Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

I didn’t manage a third review yesterday, but I’m back again today, so I’m calling that a win.

I think I acquired The Angels of Morgan Hill as a hand-me-down a few years ago, and during one of my periodic “let’s see what random titles in this stack of books are available on audio” whims, I found it available to borrow immediately and decided to give it a try. I’m not sure I really knew what to expect; what I found, however, was a thought-provoking story with real poignancy as well as hope. As a mother myself, I identified more with Fran than I did with Jane, even though it’s Jane who’s (more or less) the narrator. Being a mother is hard when your husband is a good, supportive father and you have enough money to pay the bills and then some; being a mother with an alcoholic for a husband* and too little money to even be called frugal would be something else again. Add to that a boatload of social and cultural pressures and you hurt for Fran, who aims to do the right thing without flinching. This is a book about love, race, and community, and while I hesitate to describe the plot in detail the book flap’s description wasn’t willing to provide, it’s also a book about the choices we make that matter the most. If you’re looking for a read about the triumph of hope over hate and despair, give The Angels of Morgan Hill a try.

*On the plus side, the alcoholic’s funeral is covered in chapter one, so Fran has that going for her–mostly. (Even alcoholic husbands bring home a little money occasionally.)

Graphic memoirs for teens about college graduates aren’t always a good option for my 13-year-old, but Alex Graudins’ Improve: How I Discovered Improv and Conquered Social Anxiety is a solid exception. (Technically, I suppose, the first 20 pages cover Alex’s life before college, and the next 15-20 cover college, but she’s a graduate before page 40.) Instead of being a generalized memoir–which might have involved serious relationships and other middle-school-inappropriate activities–Improve really does focus on Graudins’ anxiety struggles and what improv did to help her manage them. (It IS possible that the number of pages devoted to describing different improv games might not fascinate my girlie, but I found them interesting, and if she’s bored, she can skim, right?) Improv as therapy might be more of a specialized idea, but Graudins’ openness about her struggle and the normalcy with which she refers to therapy and medication are a beautiful thing. We need more books–fiction and non–that normalize mental health struggles and their treatment, and this is a solid option. I’ll let you know if it inspires my older girls to investigate the world of improv!

I see it’s been a week–technically just over a week?–since I’ve been on, and yet it wasn’t AS busy a week as it has been lately. My 8th grader performed a duet at a care center after school on Tuesday, requiring a chauffeur, and Wednesday and Thursday were PTA Convention. Friday was an errand sort of day, and Saturday involved a fair amount of laundry and some time home with just my son and me. (Most of it was good, although it ended in tears.) My hubby took the girls to see their cousin in her Junior High’s “The Little Mermaid” AND did the necessary Walmart shopping for yesterday’s dinner, so that was fantastic. My mother-in-law came for dinner yesterday after dropping my father-in-law off at the airport for a trip, so we had two kinds of cake for dinner–and I ate way, WAY too much of it. (Because Rhubarb Custard Cake–as well as homemade German Chocolate Cake.) Such was the week!

In the meantime, I have at least four completed books waiting for review, and so I’m starting with the audio that’s due and not renewable tomorrow. Freya Sampson’s The Last Chance Library showed up on the newest audio titles list on Libby several months ago, and it sounded appealing enough that I went ahead and put it on hold right then–because how could I possibly resist a book about a quirky group of oddballs banding together to save a local library? And I’m glad I did, because it was totally worth it (even if I didn’t love Mrs. B’s use of the F-word). June as a heroine required some patience from me–she’s debilitatingly shy, yes, but she’s also unable to see her future realistically for the first half or so of the book–but seeing her evolve was rewarding. I think what I liked best, however, was how realistically hopeful the conclusion was. You want the fairy tale ending, of course–at least, I certainly did–and yet there’s a wholly different kind of pleasure in an ending that manages to be both likely and completely satisfying. Library lovers–don’t miss this one.

Here I am, popping in again. I’ve got to get more regular with my posts again, but it seems like I never feel mentally energetic enough. Since I posted last, I put away my long-sleeved shirts and pulled out my t-shirts, sorted through clean laundry that’s been sitting around waiting for me to make a decision about it, and projected and lunched with Brittany–that was Thursday. On Friday I knitted, went to a focus group of women hosted by Holiday Oil, and washed the hair I was too tired to wash on Thursday night before picking up my oldest from school after 2 AP tests. My youngest and I went to her close friend’s baptism on Saturday and then rushed off to a birthday party; my hubby picked her up while I took my oldest to the chiropractor. We watched “Madagascar” for our family movie night and ordered Chipotle, which was fine but less exciting than I was hoping. (Am I going to get death threats for admitting that?) Today I taught Sunday School solo, since my hubby’s back has been killing him, and after a brief walk and visit with a friend, enjoyed a lovely Sunday afternoon nap.

But–as I mentioned–I’m up now. And since I currently have three or four completed books waiting to be reviewed, why not work on that? Jamie Sumner’s Time to Roll has been hanging around for a week or more, hoping for its chance in the spotlight, and since it’s getting passed on to my 13-year-old, it feels like a good place to start. (Although if you haven’t read Roll with It, that’s a better place to start. You’ll miss things if you jump into the middle of Ellie’s story.) Ellie’s facing a summer with her dad and stepfamily, since her mom is heading off on her honeymoon, which is how her friend Coralee manages to rope her into entering the Little Miss Boots and Bows Pageant. You’ll have to read the book to find out if Ellie manages to survive the experience–not to mention see how being a Little Miss shakes up her friend and family relationships. It’s not a long read (the story itself feels a little fast, to be honest), but there are laughs and feels as well as more than one helping of honesty and growth. Put this one on your summer list!

Oh, my goodness. I believe I left you last Wednesday before all the dancing happened, right? The dress rehearsal went pretty well on Thursday, although my oldest surprised me last minute with her assumption that tights would be worn, and where are the dance tights? Yeah, good question. She hyper-focused on that while I tried to deal with picking up littles and prepping the laundry room for a new washing machine, since the old one stopped spinning on me early last week and my hubby had bought a new one on his lunch break on Thursday and picked it up after he picked up our completed car after work. When my first suggestion of where they might be didn’t pan out she didn’t immediately take my second or third suggestions (both of which would have saved her time and stress). We did survive, though! Friday afternoon was madness–piano after school and then straight to my friend Andrea’s after piano, since I can’t French braid, and then home (by way of the pharmacy for a prescription) so that all the girls could get into costumes and do stage makeup before heading off to the recital. My in-laws are out of town, so no actual family came, but my oldest had two (male) friends come (one we brought with us) and Neighbor Michelle came, too, so it worked. We had ice cream when we got home and then started packing people off to bed.

We had to leave for our nephew’s wedding before 9:30 on Saturday morning, so chocolate muffins happened a bit earlier than usual. The best news, though, was that my hubby and I got to attend the wedding together, and our children managed to keep peace with each other while they were waiting outside the temple. (Having cousins there as a buffer undoubtedly helped.) We did have to wait around at the luncheon for a good bit before it started–my youngest was sure she was going to die of hunger–but once we finally got going, it was lovely.

We didn’t get home until after 4, though.

The rest of our Saturday was spent doing bunny cages, family scripture time, and getting everyone but my 13-year-old packed off to bed early. (She had a babysitting gig.) On Sunday morning we had to be on time for sacrament meeting, since we were bringing the bread, and then my hubby and I taught our Sunday School lesson.

And THEN we crashed.

We ended up having my Rhode Island friend over for dinner last minute–she’s moving away from Utah this weekend, sadly–and then got people off to bed again. Monday was my I’M NOT GOING ANYWHERE BECAUSE I’M CLEANING UP LAUNDRY ROOM STUFF AND DOING LAUNDRY ALL DAY day, because OH, how that needed to happen, and then Tuesday and yesterday were PTA and errand kinds of days.

In other news, I did finish reading Kayla Miller’s Crunch yesterday, which my 13-year-old is going to be happy about. (She likes Miller’s ‘Olive’ series more than I do, really, but she’s the intended audience, so that makes sense. And I do enjoy it–it’s just that unlike Chmakova’s ‘Berrybrook Middle School’ books, which are easily enjoyed on multiple levels, depending on your age and stage, the ‘Olive’ books are very much meant to be read by their target audience.) Olive’s latest adventure finds her trying to swim in a sea so crammed full of activities that she doesn’t have enough hours in the day for them all; luckily, she has good friends and supportive adults in her life to help her figure things out. The mean girl from the last novel is still mean in subtle ways, but that’s probably one of the most realistic things about the book. (Although I still want to slap her.) Middle schoolers should enjoy this one, and the message is an important one for kids, so grab it for your kiddos today!

That’s mostly what we’re doing, thankfully. We’re all sleeping better and coughing/blowing our noses less, and my hubby’s back to work today. As for me, I’M trying desperately not to fall back asleep (it’s that kind of day). So far, however, we’ve survived the week. Yesterday’s field day meeting got postponed and we skipped my daughter’s driver’s license test, to be sure, but I did go to the Natural History Museum with my son’s field trip on Monday, and that was (quite frankly) exhausting. I’m not sure one of the boys in my group liked me very much by the end, but we didn’t lose anyone, and if they didn’t fill out their booklets, well–it wasn’t for lack of reminding and prodding on my part. My older girls both had marathon dance sessions yesterday (instead of NO dance, which is what’s SUPPOSED to happen the week of the recital) with their not-impressive/not-coming-back-next-year teacher; tomorrow is dress rehearsal for all three of them with the recital on Friday. In the meantime, today my oldest has therapy in Sandy and then my older two have young women’s; I’m hoping it doesn’t go late.

In other news, I finished reading the nonfiction I told my 13-year-old we were going to read together before starting the next Merci Suarez book–Bylines: A Photobiography of Nellie Bly. To be honest, I was hoping for a less academic biography and more of a focus on her most interesting assignments, but that was my bad. Instead, Bylines is (shocker!) an actual photobiography, taking us from Nellie’s birth through her schooling, career, marriage, business misadventures, and death. I learned things I didn’t know and my daughter said it was “interesting;” I don’t think it was as fascinating as either of us wanted it to be, but again–my bad. If you’re looking for a bio of Nellie Bly, this is a solid resource. If, on the other hand, you remember reading the Value Tale about Nellie and you’re wanting to relive the experience, you should probably find the actual Value Tale. (It’s the value of fairness, by the way.) Wish us luck in our dance endeavors this week!

Seriously, though. My hubby and my two younger girls are quite impressive on that front; my oldest and I are more into blowing our noses; and my son is proving to be a switch hitter (so to speak). And have we got a week coming up…

Ugh.

On the good news front, however, I have finished Svetlana Chmakova’s new ‘Berrybrook Middle School’ graphic novel, which is going to make my 13-year-old very happy. Enemies is, I’m pleased to report, another win–a poignant portrayal of the complexities of being a sibling and a pitch-perfect reminder of why friendships (especially middle school friendships) can be so hard. Felicity’s struggles make her relatable for almost anyone, even if you have to ask your husband what the gamer acronyms stand for. (He came through, don’t worry.) Will she and Tess be able to come up with a dynamite idea for the entrepreneur contest? Is Joseph Koh Felicity’s enemy? Will the kids who do the work on group projects manage to turn the tables on those who don’t? The answers are here, folks. If you haven’t encountered Chmakova before, get yourself off to the bookstore (or library) and rectify that situation ASAP!

In the meantime, it might be a good time to buy stock in Kleenex and cold medicine.

Once upon a few years ago, I started reading Tracey Hecht’s second “Nocturnals” book–The Ominous Eye–aloud to my three older children. (At the time, my youngest was too young to listen to a longer book read in chapter increments.) We’d already read the first one together and enjoyed it, so it seemed like a no brainer, right? Except that we started the second one towards the end of the summer, and once school started, it became too blasted difficult to find a time of day that worked to read to all three of them. The Ominous Eye sat gathering dust, and ultimately my oldest and my son lost interest in being read to, while my second girlie’s tastes grew more definitely towards realistic fiction. As a group, we officially bailed on it; I, however, had already marked it as “reading” on Goodreads, and my OCD really wanted me to just finish it on my own.

Reader, I finally did.

It took effort, I have to say; Hecht’s tone works better for a read-aloud, at least for me, and the plot is the type that happens to annoy me personally. I’ve never liked spending the majority of the book frustrated because almost everyone is under the villain’s spell, so to speak, meaning no one’s listening to the sensible hero. And while the villain in The Ominous Eye isn’t–quite–a villain, it does take the majority of the book for the forest creatures to see the truth. Bismark’s absurdities grew a little tired–perhaps because I’m not the target audience–and Dawn felt a little less leader-like, while Tobin just seemed kindly dim and Polyphema unlikely. Young readers might fall under Poly’s spell and fear the ‘Beast’, but overall, I wouldn’t recommend this one for an adult read.*

*On the other hand, if you loved the first one and it was totally your thing, you might enjoy this one as well. Let me know what you think!

I finished listening to Katherine Center’s What You Wish For the other day, and I’m of two minds about it. On the one hand, a school librarian heroine? I’m pretty much sold. And there’s plenty of banter and wit and fun–as well as feels. On the other hand, the story felt a little creaky, if you know what I mean. The bad guy was bad in all the ways, but not all the ways made sense with each other; multiple characters’ turnarounds felt rather, well, SWEEPING; and really, pretty much ALL of the characters did things that felt orchestrated rather than organic. (A lot of “the plot needed this and so Character X will do this to make that happen”, if you know what I mean.) Samantha-the-school-librarian and Duncan-the-formerly-fun-loving-teacher-turned-military-style-principal have a fun story with a satisfying ending; just don’t examine the details too closely.

On the other hand, if you want a tasty new muffin recipe, try these Orange Muffins. They’re not exactly low-fat–we didn’t butter them, figuring the recipe had done that for us–but the taste is lovely and using bottled orange juice for the glaze worked just fine. Using part whole wheat flour messed with the texture a bit, but for my kiddos, the extra fiber is generally worth it. Make that call for yourself, as long as you also make the muffins!

Silly was what my daughter called me when I was crying during our final read-aloud session of Lisa Graff’s Umbrella Summer–the stinker. What’s a mom supposed to do when the entire book is about Annie’s progress in dealing with the death of her brother–and her parents’ progress, too? Which I suppose makes the book sound heavy and serious, but Graff balances heartbreak and humor with impressive deftness. Jared died because he had an incredibly rare heart problem that no one knew about, and so Annie’s all about caution now, because what if? Only she’s out of money for more Band-aids and her caution is starting to affect her relationships, while her parents are struggling too much with their own grief to give her quite as much help as she needs. With the help of a new neighbor, pillows, and the unexpected narrowness of bowling shoes, however, Annie manages to find her way through–even if there’s some very un-Junior-Sunbird-(read: Girl Scout)-like behavior along the way. Yes, I cried; I also laughed out loud. This companion novel to Lost in the Sun* is a journey you shouldn’t miss.

*I read Lost in the Sun first, although it appears to have been published years after Umbrella Summer. I’d maybe read them in publication order if I had a do-over, but I don’t think it matters all that much.