The Story Sisters by Alice Hoffman

(Just a brief review. . . )

I really, really enjoyed this book . . . as I have enjoyed some of her other books. I perhaps enjoyed this one even more, but parts of it were quite predictable. Let me just say, without giving too much away, that when I started reading this book about three sisters, I just knew that something fatal would end up happening to one of them. Anyway, I digress. The Story Sisters seem to be very close and in fact, they spoke their own secret language, much to the chagrin of their mother. Actually, it was the oldest Story sister who "learned" the language in the night. . . and seemed to have many issues. . . which evolve into drug abuse problems. I love the tone of the book overall.

There is more to this book, and I do recommend it, but I will just leave it at this.

Short Reviews of Recently Read Books

Honeymoon in Tehran by Azadeh Moaveni
I enjoyed Moaveni's first book, "Lipstick Jihad" a few years ago, and looked forward to this book. "Honeymoon in Tehran" deals with Moaveni's move back to Iran to cover the 2005 presidential election for Time magazine. She meets the man she would marry and have a child with at this time, too. During her early marriage, life began to change for the people in Tehran with Amadinijad as President. Suddenly, restrictions that hadn't been around since the early '80s were were suddenly back and being enforced. Moaveni's relative freedom with her reporting is now coming under scrutiny. The question reverberating throughout the narrative. . . should Moaveni, her husband and son remain living in Iran? This is a very well-written book. There are several portions that are information-laden in terms of life, politics, religion, etc, which I really enjoyed. . . but be aware this is not a "quick, light read" if you are looking for a something of that sort. Personally, I found Moaveni's book more engaging than Tara Bahrampour's _To See and See Again: A Life in Iran and America_.

Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron
This is a fun and touching read. It is about the love of a cat, the story of a small town, the story of a library, and the memoir of the author -- who was the library's Director for 20 years. It is an easy read, too, and I highly recommend this book.

The Chosen One by Caroln Lynch Williams
This is a very moving book. . . and, I feel, maybe slightly better written than the comparable "Sister Wife" by Shelley Hrdlitschka. "The Chosen One" is about a nearly 14-year-old girl, Kyra, whose uncle, one of the heads of 'the Chosen Ones' sect, has had a vision, that Kyra is meant to become his next wife. The uncle, her father's older brother, is nearly 60 years old! This sect also kills babies who are in anyway "unfit". . . Kyra has been secretly visiting the county's bookmobile. She knows from newspapers that there is a world "out there" that can help her.

Mercy, Unbound by Kim Antieau
This book deals with anorexia and mental issues from an interesting perspective. . . the protagonist believes she is becoming an angel, and therefore has has no need of food. There is so much more to this little book. I highly recommend it.

One True Theory of Love by Laura Fitzgerald
I was excited to read this book because I loved the author's A Veil of Roses, which I read as soon as my local library received it. The reason I read the that book over two years ago was because my husband is persian, as are the majority of the characters in A Veil of Roses. At the time I read that book, I had no clue that we would be moving to Tucson, where both of these books take place, a year later. One of the strengths of One True Theory is that it is very grounded in place, in setting. Having lived in Tucson nearly a year now, I knew where just about every landmark and intereseciton was located, or even what it looks like. Fitzgerald even mentioned the Persian restaurant Ali Baba, which we are very familiar with (but she did not mention what they ate. . . I would like to imagine that they ate the koobideh kabob, as that is the best item on their menu.)

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!