Novels Now

American Widow by Alissa Torres
Art by Choi

Pages: 209
First Published: Sept, 2008
Genre: Graphic Novel, Memoir
Rating: 3/5

First sentence:

The World Trade Center was just hit by a plane! Turn on your TV!

Comments: This is the author’s memoir of the tragedy of her life, becoming a widow on 9/11. Her husband was on his second day at his new job above the 85th floor and she was pregnant with their first child. The book jumps from moment to moment as she learns of his death, hopes that he is alive and missing, finding out he was a jumper, joins victim groups, goes through the bureaucracy of the charity help organizations and remembers past moment with her husband.

The book lacks a cohesive narrative jumping from one event to another and sometimes just showing the author’s grief and emotions rather than telling a story. Of course, this is a depressing and sad story and it is hard to ‘review’ the story of someone’s grief. The author’s emotion and pain is clearly at the centre of this book rather than a story with a plot or characterization. For those interested in the after effects of 9/11 on the families left behind by those who were killed this sad, tragic tale of a woman who survives her grief and starts a new life for her baby, this book will certainly appeal.

We Bought a Zoo: The Amazing True Story of a Young Family, a Broken Down Zoo and the 200 Wild Animals That Change Their Lives Forever by Benjamin Mee

Pages: 261
First Published: Sept, 2008
Genre: memoir
Rating: 2.5/5

First sentence:

Mum and I arrived as the new owners of Dartmoor Wildlife Park in Devon for the first time at around six o’clock on the evening of 20 October 2006, and stepped out of the car to the sound of wolves howling in the misty darkness.

Comments: Benjamin Mee is a journalist living in Southern France with his wife and 2 children, writing DIY articles for a British magazine. One day his sister calls to say she’s found the perfect thing for him, a zoo is for sale in England. Why doesn’t the family by it with the money from their recently deceased father. Ben’s mum, brother and sister all jump on board and so begins the journey of buying a dilapidated zoo full of animals.

At the beginning of the story Ben’s wife has recently been given the all clear after struggling with brain cancer but we soon know that she is not going to make it very far into the book when she has a very bad recurrence.

When I first was interested in reading this book I had sort of imagined a modern day Gerald Durrell and possibly set expectations too high. The book was readable and at time humorous but really didn’t have much substance to it. We’re taken through the whole process from trying to find finances, rebuilding to the first few opening months of the running zoo. There were fun antidotes about the animals and the employees but nowhere near as many as I had expected. Instead there were pages of evolutionary musings which were tedious and Ben’s frequent use of “DIY” irritated me to no end. Didn’t that expression go out with the nineties?

Ben comes across as having a bit of an ego and his observations are always from how they affected him, while I would have enjoyed more of an objective view which brought the other zoo keepers to deeper light as characters. While the book’s title notes “200 Wild Animals” most of the antidotes were about wolves, tigers, pumas and peacocks, with only a few other animals briefly thrown in for variety. I expected a wider variety of animal discussion and more about their characteristics and habits than about there evolution. Just not what I expected, perhaps others will get more out of it than me.

303 pages

Laura Miller

The Magician’s Book is about the author’s experiences with The Chronicles of Narnia. First, as a young student who is offered a copy by her teacher, then as a teenager when she re-reads them and discovers the “hidden” messages that are in the story, and lastly, later on as an adult.
The first time she read these books she was captivated by the story and fell in love with them. When she re-read them as a teenager she felt betrayed by the messages it contained. When she read them again as an adult she finds that she truly does love the story though she doesn’t care for some of the other messages that are present.

I found this book to be very accessible and I enjoyed the author’s writing style. I don’t know if I necessarily agree with all of her conclusions but that was not entirely unexpected. I did enjoy seeing Narnia from a different perspective. I have only read the first two books of The Chronicles of Narnia and only as an adult so I didn’t necessarily have the innocent wonder that a child would have. I am also not a skeptic but a believer. These are two probable reasons why my perceptions are different.
Still, I would recommend this thoughtful book to anyone interested in pondering Narnia.(3/5)

Regina’s Closet: finding my grandmother’s secret journal by Diana M. Raab

Pages: 166
First Published: Sept. 30, 2008
Genre: memoir
Rating: 4.5/5

First sentence:

I was ten years old the morning I found my grandmother dead.

Comments: This is the author’s fascinating memoir of her beloved grandmother who killed herself in 1964. Her own mother comes to visit her and each time she brings some nostalgic memento from the past to pass on to her daughter. One year, she brings a portfolio of typewritten pages which turn out to be the grandmother’s retrospective memoir written some years before the author’s birth. Regina Klein, Jewish, was born in 1903 in Poland and lived through the first world war. Subsequently her family moved to Vienna, then Paris and lived there until the very early days of WWII. They were then fortunate enough to decide to emigrate to the United States before France could be invaded by the Germans.

Actual entries from the journal are used in the book with the author’s comments interspersed throughout adding more detail and information for the reader. Thus aiding in a deeper understanding of this woman. After the journal ends Ms. Raab continues the story of her own birth and the life of Regina, both through the eyes of her childhood self and with the deeper insight of her adult self.

This is a short book, which is a very fast read that includes both photographs and copies of documents as well as a map of the pre-WWI area. This book isn’t about anyone famous or heroic but about a normal, yet very determined, woman and her family and the events of history that lead to that woman taking her own life at the age of sixty-seven for no apparent reason.

This is a truly wonderfully well-written book. The author inserts just enough of herself into the book that it does not overshadow the main story of the grandmother. A beautiful book full of life, death, chaos and how both war and suicide effect families many years after the events themselves. Recommended.

It was just after dark in a lonely reach of the South Pacific. As we sped westward, the ocean floor was a mile below us - or it was supposed to be. Like when microphone feedback suddenly fills an auditorium until you must cover your ears, a deafening shrill exploded through the boat. It seemed to come from everywhere. Then a big jostle. horrible, gouging, scraping chalkboardlike sounds. The twin hulls under us were screaming. John looked at me the way someone in the next seat of an airplane might look if, at forty thousand feet, all the engines just quit. I had never seen him so instantly confused and horrified - then came the great shaking and crash as we bounced more violently between the iron-hard treetops of submerged coral, sharp as butcher knives. Seconds later we slammed full on into the coral reef. Our home, the Emerald Jane, came to a ripping halt, and the great waves of the Pacific exploded around us in a deafening, continuous roar. -From Black Wave, pages 5, 6-

John and Jean Silverwood lived with their four children in Southern California. They seemed to have it all - a beautiful home, comfortable income and lots of friends. But beneath the happy exterior, lay a family in a struggle with addiction and a search for larger meaning in life. They made a decision, which would change their lives, to set sail on the 55 foot catamaran Emerald Jane. For two years, the Silverwood family sailed the high seas, visiting remote islands, running from pirates and seeing some of the world’s most beautiful scenery and wildlife. Their adventure was full of challenges, but it forced them to grow and come together as a family. And then, near the end of the voyage on a velvety dark night, they collided with a coral reef. Black Wave is the story of their survival and how it changed them forever.

This true life adventure is narrated in two parts. In part one, Jean Silverwood describes the shipwreck that threatened their lives, and then looks back to recollect the weeks and months of their voyage. Her story is one of inner meditation - of her children and how they grew up in those two years, and of her marriage which was challenged by John’s alcoholism. She writes with a poetic style that is easy to read. She bares her soul and so the reader feels that they know her.

In part two, John Silverwood takes over the narrative. He reveals the aftermath of their voyage and parallels their story to one which happened in 1855 when a ship called Julia Ann struck the exact same coral reef and sank into the wild Pacific waters. Although the historic tale lends some perspective (and perhaps a link to our shared pasts), it changes the direction of the book to an historic rendering versus a personal family saga. I was much more captivated with Jean’s narration…perhaps because the real story here is less about the wreck and more about a family who discovered their strengths in the face of disaster.

This book is a quick read - and I enjoyed it. Although the two parts felt disconnected to me, this is a book which will entice adventurers and sailors. Filled with images of star studded skies over the vast ocean waters, Black Wave is also a book for romantics and dreamers.

An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination
By Elizabeth McCracken
Completed November 5, 2008

I think there’s an old saying that you should never have to bury your child. Outliving my kids ranks number one in things “I don’t want to happen,” but sadly, there are parents who face this reality every day.

While some parents lose children days, months or years after their births, some parents lose their child before the baby is born, experiencing a stillborn birth. This happened to popular novelist Elizabeth McCracken and was the subject of her memoir, An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination.

I have never read a book like this before. As a mom, I am uncomfortable with the thought of losing a child, so I was not sure if I could read McCracken’s story. But with McCracken’s easy writing style, I finished her memoir in one day. Every page sucked me in. And while it’s filled with sadness, you get equal doses of hope and warm memories. She touched on so many important parts of the grieving process, and her reaction to other people’s reactions taught me a lot about how to support someone experiencing a loss.

There were touching moments too. Her chapters about her husband and best friend’s support made me teary-eyed. What a lovely tribute to them both.

McCracken took an uneasy subject and made it very human, very real and very approachable. While it will strike a familiar note with women who experienced the loss of a baby, I think all parents can learn from McCracken’s story. Having gotten to know her at this level, I hope to read her fictional books some day. ( )

North to Alaska the land rises gently from the Arctic Ocean and an ice pack that extends over the pole and beyond. South of Patagonia, it plunges into the Drake Passage at Cape Horn. Six hundred miles away is Antarctica. Start at one of these ends of the earth - if only in your mind - and aim for the other along a ten thousand mile line of mountains. You’ll meet in your travels along the ridge all kinds of landscapes, all kinds of animals. You’ll learn the temperaments of all kinds of weather. You’ll meet people so different - and so much alike. Visit the high places, and the rest of the world will be less of a mystery. -From Alpine Americas-

Olaf and Gitta Soot spent 40 years collecting photos of mountains, villages and the people and animals who inhabited them. Their adventures led them to the Western ranges of the Americas and an idea began to formulate - to create a book which celebrated the long and beautiful line of mountain ranges which run from the north to the south poles. They collaborated with Don Mellor (who they had worked with previously when they published Adirondacks Alive, a photo-essay collection of the Adirondacks of New York State) to piece together the jaw-dropping and beautifully written Alpine Americas.

Alpine Americas is a gorgeous “coffee table book” which examines the 10,000 miles of peaks from the Arctic to Patagonia. It is organized by chapters which look at each mountain grouping - beginning with the far North mountains of the Brooks Range along the Northern rim of Alaska, and ending with the ragged Patagonian ranges and fjords. Each chapter describes the unique weather, people and animals of the region and is filled with breathtaking photographs. It is a feast for the eyes.

Those who love the isolation and beauty of the mountains, and specifically those who climb them, will find themselves enthralled by Mellor’s captivating prose and amazed at how the lens of Soot’s camera has captured the majesty of the west’s highest places.

For the real threads that hold this wondrous earth together are those of her own design - the currents of the sea, the jet stream, the great rivers. The real threads are the physical realities that we cannot change but to which we can adjust. And must.  The real threads include the squiggly line of mountain peaks that defines the edge of two continents and in so many ways, defines those who explore. -From Alpine Americas-

Alpine Americas is recommended for arm-chair explorers, as well as those who have actually been there. My thanks to Lisa Roe, online publicist, who sent me this gorgeous book.

221 pages

A couple of years ago(before I had a blog) I read Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich. While I learned a lot from that book and I enjoyed Ehrenreich’s sense of humor quite a bit, I was left feeling sad and a little irritated at the premise that the American Dream is dead.

Apparently, I am not the only one who felt this way because Scratch Beginnings is in Adam Shepard’s own words:

Socioeconomically speaking, my story is a rebuttal to Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed and Bait and Switch, the books that speak to the death of the American Dream. With investigative projects of her own, Ehrenreich attempted to establish that working stiffs are doomed to live in the same disgraceful conditions forever. I resent that theory, and my story is a search to evaluate if hard work and discipline provide any payoff whatsoever or if they are, as Eherenreich suggests, futile pursuits.

- Scratch Beginnings pg XV, Introduction

Adam Shepard’s story begins after he has graduated college. He is frustrated by what he sees around him: lack of initiative, whining, entitlement mentality, and reminiscing about the “good ole days”. So he decides to do a test. Armed with only $25, an 8?X10? tarp, an empty gym bag and the clothes he is wearing he travels to a random city(name drawn from a hat) by train. He is not allowed to use his college education or personal contacts to advance himself in any way and he a goal for himself. Within a year, he must move from homelessness into a productive member of society as defined by: having an operable vehicle, a furnished apartment, $2500 in cash and be in a position to continue improving his position either by going to college or starting his own business.

There are a lot of things to be learned both from Ehrenreich’s book and Scratch Beginnings. For someone like me who grew up in a stable, suburban home, both Nickel and Dimed and The Invisible Poor by David K. Shipler can go a long way toward educating us about the difficulties that are out there. The playing field is definitely not level: that is to say that not everyone starts out with the same advantages. But Scratch Beginnings reminds us that no matter where you start out, there comes a time when you must accept responsibility for your own life. As stated by Leo, one of the guys that Adam meets during his 70 day stay in the homeless shelter:

Some of the people in the lower class start out behind. We all have the same freedoms, true, but those of us born into poverty don’t necessarily have the guidance.

But I’ll tell you this. There comes a time for everybody that it’s time to grow up. I mean, look at me. I came from a broken home. Mama’s got six kids. No daddy. Maybe the lights will turn on today; maybe not. Eatin’ mayonnaise and pickle sandwiches. I started out less fortunate than most people, and I lived my life accordingly. Streets, drugs, violence…all that. But then I turned twenty and realized that it was time to shape up or dead just like everybody else I knew.

- Scratch Beginnings, pgs 102-103

I highly recommend reading Nickel and Dimed and The Invisible Poor to compliment this book. They offer more information on the adversities but they are less hopeful.

For that reason, I loved Scratch Beginnings. I think it presents a balanced perspective between understanding the lives of those less fortunate than ourselves and the adversities that must be overcome, understanding personal responsibility and holding out hope that hard work and perseverance are not vain pursuits. (5/5)

A child dies in this book: a baby. A baby is stillborn. You don’t have to tell me how sad that is: it happened to me and my husband, our baby, a son. -From An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination, page 6-

Author Elizabeth McCracken lived briefly in France, with her husband, in her early thirties. It is there she conceives her first child - a son named Pudding - and begins to dream of his life and how it will enrich her life. And then the unthinkable happens. In her ninth month of pregnancy, the child she and her husband have been anticipating dies. An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination is the story of loss and how one woman moved through it.

Elizabeth McCracken has written a stunning memoir from the heart - a love letter of sorts to her first son and her husband. Her writing is never maudlin, yet is profoundly moving - and despite the bleak subject matter, it even manages to be funny at times. But it is McCracken’s honesty which makes the memoir powerful. She never pads the emotions or avoids the uncomfortable - instead she takes the reader through one of the most devastating years of her life with candor and grace. Lest the reader shy away from the book because a baby dies, it would be remiss of me not to mention that a child is also born and lives in this book…an event that is at the same time joyous, healing and bittersweet.

I will admit that this book hit me like a sledgehammer. It sent me reeling. I felt blindsided by the intense emotions it stirred up for me…because I lost a child too. No, I have never been pregnant. My loss arrived through infertility. And McCracken’s prose resonated with me. She writes about other women’s pregnancies after her unbearable loss:

Still, I wouldn’t have minded a pause in the whole business. A sudden harmless moratorium on babies being born. Doctors would have to tell the unfortunate pregnant, “I’m sorry. It happens sometimes. Tidal, we think. For everyone else, nine months, but for you, eleven months, maybe a year, maybe more. Don’t go outside. Don’t leave your house. Stroke your stomach, fine, but only in your own living room. Keep your lullabies to yourself. We’ll let you know when it’s time.” -From An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination, page 43-

AND

No, I insist: other people’s children did not make me sad. But pregnant women did. -From An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination, page 111-

She writes of that horribly destructive behavior called Blame which threatens to stand in the way of moving forward through grief:

Blame is a compulsive behavior, the emotional version of obsessive hand washing, until all you can do is hold your palms out till your hands are full of it, and rub, and rub, and accomplish nothing at all. And so we grieved but looked straight ahead. -From An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination, page 143-

I found myself nodding in agreement when McCracken spoke of the pain of answering those innocent questions about children posed by unsuspecting strangers. She wishes for a stack of cards she can hand out which say ‘My first child was stillborn‘ whenever a person coos over her second son and asks, “is this your first?” How I wish I had a similar stack of cards reading “I am infertile” for every time someone asks if I have children.

McCracken writes:

I want people to know but I don’t want to say it aloud. people don’t like to hear it but I think they might not mind reading it on a card. -From An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination, page 73-

Yes. I agree.

McCracken’s great gift is that she reveals to her reader her deepest sadness, and her greatest hope. And in the end, she leaves us with a message which can sustain those who have experienced intolerable loss:

It’s a happy life, but someone is missing. It’s a happy life, and someone is missing. -From An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination, page 184-

This memoir is highly recommended, but with a cautionary note. I believed I had accepted my childlessness until I began reading McCracken’s words. I found myself closing the book often to weep, and yet I kept going back to read again. For women who have either lost a child or have never been able to conceive, this is a difficult book to read - but, it is also a hopeful book and one which reminds us we are not alone in our grief.

My Name is Number 4: A True Story from the Cultural Revolution by Ting-Xing Ye

Pages: 230
Finished: Oct. 26, 2008
First Published: September 2008
Genre: YA, memoir
Rating: 4/5
Reason for Reading: Received a Review Copy from the publisher. Also qualifies for the Canadian Challenge.

First sentence:

The morning of my exile to the prison farm arrived, a characteristic November day in Shanghai, damp and chilly with an overcast sky.

Comments: This Young Adult memoir is an abridged edition of the author’s 1997 adult book of memoirs A Leaf in the Bitter Wind. I find the Cultural Revolution amazing to read about. It is almost impossible to believe it happened as it sounds so much like dystopian literature. But the reality is that it did indeed happen and millions of Chinese people were brutally treated in their own country. Ting-Xing relates her childhood at the beginning of the Revolution and the hardship of her 5 orphaned siblings living with an adored Great Aunt who wasn’t really a relative at all. The story of how her life quickly changed from school girl to political exile on a prison farm out in the countryside.

An astonishing and tumultuous tale from beginning to end. I was hooked from the outset and felt deeply for this girl who spent her late adolescence on a work farm. The story ends with her finally leaving the farm after six years and being allowed to go to university as an English major.

Not included in the book is how she became an English-Chinese interpreter and eventually defected to Canada in 1989 and now lives with fellow Canadian author, William Bell. Highly recommended!

Resistance: A Woman’s Journal of Struggle and Defiance in Occupied France by Agnes Humbert
Translated by Barbara Mellor

Pages: 270 + 100pgs of extraneous material (Afterward, index, etc.)
First Published: 1946, 1st English translation Sept. 2, 2008
Genre: memoir, WWII
Rating: 4.5/5

First sentence:

Rumours are flying, all flatly contradictory, but it seems clear that the Germans are advancing on all fronts.

Comments: Originally published in 1946, Agnes Humbert’s journal became the most quoted source on the early days of French Resistance. Though being quoted frequently the book soon became obsolete and obscure obtainable only by academia. Republished in France in 2004, the book was finally translated into English this year, 2008.

The first and last sections of the book are taken directly from Ms. Humbert’s day to day diary. Here we are told of her experiences as the Germans occupy France and how she and her colleagues started the first outright resistance to the occupation. We are also told the day to day reflections of the days after France were liberated and the part she played in helping to separate the chafe from the wheat where the German citizens were concerned.

The bulk of the journal was written almost immediately after the war and while not being an actual day to day journal it is a very closely remembered memoir of her German trial and sentencing as a political prisoner sent to Hard Labour camps and prisons, starting in France and eventually moving to Germany.

This is a fabulous book, full of atrocities and monstrous behaviour by human beings but also shows the determination of one woman and those who surround her of keeping their dignity and holding their heads high as they are degraded each and every day.

Highly recommended.

Fun Cat Memoir for Cat Lovers

This is Chloe Anne’s memoir, written for her by her mother Valerie Oblath.

Poor Chloe Anne, her family is moving and gave her to the Humane Society. She lives in a little cage until her new mom and author, Valerie Oblath adopts her. Chloe Anne loves her new home and cat sister, Cinders. Her new mother is very good and patient with her. Chloe Anne shares with us insights into her new family and her escapades.

This is a fun and entertaining romp with a real-life cat. However, since Chloe Anne lives with a Jewish mother, there is one chapter that makes a lot of references to Jewish Holidays and some of the customs. Some readers, who do not know much about these, may not get a few of the references. None the less, this is a great book for most cat lovers.

4/5

The Loveliest Woman in America: A Tragic Actress, Her Lost Diaries, and her Granddaughter’s Search for Home by Bibi Gaston

Pages: 335
First Published: June 10, 2008
Genre: nonfiction, memoir, biography
Rating: 3/5

First sentence:

For forty-three years, all I knew was that Rosamond was beautiful and that she had killed herself.

Comments: This is the story of Rosamond Pinchot told through the eyes of her granddaughter and Rosamond’s own diaries which she kept for many years. Rosamond was a stage actress in the 1920’s who garnered great fame and later tried to get into film, and while she did appear in a few movies, she never reached any fame or satisfaction through that venue. She killed herself at age 33 leaving behind two sons from a very rocky marriage to Big Bill Gaston.

Not only is this the story of Rosamond, it is also the story of the two Manhattan society families the Pinchots and the Gastons. It also is the story of Rosamond’s descendants, her first born son William (Billy) and his youngest daughter Bibi (the author). Part memoir and part biography the book presents how suicide affects future generations and how feuding within a family creates a rift in one generation that continues on through the ages.

I enjoyed this book on some levels but not very much on others. I loved the story of the 20’s and 30’s. The tale of Manhattan, the theatre and Hollywood in this era was enjoyable as was the tale of Rosamond’s sad life. The personal diary entries brought this all to life and the woman led both a fairy tale and traumatic life. The story of her son, William, held no interest for me. He was a man who felt he was cheated by his brother and devoted his life to legal endeavours against both his ex-wife and brother. As well, the author’s own story is implanted into the biographies and the biography within a memoir doesn’t do the trick for me personally. The author tries to relate how her life was affected by Rosamond’s suicide and how family patterns continue through the generations. She succeeds on this point but I, personally, am not interested in that type of memoir. A non-biased portrait of Rosamond’s life or the publication of her diaries themselves would have made a more interesting and enjoyable read for me.

We must set our children free from our adult agendas and our frenetic, goal-oriented pace. The path that we have accepted for ourselves is the wrong path for children. Children do need a foundation upon which to grow and children do need their parents. They need to belong to a community, not an interest group. They long to know right from wrong and long for adults in history and in their lives to look up to. They need time to play and to forge meaningful relationships with family and friends. They need the opportunity to retreat within themselves - to find out what is there. -From Ships Without A Shore, pages 248-9

Anne R. Pierce holds a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and has published articles and books on social and political issues and intellectual history. In Ships Without A Shore she sites a great amount of research regarding day care, child development, political philosophy, psychiatry, brain science and genetics to support her theory that childrearing in the United States and our educational system in this country are on the wrong path.

Pierce’s book is divided into four sections which deal with:  1. The dangers of day care, the woman’s liberation movement, and the pressure for women to conform to societal demands to work outside the home, 2. Maternal love and normal child development in the context of current societal mores and expectations, 3. The impact of moral relativism on modern parenting, and 4. The failure of America’s educational system.

Throughout the book, Pierce simultaneously argues for more nurture while allowing a child’s nature to develop - the classic nature vs. nurture argument is debunked early on.

Given the advances in brain research and in anthropological techniques, it is simply impossible to deny the influence of genetics and of natural foundations for behavior. Given the abundance of evidence, confirmed by recent research in psychology, psychiatry, neurobiology, and sociology, that parents and communities (especially parents) have dramatic effects upon the emotional and developmental outcomes of children, it is simply implausible to deny the influence of the environment. -From Ships Without A Shore, Introduction-

She also questions current parenting practices which place children very early on into day care when so much research indicates the importance of early attachment to mother.

It is unlikely that children’s developmental needs should miraculously and conveniently change just when adult career patterns and life styles required them to change. - From Ships Without A Shore, Introduction-

The practice of detaching from our children, Pierce argues, is fueled by a media which makes women feel they are neither intelligent nor contemporary if they choose to stay home to rear their children. She further argues that although Feminism was ‘right to call for a less subsuming vision of motherhood,’ it was wrong to suggest there should be a detachment between mother and child (ie: placing children into childcare situations from infancy onward). Pierce’s arguments in her first chapter are supported by reams of research, but she lost me a bit when she began relating horror stories about children who were placed into the hands of uncaring or negligent providers. To read these examples, one might think it foolish to even hire a babysitter for the night. Despite this, Pierce makes a good point when she questions the objectivity of media reporting when it comes to research dealing with day care and its affects on children.

Our willingness to buy into the superficial and partial picture painted for us has stemmed in part from our belief in the larger social cause. The cause of women’s liberation has been thought so worthy that we have been willing to accept less than clear thinking and less than accurate reporting in support of it. -From Ships Without A Shore, page 58-

I found Pierce’s second chapter the most compelling. Pierce examines normal child development in the context of institutionalized care and points out that all developmental evidence points to  the fact that ‘children thrive upon love‘ and that attachment to a maternal figure is paramount to normal development. She then goes on to say that no one can love a child as their parent does and that it is reasonable to expect a paid caregiver will be less responsive to a baby’s signals than a mother would be. Pierce observes that children become over-dependent or “anxiously attached” not because they have had too much care, but because they have not had enough.

The truth is that even high quality day care centers cannot provide the optimal conditions for development. -From Ships Without A Shore, page 115-

In the last two chapters of Ships Without A Shore, Pierce delves into the area of politics, the welfare system, morality, liberalism, and the failure of our education system. Although she provides ample research to support her conclusions, I was less convinced by her arguments because I felt there was an underlying political bias. Pierce is careful, however, to temper her opinion that the best family for a child is a traditional one with one father and one mother.

I should note that I do not agree with those that advocate a return to the stigmatizing of unwed parents and their children as an alternative solution. I do believe in a return to the valuing of fathers’ essential role in the family, of the intact family, of responsible parenting, and of firmly founded mother-child attachment. - from Ships Without A Shore, page 152-

Pierce convincingly writes about the frenetically busy life-style of American families and the pressure on children to achieve constantly - whether it be in advanced classes, sports teams or other extracurricular activities. This, along with over-stimulation from technologies (such as television and computers), leaves children exhausted, stressed and depressed. Pierce goes on to attack an American educational system which by empowering girls, degrades boys; neglects American history and philosophy while ‘providing students with a “social conscience”‘; and teaches multiculturalism while ignoring American culture.

Unfortunately, multiculturalism has been twisted by the agendas and, yes, the biases which hide behind it. It is often a code word for anti-Americanism. -from Ships Without A Shore, page 231-

Ships Without A Shore is a provocative and penetrating look at American culture and how it has impacted societal views on child rearing. Pierce does not mince words, but speaks strongly in advocating more parental involvement in raising our nation’s children. She supports her opinions with ample research. I did not always fully agree with Pierce’s conclusions, which at times felt excessively right-leaning. But despite my disagreement on some of her points, I believe this is an important book to read for those individuals working in the child care industry and school systems…and for those adults who love children and care about where our society is headed. Pierce’s prose is easy to read and the book is well-organized. At the very least, this is a book which will generate dialogue on one of the most compelling issues of our society - how we choose to raise the next generation and how those choices will impact our future.

Recommended for readers interested in child development and social issues.

Queen of the Road: The True Tale of 47 States, 22 000 Miles, 200 Shoes, 2 Cats, 1 Poodle, a Husband, and a Bus with a Will of Its Own by Doreen Orion

Pages: 289
First Published: June 10, 2008
Genre: Travelogue, Memoirs
Rating: 4/5

First sentence:

When my long-dreaded thirtieth birthday arrived, I really wasn’t as upset as I imagined I’d be, for I had achieved a much more important milestone: my sartorial centennial.

Comments: Doreen and her husband, Tim, are both psychiatrists in their mid-forties. Tim is a dedicated workaholic with a demanding practice. Doreen has given up practice and works filing insurance claims from the comfort of her bed in her pajamas and is proud of the fact the she hardly ever leaves the house. Out of the blue, Tim convinces her that they will take a year off and drive around the United States in a converted bus. This book details that journey.

At first I wasn’t sure whether I would like Doreen’s narrative as her rich, material world lifestyle is the exact opposite of my own lifestyle but I couldn’t have been more wrong. I found myself relating to her throughout the whole book. Doreen is simply hilarious, an outspoken person who will say just about anything. I was chuckling joyously chapter after chapter and even found myself reading parts aloud to my husband quite often, which rarely happens around here as he is a non-reader.

Humour aside, the journey they take was very interesting and informative to me. As a Canadian my knowledge of US geography is middling but even those who are experts on the topic will find Ms. Orion’s journey of interest. While they do go to some famous tourist spots, Doreen chooses mostly to talk about lesser known tourist attractions, RV parks, the automotive challenges they experienced and the people they met on the way.

This is the type of book one can pick up and read a chapter at a time and pick up again later and not loose the flow of the narrative. Highly recommended, especially for summer beach reading or winter armchair travelling.

I slept with close to forty boys and men before I figured out doing so was not serving me well. [pg 1]

Loose Girl: A Memoir of Promiscuity by Kerry Cohen
Hyperion, 2008
Nonfiction (Memoir); 210 pgs

Kerry Cohen was nothing like me; or was she? While she was vying for men’s affections and slipping under the covers with boys and men she barely knew, I kept to myself, lost myself in my studies, and sought approval and attention in other ways. Sex, drugs and alcohol were never a part of my scene like they were for Kerry. Despite our different approaches to achieve a similar goal, I was really no different than the author of Loose Girl: A Memoir of Promiscuity.

Kerry Cohen came to realize early in her life that as a woman, she had a power over men. With a certain tilt of her head, the widening of her eyes, and a swing of her hip, men would take notice. Amidst her parents’ divorce, her mother’s favoritism of her sister and eventual abandonment, and her father’s easy going and unrestrictive mode of parenting where he sought to be more friend than parent figure, Kerry was left feeling invisible and hungry for attention most of her young life. Each of her parents harbored their own insecurities, which influenced Kerry and her sister, Tyler, both in different and yet similar ways.

Kerry wanted to be noticed. She wanted to be loved. She thought she could find what she was looking for by latching onto men. She thought she could not live without them—that they were the answer to her loneliness and lack of control over her life. And for a short while, it may have seemed satisfying to her—enough to keep her going back for more. She lost herself in the process, forgetting who she was, striving only to please the many men in her life, wanting them to want her. And yet, her constant need and wanting, even when she had what she had sought after, was never enough because she never quite felt secure in herself.

She eventually came to realize that the dangerous path she was traveling down would not give her what she truly needed most. Her life was spiraling out of control and like the alcoholic or drug addict, Kerry needed to hit rock bottom before she would be able to turn her life around. She did not like who she had become and realized that she had to do something to change that. She started to take back her life. She discovered her love for writing, which gave her a direction to go, and began to accept that she did not need a man to survive. Only then was she able to develop a healthy relationship with someone, and even then, it was not always so easy.

While I did not turn to sex and men the way Kerry did, I had my own vices, my own way of filling that void in my life. I too have felt what it is like to want to be noticed, to be needed and wanted. I could relate to Kerry on that deeper level even having never shared her life experiences. I think most of us can relate to her story in that way. We all at some point feel like the outsider, like we do not fit in. We may feel invisible or alone in this world. We seek approval. We want to be loved and feel needed.

Kerry Cohen’s Loose Girl: A Memoir of Promiscuity was a moving and heartfelt story of one girl’s struggle with her own desires and needs. She sought to be loved not really understanding what love was, mistaking it for sex. The more she gave of herself physically, the more of herself she held back, unable to truly let herself be loved and to love fully. The author’s writing style flows smoothly, and I found it impossible not to form an attachment to the author the more of her story I read. She writes from the perspective of where she was at the time the story was taking place, with occasional bits of hindsight added on. I felt this was an effective manner of telling her story.

The author offers no “cure” or big “aha!” moment in the end. She is not looking to offer anyone a boiler plate solution because there is none. Kerry’s own story and struggles are ongoing. There is no quick fix. I liked that about this book. It is real and honest. After finishing the book, I rushed to her website to see what she is doing now, to see if her story had a happy ending.

Rating: (Very Good)

At this moment, I suddenly want to change everything that is me, the observer part, and move from something else: the living-your-life part. When does that start exactly? And something else. I look into the mirror and someone else says: What are you doing here? You have no right to live. [pg 145]

Apples and Oranges: My Brother and Me, Lost and Found by Marie Brenner
Sarah Crichton Books, 2008
Nonfiction (Memoir); 268 pgs

I was three when my brother entered this world. My mother had to be rushed to the hospital, nearly dropping my brother out right there in the hospital parking lot. My father’s parents were visiting, my grandmother watching me while my parents were away. I remember my father coming home with a grin on his face. It’s a boy! My brother and I were like most other brother and sister pairs, friends one minute, playing in the dirt together or taking to the high seas on our boats made of furniture in the living room, to mortal enemies the next, struggling over who would sit in the passenger seat of the car. As we got older, we grew closer; while at other times we seemed to grow farther apart, family circumstances bringing us together but also keeping us at arms distance.

I have this image of me as the older sister, the protector and the one who had to set the good example. My brother was the youngest child, the only boy, and the one who got away with more. While early on that bothered me, later it seemed the natural way of things–how it works in families–and my brother deserved a break. His was a battle that seemed uphill more so than mine. Our story is an old and familiar one. Life as it was went on for both of us. Our relationship was one that ebbed and flowed like the tide. In recent years, we have not had much of a relationship at all. We are both to blame. There are reasons, some obvious and others less so, none of which I will go into here.

Marie Brenner is a well respected journalist having accomplished much in her career. Her work on an exposé entitled “The Man Who Knew Too Much” was the basis for the movie The Insider, which took a hard look at tobacco company practices. She has built a life on asking questions and telling stories. Her brother Carl had been a trial attorney at one time who later in life chose to give that up and grow apples and pears much to the surprise of his family.

Marie was the polar opposite of her brother. She was liberal where he was conservative. She preferred city life while Carl felt most at home in the country surrounded by his orchards. Marie was married with a child. Carl was more of a lady’s man. He liked things just so and preferred a quiet life. Marie was constantly on the go, searching out details and looking for meaning. Both were stubborn and set in their ways, believing the other was wrong more often than not. The two may have held different beliefs and ideas and lived very different lives, but they were both very similar as well.

Marie Brenner and her brother Carl have always had a difficult relationship. They spoke just about every week; however, their conversations almost always turned into arguments. The constant bickering and lack of connection between them weighed heavily on Marie, especially after learning that her brother had cancer. Suddenly, she wanted nothing more than to connect with him, to understand him and to be there for him. She set out to make that happen, deciding to surprise him with an extended visit. She left her home in New York and headed for Washington. Marie studied up on apples and orchards with the intention of using the information to get close to her brother, but her constant questions and search for knowledge often seemed more like a way to avoid talking about the real issues that lingered between them.

Marie and Carl’s story was one that crept up on me. I had trouble settling into it at first. I wasn’t sure what to think of Marie, and it took me a while to warm up to her. I connected with Carl much more quickly despite his more curmudgeonly manner. Carl’s struggle with cancer, his will to live, along with his resilience and strength, hit close to home for me with my friend’s recent battle with cancer. The lack of availability of treatment options despite the fact that they may exist (albeit not in perfect form) must be so frustrating for families in similar situations who only want to exhaust all means before it is too late.

I was most drawn into the Brenner family history, learning about Carl and Marie’s father and his relationship with his siblings as well as that of their parents. History was repeating itself. The strain between Milton Brenner and his sister, Anita, was being played out in Marie and Carl’s own relationship.

The author’s story unfolds bit by bit, interweaving past and present. Where one began and the other ended was not always clear. The writing is stylish and poetic at times, almost a stream of consciousness. Marie Brenner effectively was able get across her own fear and the control she was trying to maintain as she dealt with her brother’s illness, her frustration with both herself and her brother for not having a closer relationship, and her attempts at developing a closer bond with him before it was too late.

So many years went by where sister and brother constantly battled with each other, their own egos and stubbornness getting in the way. It was not until her brother’s diagnosis of cancer that the two reached out for each other, already with so many years lost in between. Marie did grow and mature during the course of the book, and by the end, I felt a kinship with her. I could see bits and pieces of my own relationship with my brother in her relationship with Carl. I understood better what she was going through and what she had been trying to achieve with her brother. Both she and Carl made mistakes as we all do in our own relationships. Even when they didn’t recognize it, they shared a bond and loved each other as only a brother and sister can.

Apples and Oranges: My Brother an Me, Lost and Found demonstrates the strength and fragility of familial ties. It is a story of love and redemption and of hope and perseverance.

Rating: (Good +)

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective by Kate Summerscale

Pages: 304
Finished: July 26, 2008
First Published: Apr. 2008
Genre: true crime, nonfiction, history
Awards: Samuel Johnson Award for Nonfiction 2008
Rating: 4.5/5

First sentence:

This is the story of a murder committed in an English country house in 1860, perhaps the most disturbing murder of its time.

Comments: This is a most ambitious book which documents the murder case of a three year old boy, is a biography of one of the very first police detectives and shows how this murder and this particular detective spurred on the very first detective fiction such as that written by Wilkie Collins. The book succeeds on all points and is a riveting and incredibly interesting read.

The murder is quite memorable in this time period because it is the first time that public attention focused on a murder committed in a middle class home where one of the inhabitants of the home must be the murderer. At this time in England a man’s home was literally his castle and the recent ruling that allowed police to enter one’s home without the owner’s specific permission was absolutely shocking to the middle and upper classes.

The author takes the reader back to this time period (1860s onward) and expertly discusses the mindset and proprieties of the day which make the understanding of why this case was so scandalous for its time. The formation and early days of policing, plus the introduction of “detectives” into the force is fascinating, as is the life of the firstly lauded then scorned Detective-Inspector Jonathan Whicher. The references to the detective novels which were just starting to replace the sensationalist fiction of the previous generations is fascinating to the reader of Victorian literature. Wilkie Collins’ “The Woman in White”, Dickens’ “Bleak House” and several books by a popular writer of the times known only as ‘Waters’ are quoted and referred to often, though many other books are also mentioned.

The book profusely uses direct quotes from contemporary sources such as newspapers, broadsheets, books, trial documents, journals, letters, etc. There are also a few helpful footnotes along the way and an extensive ‘Notes’ section at the back, along with illustrations, photographs, and endpapers that show the schematics of the house the reader is immersed in the time period.

Well written in an engaging voice and obviously well-researched this is a gem of a book for those interested in Victorian life. Though the book focuses on a true crime and the police procedures of the time there is a wealth of information on all aspects of life in the time period. I also went into this book not knowing anything about the murder case itself and found the revealing of the investigation and eventually the killer to be as exciting as any mystery novel. Highly recommended.

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale

Summerscale has written a very interesting book about the history of detectives, real and fictional, as well as investigating a true murder that scandalized Victorian England in 1860. The subtitle is “A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victoria Detective.”

The murder was of three year old Saville Kent, killed during the night while he slept. The shocking part was that it had to be a member of the household who killed him. The great Victorian detective was Jack Whicher, one of the first members of London’s detective squad. The research in this book was amazing, although I read it straight through and did not refer to the copious notes at the back for the reference source. Because it was a scandalous murder in a time of increasing media, there was certainly a lot of material written about the murder and the characters for Summerscale to use. At the time, England was entranced with the details of the murder and trials in the newspapers. The telgraph made information more immediately available and the public could not get enough of the sordid details. The critics bemoaned the downfall of society and the general decline of morals. Sound familiar to today?

Throughout the book, the author parallels the development of detectives and the detective novel. I am anxious to read something by Wilkie Collins now, as his mystery novels were referenced the whole way through, as well as Charles Dickens, a friend of Whicher’s. It’s hard to imagine a time when Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot were new literary characters, but until Poe’s detective Auguste Dupin in 1841, the detective was not invented. The first real detectives weren’t hired in London until 1842, so they were still quite a new commodity at the time of the murder and conflicted with the idea of privacy in Victorian days as well as highlighting the class situations between middle, upper and working classes.

The time of the murder, 1860 is such a fascinating time. It is far enough away that it seems long ago, but recent enough that so much information is still available. One of the sisters of the murdered child lived to be 100, so it wasn’t until 1944 that she died. There are some great pictures and relics included in the book.

This would be a great book for people who like reading true crime mysteries, readers of detective novels, Victorian era fans, and well researched nonfiction books. I had originally planned to slowly pick away at the book, a little bit every day, but by page 100 I had to keep reading and find out the ending. Great suspense and pacing in the book to describe each of the characters and what happened to them after the murder.

300 pages, plus 50 pages of notes and bibliography

4/5

Losing It - And Gaining My Life Back One Pound at a Time by Valerie Bertinelli

Pages: 273
First Published: Feb, 2008
Genre: autobiography, memoir
Rating: 2/5

Reason for Reading: I enjoyed watching One Day at a Time as a child and always though Valerie was beautiful. Needing to loose weight myself, I though her weight loss story might be inspiring.

First sentence:

Some people measure depression by the medication they take or the number of times per week they see a therapist.

Comments: This is more of a memoir than an autobiography. While it does go chronologically Valerie only tells bits and pieces of her life. Running throughout the book she talks about her poor body image even as a skinny teenager, though she didn’t start dieting until she started gaining weight at a much older age. I was very disappointed in this book.

Valerie’s acting career is skimmed over mercilessly. One Day at a Time gets a brief discussion, Touched by an Angel gets even less page time and her many made-for-TV movies are only mentioned by name. Most of the book is spent talking about Eddie Van Halen’s various drug and alcohol problems along with his volatile relationships with the various lead singers of the group. Valerie talks of how this affected her and her family but there is so much of it that it became boring especially since I have absolutely zero interest in this rock group to begin with.

Valerie’s weight loss and Jenny Craig experience was relegated to the last two chapters and very quickly told from the first phone call to the final results. I was hoping this book would be an inspiring weight loss story, instead I found her words made it sound so easy and fast and simple to lose weight. “Hey, just call Jenny!” … yeah, right.

I will give her credit for being candid in this memoir. She didn’t skip over the ugly parts and talks about her own drug use and adultery. I was surprised with the profanity in the book, though. This probably won’t bother most people but there was more than I was comfortable with. I do not like swearing in narratives and I guess I just didn’t expect Valerie to be the type to cuss so much.

If you want to read the story of a woman who survived a rock star marriage and an alcoholic and drug abuser husband then you will probably enjoy this book. But if you are looking for the story of Valerie’s acting career or looking for weight loss inspiration this is not the book for you.