The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom

I loved this book!
It is the story of Lavania and the family that she has created for herself. The story opens with Lavania being deposited at the kitchen house by the Captain. Lavania is a frightened and deeply disoriented little girl whose parents have both died on the Captain's ship as it crossed the Atlantic. Her older brother was sold into indentured servitude and the Captain didn't know what to do with her so she was given to the slaves at the kitchen on his plantation.

What a lucky turn of events for Lavania!

Through Belle and Big Mamma, two of the kitchen slaves, Lavania slowly comes to her senses and begins to grow -to blossom. We find out about the terrible disfunction of this plantation where the Captain is away for long periods of time and his wife is too doped up on Opium to be sensible. The slaves are run by a horrible overseer - sounds a little stereotypical - but probably true too.

This is a window into the world of a plantation through the eyes of a scared, lonely girl who slowly grows into a beautiful colorblind woman. Being colorblind in the south before the civil war is not always an easy thing - as Lavania learns again and again.

The only part of this book I didn't like was the beginning. The book opens with a scene that actually takes place much later in the story. It made me dread that moment and jump to conclusions about it. I'm sure that is what Grissom wanted - but it really took away from the story for me. I actually stopped reading for a day because I didn't want it to happen. And then I felt a bit manipulated.

But - aside from that I would strongly recommend this! I read it right after The Help. Interesting to have those two stories back to back in my head...the South from long ago and not so long ago with many of the same issues still there...

Read it!

I am embarrassed

After all these years of reading I look forward LONGINGLY to the summer when I have time to read. This year I had the time and I simply didn't do it. Can you believe it??
And the books that I did read I didn't blog about.
I am ashamed and embarrassed.

So - I am turning over a new leaf!
Seriously I have enough changes to make I should actually be turning over a whole tree...
But, I will start with a leaf.

I am going to write short summaries of the books I have read...I don't want to forget anything.

And then I will do better!!!!

Promise!!

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua

This is the April book for our book club. It was not one of my favorites - but it has to the potential to be a book full of discussion spots.

The premise: Amy Chua has two daughters and she has determined they will be raised as good Chinese daughters because she is the perfect Chinese mother. That means she bullies, screams, pesters, sacrifices, prods and accepts nothing less than absolute PERFECTION!

Her husband is only a shadow in this story, but he has given his wife full control of this part of their life and my goodness she takes over. Sophia, the older of the girls is molded into a piano prodigy. Lulu the younger is molded into a violinist extraordinare. At least that is the plan...

Lulu does not take kindly to this plan. Slowly she becomes a formidable opponent for her mother's zealous mothering. The battle brews throughout the story and explodes. There is an interesting ending...one that I won't give away.

What do I think...

I have been a teacher for my entire adult life. I have rubbed up against many different types of parents - all of them "Western" parents. I could not quantify them in a few sentences or a generalize what they are. Amy does this continuously throughout the book. She constantly explains what 'western' parents would do rather than the wonderful "Chinese mother' method. I HATED THAT!!! This entire book is a stereotype! Earlier I called Amy zealous, but that is being generous to mom...she is so far beyond that I can't really quantify her. This description makes me want to assume that all Chinese Mother's are Tiger Moms. But based on my teacher past I am sure that is not true!! ARGH!!! That is exactly what I hate about what she did.

So what did I get from the story...A push to understand again that parenting is an extremely personal task which most of us fail miserably at and yet we end up with INCREDIBLE kids. We try our best with our abilities and our stereotypes, and our kids are both the guinea pigs and unknown element.

And that brings me to the other reminder for me as a teacher... I sometimes assume I know what the parenting is like in a family. But, I can't. The parent can do exactly the same thing with tremendously different results!!

Finally - I am SO pleased I didn't grow up in a family like this. I don't think I would have survived!!!

So...I would say this is the kind of book you can ask someone else to describe to you, or check it out at a library...save your money and borrow my copy!

Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo

Heaven. 4 year old boy. Heaven.
Not necessarily a combination you expect. But, that is exactly what this story is... a little boy with a terrible appendicitis and an experience that has changed the lives of many adults.

The book is written by Colton's dad, a minister from Nebraska, several years after the actual experience. So - it travels forward and backward throughout the book. Basically, Colton has a heavenly experience when he is in the hospital following a ruptured appendix. He meets his grandfather, his older sister (a miscarriage) and many people who aren't old and don't have glasses (that isn't allowed in heaven.)

Colton drops these details slowly over several years sort of out of the blue. He is completely convincing. He describes things that most 4 year olds wouldn't know or understand...rainbows around God's throne, Jesus' sash and other details. And, it's a place he really wants to return to...in fact, when reminded that he is NOT to run out in the street because he could be killed he seems a bit excited because that would get him back to Heaven.

This is a book that reads very quickly. I had chills many, many times as I followed the story. Colton paints a picture of heaven that I want to join. A picture of a God that is HUGE and full of love and wants us to be there! It is also a book that challenges the reader to question exactly what we believe and expect. What is heaven - really.

In Colton's words - heaven is for real...maybe that is enough!

Chaos Walking Trilogy by Patrick Ness

War and love and noise and teenage angst and aliens and weapons and unity and terrorism and leaders and death and love and...

That is the world of Todd and Viola - two teenagers struggling to stay alive, ward off a world war and greet a new spaceship of pioneers. Their story begins in a Todd's world - a world of men whose noise (thoughts) is heard by everyone at all times. As Todd nears his life changing 14th birthday in Prentisstown in which he will become a man - he meets Viola lost and mute in the swamps - the first and only girl he has ever met. And their journey begins. A journey that takes them across a planet poised for war between the Ask (men) and the Answer (women). Each is lead by a neurotic leader so focused on winning an ongoing war that neither is above destroying the entire planet if that's what it takes. This includes terriost attacks (Answer) and mind control(Ask) and the natives (Spackle) becoming not just restless but violent and full of revenge for the horrible treatment of a small group.

Ness creates a world that I absolutely HATED!! It is a dark and scary world where no one is to be trusted even though you can read half the populations mind all the time. I was sick of the Mayor and the Mistress and their lies and twisted dealings with this very young couple. I considered quitting reading this more than once. In fact I absolutely was not going to read the third book. I was so mad at the end of the second I was not going on.But -then there is Todd and Viola. They turn everything on it's head. They are innocent and guileless and helpless and naive and sweet and in love. I wanted to know if they make it - if they can stay alive long enough to force the idiot adults back from the brink of mutual annihilation.

This is also a story of the bleakness of war. It was hard to read parts of it as a pacifist. The decisions that both the Ask and Answer were hard for me to comprehend. The war was the end for both of them and no end of pain, humiliation and destruction were off limits.

And then I got to the end...I can't say anything because I don't want to give it away...
but OH MY GOODNESS!!!!

House Rules by Jodi Picoult

Picoult continues to provide something to think and think and think about. How does she do that??

This was our March book club book and I am just finishing it right now...I know a little slow, but it was well worth it!

This is the story of Jacob, his mother Emma and his younger brother Theo. It is also the story of how a family copes with an all-consuming, life altering, diagnosis. Jacob has Asperger's. He is brilliant and unable to connect, obsessed and childlike all at the precise moment. His meltdowns span of shirts with buttons and eating the wrong colored food on a specific day and have torn apart his family. Mom is ultra-focused on Jacob and Theo breaks into 'normal' family houses.

Into this mix come Jess Oglivy. She is Jacob's social skills tutor and the object of Jacob's love. She is also found dead in a culvert behind the house she was staying in wrapped in Jacob's quilt.

I do have to say I had this figured out way before the end - I think Picoult wanted you do to that though. The purpose of the book was not figuring out what happened to Jess - instead it was figuring out what happens to a family who suspects one of their own. The story is about the trial of Jacob for Jess's murder.

How does a parent who has forfeited her life handle the idea her son may be a murderer? What about the father who deserted them? How does the legal system deal with an man with Asperger's on the stand - one who needs sensory breaks and can't stand loose hair around a woman's shoulder or the sound and sight of a crumpled paper?

In typical Picoult fashion the reader is drawn into a world too painful to really understand, one where surprising moments of pure joy and peace appear and the bad guys are not always the bad guys.

I loved it!!! Read it!

Sarah's Quilt and Sarah's Star Garden by Nancy Turner

Due to some health issues I've been spending a lot of time reading this past week - and having a couple of good books certainly helped pass the time quickly. My book club read These is My Words by Nancy Turner in the past year. These are the next two installments to Sarah Prine's life in the Arizona territories of the early 190s.

These are good books - full of excitement, pioneer vim and vigor and the impossibilities life. They are also rather predictable. But, that predictability is not ridiculous - more like what you expect when you turn on an old western.

Sarah and her family are stuck on the edge of the Mexican/Arizona desert - trying to make a living on a drought stricken ranch with too many mouths to feed and not enough rain. In the midst of this drought her Mexican neighbor gets a bit too big for his britches and tries everything to rid the countryside of her family.

The books are filled with family lives and goings on, with the day to day hardships of living and trying not to die. You really care about them. You want to see them succeed, you want to see them live.

So, I liked them and am glad I read them - but they aren't as good as the first book though...in fact they get a bit long on Sarah's descriptions and the longing for something she can't quite find...and of course it's right in front of her nose. I also really hate the titles...all three titles are not particularly enticing.