Book Of The Week 9-30-2013: The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom

The Kitchen House

by

Kathleen Grissom

While at my blood pressure check up at my GP last month I was reading  my Kindle and the nurse asked me what I was reading.  As we talked about books we liked she said "Best book I have read this year is The Kitchen House."  So I jotted it down and later went online looking for it.   And while I am not sure I will place it as number one  for 2013,  I am pretty sure it will end up some place in the top three of my top ten list when I post it at the end of the year.   I really enjoyed this book!  The novel takes place late 1700s, early 1800s,  in Virginia.  This is a time frame and location that I am very fond of reading about.   A child who loses her parents aboard ship during their immigration  trip from Ireland to America is kept by the Captain of the ship as an indentured servant to pay for the family's passage.  He brings her to his tobacco plantation in Virginia and tells the cook he has obtained some help for her.  Lavinia is only seven years old when she arrives at Tall Oaks.  She is frightened and has forgotten how to talk.  The cook and other slaves of the tobacco farm embrace her as part of their family and she grows into an attractive young woman who eventually marries into the family of "the big house".    This is the story of Lavinia's divided loyalties between the people she has grown up with and  loved as family and her in laws which are her family as an adult.  It is a story of disillusionment and disappointment that matures into compromise and new life.  Click on the title and author's name above to learn more.  And enjoy the author's video that follows.

Book For The Week 9/28/13: The Story Of The Beautiful Girl by Rachel Simon

The Story Of The Beautiful Girl

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Rachel Simon

A New York Times Bestseller two weeks after it's release and one of Oprah's top ten titles to pick up in June 2011,  The Story Of The Beautiful Girl by Rachel Simon is my library book group's selection for October.    It is a fiction story about a young mentally challenged woman who is raped by her care giver in a state institution in Pennsylvania in 1968.  She becomes pregnant and just before her child is born a deaf and mute man, who she has befriended and is also a resident at the institution, helps her to escape.  They run and while they are away the baby is born.  Through a chain of events they are able to secure the baby safely with an older, childless,widow before young woman is re-taken by authorities and the man runs away with out her.  The story then follows the three story lines of these individuals.    In the epilogue the author states that part of the book was inspired by Geraldo Rivera's documentary on a state institution for the mentally challenged.  Here is the trailer for that 1968 documentary:




I found this book very difficult to read.  While it is a love story with a happy ending there is just so much pain between the pages to endure with the characters.   Never the less,  it should be required reading for all.  As a society we need to know where we were not so long ago with our treatment of our mentally disabled.  I can remember, as a teen,  the push to mainstream the handicapped into our school systems and what opposition there was to it.  I have known people who have worked in the system we have now and talk of the way things are still not right for our mentally challenged population.   It is a good thing to see where the journey came from not so long ago and to know that  while we still have progress to make, we have come a long way.  I hope the resources grow to  ensure that all our citizens are functioning at their full potential.  Please click on the title and the author's name above to follow links to more information.  And watch the video below in which the author introduces her novel.

Sunday Night At The Movies: The Break Up

Sunday night after dinner Bruce and I watched a movie called  The Break Up.  It is supposed to be a romantic comedy.  I really didn't care for it.  It was about a couple who lived together and they got in a big fight over  issues like the dishes.  Then rather than having a cool off period and  revisiting the issues later they both demonstrated very immature behavior.  In the end they broke up even though they neither one wanted to.  It was one misunderstanding after another.  Their lives together ruined and their home disassembled the main message of the movie at the end seemed to be that life goes on.  After it was over Bruce and I played a very neck and neck game of scrabble.  Even though I ended up losing I liked the game better than the movie.  See the trailer that follows.

Saturday Night At The Movies: Super 8

After dinner out on Saturday night,  Bruce and I rented a movie that my younger sister, Carol, recommended called Super 8.  It is a movie from 2011 about a group of Junior High age kids in a small town outside of Dayton Ohio.  It takes place in 1979.  The kids are making a zombie monster movie with their Super 8 camera when they inadvertently film a government secret in the back ground with their camera.  As a giant insect from outer space terrorizes their town and the Air Force and the local police department struggle to get the situation under control,  the young friends save the day.  It is one of those movies that, although it will never be considered high quality or an Oscar winner,  is great fun to watch.  We especially enjoyed the music of the late 70s that was throughout the film.  Enjoy the trailer below and make this your Halloween Movie to watch for this fall.

Book Of The Week 9/17/13: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

The Hunger Games

by

Suzanne Collins

This months selection for my library reading group is The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.   I have to admit that when The Hunger Games was first released and then the movie came out and was such a hit I felt it sounded so graphically violent that I did not want anything to do with it.  Then  a little over a year ago I visited my son in Denver and his room mate wanted to watch the movie so I joined in and was very impressed.  I enjoyed the movie very much and felt it was very well done.  So when the book was selected for September by my library reading group I was glad to get a chance to read it.  Then when it came right down to reading it I hesitated to pick it up and kind of drug my feet.  I had the notion that quite likely I would have trouble putting it down and end up losing out on some sleep.   But in fact for two thirds of the book a chapter or two a night was fine.  Then the last hundred  pages or more I had to keep reading.  I think I finished the book at five am yesterday morning.   It is a book that the author wrote to teach young adults about war.  It is about a futurist society where the haves make the have nots sacrifice a male and a female child or teen from twelve different districts to fight to the death each year.  The games are similar to our various reality TV series'  today in that they were filmed for all to watch.   I think what I like best about the book is that to me the message in the end is about non conformity and beating the system.   I liked the book very much and I am sure I will get around to reading the rest of the trilogy.   It fact it will probably make my top ten list of books I have read in  2013. Click on the title and author's name above to follow links to more information and enjoy the video below.   I highly recommend that every one read this book if for  no other reason than to know what the young adults today are reading.  Due to high popularity this series is a part of our culture now.

Book Of The Week 9/13/2013: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Gone Girl

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Gillian Flynn

I will never look at the colleague who recommended that I read Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn in quite the same way.  She insisted that it was one of the best books she read last year but it is one of the most twisted things I have ever experienced.  The fact that it spent eight weeks on the New York Times bestseller list is a chilling statement of the condition of our society.  I listened to this book on audio and I not only  found it very depressing but it made me want to grab my children away from all possible relationships and run from relationships myself.  If a person liked the movie Fatal Attraction back in 1987 then perhaps they will like Gone Girl.    More information can be obtained from clicking on the title and author's name above and from listening to the video below.  Or experience the book yourself - at your own risk.  

Saturday Night At The Movies: Robin Hood

There is nothing like a fairy tale movie for an evening at home watching the Dexter DVR.   This is an enjoyable movie.

Book For The Week 9/8/2013: The Treason of Mary Louvestre by My Haley

The Treason of Mary Louvestre

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My Haley

When I first heard about The Treason of Mary Louvestre by My Haley I was very much looking forward to reading it.  I remember enjoying the Roots TV mini series as a young person and admiring Alex Haley as an author.  The idea of reading something by his widow who worked with him on his work was very appealing.  Since the historical novel is my favorite genre, the prospect of reading a historical novel based in the time frame of the Civil War was also very appealing.   And finally,  the topic of a strong woman who against great odds accomplished an important task was indeed very appealing.  This book had all the ingredients of a novel I would enjoy very much.  After reading the book I can offer to it friends as an okay read.  It was entertaining.  But it will not be near the top of my list of ten favorite books I read this year if it even makes the list at all.  My Haley is honest in the introduction that the book is fiction.  The person of Mary Louvestre did exist and she did get the information about the CSS Virginia to the Union Navy. Please see HERE.  (Page 264 of Black Confederates and Afro-Yankees in Civil War Virginia)   But nothing is known about her so therefore the story that My Haley writes is fiction based on what she believes could have been.  I did not find it believable conjecture.  Perhaps I do not know enough about the time frame to buy into it.  I had never heard of homosexuality being an issue among slaves although after thinking about it I would suppose it was present just as it is present now in some social groups.   I did like the last third of the book best.  It held my interest more than the first two thirds, although I did not find the outdoors man skills of survival that Mary Louvestre demonstrated in keeping with the seamstress character that had been developed up to the point where she ran off and headed for Washington DC.  Mary is a slave who was able to obtain the plans of the CSS Virginia which revealed the ship's weak spot for the Union to hit and therefore prevent the South from breaking the North's blockade.   If you click on the title and the author's name above you will follow the links to more information.  Also enjoy the video below about the ships and the battle that determined the blockade remain in place.  I would recommend this book based solely on the fact that there is not enough information and literature available about the contributions of women and blacks in the Civil War.