Thanks for the love!

Lisa, of bibliophiac, and Donna at A Novel Review, have given me The Versatile Blogger award. I'm terrible these days at passing awards along but I do love to introduce you to the terrific bloggers that took the time to pass them along to me with the hope that you'll visit their blogs!

Lisa is a high school English teacher who would love to see grade be done away with--just the kind of teacher my soon-to-be sophomore would love to have! She has also studied art--a subject we're quite fond of around here, what with a kid heading off to college this year to study Studio Art. I find it very interesting that Lisa's favorite sport is boxing--it's not often that you hear a woman say that.

Donna is new to blogging; she just started her blog in April but is already light years ahead of me on layout! I guess that history of learning HTML before it was even HTML helps! Donna says she looks just like her mother, something we can relate to in this house. When I was growing up people used to tell me all of the time that I looked just like my mother and now they tell my daughter the same thing. Donna used to be a big league bowler--and by "big league" I don't mean a professional but that she was, at one point, involved in three leagues in one season. Clearly she has an average well above my highest score ever of 127!

Please stop by these ladies' blogs and give them some love and, while you're there, check out the other blogs that they also nominated. There were a lot of great blogs that were new to me.

Raves About Books I Loved!

On NPR this week, librarian and blogger Nancy Pearl picked her under the radar reads. Included among the books were both of Emily St. John Mandel's books--"Last Night in Montreal" and "The Singer's Gun." Mandel is currently working on her third book - it's got a lot to live up to!

Also making the list was Tatjana Soli's "The Lotus Eaters." I'm excited to see these great books getting recognition. But I am a little sad to realize that they are all still "under the radar!"

Another title from Unbridled Books that I read and enjoyed a lot was Jason Quinn Malott's "The Evolution of Shadows" which was just named on of Kansas' 2010 Notable Books, the top books published in 2009 written by Kansans or about Kansas. Malott falls in the first category--he lives in Wichita.

Anne of Green Gable by Lucy Maud Montgomery

Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
Originally published in 1908
Source: I listened to the Librivox recording

Brother and sister Marilla and Matthew Cuthburt live and farm at Green Gables, in the village of Avonlea on the Prince Albert Island in Canada. When they decide to adopt a boy from an orphanage to help on the farm, they get instead Anne Shirley, a precious eleven year old girl. Marilla is more than ready to send her back immediately but Matthew is charmed and soon Anne finds herself a part of life on the farm. For her part, beyond being thrilled with the idea that she will finally have a home, Anne is overwhelmed immediately by a love of the natural setting of Green Gables. By the time Marilla gets a chance to find Anne another home, she has made the decision to keep Anne. A decision she will question again and again as Anne fumbles and stumbles her way through life. Because Anne is so prone to daydreaming, she is also prone to making careless mistakes. But she is also enthusiastic, loving and tries so hard to improve. The reader follows Anne through her life in Avonlea, her friendships (she is always looking for kindred spirits), and on through her days in high school where she excels.

My book club reads a "classic" every year and this year we choose "Anne of Green Gables." One of our members is a playwright who incorporated several classic girl's books into a play that some of us heard a reading of which prompted us to revisit our childhood. Of the five books incorporated into the play, this was the only one I had never read and I was eager to see what makes it so beloved. When I finished, I was still wondering.

I found the book excessively wordy, although Montgomery does a lovely job of describing nature. I quickly grew tired of Anne's daydreams and found much of the book repetitive. Further, I found it odd that Montgomery spent whole chapters discussing some situations then, as the book neared the end, condensed entire school years into a single chapter.

I did like the juxtaposition of Anne, who is all imagination, and Marilla, who is no nonsense and watching them gradually grow on each other. Although it often annoyed me how hard Marilla was on Anne even after she has warmed to her. But then I also felt sorry for Marilla when Anne would proclaim how fond she was of other people without ever really showing any fondness for Marilla.

The book is clearly of the time that it was written. On the other hand, young people today are every bit as concerned as Anne was about their appearance and having the right clothes. At one point, a couple gets married in a home because no one gets married in a church--and don't people still worry all of the time about what other people will think of them?

When I got to my book club meeting last month, I found that I wasn't the only one that was unimpressed with this book and when our playwright, who loves the book, arrived, we were quick to ask "why?" Her defense did make some of us reconsider the book. One of the things that still appeals to her about this book is that it does not preach, as do almost all other books written for children in this time period. True enough--it does not. And she loves the way Marilla allows Anne to make her mistakes and learn from them, a way of childrearing that was unheard of at the time but a way that most experts now recommend.

So, I'm left wondering...if I had read this book as a child, would I love it?

The Murderer's Daughters by Randy Sue Meyers

The Murderer's Daughters by Randy Susan Meyers
320 pages
Published January 2010 by St. Martin's Press
Source: the publisher and TLC Book Tours

Lulu and Merry's mother was not the kind of mother that hung their artwork on the refrigerator and made them special after school snacks. Instead she was a mother who cared far more about herself, a mother who threw their father out of the house so she would be able to have her affairs more easily. A mother who told Lulu and Merry never to let their father in the apartment. But one day, he convinced Lulu to do just that and then proceeded to stab her mother to death, stab Merry and then try to kill himself while Lulu ran for help. When he was sent off to prison, the girls were sent to live with their maternal grandmother but when she died, no one else in the family would have the murderer's daughters. For several years they suffered through life in an orphanage until Lulu manipulated one of the counselors to take them into her home as foster children. When she also died, they were left with no one except each other (not always what either of them wants) and a father who Merry continues to visit but whom Lulu refuses to have any contact with.

This book follows the sisters for more than 30 years as they both deal with the tragedy of what happened to their family that day in their apartment. Lulu convinces Merry that they must never tell anyone what happened--all the world, except Lulu's husband, believe that their parents were both killed in a car accident. And that is how Lulu has coped with the guilt--a carefully constructed life in which she does her best to ignore what happened and deny that her father is still alive. She marries, has children and becomes a doctor all the while trying to tamp down the guilt of hating her mother, letting her father into the apartment and being the only one not physically hurt that day. Merry copes in an entirely different way, with the help of alcohol, pills and a string of one-night stands. She spends her life trying to appease her needy father believing that he has to be kept happy, constantly living in fear that he will one day get out of prison. She becomes a victims advocate and probation officer, trying to help others deal with their own issues despite never having been able to completely deal with her own.

Told in three parts (the girls' young live, young adulthood, and adult years) the book shifts narration between the two sisters. Occasionally I found this a little confusing but overall it works very well. Some of the characters and the orphanage scenes seem a bit stereotyped but for the most part Meyers' characters are well thought out and fully written. I really became engaged in watching these girls grow into women and seeing how their mother's murder and father's imprisonment stayed with them always.

Meyer's does a marvelous job of crafting a story that spans a lifetime but still manages to stay focused on the details of the girls' lives. Although it starts with a big dramatic flourish, the book settles into an exploration of what happens to the children in these situations (and heaven knows there are entirely too many of them) and the psychologically aftereffects that will remain with them for the rest of their lives. A terrific debut novel--I look forward to hearing from Ms. Meyers again.

To learn more about Randy Sue Meyers and the book, visit her website or read other reviews on the TLC tour. Thanks to the ladies at TLC Book Tours for including me on this tour!

Sunday Salon - August 1

How can it possibly be August already?! Where did the summer go? I had such grand plans to spend lazy summer days reading, evenings on the patio with a glass of lemonade (not really, I don't drink lemonade but it sounds better than a glass of white wine) and a great book. Completely has not happened. I took 5 books on vacation and only finished 1 1/2--although I blame that partially on the book that I read; I did not like it at all and would not allow myself to pick up anything else until I had struggled through it.

Two weeks ago I started a new job. I'm not required to bring work home but one look at the desk I inherited convinced me that there was no way I was going to be able to function there. So I've been bringing piles of paper home every night to sort, toss and organize. That has been almost the sum total of my reading this week. Whoopie! But I've spent a lot of time this weekend finishing it up and I'm so hoping to have August to get back to reading actual books.

With bringing work home and working overtime, I haven't had much time to visit blogs either. I finally got my reader down to 120 this evening so if I haven't stopped by your blog in a while, it's not because I don't want to! I have been reading posts like crazy this weekend so I at least know what you've been up to even if I haven't left a comment.

Time to toodle off to bed--with a book and an hour left to do some reading. Have a great week! What are your reading plans this week?