Book Review: Under the Banner of Heaven

December 23, 2006

Somehow I missed writing a review of this book by Jon Krakauer back in the summer. Of course this review isn't fresh since it's been several months since I read the book, but it was rivetting. The primary story that Krakauer tells involves the grisly murders of a young mother and her child by two brothers who believe that God ordered them to commit the murders. The deeper story is of the shadowy world of Mormon fundamentalism, which is all too often mistaken for the LDS church. While the LDS Church declared polygamy illegal in 1890, fundamentalists considered this apostasy and broke off to live a more "righteous" life. Fundamentalist sects headed to secluded areas in Colorado, Mexico, the northwest, and Canada to form communities of polygamists that still exist today (and make national news once or twice a year). This is a bone-chilling book for the crime aspect, and an excellent portrayal of the strange world of the polygamist communities.

The Year in Books: My Book Rankings for 2006

December 20, 2006

I think I hit a five-year-low this year with only 38 books—less than one book per week. I should include the dozen or more Young Adult read-alouds to make the list heftier, but somehow that feels like cheating.

I was really fascinated to see that all 5 nonfiction books that I read this year made it easily into the Top 10 list. In fact, I think that those were, indeed, my Top 5 favorite books. I always think that I really have to be in the mood to read nonfiction, and yet just the right nonfiction book can be absolutely spectacular and terribly memorable.

Out of my list of 44 books that I made last January, I read only 14. The rest of the books I picked up by recommendation either from friends, the Sonlight “Bibliovore” forum, or because the author was one I’d enjoyed previously. I'm missing a few reviews, but for most of the books, you can click on the title for a review. And so, without further rambling, my Year’s Best and Worst:

The Top 10
• Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life (by Amy Krouse Rosenthal)
• Eats, Shoots and Leaves (by Lynne Truss)
• The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother
• Under the Banner of Heaven (by Jon Krakauer)
• Crunchy Cons: How Birkenstocked Burkeans, gun-loving organic gardeners, evangelical free-range farmers, hip homeschooling mamas, right-wing nature lovers, and their diverse tribe of countercultural conservatives plan to save America (or at least the Republican Party)(by Rod Dreher)
• The Memory Keeper's Daughter (by Kim Edwards)
• Bel Canto (by Ann Patchett)
• Celia's House (by D.E. Stevenson)
• Brave Enemies (Robert Morgan)
• Storming Heaven (by Denise Giardina)

Very Enjoyable Books
• The Solace of Leaving Early (Haven Kimmel)
• Life of Pi (by Yann Martel)
• The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (by A. McCall Smith)
• Tears of the Giraffe (Ladies #1 Detective series, Book 2)
• Morality of Beautiful Girls (Ladies #1 series, Book 3)
• The Kalahari Typing School for Men (Alexander McCall Smith
• The Full Cupboard of Life (McCall Smith)
• In the Company of Cheerful Ladies (McCall Smith)
• Blue Shoes and Happiness (by Alexander McCall Smith)
• Portrait in Sepia (by Isabel Allende)
• Lucia, Lucia (Adriana Trigiani)
• Milk Glass Moon(Adriana Trigiani)
• The Songcatcher (by Sharyn McCrumb)
• Ghost Riders (by Sharyn McCrumb)
• New Stories from the South, 2005

Marginally Making the List
• Deception Point(by Dan Brown)
• Digital Fortress (by Dan Brown)
• 44 Scotland Steet (by Alexander McCall-Smith)
• Portuguese Irregular Verbs (by Alexander McCall Smith)
• The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs (by A. McCall Smith)
• At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances (by McCall Smith)
• Sarah's Quilt(by Nancy Turner)
• Monster (by Frank Peretti)

Books Which I Experienced the “Why-Did-I-Read-This-Book?”-Syndrome After Reading
• Unspoken (by Angela Hunt)
• Miss Julia Hits the Road (by Ann Ross)
• A Wedding in December (by Anita Shreve)
• Even Now (by Karen Kingsbury)
• Fall on Your Knees (by Ann-Marie MacDonald)

Book Review: The Color of Water

December 17, 2006

The Color of Water by James McBride, subtitled "A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother," is a double memoir, telling both the story of the author's mother and of his own life growing up in an interracial family. The author's mother, Ruth McBride Jordan (nee Rachel Shilsky), was born a Polish Jew whose father was a strict and cruel Orthodox rabbi. The family ultimately landed in rural Virginia in the 1930s, where they were despised and rejected as Jews. Her father was emotionally abusive and kept the family in a constant state of misery. Eventually Ruth ran away to New York City and found love and acceptance among Harlem's black community. When she married a black man in the early 1940s, her Jewish family said kaddish and sat shiva. She wasn't even allowed to go to the hospital when word came that her mother was dying. Ultimately Ruth left her Jewish roots completely behind and became a Christian and, with her first husband, founded an all black Baptist church. The author is the eighth of Ruth's 12 children--all of whom graduated from college and went on to become doctors, lawyers, teachers, social workers, journalists, etc.--and none of whom knew more than a smidgen about their mother's past until James began working on this book. This is a beautifully written book, switching between the author's voice and his mother's, creating a vivid picture both of Ruth's struggle with being rejected both as a young Jewish girl and as a white woman in a black world, and of the author's own struggles with having a white mother.

Book Review: Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life

December 8, 2006

I am sad, so sad, that I have finished this book by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. This is the kind of book that inspires me to write. I know it's not fair to her because she does have other books, but I want to read nothing else by Rosenthal, because I don't think any of her other works could possibly live up to this. The book is Rosenthal's own odd encyclopedia--one that anyone who grew up in the 70s and 80s can identify with. As she explains in the foreward, "I was not abused, abandoned, or locked up as a child. My parents were not alcoholics, nor were they ever divorced or dead. I am not a misunderstood genius, a former child celebrity, or the child of a celebrity. I am not a drug addict...or recovered anything....I have not survived against all odds. I have not lived to tell. I have not witnessed the extraordinary. This is my story."

From there, the book is a collections of thoughts and events in one woman's life. Under "B," for example, you'll find thoughts on Birthdays; Bowling; Brodsky, Joseph; and Busy (to name a few). Here's part of the entry for "Busy": How you been? Busy. How's work? Busy. How was your week? Good. Busy. You name the question. "Busy" is the answer. Yes, yes, I know we are all terribly busy doing terribly important things. But I think more often than not, "Busy" is simply the most acceptable knee-jerk response....

I remember years ago my friend Lauren was reading Carrie Fisher's Postcards from the Edge, and she kept laughing and underlining things, taking notes. That's how I was with this book. It is weird to me that Amy Rosenthal and I have utterly different day-to-day lives merely in that I am a really ordinary person and she is a best-selling author--not to mention the dozens of other differences--and yet I found myself constantly amazed that her observations ring so close to mine. Amy Rosenthal might add this as an entry to her book:
Pet Peeve: I find it annoying when people share favorite quotes from books. Why don't people understand that quotes are only meaningful to the reader herself?

Nonetheless, I am sharing a few of my favorite entries:
Dessert
My kids keep asking me at dessert time, Mom, can I have this little sack of Skittles and this piece of gum? or (looking through their Halloween loot) How about this mini Baby Ruth and a candy cane? I take a quick look at the items they are holding up in their hands and, without hesitation, assess the inventory and respond accordingly, You can have half the candy cane and the mini Baby Ruth. They accept my arbitrary ruling as gospel, as if it stems from some great unwavering truth.

Sign, Bathroom
I saw a sign in a public restroom that said PLEASE DO NOT FLUSH EXCESSIVE AMOUNTS OF TOILET PAPER OR SHOES DOWN THE TOILET. THANK YOU. I so want to meet the person who flushed a shoe down the toilet, and made a sign like this necessary.

Wreck (excerpt)
...Back in the days when children were allowed to sit in the front seat, I used to tease my mom that throwing her arm out in front of me when she had to abruptly stop the car wouldn't do squat. Nonethelss, there would go her arm, landing an inch from my face at about chin level. Of course, not I understand; in fact, that's pretty much how I'd like to escort my kids through the world, with my arm extended, shielding them, lifting it only when I am sure the coast is clear. ...

You
Perhaps you think I didn't matter because I lived ____ years ago, and back then life wasn't as lifelike as it is to you now.....But I was here. And I did things. I shopped for groceries. I stubbed my toe. I danced at a party in college and my dress spun around. I hugged my mother and father and hoped they would never die. I pulled change from my pocket. I wrote my name with my finger on a cold, fogged-up window. I used a dictionary. I had babies. I smelled someone barbecuing down the street. ... I picked a scab. I wished I was older. I wished I was younger. I loved my children....I chewed on a blade of grass. I was here, you see. I was.

When I was a college senior, I did an independent course on Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. For months afterwards, everything I wrote and often even the way I spoke sounded like Vonnegut. I am afraid I am going to be thinking and speaking in Rosenthal for weeks to come. Her voice is that strong. This is probably the best book I've read this year, maybe even beating out Eats, Shoots and Leaves. [I'd feel amiss if I didn't issue an occasional strong-language warning with the book; the first few pages ("Orientation Almanac") are the worst.]

Book Review: Miss Julia Hits the Road

December 6, 2006

This book by Ann Ross is another that leaves me wondering, "Why did I just spend nearly a week reading this book?" I read the first in the Miss Julia series a couple of years ago and enjoyed it; however, this one I could have (should have) closed in the middle and lived happily ever after. I will cross the Miss Julia books off of my future reading lists.

Book Review: Blue Shoes and Happiness

November 25, 2006

Like all the books in Alexander McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, this newest is wonderful. These books just sort of radiate warmth and goodness. I want to go to Botswana and meet Mma Ramotswe. I was actually thinking just the other day, "Could we go on sabbatical to Botswana?" Skip Anita Shreve; read Alexander McCall Smith.

Book Review: A Wedding in December

November 25, 2006

I don't know why I read books like this --I really don't! I've read a few Anita Shreve books, and they're all basically the same: depressing and completely unenlightening. This one is like spending time with people you wouldn't have really liked in high school who meet again after 25 years, and you like them even less.

Book Review: Bel Canto

November 11, 2006

In this novel by Ann Patchett, terrorists in a South American country storm a birthday dinner in search of the country's president. Instead of the president, they take hostage a group of 38 businessmen and diplomats from various countries, a famous opera singer whom everyone is in love with, and a translator. Over the course of several months, hostages and terrorists live together in their own world, forgetting the outside world and at times wishing that captivity would last forever. An excellent read. I'm adding Patchett's other novels to my reading list!

Book Review: The Memory Keeper's Daughter

November 5, 2006

My friend Caroline told me she had an absolutely wonderful book for me to read and gave me 6 days in which to read it before she had to return it to her sister. Now, 6 days doesn't seem an unreasonable amount of time to read a book, but lately I seem to have developed narcolepsy, and I usually manage about 10 pages per night. But The Memory Keeper's Daughter (by Kim Edwards) definitely kept me awake and mesmerized. This is the story of a doctor who delivers his own twins on a winter night. His firstborn, a son, is perfectly healthy, but the girl is born with Down's syndrome. Neither he nor his wife knew that they were expecting twins, and he makes a split-second decision to "spare" his wife by giving the baby girl to the nurse. And the story goes from there...(and yes, I finished it in 6 days!)

Book Review: The Portuguese Irregular Verbs series

October 18, 2006


I have finally, finally finished reading this series of incredibly short novels by Alexander McCall Smith which includes Portuguese Irregular Verbs, The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs, and At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances. I don't know why it took me so long to get through these books. I guess I'd have to say that, as much as I like McCall Smith, these books just weren't riveting enough to keep me from falling asleep during my allotted evening reading time. The middle one was definitely the best and had some hilarious, laugh-outloud scenes; but on the whole, I just couldn't quite bond with a German professor of philology as much as I could Mme Ramotswe in the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series.

Book Review: Celia's House

September 27, 2006


Back in January when I compiled my annual "Books to Read" list, Tia suggested this book by D. E. Stevenson. I believe she said that the book was the inspiration for naming her daughter Celia (and I know she'll put me straight if I'm recalling that mistakenly). And she is so right. This is an absolutely wonderful book (please ignore the sappy cover on the amazon.com link--it makes the book look like a cheesy romance novel, which it is not). It's been a long time since I've read something so darn happy (but not happy in a goofy sort of way). I used to read novels like this all the time but have drifted toward more contemporary works in the past decade. This was a happy return, and I know I'll check out more of Stevenson's novels. Thanks, Tia!

Book Review: A Murder for Her Majesty

September 14, 2006

This book by Beth Hilgartner is our first Sonlight 7 (World History, Part 2) read-aloud, and, as usual with Sonlight's reading list, was phenomenal. This was one of those many books that the kids screamed, "NO! Read more!" when I finished a chapter and closed the book. The story takes place during the Elizabethan era in York and centers on a young girl who, having witnessed the murder of her father, flees to York and ends up disguised as a boy in the cathedral choir. The mystery itself is surrounded by details of life in York during this time period. I love starting the year off with a book like this; it leaves the kids hungry for the next one.

Book Review: Portrait in Sepia

September 11, 2006

Portrait in Sepia is the third book by Isabel Allende that spans a few generations of a Chilean family. (Apparently and unknowingly, I skipped over the middle book, House of Spirits, but I did read the first one, Daughter of Fortune. I didn't know that I was reading a continuation of Daughter of Fortune when I picked this up; I just had Allende on my "to-read" list. I wish I'd read the middle book before this one.) Allende is an excellent writer. Her characters are extremely well-formed and compelling. Some of the subject matter is tough at times, but the whole time period is fascinating to me. I know very little about Chilean history or about the experience of Chilean immigrants in California in the 1800s, so the book intrigued me from a historical perspective as well. I will go back and read the middle one for sure.

Book Review: 44 Scotland Street

September 11, 2006

I think I would enjoy anything by Alexander McCall-Smith. While waiting for the first book in his Sunday Philosophy Club series to come available at our library, I picked up 44 Scotland Street. This is very different than the Ladies' No. 1 Detective Series, but very enjoyable. I absolutely liked the Ladies' No. 1 series better, but I did find the characters in 44 Scotland Street very compelling and funny. I had a funny dream during the weekend in which I was reading this book. In the dream I was accused of being an intellectual snob, and I totally attribute this dream to a character in the book, who forces her 5-year-old son to learn Italian and play the saxophone because she considers him an intellectual genius. I look forward to reading the next one in the series, Espresso Cafe (I think), to find out what happens with this child prodigy and his horrible mother!

Book Review: Unspoken

August 28, 2006

Hmmm. I'm not sure how to review this particular book by Angela Hunt. The story reminds me vaguely of Peretti's Monster, although Hunt is a better storyteller and a more believable writer. The story is interesting: a gorilla expert has raised a gorilla from babyhood, teaching her to be fluent in sign language. The gorilla must eventually be returned to the zoo. Ultimately, the gorilla teaches her owner about God. Sounds weird, I know, but it was rather intriguing. Anyway, this is a fast, light read, good for filler between more substantial books.

Book Review: Fall on Your Knees

August 22, 2006

An amazon.com reviewer likened this book by Ann-Marie MacDonald to a car accident, in which you know you shouldn't gawk but just can't help yourself. I should have stopped gawking a week ago. This was a painful epic about a completely dysfunctional Nova Scotian family in the early 1900s. The writing in itself was excellent and the characters compelling in a train-wreck sort of way, but I closed the book last night wondering what possessed me to wast a week's worth of reading on these horribly depressing lives. Double thumbs down.

Book Review: Ghost Riders

August 7, 2006

Ghost Riders is yet another Sharyn McCrumb novel that weaves a historical account of Appalachia in with a telling of a current fiction tale. These novels stand on their own, although the same characters appear in most of them. I've been reading McCrumb's novels since She Walks These Hills (which I think is the best) and always enjoy them. (I don't particularly care for her MacPherson detective series, however.)

Book Review: The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane

August 5, 2006

This is a wonderful combination of The Velveteen Rabbit and Hitty, Her First Hundred Years. This is the story of a china rabbit, Edward, who goes through a series of trials with various owners as he learns how to love. There is quite a lot of sadness in the book, if you have a sensitive child, and a lot of hard, depression-era reality. Duncan and Laurel were enthralled with the story, and I got all teary-eyed at the end. That's the sign of a great read-aloud for me.

Book Review: Sarah's Quilt

July 31, 2006

This book is a sequel to Nancy Turner's These Is My Words , which I read 4 or 5 years ago. I remember absolutely loving the first book; however, 4 or 5 years is too long in between books, and I couldn't follow the sequel very well. Too many references were made to the prequel, and I didn't start enjoying the book on its own until the last quarter or so. So,my recommendation would be: read These Is My Words right before you read Sarah's Quilt. I don't know why the book has this title, by the way. It makes it sounds like a corny romance novel when it's actually about life in the Arizona territories in the late 1800s.

Book Review: Hitty: Her First Hundred Years

July 10, 2006


We're finally done! I've been reading this book by Rachel Field outloud to Laurel for months. I can't even remember when we started; it's been so long! We kept losing it, finding it, reading other books in between....but at long last, we're finished.

Laurel says, "I didn't love this book, but it was really good." Hitty traces the life of a handmade wooden doll through 100 years and a dozen or more owners. She travels from Maine to India back to the U.S. and all sorts of places in between. The book presents, through Hitty's eyes, a unique look at culture through several generations. I think much of it was a little bit above Laurel's head (she's 8). I think the book is better suited for 10-12 year olds. This would be great to incorporate into an American History study, 1800s-1930s.