My November Reads

 Okay, so I haven't exactly been as good about posting on here as I said I would, but I'm really trying to do a better job.  I'm hoping if I add blogging to my to-do list, I'll become better about it.  Let's hope that works.

Anyway, it's the end of November, and I wanted to do a quick recap of the books I read this month.  First of all, can you believe it's already the end of the month?  Seems like just yesterday I was celebrating Halloween, and now it's practically Christmas.  Anyway, I digress.  This month I finally got out of my dreaded reading slump that had consumed me since the beginning of the school year.  Even though I got out of my reading slump, I only managed to read six books.  I know, you might be saying to yourself, "Six books is a lot of books!", but in past months, I've read upwards of ten or so.  

Please note, there may be spoilers for some of the books below, so if you haven't read them or want to avoid spoilers, don't read the little blurbs I've written.  I usually mark spoilers with a big sign, but this time, I've done my best to black them out.  Simply highlight the ones you want to read.  I know you can still kind of see what's written underneath without highlighting, but this was the best solution I could come up with.

The first book I read this month was A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler.  Taking place in North Carolina, this book follows two families: single mom Valerie Alston-Holt and her son Xavier and the blended family that lives next door: the Whitmans.  As owner of his own HVAC business, Brad Whitman is somewhat of a local celebrity, but not without his flaws.  Larger than life in more ways than one, he builds a McMansion right next to Valerie's home, which sets off a series of disastrous consequences.  While Valerie and Brad go toe to toe, Xavier and Brad's stepdaughter, Juniper, start a whirlwind high school romance that has even more devastating consequences.

Unfortunately, the problems outline in this book are becoming all too common nowadays.  Young black men with incredibly bright futures ahead of them are being turned into villains by those with racist biases.  There were so many times I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs at these characters, and I can't remember the last time I hated a character as much as I hated Brad.  He knew he was racist, he knew Xavier was completely innocent, and he didn't care.  I'm so glad he got at least some of what was coming to him at the end, but at what cost?

I have to say, I was also shocked by what happens to Xavier at the end of the book.  I had a feeling he was going to die, but I never imagined that he would take his own life and sacrifice himself pretty much for the Black Lives Matter movement.  It was so tragic.  All I wanted to do was hug him and tell him that it would be alright, but I also know that that wasn't necessarily true, as his world had spiraled so far out of control, and he lost pretty much everything that had been important to him, all because of an accusation Brad knew was completely false.  If anyone needs help understanding why the Black Lives Matter movement is important, this book will explain why.

In keeping with the pattern of books about oppressed populations, I decided to read Vox by Christina Dalcher.  I read another book by Dalcher, Master Class, over the summer, and I've been suggesting it to everyone I've come across.  Seriously, if you haven't read it, you need to get your hands on a copy immediately and start reading it.  For that reason, I was excited to read Vox.

Set in the not so distant future, an extreme right-wing, religious political party has taken control of America.  In attempt to align everyone with their beliefs, women are only allowed to speak a hundred words per day, are banned from reading or writing, cannot communicate via sign language, etc.  They are also forced to stay home and run the household while their husbands are in charge.  This book definitely gave off some Handmaid's Tale vibes, but it was also different in some ways.

Before losing basically all her rights, Jean was an accomplished neuroscientist and linguist.  Now, however, she's at home all day wondering what the effects of these new laws will have on her beloved daughter while also watching her oldest son buy into everything the government mandates without so much as a second thought.  All of that changes, however, when the president's brother has a debilitating accident and needs Jean's help.  Using her new freedom and influence, Jean hopes to make a better future not just for her daughter but for little girls all across the country.

I have to say, I figured out pretty quickly that the government was trying to create some sort of serum or something that would debilitate others and make them little more than mindless drones.  The fact that they wanted to use them on other countries, however, was a shock to me.  I figured they wanted to use them on American women to get them to fall into line and be even more subservient than they already were.  That part was definitely a surprise to me, but, then again, it did make sense that they wanted to spread their extremist ideologies all over the world.  

I have to say, one thing I liked about this book was that it acknowledged what other countries thought about what was going on.  Jean's parents lived in Italy, and they were obviously extremely distraught with how their daughter and granddaughter were being treated.  In many books like this, I've wondered if there are countries outside of where we're reading about, and what they think about what is going on (I'm looking at you Hunger Games and Handmaid's Tale).  This book talks about that, and it even becomes a somewhat important plot point later on down the line.  I wish more books would do that.

I think what's most terrifying about Christina Dalcher's books is that they're just plausible enough to make you worried.  With both Vox and Master Class, I know there are people out there who would agree with that is going on in those books, and that makes me both terrified and sad for the future (and for those misguided individuals).  I didn't think this book was as good as Master Class, though.  The ending was incredibly rushed, and I had a hard time imagining that everything happened as quickly and as neatly as it did.

After reading two pretty heavy books, I needed something nice and light, so I went with the second American Royals book: Majesty by Katharine McGee.  I read the first book, American Royals, over the summer, and I absolutely loved it.  It focuses around a simple premise: What if George Washington agreed to become King of the United States instead President.

Majesty picks up right where American Royals left off with the funeral of King George IV and Beatrice getting ready to not only get married but also assume the throne as the first Queen of the United States.  Just like American Royals, this book is full of courtly intrigue (very similar to Philippa Gregory books), drama and complex relationships.

Just like before, I absolutely cannot stand Daphne, although I do feel a little bad for her.  A lot of my sympathy comes from the fact that her mother is the one really pushing her to be a terrible person as she tries to socially climb to the top.  She really didn't stand much of a chance.  Still, she's an awful person.  I mean, she drugged her own friend to hide the fact that she was cheating on her boyfriend (aka: the Prince of the United States) with his best friend.  With that being said, I hope she gets what's coming to her, although the book ended with her getting everything handed to her on a silver platter.  That was definitely frustrating to me.  I was also upset to see a lot of the romantic relationships that had been fostered over the course of the novel fall apart at the end.  I mean, I know there's going to be another book (at least I hope there will be), and I have my fingers crossed that everything will work out in the end. 

Despite all my complaints, I absolutely loved Beatrice's growth throughout the book.  She went from a young woman who was used to being told what to do to a young woman who took her life by the reigns and stood up for herself.  I was so proud of her, and I hope to see even more of that in the next book, as it was absolutely perfect.

Overall, I loved this book.  It was a wonderful light read after several heavier books.  It's meant to be a young adult book, but I tend to think that it falls somewhere between young adult and adult fiction.  It doesn't read like a young adult book.  As a history teacher, I'm also completely fascinated by this alternate timeline McGee has created, and I want to know more.  I'd love to get my hands on some history books from this fictionalized history, as so much as changed.  It's a great example of cause and effect.

A little over a year ago, I started really getting into thriller books.  I found them fascinating and great, quick reads that kept me on the edge of my seat.  When She Returned definitely caught my attention in more ways than one.

The premise is fairly simple: eleven years ago, Kate Bennett mysteriously vanished from a Target parking lot, leaving behind her husband and young daughter.  Now, years later, Scott has remarried, and Abbi is a teenager when their world is turned completely upside down.  Kate has been found, alive, which gets Scott off the hook (even though he was ruled out as a suspect, many people still thought he was guilty).  Now, they have to try to figure out what happened to Kate and if her family is safe from whoever held her for all these years.

Part of the reason I enjoyed this book so much was the fact that it dealt with a cult and fringe religion.  Bryan always calls me weird, but I have this unusual obsession with cults.  Seeing Kate's condition when she returned, though, I had a hard time believing she was in a cult and had left her family willingly.  With the help of all the flashbacks, though, everything fell into line, and it all made sense.  The thing about suspense books, though, is that I've started jumping to the most ridiculous conclusions, because that tends to be what happens in these types of books.  With When She Returned, I swore it wasn't really Kate but some sort of imposter who wanted to get the police off the trail of the kidnappers, but that wasn't the case at all.  Oh well, I can admit when I'm wrong.  With that being said, I was completely surprised when Kate not only tried to return to the cult but bring her daughter with her.  I was starting to get suspicious of her actions, but that was not what I saw coming.

Overall, I found this a nice, quick suspense/thriller book, which is sometimes exactly what a person needs in their life to help them relax.

After finishing When She Returned, I decided to go back to my nice, emotionally heavy books.  I read the prequel to Lost Roses by Martha Hall Kelly last year, but both books also work wonderfully as stand alone books.  You can find my post about Lilac Girls here.

If you've read Lilac Girls, then Lost Roses focuses on Caroline Ferriday's mother, Eliza, during World War I and the Russian Revolution.  Just like Lilac Girls, Lost Roses focuses on three women whose lives are intertwined during major world events.  In addition to Eliza, you follow Sofya, a Russian aristocrat, and Varinka, a Russian peasant.  Unlike Lilac Girls, the relationship between the three women became apparent quite quickly, which I liked a lot more, because with Lilac Girls, I struggled to see how everything would come together and make sense.

One thing I enjoyed greatly about this book was the fact that part of it, especially Eliza's story, is based on true events.  Eliza Ferriday was a real person who used her influence to raise money for displaced Russian aristocrats by selling Russian goods.  It was a fascinating story and a wonderful idea, especially at a time where the United States was such an isolationist.  Something else I loved about this book (and it was the same with Lilac Girls) was the complexity of the characters.  In the beginning, I felt terrible for Varinka.  She was obviously being manipulated and sexually abused by her half-brother.  As time progresses, however, I found that Varinka became more of a villain, more like the aristocrats she had come to hate, as she found what it was like to have power and influence.  Varinka definitely had the most interesting story arch of the three women, and I found myself longing to know what happened to her after the end of the book, as I thought her story ended somewhat abruptly.

After reading both Lilac Girls and Lost Roses, one thing I've discovered about Martha Kelly Hall is the fact that she doesn't shy away from graphic information.  The description of what happened to Sofya's family left me feeling sick to my stomach, but I felt that that was appropriate, as this isn't exactly a warm and fuzzy book.  Part of me did hope that Sofya's entire family would find a way to escape Russia, but I also knew that that was a fool's dream and completely unrealistic.  I was definitely relieved to find out Luba was alright, that was a twist I didn't see coming!

Overall, I really enjoyed Lost Roses.  I didn't think it was as good as Lilac Girls, but it was still definitely worth reading.  Plus, it's hard to live up to such a wonderful book.

In keeping with my theme of graphic, heart-wrenching historical fiction novels, I decided to read The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult.  Just a fair warning, I used to not like Jodi Picoult books at all until I finally read Small Great Things by her back in August (it's an amazing book, I simply cannot recommend it enough).  In true Jodi Picoult fashion, this book leaves you questioning your decisions and morality while dealing with complex issues and characters.

In short, this book is about Sage Singer, a reclusive baker in her mid-twenties who befriends a man in his 90s, Josef Weber, at a grief support group.  A former Little League coach and German teacher at the local high school, Josef is a pillar of the community, which is why Sage is shocked when he comes to her with a startling confession and even more startling request.  If Sage follows through with what he wants, she'll be left with both moral and potentially legal ramifications.  If she doesn't, however, she could allow a dangerous man to walk freely amongst those around her.

I knew going into this book that Josef was a Nazi.  I did not, however, know that he was going to ask Sage to help him commit suicide.  That was definitely a curveball for me.  Once I got into the book, though, it definitely made a lot of sense.

One thing that really stood out to me about this book more than anything else was the graphic, honest way Picoult wrote about the Holocaust.  With the way she wrote, you would have thought that she wrote about that topic all the time.  I've read more Holocaust books than I can count over the years, and yet, I've never read anything like that.  It was more brutally honest than anything I've ever read before.  Even more so than Lost Roses, it made me feel uncomfortable at times, but I leaned into that discomfort, as I felt it was the least I could do for all those who had suffered and died in the Holocaust.

What I want to talk about most, however, is that ending.  I finished the book last night, and I'm still trying to process through the information and the surprise.  I swore up and down the entire time that Josef was Reiner.  I mean, it made so much sense.  Even when he had that chess board, I thought it was just a memento of his time with his brother.  Not once did I ever think that he was Franz.  To me, that just didn't make any sense.  Looking back, however, it made so much sense.  Reiner leaned into Nazism without any doubts and never showed the slightest hint of remorse for what he did.  Franz, however, was more scholarly, book oriented and emotional, so he would be the one living with the guilt.  I'm still having trouble understanding why Franz said he was Reiner, but I guess it was to make himself seem even worse than he really was so Sage would agree to kill him.  But once she found out the truth, she had to live with the guilt of knowing she killed a man who wasn't nearly as barbaric as he portrayed himself.

I also want to talk about Sage killing Franz.  I honestly didn't see that coming, but I should have, given the fact that I was nearing the end of the book, and things weren't wrapping up in a way that quite made sense to me.  I still didn't think she'd do it though, as I thought she was a better person than that.  Given what happened to her grandmother though, and the fact that Franz pretended to have committed all those terrible crimes that Reiner actually committed, I guess it makes sense.

This book was definitely a lot for me to process through.  I thoroughly enjoyed it though, and I cannot recommend it enough.  I do wish I had read this for a book club of some sort so I can talk through it with some people, so if you've recently read it and want to talk about it, please let me know!

I guess now would be a good time to rank the books I've read this month.  I'm ranking them from my least favorite to my favorite.  If you've been paying attention, the rankings shouldn't come as much of a surprise.

6. Vox

5. When She Returned

4. A Good Neighborhood

3. Majesty

2. Lost Roses

1. The Storyteller

I'm super excited about some of the books I have picked for this month.  I have some book club books, a buddy read and some holiday books.  Needless to say, it's going to be a good month for books for me!

Read More

My Thoughts On "Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine" and Discussion Questions

I'm just going to come right out and say it, I wasn't a fan of this book at all.  My book club originally picked another book for this month, but then they changed their mind at the meeting at picked this one instead.  Personally, I wanted to read the other one, I thought it sounded more interesting, but hopefully it'll come back up as an option at some point in the future.  With that being said, this book didn't really speak to me like other books did.  Since I've been surprised by books I didn't think I would like in the past, however, I went into it with an open mind and hoped for the best. Unfortunately, I just couldn't get into it, although I could see why other people would enjoy it.  Apparently it's going to be made into a movie, and I might go see it, but I won't be first in line; maybe if it came out on Netflix or Hulu I would eventually watch it.

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine focuses on Eleanor, a woman in the 30s with autism who lives in Scotland.  In her mind, everything in her life is perfect, she has a job, an apartment and a routine that includes a weekly phone call with her mother, who lives elsewhere (although it's not entirely specified where, but it is some sort of group home).  To Eleanor, manners and perfection is of the utmost importance, a habit she tries to demonstrate to her coworkers on a daily basis in the hopes they will follow her example.

Everything in Eleanor's life is thrown into complete turmoil, however, when she sees a concert (courtesy of tickets she won at work) and falls head over heels with the lead singer.  Suddenly aware of the fact that she is a little bit odd and doesn't act like the other women in her office, Eleanor takes it upon herself to improve her life, with some humorous results through various misunderstandings.  Eleanor's life is further complicated by the introduction of Raymond, the IT guy in her building who she slowly becomes friends with as their paths continue to cross.  The entire time, Eleanor hints at struggles from her past, which continue to haunt her.

I wish I could put my finger on why I didn't like this book, but I can't.  I think I had trouble connecting with the character, and I found the plot to be a little bland.  Like I said, I wasn't overly thrilled about reading this book, but I went into it with as open a mind as I could muster, as I've been surprised by books I thought I wouldn't like in the past.  I also wanted to like the book because Nicholas is on the spectrum (just barely), and I hoped this book would bit a bit of a window into his mind.  Instead, I found a character who completely shifted her worldview and attitude on everything in a short amount of time, which seemed highly unrealistic, even if she wasn't on the spectrum in the first place.

I think another complaint I have about this book is the abruptness of everything.  The character and plots swings between extremes without so much as a second thought, and it seems completely unrealistic.  I really can't dive into more about that right now because it would give away quite a few spoilers, but I talk about more of that below.

Okay, now I want to talk about a few twists and turns that the reader encounters towards the end of the book.  I also want to post my book club discussion questions.  So, if you haven't read the book or want to avoid spoilers, this is probably where you should stop reading.

First of all, what in the world was that ending!?  I feel like the fact that Eleanor's mom died years ago and was simply a figment of her imagination came completely out of nowhere.  I feel like if you're going to pull a stunt like that in a book, it needs to have some sort of foundation, some subtle clues that if you know about it, you'll be able to figure out with relative ease (or with a little bit of thought) when going back and rereading the book.  I don't want to spoil it, but I read another book recently that had a very similar twist, and while it did blindside me, it seemed far more believable.  This time, however, it just seemed completely ridiculous.  On the other hand, I am glad that Eleanor's mom was really dead, as that meant she couldn't harass her anymore.

I was also bothered by how Eleanor and Raymond's relationship ended.  I never wanted it to be a romantic relationship, so I was glad it wasn't, but I felt like once Eleanor got her life together, she just closed the door on their friendship and everything, despite how helpful he was to her.  Now, part of that coldness could stem from her being on the Autism spectrum, but I don't want to write off all her behavior as "oh, she did that because she's on the spectrum".  To me, it just seemed abrupt, and I definitely got the feeling at the end of the book that their friendship was essentially over.  This was also upsetting because Raymond's such a wonderful guy who, honestly, deserves to be treated better.

I also didn't like the huge swing in Eleanor's emotions towards Johnnie.  I mean, one moment she's planning out their entire lives together, the next she's have an existential crisis and is ready to commit suicide simply because she realizes the man is the worst.  She didn't even talk to him, she just realized how awful he was, and, for whatever reason, it sent her spiraling.  Now, I remember having crushes on guys and either they didn't reciprocate or I realized they were the worst, and while I was upset, it didn't send me into a tailspin of self-destruction.  All of this felt extremely abrupt and completely unrealistic in so many ways.  I actually double checked the author's name to see if it was a man or woman who wrote the book, as it definitely felt more like a man who wrote it.

Despite my sentiments about the book, I did manage to come up with some discussion questions.  I hope if your book club uses Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, you'll find these questions useful.

1. Early on, Eleanor says her coworkers hate her.  What would give her that impression?
2. Do you feel the book being told from Eleanor's point of view enhanced the text?
3. Despite what Eleanor claims, do you think she craved more human interaction?
4. How much of Eleanor's behavior was a result of her being on the Autism spectrum and how much of it was a result of her childhood trauma?
5. Eleanor refers to herself as a little phoenix (page 74), is this an appropriate simile?
6. Right away, Eleanor seems extremely comfortable with Raymond's mom.  Did this stem from the fact that she was the exact opposite of Eleanor's mom?
7. Is solitudy as liberating as Eleanor claims on page 134?
8. Did Eleanor's autism protect her from internalizing the abuse from her mother?
9. Why did Eleanor change her mind about Johnnie so abruptly?
10. Why did Eleanor's mom continue to have so much control over her even after her death?
11. Why did Eleanor suddenly decide to get rid of things such as her frog and not lament the passing of her plant?
12. Eleanor admonishes herself for being quick to judge others on page 294.  How was she a victim of people being quick to judge her as well?
13. Given Eleanor's childhood, can you blame her for not wanting to have children?
14. Do you agree with Eleanor's decision to stop talking to her "mother"?
15. What causes Eleanor's coworkers to suddenly become nicer towards her?
16. Were you surprised to discover Eleanor's mother was really dead?
17. Eleanor tells Raymond what matters is that she survived (page 224).  Up until she met Raymond, however, did she truly live?
18. Why did Eleanor tell Raymond if she would go to the concert with him at the end of the book?
19. Raymond obviously had a positive impact on Eleanor, but in what ways did Eleanor have a positive impact on Raymond?
20. As the book progressed, how did Eleanor's tone and use of popular phrases/word choice change, along with using a more casual tone?
21. How did this book change your perspective on people on the Autism spectrum?

Read More

My Thoughts on "The Immortalists" and Book Discussion Questions

I'm going to be honest, I finished this book last week, but it's been so crazy that I haven't been able to blog about it.  I've also been kicking myself for not blogging about this book sooner because it's definitely one of my top five that I've read this year.

My mom read this book over the summer for her book club before I joined, and, at first, the premise creeped me out, and I wanted nothing to do with it.  I just couldn't understand why anyone would want to know the day they're going to die.  On an impulse, however, I decided to buy the book and give it a shot, and I'm so glad I did!  The book focuses on four siblings.  As children, they went to see a fortune teller who claimed she could accurately predict the exact date a person dies.  Each sibling visits the fortune teller and gets the date he or she will die before they head back home with this information hanging over their head.  The book then jumps ahead to when the siblings are in their late teens and early twenties when their own father dies.  They now start to question their own mortality and worry if the fortune teller was correct in her predictions.  The youngest two, Simon and Klara, set off for San Francisco to find their own way.  Simon struggled with is own sexuality, while Klara wanted to become a famous magician.  At this point, the siblings start to realize the fortune teller might have been correct in her predictions.

Overall, I thought this was an absolutely amazing book.  It forces the reader to ask questions they don't typically like to think about.  When I told Bryan about the book, I thought I'd ask him if he would want to know the day he was going to die.  Without missing a beat, he immediately said that he wouldn't want to know, and I agree with him.  At the same time, I could see why some people would want to know, especially if it turns out they're going to die fairly young.

I know I normally talk more about a book before jumping into the spoilers part, but this book is pretty much impossible to talk about without divulging spoilers, so I'm going to stop right now and add my requisite spoiler alert.  If you haven't read this book or want to avoid spoilers, you should probably stop reading now.  Also, if you haven't read this book, go get it from your nearest library, bookstore or Amazon and read it immediately!

First of all, even though the three deaths we saw in the book all corresponded to the date given to them by the fortune teller, I have some doubts as to the accuracy of the fortune teller in general.  In my opinion, Simon's death was the only one that had absolutely nothing to do with the fortune teller.  I also felt that his death was completely predictable.  All I had to do was read the little summary on the back of the book to know that Simon died from AIDS (a man in San Francisco in the 1980s is fairly obvious unfortunately).  I mean, the fact that the fortune teller was able to get Simon's death correct was impressive, but I can still find some flaws in it.

I firmly believe the three deaths in the book are all related to self-fulfilling prophecy.  Simon was already sick, but since he had it in his head that he was supposed to die on a specific day, he just gave up and accepted that as his fate.  A large part of fighting off any type of devastating illness is believing you can get better.  I'm not saying that that's all you need to beat any sort of disease, but it definitely helps.  Since Simon had it in his mind that he was destined to die on a certain day, he started giving up as that day neared.  Simon was going to die regardless, but I think the fact he died on that day has to do with the fact that he was told he would die on that day.

While Simon's death being a part of self fulfilling prophecy might be a bit of a stretch, Klara's death was undoubtedly connected to her visit with the fortune teller.  I really saw Klara's suicide as her taking a hold of her own death and fate, not allowing her death to be some sort of terrible, catastrophic accident while performing on stage.  She believed she was destined to die, so she did it herself and went out on her own terms.

Just like Klara, Daniel's death was directly connected to his visit with the fortune teller.  For the life of her, my mom couldn't understand why Daniel chose that day of all days to go hunt down the fortune teller and confront her.  While I can see where my mom is coming from, just like Klara, Daniel figured that that was his day to die, so he had nothing to lose; if he was going to die, he was going to go down in a blaze of glory and bring down the woman who destroyed his family as well.  I firmly believe if Daniel didn't have it in his head that that was the day he was supposed to die, then he wouldn't have died that day.  Once again, it was an example of self fulfilling prophecy.

Even though I didn't read this book for book club, I decided to write up some discussion questions.  This book is perfect for a book club.  There's a lot of unpack, along with an overarching existential question that will undoubtedly leave your book club divided.  Please feel free to use my questions to guide your discussion of this wonderful book.

1. Why did the kids tell their parents?
2. How did Saul's death contribute to Simon's rebelliousness?
3. Why do you think Simon was with Robert for so long if they were so un-compatible?
4. Do you think Raj was living vicariously through Klara?
5. Why did Klara name her daughter after her friend who told her about the fortune teller?
6. Why did Klara commit suicide?
7. How did the fact that the fortune teller came from a family of con artists change your perception of Simon and Klara's deaths?
8. Were the deaths of each sibling a result of the placebo effect like Daniel thought?
9. Although Varya lived the longest out of the four siblings, did she truly live?
10. Why didn't Varya go through with the abortion?
11. Why did Varya finally tell Gertie about the fortune teller?
12. Did the information from the fortune teller drive the siblings more apart?
13. Did the fortune teller's predictions make each person act out of character leading up to his or her death?
14. In what way did the trip to the fortune teller change the lives of each of the Gold children?
15. In what way did Frida undo the damage done by the fortune teller?
16. If they hadn't died, where do you think Simon, Klara and Daniel would have been at the end of the book?
17. Why was the last paragraph told from Ruby's point of view?

Read More

My Thoughts on "Lilac Girls"

Let me start out by saying that usually when I write about a book that I've read, I try to keep all the spoilers to the end and mark them with a big sign saying that there are spoilers coming up.  With this post, however, there are going to be spoilers throughout the entire post.  So, if you haven't read Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly or would like to avoid spoilers, this might not be the best post for you to read.  I know, I can't believe I'm telling people not to read my post, but I don't want to spoil anything for anyone!  Also, this is going to be a fairly long post.  Just like when I wrote about The King's Curse, I also want to get into some of the history of the book as well.

This book focuses on three separate stories surrounding World War II: Kasia Kuzmerick, Caroline Ferriday and Herta and Herta Oberheuser.  Two of the characters, Herta and Caroline, were real people, while Kasia was based on a real person, Janina Iwanska.  I'm going to be honest, at first I wasn't going to read this book.  The sequel (which is actually a prequel), Lost Roses, sounded far more interesting to me.  However, I decided to give it a shot.  My mom kept speaking highly of it, and if I didn't like it, I could just stop reading it.  We already owned a copy, so I had nothing to lose.

First of all, this book wasn't what I was expecting at all.  I thought the book would focus entirely around World War II and the Holocaust.  In reality, this was only about half of the book.  The second half dealt with the aftermath of the events in the first half of the book.  I found this particularly intriguing, as many books about the Holocaust don't spend that much time on the aftermath.

In this book, one of the main settings is Ravensbruck, an actual concentration camp.  Located in northern Germany, this was a camp for female prisoners from 1939 to 1945, so the entire duration of the war.  The overwhelming majority of women, approximately 40,000, were Polish, but women from all over Europe were represented there.  Additionally, roughly 80% of the inhabitants were political prisoners, like one of the characters in the book.  In all, it is estimated that about 130,000 women passed through this camp and around 50,000 of them perished.

A view of Ravensbruck courtesy of https://www.ravensbrueck-sbg.de/en/history/1939-1945/

Like I said before, Lilac Girls focuses on three different women.  They all have separate stories until they slowly begin to come together in ways that were both predictable and unpredictable over about a twenty year period.  Martha Hall Kelly does a wonderful job of discussing all three women and giving them all a chance to tell their story as fully as possible.

Caroline Ferriday

The first character I want to talk about is Caroline Ferriday.  As previously stated, she was a real person.  She lived amongst higher society in New York with her mother, and both women were philanthropists.  Previously a moderately successful actress, Caroline now volunteered her time at the French Consulate in New York City were she dedicated most of her time raising money and supplies for orphans in France.  This becomes impossible when the puppet Vichy government takes over.  In the book, Kelly also alludes to a romance between Caroline and a married French actor, although I haven't been able to find much about that online, so I don't know if was added in to just give her character a little more conflict.

In the 1950s, Caroline worked with the Ravensbruck "Rabbits", women who were used for medical experiments at the camp.  She worked tirelessly to raise awareness about them and raise funds to bring them to America.  Although the war had been over for nearly ten years at this point, many of these women now lived behind the Iron Curtain and had limited access to medical assistance that would help them overcome the ghastly injuries purposefully inflicted upon them during the war.  In the book, this includes the fictional character Kasia and her sister, Zuzanna.  In reality, Caroline and her mother really hosted four of these such women for nearly a year as they toured the country and got the medical assistance they so desperately needed.

If I'm going to be honest, I felt that Caroline's was the weakest of the two stories.  I hate saying that, because I feel like it trivializes Caroline's amazing life, but it's true.  Her story didn't interweave with the other two stories until the second half of the book, so for about 200 pages, her story just seemed out of place and completely different from Kasia and Herta's stories.  I just couldn't see how her story was going to come together with the other two.  All three stories did come together in the end, but it was definitely a struggle to see how it was going to all be done.

Kasia Kuzmerick
I'm going to talk about Kasia in two different ways.  First, I'm going to talk about her as a fictional character.  Then, I'm going to talk about the real life woman who inspired her character and the similarities between the two.

In the book, Kasia was a Catholic who worked for the Polish Resistance after a local boy she was friends with got involved in it.  Unfortunately, she was caught fairly early on and sent to Ravensbruck, along with her sister, mother, her friend and her friend's younger sister.  After being briefly detained in a ghetto, they were sent to Ravensbruck.  At Ravensbruck, Kasia and her sister were used for medical experiments, which was really just a cruel, sick form of torture.  It is later revealed that Kasia had part of her tibia removed (approximately six centimeters), and she had foreign items inserted into her leg.  Because of this, Kasia was left with extreme pain and difficulties walking.  Meanwhile, Kasia's mother, who was a trained nurse, was moved to Block One where she worked in the camp hospital doing administrative tasks.  One day, however, while her daughters were being operated on, she simply disappeared.  It takes Kasia until the very end of the book to find out what really happened to her mother.

During her time at Ravensbruck, Kasia was able to write letters to her father, who was free the entire time.  She included coded messages written in her own urine exposing the truth behind what was going on in the camp.  Her father passed this information off to the International Red Cross, along with several other foreign agencies and governments.

Eventually, Kasia and Zuzanna managed to leave the camp towards the end of the war when the International Red Cross showed up.  They first went to Sweden before heading back to Poland, only for it to fall behind the Iron Curtain.  During this time, Kasia dealt with extreme anger and resentment for what happened to her and the fact that her father moved on with a new woman in his life.  She carried this anger with her until the end of the book.

While the character of Kasia was fictional, she was based on a real person, Janina "Nina" Iwanska (sometimes spelled "Iwanski").  Unfortunately, I couldn't find a whole lot of information about Janina out there, but I will definitely keep my eye out for more and update this page with anything I do happen to come across.  Just like Kasia, Nina was part of the Polish resistance until she was caught and sent to Ravensbruck.  While in Ravensbruck, Nina became one of the "Rabbits", a term given to the women used for medical experiments for two reasons: first, they often had trouble walking and therefore had to hop from place to place and second, because they were being used for medical experiments, just like rabbits.  With the help of three other women, including her younger sister, Nina wrote coded letters to her outside family telling of everything going on in the camp.  The four women spelled out everything in extreme detail so their families knew exactly what was going on.  They even planned to escape from Ravensbruck and asked their family members for supplies.  It is unclear if they actually did escape, but all four women did end up surviving the war.

Herta Oberheuser
Like Caroline Ferriday, Herta Oberheuser was a real person.  Personally, I found her story the most fascinating in a weird, twisted way.  It was a completely different perspective from what I was used to in World War II and Holocaust books.  In a way, it reminded me of Werner from All the Light We Cannot See, who also worked for the Nazis, although he was far less passionate about the Nazi Party ideologies.  Herta, on the other hand, fully bought into the Nazi Party.  Everything she did, she did for the greater good of Germany.  It was strange and uncomfortable getting inside the head of someone who bought the party line so willingly, it was definitely a new experience for me as a reader and a historian.  The discomfort I felt definitely speaks to the quality of writing on the part of Kelly.

Herta went to Ravensbruck in 1942; she was 31 years old.  Before then, she got a medical degree and focused on dermatology.  The book discusses how Herta wanted to do more but was limited due to the fact that she was a woman, and Nazi ideology emphasized the importance of women staying home and running the household.  She served in the League of German Girls, a Nazi program for young women and eventually became assistant to Karl Gebhardt, who was Heinrich Himmler's personal physician.  Upon her arrival at Ravensbruck, Herta worked on finding a better way to treat infections.  In the book, Kelly talked about the fact that this was because one of Hitler's aides died from a wound inflicted on the battlefield and blamed the death on the fact that a specific medication was not administered to him.  Therefore, Herta recreated battle wounds on prisoners, including slicing open their legs in gruesome ways and rubbing all sorts of foreign items such as soil, glass and wood into the wound, along with bacteria.  Some women were treated with the drug in question, while others were not; all to prove to Hitler that the lack of medication administered did not lead to his aid's death.  I couldn't find anything online to lead to the veracity of this.  I hope it's not true, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was.

Lilac Girls also speculates about a possible romantic relationship between Kasia's mom and Herta.  It's only alluded to, and Herta does seem especially distraught when Kasia's mother disappears.  They also seemed to be more than just friends, although Kelly leaves that up to the interpretation of the reader.

After the war, Allied forces arrested Herta, and she was part of the Nuremberg trials as one of the only female doctors on trial.  She was found guilty and sentenced to twenty years in prison (it should be noted that others were executed for her crimes).  Much like the criminal justice system today, Herta did not serve her entire sentence and was released after five years for good behavior.  She opened a family practice in Germany until a Ravensbruck survivor recognized her and turned her in.  In Lilac Girls, this is slightly different.  Caroline hears rumors that Herta is practicing family medicine in Germany and pressures Kasia to go and see if it really is her.  If it is, a positive identification can help to bring Herta down and prevent her from practicing medicine in the future.  Since Kasia is a fictional character, reality is a little different.  The book ends with Kasia confronting Herta.  Free from the burden of hatred and finally embracing forgiveness, she is able to finally move on with her life and be happy.  The reader doesn't find out what happened to Herta.  In reality, news of Herta's real identity came to light.  Not only did she lose her license to practice medicine, but the German government fined her as well.  Her career as a doctor was finally over.

Believe it or not, I still have a lot to say about this book.  First of all, a lot of this book reminded me of my own experiences when I visited Auschwitz four and a half years ago.  I had the wonderful and unique experience of traveling to Krakow to visit Auschwitz with a Holocaust survivor, Eva Mozes Kor.  Like Kasia, Eva was subjected to extreme torture under the guise of medical experiments during the Holocaust, but that is where their stories diverge.  Eva was only ten years old when her family was deported to Auschwitz.  Since she and her sister, Miriam, were twins, they were selected to stay alive and be a part of Dr. Mengele's experiments.  The rest of their immediate family did not survive.

Me with Eva at our hotel in Krakow.  July 2015

During their brief time at Auschwitz (approximately nine months).  Eva, her sister and other twins were subjected to all sorts of medical experiments at the hands of Dr. Josef Mengele.  Until the day she died, Eva had no idea what exactly was done to her.  One of her life's missions was to find out, as she was convinced those experiments caused all of Miriam's health problems later in life (Eva donated her one of her kidneys at one point), and ultimately her death in 1993.  Eva lived until 2019 and died on a trip to Auschwitz on July 4th.

One thing that really stood out to me was the lack of forgiveness Kasia carried in her heart.  Understandably, she grew to resent most people around her because of what was done to her.  This was compounded by the guilt that her actions in the Polish Resistance got her mother arrested as well, eventually leading to her death.  It wasn't until Kasia confronted Herta and had her say that she was able to feel lighter and freer.  One of Eva's big messages was a message of forgiveness.  She advocated for forgiveness for everyone, not because the other person deserved it, but because you deserve to live a free life without carrying that hatred around in your heart.  I feel that Kasia really exemplified that.  While she didn't technically "forgive" Herta, but confronting her and saying what she wanted to her, she was able to finally hold her head up and live a better life.  I'm purposefully not talking a lot about Eva or going into much detail because I have an entire post planned out for the anniversary of Auschwitz's liberation next month, and I'll talk about my trip and Eva in immense detail then.

There was another small detail that most people probably missed that actually had immense meaning to me.  In the book Caroline talks to Wallis Simpson (wife of the former King Edward VIII of England) about raising funds to help the Ravensbruck women.  Wallis immediately replies that the war has been over for quite some time, and she can't imagine there are still victims who still need help getting on their feet.  This reminds me of a conversation I had with my Pop-Pop a few weeks before he died.  I spent a good two hours talking to him about everything under the sun, including his time with Germany.  During the Korean War, the United States and the rest of the world worried that some still sympathetic towards Nazism would try to do something while the rest of the world was distracted with the problems in Korea.  For that reason, my Pop-Pop and others were deployed to Germany during the war. 

Pop-Pop relaxing while stationed in Germany sometime in the early 1950's.

Although my mom isn't sure of exactly when he went over to Korea (she thinks sometime in 1951), but she knows he returned to the United States in 1953.  That means he was there 6-8 years after the end of World War II.  Despite this, there was still a displaced persons camp right next to the army base.  While visiting with Pop-Pop, he told me about his experiences with the victims still living in the camp nearly a decade later.  He told me he and the other soldiers would even pay them to do their laundry with cigarettes.  All of this completely surprised me, just like it surprised Wallis Simpson that there were people who needed help.

Overall, I thought Lilac Girls was an amazing book, far better than I expected.  I thought the history was absolutely fascinating, and there were several personal connections I had to the book that drew me to it even more.  I can't wait to get my hands on the prequel and any other books Kelly writes in the future.

Read More

My Thoughts on "There There"

I first came across this book on a list on Goodreads about books women born in the 90's were reading in 2019, and it didn't really appeal to me, so I quickly forgot about it.  A few weeks later, I came across it again, and it was only $7 on Amazon, so I decided to go for it.  By then, the plot sounded slightly more intriguing to me, and I wanted to give it a shot.  It was definitely a different type of book, not a topic people were writing about as much, and it was a Pulitzer finalist, so it had to be good.

In all honesty, the book had a lot of potential, but it was a little too ambitious for a novel of this length.  The plot follows twelve Native Americans, all of whom either live in Oakland, California or have close ties to Oakland as they prepare for a powwow at the local sports arena.  Each individual either has a reason for wanting to go to the powwow that is closely tied to their identity as an urban Native American.  Some are part of the younger generation who are trying to figure out where the fit in the grande scheme of things, while others are part of the older generation dealing with the demons of their past caused by being a Native American.  Either way, Orange does a wonderful job at bringing to light to problems that grip urban Native Americans.  Often, narratives that focus on Native Americans focus on those living on reservations scattered across the western portion of the United States.  This was the first time I saw a story that focuses on Native Americans in an urban environment, which is what ultimately drew me to it.

If I'm going to be honest, I felt that this book was lacking.  Yes, Orange did a wonderful job at weaving all twelve stories together, but a book that's only 294 pages and has twelve different points of view to tell is a huge undertaking.  Orange was only able to scratch the surface for each character, and the end left me wanting so much more from some of the characters.  I wanted to know more about their backstories and what happened to them at the end of the book (more about that in a little while).  He easily could have filled multiple books just on the backstories; he alluded to such rich backstories and did a great job of building a foundation, but then it just seemed to stop. 

At the same time, I found the ending completely disappointing.  Everything in this book has been building up to this powwow and a crucial decision made by several of the characters during the powwow.  When that moment came, however, it was fleeting.  It was as if Orange just wanted to focus on the buildup and had no idea what to do with the actual climax.  It disappointed me greatly, especially since I'm the type of person who likes everything wrapped up nice and neat at the end of a book with no questions left.  In this book, however, Orange just stopped partway through the climax.  Imagine it like if Lion King ended right in the middle of the battle between Scar and Simba, leaving you as the audience wondering who won, if Simba was able to take his place as king of Pride Rock or if Scar remained king and drove the pridelands into ruin.  That's pretty much how this book ended.

I had such high expectations for this book, especially as I started reading it.  There characters and plot had a lot of potential, only to be let down at the last minute.  I hope that Tommy Orange writes more books in the future, because I would like to give him another shot, just not with this book.

Read More

My Thoughts on "The King's Curse"

I'm going to be honest, I wasn't going to write a blog post about this book, I don't write a post about every book that I read, but I had a little bit I wanted to share about this book.  With that being said, this post turned out to be significantly longer than I originally anticipated.  I did a little bit of research and included some history, so brace yourself for a history lesson along with a review of The King's Curse by Philippa Gregory.

Cover of The King's Curse by Philippa Gregory

It's been a while since I've read anything by Philippa Gregory, about six years according to my Goodreads account, but that hasn't stopped me from buying her books still so when I do want to read her books, I have them at the ready.  The King's Curse follows the story of Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury through her life.  It's important to have a little bit of historical context about who Margaret was and the War of the Roses.

The root cause of the War of the Roses can be traced all the way back to Edward III, who had five sons.  Unfortunately, Edward's oldest son, also called Edward, died the year before his father, passing the throne on to Edward's grandson, Richard II (his oldest son's son).  Are we confused yet?  If Richard II died without an heir, the throne would pass to his female cousin, whose father was the second oldest son of Edward III.  Edward, however, threw a wrench in these plans from the grave by issuing a decree before his passing stating that the heir had to be male.  This didn't happen, however, instead the Duke of Lancaster, whose father was Edward III's third oldest son, returned from exile, gained support of the nobles and deposed Richard, thereby becoming Henry IV of England.  This established the House of Lancaster, which was one side of the War of the Roses.  Is everyone still with me?  Good, because it's about to get a little more complicated.

The House of York, the other side of the War of the Roses, also traces itself back to Edward III.  Its founder was Edward's fourth oldest son.  To make matters even more complicated, it was not this tie that made them think that they had a claim to the throne.  Instead, they claimed that Lionel, Edward III's second oldest son, had a great granddaughter who married the Duke of York's son, thereby superseding the claim of Edward's third son.

Henry V died young, leaving his infant son, Henry VI as king with a divided council of regents to look over the kingdom, all the while the Duke of York, Richard, claimed he should be the rightful king on the throne.

Now, where in the world does Margaret Pole fit into this mess?  Her uncle was Edward IV of England.  Edward IV was the oldest son of the Duke of York, who claimed to be the rightful heir to the throne after his father died.  He even began putting together an army to overthrow the Lancaster king and take the throne for himself.  Edward married Elizabeth Woodville, and they had two sons, Edward and Richard.  When Edward IV died, he named his son as the next king of England, while his (Edward IV's) brother, Richard, would look over the throne until Edward V was old enough to rule himself (he was only 12 years old at the time).  Like many men at the time, Richard wanted the throne for himself.  He told his sister-in-law that he would put the young boys in the Tower of London to keep them safe during the fighting.  They were never seen alive again.  Richard III named himself King of England, only to be defeated by Henry VII as Bosworth Field, thus ending the War of the Roses, and establishing the Tudor line on the throne.

Edward IV and Richard III had another brother, George, who was Margaret Pole's father.  He and his son, Margaret's brother, were executed at the Tower of London once Henry VII came to the throne, as he was afraid that they had a claim to the throne and would be a threat to him.  I know, this is all incredibly confusing.  I watered this down to only the most important information, there's so much more that goes into the War of the Roses.

That's a lot of information, which Bryan learned the hard way.  While I was reading the book, he asked me what I was reading.  I showed him the cover, and he asked me what the book was about.  I told him that it was complicated.  He asked again, so I figured he really wanted to know.  It didn't take long for him to regret his decision.  About ten minutes and one family tree from inside the book, I think I thoroughly confused him.  He did tell me that I'm cute when I get excited, so I liked that a lot.  I think he also learned not to press the issue when I tell him the book I'm reading is complicated.  We'll see if he remembers that in the future.

This book covered about forty years, which is a lot of time to cover in just 500 pages.  For that reason, it jumps ahead a lot, which was something I had to get used to as I read.  An entire year might be summarized in just a paragraph or two.  This allowed Philippa Gregory to really focus on the most important events in Margaret's life.  On the other hand, it did get a bit annoying when the book would jump ahead, and it made it difficult to keep track of exactly how much time had passed.  I frequently had to go back and check the dates at the beginning of each chapter to make sure I was keeping track of everything.

Additionally, some of the dialogue felt incredibly awkward and forced.  When I write (which hasn't been in a while), I struggled with dialogue too, but it's important to make sure it doesn't sound too scripted.  I found that a lot of these scenes were when Margaret was talking to her sons about some plans they had for how to handle the king.  Thankfully, these scenes weren't too common, but there were several.  For such a well-renowned author with over thirty published novels, this shouldn't be a problem for Philippa Gregory.

While poking around on Goodreads, I came across a review for this book, and the reviewer complained that they kept talking about the alleged curse, which they found annoying.  I wanted to shake the reviewer, of course they're going to talk about the curse, the title of the book is The King's Curse.  This brings me to where the title of the book came from.  Philippa Gregory has a habit of taking established facts from history and adding a little bit of a twist.  For example, in The Other Boleyn Girl, Philippa takes the fact that Anne Boleyn's brother, George, was arrested for having an incestuous relationship with his sister.  Philippa takes that and twists it in the book where Anne tried to sleep with her brother because she kept having miscarriages, and she was desperate to give Henry VIII a son.  In The King's Curse, Margaret pole frequently talks about a curse allegedly placed on the family of whoever killed her cousins, the Princes in the Tower.  According to the curse, the son and grandson of whoever killed the Princes in the Tower.  The way the book is written, it leaves it ambiguous as to who really killed the princes (because, to this day, we're not entirely sure who did).  It could have been Richard III, as his son and grandson died prematurely, or it could have been Henry VII, whose son and grandson also died prematurely.

For a woman at the time, Margaret Pole had an absolutely fascinating life.  Descended from royalty, she first lived in exile during the reign of Henry VII, who feared her family would attempt to claim her precarious throne from him.  Henry VII also executed her brother simply because he could be a threat to his throne.  Margaret wasn't completely banished from the royal court, as she helped Catherine of Aragon get settled when she first arrived from Spain and even looked after Arthur, Henry VII's first son, who he intended to be his heir until he died in his teens.

Painting of Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury

After Arthur's death, Catherine of Aragon longed to marry her husband's younger brother, Henry (who will become Henry VIII).  The question is whether or not Catherine and Arthur consummated their marriage, which is something that continues later when Henry wants to divorce Catherine and marry Anne Boleyn.  This drags on until Henry VII dies.  Henry VIII becomes king and immediately marries Catherine.  It takes a while, but they eventually have a daughter, Mary (later Mary I of England, also known as Bloody Mary).  Margaret steps up and helps raise and look after Mary, which is why she has such strong Catholic sympathies throughout her life.

Since this is a historical fiction novel, I knew what happened in the end, but I still was intrigued to see how it happened.  Margaret Pole is executed at the end in an extremely gruesome fashion, but more about that later.  Her fall from grace came from the fact that her son, Reginald Pole, was an outspoken critic of Henry VIII and the fact that he decided to break with the Catholic Church.  Additionally, Margaret was a closet Catholic herself and supposedly supported the Pilgrimage of Grace, which was an attempt by Catholics in northern England to overthrow Henry VIII and reestablish a Catholic monarchy.  Since Henry VIII couldn't get to Reginald Pole, he decided to execute his mother instead.  Something the book glosses over extensively is the fact that Margaret was in the Tower of London for nearly two years.  Those two years are covered in just a few short pages in the book.  It was almost as if Philippa Gregory gave up and just wanted to wrap up the book and get it over with.  I didn't even realize she was imprisoned for two years until I read about her online to write this blog post.

Despite her achievements in her life, Margaret Pole is really known for her death.  Like I said before, her death was extremely gruesome.  When a person is beheaded, they put their head on the chopping block, and when they're ready, they stretch out their arms, signalling to the executioner they're ready to die.  At first, Margaret followed this procedure, until the last minute, when she jumped up and started to flee from the executioner.  The executioner followed after her, hacking away until she finally died.  It is rumored that Margaret's ghost can still be seen running across the green at the Tower of London, recreating her brutal and violent last moments.

Overall, I thought this was a fairly okay book.  Not one of my favorite Philippa Gregory books but still one that I enjoyed.  I think it would be interesting to read right before or right after The Other Boleyn Girl, as it focuses on the same events, just from a completely different perspective as outsiders who are very much against Anne Boleyn.  So, if you were to read The King's Curse, I would either precede with The Other Boleyn Girl or follow up with it.

I honestly didn't expect this post to be this long, but I had a lot I wanted to say about the history surrounding the book.  If you can't tell, I absolutely love Tudor history.  This is the first time I've read a Tudor-era book in quite some time.  I hope you enjoyed the history and didn't get too confused.

Read More

My Thoughts on "Educated" and Discussion Questions

I can't go to book club this month.  I know, that's disappointing, but it's not the end of the world.  I'm doing something just as exciting (if not more exciting) that day with Bryan, and my mom talked me into joining her second book club (more on that later).  Despite the fact that I can't go book club, I still decided to read the book since it was one I'd heard wonderful things about.  This month, book club read Educated by Tara Westover.

Educated is a memoir following Tara's extremely unconventional childhood and journey to Brigham Young University, Cambridge and eventually Harvard.  While this would be impressive for anyone, it's especially impressive given Tara's upbringing.  Her father, Gene, had extreme views about the world, particularly the government.  In an attempt to protect his family from the dangers he perceived from the government, he never got his children birth certificates and never allowed them to go to school.  This never stopped Tara's thirst for knowledge.  After one of her older brothers went to BYU, Tara realized this was something she could accomplish as well.  This was an incredibly challenging task for Tara, as she never went to school or had any sort of formal education (she had to teach herself math in order to pass the ACT). 

Once in college, however, things didn't get much easier, as Tara realized her education was far from complete.  Growing up, Tara learned from her father that African American slaves had a far easier life than their masters, as their masters worried about how they were going to feed and take care of all their slaves.  At BYU, Tara learned that that was the furthest thing from the truth, especially when she saw the famous picture of the scars on the back of a slave from being whipped his entire life.  This was a huge shock to Tara.  She always knew her father was unconventional, but this was a huge slap to the face.

One thing I couldn't quite figure out was Tara's father's true beliefs.  Sometimes he seemed very much set against the government, school and modern medicine, not to mention he wanted to keep his kids away from outside influences and anything that went against their Mormon religion.  On the other hand, there were instances where he seemed somewhat fine with Tara and her older brother going to college (although he was very set against it at the beginning), and he was even fine with Tara performing with local theatre groups.  This seems so counter intuitive, especially given his extreme beliefs.  Part of me wondered if he thought Tara was simply going through a phase when it came to her education, and, towards the end, when he realized that this wasn't the case, he finally snapped and cut her out of his life (although Tara seemed relieved about this as well). 

Another character I couldn't quite figure out was Tara's mother.  She definitely didn't seem to fully embrace her husband's extreme ideologies at first.  She always believed in things such as essential oils to help cure sicknesses, but then it got worse as she started using muscle testing and chakras to cure illnesses as well.  At the same time, Tara's mom seemed to encourage her to leave and get some sort of education, despite her husband's beliefs.  Towards the end of the book, however, Tara's mom became more extreme in her beliefs, especially as her essential oils business grew and expanded.  I really couldn't figure out what she really believed and what she went along with simply to keep the peace.  Towards the end, however, Tara's mom seemed in denial, especially when it came to Tara's brother, Shawn.  She even tried to convince Tara that her memories were faulty, thereby demonstrating that the devil was at work trying to take her daughter away from her.

Tara's brother, Shawn, was another character.  Honestly, it's a miracle Tara didn't end up seriously injured, or even worse.  He was always a bit unstable, but after a series of accidents, brain damage caused him to be even worse, to the point that he threatened both Tara and her sister, Audrey, in separate instances.  What upset me the most about this was the fact Tara's parents were in complete denial and constantly made excuses for him.  Yes, he is their son (I'm not a parent, so I can't sympathize with them in that capacity), but they had to realize that the behavior Shawn exhibited was completely wrong, especially given the fact that they had other sons who weren't anything like him.  I still can't figure out why they made so many excuses for him, why he was chosen as the golden child of sorts, always willing to look past his extreme faults and problems.

I think one thing that stood out to me about this book was Westover's claim that they lived off the grid.  In some ways, I definitely agree, especially when it came to their interactions with the government.  Tara didn't even know when her birthday was, so she picked one for herself around the time family members told her she was born, all because she was born at home and wasn't issued a birth certificate until she left for Cambridge.  In other ways, I don't think the Westovers lived off the grid.  They still interacted with the outside world on a very regular basis, even going so far as to have a booming essential oils and homeopathic remedies business.  Ultimately, Tara's father wanted them to be completely off the grid, but they never got there, as they got distracted by capitalism and their growing business.  I find that extremely ironic, especially given the fact that it was something her father seemed to hate.  It makes me wonder if he didn't like the government and everything simply because he couldn't do what he wanted, but the growing essential oils business gave him the ability to move past his former limitations.

Something else that stood out to me was the role of professors in Tara's life.  While it's not completely out of the ordinary to sometimes have a close relationship with professors, it is rare.  Typically in college, you go to class, you listen to the professor talk for an hour, then you leave.  There were some professors I had a closer relationship with in college, but I was fortunate enough to go to a smaller college (about a fourth the size of BYU).  As a teacher, this really stood out to me and reminded me of the importance of my job.  All it takes is one teacher who believes in a student for them to be put on the path for success.  On my most difficult days, this is what I need to remember.  Tara kept her hardships at home a secret from her professors, and that's something else teachers need to remember; we never know exactly what's going on a student's life or what kind of support he or she needs to be successful.

Despite the fact I can't go to book club, I still came up with some questions that my mom could bring along.  Unlike last time, I wrote the questions as I read the book, that way I could come up with some more specific questions.  This also helped me create a much longer list of questions than last time.  Hopefully you'll be able to use them as well.

1. What effect did Ruby Ridge have on Tara's dad?
2. Do you agree with Tara's speculation that her dad may be bipolar, or was he just eccentric?
3. Tara's dad didn't say anything when she was accepted to BYU.  Do you think it was because he resigned to fate or because he didn't fully believe she would actually go?
4. In what way did the Bishop and several of Tara's professors step in to be the father figure Tara's dad wasn't?
5. Had Shawn not been injured, do you think he would have gone along with his dad's beliefs in the way he did towards the end of the book?
6. Had Tara been a boy or treated a little better, do you think she would have fallen in line with her dad's beliefs or not gone off to college?
7. What did Emily mean when she said Shawn was a spiritual man?
8. Tara's dad saw surviving the explosion as a way "to show people there's another way besides the Medical Establishment."  Given his quality of life, is this true?
9. Do you think the fact he survived his accident helped Tara's dad and her family solidify their beliefs?
10. How did Tara's dinner with her parents at the Indian restaurant near her apartment at BYU represent a shift in their relationship?
11. Do you think Tara didn't want to tell people she never went to school after she won the Gates scholarship because it would lend credence to her parents' parenting style?
12. Tara's dad claims essential oils businesses offered to buy them out.  Do you think this was true or one of his delusions?
13. Tara describes herself as a "woman emancipated from pretense".  Do you agree with this observation?
14. In what ways was Tara's mom complicit with the abuse Tara endured?
15. Who was more abusive, Tara's dad or Shawn?
16. Why were Tara's parents in such denial about Shawn, especially towards the end?
17. Is Tara's academics an example of nature versus nurture?

Read More

My Thoughts on "Where the Crawdads Sing"

You know that book you pick up thinking it sounds moderately interesting, but once you start reading it, it takes on a life of its own and is infinitely better than anything you could have ever imagined?  That's Where the Crawdads Sing.  This book blew every single one of my expectations out of the water and has quickly become one of my favorite books.  Just like Everything I Never Told You, it almost impossible to talk about this book without talking about spoiler; I'll leave a big warning before I start talking about anything that could potentially spoil the book for others.

Where the Crawdads Sing takes place during the 1950s in the rural marshes of North Carolina and follows the story of Kya.  Kya lives in the marshes with her family: her father, who is a World War II veteran and alcoholic, her mother and approximately five siblings (she's the youngest).  Slowly, Kya's family abandons her, all of them leaving for a hopefully better life elsewhere, until she's left with her dad, until he eventually leaves her as well.  At the age of approximately ten, Kya is left to fend for herself.

For both of my mom's book clubs (they each read this book separately a few months ago), this is where the book became completely unrealistic.  They couldn't wrap their minds around the fact that a little girl survived out in the marshes on her own, and nobody in town even noticed or did anything about it.  While I can see where they're coming from, it is, unfortunately, very possible.  Think about how many children slip through the cracks of the foster care system every single day.  Obviously, this isn't something we want to think about, as we'd like to think that the foster system does its job without any problems.  My coworker and I were talking about this.  We're both teachers, and she told me about a student she had last year.  Nobody knew that this student and her sister were living completely on their own for two months until they were about to be evicted.  Just like Kya, they went through the motions and hid the reality of their circumstances from everyone around them.  With that being said, it really didn't seem out of the realm of possibility that Kya was alone, and nobody knew any better.

Kya's childhood is only part of the story.  Interwoven with Kya's childhood and extremely unconventional upbringing, local police are trying to solve the mysterious murder of Chase Andrews, former star quarterback and all-around beloved member of the community.  Locals found his body in the marsh underneath the fire tower, and suspicion immediately turned to Kya, who the locals refer to as "Marsh Girl".  Their prejudice get the better of them as they try to figure out who killed Chase.  It's easy to figure out why they zeroed in on Kya, as she was the quintessential example of an outcast, while Chase was the quintessential example of a town superstar.  This story mostly takes a backseat to the story about Kya's childhood and upbringing, until they both converge, and the reader spends the rest of the story hooked on every word as they find out what happened to Chase and Kya.

Now that we've gotten the basics out of the way, it's time to dive a little more into the book.  Just like before, if you haven't read the book or don't want spoilers this is where you should probably stop reading.  There aren't any discussion questions for this post.

Wow, all I can say is wow.  That ending was amazing!  I definitely did NOT see that coming!  I spent the entire book completely convinced that Kya was 100% innocent, especially the way she talked to her lawyer and made it abundantly clear that she would NOT have anything to do with any plea bargain that included jail time.  I definitely knew that Chase raped her, but  I thought he was going to rape her on the top of the fire tower, and then she pushed him off in self-defense.  After that turned out to be incorrect, I thought she was going to be found guilty and executed.  I have to admit, I was so relieved when that turned out to be not true.  I read another book where something similar happened, and while the book was amazing (and the death at the end definitely helped contribute to the plot), I still didn't like it.  After Kya was found not-guilty, I was so sure she was innocent and Tate actually killed Chase for Kya (we'll talk about Kya and Tate's relationship in a bit; I absolutely loved it!).  I know that that was what Owen was going for with the chapter immediately following Kya's acquittal, and it definitely seemed plausible.

I absolutely loved Tate's relationship with Kya.  Yes, he did her wrong by leaving her to go to college, but had he actually said goodbye and explained why he had to leave her (he really did think he was acting in her own best interest), then things would have been much smoother between them.  Unlike Chase, Tate really did have Kya's best interests at heart, which is why I was so convinced he killed Chase.  I was absolutely heartbroken when Tate left Kya (although I knew he had to spread his own wings and experiencing his own life for a little while), but he always looked out for her and did whatever he could to make sure she had everything she needed.  Unlike everyone else, Tate was able to see Kya for who she really was and all the potential she had inside her.  If everyone else in town had treated her the same way, then maybe she would have had a much different life.

I also want to take a little bit of time to talk about Chase.  First of all, what a total creep!  I hate to say it, but the guy really deserved what happened to him.  He took complete advantage of a woman.  To him, she was simply another notch on his belt.  Not only that, she was an extremely exotic notch in his built, which he bragged about to his friends.  I can't believe he even got married, what woman would want him!?  On top of being able to get just about any woman he wanted in town (which he did...several times), he still had to try to rape Kya and then harass her after the fact.  Kya absolutely did the right thing killing Chase, there was no way he was going to leave her alone.  She had to do something, not only for herself, but for other women in town.  Chase was known was a womanizer, but who's the say Chase hadn't tried to or successfully raped other women over the years.  Kya refused to come forward and admit that she had been raped.  No one would have believed her in the first place.  In a way, Where the Crawdads Sing is a commentary of women's rights and how backwards the system was.  On the other hand, had this happened today, and a social outcast accused the town's golden boy of rape, would she be believed?  I'd like to say yes, but I know that the answer would most likely be no.  There's still so much work to be done when it comes to women's rights, but that's not what I'm here to talk about today.

Like I said, both of my mom's book clubs read this book, but I just read it for fun.  For that reason, I don't actually have any discussion questions for this book.  I finished the book last night, but I'm still working on processing the book.  If you have any great discussion questions you want to share, please leave them in a comment below.

Read More