Bossypants

I'm only about halfway through, but I have to say, Bossypants by Tina Fey is HILARIOUS. A friend of mine read it this spring and warned me about how she laughed out loud numerous times. That happened to me last night at the softball park. I'm sure everyone near me thought I was an insane person, cackling to myself. So even before the official book review, I'm going to say...go out and get that book! 

Book Review Number Five

Well, I kind of fell off the book wagon, so to speak. I wasn't too interested in our April/May book (which was book #4 for the year), so I granted myself a pass for now. Our current book is Postville: A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America, by Stephen Bloom.  This book is exciting to me for so many reasons...one is that Bloom is an Iowa author. Awesome! The other is that I was born in Postville. (I don't claim it as my hometown since I never really lived there, but still, it's interesting to me.) And of course, non-fiction. Great!

I read this book a few years ago, so it's another easy month for me. I may have to go back and review, but I do remember the basics. It's about this rural Iowa community (Postville!) where a kosher meat packaging plant takes over a plant that had gone out of business. Everyone agrees, the town of 1,700 was "saved" economically when Agriprocessers came to town.  Agriprocessors brought many jobs to the area (both directly and indirectly), and eventually became the largest kosher meat producer in the U.S. But along with these benefits came major changes to the town's racial, social and religious traditions. What was once a town of white Christian farmers was now home to people from all over the world. I think there were something like 30 different nationalities represented in town at the plant's high point. It's just a very interesting look at the way the townspeople and the "newcomers" react (both groups have some positive as well as negative reactions) to the changes.

I'm hoping that Bloom will write a sequel to the book, although I haven't heard any news. Since the book was published 11 years ago, Agriprocessors has gone bankrupt and the owner is in prison for fraud and money laundering. Of course it was all over the news in 2009 when everything was happening, but I would love to hear the rest of the story!

Definitely recommend this book!

Nook Madness!

I have to apologize for my latest absence. Aside from the never-ending "To Do" list that is my life, I am now the proud owner of a Barnes & Noble Nook, which is consuming my evening free time. I didn't realize I even wanted one of these until Sportsfan went to the mall in search of the perfect birthday gift for me, and bumped into the Nook display at B&N. I'm sure it was the first store he walked into. He's the king of easy shopping, by the way.

Anyway, the Nook is GREAT! I think B&N has something like a million titles available for download.  BUT, so far my favorite thing is my local library. They have eBooks for checkout - not a million - but somewhere around two thousand. Good enough. The awesome part is I don't have to step foot in the library, be put on a waiting list, risk a late fee, or search for parking (yeah, there's a shortage of that near our public library!) It's instant reading, folks!

It also has internet access, so I can read blogs, check email & Facebook, and lots of other fun things! I still haven't mastered how to do a blog post on it though. And I have to admit that it's got me a little behind schedule with the New Year's Book Club resolution. I know, I know, don't judge! I promise to get back on track!

So anyone out there in the market for a Nook, I highly recommend it!

Book Review Number Three

Once again, I'm ahead of schedule for my Book Club & have finished our book for March, The Hour I First Believed, by Wally Lamb. Yippee!! New Year's Resolution still on track!

I wasn't that thrilled when I found out the book was based on the Columbine school shootings. Not a very uplifting topic. AND when I saw that it was 700+ pages...another turn-off. I'm sure I must be in the 5% of the population who doesn't LOVE Wally Lamb books, but they just remind me of a sappy Lifetime movie. 

The book alternates between several story lines - Columbine, the main character's family history (FULL of surprises!), and struggles between the main character and his wife. At times I was a little confused and found myself wondering how everything related. Something a little different was that Lamb used the real names of the shooters and some of the victims, but also throws in some fictional characters. The fictional main character (Caelum) comes into contact with the shooters early in the book, and his wife Maureen was among the people trapped in the school during the shootings. (But not really, because she's not REAL!) Oddly enough, it did make sense. The only part I skipped (I don't usually do that!) was the excerpt from the shooters' diaries & websites. I just couldn't go there.


I thought the book was a little heavy on the family history. There were several chapters of letters written by Caelum's grandmother to her sister. It got a little boring, but I kept reading since I knew they must somehow be important. There are some major surprises about the family, which I won't give away in case you haven't read the book!


The struggles between the Caelum & his wife seemed pretty realistic. Besides the normal everyday stuff, they had to deal with the wife's PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) as a result of the Columbine shootings, and an unfortunate incarceration of one of them (bet you can't guess who!!) Sadly, in the end they did not have a chance to resolve things and move on.


My gut reaction to this book is "eh," so I'm not sure I'd recommend it. Not for one specific reason, but a few. If it weren't so LONG, I'd say go for it. But the 700 pages combined with depressing subject matter and jumping from one topic to another made it pretty low on my favorites list. Strangely enough, I CAN see it being made into a Lifetime movie! :)

Book Review Number Two

You may be wondering if you missed Book Review Number One...and no, you are not losing your mind. I only came up with this idea AFTER finishing my second book club book of the year on February 2nd.  OH YEAH! I am sooo ahead of the game for this year! Doing well on at least one of my resolutions.

                                                      

So, to back up a little, Book Number 1 was "The Weight of Silence" by Heather Gudenkauf, who just happens to be an IOWA author and lives in Dubuque! The story also takes place in Iowa and focuses on Callie, a 7 year old who hasn't spoken in 3 years. Her wacko dad decides to take her into the forest near their home, while at the same time her best friend also goes missing. I won't reveal the ending, but you wind up wondering if maybe her dad had something to do with the friend's disappearance. Dad just happens to be an alcoholic wife-beater so it doesn't seem too far-fetched that he could be capable of that kind of thing. The story is alternately told by the different characters, with each chapter being told from a different person's point of view. As a side note, one of my book club friends invited  Heather Gudenkauf to meet with our book club. She politely turned us down, and said she'd get back to us later. I'm not holding my breath.

Okay, on to Book Number 2! February's book (which I finished 3 weeks ahead of schedule, did I mention that?) was "Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls. This memoir about Walls' life tells the story of growing up with her (in my opinion) crazy, self-centered, abusive parents. I was SO mad at her parents while reading this book that I had to put it down at times and stop. Her parents were "free spirits" who didn't appreciate the reasoning behind holding down jobs or providing for their family. They moved around a lot, living in the desert, their car, the beach, and motels before finally settling in a shack in West Virginia. The kids were routinely hungry, so much that they ate margarine when there was nothing else in the house and went through the garbage at school just to have lunch. When they finally did inherit a real home from Walls' grandmother in Phoenix, it had termites and holes in the floor started forming. Luckily, her dad drank lots of beer so he could patch up the holes with his flattened beer cans. After leaving Phoenix, the family landed in West Virginia with Walls' paternal grandparents. It's at this point that one starts to understand why her dad is so insane. Hillbilly Grandma Erma is very abusive to anyone who gets in her way. The kids are so ostracized in WV, that as teenagers they make plans to go to New York City, which they do, but only after good old Dad steals the money they had saved up and spends it on booze. In NYC, Walls finishes high school and goes to college. She and her brother and sister actually make good lives for themselves, although one younger sister follows in her parents' footsteps. Walls' parents also move to New York and end up being homeless. She repeatedly tries to help them, but in one way or another, they refuse her help and live happily ever after on the streets.

The really disturbing part of the book is that it's fairly obvious that Walls' parents are very intelligent people. They just don't care for conforming to society. It is amazing to me that Walls and 2 of her siblings turned out to have such normal (and even successful) lives after starting out the way they did. So I guess in that sense there is a happy ending. I would recommend this book, but be ready to be disgusted!


Stay tuned for Book Number Three...coming in March!

Halloween Laughs

Continuing with the Halloween theme, here is one of my favorite Jerry Seinfeld routines ever.  My kids & I have it memorized and quote from it quite frequently at this time of year.  We discovered it a few years ago when we checked out the book from the library.  It came with a CD of Seinfeld doing the standup routine.  I think everyone can relate to some part of this Halloween story.  Although I no longer have tears streaming down my face when I listen to it, I can't let a Halloween go by without breaking out the Seinfeld CD!