Sunday Salon - Happy Thanksgiving!

This week I am looking forward to spending time with family. I don't actually like turkey or stuffing but when I smell that bird cooking, I know that my family will soon be sitting down together - talking, laughing and raving about how my mom has gotten the best "do" on "Great-grandma's Beans" ever. We'll all eat more turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberries, scalloped corn with oysters and frozen salad than we should. And sometime later, my mom will pull out several different kinds of pies and a couple of other desserts and we'll all moan about how full we are as we plop some whipped cream on top of our pumpkin pie.

But Thanksgiving with my family is not entirely about food; it's about the traditions that my parents have created for the family to celebrate each year. When the oldest grandchildren were still in grade school, my parents put together a "turkey trot" for the them. It's a treasure hunt, with clues for each child and, when they were younger, a pilgrim hat to be worn. With grandchildren in their 20's and the baby of the family now in high school, you might think it was time for the turkey trot to fade into history. But, to the grandchildren, the turkey trot is as much a part of the day as the turkey and it has evolved so that they continue to be challenged as they hunt for their treasure box.

As an alternative to walking around the block to burn off some of those potatoes one particularly warm Thanksgiving Day, a group of the guys headed up to the football field at the nearby high school to toss some footballs and kick some field goals. A competition ensued and a tradition was born. Now, no matter what the temperature (and it has been very cold some years) a good portion of the family heads up to the field to compete and watch as my brother-in-law attempts to maintain his dominance of the competition.

The tradition that most reminds each of us how very much we have to be thankful for happens late in the afternoon when Grandma, the moms and the grandchildren head over to do some shopping. But we are not shopping for ourselves (a point that was often difficult when the children were in single digit ages!). Each of the grandchildren is giving an amount of money by my parents to select gifts for children whose families need help at the holidays. Most years we adopt a family. The grandkids are in charge of selecting gifts for the children. The moms and Grandma make sure the parents have gifts to open as well. When we get back to my parents’ house, we wrap the gifts. Knowing that we are able to bring some happiness to another family is something we are all grateful for each year.

Challenge Update

Only went for the Bronze Medal on this one, which is a good thing. Because I have yet to even pick a book. Although I'm leaning toward "The Shipping News" by Annie Proux. I'll have to get busy because this one ends December 31st and it would be embarrassing not to be able to finish.

Have my books all picked out and numbered for this one and have figured out that I will start with Doris Kearns Goodwin's "Wait 'Til Next Year." But haven't even started reading yet.

And here is where I really get embarrassed! I had such high hopes for completing this challenge. I had six great books picked out; I even owned all six of them so no trips to the library or bookstore were required. How have I done? One read, "The Red Tent," and the deadline is December 1st.

I did finish the "Everything Austen" challenge. But I almost feel like I cheated on that one. I ended up with eight things finished but only two of them were books. That just doesn't seem right!

What I've learned about challenges: challenges and review books do not always mesh well! I've been so excited about being offered books to review that I've been unable to get to the books that I already own or the books I need to read for challenges. In the coming year, I'm really hoping to find the right balance. Which will be necessary because I've still got the Random Reading Challenge to carry into 2010 and I've signed up for the All About The Brontes challenge and The Michener Challenge.

I'm eager to host a challenge and have an idea for one that would start the first of the year. At this point, I have to decide if I have the time to put it together and run it. And to find out if there's any interest. Any Gilmore Girls fans out there?

"Olive Kitteridge"

By Elizabeth Strout
304 pages
Published September 2008 by Random House
Source: purchased

In this Pulitzer-prize winning novel (actually it's a collection of short stories), Strout explores the life of Olive Kitteridge, a retired middle school math teacher who is the kind of person that people avoid in her small town of Crosby. Olive was not a perfect neighbor, not a perfect wife and certainly not a perfect mother. She is abrasive, outspoken, and not in the least able to communicate well with anyone in her life. Her husband, Henry, was the town pharmacist until a big chain moved into town and Henry was beloved by everyone. Her son, Christopher, does everything he can to avoid his mother after he's an adult. But somehow, in some way, Strout is able to convince us that Olive is someone we should call about.

As a mother, Olive admits that she made mistakes but she says that she loved her son and believes that she raised him in a way so that he always knew that. She has had her own issues growing up that make the reader understand why she is the way she is, so you can understand why she might have been a cold mother. But Christopher remembers things differently. As readers, we are not given a full picture of the past so that we never reach a point where we can judge either party.

In some of the stories, Olive is something of a ship passing in the night; the reader almost misses her presence in the story. In others, she is a peripheral player. It was in those stories that I felt like Strout gave us glimpses of Olive that made her a more bearable person, such as the story where she sits in a car with a suicidal young man and just talks to him until he begins to doubt his choice. And when Olive takes her revenge on her brand new daughter-in-law, readers may just think that it was the most brilliant and realistic piece of revenge they've ever read and justifiable.

Throughout the book, Strout deals with issues of love, marriage and infidelity in all of it's guises as she writes about the people in the town of Crosby that cross paths with Olive. There are cases of unfulfilled extramarital love, a case of infidelity discovered in a seemingly happy marriage of decades, and a case of infidelity in a marriage where one person has given up on the physical relationship. Strout never passes judgement; she puts these situations out for the reader to consider.

My book club read this for our November selection and everyone liked this book. There is a lot here to discuss and I do recommend it for book clubs.

"The Secret of Joy"

By Melissa Senate
352 pages
Published November 2009 by Simon & Shuster (Downtown Press)
Source: ARC from publisher

Rebecca's life seemed to be a track for a happily-ever-life. She has a great job as a paralegal, is dating one of the firm's partners, lives in a wonderful condo and has a terrific dad. But things aren't always what they seem. As "The Secret of Joy" opens, Rebecca has serious concerns about where her relationship with Michael is headed and her father's battle with pancreatic cancer is about over. Then Rebecca's father makes a startling deathbed confession. Twenty-four years ago, he had a daughter by another woman. He has never seen the child nor spoken to the mother since the day she called to say the baby had been born. But, he tells Rebecca, there is a stash of letters to the daughter in a safe deposit box and he would like Rebecca to read them.

When Rebecca's father passes away, she is left adrift and can't help but think that she needs to meet her half-sister. Thanks to the internet, the sister turns out to be easy to find. Rebecca hops in a car and sets off to Maine to met her half-sister.

But Joy, who operates a singles tour bus, isn't in the least bit happy to see Rebecca. But she does invite Rebecca along for a weekend tour and as Rebecca spends time with Joy and the ladies on the tour, she learns as much about herself as she does about her sister.

Senate explores relationships of all kinds in "The Secret of Joy," father/daughter, sibling, love. It's a fun, light look that takes the time to dig a little deeper than the usual novel of this type. But, of course, there's always room to add in the hunky local. I've never read any Melissa Senate before, but I know she has a huge following and I can definitely understand the appeal. I'll look for more of her works when I need that book that you know will end with the characters having learned something and having made a better life for themselves.

Thanks to Sarah Reidy and Pocket Book Blog Tours for the chance to read this book.

Sunday Salon - November 16

I know, I know--it's not Sunday...again. But I was so wrapped up in football and AMC's "The Prisoner" that I just couldn't tear myself away from the television long enough to get on the computer. I first found out about AMC's mini-series of "The Prisoner" one evening when I was
channel surfing and came across episodes of the original television program "The Prisoner" on IFC. I had to watch the episodes. It was a flashback to my childhood. My dad and I watched it together when it was on in tv in 1967 to 1968. It certainly doesn't seem lik the kind of show a kid
would watch, but there were only four channels in those days and none of them catered to children's programming in the evening, only family shows. We also watched "All In The Family" and "I, Spy" with Bill Cosby and Robert Culp.
My dad read to my siblings and me at bedtime. I remember us as always sitting in the hall; I have no idea why we didn't sit on the sofa except that the hall spot was right by our bedrooms. In particular, I remember Mark Twain's "Tom Sawyer" and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." My dad didn't just read the books to us, he performed them.
I've mentioned that my dad is an avid reader. He is also a tremendous lover of music. All kinds of music. So that while classical music was on the car radio almost exclusively when he could find it, I also remember listening to "Woodstock" on our console stereo and one night being allowed to fall asleep on the living room sofa listening to The Chambers Brothers' "The Time Has Gone." It seems an odd choice in retrospect, but I remember it being very soothing.

As the holidays approach, I always find myself thinking of the past. At Thanksgiving, in particular, I am grateful for the very normal upbringing I was given along with the twists that made our life uniquely our own.

An Award From A Chick

This award comes to me from my friend, Teri, who I "met" on Goodreads in wonderful group called Chicks On Lit. Chicks was the first place I found where I realized you could actually make friends on the internet. Which was a real revelation to a mom who has spent years telling my kids that people you have contact with over the internet are not really friends. It turns out I don't really know everything after all--but don't tell my kids I said that!

Teri, who has a wonderfully creative blog called Quinceberry, passed this along to three blogs and I'm going to do the same. This one goes to:

Mari at Bookworm With A View. Mari's the person responsible for me believing that I could start a blog and for making it look like so much fun! Mari's blog is particularly great if you're part of a book club. She really looks at books with an eye toward whether or not they're discussion worthy.

Care at Care's Online Book Club. Care reads such a wonderful variety of books, again with an eye toward things that are discussion worthy. And she rates her books by slices of pie so you know she has a great sense of humor!

And, Laura at Laura's Reviews. I always find books I love or have to add on Laura's blog and she's hosting a challenge beginning January 1st that is called All About The Brontes. I've got to love any blogger that hosts a Bronte challenge!

"Somebody Else's Daughter"

By Elizabeth Brundage
352 pages
Published April 2009 by Penguin Group
Source: Purchased

Nate and Cat, heroin addicts and drifters, realize they can't care for their infant daughter, Willa, and drive across the country to deliver her to Joe and Candace Golding.

Seventeen years later, Nate returns, all cleaned up and working at the prestigious Pioneer School. Claire has also just returned to the area with her son, Teddy. Claire, an artist, is returning because her father has passed away, leaving her his home and land.

At the Pioneer School, Jack Heath is the head master who has turned the school into one of the best private schools in the area. Maggie, his wife and an instructor at the school, is barely managing to hold things together as she tries to hold on to her husband while struggling to keep keep their disastrous history a secret.

On the surface, everything looks just the way the wealthy residents of the Berkshires want it to; but under the surface lie all kinds of secrets: prostitution, drugs, infidelity, gambling and dog fights. When the worlds start to collide, secrets pour out and lives are in danger.

I've been putting this one off for a few days, trying to decide what to say about this one. On the one hand, I really liked Brundage's use of mirror characters throughout the book. Willa is a mirror of the young prostitute, Pearl. Nate is the mirror of Joe. On the other hand, the book seemed too crowded with characters and took so long to set everything up. I felt like many of the characters were really well developed but then there were others that felt very much stereotypes. I appreciated the idea of delving under the surface and exploring the idea that everyone has secrets they want to keep hidden. I just didn't think it was necessary for all of the secrets to be so awful.

Brundage certainly was able to build suspense once the novel really got going but it felt, in the end, a bit too tidy and neatly wrapped up. And (and I know I'm nitpicking here but it really bothered me) midway through the book, there is what appears to be one of the most glaring errors I've ever found in a book. A character that's supposed to have thrown herself into the Jewish faith is suddenly wearing a crucifix and talking passionately about Jesus. Perhaps it was done intentionally but I was never able to figure out why it would have been. After that, I read on looking for other incongruities which detracted from my enjoyment of the story.

My face to face book club read this book for October and opinions on it were mixed. Some people really liked it, others were lukewarm. But we did have a really wonderful talk with Elizabeth Brundage. She was eager to not only discuss her work but to get to know us. We try to talk to authors about every other month and this really one of the most successful calls we've had. Brundage is also the author of "The Doctor's Wife" and has another book coming out in 2010.

****Warning****
There are some very graphic depictions of animal cruelty and sexual acts in this book.