I had the good fortune to hear Stephen King speak tonight to a sold out 1200 person crowd. Getting out of the parking garage afterwards was like trying to leave a rock concert – it took over half an hour! I’ll post details of his talk sometime next week.
This Old World: A Novel of Utopian Dreams and Civil War by Steve Wiegenstein
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Publisher: Blank Slate Press
Release Date: September 1, 2014
Publisher’s Description:
After the war, James Turner and the other men of Daybreak return home to find that war has changed their Utopian community forever. Charlotte Turner, Marie Mercadier and the other women they left behind survived raiders and bushwhackers, raised up children, and survived on little more than dogged determination. Now that the men are back-those who fought for the North and those who fought for the South-the community must somehow put the past behind them. But some carry scars too deep to heal, and others carry hate they have no intention of letting go.
This Old World is the second book in the Slant of Light series and starts after the Civil War has ended. With almost all their men having been at war, Daybreak is hanging on by a thread. Raided time after time by bushwhackers and soldiers on both sides, the people of Daybreak are weary and hungry. Yet they have no choice but to persevere. Then the men come back. But they are hardly Daybreak’s saviors. The war has changed them too. Even James Turner, founder of Daybreak, has been scarred and lost his motivation to lead. Luckily, his wife Charlotte hasn’t lost her dogged determination in the face of challenge.
Most all of the characters who survived Slant of Light return in This Old World and some new ones are added. Lysander Smith’s mother shows up to provide a bit of respite from the serious tone of the book. Dathan is a man of few words with a quiet strength about him. He may have been my favorite character this time around.
Wiegenstein is excellent at giving each character a unique voice. And some of his characters in this book are definitely flawed. I wanted jump in the book and give a few of them a good talking to! Charlotte has come into her own as the leader of Daybreak, making tough decisions while keeping what’s left of the community going. Her strength is a marvel.
The time immediately following the Civil War was a dark, confusing time in American history and that is fantastically clear in This Old World. It’s darker and more tragic than Slant of Light but still just as captivating.
This Old World is a wonderful example that real gems of literature are published by small independent publishers. Don’t let the fact that a book is published by an indie dissuade you from reading it. Especially this one!
Book 1: Slant of Light
(I received this book courtesy of the author.)
The Bees by Laline Paull
Publisher: Ecco
Release Date: May 6, 2014
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
Flora 717 is a sanitation worker, a member of the lowest caste in her orchard hive where work and sacrifice are the highest virtues and worship of the beloved Queen the only religion. But Flora is not like other bees. With circumstances threatening the hive’s survival, her curiosity is regarded as a dangerous flaw but her courage and strength are an asset. She is allowed to feed the newborns in the royal nursery and then to become a forager, flying alone and free to collect pollen. She also finds her way into the Queen’s inner sanctum, where she discovers mysteries about the hive that are both profound and ominous.
But when Flora breaks the most sacred law of all—daring to challenge the Queen’s fertility—enemies abound, from the fearsome fertility police who enforce the strict social hierarchy to the high priestesses jealously wedded to power. Her deepest instincts to serve and sacrifice are now overshadowed by an even deeper desire, a fierce maternal love that will bring her into conflict with her conscience, her heart, her society—and lead her to unthinkable deeds.
Do you have reader friends who give you book recommendations that just up your alley? One of my go-to friends for book recommendations is Kelly. I love 99.9% of the books she has recommended to me. One of those books is The Bees. The Bees is about a bee colony that is totally devoted to their queen. In fact, that’s their motto, “Accept, Obey and Serve.” If there is any strife in the hive, the queen releases her Queen’s Love scent and everyone calms down, prostrating and chanting, “Accept, Obey and Serve.”
The bees are divided into castes called kin groups with each group having a different job in the hive. Flora 717 is born into the flora kin, which is sanitation, the lowest of the low. However, she is different from the rest of her kin. She is bigger and has the power of speech while the rest of her kin are speechless. When she is first hatched and the other bees notice that she is unusual, I thought, “Oh great, it’s Divergent in bee form.” But thankfully it soon becomes clear that it’s not.
Flora’s purpose is a mystery right up until the very end. Why was she born into the flora kin when she doesn’t fit in? Why can she do things that only the Queen is supposed to do? The Bees has a dark and Orwellian atmosphere that I found captivating. Since The Bees is so good I’m surprised I haven’t heard any buzz about it. (Get it? Buzz!) Anyway, thanks Kelly!
My church had a clothing swap this weekend. Give what you want, take what you need. I got a ton of cute clothes for Neve. West picked out this sweet-ass shirt for himself. It looks familiar to you because your grandpa wore it in 1976.
I got both this skirt and top. (The shoes are mine – Stitch Fix doesn’t have shoes – yet.) I love how pencil skits fit on me and this skirt is no exception. It has an elastic waist which is nice – very forgiving. It’s also pretty thickly lined so it could be worn year-round by adding some tights in the winter. I don’t know if I’d actually wear this top with it – it’s cream and the stripe in the skirt is white. I like the top just for what it is though. It’s sheer so I’m wearing a white cami underneath. What do you think about the shirt/skirt combo – can they be worn together?
Up next is this green sweater. Of course being a red-head I LOVE to wear green. (Jeans and shoes are mine.) It’s a fairly open weave. My stylist suggested wearing a contrasting tank underneath. I’m wearing a purple tank from my closet. That’s another awesome thing about Stitch Fix – since you are trying on the clothes at home you can coordinate with items from your own closet to see how the piece would fit into your wardrobe. I liked this sweater because it’s a basic piece that I can wear casually or dressy depending on what I wear on the bottom.
I really wanted to like this jacket. It’s olive green which is one of my favorite colors and it has an asymmetrical zipper which is unusual and cool. But it just didn’t drape right. See how puffy it is when I stand to the side. Kinda makes me look pregnant and I do not want that!
This necklace was the last item in my box. I specifically asked my stylist – yes you can make requests! – for a mint statement necklace to go with this dress, which I received in my last fix. This is what she sent. I really liked how it went with the dress but I didn’t think it was quite bold enough and it was pretty pricey for what I usually spend on jewelry.
By now you can probably guess what I kept – the skirt, the cream top and the green sweater. The necklace and jacket I sent back in the convenient pre-paid envelope that came in my box. Easy-peasy!
If you’d like to sign up to start getting your own Stitch Fix boxes, please click here. I do get a referral credit. And when you sign up, you can start getting credits too to help with what will quickly become an obsession! If you have any questions, just leave a comment.
Someone was excited to receive the latest Diary of Wimpy Kid book in the mail today.
Henry and Beezus by Beverly Cleary
Original Publication Date: 1952
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I love Beverly Cleary. My mom read the books, then read gave her books to me to read and now I’m giving them to my son to read. I read this book out loud with my son. Even though he’s perfectly capable of reading by himself, he loves the snuggle time of reading with mama.
This was a fun little book. Each chapter finds Henry trying a different tactic to earn enough money to buy himself a bicycle. Beezus helps him but definitely has a supporting role in the book – it isn’t really Henry and Beezus as best buddies like the title implies. Beezus always has her annoying little sister tagging along – a little preview of how ornery she’ll be in her own books.
My son and I loved comparing life in the 50s when this book was first published to life today. For instance, Henry sells gum to his friends at two pieces for a penny. A bag of chips cost a dime. My son thought this astounding but he knew this was a REALLY long time ago because his mom wasn’t even born yet.
I loved the wholesomeness of this book. That the kids in it were basically nice and said things like “jeepers”. No one was sassy to their parents like in so many middle-grade books today. This is a great book to read and discuss with your middle grade reader.
Other books I’ve reviewed by Beverly Cleary:
Beezus and Ramona
Ramona the Pest
The first Thursday of every month I host Throwback Thursdays. If you you’d like to share a post from the past week about a book from “back in the day”, feel free to grab the button for your post and and link up below. Be sure and link directly to your post, not your blog’s home page. Thanks!
For more reviews of books for children and teens, check out Booking Mama’s feature, Kid Konnection, posted on Saturdays. If you’d like to participate in Kid Konnection and share a post about anything related to children’s books (picture, middle grade, or young adult) from the past week, you can go to her site to leave a comment and your link .
Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan
Publisher: Vintage
Paperback Release Date: May 29, 2012
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
For the Kellehers, Maine is a place where children run in packs, showers are taken outdoors, and old Irish songs are sung around a piano. Their beachfront property, won on a barroom bet after the war, sits on three acres of sand and pine nestled between stretches of rocky coast, with one tree bearing the initials “A.H.” At the cottage, built by Kelleher hands, cocktail hour follows morning mass, nosy grandchildren snoop in drawers, and decades-old grudges simmer beneath the surface.
As three generations of Kelleher women descend on the property one summer, each brings her own hopes and fears. Maggie is thirty-two and pregnant, waiting for the perfect moment to tell her imperfect boyfriend the news; Ann Marie, a Kelleher by marriage, is channeling her domestic frustration into a dollhouse obsession and an ill-advised crush; Kathleen, the black sheep, never wanted to set foot in the cottage again; and Alice, the matriarch at the center of it all, would trade every floorboard for a chance to undo the events of one night, long ago.
By turns wickedly funny and achingly sad, Maine unveils the sibling rivalry, alcoholism, social climbing, and Catholic guilt at the center of one family, along with the abiding, often irrational love that keeps them coming back, every summer, to Maine and to each other.
After reading all the glowing reviews of Maine when it first came out a couple of years ago, I finally got around to reading (listening to) it. I’m so glad I did. Sullivan shows herself to be an expert at character development. The characters are richly and carefully written. Things that happened to Alice as a girl have a major impact on her life as a mother and grandmother and we are shown clearly how she came to be the person she is now, in her 80s. Other characters are written the same way.
I liked how Sullivan showed how differently people interpret other’s actions. Someone thinks that someone else prefers to eat alone and therefore doesn’t invite them to dinner while the uninvited person wonders why she was snubbed. Sullivan is able to weave these kinds of misunderstandings in expertly, and sometimes unexpectedly.
Another thing I liked was that historical events were included and accurately described. I can’t say too much about that without giving up a major plot point.
This book was real life through and through. Although I’m usually a fan of tidy endings, I loved how in this case, some things were left hanging. Because in real life, not everything wraps up at the same time.
Maine is definitely a must read.
Note on the audio book: I found the narration pleasant and the different characters each had their own distinct voice. The only concern that I had was that the narrator used a Boston accent for Alice’s dialogue. I checked with a friend who has a print copy and Alice’s accent is not written phonetically in the book. In the audio I found it distracting because I didn’t think the narrator’s accent was that great. I also wondered why Alice had the accent but her children, who had been born and raised in Boston did not.
Other books I’ve reviewed by J. Courtney Sullivan:
The Engagements
Allegiant by Veronica Roth
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Release Date: October 22, 2013
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
The faction-based society that Tris Prior once believed in is shattered—fractured by violence and power struggles and scarred by loss and betrayal. So when offered a chance to explore the world past the limits she’s known, Tris is ready. Perhaps beyond the fence, she and Tobias will find a simple new life together, free from complicated lies, tangled loyalties, and painful memories.
But Tris’s new reality is even more alarming than the one she left behind. Old discoveries are quickly rendered meaningless. Explosive new truths change the hearts of those she loves. And once again, Tris must battle to comprehend the complexities of human nature—and of herself—while facing impossible choices about courage, allegiance, sacrifice, and love.
***This review will contain spoilers from the first two books in the series but not for this book***
I procrastinated writing this review therefore it won’t be as detailed as I would have liked it to be. I apologize for that.
Allegiant is told in alternating first person by both Tris and Tobias. It turned out to be really confusing because Tris and Tobias’s inner voices are almost exactly the same. At some point in most of the chapters I had to look back to the beginning of the chapter to see who was narrating.
Tris and her friends finally learn the reason that the factions were created. I found this reason confusing and convoluted . It made me wonder if Roth had outlined the entire trilogy before she started with Divergent.
(My 10 year old son read the trilogy too. I asked him what he thought about it and he said he wondered what was going on in other countries while the experiment in Chicago was going on. I, too wondered what was going on in other countries and cities. Usually dystopian books at least make mention of what is happening in the rest of the world. Not a major point but that was a 10 year old’s thought.)
I knew before I started reading Allegiant that the ending was controversial. It was a love/hate situation with Divergent fans. I have to say that the ending didn’t bother me. It seemed like a realistic ending from my perspective. Of course there are probably other endings that would have been realistic as well but this one satisfied me.
Even though I have a lot of criticism for this book, I’m glad I read it at least for the sake of closure. It wasn’t all bad, it’s just that the problems with it were the ones that stuck in my head after waiting so long to write this review. It was disappointing that after the awesomeness of Divergent, each of the following books were progressively not as awesome. I’m interested to see how this will play out in terms of the movies. They could easily end up being movies that are better than the books if tweaks are made. We shall see.
My reviews of the first two books in this trilogy:
I’m a reading, knitting, scrapbooking, running mom of four crazy kids.
Welcome to the chaos!
