secrets, lies and feelings revealed following those deaths.  It was interesting and clean - from the synopsis, I kind of expected it to be a little more down and dirt and the secrets to be a little more juicy.

Overall, I give it 3 1/2, maybe 4, stars for easy summer reading.

:o)  Tina

Water for Elephants

by Sara Gruen

I hate reading books when the movie has just come out. It makes me feel like a reading poser.  Despite this strange quirk, I read Water for Elephants.  My dear friend Karen brought it to me the day before we left for vacation so that I had something to read - pretty nice huh?

Thank Goodness she brought it for me - it was so, so good.  The perfect summer reading.  There was not one single solitary paragraph that I did not enjoy and not I cannot wait to see the movie! I hope it is like The Time Traveler's Wife - amazing book, fabulous movie - dare I get my hopes up?

I give this book a 5 star rating for the perfect summer reading.

:o)  Tina

Handle with Care

I am about three quarters of the way through this book by Jodie Picoult (the author of My Sister's Keeper) and although I am enjoying it, I do NOT agree with the choices the mother of the child whose life the book is based on is making. I think she is being selfish and making choices that will have as much of a negative impact (if not more) that a postive one on her family.  Like I said, three quarters of the way through.  I will post an update when I am finished the book.

Having said that, if you are looking for an interesting, easy read this is a book that will keep you entertained without being too heavy (although it is a serious subject).  It is written in the same format as My Sister's Keeper - expressing everyone's point of view - which I really like.  I plan to read some of Jodie's other 16 books that I have not read, while I am ON VACATION!!!

Read more about Handle with Care on Jodie's website.