Inés of My Soul – Isabel Allende

Rating: 3 stars

Cliff Notes: This book felt like it took forever to read. Her books are always dense and the translation and foreign names are harder to catch onto.

Full Summary: This author’s books are so well researched about topics that are fascinating yet not broadly written about. I like to read about the interpersonal stories, but I got bogged down in the stories about the actual conquering of Chile.

What I love most about Isabel Allende’s writing is her turn of phrase, even through the translation. Perhaps this is just my mood after Season 3 of The Handmaid’s Tale and listening to the best podcast about THT, but I am super fed up with the patriarchy. Anyway, here is a sample:

“Courage is a virtue appreciated in a male but considered a defect in our gender. Bold women are a threat to a world that is badly out of balance, in favor of men. That is why they work so hard to mistreat us and destroy us. But remember that bold women are like cockroaches: step on one and others come running from the corners.”

Inés of My Soul Isabel Allende

By |2019-12-12T19:18:54-05:00August 27th, 2019|Mental Well-being|0 Comments
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Queen Bee of Mimosa Branch – Haywood Smith

Rating: DNF after 25 pages

Cliff Notes: My life is too short to read a book where the dad is called The General and the mom is Miss Mamie. By everyone.

Full Summary: I like a cutesy southern read (looking at you DIVINE SECRETS OF THE YA-YA SISTERHOOD) and I recently LOVED Southern Lady Code, but this is over the top. It took me 4 days to get through 25 pages.

Queen Bee of Mimosa Branch Haywood Smith
By |2019-12-12T19:19:10-05:00August 25th, 2019|Mental Well-being|0 Comments
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Call the Nurse: True Stories of a Country Nurse on a Scottish Isle – Mary J. MacLeod

Rating: 3 stars (would have picked 3.5 if Goodreads allowed half stars)

Cliff Notes: This was a sweet book. Perfect for this crazy season of work.

Full Summary: I hit the jackpot when I picked up this paperback at a book sale for only $1. As I mentioned before, I am in a season of work that is BANANAS. I have dropped non-fiction and the sci-fi I was going to take a chance on got shuttled straight to Bixby’s nightstand. When I read I want to escape, not learn, be motivated or improved in any way. Just. Check. Out.

Call the Nurse: True Stories of a Country Nurse on a Scottish Isle Mary J. MacLeod

This book was absolutely up to the task. Each chapter was a stand alone – although there were a few threads that ran through several stories. This made it easy to pick up and put down when I only had a few minutes (translation: fell asleep after 3 pages).

Plus there was the most delightful character, Mary. She had a habit of mixing up words that was hysterical. Probably because it was really frustrating to her husband, yet did not bother her in the LEAST. Here is a sample:

“Then it will go off again, takin yon body with it. What’s the point o’ that, I’m wonderin?”

“It’s for explicity,” said Mary knowledgeably.

“What?”

“What?”

There was a puzzled pause, then Archie sighed. “Ach, the woman! I think she means ‘publicity’.”

“Aye,” said Mary, unperturbed as usual.

By |2019-12-12T19:19:24-05:00August 23rd, 2019|Mental Well-being|0 Comments
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Sold on a Monday – Kristina McMorris

Rating: 3 stars (3.5 if Goodreads would allow half stars)

Cliff Notes: I am judging the woman who sold her children less than the newspaper guy who exploited them.

Full Summary: I wanted to read more about the mother who found herself in this situation and the children’s experience rather than the selfish newspaper guy who selfishly took advantage of this family for his own gain.

I knew this book was inspired by a real photo (ripped from the headlines so to speak), but when I read the notes at the end of the book, it was a newspaper that we grew up reading!

4 children for sale Sold on a Monday

From the author’s website: The photo had first appeared in The Vidette-Messenger in 1948 and, in a brief caption, claimed to exhibit the desperation of a family in Chicago. As a mom myself, I wondered what could have possibly pushed a parent to that point. In the direst of times, I could fathom perhaps having to give up my children for the sake of their well-being. But why on earth ask for money in return? Possible answers to that question soon became the foundation of Sold on a Monday.

http://www.kristinamcmorris.com/sold-on-a-monday
Sold on a Monday - Kristina McMorris
By |2019-12-12T19:19:40-05:00August 21st, 2019|Mental Well-being|0 Comments
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The Great Believers – Rebecca Makkai

Rating: 4 stars

Cliff Notes: I am sure there was symbolism that I did not catch (I generally just want to read a good book), but I really could have thrown out the whole 2015 timeline.

Full Summary: It was moving to read about the AIDS epidemic in Chicago from a perspective of me being alive during that time and living only 45 minutes away. I would like to think I would have been like Fiona. This book is definitely one that stayed with me after I finished reading it.

If you ever have a chance to view the AIDS quilt, it is incredibly powerful. I am horrified about the treatment of AIDS patients by family members and health care workers. It made me wonder if there are situations like that today – that we will look back in 30 years and wonder what we were thinking, why we (or maybe I) didn’t stand up for the someone suffering.

The Great Believers Rebecca Makkai
By |2019-12-12T19:20:08-05:00August 19th, 2019|Mental Well-being|0 Comments
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Big Sky – Kate Atkinson

Rating: DNF

Cliff Notes: I am half way through this book, 5 hours. And I have no idea what the hell is happening or who any of these people are. Enough.

Full Summary: I cannot give you a summary because seriously – I have no idea what the heck is going on. I know there was a murder, but no idea how any of it was going to come together or who all the people even were.

Kate Atkinson Big Sky
By |2019-12-12T19:20:28-05:00August 17th, 2019|Mental Well-being|0 Comments
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Recursion – Blake Crouch

Rating: 4 stars

Cliff Notes: I loved it until I got caught up in the number of lives and the timelines – just like with Dark Matter and the number of Jasons.

Full Summary: I definitely plan on going to this author’s backlist for future TBR choices.

I am married to a Super Nerd and when he saw that I was reading a book called Recursion, he was really excited and impressed. Apparently “recursion” is a nerd topic or theory of something or other. I am not smart enough or really interested at all in what recursion is, but it was funny to watch him think I had turned a nerd corner, then to watch it slide off of his face.

Recursion Blake Crouch
By |2019-12-12T19:20:45-05:00August 15th, 2019|Mental Well-being|0 Comments
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Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of NIKE – Phil Knight

Rating: 3 stars

Cliff Notes: I liked how he talked in this book about the struggles and what he might have changed or identified mistakes.

Full Summary: I had lots of misconceptions about the history of Nike – it seems to always summarized as a overnight sensation story about Bill Boweman, a waffle iron, and his protege named Phil.

Not so much, my friends. This is definitely worth the read.

Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of NIKE Phil Knight
By |2019-12-12T19:21:04-05:00August 13th, 2019|Mental Well-being|0 Comments
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Sanibel Flats – Randy Wayne White

Rating: DNF

Cliff Notes: Ugh. I cant even with this guy. I threw this book.

Full Summary: First of all, I NEVER want to read a book that takes 3 (super small font super single spaced) pages of a dude dissecting a shark. Then to have to read about him playing two women to sleep with them both in the same night. Almost as gross as the fish guts. I tried for about 2 weeks or so to power through this book because my parents have a condo near Sanibel and I thought it would be fun to connect to those places.

It was not.

Sanibel Flats Randy Wayne White
By |2019-12-12T19:21:46-05:00August 9th, 2019|Mental Well-being|0 Comments
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