The Seven Silly Eaters (Mary Ann Hoberman)

 

This is a mom who caters too much to her kids. The mess in the house made me uncomfortable. The kids only remember their mom's birthday by chance.
HOWEVER, I think kids would love this story.

Goodreads says:

Peter wants only milk, Lucy won’t settle for anything but homemade lemonade, and Jack is stuck on applesauce. Each new addition to the household brings a new demand for a special meal. What’s a mother to do? “[A] highly comic rhyming romp that surprisingly (and nicely) twists into a birthday story.” —School Library Journal

Little Fires Everywhere (Celeste Ng)

 

This was a really enjoyable read. It's kind of an adult approach to the concepts in The Giver. Shaker Heights is this place where everything is just right, especially in Mrs. Richardson's world. However, the more she digs, the more problems come to light. Her youngest daughter, who she has a difficult relationship with, sees through all this and cannot stand the cognitive dissonance. There are current tales and tales in the past that all weave together to make it quite a compelling story.

Goodreads says:
Everyone in Shaker Heights was talking about it that summer: how Isabelle, the last of the Richardson children, had finally gone around the bend and burned the house down.

In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is meticulously planned – from the layout of the winding roads, to the colours of the houses, to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules.

Enter Mia Warren – an enigmatic artist and single mother – who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenage daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than just tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the mother–daughter pair. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past, and a disregard for the rules that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community.

When old family friends attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town – and puts Mia and Elena on opposing sides. Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Elena is determined to uncover the secrets in Mia's past. But her obsession will come at an unexpected and devastating cost . . .

The Patron Saint of Liars (Ann Patchett)

 

I was reading a different book in preparation for my book club meeting when I realized I was reading the wrong book and so I quickly switched to this one. LOL I still didn't get this one read before book club, which I really regret because this would have been a great one to discuss. I feel like there was some kind of symbolism between the healing water spring where the hotel/home for pregnant girls was built and the main character's inability to make connections and give/feel love and connection....but I struggle to put that together succinctly.

The ending was quite surprising and quite unresolved. Call me weird, but I kind of like a book that leaves you sitting there stunned, in the middle of the road, like I did with Cecilia. 

I read a lot of reviews that said they did not like the main character, Rose. I found myself really sympathizing with her and feeling bad for her. I wanted her to find happiness....but she never did. (I added disabilities as a tag because I felt like Rose had a disability when it came to making healthy connections with other people).

Goodreads says:

In 1992, celebrated novelist Ann Patchett launched her remarkable career with the publication of her debut novel, The Patron Saint of Liars. On this 25th anniversary, read the best-selling book that is “beautifully written . . . a first novel that second- and third-time novelists would envy for its grace, insight, and compassion” (Boston Herald).

St. Elizabeth's, a home for unwed mothers in Habit, Kentucky, usually harbors its residents for only a little while. Not so Rose Clinton, a beautiful, mysterious woman who comes to the home pregnant but not unwed, and stays. She plans to give up her child, thinking she cannot be the mother it needs. But when Cecilia is born, Rose makes a place for herself and her daughter amid St. Elizabeth's extended family of nuns and an ever-changing collection of pregnant teenage girls. Rose's past won't be kept away, though, even by St. Elizabeth's; she cannot remain untouched by what she has left behind, even as she cannot change who she has become in the leaving

Circling The Sun (Paula McLain)

 

Goodreads says:

Brought to Kenya from England as a child and then abandoned by her mother, Beryl Markham is raised by both her father and the native Kipsigis tribe who share his estate. Her unconventional upbringing transforms Beryl into a bold young woman with a fierce love of all things wild and an inherent understanding of nature’s delicate balance. But even the wild child must grow up, and when everything Beryl knows and trusts dissolves, she is catapulted into a string of disastrous relationships. Beryl forges her own path as a horse trainer, and her uncommon style attracts the eye of the Happy Valley set, a decadent, bohemian community of European expats who also live and love by their own set of rules. But it’s the ruggedly charismatic Denys Finch Hatton who ultimately helps Beryl navigate the uncharted territory of her own heart. The intensity of their love reveals Beryl’s truest self and her fate: to fly. 


My review:
I read this book for book club and didn't realize at first that it was a true story. That explained all the long detail about relationships with this person and that person that went nowhere. I was inspired by her ability to keep going despite seeming to have everything against her. She was abandoned by her mother at age 4 (bizarre turn of events) and raised by her father in Africa (Mom got tired of the African life). She rubbed shoulders with the richest of the rich, and went in cycles from poverty to great success. 

Memorable quotes:

p. 132 The more things change the more they stay the same:
"There are some women who'd be expecting a fellow to step up and get serious at some point."
"I that what you're worried about? I can't seem to get rid of teh husband I've got, and anyway, what I'd realy like to know is how it feels to be on my own. Not someone's daughter or wife, I mean...but my own person."

"Oh." It seemed I'd surprised him. "There isn't a lot of that kind of thinking around here."

"Of course there is," I told him, trying to draw a smile. "It's just usually a man who's doing it."

p. 167 Clara's mother to Beryl, after returning to Africa when Beryl was an adult:
"Harry was the joy of my life." Clara's mouth trembled. Her eyes silvered with tears. "You've no idea how hard it's been, wit hthe debts and the uncertainty. And now I'm alone again."

*blink*blink* This coming from a mother who abandoned her daughter. Bizarre.

p. 171 More on Beryl's fragile mother (and who is the total opposite of Beryl):

"I really am sorry for your trouble, "Karen said again and again.

"It's not your fault," Clara assured her, gathering damp bits of her hair into hairpins. But something in her tone told me she did hold Karen responsible - or perhaps me instead. I suppose it wasn't a great surprise to see she had very little gumption or resilience, and yet it made me sad for her. How dreadful it would be if everything toppled you and you folded in. Rain, for instance, not to mention the loss of a husband. She was s pitiful I shouldn't have been irritated with her, but I couldn't help it. By dinnertime, I was too fed up with the whole situation and bolded for Soysambu and my horses - for work, which was never mysterious and never failed to soothe me.

p. 204: This reminded me of the Bible story of the woman caught in adultery. It is after a terrible confrontation with her first husband:
He shrugged. "We're all very liberal until something shines a light on us. Somehow everyone undertands a husband's jealous raging more than a wife's.....indiscretions. It's not fair, but what is?"

p. 302 On society's expectations of women (which Beryl was never very good at meeting):

"Surely you'll stop riding....at least until the aby is born. You have to take care of yourself."
"This is how I take care of myself, don't you see? If we have this baby, I'll need to do my work just as before. I don't know any other way to live."

p. 307 On their impending family:
My body would transform first, and then everything else would follow. I still cared for Mansfield, but I also felt as if I'd boarded a train meant for one place and was no irrevocably going somewhere else entirely. The whole situation made me feel desperate.

p 308 Is this why people have affairs?
....I felt a surge of guilt and awareness. I wasn't trying to toy with Mansfield exactly, but I had been flirting with the princes. In a way, I couldn't help myself. It felt marvelous to smile and make Harry smile, too, or to walk off in a particular way and know that David's eyes were on me. It was childish, and also futile, but for those moments, I believe I was free-spirited and alluring again, as if I still had some measure of control in the world.

p. 341 On knowing when it's time to move on:

"Who has the privilege of knowing what's possible, or the burden, for that matter? I can tell you, though, that I never thought I could leave. I think that's what the dreams mean. I'm not leaving Africa, but slowly, ever so slowly, Africa has begun to seep out of me.

p. 346 When two women love the same man (but actually, neither ever really had him in this case) and how death seals some things that actually never were:

During the brief service, Karen's head sagged to her chest, and I felt a strong urge to go to her. I was the one person there who knew precisely what she'd lost in Denys; she was the only one who could have understood the weight and colour of my sorrow, too. But a shift had taken place, and it held me back. She was his publicly acknowledged widow now. The gods may have stolen him from her, but with his death, she had won him back. No one could challenge their bond, or doubt how she loved him. Or how truly he'd been hers. One day she was going to write about him-write him in such a way that would sela the two of them together forever. And from those pages, I would be absent.

p. 347 Is this the reason for the title? (I really couldn't figure the title out):
We had both tried for the sun, and had fallen, lurching to earth again, tasting melted wax and sorrow. Denys wasn't hers or mine. 

He belonged to no one and never had.

Becoming (Michelle Obama)

 

My big take away from this book is that Michelle Obama is really a good person who works hard to become the best person she can be. She's someone I'd want to have in my life. Imagine if she was part of our Mastermind Group?  Bottom line: She is smart and fun and someone who makes me want to be a better person.

On Goodreads I often read the people who give a book just one star. Not surprisingly, most of them are people who can't get past the politics. They are determined to not like anyone who isn't part of their party. 

Some quotes:

p. 75 On finding your place amongst people: 

It's hard to put into words what sometimes you pick up in the ether, the quiet, cruel nuances of not belonging - the subtle cues that tell you to not risk anything, to find your people and just stay put.

p. 81 On accepting differences:

...thanks to Suzanne [her friend at University that was opposite of her in so many ways, yet they had a great friendship], I am still coexisting with that guy to this day. This is what a control freak learns inside the compressed otherworld of college, maybe above all else: there are simply other ways of being.

p. 283 On being married to a leader:

There is no handbook for the incoming First Ladies of the United States. It's not technically a job, nor is it an official government title. It comes with no salary and no spelled out est of obligations. It's a strange kind of sidecar to the presidency, a seat that by the time I came to it had already been occupied by more than forty-three different women, each of whom had done it in her own way.

[It's just like women in the church! So many roles with no handbook]

p. 407 On the decline of civility since Donald Trump came on the scene:

Since childhood, I'd believed it was important to speak out against bullies while also not stooping to their level. And to be clear, we were now up against a bully, a man who among other things, demeaned minorities and expressed contempt for prisoners of war, challenging the dignity of our country with practically his every utterance. I wanted American to understand that words matter - that the hateful language they heard coming from their TVs did not reflect the true spirit of our country and that we could vote against it. It was dignity I wanted to make an appeal for - the idea that as a nation we might hold on to the core thing that had sustained my family, going back generations. Dignity had always gotten us through. It was a choice, and not always the easy one, but the people I respected most i life made it again and again, every single day. There was a motto Barrack and I tried to live by, and I offered it that night from the stage: When they go low, we go high.

p. 408 On reporting on Trump's Access Hollywood tape reporting:

In the end, the standards of decency were simply lowered in order to make room for the candidate's voice.

p. 411 On the 2016 election:

In the end,Hillary Clinton won nearly three million more votes than her opponent, but Trump had captured the Electoral College thanks to fewer than 80,000 votes spread across Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. I am not a political person, so I'm not going to attempt to offer an analysis of the results. I won't try to speculate about who was responsible or what was unfair. I just wish more people had turned out to vote. And I will always wonder about what led many women, in particular, to reject an exceptionally qualified female candidate and instead choose a misogynist as their president. But the result was now ours to live with.

p. 414 On her goals as First Lady:
....we'd focused ourselves on doing more than trending for a few hours on Twitter. And we had results. 45 million kids were eating healthier breakfasts and lunches; 11 million tsudents were getting 60 minutes of physical activity every day through our Let's Move! Active Schools program. Children overall were eating more whole grains and produce. The era of supersized fast food was coming to a close.

[I wonder how Melania feels about her Be Better campaign...considering her husband's tweets and name-calling]

Goodreads says:

In a life filled with meaning and accomplishment, Michelle Obama has emerged as one of the most iconic and compelling women of our era. As First Lady of the United States of America—the first African American to serve in that role—she helped create the most welcoming and inclusive White House in history, while also establishing herself as a powerful advocate for women and girls in the U.S. and around the world, dramatically changing the ways that families pursue healthier and more active lives, and standing with her husband as he led America through some of its most harrowing moments. Along the way, she showed us a few dance moves, crushed Carpool Karaoke, and raised two down-to-earth daughters under an unforgiving media glare.

In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her—from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world’s most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it—in her own words and on her own terms. Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations—and whose story inspires us to do the same.

The Couple Next Door (Shari Lapena)

This is one of those books that tempted me to stay up way too late reading (I resisted...my sleeping super-powers are stronger!).

I really enjoyed it. It has lots of twists and turns. Every character seems to have a secret and it just never stops right until the very end.

I felt sorry for Anne. I thought Marco was a push over. Detective Rasbach just lets the crime solve itself. 

The author was an English teacher turned lawyer. Two of my favorite kind of people to discuss books with!

Goodreads says:

It all started at a dinner party. . .

A domestic suspense debut about a young couple and their apparently friendly neighbors--a twisty, rollercoaster ride of lies, betrayal, and the secrets between husbands and wives. . .

Anne and Marco Conti seem to have it all--a loving relationship, a wonderful home, and their beautiful baby, Cora. But one night when they are at a dinner party next door, a terrible crime is committed. Suspicion immediately focuses on the parents. But the truth is a much more complicated story.

Inside the curtained house, an unsettling account of what actually happened unfolds. Detective Rasbach knows that the panicked couple is hiding something. Both Anne and Marco soon discover that the other is keeping secrets, secrets they've kept for years.

What follows is the nerve-racking unraveling of a family--a chilling tale of deception, duplicity, and unfaithfulness that will keep you breathless until the final shocking twist.

Mothering With Spiritual Power (Debra Sansing Woods)

I bought this book years ago and recently re-discovered it on my shelf. Since I have more time in the mornings these days because there is no seminary each morning, I have been spending the first hour(s) of my mornings reading. This book has been a joy to go to each morning. It's worth re-visiting again and again. I am going to add a note in gospel library so that when I come across each of the scriptures she starts each chapter with I can go back to it and re-read those chapters. I can see this being a good resources when preparing talks or lessons. The author has a sincere sappy-free approach to sharing her insights.

Goodreads says:

Mothering with Spiritual Power is an eloquent and heartfelt book that speaks to mothers of the sacred nature of motherhood and the awesome spiritual power available to them through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Using twenty-five favorite Book of Mormon scriptures as inspiration, Debra Woods shows mothers how they can find answers to a myriad of parenting questions and challenges as they raise their children in the latter-days. Through stories and experiences taken from her own life, she offers simple suggestions for making meaningful connections with your children - suggestions on how to turn weaknesses into strengths, ideas on how to foster an atmosphere of peace and harmony, ways in which mothers can support each other, and helps for the mother who must forgive her children, and herself. Mothering with Spiritual Power is a celebration of motherhood, family life, and the difference the gospel of Jesus Christ can make for mothers and families everywhere. 

Big Little Lies (Liane Moriarty)

This book kept me up way too late. Usually I don't like to read books about domestic violence and infidelity, but I loved this book. In some ways it seemed shallow and yet it seemed entirely realistic. The way everyone kept their secrets is what people really do. As a teacher who watches families who become friends through school, the banter between people in the story made me laugh. Each of the characters in this book represented people I know. It was very relatable. The story was well written and light-hearted while being very serious. I didn't figure out who died until way after most readers probably do. LOL


Goodreads says:

Madeline is a force to be reckoned with. She’s funny and biting, passionate, she remembers everything and forgives no one. Her ex-husband and his yogi new wife have moved into her beloved beachside community, and their daughter is in the same kindergarten class as Madeline’s youngest (how is this possible?). And to top it all off, Madeline’s teenage daughter seems to be choosing Madeline’s ex-husband over her. (How. Is. This. Possible?).

Celeste is the kind of beautiful woman who makes the world stop and stare. While she may seem a bit flustered at times, who wouldn’t be, with those rambunctious twin boys? Now that the boys are starting school, Celeste and her husband look set to become the king and queen of the school parent body. But royalty often comes at a price, and Celeste is grappling with how much more she is willing to pay.

New to town, single mom Jane is so young that another mother mistakes her for the nanny. Jane is sad beyond her years and harbors secret doubts about her son. But why? While Madeline and Celeste soon take Jane under their wing, none of them realizes how the arrival of Jane and her inscrutable little boy will affect them all.

Big Little Lies is a brilliant take on ex-husbands and second wives, mothers and daughters, schoolyard scandal, and the dangerous little lies we tell ourselves just to survive. 

Tell Me Again About the Night I Was Born (Jamie Lee Curtis)

Today was a special day for one of my students. It was her adoption day. She asked if she could bring in our book for today. I had assumed I would read it to the class but she really wanted to read it, and I’m so glad she did. I probably would have gotten a little teary over it all. LOL I got to know someone after she came to my town when I was growing up. She had come there to have a baby and have her be adopted. It was quite a learning experience for me. It was something I will never forget.

She explained that it was a special day for her and talked about how this book was a little different than her situation but it was about being adopted and she really loved the book. The kids were glued to the story and the conversation flowed beautifully. I was so impressed with how comfortable she was sharing her story and how the kids receive it so easily without many questions.

After, I asked the class if they had asked their parents about the day they were born and many had not and so I encouraged them to go home and do that. I was really grateful that this student could share her experience and have it overflow into an opportunity for a great discussion at home for everyone else.

Goodreads says: 

Jamie Lee Curtis and Laura Cornell, the New York Times bestselling team behind Today I Feel Silly and I’m Gonna Like Me, bring us a tender and funny picture book for every parent and child. Tell Me Again About the Night I Was Born is a special celebration of the love and joy an adopted child creates for a family.

In asking her parents to tell her again about the night of her birth, a young girl relives a cherished tale she knows by heart. Focusing on the significance of family and love, this a unique and beautiful story about adoption and the importance of a loving family.

A beautiful adoption story, Tell Me Again About the Night I Was Born also speaks to the universal childhood desire to know more about the excitement, awe, love, and sleeplessness that a new baby brings to a family.

Tell me again about the night I was born.

Tell me again how you would adopt me and be my parents.

Tell me again about the first time you held me in your arms. 

Mama Seeton's Whistle (Jerry Spinelli)

I love Jerry Spinelli! I have read a number of his books. This one is worth loving too. :)

When I used to hear my dad's whistle at the hockey arena we knew it was time to go back to our seats and get ready for home.

As my kids grow up, I understand Mama Seeton. I'm looking forward to mine being home for dinner together too!


Goodreads says:

Without even thinking about it,Mama Seeton puckered her lips and whistled.It was not a loud whistle.Or a fancy whistle. Just a simple two-note whistle. When Mama Seeton whistles, her children run home for chocolate cake, hugs, kisses, and shared memories. But as time passes, they travel farther and farther away from the familiar sound. Can mama's whistle be heard all over the world, and bring her children home one more time? 
Newbery Award-winning author Jerry Spinelli's sweet lyrical text and New York Times bestselling illustrator LeUyen Pham's charming illustrations show the timeless love between a mother and her children.

What Moms Can't Do (Douglas Wood)

Warning: Don't read this book with a bunch of kids if you're not ready to hear some funny mom stories. Almost every page, someone said, "That's true! You know, my mom...." and they'd have something that related to each page. The story goes through a mom's day from a kid's perspective. Quite well done. Apparently, there's a What Dads Can't Do as well. We will have to find it.

Goodreads summary:

Shows a child pondering the many problems that mothers must deal with in the course of a normal day.

Buy this book

I Feel Bad About My Neck (Nora Ephron)

This lady is hilarious. She is the author of the screenplays When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle and You've Got Mail. Can you imagine having writing all those screenplays and having them turned into movies??

She has led a bit of a privileged life and has been successful in her own life. As a result, she talks about some things that I just didn't relate to. She has been divorced more than once and has chapters on face lifts, manicures and interactions with famous people like Martha Stewart, JFK and Bill Clinton. 

However, she also had a lot of stuff that regular people can relate to and get a good chuckle out of. 

Some favourite parts: 

p. 51 My children thought calling Directory Assistance was free, on top of which they always pressed "1" to be connected, for an additional charge of thirty-five cents. This drove me even crazier. (Remember this?? Does 411 even exist anymore??!)

p. 52. Mostly I'm sad about just plain reading. 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 a part of the main things I do. Reading is everything. Reading makes me feel l Iike I have 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 way my attention deficit disorder medicates itself. Reading is escape, and the opposite of escape; it's a way 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 to 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 not entirely dependent on the whereabouts of my reading glasses. I look around. Why aren't they in this room? I bought six pair of them last week on sale and sprinkled them throughout the house, yet none of them is visible. Where are they?

I hate that I need reading glasses. I hate that I can't read a word in the map, in the telephone book, on the many, in the book or anywhere else without them. And the pill bottle! I forgot to mention the pill bottle. I can't read a word on the pill bottle. Does it say take two every four hours or four every two hours? Does it say good until 12/08/07 or "Expired. Period. End of story"? I have no idea what it says, and this is serious. I could die from not being able to read the print in the pill bottle. In fact, the print on the pill bottle is so small I doubt if anyone can read it. I'm not sure I could read it even when I didn't need reading glasses. Although, who can remember?

p. 83 Why hadn't I realized how much I thought of a love was simply my own highly develop gift for making lemonade?

p. 88 now that I have read the articles about Mimi Fahnestock, it has become horribly clear to me that I am probably the only young woman who ever worked in the Kennedy White Hiuse that the president did not make a pass at. Perhaps it was my permanent wave, which was a truly unfortunately mistake. Perhaps it was my wardrobe, which mostly consisted of multicoloured Dynek dress that looked like distilled Velveta cheese. Perhaps it's because I'm Jewish. Don't laugh; think about it-think about the king list of women that JFK slept with. Were any of them Jewish? I don't think so. 

On the other hand, perhaps nothing happened between us because JFK somehow sensed that discretion was not my middle name. I mean, I assure you that if anything had gone on between us, you would have had to wait this long to find out. 

P. 95 ...there is an expression for what I am-a mouse potato. It means someone who's as connected to her computer as couch potatoes are to their television sets. 

She also has pages with long lists of advice and her life's lesson. It all brought a smile to my face. 

If you need some easy entertainment, this book is a great pick. 

Goodreads summary: 

With her disarming, intimate, completely accessible voice, and dry sense of humor, Nora Ephron shares with us her ups and downs in "I Feel Bad About My Neck, " a candid, hilarious look at women who are getting older and dealing with the tribulations of maintenance, menopause, empty nests, and life itself.
The woman who brought us "When Harry Met Sally . . ., Sleepless in Seattle, You've Got Mail, "and" Bewitched, " and the author of best sellers "Heartburn, Scribble Scribble, " and "Crazy Salad, " discusses everything--from how much she hates her purse to how much time she spends attempting to stop the clock: the hair dye, the treadmill, the lotions and creams that promise to slow the aging process but never do. Oh, and she can't stand the way her neck looks. But her dermatologist tells her there's no quick fix for that.
Ephron chronicles her life as an obsessed cook, passionate city dweller, and hapless parent. She recounts her anything-but-glamorous days as a White House intern during the JFK years ("I am probably the only young woman who ever worked in the Kennedy White House that the President did not make a pass at") and shares how she fell in and out of love with Bill Clinton--from a distance, of course. But mostly she speaks frankly and uproariously about life as a woman of a certain age.
Utterly courageous, wickedly funny, and unexpectedly moving in its truth telling, "I Feel Bad About My Neck" is a book of wisdom, advice, and laugh-out-loud moments, a scrumptious, irresistible treat. (less)

Jacob Have I Loved (Katherine Paterson)

I got this book out after reading Bridge to Terabithia (again) for my grade three book club. Katherine Paterson is quite a renound author, but I haven't really read anything else of hers. I decided I should. I was interested in seeing what she did with the Jacob and Esau reference. 

Is the Jacob and Esau story a foundation for a meta narrative? I had no idea. Seemed intriguing though. She certainly does weave plenty of biblical reference through this entire story. 

As I read, I wondered if this would be a good story to do for grade three book club. There were enough odd moments (huge crush on someone who could be her grandpa? Her senile grandmother accusing her mother endlessly of being a harlot?!) that made me realize it wouldn't be appropriate. As a matter of fact, as I read I started to hate the main character. I wondered how in the world the book became a Caldecott winner. However, as I kept on, I realized there really is beauty in the story. She touches on some themes in an amazing way.

Main themes seem to be finding yourself and sibling rivalry. Sara Louise hates her twin sister. She seems justified. Her sister smart quite unaware of the rivalry. She just goes about doing what she does...totally irritating Sarah Louise, who never resolves the problems with her sister. It makes it so that their sisterhood isn't at all one of those wonderful friendships. Not at all. Actually, Sarah Louise's negativity and loathing really began to wear on me. At the part where she is complaining to her mother about her mother's choices in life, I realized that she  really needed to quit projecting her unhappiness on to everyone else! Happily, she does seem to figure this out for herself. She finally realizes that she needs to do what makes her happy and goes away to school. She's wants to become a doctor, but it is a time when women are really only expected to be nurses. She ends up in a small mountainous community, being the only medical professional, and ends up marrying. In her new life, she leaves her family behind, even unable to return fo funerals. Frankly, I knew if she did go back, she would go straight back to her miserableness.....so I understood her not going.

The story comes full circle when she delivers twins, spending her energy saving the life of one while the other waits in a basket.....just like when she was born. I feel like she would have made the connection and perhaps had some healing as a result of the experience.

There is magic and wisdom in this story. It would be great to read it with middle school students or even with adults....especially my church friends.

Goodreads summary:

Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated . . . With her grandmother's taunt, Louise knew that she, like the biblical Esau, was the despised elder twin. Caroline, her selfish younger sister, was the one everyone loved.Growing up on a tiny Chesapeake Bay island in the early 1940s, angry Louise reveals how Caroline robbed her of everything: her hopes for schooling, her friends, her mother, even her name. While everyone pampered Caroline, Wheeze (her sister's name for her) began to learn the ways of the watermen and the secrets of the island, especially of old Captain Wallace, who had mysteriously returned after fifty years. The war unexpectedly gave this independent girl a chance to fulfill her childish dream to work as a watermen alongside her father. But the dream did not satisfy the woman she was becoming. Alone and unsure, Louise began to fight her way to a place where Caroline could not reach.Renowned author Katherine Paterson here chooses a little-known area off the Maryland shore as her setting for a fresh telling of the ancient story of an elder twin's lost birthright.

Mother Bruce (Ryan T Higgins)

This book is for all the mothers (or fathers?) out there who have days where they're a bit of a bear! It will make you laugh. The pictures and the words are hilarious. I think I enjoyed it much more than my students did - although, they did enjoy it. I think this would be a hilarious book to read in a Relief Society lesson (although, some might poo poo Bruce's unhappiness in his parenting situation). It is a great book for those willing to be honest about the fact that parenting isn't always all it's cracked up to be (no pun intended).

I think I need to own this one.

There are so many pictures I loved!

Goodreads summary:

Bruce the bear likes to keep to himself. That, and eat eggs. But when his hard-boiled goose eggs turn out to be real, live goslings, he starts to lose his appetite. And even worse, the goslings are convinced he's their mother. Bruce tries to get the geese to go south, but he can't seem to rid himself of his new companions. What's a bear to do?