Reading in the Garden

Island of Sorrow Moloka’i by Alan Brennert is another of my favorite books. It begins in 1893 when a little seven-year-old girl is ripped away from her family after contracting the seriously disfiguring and contagious leprosy disease.  In those days, they had no treatment for the horrible illness and in order to contain the spread of infection to others, people were quarantined in leper colonies.  Kalaupapa   on Moloka’i was one of those colonies. This book definitely tugs at the heartstrings.   I probably would not recommend it for pregnant women.  One of our book club members was expecting a baby when she was reading about poor little Rachel being torn away from everyone she loved.  She couldn't read three pages without crying and had to hide in the bathroom so her family couldn't see her flood of tears.  And even for the rest of us who didn't have raging hormones producing lumps of sorrow in our throats, that particular part of the book was heart-wrenching.  But

Giddy with Guernsey The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society  by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows  immediately shot up to my list of favorites. Newspaper columnist, Juliet Ashton, receives a letter from a stranger on Guernsey Island in the English Channel in 1946.  Dawsey Adams finds Juliet’s name on the inside of a book and writes her asking if she could send him the name and address of the bookshop in London were the book came from. He explains how the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society came into being because of the “roast pig” in the book and therefore he feels a kinship to the author.  This, of course, piques Juliet’s (and my) interest in the unusually titled club. Juliet begins a regular correspondence with Dawsey and other members of the society where she learns about their lives and the recent German occupation during WWII. Written with warmth and humor in a series of letters we discover pig farmers, phrenologists, and survivors of the German occ

Free Little Library Produces Free Smiles I've seen the pictures on Pinterest.  They look like giant bird houses with glass doors. Only the inhabitants aren't our fine feathered friends, they’re books—free books! These libraries are placed in spots where the public can access them to take a book or leave a book.  How fun is that?  You can just browse and see if there’s something that catches your eye, and it’s yours for the taking—no strings attached.   I thought that sounded like a great idea.  Imagine how excited I was when my son spotted one in our own neighborhood.  Of course, I drove right home from work, picked up my son, my sister, and a few books and drove over to the new attraction.  There it was--this beautiful little library that matched the owners’ house.  I was so excited I had to leave a note for the owner, the person who made my day, the person who would do such a nice thing for others.  Later that week I rode my bike back there again to show my husband th

Cold Sassy Is Warm and Funny Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns an amusing book set in the early 1900s in a small town in Georgia. Narrated by Will Tweedy, the grandson of Rucker Blakeslee, Will takes us through the years following his grandma’s death (Rucker’s wife Mattie Lou).  Rucker caused quite a stir when the old cantankerous man decided to marry none other than Miss Love Simpson, the hot younger milliner at Rucker’s store, just three mere weeks after dear Mattie Lou departed this world. Rucker didn't give a hoot what people thought about him, and that includes his shocked family. To top it all off, Miss Love seemed to have him wrapped around her little finger.  He started making little changes at home and at the store that he never would have done for Mattie Lou, which doesn't sit well with his daughters. Suddenly, Rucker looked clean and presentable. The fact that the marriage is a “business arrangement” where he gets free help and after his death Miss Love gets hi

Forget or Forget About It? Can you imagine waking up and having lost ten years of your life? What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty is a Rip Van Winklish tale about a woman who finds herself on the gym floor, dazed and confused, thinking she’s still 29, instead of 39. Twenty-nine is a great age.  Just ask my sister, she claimed it for a decade, too.  But the reality is, that’s just in her mind—Alice, not my sister. My sister has moved onto thirty now.  For Alice this wasn’t a choice. She unwittingly missed ten entire years of her life. Let’s face it, a LOT can happen in ten years. While hairstyles, SUVs, world events, politics are all foreign to her, Alice’s main focus is on the drastic changes in her personal life.  When Alice was 29, she and her adoring husband Nick were awaiting the birth of their first child.  They were so in love.  Unbeknownst to her after that gym workout gone bad, she already had her baby and two more to boot.  That’s the good news.  The bad news is that th

Happy Father’s Day Happy Father’s Day to all you great dads out there!  To my father I say, ¡Feliz Día del Padre! Thanks for teaching me the thrill of travel, the love of mariachi music, and fish tacos. Cheaper by the Dozen   is a memoir about an eccentric but loving father in the early 1900s.  Unlike the 2003 movie starring Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt, the father is not a football coach, but an efficiency expert.  His job was to examine factories and devise ways to increase production, to make things run smoother and faster.  But it wasn't just a career; he did the same thing at home.  His home “was a sort  school for scientific management and the elimination of wasted motions.” [1] He made sure it  ran like a well-oiled machine.  Each child in the large brood of a dozen kids was held to a high standard. From brushing teeth at night to homework and chores, there was a system in place. He taught his kids to multiply large numbers in their heads. He quizzed them in spell

Ruling the Roost Life with Father   by Clarence Day Jr  is fanciful memoir about a persnickety, opinionated father in the Victorian age of the late 1800s to early 1900s. In this book, Day offers amusing stories of his father, a broker on Wall Street, and his attempt to control his family, staff, and everyone around him. Father ruled the roost. He was an exacting, demanding man who got what he wanted.  For instance, there was the ice episode.  Mr. Day “strongly objected to spending one day of his life without a cold glass of water beside his plate at every meal.” [1] Easier said than done.  Ice had to be delivered in those days. One day the iceman didn't come—a true crisis. But if ice was what he wanted, then that’s what he got. He argued with the ice clerk until the poor guy was shaking in his boots and frantically agreed to hitch up the horses and bring him the ice right then and there. But Mr. Day wasn't done yet. He then went to the butcher and somehow procured a cof

Publicity Race Around the World in 72 Days by Jason Marks is a short biography that recounts the amazing journeys of reporter Nellie Bly (Elizabeth Cochrane) from the New York World newspaper and associate editor Elizabeth Bisland from Cosmopolitan Magazine as they attempt to race each other around the world in 72 days. The year is 1889 and as a publicity stunt New York World newspaper decides to send a female reporter around the world to beat Phileas Fogg’s fictional record of 80 days. Enter Nellie Bly. Cosmopolitan Magazine Nellie Bly gets wind of this and wants in on the action. Enter Elizabeth Bisland. Nellie was a spunky go-getter. Elizabeth was a dignified Southern gentlewoman. Both were adventurous and daring considering that was the Victorian age when unescorted women were a bit of a novelty. The ladies were given almost no warning. Nellie had two days. Elizabeth had less than a day. Nellie brought only the dress she was wearing, an overcoat, her cold cream, and a c

The Original Amazing Race Around the World in 80 Days  is a timeless classic.  It was first published in 1873 and is still going strong 140-plus years later. Phileas Fogg enters a bet with members at his Reform Club in London.  He wagers that he can go around the world in eighty days, which of course, was quite a feat in pre-aviation days.  The prize:  £20,000, and more costly, Fogg’s reputation. The competitors: Phileas Fogg along with his valet, Passepartout.  The year: 1872.  The outcome: unforgettable antics!    It’s not just the exotic locales of India, Hong Kong, and Japan that make this novel so alluring, it’s the great characterization of Fogg and Passepartout. Phileas Fogg is a self-assured, persnickety, wealthy man who has an obsession for calculated precision.  He controls every detail of his life with meticulous consideration.  He demands the correct temperature for his shaving water and determines the amount of gas to be allotted for the lights in his house. 

Riotously Funny Race Summer is vacation time.  We’re starting to plan our vacation and I can’t wait to go!  This year won’t be anything elaborate, no RV trips, no river rafting, no Disneyland or Vegas, baby. In fact it will be the first time in over twenty years that my husband and I will have our own private getaway without kids (not counting one ill-fated night in Walla Walla, WA.  Just a word of warning, eat before you do the wine tasting rounds).  I think vacations or at least small getaways are essential breaks in our routine lives.  They give us a chance to expand our minds, re-energize, and revitalize ourselves. They restore our sanity. They should be mandatory.  Whether you are planning a big, expensive trip, or maybe just camping close by, I hope you have a wonderful, memorable vacation!  In the meantime, here is a book that may awaken the travel bug in you. The Ridiculous Race by Steve Hely and Vali Chandrasekaran is a funny memoir about two men racing each othe