I gave in.

I wasn’t going to do it.  At least not until I read a bunch of other stuff I already owned, but on a whim (and because Jill put up a link on facebook), I bought Confessions of a Scary Mommy for my Nook.

I read it in less than 48 hours.

I was afraid it would be pretty much just like reading Jill’s blog.  And it was.  But it was a good thing.

Ok, Ok…let me back up.  I suppose there are people who wander over here who are not blog readers…or at least not “Mommy Blog” readers.

Jill is the author of the widely popular blog, Scary Mommy.  She is known for her raw honesty about motherhood–something I totally respect.  She is not afraid to say the things that no one else will…

…that even though we may love our children, we don’t always like them.

…that being a mom isn’t all dreamy loveliness.  It’s hard.  And it’s filled with both pride and heartbreak.

…that sometimes the people we love the most in our life drive us the most crazy now that we are mothers.

Jill has an entire community on Scary Mommy.  One where moms can come and chat and commiserate and seek advice.

She also has The Confessional: totally anonymous posts by real moms confessing anything they want.  Sounds simple, but read through some of them.  They range from hilarious to heartbreaking.  And Jill uses a handful of real confessions at the beginning of each of her chapters.

Speaking of chapters, they are organized by topic. There is a chapter on husbands, on kids and swimming pools, on choosing your baby’s names, on being pregnant.  Each begins with real confessions before Jill writes an almost essay-like chapter about the topic.

But I use the term “essay” loosely.  “Essay” makes me think of medical periodicals or articles in my education journals.

There is no academia in these essays.  Just real, honest observations about the job that is motherhood.

I loved this book in spite of myself.

I wanted to be able to come here and tell you it was fluff and you may as well just read her blog for free instead of shelling out the dough for the book.

But I would be wrong.  The book is great.

The biggest complaint I saw in other reviews was the language.  Yes, there is swearing.  But if you read Jill’s blog, you know that is her style.  If you don’t, and it’s a surprise to you and a deal breaker, well…I guess that is unfortunate.  For you.  Because you are letting the word “shit” distract you from a great message.

That motherhood is fiercely difficult, but 100 times more fiercely worth it.

This is not the first time this title has been over here.  My friend, Jeremy talked about his experience reading American Salvage at the beginning of last year.  As soon as his post went live, I knew I wanted to read this collection of short stories.

I’m a junkie for local regionalism, and while I think Campbell’s stories aren’t necessarily regional in the sense that they are unique to southwest Michigan, there is definitely a regional flare with the language and places.

Just as I devoured Hemingway’s “Nick” stories that were set in northern Michigan, I sped through Campbell’s tales from the area where I went to college…both for my Bachelor’s and my Master’s.  I became pretty well acquainted with the areas–from the wealthy professors and locals to the more rural areas where I did my student assisting.

Admittedly, my favorite collections of short stories are those from the Lost Generation: Fitzgerald, Hemingway, etc. And while Campbell focuses on the lower working class rather than the starving artists and upper classes, the themes are very much the same.  As one of my students once said, “literature is all about someone wanting/needing something, trying to get that something, and then either succeeding or failing.”  My favorite thing about short stories as opposed to novels is that a short story still follows this pattern, but in a nice tight little package.

There are not chapters and chapters of background.  You don’t necessarily know how those characters ended up together–nor does it matter–the conflict at hand is what you have…a snapshot into their lives.

And there isn’t always a complete resolution in a short story either.

If the characters entire lives were the novel, this particular moment is the short story.

American Salvage is full of intense snapshots.

There are big questions left lingering after each story.

There is vivid imagery and powerful language.

The characters are raw and real.

I loved this book.

I want to take these stories and read them over again.  With a class of students.  And then pick them apart word by word, image by image, character by character.

When that happens?  It means I’ve falling in literary love.

I stumbled upon The Book of Ruth in a pile of books that my best friend dropped off for me to look through. She said I could keep what I wanted to read and donate the rest.  Most I had already read, but a few were new to me so I set them aside to keep.

The Book of Ruth  was one of those “keepers”.  I held onto it for no other reason than I hadn’t read it before.  Well, truth be told, I also have a penchant for any book that has been on Oprah’s Book Club list. About 90% of the time I really enjoy the books she chooses (and the times I don’t agree, I actually really, really HATE the book.  The Corrections, anyone?  Blech).

The front of the book also had this quote from Vogue:

An American beauty this book…The narrator of Jane Hamilton’s sensational first novel is a holy lusty innocent.”

Before even opening it I knew it was in first person and from the point of view of someone who was probably a victim.

I was right.

The story is told from the perspective of Ruth (whose name is actually not given until the very last chapter of the book, but can be presumed from the title) about something that happens to her and her family.  It reminds me, in a way, of how The Catcher in the Rye begins with Holden Caulfield in the mental hospital telling his audience that he is going to tell the story of how he got there.  Ruth begins the same way:

Even though I may still be looking through the dark glass, even though I haven’t finished learning the lessons, I’m the only one who tells the story from beginning to end.

The reader has no idea where she is telling the story from or who the characters she mentions in her introduction are, but you get the feeling that something terrible is going to happen.  Something she survives, but not all of them do.

She starts the story from when she was very small, and sucks you in with her beautiful descriptions and the lovely, innocent way she sees the world.  At the same time, the way she describes herself as dumb and worth nothing is heartbreaking.

It’s a coming-of-age story, in a way I suppose. A Bildungsroman (the literary term) by definition means the character has some sort of moral and psychological change from childhood to adulthood and that is definitely true of Ruth.

Most coming-of-age stories also focus on man (in this case woman) vs society.  In this case, Ruth struggles with how poor her family is. It’s not the focus of the novel since most of the town she lives in is poor, but she is clearly aware of how plain she is wearing her clothes that are hand-me-downs or thrift shopped.  She is aware that they are always broke.  And she is aware that her family is “different” even once she is an adult, but she can’t figure out how to break out of this.  Even though her brother did it.

The Book of Ruth was really easy to read, although for awhile, I forgot about the beautiful foreshadowing in the beginning and started to wonder when the bad thing was going to happen.

Don’t get me wrong, there was some epic build up and the “bad thing” deserves the build up, but at times, it seemed to be peaking and then, no.

This is one of those books that when I finished it, I laid it down and looked at it, then picked it up and read the first chapter again.  Then I realized I loved it.

Because you have to remember where this book begins.

That is Ruth’s point, I think.  And it makes it easier to understand her conclusions on the last page.

Once upon a time a friend sent me a book.

I was told by every. single. person who has read the book in it’s entirety that it ranked in their top books picks of ALL TIME.

It’s about a young girl in Nazi Germany.  As morbid as it sounds, I enjoy reading young adult lit about World War II and the Holocaust and Nazi Germany.  It’s impossible not to be amazed that something this horrific happened.  It happened.  So I was more than eager to read this “life changing” novel I had heard so many great things about.

When it came in the mail from my friend, I was all ants in the pants about getting started, but I was reading something else first.  And I do NOT like to overlap, so it had to wait.

The beginning intrigued me.  The narrator is…well…not any narrator I have ever had the pleasure of meeting before.  That alone kept me intrigued…how could this story be told by him?

It begins with Liesel Meminger being orphaned to foster parents by her mother.  But not before Liesel watches her younger brother die on the train ride there.  The first book she steals is called The Grave Digger’s Handbook that she finds partially covered in snow near her brother’s grave site.

The book (and interesting narrator) follow Liesel through her new life on Himmel Street where she learns to read…and steal books.

Don’t forget this is Nazi Germany in 1939.  There is the Hitler Youth and Jew-hiding.  And loss.  A lot of loss.

As I mentioned, the narrator is a unique choice.  The brief notes and asides by the narrator are also interesting to the organization of the novel.

I’d say it’s an easy, fast read, but that is not entirely true.

The first half dragged for me.  In fact, when I received a different book to review, I welcomed the chance to put this one down.  And leave it down as I moved on to another different book.

It wasn’t until I complained about it on facebook, twitter, and at work that I was convinced I must be crazy.  NO ONE ELSE seemed to have my issue.  So about a week ago, I picked it up again.

And I am so glad I did.

Something magical happens halfway through the book.  All the building actually becomes something.  The story moves deftly and magically and tragically.

The narrator prepares the reader for the end throughout the book.  So does history.

Yet…

The ending sat with me after I finished it.  It sat in my heart…in  my brain…in my life.

It is still sitting with me.

It’s not that it was surprising.  It’s that it was.  It happened.

It’s the way it was described.

There is no way to tell you.  You have to read the book.

But I will leave you with one of my favorite quotes:

“Don’t punish yourself,” she heard her say again, but there would be punishment and pain, and there would be happiness too.  That was writing.” pg 524

Whenever I start a new book, I hand up a little sign at the front of my room broadcasting to my students what it is I am reading.  It’s right by our due date calendar, so kids see it as they come and go. As soon as I put up my sign for The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, I had 2 or 3 kids come to me and tell me how much they loved the book.

At first I was a little stunned that they knew of the book, let alone had read it.  Not that my students aren’t avid readers (ok, most aren’t.  not many high schoolers read outside of what is required), but this didn’t seem like a book they would see and think, “huh, I totally want to read this book.”  I mean, come on.  It’s no Twilight. 

Turns out that it had been the required summer read for Advanced Placement Biology, so all of my (mostly juniors) who were taking AP Bio had read it. This was cool because I got to discuss it as I read it…something I don’t get to do much.

And there is TONS to discuss!

The book is Rebecca Skloot’s nonfiction account of the life and death…and then immortality …of Henrietta Lacks.

Henrietta Lacks was a poor black woman who suffered and died from cervical cancer in 1951 at John Hopkins Hospital.  During treatment, doctors took some samples of her cancerous cells, named them HeLa, and never told her.

Those cells proved to be one of the single-most important thing to happen to medical science…EVER.

Skloot doesn’t just tell the facts about the cells, but she also dives into a deeply personal account of how Henrietta’s family has had to struggle with the legacy and success of those cells while struggling so much that they can’t even afford proper medical care for themselves.

The book is a narrative about the history of the Lacks family intertwined with the journey of the HeLa cells, and touches on the controversy surrounding medical experimentation and research, bioethics, and the legality of patient consent.

At first I was worried that although I find science interesting, my dunce-like understanding of the nitty-gritty details of it would leave me feeling ignorant and confused while reading.

But Skloot makes the idea behind cell cultures and growth and research incredibly tangible to the lay-person like myself.  You do not need a degree in biology to fall deeply into this book.  I think it’s the family.  Henrietta’s daughter is not educated.  Most of the legality and actual science surrounding her mother’s cells are difficult for her to understand.  But Skloot makes the accessible to her…and to us.

For me, the novel’s narrative was perfect on it’s own, but Skloot also included a timeline of HeLa, a list of characters (there are a LOT of people in this story), and a “Where are They Now” run down at the end of the book.

I love a lot of books, but this one is definitely one I would classify as a “must read.”  Not only was the story riveting, but the issues it brought up were things I never thought of before.  In fact, this week I had my pre-admission appointment for having by baby in three weeks, and I had to decide whether I wanted any of Charlie’s leftover blood samples that went unused to be dumped or donated to research.  Any other time in my life, I would have signed that paper without thinking.  This time I actually paused to think about how this option was in front of me because over 60 years ago, doctors did it without permission and someone stood up against that.

I did sign the paper, but at least I signed it knowing what that blood could possibly used for.

Read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.  Do it.

I did something I almost never do before reading The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown.  I read reader reviews on GoodReads.

As usual it was a mistake.

While there were more good reviews than bad, I focused on what the people had to say in the “bad” reviews.  Because I am all obsessive like that.  Luckily these reviews didn’t sway my excitement to start reading, but I wish I hadn’t read them.  I don’t like going into a new book with other people’s opinions just like I don’t like meeting a student after hearing what other teachers have to say about him/her.

Nerd Alert:  The thing that attracted me to this book the most was the fact that it was heavily doused in Shakespeare references and quotes.  Yup, I am an English teacher through and through.  Although I don’t think you need to know really anything about Shakespeare to enjoy this book…but if you happen to know even a little about The Bard and any of his work, it will be that much more pleasurable.

continue reading…

A few months ago when I joined BlogHer Ad Network, I also had the opportunity to sign up to be part of BlogHer Book Club and be reviewer.

I jumped at the chance.  Especially since I got these sexy reading helpers, I was excited to dive back into the joy of reading!

The first book I signed on to read was Why Women Need Fat.  Yup.  I know.  Women needing fat.  I saw it too.  That is why I signed up for it all the while praying, “please don’t be a ploy…please don’t be a ploy….”

I guess you could say I was skeptical…I mean, it’s written by two dudes.  But it didn’t take long for this book to draw me in and win me over.

read more…

There was a time not so long ago when my motto was, “a book started is a book finished.”

Even though as an English teacher, I always tell my students, “if you start a book and don’t like it, don’t waste your time.  Return the book to the library and try something new.”

This year, for the first time, I took my own advice.  These are the five books that I started, but just couldn’t finish.

The Corrections by Jonathan Frazen

I think I started and tossed this book about five times at my last count.  It just grates on me so badly I can’t get past the first few chapters.

The characters are completely unlikeable and too difficult for me to relate to (which is saying something because The Great Gatsby  is one of my favorite books and I am fairly certain Fitzgerald’s goal was to make the reader hate every character in that novel, yet I can read it over and over).

I spent the entire time reading completely disgusted by the language (vulgar for no reason other than vulgarity), the characters (disgusting and shallow), and the lack of a plot.

I think I kept trying because A) it was an Oprah book and I haven’t had such a bad reaction to one of her book club books before and B) other people seem to think Frazen is a genius.

I don’t see it.  So it got tossed.

The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe

This has been on my To Read list for about a hundred years or so.  I was super excited to get it for my birthday and finally start it.

So you can imagine my disappointment when the plot seemed to go nowhere and the characters all seemed like shallow a-holes and I was reminded of another book set in NY about rich jackasses and wanna be rich jackasses that I cast aside (ahem, Frazen?  Talkin’ bout you).

I told a fellow English teacher that I had to quit reading this one and she was dumbfounded.  “I LOVED that book!  I think you need to try again!”  And then she admitted it had probably been 20 years since she read it.

I did not pick it back up.

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

This one I am going to catch some grief for…and I probably deserve it.  I LOVE Faulkner.  LOVE.  The Sound and the Fury is on my list of best books EVER, so when I sat down to read this?  I must not have been in the right frame of mind or something.

I mean, every person that I talk to loves this book and holds it among their top books.  So what is wrong with me?  This is the only book that I have quit that I think the problem lies with me and not the novel.

This may be the only book on this list that I have intentions of trying again.  Because I KNOW I will like it.  I just have to be in the mood for reading like someone with a Master’s in English.

A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce

This book is small, but so full of hell.

Seriously though, this was actually assigned to me in a grad class and I thought pfft.  easy.  It’s small and the print is not that small.  Piece of the old cake.

Wrong.  Reading Joyce is like wading through mire and murk and run on sentences and forgetting what the subject is and oh my god are they still in Ireland or did they take a turn in the fourth level of HELL somewhere?

I did not finish this.  And that means the likelihood of me ever even attempting Ulysses is somewhere between slim to not a chance in this lifetime.

Little Bee by Chris Cleave

This is one where I fell victim to the old “this book is so amazing we can’t tell you what it is about…you just have to read it and have your mind blown” hype.

I bought it with intentions of reading it on the plane to and from San Diego this summer.  It seemed to be the perfect length to read and finish in the 12ish hours round trip.

The first part was a huge struggle.  The language was rough and the story seemed to pick up in the middle of something–but not in a good way–more in the way where you feel lost and confused and like you need to re-read everything you just read, but that would suck because it wasn’t that interesting in the first place.

I am told “it gets good in the middle”.

I can’t make it that far.  I am to the part that is close to the middle.  Where I sort of know what the “awful thing” is, but it hasn’t been totally described yet.

Not that anything except boring things are actually described.  Even the promise of a wonderfully awful tragedy isn’t enough to keep me reading.  That is sad.

So yeah.  I quit.

I need your help, readers.  Am I wrong here?  Are these books awesome and I am just faulty?  Or are these truly over-hyped and crap?

What books have you throw aside and said, “nope. can’t do it.  NEXT!”??

Back this summer I was sent a copy of a book geared toward upper elementary students.  I was VERY excited to read and review the book in time for school to start.

And then things got a bit weird around here.  I got pregnant (and very sick), I got depressed (ante-natal depression, anyone?), and I went on a trip across the country (BlogHer was supposed to re-energize me. It did the opposite).  And nothing was getting done.

Thank goodness Karen Pokras Toz is not just an amazing author, but a kind and lovely person who understands that life is unpredictable and crazy.

And I did NOT forget her.  I read Nate Rocks the World TWICE.  Once back this summer and once again recently so I could be fresh for the review.

I loved it, so it was easy.

In fact, I included it in my Holiday Book Buying Guide.

The story is about a fourth grader named Nate Rockledge.  It follows his journey through kid-dom: science projects, Halloween costumes, recess sports, and an annoying older sister.  He captures everything in his sketch pad…the way his imagination sees it.

This book is both funny and touching.  It really reminded me of my days reading Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume or Ramona the Brave by Beverly Cleary when I was in elementary school.  I could picture my playground at recess.  It came crashing back to me how important your project partner was and how it seemed parents never noticed anything (like how yucky dinner was).

But my favorite part of this book?  That would be how it shows that even a 10-year old can do great things.  That is such a lovely message in this world full of yuck.

I actually thought about wrapping this book up to give to my 7-year old nephew because I KNOW he will love it.  He is an avid reader, but this book is really awesome for the reluctant reader too.  And I think it’s equally awesome for boys AND girls.  I totally would have read it in elementary school.

Instead of giving it away, though, I will probably buy my nephew his own copy and keep this one for Eddie.

Plus?  I happen to know that Karen is working on a follow up to Nate Rocks the World.  Boom.

Nate Rocks the World is available in print and as an ebook. And you can read chapter 1 here as a little sample.

You can learn more about Karen and her writing by visiting her site as well as her blog.

The Legal Stuff:  I received a copy of Nate Rocks the World from Karen Pokras Toz, but no payment for the review.  The opinions here are all my own.

The holidays are approaching and what better gift than the gift of imagination and wonder?

That’s right, we bookish types need to spread the book love!  And I have a list of books for EVERYONE on your list!

For the Littles…

It is NEVER to early to start the love of words and reading with your kids.

One of the best first books is Dr. Seuss’s ABC: An Amazing Alphabet Book.  We have this in board book and it’s definitely one of Eddie’s faves since he was itty bitty. Now, at 2 and a half, he knows all his letters and has memorized the sing song way this book goes through the alphabet.  Many times we will let him take it to bed and we can hear him “reading” it to his Lamby: “big B, wittle b. what b b?” (Big B, little b, what begins with B?)

Another wonderful book (also Dr. Seuss, actually) is Hop on Pop.  There are nights when we read this book more than twice.  As a teacher I love it because it’s got really great sight words, and it’s an early easy reader.  Eddie already recognizes the letters, and now we are talking about how the letters make words.  Sometimes, he can remember them and “read” to me!

For the elementary crowd…

My nephew, Jack is just turning seven and is an avid reader.  I cannot TELL you how proud this makes me!  He asked for two series of books for Christmas this year:  The Goosebumps series (which my brother actually reads with him) by R. L. Stine and the American Chillers series by Jonathan Rand.

RL Stine just keeps pumping out the Goosebumps books!

American Chillers seem creepy to me, but the kids LOVE them!

And I didn’t forget the girls! The Judy B Jones book by Barbara Parks are HUGE with elementary girls.

I so wish they had these when I was in elementary school...I wore out ALL the copies of my Ramona books!

And both boys AND girls will love Nate Rocks the World by Karen Pokras Toz (psst.  Coming soon…like TOMORROW… there will be a FULL review of this book!).

For the middles…

Some of the best books written are for young adults (YA Lit).  I don’t know what it is, but the messages and the writing are amazing.  I wish when I was in middle school, more of this genre was around.  It’s fairly new, and today’s tween readers definitely win because of it.

Now, I know I could stick the Harry Potter books and the Twilight books or the Hunger Games here…but I feel like those have probably been pushed enough.

No, I have some old faves for you to buy your tweeners.

First, you canNOT go wrong with The Giver by Lois Lowery.  It is a wonderful story about what would happen if all we knew was “happiness” and all memories of “before” were stored by one person.  For some reason, it’s been controversial over the years about whether or not it’s appropriate for kids, and I say it is 100% appropriate.  In fact, in our district, it’s required in 8th grade.

I really also believe that every single pre-pubescent girl NEEDS to read Are You There God, It’s Me, Margaret.

honestly. every girl needs to read this book no less than a million times.

I also think Monster by Walter Dean Myers is an important read for middle schoolers.  It’s a series of journal entries by a boy who is on trial for being an accomplice in a murder case.

The teens…

Again, I could totally recommend Twilight or The Hunger Games books here; my students are all OVER those lately, but here are some others they might just enjoy…

Anything with vampires or werewolves.  No, seriously. That is what a LOT of the girls are reading.

Things with zombies are cool too.  You will probably get ultimate cool points if you gift The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.

Another one my high schoolers tend to devour is the perks of being a wallflower by Stephen Chbosky.  It’s one about an outsider kid…kids love it.

And lastly, a wonderful book for the teen crowd is The Curious Incident With a Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. It is told from a first person point of view of a teen with aspergers (a type of autism).  It is VERY true to character and extremely well-written.

For the adults…

I don’t know a single male out there who doesn’t like Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk.  Yes, it’s a movie with the super hot talented Brad Pitt, but first it was a book.  A really good book.  And if you can imagine, even better than the movie.  I know.  The movie is awesome, but the book is better.

Every time someone asks me for a book recommendation either for themselves or for a book club, I always first say Icy Sparks by Gwyn Hyman Rubio. It’s the story of a young girl living in Eastern Kentucky in the 50′s with her grandparents.  And she has tourettes syndrome.  It might be one of the best books I’ve ever read.

And lastly, one of my favorite feel-good, all over happy book series is the Mitford Series by Jan Karon.  I was first introduced to the books about 10 years ago when I was doing my student teaching.  I was wary because the idea of a “Christian book series” didn’t sound very appealing to me.  At all.  I am in to books about screwed up families with dark secrets that are even more screwed up (see above books).

The Mitford series follows Father Tim, a minister in the small town of Mitford, as he finds love in his late years, adopts the most unwanted and neglected boy, and takes care of a whole town full of characters.

Perfect books for curling up with on a chilly winter evening.

So there you have it!  A holiday shopping guide for all the readers on your list!

Did I miss someone or some book?  Let me know!