You Take It From Here by Pamela Ribon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
On the heels of a divorce, all Danielle Meyers wants is her annual vacation with sassy, life-long best friend, Smidge—complete with umbrella cocktails by an infinity pool—but instead she’s hit with the curveball of a lifetime. Smidge takes Danielle to the middle of nowhere to reveal a diagnosis of terminal cancer, followed by an unusual request: “After I’m gone, I want you to finish the job. Marry my husband. Raise my daughter. I’m gonna teach you to how to be Smidge 2.0.”
As Danielle wrestles with this major life decision, she finds herself torn between being true to her best friend’s wishes and being honest with herself. Parenting issues aside, Smidge’s small-town Louisiana world is exactly the one Danielle made sure to escape. Danielle isn’t one for playing the social butterfly, or being the center of attention. And when your best friend tries to set you up on a date night with her husband, it might be time to become the bossy one for a change.
When I first heard about this book, I was intrigued by the premise. Would Danielle want to or be able to step into Smidge’s shoes? I had to find out. (Don’t worry, I won’t spoil it for you.)
Smidge turned out to be a pretty unlikeable woman. She was bossy, rude, and presumptuous. I had a hard time understanding why Danielle was friends with her at all. Their relationship was definitely codependent. I found it to be authentic though; I know women who have friendships very similar to Danielle and Smidge.
Even though I didn’t like Smidge, I still enjoyed the book. The characters were well-developed and layered. I especially loved Smidge’s husband’s best friend Tucker. He was comic relief and the voice of reason at the same time.
Because I am a cold-hearted snake (see my review of Skipping a Beat), this book was not a sob fest for me, although it certainly was sad. However, if you are the type who bawls at movies like Beaches, then this book will give you a good cry. I thought it was a great summer read.
Buy this book at:
Amazon
Kindle Store
Powell’s Books
(I received a copy of this book courtesy of the publicist.)
July 13th, 2012 in
Books |
2 Comments
I’m pleased to be able to offer a copy of Full Body Burden, which I reviewed yesterday, to one of my readers with a United States address. Just fill out the form below. I will take entries until July 19 at 11:59pm CST. Good luck!
Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats by Kristen Iversen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
Full Body Burden is a haunting work of narrative nonfiction about a young woman, Kristen Iversen, growing up in a small Colorado town close to Rocky Flats, a secret nuclear weapons plant once designated “the most contaminated site in America.” It’s the story of a childhood and adolescence in the shadow of the Cold War, in a landscape at once startlingly beautiful and–unknown to those who lived there–tainted with invisible yet deadly particles of plutonium.
It’s also a book about the destructive power of secrets–both family and government. Her father’s hidden liquor bottles, the strange cancers in children in the neighborhood, the truth about what was made at Rocky Flats (cleaning supplies, her mother guessed)–best not to inquire too deeply into any of it.
But as Iversen grew older, she began to ask questions. She learned about the infamous 1969 Mother’s Day fire, in which a few scraps of plutonium spontaneously ignited and–despite the desperate efforts of firefighters–came perilously close to a “criticality,” the deadly blue flash that signals a nuclear chain reaction. Intense heat and radiation almost melted the roof, which nearly resulted in an explosion that would have had devastating consequences for the entire Denver metro area. Yet the only mention of the fire was on page 28 of the Rocky Mountain News, underneath a photo of the Pet of the Week. In her early thirties, Iversen even worked at Rocky Flats for a time, typing up memos in which accidents were always called “incidents.”
And as this memoir unfolds, it reveals itself as a brilliant work of investigative journalism–a detailed and shocking account of the government’s sustained attempt to conceal the effects of the toxic and radioactive waste released by Rocky Flats, and of local residents’ vain attempts to seek justice in court. Here, too, are vivid portraits of former Rocky Flats workers–from the healthy, who regard their work at the plant with pride and patriotism, to the ill or dying, who battle for compensation for cancers they got on the job.
This book had quite a bit of technical and scientific information in it, but it’s written with a narrative that makes it easily readable. I didn’t always understand the nitty gritty of the science that Iversen was writing about but I could understand the points she was trying to make anyway. I don’t have much of a head for science so that is probably mostly my fault anyway.
I liked how she alternated the story between what was happening at Rocky Flats and what was happening in her own personal life. Though it was sometimes hard to make a direct connection between the two, both stories were compelling.
If you care anything about the environment or life on this planet, reading Full Body Burden will make you mad. It’s unbelievable the amount of irresponsibility involved with the management of the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant. Even though it wasn’t a feel-good book by any means, I think it’s still an important book to read. The more aware we are of these types of situations, the harder it will be for the people involved to keep shirking responsibility – I would hope anyway.
Tune in tomorrow – I’ll be giving away a copy of this book to one of my US readers!
Buy this book at:
Amazon
Kindle Store
Powell’s Books
(I received this book courtesy of the publisher.)
July 11th, 2012 in
Books |
2 Comments
Yesterday, I reviewed Cleaning Nabokov’s House which I highly recommend. Today, I am thrilled to be able to give away copies to three of my readers with US addresses. Just fill out the form below. This giveaway will be closed for entries at 11:59pm CST on July 17, 2012.
Cleaning Nabokov’s House: A Novel by Leslie Daniels
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
When Barb Barrett walks out on her loveless marriage, she doesn’t realize she will lose everything: her home, her financial security, even her beloved children. Approaching forty with her life in shambles and no family or friends to turn to, Barb must now discover what it means to rely on herself in a stark new emotional landscape.
With only a questionable business plan in hand, Barb is determined to reinvent herself. She moves into a house once occupied by the literary genius Vladimir Nabokov, author of the notorious Lolita. She discovers what could be Nabokov’s last unpublished manuscript and from there begins a personal journey that is deliciously romantic, darkly comic, and wise.
Cleaning Nabokov’s House went a completely different direction than I was expecting. I thought it would be mostly about Barb finding the manuscript and trying to get it published but that was only a small part of the story. It’s about her trying to become a functional human being again after getting divorced and losing her kids. She starts an unorthodox business in the sleepy little town she lives in which was a surprise to me although now I know it’s foreshadowed in the very first sentence of the book. Throughout it all she maintains a wry sense of humor that is probably what keeps her from going completely insane.
I think one of the reasons I enjoyed this book so much is that Barb reminded me of one of my friends after her divorce. I could imagine my friend thinking and saying a lot of the things that Barb did. Barb has some really great lines. For example, after she finds out her ex-husband has a girlfriend:
I asked myself sternly, “Why shouldn’t he be happy?” I answered myself like this: “Why shouldn’t he be dead?”
The book is full of this kind of wry humor, which helps provide relief when Barb’s situation feels utterly bleak. Even though Barb is fairly socially inept and just plain weird sometimes, I found myself rooting for her on all fronts. I thoroughly enjoyed Cleaning Nabokov’s House.
Make sure to come back tomorrow – I’ll be giving away three copies of this book! (US only)
Buy this book at:
Amazon
Kindle Store
Powell’s Books
(I received a copy of this book courtesy of the publisher.)
July 9th, 2012 in
Books |
2 Comments
Here is your surprise bonus review to wrap up Polygamy Week!
Becoming Sister Wives: The Story of an Unconventional Marriage by Kody, Meri, Janelle, Christine, and Robyn Brown
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars
One of my not-so-secret shames is that I love TV tie-in books so when I saw that a Sister Wives book had come out, I had to get it. (Sister Wives is a reality TV show on TLC that stars Kody Brown, his four wives: Meri, Janelle, Christine and Robyn, and their seventeen children.)
Becoming Sister Wives is divided into four parts and each wife wrote her own section for each part. Part 1: Matrimony is each wife’s story of how they came to marry Kody. Part 2: Sorority is about how the wives get along with each other. Part 3: Family is about how the financial side of the marriage works and how the wives raise their children. Part 4: Celebrity is about how the wives’ extended families reacted to them being on a reality TV show and how the wives are handling the stress of press tours, etc. Kody wrote the prologue and epilogue.
Since I am a huge fan of the Sister Wives TV show, I’m happy to learn any inside information about the show and family that I can. One of the reasons I like the show so much is that for the most part everyone gets along and there isn’t too much drama or negativity. After reading this book, I know that the Brown’s are keeping a lot of the more negative things going on in their lives from the camera. The show gives the impression that the first three wives have always been best friends. However, according to the book, they actually have never gotten along that great and are friends on a surface level at most.
Although I mostly admire the Brown’s for being discrete on the show and in the book, part of me wants to know some down and dirty secrets! The wives mention fights and conflicts but are vague about details. Janelle writes about moving out several years ago when she and Meri had a really bad fight but doesn’t write anything about what the fight was about. Meri writes about how she and Kody courted someone before Janelle but broke of the engagement when things went sour. She gives no details about why. This book was only 270 pages with a pretty big font so there was definitely room for dishing dirt. I can understand why they didn’t even though I was somewhat frustrated by it.
This book goes into more of the religious reasons that they believe in plural marriage but doesn’t go all the way. I think they are probably afraid of alienating people if they explain the whole deal because it is a very male dominated thing, with the man being the only way his wives can get into heaven. Also, the Brown’s emphasize that although they are fundamentalist Mormons, they are not part of the FLDS led by Warren Jeffs. They don’t name their domination in the book but according to Wikipedia, they belong to the Apostolic United Brethren, which is fairly liberal as far as fundamentalist Mormon sects go.
Although this book is intended for those who watch Sister Wives, I think that it would also appeal to those who want to learn more about modern day polygamy. If you are a die-hard fan of the show like I am, then you need this book for sure.
Buy this book at:
Amazon
Kindle Store
Powell’s Books
Please link up any polygamy related reviews or posts – new or old! You can put your name@your blog name (title of book or post). Example: Rachel@ChaosIsAFriendofMine (Becoming Sister Wives). Thanks!
July 6th, 2012 in
Books |
2 Comments
The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
It is 1875, and Ann Eliza Young has recently separated from her powerful husband, Brigham Young, prophet and leader of the Mormon Church. Expelled and an outcast, Ann Eliza embarks on a crusade to end polygamy in the United States. A rich account of her family’s polygamous history is revealed, including how both she and her mother became plural wives. Yet soon after Ann Eliza’s story begins, a second exquisite narrative unfolds–a tale of murder involving a polygamist family in present-day Utah. Jordan Scott, a young man who was thrown out of his fundamentalist sect years earlier, must reenter the world that cast him aside in order to discover the truth behind his father’s death. And as Ann Eliza’s narrative intertwines with that of Jordan’s search, readers are pulled deeper into the mysteries of love, family, and faith.
I didn’t do a page count but by my estimation this book is about two-thirds Ann Eliza Young’s story and just one-third of it is the modern murder mystery. That was fine with me; I found myself much more interested in the historical part of the story. The modern-day murder mystery plot was a little thin. The characters didn’t have the depth that the ones in the historical part of the book did. However, it’s clear that Ebershoff thoroughly researched the FLDS church. The modern-day polygamist sect in this book is almost exactly like the FLDS run by Warren Jeffs.
The historical section of the book starts with Ann Eliza as a small child and goes up through her marriage and separation from Brigham Young. Ann Eliza was a great character – a very strong, opinionated woman, especially for the time in which she lived. I found myself wondering how much of her personality was a product of Ebershoff’s imagination. I’d like to read Ann Eliza’s autobiography at some point to see how the real Ann Eliza compares to the one in this book.
I think fans of historical fiction and/or polygamy books will enjoy this book.
Buy this book at:
Amazon
Kindle Store
Powell’s Books
Please link up any polygamy related reviews or posts – new or old! You can put your name@your blog name (title of book or post). Example: Rachel@ChaosIsAFriendofMine (The 19th Wife). Thanks!
July 5th, 2012 in
Books |
2 Comments
Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
In 1984, Ron and Dan Lafferty brutally murdered their younger brother Allen’s wife and baby girl saying that they were acting on orders from God. Ron and Dan are Mormon Fundamentalists, a breakaway sect that still practices polygamy and holds other unorthodox beliefs not sanctioned by the mainstream Mormon church.
In Under the Banner of Heaven, Krakauer delves into the minds of the Lafferty brothers and what led them to commit such a heinous crime. In addition, he interweaves the history of the Mormon church throughout the book, alternating between that and the Lafferty brothers and other modern day Mormon Fundamentalist’s stories.
Krakauer traces the history of how Mormon Fundamentalism came to be starting at the beginning with Joseph Smith founding the mainstream Mormon church. I really appreciated learning about the beginnings of the LDS faith and why the Fundamentalists split from the mainstream church. Having this detailed background information helped me to understand better what beliefs the Fundamentalists hold and why.
Krakauer is equally thorough in his examination of modern day Fundamentalism and the Lafferty brothers. He also discusses other contemporary Mormon Fundamentalists like Warren Jeffs and Brian David Mitchell, the man who kidnapped Elizabeth Smart.
This book is a great combination of true crime and history. It’s a wonderful primer on the history of the Mormon church and the status of Mormon Fundamentalism in today’s world.
Buy this book at:
Amazon
Kindle Store
Powell’s Books
Please link up any polygamy related reviews or posts – new or old! You can put your name@your blog name (title of book or post). Example: Rachel@ChaosIsAFriendofMine (Under the Banner of Heaven). Thanks!
July 4th, 2012 in
Books |
2 Comments
Triumph by Carolyn Jessop
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
Triumph is Carolyn Jessop’s follow up to her first memoir Escape. In Escape, published in 2007, Carolyn writes her story of living in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) and how she finally escaped from it in 2003. In 2008, the FLDS’s Yearning for Zion Ranch was raided by the state of Texas. Carolyn’s ex-husband happened to be in charge of the ranch at the time. Carolyn was asked by authorities to serve as a consultant during the investigation since she was all too familiar with FLDS culture and customs. In Triumph, Carolyn recounts her role in the investigation as well as her feelings about the whole process of the raid and the children of the FLDS members being taken away and later returned to their parents.
There is actually not a lot of new information in Triumph if you have already read Escape. Carolyn probably could have written a long magazine article about her role after the raid but I can see why she would want to capitalize on the FDLS being in the news and known by many more people than when her first book came out.
I appreciated getting more of a behind the scenes perspective on why the children of the FLDS members were taken by the state from the ranch in the first place and why they were ultimately returned. I remember feeling very conflicted about that whole situation at the time that it was happening.
Even though this book rehashed a lot of what was in the first book, I still enjoyed reading it. I liked catching up with Carolyn and her children and finding out how all of them had adjusted to life outside the cult since the ending of the first book. I think if you liked the first book and felt invested in Carolyn’s journey in it, then you will like this book too.
Buy this book at:
Amazon
Kindle Store
Powell’s Books
Please link up any polygamy related reviews or posts – new or old! You can put your name@your blog name (title of book or post). Example: Rachel@ChaosIsAFriendofMine (Triumph). Thanks!
July 3rd, 2012 in
Books |
No Comments
Escape by Carolyn Jessop
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
When she was eighteen years old, Carolyn Jessop was coerced into an arranged marriage with a total stranger: a man thirty-two years her senior. Merril Jessop already had three wives. But arranged plural marriages were an integral part of Carolyn’s heritage: She was born into and raised in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), the radical offshoot of the Mormon Church that had settled in small communities along the Arizona-Utah border. Over the next fifteen years, Carolyn had eight children and withstood her husband’s psychological abuse and the watchful eyes of his other wives who were locked in a constant battle for supremacy.
Carolyn’s every move was dictated by her husband’s whims. He decided where she lived and how her children would be treated. He controlled the money she earned as a school teacher. He chose when they had sex; Carolyn could only refuse—at her peril. For in the FLDS, a wife’s compliance with her husband determined how much status both she and her children held in the family. Carolyn was miserable for years and wanted out, but she knew that if she tried to leave and got caught, her children would be taken away from her. No woman in the country had ever escaped from the FLDS and managed to get her children out, too. But in 2003, Carolyn chose freedom over fear and fled her home with her eight children. She had $20 to her name.
Escape exposes a world tantamount to a prison camp, created by religious fanatics who, in the name of God, deprive their followers the right to make choices, force women to be totally subservient to men, and brainwash children in church-run schools. Against this background, Carolyn Jessop’s flight takes on an extraordinary, inspiring power. Not only did she manage a daring escape from a brutal environment, she became the first woman ever granted full custody of her children in a contested suit involving the FLDS. And in 2006, her reports to the Utah attorney general on church abuses formed a crucial part of the case that led to the arrest of their notorious leader, Warren Jeffs.
I really liked the straightforward manner in which Carolyn told her story. She was able to recount the horrible things she went through as the wife of Merril Jessop without a lot of anger coming through. That’s not to say she doesn’t have anger but she didn’t let it cloud the story she was trying to tell.
I appreciated how she repeatedly pointed out that her husband, Warren Jeffs, and their ilk were not following the principle of polygamy correctly. She gives examples of other polygamist relationships in her community in which the husband and wives were happy. (That is before Jeffs came to power. Once he was in charge, no one was really happy.) When she recalls her grandmother’s explanation to her of the spirituality behind the principal of polygamy, it actually seems to make sense. (As much sense as any religion makes to a person who is not a part of it.)
This book was published before the raid on Warren Jeffs’ Yearning for Zion ranch in 2008 but it does explain how Jeffs rose to power in the FLDS church and why he had such a hold on his followers. There are other denominations besides the FLDS that practice polygamy and may not be as cult-like as the FLDS, which I think is important to keep in mind. I really enjoyed reading Carolyn’s story – she is a strong, intelligent woman and that came through in her story.
Buy this book at:
Amazon
Kindle Store
Powell’s Books
Please link up any polygamy related reviews or posts – new or old! You can put your name@your blog name (title of book or post). Example: Rachel@ChaosIsAFriendofMine (Escape). Thanks!
July 2nd, 2012 in
Books |
2 Comments
