Reading – Page 11 – Mia The Reader

The Best Book of The Summer: The Truth According to Us

Posted on July 6, 2015

I’m adding a new book to my Favorites Page today after finishing Annie Barrows’s latest work, The Truth According to Us. This is hands down the best book I’ve read this summer and possibly this whole year. Seriously, it was so good, I’m in a book hangover right now because I just can’t move on.

You may remember Annie Barrows from her co-authorship of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, another book I dearly love. The Truth According to Us is only similar in the strength of character and setting. Otherwise, it has a whole ‘nother feel and plot to it. In fact, it rings more of Kathryn Stockett’s The Help in style and is almost as compelling, if not equally so.

The Truth According to Us is set in the small factory town of Macedonia, West Virginia in 1939. Layla Beck, a fiesty socialite, falls out of her father’s good graces and finds herself in the Federal Writer’s Project with the job of writing the history of Macedonia. Beck gets much more than the back country, backwards society she bargained for when she lands a boarding room in the house of the Romeyn family. As the book progresses, it turns out that the Romeyn family is the true heart of the book. There are secrets upon secrets that shape this family, but this isn’t a soap opera story. It’s more like a classic family saga in which the characters seem to live and breathe in your mind and the story is wrenching and gripping even though it’s not your own and has nothing much to do with your life at all.

Under it all is this idea that history and the course our lives take is always based on what we believe is true. Though definitely not a morality story meant to drive home a particular point, I couldn’t help but think of how important it is to surround ourselves with truly trustworthy people. Trusting the wrong person can change everything about a person’s life. I can’t say too much more or I’ll give it all away! I think this is the type of book that will span many genres and reader preferences. Grab a copy and get reading!

Nonfiction, Reading, Reviews

Love Books: Read This, Not That

Posted on May 1, 2015

Any book worth its salt has some love in it. Friendship, romantic love, sacrificial love, usually self-love whether glorified or not…humans are made to love and they will love something or someone as a default. In the last week, the two books I read actually had “love” in the title, but they were as different as night and day.

The Look of Love by Sarah Jio is classified as literary fiction, but it’s really not. The only literary thing about it is the premise. It had potential, in an O’Henry kind of way, but it falls severely short of the mark of good literature. And it doesn’t make me happy to say that because I loved Jio’s The Violets of March and enjoyed several of her other books. The Look of Love isn’t anywhere close to Jio’s best work. The book’s main character, Jane, has a gift: she can see true love. She’s just figuring out that she has this gift at age 29, and she also learns that she has to identify the six forms of love before her 30th birthday or she will never find true love herself.

Here’s where you start thinking, “Wuv. Twue Wove.” (Books and movies come and go, but The Princess Bride never fails). The definition of true love and the six types of love Jane defines are not love. They are chemistry, lust, the kind of stuff from songs like “Hooked On A Feeling.” In Jio’s book. people can have love and then just fall out of it, find it somewhere else, and it’s all mystical and inexplicable. I understand that elements of romantic love are kind of inexplicable, but love has reasons and choices and true love is selfless.

Enter the next book of the week with love in the title: Love Does. Bob Goff writes in memoir style about the kind of love that has transformed his life. The whole idea is real love doesn’t just feel or talk but it does stuff. It is action. It is being with people or giving to people, believing in people and telling them you’re for them. Real, perfect love is loving like Jesus. Now, before you roll your eyes, make sure you’re thinking about Jesus here and not the people who claim to follow Him. I’ve been a Christian my whole life, met some amazing and incredibly loving followers of Jesus, but I’ve still never seen anyone come close to Jesus. No one can love the unlovable like Jesus. And we’re all unlovable in some way. But Goff tells stories with humor and intelligence and, his favorite word, “whimsy” about how he has experienced love in his life. For example, when he was in high school, he decided to drop out and move to Yosemite. He packed his car, headed out of town, but stopped by a mentor’s house on the way to say goodbye. And this mentor answered the door in the early morning, and a few minutes later, was in the car with Goff, going on his journey not as a chaperon or a parent figure, but a loving friend who still let Goff hold the reigns but said, “I’m with you, Bob.” These and other stories will blows to bits the love presented in pop culture. Love Does is a challenge to trade in the watered down sensation of love in our movies and books for love that is soul satisfying and deeply changing. This book is also just a plain fun read and if nothing else you will laugh (Thanks to my friend, Mary, for lending it to me!).

So if you’re looking for some summer book love, read this, not that. And feel free to chime in with the books you think give a good picture of real love.

Reading, Reviews, Saturday Cooking

Saturday Cooking, Banana Muffins Edition

Posted on March 14, 2015

After reading What Alice Forgot a few weeks ago, I decided to catch up on Liane Moriarty’s other books. I read Big Little Lies and The Husband’s Secret one after the other, but they both pale in comparison to What Alice Forgot and I don’t really recommend either of them. Moriarty knows how to set down a good plot and mix in some really great characters, but the language gets a lot rougher in her latest two books. There are some great themes that add some redeeming value to these books, like working hard on making a good marriage and eschewing busyness and the performance driven life, but usually the conclusions drawn by the end of the book don’t line up with my values. Good discussion can come of it, though I wouldn’t say that redeems it enough for me to recommend these books to friends.

Banana Muffins II Recipe But I would recommend something else from Moriarty and that is this: make some banana muffins. They are mentioned in every single book I’ve read by her, and especially focused on in What Alice Forgot as the pinnacle of comfort food. When I saw some nearly rotten bananas in my kitchen last week, I decided to make banana muffins without even realizing why I wanted to until later. But really, it’s perfect because it takes so much less time than banana bread, which is my go-to course of action when I have expiring bananas.

If you decide to make some, this is the recipe you should make. It is delicious. It’s not a low fat recipe, though, so you may want to make some tweaks if you’re going for a healthified muffin. I followed the recipe exactly except for changing out the white flour for whole wheat and leaving out the nuts because half of our family would rather starve than eat a walnut. I think next time I’ll use less sugar. And by next time, I mean tomorrow. They are so good. Maybe I’ll enjoy them with some fun mugs to make the treat even more delightful.

What’s cooking in your kitchen this Saturday?

Reading, Reviews

Random Reads of Winter 2014-2015

Posted on February 13, 2015

Usually on Fridays I feature our favorite children’s picture books of the week. Sadly, this week has been one of those “For the love, I cannot read The Tawny Scrawny Lion one more time!” kind of weeks. I guess I could just tell you that my kids have been hitting the Little Golden Book classics kind of hard and all this animal and toy personification is really getting to me (elephants, puppies, tugboats, little engines that still can, every time you read about them…). Apparently, I’m more of a people person than I thought.

So here’s what I’ve been reading lately:

The Distant Hours: I used to call myself a great fan of Kate Morton. It’s true, I do really like her story telling and her characters. However, after reading The Distant Hours, and recalling some creepy elements of The Forgotten Garden, I’m realizing that I’m really just a great fan of her latest book The Secret Keeper. It doesn’t have the ghostly element that her other books do. As a disclaimer, I hate spooky stuff. The Distant Hours isn’t really that scary, but I still was unable to go to sleep for about an hour after finishing it last night, which is a pretty mean reward for finishing a 500+ page book. Also, the whole parental guilt theme in her writing kind of messes with me after a while. I’m second guessing myself enough as it is without thoughts about turning my daughters into mad women floating around in my head. All that’s to say, I wouldn’t recommend The Distant Hours unless you like somewhat spooky stuff and you’re good at compartmentalizing what you read and what you think about when you’re not reading.

Bird by Bird: It feels really dumb to say I’ve never read this before but equally dumb to say I’m reading a book about writing. How pretentious can I be? Anne Lamott (whose name I always spell wrong, kind of like I always get ~~vaccum~~ vacuum wrong) does an amazing job of writing a book about writing that’s actually quite enjoyable. That must be the mark of a truly great writer. I didn’t like the one novel of hers I’ve read, but I do admire her writing abilities.

By the way, on the “Writers write so just write already” note, this post by Jen Hatmaker on Becoming A Writer resonated with so many people on the internet, I’ve decided that at least 50% of all people want to be writers. Turns out it’s not that crazy or rare of a thing to have a need to write things down. It’s just a crazy thing to expect to be published. That’s what I’m learning from Lamott and Hatmaker and any other person who is an accomplished writer. Thank goodness for blogs, right?

Own Your Life: The timing of this book for me and several of my friends is just perfect. I’m just getting into it and really looking forward to our discussion. Sally Clarkson is one of my favorite authors on parenting. For all my mommy readers, you need to check out these podcasts she was recently a guest on: Inspired to Action and God Centered Mom. I badly needed her wisdom on the two separate days I listened to these. Heck, when do I not need this kind of wisdom?

I’ve got nothing on the horizon for a good novel to read right now. Someone, help me. I’ll be under the kitchen table rocking back and forth until I have another good book to read. Of course, the only difference is that when I do have a good book to read I’ll be under the kitchen table reading instead of rocking. Oh, I’m kidding, calm down! We’re all fine here, kids are dressed, fed, read to, played with, scolded, laundry is (mostly) washed (but rarely folded and put away). I even made dinner every night this week, which, you know if you’ve read my Saturday Cooking posts, is not my favorite thing. I really was kidding about the under the table thing, I promise.

Have a happy weekend! Oh yeah, and if you’re feeling ambivalent about the weekend’s holiday, here are my thoughts from last year on what the day should really be about. I’m all in this year – I cut out hearts and owls with wings made out of hearts almost all morning yesterday. Ella had this idea that she wanted to make a Valentine’s Day Tree (A “Valentree”) with hearts and heart-owls on every branch. How could I say “no” to that kind of creativity that’s totally foreign to me? But even if you’re not crazy about the holiday, I hope you find a way to spread some love in your corner, wherever that may be.

Reading, Reviews

If You Liked The Book Thief

Posted on February 3, 2015

Every now and then, a book comes out that defies the usual reading genres. It’s a book that we try to categorize, but it doesn’t even matter because all kinds of readers read it. It’s the book that makes the top of the “If you read one book in 20__” list. Let’s call it The Wonder Book. It’s awesome when we readers find books like that, because for a few minutes, a bunch of us who read all different kinds of books can talk about the same one. The Wonder Book becomes that book on everyone’s reading list, or the only answer in every conversation on social media related to books.

You: “I need a good book to read at the beach!”

Half your friends: “Have you read The Hunger Games! So. Good.”

The Book Thief And if you’re lucky (or living under a rock, or just really stubborn), you haven’t read The Wonder Book and you get to experience it for the first time. But after a while, you say, “What should I read?” and people say, “I love Harry Potter,” or “You have GOT to read Unbroken” and you slap your forehead. Can’t anyone recommend anything else???

This is what happened about three years after the publication of The Book Thief. The Book Thief was “The Wonder Book” in 2011 (though published in 2008). My husband and I both read it and thought it was great. If you have read The Book Thief, you know it’s one of a kind in its writing style and perspective. And if you’ve read it and are now on the hunt for another great book, I found a similar one last week. All The Light We Cannot See is making waves in the literary world. I just finished it last week, and I am still trying to figure out the end, but I would venture to say that it’s really, really good. It’s an odd mixture of myth and history, with memorable characters and precise yet descriptive writing. If you’ve read extensively about Europe in World War II, you will understand all the horrors that are mostly veiled in this particular novel. There are definitely some harsh realities, but much is left to the imagination, or to the reader’s own historical knowledge, which might be nice for someone who doesn’t want to delve too deeply in WWII history. (Too late for me). I enjoyed it for its many layers of fine plot details, symbolism, and historical relevancy. I will never forget the characters. My only complaint is the format is a bit choppy, which is great and makes it into a page turner if you can sit down and read for a good solid chunk of time, but is a challenge for people like me who often read in snatches.

So read All The Light We Cannot See and then let me know what you think happens at the end!

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Here are some of my other favorite WWII books which are not much like The Book Thief, but I love them.

For Such A Time, by Elyse Larson

This will probably appeal more to women readers. It’s the story of Jean Thornton’s attempt to rescue her cousin who is arrested by Nazis for aiding the French Resistance. I read as a teenager, and still enjoy it as an adult. Quality-wise, it probably shouldn’t be on the same list as Doerr and Zusak, but I’m putting it here because it’s one of my favorite books set in World War II Europe.

The Plum Tree, by Ellen Marie Wiseman – I loved this book! It’s the first one I ever reviewed on my blog. Read my review here.