Magazine Day!

Instead of reading a book today, I read many crafting magazines that I picked up at the library.

• Create and Decorate Holiday 2010, a lot of cute ideas, but none that would fit my house's style, I did like the following recipe: 1 bag frozen raspberries, 1/2 c sugar, 1/2 c white white, 2 envelopes unflavored gelatin, 1/2 c cold water, 1/2 c boiling water, 2 c heavy cream whipped, whip cream for garnish 1. puree raspberries, add sugar and wine, pule to dissolve sugar 2. in small bowl, soften gelatin in cool water, add boiling water, and stir to dissolve, cool, but don't allow it to harden, 3. combine gelatin and berry mixture, fold in whipped cream, please in serving bowl and chill for 3 hours.
• Homeschooling magazine- I picked it up because it said it had some science tips for elementary students. However, I HATED THIS PUBLICATION. IT CRANKED ME RIGHT UP. I respect people that home school, but I do not respect the ones that put down the public schools. This magazine was full of this. I definitely will not read one of these again.
• CardMaker Jan. 2010, Paper Crafts July/Aug. 2010, Card Maker May 2010, CardMaker July 2010, PaperCrafts March/April 2010, Paper Crafts Sept. Oct/ 2010- Cute ideas that seem pretty simple, I'll be adapting some of them for scrapbook pages too!
• Creating Keepsakes, Nov. Dec. 2010- I love this magazine. I did have a subscription, but it recently expired. I plan to renew again as soon as I have some available cash.
• Crafts n Things: Dec. 2009- Cute ideas, but I mostly liked the card ideas. I plan to adapt them to tags for scrapbook pages.

Getting the Pretty Back

by Molly Ringwald

She said this book was about getting back in touch with your essential self. Some of it was ok, but some of it just made me realize that what was affordable for her "to get her pretty back" was not practical for me!

The thing I really loved about this book were the illustrations by Ruben Toledo. They are colorful and whimsical!

Quotes I liked:

"When you are a teenager, you're forever thinking: Do they like me? When you are a grown-up, as anyone over the age of thirty can attest, the question becomes: Do I like them?"

"Early on during my lst pregnancy, a female acquaintance said, 'You'd better hope she isn't a girl, 'cause she'll suck the pretty out of you!' I sort of laughed. sort of. In a few short weeks, I found out that the baby was a girl. A few weeks after that, I was absolutely sure that the woman was right!"

Unconventional ways to stay fit: (per hour of activity)

• play vigorous air guitar
• bench-press your baby
• rearrange the furniture
• dance and sing to a Broadway album
• digging in the garden
• pushing someone in a stroller
• baking
• loading and unloading car
• chasing kids around
• putting up an xmas tree
• sweeping
• laundry/make beds
• kissing
• playing piano
• roller skating

Best advice for moms/best moments for moms:

• Sit down after a disagreement and agree to turn over a new leaf (literally) as a symbol of forgiveness.
• Cook with love. (ugh...does waffles count?)
• Be honest ...don't tell white lies to spare their feelings...if they look awful in mauve and green, tell them!
• Tell them you love them and try to get them to get along. (Impossible at my house...thanks to Nick and Jake warfare.)
• Let them know that life isn't fair and not to expect it.
• Model a confident and fearless attitude. Pass it on.
• Teach them the importance of being themselves and give them room to do it.
• Teach them to fold a towel, moonwalk, and sing a mean campfire song.
• Let them know that there are second changes when you make mistakes.
• Hug them a lot.

The Hip Chick's guide to Macrobiotics

by Jessica Porter

I really wish I had the will power and the time to eat like this author recommends. 60% vegetables and 25% whole grains. (Don't ask me about the other 15%, because I never quite figured that out.)

If I lived alone, I could probably do it. However, my husband and kids would never eat like this, so it seems impossible for me. I would have to prepare two meals which would take too much time, plus watching them eat other things would make me want them too.

Many recipes depend upon a pressure cooker too...something I never planned on buying, and they all had ingredients I've never even heard of!

Her ideas about milk did make sense to me though. Baby cows and other mammals don't drink milk their entire life, so why do humans? She said that it isn't healthy and really causes health harm. I'm not sure I want to push that idea on my children who all love milk, but I do know personally that as soon as I have a lot of milk products, my skin breaks out!

Her thoughts about sugar:

1. It leaches healthy minerals from your bones.
2. It causes mood swings and depression.
3. It produces acidic blood. Sugar doesn't just rot your blood; it rots everything!
4. It is yin and creates expansion in the system. (Think inflammation.)
5. It is addicitive.
6. It messes with your intuition.


Her section on genetically modified foods chilled my blood and reinforced everything else I've read. Humans in companies have basically started us on the road to extinction by messing with the food!

Lifestyle suggestions:

1. Do a whole body scrub (except eyes and privates) using a clean hot washcloth. It should take about ten minutes and turn your skin pink.
2. Avoid eating at least 3 hours before bed.
3. Drink only when you are thirsty.
4. Use only natural products on your skin. (Note to self: Read Glow by Christina Pirello.)
5. Use sheets, towels, blankets, rugs, and clothes made only of natural materials.
6. Keep fresh plants in the house. (I wish, mine always die!)
7. Open windows to circulate air- even in winter.
8. Minimize electric machines close to your body: cell phones, hair dryers, electric toothbrushes, etc.
9. Throw out the microwave.
10. Keep TV watching to a minimum.
11. Walk in nature.
12. Stay active.
13. Be grateful.
14. Teach others.
15. Use home remedies.

For hangovers or diarrhea: Une-sho-Kuzu
1 cup water, 1/2 umeboshi plum, 1 heaping teaspoon kuzu diluted in 1/4 cup cold spring water, a few drops shoyu (bring water and plum to a boil & simmer 3 min. add kuzu & stir constantly to avoid lumps, drink/eat when temp. is comfortable.)

Once a week to desludge diet:
carrot-daikon drink
1/2 cup grated carrot, 1/2 cup grated daikon, 1/4 umeboshi plum, 1 c spring water, 1/4 sheet nori ripped into small pieces, a few drops shoyu (bring c, d, plum and water to boil. Let simmer 3 min. add nori. Remove from heat and eat/drink when cool enough.)

etc.

The Lies We Told

by Diane Chamberlain

I have enjoyed reading a lot of Diana Chamberlain's books, and this one was no exception. Her books are almost as good as Jodi Piocolt's books, but they don't leave me emotional and wrung out at the end!

This book begins with the murder of Maya and Rebecca's parents. Maya was in the car and was to be the next victim of the gunman, but she was rescued by her sister Rebecca. Rebecca also puts college on hold and raises Maya to adulthood.

Now they are both adults, but the murder has scarred Maya and she is afraid of new things, risks, and any hint of danger. She is married and is a pediatric surgeon. She and her husband (who is a Dr. too) are trying to have a child, but she keeps miscarrying.

Rebecca is a risk taker. She is a Dr. too, but she travels to world disasters and provides medical care. She has had a lot of relationships, but she has never been serious about anyone.

Then a hurricane hits the coast of North Carolina. Rebecca and Maya's husband fly there to help. The team needs a pediatrician, and finally, even though she is terrified, Maya agrees to fly there to help.

Unfortunately, her helicopter crashes into raging floodwaters, and there appears to be no survivors. Forced to accept this, Rebecca and Adam eventually turn to one another for support and fall in love.

In the middle of no where, miles from civilization, Maya is injured and trapped with strangers. Maya must find the courage to save herself.

A Child Called It

by Dave Pelzer

I knew this was a book about child abuse, and I have avoided reading it for years. Then my youngest son and his friends read it at school. Since he's only eleven, I figured I had better read it too.

It was horrible and worse than I had imagined it. I can't understand how any mother could do the things his mother did to any child, let alone to her own. It was disgusting and inhumane, and it continued for years.

She starved him, beat him, burned him, stabbed him, and poisoned him, and etc. The father and brothers all knew about it and accepted it. They did not get him help or out of there.

The author is writing his own story. This one ends with him getting removed from his home by the school and police.

The next book is about his life in foster care. I'm not sure if I wan to read it.

This world is scary when people have the ability to harm someone else and enjoy it.

Beachcombers

by Nancy Thayer

I enjoyed this book. It is the story of three sisters: Abby, Emma, and Lily. Their mom died when Abby was fifteen, Emma 12, and Lily 7. Abby took on the mother role. Then moved to London. Emma went to college, became a stock broker, and became engaged. Lily stayed home in Nantucket and continued to live with dad.

Now, Emma is back. The stock market crashed, she lost her savings, job, & fiance. She will barely get out of bed and is seriously depressed. Lily, worried about her, asks Abby to come home. Now the three sisters have to adjust to living together again. They are also concerned because their Dad is interested in someone, for the first time, and the sisters aren't sure if they are ready to see him move on.

Each chapter is told from a different woman's point of view, and dad's new love interest was actually my favorite character. I'll definitely look for more books by this author.

Happiness Key

by Emilie Richards

I eventually liked this book, but it was very difficult to get hooked. I kept starting this book, putting it down and switching to another book, then trying again. Once I forced myself to keep reading, it was a good book.

Tracy Deloche's rich husband was sent to jail, and all of his money confiscated by the FBI. Her parents, who had trusted in him, had invested most of their savings into a business venture he was pursuing. Now they are broke too, and they definitely don't want to see their daughter, who they blame.

All she has left is twenty-five acres of land in Florida that she can't legally develop or sell that has five tumbledown beach houses with renters in four of them.

Then an elderly renter dies, and Tracy and the other renters don't know anything about him or his family because they were too busy to take the time to care. Even though they have nothing in common, they become friends through hunting for this man's family.

Quotes I liked:

"What did she care? She would take it and make something of it. That was her new mantra."

"Her parents referred to themselves as cultural Hindus, abiding by many of the traditions, accepting some of the beliefs, but not putting too fine a point on any of them. She was more free-thinking. She had learned to look for the similarities in all religions."

"She did all she could. She greeted him not like a potential serial killer, but like a boy who needed a warm welcome."

Leaving Lonely Town

by Cait London

Sable Barclay is afraid and excited about what awaits her in Wyoming. Evidence suggests that she might have been the kidnapped Langtry baby. She's head there to find out. There she meets Culley Blackwolf the ranch hand who she becomes interested in despite her intentions.

I don't read a lot of romances, but this one was good and had three distinct story lines. It also had some Native American lore.

Garden Spells

by Sarah Addison Allen



I loved this book! It made me think of Practical Magic (the book and the movie). The characters were great, the magic made me envious, and I loved the Apple Tree.



Each Waverly has a curious endowment. The Aunt brings you things you need before you need them although she can never tell you why you'll need them. Claire cooks with plants and the nasturitiums help the eater keep secrets, the pansies make children thoughtful, and the snapdragons discourage the attentions of amorous neighbors. Then Claire's younger sister, Sydney, returns home with a young daughter of her own. Sydney doesn't think she has a power, and her daughter has one but doesn't understand it.

Quotes I liked:

"He didn't seem surprised to see her naked. Emma wondered when that had happened, when he'd begun to expect it instead of desire it."

Vanishing Acts

by Jodi Piocoult



I really like Jodi Piocolt books, but I sure don't like myself when I'm finished with one. Her books make me so moody! She also amazes me by being able to write feelings and ideas for a character that I thought were all mine! This book wasn't any different.



Delia has led a happy life even though her mother died when she was little. She has been raised by her father, she has a young daughter, a handsome fiance, a devoted best friend, and her own search-and-rescue business where she finds lost people with blood hounds. Then a policeman knocks on her door and reveals a secret that changes her life forever.

Quotes I like:

"Motherhood is elemental, cellular. You could feel a child inside of you, even after you gave birth. Share blood and tissue for that long and you become part of each other. And if that child died- as an embryo, as a newborn, as a 13 year old- a part of you would die too."

When Autumn Leaves

by Amy S. Foster

This is another book about magic. Similar to Practical Magic, Garden Spells, and The Girl who Chased the Moon. All have quirky towns full of magic that is basically just acknowledged by the other residents. All have special women that seem to be blessed with the power of magic.

In this story, Autumn must choose a replacement for herself in the magical town of Avenings. She has been told that she is needed elsewhere. She decides to hold an essay contest. In the process, she narrows the search to 13 women.

Quotes I Liked:

"There are magical things we take for granted every day- our friends, our family, and most of all, ourselves!"

"Avening is a haven and a refuge from so many of the troubles that seem to circle and plague other small towns. " (Wish my small town was a haven. Instead it is a broiling, seething, place of gossip and ill will.)

"We are magical, but we are also human. We need the change. It keeps us vibrant, helps us grow, and make us better. You need the change too. You have another chapter in your life to begin. A new prospective. It's time!)

"Even if you were acquainted with the woman, more likely than not, you would still fail to see her. Invisibility was her own special magic. When she was younger, she used to believe that her invisibility was a metaphor for something else, something wrong with her- her awkwardness, her fear of saying or doing the wrong thing. She had thought as she grew older, more confident, wiser, she would be able to outgrow this not being noticed. But really, she still felt like a ghost. She would be in a place but not really there. People looked through her, past her. Her invisibility had taken on a life of its own. It wasn't a metaphor anymore, or a defense mechanism, or an eccentric little tic. It had taken on a life of its own. She was actually invisible. At least that's how it felt to her." (Reminds me of how my mom and dad call us all the invisible people. People only notice us when they want something.)

"She recognized the invisibility wrapped around the other woman's uncontrollable curves. But unlike her, the other woman fought it with everything she had. She tried too hard. She invited herself brazenly to be included."

"Visualize. I'm a green and yellow duck. A mallard. Everything you say will run off my little feathered body. "

"How could she have known how much the town would take of her character. How much her staying, the town would take as a sacrifice. The years and times now revealed the gap in her personality. The town took the part that used to make others gravitate towards her. Out of fascination, of fear, or of awe others had been drawn to her. But now she forgot the rules of being social, so she blundered along, trying to be bigger in life, in the hopes that she would not miss herself. " (Isn't that something I could have written? Now if I could only redirect or better yet, express, all the hidden anger I have at this town and those who have wronged me so much, over and over.)

"The spell, the lightening, had pulled her together. She had been a puzzle. Pieces scattered everywhere. Drinking from the bottle had made each piece fit. It had kicked, and punched, and fused them into place. Deep down this fierce woman had always existed, but had been hidden and smothered out of duty and sacrifice. No Longer!"

"She felt calm, so unlike the anger she had felt towards herself in the last few weeks. Why had she had so much contempt for herself and her life? She drew her arms around herself as a gesture of forgiveness. Everything she had done. All the choices she had made. They all led to this exact moment. She was just where she was supposed to be. She had the ability to see through her past and pain to recognize that there was so much more to her, so much more for her, than she had allowed herself to believe. In that split second she felt happiness. Then she let it go. Let it back out into the universe where every other perfect moment lives, stretched out across the stars, hovering just there."

"She had loved her parents, her husband, her friends, but that love had come from the outside had been delivered to her from someplace else. The love she felt for her baby welled up from the very same place her daughter had begun in. It was organic, running through every cell, every tissue, every single pore of her being. It began inside and she kept it close."

"She had learned that motherhood was the greatest love affair of all. Romantic love paled in comparison. "

Calendar of Pagen Holidays
Winter Solstice Dec. 21
Imbolc Feb. 2
Spring Equinox March 21
Beltane May 1
Summer Solstice June 21
Lunghasadh Aug. 1
Fall Equinox Sept. 21
Samhain Oct. 31

The Girl Who Chased the Moon

by Sarah Addison Allen

Another book about magic. I love the magic, but what I really love best and feel envy about is the acceptance of the people in these towns towards all the quirky, unusual, and magical people. Since I live in a town that has no tolerance for anyone remotely gifted or unique...I like to live vicariously in the towns these authors make!

I read Garden Spells by the same author and loved it. I was hoping that this book would be a continuation and have some of the same characters. It didn't, but it was still a great book! It ends though, just like Garden Spells, with you wanting to know more about the characters and what will happen next.

Seventeen year old Emily came to live with her grandfather in Mullaby after the death of her mother. She hopes to solve the mystery of her mother. Why did her mom leave her small home town suddenly? Why didn't she ever come back to visit the family she left behind? Why wasn't Emily ever allowed to meet them before? She finds out that mysteries aren't solved in Mullaby, they're a way of life. Here are rooms where the wall paper changes to suit your mood. Unexplained lights skip across the yard at midnight. And a neighbor bakes hope in the form of cakes.

Julia, who used to be the one and only goth girl of the town, has returned from college to run her dad's restaurant and bakery after his death. Her cakes are magical (literally) and she is using them to hopefully call back her lost love.

Quotes I liked:

"Men of thoughtless actions are always surprised by consequences."

"If she'd been a color she would have been bright green. If she'd been a scent, she'd have been new paper. She was happy and intelligent and afraid of nothing."

"Your peers when you are a teenager will always be the keepers of your embarrassment and regret. It was one of life's injustices that you can move on and be happy and accomplished but the moment you see someone from high school you immediately become the person you were then and not the person who you are now." (Isn't that the truth. That's why if you grow up to do an important job in the same town with the same people you grew up you face constant shit!)

"We get to choose what defines us."

"Wall paper doesn't change on its own grandpa." "Just think of it as a universal truth. How we see the world changes at all times. It all depends upon our mood."

"Don't. Don't justify it. No one should ever compromise the dignity of another human being. " (I really want to say this to my B.Hole who does this on a regular basis, but I would end up in trouble, since he wouldn't be able to recognize in himself that he does this.)

"Adolescence is like having only enough light to only see the step directly in front of you. No further."

"At 16, he'd ruined any chance he ever had with her. World's Longest Regret."

"He'd never been good at expressing himself. She'd thought she wanted grand gestures and expressive declarations because he never gave her that. She thought that meant that something was missing in their relationship. But how could she have missed this? Everything he did was quiet. Even loving her. The tragedy was she hadn't understood this. She'd left him because she hadn't been quiet enough to hear him." (Bill is so quiet...I'm guilty of having these feelings!)

"He didn't often get angry at other people. There was no sense in it. The person you were angry at was rarely ever repentant. Now getting angry with yourself had some merit. It showed you had enough sense to chastise the one person who had any hope from benefiting from it. "

A Year Full of Moons:

The full moon in Jan. The Full Wolf Moon
Under this moon, wolves would howl with hunger outside Indian Villages. Under this moon, people tend to eat too much , drink too much, and play too much trying to fill a winter emptiness.

The full moon in Feb. The Full Snow Moon
when the most snow falls
People dream of other places they'd rather be under this moon.

The full moon in March. The Full Worm Moon.
ground softens and earthworms appear as do robins that eat them
The lure of getting caught doing something dangerous or scandalous is hard to resist under this moon.

The full moon in April. The Full Pink Moon.
abundance of greenery makes lush food for cows and goats leading to healthier milk
People look more attractive under this moon.

The full moon in June. The Full Strawberry Moon.
when strawberries ripen and need to be picked
People need to forgive under this moon and seek forgiveness.
Sweetness lingers during this time.

The full moon in July. The Full Buck Moon.
bucks get new antlers
Young men will butt heads and generally show themselves under this moon.

The full moon in August. The Full Sturgeon Moon.
Indian lore said best time to fish.
People feel restless and overwhelmed during this moon.

The full moon in September. The Harvest Moon.
full moon nearest the autumn equinox, bright enough to let farmers work late into the night, bringing in the last of their harvest
a time of introspection, People feel moody during this moon.

The full moon in October. The Full Hunter's Moon
lore says easier to hunt under this moon
If you stare at this moon with a question, it will become clear what has to be done.

The full moon in November. The Full Beaver Moon
beaver traps were set at this time before the waters froze, so furs would be in abundance for the cold winter
It's the last chance to do something you've been wanting to do but put off, before the heaviness of winter settles over them.

The full moon in December. The Full Cold Moon
heralds cold dark nights ahead
The best sleeping time of the year!

The Courage Tree

by Diane Chamberlain

Eight year old Sophie has a serious kidney disease. She has had to have dialysis and treatments every day for five years. She hasn't been able to go to school, to sleep overs, or to enjoy the activities that other kids get too. Until now, when her mother puts her into an experimental treatment program (using herbal supplements) that seems to be working. So even though Sophie's dad and grandparents object strongly to the treatment and feel that by trying it Sophie is being cheated from medical interventions that could prolong her life, Sophie's mom decides to continue the treatment. Sophie feels better too, so when she begs to go on an overnight camp out with her girl scout troop, Sophie's mom gives in. However, when it is time to pick Sophie up, she is not with the other girls. This leads to a huge manhunt for Sophie who must be found for her treatments before her kidneys fail her.

Sophie has found a cabin deep in the woods where she is lost. A woman is there who has left her life and identify to free her daughter from prison, who she feels was convicted unfairly. She does not want to help a little girl because by doing so she'll put her own daughter in jeopardy. Only one daughter can have a happy ending.

Quote I liked:

"Today she's alive. Today she's having a good time. When all you can focus on is what the future holds, you lose today, for both yourself and Sophie. If your life is tied up in worrying about the future, you never enjoy what is possible right now."

(I need to remember this and stop worrying about the people in my town who gossip and cause me difficulties. I need to stop letting them steal my todays!"

What Memories Remain

by Cait London

I really liked the basic story line for this book. It's about a woman (Cyd) who still has nightmares from a childhood event that happened when she was six. Two men, blood, and the threat of the Nightman coming for her all blur together when she sleeps. Her mother who is in a nursing home with mental problems can't or won't help her figure out what happened to cause her such trauma. Her best friend from childhood (Hallie) and her best friend's brother (Ewan) try to help her unlock her memories at the same time that they try to uncover the real events that led to the death of their parents when they were teenagers. The Nightman really does exist and often taunts Cyd with glimpses of himself and by leaving little gifts. She won't tell anyone though because she is afraid they'll think she is crazy like her mom.

The Escape Artist

by Diane Chamberlain

Susanna Miller loses custody of her 11 month old son, Tyler. She knows that just because her ex-husband and his new wife (the woman he cheated on Susanna with)who are both attorneys, have money and can give him more things doesn't mean that they can be as loving and caring as she can be. She defies the court order and runs away with her son. She leaves without a word to anyone, even her best friend, Linc, who she's loved since childhood. She is able to start a new life but finds out that it is unpredictable at best, and dangerous sometimes too.

Susanna was a very likable character. I related a lot to her too, because I know with certainty that I would do the exact same thing. There is no way I would have ever let someone else raise my children just because they had more money then I did.

Plus, Susanna's ex was really slimy. He was an attorney and able to earn that much money because Susanna worked to put him through school. The beautiful home everyone raved about had been picked out and decorated by Susanna. When Susanna and her husband were still married, he didn't want the child. He even suggested an abortion when he found out that she was pregnant. Most of what he does is to keep his new rich wife happy!

Quotes I liked:

"You're hyper vigilant," Adam said.
"What does that mean?"
"It means that you're always on the lookout, as if you're expecting something terrible to happen."
"It's not that I expect someone to leap out of the shadows at me, but I wouldn't be surprised if they did. I don't trust the world much anymore. I don't trust it to be the same tomorrow as it is today. Things can change so quickly."

Thoughts:

In the end of this book, Susanna reflects that in the end, Peggy (the new wife) was really no different from her. No better or worse, and really equals when it came to strength and courage.

I wish that all people would start thinking like this and stop acting judgmental about others.

Her Mother's Shadow

by Diane Chamberlain

When Lacey O'Neill was 13 years old, she and her mother went to a battered woman's shelter on Christmas Eve to bring dinner and gifts to the residents. While serving the food, an angry husband breaks in and attempts to shoot his wife and son. Lacey's mom jumps in front and is shot and killed instead.

Lacey sees the entire thing and while dealing with her grief, she tries to be just like her mother, who people call Saint Anne. Then as an adult, she learns things about her mother that shock her and make her doubt her desire to be like her mother. As she is working through this and trying to get her life together, her closest friend from childhood dies and leaves her 11 year old daughter in Lacey's custody.

11 year old Mackenzie resents Lacey and her new home and makes life difficult every chance she gets. Lacey tries to bond with the girl and make them a family all while trying to fight the legal system to keep her mother's murder in jail instead of on parole.

Quote I liked:

"....when someone lets their emotions take over, they usually lose sight of reason."

Organize Your Corpses, Death is Never Tidy

by Mary Jane Maffini

Charlotte Adams is beginning a business as a professional organizer, so when her old teacher (who the entire town hates) Miss Helen "Hellfire" Henley contacts her and asks her to clean out the old house she just inherited, she agrees. Even though all of her friends warn her that this is a bad idea. Then Miss Henley is found dead under a pile of the debris and Charlotte becomes a suspect.

This book is entertaining, a quick read, and has organizing tips at the beginning of each chapter!

Quotes I liked:

"Tomorrow is another day. Not such an original statement, but hard to argue with, and anyways its a motto that works for me. Get off to a good start, don't drag yourself down with toxic memories from the day before, remember the lessons learned, and get going!"

We Are Their Heaven

by Allison DuBois

This book is written by the creater of the tv show Medium. It is her real accounts of communicating with the dead. While I believe in her abilities, and I really like the show, I did not like this book at all. I found it too depressing to read so much about death, especially when the chapters dealt with the death of a child.

Cypress Point

by Diane Chamberlain

Diane Champerlain is noted for writing novels that explore the complexities of human relationships- between men and women, brothers and sisters, parents and children. My goal is to read all of her books. This is book 2 for me.

Joelle's best friend Mara has a brain aneurysm during childbirth and is now so brain damaged that she can only move one arm, smile, and make a little puppy whine sound. Now Joelle and Mara's husband are brought together by their mutual devastation over Mara's condition. Eventually, their feelings grow into something more than friendship, and one night of passion. Now though, they both refuse to act upon their feelings and to feel anything but guilt for their night together. Out of desperation, Joelle calls the healer, who according to her parents, brought her back to life after she died at birth,hoping she can cure Mara too.

This turns into the story of the healer and her twin sister as well. It's a book about love, promises, hope, secrets, and regrets.

The Secrets of CeeCee Wilkes

by Diane Chamberlain

This book made me think a lot about people and how they grow up and change. How many of us are really the same people we were when we were sixteen? Oh, I know that buried inside of us there is still a glimpse of that person, but just barely.

It also made me think a lot about crime, jail, and the justice system.
It's easy to think that most criminals are that way because they have chosen that lifestyle. It's easy to condemn them and not even consider the circumstances that made them choose that way of life. Yet can we ever really say with certainty how we would have turned out if we'd been in the same circumstances? What about the everyday people who have never considered crime at all, and then make one poor decision that results in them being criminals? How about people who commit terrible crimes in their youth who never get caught and end up turning themselves around and leading a model life, who then get caught when they are elderly resulting in them being tried for crimes that were committed so long ago that you can't even imagine them being that person.

That's what this book is about. CeeCee at sixteen falls in love for the first time with an older man who really just wants to use her to help him commit a crime to free his sister from death row. CeeCee knows that it's illegal, but he makes it seem so simple and easy, and her involvement so slight that it won't matter. She loves him so badly and wants him to continue loving her, so she complies. This leads to her entire life changing. Now twenty-eight years later, she confesses her part in the crime and has to face her family, friends, and a jury.

Quotes I liked:

"A mother never loved her daughter more," Marian said. "Every mother I know screwed up somehow with her kids and only with the best of intentions."

"Can you think of a time when you felt really brave? The next time you're afraid of something, remember how you felt at that time. Remember everything about it. How it smells and feels and especially the calm or positive excitement you felt and try to carry that feeling with you into the new situation. Think of this as a mantra, 'Carry the Confidence.' Say that to yourself when you're afraid of something and let it remind you of how you felt in that brave situation."

Summer House

by Nancy Thayer

A book about families, difficult relationships, and of course love. Charlotte is staying on the island of Nantucket with her Nona (91 year old grandma). She is starting an organic garden and selling to local restaurants, motels, and stores. Her wealthy family just thinks it's another whim until she makes a $4,000 profit. They are all rich, so this amount of money is nothing, except now they are afraid she is positioning herself to inherit the entire estate from Nona. So a lot of her relatives all advance on the island to stay for the summer too. This leads to Nona having a lot of time to daydream and remember her past. Eventually she reveals a huge secret to her son and daughter-in-law (Charlotte's parents), which begins to change everything for them.

Most of the chraracters were likable. The plot was good. The book left a lot of unanswered questions though, so I think that there will probably be another book eventually.

It Happened One Wedding Night

a Montana Mavericks book by Karen Hughes

A fluff romance book, a Silhouette romance book even. It wasn't a fantastic book, but it was an ok stress reliever.

Daisy is an inexperienced, single, 30 year old teacher, until she goes to her sister's wedding. There she has a wonderful time with the best man. Since she has been considering going to a sperm bank anyway, she lets nature take its course at the end of the evening.

When her pregnancy begins to show, the private school where she works asks her to leave. She goes to stay with her sister, and is soon surprised by the fact that the best man is working on the ranch to tame wild colts.

He demands to know if he is the father and she (of course) tells him no. The rest of the book is pretty predictable.

Quote I Liked:

"I don't run from trouble. Problems don't go away because you ignore them. Nothing will get settled until the truth is told."

Free Fall

by Ariela Anhalt

Luke's life isn't easy. When he was 14, his father killed himself and his mother wasn't together enough to tell her son or to be of any help to him. The headmaster at his boarding school is the one who had to inform him of the death.

Now Luke is a senior who still hasn't dealt with his grief and anger. He hates his mom and has no relationship with her. Plus he's pretty shy, so the only relationship he has is with his best friend Hayden & Hayden's friends. Hayden oozes power and charm and pretty much runs everything at the school. Then a new boy, Russell, comes and challenges this. He even steals Hayden's girlfriend.

When Hayden, Russell, and Luke go to the cliffs for Russell's jump (a school tradition), Russell dies hitting the rocks instead of landing in the water. Now everyone wants to know what really happened up there. Was it an accident or a murder?

Quote I liked:

"Luke couldn't change his past, but he could change his future. He could take control of his life. He could do the right thing in this moment. It was time that someone stepped up."

Going in Circles

by Pamela Ribon

I really liked this book. It was an impulse buy at Super K. It was about a woman in total melt down because her husand left her after five months of marriage then changed his mind after a few weeks & moved back in . He won't tell her where he went or why, and the entire thing has caused her to doubt herself and start having anxiety attacks, so she moves out. Eventually, an unlikely girl (goth) at work pushes her out of her misery and talks her into joining the roller derby. So as she becomes skater "Hard Broken", she begins to find a way to heal herself.

Quotes I liked:

"Sometimes I marvel at what the female body can endure. We can create life, giving our bodies up to grow another human being, one who takes things from us we need, like vitamins and nutrients. We become a host, a vessel of life giving blood and shelter, only to be torn practically apart by the childbirth process. Afterward, we are never the same. Our bodies change, stretched and worn, scarred. We can never go back to the person we were before."

"When it comes to problems or misunderstandings, I'm like a sitcom character. I want everything bad or uncomfortable to be over within twenty-four minutes. Less than half an hour later, I want us to be swapping apologies, each of us insisting we are more to blame, but have learned 'something very important' from all of this. I want things resolved so the credits can roll, so that I can find rest."

"I do declare, that you need to either get over yourself or get yourself a life. And Lord have mercy, I hope you decide to do both. Preferably in that order. Amen."

(The next quote has special meaning to me, because that's my super power too. Plus, most people can't remember anything, so they think you exaggerate or make stuff up. I find this infuriating.)

"I have given up wondering how it is that Francesca can stay on top of so many people's schedules all at once. It's one thing to know exactly where her boyfriend is at any point, but she often remembers not only what I'm supposed to do over a weekend, but exactly what I was doing this time a week ago. This is Francesca's weird super power. She says she's been this way her whole life. When she thinks of people a mental calendar appears around them, like they are surrounded by their own day planners. When I first marveled at how much this must come in handy, she told me it was more like an annoyance. Friends of hers over the years have accused her of being a creepy stalker, when in fact she can't help it that she remembers how the last time you were in a sushi restaurant with her you ordered a rainbow roll, two spicey tuna hand rolls, and shishito peppers extra spicey. 'I would love to have that part of my brain used for something important,' she once told me. 'Or for the very least for my own personal memorage storage, but I don't have a say in it. Do you want to know what my best friend in the 3rd grade wore on the first day of school? A green jumper with big yellow buttons and two white bunnies embroidered on the front with a carrot between them. Why will I remember this forever? I don't know, but I will.'

"Oh, we're going to have a baby. This is the worst thing ever."
"Maybe not, maybe you'll have a cute kid that will hate everything as much as you do. And you can teach it all the things that suck in life, like laughing and rainbows. You can make sure he hates unicorns. Or if it's a girl, you can tell her how she is gentically crazy and will never make a man happy, and she's destined to live a life alone except for her cats. You always know what to say to people."
"Stop trying to make me laugh."

"These things happen sometimes, but you never know, it might work itself out. Don't be too hard on yourself. Just try and make it through today. There's nothing you can do right now, right? Whatever is supposed to happen will happen. That's life. Life is unpredictable, and we just hang on for the ride. Hopefully, with a seat belt. And if you're not wearing a seat belt, maybe because you're on a motorcycle, at least you should be wearing a helmet. Although that doesn't protect your heart, does it?"
'Dad, what are you doing?'
"I don't know."
'You sould crazy.'
"I know. I'm sorry. I don't know what to say, and you're not talking, so I'm saying a bunch of bullshit."
'I appreciate the bullshit.'

"We were going to buy a house, start a family, but ever since you and Matthew split up, Pete's worried that we're not going to make it, and all he talks about is whether or not we'll ever get a divorce. And if this keeps up, we will get one, and I don't really want to end up like you and Matthew."
"You can't predict your day any more than you can predict the next thing a person's going to say. By the way, you've been an incredibly shitty friend."

(It's true that this character was a bad friend, however I do understand what she means in this instance. About 9 years ago, a close friend of mine got divorced. She had no warning, her husband who baked cookies with her the night before for their son's birthday party, asked for a divorce in the morning and told her that he'd been cheating for more than a year. It put me into a total funk and gave me all kinds of things to worry about. We had always scrapbooked together too, so I kept thinking how painful all of those happy family pages and books were going to be now. I felt so bad vicariously that I couldn't scrapbook myself for almost a year.)

"The rules of the track work well for life. Roller derby is life in a tiny circle. You can only go forward, even if you find yourself turned around, facing the wrong way. There's speed, unpredictability, and danger. You can't be sure what's going to happen, you don't always know when you'll stop, and it appears most people are out to get you. You will fall. You will get hurt. You will get up again. Look, what's the worst thing that could happen? Anything that hurts will eventually heal. You get back up. You keep going. You get stronger. You get better. Life goes on. That's it. ...or you get a skate to the face. You know. Either way."

My Invented Life

by Lauren Bjorkman

This is a book I got from the library for Katie to read. It had a cute cover, and looked like a good book. It was, but it wasn't anything like what I expected. The main character, Roz, thinks that her perfect sister might be a lesbian. While trying to get her sister to tell her the truth, she tells people on a blog that she has a girlfriend. This results in a lot of interesting situations. In the end, Roz learns a lot about herself, her friends, and eventually, her sister.

The characters in this book are very likable. Roz, especially makes me laugh, she consults an on-line ouija board for major decisions in her life.

Quotes I like:

" A devious mind is a terrible thing to waste."

"I don't respond well when people strip me of my delusions. Like the time when my best friend in the 2nd grade informed me that there wasn't a tooth fairly. I hid under her bed and cut off the pink mane of her My Little Pony."

"Mom suffers from classical bad timing. I wonder if showing up at the wrong moment is an innate talent or a skill she's been developing."

"The difference between a prince and a toad is overrated because they are both just boys under the glitter and warts."

"You know how some people have a devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other? Well...your angel hangs out around your heart, but your devil is in charge of your tongue."

"The self-help book I'd write: I love Myself.....almost."

"Teens are often self-destructive, and feelings aren't always logical," she says. "You'll understand when you are a mother."....'at this comment, My anger builds to violence, the hair-pulling, nail scratching, and shin-kicking kind. I storm off to stew behind the speaker. When I have a daughter, a million years from now, I will accept her for who she is. More than that, I will encourage her to follow her heart, to embrace herself. I hope she turns out to be even crazier than I am.'

The Spectacular Now

by Tim Tharp

I didn't really like this book, although, of course, I was still compelled to read the entire thing. It was about Sutter Keely, a senior in high school, who embraces the weird and lives only in the now. Really he's a drunk, and the amount of drunk driving in this book drove me crazy. He's a likable enough character, but he's really a mess. I wanted to fix him the entire time I was reading, and I couldn't understand how a mom could be so absent and blind to what was going on with her own kid. It had a non-ending though...the kind where you have to infer what happens next. I hate those. I like to know!

Quotes I Like:

"Im more worried that I didn't exactly hear what she wants me to do from now on to save our relationship."
'So what, you weren't listening at all? If it was me, I'd be hanging on every word.'
"You can't hang on every word, there's too much going on at any given moment. All you can do is absorb the feel of it."
(isn't that guy logic?)

"I don't look down on anyone, except maybe for the pretentious, and you can even feel sorry for them if you think about it." (I'd like a shirt with that sentence on it!)

"It's sad in a way to watch old movie stars grow old beneath their fabulous hair."

Dying Breath, A Forensic Mystery

by Alane Ferguson

A book I got from the library for Katie & read myself. It was ok, but I think I would have liked it more had I read the first three books in the series.

Cameryn is seventeen and wants to be a medical examiner in the future. Currenly, she is in an apprenticeship with the local medical examiner. The only problem now is that all the bodies they are examing are from Kyle who used to be Cameryn's boyfriend, and Cameryn is definitely on his kill list.

Ya-Yas in Bloom

by Rebecca Wells

Although I really like parts of all the books Rebecca Wells writes, there are definite parts that I out rightly hate. All involving abuse basically. Still her books are all worth reading, there's just somethings I can't comprehend doing or condone. I wonder a lot about the author and what kind of experiences she's had to think of such things. I still basically envy the Ya-Yas for their sisterhood though...

Quotes I liked:

"Photos in this house are not what you would call organized. You have to be an archaeologist to even form a search team."

"There are a million stories.....and the children would make their mothers tell them over and over, and if the teller forgot one single part, the children would make the raconteur go back and include it. The teller could add in new elements, but she could never leave out the essentials. That's the way it is with creation stories. You can embroider them, but you must not leave out the fundamental building blocks."

"I wonder if Mama ever knew how much that acknowledgement meant to me. I wonder if she knows how it makes up for so many things. That moment stays inside of all the other moments. It's not that it makes the other scary moments go away. But when I am up against the wall, when I am shaking with fear, the memory of that moment stops me from hiding in the bathroom and throwing up."

"Don't call her a woman," Vivi says. "Howard is a nun."
"Bride of Christ," Turner says.
"That's right," Vivi agrees.
"Did she wear a garter when she married Christ?" Lulu asks.
Vivi stares at Lulu, then she stares at Caro. "Caro, were there some kind of classes we were supposed to take before we said we'd raise kids?"
"Yeah," Caro replies. "We forgot to go."
"Oh, that's right." Vivi laughs. "We took the cha-cha classes instead, remember?"
"Let's cha-cha!" the twins demanded.
"Absolument!" Cary says and goes over to the stereo.

"This is a party. Let's get back to it." Baylor said.
"Damn well better," Shep said. "I hate to think of what those Ya-Yas could have cooked up while we were in here."
"They move fast, don't they?" George said.
"Hell, George, we've never been able to keep up with them and never will. Knew it when we married them, didn't we?"
George smiled. "I was dumber than you, Shep. I actually thought I would be the boss."
Shep laughed, "Boss a Ya-Ya? Man, you were one blind SOB!"
"In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king," George quoted.

The Sweet Potato Queens' Guide To Raising Children for Fun & Profit

by Jill Conner Browne

I love the Sweet Potato Queens, and I've loved all the books so far, but this is the best one. I laughed, a lot! Good thing, because I'm in a funk and really need some laughter!

Quotes I liked: (I wish I could copy the entire book!)

Since the setting is the 60's, sex really wasn't talked about with kids much. People felt that talking about it was permission/encouragement to do it, so instead, kids inferred their own meanings to things. So here is the PQ story:
"Finally our older seesters actually did tell us some words and what they meant-for instance, boobs and twat. But we thought that our clever older seesters had made up these words theirownselves in order to talk in code in front of Stupid Grown-ups. And so we went around saying them all the time-even formed a club- we were the Twat Sisters-and oh, how funny, funny, funny we thought that was because nobody in the world but us (and our big seesters) knew what a twat was, and how clever were we? We even made up little membership cards with our names on them and everything and were just prancing around junior high school talking freely and loudly about our boobs and twats and our little club thinking what a great joke-because nobody knew what it meant but us(and our big seesters). And as it turned out, the principal. When he questioned the Twat club member she explained it wasn't really a club, just a joke based on some silly words that our big seesters had made up and shared with us. Somehow he managed to keep a straight face as he advised her that they were not secret words at all and that pretty much everybody in the world knew eggzackly what they meant. "

(This made me think of how much we thought about our permanent records while in school and how much we were threatened by them...and how little kids are today. Plus kids today probably wouldn't care, they'd just add it all to their myspace and move on!)
"We were informed in the first grade that a file bearing our name had been opened (our Permanent Record), that the information about our comportment would be duly recorded in said file, and that it would follow us all the days of our life. Once something was installed in your Permanent Record-that was it-you could never get it out no matter what. We obviously lived in mortal dread of committing any transgression that could somehow wind up inscribed in our Permanent Record. No telling how many actual felonies were prevented by this threat."

(I remember the exact moment I decided I had had enough and was going home. Kate could be born at a different time.)
"Queen G-Louise had been in labor for two whole days, and after two hours of steady pushing, she propped up and told her labor nurse that she thought she was just gonna go on home and rest awhile-she promised she'd be back tomorrow, first thing, to finish up, but she was done for today."

"Queen Jan was in labor for about twenty-four hours with her first child and her (then) husband stood by and fed her- in Jan's words-'those blankety-blank-blank ice chips they think we need when we're in labor.' Jan clearly was not appreciative of the ice chips nor of her (then) husband's feeding them to her. But she didn't cross the line over into wanting him to die until he left her side to go across the street to have a beer and get himself a big giant corned beef sandwich which he then brought into the room where she lay laboring-even to her very bedside he brought it- where he stood and ate the whole entire thing. It was twenty-three years ago and even divorcing him was not quite enough to quell her fury. The smell of corned beef still makes her want to go to the gun show.

"There are so many things in my life about which I am mildly chagrined, if not out and out ashamed of, things for which I and I alone am completely responsible, and I hope you don't ask me about any of those things. But the fact that I am 54 and climbing is not my fault- ain't nothin' I can do to stop it, 'cept die, and most days I'm not ready to do that."

Note to self: Read her seester's book Southern Fried Divorce by Judy Conner.

"Researchers have done a study on moms. There are two kinds of mothers. We have your dearly demented and overtly overachievers-these would be the Alpha moms. They make their own direct from scratch ...(pg. 71-71 and you get the idea)...Then we have the Beta Moms. We are the ones that the Alpha Moms trust only to bring the paper towels and trash bags to the parties. Beta Moms show up late, running down the halls, flip flops flapping on the floor, breathing hard, sweating, hair in a straggly knot, no makeup, scrub pants, and an oversized T-shirt frantic because we actually forgot this stupid party until we dropped off the kids and overheard one of the Alpha's kids talking about her mom renting a live parrot for the event and perching him in the banyan tree she made out of grocery sacks and twine. Totally freaked out, we roared off in our old Volvo sedan because the party was due to start in twenty minutes and we were ten minutes away from anyplace that sold paper towels and trash bags, which was our only assignment, and we'd forgotten them. Dads were not mentioned in the study, and that right there seems worthy of research to me."

"When you become pregnant, there is a pretty good chance that one day you will be going home from the hospital-having given birth to a baby with a penis. Although, truth be told, for much of the child's life (and nearly all of the subsequent man's) it will, at times, seem that you have given birth to a penis with a very small boy attached. There is absolutely nothing in this world-nor in any worlds that may lie out yonder-that holds for him any comparable levels of fascination-the word 'delight' would not be too strong here- to that which he feels for his own penis. It is truly the center of his universe, and virtually any decision he makes in life can somehow be reduced to happy penis/sad penis. They do make 'em seem like pretty much fun, don't they? What woman doesn't get the concept of penis envy? I mean, once we figure out the deal with them, and they are confusing, are they not? They are so different from anything we have. Doris recalled that the first time she saw her baby brother's tiny Unit, she thought he had two noses. (She was to learn that later in life, like noses, penises often get stuck in other people's business where they don't belong.) Brooke was really po'd about her own potty training experience when she observed that her older brother Blake could actually pee on the trees themselves and did not have to be satisfied with merely watering their roots. Have we not all shared her angst?"

(Note to self: Watch movie Hung)

Nick did this at the Home Depot. Also in the middle of the Memorial Day Parade...and in the Ball Pit at Sea World.
"Never having birthed no boy babies myself, I never endured the difficulty of looking up just in time to witness my three-year-old son shaking off after having successfully completed a satisfying whiz in one of the display toilets at Sears."

"Pint-size Penis People practically all prefer to be perfectly naked most of the time. Little boys just do seem to love to get naked-and I've not met too many-hmmm-make that any---who ever get over it. The big boys are just about as happy to be nekkid by themselves as they are if and when we get nekkid with them.)

"I think I speak for all po-po owners when I say that, yeah, the penni do have some convenience features that we lack, but overall we really wouldn't trade-holding, as we do, that major trump card-the old Multiple Orgasm."

I once put a crayon in my little sister's nose. At my grandma's house, I still remember, it was red. My thoughts were better her nose than mine! Nick put a bead in his...and then snorted with rage, so it was up close by his eyes. I was in a panic. Eventually, though, between me clamping my fingers at the highest point of his nose, and him snorting in rage to escape me, it did finally fly across the room.
"Tammy Linda was driving along with her three year old son, Allen, in that blissfully ignorant state that mothers share-right before they notice in the rearview mirror that their son is shaking his head repeatedly from side to side and they ask him why is he doing that and he tells them it's because he has an eye in his ear-like, duhhh, how could she ask such a stupid question? And so she is then forced to ask yet another one along the lines of ' What do you mean, you have an eye in your ear?' He patiently explains that he found one of those little googly doll eyes and he put it in his ear-again, like detour-what else would one do? And she, just making conversation during the detour to the ER, asks ever Mom-like, "Why did you put it in your ear?" Big duh...because he didn't have any pockets, MOM!" I suppose moms would have an easier time understanding crap like this if they had started life as little boys- but then they'd be trying to hook up the baby's nose to the Shop-Vac, too. So, I guess it's worked out best in the long run with the current setup."

"Mama, Michelle said the B word. Did not. Did too. Michelle said 'Bagina' and I heard her!"
(This makes me laugh, since our word for the Po-Po is China, due to Misty S., who in the 2nd grade told a boy named Merlon very indignantly, "Boys have Peanuts and Girls have Chinas."

"Rules for Governing Sex after Children:
1. The Park is open only when the "Park Manger' (read: wife) gives the All Clear. The All Clear means that all Attractions are up to standard-it does not guarantee that all are, in fact, open. Some Attractions are not and never will be available. (If any Campers are disgruntled over this ruling, they should perhaps consider exploring their own Attractions.)
2. The Attractions have rules. No one may ride unless certain specifications are met. All specifications are set at the total discretion of the Park Manager and are subject to change without notice. Depending on the mood of the Park Manger, some Attractions may be Shows Only, while others may be more interactive and participatory in nature.
3. Personal Park Hopper Passes are available but Campers should expect to pay hefty Fees (covering the cost of paying someone to take care of the children for a week whole all the Park Mangers go off on a va-damn-cation that includes, but is not restricted to shopping, drinking, shopping, lolling in the sun, drinking, and, of course, shopping-funds for all of which will also be included in the fees). Only when the Fees are paid in full will the Personal Park Hopper Pass be valid, and it, like so many things in this life, has an expiration date.
4. Positively NO Early Admission to the Park. All Attractions must be readied before the first guest enters. This requires some pre-Attraction setup- preview, and the occasional practice run of some sort. The Park Manager will not give the All Clear to pen the Park if the rides' wheels have not been properly lubed.
5. The Park is subjective to closing for repairs-either major (plastic surgery) or minor (eating the whole damn cake because it was easier than putting it away.)
In summary: Camper Does Right- Park's Open. Camper Does Bad- Park is Closed. Camper Screws Around- Park is Relocating. I do kinda like thinking of myself as Disney World, don't you?"

"No one was Mentally Ill when I was growing up. You were just crazy."

"My driving time as a youngster was divided up between making sure that my family arrived as quickly as possible at the Poorhouse and qualifying my mother for a padded room."

"It is only now, as the mother of a teenager myownself, who wants to drive, that I can even begin to comprehend what my mother meant by muttering about "the tortures of the damned."

"It is true-that ole saying you've heard- that the decision to have a child is the decision to have your beating heart just out there, walking around free in the world. Free and exposed to every danger ever thought of by a mother and more. But when they learn to drive- then you have your beating heart out there, but it's now riding on top of a four-thousand-pound bomb- if you are lucky, it's wearing a seat belt."

"You just think you worry about your children when they are little and you have an equal or perhaps greater misconception regarding the level of torment that you endure at their hands. Terrible twos? The mother of a teeager will laugh in your very own face- she would/could take on ten or twelve two-year-olds concurrently for the rest of her LIFE and it wouldn't be a very tiny pimple on the very ample ass of motherhood."

"Somewhere around 11 to 13, the eyeballs of children become extremely loose in their sockets, so that just about any disturbance in the air around them-say, a word issuing form, say your mouth- will cause immediate and severe rolling. Time and/or consequences will eventually cause the sockets to tighten up again so that their eyes remain facing forward, but I swear, for about five years, there, my daughter looked like she was from the Village of the Damned- I saw nothing but the backs of her eyeballs, she kept em rolled up so far!" (I had to share this with my niece Kristen since she has been rolling her eyes at her mom (and teachers) since she was about 7. Now she has a valid excuse...a true illness!)

A story of little Krisanne who didn't want to be a clown but a fairy, made me remember Kirsten pretending to be Cinderella while Katie was the Fairly Good Mother.

"The minute you see your baby you grasp the full measure of the human heart's capacity for boundless love and transcendent joy-and the merest glimmer of its potential for being truly and utterly broken. You know that you can bear, believe, hope, and endure all things-for the sake of this little bitty baby on your lap."

Little Altars Everywhere

by Rebecca Wells

I read the Ya-Ya Sisterhood years ago. I loved the characters, most of them anyway, but I can't say that I like the book. The abuse (especially sexual) really bothered me. However I decided to give this book a chance. Same mixed feelings about it. I am going to read Ya-Yas in Bloom though to finish the set...and possibly re-read the first one. I sure wish I had friends like the sisterhood though. People to do crazy stuff with...and to just laugh and laugh.

Quotes I like:

"In summertime the child just lives for the bookmobile. Which is the whole reason why she hid up there and rode downtown and let them lock her up. She thinks books are her best friends and she wanted to be surrounded by them. I understand. None of this is strange to me. I am her mother, though, and it is my job to teach her that you cannot escape from life. Life is not a book. You can't just set it down on the coffee table and walk away from it when it gets boring or you get tired."

(You can't rewrite it either...I wish!)

"I cannot believe my ears! mama telling a poor holy woman that her hair is ugly. Mrs. Williams clears her throat and says, I wish I could. But I....We...just can't afford it. Mama says, Don't be ridiculous, you can't afford not to! I think I'll have to do penance for my mother's sins-along with my own-for the rest of my life. Mama says, Listen to me Siddalee, and listen good: There is no excuse to let your looks go, no matter how poor you are. Cleanliness might be next to godliness, but honey let me tell you, ugliness will get you nowhere."

"Oh God, I think, it's such a good life, but it hurts! I will never let him hurt me again as long as I live, I say to myself. I say it over and over again. One of these days I will learn."

"Please don't give me any more than I can handle. I am a strong woman, but don't push me. Don't push me, Lord, you hear me!"

The Sweet Potato Queen's Book of Love

by Jill Conner Browne

Another funny Sweet Potato Book. My goal in life, really is to be a Sweet Potato Queen. I wish Ohio had a chapter...who knows, maybe I'll start it!

Quotes I like:

"Suzanne Sugarbaker was so right when she said, There's just nothing better in life than to ride around on the back of a convertible with a crown on your head! Words to live by!"

"We love majorette boots. Not one of us ever got a pair of Real Life Majorette Boots growing up, and not one of us had ever gotten over that bitter disappointment." (Don't I know it. My Aunts had real boots that they twirled in. I longed for those boots. My Aunt Valli said I could have hers when I turned ten. I counted down the years. Dreaming of all the good times I would have in those boots. My tenth birthday came, and I went to grandma's eagerly for my boots. She said, "Those old things. They were disgusting, so I threw them out! I've never fully recovered from that....)

"We postulate that weather one is a queen or not, in any area of life, it is highly desirable to get other people-men-to do things for you whenever possible. This includes, but is certainly not restricted to, performing all manner of personal services, as in cooking, cleaning, and errand-running, and especially rubbing, fawning, worshiping in word and deed, constantly, and of course, paying for all things-as in everything sparkly!"

"I dated a wonderful guy, Ralph, for an all-too-brief period in my youth. At the time he was totally unsuitable for me: tall, dark, handsome, sexy, successful, great sense of humor, sweet, smart, really fun to be with-you get the picture. There was no way I'd get serious with a guy like that. I preferred the unemployed, although the unemployable were particular favorites, too, in those days."

"If there exists in this universe anything more infuriating and crazy-making than a man, I don't know what it is, thank you, and I don't want to know. Of course, on a good day, I would also have to say if there is anything in this universe better than a man, I don't know what it is; and I don't think it would even be healthful for me to know at this stage of my life."

"Rules to live by:
1. Be Particular (covers your diet, your love life, your financial situation, ...)
2. Be Prepared (#1 always shave your legs & pits, always have pretty underwear on, -clean is understood- , ...)
3. Never wear panties to a party. (This rule evolved by accident when I was pregnant & had long outgrown anything resembling panties...now more like pillowcases, so I decided not to wear any undies to the party. When my husband came in and expressed surprise, I commented offhand like, Oh you never wear panties to a party, and kept on doing what I was doing. He stood there slack jawed for a while then gasped, You don't? Nobody does? He acted all dreamy like we'd let him in on a big secret...so all the other Sweet Potato Queens tried it on their husbands too. Now it's just a rule. Never wear panties to a party. But there's no point in not wearing panties if nobody knows your not wearing panties, so be sure to tell someone. You will know instinctively with whom to share this information." To be prepared, carry around with you your toothbrush, a change of undies, your chosen method of protection, your favorite pillow, and perhaps even a small canned ham."

(Note to self: Get Good Vibrations catalog. This is actually a very educational book, and we do feel strongly about education.)

"We learned, thanks to our dear friends at Good Vibrations, that the vibrator was invented in the late 19th century -in America of course- by doctors for treating 'female disorders'. It seems that genital massage was standard medical practice at that time, to induce what they called 'hysterical paroxysm'. We call it orgasm today. It was invented to be a labor saving device for the doctors and a time saver too! We were not in the least surprised to hear that men were in too big a hurry to fool with us, even in the slower era. That one of the greatest boons to womankind was actually invented to make life easier for men is okay by us."

"Yes it's a good thing to be pretty. But we are not just pretty, and pretty all by itself is not worth much since it lasts only about an hour, relative to the rest of your life. In addition, pretty is just a major accident of birth, and nobody can take personal credit for it."

"If your child should be butt headed in public, squad down right beside him/her and get right in her little ear and say real low and contained, often through clenched teeth (I've found that just about anything you say through clenched teeth takes on an added tone of pith and import), 'You are acting awful, and it's embarrassing me, and if you don't stop on a dime, then in about two seconds I am going to do something that will embarrass you so much, I doubt seriously you'll ever completely recover."

"Little Beesters!"

"The point of this is to demonstrate how easily lifelong prejudices can be formed by the silliest of circumstances. Therefore we feel it is important that our children be taught this simple tenet: Hate people on an individual basis only-"

"Regarding people who endlessly pass judgment on others and proclaim loudly, as if they know, who will and who won't be in Heaven and why, my daddy always said, "Last time I checked, your name wasn't listed on the 'range-mints committee." Meaning thank God, you're not the boss of anything."

"Favorite t-shirts: 'You are Dumb.' "Men are all Idiots and I am Married to their King." "My next husband will be normal." Well I was wearing the last one at a Dairy Bar and the Little old Lady behind the counter just about fell over laughing. She was walking up and down back there, laughing and talking to herself, saying 'I don't know what in the world all these girls are thinkin' of these days, gettin' married; they must just like changin' their names- you cain't make nothin' but a man out of em'. And I don't care who he is when you git 'im home, they's somethin' bad wrong with 'im."

"Fran was broken hearted. Then one of the ladies who worked in the dining room said, "Git another one. You don't have to say a world. It's a man, I know it is. Git another one. This one don't do right, git another one. As my daddy used to say whenever he thought too much of a fuss was being made over something lost or broken, they makin' them thangs ever' day! So dispense with all the weeping and wailing."

"It's sad, but even sadder, it's true- that a disproportionate number of men who you will be temporarily enraptured with throughout your lifetime will turn out, rather sooner than later, to warrant killing. It's just almost never a good idea to follow through-although, I swear, it seems like the only way to get rid of some of them."

"I can handle this, and I will handle this, because I am the great and powerful mother!"

"As you walk down life's pathway, you may chance upon a turd- don't kick it!"

Saving CeeCee Honeycutt

by Beth Hoffman

Twelve year old CeeCee has a difficult life. She lives in the 60's, and her mom is imbalanced and getting worse. Her dad is a traveling sales person and never around. Aside from one neighbor, the town makes fun of CeeCee and her mom and shun them. CeeCee's mom dresses like a beauty queen with a tiara and sash and waves at make-believe crowds. She never really knows what's going on. Practical things like being a mom aren't part of her schedule. Then she's hit by an ice-cream truck while crossing the road from the Good Will store where she was buying more "prom" dresses. CeeCee's dad decides she will go live with her Great Aunt Tootie in Georgia. Finally, CeeCee is learning what it is like to be cared for.

Quotes I like:

"I was so embarrassed, I thought I'd implode right there on the sidewalk. With my books hugged to my chest, I ran full throttle until I reached the library. I pushed through the heavy wodden door of the ladies' restroom, hid in one of the stalls, and opened a book. I read as fast as I could, gobbling up pages until the wild thumping of my heart subsided, until the story on the pages became real and my life became nothing but a story-a story that simply wasn't true."

"My first impression was that pies seemed to help people be kind to one another a whole lot better than any mean-talking preacher. In fact, there were mores miles around the bake-sale tables than I had ever seen in one place before. I made a mental note that if I ever needed help from a man I would make him a pie."

"My life is here; this is my real life" she whimpered poking the old picture with her finger. "I was so young and beautiful."
"But momma, winning that pageant wasn't your life- it was only a day in your life- that's all. Life is what we made it. Maybe you'd be happier if you adjusted your thinking a bit!"

"Life is full of change, honey. That's how we learn and grow. When we're born, the Good Lord gives each of us a Life Book. Chapter by chapter, we live and learn. Each change gets written in your life book. It's guarded by your spirit. When a chapter of your Life Book is complete, your spirit knows it's time to turn the page so a new chapter can begin. Even when you're scared or think you're not ready, your spirit knows you are."

"I heard your momma passed away. Such a tragedy. Once you get settled, you come over and tell me all about it, but I just can't stop myself from askin'- how in the world did she get hit by a truck?"
'I was stunned speechless. Who does she think she is. What kind of person asks a question like that?
"I've learned the more we talk about things the better we feel. I talk about everything, and I know that's one of the reasons why I never so much as catch a cold."

"I don't have a bird. Who'd ever cage a bird? I can't imagine a worse fate. I bought this cage and wired the door open to remind myself how delicious freedom is-financial and otherwise."

"She reached out, slid the magazine from my fingers, and studied the woman on the cover. I used to look just like that. But after I turned forty it was a daily struggle to keep myself up. I turned forty-five this past Feb., and let me tell you, every day is nothing but an insult. Aging is a terrible slap in the face. My body betrays me every chance it gets."

"While Miz Goodpepper pulled a pitcher of lemonade from the frig, I asked 'Is the Kama Sutra a volcano?' She gasped and splashed lemonade. The strangest look streaked across her face as she sopped up the mess. 'Well I suppose some might think it's a volcano of sorts, but I can say with absolute assurance you wouldn't enjoy that book.' 'That's what I thought' I said feeling pleased with myself, 'so I put it back on the shelf.' She let out a barely audible sigh. 'Good."

"Karma stems from mental, physical, and verbal action. It's the sum of all we've said, done, and thought, be it good or bad."

"While I was out of town in April, my neighbor, the great gaping vagina otherwise known as Violene Hobbs murdered my magnolia tree!"

"There aren't enough years left in my life to cauterize the wounds that wretched woman has inflicted upon me."

"From the minute I met her I knew she was a pea-minded idiot. I've known ferms with higher IQs than hers."

"Mark my words, one day all the wicked deeds she has done will gather together and form a big black boomerang of karma that will spin through the sky and strike her down. I only hope I'm around to see it!"

"Your fire? Yes. Everyone needs to find the one thing that brings out her passion. It's what we do and share with the world that matters. I believe it's important that we leave our communities in better shape than we found them. Far to many people die with a heart that's gone flat with indifference, and it surely must be a terrible way to go. Life will offer us amazing opportunities, but we've got to be wide-awake to recognize them."

I glanced over my shoulder at the scene of the crime. When Miz Hobbs slipped on the slug and hit her head, was that kinda like the black boomerang of karma you talked about? Miz Goodpepper clutched the empty slug jar to her chest and slowly turned toward me. 'You are a very smart child.'

"Forgiveness had a whole lot more to do with the person doing the forgiving than it did with the person in need of forgiveness. She said holding on to hurt and anger made about as much sense as hitting your head with a hammer and expecting the other person to get a headache. But too many years of resentment were swollen inside me, and I had no forgiveness to offer just now."

"My grandmother was so alive and full of original ideas, especially for that era. While other women were busy being proper, she was busy cultivating her spirit."

"What's the difference between eccentric and crazy?"
"From over her shoulder she laughed and called out, 'Nobody knows!'

"It's what we believe about ourselves that determines how others see us."
"You make it sound so easy."
"You know what sugar, once you set your mind to it, it is easy."

The Geek Girl's Guide to Cheerleading

by Charity Tahmaseb and Darcy Vance

When Bethany-self-proclaimed geek girl- makes the varsity cheerleading squad, she realises that there's one thing worse than blending in with the lockers...getting noticed.

Cute book about a brainiac that makes cheerleading, and then learning how to deal with it. I got it for my daughter from the library, but I had to read it too!

Quotes I LIke:

"I guess it doesn't matter how big a boy's brain is," I whispered, "It can still be derailed by an insanely short skirt."

"We could petition to expand cheerleading to support the debate team. The chess club even. You know, Gambit to the left, castle to the right, endgame, endgame, now in sight!"

"Let's just same for some people high school never really ends" (isn't that the truth!)

"You know, chicks before dicks," Todd said, 'or in this case, pricks." I yanked free and stared at him. "How do you even know about that?" "Strategy." "What?" "Women are often the swing vote, said Todd. It's my job to be in touch with my feminine side."

Patty Jane's House of Curl

by Lorna Landvik

A book about two sisters and their relationships with men, each other, and the people who come to the beauty parlor the one sister owns told from the view point of a daughter. It's a good book, but sad too.

Quotes I liked:

"Honey, life can be a ballroom dance, or it can be full of shit, either way your job in both cases is to watch where you step."

"How old are you Ione?"
"Fifty-one"
"You don't seem that old"
"I don't think I'm that old. Mostly I feel I am nineteen."

"I just can't see myself as anything but young."
"When you're young that's how you think. But once you get not so young, you find out getting old is not so bad...even better. There is inside all of us the soul of an eight year old. Time and experience and motherhood-especially motherhood because my stars then you're in charge of someone else- make you wiser, but underneath it all is still that little eight year old center. Your age is often a number without meaning."

"To be good to yourself, sometimes it takes a special talent all its own."

"Most of the gals who come in here are looking for something more in their lives. Yes, even the church-going ones. Most of these women have husbands and children and a yearning they just can't put their fingers on. See they're all looking for something but they don't know what it is."
"Love" said Harriet.
"Happiness" piped in Ione.
"Fun?" said Nora.
"All good answers, but to get them, you need one basic thing, a sense of self. A sense that we're not just mothers or children or wives or girlfriends."
"Nora's ten year old heart pounded thinking there wasn't a person on the entire planet she could love as much as her mother."

(I miss being that "entire love" of my kids. Those were the days!)

"Then Nora became a teenager, and to her mother it seemed as if her daughter had crossed a street, leaving her explicit instructions not to follow." "It's just a phase" reassured Dixie, mother of four. "What do you expect?" "Common courtesy, a little respect." Dixie hooted, "Where you from Patty Jane? Mars? "

"There was relatively little that could effect Patty Jane's opinion of herself, but criticism from her daughter scratched and stuck to her like burrs on wool socks."

"A decision flamed in her mind. Until I can handle things, I'll pretend I can handle things. The simplicity of the plan astonished her, she felt the same exuberance as when she figured out an algebra problem. She repeated the new formula to herself, Until I can handle things, I'll pretend I can handle things."

Audrey Wait

by Robin Benway

I loved this book! Audrey breaks up with her boyfriend the day he is about to play in a club. He ends up writing a song about her before he goes. Talent Scouts at the club take the band and the song and make it big! Audrey's normal life is over!

Quotes I liked:

"They're stylin'."
"Dad, if you never say 'stylin" again, it'll be too soon."
"Can I still say things are cool?"
"Not around me please."
"That's cool."
I sighed.

(sounds so much like my kids!)

"It never fails that people will walk in at the last possible moment. I suspect it's a major conspiracy to annoy me."

A group of kids wearing bright blue t-shirts that said "Youth Choir Glee-a-Thon! on the front, which just goes to show how little parents love their kids, if they're willing to let them wear a shirt like that in public!"

"Cool sells better than brains." Jonah laughed and nodded. She's right. How many songs are written about brains?"

"I went to a concert on Friday night and made out with the lead singer from the Lolitas and their tour manager hid in the bushes and made a video of us and then sold it to the tabloids and now the principal wants to meet with me in his office," I told him since like, he wasn't going to fidn out in about three minutes anyways." "The Lolitas are way overated" he finally said. "They just don't know it yet."

"We would've kept smiling at each other like two hopeless dopes if I hadn't realized the time. Oh, half an hour in, I siad. Gotta report back to the generals. "
"Yeah, you do that, I don't want your dad to come after us."
I waved the thought away as I called home. "If anything, he'll just fuck with your head."
How reassuring. Thank you Audrey.
Anytime."

It's important to always have your enemy in your sight. Who knows what could be going on behind your back?

After sitting in the office all the time, my grades had all gone up. " My parents were absolutely gleeful. "Your social alienation is the best thing that's ever happened to you!" my mom crowed! It's nice to know whose side they're on.

I sighed, "How come when you want your parents to tell you what to do, they don't, and when you don't want them to tell you what to do they do?" "Secret parenting classes," Dad said.

"Sometimes you're gonna have to make decisions that not everyone is going to like. IF you think it's the right thing to do, you have to do it. Even if your friends and boyfriend don't like it. Heck, even if your parents don't. You have to start trusting yourself."

How Opan Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life

by Kaavya Visanathan

Opal has spent her entire life being groomed for Harvard. She has the grade point average, the school activities, and the leadership roles. She has the answers to the questions she predicts will be asked at her Harvard Interview. Then they ask her the questions she has no answers for: What does she do for fun in her free time? Who are her closest friends? Then they tell her to try again after she can answer these questions.

Her parents make a plan....they immerse her in fashion, fads, tv shows, and make a schedule for the friends and kissing.

Funny book! The mom entirely cracks me up!

Quotes I like:

"Where's your skirt?" Dad asked puzzled. I automatically tried to tub the hemline down. "This is it, Dad," I said. He looked helplessly at Mom. "Meena," he said, "She can't go to school like that...can she? That's not a skirt, it's a belt!" Mom said patiently, "This is the way all the girls dress these days. If we want Opan to succeed, she needs to fit in." "Ok," said Dad, "Show 'em what you've got Opal!" (Love the double meaning...since dad definitely doesn't mean what's hidden by the skirt!)

"What makes you the authority on nonconformity?" I snapped. "In Africa, lions always eat the gazelles that decide to run in a different direction!"

Opal and her family stop at a fast food place to regroup after the failed Harvard interview. Opl stuffs donuts in her mouth as fast as she can. Her mom and dad are ranting. Then Opal chokes on a donut and the mom pounds her on the back shrieking. ....
"The couple at the neighboring table shot us dirty looks. 'Maybe they've just immigrated,' I heard the woman mumble. My mom frowned. 'What did they say?' she asked me in a piercing whisper. 'Nothing Mom,' I said. 'They were just talking about when the next bird migration would be.' 'Isn't it a lovely day?' Mom called out. 'Are you on vacation or your honeymoon?' The woman looked at my mom like she was completely deranged. 'Actually,' she replied, exchanging a glance with her companion, 'we're on our way up to Maine for a funeral.' I briefly shut my eyes. While my mom's English was almost flawless, she still had trouble understanding people who spoke with American accents. She refused to ask people to speak up or repeat themselves; instead, she had come up with two stock phrases-- 'there you go' and 'good for you'- that she used as responses to anything she hadn't caught. More often then not, neither response was appropriate. "Good for you" my mom answered her cheerily. The couple went pale and turned their backs. I gagged on another bite of donut!"

The Flying Troutmans

by Miriam Toews

Hattie's eleven year old niece calls her and tells her that she and her brother need help. Their mother, who has schizophrenia, can't take care of them any longer. Hattie comes home from Paris to help, her sister gets checked into a psyh ward, and then tells her kids she doesn't want to see them again. Hattie, not really knowing what to do, takes them on a road trip to find their father.

A sad book, but funny incidents keep you reading.

Quotes I like:

"We're all mostly white nerds with minor physical and emotional flaws that do not require medication but do brand us as losers in the bigger picture."

"Themes has become a talking machine. Maybe she was attempting to use up all the words that Min had left behind, taking whatever popped into her head, any thought, idea or fact, and transforming it into sound, noise, life. She was talking for two, in double time. When we were kids, Min would go for months without saying a word. Her muteness was her voice, her retreat was her attack. It was all upside down and disconcerting and it had made me nuts. I used to do the same thing that Thebes was doing now, blather away non-stop about anything that came to mind, and really it was only when I got to Paris and Marc told me that silence was golden, especially mine, that I realized how much I talked."

Be nicer to people.
Be nicer to people.
Be nicer to people.
Be nicer to people.
Be nicer to people.
Be nicer to people.
Be nicer to people.
You're not stylish or cool
Be nicer to people.
Be nicer to people.
Be nicer to people.

"Thebes said that if she was eighteen and old enough to drink she'd start a book club."

"Another thing about our family, apparently, was that we were never able to define, precisely, or understand the charges being brought against us. Patterns of incomprehension."