Book Reviews

I have read a lot of books this summer. I figured, for a post on the lighter side I could review them for you. Because you may actually decide to read these novels, I will stay away from spoilers.

John Grisham, Calico Joe: The go-to author for a great legal thriller writes a book about a young boy’s admiration for a baseball-player and more importantly, the confusion caused by a damaged father –son relationship. I liked it, read it quickly and underlined a couple of sentences that were particularly well written. Was it Grisham’s best? Not by a long shot, I won’t think of it again after I write this. A Painted House (another deviation from his usual genera) is better; that may be his best. You’ll enjoy Calico Joe, though, it’d be hard not to.

John Grisham, The Litigators: Doing what he typically does, Grisham writes a legal-thriller, and makes it easy to turn pages. It’s fast-paced, entertaining, and has you rooting passionately for the little guy. This a fun book to read, he holds your attention and even adds a little humor. If you have read a lot Grisham though, it is a little predictable by the end.

Chris Cleave, Incendiary: This is the story of an incredibly imperfect, but likable woman who loses her husband and young son when Al Qaeda blows up a soccer stadium in London. She writes an honest, angry letter to the guy she thinks is responsible for her tragedy: Osama Bin Laddin. I was not a huge fan of this one. It was fine; it certainly was better than most could do. However, the plot was so horrific and yet so possible, that this novel really had the chance to resonate with readers, and it did not. At least it did not resonate with me. All the characters were very easy to empathize with, but I just didn’t feel emotionally invested.

Vanessa Diffenbaugh, The Language of Flowers: I absolutely loved this novel about an 18 year-old aging-out of her past, and the US  foster-care system. I was compelled to finish it in two days and posted on both Facebook and Twitter that my friends should read it, and I think you should, too.

Jaime Ford, The Hotel on the On the Corner of Bitter and Sweet: A cute, Romeo Juliet-esque story  set during a time when Japanese-Americans were being “relocated” to internment camps. The romance aspect of the novel is fabulously developed. If you’re a love-story person, pick this book up. However, if you’re a history-buff who is knowledgeable about what really went on in Internment camps, you will probably find there is too much sweet and that the plot lacks an appropriate amount of bitter. I liked it well enough. 

E. Annie Proulx, The Shipping News: Proulx won the Pulitzer Prize for this novel, in which she uses a slightly below average, out-of-work but kind-hearted guy, forced to move to the home of his ancestors to write about the human experience. She earned it. It’s not an upper and it’s not a quick read, but it’s worth it. Just beautiful.

Anna Quindlind, Every Last One: I loved it:  I cried. I laughed. I worried. I was distraught. I brought up the book in unrelated conversation. I understand that this novel about a mother dealing with her worst nightmare, is probably either too shocking or not shocking enough for many readers, but I definitely recommend it. 

Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl : This is a very trendy book right now. Recently, many trendy books have been written for second graders, aside from sex. This isn't. It is a dark novel that leaves you wondering who the protagonist and the antagonists are until the last few pages. The author is not a wordsmith, but she can tell a story.   Read it, if thriller mysteries are your thing. 

None of these books are a waste of time, that’s why I chose them to review. The important thing is that everybody read, so regardless of what I said, read whatever sounds good to you. 

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On Explaining and Fear

Did any of you ever read the Babysitters Club Series? I did. I read several of the books and even tried to start my own club with a couple of my friends.  In every book in this collection that I am assuming is made up of hundreds of  novels targeting preteens, there is a paragraph explaining what diabetes is because one of the members of the club, Stacy, who, by the way was mine and my sister's favorite character, had diabetes. These books were obviously not great works of literature, but this part made sense. The explanation  was identical in every installment, and written in first person, as if Stacy were repeating it for the umpteenth time in a social situation.    To this day, whenever I tell people where I am from, or explain what Cerebral Palsy is. I picture Ann M. Martin's choppy paragraph on old wrinkled on elementary-school library pages that reek  of Elmer's glue.

"Romeo... it's about an hour north of Detroit."  "I have Cerebral Palsy.... It's caused by lack of oxygen to the brain at birth. Mine mostly affected my balance center and made my legs a little spastic. Everyone you meet is different.... I'm very lucky." 

I do not mind explaining where my parents live. Every small-town girl has to do it, and though I thought it was in middle and high school, Romeo's  not a bad place to have roots. We grew up around many, many people who rallied around us, and still would. I don't even mind a explaining the CP anymore. I typically spit out the aforementioned sentences before I realize I've done it. I get it change it up for little kids ("I just walk a little differently than you do... No, my legs don't hurt.") and the vast majority of people respond politely. I think I have even perfected the tone of voice and I always break the tension, by cracking a joke at the end. These are simply parts of my unsophisticated story.

What I fear, is having to add more "clarity paragraphs" if you will, as I age. I really dislike the idea of that. What if one of them is to if one is to my friend "Beth comes to clean on Tuesday, and Jessica, is the one who makes dinner." Or to lovely, hard-working, home-health aids, "The wipes are the cabinet under the sink on the left side, you can't miss them."   Or what if God forbid, I am talking to my mother "I would love to get married but, for the tenth time, but it's hard to  a man find that will accept woman with multiple emotional and physical issues." 

I do not want lonely to become mundane for me. I do not want to picture that worn paperback book, while my independence and self-worth wither away.  It'd just be too much.  And sadly, I think it is my worst fear. I would hate to smell Elmer's glue on my death bed.  

On Mortality

I love my father. He would do anything for anybody. He is smart, has a very easy time making others laugh, and he treats my mom  like royalty. He even calls her "the duchess", though usually in jest . He also has a booming voice, a ridiculous temper, hates (or does a good job pretending to hate) socializing, is often grouchy and has issues communicating. Dad did not have a stress-free experience parenting two daughters, and the stress showed.    So, imagine my surprise when on a cold February Friday, dad woke his wife and daughters up told us we were going to have a "Really fun weekend!"  

We did. I was thirteen at the time, and ten years later I still remember as one of the best weekends I have the ability to remember. We went to down-town Detroit and to the Detroit Institute of Arts, to see a mummy exhibition.  Our family got in for free because  the lady working the front desk was so impressed with my mom's knowledge. Then, we dropped  in on a Motown tribute concert that just happened to be going on , after which a  seemingly homeless street-musician serenaded  my sister and I with Stevie Wonder's "Isn't She Lovely" because we talked dad into giving him a couple bucks.  The next day we saw Fame at the Detroit Opera House . My mom, sister and I inherited a slight obsession with musical theater from my maternal grandparents, so he knew he'd hit a home run with that one.  Are you wondering what  motivated daddy to create this memory , like I was?  He had cancer again and he thought he was dying...soon.

My father is very much alive; I would guess he doesn't regret that weekend. All four of us still tell stories about it.

Any of us could pass way within the hour. Why does a doctor always have to remind us of that? We should all be doing what we love with whomever we love right now. I am not saying who should grab your families and spend money on them , immediately. Everything we did other than the hotel and the play, that weekend, was free. Tickets to the D.I.A .  range from five to twenty dollars, unless you are as intelligent as my mother.   I am saying never forget that you're mortal.  When my sister and I reminisce about that time-- we mostly discuss, how spontaneous it was and how much we  all smiled.

It's never a bad choice to make a memory; there is always a chance it could be your last. 

On Protecting Children

This is a post that has been rolling around in my mind since the Penn State scandal broke. I do not want to focus solely on Jerry Sandusky terrible crimes. I want to get people thinking. Why don't we protect children; why don't we care? Now, before anyone jumps down my throat, please visit my Disagree With Me page. This is   a subject about which I feel passionately. I know myself. I will make several declarative statements. Do not stoop to criticizing me personally or minimizing this issue. Tell me what you believe. Let's keep this about the children.

First of all, I want to throw what my high-school English teacher would call attention grabbing statics out there. One in five or 15.5 million kids in the US are impoverished. Those kids are five times more likely to endure physical, emotional and sexual violence.(Smith, 2010) Experiencing these things, of course, leads to a hire risk of partaking in criminal activity later in life. Three out of every five people in jail or prison now, were  living below the poverty level when they went in. (Street,2008)

That  is what makes Jerry Sandusky's actions so unforgivable.  He knew children living in poverty would cling to structure and a roll-model who had "made it", he created a charity in order to take advantage of that, and fed the sick urges of his pedophilia.  It is one of the most premeditated crimes about which I have read. The scariest part is,to call  him an anomaly would be totally incorrect. The exposure of  Catholic priests is another probably the most famous example, but there are plenty of men and women who target "at risk" children to molest.  There are plenty of bullies who pick on poor kids,  because their parents are too busy working to defend them. Those parents are demonized for raising their children in  the  exact environment that they were raised in , because it is almost impossible to get of, and they are undoubtedly scared by their childhoods, psychology if not psychically.

 So in the most privileged  country in the world, kids get ignored, go  to bed without food, see shootings in their streets, often idolize the wrong people,  grow up do whatever they can to make money because they are intelligent  enough to recognize poverty and as the route of their problems, and America incarcerates them.   Does that make sense to anybody? It makes absolutely no sense me. Especially because after those people get out of jail or prison, it is very difficult to become employed, so many of them fall back into their original lifestyle and have trouble staying outside.

What can we do? I can give my opinion, for what is worth

We can stop worrying about the careers of adults and start worrying about the minds of our future. We can thank employees  for exposing corruption instead of calling them whistle-bowlers or tattle-tales.

We can stop picking on impoverished, single mothers. Good things will happen if we acknowledge that they are doing their best, stop insulting them for taking charity help them become employable, and put the stigma on the men who leave them.

We can make class-sizes smaller so that the teachers who spend seven or more hours a day with our children can more easily recognize signs of abuse.

We can stop treating prison as a rehabilitation center, and make rehab affordable. We make it easier for people who are rehabilitated to become   productive members of society by not allowing companies to hold minor offenses that they committed a decade ago against them.

We can keep sex education and self-defense in schools. Yes, it would  be ideal if parents handled these areas but not everybody has involved parents and not every involved parent has time. Ignorance about any topic, makes in frightening  and taboo. Making sex frightening  and taboo only makes kids more likely to hide abuse.


We can stop prattling on about how none of the aforementioned facts matter, because some poor or abused children do end up rich, educated, happy  and/or successful. When a person is celebrated, as they should be, for beating the odds, it is because the odds are against them. It is unspeakably  difficult to fight poverty and most people lose.   This in unfair to kids.  We need tell them, we are mad for them and we WILL fix this. And then, obviously we need to fix this.

Works Cited

Smith, R. (2010, May 1). Child poverty. Retrieved from http://www.childrensdefense.org

Street, P. (2008, December 5). History in Jail. Retrieved from http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/streeracpripo