What if your best friend vanished and nobody would listen to you?

Latest audiobook: Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey

Maude is an elderly woman you meet on page 1. She is telling everyone who will listen to her that her friend Elizabeth is missing. She's missing! And nobody seems to be taking her seriously, which is frustrating to her and to you, as the reader. Why won't they listen? Elizabeth is missing.

As you spend more time with Maude, you realize that dementia is setting in and she's a very unreliable narrator. The fact that Elizabeth has gone missing has stirred up some long-buried memories of a trauma in her family when she was a teenager, and the author expertly carries you along as Maude's thoughts weave in between the past and present. What happened to Elizabeth? And what happened in the past?

This book was disorienting and suspenseful. It was made even better by the fact that it was on audio, and the narrator did an amazing job. Davina Porter's voice and skill made Maude come to life for me. Your heart will break for her when you realize how quickly she's losing her grasp on reality, and you'll want to step into her world and tell someone, "Just tell her what happened to Elizabeth!"

This book is a great combination of a thriller and a heartbreaking family story.

Happy Birthday, Beverly Cleary!

Yesterday the beloved children's author turned 103 years old, which is an amazing feat all by itself. In an interview on the Today Show on her 100th birthday, she said, "Well, I didn't do it on purpose!"

In honor of her birthday I wanted to read one of her books, but I don't own any. Well, I have one of the Ramona books in my classroom, but I didn't think to bring it home for the weekend. However, I read an article on Slate about her memoir A Girl from Yamhill, and I decided to see if my town library had it. They do, but it's out. However, her subsequent memoir, My Own Two Feet was on the shelf, so I brought it home.

It was surprisingly hard to put down. During the Depression, California was offering free community college to all of its residents. Beverly lived in Oregon, but she had relatives in California who invited her to live with them so she could get an education. She wasn't asked to do anything but keep her bedroom neat and bake two cakes each week for the family. Her grandfather sent her $5 every month, which was a big help back then. After her first year, she had to find other living arrangements because her relatives had an elderly grandmother move in and take over her bedroom. However, she proved in this book that she's nothing if not resourceful. She found a roommate and they rented a space in an old woman's home where they shared a pull-out couch bed. Whens he graduated, she moved on to a four-year school and hemmed skirts and knitted in order to make money for her room and board.

Other fun facts about Beverly Clearly:

• She got a D in botany and decided to retake it. Her subsequent A made her grade average out to a B.
• She took geology and loved it.
• She needed glasses but her mother absolutely refused to pay for them, saying that men wouldn't find her as attractive if she was wearing them.
• She took a fencing class during her junior year (epee, in case my fellow fencers were wondering).
• She and her husband eloped because her parents wouldn't approve of her marrying a Catholic.

The book ends with the publication of her first book, Henry Huggins. She wanted to write books for the children she knew when she was a children's librarian, who didn't want to read the classics. They just wanted to read stories about kids they could relate to. 

The first book I ever read by her was Ramona and her Mother, which my mom picked out for me at the Enfield Public Library here in Connecticut. I remember the story as well as the cover, which was yellow and had the two of them blowing on dandelions on it.

Beverly Cleary, like Judy Blume and Lois Lowry, is one of those authors who has just always been around for me. It was really fun to read more about her real life and family and see what obstacles she had to overcome in order to achieve her two main goals: to become a librarian and to write children's books.

What if you knew how much time you had?

This is a new answer to an age-old question: Would you ever want to know the exact date that you were going to die? And if so, how would you use that information?

Enter the Gold family. When the four children are young, they hear about a mysterious woman in their neighborhood who can tell anyone the exact date of his or her death, and they can't help themselves. They go.

What follows are four chapters that tell the life journeys of the siblings. For some it means seizing the day, living in the moment, and taking risks. For others, it's an almost tangible reminder that life is finite and we need to plan, focus, and be as productive as possible.

One of the sisters becomes a magician. She has been working on this goal since she was a young child, creating illusions but also wanting to suspend disbelief and find magic everywhere around her. On a family beach trip, she is amazed by the red water on the Jersey shore.

"Years later in school, Klara learned of a phenomenon called red tide; algae blooms multiply, making coastal waters toxic and discolored. This knowledge made her feel curiously empty. She no longer had reason to wonder about the red sea or marvel at its mystery. She recognized that something had been given to her, but something else - the magic of the transformation - had been taken away."

I can relate to this. One bucket list item I haven't crossed off yet is to see the northern lights. I have a basic understanding of what they are, but honestly, it doesn't matter much to me. I just want to see them and admire them. I don't want to know the logical explanation.

I remember the day that I realized that someday I'm going to die too. I was about four years old, playing in the playroom my parents set up in our basement. I have no idea why it dawned on me. I just know that it did, and I freaked out. I remember running up the stairs to my mother weeping about the fact that I didn't want to die.  She had no idea why I was telling her this; I wasn't sick, we hadn't had any recent deaths in the family. She assured me that it wouldn't happen for a very, very long time. That didn't really help, though. I wanted it to never happen. I don't know how my parents distracted me and got me to move on to other things, but it was definitely a Moment, with a capital M. I'd still rather not know what day it's coming. I just hope that it's still not for a very long time.

This book is a 5/5 for me. The characters were beautifully drawn and their reactions to the predictions were varied but realistic. There is great fodder here for a book club discussion.

There is a great interview with the author on the Just the Right Book podcast. That's how I found it in the first place!

The Hating Game lives up to its name.

Why does this book have so many great reviews?

I have to say up front that I'm not really into romance as a genre. Looking at my list of books I've read and enjoyed, they're mostly memoir, mystery, classics, nonfiction, and novels that aren't primarily a love story even if they include one. So maybe I'm just predisposed to not like this book?

I listened to this on audio from my library. (Shoutout to Hoopla! It's one of the best things my library does!) It was the monthly selection for my book club, and I really do try to have an open mind when I'm picking up something I didn't pick out for myself. That's the only real way to discover new genres, new authors, and new favorite books. However... it didn't take long for me to go from, <i>this should be light and fun</i> to <i>what the hell is this?</i>

If you know anything about this book, you know the entire plot. Lucy and Josh are coworkers forced to share an office despite the fact that they hate each other and keep reporting each other to HR (more on that in a second) when the book mentions more than once that <i>there is an empty office down the hall.</i> If things are serious enough for you to report your coworker to human resources, one of the first things they would do to intervene is not make you work together, facing each other, in a small office alone. If you are telling your company that you are being harassed by a coworker, it is in the company's best interest to intervene, and thus not make you continue to be glued together. Their jobs (from what you can gather... it's really vague) don't seem to require them to interact with one another. They're both a #2 person for different head honchos. The purpose of HR isn't to referee petty squabbles between coworkers. The purpose of HR is to make sure the company doesn't get sued. Ergo, they would determine if any real harassment is going on and keep the two of you apart, at least while conducting an investigation. And if it was determined that one or both employees was abusing HR by running there like a child every time someone looked at you funny, you would face consequences.

Enough about HR.

The relationship between these two wasn't a slow-boil, rivals who are into each other kind of situation. This was middle-school sniping and pettiness. When they're both up for the same promotion, Lucy goes out on a date with another man who is also going to do some freelance work that will help her with her presentation. Of course, the other man realizes that Josh is there, several tables away, while they are having their discussion. He's not there to try to learn the secrets of her presentation so he can one-up her (which would be cheating and isn't ethical). No, he's there to stalk her. He's there because he's upset that she's out with someone else, because apparently even though he's a jerk to her and is repeatedly telling HR that he wants her to leave him alone, she's his property and not allowed to have a drink with another man. (See also: toward the end of the book when he physically takes her phone out of her hand, tells the guy to never contact her again, and hangs up on him. Holy crap no.)

The big twist in the book is supposed to be (I think?) that Josh doesn't want to go to his brother's wedding because his brother is marrying his ex. This is obvious from the second Lucy overhears his brother ask him if he's coming to the wedding and Josh makes it known that he doesn't want to go.

And the grand romantic reveal at the end when Josh admits to Lucy that he painted his bedroom to be the same shade of blue as her eyes, all the while tormenting her about the fact that her parents are farmers and making fun of her mother's blog? And even though his relationship with his parents is supposedly prickly and distant, he has been telling his mother that he fell in love with Lucy the moment he saw her and gave her a silly nickname?

The guy is a psycho. Stalking is not romantic. The trope of "he's mean to you because he likes you" is harmful. Stop telling women that. And the speech that Josh's mother gives Lucy at the wedding about how Josh is difficult to love, just like his dad, because he's emotionally unavailable and passive aggressive, but he's WORTH IT is crap. Josh needs a therapist to work out his issues with his family. Josh needs to learn how to interact in the adult world. Lucy needs to recognize red flags.

While I wasn't the only one in my book club who disliked this book, enough people enjoyed it and looked at me like I had two heads to make me think that maybe all the star ratings on goodreads for this book aren't fake. Maybe my heart is cold and dead? Maybe I've just had enough of people being abusive and crappy to each other and I recognize it as unhealthy? If you need me, I'll be reading some nonfiction as a palate cleanser.

Laughing at my Nightmare by Shane Burcaw

Laughing at my Nightmare a memoir of a life with SMA, a form of muscular dystrophy. Shane Burcaw wrote this book as a 21-year-old college student. Shane's personality is charming and he approaches the topic of his disease, his wheelchair, and everything that comes along with this with a very snarky tone. His book is conversational and while it is inspirational, he's not trying to inspire you. He's letting you in on the good, the bad, and the ugly of life with SMA. He's an undeniable optimist; he'll tell you now much parts of his disease "suck" but then he'll follow up by talking about what he's grateful for.

I first found Shane on the Youtube channel he shares with his girlfriend Hannah (Squirmy and Grubs) where they let viewers in on the ins and outs of their lives in Minnesota. Their goal is to normalize a relationship between someone with and disability and someone without one, and they are pretty adorable.

Here's my issue with this book, though: It's not appropriate for kids. I'm a high school teacher and I work with a student who has MS. He's a freshman and he's someone who I think would really enjoy making a connection with Shane. He loves to read inspirational stories and he doesn't let his disability limit him. He has the same kind of wheelchair as Shane. When I started reading it I was thinking about how great it would be to hand this book off to this student, but there are too many passages in it that are just too adult for that. There is too much profanity and too much discussion of sex. I get that Shane wrote this book as a college student and he says that people ask him questions about that stuff all the time but I really wish he'd written it in a different way. As a teacher I can't hand this off to a freshman. Maybe he'll write something more appropriate for students in the future. I know he's continuing his writing career, and I wish him all the best!

The Glovemaker by Ann Weisgarber

I received an advanced copy of this book in exchange for a fair review.

The Glovemaker is a historical fiction novel set in 1880s Utah. More specifically, it is set in a town made up of Mormons who are not closely associated with the mainstream LDS church. They don't practice plural marriage and they don't have a bishop in town, and they want to keep it that way. In fact, they came to settle in this town so they could be Mormon their way, and they don't trust outsiders easily.

When a stranger comes to town, Deborah feels obligated to let him into her house and provide him shelter from the bitter cold for the night. Her husband isn't home, and the stranger sleeps in the barn. She doesn't ask questions but she doesn't have to; it's not unheard of for men to come through their small town on their way to the next, which is a sanctuary for polygamists. Unfortunately this usually means that within a day or two, law enforcement will also come through and ask questions about which way the man went and who it was that provided shelter.

This latest stranger has a more complicated story, which is further complicated when a lone lawman arrives looking for him. Deborah and her neighbor, Nels, must hide the stranger from the lawman and try to help him escape, but when the lawman is critically wounded they have to come to his aid as well.

Framing this story is the narrative of Samuel, Deborah's husband who is away, visiting a nearby town training others in his trade as a wheelwright. Samuel was expected home more than a month ago. Where is he? What happened to him? He should be back any day.

Based on a real town in Utah, this story provides an insight into the culture of the Mormon faith while also feeling like a western. The story is told through alternating narrators using plain language and simple phrasing. The reader is pulled deeper into the conflicts as the stakes get higher. Where is Samuel? Will the stranger make his way to safety? Will the deputy survive? How many more lawmen are coming after him? They don't usually travel alone. And how to keep the whole town safe when they do arrive, seeing what happened to one of their own? Deborah's story is compelling and pulls the reader into her world easily.

Book vs. Movie: A Simple Favor

I know what a pretentious snot I'm going to sound like here but I really don't watch TV. (Today was a notable exception when I watched a Golden Girls marathon on TV Land while I finished crocheting a baby gift). If the TV is on in our house, 95% of the time it's because Matt is watching a sport or he put on HGTV or Bar Rescue. The point is, I never know what movies are coming out and when, so one day while I was playing on Youtube and I saw an interview with Anna Kendrick on Jimmy Fallon talking about her upcoming (at the time) film A Simple Favor, I got excited. I like Anna Kendrick and it sounded pretty good; kind of like Gone Girl, to be honest. Then a week later Stephen Metcalf of Slate's Culture Gabfest podcast said that this was one of his top favorite movies of the year, so I figured the stars were aligning.

I checked out the paperback and the DVD from the library at the same time (one benefit of being behind in movies is that you can usually just get the DVD when you hear about a movie) and read the book first. I had high hopes for this book. I was hoping it would be as hard to put down as Gone Girl, and in some places it was.

Quick summary with no real spoilers: Stephanie is a mommy blogger who lives in Fairfield County, CT. She meets Emily, a working mom with a powerful job in fashion at school pick-up one day and they hit it off. Stephanie works hard at being a perfect mother while Emily doesn't care about the little stuff. She swears in front of her kid, has martinis in the afternoon while the playdate is going on upstairs, that kind of thing. Stephanie finds Emily exciting. Why Emily wants to hang out with Stephanie becomes clear before too long. It started out kind of twisted and juicy when Stephanie makes an admission about her past but there were times it wasn't as engaging as I would have liked. I found it kind of uneven. That's not to say that it was bad, but...

The movie adaptation was pretty great. I loved its soundtrack of French mood music, I loved all the wardrobe choices for the main characters, and the pacing was consistent. They also made Stephanie a mommy vlogger, which made much more sense for the movie, and it really helped to display her character.

I almost never say this, ever, but the movie was better! I know. I know! If you know me, you know I never say that. (Except for one other time; ahem, Atonement.) I'm glad I read the book but honestly a the adaptation was beautifully done.

So there we go... book: 4/5 stars. Movie: 5/5.