Conversations with a Moonflower

Details:  Memoir of Christine Hall's life and lessons learned by changing.  Christine's Grandmother's death brings the family together one last time at the old family farm.  What is discovered there while the family sorts, and cleans and cleans out the farm is priceless.  Settled in the Amish country side Christine and her family take the time to say good bye to old dear Amish friends, who were dear sweet friends to their Grandmother.  The gift that is given and shared for years to come will never be forgotten.

My Review:  This was a book club book for the month of May.  I read this very short book in 3 days.  I bought it from Amazon for $4, for my Kindle.  Its the most amazing book ever.  It opens your eyes to lessons you learn from the most unusual things, people, and circumstances.  I highly recommend this book to everyone.    There is a Facebook page just for this book as well, which is fun to check out because Christine is always doing book signings.
Best Part: Christine Hall has a website directly attributed to this book, and through this website, anyone can buy a package of Moon flower seeds for $4.  What an amazing author.  Not only does she tell you her wonderful experiences with her Moon flower, but she allows you the chance to experience the joy in your own back yard.

Pros: short book with lots of lessons, not preachy, not religious, pure every day life lessons to be learned and appreciated.

Cons: none

                                                               My Rating  

The Summer Kitchen

The Summer Kitchen was a great Book!

Think About It: Image can mean many different things to many different people.  When it comes to image the size of house or family, type of house or car, clothes and accessories, the amount of money you make or spend, where you live, the type of friends and entertainment you host all matter.  Do you have an image?  What is your image?  How do you up keep this image?  How far would you go, or what would you be willing to do to keep this image intact?

Details: When prestige is the rule, and money is the exception to the rule, where friends are only friends when you have that money, and image is everything.  This is the world in which the Banks lived, that is until Mr. Banks ends up in jail, and his wife Nora is stuck cleaning up the mess.  But as she cleans up, disasters occur around every bend.  Nora and some newly acquired friends are put to the test and then some, as they discover how to be true to themselves, and how to over come their dependency to men, marriage, image and well the society they now find themselves thrust out of but unable to leave.  Can time and forgiveness really melt the ice that has formed around Nora's heart so that love and trust can be built back up or will she give into her physical need for intimate comfort, peace and fulfillment?

My Review: I bought this book late one night while out giving myself release from the busy life of a mother.  I was searching for something that would be fun to read, give me encouragement to continue being patient and keep my faith strong while my family goes through some major changes and important decisions.  I got exactly what I was looking for, but not in the way I was hoping.  I read this book in 1 week.  It took me about 30 pages to actually enjoy reading this novel.  But as the story unfolded my heart was truly touched.  I learned lessons right along with the main characters.  I found courage and peace in my own life by reading about Nora Banks and her family.  This is my new favorite read, and with the price I paid, I think its a great Mother's Day gift, or perfect for any woman!  This would make the perfect Book Club book for all the discussions that you can come up with.

Karen Weinreb pays great attention to details, I love the details of nature, the houses, the descriptions of intimate fantasies.  I love the details of all the baking, man I'm so craving some of those yummy sounding goodies mentioned in this book.

                                                                      My Rating    

Ladies with Options

Details: The book takes place during the late 80's early 90's when the stock market was still new and unknown to the general world.  Cynthia Hartwick has a very unique style of writing this book and its sequel Ladies with Properties.  Taking her script from the Larksdale Ladies a group of women living in the prim and proper way of life in their small town.  The leader of this group of women takes a challenged youth into her home and finds that by her civil duty and charity she and her friends are blessed with great opportunities for wealth beyond anyone's dream for women such as these.  Each woman is challenged with the accountability of having so much money, and how to use it, and how to keep creeps and hagglers from abusing them.  Its about how the normality of "Gold Diggers" as being women are reversed as its all the male gender who do the most damage to these sweet women of wealth.

My Review:  This book and its sequel looked super intriguing, so I checked both of them out from the library for 3 weeks each.  I thought this would be plenty of time for me to read them.  I consider myself an avid reader, and am easily sucked into the world of each novel that I pick up.  But after 3 weeks with Ladies with Options, I was barely half way through the book.  This is of course picking it up and reading for a few hours each most days during those 3 weeks.  The way this book is written, each chapter being narrated and then told by different characters was very confusing and turned off my imagination so I was unable to get sucked into it at all.  I loved the little stories of each woman, but I feel like nothing flowed easily like most books I read do.  

Pros: Good plot, fun realistic characters, great for dedicated book clubs

Cons: lack of flowing prose, and lack of interest in the book despite a good plot.  

Price: pricing varies, but can be found on Amazon in soft cover or kindle versions.

                                                                              My Rating 

Glass Castle Memoir

Details: Written by Jeannette Walls in 2005.  This is a memoir of Jeannette and her 3 siblings as they grew up in harsh unconventional ways.  Rex and Rose Mary Walls Jeannette's parents were poorer than poor, and lived on the go, in scary places, with little to no hygiene and with personal addictions that always came before the care of their children.  Rex is drunk addict to alcohol.  Rose Mary is a romantic artist addicted to sugar.  This book is being filmed as a movie.

Information:  This is not a happy story, this is not an uplifting story.  I read this as my book club's March book.   Within the first 10 pages there's so much language (swearing, vulgar, crude, and plain nasty language) that I had to skip a few pages until the language calmed down.  Not a great start to a story.  As I kept reading I kept hoping the story (life of Jeannette) would get better, happier, and safer.  But no such luck.  These Wall kids suffered more than most people even imagine could ever happen at all in the US.  Its so sad.  I cried a few times because its such a depressing story.  Throughout the whole book I hated Rex and Rose Mary!  What kind of parents would do such horrible things to their own children?  Then I became furious at all the adults at the schools these children went to for not investigating their story, even when they had the impression that something wasn't right.  I am so proud of and impressed with Jeannette and her siblings.  They are so strong, and true, as they were easily able to forgive and get over the horrible life they were born into.  I love that they've learned to work hard and have become successful!  Just seeing what they've gone through and how positive and strong they are is inspiring, but not enough for me to buy or reread this book ever again.  I don't know if I could handle the movie either.

Pros: The only thing that was positive about their story is that the kids were able to escape before more damage could have happened.  And in the end none of the Wall children hated, their parents.  They forgave their parents and even came to understand why their parent's lived the way they did.  I could never read this book again, because I don't like depressing, sad stories.  But if you can stomach this type of memoir than read it.  If you enjoy true stories, memoirs, and autobiographies this is perfect for you!  The plot is a swirling twist of the unexpected throughout the whole book.

Cons: I don't recommend this for the tender hearted, the weak stomached, the emotional woman, and its not recommended for anyone until the age of 16!  There is tons of really bad language, some worse than swear words.  There is sexual abuse, child abuse, child neglect, lying, stealing, smoking, drug use, sex, immoral behavior, alcohol, prostitution, child slavery (of Jeannette by her father), and graphic imagery of children getting badly hurt, and burned.

                                                                                My Rating

Here is an interview clip of Jeannette and her mother!  This is why I give this book a thumbs up.

The Runaway Mother

Details: Carol Lynn Pearson's The Runaway Mother.  Alison is a mother of two children whom she loves very much, but when she finds out that her Mother's Day was bribed out of her children, she crumbles.  Running away seems like the only way she can deal with being a single mother trying to do her best, but failing on all accounts.  Her perfect neighbor doesn't help her either.  Have you ever felt like being a mother was not worth the sacrifice?  Have you ever wished not to be a mom once you already had kids?  Have you ever wished you had a partner to help with the kids instead of being a single mother?

Information:  This is a very short book only 71 pages.  I read this book in 35 minutes.  Its a very funny but heart touching book at the same time for anyone who is a mother.  Carol Lynn Pearson has a great sense of depth, details, and humor as she writes her books.  She has a great collection of books, all very short, easy reads.  I checked this book out at the Orem Public Library.  I recommend this as a fun, quick read especially before Mother's Day.  This would be a fun book for book clubs to read.

                                                                               My Rating