Z is for . . .

For the last day of the A to Z Challenge, I am really struggling.  I have recorded in LibraryThing that I have read exactly three books that start with Z.

I don't feel like I remember any of them well enough to write a regular-format post.

I remember reading Zel by Donna Jo Napoli in 2001.  I always found the fairy tale "Rapunzel" just absolutely fascinating when I was a little girl.    I remember loving this this book while reading it during a break at the library I working at in 2001.  I have vague memories of Zel hiking to get food.  That's ALL I remember.  I think I should re-read this book soon and see when I think now.

In 2008, I read through a very simple book about Zac Effron (People in the News) by Terri Dougherty.  It was just okay.

In 2009, I read a memoir by Zubin Mehta, the conductor, entitled Zubin Mehta: The Score of My Life.  I remember parts of it, but again, not enough to really discuss it properly.  I remember being in the bathtub on day while reading it.  It may have still been the early days of being pregnant with my second son.  I remember feeling nauseous.  (It was a 24-hour thing for 16+ weeks straight.)  At the time, I gave this book 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Y is for Your Baby's Best Shot

Title:  Your Baby’s Best Shot: Why Vaccines are Safe and Save Lives

Authors: Herlihy and Hagood

Original Publication Date: 2012

Date I First Read: February 2013

Basic Category: Nonfiction

Basic Summary:  This well-written book outlines well all of the reasons parents should give their babies vaccines (and addresses most arguments against.)  It includes an extensive reference bibliography. 

What I Remember About the Book:  I was really nervous about my son following the standard vaccination schedule after reading a different book about vaccines four years ago (one that took quite a different stance.)  However, he was fine, and I am so happy now that we did.  I remember that this book actually gave me the assurance that we made the right decision. 

What I Took Away From the Book:  Get the vaccines . . . and that I should make sure my vaccinations are up to date!

Rating (1-5 stars):  4

X is for Xavier's Fantastic Discovery

Title:  Xavier’s Fantastic Discovery

Pictures by Lucinda McQueen with “Special thanks to Roger and Susanne Schlaifer for bringing the legend to life.”

Original Publication Date: 1984     

Date I First Read: 1984

Basic Category:  Picture Book / Children’s Fiction

Basic Summary:  Xavier Roberts and BunnyBee search for the garden where the Cabbage Patch Kids are grown. 

What I Remember About the Book: Sybil Sadie, a Kid who didn’t want to be friends with Xavier right away.

Quote: ‘ “Well, said Tyler Bo, “You’ll sure learn fast enough around here.  I don’t reckon you’ve had time to notice, but this valley is just about filled up with Cabbage Patch Kids.   Our friend, Colonel Casey the stork, tries to find homes for us, but it’s hard work.”’  (Book is unpaginated!)

What I Took Away From the Book: Colonel Casey the stork is the reason I became a Cabbage Patch Kid mom . . . that, and my Grandma, who tried her hardest to get me one when they were extremely popular. 

Rating (1-5 stars):  3

W is for Where the Sidewalk Ends

Title:  Where the Sidewalk Ends                

Author:  Shel Silverstein

Original Publication Date: 1974

Date I First Read: 1981

Basic Category: Poetry

Basic Summary: A collection of poetry, mainly intended for kids. 

What I Remember About the Book:

 The poems!  Some of my favorites were, back when I was around seven years old,

“Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Did Not Take the Garbage Out” and “Sick”.  These were the longest poems in the book, and at some point I set out to memorize them.

My first grade teacher, Mrs. Hall, introduced this book to our class.  She read us the poems first.  My aunt Sue gave me my very own copy of this book the next Christmas. It is still a prized book in my collection.

Quote: “I cannot go to school today / said little Peggy Ann McKay. / I have the measles, the mumps, a gash, rash, and purple bumps.”

What I Took Away From the Book:  Poetry is fun!  And that awful things could happen if you don't take out the garbage!

(And April is National Poetry Month.)

Rating (1-5 stars):  5

V is for Veil of Roses

Title:  Veil of Roses  

Author: Laura Fitzgerald

Original Publication Date: 2006

Date I First Read: 2007

Basic Category: Fiction

Basic Summary: A young Persian/Iranian woman named Tami gets a three-month visa to visit her married sister in Tucson, Arizona.   Part of the point of her visit is to find her a husband so that she can stay through marriage in the United States and not have to go back to Iran. She also takes an English class, and gets involved with her classmates’ lives. 

What I Remember About the Book:  I read this book first a year or so before we found out we would be moving out to Tucson for at least four years.   It was on the new book shelf at library where I worked at the time.  I loved the cover, and my husband is of Persian ancestry . . . so I thought the book would be interesting.  It was.  I liked reading about the food and traditions.   I liked that Tami got involved with a non-Persian guy.

I finally met the author, who lives in Tucson, last year.  She is a nice and friendly person!

What I Took Away From the Book:  Love your spouse.  Love your family and friends.  Don’t take your freedom for granted. 

Rating (1-5 stars):  4.7

U is for The Undutchables

Title:  The Undutchables: An Observation of the Netherlands, Its Culture and Its Inhabitants

Author: Colin White and Laurie Bouke

Original Publication Date: 1991

Date I First Read: 2005

Basic Category: Nonfiction / Culture

Basic Summary: The author present inhabitants of the Netherlands, and how they live life.

What I Remember About the Book:

I read a used copy of this book, which I fell in love with.  The authors attempted to be humorous, and were successful part of the time.  I picked it up because some day I want to go there . . . half of my ancestors were originally the Netherlands.   I remember most the section on the Dutch being reluctant to pick up the phone when it was ringing.  It struck such a chord with me!  Maybe that’s way both my dad and me freak out about a ringing phone . . . and panic a little bit every time.  It’s inherited phone anxiety!

What I Took Away From the Book:  I still would like to visit the Netherlands someday. 

Rating (1-5 stars):  5

T is for These Happy Golden Years

Title: These Happy Golden Years

Author: Laura Ingalls Wilder

Original Publication Date: 1943

Year I First Read:  1984

Category: Fiction, Juvenile Fiction, Teen/YA Fiction, Historical Fiction

Basic Summary:  In the beginning of the story, Laura is on the way to her first teaching job, which is away from home.  Every week in the cold and snow, Almanzo comes to pick Laura up and take her home to her family.  Later, Laura returns to going to school in town, and many more events take place until the end of the book when she marries Almanzo.

What I remember:  This is hard to say I have re-read this book so often since then.  I was nine-ish when I first read it, though, after I had read the rest of the Little Series over the previous two years or so.  Several things made the biggest impression on me when I first read it, though.   One is when May came home from college in Iowa to visit. Another is the chapter with the tornado with three funnels that kills a boy and two donkeys.   Another is when Laura and Ma are preparing Laura’s clothes for her wedding.   

What I Took Away From the Book:  Don’t go riding out in the country in a buggy when there might be a tornado.  Your true love might show up at the door with wild horses to be broken.  If you are teaching school for the first time, don’t stay in a house with knives.  And finally, life can be difficult, but it gets better. 

Rating (1-5 Stars): 5 Stars (Then and now.) 

S is for The Stand

Title:  The Stand       

Author: Stephen King

Original Publication Date: 1978 / 1991

Date I First Read: 1991 / 1991

Basic Category: Fiction / Apocalypse

Basic Summary:  A virus gets out of a government facility (because in this particular version of the world, a creature known as Randall Flagg makes this happen) and spreads through the world in a matter of days. 99% of the world’s population dies.  The survivors pick a side and gather together to fight the forces of evil. 

Note there is the first version, which was heavily edited and published in 1978.  I read this book early in 1991.  Then the expanded “uncut” edition came out the following summer.   I had to wait in line to get that one from the library! I savored it when I finally got my hands on it.  Fortunately it was during the summer so that I had time to read it before school started again. 

What I Remember About the Book: Stu and Fran.   The baby.  Mother Abigail.   The flu spreading.   Nick Andros. (No, I didn’t name my son after him.  I didn’t even think about that until now.)  Harold. 

What I Took Away From the Book:  Worry about what I would do if I would survive (be immune) such a disaster.  My asthma was not very much under control at the time.  I realized that I would have to break into a few pharmacies and take all of the albuterol inhalers I could get my hands on to keep myself alive.

And learn how to ride a motorcycle, even though I dislike motorcyles. 

Rating (1-5 stars):  4.5 (The lack of good well-written women, even twenty years ago as a teen bothered me. However, I still liked the whole story very much!)  

R is for Ramona Forever

Title:  Ramona Forever

Author: Beverly Cleary

Original Publication Date: 1984

Date I First Read: 1985

Basic Category: Juvenile Fiction

Basic Summary:  Ramona Quimby’s aunt is going to marry her friend Howie’s uncle.  Her mother is going to have a baby.  Her father is looking for a teaching job, and if he gets a job in a rural area, Beezus is worried about living like Laura Ingalls Wilder.   

What I Remember About the Book:  Picky-picky, their old cat, died, and Ramona and Beezus buried him themselves so they wouldn’t worry their pregnant mother.  Howie’s uncle takes the girls shopping for dresses, since they are trying to plan a really quick wedding.  Ramona’s shoes for the wedding are too tight, so she gives them to the boys at the wedding to ties onto the wedding couple’s car.

I loved this book.  I re-read it a number of times.  It was, and is, my favorite Ramona book.  The others were fine, but my old paperback copy of this particular book is falling apart!   I think I also loved that Ramona got a new baby sibling.  I wanted my parents to have another baby . . . but they always said no. 

What I Took Away From the Book:  I learned the term “sibling” from this book.  (e.g. My brothers are my siblings.) 

Rating (1-5 stars):  5

Q is for Queen of the Damned

Title:  Queen of the Damned

Author: Anne Rice

Original Publication Date: 1988   

Date I First Read: 1994

Basic Category: Fiction

(Of course, I just had to pick this one!)

Basic Summary: The third Vampire Chronicle . . . it picks up where The Vampire Lestat leaves off.  Lestat is going to perform his rock concert, and every vampire is going to be there for good and for bad.  His goal is to wake up Akasha, the queen of vampires.  Meanwhile, there are the dreams of the twins.  What do they mean?   Maharet tells the surviving vampires the story, while Akasha sets out to bring peace to the world by killing off men.     

What I Remember About the Book:  I still re-read parts of this book regularly, but what I loved most about this book is all of the vampires that we’ve gotten to know in the previous two books, plus some that are new to readers, get together in a grand meeting.  I loved reading the descriptions of each vampire, particularly as Marius comes into the room and looks at them all in turn. 

What I Took Away From the Book:  If I am a vampire, it pays to know Lestat personally (you know, since Akasha generally spared those that Lestat loved.)  If I am not a vampire . . . well, don’t go to Lestat’s concert!

Rating (1-5 stars):  5

P is for the Princess Diaries

Title:  The Princess Diaries (Vol 1)                                            

Author: Meg Cabot

Original Publication Date: 2000

Date I First Read: 2000

Basic Category: Teen/YA Fiction / Humor

Basic Summary:  Mia discovers she is a princess, even though she does not really want to be one.  The story is told in various formats (diary, IM, etc.) 

What I Remember About the Book:  I remember when it arrived, brand new, at the library where I worked.  I started reading it in the staff room during my fifteen minute afternoon break.  I didn’t want to put it down.  I remember laughing out loud.  I remember Mia’s mother painting.  Her friends.   Princess lessons!

What I Took Away From the Book:  It would be fun for a while to find out you are a princess. 

Rating (1-5 stars):  5

PS:  I had the opportunity to meet Meg Cabot in 2004, and also heard her give a most energetic presentation.  I had so much fun.  She took a picture with me.  This was before I had a digital camera.  I need to find the print, and scan it once and for all. I also got a couple of  books signed by Ms. Cabot.   I wore a dress to this conference, and felt like kind of a dork.  A couple of week later I wore the same dress to my great-aunt's funeral. 

O is for One-Way to Ansonia

Title:  One-Way to Ansonia

Author: Judie Angell

Original Publication Date: 1985

Date I First Read: 1988

Basic Category: Juvenile/Teen Historical Fiction

Basic Summary: Rose immigrates to the US from Russia or Eastern Europe at age 10 in the 1890s.  It is the story of her growing up in difficult circumstances in New York City.

What I Remember About the Book: I remember really liking this book.  I loved historical fiction, so this one was perfect for me.   I remember most that she got married really young, and had a baby.   She went to English classes. 

What I Took Away From the Book:  Don’t have a baby really early. Wait.  (Um, yes, I actually waited until my 30s.)  Work hard and you make things happen.      

Rating (1-5 stars):  4 (at the time – I need to re-read it!) 

N is for New Food of Life

Title:  New Food of Life: A book of Ancient Persian and Modern Iranian Cooking and Ceremonies

Author: Najmieh Batmanglij

Original Publication Date: 1992

Date I First Read: 2006

Basic Category: Nonfiction / Cooking / Culture

Basic Summary: This book presents recipes and how they are related to Persian culture (celebrating holidays and weddings in particular.)

What I Remember About the Book: The photos of the food are excellent . . . they make my mouth water.  This is true even the pictures where tree nuts (particularly pistachios) are involved – I am allergic to tree nuts.  This book, for me, is “food porn.” 

The recipes themselves are easy to follow and quite clear. 

What I Took Away From the Book:  I have learned how to cook Persian-style several recipes from this book.  My spouse tells me if they taste good AND correct, or if I was close.  I do alter some recipes sometimes – no nuts, no fenugreek, less oil, etc.   Some of my favorite recipes include the albaloo polo (cherry rice) and esfanaj o portagal (spinach and orange) khoresh.  

Rating (1-5 stars):  5 

M is for The Man Who Didn't Wash His Dishes

(For the 2013 A to Z Blogging Challenge, I will be featuring one book each day, that begins with that day's letter, that made an impression on me.  This means that for some reason, I didn't just read that book and forget about it.  No, I still think about it after some period of time has passed.)

Title: The Man Who Didn’t Wash His Dishes

Author:  Phyllis Krasilovsky  Illustrated by Barbara Cooney

Original Publication Date: 1950

Date I First Read: 1980ish (My mom probably read it to us first, and then I read to my brothers.)

Basic Category: Picture Book / Children’s Fiction

Basic Summary: A man doesn’t feel like washing his dishes, so after he runs out of clean dishes, he eats from things like a soap dish and ash trays.  Soon, he is out of everything from which he can eat.   Luckily for him, he has a pick-up truck.  When it rains, he piles them all in!

What I Remember About the Book:  I pretty much remember the whole book as it is pretty silly, actually.  It made an impression on me, though, that dishes should always be washed on a regular basis! 

What I Took Away From the Book: Wash the dishes unless you have a pick-up and it going to rain hard outside. 

Rating (1-5 stars): 4.5 

L is for A Little Princess

(For the 2013 A to Z Blogging Challenge, I will be featuring one book each day, that begins with that day's letter, that made an impression on me.  This means that for some reason, I didn't just read that book and forget about it.  No, I still think about it after some period of time has passed.)

Title: A Little Princess

Author: Frances Hodgson Burnett

Original Publication Date: 1905

Date I First Read: 1986

Basic Category: Juvenile Fiction / Classic Fiction

Basic Summary: Sara Crewe’s father takes her to England from India to get an education at Miss Minchin’s Select Seminary.  As he is very wealthy, she has her own suite (no roommates for her!) of rooms and a private maid.  Before he leaves to return to India, he buys her the perfect doll to be her friend.  Sara makes human friends as well at the school, and is kind to everyone, even Becky, the young scullery maid.  Miss Minchin doesn’t care for her, in part because Sara already knows French.   When Sara’s father dies, seemingly penniless, big problems lay ahead for Sara.  

What I Remember About the Book: I was in fifth grade when I read this the first time, and sorry that I hadn’t read it sooner.  I re-read it five times at least the following summer (I have memories of reading it on a lawn chair at a campsite, and later in my sleeping bag with a flashlight.)  I had never seen a movie version before, either.   I watched the PBS Wonderworks version later that year when it aired.  I remember most from my first reading of the book was the buying of the doll (named Emily), Lottie’s tantrums, and of course, the night when Sara’s dreams came true.

What I Took Away From the Book: How to be a good friend.  Not to count on money always being there.   Don’t go away to a boarding school for girls.  Sometimes unknown men creeping into a girl’s bedroom doesn’t always mean something bad . . . um, I don’t know if that’s a good lesson.   

There is a sequel, Wishing for Tomorrow, by Hilary McKay that was published in 2010.   I’d always wished that there could be a sequel, but then worried that whoever wrote it would not write it correctly.  I have re-read the sequel twice since the first time I read it.  I love the sequel.  It’s perfect! 

Rating (1-5 stars):  5

K is for Keepsake

(For the 2013 A to Z Blogging Challenge, I will be featuring one book each day, that begins with that day's letter, that made an impression on me.  This means that for some reason, I didn't just read that book and forget about it.  No, I still think about it after some period of time has passed.) 

Title:  Keepsake: A Novel 

Author: Kristina Riggle

Original Publication Date: 2012

Date I First Read: 2013

Basic Category: Fiction 

Basic Summary:  A single divorced mother solves her emotional issues by shopping.  She might lose her children because her younger son was injured in a pile of falling stuff in their house.  She has a hoarding issue, but so did her mother (and the hoarding issue killed her mother.)   It is all a matter of keepsakes  . . . and there is a lot more to the story than first meets the eye.  

What I Remember About the Book:  I just read this book a month ago.  I pulled it off the new book shelf at the local library thinking it looked like something I'd like.    I couldn't put it down, and I had no urge to peak at the ending, either.  (Sometimes, in the middle of a book, if I am vaguely bored, or embarrassed or turned off by a character or situation, I will peak at the end to see if it worth it to continue reading to the end.)   I had to know how things were going to work out.   The author unrolls all of the emotions for each member of the family slowly and deliberately, but it is all very clear, even when things don't seem clear specific characters themselves.   It is well-done.  

I have thought about this book every day in the last month . . . whenever I see myself making a pile or not wanting to get rid of something, I remember this book.  That is why I think this will be one that lingers in my mind as some of these other books have.  

What I Took Away From the Book:  Clean!  Throw away! Do I really need to purchase that now?  Save money! Things aren't  always the memories.  Save a few things that mean the most, and get rid of the rest.  

Rating (1-5 stars):  5

J is for Janet Lennon at Camp Calamity

(For the 2013 A to Z Blogging Challenge, I will be featuring one book each day, that begins with that day's letter, that made an impression on me.  This means that for some reason, I didn't just read that book and forget about it.  No, I still think about it after some period of time has passed.) 

Title:  Janet Lennon at Camp Calamity

Author: Barlow Meyers

Original Publication Date: 1962

Date I First Read: Sept 1986

Basic Category: Juvenile Fiction / Series

Basic Summary: Fictionalized Janet Lennon (of the Lennon Sisters and Lawrence Welk fame) has nothing to do this summer.  She is fourteen, and her sisters are all busy or married.  Suddenly she gets the opportunity to be a counselor at a summer camp.  They need her there immediately!  Pretty soon she is involved in all activities and drama the camp provides. 

What I Remember About the Book: I had no idea who the Lennon Sisters were.  I got the book from the bookshelf in Grandma’s basement.  It had been my mother’s, apparently.  I read the book in no time at all.  I remember that one of Janet’s charges - Karen, the scholarship girl -liked birdcalls, and had her teach the other girls.  This same camper also ran off and discovered new trails, which Janet uses to get a kidnapped girl.    

What I Took Away From the Book:  Yes, you can have a boring summer even if you are a famous singer.   Yes, you can have an exciting summer if you are suddenly needed as a camp counselor.   (Actually, I always thought that was kind of stupid, because I never had a boring summer.  Ever.  Even as a kid, there was swimming, biking, piano practice, and lots and lots of books (not for school) to read for fun. There were stories to be written too, in secret notebooks.  I always thought that people who were bored were boring people . . . and that as long as there is something to read or a piece of paper and a pen to be had, there was absolutely no reason to be bored! 

Rating (1-5 stars):  3.5 

Here is a link to the Lennon Sisters today:  http://www.lennonsisters.com/home.html

I is for Izzy, Willy-Nilly

(For the 2013 A to Z Blogging Challenge, I will be featuring one book each day, that begins with that day's letter, that made an impression on me.  This means that for some reason, I didn't just read that book and forget about it.  No, I still think about it after some period of time has passed.) 

Title:  Izzy, Willy-Nilly

Author:  Cynthia Voigt

Original Publication Date: 1985

Date I First Read: August 1987

Basic Category: YA/Teen Fiction

Basic Summary: Izzy is from a “nice” (this word is used often in the book) family, but she is 15 and has been invited to a party by a popular guy.  Well, he’s been drinking at the party, and he drives Izzy home.  They never made it home.  Marco is fine, but Izzy is not.  Her leg ends up being so destroyed in the accident that it has to be amputated.

What I Remember About the Book:  I was 12 and about to enter seventh grade when I read this.   I remember being in the back seat of our old brown ’76 Plymouth Valarie on the way home from the library and reading the very first page.  I was confused . . . and then finally, it dawned on me that Izzy had been in an accident – and Izzy was confused, too.  I also remember Izzy making new (and better) friends.  And Izzy takes up cross stitch, something I’ve always liked to do.   It all made quite an impact on me.  See below.

This was the first Cynthia Voigt book I had ever read.  Over the next year and a half, I read just about all of the rest of her books that were out (and at the library.)  The Callander Papers is my other favorite of hers, both then and now.

What I Took Away From the Book:  Never, ever get in a car with someone who has drunk.  Never, ever drink that much myself, either. I would tell myself, “I don’t want to be stupid like Izzy. She should have gotten a ride home with someone else.  Or called her parents.”   And I did not.  That said . . . I am quite a lightweight when it come to alchohol, and beer makes me nauseous (the half a beer that managed to drink when I was 22 made me vomit – and I had heartburn for hours after.)  Needless to say, even as an adult, I don’t drink much or often. 

Rating (1-5 stars):  4.5  

H is for Heidi

(For the 2013 A to Z Blogging Challenge, I will be featuring one book each day, that begins with that day's letter, that made an impression on me.  This means that for some reason, I didn't just read that book and forget about it.  No, I still think about it after some period of time has passed.) 

Title: Heidi

Author: Johanna Spyri

Original Publication Date: 1880

Date I First Read: 1982/1983

Basic Category: Juvenile Fiction (although, the author apparently said it was “from children and those who love children”, according to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heidi)

Basic Summary: Heidi (short for Adelheide) is an orphan, and her aunt doesn’t want to raise her anymore.  The aunt takes her to her grandfather in the mountains – the Alps, because after all, this is Switzerland.  He is recluse of sorts.  Heidi becomes friends with Peter, the goatherd, and his blind grandmother.  Her aunt comessagain to take her to the city, where Heidi is to be the companion of an ill rich girl, Klara.  Heidi becomes extremely homesick. 

What I Remember: This was one of the first long so-called “chapter books” that I read completely on my own.  It took a while.  I had been loaned a copy by my grandparents (which inherited some years later) because Grandpa’s ancestry is partially Swiss, and this book takes place in Switzerland!  I also had a Little Golden Book version that I loved, but I wanted to read the real thing!   I remember being very insistent about this.  It was not abridged, either.  I remember most Heidi having to leave the goats to go to the city, and then of course, Klara comes to visit Heidi’s mountain and miraculously learns to walk. 

After that, I read more orphan books more or less from the same time period . . . and of course they have similar themes and miraculous recoveries – such as The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett and Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter.

What I Took Away From the Book: Mountains are wonderful.  Cheese is wonderful.  You might find your future husband as a young boy working as a goatherd.  You never know!  You might want to become a physical therapist but they didn't really exist back in 1880 – oops.  

G is for Girl Who Owned a City

(For the 2013 A to Z Blogging Challenge, I will be featuring one book each day, that begins with that day's letter, that made an impression on me.  This means that for some reason, I didn't just read that book and forget about it.  No, I still think about it after some period of time has passed.) 

Title:  Girl Who Owned a City
 Author: O. T. Nelson

Original Publication Date: 1979

Date I First Read: 1988

Basic Category: YA/Teen Fiction / Post-Apocalyptic 

Basic Summary:  Everyone who is above a certain age dies in a plague/virus.   Lisa and her brother are left to fend for themselves in a Chicago suburb.   

What I Remember (most) About the Book: The kids barricaded themselves in a warehouse or school, I think.   Honestly, it was one of the first apocalyptic books I ever read, and it made an impression on me, though I remember that I liked Children of the Dust by Louise Lawrence better. 

What I Took Away From the Book: Kids can survive in world without adults . . . if they can think like adults sometimes. 

Rating (1-5 stars):  4.0 stars – I would have given it four stars back then.  Now, I don’t know.  I re-read it in 2006 or so.  Portions left me wondering, and asking “Would I have really been able to drive a car at 10?” (I was maybe almost tall enough with the seat pulled up.)  I think I am going to have to find it, if I can, and read it again.   

F is for The Family Nobody Wanted

(For the 2013 A to Z Blogging Challenge, I will be featuring one book each day, that begins with that day's letter, that made an impression on me.  This means that for some reason, I didn't just read that book and forget about it.  No, I still think about it after some period of time has passed.) 

Title:  Family Nobody Wanted, The
 Author: Helen Doss

Original Publication Date: 1954

Date I First Read: 1988

Basic Category: Nonfiction / Memoir / Adoption

Basic Summary:  It is the late 1930's and Helen and her husband can’t seem to be able to conceive.  They started adopting children, and because the wait is so long, they are willing to take older children and children who are Asian and Mexican in ancestry.  

What I Remember (most) About the Book: I remember most the section describing their experiences while living in a parsonage in Hebron, Illinois in the early 1940's.  They only had four or five of their eventual dozen children, but it was all quite eventful with balloons being thrown into the old coal furnace, not enough coal during a blizzard, all of the kids being sick with chicken pox, the basement flooding, and lots of cherries to be canned.  

What I Took Away From the Book:  I loved this book at age 13ish.  I re-read it a number of times.  I liked that they adopted all of these children – and that she wrote a rather humorous book about it all.  I loved being able to go to the library basement where all of the old issues of Life magazines bound into volumes and stored.  This was pre-internet (at least for me) . . .   the family was featured in Life prior to their last three children coming into their lives. I loved to read about families with large numbers of children.  Today, I think, they would have never been allowed to adopt so many children.  Right? 

Rating (1-5 stars):  4.0 stars – I would have given it four stars back then. 

Here is a link to a page that contains two of the photos and interesting discussion of the book.  

http://pages.uoregon.edu/adoption/topics/familynobodywanted.htm

E is for The Eyre Affair

(For the 2013 A to Z Blogging Challenge, I will be featuring one book each day, that begins with that day's letter, that made an impression on me.  This means that for some reason, I didn't just read that book and forget about it.  No, I still think about it after some period of time has passed.) 

Title: Eyre Affair, The

Author:  Jasper Fforde

Original Publication Date: 2001

Date I First Read: 2003

Basic Category: Fiction – Comic Fantasy/Alternative History

Basic Summary:  Thursday Next works for SpecOps 27, the Literary Detectives.  In her world, literature is very important, and it is possible to jump in and out of books.  If something in literature is changed, it can change the world – so it is important that literature is policed.   

What I Remember About the Book: I actually listened to this book the first time I read it, on audio cd on a trip in my car.  This is funny as I had an ARC of the book since before it was released but never read it (until later.)  It was the mid-1980s in this alternate history.  I remember laughing out loud a lot.  I remember Thursday’s inventor uncle Mycroft;  Pickwick, Thursday’s cloned dodo bird; Shakespeare machines at airports;  jumping into books; And, of course, Landon, her eventual husband. 

What I Took Away From the Book: The fun of a parallel, very similar but very different, universe.  And an urge to actually read Jane Eyre (I did for a college class, and really disliked it.)  I did re-read part of Jane Eyre so that The Eyre Affair made more sense.

Rating (1-5 stars):  5

D is for Dark Reunion

(For the 2013 A to Z Blogging Challenge, I will be featuring one book each day, that begins with that day's letter, that made an impression on me.  This means that for some reason, I didn't just read that book and forget about it.  No, I still think about it after some period of time has passed.) 


Title:  Dark Reunion (Vampire Diaries #4)
Author:  L.J. Smith
Original Publication Date: 1991
Date I First Read: 1992
Basic Category: YA/Teen Fiction / Vampires

Basic Summary:  This gives away the prior books in the series (sorry about that), but Elena is dead.  There is still evil in Falls Church, so her friends battle the evil. This story is told mostly from her friend Bonnie’s point of view.   

What I Remember About the Book: Elena is dead and her friends are sad. There is something evil going on.   What I remember most is . . . 

SPOILERS!!

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Stephan coming back and Elena somehow being reborn in a field full of Civil War ghosts.

What I Took Away From the Book:  Dead doesn’t always mean you’re really dead for always. 

I was still in high school when this book came out and I read it.  It was my favorite of the first four.   I am not appreciative that there are suddenly more books in this series in the last couple of years.  I liked the way this book ended.  It should have ended there.  As well, I didn’t like the first episode of the tv series.  I haven’t watched it since.  

Soon after, I read Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles books for the first time.  They are definitely far superior to Ms. Smith's books.  However, this particular book has stuck with me for some reason.  I think it is because of the Civil War ghosts.  And a crush on Stephan.

Rating (1-5 stars):  3.5  - I might have given this book a four back then.  It was just nice fluff to read between studying.  And reading more full-blown horror with scary dolls and ice picks by Ruby Jean Jensen.  

C is for A Cousin's Challenge

(For the 2013 A to Z Blogging Challenge, I will be featuring one book each day, that begins with that day's letter, that made an impression on me.  This means that for some reason, I didn't just read that book and forget about it.  No, I still think about it after some period of time has passed.) 

Title:  Cousin’s Challenge, A

Author:  Wanda A. Brunstetter

Original Publication Date: 2010     

Date I First Read: 2010

Basic Category: Fiction / Amish / Romance / Deafness

Basic Summary: This is the third book of a three-book series (Indiana Cousins series.)   In the first book, a group of cousins are going on a trip together in a van.  There is an accident, and some members of the party are permanently injured.  Jolene lost her hearing.  Since the accident she has been away to her aunt’s school, a Mennonite woman who teaches the deaf.  Jolene has learned how to Sign,  and now she is back home.  She has been offered a job to teach a couple of deaf Amish children.   Meanwhile, there is much else going on in the community where she lives.  There are love triangles . . . and disaster after disaster (every second chapter has some kind of misfortune!) 

What I Remember About the Book: I like to read Amish Fiction, to be honest.  I have always been curious about the Amish, and when I was little, we lived in the middle of Indiana Amish country for a few years. The neighbor across the street was former Amish.  Anyway, the thing is that even for me, who tends to like disasters in stories, this book is very memorable for the sheer number of small and large disasters that happen within.  This was my review from when I first read this book:

“I like to read 'Amish romances', and am just finishing this book. Overall, this story was enjoyable. . . but having read the first two books in the series, this one takes the cake in terms of the sheer number of accidents and tragedies! There is a new one (or two) in nearly every other chapter!"  

What I Took Away From the Book:  Some Amish communities must suffer greatly, but yes, it will all work out in the end!

Rating (1-5 stars):  3.5

B is for The Blue Castle

(For the 2013 A to Z Blogging Challenge, I will be featuring one book each day, that begins with that day's letter, that made an impression on me.  This means that for some reason, I didn't just read that book and forget about it.  No, I still think about it after some period of time has passed.) 

Title: Blue Castle, The

Author: L. M. Montgomery

Original Publication Date: 1926

Date I First Read: 2000
Adult Fiction / Teen Fiction

Basic Category: Romance-ish

Basic Summary: Valancy is 29 years old, and she is still living with her mother and aunt.   She feels stuck.  And then she gets a letter from a doctor who says she had a heart condition and will probably die.   She throws all caution to the wind in the freedom that the idea of death gives her . . . and her life suddenly changes for the better. 

What I Remember About the Book:  Valancy getting the letter.  Her many relatives.   Her letter to Barney. 

What I Took Away From the Book:  I read this book first when I was 25.  I was worried about being in Valancy’s position love and relationship-wise when I was 30.  I took different steps than Valancy did, but I too threw caution to the wind to some extent with my online dating, and found the one for me. 

Quote: "Valancy did not mind so much being an old maid.  After all, she thought, being an old maid couldn't possibly be as dreadful as being married to an Uncle Wellington or an Uncle Benjamin, or even an Uncle Herbert.  What hurt her was that she had never had a chance to be anything but an old maid.  No man had ever desired her," (1).  

Rating (1-5 Stars): 5 

A is for Alex, the Life of a Child

(For the 2013 A to Z Blogging Challenge, I will be featuring one book each day, that begins with that day's letter, that made an impression on me.  This means that for some reason, I didn't just read that book and forget about it.  No, I still think about it after some period of time has passed.) 

Title:  Alex, the Life of a Child

Author: Frank Deford

Original Publication Date: 1983

Date I First Read: 1987

Basic Category: Nonfiction / Memoir / Tearjerker

Basic Summary: Alex’s father recounts her life and death.

What I Remember About the Book: I remember most about learning about cystic fibrosis and how it works.  I was just about 12 when I read this, about a year or so after the TV movie aired.  The movie made me sob, and the book was no different.  For some reason, the part of the book that stands out most in my memory now is when the author described his daughter in the hospital when she was very young, when she was being diagnosed.  I was in the living room of the house we lived in, and sitting in my favorite chair while reading that part.   I also remember how the author described his daughter's clubbed fingers.   At the time, I had no idea what this looked like, and there was no Internet to look it up.  

What I Took Away From the Book:  How genetics generally work. If both parents have the recessive gene for cystic fibrosis for instance, then each one of their biological children have a 25% of having the disease.  This knowledge came in very handy in high school biology a couple of years later.

Rating (1-5 stars):  4.5 stars – I was an impressionable tween.  I also had no idea that my first child would die of complications from his birth defects.  It was not related to genetics (that we know of.)  I also had no idea that I would see what clubbed fingers looked like in real life on my own baby.