Son by Lois Lowry

Son 

by

Lois Lowry

   The final book of Lois Lowry's The Giver Quartet is called Son.   It returns to the original community of The Giver and tells the story of Gabe's birth mother, Claire.  The book is divided into three parts.  The first part describes Gabe's birth and the effort Claire takes in that restricted environment to develop a relationship with him.  When Jonas flees with Gabe,  Claire also flees to try and find them.  The second part of the book deals with Claire's search for Gabe.  The third part of the book deals with Gabe as a teen and his discovery of his mother and his efforts to save her life.   One common theme of all four books revolves around family and community relationships and the love that envelopes these types of human connections.   The dynamics of making choices is also woven through out the stories.  It is interesting that the final part of the final book takes on the concept of evil and how it can be destroyed by lack of cooperation on a group scale.   While this series was written for tweens it is full of things that adults would enjoying grappling with and discussing.   I really like this series.  The reviews on the other three books on this blog can be found by clicking on the corresponding book title:  The Giver,  Gathering Blue,  and The Messenger.  Also follow the links by clicking on the book title and author's name at the beginning of this blog.  And enjoy the video that follows.  This series would be a great one to read aloud with one's young teen child or grandchild.

Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani

Big Stone Gap

by

Adriana Trigiani

I finally read Big Stone Gap.  It has been on my to read list for a long time.  I  enjoyed The Shoemaker's Wife by this author so much that I wanted to read more books by her.   Big Stone Gap is a comedy romance and has a much different tone than The Shoemaker's Wife.  Both books made me cry but I didn't cry as much reading Big Stone Gap as I did reading The Shoemaker's Wife.   Big Stone Gap is about a young woman who lives in a small town in the Appalachian Mountains.  It is the  story of her life and how she grapples with her back ground and finally is able to love a man who has been in the back ground of her life since third grade.  The characters in the book are delightful and it is a fun read.  It is not a book that will be a classic but it is a nice escape.   If you don't want to escape reading the book then escape watching the movie.  The movie trailer is at the end of this blog.  If you click on the book title and the author's name above you will follow links to more information.  The book is worth your time if you want a light, fun read.   I checked it out on my kindle app from the library. 

Library Writing Group 4/2018

It was my turn to be in charge at library writing group this month which means I was the one who chose the topic.  Since in was April, in honor of Earth Day,  I chose "Something to do with water" as the theme and the group came up with great submissions to share.  I am amazed at the creativity and talent that sits around that table every month!  Below find what I wrote to read to the group.  And above is a picture of my new produce bags. 

Library Writing Group 4/2018

Something Related to Water

  There are times in life I call kaleidoscope moments.  That is when something you see or experience causes your perception to shift in much the same way that the colors rearrange when you turn the end of a hand held kaleidoscope.  Life can have a  different pattern to it after a particular  experience.  One such moment happened to me when I was nine or ten years old. My family had a large tent that we used on vacations.  We usually would camp at a state park and often there was a body of water near by.  The time frame for these trips would have been the late 1960s and the general geographical area would have been the Midwest.   One vacation was a trip where we stayed near one of the Great Lakes,  I am almost certain it was Lake Erie.   As my siblings and I  got ready for an afternoon at the beach I was excited for time to play in the sand and water.  I remember our station wagon pulling into the parking lot and getting out of the car and running toward the beach.  Suddenly my parents called us back.   The scene in front of my eyes that caused them to call out to us is forever embedded in my memory.  On top of the water were floating hundreds of dead fish.  Littered across and covering the beach were dead fish in varying stages of decay.  I got close enough to them before being called back to see that some of their eyes were coated with a white film.  My nostrils can still conjure up the stench they experienced that day.  My parents  forbade us to get in the water or be on the beach.  We were to return to  the car and go back to the camp ground and play there.  The kaleidoscope of my perception turned that afternoon and my future headed in a different direction than if I had not had the experience.    I wanted to know what happened to the fish and why they all died.  I was keenly aware from that moment on that mankind was at times selfish and put profits over being responsible citizens in our world.  Thankfully,  we have cleaned up many of our practices and now have beautiful waterways again in our country.  With increased education we are aware of the interconnectedness of water, wildlife and our behavior.  With new legislation we have protected our earth in ways that we did not back then.  Because of that afternoon my interest in doing my part has influenced my behavior choices.  I make an annual effort to improve my habits.  Each year in April,  because it is when earth day is,  I make a goal to add one new behavior related to being environmentally responsible to my routine.  For example, one year I added market bags.  One year I began to carry a waste free lunch to work,  adding re-usable sandwich bags and a “Klean Kanteen” to my lunch bag, along with other non throw away items.   Early on I added recycling of trash.   This year I have purchased some re-usable produce bags for storing produce in the refrigerator.  Up till now, after I cleaned the produce I had put it in a plastic zip lock bag.  Now I have mesh bags to put the washed and cleaned and chopped up celery, carrots and other produce in.  It is because of the dead fish experience described above that I am more motivated than some people to continually try to do my part.  I know first hand that clean water is necessary for life on our planet to survive.  

Messenger by Lois Lowry

Messenger

by

Lois Lowry

Messenger is the third book in Lois Lowry's The Giver Quartet.  It is about a young man that was introduced as a character in the second book,  Gathering Blue.  Three other people from the prior two novels show up in this book too.  It is interesting that the author wrote this book in 2004 and located it in the future because many of the topics she touches on are relevant to today.  Matty is the protagonist  in the novel.  He takes messages back and forth between Kara and her father Seer who live in different towns.  Matty lives with Seer in Village.   Matty also delivers messages around Village for Leader,  who was Jonas from the first book.  Village has historically been a place where people who were "broken"  could go and have quality of life.  Whether physically injured or mentally hurt in prior locations,  the people who lived in Village took care of each other and nurtured each other.  New people were always welcome.  But lately things have been changing.  Some of the people from Village have been going to something called trade mart where they trade for items they want.  A common item traded for is a gaming machine.  But what do they trade?  And why are the people who trade changing and becoming more and more selfish.   Soon they vote and decide not to let anyone else come into Village.  And then they begin to build a wall around Village to keep people out.   There is no doubt this series will make it on to my top ten novels this year.   I am not sure why it is considered children's literature.  Please  click on the author's name and name of the book above.  And enjoy the author in the video that follows.   It is from the Library of Congress.  

Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry

Gathering Blue

by

Lois Lowry

The second book of The Giver Quartet is Gathering Blue.  I reviewed the first book HERE.   This second book does not seem related to the first book until you get to the third book which I am currently listening to.  The Giver was recommended to me by a patient's mother and I really enjoyed the book.  It is also a movie but I liked the book better.  Gathering Blue I liked even more than The Giver.  It is about a young girl who becomes an orphan but she has a special gift of creating beautiful embroidery pieces.  She is handicapped too and the primitive future community she lives in does not usually allow handicapped people to live.  But her gifts and talents cause the elders of the community to take her in.  They do not have blue thread but as she learns to dye thread from a wise woman she learns that there is a plant that can be used for blue dye.  It is in a place "over yonder".  I will leave the details of how she obtains the plant for the blue hues of dye to those that read the book.  This quartet of books will make my top ten list in 2018.  They are excellent.  Although considered children's literature, I think the need for abstract thinking to glean the meaning from the books places them in a category for both young adults and adults.  Children may not be able to grasp the nuances of meaning.  Please click on the author's name and book title above to follow the links to more information and enjoy the author in the video that follows.  

The Second Mrs. Hockaday by Susan Rivers

The Second Mrs. Hockaday

by 

Susan Rivers

This book will be in my top ten list for 2018!  It is excellent and just my kind of book.  Not only within my genre of historical fiction,  but it deals with social issues related to both women and race.  The novel held my attention.  It was well written and interesting.  It is based on a true story  about a young bride in the south during the Civil War.  She marries a soldier home on leave before he returns to the battlefront.  She is left to run the farm.  The story is told in a series of letters that lend to the suspense.  In the beginning the young woman is on trial and estranged from her husband upon his return.  Everyone is talking about how she became pregnant while he was away and then killed her baby.  What really happened comes out in the end.  We will be discussing this book in my local library reading group on Thursday and I am really looking forward to the meeting.  It was a great pick lending itself to  discussion topics!  Please click on the author's name and the book title above for more information and don't watch the video that follows if you don't want a spoiler.