Tuck Everlasting. Finished  10-12-13, rating 4/5, children’s fiction, 139 pages, pub. 1975

Doomed to – or blessed with – eternal life after drinking from a magic spring, the Tuck family wanders about trying to live as inconspicuously and comfortably as they can. When ten-year-old Winnie Foster stumbles on their secret, the Tucks take her home and explain why living forever at one age is less a blessing that it might seem. Complications arise when Winnie is followed by a stranger who wants to market the spring water for a fortune.  (from Goodreads)

I watched the movie when it came out in 2002, mainly because I’ve loved Jonathan Jackson since he first played Lucky on General Hospital.  Surprisingly, I don’t remember much about it except that I enjoyed it.  So, I when I read the book I knew about the magic spring but other than that my expectations were low.  I read it for the 24 hour read-a-thon because I had it on my shelf and it was short.  What a sweet treat it was.

I loved ten-year-old Winnie. She lived with her family at the edge of a woods and one day met Jesse who was there to meet up with his seemingly strange family who had literally discovered the fountain of youth.  Winnie, being a young girl sheltered from much doesn’t put up much of a fight when the Tuck family kidnaps her and takes her back to their home.  She falls  a little in love with Jesse and the rest of the family and they with her.

Such a sweet story that tackles some very big issues.  If you could live forever, would you?  What are the ramifications if this fountain of youth was found and exploited?  I’m thinking of a big drug company or even some part of the health care system that could sell immortality to the highest bidders.  How would you live your life if you knew there would always be tomorrows?  Such a weighty book for a slight children’s novel.  I was captivated by it.

A Gracious Plenty by Sheri Reynolds. Finished 10-12-13, rating 5/5, fiction, 205 pages, pub. 1997

I chose  to read this one for the 24 hour read-a-thon because I had it on my shelf,  it was short and the cover has always intrigued me.  Since it takes place at a cemetery that was an added facination since I love to visit old graveyards (well, I did when I had time for such things).

Finch Nobles (how’s that for a name?) takes care of the local graveyard in her small southern town.  Her face, burned when she was a child, looks like a tree so she was ostracized for that.  And then as she got older she realized that she could speak to the dead that ‘lived’ in the cemetery causing some very odd behavior, so she was ostracized for that. Not that she minded much since she had the vegetable man, the only one who would buy her home-grown varieties and Leonard, a police officer who found himself giving Finch more chances that she earned.

So, what’s with this talking to the dead business?

“I works like this,” the Mediator explained.  “The Dead coax the natural world along.  We’re responsible for weather and tides and seasons.  For rebirth and retribution.  You’re going to enjoy it, I’m sure.  But if you want to know real enlightenment, you’ve got to lose the weight.  All of it.  And we’re not just talking about blubber here, either.  We’re talking about burdens and secrets, buster.  This is critical information, so listen up.

“In this place you’ve moved beyond experience.  Now it’s your stories that keep you down.  You can’t leave until you’ve told them”

page 34

That’s the outline, but in reality you don’t need to buy into this afterlife theory to enjoy the story.  The well-worn, adamant, gritty character of Finch will keep you reading.  This is her story, but with that comes the stories of those that live in her graveyard, and that includes her parents.  It’s an odd story and I loved every page of it. (okay, there was a kitten story that troubled me, but other than that…) The dead in the graveyard were no sniveling spirits either, they wielded some major power over the living in the form of the weather, seen in all its glory for the book’s finale.

I loved the grumpy Finch and the loving way she tended to the cemetery, Reynolds painted a clear and beautiful picture of both.  Highly recommended for those of you who aren’t afraid to try something a little different.

I Feel Bad About My Neck. Finished 10-12-13, rating 3/5, non-fiction, 137 pages, pub. 2006

I thought this would be the perfect choice for the read-a-thon.  I had it on my shelves, it was short, it should be funny.  Nora Ephron has written some of my favorite movies: When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, You’ve Got Mail (hm, maybe it’s Meg Ryan I love?).  The good thing is that it was short, the bad thing is that I still caught myself skimming. It’s not bad, it just didn’t hold my interest.  I think I find essays like this more interesting in small doses and when I try to read them compiled in a book like this I don’t care for them.  The average or boring ones ruin the good feeling from the great ones.

This was from my favorite paragraph…

When I pass a bookshelf, I like to pick out a book from it and thumb through it.  When I see a newspaper on the couch, I like to sit down with it.  When the mail arrives, I like to rip it open.  Reading is one of the main things I do.  Reading is everything.  Reading makes me feel I’ve accomplished something, learned something, become a better person.  Reading makes me smarter.  Reading gives me something to talk about later on.  Reading is the unbelievably healthy was my attention deficit disorder medicates itself.  Reading is escape, and the opposite of escape; it’s a was to make contact with reality  after a day of making things up, and it’s a way of making contact with someone else’s imagination after a day that’s all too real.  Reading is grist.  Reading is bliss.  But my ability to pick something up and read it-which has gone unchecked all my life up until now-is now entirely dependent on the whereabouts of my reading glasses. (Blind as a Bat chapter)

I was going to make one funny note from each of the 15 chapters, but only made notes on 5, that’s not a positive percentage.  A few things Iearned…

1. Necks go south at 43 and there’s nothing you can do about it.  This probably struck me because I just turned 42.

2. I can buy a Metrocard bag/purse at the Transit Museum in Grand Central Station.  I want one!

3. One Away friendships do not work. (both of you having slept with the same person)

4. Don’t romanticize your home. You can make another one.

5. JFK didn’t sleep with every intern.

It was okay, nothing to get too excited about but a quick diversion.

The Girl You Left Behind. Finished 10-29-13, rating 4.75/5, fiction, 369 pages, pub. 2012

In 1916, French artist Edouard Lefevre leaves his wife Sophie to fight at the Front. When her town falls into German hands, his portrait of Sophie stirs the heart of the local Kommandant and causes her to risk everything – her family, reputation and life – in the hope of seeing her true love one last time.

Nearly a century later and Sophie’s portrait is given to Liv by her young husband shortly before his sudden death. Its beauty speaks of their short life together, but when the painting’s dark and passion-torn history is revealed, Liv discovers that the first spark of love she has felt since she lost him is threatened…

In The Girl You Left Behind two young women, separated by a century, are united in their determination to fight for the thing they love most – whatever the cost. (Goodreads)

The dueling time period story isn’t one that I seek out, but in this case I loved it.  It was told at just the right pace, switching between the past of WWI France and current day London, at all the right times to keep me invested in both stories.  We learn about Sophie first and what her family and village had to endure during the German occupation.  I loved Sophie and was so disappointed when we moved to Liv who seemed weak in comparison.  Sophie was full of spirit and strength. She was a survivor and I wanted to see how she would manage to save herself and those she loved.  Poor, sad Liv hadn’t gotten over the death of her husband four years before, no friends, no life.  Sophie’s portrait and history became the only thing that Liv cared about even when it cost her everything she had managed to find, a friend, a love.

I learned about the German destruction of WWI France, which I knew next to nothing about and I appreciated the restitution storyline.  I knew what I thought was right, but Liv’s journey with the portrait made me see the flip side of restitution issues.  I didn’t love Liv’s trial, but the way these two stories were so separate and yet so connected made this book a joy to read.  I loved the way it wrapped up and I imagine I’ll be thinking of Sophie for at least a few days.

I highly recommend this one.  It was such a thought-provoking and satisfying novel.  I know many preferred her book, Me Before You, but since I haven’t read it yet I have nothing to compare it to.  I plan to remedy that soon!

I received this book from She Reads.  Go on over and see what other bloggers think, if you hurry you can enter to win free books 🙂

Brewster. Finished 10-3-13, rating 4.25/5, fiction, 283 pages, pub. 2013

My friend Golda, who works at WW Norton, sent me this ARC in the spring telling me that she thought I’d like it.  It didn’t look like my normal reading, but I trusted her.  It’s a coming of age story in the Vietnam War era (I should have told her that a college class I took on post-Vietnam literature ruined this period for me)  BUT, this book is beautifully written. I can’t even tell you how many of the passages leapt off the page and had me wishing I had a pen and paper, too many to keep track of for sure.  It is a slow novel, even for such a slim one, but it does pack a punch at the end that was so satisfying.

The year is 1968. The world is changing, and sixteen-year-old Jon Mosher is determined to change with it. Racked by guilt over his older brother’s childhood death and stuck in the dead-end town of Brewster, New York, he turns his rage into victories running track. Meanwhile, Ray Cappicciano, a rebel as gifted with his fists as Jon is with his feet, is trying to take care of his baby brother while staying out of the way of his abusive, ex-cop father. When Jon and Ray form a tight friendship, they find in each other everything they lack at home, but it’s not until Ray falls in love with beautiful, headstrong Karen Dorsey that the three friends begin to dream of breaking away from Brewster for good. Freedom, however, has its price. As forces beyond their control begin to bear down on them, Jon sets off on the race of his life—a race to redeem his past and save them all. (from Goodreads)

Let’s start by saying that if swearing turns you off, this is not the book for you.  They are rebellious teen boys, especially Ray, and it’s a little bit jarring at first.  After that I didn’t notice it as much.  I don’t know  if this was because there was less swearing or I just accepted it and stopped noticing it. But on to the story.

Jon is the good kid, the one with good grades, a physical talent, and two still married parents, but you learn that his parents are broken and withholding affection.  His mother is a tough pill to swallow, but Ray’s father took withholding affection to a whole other level.  These two boys meet on common ground even though looking from the outside you might not see the connection (insert your own governemt shutdown reference here).  I love the friendship between the boys and the foursome they made with Frank and Karen.

The impact of the slow but powerful storytelling was that the surprising end snuck up on me.  

Thank you Golda!!!

The Spark. Finished 8-16-13, 3.5 stars, education/inspiration?, 250 pages, pub. 2013

Jake was never expected to talk or to read, but his mother never believed that.  After his autism diagnosis and standard therapies, she took things into her own hands to reach Jake and bring him out of his autism.  This is her story, and his.

There is a lot to like in this story of a mother’s love and a child’s gift.  Barnett was running a day care out of her home and was pregnant with her second child when Jake was diagnosed at 2.  He started some home therapy through the state and then early intervention preschool,  When a teacher told Barnett that her son would never need his alphabet flashcards that he loved so much, Barnett understood her meaning to be that he would never learn to read, and she pulled him out of school and kept him home with her.  The lengths she went to for her son are staggering as was her creativity and commitment to other kids like Jake.  She had a vision for Jake and for other autistic kids too.  And Jake himself is an inspiration.  This boy who was never expected to read now has an IQ higher than Einstein’s!  The Barnett’s pulled him out of elementary school to go to college at 9 and he’s on track to make great discoveries as an astrophysicist, thanks in large part to his mother who encouraged his love of space at a very age.  Here is the website for Jacob’s Place and more about Jake.

I must say that Barnett seemed to find more hours in her day than most people.  She ran a daycare during the day, a preschool prep class for autistic kids in the evening, raised three young kids and also started weekend sports league for autistic kids. Oh, and somewhere in there she managed to have another child and a stroke.  I am happy if I actually get dinner on the table for my two guys!

There were things that put me off a bit and I hesitate to go into them because it seems like I’d be making a judgment on this hero of a mother and I don’t want to do that because I think she’s amazing.  I’ll just note the one thing that Barnett herself talked about. I was shocked at how cavalier she was with money. Or maybe she was just blasé?  It was something that came up often in the book and it drove me a little nuts.

If you are looking to find a roadmap on how to raise a genius, forget it.  But if you want to be inspired to be better mother then this book will do the trick 🙂

This book was from my personal library.