Berry's Mom
BOOKS I READ THIS SUMMER (FWIW)
Isabel Allende's "The Infinite Plan." Not one of her best.
"Abide with Me" by Elizabeth Stroudt. This is a wonderful read if you like reading about ministers. Personally, I love minister novels. This one takes place in a small town in Maine. Not only does the author understand ministry, she totally nails small towns.
"Mr. Emerson's Wife," by Amy Belding Brown. I think she jumped on the "Ahab's Wife" bandwagon, but she did it well. A lot of the stuff we know about Waldo, Lidian, Thoreau, etc. filled in with the author's conjecture about why Waldo must have been so difficult to live with, his real feelings for Margaret Fuller, and what really happened between Lidian and Henry.
"Your Blues Ain't Like Mine," by Bebe Moore Campbell. This SUPERB novel is a loose adaptation of the story of Emmit Till, with strong and nuanced backstory about all possible characters: the murderer, his wife, the parents of the murdered boy, the Black community in that Mississippi town, the white newspaper editor who is sympathetic to the Blacks, and a lot of other well-developed characters. It really helped me to understand the violent and desperate reaction of poor whites to the threat of integration in the South of the late 1950's. A must read!
"Trans-Sister Radio," by Chris Bohjalian. I have never read a novel on this subject--straight woman falls in love with man not realizing that man is transgendered and is already on the way to becoming a woman. (I am not giving anything away here; this is all on the jacket.) A lot about the woman's soul-searching ("If I still love her/him after his/her surgery, does that make me a lesbian?") and also a lot about the small-minded reaction of the townspeople in Vermont where said woman is a 6th grade teacher. A poignant and fascinating story.
I managed these in three weeks on the coast of Maine, with reading time interspersed with a lot of knitting (or was it the other way around?).
My apologies for the way this post is probably going to look funny (she says before previewing it). My blogging skills are very new and unpolished, not to mention non-existent!
BOOKS I READ THIS SUMMER (FWIW)
Isabel Allende's "The Infinite Plan." Not one of her best.
"Abide with Me" by Elizabeth Stroudt. This is a wonderful read if you like reading about ministers. Personally, I love minister novels. This one takes place in a small town in Maine. Not only does the author understand ministry, she totally nails small towns.
"Mr. Emerson's Wife," by Amy Belding Brown. I think she jumped on the "Ahab's Wife" bandwagon, but she did it well. A lot of the stuff we know about Waldo, Lidian, Thoreau, etc. filled in with the author's conjecture about why Waldo must have been so difficult to live with, his real feelings for Margaret Fuller, and what really happened between Lidian and Henry.
"Your Blues Ain't Like Mine," by Bebe Moore Campbell. This SUPERB novel is a loose adaptation of the story of Emmit Till, with strong and nuanced backstory about all possible characters: the murderer, his wife, the parents of the murdered boy, the Black community in that Mississippi town, the white newspaper editor who is sympathetic to the Blacks, and a lot of other well-developed characters. It really helped me to understand the violent and desperate reaction of poor whites to the threat of integration in the South of the late 1950's. A must read!
"Trans-Sister Radio," by Chris Bohjalian. I have never read a novel on this subject--straight woman falls in love with man not realizing that man is transgendered and is already on the way to becoming a woman. (I am not giving anything away here; this is all on the jacket.) A lot about the woman's soul-searching ("If I still love her/him after his/her surgery, does that make me a lesbian?") and also a lot about the small-minded reaction of the townspeople in Vermont where said woman is a 6th grade teacher. A poignant and fascinating story.
I managed these in three weeks on the coast of Maine, with reading time interspersed with a lot of knitting (or was it the other way around?).
My apologies for the way this post is probably going to look funny (she says before previewing it). My blogging skills are very new and unpolished, not to mention non-existent!
posted by Berrysmom at 11:00 PM
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