The World Made Straight by Ron Rash

The World Made Straight by Ron Rash

Travis Shelton is by all accounts a typical teenage boy.  While fishing for speckled trout in his out of the way spot, he comes across what appears to be unattended marijuana plants and helps himself.  He sells them to Leonard, the local drug dealer, who lives a quiet life in a rundown trailer outside of town.  Travis sees easy money and goes back for more, only this time he's caught by the Toomeys, owners of the plants.

The chain of events lands Travis in a heap of trouble.  Leonard takes him in when he has nowhere else to go.  Once a teacher, Leonard encourages Travis to study for his GED and shares his love of the Civil War, in particular, the 1863 Shelton Laurel Massacre.  The Toomeys meanwhile are laying in wait, watching Travis' and Leonard's every move.

The World Made Straight is a story of conflicts, conflicts within families, between cultures and in history. It is the story of who we are and where we've come from. This novel is a book club selection and as always, I'm grateful to be pushed into reading a story I never would have picked up on my own.  But I have to say I just didn't like this book all that much.  For me the multiple story lines didn't connect and I felt like I was jumping around in and out of several completely distinct books.  The pace was slow and grinding.

I've talked to a lot of people who love Ron Rash.  I'd never heard of him until now.  Maybe this wasn't the book I should have started with, he's written several others.  I wouldn't say the book was good or bad, only that The World Made Straight is much more crooked than I'd like it to be.

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark

I'm not sure where to begin with Miss Jean Brodie.  She's a teacher at the very proper Marcia Blaine School for Girls in Edinburgh, Scotland and she is in her prime.  She's passionate about her unorthodox teaching methods of impressionable young girls and makes sure they know she's in her prime, whatever that means.

The group of girls become known as the Brodie set for their loyalty to her.  They are highly sought after by the headmistress who hopes to glean information from them that will allow her to fire Miss Brodie.  She's in love with the married art teacher but carries on an affair with the single, but not so interesting music teacher.

Miss Jean Brodie tries her best to manipulate the set.  But the girls, well trained by her, are able to turn the tables.  The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie doesn't have much of a plot.  The reader is however, taken deep inside the ego of a woman who insists she's in her prime.  And we hike through the minds of children as they grow to maturity.  This novel is really a brilliant psychological mind trip.

I had no idea where this book would take me when I started reading it.  I often hoped for more twists and turns but in the end I was left feeling fully satisfied.  Unusual is the best word I can think of to describe a woman in her prime.  I'm still wondering if I'm in my own prime or if it as already passed me by.  Where is Miss Jean Brodie when I need her?

All That Ails You: The Adventures of a Canine Caregiver by Mark J. Asher

All That Ails You: The Adventures of a Canine Caregiver by Mark J. Asher

Wrigley is the house dog at the SunRidge Assisted Living home.  In his short life, he's lived in several different homes, none of which had been all that happy.  So when he came to SunRidge, his prayers had been answered, a soft cozy bed, an endless supply of rubs behind his ears and peanut butter treats simply for the asking.

I toyed with the idea of simply not writing a review of this book. I don't have a feeling about it one way or the other. I'm too addicted however, to the process to stop and I enjoy adding my two cents worth. In some small way I feel I'm helping not only people who are considering reading the book but the authors too, to know how readers are reacting to their work.

What's not to love about a dog story?  Nothing really.  This is a very simple story, told from the dog's point of view.  He's smart in a dog kind of way.  But the story telling from a human point of view lacked excitement, color and tension.  Wrigley is a sweet guy, but that's all I can say.

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo

It's spring!  That means it's time for a fresh start and spring cleaning!

I happen to be a pretty neat person.  My clothes are hung up the minute I take them off, I throw out all the junk mail as soon as it comes,and I take out the trash on a regular basis.  But I still often feel like I have too much stuff.  Frankly, too much stuff can be overwhelming.

Are there too many clothes in my closet?  Yes, but my real issue is books.  Books have their own chapter in this book so I know I'm not alone.  Ms. Kondo requires that I take all my books off the shelf and put them in a pile.  This will make it easier for me to decide if the book sparks joy in my heart.  If I bought the book and then never read it, most likely it gave me some kind of joy when I bought it, but quickly lost it's spark.  It needs to go.  This same theory can apply to clothing, mementos and even all that stuff I didn't know I had under the bathroom sink.

Ms. Kondo loves being tidy and she discovered her passion for it at a very early age.  What she conveys so well in this book is that tidying up is not only about our clothing, books, and papers, it's about how we live our lives.  We must ask ourselves, do the things we have spark joy?  If they don't, do we really need to keep them?

I'm not quite ready to empty all my drawers, shelves and closets, looking for joy, but I did take a load of items that no longer delighted me to Goodwill today.  I'm looking for joy and when I don't feel it, I can more easily let it go.  I've been given a great tool to use in all aspects of living.  What a better world we would live in if we could take the time to feel a spark of joy. I highly recommend this life changing magic even though the title may be frightening.  It will change your life.

The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving by Jonathan Evison

The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving by Jonathan Evison

I first learned of Jonathan Evison on my new favorite television show about books, Well Read.  The subject of his latest book, This Is Your Life, Harriet Chance didn't really appeal to me, but his conversation about writing intrigued me enough to see what else he'd written.  Since my latest project is about aging, I thought The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving might be good research.

Benjamin Benjamin enrolls himself in a class on caregiving.  He has hit rock bottom and figures it's as good a place as any to start rebuilding his life, even if it only pays $9 an hour. Ben's first assignment is to care for Trev, a young man with a rare form of muscular dystrophy.  Trev comes with an overprotective mother and a clumsy father who she kicked out of the house long ago.  Trev is angry about life in general.  That is until Ben becomes his caregiver and his friend.

When I sat down to write this review, a book club discussion came to mind.  When you dislike the protagonist, is it a good book or not?  Ben is not a likable guy.  His marriage and his family have collapsed, he's broke, has a drinking problem, refuses to sign the divorce papers his wife keeps trying to serve him, and the list goes on.  Here's the spoiler alert.  I might have been more sympathetic to Ben, if I had been told why his life was in such a state of disarray sometime before I had read 75% of the book.

Mr. Evison is the master of creating tension.  There were so many great scenes in the book that could keep a reader on the edge of her seat.  But I just couldn't warm up to a guy for no reason at all.  The author kept me on the hook for far too long until Ben's disagreeable personality became ingrained in my mind and I couldn't change it.  It turned out Ben had a pretty good reason for being the way he was, but for me, I remain stuck in between good and not so good.

The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz

The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz

I felt it was time for me to do a little self reflection.  Recovering from a hip replacement forced me to face the fact that I'm getting older.  My ability to write a decent story seemed to have dissipated into thin air, and then both of the granddaughters dropped out of high school.  I needed some words of wisdom to get me back on track.

The author starts by reminding us that we have chosen to believe what we are programmed to believe. We are a product of of our environment and to shift our core beliefs is extremely difficult. He lays out The Four Agreements as the steps we need to take to effect real peace in our lives.

The Four Agreements are simple. Be impeccable with your words.  Say only what you mean and speak with integrity.  Our lives today are busy and hectic.  Gossip and negativity can roll easily off our tongues, spreading evil instead of the goodness we crave.

Don't take anything personally.  Others project their own version of reality and you don't need to be their victim.

Don't make assumptions.  I still remember Felix Unger on The Odd Couple when in a courtroom, he delivered his famous speech, "When you assume, you make an ass of you and me."  So true, so don't do it.

Be the best that you can be.  Everyday I now wake up each morning and say these four agreements out loud.  It's my own little pep talk that gets me ready to start the new day, fresh and with peace in my heart.  All those things that tried to derail me, are no longer worth all the negative energy I wanted to give them.  The wisdom of The Four Agreements will open your mind to a better life and a more peaceful world.  Share it with those you love.

A Girl's Guide to Moving On by Debbie Macomber

A Girl's Guide to Moving On by Debbie Macomber

As you can see by the titles I review for this blog, I read many different genres by many different authors. It's part of my study of the craft of writing.  Knowing that Debbie Macomber is a best selling author, I snapped up a free advance reading copy of her latest, A Girl's Guide to Moving On.

Leanne has suffered through 35 years of marriage to a man who didn't love her and constantly cheated on her.  Her indifference in order to live the country club lifestyle, passed down the behavior to her son, Jake.  When Jake's wife, Nichole calls it quits after 5 years of marriage, Leanne also decides to file for divorce.  The women move into apartments across the hall from one another and try to live by the new rules set down in their guide to moving on.

I typically like to read stories with more depth.  I liked the characters of Leanne and Nichole and I detested their no good ex-husbands.  But the constant repetition of the backstory such as how long they'd been married, how big the houses were they had lived in, the parade of other women, got tiring.  And the transformations of the character of the men involved in the story was far too abrupt for my taste.  Jake went from bad guy to really nice guy in the blink of an eye.

To some readers, I may find that I'm not too popular with this review of Debbie Macomber's work.  She has a very large and loyal following.  I'm just not a fan of the way she tells a story.  It's not my cup of tea.  I have to admit however, I sprouted a little tear in my eye while reading the epilogue and the very happy ending.  So my quest for knowledge about how to write a novel is better off for reading The Girl's Guide to Moving On and that's what I was looking to do from the start.