March 2011

Here's the list for March. I haven't posted for the past week or so, but wanted to get this out. Enjoy!
Books-March 2011
1. The Summer son by Craig Lancaster
2. The finer points of sausage dogs by Alexander McCall Smith (audio book)
3. Julie of the wolves by Jean Craighead George
4. Zita the space girl by Ben Hatke
5. Night train to Scotland by Sybil Burr (gender study)
6. The confession by John Grisham
7. Catching fire by Suzanne Collins
8. The nobodies album by Carolyn Parkhurst
9. The beauty bias:the injustice of appearance in life and law by Deborah L. Rhode
10. Mothers and other liars by Amy Bourret
11. A room with a zoo by Jules Feiffer (gender study)
12. The cat who brought down the house by Lillian Jackson Braun (audio book)
13. The world according to Bertie by Alexander McCall Smith (audio book)
14. After summer by Nick Earls (gender study)
15. I don't know how she does it by Allison Pearson
16. An inconvenient marriage by Ruth Ann Nordin
17. Seven year switch by Claire Cook

1. Look up Craig Lancaster and see what it says about him as an author. I bought this book because the story was set in Montana and it turned out to be a pretty good story, maybe a little longer than it needed to b.
2. I love to listen to Smith’s book on CD. I put them on my ipod and then listen when I am waiting for the bus, or doing things around the house. If you have never heard of Professor Von Inglefeld, you are in for a real treat!
3. I read this because the fifth graders I work with are reading this in class and I had never read it. Beautiful language and a sad story about loss and survival.
4. A new graphic novel that I read so I could share with my fifth grade friends. I didn’t find it very engaging. Why do I keep seeing The Wizard of Oz in all the children’s books I read?
5. This was our book club book of the month. We all loved it. Grisham knows how to tell a story and he can also educate us at the same time.
6. One of the books published in the 1950s; the main character is very Nancy Drewish, although she lives in Scotland: brave, charismatic, can sail a boat by herself. The story is basically a romance with a little bit of mystery. Main character is a girl, but the book has 50 males and 22 females.
7. The second installment of the Hunger Games Series. I have enjoyed these books, but I am not sure how children as young as 4th and 5th grade are devouring these books. Very dark material for ones so young.
8. Probably my favorite book this month. I love how Parkhurst develops the story. She really pulled me into the mystery as well as the relationships between the characters. I will look for more books by her.
9. We are so caught up in superficial looks and this is not limited to our current culture. Rhode examines how the law can sometimes help against this bias, but unfortunately concludes that in general those unfortunate to be discriminated against have not legal recourse. It is legal to not hire (or fire) someone because of looks, weight, height and, as we all know, the size of her breasts!
10. I’m not sure why I read this whole book. The main character kept making bad decisions and the author was quite sympathetic to her, but it wasn’t working for me.
11. A gender study book where it seemed that the author was slightly more aware of his choices in gender for secondary characters. Females outnumbered males here and not all secondary characters were portrayed in gender-stereotypical ways.
12. I have read several of the Cat Who books. They are always fun to come back to. If you like a light mystery, with a touch of whimsical language play, give these a try.
13. This series revolves around a number of people residing in the same apartment building in Edinburgh. Bertie is six years old and has to contend with an overbearing mother and other trials. As a continuing story that jumps from character to character, it makes me feel like I am coming home when I read the next installment.
14. A very unusual love story, told from the boy’s point of view. It is a sweetly told tale and the author deals well with the sex angle. Haven’t counted yet, but it seemed pretty balanced.
15. A sharply funny look at the modern woman who does not have time to be the perfect wife, mother and employee. But, that doesn’t mean she is not going to try. Of course, someone will suffer and in spite of the laughs, the book is full of pain.
16. Sometimes I am not sure how I get sucked into free books on ebook readers. This book was not worth my time, in spite of the no fee to download.
17. A quick read, nice story, but nothing special.

March Book club

We read The Confession by John Grisham and we all felt the power of the book. If you haven't read it, and you want to, I'll just say: spoiler alert. In the story, a young black man is about to be executed for a murder he did not commit. All kinds of travesties were committed prior to and during his trial, but since he lived in Texas (substitute any number of states here), and he was young, black, relatively poor and powerless, none of these were ever considered and he was was convicted and spent 9 years on death row, finally coming to his execution date. In spite of a last minute confession by a serial rapist, the execution went forward and the rest of the story was the fall out of murdering an innocent man in the name of justice. Grisham makes an excellent point against the death penalty and it is hard to imagine that this is the act of a civilized society. While the story is obviously told along racial lines, black innocent man convicted of a crime against a white girl; white rapist/murderer who got away with it for almost 10 years, etc., we discussed the justice issues without talking too much about the obvious racist bias inherent within the death penalty in our country. Maybe we just had too much of that from last month's session. But, next month, we'll read and discuss, The Other Wes Moore, another non-fiction book set in Baltimore. What a great place to live!

New-to-me authors

I love discovering a new-to-me author that writes books that seem to be made just for me. Carolyn Parkhurst is my latest discovery and when I finished reading The Nobodies Album, I just wanted it to continue for about 1000 more pages. The story is narrated in the first person by a novelist who has suffered a great tragedy, both her daughter and husband died in a freak accident and she is left only with her son who eventually separates himself from her life. When her son is accused of murder, she is able to reconnect with him. There is a bit of a mystery: who really killed her son's girlfriend? And a smidge of romance. But, mostly, it is just a good story, about people I might like to meet, told in a wry voice with a great mixture of self-deprecation and reflection.
On the other hand, another new-to-me author is Amy Bourret. I am slogging through Mothers and Other Liars right now. I won't give away the plot, but will just say that the mother in this book is sickly sweet, too good to be true; yet she makes decisions that I don't think a mother would really make. So, she kind of lost me right from the beginning. And, the prose is too full of flowery metaphors and similes. It's like reading the high school English assignment where the students were instructed to use as many metaphors as possible in their writing. Even when the image is a good one, it still feels forced. Not sure if she has any other books out, but I won't be actively searching them out.

Christians and politics

I found a great book for free download on Amazon. You never know what you're getting when the book is totally free. You get what you pay for, right? But, in this case, the book would have been worth paying for. It's Healing for a Broken World by Steve Monsma. Monsma puts Christian principles in perspective when considering public policy and bases what he is saying on what is just and right for Christians to do. I love the idea of Christians being politically active without trying to impose moral majority views on the rest of the nation. If we really want justice, we will stop considering middle class tax cuts and inequities in funding for education. I've only read about half of the book so far, so haven't gotten to the chapter on poverty, but I will be interested to see what he has to say about this. Among my other reads this spring break week: Julie and the Wolves by Jean Craighead George, Fearless by Max Lucado, Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke, The Confession by John Grisham (talk about justice and actions taken in the name of Christians!), Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins, and The Nobodies Album by Carolyn Parkhurst. It's been a great week for reading. Haven't finished all of these, but have had a good time interacting with books in between writing reports and grading papers. Three days left before reality sets back in and meetings prevail!

Reading in the car

I have always considered myself lucky to be able to read in the car and for most of the car trips I have made over the years, I am not the main driver, so I take advantage of long car trips to get some good reading done. I've now made two trips between Baltimore and Rochester, NY in as many weekends. The first was for Carol's funeral and with Chris to do most of the driving, I finished off a few books last weekend, including Wading into Murder and Nightmare at the Bookfair. The trip I just finished was for a happier occasion, a baby shower for my daughter, and since she is 33 weeks pregnant and pretty uncomfortable, I got to do all the driving. You know what that means: recorded books! Lily lounged in the back seat with her pillows and books, and I sat in front with her mother-in-law listening to The World According to Bertie by Alexander McCall Smith. I love everything he writes and the 44 Scotland Street series is some of his best work. If you are not familiar with this series, I highly recommend this. His tales of 6 year old Bertie, a gifted child in many ways, and his mother Irene are hilarious. Bertie just wants to be a normal boy, but his mother will not let him, pushing his to take saxophone lessons, yoga for children and Italian language lessons. Bertie's thoughts on these subjects are hilarious. Any mother who is in danger of pushing her children too hard needs to read about Bertie and Irene and see if she sees herself there.