My Goings On June 2015

Photo by Cheryl Poole-Musgrove

 It has been a month of celebration with my daughter's graduation from high school. The little one made it. She worked hard, gave it her all even after so many surgeries and therapies. C graduated with the biggest smile I have ever seen. She made it! Against the odds! 

This is why I had to write three blogs, to catch up! 

In between graduation/transitional goings on,  I have found books here and there that I wanted to post. Two came from The Dollar Tree or Store (not sure which at this point) and they were a steal. The others came from our local used book store where I had boxed up some books to get a bit of credit, so they didn't cost an arm and a leg either. Below each book is a link to Amazon's description /page of that particular book. They may stay in my TBR pile for a time but I know I will get to them, enjoy! 

There's nothing like a good bargain/used book!

http://www.amazon.com/Story-Marriage-Andrew-Sean-Greer/dp/0312428286/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1435524129&sr=1-4&keywords=%3Bthe+story+of+a+marriage

 http://www.amazon.com/Stay-Awake-Stories-Dan-Chaon/dp/0345530381/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1435524249&sr=1-1&keywords=stay+awake+dan+chaon

http://www.amazon.com/Within-These-Walls-Ania-Ahlborn/dp/1476783748/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1435524339&sr=1-1&keywords=within+these+walls

 http://www.amazon.com/Book-Lover-Maryann-McFadden/dp/0984867104/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1435524467&sr=1-1&keywords=the+book+lover+maryann+mcfadden

http://www.amazon.com/Red-Ruby-Heart-Cold-Blue/dp/B00B9ZHDTG/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1435524580&sr=1-1&keywords=the+ruby+red+heart

http://www.amazon.com/Deadly-Wandering-Redemption-Attention-Hardcover/dp/B00RKQ87RU/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1435524713&sr=1-2&keywords=a+deadly+wandering

Authors to Love: Robin Cook

 Every once in a while I think about Robin Cook, with great fondness as his books, Coma, Brain and Fever were the only books in my "Robin Cook Library" when I was younger. I read each one five times over, maybe more. It was the first dip into the medical thriller pool and I was one happy camper. 

It has been a long time since I have read a Cook Book (as I call them) but Nano was sitting in a ratty old box (the kind you put the big navel oranges into every winter) at the grocery store. All books were marked 80% and I nabbed this hardcover with gusto. 

The competitor medical thriller authors were pretty damn good as well and I read most of them with great joy but Cook always seemed to nail the very core of a reader's  fear as patients. What made it even better was knowing my profession was going to be in medicine made it even scarier, double whammo of fear!

I list him in the Authors to Love category as he has proven himself time and time again to be the master of all medical thrillers ever. Some may disagree and that is okay but to me? Cook is the man.

Disappointing books: Primates of Park Avenue by Wednesday Martin

http://money.cnn.com/2015/06/08/news/primates-park-avenue-clarification/

It really ticks me off when I am anticipating a book and it just leaves you for dead with an issue on the author's behalf, then I need to take up a cause here.  If the author wanted to write something to explain the way someone/ a culture lives, then write a fiction book and be done with it. This author is a decent writer, stop playing field scientist and write a fabulous fictional account instead. 

Having said that, I was just getting into this book when I read the above link. I exhaled. I had to because being duped as a reader is a real pet peeve and I was ready call up Amazon and tell them to take it back even if I only get credit for the book.

I sound extreme in my assessment but I like a book to be a memoir, even if memories are faulty and distorted, even exaggerated, they are not big fabrications or telescoped "field notes." 

That's all folks, you won't see this side of me very often.

Teach your children well, as it goes, start them with books!

Amazon.com

These wonderful ABC books with contrast, are everywhere, but I found this image from Amazon. 

 Last night I spent the evening with my daughter and her father (we are divorced and our respective partners could not attend, sadly.) She was being awarded at her high school from Student Council for her kindness and willingness to help others. Her graduation is in two weeks and though a lot  went into my daughter's education and socialization she managed to pull this off, on her very own. She is her own feel good story.

She was born three months prematurely and had an intracranial bleed a day after she was born. We were told she would not be able to speak, hear, see or do much of anything. She almost left the world a few times however, amazingly, she made it. And she hasn't stopped talking (at home) since. Or hearing the tiniest chirp of a baby bird. Or seeing a little bit of cookie I may have left in my cupped palm. She is in a wheelchair but can also move around with a gait trainer and has a lot more control of her body than we ever dreamed of her having.

The award was a huge deal as Christa was not one to socialize much in school Every IEP meeting the teachers and therapists would say the same thing, "she just doesn't join in." After a long haul, she joined in, she raises her hand, she is kind to others, she talks to her friends and she has had a stellar last two years in her school. She is tired, she is ready to transition into adulthood but she hasn't lost her spark to show a lot of love and kindness to others.

What does this have to do with books? In the early nineties when she came home from the NICU, I would prop (a book as seen above) up on her little baby holder and she would stare at it for a long time. I would walk by every half an hour or so and turn the page. I went with the red, black and white for contrast, though I decorated her room in muted pastel Winnie the Pooh and Beatrix Potter, she needed vibrancy so I made sure she got the contrast she needed. I read stories to her, as did her father, step-father and grandparents, she always loved a good story. Her little chuckle or sad noises would always prove to me time and time again that a kid that can "get" the elements of good story, on any level, it's so important to start them off as babies. No matter what their condition is.

She can read on her own now, her favorite books have matured a bit since Okomi, but she still asks me to read to her often. Sometimes she whips out her pointer finger and reads it herself. It may never be Harry Potter or Little House on the Prairie or the wondrous The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe but this summer while she is off (for the first time in decades) I will start one of these series and read them to her. She deserves to be entertained as we all were as young adults, even if it takes someone to read them all to her. I may go audio, I am not sure, but I think it would be more personal reading them to her myself.

http://www.amazon.ca/Okomi-Plays-Leaves-HELEN-DORMAN/dp/158469047X

Congratulations to our tiny but tenacious two pounder who beat the odds, she wakes up every day with wide eyed wonderment, and always, always wanting a good story.

Silver Girl by Elin Hilderbrand

I bought this at the used book store and I swear to you, someone ate a hoagie or something equally as messy while reading this themselves. One thing I hate is food gunk on or in books. I have been known to rip out a page that food is stuck to as it distracts me.  I can assure myself that there isn't one germ living on that tiny piece of lettuce clinging to page nineteen, but come on, a book is supposed to be a smooth experience, not a baby touch me book experience.

I have found other things stuck to books. I have been known to toss a book if it has half a human in it or at the very least, a post shaving expedition. That's a blog for another day.

Moving on...

I love Elin Hilderbrand's books. I read one of her novels every summer to kick off my summer season. And she never fails to displease me as the reader.

Meredith Delinn is  married to Freddy Delinn who is busted for an incredibly large ponzi scheme that decimates his clients as well as their friends finances by the millions. Freddy is in jail from the onset of the story and we find Meredith in her NYC apartment with only a box of her most cherished possessions as they lose everything in the process. Meredith staunchly defends her innocence however, the public is on a witch hunt and she is sneaking out the back door to run from them, and her demons.

The only person to call is her ex best friend, Connie, who just lost her husband, Wolf, to cancer and is estranged from  her daughter, Ashlyn. Connie is on her way to Nantucket to spend the summer staying in her beach home alone in her grief. Meredith asks to join her and Connie, with much trepidation, allows Meredith with the stipulation that she must keep out of sight during her stay which Meredith acquiesces to. She skips out of NYC with Connie as fast as she can. They have a long history of friendship but along the way they lost one another with harsh words, we do not find out why at the beginning so they walk on eggs with each other and travel through this quiet space and time to re-connect.

As in all of Hilderband's books there are scores of Nantucket natives that are drawn into Meredith and Connie's story, providing many great sub-stories as well as settings to get lost in. This is why I love her books as you feel as if you are there, in the midst of the fog, in the boat along the shore or in a jeep with the top down. And most of Hilderbrand Nantucket characters are charming, save a few.

The book is well writtenl, weaving the back story into the present as they summer on Nantucket, hiding out from the public as Meredith is also under investigation. And so is her son, Leo who she is to have no contact with crushing her heart even more. Ashlyn will not call Connie back and hasn't for years, this set up for the two lonely women is all encompassing individually and as friends while mending a torn friendship.

Both women have incredible loses in what they knew as family as well as lifestyle. It's a story of running from the past while sorting it out mentally, as well as physically along the way.

I loved it. As all good beach reads go, the endings are usually tied up neatly but not without much thought and introspection, there are always lessons on why we make choices and what we do with the consequences. Elin Hilderbrand is the type of author that makes sure the reader remembers her books not only with lush beach settings but with rich character development and plot.

Buy it or Borrow it.

But if you are going to pass it on? Please, wipe the food from the pages and back cover. Thanks.

I love you, Apple, Kindle and Internet, but I need some alone time

Photo from Apple.com

I love my iPad dearly. I love my Kindle too but I have the older version of Kindle (you know, with the old keyboard at the bottom) and I spend half my time with fingers on the screen trying to enlarge the page to make the font larger (forgetting the font option), so I tend to fall back on the iPad.

Weak I know. 

Here's the big trouble. 

There are so many places to go! Distractions! Entertainment! Movies! Facebook! Twitter! Pinterest! Word Chums! Apps upon apps to read: the news, magazines or book sites, blogs,  Goodreads, a few music places and I am done. DONE. (I even have Optimum on there, yes I can sit on my front porch and watch the local news at five.) 

Is this really a good thing?

The other night our WiFi went out. The H, who is content anywhere doing anything or nothing at all but sipping from a cup of coffee was fine. "I will read my book," he announced.  I got a book out too, a real book. 

The quiet was incredibly LOUD. It confirmed that the Internet is rotting out our brains, I felt a bit off at first, kind of scared. Eventually, I settled in and read for a couple of hours. I felt like I was missing out but on the other hand, I was perfectly linked in to what  matters. Being real. living in the real world, disconnected from devices and people, connected to my book and my spouse. I read more in that one sitting that I have read in a long time. Lo and behold, my brain's attention span headquarters stayed on top of things and my mind never wandered off.

Though I would probably commit some kind of malfeasance if you took my iPad away, plus, I could hug the Apple people stupid for my iPad and iPhone, both truly necessary in my life, but I need the real world space and LOUD quiet to center me so I can dig deeper into what I am reading. 

Concentration is a beautiful thing. 

There's a time and place for both types of life, that's for sure, I love my reader, my Kindle, my books, and I surely love quiet and my husband, my family. It's all good, it all requires balance and discipline, not just for when my WiFi goes out.

* I realize I can read my iPad reader offline, and the Kindle I can read all the time. But somehow. When the WiFi is out I have an attitude first then the whole, "I am going to rough this, dammit" sulk fest for five minutes which is exactly what makes this work. Push it all aside and pick up a read book.  Sit next to your spouse or kids or the dog or cat (or fish, whatever) and "rough it." It really does feel good.