100 - The Good Daughters; Joyce Maynard

The Good Daughters, by Joyce Maynard  is a simple story on the surface. It is the story of two families, the Planks and the Dickersons. On July 4, 1950, baby girls were born to each family in a rural New Hampshire hospital. For the Planks, baby Ruth was a fifth daughter. For the Dickersons. baby Dana was an only daughter, with a little boy, Ray at home. The two families could not have been more different. The Planks, Edwin and Connie, were a hard working, farming family. The ancestors had lived on, and farmed the land dating back to the 1700's. The Dickersons, George and Val,  were restless spirits who moved from place to place, NH, VT, PA etc. every few years. They appeared to have no visible source of income.

Even though the Dickersons moved away from New Hampshire, Mrs Plank insisted on staying in touch. Each March they took a trip to visit the Dickersons;  for the sake of the "birthday sisters", she would say. As the girls got older they seemed to have had little in common. In fact Ruth seemed more interested in seeing Dana's brother Ray when they would visit.

While Ruth was artistic and introspective:

 "THINGS WERE NEVER easy with my mother, but I adored my dad. My father alone, of all people in our family, seemed to appreciate me, even if he did not always understand what was going on in my head. Where my mother remained distant and dismissive, my father offered nothing but love........"

 Dana seemed to be the only one in her family with a solid grasp of reality:

"I think I always had an understanding of the seasons and recognized that all of them--winter as much as summer, fall as much as spring--were necessary to sustain the cycle of life. I might be the youngest, but I kept track of the bills. Where the others whistled in the dark, I considered how we might get by in the event of a worst-case scenario. From what I'd seen of the world, those were far more likely to take place than the paydays George kept expecting".

 One thing the two girls did seem to share was a sort of restlessness, a sense of being different, and never quite fitting in. The story of told in alternating chapters, by the "birthday sisters" from childhood well into their adult years. Even though the girls have long periods of separation, the reader stays close by their sides to share their sadness, brief periods of joy and their secrets.

MY THOUGHTS - I LOVED this book! It took me a long while to decide what to write about this novel without giving away any secrets.  This is a favorite type of novel for me: a coming of age story, and a story with characters I truly cared about.  It's about life, about people longing for love, dealing with loss, and a story about trying to find peace with oneself in a not so perfect world.  Joyce Maynard has an amazing way of  telling a heartfelt story; one that draws you in and doesn't let you go. Her previous book, Labor Day, was also excellent.  This is a book that you will want to read in one sitting. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

5/5 stars
Review Copy-Harper Collins
(8/24/2010)

15 - Not My Daughter; Barbara Delinsky

Not My Daughter; Barbara Delinsky

First let me say that I always seem to enjoy a Barbara Delinsky book. Not just because she is a New England author, but because her stories most always about real life situations. This particular novel is about a subject that would make most mothers of teenage girls cringe: A Pregnancy Pact.

In a nutshell Lily, Mary Kate and Jess are three teenage girls, lifelong friends, who decide it would be a great idea to get pregnant at the same time, so that their babies too could be friends. The girls are smart and popular, and even the mothers of these girls (Susan, Kate and Sunny) are friends.  

Susan, the mother of Lily is the first to hear the pregnancy news. She thinks what her daughter has told her is a joke, but when she learns that she is serious, all the hopes and dreams that she had for the daughter she raised on her own, seem to be just that -- dreams.  Susan always taught her daughter to be independent, and that it was possible for a woman to raise a well-adjusted child on her own.

Susan speaks from experience, as she too was pregnant at seventeen. She decided to raise Lily on her own; her own parents basically sent her on her way, and were never involved in Lily's life. Lily's father Rick, a successful news reporter, is still somewhat involved in his daughter's life and truly cares about Susan. Meanwhile, Susan has done well on her own, and is now a high school principal, and yes, at Lily's school. She has much to risk professionally, when the news of this pact breaks.  Once it is out in the open, everyone seems quick to point the finger and place blame.

As I eagerly turned the pages of Not My Daughter, set in the small, close-knit (fictional) town of Zaganack, Maine it brought to mind a similar, true to life story I had heard about.  An real life pregnancy pact in another coastal town, this one in Gloucester, Massachusetts. In case you haven't heard about that one, here is the link to the June 18, 2008, Time magazine article.

MY THOUGHTS -  I enjoyed this book a lot. It was thought provoking, timely and emotionally gripping, but I was a bit disappointed by the ending -- to say more might spoil it for others who plan to read this book. Despite the ending, the book is an important story that is told and the book is RECOMMENDED - 4/5 stars

(Finished copy provided to me by Doubleday for review - many thanks)

5 - One Amazing Thing; Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

One Amazing Thing; Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

In an unnamed city in the US, an earthquake traps a small diverse group of people in the basement of the Indian Consulate. Among the trapped are Consulate employees Mr. Mangolam and Malathi, Uma, an Indian/American grad student,  Mr and Mrs Pritchett, an upper class Caucasian couple, Tariq, a radical young Muslim, Cameron, an African American war veteran, Jiang an elderly Chinese woman who grew up in India and her Goth grand daughter Lilly, most of whom are waiting for visa for travel to India.

While these nine individuals are waiting and hoping to be rescued, anxiety levels rise as water seeps into the basement, and oxygen levels have worsened. To try and calm the group, Uma suggests that they form a circle and take turns telling "one amazing thing" about themselves, so that they can get to know each other. Hesitant at first, the group, beginning with Jiang, begins to share very personal details about their lives.

MY THOUGHTS: I liked this book for several reasons, but it was not perfect. The writing is beautiful, and there were some passages that were really touching and made an impact on me:

• p. 90..."We think that that terrible events have made us into stone. But love slips in like a chisel---and suddenly it is an ax, breaking us into pieces from the inside."
• p. 108..."Uma wanted to say something about the treacherous nature of memory, how one painful event can overpower the many good experiences that came before."
• p. 179....."But after I saw the couple in the cafe, a great dissatisfaction washed over me. I remember the old man tilting his head attentively, listening to his wife make her menu choice. Her eyes had shone through her thick glasses as she watched him cut up their desserts for sharing. There was nothing like that tenderness in my life. And without it, what use were the things I'd built my life around ?"
• (PLEASE NOTE: These quotes come from a review copy and may differ in the actual book)
  

I addition to the beautiful writing, I loved the execution of this story, however, in real life under these circumstances, I doubt the stories would have flowed so beautifully.  The other problem that I had with this short novel (just 220 pages) was the fact that it was just too short of a book for the individuals to tell their stories in enough depth for me.  I wanted to know more about these individuals and the stories of their lives.  I was a bit disappointed in the way the book ended as well, but still  I found this novel to be a memorable and worthwhile read. (Rating - 4/5 stars)

(Thanks to Shelf Awareness and Hyperion Voice for providing this review copy).

3 - Remarkable Creatures; Tracy Chevalier

Remarkable Creatures; Tracy Chevalier

In this fascinating historical novel set in the 19th century, Elizabeth Philpot is a smart, middle-aged (25) spinster, who has recently moved with her sisters to Lyme Regis England. Since a spinster must have an interest, Elizabeth quickly finds pleasure in trolling the beaches for fossils, labeling her finds and researching fossils. 

Mary Anning is a local girl from a poor family who was struck by lightening as a child. Self educated, it appears that somehow for her having been struck by lightening gave her a intellectual advantage.  Mary is obsessed with fossil hunting as well. She tries to help her parents by selling her finds to tourists.  When Mary discovers an intact dinosaur skeleton she gets noticed in the male-dominated field of paleontology.

Based on the real life fossil discoveries and scientific contributions of Mary Anning and, her 20 year friendship with fellow fossil hunter Elizabeth Philpott, Remarkable Creatures was an informative and entertaining read, even though I really have no interest in paleontology. The author did a terrific job of transporting the reader to another time and place while at the same time demonstrating the inequality toward women in the field of geology. The beach setting created an amazing sense of place, and the writing was both witty and engrossing. Recommended - 4.5/5 Stars

(Advance Review Copy provided by Amazon Vine program).

186 - Half Broke Horses: A True - Life Novel; Jeannette Walls

Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel

Having loved Jeannette Wall's memoir: The Glass Castle, I could not wait to read her latest book, in which she tells the story of the life of her maternal grandmother, Lily Casey Smith who was born in a one room dugout by the side of the river in West Texas.

The story is narrated by Lily herself, an amazing woman who did what needed to be done in life. She lived through two wars, the Great Depression, prohibition, began training horses at the age of five, took care of a cattle ranch at age 12, and at age 15 left for Arizona alone on horseback some 500 miles to be an itinerant teacher.

My Thoughts: I love the way Walls writes, and although the style of the book is different (short chapters), the story is beautifully written, and visually telling. Lily's voice resonates with me still, and the message I took from this story was this ....... 

 .....Strong women take setbacks in stride and learn from their mistakes along the way. Life isn't about luck, it is about going out and doing what you set your mind out to accomplish.   

Highly Recommended

(sent by Simon and Schuster)