Sunday Reading Suggestion

I struggled with this one.  Tease by Amanda Maciel was a challenging book.  The main character was wholly unlikeable.  She'd bullied a girl into suicide - along with her even more mean best friend - and felt no repentance.  Throughout the book, I kept waiting for it to hit her, the realization that she'd been cruel beyond anything most kids engage in.  But even in the end, I didn't feel like the punch to her gut was hard enough.

The book description says that it has a "strong anti-bullying theme" but maybe it wasn't strong enough.

-J

Sunday Reading Suggestion

Say What You Will by Cammie McGovern

Oh!  This was so wonderful.  Who doesn't love a love story?  And if it's between two quirky characters, it's even better.  But this is an author who takes risks.  The storyline is believable in the way each character feels such anguish over their limitations.  And it goes a bit farther than quirky with the main characters, really.  One has cerebral palsy and can only speak through a voice controlled computer, the other has a progressive OCD.

How do they come together and fall in love?

Just read it.

Sunday Reading Suggestion

Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass

Meg Medina won the 2014 Pura Belpré Author Award for this one and it's well deserved. When Piddy Sanchez hears that Yaqui Delgado wants to kick her ass, she doesn't even know who Yaqui is. As Yaqui closes in, Piddy must balance work, her eroding academic record and an obsession with finding her father.

I loved the voice in this book.  In fact, I read it in one night - dragging it into the bath with me and carrying it up and downstairs as I tried to focus on tasks but really just wanted to stay in Piddy's world to see what she would do next.

Read this one.  It's fun, indulgent and real.

Sunday Reading Suggestion

Mmmmmm... I am still savoring the flaky crust and tangy tomatoes in Gale Gand's tomato tart!  This Sunday, I am reviewing something different, a cook book.  Last Thursday, my mother-in-law and I had the immense pleasure of taking a class from James Beard winner, Gale Gand!

Ms. Gand's newest book, Brunch is jam-packed with mouth watering dishes that are easy enough to whip up and so tasty your guests may never leave.  For Mother's day, ask for this.  Then, ask someone in your family to make them for your breakfast in bed...

Sunday Reading Suggestion

I've been on one of those kicks where I can't get enough of one subject in fiction.  Ever since my Moriarty binge I've been hungry for more psychological explorations of marriage.  I found a good one this week, so good that I ruffled my own marriage by hankering to read instead of focus on our date last night.  You Should Have Known appealed to me as a mystery and on a personal level.  I knew where this was headed when the MC, a smug marriage therapist, began the book by touting her confidence that women who marry cheaters and jerks have all of the signs available to them from the beginning. They just choose to ignore them.

Suffice it to say that I used to believe something similar.  Like the main character, I discovered that people are more complicated than we can ever know, that no one truly has the ability to see through another person's lies and that trusting the people you love is not a weakness.

A friend of mine once said of her husband, "If he chooses to lie to me, that makes him the faulty one - not me.  I want my marriage.  This is what I chose and if he's not being honest and worthy of this, then I feel very sad for him."

That really rocked my world.  I somehow thought, as many women probably do, that it was my job to figure out whether or not the person I chose was "good."  If he wasn't and I didn't see it early enough, then I would be an idiot not to have seen it.  But that is so unfair.

What kind of joy can one have in a partnership if they are always suspicious, fearful and wary?  How much energy should be wasted on vigilance?  Like my friend, I decided to be happy, to aim for what I want and to forgive myself for believing any lie that came my way.  Believing a lie doesn't reveal a flaw in me.  It reveals it in the liar.

Sunday Reading Suggestions

I'm preparing for a presentation on books for gifted children this morning, so I thought I would share some of the suggestions from the list I am sharing with parents.  These are from the list of pre-school to kindergarten selections.

Show Way by Jacqueline Woodson

From slavery, rides on the underground railroad, through segregation, freedom marches and the fight for literacy, the practice of “Show Way” was passed down by the women in the Woodson's family as a way to combat and survive a landscape of racism.  This beautiful picture book informs the reader about history while paying tribute to women whose strength and knowledge illuminated their daughters' lives.

Click on the image below to see it featured on Reading Rainbow, and read by the amazing Diahann Carroll.

The Adventures ofPenrose the Mathematical Cat by Theoni Pappas

Number lovers as young as three will enjoy this book written by Theoni Pappas when she was only thirteen.  The book consists of varied vignettes on different math topics with titles like, "Penrose meets Fibonnacci Rabbit" and "Penrose discovers the mathematics of soap bubbles." The stories include a problem or activity based on the topic. Avid readers who are math reluctant may be drawn into the stories and the puzzles.  

Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon by Patty Lovell

My personal favorite pre-K book, this story celebrates a brilliant but challenged little girl.  Her solutions to everyday kid's problems prove that triumph over adversity isn't limited to folks over five.

The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf

This is a lovely story about celebrating unique characteristics, relatable to kids who might feel “different” in their social and academic settings.

Who Says Women Can’t be Doctors and Elizabeth Leads the Way by Tanya Lee Stone: These books are fabulous non-fiction titles that fill a gap in the sundry of biographies about men.  Great for male and female children who might already have absorbed negative messages about success and gender roles.

Sunday Reading Suggestion

This Sunday, we wanted to share a recommendation of a great book!  Regina and I are big readers and although we know that reading tastes vary as widely as tastes in ice cream flavors, we hope these suggestions lead you to new titles that you enjoy.  Even if they don't become a favorite, we hope you find them pleasant companions to your towel and water bottle at the beach this summer.

Today, Juliet holds forth on her favorite book of all time, The Liars Club by Mary Karr

I read this book when it was first published in 1995.  It's the one.  It's the book that made me want to be a writer.  I read it and then I did something I never do, I read it again.

Since 1995, I have read it maybe ten more times.  It's become a sort of touchstone.  I look at the book on my shelf, pick it up and flip through the tattered, marked up pages, think about whether or not it could still possibly live up to my expectations and then I start reading.  It has never let me down.

I love it because I relate to the gut-punch story, the sarcastic voice of the young narrator and the poetry, oh the poetry!

Mary Karr often describes herself as an autobiographical poet.  And it's no easy tightrope to balance upon but she does it flawlessly.  For example,

“And you snap out of it. Or are snapped out of it. Never again will you lay a hand against yourself, not as long as there are plums to eat and somebody--anybody--who gives enough of a damn to haul them to you. So long as you bear the least nibblet of love for any other creature in this dark world, though in love portions are never stingy. There are no smidgens on pinches, only rolling abundance. That's how you acquire the resolution for survival that the upcoming years are about to demand. You don't give it. You earn it.” 

― Mary Karr

This book still gets spotty reviews here and there.  Some people simply couldn't relate to her humor or her story.  But if you are the kind of reader who likes an honest, witty, gritty and maybe a little bit naughty tale, you will love The Liar's Club.  

What is your favorite book?