Skip to main content

Posts

Review: The Weight of Silence

A troubled family focuses on their non-verbal child, she spoke once then grew mute, yet they find no answers to unlock her voice. The book builds as they search for answers, then ratches up until a gun goes off and one of the family is dead. This debut novel by New York Times bestselling author Heather Gudenkauf , is cast with characters that are both good and bad, sober and drunk, overflowing with youthful joy that spins into fear, adults with disappointments and regrets, and a longing that threatens to cross boundaries. Their intertwining histories make it impossible for them to live separate lives, yet the criss-cross of their paths saves one, kills one, and may bring a love once lost back. I heard Gudenkauf speak at the Tucson Festival of Book and have had this on my list for some time. Finally jump started my reading and this one was a good place to start..  This is a quick read and the building tension keeps you from putting the book down until the end. Recommend! Source : Li

Poem: The Moon Sighed

A Poem: The Moon Sighed  The moon sighed High in the sky, Rested an eye, On our stitch of earth. ~ Carol Doane Photo by  Luca .

How to add a couple of years to your life: read

If you’re looking for the magic bullet to extend your life, it’s right there in a book.  Any book. According to Yale researchers , reading books on a regular basis adds a couple of years to your life. In the study, researchers used three groups to identify this: non-readers, bookworms spending 3-1/2 hours per week reading, and those spending more than 3-1/2 hours reading. Taking into consideration gender, race, education, wealth, marital status and depression, the study found that readers who spent more than 3-1/2 hours per week were over 20 percent more likely to live the longest. So, there you go. No vitamins needed. Just a daily does of vowels, consonants and good punctuation. You can read more about the study here: Bookworms live longer . The question remains, though, who lives longer: those who write, or those who don’t? Your thoughts?

Review: Everything I never told you by Celeste Ng

“Everything here reminds her of what Lydia could have been.”   Lydia, a high school student has died and her mother drifts into her room to experience the smells and sensations of the girl who used to inhabit the space. Across town, Lydia’s father has dropped into another woman’s bed and sleeps tranquilly. Nothing in life has happened as it should. Love gets lost in withheld touches and unspoken thoughts. Parents’ expectations are driven into successive generations and serve as baggage rather than inspiration. Words hurt: “ this,”  referring to Lydia’s parent’s marriage, “isn’t right.” Words are avoided: mixed, interracial, mismatched. Words that could reassure lay stagnant and not vocalized. Words are smithed to cope: “disappeared, fell in the lake, drowned.” The family’s search to understand the daughter who died, their search for a killer to pin their grief on, the destruction of trust, and the slow melting away of relationships show a family on the brink. The sprint to finish this

Review: Bride of the Sea by Eman Quotah

“And the word  divorce  is whispering in his ear, a secret no when else knows.” Muneer, a 23-year-old journalism student from Saudi Arabia attending university in the United States, is considering divorcing his 19-year-old wife, also from Saudi Arabia, who is pregnant and about to give birth. He has this thought when she is shoveling snow without a jacket, scarf, or gloves. She seems to like the cold. Before the baby is born, she strips down to her underwear and walks into a lake in winter. Is this a suicide attempt? It’s hard to grasp that concept –a young woman so unhappy she walks into a lake pregnant, a couple who doesn’t share, has no team goal, with divorce thoughts shortly before their child is born. The couple divorces. The wife, Saeedah, or Sadie as she is later known, flees with their daughter and spends the next seventeen years hiding from Muneer, his family, and her family. How is this life of hiding, that Sadie has taken her daughter Hannah on, different from a culture th