So, what else have I been reading?

So just like almost everyone else on the planet, I loved Katherine Stockett's novel The Help. The story, in case you haven't heard, takes place in the deep south, pre-civil rights Mississippi to be exact. It is about a young, white woman who wants to evaluate the society around her through a different lens, through the eyes of the "help". In this book, Skeeter assists Abilene, Minny and other black maids working for white families and raising white children, put their experiences into words. I really enjoy works of fiction that allow you to step out of yourself and see life through a completely different lens. This book helped me relate to the characters of Abileen and Minny, in particular, in ways that I had previously not experienced. This makes for a great book club discussion and I would highly recommend this book to all. If you haven't read it, what are you waiting for?

Band of Angels

This was our recent book club selection. I'm trying to step back and let the other ladies lead a little more, after all, the point of a book club is reading a book that you normally wouldn't. This was one of those books.

It was an interesting book written about a time and place that I know very little about. War is a terrible thing, but imagining what war must have been like in the in the mid 1800's. Part of this book is based on a true story. The Crimean war was a horrible and costly conflict. The British lost thousands to typhus and malaria alone. British outcry over the treatment of soldiers in the Crimea finally brought enough pressure to bear that Florence Nightingale was given permission to take 30 nurses to help to the hospital in Scutari. This is one nurse's story. For those of you interested in this sort of thing, you can read more about the actual history behind the story here

All the fascinating history aside, this book is basically a love story. The love story aspect was refreshing for the time period in which it is based. The female lead, Catherine, is actually an extremely strong character who does what she feels she must, in spite of her lovers thoughts and objections.

I'm glad I read the book, but would only give it a three out of five stars. It's not a must..... but I did feel like I learned something. I went into it thinking it was a glorified romance novel and it was much more than that!

Very exciting about my summer reading! Now I am working on the Infinity Tower by Sara Douglass who I adore! If you like fantasy, the Wayfarer Redemption is a great book. Then perhaps the Overton Window, The Passage, The Lion's Game and more. The library and my Nook are full of endless possibilities and I have some catching up to do.

My fifth graders gave me a gift card to Borders. Those children are geniuses!

The Greatest Magazine - EVER.

Usually I am not a person who reads magazines. I find them frivilous and bad for the environment to boot, but recently a friend turned me on to a magazine that is simply a MUST for book lovers everywhere. It's called Bookmarks and it is just amazing. They do book reviews, cultural articles, history, bookclub reviews and so much more.

Every book that you have ever considered reading has probably been reviewed in this magazine. It is a collection of articles specifically for book lovers. I love my subscription so much that I back ordered many of their catalogs. I know I will wait with baited breath every two months and when my bookmarks finally comes, I will be like a kid on Christmas morning. If you love good books, do yourself a favor... visit Bookmarks Magazine and check it out. You will be glad that you did.

The Mighty Queens of Freeville

This was our book club selection for the month of May. We wanted to do something with a mother -daughter theme. This is the true story of Amy Dickinson and her daughter, Emily. Amy Dickinson is the advice columnist who eventually replaced Ann Landers.

This is a quirky, funny and sometimes sad look at their life from the perspective of some years. I found the relationships between mother and daughter, but also between the two of them and the women of their extended family to be very uplifting. These relationships were uplifting, humorous, supportive, and loving - everything that women should be for one another.

Her opinion of men was slightly flawed by the relationships in her own life. Although in the end, she has a healthy perspective on the traumas and occasionally the disappointments of her own life. I like her ideas on "failing up" - bad things happen to open us up for something better. That is something that I have experienced for my own self and honestly, I think everyone probably has.

I was glad that we chose this for our bookclub and I enjoyed reading it.

Little Bee

I was about to say that these were the most laborious two hundred pages that I have ever read, but then, I was unfortunately reminded that I read the Life of Pi. The two can not be compared, Little Bee had some characters that were very human and empathetic and a life lesson buried somewhere in the wondering story line.

So before I get to what I did like, let me get what I didn't like out of the way. For only two hundred pages, the book feels so much longer. It seemed to go on FOREVER and the story just sort of meanders from one character to the next until the very end. As I was reading, I felt like huge gaps of the story were left out, and I was right. It comes together at the end, but for those readers who feel like they need to be "into" a book to continue, you simply may never get there. The story takes too long to develop.

Little Bee was difficult for me to relate to for most of the book. Her life is something that is difficult for me to empathize with, and her constant search for a way to commit suicide simply unfathomable. Still, perhaps if I had endured all that she had, I would feel that same way. I just don't know.

Sarah was also very difficult in some cases to relate to. She loves her husband, she doesn't, and then she loves him again. She asks herself the hard questions but never really answers until the end, where it seems like she rises to the occasion.

There are some moments of humor between Sarah and Batman that I found extremely endearing.

Ok so that said, I loved the character of Batman. Like any child, his view of life is very simple, "Are you a goody or a baddy?" Sometimes I wish it were that easy. I loved the authors point of how, when we are children we want to do the right things, we want to make the world a better place. He asks a question of do we lose that along the way or is it a compromise that we make? I don't know, but it's a question that I am trying to answer in my own life.

I think it will make a good discussion for book club. I'm glad to be moving on. Up next, " Columbine", "Codetalkers", "Each Little Bird that Sings" and the "Postmistress." Not necessarily in that order.