The Watsons Go To Birmingham by Christopher Paul Curtis

The Watsons Go To

Birmingham

by

Christopher Paul Curtis

This novel was recommended to me by an eleven year old who was assigned to read it for her classroom's section on The Civil Rights Movement.   It had been a long time since I read a children's book.  I can remember when my kids were grade school age I would read them a chapter out of a chapter book at bedtime or when we traveled.  I can remember one camping trip in particular when I could not finish reading Where The Red Fern Grows out loud because it was so sad.  Times spent reading out Beverly Cleary's books and titles like The Indian In The Cupboard are cherished memories.  So I decided to read The Watson's Go To Birmingham even though I do not have a grade school aged child to read it to in my home at this time.  Christopher Paul Curtis certainly deserves the awards he has won for this fictional book.  It picks up on the way life was in 1963 in America.  I was about six years old so it was scary for me to think of the little five year old girl of the Watson family being in the church when the bomb went off.  The story is told through the eyes of the Watson's eight year old son.  And even though the book contains tragic events it is a book that is a belly laugher from page one.  It is about a family who lives in Flint Michigan and takes a trip to see their grandmother in Birmingham Alabama.  While there the church is bombed and four little girls are killed.  The book is dedicated to the memory of the four young girls who were killed in a real life church bombing in Birmingham in 1963.  The events of the bombing are explained through the eyes of an eight year old child.  This book is a quick read.  It took me 2 1/2 to 3 hours to read it.  I believe there is a Hallmark movie inspired by the book if you are not a reader.  It would be an important book for educators to introduce into classrooms and families to introduce into their homes.  Please click on the book title and author's name above to follow the links to more information and enjoy the video that follows.

Saturday Night Grown Up Girls Night Out

A friend from middle school and high school days (early to mid 1970s) visited this past weekend and we had a wonderful visit and a very nice Saturday evening out.  We had planned it for a month or so and I really looked forward to it.  First we went out to dinner to a fancy restaurant in the Oregon district of Dayton which is the historical area.  The place we went was Jay's Seafood.   And then we went to the Schuster Performing Arts Center and enjoyed the musical Wicked.  It was much more G rated than the novel but was just as delightful.  The only tickets we could get were up pretty high but it was great to have a birds eye view and we could hear and see the play just fine.  Please follow the three links in the text of this blog to learn more about where we were and what we saw and enjoy the following video of my favorite song in the production.  All the music was wonderful but For Good was my pick.

Wicked by Gregory Maguire

Wicked

The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

by

Gregory Maguire

The fiction novel Wicked is totally out of my genre but I have to say it is one of the best books I have ever listened to on audio.  I have been enthralled by it all the way through.  It is very much an adult book and not a children's story but it is an adult fairy tale.  The story begins with the birth of the Wicked Witch of the West from the well known movie The Wizard Of Oz and tells her side of what happened.  While she lacks social skills and is not attractive to her peers,  she is very bright and grows from an infant into a young woman who is an humanitarian and an animal rights activist.  In the end my heart was heavy as she melted.  While I enjoyed listening to it on audio I feel I want to read the book in print and experience it again.  There are so many levels of meaning in its pages and although   I enjoyed the book I  feel there is much more to glean from it.  In fact it is a book I would like to take a class on to really understand all the imagery contained in the pages.  The book is about good and evil and where it comes from.  About two thirds of the way through the book I got the bug to see the broadway play and was very excited to learn it was traveling to Dayton the first two weeks in May.  A friend and I have our tickets and I am thrilled to be able to attend the production.  Please click on the title and the author's name above to follow the links to more information and enjoy the video that follows.  Gregory Maguire is now on my list of authors that I want to read more of and I highly recommend this novel.

Saving Amelie by Cathy Gohlke

Saving Amelie

by

Cathy Gohlke

This novel was the April selection for the Columbia City library book discussion group but I have heard they have bumped it till later in the year in order for it to be easier to obtain copies of the book. I was already reading it by the time I was updated with that news though so I continued and finished it up Saturday night.  When I first saw that they had picked this novel I admit I rolled my eyes.  I do not think Christian Literature is appropriate for a community group.  Better to discuss such books in a church group reading group.  But I have to admit the book was fast paced and well written.  Although it was a bit to preachy for my tastes here and there overall I have to give the novel a good review.  It is a story about Nazi Germany and a lot of thought provoking ideas about standing up for what is right are present to make the book a good reading club selection.  The book is a fiction novel but contains some historical characters and places.  Since my genre of choice is the historical novel it fits for me in that respect.  I have to agree that the Christian church has a responsibility to stand up against the type of atrocities that were going on at the time.  I just think it should be taken a step further and stated that all people have the responsibility to do the same.   The little girl Amelie in the story is deaf.  So she is slotted to be put to death in the Nazi climate of death sentences for the handicapped.  The novel is a fiction story about this fiction little girl and the fictional people that hid her and kept her safe.   There are real historical people in the novel of course and one is Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  He is an inspirational individual who gave his life trying to fight against the atrocities in Nazi Germany.  Please click on the author's name and book title above to follow the links to more information.  And enjoy the video that follows.

The Abomination by J. E. Rohrer

The Abomination

by 

J. E. Rohrer

I finished up the last novella of my brother's An Apocalyptic Adventure Series the other night and always enjoy his books.  They have a more religious emphasis than my normal genre but I enjoy the light hearted approach to the characters and the way  serious subjects  are presented in an entertaining manner.  For example,  at one point in the book the main character,  Ed,  has to choose between being true to his beliefs and convictions and risking the safety of his wife when the new state insisted that a state church is attended by all or imprisonment will result. Some how when he ended up at the state church I chuckled at the way the events were presented.   I would recommend reading all the novellas in a row now that they are all out rather than waiting in between them like I did.  I found that reading other books in between I forgot some of the people and details in the interim.  Please click on the title and author's name above to follow the links to learn more about the series.  The video that follows is of a song that came to mind when I was reading the book.

Village Books by Craig McLay

Village Books

by

Craig McLay

Since my last several titles were all  pretty heavy I decided to search out a more light hearted read.  And because I had purchased a few books in a row rather quickly I decided to browse through titles I had put on my kindle from the free list over the last couple years.  I discovered  Craig McLay's Village Books in my archives and decided to give it a try.  I found it a delightful read!  It is full of amusing one liners and has a cast of very funny characters.  The story takes place in Toronto in the setting of an independently owned book store.  It made me a little home sick for a used book store located about a half hour from where I used to live called Hyde Brother's Books,  which was always an interesting place to browse.  The written voice which is telling the story in Village Books is one of the managers who has an interesting point of view of each of the employees.  While it will never be a classic of great literature,  if anyone is interested in a light read that is a belly laugher,  I recommend they pick up a copy of Village Books.  Follow the links above to learn more and enjoy the video that follows.  

Saturday Night At The Movies - Philomena

Over a year ago,  when watching the Academy Awards,  I put Philomena on my list of movies that I wanted to watch.  Last pm I got my wish and was it ever worth the wait!  It is the best movie I have seen for awhile.  As with many movies,  it was first a book,  that can be found HERE.  I have put it on my wish list because I think there are usually more details of a story in the book that a movie is based on.  Philomena is a true story of a woman who has a baby out of wedlock when she is a young woman and is forced to give up her child for adoption.  She is Irish and the nuns sell her baby to a wealthy American family.  After 50 years of trying to secretly find him herself she confesses about the child to her daughter who is able to find a journalist that is willing to help Philomena find her son.  Out of the story becoming public a campaign has been started to help those victims of these illegal adoptions.  The website about it can be found HERE.  The implicated homes for unwed mothers or workhouses were actually still operating as recently as the late 1990s.  More information about the movie can be found at its website HERE.  And I did some searching and found Philomena's son and his adoptive parents at Find A Grave HERE.    Please follow the links provide through out this blog for the additional information available and enjoy the videos that follow.