Book Review #5

I almost hesitate to post about some of the books I've read because I am afraid I will lose all credibility when recommending books. I'm sure you know what books I'm talking about - fluff. The kind of book you read when you really don't want to have to think about anything at all. When I'm in the right mood, I love fluff books. I'm actually a really temperamental reader. I always have 15-20 books checked out from the library because I never know what I'm going to be in the mood to read. I usually read several books at the same time. Lance laughs when he sees what I come home from the library with. This latest excursion I got 5 regular fiction books, 2 nonfiction crime books, 1 memoir, 4 Christian fiction books, 2 medical books, 1 vampire book, and 2 semi romance novels (they aren't really romance novels, it's just what I've been calling them to bug Lance, romance novels are a little too risque for my taste, these are good clean love stories :) Maybe I have reading ADD - is there such a thing? (J/K) Onto the reviews . . .

s#14, 15, 16 - The Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. These books are pure fun. I couldn't put them down. My friend Irene said it best, "They are like candy." The books are set in the Pacific Northwest and follow a lonely teenage girl named Bella who falls in love with a vampire. Never in a million years did I think I would read a vampire novel. Just not my cup of tea. But these books definitely transcend that genre. My MIL recommended them to me. I was a little apprehensive but once I started reading I couldn't stop. I love it when I get so caught up in a book that I don't want to do anything else. Another great thing about these books is that they are completely clean. I love it when an author is able to tell a great story without using foul language or sex. Anyway, get ahold of these books if you can - they are wonderful fun.

#17 - Broken For You by Stephanie Kallos - Arrrggghhh! I wrote a full review of this book and then the computer froze and I lost the whole thing. This is a beautifully written book. It begins with a seventy something year old woman who finds out she has an inoperable brain tumor. She has lived a completely lonely existence in a mansion in Seattle and decides after the diagnosis to change her life completely. She takes in a young female border who has recently had her heart broken. Over the course of the book, she takes in a hodge podge of people who become a sort of surrogate family. I don't want to give too much away, but a large part of the book involves breaking rare porcelain figurines and juxtaposing that against the broken characters in the book. She explores the theme of finding beauty in broken things.

#18 - Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See - Another great book. I have had a lot of luck recently reading books I have thoroughly enjoyed. If you liked Memoirs of a Geisha, you would probably really like this book also - it reminded me a lot of it. The book is set in 19th century China and follows the lives of two friends who grew up together. They stay in contact through their writings on a fan that they exchange. The writing is in a secret code that only certain women have learned to read. I found it fascinating to read about the lives of Chinese women in that time period.

#19 - Shattered Dreams: My Life as a Polygamist's Wife by Irene Spencer. This memoir was fascinating. I have never read anything about polygamy so when I saw this in the new biography section, it caught my interest. Irene Spencer was a fourth generation polygamist. She fell in love with somebody else before she was married and almost eloped with him but felt too strongly about polygamy to abandon it. She was married in the 1950's and was the second wife to a man who eventually went on to have 8 or 9 wives. They lived in Mexico in abject poverty with no running water, electricity, or indoor plumbing, she even had dirt floors most of the time. Irene is a feisty vivacious woman who I could relate to while reading the book (except for the polygamy part and watching like 25 kids at a time). She stayed with her husband until he died. She ended up turning away from polygamy but I felt (with my limited knowledge about polygamy) that she gave a fair account and not just a bitter one. I liked this book so much I read it all in one sitting.

#20 - The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Fowler - I did not like this book. I got halfway through it and then realized that I really didn't care about any of the characters or what was going to happen so I stopped reading it. That's pretty rare for me. The premise is approx. 6 people start a book club that reads only Jane Austen books. As they discuss each book the author tells the backstory of one of the characters. You come to realize that each character represents the modern day version of one of Jane Austen's books. In premise, I think it's great, but I found the stories too contrived and boring. I just didn't care. To be fair, I'm not a big fan of change. So someone interpreting what the modern day version of one of these classics would look like, just doesn't do it for me (although I did love Clueless). I was really disappointed as I have heard so much hype about this book. You might still want to read it, it seems everyone loves it but me.

#21 - "Are You There Alone?" The Unspeakable Crime of Andrea Yates by Suzanne O'Malley. So I've been addicted to Law and Order lately - all three versions. Seems I cannot get enough crime TV. I have Paxil to thank for that. The antidepressant that I take for chronic pain makes me numb to horrific scenarios. Anyway, Rusty Yates' new wife just gave birth to a child so he is back in the news. I always wondered about this case and how something so horrendous could happen. What I found interesting about this book is that she gives the timeline leading up to the deaths of the children. I didn't know that Andrea had been in and out of mental institutions trying to get help. I didn't know that her last hospitalization for 14 days right before the murders, the doctor only saw her twice and refused to prescribe the antipsychotic that had worked for her in the past. This book left me feeling very sad and frustrated. There were so many opportunities to help this woman, if just one thing had been done differently you cannot help but to wonder if those poor babies would be alive today. I would NOT recommend this book to anyone with young children [unless you happen to also be numb to the world from antidpressants like me :) ].

Whew . . . that's enough reviews for tonight - I'm tired. I'll post some more soon!