Atlantia, Ally Condie

So on the top of the book cover it says "Human voices wake us and we drown" and that never made sense to me. I'm still not sure of it's connection.

That said, when I picked up "Reached" for my older daughter at the library, Summerlost and Atlantia were just sitting right next to it and so I grabbed them.

This book was much more of a page turner. Slightly predictable with a couple minor twists I didn't see coming. This fulfilled the 2017 challenge because it had a mythical creature: Sirens.

So the premise is that above ground, our air got so polluted that our life spans were critically shortened due to lung cancers and other diseases. So engineers devised these enclosures in the deep ocean to perpetuate the human race. There was a Divide in which everyone Above would have someone they love Below to help them continue to make sure the people Below were supported with food and goods necessary for life. There is a ceremony for the people Below, but you never get an age, I just assumed 16-18, where the youth can choose to accept their fate Below or accept a life of sacrifice Above. It reminded me of the choosing ceremony in Divergent, but they didn't cut their hands and place their blood anywhere. But there was a bowl of water and a bowl of dirt.

Part way into this Division living, there were some "miracles" that happened Below and out of it was born a new religion of Gods and many people in both worlds became believers. But of course there has to be corruption and deceit and treason.

Rio has always wanted to go Above, and her twin sister Bay has always loved Below. Their mother is the Minister, their father died young of a condition called Waterlung. It's rare, but fatal. Their mother died unexpectedly and suddenly recently. So when Bay, in her grief, begs her sister to stay with her Below (there is absolutely NO contact between the two groups of people), Rio decides to give up that dream because she loves Bay.  But when Bay makes a choice that surprises everyone, that is the catalyst for Rio to find out all the information she never knew-all the history that has been kept from everyone, even the Ministers, and right the wrongs of society. Like I said, fairly predictable. But a page turner. So 4 stars.

Summerlost, Ally Condie

Ally Condie's newest book, also the first one (I believe) for middle readers. Cedar Lee has recently lost her father and brother in a drunk driving car crash incident. It's just her, her mom and her younger brother Miles. They go to this small town with a really big Shakespeare Festival and she befriends a local boy, Leo, who helps her get a job selling concessions at the festival and they embark on some other money making ventures.

The chapters are really super short, which I think makes it good for younger readers who may have trouble with longer chapters.

You never know exactly what was wrong with Cedar's brother Ben, but all the signs pointed to autism spectrum disorder. Cedar is very conflicted about how fiercely she loved him, but how it was sometimes hard to be around him. I think a lot of people who live with others who are 'different' have this conflicted feeling. I know I did growing up with a sister who is 'different'. I wasn't sure how to explain it, didn't know if I even NEEDED to explain it. I remember one time my sister went to a summer camp at BYU and my mom had asked another girl if she would be my sister's roommate. I don't remember if she agreed or not, but it ended up not happening and somehow I ended up finding out that this girl didn't want to be "held back" from meeting new people and having certain experiences by needing to be my sister's roommate for the week. I was torn between understanding how she felt and not blaming her and being angry at her for being selfish. I never confronted her about it. But it always bothered me. Partially because I wasn't sure what I would have chosen if I had been in her shoes, and I hated that I wasn't more firm in the idea that I'd be the one to help the person.

Anyhow, there's also a little mystery in this story. Lisette Chamberlain is a late actress who got her start at the Shakespeare Festival and was also the first local to get a lead role. She went on to become a successful soap opera actress. Leo knows EVERYTHING about Lisette and he decides for extra money, they'll secretly give tours about her in the early morning.

There's dealings with bullies, grief, getting in trouble (Cedar and Miles watch this horrible soap opera they get sucked into because one of the characters gets buried alive and the person who got her buried sends food down in a tube and communicates with her-but they never reveal how she goes to the bathroom down there), and true friendship. At the end they wonder if they "like" like each other, but really it comes down that "you're my person" the friend who gets you, who understands you, who can compliment your appearance but not have a crush on you. It was an enjoyable read, just a little slow for me.

4 stars.

The Land of Stories 3 A Grimm Warning, Chris Colfer

So, one of the premises of these books is that the Brother's Grimm didn't just collect fairy tales from an assortment of people through oral tradition and write them down. They were actually told these stories by two fairies: The Fairy Godmother and Mother Goose, both from the Land of Stories. And that they also gave stories to Hans Christian Anderson and other writers around the world so that our world could have and learn from and be delighted by the stories of their world. They noticed that in war-torn countries, the stories would lift the spirits of the children and help them to have an escape.

Anyhow, Connor, now 14 and in high school, is on a field trip experience in Europe with his former teacher/current prinicipal (Mrs. Peters) and several other girls. They visit the cemetery where the brothers Grimm are buried and there is a special reading of three new fairy tales that have never before been read; they had been locked in a vault with specific instructions from the brothers to be opened and read 200 years from the date of sealing. When this happens, there are two stories that are eerily similar to the ones that Connor had written about for school assignments...but the third one is a warning about something bad that is going to happen in the fairy tale world that will also affect our world. Alex has been staying in the Fairy Tale world. Connor is the only one who realizes the warning for what it is and needs to get in touch with his sister. He also has his first crush on a girl who happens to also be on the trip. They communicate through a magic mirror. However, Alex is busy with her own personal life. She too is experiencing her first crush and also has taken on some leadership responsibilities in the fairy tale world.

Mother Goose is also partially responsible for the ill fated events, and so she helps Connor find another portal into the fairy tale world so he can help. However, he inadvertently brings along his crush, Bree, and an unsuspecting local boy in Bavaria. Because the portal is none other than the Neuschwanstein Castle. Yes, "Mad King Ludwig" King of Bavaria's final outlandish castle. Mother Goose tells Connor that since King Ludwig was already known for building castles everywhere, she called in a favor and asked him to have a castle built over an existing portal to look like a fairy tale castle. You see....an army leader found out about the other world and threatened the brothers Grimm and their families if they did not lead them to the other world. They wanted to conquer it for Napoleon. Mother Goose bought the fairy tale world some time by enchanting it to trap the army for 200 years inside the portal before they would be let out. She thought everything would be ok, because at the end of book 2, they had sealed off the portals between the two worlds. But she was also hoping that by 200 years she could find a way for them to just be spit out into the regular world, but arrive at the new castle and they would just THINK they were in the fairy tale world. But of course, it wouldn't be a story if something didn't go wrong!

We also get introduced to yet another villain with a story: The Masked Man. He's far worse than the others have been.....

As I go on in this series, certain things are getting MUCH easier to predict. But it doesn't make it less enjoyable for me at this point.

Another 4.5 stars

The Land of Stories 2 The Enchantress Returns, Chris Colfer

Book 2 was just as fun and exciting as Book 1. The twins are another year older. Another collecting spell, but this one requires you to figure out what the objects are in order to collect them, not just go down the list. More stories untold. They both find out more about their connection to the fairy tale world.

More themes of learning about why certain people have ended up the way they are. Connor finds out he's really good at recounting their adventures as stories as if they came from his imagination. Alex has more confidence in herself knowing what she is capable of in the other dimension.

It's hard to write much more without giving away important plot details!

Another 4.5 stars.

The Land of Stories Book 1 The Wishing Spell, Chris Colfer

SUCH a fun series! My older daughter started reading them when she got the first 4 for Christmas 2015. I was looking for another audio to listen to with my 5 year old while we're in the car and this one was available. We both love it! Chris Colfer does the narration for the audios and I just LOVE his voices too. The only one I don't feel is super consistent is Jack, sometimes he sounds too feminine. But everyone else is spot on.

Connor and Alex are twins who are around 11 years old, if I'm remembering right, and their father was recently killed in a car accident. Their mom is trying to get by as a single parent. Alex is bookish and not very well off socially at school. Connor has it going on socially, but occasionally falls asleep in class and does the minimal work to get by. Though they are polar opposites in most ways, they love each other fiercely. Their paternal grandma gives them the story book that she and their dad read to them as young children: The Land of Stories.

While in possession of said book, Alex finds that it randomly hums and she can drop things into the book and they just disappear. One day she decides to see where everything is going....and Connor figures this out just in time to try to stop her, only to end up going with her. They fall into the Land of Stories and find that the fairy tale world is an actual world in another dimension. They find out the only way to get back home is to use a collecting spell called the wishing spell. They know it was used successfully once and is allowed to be used one last time. What happens next is an epic journey throughout all your favorite fairy tale stories and characters-but they are often not what you thought they were! Their stories are a bit different from how they were told here, and you learn that everyone has an untold story. Even the villains.  And I really liked that part. It helps, I think for kids to hear that people who make bad choices may also have been the victim of other bad choices. It helps to learn how to ask for and seek other people's stories instead of judging them.

4.5 stars. Not quite as beloved as Harry Potter, but then I think you almost need the entire series to rate the series as a whole instead of just individually.

The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Mitch Album

So this book I listened to on Audio and it was absolutely fantastic! The narrator did a wonderful job with the voices and character. There were even some sound effects spread throughout.

This book is one of the Rory Gilmore challenge ones and also fit the 2017 Challenge for a book over the span of a person's life. It starts on the last day of Eddie's life but flashes back to several of his birthdays, including the actual day his was born.

I really enjoyed this book. There was a lot of wisdom spread throughout. I liked the idea that Heaven means that we will finally understand why things happened or didn't happen to us while we were alive. I like that idea of understanding. It also resonates with my religion, that at some point we will be given perfect understanding of every experience. It was also interesting to me that as Eddie meets with some of these people he is allowed to give forgiveness or ask for forgiveness-something that would have been impossible during his lifetime. I also believe that there is a chance for forgiveness in heaven. That there isn't a too late.

I give this one a 4 star review.

The Circle, Dave Eggers

I'm onto the 2017 Reading Challenge. I didn't get all the books in 2016, but that's ok. But I figured I'd see what I could do in 2017. This fits the category "A book that is being made into a movie this year"

So, this is an adult novel. A LOT of conversational swearing. I didn't like it in the beginning. It was a little much for me, but luckily that wore off after awhile. There are also a few explicit scenes that I skipped over.

Now that that's out of the way....Mae Holland is at a dead end job in her hometown after college when she finally contacts a former college roommate, Annie, to see if maybe there are any openings at the company she works for: The Circle. The Circle is a leading tech/social media company, reminiscent of Google. The campus has thousands of employees, careful to have representation of many ethnicities and interests. Mae lands a job in Customer Experience (it used to be Customer Service, but it improves morale when it's an experience). It's interesting because they ask for feedback surveys on how they did and if it's less than 100, they are require to send a follow up asking how they could improve (or if not, modify the number to reflect their true feelings of the score). Striving for perfection!

The campus offers everything and it's complimentary too. Meals, parties, entertainment, sports, a gym, daycare, doggy daycare, even hotel-like rooms if you need to stay late and don't want to commute home. They have the best healthcare-totally paid for-as well. They provide their employees with EVERYTHING.

This company started to help make the internet a safer place. Anonymity is done away with. We have no more problems with identity theft, so instead of Facebook, we now have TrueYou. All your interactions are connected to you and can be traced back to you. One password for everything. Sounds pretty nice. The internet is a more civil place because people can't be trolls or have no consequence for their actions like we sometimes find with cyber bullying now. Also sounds pretty nice.

This company has created a tiny camera, called SeeChange and it can be placed anywhere, has a batter that would last several years and can give you a detailed live stream feed. "Imagine the human rights implications" if we could see for REAL what is happening anywhere? Imagine what people wouldn't do if they knew they were being watched and knew they'd be caught. You could eliminate all crime!

The story was drawn out a bit, but it was written to prove a point. A point that we cannot let something like this happen. There are 3 main principles this company touts: "Secrets are lies", "Sharing is caring" and "Privacy is Theft". Those, when you read them here, seem obviously crazy. But in the context of this book, you can be sucked into actually agreeing with those statements. That it's selfish to want privacy when giving it up will obviously create a better and safer world for everyone else. People start pledging to be "transparent" which means they wear one of those cameras all day and live stream their whole lives. At first, it seems great-get the political leaders to all be transparent so we REALLY know what's going on. But then, those who want to fight for privacy are villainized and OBVIOUSLY trying to hide someone. So then, ANYONE who would like the right to privacy must have a reason to want to hide and everyone is immediately suspicious of them. Anyone who speaks out against the Circle is shortly thereafter found to have horrible things in their private dealings and discredited. The Circle is pure and honest, they are transparent (except where sensitive intellectual property issues are concerned) but NO ONE suspects that MAYBE they could be dishonest under the guise of intellectual property rights.

Honestly, this book ANNOYED ME. Because it seemed SO over the top and SO redundant, but I do appreciate how blatant the author made his point.

Oh, the character of Francis (thank goodness they wrote him out of the movie script entirely), he is the most pitiful man on the planet. He can't even have a normal physical relationship and expects his partner to rate him as a 100 every time or his feelings would get hurt. There's another guy who is nearly in tears because Mae, in her first week, gets invited to some event he's hosting and she doesn't RSVP and doesn't go. They have to talk it out and Mae has to apologize for the distress she inadvertently caused. It reminds me of how quickly I could feel hurt by seeing friends post pictures of themselves at things they didn't invite me to. I've talked with teenagers and know that that kind of thing bothers them. And people getting upset when people don't like or comment on their posts. This society is EXTREME with that. But I can see parts of happening right now.

I think I'll give this a solid 3 stars. Even though it was annoying and over the top, it DOES make me think about things a little differently. And it's validated my previous thinking that I had before reading it. Around a year or so ago, whenever I felt the urge to post something on Facebook, I started thinking "Do people REALLY want to know this?" "Do people really CARE about this?" "Do I NEED people to know about this?" "What am I trying to GAIN by posting this out there?" "Does this have a PURPOSE?" And most of the time, I'd decide that it really didn't need to be out there at all. It's not a secret, sharing isn't always caring, and privacy is a human right, NOT theft.

It also reminds us that MANY MANY evil things in our world today have been sold under the sheeps clothing of philanthropy. For the good of mankind. That we must make sacrifices for the individual in order to protect and make a better place. Francis had a bad close experience with kidnapping. So he started up this project so that no kid could ever be kidnapped again. Doesn't that sound wonderful? What's the catch? A chip that is implanted into a child's BONE. No mention of if it ever gets removed. It probably won't. Or can't be. So if you can be tracked every second as a child, what are the implications of full society being completely trackable? There are so many things that SEEM good. No more infidelity, secret deals, criminals hiding, no more runaways, and with cameras everywhere, no break-ins, no child abuse, or abuse of any kind.....but these are all things that would be FORCED, and it puts someone else in control. If it's not government, it's a money making for profit company. "We're watching you"

The movie stars Tom Hanks and Emma Watson, and if it's not rated R, my husband and I will definitely go see it. it's set to be released in April.

Red Rising, Pierce Brown

So this book satisfied the 2016 Reading Challenge of reading a book recommended by someone I had just met. So a new friend had been telling me about this book that her son had to read in high school. It does have quite a bit of swearing and a LOT of mature themes and is rather crude in many places. I don't know how I'd feel about a teenager reading it. Especially MY child. But I figure that if I just read all the required stuff along side them as it comes, we can discuss things and it will be easier.

Anyhow, this is a future/sci-fi story of people living on Mars. In fact, most of outerspace has been colonized and turned into livable space. Such things have caused some mutations or forced genetic modifications, I'm not really clear on that. This book reminded me of parts of "The Testing" and "Uglies" and "The Selection"

There is a caste system, shown by this diagram I found below:

There are more colors, Silvers, Bronze, and Gold, Gold's being the best, of course. And there are also High Reds and Low Reds. The main character, Darrow, is a low red. However, certain events lead him to be in a position (not sought out by himself) to potentially lead a rebellion against the Golds and make a better life for everyone. But you find out that this society doesn't just mess with it's lower citizens, it totally messes with and even culls the Golds. In things that they believe are necessary. But they are also completely corrupted amongst themselves. It's disgusting really.

This book definitely kept my attention and was a page turner. Sometimes a little hard to follow with the slang words that are exclusive to this fictional society. Twists and turns I didn't see coming. But like I said, proceed with caution. 3.5 stars.

A Fatal Grace, Louise Penny

I listened to this on audio awhile back and just realized I never blogged it. This is the second Inspector Gamache book. To be honest, I did not enjoy it nearly as much as I did the first one. This one was far more predictable than the first and had more swearing. Or maybe listening to it made it more obvious since I tend to skip over those types of things in my reading.

Of course, there were some episodes of Castle that were more predictable or less enjoyable, and I like the character of the Inspector enough to get around to the other books in the series here and there in between other things. 2.5 stars for me.

No as much action on here because....

I am working on helping my sister in law as a beta reader for a novel she's written. Well, it will be a series of novels, actually. I tried to be a beta reader before, but my life got crazy and I was not able to be a good beta. But I really want to help my SIL, so I am really focusing on reading her manuscript through carefully. Because of this, I don't want to confuse my head with too many storylines at once (like I am known to do...) and I'm not devouring it as fast as I would normally read a book because I want to be careful to pick up on any discrepancies or things that she would or wouldn't want to make it into a final draft. So I'm being careful and taking my time. So in the meantime, I'm really only listening to some audio books.

I've also gotten REALLY busy with all the musical endeavors and jobs in my life-Christmas is the "musical madness month"! I'll be getting back to reading more regularly soon, though!

The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Brian Selznick

I listened to this book on audio, which was interesting because I know this book has a lot of pictures in it and that the pictures are part of the story. So now I'm really interested to look at a physical copy of the book to see how (and what parts) were narrated from the pictures, because I didn't feel like I missed out anything in the story line. The sound effects of this audio were REALLY good. When he's running, you can hear him running, you hear the tick of the clocks, stuff like that.

It had some parts remenicient of Oliver Twist (though not nearly so dark). Overall it was enjoyable and adventurous. Although, being a book geared towards middle readers, it didn't delve very deep into why certain characters made certain choices. Perhaps it's to allow for some discussion for that age group to decide for themselves what would motivate a person to do certain things.

I also liked the connection between imagination of authors and filmmakers with real invention. I think most things of technology were first contrived in the imagination of an author!

3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 for Goodreads.

Piccadilly Jim, PG Wodehouse

This book was chosen for my book clubs meeting in Sept. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised! It was published in 1917 and I was preparing myself for a certain style of writing. However, what I found was a quite modern approach with TONS of dialog and it made me laugh SO much. The descriptions are delightful, the predicament in which all the characters find themselves in simultaneously are riotous. I kept thinking "I can't believe this is happening!" "I can't believe noone has figured this out yet!"And I laughed a LOT.

I'd never read anything by PG Wodehouse before, but I will probably look at some of his other works now. This was available for free on Kindle, but one of my friends purchased his entire works for something like $1.99 on Kindle.

I looks like there were a couple film adaptations, one in 1936 and one in 2005. I think I might try to get my hands on the 1936 version.

I haven't decided on a star rating for this...I'm leaning towards 4.5 stars, but for Goodreads sake, I think I'm going to tip up to 5 because I thoroughly enjoyed it-even though it was a little slow at first-and the ending was just so classic!

Where'd You Go, Bernadette, Maria Semple

This one fit into the 2016 Reading Challenge as a "satire". It's a modern satire of a privileged life.

I listened to this on audio and it was narrated by the actress who plays Luke's sister Liz in Gilmore Girls, so I totally pictured her face the whole time. I thought she did a fabulous job!

This book had a little more swearing than I am normally comfortable with. I don't think I would have noticed it as much if I had read it instead of listened.

Anyhow, many entries are from different points of view. Some chapters are emails from one character to another, some are phone calls, letters, etc. I loved having all these different perspectives of the story. There were a LOT of laugh out loud moments. Such as when Audrey is hosting a brunch for perspective "Mercedes" parents to enroll their soon to be kindergarteners in their particular private K-8 prep school, there is so much rain-because this takes place in Seattle- (and other events that I won't spoil for you) that cause a landslide to crash through her house, breaking windows and everything right in the middle of the current kindergarten class playing a recital on Orff instruments and they are all freaking out. One of the moms who had volunteered to be there for some reason, who also happened to be a psychiatrist, describes the mayhem in an email to the parents of the student body to describe the events and offer assistance if any child shows signs of PTSD, says "If there's one thing kindergarteners know how to do very well, it's to line up!" So many instances like that where I could totally say the next few words exactly as written without even knowing for sure they were written. It's SO true! My youngest is a kinder this year, and boy to those kids know how to do lines! :-) The other thing that I thought was true to form was how much parents were willing to ignore in their children's behavior and blame everyone else and fail to see that their child is the only one responsible for their own poor choices. Or even acknowledge poor choices are being made in the first place. I don't think this kind of attitudes are limited to the affluent, either. I think it's quite rampant on a whole.

Anyhow, Bernadette is a curious person and very misunderstood. She's dealing with a lot, and I don't want to give any away. You do get to have a lot of backstory on her. I loved all the information that explains how she ended up making the choices she did. Her only daughter, Bee, is so like I was- a flute player who was also academic and didn't really care too much about the crowd. She was quite level headed.

This book deals with depression, anxiety, keeping up with the Jones's, workplace relationships, there is some infidelity, adolescent drug use, and lots of things that made me shake my head at, like "That's what people who have a ton of money do with their money? Wow."

One character shows a drastic transformation towards the end, and while it's a very nice thought and absolutely essential to the success of the plot line, seemed abrupt enough that I didn't quite buy it.

Overall, I give it a 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Sarah's Key, Tatiana De Rosnay

I listened to this as an audio book because it happened to be available on overdrive when I needed something new to listen to. It sort of counts as reading about a culture I'm unfamiliar with in the 2016 Reading Challenge because I really have no background on French culture or how they view the world or history. I found it very interesting how the attitudes towards this event were scene by the Parisian characters.

This was a fabulous book! Solid 4 stars. In audio format it was a little hard to figure out when it bounced back and forth between times (modern and 1942), but I got used to it after awhile. This is a heart wrenching story about a side of the Holocaust I had never heard before. This happened in Paris, July 16, 1942. A horrible, horrific event known now as the "Vel' d'Hiv Roundup". I get choked up just typing this. Over 13,000 Jews were arrested and taken to this indoor cycling arena next to the Eiffle Tower in what the Nazi's code named "Operation Spring Breeze". However, it was not the Germans who carried out this plan. It was the French Police (acting on German orders). It appears that many Jews came without a fight because it was their own police force asking them to come and not the Nazi's they had come to fear. From the Vel' d'Hiv, they were taken in cattle trains to Auschwitz. Men were separated from their families first. Then the women were separated from their children. They say the screams could be heard for miles. The extremely tragic thing  is that the German's only asked for people within a certain age; they did not ask for the children. But the French were being overzealous in trying to appease their enemies for. From https://cathannabel.wordpress.com/tag/vel-dhiv-roundup/ :  "Thursday 16 July 1942, Paris.  The Vel’ d’Hiv round up, named after the sports stadium used to house the Jews who were dragged from their homes that morning and in the hours that followed.   Drancy camp, next stop en route to Auschwitz.   13,152 were arrested, of whom 5802 were women, and 4051 children.  Some of the adults – less than 3% – made it home after the Liberation, to search fruitlessly for news of their children at the Hotel Lutétia. None of the children came home." 

There were some children who managed to escape, however, and survive.

Anyhow, in this book, the modern protagonist, Julia, an American born journalist living in Paris with her Parisian husband and 11 year old daughter Zoe was given an assignment from her magazine to write an article about the 60th commemoration of the Vel' d'Div Round Up. The 1942 Protagonist is Sarah, known to you as only "the girl" until about halfway through (but you assume it's the Sarah from the title because of the key she has) and the story toggles with you living the horrific scenes from Sarah's perspective and then Julia's discoveries of the situations and statistics in her research. It's extremely interesting to see those worlds collide. But then, the rest of the story is from Julia's perspective. And I missed Sarah. It's like she disappeared from the reader's view much the same way she tried to disappear from the other character's in the book.

There were parts I didn't really care for, the parts in Julia's personal life that I wasn't sure why they were there, but I guess I can see that the lesson is we are living NOW and we have problems NOW, but they don't stop us from learning about and from the past. There was also the issue of dealing with pain in a way that made your life fall apart instead of knitting people who loved each other closer. There is a time when Julia reveals this information to someone who had not previously known about it, and it relates to them personally. And it nearly destroys them. To not have known and then have the knowledge forced upon them suddenly. It makes you wonder if you would rather want to know your heritage-the bad and the ugly along with the good-or remain blissfully ignorant.

I am sad I never knew this part of history. From what I could gather in the story, it is not in the nature of the French to bring up the unpleasant past. They are not trying to deny that it happened, or disrespect those who had to go through it, they just don't see the point in dwelling on it. There were memorial plaques no one ever read, people working in buildings that housed Jews on their way to their deaths that had been converted to a daycare facility and they didn't even know, didn't even seem to be bothered that they didn't know. There seemed to be collective embarrassment about it. But I'm glad the story is being told now.

One thing that was a little disappointing-and Julia's boss brings it up-there's nothing in there from the perspective of the police officers who were being told to do this horrible thing. There is a police officer that Sarah recognizes as her school crossing officer, and there is a little bit with him, but nothing from a modern perspective looking back. I wonder if the boss calls her out as a way to explain why it's not in the book, or if there really isn't much to go on. I haven't researched this myself. But it would be interesting to see what they thought of it all, how they were able to live their lives after the fact. I would definitely recommend this to a friend! 

*There was also a movie made from this book and I do plan on checking that one out from the library to watch, even though I know I'm just going to be a hot mess the whole time.

Mindfullness for Beginners, Jon Kaba-Zinn

I listened to the audio of this for the 2016 Reading Challenge "A Self Help Book"

I've always had a mild curiosity about the practice of meditation-since it seems to be recommended by philosophers as well as religious leaders.

Listening to this felt like he wasn't reading the text, but giving it in a way he would if I were attending a conference session about meditation. I feel like I understand the concepts better.

I am not good at meditating. There were some meditation exercises and I couldn't help but do something to keep my hands a little busy while listening to the exercise on some of them. I have a hard time setting aside time to do "nothing" even though it is "something".

One thing that HAS helped me a little is that I always have trouble falling asleep at night. Partly because I have a hard time clearing my mind. So I've been trying to use meditation to help me fall asleep faster and so far it's worked more often than not.

There was also enough humor to keep things going. Like the time when the section on focusing on breathing came up, he said that he was going to be "making the wild assumption that if you are listening to this exercise you are already breathing". I really laughed at that :-)

Definitely informative, insightful, and well put together. Narrated extremely well.

The War That Saved My Life, Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

Sometimes you feel like if you've read one WWII English Evacuee story you've read them all. But this one did not feel like that! Add Ada to this mix. A very special girl born with a clubbed foot tha was never addressed in her infancy. She can only crawl around. Her single mother (her father is dead) never allows her outside. Only her younger brother Jamie (I listened to this as an audio, so I'm not sure if it was spelled traditionally or not) is allowed outside or to go to school. Ada is kept in isolation. She was not supposed to be a refuge, but she loves her brother so much that when he is to be sent away, she decides to go with him.

Some parts of this book were really, really difficult to read. Ada's mother is so incredibly abusive. Both physically and emotionally. She has convinced Ada that she isn't worth anything. That she couldn't be loved. Yet, Ada still has enough self determination to make certain things happen for herself; like what she needed to do in order to evacuate with her brother.

Both children are so ragged that none of the volunteer families chose Ada and Jamie. So the lady in charge takes them to the home of a single lady, Susan, who is still grieving the loss of her best friend and roommate, Becky. She protests saying she's not good with children, that she didn't want children. But everyone must "do their part" so she tries her best. She discovers that these children don't know the simplest things-they've never seen a tablecloth, they've never had bed sheets or dressing gowns. They've never even tried many of the vegetables she has to offer them. She says she's not a nice person, but she IS kind. And Ada finds herself so confused by words she's never heard and doesn't know the meaning of. She wonders that Susan says she's not nice, but they never go to bed hungry and Susan doesn't hit them. In a time and age when child abuse and emotional trauma are not understood, Susan seems to intuit what Ada needs (and doesn't need), when to push and when to pull back, in order for Ada to be able to act like a child and even learn. The thing she tells Ada that takes Ada a while to fully believe is "Your brain is a long way from your foot". Ada has been told that she's stupid and shameful and not able to learn because of her clubbed foot. Susan breaks this notion insisting that her clubbed foot has nothing to do with her capacity to learn and develop academically.

This was a beautiful story of "who saved who"? Did Susan save Ada? Yes. Did Ada save Susan (from her grief and solitude and withdrawn ways)? Yes. We can save ourselves when we reach out to help one another.

Princess Academy, Shannon Hale

I listened to this on audio book because it was available on overdrive and it was on a list of books I had written down for my older daughter to read. I really enjoyed it-it was a Full Cast Audio, which means that every character (including the narrator) had their own voice over. There were also singing parts to it which were interesting.

Like "The Rent Collector" it is amazing to surmise what a bit of intelligence and education can do to improve the life of an entire community. Mt. Escol (I'm only guessing on spellings here) is a hard, mountain life. Most people work in the quarry and have developed a sort of non-verbal communication through contact with the Linder Rock. Miri is really small for her age and has never been allowed to work in the quarry. She feels this makes her useless, though she doesn't learn the true reason her father forbids it until late through the story. She lives with her father and sister. Her mother died shortly after her birth.

One day, a man comes to Mt. Escol and announces that the country's priests have divined that the future bride of the prince resides there. Because they are so far removed from the main territory of Danlund, they have sent a tutor (Olana) to train the girls in proper everything and it's called the Princess Academy and every elegible girl goes. Ages 11 or 12 up to younger than the prince, since he's not allowed to marry anyone older than he-even if it's only a few months.

At first things are horrible, and of course, Miri is a natural leader when it has nothing to do with quarry work, eventually she is able to use the things Olana is teaching in order to broker better conditions. When she learns about commerce and just how much Linder is worth-and compares that to her knowledge of what the traders have been SAYING it's worth, they are able to then improve their trade conditions, which in return improve conditions in the community all around.

The ending was.......interesting......there is a major plot twist (although I had suspected some things along the way). And the possible plot hole was filled in, but it still left me feeling a little off. I guess it's a series so we'll see how things go if I read more.

I would definitely recommend this to my daughter, it teaches diplomacy, quick thinking, how to get along, how to give people a chance, the value of studying hard, the pay offs of hard work, and all sorts of other good traits. It was very enjoyable and I think it is great for middle readers. Solid 4 stars.

Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck

This didn't fit into the 2016 Reading Challenge, but it DID fit in the Rory Gilmore reading challenge and it was short and on the bookshelf at the library when I happened to be there looking for something. So I grabbed it. All I could remember was that my friend Carolyn read it in high school for an honor's English book report. And she didn't like the ending.

It's interesting, all these books that are high school reads, but my high school self did not have enough life experience to fully understand, comprehend, or even begin to appreciate these things. In freshman honor's English, we had to read The Pearl by John Steinbeck. I hated the ending SO much I have never picked up another one of his books since then until now. NOW I can appreciate what he was trying to portray and have an ability to attempt to see a different point of view. I know I was limited in that capacity as a youth, even though I know I truly tried.

Anyhow, this book is interesting because it's told from the objective third person, which isn't common for a novel. It reads almost like a play, and I guess it was turned into a movie, though I haven't watched it. But because of this perspective, you never know what's going on inside of anyone's head. That's one reason it adapts so well to screen; because there are no thoughts to try to figure out how to show or things being left out because they are only thoughts. But it's also hard to draw conclusions because you can't tell for sure what's going on inside minds unless they're verbalized.

So the main characters, Lennie and George are together. Lennie is a really big guy and is mentally slow. George looks after him. You don't find out why they are always together for awhile, which was a bit curiosity for me. And it's interesting, because it was George realizing the depth of Lennie's capacity to understand and his own cruelty towards him before this epiphany that causes him to decide he will take care of Lennie and make sure he's all right. But then something happens and George can no longer do that. In that time (Great Depression era), mental illness was handled in a much different way and many times people who were institutionalized were not treated well. And also, the man who wanted revenge on Lennie was really bent on torture. Something Lennie would have no understanding of. He knew he had done something bad, but he had no comprehension REALLY about what had happened and he wouldn't have connected his actions with cruel punishment. So in that sense I can understand George's ultimate choice. But I still wish there had been a better way.

I tried to find more explanation for this book online, and didn't come up with a whole lot. The purpose was just to show the hard times and the injustice of some people's lives. There wasn't anything about Steinbeck protesting the treatment of mentally ill people, but it could certainly be perceived as that as well.

I gave it 3 stars, but truthfully, I give it a solid 3.5. I just didn't enjoy it enough to bump it up to 4.

Drawing the Ocean, Carolyn McCullough

This was for the 2016 Reading Challenge A Book with a Blue Cover.

Honestly, I just roamed the YA novel section looking for a short blue covered book that looked interesting.

I give this book 2.5 stars. It just felt so stagnate. It was enjoyable, I had no trouble being motivated to read more. There was a little more swearing that I like. There was a nonchalance about drug use (recreational) that I didn't appreciate. The main character was likeable enough and she makes some critical right decisions towards the end, but I just felt like it was just following this girl around.

Her twin brother died, you don't know how at the beginning, which helps with the intrigue a little. She's moved across the country, her parents are a little quirky (and a little clueless). She meets kids from her new school who run in different crowds at different times and then has to decide where she wants to fit in. The one gem of wisdom I got from this book was something Sadie's mom told her about her new boyfriend "Just make sure you like who you are when you're with him." And I think that can be true for any relationship or friendship, you really should like who you are when you're with people, otherwise maybe you shouldn't be around them to begin with.

Still Life, Inspector Gamache #1, Loise Penny

This was for the 2016 Challenge "Murder Mystery". One of my FB friends recommended it (said the community reminded her of Stars Hallow and I was hooked).

Lucky for me it was also available right away on Overdrive for my kindle.

I really enjoyed this! It's been awhile since I read it, so it's not fresh in my mind anymore, but I remember being quite impressed with Inspector Gamache and his intuition and observation skills. I also found some incredibly profound thoughts about life through some of the other characters. For instance, the idea that "life is loss" and once we accept that, loss doesn't debilitate us as much. I highlighted a ton of stuff, but since my kindle updated I haven't figured out where all of my "clips" are....

Anyhow, one of the only TV shows I've gotten into since Gilmore Girls is Castle and it just ended last spring. Castle is a murder mystery writer who ends up finding his muse in one of NYPD's finest female homicide detectives after being brought on to consult on a case with a copycat murder from one of his books and since it gives the PD really good PR, Castle is granted permission to tag along indefinitely. So pretty much every episode is a murder that needs to be solved. We got better at figuring out how to pin the guilty one day as the seasons progressed. But I always loved how they planted seeds of doubt about nearly everyone involved. This was the case with Still Life. I had hunches, many of them, but Penny keeps you guessing by giving you only just enough information until the big reveal. And I loved having that process again. Sometimes I get worried with murder mysteries because they can get gruesome, but this book didn't get gory or anything. It was perfect comfort level, which characters you care about outside of their role in the story line.

The one girl...what was her name...the greenie helper detective, her last name was Nichole...anyway she was the WORST. I don't think you can get a person more dense than her. There are more books with Inspector Gamache, and while they don't need to be read in order, each one can be a stand alone book, I understand there is a character development arc that would be noticed if you read them in order. So I wonder what will happen with this particular character. I can't believe that Penny would introduce someone so antagonistic in the first book and then abandon her all together, especially when she went through all the trouble to give her backstory and tidbits of information even the character doesn't know.

The one thing that was a little confusing is that sometimes characters (detective primarily) would be referred to their last name, but in other instances referred to by their first names, so sometimes I got confused about who was who because I hadn't linked first and last names together very solidly.

I gave this one 4 solid stars.