Hmmm... Maybe I was off ....

The Center of Everything by Laura Moriarty

I did come down with a stomach thing two hours after finishing this book of small town Kansas, so ... maybe my judgment was skewed. I liked the book, but I wouldn't shout out to my friends to run and read it ...

Evelyn is a small town girl from the wrong side of the tracks with no idea who her father is. Her mother is the classic working poor who also ends up pregnant. SPOILER (baby brother is born with issues).

Evelyn is spunky and smart and will get out of this town, but first she has to go through teen age crush/love, religious conversion, and a fast food job at McDonalds.

At moments, the book was perfect. Then, it seemed tedious and predictable. Somewhere in between is probably correct. Evelyn's character seemed real, but her love interest seemed lame and her friendships shallow. I loved her inspiring teachers. Viewing Tina's (her mother) life through the lens of Evelyn was a clever way of showing the pain and reality of her life. I liked that, but I wondered at the truth of it. Would a daughter feel and see her mother that way?

Evelyn's grandmother is a religious nut who drags her into revivals and protests. The best parts of the book are when Evelyn learns to navigate religion and still love her grandmother. I think that part of the book is perfect.

Blurb:
One of the great pleasures of this novel is Evelyn's effort to make sense of the foggy theological claims hovering around her and reconcile them with the world she observes. "In my head," she says, "God has dark red hair and a beard. He doesn't wear clothes, but it's okay, because you can't see below his shoulders anyway. Everything else is always covered by clouds. Jesus looks exactly the same only he has blond hair, and wears a white robe and sandals. This is how you can tell them apart. And Jesus, I understand, is nicer than God, a little less likely to kill you if you do something wrong.

AND

But Moriarty does make it work in this "curvy" novel, whose appeal should extend from women's book clubs to high school summer reading lists. By listening closely to the innocence and perception of adolescence, she's invented a moral geometry that allows her to skewer and cherish simultaneously. There's no cheating in this novel, no phony breakthrough, or precious reconciliation, just a sweet, often comic series of tender moments spun from real-life battles and moments of kindness among unsorted laundry.

Evelyn grows into the kind of complex young woman who would never mock another's church or picket a science class, spit on a teenage mother or become one, disparage poor women or trade arms for hostages. What's best, her mother, the strong-willed, self-destructive woman who makes mistakes she knows she shouldn't, eventually emerges from Evelyn's laser-sharp evaluation with a kind of muted triumph that Evelyn can appreciate. And if we're paying attention, we can too.

Austenland - kind of ...

Austenland by Shannon Hale

Okay, imagine a vacation based on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. More specifically, on A&E's movie version of that book. Even more specifically, on Colin Firth playing Mr. Darcy (I know -- we all have a weakness for him!). Then, you have this book. A romantic "brothel" of sorts full of handsome gentlemen catering to the Regency entralled women guests. After you swoon thinking that of a two week tryst with Mr. D, the premise gets a little creepy.

Jane's great-aunt leaves the obsessed neice with a paid vacation to Austenland in her - hoping to help her rid herself of the obsession. New York Jane goes to English countryside - and let the fun begin. It was like a Harlequin Romance for Lit Lovers.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11259913

Raising Hope was fantastic

This well written first book tells the story of mothers and daughters and family. Told from the point of view of the main feminine characters, rotating voices with chapters, the story moves along. Baby Hope is given away by her father to her aunt and HIS ex girlfriend. A unique and diverse family is made. Fast Forward eleven years, and Hope's story of family and love is expanded.

The voices are distinct; the stories seem real; the writing is beautiful.


Blurb:
Ruth Teller was a tough-talking smart aleck who figured she was going nowhere fast. Sara Lynn Hoffman was a prim overachiever who knew she was destined to do great things. Then life happened to them-and all their expectations were turned upside down. Together, they are raising a girl named Hope, who came into their lives as an infant and changed everything.

Set in the summer of Hope's twelfth year and moving back and forth in time, this heartwarming novel is the story of an unlikely family. Told from the perspectives of unique female voices from different generations, RAISING HOPE exquisitely depicts the bravery of ordinary people risking everything to find out just how full their lives-and hearts-can be.

Memoir by the Dog

Our next bookclub choice came right before Hurricane Ike, The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein. I was happy for an easy good read. I loved that the book was told from the dog's point of view. AND an exceptional dog Enzo is. Given that peculiarity, I got a little bored in the middle of the book. There was a predictable portion of the plot (how can I not have a spoiler here ?!!). I found myself skimming through the entire trial scene knowing how it would turn out.

I loved the racing descriptions of the book. I've never read about auto racing, and I found it interesting and artistic.

Good easy read - no hidden messages here.

Blurb: Enzo knows he is different from other dogs: a philosopher with a nearly human soul (and an obsession with opposable thumbs), he has educated himself by watching television extensively, and by listening very closely to the words of his master, Denny Swift, an up-and-coming race car driver.

Through Denny, Enzo has gained tremendous insight into the human condition, and he sees that life, like racing, isn't simply about going fast. Using the techniques needed on the race track, one can successfully navigate all of life's ordeals.

On the eve of his death, Enzo takes stock of his life, recalling all that he and his family have been through: the sacrifices Denny has made to succeed professionally; the unexpected loss of Eve, Denny's wife; the three-year battle over their daughter, Zoe, whose maternal grandparents pulled every string to gain custody. In the end, despite what he sees as his own limitations, Enzo comes through heroically to preserve the Swift family, holding in his heart the dream that Denny will become a racing champion with Zoë at his side. Having learned what it takes to be a compassionate and successful person, the wise canine can barely wait until his next lifetime, when he is sure he will return as a man.

A heart-wrenching but deeply funny and ultimately uplifting story of family,

Thank heaven for Southern Authors

Life is so much more exciting with good Southern writing. I loved Clyde Edgerton's The Floatplane Notebooks. It was my first read of his books. It was funny, passionate, and poignant. It reminded me of my family and my extended family. Edgerton wove his own family stories into the book, and you can see the personal truths there. Intermingled with the story of family love is the setting of the VietNam War. The sons in the story are involved in hilarious capers including falling into an old well (the father built a kitchen over the well). Retrieving Meridith (the son) from the well was laugh out loud funny (pg. 72).

As the book moves the children to adults, the relationships grow and the reader sees true families. I loved this book.

Blurb: The Floatplane Notebooks chronicles the history of the Copeland family of North Carolina—from before the Civil War to after Vietnam. The family goes way, way back. Every May they gather to clean up the graveyard and clip the wisteria vine away from the tombstones, while the old people talk to keep the path to past open. Albert Copeland, the current head of the family, writes it all down in the notebooks he uses to track the progress of his homemade floatplane. A family album of talk and tales, this novel shares the best-kept secrets of love, loss, and letting go.

Being Mrs. Alcott by Nancy Geary

I really enjoyed the pace of this introspective book. I expected the book to follow a traditonal pattern of searching for meaning, finding little, ditching life as you know it, and moving forward. I was pleasantly surprised when Grace Alcott looks at her life as it really is - ups and downs. As I was reading it, the message felt so real. Her marriage was as all marriages are, complicated. Her children were not perfect despite ... It was interesting and thoughtful.

Blurb: This is the story of Grace, a fifty-eight-year-old woman, who was born into an emotionally reserved, upper class, New England family, married a man of similar background, and has raised her own family in much the same way. Changed financial circumstances and a potentially dire medical diagnosis force her to come to terms with her life, her losses, and her relationship with her two grown sons. Ultimately I hope it is read as a novel about the struggle between hopes for change and acceptance of reality, and the roles of choice and fate in shaping life's direction. (written by author)

Housekeeping

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson has been on my "want to read" list for a long time. Making an appearance on the NY Times Best Fiction in the last 25 years list just added to my desire. Since, I got to choose bookclub choice, I finally read this stark book.

Set in the frigid Fingerbone, the story is about a family and all their losses. Two sisters make the center of the story. Their grandfather died in a freak train derailment into the town's freezing lake. Their mother drove a car into the lake taking her own life. They are raised by grandmother, great aunts, and finally Sylvie, their mother's sister.

I can't say that I liked the book or recommend it. I appreciated the language of the book. There were echoing beautiful sentences, you wanted to read over and over. Unlike Stegner, whose sentences move me to feel, Robinson's power of language moved me away from understanding her characters. I never liked them which makes it hard for me to like the book. I understand that may be a juvenille approach to reading - but so be it.

The whole of the book is contained in this quote about family: "For why do our thoughts turn to some gesture of a hand, the fall of a sleeve, some corner of a room on a particular anonymous afternoon, even when we are asleep, and even when we are so old that our thoughts have abandoned other business? What are all these fragments for, if not to be knit up finally?"

This books knits up simple, stark scenes to create the story of two sisters growing up and the housekeeping that surrounds them.

Mary Jane's Farm

I discoverd Mary Jane's Farm a few years back from my Farmgirl friend, Joeby. I loved her catalog/magazine and am thrilled that she has a new "real" magazine. I orderd the MaryJane's Outpost, Unleashing your inner Wild book. It outlines Mary Janes's ideas for getting outdoors and enjoying small things and bigger things. It was an inspiration. I don't know that I will build an outdoor bathtub in my new backyard, but ... I can only imagine the joy of bathing outdoors with yummy soap all around you. Wow!

The lean-to idea inspired me so that I think we will build one for John to play. He always wants a clubhouse.

Pick up any of MaryJane's books to inspire the authentic gal deep inside you.

A sensational Listen

In the I Feel Bad about my Neck, Ephron points to an 1859 novel, The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins as her favorite. After doing a little research, I chose to buy the Penquin Audiobook. The novel was serialized in magazine form as was common in that day, and it is considered to be one of the master example of this time period.

Told by different narrators - and with brilliant audio performance - the book is a treasure from start to finish. I LOVED it. The suspense was modern and interesting. The plot when revealed was realistic. The characters diverse. It is Victorian!

Go - read it - or listen to it!