Readers Will Love The Weird Sisters - A Book Review

I know she's going to love The Weird Sisters one day

Lists passed back and forth between us, name books scoured, possibilities scrawled onto paper to be tentatively approved or slashed out of existence by the other.

Ryan and I had a difficult time choosing names, particularly with Dylan, making lists for both boys and girls and hoping we'd make an appropriate game-time decision when he was born.

If our little troublemaker would have been a girl, the name at the top of our list was Miranda, chosen because of my love for The Tempest and agreed to by Ryan despite his disdain for the Miranda character on Sex and the City (do you see why we had issues?)

In The Weird Sisters, Eleanor* Brown tells the story of three sisters, daughters of a Shakespeare scholar named for three of Shakespeare's female characters (Rosalind, Bianca, and Cordelia), returning home to help their mother through a bout with cancer.

So many things about this book pulled me in from the beginning and sent me spiraling through its pages within two days, pulled into their lives both as women and as children of an academic in a small college town (which may or may not be one of my dream life scenarios). 

I pondered the way Brown portrayed the sister relationship, without the typical, tightly woven threads that wind through so many stories about sisters.

I immediately related to their penchant for books of any kind, picked up from various surfaces and read at whim.

I simultaneously loved and wanted to scream at each of the sisters in turn.  Character development is one of my favorite parts of a book, and Rosalind, Bean, and Cordy were endowed with some of the most beautifully realistic flaws and strengths I've read in a long time.

Another strength of the novel was the narrative voice.  Eleanor Brown expertly tells the story from the first person collective consciousness of the three sisters, using "we" and letting the reader truly delve into each of their stories, providing a balanced and rich perspective on the family.

At the heart of the book is a triangular coming-of-age tale, with each of the sisters finding her way through the mire of the expectations of her Shakespearean name, the expectations of her family, and the limitations bestowed upon herself.  It's beautifully told without feeling contrived or forced, and my only problem with The Weird Sisters is I'm not sure to whom I should lend it first.

Read more about The Weird Sisters at the BlogHer Book Club.

This week we're discussing which of the sisters we're most like.

I received a copy of The Weird Sisters for the purpose of this review, as well as compensation for my time, courtesy of BlogHer and Penguin Books.  The opinions expressed are thoroughly my own, including the one where I mention that whomever borrows this book needs to return it, because it will be one I pick up and read at random intervals.

*Eleanor was another name on our list for girls.  It's my Nan's name and just lovely.

Goodbye Splenda, Hello Butter - A Book Review

made with real butter, so feel free to indulge

...in moderation of course

My best friend and I were constantly chasing off the last five pounds during college, and diet pop (sorry! that’s what we call it in Michigan!) was one of our staples.

We waited to see what was on sale bought it, in cans, by the twelve-pack; diet Pepsi, diet Coke, diet Sprite, diet Cherry 7-Up, diet Vernors, diet Cherry Coke, and more all saw themselves stacked and rotated in and out of our hall closet.

The amount we purchased wouldn’t fit in the refrigerator. Nestled next to the chilled cans of chemically enhanced beverages were other staples: fat free sour cream, fat free cheese, sugar free Jello, sugar free popsicles.

The amount of chemicals floating through our bodies was enough to keep us preserved until the ripe age of two hundred eleven, if my chemistry skills are correct. (They’re not; I don’t really think a steady diet of fake sugar will increase your life span.)

Over the years I’ve read and tried The Zone, flirted with the Atkins Diet, discussed South Beach, and had a brief dalliance with Weight Watchers, a certain number hovering in my mind as an ideal goal weight. Through much trial and error, I’ve found that the old-fashioned equation of burning more calories than you eat works best, and I have the most personal success when I’m carefully tracking calories.

Calorie counting meant I could ingest diet pop and sugar free treats, like popsicles, at will, logging few (or zero) calories for my snacks and beverages.

Reading Why Women Need Fat, by William D. Lassek, M.D. and Steven J.C. Gaulin Ph.D., brought to light some things I’ve heard but liked to pretend didn’t matter too much, as long as I was watching the numbers being totaled up at the end of each day. Lassek and Gaulin are talking about getting rid of processed foods (gasp! diet pop and fat free sour cream).

Reading nutrition books can be a little daunting; there’s often a lot of rhetoric, and obviously the numbers are presented in a way that makes the case the authors are promoting. (What can I say? Being married to an actuary has taught me that it’s healthy to be a little skeptical of statistics.)

Why Women Need Fat does present statistics and studies and credible evidence talking about why we’re getting fatter, despite our nation’s attempt to modify our diets into submission by vilifying different types of fat.

What I took away from the book, more than anything, is that we need to shed the chemicals and the processing from our diets. We need to eat cleaner foods and worry more about nutrients and the way they fuel our body’s needs (go omega-3 fatty acids!) Fat, in its naturally occurring forms, doesn’t necessarily lurk in corners, ready to cling onto our thighs and stomachs.

Cleaner eating (good bye fake sugar and low-fat-replaced-by-strange-filler foods) was a concept that already interested me, and Why Women Need Fat helped me better understand why it might benefit my waistline as well as my health.

What do you think? Do you use sugar substitutes or low-fat versions of food to help lose weight? Visit the BlogHer Book Club to read more about Why Women Need Fat or join the discussion about butter (mmmm, butter).

This is a sponsored post, courtesy of BlogHer and Penguin Books.  I received a copy of Why Women Need Fat to read and review and compensation for my time.  All opinions, as always, are my own.

Finding The Magic Room - A Book Review

A snowstorm almost kept my mom and me at home, but we put on our Michigan driving boots and drove to the bridal store for my appointment to try on dresses.

I had an appointment to try on a dress during a trunk show, and any bride can tell you that the discounts you can find at trunk shows might be worth a few extra minutes of driving time.

We slid our shoes off at the door, ice and snow immediately glistening into puddles in the cozy store, temperature elevated enough to make it comfortable to slide into strapless dresses while frigid weather raged outside.

I had tried on wedding dresses with my friends, but this was my first trip with my mom. I thought I knew what I wanted, and I wanted her to see it before I purchased the gown, though I was paying for it myself.

A gorgeous magazine photograph was carefully pressed into my wedding binder, yet the dress lacked something as I twirled in front of the mirror.

A little disappointed, I started trying on other dresses, including a fabulous, and out of my price range, ball gown that made me feel like a princess-one wearing way too many pounds of lace and tulle.

Seeing my eyes slide to a lovely and simple dress across the room, the sales consultant brought over a dress I may not have noticed on my own. Without embellishment, the strapless gown impressed me with its simplicity and the sheen of the fabric.

There were tears in my mom’s eyes, and she’s not the crying type.

I bought the dress.

April 23, 2005

I can’t imagine how exciting it would have been to try on my dress in the Magic Room, a specially designed room in Becker’s Bridal in Fowler, Michigan, a room designed specifically for women who think they’ve found the gown they want to wear while walking down the aisle.

The Magic Room, by Jeffrey Zaslow, chronicles the stories of several women as they purchase dresses from Becker’s Bridal, a store owned by the same family for several generations.

Not all of the stories found within The Magic Room are fairy tales, not all of the brides live happily ever after, some of them facing tragedy before their weddings and some finding pain after their vows have been exchanged.

Still, Jeffrey Zaslow writes about parents and daughters with a light hand, lovingly telling their tales in such a way that it’s not surprising to learn that he is a father of girls himself.

He also writes of statistics and facts surrounding the wedding and the wedding industry, but the magic in this book is found in the hearts and hopes of the brides Zaslow chronicles within the pages of his book, not the least of whom is Shelley Mueller, owner of Becker’s Bridal, the one who imagined the Magic Room and brought it to life.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the small sense of pride I felt reading The Magic Room, and knowing that a small town in Michigan was the home of such a special place to so many women.

Join the discussion about The Magic Room at BlogHer, where it’s the latest selection from the BlogHer Book Club!   Did you have an "aha!" moment with your wedding dress?

I was provided with a copy of The Magic Room to read and review as well as compensation for my time, courtesy of BlogHer and Penguin Books.  All opinions, as always, are my own.

The Unpredictability of Water - Jeremy Page's Sea Change

Sunshine and rainwater flow through the first page of Jeremy Page’s Sea Change, beautifully written, with the incredible attention to detail that unfailingly draws me into a book. 

With the same deliberateness, Sea Change twisted my heart, though I was prepared for it by reading the description of the book.

The story seamlessly moves through time; past, present, and future are woven together, the future imagined through Guy’s extensive journals. His writings can be disconcerting; both he and the reader are aware that the future he paints exists only in the words in the pages of his hardbound journals, carefully protected in waterproof plastic.

Guy’s choice to live on a boat, untethered and drifting, is in direct contrast to his desire to hold onto his family. At one point he claims: “It’s a wonderful thing to write. You can reclaim the things you lost.”

As the story unfolds, Guy begins to wonder if that’s necessarily true, and the changes in his journals reflect his change in perspective.

Sea Change uses the setting to its best advantage; like the sea on which he lives, there are lulls and storms, unexpected twists and turns that can’t be avoided, even when Guy is furiously trying to rewrite his family’s future.

Guy encounters Marta and Rhona, a mother and daughter looking for closure on the sea as well, and they breathe a sense of hope into his journey. They are a reminder of the ways in which water can throw an unblemished shell at your feet when you least expect it, though the threat of it being swept away by the tide is always lurking underwater.

Sea Change rocks back and forth between hope and despair. Guy’s insistence on trying to build a future without truly facing the ruins on which he is building, leads to a sense of foreboding.

The reader may be forced to choose between believing in the fatality of some emotional wounds and the power of the survival instinct.

Join the discussion about Sea Change over at the BlogHer Book Club, where we’re discussing the power of small moments or learn more about Jeremy Page’s Sea Change.

I was compensated for this book review and provided with a copy of the book to review, courtesy of BlogHer and Penguin Books. All opinions expressed are my own. Your experience with the book may be different, as all readers come to the couch with different expectations and experiences.

this is Lake Michigan

not the North Sea

my travel budget for blog photos is a bit limited

The Feminine Side of the Roman Empire - Book Review

If you cringed at the violence in Gladiator but find yourself interested a society ruled by Emperors and the theatricality of the Coliseum, Theodora by Stella Duffy should be on your must-read list.

I wrote earlier this week about truth, so I have to honestly admit historical fiction is slightly wasted on me.  I love reading it, but I’m so easily drawn into the world the author creates, and my own historical knowledge is perhaps not what it should be, so the line between what is actual history and what is fiction is blurred to the point of not existing for me.

According to my serious historical research (Wikipedia, thank you very much,) combined with notes on the book’s cover, Theodora was an actress, an Empress of the Roman Empire, and a saint in the Orthodox Church.  She may or may not have been the most powerful woman in Roman history, and like all powerful woman, there are many rumors surrounding her rise to power.

Theodora’s tagline is “Actress, Empress, Whore,” so I can’t say that many of the plot points are unexpected as Theodora rises from a young, poor, child actress in Constantinople to heights unimagined for a girl in her position.

What I found most interesting as I read Theodora was the way she used her strengths to her advantage within a system that didn’t necessarily value them.  She wasn’t classically beautiful nor a particularly gifted singer or dancer, which should have relegated her to a small, uneventful life. 

However, she used her intelligence to craft comedic timing and to understand the dynamic between people, which seems to be her most important skill throughout the book.

Her story is woven amongst the intrigue of Roman politics and religious conflict, but I found her character’s inner growth to be the most compelling part of Theodora.

While I’m not sure where the line between history and fiction is drawn in Stella Duffy’s novel, I can definitely recommend reading Theodora if you’re interested in a story about a woman’s rise to power through channels that should never had led her anywhere but the inside of a man’s bedroom.

Join the discussion about Theodora or read more about Stella Duffy, as the BlogHer Book Club reads Theodora!

I was compensated for this review by BlogHer, which included a copy of Theodora, provided by Penguin Books. All opinions expressed are my own and were not influenced in any way.

reading with Grandpa

NOT historical fiction, though it is about a dinosaur bone

Four Paws Up - Reviewing Love at First Bark

Abbey recently made a little book at school about safe and unsafe activities. Her unsafe activity was “running into the street,” which makes sense, because we remind Dylan about that at least eight hundred and eleven times a day. Her safe activity was “petting my pets.”

We don’t have pets.

Love at First Bark, by Julie Klam, might seem like an interesting reading choice for me.

We all love Honey Bear, my furry niece, but the closest we’ve come to opening our home to a pet is a discussion about getting a fish when she turns four. Well, in college, my roommate adopted a cat; he is still the coolest cat I’ve ever met, though I don’t think he remembers all of the time I spent waving his little feather on a stick in front of his face.

Reading Love at First Bark didn’t change my mind about getting a dog (sorry Abbey!) Our house didn’t miraculously grow before I finished the endearing tale about rescuing dogs. I have a tough time asking my parents to watch Abbey and Dylan on the rare occasions we go out of town; I can’t imagine adding another little creature to that request.

What struck me the most in reading Julie’s story is how incredibly fortunate I feel that there are people like her living amongst people like me.

I love snuggling with Honey Bear, but Julie Klam is the type of person who eschews her afternoon plans to figure out what to do with an abandoned dog tied to a post on a New York City street. She’s the type of person who goes out of her way to help the animals in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans.

Love at First Bark speaks repeatedly about the ways caring for animals can help people discover positive things about themselves; she clearly feels that she’s lucky to have encountered the animals in her life.

I can’t speak, or bark I guess, for them, but Love at First Bark makes me think that they must feel the same way about her.

Learn more about Love at First Bark or meet Julie Klam, and join the discussion about adopting rescue animals over at BlogHer Book Club!

I received a copy of Love at First Bark to read and review, as well as compensation for this post, courtesy of BlogHer and Penguin Books. All opinions expressed, as always, are my own.

Are You an "American Housewife"? - A Book Review

Contrary to what you might imagine, How to Be an American Housewife by Margaret Dilloway is not an instruction manual.  I’ll wait for husbands around the country to grumble and back out of this review. 

The title references a fictional how-to book within the novel, excerpts of which are found at the beginning of each chapter, giving a little insight into the process by which Shoko attempts to assimilate herself into American culture after marrying Charlie Morgan, an American soldier stationed in Japan.

Shoko’s struggles as a girl, and then a young woman, in Japan are beautifully written and show the narrow path available to females in Japan, both before and immediately following World War II.  Her conscious realization that she will need to use her physical gifts and not her mental or athletic ones to better her position and that of her family is painful to read as a mother of a young daughter. 

She does her best to adhere to tradition and her fathers’ wishes, though it means closing her heart to someone she truly loves.  Despite her intentions, her actions enrage her brother; when she leaves for America, they remain estranged until a very sick Shoko sends her daughter and granddaughter to Japan to make peace with Taro.

I thoroughly enjoyed How to Be an American Housewife, in part because the themes of misunderstood intentions and mother-daughter relationships both speak to me in a more profound way since having children. 

Reading this, I was ultra-conscious of the mother-daughter relationships in my life, both as a daughter and as a mother.  As Shoko, Sue, and Helena demonstrate, even the best intentions can be misunderstood, and though love may be obvious, things like pride, joy, and appreciation sometimes need to be explicitly stated to be realized.

Join the discussion at BlogHer Book Club and learn more about How to Be an American Housewife and Margaret Dilloway.
Not sure if you're interested? Read an excerpt to see what you think.

This is a paid review for the BlogHer Book Club.  I was provided with a copy of How to Be an American Housewife to review, as well as compensation for this post.  All opinions about the book and how to navigate a mother-daughter relationship are my own.

we are equal opportunity sweepers at our house

Are Your Kids Armed? - Lunch Wars Book Review

Remembering school lunches often means a crinkled nose or a guilty conscience about copious amounts of canned lemonade and peanut butter and wafer cookies.

Amy Kalafa’s Lunch Wars challenges us to rethink school lunches.  She calls on us to advocate for our children, to bring fresh, seasonal produce to schools, to limit our dependence on non-organic animal products and genetically-modified foods.

My emotions went through an entire spectrum while reading Lunch Wars, from ire over our school lunch system and anger about our country’s food culture in general, to slight annoyance and, later, to feeling like there are some great tips for any diet, not just the lunches prepared at school.

I was shocked to read certain facts, like how schools need to order their food eighteen months in advance to take full advantage of government subsidies, a vital source of funding for many school lunch programs.

I was disheartened to read others, such as the dangers of “anything ultra-pasteurized,” since all of the organic milk choices at the grocery stores I frequent are ultra-pasteurized.

That shift, between shocked and disheartened, may cause some readers to dismiss the message Kalafa is sending as too alarmist or unrealistic.  Yet, if you move past the laundry list of foods Kalafa holds up to an unforgiving microscope, you will find a wealth of information about adding whole, naturally grown, local foods to a menu.

Even if you are not interested in school lunch reform, Lunch Wars is worth reading, particularly if you are interested in making conscious, healthy food choices.

What do you think about the food in schools?  Are your kids eating what you ate?  Come over and talk about it at BlogHer!

Nan and Abbey are reading a Tinkerbell book

she's counting on me to make healthy decisions about what she eats

This was a paid review for BlogHer Book Club.  I received a copy of Amy Kalafa's Lunch Wars and compensation for participation in the review campaign, but all opinions expressed are my own.

Read, Sigh, Repeat

I'll read anything.

I read books that I later consider a waste of time (Sweet Valley Confidential, I'm talking about you) and books that make me uncomfortable, despite their value (The Kid, which I've already discussed.)

But the books I love, the ones I keep on accessible shelves to read again and again, the books that give me chills and have creased, flexible spines?

There's a vein of similarity connecting those books, and that thread is lyrical prose rife with imagery and emotion.

The Virgin Suicides (Jeffrey Eugenides)  is one of those books, and I'm talking about it over at Katie's Bookcase.  

If you haven't read it, come over to see what I think.  If you have, let me know if you agree with my review!  

that's one of his favorites

sometimes he even reads it right-side-up