Book Review: All the Pretty Things

All the Pretty Things: The Story of a Southern Girl Who Went through Fire to Find Her Way Home by Edie Wadsworth

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I used to follow author Edie Wadworth’s blog years ago. I was drawn to her quick wit and beautifully decorated home. To this reader, fellow homeschooling mama Edie Wadsworth was intimidatingly perfect: gorgeous, smart, wealthy, and so talented.

After reading her memoir, I’m blown away by the “real” Edie, or rather, what it took for Edie to travel the path from always-hungry little girl to the redeemed but still struggling adult. Her story (as well as her sister's and cousin's) is a tribute to how kids can rise above their circumstances. And rise she did.

Edie Wadsworth is a class act. She is positively loaded with grit and determination, with a healthy helping of honesty, grace, and kindness. She’s the real thing. A lot of reviewers criticize her adoration of her father. I get that—it is hard to imagine idolizing such a deadbeat dad. But the bonds between daughters and fathers are strong. We readers just don’t see her father as she did. We don’t quite get how charismatic he must have been. He just seems sad. The real hero in this story, of course, is Edie’s mom. She worked unbelievably hard to raise and support three kids on her own. Her memoir would be truly compelling, no doubt.

This isn’t exactly a beautifully written memoir, thus my rating of actually 3.5 (3 for writing, 4 for storytelling). It’s a little choppy and stumbles around a bit, but the story is powerful and you can’t help but want to high five Edie for rising out of the ashes.



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Book Review: The Alice Network

The Alice Network by Kate Quinn

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Eve and Charlie: two women, a generation apart, both suffering from tremendous loss after World Wars— WWI for Eve, WWII for Charlie. The chapters alternate between the two stories, but they are connected early in the novel.

Eve was a spy during WWI, part of a real life group of women spies known as The Alice Network. These women, led by Louise de Bettignies, risked (and many lost) their lives for their country as they led double lives to uncover classified information. When we meet Eve, she is an angry alcoholic, nearly 30 years after her stint as a spy. She reveals her story to Charlie throughout the course of the book.

Charlie is a 20-year-old pregnant college drop-out. It’s 1947, just after WWII, and her parents fly her to Paris so she can get rid of her “Little Problem.” She ditches her mother, however, so she can search for her missing cousin, Rose, who disappeared in Nazi-occupied France during the war. Charlie’s only clue to Rose’s whereabouts is the name Evelyn Gardiner, which leads her to Eve.

Eve appears to be a brusque, unpleasant old woman, but Charlie needs her help in finding Rose. Charlie rekindles something in Eve: a desire for revenge. They set off together, with Eve’s driver, Finn, in search of their separate stories.

I loved this novel once I got into it (although that took a long time, so keep reading). The alternating narratives were a bit confusing at first, and I kept questioning Charlie’s story; but once I immersed myself in the novel, I got through it quickly. Charlie’s narrative wasn’t nearly as compelling as Eve’s—sometimes it was quite annoying—but it got much better in the second half of the novel. I ended up really loving Charlie’s story, too.

Eve’s story is incredible. I’d love to see the women of the Alice Network portrayed in a movie. These women were the epitome of undaunted courage. What amazing bravery! I am inspired to read more about the Queen of the Spies and her entourage.




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Book Review: Educated

Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Phew. What a memoir!

First, let me say that I read this book with a bit of trepidation because I am a homeschooling parent, and this book is widely described as being about a girl who was homeschooled by survivalist parents. As most reviews emphasize, however, Tara was certainly not offered a "normal" homeschooling experience. In an interview with NPR, she says "there was not a lot of school taking place. We had books, and occasionally we would be kind of sent to read them. But for example, I was the youngest child, and I never took an exam, or I never wrote an essay for my mother that she read or nothing like kind of getting everyone together and having anything like a lecture. So it was a lot more kind of if you wanted to read a book, you could, but you certainly weren't going to be made to do that."

I quickly realized, however, that this book has little to do with academic education, with whether Tara should have been sent to public school or not. This book is about Tara's education as a human being, as a part of the world outside of her family.

Tara's parents were paranoid survivalists who completely manipulated and controlled her world (and that of her siblings). She had no access to reading material other than Mormon texts and the Bible. No newspapers, no history books, no television. Whatever her parents told her, was her reality. She believed entirely that the government was coming for them, that the world was close to ending, that everyone besides her family was hellbound. She believed that she was dirty, dumb, and a whore. She believed that the medical community was a pit of vipers. She believed it was her duty to cater to her father's every whim and, later, to her brother's. She believed she was worthless.

And yet she had something inside of her, a spark of brilliance and determination that even her father's cruelty, her mother's denial, and her brother's brutality could not keep down. Tara is not just a survivor but a victor. She overcame a horrific childhood full of danger, of physical, and emotional abuse (though she does contend that she had happy moments) to earn a PhD from Harvard. Her real education, though, comes as she begins to see the world through a different lens than her father's. Her real education comes when she sheds her former self, piece by painful piece, to discover not just who Tara is, but who this world is, and who Tara is in the world.

In some ways this memoir reminded me of The Glass Castle, but it is not as beautifully written as Walls' memoir. Walls was more than a decade older than Westover when she wrote her amazing memoir, and I suspect Westover's memoir has more of a raw, open wound feeling because of her proximity to her childhood.

I left this novel feeling sad and disheartened because I know there are so many children in our country who are raised on hate and fear, and so many of them don't have the willpower that Tara had to separate herself from them. And the cycle continues.

Happy for Tara that she climbed out of the pit, and hopeful that she may inspire others to do the same.



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Book Review: Hannah Coulter

Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“Love is what carries you, for it is always there, even in the dark, or most in the dark, but shining out at times like gold stitches in a piece of embroidery.”

This is Hannah Coulter’s story, an ordinary woman who loves, loses, loves again, and loses again, gathering moments and memories along the way. Now in her seventies, she sifts through her life, taking out scenes and examining them, caressing them, sometimes finding joy and sometimes sadness, and then piecing them together.

Wendell Berry understands connection—the connection people have with each other and with the land. He understands the yearnings of the soul; the tender, quiet, beautify, ordinarily moments; the depth of love and feeling. Hannah is connected to a place—to the village of Port William, Kentucky—and to her farm there. (This is one of several novels that take place in Port William.) And she’s connected to people, both living and dead.

Berry's simple, poetic prose brought me to streaming-down-my-face tears—and that rarely happens to me while reading. Or at all, really. I was actually sobbing at the simple beauty of his words and the depth of his understanding. I felt mournful and yet optimistic, and incredibly grateful.

Absolutely one of my favorite books ever for its sheer loveliness and poignancy. I feel better for having read it, more cognizant of the small beauties of an ordinary life.



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Book Review: The Sleepwalker

The Sleepwalker by Chris Bohjalian

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The story: Beautiful Annalee Ahlberg is missing and presumed dead. She has a history of serious sleepwalking—sleepwalking during which she does bizarre and disturbing things of which she is unaware the next day. Her family assumes that she has walked off the bridge into the river while sleepwalking. Lianna stays home from college to care for her younger sister and their father. They are all lost, waiting for a body to turn up, waiting to find out what has really happened to Annalee. During the investigation, Lianna falls in love with the detective, and we begin to wonder if Gavin, who also suffers from sleepwalking, might know more about Annalee than he should.

Me: Chris Bohjalian is a masterful storyteller. There is absolutely no question, NONE, that he writes exquisitely. He is a wordsmith of the highest caliber. In fact, as I write this, I have to change my 3-star rating to a 4-star rating simply because Bohjalian deserves a minimum of 4 stars no matter what he writes. But the story itself is still just a 3-star for me. I liked the characters in this novel: the motherless sisters, the despondent widower, and the detective, Gavin. I was interested in learning the science behind sleepwalking. But, frankly, I just couldn't embrace the whole sleepwalking plot, which plays into the ending of the novel is a surprising way—and one that didn't feel satisfying to me. I love Bohjalian's writing, but I much prefer The Buffalo Soldier, Skeletons at the Feast, and The Double Bind. He's simply brilliant!



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Book Review: The Couple Next Door

The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Honestly, this is one of those guilty pleasure books. It's full of plot twists, plastic characters, and things that would never happen in real life, but lately my brain seems to crave absolute, unequivocally dramatic fiction. There's a kidnapped baby, a mom with postpartum depression, multimillionaire grandparents, and a husband from the other side of the tracks. Also: a neighbor named Cynthia, sharp knives, and hidden cell phones.

I gave it 4 stars because it was exactly the book I needed at the moment, not because it's a work of literary genius. This is what I think of as an "in-between" book—a cushion between more thought-provoking books. Fun, fast, and somehow quite satisfying.



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