It's Monday 4/20! What Are You Reading?

The weather this weekend was gorgeous (finally!), but now it's a dark, gray, rainy Monday - makes me want to crawl back into bed with a good book!

I had a very busy week last week, with almost no time at all for writing, so I need to rectify that this week. We always make time for reading, though! Here's what we read last week:

• I finished And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini, a very powerful novel. It's about a brother and sister in Afghanistan who are separated as children, and it is just as good as his first two novels. It's a very compelling and well-written story. Unfortunately, I realized I had the dates wrong and won't be able to go to my book group's discussion of it next week.
• Now I am reading Fram by Steve Himmer, a novel that is one of the selections for the Booktopia event I am attending next week in Vermont, hosted by my favorite podcast, Books on the Nightstand. My mother and I were wait-listed for months and just got into the event last week, so I am very excited! The book is unusual so far but intriguing, and I can't wait to meet the author next week!
• I finished listening to Fish in a Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt, a middle-grade audiobook about a girl named Ally who struggles because she doesn't fit in and is guarding a secret. It was excellent and a great way to bring attention to a serious and often-overlooked learning disability.
• I haven't started it yet, but I will upload my next audio book to my iPod today: Rainey Royal by Dylan Landis. This is one of the authors who will be at Booktopia next week, so I am excited to listen to the book and discuss it with the author!
• I also started a new graphic novel, Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli. It is interesting so far, with a unique drawing style.
• My husband, Ken, is reading Life After Life by Kate Atkinson, which thrilled me to no end since it is one of my favorites! I think he stayed up late last night to finish it - I can't wait to talk to him about it!
• Jamie, 20, started Mountain Man by Keith C. Blackmore, a book his dad lent him, to continue his Zombie obsession, now that he has finished what he needed to read of The Iliad for his World History class.
• Craig, 17, is reading The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald for his American Literature class, using my old copy from high school filled with my scribbled notes which he says is "just like the Half-Blood Prince!" He says it's pretty good so far, which is high praise from someone who claims not to like reading anymore.

Just one review last week, plus a couple of posts on the weekend - I need to catch up on reviews:

Review of The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Saturday Snapshot - spring has finally arrived in Delaware!

Weekend Cooking - Cookbook Review of Everyday Paleo

What are you and your family reading this week?    

What Are You Reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey, with a kid/teen version hosted by Unleashing Readers.  

 

Weekend Cooking 4/19: Cookbook Review - Everyday Paleo

Each weekend, Beth Fish Reads hosts Weekend Cooking.  This is perfect for me since I love food and cooking almost as much as I love books!

Last week, my husband and I took a spring break camping trip to the beach, two hours south of here. Unfortunately, it was in the low 40's and raining the whole time! The good news is that it was perfect weather for bookstore browsing (and visiting some of our favorite restaurants, too). We spent a pleasant (and warm and dry) couple of hours at our favorite bookstore.

I found a new cookbook while we were there, Everyday Paleo by Sarah Fragoso. My older son and I switched to a Paleo diet about a year ago for medical reasons (we both have an immune disorder, and it is supposed to be good for reducing inflammation and immune problems). It's really not quite as strange as it may sound to the uninitiated - the focus is on fresh, whole foods, nothing processed, lots of veggies and fruit, no grains or dairy (we are intolerant to dairy anyway), and only natural sugars.

I tried 4 recipes from the new cookbook last week, and they were all very good! (Please excuse the pictures of pictures here - they are snapshots of the beautiful photos in the cookbook. I always forget to take photos after I cook something - I just want to eat!)

From Everyday Paleo - Pork Pot Roast

Sunday, with my college son, father-in-law, and my younger son's girlfriend all here for dinner, I made a nice big crockpot meal, Perfect Pork Pot Roast. My family loves pork roast and loves traditional pot roast, so this seemed like a good choice for a Sunday dinner. Here is a version of the recipe from the author's website (though a bit different than the one in the cookbook). I had my doubts about the recipe, just because I wouldn't normally include tomatoes with a pork roast, but it turned out delicious! I added a few more veggies (as usual!)--some turnips, extra carrots, and a few red potatoes (strict Paleo doesn't include potatoes but medically, we are allowed red-skinned potatoes once a week). Everyone loved it! In fact, I planned on it for two meals, and the crockpot was full to the very top, but I had to add extra veggies the next day for our left-over dinner. Even more amazing, just yesterday - almost a week later - my 17-year old son said, "You know that pork roast you made last weekend? That was really good. I especially liked the sauce." Wow, definitely a keeper! (the boy and the recipe).

From Everyday Paleo - Pecan-Crusted Chicken

During the week, I made Pecan-Crusted Chicken, the first dinner recipe in the cookbook and the first one that caught my eye at the bookstore. It was very simple, dipping chicken breasts in a brown mustard-honey mixture, then in crushed pecans, and baking them in the oven. I served it with two vegetables on the side. Everyone enjoyed it, including my son, and my husband said it was his favorite of the new recipes we tried this week.

From Everyday Paleo - Puerto Rican Beef

My favorite recipe of the week was Puerto Rican Beef, a flavorful mix of veggies and ground beef with a fabulous blend of spices served over mashed sweet potatoes. Again, here is a recipe from the author's website that is very close to what is in the cookbook. My son didn't really like this one, and my husband said he would prefer it with less kale (I used a whole bunch, as indicated in the recipe but would cut it back a bit next time) and without the sweet potatoes. As for me, I LOVED it! The mix of vibrant flavors was delicious, and I thoroughly enjoyed eating the leftovers for lunch the next day.

Today, Sunday again with a crowd coming for dinner, I am making another crockpot meal, Mexican Slow Cooker Stew. As usual, I added some extra veggies--this recipe really didn't have any vegetables other than onion and diced chiles, so I also chopped a red bell pepper and some carrots and added them to the crockpot, too. I also used diced chipotle peppers in adobe sauce in place of the chipotle powder called for in the recipe. It's cooking now, so I'll let you know next week how it comes out, but it sure smells good! Chipotle is one of my favorite flavors, so what's not to like?

Bottom line is that we are enjoying this cookbook so far. Overall, the recipes are enticing and easy-to-follow. I am enjoying the new flavors and meals; often, with Paleo, we just eat some sort of meat or fish with two veggie sides, which my son says is boring! I think it is a nice companion to my other Paleo cookbook, Against All Grain, which we tend to use more for baked goods, goodies, and sides. Everyday Paleo has lots of great main dish recipes which is just what I was looking for. It also has sections in the front introducing the Paleo diet and in the back on meal planning and exercise. The layout is easy to use, and I especially like the first page of every chapter that shows a small photo of each recipe, which makes it easy to find what you are looking for. My only complaint is the same one I have for almost every cookbook: why on earth are cookbooks not all spiral-bound so they will lay flat?? Trying to keep a cookbook open to the recipe you are making is nearly impossible. Are you listening publishers?

Overall, I am very happy with Everyday Paleo so far and think we will use it a lot - there are still plenty of recipes in it that I want to try!

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

Saturday Snapshot 4/18

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads.

Spring has finally come to Delaware! Thank goodness. Everything began bursting into bloom this week:

My neighbor's flowers - I love blue flowers1

Finally, some green in the trees!

A neighbor's daffodils & flowering tree

My favorite - forsythia - love that bright pop of yellow!

Our forsythia with my neighbor's tree in the background

Crocuses

Hope you are enjoying this lovely weekend!

Fiction Review: The Shadow of the Wind

I read The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon for the first time about 5 years ago for one of my book groups. I didn’t love it and was surprised by how much other group members enjoyed it. Since then, I have heard so many rave reviews and so many people who rate it as one of their favorite books that I decided to give it another try last month when my neighborhood book group chose it. I’m glad I gave it a second chance because I really enjoyed the very bookish, clever, story-within-a-story this time.

The novel begins in Barcelona in 1945 when 10-year old Daniel is taken by his father, a bookseller, to a mysterious place called the Cemetery of Forgotten Books. He tells Daniel that the place is a secret and allows him to choose one book from among its thousands and thousands of shelves in twisting galleries. Daniel chooses a book at random that will end up changing his life dramatically. It’s a novel called The Shadow of the Wind by an obscure author named Julian Carax. That night, Daniel compulsively reads the compelling novel from beginning to end, with the rapture that any book-lover will recognize.

Daniel’s father has never heard of the book or author before, so he introduces Daniel to a fellow bookseller who is quite impressed by Daniel’s find. Daniel can tell that it’s a rare and valuable book and knows that he must protect it and keep it close. From there, the story slowly unfolds, adding new characters and new, unexpected aspects to the story. In Daniel’s words, as he is reading his own The Shadow of the Wind:

As it unfolded, the structure of the story began to remind me of one of those Russian dolls that contain innumerable ever-smaller dolls within. Step by step the narrative split into a thousand stories, as if it had entered a gallery of mirrors, its identity fragmented into endless reflections.

In the first of many parallels between the real novel I read and the fictional novel at the center of the story, its complex plot unfolds in much the same way.

Daniel’s story continues in the 1940’s, as he feels compelled to investigate the novel and its mysterious author, while it becomes clear that someone wants to destroy it. At the same time, the reader also begins to learn of Julian Carax’s (the author) own tragic life story years earlier, beginning when he was a child much like Daniel in Barcelona. History is woven in with the Spanish Civil War and the repercussions of that which continue to Daniel’s time.

It’s all a deliciously convoluted story within a story within a story, filled with mystery and suspense, romance, history, and drama. For mystery lovers, there is plenty here to sink your teeth into, as Daniel investigates what became of Julian Carax and his childhood friends and who wants to destroy the author’s works, with lots of red herrings along the way to keep things interesting. All of this is set against the backdrop of Barcelona, described with rich language in a way that makes you feel as if you are right there with Daniel, walking its twisty streets.

The Shadow of the Wind is one of those books where a lot of different threads all eventually come together, like a rich tapestry whose pattern you can’t discern while it’s being woven. I like clever books like that, and I came to care about Daniel and his friends. It’s a beautifully written, compelling story set in a place and time that the author brings fully to life on the page, a book that is perfect for book lovers.

486 pages, Penguin Books

It's Monday 4/13! What Are You Reading?

Monday morning...and it finally feels like spring here!!  Ahhh... Last week was just miserable weather - low 40's and rainy - and we were camping! Spring finally arrived this weekend, thank goodness. Since my husband and I were on vacation last week, we got a lot of reading done:

• I finished The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey by Walter Mosley, which is our All-County Reads book this spring. It is a compelling novel about a 91-year old man who recovers his memory and sharp thinking for a short time. Wow, what an emotionally powerful, thought-provoking novel. The characters and the story have really stuck with me. I can't wait to hear Mosley talk this week!
• I am now reading And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini, another powerful novel. It's about a brother and sister in Afghanistan who are separated as children, and it is just as good as his first two novels. It's a very compelling and well-written story.
• I am still listening to Fish in a Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt, a middle-grade audiobook about a girl named Ally who struggles because she doesn't fit in and is guarding a secret. It's been excellent so far...but what is wrong with all these teachers?
• My husband, Ken, is reading Life After Life by Kate Atkinson, which thrilled me to no end since it is one of my favorites! While we are reading at night, he keeps looking over at me and saying, "She died again." I think he's enjoying it.
• Jamie, 20, had to set fun reading aside last week to finish reading The Iliad for his World History class.
• Craig, 17, is reading The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald for his American Literature class, using my old copy from high school filled with my scribbled notes which he says is "just like the Half-Blood Prince!" He says it's pretty good so far, which is high praise from someone who claims not to like reading anymore.

 I was offline most of last week but squeezed in a few blog posts when I got home:

Coming Soon: Favorite Books on the Big Screen, a reprint of my book column for Vital! magazine

Summary of Books Read in March

Saturday Snapshot, with photos of our cold visit to the beach!

Weekend Cooking, with our Ukrainian Easter dinner plus two simple dinner recipes

What are you and your family reading this week?    

What Are You Reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey, with a kid/teen version hosted by Unleashing Readers. 

NOTE For What Are You Reading Monday followers and fans: Sheila suffered from an unthinkable loss Easter weekend when her son was killed in a car accident. She posted a brief update on her blog at the above link. My thoughts and prayers are with her family during this very challenging time.

Weekend Cooking 4/12

Each weekend, Beth Fish Reads hosts Weekend Cooking.  This is perfect for me since I love food and cooking almost as much as I love books!

Our meals this week featured a lot of Easter left-overs! I made or bought most of the dishes for a traditional Ukrainian Easter feast, including holubtsi (cabbage rolls), pierogies (both potato and sauerkraut), ham, Polish sausage, a beet and horseradish relish, dyed eggs, green beans (I added those to the traditional foods for a bit of veggies for the kids!), and Paska (traditional Ukrainian Easter bread, also known as babka in Poland). I was quite proud of myself for making the holubtsi on my own - you can see in the photo that it and the beet-horseradish relish are based on old family recipes that I have scribbled on scraps of paper! It was all delicious and just as good left-over.

We also went camping this weekend, just my husband and I, as our sons spent their spring breaks in North Captiva Island, FL, and the Bahamas (what's wrong with this picture? ha ha). It ended up rainy and very cold for much of our camping trip, so we ate some of our meals in town, in restaurants. We did have to get creative one night, when I had all the ingredients for our favorite camping meal - foil dinner - but it was raining too hard to have a campfire. So, I improvised and re-made the meal on the stovetop in our little pop-up camper (see very simple recipe below). It tasted just as good!

My husband and I returned home, and I had the challenge of creating a dinner out of what was in our fridge after 4 days away. I used an old magazine recipe for Wild Salmon with Spinach, Tomatoes, and Olives, and it was absolutely wonderful! It was quite simple, too. The recipe called for sauteing cherry tomatoes and kalamata olives in a skillet, then adding spinach to wilt. We didn't have cherry tomatoes, but I subbed the one fresh tomato we had plus a little canned, chopped tomatoes, and it turned out just fine. Then, I seared the salmon in a hot cast iron skillet and served it over the spinach, tomato, olive mixture.  I made steamed carrots and parsnips with a honey-butter glaze on the side.The meal was delicious, and we can't wait to try it again this summer with fresh cherry tomatoes from our CSA farm.

Finally, I used the last of the leftover ham last night in one of our family favorites, Hoppin' John. Even my son's picky eater friend enjoyed it!

It almost seemed silly to write down such a simple recipe, but here's our Stovetop version of our favorite campfire meal (to make it over a campfire or in a very hot oven, just wrap all the ingredients in heavy-duty foil (no pre-cooking necessary) and cook over hot coals or in the oven for about 40 minutes, flipping it once).

Foil Camping Dinner on the Stovetop

(Serves 4)

An indoor version of our favorite camping meal

4 small to medium red potatoes, chopped into 1-inch chunks (or enough for 4 people)

4 medium-sized carrots, sliced (or enough for 4 people)

2 tsp olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

1 bell pepper, chopped

1 pound lean ground beef (grass-fed, organic if you are eating Paleo)

sea salt & pepper to taste

(NOTE: Our medical diet allows red potatoes once a week, but if you are eating strict Paleo, you can substitute turnips)

1. Add potatoes and carrots to a saucepan with enough water to just cover the vegetables. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until fork-tender.
2. In a large skillet, sauté onion and bell pepper in olive oil until soft. Add ground beef to skillet and sauté until brown.
3. When carrots and potatoes are cooked, drain them and add to the skillet. Add salt and pepper to taste. 

© Suzan L. Jackson 2015

(Do not reprint or publish without written permission from the author)

Saturday Snapshot 4/11

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads.

Our sons spent their spring breaks on North Captiva Island and the Bahamas! Nice life if you can get it - ha ha. My husband and I drove two hours south and spent a few days camping at the beach - not nearly far enough south, apparently, as it was in the low 40's and raining most of the time! But we still had fun and managed to capture some of the beauty of the beach state park before the weather got TOO bad:

Cape Henlopen State Park shoreline, Delaware

Path to the beach

Cape Henlopen shoreline

Shells and water-worn rocks

Cape Henlopen lighthouse

Later in the week - we've never seen the ocean this rough!

Hope you are enjoying a wonderful weekend! The sun is finally out here!

Books Read in March

March was unusual here in that it was more winter than spring. It was also an unusual reading month for me because I spent more than two weeks working on a book that I never finished! But I fit in lots of audio books and a few shorter books as well.

• The Conspiracy of Us by Maggie Hall, a teen/YA audiobook (MN)
• The Danger Box by Blue Balliett, a middle-grade novel (MI)
• Personal History by Katharine Graham, an autobiography (DNF) (D.C.)

• The Law of Loving Others by Kate Axelrod, a teen/YA audiobook (NY)
• Finding the Worm by Mark Goldblatt, a middle-grade audiobook (NY)
• Here by Richard McGuire, a unique graphic novel

• Mosquitoland by David Arnold, a teen/YA audiobook (MS)

That's seven books total - not bad for spending so much time on one book. I read just wo adult books, one graphic novel and one nonfiction. I listened to four audiobooks (!), three for teens/YA and one for middle-graders, and I read one middle-grade novel. Interestingly, my two favorite books last month were the middle-grade novels. Both were excellent, though I think that Finding the Worm was my favorite. Then again, Mosquitoland was really good, too!

Update on 2015 Reading Challenges:

I added five new states this month to my 2015 Where Are You Reading Challenge. I added just one book to my Mount TBR Reading Challenge 2015 - really need to read more off my shelves! I listened to four more audio books for my 2015 Audio Book Challenge, and added one more book to my 2015 Nonfiction Reading Challenge. No classics last month or anything new for the  Travel the World in Books Challenge.

What was your favorite book(s) read in March? 

Coming Soon: Favorite Books on the Big Screen

(This article is reprinted from my monthly book column in Vital! magazine)

Hollywood’s trend of making movies from books shows no sign of slowing down. In fact, there will be over 40 movies released in 2015 adapted from books! From classics to recent hits, novels to nonfiction, the movie theaters will be filled with bookish films all year. A few have already been released, like American Sniper and Still Alice, but there are plenty more to come – and you still have time to read the books before the movies come out!  Here are some of the highlights, listed by release date:

The Longest Ride by Nicholas Sparks – Sparks fans will be excited to see this novel about two intertwined love stories set in North Carolina – April 10

Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith – This 2008 thriller about children being murdered in the Soviet Union is the first book in a trilogy – April 17

Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy – The classic tale of a woman juggling three suitors – May 1

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes – A heart-breaking love story from the very popular 2012 novel about a young woman and the paralyzed man she cares for – August 21

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert – Popular classic novel about a farm girl intent on escaping to a life in high society – TBA but aiming for summer

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer (movie will be titled Everest)– Uber-popular 90’s nonfiction book about a harrowing Everest climb, with an all-star cast including Jake Gyllenhaal, Keira Knightley, and Josh Brolin – September 18

The Martian by Andy Weir – Last year’s Gravity meets McGyver sci fi hit about an astronaut left alone on Mars hits the big screen with Matt Damon in the lead role – November 25

In the Heart of the Sea by Nathanial Philbrick – Sure to be a hit with Ron Howard at the helm of this adaptation of the nonfiction book about the Essex whaleship – December 11

Dark Places by Gillian Flynn – Fans of the novel and movie Gone Girl will be excited to see another Flynn novel in the theaters, starring Charlize Theron – TBA

The Light BetweenOceans by M.L. Stedman – Popular 2012 novel about a childless couple living in a lighthouse and the baby they find – TBA

Room by Emma Donahue – Stunning 2010 novel about a mother and son being held captive in a small room – TBA

See you in the theaters!

(This article is reprinted from my monthly book column in Vital!, The magazine for Active Older Adults, available free in public places like libraries and drugstores in Delaware, North Carolina, and South Carolina.)

The last two are the movies I most want to see - and the only books on this list I've already read, though I do have The Martian, Dark Places, and In the Heart of the Sea waiting on my shelf. Which move adaptations are you excited to see this year?

It's Monday 4/6! What Are You Reading?

I'm actually writing this on Sunday night because my husband and I are going camping at the beach for a few days this week for a mini spring break. Our college son just returned from a week on North Captiva Island, Florida, today, and our 17-year old son flew to the Bahamas this morning with his girlfirend's family! Yup, they are both livin' the high life, while we drive 2 hours to the beach with our camper. What happened?

Anyway, we had a nice two-day Easter celebration (Saturday with one son and Sunday with the other) and are stuffed full of delicious Ukrainian food...though I was very nostalgic for the Easters of my childhood, with our whole extended family together for the traditional feast. Time moves on!

We all enjoyed some good books this past week:

• I finished The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon for my neighborhood book group (well, I finished it the next day but got past all the plot surprises!). This was my second time reading it, and I enjoyed it much more this time - it's a fun, twisty story within a story set in Barcelona and perfect for book lovers. Everyone in the group enjoyed it.
• I also finished Relish: My Life in the Kitchen by Lucy Knisley, a graphic novel. It's a combination memoir and cookbook, all told with a wonderful sense of joie de vivre - right up my alley! I really enjoyed it.
• Now, I am reading The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey by Walter Mosley, which is our All-County Reads book this spring. It is a compelling novel about a 91-year old man who recovers his memory and sharp thinking for a short time. It pulled me right in, and I can hardly stand to set it down. I can't wait to hear the author talk in two weeks!
• I finished listening to Mosquitoland by David Arnold, a teen/YA novel about a quirky teen girl named Mim who takes an impulsive road trip from Mississippi to Ohio to visit her mom. It's a little confusing at times (one reviewer described Mim's narrative as kaleidoscopic!) but absolutely captivating and filled with interesting characters. I really enjoyed it.
• Now, I am listening to Fish in a Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt, a middle-grade audiobook about a girl named Ally who struggles because she doesn't fit in and is guarding a secret. It's been excellent so far.
• My husband, Ken, finished First Wave by J. T. Sawyer, a post-apocalyptic novel, on his Kindle.
• Now, Ken is reading Life After Life by Kate Atkinson, which thrilled me to no end since it is one of my favorites! I hope he likes it as much as I did. While we are reading at night, he keeps looking over at me and saying, "She died again."
• Jamie, 20, just finished Shadow of the Winter King by Erik Scott de Vie, Book 1 of World of Ruin series, a book that we gave him for Christmas. I asked him if he liked it, and he said he's already looked up the upcoming sequel!
• Now, Jamie is starting Mountain Man by Keith C. Blackmore, a book his dad lent him, to continue his Zombie obsession! But first, he has to read The Iliad for his World History class.
• Craig, 17, is reading The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald for his American Literature class, using my old copy from high school filled with my scribbled notes which he says is "just like the Half-Blood Prince!" He says it's pretty good so far, which is high praise from someone who claims not to like reading anymore.

Blog posts last week:

Review of Personal History, an autobiography by Katharine Graham

My Essay Published on Mamalode - "While They Are Sleeping," about checking on my sons while they slept when they were younger.

Review of Finding the Worm by Mark Goldblatt, a middle-grade audiobook

Saturday Snapshot - still suffering seasonal confusion here, but I am ready for spring!

What are you and your family reading this week?    

What Are You Reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey, with a kid/teen version hosted by Unleashing Readers. 

Happy Easter! We celebrated for two days!

Saturday Snapshot 4/4

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads.


Happy Easter (almost). We are actually celebrating today because our college son is off in Florida for spring break and our high school son leaves tomorrow morning for the Bahamas with his girl friend's family! Lucky boys! So, we are having an early Easter dinner today and left-overs tomorrow.


Just a few pics from this week because it was super busy - we have still not seen much evidence of spring here!

Snowdrops are still the only sign of spring here!

Yes, more snow! Huge fluffy flakes last Saturday night.

I don't care what the weather is like - I am declaring it spring!

Some of our Ukrainian specialties - ready for Easter dinner!

 Enjoy the weekend and have a lovely Passover or Easter!

Middle-Grade Review: Finding the Worm

Although I didn’t realize it when I started listening, Finding the Worm by Mark Goldblatt is apparently the sequel to his acclaimed middle-grade novel, Twerp. It didn’t really matter that this was a second book and I hadn’t read the first; it stood on its own just fine. Better than fine, in fact – I found it realistic, engaging, and moving.

Julian Twerski – and his group of neighborhood friends – is now twelve years old and in seventh grade in Brooklyn in 1970. The gang is still much the same but things around them are changing in unforeseen ways. The boys are all turning thirteen this year and having their bar mitzvahs. Beverly, who also lives on the block, keeps pestering Julian to race her, and he feels weird when he is around her. Julian is in trouble at school again – this time, for something he didn’t do. He’s been accused of vandalizing a painting in school, and even though he insists he didn’t do it, the principal wants him to write an essay on good citizenship. When Julian turns in a page of 200 “no”s instead, the battle is on.

All of that pales in comparison, though, to the friends’ biggest challenge – one of their own, Quentin, has cancer. Seeing their buddy lying helplessly in a hospital bed changes everything. As the school year progresses, Julian continues to turn in mocking essays, Beverly continues to insist on racing him, and the friends do their best to help Quentin however they can. All of this gives Julian a lot to think about, and besides talking to his rabbi during his bar mitzvah preparation meetings, he also turns again to his journal to try to figure things out.

I loved this very realistic audiobook about friendship and growing up. The setting in 1970 Brooklyn was perfect, with the ragtag group of friends – who originally came together just by virtue of living on the same block – reminding me of the original Sandlot movie (an old favorite at our house). The audio was well done, with a believable narrator who brought me back to those middle-school days, when small conflicts felt like major tragedies. However, with Quentin’s cancer at the heart of the novel, the story also has great emotional depth; it is incredibly moving and heartfelt, while also keeping a sense of humor. All around, this is an engrossing, warm novel with real-life emotion.

Listening Library

Listen to an audio sample at the below link:

     

New Essay on Mamalode Today!

My essay, While They Are Sleeping, is featured today on the home page of the Mamalode website (and will be available all month).

This is an older one that I wrote many years ago, back when our sons were just 6 and 3 years old, about checking on them while they slept each night before going to bed myself. It's something that I think any parent can relate to and makes me feel quite nostalgic, since my "boys" are now 20 and 17 and tower over me!

I hope you enjoy the essay - please share it with your friends!

Nonfiction Review: Personal History

One of my book groups recently chose Katharine Graham’s autobiography, Personal History. I don’t normally write a review of a book that I haven’t finished, but I spent almost three weeks reading through page 405 of this hefty tome, so I think I got a good perspective on both its positive characteristics and its flaws.

In case you aren’t familiar with her, Katharine Graham was the renowned owner of The Washington Post for many decades. Having inherited it from her father and her husband, Katharine took over the job of publisher of what became one of the nation’s top newspapers at a time when it was very rare for women to even be involved in business at all, let alone in such a powerful position. However, as an autobiography, Personal History covers her entire life, not just her time with The Washington Post.

In fact, the book begins well before her birth, with background and histories of both her mother’s and father’s sides of the family, going back many generations. Her father’s family was Jewish, with roots in France, while her mother’s family was Lutheran, originally from Germany. Their interfaith marriage was unusual for the time, but her parents were prosperous and popular public figures, first in New York state and later in Washington, DC, as her father became more involved with politics. Katharine had a privileged childhood, surrounded by wealth and opportunity, with her family splitting their time between multiple huge houses in the city and the country.

When Graham’s father first purchased The Washington Post, it was the smallest and least profitable of 5 major newspapers in the DC area, but he was determined to make it successful. Under first his leadership, then that of Katharine’s husband, Phil Graham, and finally, with Katharine herself at the helm, the family newspaper eventually became the top-notch, respected newspaper that it is today. Along the way, Katharine experienced a fair amount of tragedy in her life as well, including the death of her husband.

At 625 pages, Personal History is a very long book but also a very dense book, packed full of details, names, dates, and other minutiae. Despite its title, it is far more than just a personal history of Katharine’s life but also a chronicle of her family history, a detailed history of The Washington Post (and the family also owned Newsweek), and an intricate insider’s view of politics from the 1920’s through the 1980’s.

For my taste, there was just too much packed into one book. While I found much of it interesting, it was a very slow read, and I would have preferred more personal and less business. The best part of the book was when she wrote about her husband’s illness and eventual death because those sections were imbued with an emotion that was often lacking from the rest of the book. I’m not a fan of celebrity memoirs/autobiographies to begin with – I’d rather read about “regular” people – and the constant name-dropping in this book was tiresome to me. Finally, the book could have used a good editor to help cull and shorten it a bit to highlight the best of it. I had to wonder whether her editor was afraid to suggest too many changes to such a high-ranking, renowned journalist/publisher!

Not everyone agrees with me. For instance, the Pulitzer committee must have thought highly of Personal History because it won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography/Autobiography in 1998. Although I wasn’t able to attend our book group discussion, I heard that ratings on our 10-point scale ranged from 3 to 9.5! Most readers in our group agreed the writing wasn’t great but some felt the fascinating content outweighed that.

This book is fascinating, in many respects. Besides Katharine’s personal life story, you can see the entire history of modern politics in this book. The Grahams were very close to several U.S. Presidents, and that inside view is interesting – being in the hotel room when Jack Kennedy decided on his running mate at the Democratic National Convention, being whisked off to Lyndon Johnson’s Texas ranch for an impromptu weekend, etc. And, of course, The Washington Post was instrumental in breaking the news of Watergate. Katharine’s story also presents an interesting view of the changing role of women from the 1950’s to the present day.

All in all, I learned a lot reading (65% of) this book and found some of it very interesting; however, it was dense and overcrowded with details and not an easy read. I enjoyed it enough to spend a few weeks on it for my book group…but not enough to spend another couple of weeks finishing it! If you have a particular interest in U.S. politics, journalism, or the role of women in the workplace, then you will probably like this book more than if you are just looking for an interesting read.

625 pages, Alfred A. Knopf