Erin's Book #44: The Wednesday Sisters by Meg Waite Clayton

I had a little bit of trouble getting into this book and I'm not sure why. I enjoyed it, but I think I liked it a bit more in theory than in reality.

The Wednesday Sisters are a group of friends in Palo Alto, CA in the '60s. There's Frankie, who has always nursed dreams of being a writer, Kath, who's struggling with a falling-apart marriage, Ally, who can't conceive with her Indian husband (which in itself was shocking at the time), Brett, who inexplicably always covers her hands in gloves, and Linda, a tough-talking feminist.

The five women, all in their 20s when the novel starts, discover they all have a passion for writing and decide to form a writing group. They meet Wednesday mornings and critique each others stories. Through their writing, they discover more about themselves - what it means to be a woman in the '60s, the dreams they abandoned when getting married that they can possibly recapture - and in the process find the best friends they can imagine.

There's a lot to like about this book - the characters are varied and sympathetic, the sprinkling of '60s history is entertaining, the feminist plot lines are fascinating, and it's a great testament to friendship. But I just couldn't breeze through it the way I felt I should. Sometimes I felt things were very obvious, but the characters didn't pick up on them until many chapters later. The ending was a little unrealistic, though cute. Though I wouldn't rule out reading something else by Clayton, it probably won't be first on my list.

V's Pick #51: Bright Lights Big Ass by Jen Lancaster

With the closing of this book, I've read everything she's written from finish to start. I didn't really mean to read her books backward, it just happened that way. Sadly, I saved the WORST for last, as this was her first book and quite frankly, I think it took her the first two in order to master the quippy humor and social disregard that is her signature (and the reason why I will probably read anything she writes). BLBA is funny, yes. I LOL'd a few times for sure, but it's also incredibly annoying. Well, Jen is annoying. Her schtick has long been that she's a fat (and doesn't care) white woman who used to have a lot of money, is married to a genius husband, has three overweight cats and two crazy huge dogs; her books are about the little things in life that make you laugh. Three years ago when I read my first Lancaster book, Bitter is the New Black I found her hilarious...a sort of Margaret Cho for suburban overweight women who used to be sorority girls, a kind of Jennifer Simpson with a higher IQ and larger bra size. But...reading her very first book, I'm thankful I started backward or I probably would have never gone forward. She does nothing but complain, complain, complain and complain some more in this book. And she makes me so mad at times I just want to yell - "Get off your fat ass and stop being such a little whiny bitch." There. I said it. Whew. The good news is, I've loved everything else she's done, especially her weight-loss memoir, Such a Pretty Fat.

Visit her blog for a real-time dose of the current Jen, but if you ask me, skip BLBA and go straight to Bitter to avoid her out-of-the-gate annoying writing and personality quirks.

Blythe's Book 44: The Piano Teacher

I went to Barnes & Noble in search of some new books and ended up with a long list of potential reads, which I promptly took to the public library. I am nothing if not frugal! One of the most intriguing looking books was The Piano Teacher by Janice Y.K. Lee. This novel tells the story of Claire, a young British bride who follows her husband to Hong Kong in the 1950s, shortly after World War I. There she becomes a piano teacher for an affluent Chinese family, and, through her involvement with the family and her affair with a British man, she quickly becomes embroiled in a scandal with roots back in the war. The setting alternates between 1950s Hong Kong and 1930s-40s Hong Kong, and the (pre)wartime events are covered in every other chapter, where we learn about the past of the piano teacher's lover, Will, and his friends. Perhaps my favorite character is Will's lover, Trudy Liang, a spunky Hong Kong native who introduces him to Asian society before the war.

What I loved about this book, in addition to the well-crafted plot, was the historical information the author provided. Lee was raised in Hong Kong but educated at Harvard, and this shows in the way she creates Asian and Western characters. Her understanding of Hong Kong's culture, as well as the events and sentiments leading up to the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong, made this a really worthwhile read. I'd never thought about Hong Kong's occupation, or about how interred Americans and Britains in Hong Kong must have felt-- and, therefore, this novel was a real eye-opener. I also liked the main character, Claire; she starts out so naive and unformed, but becomes a much stronger, more individualized person through her experiences in Hong Kong. A favorite quote: "There had been times when Claire felt that she could become a different person. She sensed it in herself, when someone made a comment at dinner, and she thought of the perfect, acerbic reply, or something even racy, and she felt her mouth opening. . . [but]She swallowed her thought, and the person she could have become sank down again, weighted down by the Claire that was already too evident in the world. But then came Will . . . She was out of context with him. She was a new person. Sometimes she felt that she was more in love with that new person she could be, that this affair was an affair with a new Claire, and that Will was just the enabler" (74).

Blythe's Book 43: Vanishing and Other Stories

I really liked Vanishing and Other Stories, but it's difficult to write about. I really like Deborah Willis' writing style, but her stories are so varied that I don't really know where to start. The characters she has created seem very realistic, flaws and all... most of her stories center around failed relationships, or unraveling ones at the least, but rather than being depressing, her stories are entertaining and relatable. (Is that a word?) I especially liked "Traces," the story of a woman trying to discover her husband's most recent lover, and "Remember, Relive," which illustrates how family complexities can influence one's love life through the story of a lonely young woman. I always enjoy short story collections because of the range of storylines and characters you get; however, the downside is that either the plotline or the character development is not drawn out enough-- the genre really doesn't allow an author to fully develop both. Willis' work is definitely character-driven; I loved her stories, but they often left me hanging... which was pleasurable in some ways, but also a bit frustrating. If you like short stories, I'd recommend this collection. One funny thing: the author is Canadian, and the setting of each story is in Canada. I found that so annoying-- I kept thinking, "God, can't she write about somewhere other than Cananda?!" Then it occurred to me: oh wait... the majority of American writers write about America when they use a generic setting... I wonder how other people feel about that. LOL-- just made me think about setting and how important it can be.

Erin's Book #43: The Kindness of Strangers by Katrina Kittle

I have one major beef with this book: its marketing. The Kindness of Strangers is largely about the sexual abuse of a child and yet nowhere on the book's jacket does any indication of that appear. I would think that many people would find themselves unable to finish this book and might want to know what they're getting into ahead of time.

That said, this book is terrific. We begin with Sarah, a woman who lost her husband to cancer two years ago and struggles to raise her two sons alone. She is helped by her friend Courtney Kendrick, a wealthy woman whose son, Jordan, is the same age as Sarah's youngest, Danny (10 or 11). Sarah also has an older son, Nate, who has had a few run-ins with the cops and is frequently in trouble at school.

One day Sarah encounters Jordan walking in the rain, late for school. She offers to give him a ride. That day, both of their lives change.

It turns out that Jordan has been suffering from sexual abuse (the publishers may not feel that potential readers should know this before reading, but I do). The question becomes, was Courtney involved? Did she know? If so, why does Jordan seem dead set on living with her again? Sarah is dumbfounded, at first blindly refusing that it was even possible. It raises an interesting question - do we really know anyone? Sarah was convinced that Courtney was a dedicated, concerned, wonderful mother. Was she capable of molesting her son?

I won't reveal more about the plot, but Sarah's family bands together to come to Jordan's aid, ultimately strengthening their own ties. There are certainly some very disturbing parts to the story, and it's incredibly tragic, but it's also honest and somewhat uplifting.

Erin's Book #42: Something Blue by Emily Giffin

Something Blue is the sequel to Something Borrowed (which I'm really glad I read first). It presents the opposing side of the story - Darcy's, the beautiful woman whose fiance is stolen by her best friend. But it's not just her side of that story; it's also a continuation. Most of the book takes place after the fiance theft, following Darcy, to whom everything has always come easy, on her new single life as a pregnant woman.

I'd read a few reviews that said they hated Darcy in Borrowed, but loved her in Blue. For two-thirds of the book, I had the opposite feelings. When reading a story from the point of view of her best friend of 25 years who stole her fiance, it was easy to feel sorry for Darcy. Reading Darcy's own perspective, however, made it even clearer why Rachel deserved him more. Darcy is incredibly entitled, understanding from a very early age how much power her beauty allowed her. She expects to get exactly what she wants. It's tiresome.

Eventually, after heartbreak, regret, and fleeing the country, Darcy comes to terms with the fact that she's actually about to become a mom. Perhaps it's time to make some changes. She unearths a pretty decent person, consciously rejecting some of the more shallow aspects of her personality.

Something Blue was a nice change of pace from Freedom, as it was a quick and breezy read. I probably enjoyed Something Borrowed a little more, but you definitely have to read both to see how the story comes together. It feels much more conclusive now.

Erin's Book #41: Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

Wooh! This one was a beast! I hadn't read anything by Franzen before, but I knew this was supposed to be one of the year's hot books, so I decided to give it a try. Franzen didn't disappoint.

Clocking in at 650+ pages, this complex family drama is sprawling, intense, a little exhausting, and emotional. The book follows the Berglund family, husband Walter, wife Patty, and their children Jessica and Joey, plus Walter's best friend, Richard. Alternating between an omniscient narrator and Patty's autobiography (a therapy project), we follow the Berglunds from Patty's high school years to meeting Walter in college, and up through their children going to college. Franzen also tells us about their respective families as well (which can sometimes go on a little too long).

Franzen doesn't bother attempting to make the Berglunds likable. There are no real heroes here. I went from liking Patty to hating her to liking her to hating her to feeling bad for her to kind of liking her.... and so on. These are deeply flawed characters, capable of evil, vindictive betrayals. The lack of allegiance to each other is shocking. But it makes for a fascinating character study. There's plenty of other stuff sprinkled in - Walter's work for a conservation trust and his goal to reduce overpopulation result in pages of diatribe, but it's all interesting. Freedom is full of drama and tragedy, and Franzen weaves a masterful tale of the conflicts that might destroy the Berglunds forever. Worth the read.

Blythe's Book 42: I See You Everywhere by Julia Glass

I See You Everywhere is the first "grownup" book I've read in a while and I'm really glad I did. This narrative tells the story of two completely disparate sisters-- Louisa, the eldest, is bossy, overly irritable, and determined to have a family and her family's approval; Clem, the youngest, is spirited, magnetic, and often reckless and her passion for wildlife leads her to remote places and unique experiences. Each chapter is told from one of the sisters' perspective, and through this technique, we see their progression from rivals to almost-friends. Supporters, at the least. Their relationship is very complex, further complicated by their overbearing mother's comments and flaws, and the events in the story suggest that we never truly know the people we call family. I saw so many shades of myself in Louisa (and this was not at times an easy pill to swallow), but what came as the biggest of reliefs was that, no matter how irritable she could be, or how unsympathetic or unable to relate Clem could be (not at all like my sister), they still instinctively turned to each other. This is where Glass is her most convincing in her story-- maybe not all women will be able to relate to the strange blend of resentment and friendship that Louisa and Clem have created between themselves, but the message throughout is undeniably universal: when the chips are down, sisters turn to each other. And perhaps even more comforting, when sisters turn to one another, they don't have to think the same way, or react in similar fashion; they just have to be the person they have always been, the person the other expects to see and hear, and that will often be enough.

Blythe's Book 41: Th1rteen R3asons Why by Jay Ahser

I checked this book out from the high school library LAST year, lost it, had to pay like $20 to replace it, and just found it a few weeks ago. And since I'd already spent $20 on a book I was only mildly interested in the first place, I decided I should read it. What a mistake...

Hannah Baker is the new kid in town, and she's full of hope for how wonderful her high school experience will be. However, she quickly realizes how far from perfect high school can be. She makes friends who then turn on her and kisses a boy only to have him spread the information around school, earning her a "reputation." Hannah eventually becomes so mired down in the dramas of high school that she commits suicide. But not until she records 13 tapes (1 per each person who negatively impacted her life) letting everyone know why she killed herself and how they were to blame. These tapes are then delivered to the responsible parties, as well as to the narrator, Clay Jensen, who had a quiet crush on Hannah but never acted on it.

Hannah's message is simple: actions do have effects, and everyone is responsible for their actions. Some of the people she suggests contributed to her suicide don't act, but should have-- and she considers that as much a problem as anything else. I get her point, and I think it's important for teenagers (the intended audience) to a) understand that how you treat others has repercussions, and b) learn to speak up and reach out when those around you are in trouble or in pain... but I also think it's a bit farfetched to suggest that killing yourself over a few pretty mild rumors and some disappointments in the friendship department is anyone's fault but the person who makes the choice to end his/her own life.

People could have helped Hannah, which is what Clay comes to realize-- that he wasn't at fault (Hannah excuses him from blame) but still could have done more-- but ultimately, she made the decision to quit rather than fight, and the whole postmortem accusation seemed overly dramatic and just way too selfish for words. Not my favorite book-- I wish I could get my $20 back.

Blythe's Book 40: The Compound by S.A. Bodeen

Our high school's new literacy coach recently bestowed three copies of each of the winners of this year's Florida Teen Reads Award to each English classroom. Several were quite popular with my students, so I decided to pick them up and give them a whirl. My first pick was easy to make-- The Compound is a blend of postapocalyptic/ dystopian novel, and these are genres I really love. This story is about a family who is forced into an underground bunker when the U.S. is under nuclear attack. Eli is the eldest son, and also the narrator, and his father is a multimillionaire who has prepared for such a day by creating a lavish underground world called the compound, down to having his children trained in specialized fields (hydroponics, farming, butchering) so they can help sustain the family should they ever need to enter the compound. However, when such a day comes, the fallout is unpredictable; there are so many unanticipated glitches in the father's plan that affect the family in myriad ways. At times this book was almost too creepy-- there are definitely some lines the characters have to cross (or at least consider crossing) in order to survive, and much of the plot centers around the kids wrestling with touch choices. It is highly uncomfortable to think about how such a situation might truly play out... but I can totally understand why my students have been grabbing this off the shelf-- it's intriguing, chilling, and a highly imaginative scenario.

Erin's Book #40: The Irresistible Henry House by Lisa Grunwald

I had no idea such things existed, but apparently through the 1960s, there were home ec programs that taught college girls mothering skills using "practice babies", infants borrowed from orphanages.

Henry House (as in "house baby") is one such baby. Arriving at the practice house at just shy of four months old, he is handed off weekly to one of six different "mothers". The practice house is run by Martha Gaines, 48, a stern but lonely woman, still suffering from the loss of her own baby many years before.

Although Martha has helped raise many babies before, Henry awakens inside of her an intense longing. Despite her tough rules encouraging the mothers to teach babies not to expect being picked up every time they cry, she finds herself yearning to hold him all the time.

When Henry's time in the practice house is up, Martha decides she wants to keep Henry as her own son. And she does, raising him in the upstairs of the practice house while practice babies and mothers rotate downstairs.

As Henry grows up, he learns of the truth of his upbringing and grows to intensely despise Martha. As punishment to her, he stops talking when he's 9. For years. By ninth grade, he is sent away to a boarding school for mentally defective teens.

The book stays with him until he's in his twenties and, although he is the main character, my heart broke for poor Martha, the woman whose only desire in life was to love and be loved by Henry. And yet he hated her for the way she smothered him and the lies about his past she told.

It's a fascinating look at practice babies and the way their unusual first years shape them as adults. Another practice baby reappears later in the story, exhibiting the same restlessness, always ready to move on to the next person or place. The characters are vivid and intriguing. I enjoyed it immensely.

Pam's Book 44: Something Missing

When my friend Laurie recommended this book to me, it was with a caveat: Do not read the back of the book first! That said, if you are planning on reading this book, don't read my review. Seriously. This entire post is a spoiler.

Something Missing reminded me a lot of The Good Thief's Guide to Amsterdam, at least at first. Martin is a professional thief, except it takes a few pages before you figure that out. He has regular "clients" from whom he regularly steals items, mostly everyday, mundane items such as canned goods and laundry detergent. He spends months researching his clients before committing, and even then, he only takes what will not be missed (all pre-determined by careful research and investigation). The idea is that they will have no idea a theft is regularly taking place. It sounds improbable at first, that these people would have no idea of this thief lurking in their midst, yet Martin seems to have it all figured out. He follows a strict set of rules and guidelines that all but guarantee his clients will never detect him--until one day, all that changes. Martin, who becomes rather attached to his clients over the years, suddenly develops an altruistic streak.

The book is heartwarming, Martin appealing. You'd think the reader would be creeped out by the idea of a thief regularly entering her house without her knowledge, gaining all sorts of extremely personal knowledge (yes, he reads diaries and emails)--and yet, Martin is irresistible. I was rooting for him the whole time. He is sweet and innocent and undeniably naive. The book has a romance aspect to it, but I don't want to go into that at all in case anybody does want to read this. It's part mystery, part romance, part suspense, pure escapism. Matthew Dicks has this obnoxious way of interrupting climactic moments with flashbacks, which only adds to the suspense. It's annoying, yet without them we wouldn't understand Martin's character, we would not empathize with Martin, and empathizing with Martin is key to the enjoyment of the book. Good recommendation, Laurie!

Erin's Book #39: Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin

I've said before that I enjoy chick lit every now and then. But I do have standards - it has to be decent, not poorly written crap (I'm looking at you, Sophie Kinsella). I grabbed Something Blue at a book sale and then realized it was the sequel to Something Borrowed, so I figured I'd better read this one first.

This definitely qualifies as good chick lit. Giffin takes what could be very standard bad chick lit fare and elevates it to something more. Something Borrowed centers on best friends Rachel and Darcy. Since they were little kids, Darcy has always been the beautiful, perfect, gets-whatever-she-wants type. Rachel has always played second fiddle, giving in to whatever Darcy wants. As they've gotten older, Darcy has become even more selfish and entitled.

On Rachel's thirtieth birthday, she has a little too much to drink and winds up in bed with Darcy's fiance, Dex. Rachel was actually the one to introduce Darcy and Dex, figuring that the gorgeous, smart law student was out of her own league. Well as it turns out, that's not the case. Rachel and Dex fall for each other, while Darcy plans her wedding.

It's a risky move, making the Other Woman the protagonist (the sequel, Something Blue, focuses on Darcy instead). I was conflicted reading it, knowing that Dex is much better with Rachel, but feeling that the whole thing was, well, just wrong. I wasn't quite sure how I wanted it to end. I enjoyed Rachel as a heroine though; her issues and doubts made her easy to relate to and root for. I'm looking forward to reading the follow up.

Erin's Book #38: We Are All Welcome Here by Elizabeth Berg

The backstory to this book, which Berg explains in the introduction, is almost as fascinating as the book itself - a fan wrote Berg, begging her to write a story about her mother. Berg told her that she was a fiction writer, so if she wanted a true story, she should go elsewhere. The woman replied that she wanted Berg to do it, however she wanted. She also included a picture of her mom, which convinced Berg to write it.

As she specified, this is not a true story. But it is inspired by a real woman.

Thirteen-year-old Diana's mother contracted polio while pregnant with her. She gave birth in an iron lung, where she remained for three years. Since then, she has been completely paralyzed. Diana shares caregiving responsibilities with two other women, most notably Peacie, their tough but kind-hearted day worker.

This is a beautiful story of a young girl, coming of age, and her incredible mother. Paige is a tremendous character; Diana says that people often forget that she's paralyzed and that comes across on the page. They are very poor, forced to rely on the money they're given for a night caregiver to instead by groceries, but they have all have a strong bond.

I really really enjoyed this book and have already bought one more by Elizabeth Berg.