family

The Characters I Wish Were in My Family [Top Ten Tuesday]

Michelle8 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is a bookish meme hosted by the lovely ladies of The Broke and the Bookish.

This week’s topic is The Top Ten Characters We Wish Were in Our Family.

Just a quick list today guys. No pictures or explanations because there is NO TIME.

Sisters:

1.      Jo March from Little Women

2.      Elizabeth Bennett from Pride & Prejudice

3.      Frankie from The Disreputable Life of Frankie Landau-Banks

Brothers:

4.      Reynie from The Mysterious Benedict Society

5.      Harry Potter from Harry Potter

Parents:

6.      The Rays from Betsy-Tacy

7.      The Weasleys from Harry Potter

8.      Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird

Grandparents:

9.      Leo Gursky from The History of Love

10. Mimi (Claudia’s Grandmother) from The Babysitters Club

The Weird Sisters [Book Review]

Michelle14 Comments

“Will alone could not make Rose brave, could not make Bean honest, could not make Cordy sensible. Weren’t we proof of that, this sad sisterhood, bound as much by our failure as by our hopes?” p. 216

The Weird Sisters

Title: The Weird Sisters
Author: Eleanor Brown
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
ISBN: 0316098337
Pages: 336
Year: 2011
Publisher: Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam
Source: Library/borrowed ebook
Rating: 5/5

Summary:

Sisters Rose, Bean, and Cordy (named after Shakespeare’s Rosalind, Bianca, and Cordelia, respectively) are not close. Bean left for New York City and Cordy has spent the last seven years freeing her spirit on the road. Only Rose has remained in the small Ohio college town where they grew up.

But the universe has forced the three sisters home. Bean is in trouble and Cordy is pregnant. Their mother is diagnosed with breast cancer while Rose must choose between staying home with her family and finally leaving home with her fiance.

My Thoughts:

The Weird Sisters came highly recommended and deservedly so. It is extremely well-written. You can see the care Brown put into each and every sentence. Dispersed between these sentences are well-timed Shakespeare quotes – the result of their father’s lifelong obsession with The Bard.

The thing that sets The Weird Sisters apart from other books is the first person plural narrative. The narrator is the three sisters combined. It is a “we” and not three “I”s. The effect enhances the story. Despite the sisters insistence that they are very dissimilar, there is still one story between the three of them. They are still bonded by something stronger than their differences. I can’t think of any other book that uses this type of plural narrative and I can’t think of many authors who could pull it off this well.

I laughed and cried and worried and hoped along with this book. The Weird Sisters is the story of family, sisterhood, and growing up. It will make you long for home and realize you are not the only one struggling with this whole being an adult thing. And sometimes, that’s really all you need in a book.

If I haven’t sold you yet, I will leave you with one final quote which every reader (and grammar-lover) will appreciate:

“Because despite his money and his looks and all the good-on-paper attributes he possessed, he was not a reader, and well, let’s just say that is the sort of nonsense up with which we will not put.” p. 71

Other Reviews: She Is Too Fond of Books; Caribou’s Mom; Devourer of Books; KellyVision; and tons more glowing reviews but I must cut them off somewhere.

Buy It Now: Amazon; Powell’s; IndieBound; Book Depository

In Which My Mom Shares How I Became a Reader [Guest Post]

Michelle10 Comments

Today you are all in for a special treat. My mother is here at my books. my life. to share some memories of me as a young reader. My parents encouraged me to read at a very young age and I am forever grateful for that (I genuinely think the jump I had on the other kids in kindergarten kept me on the “advanced” track the rest of my time in school). So without further ado, my mom:

Some of my memories of Michelle as a young girl learning how to read

My first memories are of Michelle wanting to be read to every night before bedtime.  She would pick a book and we would sit in her bed and I would read her the book. Michelle also looked forward to going to the library for story hour and then picking out books to take home. Michelle had quite a collection of books at a very young age.[1]

I remember her kindergarten teacher[2] being impressed with her reading ability and interest in books at such a young age. [3] When she wanted an American girl doll it was based on the books that she read on the doll not on how the doll looked.[4]

I knew that Michelle would grow up to be an avid reader when she was very young because while most kids wanted a toy when they were being rewarded, for Michelle it was a book. That being said it was no surprise to me when she chose to be an attorney.[5] I am also very proud of the young adult that she has become.

Thank you, mom, for sharing your memories with my readers today. And thank you again for nurturing my love of reading.

What is your fondest memory of reading as a child?

__________________________________________________

[1] I also had quite the collection of clothes 😉

[2] Mrs. Beiber (no relation to Justin that I am aware of)

[3] That’s why I kept a nightlight long after most kids abandon theirs

[4] I had Molly. Molly was by far the least popular.

[5] If only I could read American Girl books in my old bedroom with my nightlight for a living

[6] I assume she means young adult in the I-am-an-adult-and-also–young-sense and not in the vampire-loving-emo sense