Week 45: The Middle Place – Kelly Corrigan

After reading LIFT by Kelly Corrigan, I was seriously jonesing (does anyone say that anymore? I guess I do) to pick up her first book, THE MIDDLE PLACE. After last week’s book club selection, I wasted no time cracking it open and I am not sure I even put it down once I started.

THE MIDDLE PLACE tackles Corrigan’s battle with breast cancer as a 37 year old mother with two young girls and a doting husband. If that’s not enough, it’s during her course of chemotherapy and radiation that her first love, her adoring and delightful father, is diagnosed with cancer as well.


Dreary and teary, right? Wrong.


Well, a little teary. It is cancer we are talking about. But mostly it’s just a wonderful account of what it means to be a family, and specifically the relationship a daughter can have with her father. And that she, in turn, can create in her own life with her own husband and children.


George Corrigan is in a word, life. He’s exuberant and positive and Corrigan’s biggest fan. To read how she describes her father’s love and support of family, you can actually feel the love coming through the pages. And before this sounds hokey and corny and too good to be true, Corrigan is just so cool. She shoots straight and bares her soul in a way that your heart aches when she’s scared and you laugh as loudly as you expect her to in the many laugh-out-loud moments in the book.


And then there’s Edward, Corrigan’s husband. Edward is a great partner, and supportive husband committed to helping his wife through this disease and remaining a positive and united front with Corrigan as they work through her nausea, physical wear down and hair loss with Georgia (4) and Claire (2). While I certainly hope to never experience cancer, I would totally want an Edward on my team and by my side.


We often hear how important it is that we have positive relationships in our lives. That attitude is a significant contributor to our health and and well-being. It can even help ward off disease. And with a family like Corrigan’s, you can’t help but wonder if that’s true. The perspective they all bring to life’s obstacles–to face it head on and assume the best outcome–is refreshing. Corrigan actually sums this up in the very beginning of her book when describing her father:

“I think people like him because his default setting is open delight. He’s prepared to be wowed–by your humor, your smarts, your white smile, even your handshake–guaranteed, something you do is going to thrill him… People walk away from him feeling like they’re on their game, even if they suspect that he put them there.”

Imagine if we treated every person like they have something wonderful to bring to the table. No matter how small, it would be significant. We could see value in each person we encountered. While we all don’t have the opportunity to meet George Corrigan, as she recommends at the book’s beginning, Corrigan has done the next best thing in writing this love letter to her family and her father for all the world to read.


Rating: 5 stars
Pages: 288
Genre: Memoir
By |November 14th, 2010|5 stars, 52 Books in 52 Weeks of 2010, Memoir|0 Comments
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Week 44: How to Be an American Housewife – Margaret Dilloway

This week’s pick comes courtesy of my book club, a group of dynamic women that have met for over six years and actually talk about the books we read. Oh sure we fit in the offshoots and the tangents where art imitates life, or catch up on work, lack of work, significant others, or a lack of others that are truly significant, and then we find our way back to the book, for better or worse. This month, it was for better, because not only was HOW TO BE AN AMERICAN HOUSEWIFE by Margaret Dilloway a great read, but we also got to talk to the author during our monthly ritual of dining and dishing.


HOW TO BE AN AMERICAN HOUSEWIFE shares the story of a mother and daughter, clashing the way mother’s and daughters can, but it also adds the element of a culture clash. Shoko, the mother, and the narrator of the first half of the book is a Japanese woman who marries an American serviceman to escape her war torn country. Leaving behind the mother and father who encouraged her and a brother from whom she is estranged, she sets up house in California and struggles to fit in with other servicemember wives. Her story begins in the present day, a time when Shoko’s health is failing her and she needs the help of her now-grown daughter Sue.


Sue, a first-generation Japanese-American and the focus of the book’s second half, is a single mother always in search of her mother’s approval while just going through the motions in a job and life that lacks both passion and direction. Struggling to connect with her mother, it’s this very personal request that brings the two closer and bridges years of disconnect between the two.


One of the strengths of Dilloway’s writing is the authentic feel she brings to the the dialogue between Shoko and Sue. As I reader I could experience the tension between Shoko and Sue, so common between mothers and daughters, and the moments of connection and happiness. The book’s authenticity is also driven by Dalloway’s own experiences with her Japanese mother and the dialect she brought to Shoko’s character.


My only struggle with the book was one characters rapid development, which seemed a bit too fast for all that was going on in the story. Certainly not a deal breaker, all of the other elements made for an enjoyable read, lively discussion and interesting perspectives from Dilloway herself during our book club conversation. Her favorite book is Little Women and she enjoys books the depict the realist struggles people experience, while keeping faith and hope alive despite the circumstances. I think the same can be said for HOW TO BE AN AMERICAN HOUSEWIFE.


Dilloway generously makes herself available for book club discussions, just check out her blog to find out how.


Rating: 4 stars
Pages: 288
Genre: Fiction
By |November 8th, 2010|4 stars, 52 Books in 52 Weeks of 2010, Fiction|2 Comments
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Week 43: Lift – Kelly Corrigan

This week’s book came to me in padded envelope, a most unexpected gift from a friend I have recently reconnected with thanks to facebook. I had seen this book before and loved its cover and size (more than perfect for this project) but just couldn’t come around to plopping down the money for such a tiny hardcover or even $9.99 for a Kindle version, which wouldn’t leave me the gorgeous dust jacket. So I just did what I did with it what I do a lot of things. I forgot about it.

Imagine my surprise when this showed up from the very friend that I promised to send a book to and without me telling her what it was (just that I love-love-loved it) she ended up checking out that very same unmentioned book at the library. Wowzers, right? Or even a bit cooky? Perhaps there are NO coincidences, Oprah. And for those of you wondering what other book I was talking about, take a look over here.


So back to this lovely little book, LIFT by Kelly Corrigan. You can read it about as fast as you can watch an episode of Glee or Parenthood, but I promise LIFT will be so much better. And I love Glee and Parenthood. LIFT is a letter to Corrigan’s daughters, 6 and 8, an attempt to make sure her daughters understand how they came to be. This seems driven by the fact that Corrigan once heard “the average person barely knows ten stories from childhood and those are based more on photographs and retellings than memory.”


What? That sounds crazy and totally right all at once.


It’s heartbreaking that I am going to remember more of my kiddo’s childhood than he will. How will he not remember lying in bed and playing Two Truths and One Lie? Or just today volunteering to be the lead vocal on Beatles’ Rock Band I Want to Hold Your Hand? Or cutting just about all of his hair off right before his fourth Christmas? Well the last one I do have a picture of; but she’s right. I don’t remember much of my own childhood unless I am flipping through a photo album, and then it’s as fuzzy as the insta-matic prints staring up at me through the cellophane sleeves.


The stories Corrigan shares are a bit of a hodgepodge, which I think they would have to be when you sit down and put pen to paper for something like this. This book really is wonderful and yet it leaves me wanting more. Corrigan’s writing style is conversational and in reading it I really felt like we were chatting on the phone or nestled into a really comfy couch. She’s introspective and funny and cool and just the bees knees. That’s why I wanted more. Reading LIFT, is like talking to the best of your friends.


I haven’t read Corrigan’s first effort, THE MIDDLE PLACE, which chronicles her and her father’s bouts with cancer. However, I can tell you that after reading LIFT, I want to pick it up.


Immediately.


Rating: 4 stars
Pages: 96
Genre: Non-fiction
By |November 1st, 2010|4 stars, 52 Books in 52 Weeks of 2010, Non-fiction|2 Comments
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Week 42: It’s a Book – Lane Smith

A couple of weeks ago I read some article, online of course, stating that all books would be gone by two thousand something or another and that ebooks and other technology was killing the book much faster than ever predicted.

Now, I am an ereader and an actual book reader and I personally think we can live in a world that supports both environments. But I am not an economist, a technology innovator or a biz wiz, so what do I really know?


Well, I am a consumer and I know a good book when I read one, however I read it. As it so happens, the good book I am referring to is of the official book variety, with paper and a cover and dust jacket and everything. IT’S A BOOK by Lane Smith is a funny and delightful reminder for children and adults everywhere of the beauty of an actual-hold-in-your-hands-and-flip-the-pages book. Lane uses a reading monkey, a digitally crazed jackass and a mouse (the animal kind not the clicking kind) to tell the story of the value of books. With books, he imparts, we can unplug and disconnect from streaming video, tweets a plenty and a moving screen and get lost in a captivating story. He even puts in a plug for libraries while he’s at it. Nice!


Now, part deux… I am certain there are individuals that will have issue with the jackass (who is only called out for his jackassiness on the very last page). I actually found this the funniest part of the book and a great opportunity to remind my own kiddo of why books – real, live books – are so wonderful. I also got to explain why we don’t want to use any words to name call or hurt another person. A bonus parenting moment from this clever little book!


The reality is we are moving into a world where it’s highly possible that kids will grow up without much exposure to actual books outside of text books. Will they know the pleasure of reading a book for pleasure or see the value of cracking open a new book and getting lost flipping the pages on a lazy Saturday afternoon?


I certainly hope not.


Rating: 5 stars
Pages: 32
Genre: Children’s
By |October 25th, 2010|5 stars, 52 Books in 52 Weeks of 2010, Children's Book|1 Comment
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Week 41: Theology: How a Boy Wonder Led the Red Sox to the Promised Land – Joe Frascella

This week my BFF and I are in Beantown for a girls week away. It’s her first time and my second to what’s fast becoming one of my absolute favorite places to visit. Boston has history, fantastic food and so much to do. In the spirit of this trip and a great tour of Fenway Park we just took (one of the best tours so far), I decided to pick up THEOLOGY: HOW A BOY WONDER LED THE RED SOX TO THE PROMISED LAND by John Frascella. If Helen Fielding was the queen of chick-lit, I think Frascella may be on the high court for dick-lit in this breezy book about baseball for boys.

Not to say that women won’t like this, but it’s heavy on details and stats on the rise of one smart and quirky Theo Epstein as the youngest major league General Manager in the history of the game. Appointed at 28 in 2002, the Boston Red Sox broke an 86 year old curse to win the National Championship. Shockingly, he resigned in 2005 and was rehired just 3 months later. Since then, the Sox won another ring in 2007.


Frascella’s writing is a bit light and airy and his book comes off more as a tribute than a non-fiction account of an interesting person of note. Epstein is apparently tremendously private and I understand did not participate or cooperate with the publication of this book. That being said, most of it appears to have been obtained by information you can Google about Epstein or the Sox.


I found Frascella’s story to take on almost too strong a tone of adoration. Certainly, Epstein is bright and has done a lot to help the Red Sox franchise, but the high praise is a bit syrupy sweet for my taste. True baseball fans, and Red Sox aficionados for sure, might really enjoy the flavor of Frascella’s writing.


For me, Frascella’s THEOLOGY is no book wonder, but an enjoyable read for anyone interested in covering the bases on some recent Red Sox history making.


Rating: 2 stars
Pages: 208
Genre: Non-Fiction
By |October 18th, 2010|52 Books in 52 Weeks of 2010, Non-fiction|1 Comment
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Week 40: The Trouble with Poetry and Other Poems – Billy Collins

Right before heading out for vacation it seemed a perfect week to revisit one of my favorite authors; a poet, no less. I love Billy Collins and after reading two of his collections (Ballistics this year and Nine Horses a while back) I was anxious to pick up a third. THE TROUBLE WITH POETRY AND OTHER POEMS was the lucky winner. The title alone cinched this week’s selection for me.

I mean, there’s so much trouble with poetry, isn’t there? Or maybe it’s there’s so much trouble with me and poetry. Poetry and I have a long and sordid history. One that involves a lot of not getting along and total misunderstandings. Then Billy came along and he was like the new poetry boyfriend that really “got me”.

 

That all being said, the trouble with THE TROUBLE WITH POETRY is that overall, it’s not my favorite of his collections, yet it has my all-time favorite poem of his in it: The Lanyard.

 

Trouble, indeed.

 

In simple words that evoke real emotions, Collins is able to show the attempt a child makes in saying thank you to his mother for all that she has done (including giving him life) by making her a lanyard at summer camp. It’s funny and poignant and nothing short of wonderful. You, Reader; On Traveling Alone; On Not Finding You at Home; Class Picture, 1954; Fool Me Good and The Trouble with Poetry are my favorites after one reading.

 

While there are a handful of great poems in THE TROUBLE WITH POETRY, there are a number that I didn’t connect with. Despite this, I am not sensing trouble in paradise just yet. I am finding that poetry is often something to be contemplated and considered and may not hit the spot after the first reading and I am okay with that. This reconciliation poetry and I have going on is still very much in the beginning stages. It’s definitely too soon to throw in the towel. I think we are both willing to spend some time on it and see where it all goes. I might even start reading other poetry because of it.

 

Rating: 3 stars
Pages: 112
Genre: Poetry
By |October 11th, 2010|3 stars, 52 Books in 52 Weeks of 2010, Poetry|1 Comment
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Week 39: To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee

It’s Banned Book Week this week and I am going back into the vault to dust off and return to a classic, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Harper Lee. How this book was ever banned, I just don’t understand. Well, unfortunately, I do. Fear, ignorance, control, and whatever all that mess is that goes into limiting the scope and viewpoints and minds of people, that’s what. And it’s such a shame, because this is a glorious book.


At a time when people weren’t writing like this, Harper Lee put out a beautifully written book about the coming of age of young Scout and Jem Finch the summer their daddy Atticus Finch was set to defend Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white woman in the small southern spot of Maycomb County, Alabama. And if that isn’t a lot to consider, consider this: It was published in 1960 at a time when race relations where top of mind across the country. Wait now. It’s 2010 and race relations are still top of mind across the country. And 50 years later, this book is still painfully and so importantly relevant.


Now, I know for a fact that I am not likely to shed any new light on Lee’s masterpiece for which she earned the Pulitzer Prize. This book has been read and dissected far too many times and ways for me to have a new little nugget. And while I think everyone has read it, perhaps that’s not the case, so I don’t want to give away any spoilers. Just know this: TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, to me, is a story about relationships.


“As you grow older, you’ll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something, and don’t you forget it–whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is or how fine a family he comes from, that white man is trash.” Atticus Finch

It’s about how we are supposed to treat one another, not how we aren’t.

“They’re certainly entitled to think that, and they’re entitled to full respect for their opinions,” said Atticus, “but before I can live with other folks I’ve got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn’t abide by a majority rule is a person’s conscience.” Atticus Finch

It’s about the similarities people share and in how much greater abundance they are than our differences.

“I think there’s just one kind of folks. Folks.” Scout Finch

I would encourage anyone to pick this up again; and if you haven’t, don’t delay. TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD is a masterpiece.

 
Rating: 5 stars
Pages: 336
Genre:
By |October 4th, 2010|5 stars, 52 Books in 52 Weeks of 2010, Fiction|2 Comments
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Week 38: A Virtuous Woman – Kaye Gibbons

Fall is the craziest time for me at work. It’s my busy season if I were an accountant. My three months of Black Fridays if I were in retail. And it’s a time that I don’t need anything extra going on, but there always is something a little extra. This time it’s an upcoming week off in Boston (timed for the change in season, not my workload) and, of course, this project. So I reached this week for a book I have had for years: A VIRTUOUS WOMAN by Kaye Gibbons.

I fell immediately into this slender love story, told in alternating chapters by Jack Stokes and Ruby Pitt Woodrow, seemingly mismatched lovers with about 20 years separating them. Jack was nothing to look at, but knew the moment he set his eyes on Ruby that she was a girl he could marry. Ruby, having just come out of an abusive marriage was looking for someone safe and kind. It was this connection, a desire to love and be loved, that seemed to work for them.


At the start of the book, we learn that Ruby has succumbed to a difficult and much to early battle with cancer. Jack is stumbling through this loss and it is through his memories and her narrative prior to her death that we learn what a rich love they had, despite or in spite of their circumstances.


A VIRTUOUS WOMAN is a lovely story told with a southern lilt that I always enjoy reading. It’s not a book that will change your world, but one that can take you away from it, if only for a few hours, and expose you to an uncommon but richly told story of enduring love.


Rating: 3 stars
Pages: 176
Genre: Fiction
By |September 26th, 2010|3 stars, 52 Books in 52 Weeks of 2010, Fiction|0 Comments
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Week 37: The Table Where Rich People Sit – Byrd Baylor

It’s confession time. I am reading many more children’s books for this project than I anticipated. They are a great pick when it’s a hectic week. I also have a six year old son that I am trying to mold and shape into an avid reader in a world where video games and TV rule. And, I am actually finding that some of these books provide a nice shift in focus and perspective, reminding me of imagination, wonder and the things that really matter. Byrd Baylor’s works fill that need perfectly.

 

I first read Byrd Baylor with the kiddo this summer (EVERYBODY NEEDS A ROCK) and fell in love with her words and the illustrations of Peter Parnall. Then through a decades-old friendship rekindled on Facebook, I received a recommendation of THE TABLE WHERE RICH PEOPLE SIT, another Baylor/Parnall partnership that is both endearing and beautifully told.

 

THE TABLE WHERE RICH PEOPLE SIT concerns Mountain Girl, nicknamed for her birth place, a young girl troubled by her parent’s disinterest in acquiring more money and things for her and her brother. Her disdain for her parent’s seemingly simple-minded approach to living is broached at dinner while sitting at “our old scratched-up homemade kitchen table.”

 

As I turned the pages, a beautiful story focused on the riches that come from nature, relationships and experiences unfolded. The illustrations are as critical a component to the storytelling as the poetic verse, with gorgeous water colors randomly and sporadically filling in the hand-drawn shapes. I think the message went a bit over the head of my six year old. And, in full disclosure, he fell asleep before I hit the last page. But I kept reading Baylor’s words aloud, savoring them along with the illustrations that truly are amongst the most creative I have ever seen.

 

I wholly recommend this book for children (probably eight and older) and adults. I am anxious to dig into the other Baylor/Parnall books I picked up while buying THE TABLE WHERE RICH PEOPLE SIT. I wouldn’t be surprised if I am back again reviewing their other collaborative efforts.

 

Rating: 5 stars
Pages: 32
Genre: Children’s
By |September 20th, 2010|5 stars, 52 Books in 52 Weeks of 2010, Children's Book|1 Comment
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Week 36: Hector and the Search for Happiness – Francois Lelord

I think this was the first near miss of a week in the project so far. Not bad, considering I am past the halfway mark. It should be smooth sailing from this point on, right? I should have this whole book-a-week thing down to a science! Not so, dear readers. Not so.


I started the week fully intending to read a certain book that, try as I might, I could not get into. After five days of scratching at the surface of this book, something had to be done. So last night at 5:30 p.m., I made an executive decision. I dumped the once-intended book and headed over to the local neighborhood bookstore to pick up a gift for a friend and hoped to find a workable replacement.


I established just two requirements: It needed to be slender in size and of a subject matter that was easily consumed in less than six hours (not counting sleep and some errands I had to run was all I had until the kiddo came home and I was back on full-time Mommy duty). I know, my options where whittled down between slim and none. Imagine my delight, however, when I came across the very thin spine of this lovely little number with the whimsical cover design and super cute title font. Shallow, I know. But, hey, what’s a girl on a mission (and a rapidly approaching deadline) to do?


Well, this girl read the back cover and snatched this little beauty right up! And she can tell you that judging this sweet little book by its cover worked out like a gem because not only did she finish HECTOR AND THE SEARCH FOR HAPPINESS just in the nick of time, but she found it utterly charming! Okay, enough with the third person weirdness.


HECTOR AND THE SEARCH FOR HAPPINESS is French psychiatrist Francois Lelord’s child-like fable about a fictional psychiatrist Hector’s concern with the amount of unhappiness he sees in his patients. So concerned is Hector, that he sets out on a tour of China, Africa and the U.S. (which is never named and only described as “the country of More”) to try and understand what it is that makes people happy in hopes that he can better help his own patients. It is through conversations and experiences with his international friends–and strangers he meets along the way– that he is able to glean a handful of nuggets about happiness.


While written as a fable, HECTOR AND THE SEARCH FOR HAPPINESS is not a children’s book. Hector encounters real issues faced by adults everywhere, himself included. I found the simplistic style endearing and it made the book work. At the end of the day, many of the things that make us happy aren’t earth-shattering discoveries. They are simple things like being with the ones we love. They are things that, when we allow ourselves to live in the moment, jump out and come into full color and clear focus.


And stay tuned for more Hector. I have just learned that this is the first of a series of Hector books that are soon coming to America!


Rating: 4 stars
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 192
By |September 13th, 2010|4 stars, 52 Books in 52 Weeks of 2010, Fiction|1 Comment
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