Breaking Night

Breaking Night: A Memoir by Liz Murray
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Liz Murray shares her story with grace, hope and inspires others to take control of their own future by hard work, dedication and love for family and friends.  Please note there are descriptions of heavy drug use (her parents) and some child abuse and neglect but the story would not be complete without understanding what she endured and eventually made the choice to overcome.

Favorite passages:

Had I know when I left that there would be no going back, no returning to a roof over my head, I'm not sure I would have done it.  After all, isn't that what really draws the line between childhood and adulthood, knowing that you are solely responsible for yourself?  If so, then my childhood ended at fifteen.

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I was inspired by a question that kept repeating itself in my mind: Could I really change my life?  I'd spent so many days, weeks, months, and years thinking about doing things with my life, and now I wanted to know, if I committed to a goal and woke up every single day working hard at it, could I change my life?

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In this way I didn't have to choose to go to high school just once, I had to choose it over and over again, every single time I was tempted not to go.  During these mornings that were full of rare and precious quiet, soft pillows and warmth, I was tempted more than any other time to just pull the blanket back over me.  It took everything I had to choose to walk through the door to go to school instead.  In these moments, I was my biggest obstacle.  Warm blanket or walk through the door?

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But it was no easy task to pick out a birthday card from Daddy to Lisa.  What could I possibly pick?  They were all designed for men who had lived up to their responsibilities as a father, cards decorated with shimmering monikers of Dad, Daddy, sayings like, "This card is from your loving Father."  …. I came up with my own solution.  Neither of them knew it, but more than once I found the perfect card from Daddy to Lisa in the sympathy section of the card store:  "Been Thinking About You," …..cards that expressed love but left room for the implication of tragedy and distance.  These were the only greeting cards that captured Daddy's role as a father.

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….discussions on character motivation, syntax, and even his bold assertion one afternoon that "grammer saves lives!" "Punctuation changes everything," he proclaimed in white chalk across our blackboard.  "Let's eat, Grandpa! - versus- Let's eat Grandpa! To Grandpa, these are VERY different sentences," he teased making the class erupt into chuckles and groans.

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Things turning around for me had been the result of my focusing on the few areas in life I could change, and surrendering to the knowledge that there were many more things I just couldn't make different.


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The Secret Life of Bees

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this book and the journey that Lily goes on to try to find her mother.  My favorite part, though is when she realizes that family is not only your blood relatives, but those that love you and surround you just because they want to - not due to familial expectations or social obligation.  This book really challenged me, reminding me of childhood wounds and also making me forever grateful for those who love me unconditionally and without judgement.



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A Christmas Carol

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have not really cared for the movie versions of this book, but I wanted to read a Christmas themed book for the holidays so I decided to read the book.  I am SO glad I did!  The book is a beautiful story of the realization that life  is short and our impact on others lives can either be positive or negative, we must choose between the two.

I read this on dailylit.com and love that you are sent short emails with portions of the book daily.  I found myself requesting the next installment over and over because I wanted to find out what happened next!  (Yes, I knew what happened next, but the book does differ from the movies we've all seen!)

A great christmas read to get you in the spirit of the season!


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Three Cups of Tea

Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace... One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I actually read the "Young Readers Edition" of this because I had tried to read the regular edition a couple of years ago and found it very dry.  After a friend said she was reading it with her 5th grader and was really enjoying it, I decided to try her version.  Yes, she was right, that was the right version for me, I read it in two days!  I am amazed at Mr. Mortenson's drive to build schools in the circumstances that he did and am beginning to understand that when you have a calling, you can't rest until you fulfill it….

Here are a couple of my favorite passages:

But Greg hadn't reached the summit of K2.  And now in the fall of 1993, back home from Pakistan, Greg had a new challenge ahead of him.  He packed his climbing gear away in a rented storage space and tried to figure out how he was going to accomplish his new goal: raising enough money to build a school in Korphe.  How could he convince Americans to care about a circle of children sitting in the cold on the other side of the world, scratching their lessons in the dirt with sticks?  This might be even harder than climbing the second-highest mountain on earth.
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After a long, satisfying day of working on the bridge, Greg loved washing down a bowl of rice and lentil stew with strong tea, basking  in the sun with Haji Ali's family, and chatting across the rooftops to the other families doing the same thing.  On the warm, dry roof, eating, smoking, and gossiping, Greg felt sure that, although there were many things the Balti did not have, they did have an uncomplicated happiness that was becoming very rare in the world.
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"In times of war," he went on, "you often hear leaders - Christian, Jewish, and Muslim - saying, 'God is on our side.'  But that isn't true.  God is on the side of refugees, widows, and orphans."



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The BFG

The BFG by Roald Dahl
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

My oldest daughter has always raved about how much she loves this book and that I should read it, but for some reason I never did.  Why did I wait so long?

I first listened to this book on my ipod because I just LOVE to listen to books while I work around the house doing laundry, cleaning bathrooms, etc. The book was narrated by Natasha Richardson whom I adore; may she rest in peace :(  I found myself laughing out loud over and over while scrubbing the toilet or making school lunches.  I even listened to a couple of chapters over and over they were so stinking silly!

I promptly read it out loud to my two little ones (ages 5 & 6) and they giggled and begged me to "read more, Mommy!" every night.  My hubby hadn't read it yet, so we listened to it in the car on our long "over the river and through the woods" Thanksgiving weekend drive.

The BFG is my new favorite children's book!  I don't want to give anything away, but it is a scrumdiddleyumptious tale; my favorite chapter is Frobscottle & Whizzpoppers!



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1st to Die - Womens Murder Club

1st to Die by James Patterson


My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Great murder mystery! My S-mother (step-mother) used to rave about these books and I have been missing her lately (she passed away almost 6 years ago) so I decided to listen to this one! I will definately listen to the rest of the Women's Murder Club books now.




I have been using the library on-line service to download books to my ipod and while I love listening to books on my ipod, the program you have to use to convert the book to itunes takes forever and messes up my playlists. I'm not sure if I will keep using the online service or if I will revert to going to the library to pick up the cd's. I do like the online one because you check it out like a normal book and then once your check-out period is over, the book disappears from your ipod. Very cool.








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Mockingjay

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Disappointed cannot even begin to describe how I felt when I finished this book.  I am speechless.  Me.  Speechless.

Maybe Katniss said it best, so I'll leave it to her.  Yes, this is the only thing I highlighted on my Kindle in the ENTIRE book.

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"I've stopped talking because there's really nothing left to say and there's this piercing sort of pain where my heart is.  Maybe I'm even having a heart attack, but it doesn't seem worth mentioning.
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