Category Archives: Memoir

#23 – Bloom – Finding The Beauty in The Unexpected – Kelle Hampton

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Love me. Love me. I’m not what you expected, but oh, please love me.

That was the most defining moment of my life. That was the beginning of my story.

From the outside looking in, Kelle Hampton had the perfect life: a beautiful two-year-old daughter, a loving husband, a thriving photography career, and great friends. When she learned she was pregnant with her second child, she and her husband, Brett, were ecstatic. Her pregnancy went smoothly and the ultrasounds showed a beautiful, healthy, high-kicking baby girl.

But when her new daughter was placed in her arms in the delivery room, Kelle knew instantly that something was wrong. Nella looked different than her two-year-old sister, Lainey, had at birth. As she watched friends and family celebrate with champagne toasts and endless photographs, a terrified Kelle was certain that Nella had Down syndrome—a fear her pediatrician soon confirmed. Yet gradually Kelle’s fear and pain were vanquished by joy, as she embraced the realization that she had been chosen to experience an extraordinary and special gift.

With lyrical prose and gorgeous full-color photography, Bloom takes readers on a wondrous journey through Nella’s first year of life—a gripping, hilarious, and intensely poignant trip of transformation in which a mother learns that perfection comes in all different shapes. It is a story about embracing life and really living it, of being fearless and accepting difference, of going beyond constricting definitions of beauty, and of the awesome power of perspective. As Kelle writes, “There is us. Our Family. We will embrace this beauty and make something of it. We will hold our precious gift and know that we are lucky.” – Publishers Website

I have to say there was a lot of talk of this book on twitter, so I knew that I had to get it and read it for myself to see what all the hype was about.  At about page 10 I was bawling like a baby, just imaging what the parents of this beautiful baby were going through.  When having my own children, there were a few really scary moments especially with my 2nd and 3rd child, so I have some idea of how they were feeling; but nothing could I imagine prepare anyone for something like this.  I have to admit, I was really enjoying the memoir up until near the end and Kelle was coming around, she had taken on this almost over the top mother of this beautiful child, who nearly goes overboard.

Now don’t get me wrong, I have close friends that have children with disabilities, and have cared for children who have severe and not so severe ones in my education as a health care professional, I realize that you can take on enormous projects and do it with grace, but I found Kelle to be nearly super-human in a sense in the book.  Hands down you will be bawling the ugly cry for sure.  Just make sure you have the tissue box ready.  Oh, one more thing…The photographs are absolutely STUNNING !! it is a gorgeous book !

Kelle’s Website - Reading Guide – Facebook – Twitter – YouTube – Excerpt

#60 – Russian Winter – Daphne Kalotay

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A mysterious jewel holds the key to a life-changing secret, in this breathtaking tale of love and art, betrayal and redemption.

When she decides to auction her remarkable jewelry collection, Nina Revskaya, once a great star of the Bolshoi Ballet, believes she has finally drawn a curtain on her past. Instead, the former ballerina finds herself overwhelmed by memories of her homeland and of the events, both glorious and heartbreaking, that changed the course of her life half a century ago.

It was in Russia that she discovered the magic of the theater; that she fell in love with the poet Viktor Elsin; that she and her dearest companions—Gersh, a brilliant composer, and the exquisite Vera, Nina’s closest friend—became victims of Stalinist aggression. And it was in Russia that a terrible discovery incited a deadly act of betrayal—and an ingenious escape that led Nina to the West and eventually to Boston.

Nina has kept her secrets for half a lifetime. But two people will not let the past rest: Drew Brooks, an inquisitive young associate at a Boston auction house, and Grigori Solodin, a professor of Russian who believes that a unique set of jewels may hold the key to his own ambiguous past. Together these unlikely partners begin to unravel a mystery surrounding a love letter, a poem, and a necklace of unknown provenance, setting in motion a series of revelations that will have life-altering consequences for them all.

Interweaving past and present, Moscow and New England, the backstage tumult of the dance world and the transformative power of art, Daphne Kalotay’s luminous first novel—a literary page-turner of the highest order—captures the uncertainty and terror of individuals powerless to withstand the forces of history, while affirming that even in times of great strife, the human spirit reaches for beauty and grace, forgiveness and transcendence – Publishers Website

Being Ukrainian, I do have somewhat of an affinity to some not all things Russian/ Ukrainian, when I read the synopsis for this book, it really intrigued me.  Not just because it is Russian, but because of the time when Stalin was head of the country, the things that happened to the country and its people.

Nina’s reluctance to tell what happened during this time long ago, what eventually happened to her husband and her friends during this time.  Which is just as painful as the pain she feels in her body from years and years of dancing and training, while becoming one of the more famous dancers you could say that were coming out of Russia at the time.  It is her jewellery that she is auctioning off before she becomes any more ill in her advancing age.

The jewellery also has some sort of hold on another person in Boston –   Grigori Solodin.  Whom Nine doesn’t know, but she will – it will all come out, but is she ready to discuss it? Does time heal all wounds?  Will she have the strength to accept the past and to come to terms with it?  Will she be able to forgive finally?

Daphne’s Website  - Daphne on Facebook - Reading Group Guide


 


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#29 – Bird Cloud – Annie Proulx

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“Bird Cloud” is the name Annie Proulx gave to 640 acres of Wyoming wetlands and prairie and four-hundred-foot cliffs plunging down to the North Platte River. On the day she first visited, a cloud in the shape of a bird hung in the evening sky.Proulx also saw pelicans, bald eagles, golden eagles, great blue herons, ravens, scores of bluebirds, harriers, kestrels, elk, deer and a dozen antelope.

She fell in love with the land, then owned by the Nature Conservancy, and she knew what she wanted to build on it—a house in harmony with her work, her appetites and her character, a library surrounded by bedrooms and a kitchen.

Proulx’s first work of nonfiction in more than twenty years, Bird Cloud is the story of designing and constructing that house—with its solar panels, Japanese soak tub, concrete floor and elk horn handles on kitchen cabinets.

It is also an enthralling natural history and archaeology of the region—inhabited for millennia by Ute, Arapaho and Shoshone Indians— and a family history, going back to nineteenth-century Mississippi riverboat captains and Canadian settlers.

Proulx, a writer with extraordinary powers of observation and compassion, here turns her lens on herself. We understand how she came to be living in a house surrounded by wilderness, with shelves for thousands of books and long worktables on which to heap manuscripts, research materials and maps, and how she came to be one of the great American writers of her time. Bird Cloud is magnificent. – Publishers Website

I was inquisitive about this memoir.  I looked forward to reading it.  I was disappointed in some of the parts of it, for the most part, everyone has problems upon problems when building from scratch.  Not to mention that Annie builds in the middle of nowhere is her big problem, the first she has written in over 20 years.  I did however, love her descriptions of the area where  she chose to build.  The nature, the wildlife, the history behind the area.  I believe that possibly if she just focused on that part it would have been a more well received book.  I may sound a bit ticked off about the personal parts of the memoir, it is because everyone has these sorts of problems when they are dealing with contractors, and people in general.  Not that I hated the book, like I mentioned earlier I loved the descriptions of the area as well as the history, but her ranting turned me off.

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#24- The Memory Palace – Mira Bartok

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” People have abandoned their loved ones for much less than you’ve been through,” Mira Bartok is told at her mother’s memorial service.

It is a poignant observation about the relationship between Mira, her sister, and their mentally ill mother. Before she was struck with schizophrenia at the age of nineteen, beautiful piano protege Norma Herr had been the most vibrant personality in the room. She loved her daughters and did her best to raise them well, but as her mental state deteriorated, Norma spoke less about Chopin and more about Nazis and her fear that her daughters would be kidnapped, murdered, or raped.

When the girls left for college, the harassment escalated—Norma called them obsessively, appeared at their apartments or jobs, threatened to kill herself if they did not return home. After a traumatic encounter, Mira and her sister were left with no choice but to change their names and sever all contact with Norma in order to stay safe. But while Mira pursued her career as an artist—exploring the ancient romance of Florence, the eerie mysticism of northern Norway, and the raw desert of Israel—the haunting memories of her mother were never far away.

Then one day, Mira’s life changed forever after a debilitating car accident. As she struggled to recover from a traumatic brain injury, she was confronted with a need to recontextualize her life—she had to relearn how to paint, read, and interact with the outside world. In her search for a way back to her lost self, Mira reached out to the homeless shelter where she believed her mother was living and discovered that Norma was dying.

Mira and her sister traveled to Cleveland, where they shared an extraordinary reconciliation with their mother that none of them had thought possible. At the hospital, Mira discovered a set of keys that opened a storage unit Norma had been keeping for seventeen years. Filled with family photos, childhood toys, and ephemera from Norma’s life, the storage unit brought back a flood of previous memories that Mira had thought were lost to her forever. - Publishers Website

I really enjoyed this memoir.  From the beginnings of the family already in chaos to the re-emergence of their Mother as she is dying, it was a poignant reminder that even though they all have been through so much, the ties that bind a family together that once were thought to be broken forever, they still bind no matter the circumstances.  The girls finally let their guards down to be able to understand their Mother as if they never have before.  Poignant, heart-breaking, debilitating, this memoir maybe will have you re examining your own relationships with family or friends, or possibly maybe your own life.

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#7 – The Tiger – A True Story of Vengeance and Survival – John Vaillant

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It’s December 1997 and a man-eating tiger is on the prowl outside a remote village in Russia’s Far East.

The tiger isn’t just killing people, it’s annihilating them, and a team of men and their dogs must hunt it on foot through the forest in the brutal cold. To their horrified astonishment it emerges that the attacks are not random: the tiger is engaged in a vendetta.

Injured and starving, it must be found before it strikes again, and the story becomes a battle for survival between the two main characters: Yuri Trush, the lead tracker, and the tiger itself.

As John Vaillant vividly recreates the extraordinary events of that winter, he also gives us an unforgettable portrait of a spectacularly beautiful region where plants and animals exist that are found nowhere else on earth, and where the once great Siberian Tiger – the largest of its species, which can weigh over 600 lbs at more than 10 feet long – ranges daily over vast territories of forest and mountain, its numbers diminished to a fraction of what they once were. We meet the native tribes who for centuries have worshipped and lived alongside tigers – even sharing their kills with them – in a natural balance.

We witness the first arrival of settlers, soldiers and hunters in the tiger’s territory in the 19th century and 20th century, many fleeing Stalinism. And we come to know the Russians of today – such as the poacher Vladimir Markov – who, crushed by poverty, have turned to poaching for the corrupt, high-paying Chinese markets.

Throughout we encounter surprising theories of how humans and tigers may have evolved to coexist, how we may have developed as scavengers rather than hunters and how early Homo sapiens may have once fit seamlessly into the tiger’s ecosystem.

Above all, we come to understand the endangered Siberian tiger, a highly intelligent super-predator, and the grave threat it faces as logging and poaching reduce its habitat and numbers – and force it to turn at bay. – Publisher’s Website

I was absolutely absorbed into this true tale of what happened, the history behind the area, the lush and harsh ecosystem that isn’t seen anywhere else in the world, the politics, the poachers, and of course the tiger.  As you all know, I don’t review much non-fiction, but I have to say, go and read this book, utterly mesmerizing from page one to the end.  I cannot say enough things about this book, just go and get it !

Random House – Knopf

The Tiger Book Website

Girls To The Front – The True Story of The Riot Grrrl Revolution – Sara Marcus

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Once, a radical feminist uprising that was started in the 1990′s, being difficult as it was to be a woman, much less voicing your opinion about equal rights was almost unheard of.

Then came the Riot Grrrls.

Girls and young women were upset, not having patience about was happening with their voices weren’t being heard.  A few girls from Seattle started an underground movement, that once it started hit the musical waves, it became to be noticed and listened to.

With the start of grunge bands such as Bikini Kill not to mention many others, helped make the movement mainstream.

Throughout the US, Canada and then Europe and beyond with their music, their homemade zines, the local chapters and most importantly through personal introspection of every one  that joined, it grew.

Even today, as they started the movement, it still goes on, with women’s movements, groups and just a few women sitting down after a long day at work or tending to everyday life, they are learning to stand up for what they believe in, which at one time was easier than it sounded.

These no holes barred women are the ones that brought women’s rights and the right to be heard to the forefront.  So that if a woman needed to be heard, it is easier now then it once was and for future young women.

Sure, there was problems along the way, but they brought feminism back to the main stage so to speak.

Not only is it a story about finding your own place in the world, but being not afraid to show it.

Girls to the Front Website

Harper Collins – Harper Perennial

 


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Lies My Mother Never Told Me – Kaylie Jones

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William Morris, James Baldwin, Truman Capote, as well as Kaylie’s father -  James Jones, it  was really something.  The nightly parties as well as being born and raised in Paris, France life wasn’t all that bad.

As the nightly parties increased, so did the alcohol intake.  Even as they moved from France to the United States.   Her Father dies when she is a teenager, her mother’s increasingly  constant criticism, brings on her own problems with alcohol, drugs, and relationships.

The personal struggles, unknown family secrets which come to the surface as Kaylie finds out more about her father’s side of the family.

She becomes sober, stronger and more comfortable in her own skin, Kaylie shows us that there is so much more to life and of course the second chances along with her stubborn determination to be who she is today, who was once broken and lost to determined at last to be happy with her life.

Kaylie is such an inspiration, I was immediately entranced with her story, her journey, and how everything turned out better for her and her family.  Where she found not only her voice, but the life she deserved.

HarperCollins – Harper Perennial

Kaylie’s Website

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Direct Red – A Surgeons View of Her Life or Death Profession – Gabriel Weston

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From the time she was in school, graduated from and received an Art’s degree, with absolutely no inkling about medicine, she enrolls in her mid 20′s and hasn’t looked back.

Now in her 30′s, graduated, she’s succeeded and works as a ENT in a British Hospital.

As she starts her career, she has the feelings as if she is an imposter, even when operating she says it is as if she is on the outside looking in.

From the stark and deft observations, she tells her personal observations as sharp and observant as her scalpel is awaiting to perform life or death surgeries.

The Rawness of her honesty gives this small memoir of her continuing surgical career with all of her doubts, feelings, mistakes and triumphs are recorded.

Starkly revealing as well as human.  This is a rare look into an area where before was shut off from the rest of the world, unless you have a pass to experience it for yourself ans I have when I was enrolled in nursing school.

Random House / Anchor

Falling Apart In One Piece: An Optimist’s Journey Through The Hell of Divorce – Stacey Morrison

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I do not usually read and review these kind of book I try to shy away from them since I have experienced this as well; or ones that tell of painful, hurtful life events such as divorce.  But, this is one I received, I prejudged it, thinking oh here we go when I shouldn’t have.

I was very pleasantly surprised.

Stacey has been together with her husband for the last 13 years.

All of a sudden one day, he says it is over like that.  Can you say huh? What just hit me in the back of the head?!?!  Shock and awe isn’t the only thing I thought, or you would think.

This is Stacey’s personal story through the hell of separation, divorce, and then some…

As she tells you the story of who she is (Editor in Chief) of Redbook; with one amazing resume.  Not only did she conquer her professional dreams, she’s conquered the grief, the heartbreak, among other incredible odds ( A house that will not stop filling up with water) and raising her son just about on her own from when he was just a few months old.

Now, you would think that all of this would have made her say uncle, (she did so much want to give in, but she felt it and think it) but what she shows us is that if you have the determination, the zeal, and the wherewithal, even in the craziness that happens; you can get through it and begin to live again.

We have all heard or maybe experienced the same emotions and experiences (separation / divorce), I know I did.  She gives really great advice for anyone that is going through their own hell of divorce.

At times, laugh out loud funny to gut wrenching, laying on the floor, bringing tears to your eyes.  Stacey had to make sense of what went wrong, what she was responsible for, begin her life again as a divorced, single mom of a son.

Just totally written from the heart, with smarts, don’t give up, but I really want to give up attitude that blossomed into a confident person once again.

Simon and Schuster

Making Toast – Roger Rosenblatt

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With the sudden and unexpected death of his daughter Amy from a asymptomatic heart condition while exercising, Roger and his Wife Ginny move in with their son-in-law and grand children to help take care of the kids – Jessica, Sammy, and James aka Bubbles.

As fast as their own children grew up in front of them, they are realizing the same thing with these three and how much of their mother resides in each of them.

Heartfelt, poignant, the depth of this small memoir will have you turning page after page full of the children’s effervescent personalities, to the depths of the grief, lonesomeness that they all share and experience in so many ways.

Outward and Onward how they summon the courage to go on and live even when the one they loved and admired so much is gone.

Many of the situations that he writes about, gave me pause to think about what I do with my son.  Will he remember like I remember my mother doing things for me?  Will he remember the times that were hard, when I helped him as much as I could.

Makes you think about what we do in life, how we go about things in our everyday lives.  How we would miss the mundane things that someone or something would be missed if it was gone.

HarperCollins / Ecco


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After The Falls – Catherine Gildiner

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After the Falls is Catherine Gildiner’s second addition to her memoirs that have been previously published as Too Close To The Falls.  This edition focuses on her adolescence to when she goes away from home to college in the 60′s.

When Catherine was 12, she was asked to leave Catholic School and around the same time her parents pick up and leave the small town she has loved and adored to move to the big city of Buffalo.  With her still being as spirited as well as the wildness of the 60′s, she goes through these times trying to fit in, make new friends all the while being just as hyperactive and hilarious as she has always been.

In this time, she has worked in a donut shop, been a HOJO hostess, FBI Subject, and a civil rights demonstrator.

There is one time however, that strains her and her family that will test her and the family – her father’s illness.

Written with honesty, love, and personal thoughts, if you have read and adored her earlier edition, you will most certainly love this one just as much.

Just Another Online Book Club on Facebook is currently reading this book and will have a live author chat with Catherine on the 15th of February at 9pm EST.  Come and join us and ask Catherine a question.  There is also a reading group guide posted.

Random House

Catherine’s Website

Beyond Belfast – Will Ferguson

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Bayond BelfastWill Ferguson hasn’t lost his style.  Set in Ireland his latest travel book is the background for a search for information about his grandfather and how he came to Canada from Ireland.

He decides to walk the Ulster way, which is the largest way marked trail in the British Isles.  The small towns, villages, and the incredibly beautiful breathtaking coastlines and beauty, and don’t forget the barren moorland heights, crumbling castles and everything else in between makes me want to do this journey or felt like I was tagging along for the journey not to mention the IRA pubs, the protestant marches, bogs, and the ever prominent blood sausage in a typical Irish breakfast.

I loved this book, not only the descriptions of the landscape, but the harsh realities of the history behind Ireland and how it became separated – the north from the rest of the country; the fighting that took place among the catholic’s and the protestant’s to make it the country it is today.

Not to mention the off beat humor, the run ins with the village folk had me laughing at the antics and stories, as well as Will’s infamous blistered feet that took him the whole 560 miles in search of not only the history of his grandfather, but of the culture, the landscapes, and finding out more about himself along the way.

Penguin / Viking

The Man Who Loved Books Too Much – Allison Hoover Bartlett

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The Man Who Loved Books Too MuchIs there any thing you do to get more books? Is there anything that you would do to get them? Sell your first child? Rob a bank? Find any means possible to get the ones you wanted with ignoring the consequences until you were caught?

Well read this book, and you will learn about the one man who did exactly that, but spent time in jail for doing it.

Gilkey has stolen a fortune in rare books from around the country.  Unlike most thieves, most steal for profit; He stole for the love of the books themselves.

Obsessive? Absolutely, but the man who caught him and tracked him for years is equally obsessive; with catching  Gilkey and sending him to prison, albeit, for a short time, but he eventually got his man.

Through the stories about these two equally eccentric characters, the story is told in a humorous yet intelligent way.  She is plunged deep into the rare book scene in this fictional account of how Gilkey got away with what he did, and the man who is responsible for catching him and throwing him into jail.

I admit, I am not possibly that mad for books, but there are people who will do just about anything to get their hands on such rare species – and just about for any price they deem appropriate.

Burning Books – The fact that any ancient text – the fearsome urge to destroy or suppress books is an acknowledgement of their power and not only that of august, scientific, political, and philosophical texts, but that of small quiet books of poetry and fiction as well, which nonetheless hold great capacity to change us.

Penguin / Viking

The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe – J. Randy Taraborrelli

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Marilyn MonroeI am simply speechless.

All of us know Marilyn Monroe was one of the most famous actresses in her day, who is still as iconic as she was before her death – her natural beauty, her tumultuous relationships with men,  the men she married, her controversial link to powerful and influential men who include the Kennedy brothers, who died way before she should have.

In her young life, it started to go wrong very early.  Her mother, who was thought of as having something wrong with her – erratic behaviour, which left Norma Jean with neighbours as an infant never knowing who her real biological mother was, or even who her father was.

Being shuffled back and forth from her mother to her foster parents to orphanages and back again certainly displaced her and displaced her sense of who she really was, with not knowing specific details which would haunt her as if a puzzle always had a few pieces missing where in fact it should have been filled.

On her way to becoming a Hollywood star in the 50’s, the people which surrounded her seemed to hang off her like they could get something from her, or just be there in case that she needed something from them.  The mood swings, the drugs, the alcohol, and the seamless illusions of her being perfectly sane, but at times the exact opposite – depressed, lifeless, not being able to take care of herself.  The mental illness which was like her mother and grandmothers; said to be paranoid schizophrenia also known as manic depression, then the mysterious nature of her death at the age of 36.

I think there was just something about Marilyn that had everyone wanting to get to know her – her complete transformation as soon as she hit the stage, or was in the company of people that she wanted to be around.  The women who were jealous of her, and made men intimidated with her poise and intelligence.  (She was actually quite intelligent).  But behind the confidant exterior it was quite clear she was because of her childhood, her intense therapy sessions, who she was or where she came from.  It was said that she used her not knowing who her father was or her childhood to draw from during dramatic scenes in the movies she acted in.

It seems as though she was very much living a double life, the one in public, and then the one in private.

Hachette / Grand Central

The Marilyn Monroe Collection

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Bending Towards The Sun – Leslie Gilbert – Lurie and Rita Lurie

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bending towardsHave you ever wondered when watching Schindler’s List or The Defiance, or reading Anne Frank’s Diary about the absolute terror and fragility that Jewish people went through as the Germans invaded Poland and other countries trying to eradicate as many if not all of the Jewish people from the planet?

In this new mother / daughter memoir Bending Towards The Sun, they talk about their stories, and the subsequent anxieties that have afflicted the family as much as three generations after it had occurred.  Rita tells the story just weeks before they were ordered to report to the train station seemingly to be sent off to a concentration camp and how they escaped and hid in a neighbours farm loft for over 2 years, the death of her mother and young infant brother while being with other family members, and subsequent life moving from country, finally settling in Italy until their visas to the United States were approved.

Shortly after arriving in Italy, her father married another woman and spent nearly a year in hospital battling rickets and tuberculosis.  The struggle to build a new life in the states once they arrived, the closeness of family she once enjoyed to being somewhat of an outcast, her cousins more Americanized then she was.  The dreams and impossibilities of being as prosperous as they were in Poland to be starting all over again in a country that they didn’t know much about, the hard work to just make it and the sheer will to survive, where her anxieties should have subsided, but being in a situation such as they were would they go away completely?

It was interesting to see that the actual anxieties and debilitating depression that Rita has suffered for many decades actually being passed down to generation after generation.  As Laurie was growing up, it was evident in her as well, even since she was born in America and raising her own children, how it was evident in them as well.  Was it a matter of parenting skills, or genetically passed on.  Suffice to say, It made me wonder as well.

This book had taken 10 years to make its debut.  Every day, mortifying fear, anxiety, and the will to survive have you holding your breath as Rita tells her story, gathering up her courage to finally talk about it with the other family members who also were in hiding to be able to have them talk about what it felt for them, and how they feel now.  The amount of trauma they experienced as a result of the German soldiers walking past, not making a sound so that detection wouldn’t happen and their friends who his them for so long wouldn’t be killed.

The book is broken up into three parts – Part 1 is Rita telling her story in her own words and recollections, Part 2 is Laurie talking about how her mother raised her children, her anxieties and fears growing up, Part 3 is talking about Laurie’s daughter and her anxieties, and summing up the family and how they felt and deal with the atrocities on a daily basis.

It is just amazing that these people survived this awful ordeal and had the courage to be able to re open those wounds, to open the doors on such a sad time in history and share it with us.

HarperCollins / Harper

Author’s Website


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The Murder of King Tut – James Patterson with Martin Dugard

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murder of king tutThis latest debut of James Patterson’s latest non fiction thriller is nothing short of pure gold.

As James came up with the idea, pitched it to his agent, editor, and then started researching it thinking would it be believable or plausible to somehow piece the death of King Tut.  Rumours and speculation have been circulating for as long as his death has been made public, and the most important answer of all would be, who and what would they gain by killing him.

King Tut was only 9 years old when he became King of Egypt.  There were people in his inner circle that were his own trusted advisors, but yet, some of these people were rivals and jealous of what he had, achieved at such a young age.

10 years later once he married his step sister and could not produce an heir, he was dead, and buried in what was considered a paupers tomb gone and forgotten when these same people erased or attempted to erase every last known trace of him.

Howard Carter was intrigued with the stories coming out of Egypt when he was a teen living in England.  Sent to be an assistant, he eventually became one of the better known lay Egyptologists and unlocks the 3,000 yr old mystery of what may have happened to King Tut.

For as long as I can remember, anything that had anything to do with Egypt, or the mysteries that surrounded all of the kings, their tombs, and the lore associated with it has had me intrigued as I am sure that you have been as well.  When I come across a documentary, or a program that shows Egypt, I am always yearning to go and visit this mysterious place to get a glimpse into the tombs, the ruins and just image being back in that time.

This book for sure has heightened that desire with James’ non fiction thriller account of what may have happened to the young king.

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In The Land Of Long Fingernails – Charles Wilkins

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land of long fingernailsDo you sense that graveyards are creepy; do they make you cringe when you drive by one; is it a place only to be visited during the day to lay flowers and visit loved ones that have already passed on?

In the haze of summer in the year of 1969, Charles (the author) was between semesters taking classes at the University of Toronto and was in need of a summer job.  What he ended up getting would be a summer of first glimpses of working as a gravedigger in a large urban graveyard.

As he gets to know the staff – his boss Scotty is his boss and always drunk by around 10 am every day, there is the Italian economist who is waiting for his big break with a large petroleum company, and the other men who work either for the union or not are quirky and yet work there simply because they need to provide income for their families, and probably will be working there until retirement.

As the summer goes on, the characters do their thing and sometimes not do as much as they should, which means taking off and lying under a tree in a non conspicuous part of the cemetery to smoke, read, or even write a short story.  But watch out when Scotty finds out, or catches you.  You just might lose your job.

While Charles was working this summer in the blistering heat and rain at the cemetery, he was told or heard bizarre tales of back in the day of empty graves that were owned by the police, how a huge pit at the back of the cemetery was an open grave, the people who would come not because they knew anyone, but they thought that this kind of place would be good for certain acts wouldn’t be interrupted since they had no other place to go.

There were so many morbid and yet hilarious tales that can and probably still happen in cemeteries today, that will have you maybe possibly wondering does it actually happen the next time you visit one if you ever do, not that anyone enjoys visiting cemeteries.

Brilliantly written, with bits of tongue in cheek humour, this is one book you won’t easily forget for a while.

But then again there was a underlying story of a 20 yr old University man finding himself, and mortality.

In The Land of Long Fingernails is a finalist for a Trillium Book Award (2009), has also been shortlisted for a Toronto Book Award (2009) and has been shortlisted for the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour (2009).

Penguin / Viking

My friend Bronwyn from A Certain Bent Appeal talks about the book and the author

The Soloist – Steve Lopez

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soloistSteve Lopez is a reporter for the LA Times.  One day while walking along, minding his own business he comes across quite a character.  Buy the look of him; he is homeless and playing a violin.  Steve is looking for his next column and when he comes across Nathaniel Anthony Ayers he is mesmerized.

When Steve tries to talk to him, Nathaniel is in a world of his own playing a violin with only 2 strings, but it strikes him as odd that this man is actually doing quite well for only having a few strings whilst playing classical music.  As time goes on and Steve catches up with Nathaniel a few more times, he finds out that he was once a student at Julliard the famous school for artists back in the 70’s.  So, now thinking that he does have a story, he checks out the Julliard angle and comes out flat, but then they call back and say they did have a student by that name attend, but dropped out.

In this journey of finding a story for his column, Steve uncovers something  more then he imagined possible.  A man who is living with a mental illness (Schizophrenia), a promising future as a cellist that came to an abrupt end as the illness took hold, and the principals that this man possesses even though he is homeless, poor, and somewhat odd looking.

Steve befriends Nathaniel, and as the relationship grows, there are pains as well; Nathaniel wants to live on the streets, he doesn’t want medication, his love of music seems to calm him when nothing else will in a world that has all but forgotten about him and his amazing talent.
For Nathaniel, music is a type of therapy for him; it soothes the mind, body and soul.  It doesn’t matter to him if the violin has only two strings, it matters to him he is able to make music.

I have to admit, I watched the movie before reading the book, but in comparison, the book delves deeper into the deeper issues of Nathaniel’s illness and the mental health aspect of being treated, accessing health care in America, and the love and admiration that not only Nathaniel and Steve poses for music, but it is the basic principal of being a friend to one that has been down on his luck, trying to assist them to having a better life, while accepting their limitations whether how frivolous or silly may it seem to us.

It gives us some pause to reflect to try and help these people who may or may not want help in whatever situation that they are in.  Just to be there for him.  For Steve, it has opened up a whole other realm for him personally and for Nathaniel as well.

Poignant, loving, frustrating, and at times full of sadness, this is one book/movie I will cherish for a very long time.

If you haven’t already read the book or watched the movie I very highly recommend it, simply amazing.

Canadian Mental Health Association

Nathaniel’s Foundation

Crazy For The Storm – Norman Ollestad

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Do you ever wonder if you were 11yrs old, what type of determination you would have if you were in a plane crash with your father and his girlfriend, and you realized that you needed to get out of the situation you are in before you either froze to death or died from your injuries?

In this thrilling and somewhat unbelievable memoir of insurmountable circumstances, this 11 yr old did have the determination, and the resilience to be able to do just that.

Norman was always into sports. From the time he was 3 he played hockey, skied, and surfed with his father in the forefront making him do things that he was afraid of, all the while all Norman wanted to do was play with his friends – riding bikes, playing ball, skateboarding, and going to birthday parties.

When he had accomplished those goals by his father “pushing”him, he gained valuable lessons to prepare him for what was unexpected, and would ultimately save his life.

Norman’s parents were divorced. His father had a girlfriend, and his mother had a boyfriend, and with those dynamics at times he was divided on some aspects of his life. But the day that his father and girlfriend would take off on a Cessna plane would forever change all of that.

Norman had just won a junior championship of skiing, and his father wanted him to go and play with his hockey team. So, being in 2 places at once or at least driving to both of them was out of the question, so his father had gotten a plane and pilot, and they were on their way to go and play hockey, then fly back to get his trophy the next day.

As they are flying, it was quite cloudy and dense with fog, and although the pilot assured them all that it was safe to fly, it felt as though they had doubts. At one point Norman noticed branches sliding against the plane, not really something that you would see when you are thousands of feet in the air and dismissed it. But then he had seen branches again, and all of a sudden they had crashed into a mountain, and sadly nothing would ever be the same again.

Fighting to stay conscious, and get out of the plane to be able to find help, this 11 yr old had shown amazing instincts and determination to find help and to live. Even knowing that the pilot, his father and soon to be father’s girlfriend were already dead or dying, he still forged ahead and did the unthinkable – survived.

Poignant, heartbreaking, full of courage, as well as full of the life lessons Norman learned from his father that any child should be instilled with, it gives pause and gratitude that anything is possible with determination and belief that anything can be achieved.


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100th POST!! Dedicated to Members of the Canadian Military fighting in Afghanistan “Passchendaele Based on the movie by Paul Gross

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Here it is the 100th post!!

Ok, when thinking about what I would do for my 100th post, and what book I would review to commemorate it, It came to only one book – Passchendaele, based on the movie and book by Paul Gross.

As of right now, 116 Brave men and women have sacrificed their lives to bring better lives to those living in Afghanistan and area. Most recently, in my area, 2 two brave men and 1 that I know of through friends, have given their lives and this is a tribute to them and their families.

Passchendaele, starts off with Sargent Michael Dunne of the 10th Battalion, in Belgium fighting in World War One, in the middle of a fight with German’s. With only 4 others that are with him in his group, they come across a deserted and destroyed town. All is quiet, and with the conditions, they are hungry, tired, and need a rest. However, that isn’t going to happen. As the Germans are held up behind an altar in a church well hidden, the men of the 10th are being fired upon.

Dunne orders a plan, and while carrying it out, three of his men are wounded and killed. In the midst of dust, smoke and other mortar fire die down, Michael walks up to the church thinking that there isn’t any one there. As he is walking, he is shot in the leg by a young (probably about 15) German soldier after they give up surrender. As he walks up to the altar to see this soldier, the soldier says “Comrade”. But then Michael does the unthinkable.. He kills the young man with his bayonet at the end of his rifle.

As we see Michael continue in this story, he is sent back to Canada with what they called as “Shell Shock”, and possibly facing charges of deserting his unit. Although, he didn’t as he was in shock, and wounded. He cannot sleep, he has vivid nightmares as if they are happening in real time and place, and is ordered to work in the recruitment office until his “Shell Shock” is better and is able to return to war.

Michael isn’t happy about this situation, but back before he is in the Military, he was involved in a bank robbery hence the reason for him going to war in the first place, to avoid being found.

While he was in a Canadian hospital for the wounded military members, he comes along this young nurse Sarah Mann. What you don’t know about Sarah is that she is addicted to those little pale blue pills that are called Morphine. Since, they weren’t keeping count of them because they were giving them out so often it was easier then usual to take them without being detected.

Michael is enthralled with Sarah, and wants to know more about her, but she declines. Later on he does find out what her name is and visits her in the town but she doesn’t want anything to do with him because of her own fears about being thought of as an addict, and what her past involves.

Eventually, Sarah agrees to go out with Michael and he takes her to his parents old homeland outside of town on horseback. Through the back country of the town, in Alberta. The scenic views melt her heart and she learns more about Michael and eventually she falls in love.

But they are both scared and afraid of what would happen next.

Sarah’s brother David wants to join the military. Trouble is that he is only 17 and you need to be 18 to be able to join the military. His girlfriend is the daughter of the town doctor, and he wants David to go and make himself a man before he allows his daughter to be more involved with his daughter. So, as Michael is working David tries to enlist in the war effort. Michael throws him out of the office on his ear. One day however, David goes in while Michael isn’t there and enlists and takes off to Europe to help in the fight.

Michael is so disgusted with where and who he works with and the attitudes of the town, Michael enlists using his mother’s Maiden name and goes off to fight yet again.

The rest of the story, I won’t give away if you haven’t already read the book or watched the movie by the same name. But I will say this. In World War One, they had the most diverse and most horrific situations that cold be thought of. The task at hand was insurmountable, but yet the Military took Passchendaele and helped fight the Germans, and win the war.

So, if you are interested about the history of the Canadian Military, I HIGHLY suggest this book AND the movie. They are both out – in Trade Paperback, and on DVD. It gives you only a taste of what they had to overcome in such dire circumstances then and now, but gives you the opportunity to see through their eyes, and appreciate what we have here in Canada or give thought of what we want to bring to countries that do not have what we have – a better life.

Paul Gross took 10 years to write the script and to make the movie based on his Grandfather’s story that he told Paul when he was a child. With the basis is the story he wrote, acted AND directed this tale of war, love and loss.


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My Little Red Book – Rachel Kauder Nalebuff

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My Little Red Book is what is going to change perceptions about periods that the vagina monologues did to open the doors to talking about topics that also included menstruation, violence, and a multitude of other topics that are prevalent in women’s issues today, that were once taboo to talk about. And to celebrate our differences.

I first started the book thinking about what people would think about it – would they think it was done in one way and take it another? But, as I read the stories about all of the different cultural occurrences concerning one’s becoming a woman is that we all need to celebrate our differences and yet our sameness. We can now have children, we are considered “women”, we are looked at differently from the male perspective. It does indeed change from being “Daddy’s little girl”, and “The Tomboy”.

After reading about half of the book, and thoroughly enjoying the stories, you have to realize that these women gathered real courage to come forth to tell their own individual stories. Kudos to all of you!. I can myself remember my own, and the humiliation, and then later on the relief that came after getting it.

I think and this is my own opinion, is that every girl that is about to “receive” their period, no matter how young or old they are should receive a copy of this book, or at least be able to access it and learn about all of the differences that we all have – albeit, about the same thing.

When you purchase this book, all of the proceeds go to different charities and health causes for girls.

You can WIN a copy of this book – Go HERE to win one of 5 copies!!

My Little Red Book Website

Hachette Book Group

Twelve Publishers

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Mission Accomplished: Stop The Clock – Muriel P. Engleman

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With some controversy about self published books circling, I was at first a bit apprehensive as to review one. I think it is a hit or miss situation in my opinion. There are so many writers trying to get published by the “big” houses, and then after they exhaust those avenues, they turn to self publishing.

This is my first review for a “self-published” personal memoir.

Muriel had been born and raised in a Jewish home. In the midst of the depression, Muriel wasn’t so sure as to what to choose as her profession. Her mother, had always suspected that she would be a good nurse, after bringing home dogs and cats that had cuts and scrapes and bandage them up and take care of them.

So, after some soul searching, she did go to nursing school and graduate. Her first job – WWII as a surgical nurse. Taking care of the wounded and in the most terrible of conditions. Braving the seas going to England, France, and then Belgium, Bombings on a continual basis, she strived and “soldiered” on. Eventually getting back to the US, where she continued as a nurse.

Then she married “Mel” from whom she met while in war, had 2 children, and settled into life.

Throughout her story, you have this sense of a loving mother and wife, committed to helping people – being a matchmaker among other things. You can’t help but to agree and even chuckle at one of the many stories that she has to tell.

I started the book yesterday morning, while having my morning coffee, and did not put it down until it was finished at about 9-10pm. So, if that is any indication of how she writes and how engrossed you become in her story.. It must be a good read.

She does have quite a way of enticing you into her story and making you feel at home.

Now that she is an “octogenarian” she is living in Florida with Mel her husband of many decades, a grandmother, retired RN, and Veteran.

Muriel’s Website

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The Diving Bell and The Butterfly (Scaphandre et le papillon, Le) Jean-Dominque Bauby

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I am amazed, totally amazed. Jean Dominque Bauby had the life that others dreamed of – Really GREAT job (Editor @ ELLE magazine), money, 3 beautiful children, friends, no cares in the world. Until…he had a massive stroke that caused him to be paralyzed, and cannot move a limb but has full mental comprehension. Cannot talk, or communicate to anyone, that is until a daring physiotherapist come up with a plan for him to be able to communicate with his one eye that is remaining, and a letter board that has the most frequently used letters in the alphabet. This is a short book – 139 pages in total.

I was totally enthralled after reading the prologue. At first I found it a bit mixed around with different periods in life and how is he is trying to come to terms with his CVA (Stroke) Depression, Being able to think, but not being able to communicate as he aptly put it “A Diving Bell and in my mind is a Butterfly” The images in the book he provokes are utterly amazing and take your breath away.

You want to feel sorry for him and how everything happened so fast, and yet when he wakes up, he is afraid and unaware of what has happened to him. So, he lays there in his hospital bed, with the sun coming in the windows and the wind from the sea drifting into his room. Alone, wanting to die since he thinks that there is nothing left to do but die. He has regrets as well, and wishes that he could go back and change who and what he has done wrong.

He then remembers that he was contracted to write a book – the female version of The Count of Monte Cristo. But, he instead writes about his life, his dreams while being in the hospital, and the butterfly inside his head, and the diving bell where sometimes he thinks he is drowning, thinking and not being able to communicate – with only a letter board and a secretary that is helping him in his quest.

I also had the opportunity to view the movie that it is made from the book right after reading it. I have to say, I enjoyed the visuals more so in the book then I did then watching the movie. Maybe it was because it was subtitled and had to focus on the words on the screen, since it was in French.

There was one scene in the movie when his secretary from the publisher takes him out on a boat for a sail on the ocean, and he has asked her to read from The Count of Monte Cristo ‘ ” “Alas, yes; the poor old gentleman is entirely helpless; the mind alone is still active in this human machine, and that is faint and flickering, like the light of a lamp about to expire.”

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone that would want to partake in this epic story.


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Movie Information

Globe and Mail Movie Review

Chapters Indigo

Amazon

Harper Collins Canada

The Count of Monte Cristo

Flight of the Dragonfly – A Mother’s Harrowing Journey to Bring Her Daughter’s Home – Melissa Hawach

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I had taken a few days to collect my thoughts about this book, because for one I wouldn’t know what to do if my son was abducted or taken away from me where I couldn’t be able to see him for any length of time. Although, I was in a quite a fierce and bitter custody battle when we lived out in B.C. with his father, I was still able to see him. So here goes…

Melissa Hawach found the man she was married when she lived in Australia. Joe is from Lebanese descent, and live there in a suburb of Sydney with his extended family who own restaurants. Melissa gets a job at one of the restaurants and gains praise from the family as a hard worker, and is welcomed into the family like one of their own. She had just broken up with a boyfriend, and is on her own. She befriends the family she works for and strives to go back to getting her helicopter license.

On this journey, she goes on a few dates with Joe, and subsequently they marry, later she finds out that he wasn’t quite sure she was the one for him. But as them marriage goes on, there is a few instances of abuse (even while pregnant with their first child) She goes on and tries to make the best of it.

They eventually move to Calgary, and child number 2 is born. Joe has started a business in the paper industry, and the abuse among other things happen.

Finally, after much debate and yelling and fighting, they decide to separate and it’s summer time. Melissa gives her approval to Joe to take the girls to Australia to see their relatives, unknown to her, he plans on taking them to Lebanon away from her.

As the story unfolds, I feel her pain and anguish. A few things had crossed my mind. Why did she think her husband was going to be as honest as he said he would be when giving him permission to travel to Australia, without a court order that would at least in Canada retain custody of the children much less then a pre prepared separation agreement that wasn’t even filed with the court. Her talking about not having any money and the fact that people had set up fundraisers and such I found to be a prevalent part of the book so much so that it seemed to me anyways, that her children took second place. There was no doubt in my mind that her family and friends were behind her, as well as people that she never knew coming out from the shadows from the Internet as she spread her plea across the world wide web and beyond.

Not to be judgemental,I think her focus of the book should have been about the struggle and how she was dealing with the loss and finding of her children more then about the other people. I believe I had read an article in a Canadian Magazine about her harrowing story, and thought “wow, this would be a great book”. That was maybe 2 chapters in the whole book.

It was an interesting story none the less, but with a few edits, it would be a really good book. From the magazine story I read it promised to be much more then what it actually was.


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Chapters Indigo

Book Chic’s Review

Globe and Mail Review

HarperCollins Canada

A Promise of Hope (audiobook) – Autumn Stringham

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What a emotional ride of ups and downs.

Autumn Stringham is a young child that is in the middle of an emotional and personal roller coaster. Her Mother, once kind and caring is now ugly and tired, sleeping all of the time, different personalities, and rage. On the side of the coin, she is giddy, dancing around the house.
Sound familiar to some?? This is the face of Bi Polar illness.
Autumn can remember as far back as age 6 having a second voice inside her head, that lead her to good decisions, and other voices that entered her body while in the throes of her manic and depression filled suicidal days telling her the exact opposite. She has never held down a job, had a long relationship, and by the age of 21 she has been hospitalized for suicidal thoughts.
She gets married young and has her first child, and goes through the same cycle that her mother did as she was bi polar as well.
This story of illness, hope and subsequently health came at a large heavy price. After Autumn’s mother commits suicide, her father and a friend from church come up with an idea for a natural almost unheard of cure for severe bi polar and depression, without the use of the psychotropic drugs that are now used in mainstay medical community now.
The drugs used in mainstream medicine cause so many side effects and this is the reason why most clients that are bi polar go off the medication, and return to their phases of “cycling” through mania and severe depression. Often not knowing what they are doing or don’t care.
This is a heart wrenching story of sickness and the struggle to regain some or all of their lives back, and the victories that are happening, some that are unheard of and many don’t believe at first.

Chatelaine Article

HarperCollins