Book Review: The Match ("Savior Siblings" and One Family's Battle to Heal Their Daughter)

Another book from LibraryThing!  I finished reading The Match and found myself wanting to learn the rest of the story, how Katie is growing up.  This book is about amazing, new fertility options that can help people who either have a genetic disorder that runs in their family or help out a family with an already sick child.  Selecting fertilized eggs for healthy genes or certain genes that match a sibling is a complicated new field of medicine and ethics and this book takes the academic arguments surrounding it and puts names and faces on the controversy.  In the book, you meet the Trebing family, whose daughter Katie is suffering from the terminal condition of Blackfan Anemia.  Her parents eventually decided to have another child whose genetic makeup with be a perfect match for Katie's, and therefore able to donate cord blood or bone marrow to help heal Katie.  This story follows their decision making process, the controversy they encounter and the long months of Katie's healing through the help of her brother, Christopher.  Sprinkled in amongst the story is the technical knowledge regarding the procedures that brought Christopher into the world and the battle to save Katie's life.  This is a well-written book that never gets too bogged down in the technical and yet gives enough information to help keep everything in perspective.  Oh, and it will probably make you cry. 

Book Review: Outside Wonderland by Lorna Jane Cook

I recently received a book from LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program!  Publishers give out books before their publication date so people can read them and and post reviews online.  I read Outside Wonderland by Lorna Jane Cook and it was an absolute pleasure to read.  It didn't take me long to finish the novel because it was interesting and enjoyable.  The story follows three siblings whose parents passed away when they were young.  Their parents get the opportunity to look into their childrens' lives from a place they call "Here."  The now-grown children live out their lives unaware that their parents are lovingly watching out for them and hoping that they eventually find happiness in their earthly lives.  Free-spirited Alice lives in New York, working as an actress in off-Broadway plays, hoping to eventually get her big break.  Her sister Dinah lives with their grandmother and works in Washington DC.  Their brother Griffin lives in Chicago with his partner Theo and works as a chef in a nice restaurant.   Through the course of the book, all three find their lives turned upside down and intertwined with each other.  It is a beautifully written story that moves along with grace and and handles the topic of death with quiet dignity.  I highly recommend picking this up in March when it comes out and making it one of your lazy day summer reading books. 

The Other Boleyn Girl: "There is no room for mistakes at court"

So, I watched the movie several years ago, and while I enjoyed it, it did leave me in a bit of a funk.  It was such a crazy story and the ending was nuts and I didn't know what to think about it.  Ever since then I have wanted to read the book.  I finally got around to it at the end of the summer and beginning of the school year.  First of all, it was a much larger book than I had figured so when school started, my reading time decreased significantly and it took a while to finish.  I'm glad I did, however.  The book is well written and the characters are developed in such a way that you are conflicted in your feelings for some and have the utmost sympathy or disgust for others.  The story moves through quite a series of years and offers an interesting look into medieval England.  This story is a historical fiction because the characters and the general story was true but the author took many liberties with filling in the details of everyday life and the details regarding the lesser known characters' lives, including Anne Boleyn.  Even still, though, this book was a fascinating read.  Again, the ending left me in a funk but now that I've had some time to digest it, I'm glad that I finished it and it is one that I may pick up again for another summer reading. 

Books!

Another book completed!!  Understanding Thomas Jefferson was one of the most eye opening books I have ever read.  Many Americans (ok, maybe just the nerdy history lovers, like myself) know something about the apparent contradictions in his life: undying love for his wife and yet a lover in one of his slave girls, fear of racial mixing and yet multiple biracial children, hatred for the institution of slavery and yet lifelong owner of slaves, etc, etc.  This book takes all of those strange contradictions and pulls them together into a cohesive picture of the founding father.  Reading this book offered such a unique insight into Jefferson's life and the amount of research that clearly went into this biography is truly astounding.  If you have any interest at all in Revolutionary America, this is a book not to miss! 

New Ornaments

I just listed three new ornaments that I have been working on!  Be sure to check them out at asparkleofsunshine.etsy.com!  I was very excited to create two summery ones and look forward to fall with one richly colored brown and black one!  Stay tuned either tonight or tomorrow for a new book review here!

Sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.

I did it.  I finally sat down and read all of Alice in Wonderland.  B and I went to see the movie a few months ago and I was determined to actually read the book.  I loved it.  It was such a whimsical vacation read.  It was funny and crazy and strange and amazing.  The world that Lewis Carroll created was so believable despite its obvious absurdity.  The characters are interesting despite only brief encounters with some of them.  The crazy poetry and songs were literary works of art in and of themselves.  The best part of the book was the ability to lose yourself in Wonderland and allow your imagination to run along with Alice on this fantastic adventure.  It was a light read with no deep thought required...perfect for summer vacation! 

Another Book :)

While on vacation, I finished People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks.  It was a fabulous summer read.  Absolutely wonderful.  Maybe its because of my nerdy interest in the subject, but I loved it :)  The book is the story of a book, a very rare book to be specific.  The Sarajevo Haggadah is found in Bosnia and leading book conservator, Hanna Heath, is called into restore the volume for display.  Inside its pages, she finds several interesting fragments, such as a white hair and a grain of sea salt.  She begins to investigate the origins of the fragments and the journey the book took through the ages.  In conjunction with Hanna's story, the book flashes back to the book's story of how each object showed up caught in its pages and binding.  Of course, there is family drama and a little love story too but all in all, its a story of history that unfolds beautifully, as the pages of a book, as it were :)  I love the idea of a book or artifact having a story beyond just the historical significance of the text.  Each book comes from somewhere and traveled along its own journey though people's lives.  This book was fascinating and I recommend it as a quick and yet intellectual read. 

Moving Right Along!

Another one off the list!  I received Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen from Paperback Swap and finished it in a few short days.  The story follows the memories of "90 or 93 year old" Jacob Jankowski, a former vet for the Benzini Brother circus.  He relates the story of meeting many interesting characters such as Walter, the dwarf clown, Marlena, the liberty horse performer who is married to August, the schizophrenic animal trainer.  The history of Depression era circuses is related through this tale of love and survival as the elderly Jacob reminisces about his former lifestyle.  The characters are slowly developed and blossom into well-rounded and believable members of this traveling show and the juxtaposition of assisted living-bound Jacob offers unique parallels.  Of course, one of the characters is an elephant, whose name is Rosie.  I don't want to give any more away because I might ruin the simple sweetness of this quick read novel!    

I did it!

I finally finished my first book off my summer reading list!  (I also got a box full of books delivered yesterday..oops..haha)  Amid all the craziness of spring term, I managed to find the time to read Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson.  I still haven't decided how I feel about  the book.  Granted, biographical type stories are generally difficult for me to get through because of the writing style.  However, I was determined to read this book and my slight OCD doesn't let me not finish a book (seriously, even if its YEARS later, I will finish every single book that I begin...its exhausting sometimes!)  But anyways, the story itself is a beautiful one of love and compassion in an area of the world where most of America believes that none exists.  The most striking part of it for me was the willingness and excitement of so many of the leaders in Pakistan and Afghanistan to help Greg further his goal of education for their nations' young girls.  Its such a different view than the US media tends to portray of the Middle East.  From an educational standpoint, the work that Greg is engaged in is absolutely amazing.  I cannot even imagine the types of circumstances that teachers over there work in, such as 50 or more children to teach or no building to use as a school, while we complain here if our class sizes exceed 25 kids.  It was a humbling story to read even if the writing sometimes got bogged down in the places and names and facts.