Super by Jim Lehrer

"Super" by Jim Lehrer

I am a listener of NPR and often attracted to the author interviews and book reviews. That is how I stumbled upon "Super." Listening to Jim Lehrer talk of the old time trains that were luxury land yachts seemed quite fascinating and I really wanted to read about them. The book itself though was less than fascinating.

The Super Chief train from Chicago to LA was considered the train of the stars. The story is based on an actual train and movie types that rode it in it's hey day. But the timing of the story is nearing the end of the train's hey day. The mystery presented in the story is short and quickly solved with little fan fare.

I am happy it was a short book and I invested only a little time. I think the story could have been richer but really fell short.

The Pact, by Jodi Picoult

The Pact, by Jodi Picoult

I finished this book a week or two ago and I still don't know how to review it.

The pact refers to a suicide pact by two teens who have known each other literally all their lives. Emily was born shortly after Chris. Their families were neighbors and good friends. The two children were always together and essentially raised together. The families hoped they would fall in love and marry as adults.

The book starts with the suicide, which only takes the life of Emily and leaves Chris alive. The reader is taken through the horrible moments when the parents discover their children have been hurt or killed and the confusion that surrounds the situation. Soon Chris is charged with Emily's "murder" and goes to trial.

We move back and forth between the present and the past. In the past we glimpse bits and pieces of Emily and Chris's relationship, as carefree children growing into young adults. We learn of secrets that are never revealed to anyone, not even between the closest of friends. We also come to know what secrets or feelings are just too scary to share even with the person you love the most.

In the present we follow the anguish of the families and the torture Chris feels. It's not long before the reader realizes there was no suicide pact and begins to draw her/his own conclusions, or fear what may unbelievably be true.

There is no happy ending in this kind of book. How could there ever be unless the characters can be raised from the dead? Picoult is a good writer and takes the reader through all sorts of probable emotions that would be associated with this story. And through her telling of it, we see the best of people and the worst of people and find hope that eventually alludes us. It's a very sad story but worth reading.

Loose Girl: A Memoir of Promiscuity

Loose Girl: A Memoir of Promiscuity by Kerry Cohen.

The title pretty much says it all. I had briefly looked at this book at Target a while back and rejected it. Soon after that a friend of mine sent it to me and at a time that I was having difficulty picking out my next book, I found myself starting it.

Reading Ms. Cohen's story is rather like reading someone's personal diary... you know you shouldn't and you really want to put it down but you keep on reading. Even so, you feel a little tainted and disturbed with yourself as much as the author.

Ms. Cohen dives right in with her first tentative experiences with sex. She continues with her adolescent views of her dysfunctional family: a distant mother, both literally and figuratively, an emo uncommunicative suicidal sister, and a 'hip, I do drugs and party along with my daughter' father. Her young life is consumed with drugs, parties, finding boys and having no rules.

Not much changes through her high school years, college years and post grad years. When she does find men who love her she eventually destroys the relationship.

Probably the most disappointing thing about reading this memoir was Ms. Cohen's apparent decision that she was simply done with it. Not just the book, but the lifestyle as well. Although she participated in counselling for many years, she seems to just one day decide that she doesn't need men to define her or complete her any longer and she stops. Somehow she figures it all out, gets married and..... The End. Epilogue: Mom & sister weren't the evil people she always thought they were and Dad is actually pretty pathetic.

It was an easy, unsettling read and I was compelled keep reading, but my final feeling was simply that this book lacked real substance. It pretty clearly outlined a troubled life, but the happy ending came rather suddenly and unexpectedly.

The Girl Who Chased the Moon

The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen

I love Sarah Addison Allen. I fell in love with her style of writing with her very first book, Garden Spells. Her whimsical magical style carried through into The Sugar Queen. I waited and waited and waited for The Girl Who Chased the Moon to be published with great anticipation.

I enjoyed TGWCTM, but not with the same enthusiasm I read my way through her first two books. Some of the magical was just right. Some was too much. The town she created was delightful, I'd visit in a heartbeat. But the townspeople were not well developed. The personalities did not grow to overcome their oddness. In this respect I felt let down. I felt the author pushed too hard in one direction, just right in another, and not enough in a third.

The story is about a young girl, Emily, who comes to this town to live with a grandfather she never knew she had. He is a giant of a man. He's either shy or reclusive, I am not sure which, although he does go out for breakfast every day. The awkwardness between him and his newly found granddaughter plays out just a little too well, as I never felt comfortable with the character myself.

Emily soon discovers that the townspeople hated her mother. Their hate was based on her youth as a selfish and cruel young girl. They believed her actions led to the suicide of a young man from one of the town's finest families. However, the mother Emily knew was involved in every cause possible to make the world a better place. The two personalities of one woman did not mesh.

The secrets of the town and the mystery of her mother's past are uncovered as the story progresses. The whimsical touches that endear me to this author are of a character who can see the sweet smell of baking as a flowy, glittery breeze.

The other main character of the story is a woman who returns to the town to settle her father's estate and pay off his debts. Her plan is to leave the town again when she's accomplished this. She also has secrets and a past to be discovered as her own history is revealed.

I am not saying I didn't enjoy The Girl Who Chased the Moon, but I will say my expectations were higher.

"The Help" by Kathryn Stockett

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Set in the early 1960's in Jackson, Mississippi this novel deals with the culture of southern white people and their attitudes toward blacks, many of whom are their domestic help. The central figure, Skeeter, is a young college graduate looking for more out of life than what is expected of her, marriage, children, charity work, tennis, etc. She knows she is different from her friends who have married and started their families and are on their way to becoming the next generation of the women their mothers were.

Skeeter is challenged to find a topic that inspires passion in her to write about. She eventually decides to write the stories of the town's domestic help, exposing what it is like to be a second class citizen, thought to be less intelligent and carry diseases that would harm white people. Finding women who will tell their stories is just the first challenge. The south at this time is a violent, unsafe place for any colored person who does not know his place and behave accordingly.

Skeeter herself was raised by a black woman for whom she holds very strong affection. When she returns home from college this woman she loves is gone, no longer working for her family, and no one will tell her why she left. She begins to see the dichotomy of hiring people who her class thinks of as "dirty" to clean their homes, prepare their meals and even raise their children. And worse, the love the children and domestic help feel for each other slips away as the children in turn fill the roles of the parents and assume the same attitudes toward the help.

Skeeter's project becomes a reality and a way is established for the help and Skeeter to come together to record their stories. Tension builds through the book with events such as the slaying of Medgar Evers, local violence and the constant worry of the eventual affect of the published book.

Stockett tells the story through the voice of Skeeter and two black women, Aibilene and Minny. I felt she did a good job portraying each of these women, not only in their different skins, but their different cultures, both socially and personally. As much as the story dealt with the race issue, it also explored a culture that can only exist as long as all minds think alike and the ostracisim that must take place of a diverse view.

I loved the book and it's story. I experienced a wide variety of emotions, crying for pain and joy, laughing, cheering and jeering. The characters were convincing and believable. The ending was both sad and hopeful and I find myself wandering back into that world and wondering what they are all doing now.

A Reliable Wife

A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick

This was a very interesting read. Sometimes disturbing in content sometimes too repetitive in emotional descriptions, but captivating nonetheless.

The story is told in three parts. The time is winter 1906. The main location is frozen, barren Wisconsin. The "feel" is England, circa "Oliver Twist."

Mr. Truitt, a wealthy widower consumed with his loneliness, mistakes of the past, and his abhorrent sexuality, advertises for a reliable wife. Catherine, an aging courtesan, responds to his ad representing herself as a simple and honest woman. It's obvious at once when they meet that she is not who she pretends to be, but she carries out the charade, marries him and plans his death so she can inherit his fortune.

Mr. Truitt reveals his ugly secrets to Catherine and makes her an implicit part of trying to amend his past. He sends her off to St. Louis to bring his lost son home to him.

There are some nice twists in the story and despite my annoyance at the repetitive nature of some of the writing, I think it ultimately provides the feel the author wants the reader to experience of the desperation of the characters. Through the twists and turns I felt hopeful for these characters, despite their ugly pasts. I found myself wishing for the happy fairy tale ending and then feeling it too far gone to be reached. The author ultimately brought to life characters that have worked their magic on me and made me care for them and continue to think of them long after the last pages have been devoured.

My Dilemma

So many books so little time!

I started "Merle's Door" and then got sidetracked away by a book a group of us decided to read together, "Wench." When I finished "Wench" I went back to "Merle's Door." In the meantime I decided I wanted to read a finance book I heard an interview about on NPR. Also picked up some books on nutrition and after my Mom passed away last week a friend suggested "Loving What Is" by Byron Katie.

As if that were not enough, I stopped in at Borders with my brother, sister-in-law and Alyssa to pick up birthday presents and visit Krissy. Silly me, I asked Krissy what books they are 'pushing' right now and she showed me. One, "The Lost City of Z, A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon" immediately appealed to me after having just read "The River of Doubt." I had to have it! The other is "A Reliable Wife." I had to have that one, too!!

I am currently overwhelmed by my book obsession. I had to return "Loving What Is" since I found it already on my book shelf and rather than just take a cash refund I purchased "The Help" which has been recommended by the group that read "Wench."

I don't know where to start but I think I'll drop "Merle" off the list for now. I'm just not finding him quite exciting enough to keep me entertained. Thank goodness I am becoming snowed in. Perhaps I'll find time for them all!