My Top Reads of 2008 List

I know, I know, it's pretty late for this, but here it is . . . (In no particular order.)

(A note: My 2008 Top Reads was done in memory our beautiful infant son, Sam, who passed away just a little over a year ago now, April 3, 2008. )


Comfort: A Journey Through Grief by Ann Hood (2008)
“Writing about Grace, losing her, loving her, anything at all, is not linear either. . . Grief doesn't have a plot. It isn't smooth. There is no beginning and middle and end” (53). This is a compact, intense book about the author’s loss of her young daughter from a sudden illness. Very well done, and oh, so true.

Love You to Pieces - Suzanne Kamata, editor (2008)
I received this book as an Advanced Readers Copy from LibraryThing.com as part of their Early Reviewers group. It is a collection of nonfiction essays, excerpts, poetry and short fiction about living with and raising special needs children. I really liked Michael Berube’s “Great Expectations”.

The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry (2008)A short, fun romp that makes fun of itself! It is a humorous parody of many old-fashioned stories, such as Mary Poppins and any number of orphan stories. Will the children in this story get a happy ending?

My Most Excellent Year: A Novel of Love, Mary Poppins and Fenway Park by Steve Kluger (2008)
My most favorite book of all I read this year! It is a sweet, intriguing read, and I recommend it to those of nearly all ages. It is a story told alternately by three different teens and the adults in their lives. Please, please read this one! It’s better than TWILIGHT!! (There are also no vampires in this book.)

The Amsterdam Cops: Collected Stories by Janwillem van de Wetering (2000)
This (adult fiction) collection of stories about cops investigating murder mysteries can be laugh-out-loud funny. They are translated well from the original Dutch. The stories, of course, take place in the Netherlands.

These is My Words by Nancy Turner (1997, 2007)
I play in a church bell choir right now with the author! However, I had not known that would be happening when I picked this book up at the library this summer, where it was featured as by a local author. It is about Sarah Prine, in Arizona territory from 1881 to 1901, and her life’s adventures. There are two sequels, but I Iiked this first one the best. The book is very loosely based on Nancy’s great-grandmother’s experiences. It is written in diary format and is intended for an adult audience.

Impossible by Nancy Werlin (2008)
Fiction intended for older teens, I read this book late into the night one night this fall. A teen learns that the women in her family have been cursed for many generations, and that she is destined to have a baby at age 18 and then literally lose her mind the moment the baby is born unless she completes three tasks in the song passed down in her family. Will she be able to finish before it is too late for her? It is based on the lyrics of “Scarborough Fair”.

Paper Daughter: A Memoir by M. Elaine Mar (2000) Grandma Larson loaned this book to me in Jan ’08. I found the memoir fascinating, but was a difficult read at the same time. It is about a Chinese girl/woman growing up mainly in the US, trying to navigate the differences between her home life and outside.

American Band: Music, Dreams and Coming of Age in the Heartland by Kristen Laine (2007)
This adult nonfiction title follows the lives of high school marching band members, their families, and the band director through a season of trying to make it to the top of their class at the Indiana state marching band finals in 2004. The author did an excellent job portraying the efforts of everyone involved.

Gluten-Free Girl by Shauna James Ahern (2007)
The author started a blog a few years ago about her adventures with food after finding that she can no longer eat gluten, that she has Celiac Disease. I found this book not only appetizing with the recipes and food but humorous in tone. She writes a lot about the processed foods of her childhood.

A Boy Named Shel: The Life and Times of Shel Silverstein by Lisa Rogak (2007)
This book is not really intended for kids, even though the cover is designed to look like one of his books of poetry for kids. Mr. Silverstein was quite a private person and it took the author a lot of research and interviews to find all of the information for this well-told biography. I had no idea about several aspects of his life.

Spontaneous Healing by Dr. Andrew Weil (1995)I finally read one of his works because my doctor in Illinois asked last spring if I would be able to see this famous doctor, as he lives in Tucson. I haven’t met him, yet, no, but I can say that I’ve read one of his books now. It was very good, and provides a lot of information about health to think about.

Unwind by Neal Shusterman (2007)
I read this book last December just before Sam was born. It is fiction that I would recommend to older teens and to adults who want to read a truly scary book! It is not horror in a classic sense of the genre, but it becomes horrific in that you may start asking yourself if such a thing will be possible some day. . . read the book to find out what “unwinding” is. Not recommended on a full stomach.

Soon

I will update this blog soon. . . I have been reading, and I have compiled my top reads of 2008, as well, which I will post on here soon.

Shattered Dreams: A Memoir

Shattered Dreams: My Life as a Polygamist's Wife: A Memoir by Irene Spencer, 2007

Chapter One begins: "As we were growing up, polygamy was the ruling tenet of our lives. This "Celestial Law" was so integral to who we were and what we were trying to accomplish that most often, we referred to it simply as 'the Principle'. Everything else we were to do or not do, be or not be (a great deal, as it turns out) was ancillary to this: men were to have as many wives and as many children as they possibly could during the few years they walked this Earth. It was upon the conclusion of those trying, earthly years that we would all reap the divine rewards for our obedience to the Principle" (7).

This book is about Irene Spencer's time growing up as the fourth child of her father's second wife, and how they grew up very poor because her father drank and could not make enough money to support his (eventually) six wives. Irene's mother ends up remarrying a monogamist who is also an abuser. Irene herself had the opportunity to marry for love and monogamy when she was 15, but instead, felt the Lord tell her that she should become the second wife of a polygamist who lived part of the time in Mexico (because the US government had cracked down a bit on polygamy).

Irene became pregnant every time her husband was willing to be intimate with her (which became a stretch - eventually he had collected at least nine wives, most of which ended up divorcing from him, after they'd given him about 56 living children total). She gave birth to 13 children, and then adopted a child as well. Her first baby, a girl named Leah, died soon after she was born. They didn't know why. (Could it have been a heart defect? Just curious.) She wished they could just have intimate relations just for fun (and use birth control), but just about every time they did, she got pregnant.

All through the book, you can feel the author's frustration with having to share her husband with all of these other women and children. There was also never enough money to go around, even in Mexico. Irene leaves him a few times, but then of course, her husband threatened that she would never see her kids again. Finally, after twenty-some years of marriage, her husband died. It seems it was a release for her. She could finally live for herself and her children. She remarried a monogamist, and they seem devoted to each other.

I recommend this book. It was quite an education for me!

Untamed (House of Night novel, book four)

Untamed (House of Night novel, book four) by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast, 2008.

I read the first three books of this series earlier this summer, and then the fourth book came out. I loved the first book (Marked), while I felt the second and third books were just kind of. . . for lack of a better word. . . okay. However, I hoped that the fourth book would be better. I wasn't holding my breath when I started it. It didn't take long until I got into the book. This one "sucked" me in much quicker, which was great!

The series takes place at a House of Night, where teens and young adults who have been "marked" to become vampires (the marks a kind of henna colored tattoos of moons on their forheads). In this story, they do not have to die, really, to become vampires. Except, a new kind of vampire has formed. . . young marked vamps who did not survive "the change" and died. Except now the have bright red marks. . .

Zoe Redbird is the rising star - she's already a full vampire with tattoos over her body that form with each accomplishment. She's also only been marked for four months. She will be the new Priestess, and she knows that something evil is going on with the current Priestess. . . the question is, what? Zoe and her friends are back, after some major rifts, working together to try to solve the mysteries.

I really enjoyed this fourth book!

These is My Words by Nancy E. Turner

These is My Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901, Arizona Territories: a Novel by Nancy E. Turner (1998)

First, let me say I loved this book, eventually. . . and it is "adult fiction".

I borrowed this book on the spur of the moment a couple of months ago (July), and read the first few pages. They seemed rather depressing, and I didn't continue, partially because the book was due by then. However, a week or two ago, I was informed that the author goes to the church I've gone to the last couple of weeks. This book was nominated in 2007 to be the One Book AZ book. (By the way, I'd like to see Veil of Roses by Laura Fitzgerald for One Book AZ 2008!!) So, I tried These is My Words again. It is not easy reading. . . several people die in just the first 41 pages or so. However, by then, I had to know what happened. I have to say that this is the kind of book I've appreciated for years, since I was a kid (historical fiction in journal/diary format).

Wow, I was sorry when I reached the end of the book. Fortunately, there are sequals. There are several very sad portions, and some wonderful portions (for instance, I didn't realize the University of Arizona here in Tucson was the first university in Arizona) about the joy of reading and education. Sarah never got to go to school formally, but studies on her own, and eventually passes the 12-grade exams. She moves into Tucson with her husband, even though she hates being in town, so that her children could have the privilege of going to school. She runs a ranch on her own. Sarah is a very strong woman. If you go to the author's website, there are pictures of the woman Sarah is based on. Sarah is based on the author's grandmother's diaries and experiences.

An excellent read! I highly, highly recommend it!

Evernight by Claudia Gray

Evernight by Claudia Gray (2008)

I read this book last week. It is a new teen vampire novel. I enjoyed it more than (*gasp*) Twilight when I read that book when it first came out. The author really sets up a surprise in the middle of the book that I did not totally expect, which made it fun to read. The story starts out with the main character, Bianca Olivier, moaning about having moved to a new school and how she misses the small town she'd grown up in. Now she is in a snooty boarding school where her parents are new teachers, and she has very odd classmates. One of the classes offered is "Modern Technology", where the students learn about iPods and how to program a microwave. It turns out this class is for vampires who are several hundred years old who need a class to learn about technology. I found this rather silly, but the rest of the book was very good. I liked it better than the House of Night books I read earlier this summer. I did not like Evernight as much as the Vampire Academy series (I read the second book in this series earlier this summer.)

Comfort: A Journey Through Grief

Comfort: A Journey Through Grief a memoir by Ann Hood (2008)

"Grief is not linear. People keep telling me that once this happened or that passed, everything would be better. Some people gave me one year to grieve. They saw grief as a straight line, with beginning, middle, and end. But it is not linear. It is disjointed. One day you are acting almost like a normal person. You maybe even manage to take a shower. Your clothes match. You think the autumn leaves look pretty, or enjoy the sound of snow crunching under your feet.

Then a song, a glimpse of something, or maybe even nothing sends you back into the hole of grief. It is not one step forward, two steps back. It is a jumble. It is hours that are all right, and weeks that aren't. Or it is good days and bad days. Or it is the weight of sadness making you look different to others and nothing helps. Not haircuts or manicures or the Atkins diet.

Writing about Grace, losing her, loving her, anything at all, is not linear either. . . Grief doesn't have a plot. It isn't smooth. There is no beginning and middle and end" (52-3).

This a very small, short book, but oh, so heavy. I could not put it down! I saw it a week or two ago on the new nonfiction shelf at one of the branch libraries, and I just knew I had to check it out.

I learned from this book that not only do older people sometimes die of a virulent strep infection, but supposedly otherwise healthy five year old children. I knew when I started this book what would happen. It says so on the book flap.

Ann Hood arrived one day in April of 2002 to pick up her 5 year old (whom she'd had at age 39) daughter Grace from ballet class, and the teacher told her that her daughter had possibly broken her arm. So they go to the ER, where they said yes, it was broken, and that the pediatric orthopedist might want to do surgery, but that is could wait a few days. Grace started running a fever, but her pediatrition wasn't that concerned. However, Ann was concerned and took Grace back to the ER, where they still didn't think anything serious was going on. Two days later, after surgery and intubation, Grace died in her parents' arms, while they are singing her Beatles' song, Grace's favorite music.

This book is about Ann's grief, and how she deals with it. How she deals with it differently from her husband (Lorne). How their son (Sam!) deals with it. How Ann could finally deal with sorting through Grace's things. How she could not tolerate the song "Amazing Grace" anymore. How she gave up her love affair with the Beatles, because all things Beatles reminded her of Grace. How they missed having a little girl, but found, now in their 40s, that they could no longer conceive, even with IVF. How they adopted a baby from China. Annabelle did not, could not, replace Grace, but she brought hope and laughter back into their lives.