Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis: The Untold Story (Barbara Leaming)

I've said before, I am a fan of royalty. The Kennedy family has always fit in that category in my mind. I really knew nothing about Jacqueline Kennedy though until I read this. I'm sure there are many other books that would maintain the fairy tale imagine. This isn't one of those. I enjoyed reading about her upbringing, her debutante life and coming out, her relationships and desire to be with someone who wasn't boring and predictable (until she married someone who wasn't boring and predictable, that is).

I was surprised at this book - but also touched. Trauma changes you. It talks about the trauma Jackie Kennedy experienced and how it changed her. PTSD wasn't something talked about back then - but it's clear she had it. Some people wanted her to not respond how she did - but it changed it and there was no ignoring the trauma. That seemed to be the focus of this book. It would be interesting to read other books to get another perspective on her life.

I was also sad to hear what a unfaithful husband she had. So much of married life back then in those circles seemed to be about convenience. Their marriage certainly seemed to be one of those. However, there had to be some love. She wouldn't have been as traumatized if she hadn't loved him.

Goodreads says:

Barbara Leaming's extraordinary and deeply sensitive biography is the first book to document Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis' brutal, lonely and valiant thirty-one year struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that followed JFK's assassination.

Here is the woman as she has never been seen before. In heartrending detail, we witness a struggle that unfolded at times before our own eyes, but which we failed to understand.

Leaming's biography also makes clear the pattern of Jackie's life as a whole. We see how a spirited young woman's rejection of a predictable life led her to John F. Kennedy and the White House, how she sought to reconcile the conflicts of her marriage and the role she was to play, and how the trauma of her husband's murder which left her soaked in his blood and brains led her to seek a very different kind of life from the one she'd previously sought.

A life story that has been scrutinized countless times, seen here for the first time as the serious and important story that it is. A story for our times at a moment when we as a nation need more than ever to understand the impact of trauma.

Eleven and Holding (Mary Penney)

This is the same author that wrote Counting by 7s. This is a thoughtful and beautiful book, like that one.  

I love the main character, Macy. Books like this always make me wonder if I don't give kids enough credit. They watch and make sense of things they're not told.

P. 43 I took a big, unladylike bite into my cupcake. My taste buds nearly exploded with happiness. 

Her grandmother has passed away and her business was sold to Chuck, who is friends with her mom. In the story we find out he is also mourning the loss of his partner, Phillip. Then there is Ginger, Phillip's mother, who is in and out of senility  and not quite able to process loss. 

P. 226 I guess Ginger knew that somewhere in her head, but her heart wouldn't really let her know it.  So, she kept pretending he was alive if only she could find him. 

Macy's father is away on what she is told is a secret mission in the military and her mother is a probation officer. Macy is facing moving on to middle school without her best friend, who is a year younger. 

P. 227 Sometimes when we're not ready to hear something painful, we have to keep ourselves busy not hearing it. It can look crazy, but it's not. It's just coping. We all do it differently. 

It is called Eleven and Holding because she doesn't want to turn 12 without her dad being there. She teams up with a runaway boy who is actually a client of her mother's, unbeknownst to her. What they find out changes pretty much everything. 

Goodreads summary: 

Like The Thing About Jellyfish and Counting by 7s, this sweet, heartfelt middle grade novel illustrates for readers what it’s like to tackle loss, confront hard truths, and find the courage to begin again.

Macy Hollinquest is eleven years old, and don’t count on her to change that anytime soon.

Her birthday is just days away, but she has no intention of turning twelve without her dad by her side. He’d promised to be there for her big day—and yet he’s been gone for months, away doing some kind of secret “important work” after being discharged from the Marines. So she’s staying eleven, no matter what—that is, until she meets Ginger, a nice older lady who is searching for her missing dog. Could Ginger be the perfect cover for attempting to locate her dad?

Macy’s search puts her on a path to a head-on collision with the truth, where she discovers that knowing can sometimes be a heavy burden. And that change, when finally accepted, comes with an unexpected kind of grace.

Mary Penney’s earnest, heartfelt story of change, loss, and new beginnings will resonate with readers on the cusp of new beginnings, and stay in their hearts long after it’s done. 

The Impossible Knife of Memory (Laurie Halse Anderson)

I joined a Facebook group called Talks With Teachers Summer Book Club and this was the first choice for the summer. I've quite enjoyed being able to read what other people thought of the book as they read. It's a good group.

I struggled with the book at first - wondering if I should bother reading a kind of depressing story. I kept reading though because the thought that I kept having was that some kids really have lives like this. It seemed disrespectful to those kids to stop reading. It would make it seem as if I don't care, and I really do care that kids have difficult lives. They need responsible adults to help them deal with the issues they face.

The characters in the story seemed quite authentic. They each dealt with challenges in their own ways, some successfully, and others less than successfully.

Goodreads Summary:

For the past five years, Hayley Kincain and her father, Andy, have been on the road, never staying long in one place as he struggles to escape the demons that have tortured him since his return from Iraq. Now they are back in the town where he grew up so Hayley can attend school. Perhaps, for the first time, Hayley can have a normal life, put aside her own painful memories, even have a relationship with Finn, the hot guy who obviously likes her but is hiding secrets of his own.

Will being back home help Andy’s PTSD, or will his terrible memories drag him to the edge of hell, and drugs push him over? The Impossible Knife of Memory is Laurie Halse Anderson at her finest: compelling, surprising, and impossible to put down.

I definitely will read more of Laurie Halse Anderson's books.