Throwback Thursday

“Make it a rule never to give a child a book you would not read yourself.”
—George Bernard Shaw

I’m writing this post with one eye on Michael Phelps.  Hopin to throw it back despite a few dazzling Olympic distractions.  Since I’ve been at Bethany Beach this week with my fam (reuniting and it feels so good), I’ve naturally had a few good conversations about books. My brother-in-law, who’s an English major and history lover disguised as a businessman, has taken George Bernard Shaw’s advice to heart. When my niece Catherine shared her most favorite recent read, I thought you are your father’s daughter.  

If you’re a history of buff and a fan of Old Abe, you’re bound to love Catherine’s newest fave:  Chasing Lincoln’s Killer by James L. Swanson.  (She blew me away when she added that The Killer Angels was totally fascinating—and all before the 7th grade?!) Based on her informal report, the twelve-day pursuit of John Wilkes Booth was pretty wild.  Far more intriguing than O.J.’s.  Catherine didn’t stop there.  In all seriousness, she told me that I was in luck because there is a children’s version of this #1 best seller. After I shot her a quizzical look, she explained that I could read Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer to the boys when we finish up Pax.  It’s now on the to-do. Gotta make sure my boys keep up with their historically savvy cuz.  Besides, it is a book I would read myself.

Posted by Tracy

A Discount Ticket to Everywhere

“I Cannot Live without Books.”  Thomas Jefferson

Don’t hold back bibliophiles! If you have a penchant for books it’s okay—especially today. On National Book Lovers Day (yes, I’m all over domestic fetes this month), you are allowed to unabashedly rejoice with us. As if you need a reason to celebrate having “a discount ticket to everywhere.” You need not feel strange if you love inscriptions on flyleafs, or if you feel a sense of camaraderie when you turn pages others have turned. There is no shame in believing that the perfume of paper is lovelier than any scent you can buy over the counter.  Books are like the air we breathe—they invigorate and move us.

So in honor of this fine day (and the fact that I’m currently crusin’ through a book that will show up on screen real soon), here are a few novels that you may want to read asap, before the movie release.  Don’t worry.  Like all good book lovers, we expect you’ll reassure that page turning was more gratifying than watching the story unfold.  (Even if you got evenly buttered popcorn and soft duds.)

Inferno by Dan Brown

Brown is a storyteller.  We’ve seen The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons light up the screen in years past.  Tom Hanks is at it again in Inferno.  Amazon’s 4 stars + Tom Hanks spells winner.

Highest Duty by Chesley Sullenberger and Miracle on the Hudson by survivors of Flight 1549 and William Prochnau both garnered lots of stars and more than generous reviews.  One 5-star reviewer claimed “this is one of the best real-life yarns I’ve read in a long time.” Let’s be honest, who doesn’t like to read about a miracle?  Tom Hanks will also star in this real story that made us marvel when in happened, and chances are we’ll find ourselves feeling that way all over again.  

The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

Right now, I’m reading both books that sweet Rae gave me for my big day: The Light Between Oceans and Pax. 4.5 Stars from Amazon and a gift from Rachel—that’s what I call a homerun, bull’s-eye, a sure thing. The movie opens in the next coupla weeks.  Love it when I’m ahead of things, which is almost never!

Posted by Tracy

They Can't All Be Favorites

War had bled color from everything, leaving nothing but a storm of gray.

When I read a young adult novel, I don't want to feel like I'm reading a young adult novel. Too much to ask? I don't think so. Now I know not every book can be The Book Thief, but there are plenty of young adult and children's books with huge crossover appeal due to powerful prose: Wolf Hollow and The War that Saved my Life immediately come to mind. This book just isn't one of them.

I liked, but didn't love, Salt to the Sea. Historically speaking, this is an important read and I would recommend it to any teenager I know. How can it be that a tragedy of such horrific proportions has remained relatively unknown? That such a story could be overshadowed speaks to the scope of suffering during WWll. It is estimated that 9,400 people died, many of them children, in the sinking of the MV Willhelm Gustholff by a Soviet submarine—making it the largest loss of life in history from a single ship sinking. To put the tragedy in context, 1,198 died in the sinking of the Lusitania and around 1,500 lives were lost from the Titanic.

The story is such a compelling (and tragic) one, but sadly, I never really connected to the characters. They seemed too predictable and loosely drawn. The love story we see coming from the first few pages also rang hollow for me. It just all felt so teenager-y. Which to be fair to Ruta Sepetys, that is her target audience. Thanks to her, a forgotten tale in need of telling has come to life. Making historical fiction appealing to teens is no small feat. I just can't help mourning the story it might have been.

*This was our July book club selection so we'd love to hear from any of you who read it. Agree? Disagree? Loved it? Hated it? We're all ears!

Posted by Rachel

Weekly Wrap-Up

"Jerry, just remember, it's not a lie if you believe it." – George Costanza

WHAT WE LOVE THIS WEEK

Seinfeld. If you're a regular around here, you've probably noticed we're big fans. And now a book about the making of the show? Worlds colliding! In a good way.

If thoughts of Jerry and the gang have you craving some time in the Big Apple but you’re woefully short on cash and time, pick up one of these reads and you’re as good as there. Almost.

More fuel for our library tour fire. This is serious road trip material.

If the Great American Road Trip feels like a pipe dream right now, these reads will get you started without having to leave the couch.

Hankering for a read that’ll keep you up at night? Check out one of these thrillers. Yikes.

COMING NEXT WEEK

That promised review of Salt to the Sea. I was so bedazzled by the shock and awe of Tracy’s three-peat that I forgot to write a post myself.

My ode to Harry Potter.

Throwback Thursday

We all know that it is women who make the decisions, but we have to let men think that the decisions are theirs. It is an act of kindness on the part of women.

Like the Chicago Bulls, I’m here to three-peat.  Have I ever written three posts in a row?  (We all know the answer to that question.) I kinda feel like Charlie Sheen right now—I’m winning. Don’t worry, it won’t go to my sleep-deprived head because it never takes long for me to get buried again.  Thank heavens for a sturdy shovel.  (If only I had a shirtless shovel guy with ample muscle to help dig me out—then I’d really be winning.)  

Enough already with the boasting and musing, I’ve got a book to rhapsodize over.  Let’s talk about Alexander McCall Smith’s oh so pleasant novel The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency.  While admittedly I’m not a series kind of a girl, there are some that are well worth the commitment.  I read three books in this series.  And I was completely enchanted by the first and the favorite: The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency.  It was published way back in 1998 when a dozen eggs cost 88 cents and a certain Mr. President denied having “relations” with that woman, and Pokemon wasn’t on the go, just on the Gameboy.  For throwback Thursday, after all these years, I’m still celebrating Smith’s charmer.  

Precious Remotswe is Botswana’s premier lady detective and leading lovable book character.  While she is an unlikely candidate for detective work, she seems to have a nose for “helping people with problems in their lives.” Fortunately for readers, in addition to cracking puzzling cases involving a disappearing husband or a missing boy potentially absconded by witch doctors, we are the benefactors of the No. 1 detective’s innate wisdom. I felt smarter for having known Precious. Someday I hope to understand as much about human nature as she obviously did. Wholeheartedly, I agree with one reviewer who raved that this book is “one of the best, most charming, honest, hilarious and life-affirming book to appear in years.”

Posted by Tracy

Fantastic Mr. Dahl

***This post is dedicated to my lovely mother-in-law who passed away yesterday.  She and Roald Dahl would agree that their day was complete if they heard a child laugh. ***

“A whizzpopper!" cried the BFG, beaming at her. "Us giants is making whizzpoppers all the time! Whizzpopping is a sign of happiness. It is music in our ears! You surely is not telling me that a little whizzpopping is forbidden among human beans?”

Roald Dahl, I love you.  Yes, you’re British with a lilting voice I’m sure, but it’s your creative genius that’s got me like… (can I get a heart-eyed emoji here?) The boys and I finished The BFG days ago and frankly, I’m slightly petrified to pick our next read.  It’s gonna be rough going forward I’m afraid. Who wouldn’t agree that it’s tough to compete with snozzcumbers, frobscottle, whizzpopping, and frothbuggling?  Finding a suitable follow-up read is jumpsquiffling.  I’m all ears if you have any suggestions.  Speaking of ears, I wish I could nestle in the fold of the Big Friendly Giant’s to catch dreams for kiddles. Who better to have the world to yourself with than the Big Friendly Giant?

While the BFG was guilty of snatching Sophie from her bed in a lonely English orphanage, he wasn’t anything like the other 9 maniacal giants, including the Fleshlumpeater, the Bloodbottler, and the Bonecrusher who love to eat human beans.  When Sophie learns they’re bound for more British chiddlers she’s determined, without the smallest sense of feeling jiggered, to put a stop to that sort of debauchery.  I’m so glad we were allowed to tag along on her adventure with a big-hearted, unforgettable giant.  This whoppsy-whiffling story is one you and your kids won’t want to miss. Three cheers for the fantastic Mr. Dahl!

Posted by Tracy

Rachel Deserves the World

“She was a little all over the place, that was for sure. But the good news is that when she loved, she loved big.  And if she loved you, you knew she loved you.  You never had to wonder.” —Unknown

I’ve never been called a party pooper. I’m proud of that fact.  But sometimes the-every- day-is-a-national-holiday gets overbearing. Not today. I just learned it’s National Girlfriends Day.  And while I don’t need a holiday to celebrate my fierce girl friendships—the ones where you “aggressively believe in each other, defend each other, and think the other deserves the world” kind of friendships—I’m always up for a shout out.  

It just so happens that I got a package in the mail from Rachel this very day.  It was “part 3 of my birthday gift.”  Part 3 people! It came with this written note (despite an exquisite birthday message that came with Part 1): “So I just said to Matt that I’ve been trying to pull my life together today and it’s slow going.  To which he replied: ‘Well, you’ve spent the last 48 years messing it up so that’s a lot to undo in one day.’” Immediately, I laughed out loud.  (Matt’s wit gets me every time.) I laughed again just now, from the gut.  It’s obvious I adore Rachel—the reasons are as vast as they are wide—one of them being she doesn’t claim to be perfect.  From one who is a little bit all over the place, it’s Refreshing (capital R) that she’s sometimes a little bit all over the place too. It makes me feel normal.  It makes me feel right. And nothing, no nothing, can undermine the fact that she loves big. If you haven’t found a girlfriend whose love feels bottomless, keep searching.  Don’t stop.  Because once you find that friend, you’ll never have to wonder if she loves you.  

Here are two fine reads about female friendships in honor of National Girlfriends Day:

Their Eyes were Watching God by Zora Neal Hurston

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Posted by Tracy

Weekly Wrap-Up

"The scar had not pained Harry for nineteen years. All was well." —J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

WHAT WE LOVE THIS WEEK

Harry Potter. Always. It appears all is not as well as we were led to believe at the end of The Deathly Hallows and we couldn't be happier—trouble means more Harry Potter for our Harry-starved hearts. And of course it's being released tomorrow on his birthday. That J.K., she knows a thing or two about marketing.

We're lovin' Tina Fey and her salty bookaneers: The Pirates of the Care-to-be-Reading.

After our traumatic run-in with the Book Butcher, we're a little suspicious of any ideas for conquering our stacks of books. This, however, seems doable. And more importantly, rational.

November 25th. Best. Day. Ever.

You. For putting up with our tardiness. We promised we'd have a book rating system up and running this week...and well...nada. It's coming. Really.

COMING NEXT WEEK

Tracy and her boys tell us what they thought of The BFG.

Review of our July book club selection: Salt to the Sea.