Hello dear readers,

My DH (dear husband) was curious how I was able to remember and recount passages from book to include in the review space.  So, in this space I will tell you how I have fell in love with reading on my IPad.  Yes, I too love the feel of a REAL book in my hands and the smell of the ink and smoothness of the cover.  The artistry of putting a book together to reach masses of people is overwhelming to someone like me who knows nothing about the printing industry.  I appreciate the artistry and creativity of it all.  Thank goodness for man's development of the printing press.

Think back to when you read your first ‘chapter book’.  Were you like me in being disappointed that there were just a few pictures?  Sometimes at the beginning of each chapter there were some pictures, but not many.  Then you learned to see what the author was describing by letting your imagination run into the book and picturing the words in your own mind's eye. So, you fell in love with reading all over again!

Weren’t you always taught to wash your hands before picking up a book to read, no eating while reading and horror of horrors – NEVER, NEVER, NEVER write in a book!  I got over the ‘writing in books’ when highlighting text books but generally tried to buy used books that were already highlighted.  While attending Bible studies I learned to write margin notes for things I wanted to remember (watching other people whose Bibles were a mess because they had written and taken notes of things they wanted to remember) but I have never written in a novel or other book read for enjoyment.  Writing my name on the inside flap of a book took me years to overcome the trauma!

Then, along comes the IPad,  fun for games but never for reading a book. Then the library takes 2 weeks to get a book I want, the book store is 45 minutes away or they get the book but the library is 2 miles away… you know the excuses.  So I purchase my first E-book.  While reading I discover quite by accident that if I touch the screen a highlight will appear sometimes turning the whole page pink or purple or blue. Quick – get that color off of there!  Then I leaned this would be useful and I could also write a note making that passage relevant to my thoughts at the time.  So, I go from a person who never went near a book with pen & ink to a blogger who writes all over the book she's reading just so I can make relevant comments that will somehow hold your interest.  

Surely this is a long explanation on how I come up with passages and questions on the books we are reading but if you are using an e-reader, you could also make bookmarks and comments that will bring each book into your book discussion.

Coming soon – the discussion of:  The Shoemaker’s Wife by Adriana Trigiani

Have a wonderful day and happy reading.

Barbara

July is gone and August is upon us

Hello dear Readers,


July is gone and August is upon us so it is time for the August Book of the Month.  This month's selection suggestion came from a golfing buddy who lives in Canada, Stowe and Florida.  She said of this book: 'I can't wait to get home to continue reading this book!'  Here's hoping that it is good!


August 2012 - Book of the Month (BOM)
The House at Sugar Beach 
by Helene Cooper


Keep me in mind if you have other suggestions for future BOM.  I am quite certain that I have selected one for August but am open to suggestions.


Have an awesome day and I'll be back soon with some questions on The Shoemakers Wife.  


Happy Reading,
Barbara

Jumping Jehoshaphat July

Jumping Jehoshaphat - It's July 15th already!

Quick - lets review Half Broke Horses and be done with it.  I am so enjoying the story in The Shoemaker's Wife I don't want to put it down.

So, what do you think about Half Broke Horses?  Personally I think that The Glass Castle was much more poignant and thought provoking.  If you haven't read that yet, give Jeanette Walls another chance and read it in a few months.  I was intrigued after the initial pages of the flood and the families recovery from that but the story never came to much in the way of conclusion or theme to me except as it led in to The Glass Castle which I think stands on it's own much better.  Does any of that make sense to you?  Agree? Disagree?


Here are a few of my favorite quotes from the book and my thoughts on them:


At the end of Part I:  'Sometimes it didn't matter how much gumption you had.  What mattered were the cards you'd been dealt'.  Isn't that the truth about life?  We all experience life in different ways and as I have said in the past - It isn't that you get through something, it's how that makes you a witness to your faith (or morals).


Lily contemplating where her life should go at the push from Mother Albertina:  "Teaching is a calling, too.  And I've always thought that teachers in their way are holy -- angels leading their flocks out of the darkness."  When I read this passage my mind immediately went to Maria, with all her years of leading those preschoolers on a passage away from darkness into the light of knowledge.  Thank you to all those teachers who encouraged us to learn to read so we could enjoy such wonderful literature and stories and jokes, etc.  


Part III:  Lily is getting ready to leave home and her parents can't quite understand her desire to leave the comforts (sic) of home to travel the country.  He father especially doesn't like  the advancements of society. 
'What Dad didn't understand was that no matter how much he hated or feared the future  - it was coming, and there was only one way to deal with it: by climbing aboard.'    Are you a curser or grasper of the future?  Does it scare you?  Are there certain technologies you grasp while discounting others?  Don't you think this is the way humans have reacted to change throughout all time?  


Part V:  This chapter begins the healing after Helen committed suicide.  I liked this paragraph: 'I realized that in the months since Helen had died, I hadn't been paying much attention to things like the sunrise, but that old sun had been coming up anyway.  It didn't really care how I felt, it was going to rise and set regardless of whether I noticed it, and if I was going to enjoy it, that was up to me.'  Personally I think grieving is a process and the time when you finally notice the sun rising, or spring growth in the trees when before all was black is  life changing in its own way.  Goes back to climbing aboard life's adventures.  


I appreciate the times that Lily and her family lived in and gained some perspective on living through the depression out west as opposed to the city stories I have heard from family members.  Please tell me your thoughts on this book and Walls' other books if you have read them.


So in the end - why is the book called Half Broke Horses??  One reviewer says that Rose-Mary is half broke and that is explained in Glass Castle.  


Now, back to The Shoemaker's Wife......


Happy Reading,
Barbara

July Book of the Month - 2012

Hello dear readers,

Summer is here and is there dancing in the street?  Not here but there is golfing with gorgeous views of the mountains and concerts in the meadow!  Wherever you are - enjoy the weather.  Hopefully with so much of the country suffering with over 90 degree days (some of you over 100) we hope you all have AC.  Here in Vermont we are without AC for the next week or so.  We ran into some hot temps back a few weeks and discovered that our 25 year old fan on the 25 year old furnace is not replaceable.  That fan circulates the AC.  In the meantime we are thankful that we haven't exceeded 95 degrees yet and we are thankful for cool evenings and nights.  The sky has be so clear and the stars so beautiful.

I thought of making July a 'Beach Reading' month but maybe that will wait until August - what is your favorite summer reading.  I know Ethel loves to indulge in Janet Evanovich.  Let us know - maybe August will be a selection of easy beach reading.  

July's book of the month will be:

The Shoemaker's Wife by  Adriana Trigiani

As I have said many times before - I do not pre-read any of these books and take the recommendations from many people.  I try not to read the reviews too thoroughly because it spoils the book for me and I want to enjoy it right along with all of you.  

Keep watch in a week or so for the review of Half Broke Horses. 

Happy reading and Happy Fourth of July!  

Barbara

What color is water anyway?

Hello Readers,

Here it is the 11th of June and I am just getting around to my review and questions on The Color of Water.  DH birthday & celebration in Quebec City got in the way.  BTW DH - you may take a vacation from the blog if you want but I know myself too well, if I let go of this for 3 months my aged memory will let go of it forever.  Besides, it is really the only time I sit at my computer leaving my IPad on the sidelines!  All of you may take a break, as I said in the beginning - no pressure!


First off I want to say about The Color of Water, I found it refreshing, true to life, impossibly possible and inspiring.  For me the most poignant  idea is that this book is the way for James McBride to come and really know his mother and her life experiences.  Since I have been working on the stories my own mother has written, fictional and historical, this has struck a chord with me.  Now I have questions to ask her!  James is a lucky man to have his mother available.  The balance of that is that our children do not know our history and experiences.  Will it ever be important to them and will it be too late for us to respond? 


This book covers so many issues of society.  A few of my favorites follow:


When Ruth was having the tryst with Peter - they knew the risk of black & white together and I hesitate to add that in some areas of the country, in any decade,  this would be a hair raising event.  Ruth states: 'I always felt that was about the South, that beneath the smiles and southern hospitality and politeness were a lot of guns and liquor and secrets'.  My hope is that we have come further in this time and then I hear someone using the 'N' word and I cringe and wonder.


When Ruth's grandmother died (since it seems that Ruth was most likely shunned in the family) she was notified:  'we have three rooms worth of furniture.  Do you want it?'   Just like some families with horrible communication that lasts for generations.  Do you think it would be interesting to read this same story from the perspective of Ruth's cousins or aunts?  I think that is really where conflict comes in to play since everyone would have a different perspective on this history.  Just think how you were reared in the same house and have differing opinions about important events.


The McBride children's struggle with their identities led each to his or her own "revolution".   Is it also possible that that same struggle led them to define themselves through professional achievement?


"Our house was a combination three-ring circus and zoo, complete with ongoing action, daring feats, music, and animals." Does Helen leave to escape her chaotic homelife or to escape the mother whose very appearance confuses her about who she is?  Do you think the world would be a better place if we answered those 'hard' questions with 'what color is water'?


While reading the descriptions of the children's hunger, did you wonder why Ruth did not seek out some kind of assistance?  Is knowing hunger how the children had the impetus to fight their way to success?  

In closing I want to add this quote from the author at the end of the 10th anniversary book:

'Hard line intellectuals have already had a field day with this book, using it to promote every sort of sociopolitical ideology.  But at the end of the day, there are some questions that have no answers and then one answer that has no question, love rules the game.  Every time.  That's what counts.'

I say 'Amen' to that.  Thank you all for reading along with me and see you in a bit!

Happy Beach Reading,

Barbara

Hi everyone, This note just came in from Eileen via email. So glad that you picked Half Broke Horses.  I've been wanting to read it since reading The Glass Castle but haven't gotten to it.  I haven't read The Color of Water yet.  Will get to it though.  I seem to always be a month behind for some reason.  I just started The Great Bridge by David McCullough.  We went to the Roebling Museum with Sonshiners the other month and I found it so interesting that I decided to read the book (which I had gotten for Bob many years ago).  So far it's very interesting but not a fast read. I just finished I Never Promised You A Goodie Bag.  I thought it was really good.  Mother didn't like it much.  Also read Unorthodox - that was so interesting and informative re: Haisidic Jews (sp.).  There were so many comparisons with Amish Grace.   I  finally got Defending Jacob.  I enjoyed it.  Mother didn't like the ending.  I can't think of any better way for it to have ended.  Take good care.  :)

Jeez it's Jumpin' June!

Already June is here and the book blog writer is a day late.  I guarantee you that I do much worse with birthday cards & gifts!

The Book of the Month for June is:


Half Broke Horses by Jeanette Walls.  Some of you will recognize the author of Glass Castle.  I highly recommend Glass Castle to everyone.  It was not only a story of family but the complete leniency and opposite of the 'helicopter parents' of today. If you read those books I am sure you could classify both as being child abusive.

I am halfway through Half Broke Horses so I won't give away any of that book at this point.

A review of The Color of Water will be forthcoming in the next week.  I know that Murray Rider abandoned us for the month of May. He is so busy with golfing and working and .....  I do have so much to say about the last two books but with golf and quilting and....   Is anyone else out there?  I know Maria queried whether I had blogged in a while therefore --- here I am!  If anyone has book suggestions please post them.   We all know how life can get busy so in the meantime, happy reading.

Have an awesome day,
Barbara