In 1947 Sister Mary Joseph Praise,a young nun, leaves the state of Kerala for a missionary post in Yemen. While traveling by sea to her destination with another nun, a terrible illness falls upon many on the ship as well as on her travel mate. When Sister Mary Joseph searches out the assistance of the doctor on the ship she finds that he as well is gravely ill. Sister Mary Joseph Praise works hard to bring his fever down and saves the life of the English Doctor Thomas Stone.
When the boat docks, Thomas asks Mary is she would like to join him to serve in Ethiopia as a nurse. Mary declines having her own destiny, but destiny turns on her and eventually she finds herself not only in Ethiopia but working with Thomas Stone.
Seven years pass and Sister Mary Joseph Praise is found to be pregnant, much to the surprise of everyone including Thomas who has worked with her seven days a week all of these years and has never seen her with anyone, let alone the fact hat she is a nun! During childbirth, Mary dies – but leaves the legacy of identical twin brothers Shiva and Marion.
This is their story, as narrated by Marion.
This 600+ page read was intimidating. In fact I took one look at the book and thought, “my book club is going to kill me.” This was a bonus review our group was doing which means that in addition to our usual monthly read, a smaller group of us had agreed to take on a couple additional reads the last two months and cook to the books theme. This book being the second of these reviews, the first was last month with Olive Kitteridge.
As I prepared to read this book I had heard from several sources that the book started slow – but do not worry,as it would pick up and was so worth it. I was fully ready to drag through the first 100 or so pages, and then I started reading and found it not to drag at all – but instead pull. This book pulled me from page to page as I lapped up the scenes, the situations and the sheer awe of everything that happened to Sister Mary Joseph and then to heart of the story – the boys Shiva and Marion.
I soaked up every word, jotting down words I was not familiar with, marking down the pages where I found food references for our review. As I read I pulled in images from two other books that took my breath away – Slumdog Millionaire and The Kite Runner….. I easily found that this book deserved a seat next to these smart deep reads on my shelf.
I could not get this book in me fast enough. It followed me everywhere so I could grab a couple of pages here and there. I wish I would have had someone take pictures of all the places it has been and all the places I have read, including the two times I fell asleep with it.
In the end, I was sad, but satisfied. I had that rare feeling I get when I know I have just read something amazing. profound, and that will stay with me, close to my heart for a long long time.
If you have not read Cutting For Stone I highly recommend you give yourself a treat by doing so.
As I mentioned above this book was a review for our book club. We have completed a bonus read the past two months to really focus on the food as well as the book and this book turned out to be a delight not only for the senses, but for our taste buds too. As we gathered around a counter filled with Doro Wot (an Ethiopian Spicy Chicken dish), Chicken Curry, Ethiopian Fruit salad, substitute Injera bread, two kinds of iab, lentil curry, dabo kola, and warm coke. 😀
The girls agreed – this was probably the best book/food review we have ever done. The food was divine! The spices exploded on our tongue and the iab is actually used in Ethiopia as a follow up dish to the spicy foods to cool your palate. As we dined on our delicious treats we discussed a book that had impressed us all. The characters were real, we had different opinions on who was our favorite character, and found that all the characters carries some sort of baggage from the past that affected who they were today… we pondered over that a bit, finding it fascinating how peoples past can control who they are today…
This book made for a wonderful discussion read. We found Shiva to be a brilliant introvert, so deep thinking that at times words were useless to him and somewhat – beneath him. His remark about saying all women were beautiful showed he seen people differently than most of us do. He liked the way women were put together and he liked what women could do… that said, while he spent time with many women, we found that he lacked any real relationship skills and did not seek out anything beyond the immediate.
Marion on the other hand had a deep compassion. His emotions ran high either when he was wearing his heart on his sleeve or when he was storming out of a building fists clenched to his sides.
Of course we came with recipes…. and here are the foods of Cutting For Stone:
Doro Wot
Doro Wot
2 packages of chicken strips 2 sticks on unsalted butter (I used salted as that is what I had) 1 onion chopped 3 tablespoons fresh garlic 1 teaspoon ginger 1 teaspoon cloves cayenne pepper black pepper 1/4 cup sweet white wine (I used what I had on hand) (the recipe called for a cinnamon stick during the simmer process but that scared me so I didnt add it) 8 hard boiled eggs 2 bottles of chili sauce (found by the BBQ sauce in stores)
Melt the butter in your skillet and add the chopped onion, garlic,and ginger…. let simmer uncovered 30 minutes. Then add the cloves, 3 tablespoons of Cayenne pepper, the wine, and the chili sauce, continue to simmer.
Hard boil the eggs, cool, peal, and set aside.
In a separate pan put a little water in it and lightly cook the chicken pieces on each side and then add to the skillet with the sauce mixture. Put cover over over wot and let simmer cook for 30 – 45 minutes. 10 minutes before completion of cooking, take off lid, roughly chop eggs and place them into mixture.
Finish cooking ans serve 🙂
* I substituted Chili sauce when i could not find berbere ( a red chili spice blend used in many Ethiopian foods).
Red Lentil CurryRed lentil Curry
INGREDIENTS: 1 cup red lentils 1/2 large onion, diced 1-1/2 teaspoons vegetable oil 1 tablespoon curry paste 1-1/2 teaspoons curry powder 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin 1/2 teaspoon chili powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon white sugar 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic 1/2 teaspoon ginger root, minced 1/2 (14.25 ounce) can tomato puree
DIRECTIONS: You have scaled this recipe’s ingredients to yield a new amount (4). The directions below still refer to the original recipe yield (8). 1. Wash the lentils in cold water until the water runs clear (this is very important or the lentils will get “scummy”), put the lentils in a pot with water to cover and simmer covered until lentils tender (add more water if necessary). 2. While the lentils are cooking: In a large skillet or saucepan, caramelize the onions in vegetable oil. 3. While the onions are cooking, combine the curry paste, curry powder, turmeric, cumin, chili powder, salt, sugar, garlic, and ginger in a mixing bowl. Mix well. When the onions are cooked, add the curry mixture to the onions and cook over a high heat stirring constantly for 1 to 2 minutes. 4. Stir in the tomato puree and reduce heat, allow the curry base to simmer until the lentils are ready. 5. When the lentils are tender drain them briefly (they should have absorbed most of the water but you don’t want the curry to be too sloppy). Mix the curry base into the lentils and serve immediately.
Combine all the cut up fruit. Add the banana at the last minute
Chicken Curry
Chicken Curry
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 tablespoons curry powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon paprika
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon grated fresh ginger root
1/2 teaspoon white sugar
salt to taste
2 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves – cut into bite-size pieces
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 cup plain yogurt
3/4 cup coconut milk
1/2 lemon, juiced
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Directions
Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Saute onion until lightly browned. Stir in garlic, curry powder, cinnamon, paprika, bay leaf, ginger, sugar and salt. Continue stirring for 2 minutes. Add chicken pieces, tomato paste, yogurt, and coconut milk. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 20 to 25 minutes.
Remove bay leaf, and stir in lemon juice and cayenne pepper. Simmer 5 more minutes.
Iab is a white curd cheese very much like the Greek feta. Special herbs are added (and sometimes chopped vegetables) which give it its characteristically acid taste. Since the cheese used in Ethiopia is not available here, this recipe is an attempt to simulate Iab. In a 1-quart bowl: Combine cottage cheese or farmer cheese, yogurt, grated lemon rind, salad herbs, chopped parsley, salt black pepper.
The mixture should be moist enough to spoon but dry enough to stay firm when served. Drain off excess liquid.
Dabo Kolo
Dabo Kolo (I sprinkled the sugar on top)
2 cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons honey
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
¼ cup oil
Procedure
Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl.
Add water slowly to create a stiff dough.
Knead on a lightly floured board for about 5 minutes. (To knead, flatten the dough, fold in half. Then turn the dough about one-quarter turn, and fold again. Keep turning and folding the dough.)
Pull off pieces of dough to fit on the palm of the hand.
Press or roll out (using a rolling pin) into a strip about ½-inch thick on a floured countertop.
Cut the strip into squares ½-inch by ½-inch.
Cook in a frying pan on medium heat until light brown in color on all sides.
Lizzie, Reenie, Sweet, and Mawu are four slave women who meet when their owners vacation at the same resort in Ohio. Each of these women have a story and each of these women are mistresses to their master… in some cases willingly. While at this resort they see the first time free blacks and Mawu leads the group as she talks about escape and freedom.
Reenie and Sweet are on board with the dreams of running to their freedom but Lizzie feels she really loves her master Drayle, and she believes he loves her as well… after all they do have two children together.
In the end, as they spend their third and final summer together in Ohio, the women have a decision to make….
but will it be one of freedom?
This was a fascinating read. Initially when my book club chose this for our March read I was nervous that it may be like The Help. I loved The Help, but do not like it when books (or movies for that fact) build off what another pulls off successfully.
I did not have to worry – Wench is a book all in its own. I was able to learn much through the stories of the women, and enjoyed each of their takes on their lives and their worth – from mild-mannered Lizzie who felt she was the rightful wife of her master if not legally by heart then, to wild Mawu whose master is cruel and violent and Mawu feels she would rather die trying to escape than continue living in this manner.
I really felt uneducated going into this read as I knew that in some cases the masters of these black women would force them into sex … but I guess I did not realize it was so common. The complexity of the women’s relationships with their masters as well as in their friendships with each other made for a fascinating read. In the end I came to appreciate a lot more what these women went through in a time that no one stood up for them…. this book is a read of heartbreak and in a way – triumph as well.
Our book club had a wonderful discussion about this book. We discussed in great detail the different lives each of the four main women had with their masters and with their friendship as well. The discussion was quite detailed and I enjoyed how deep we dived into the subject of slavery and especially into the relationship of Drayle and Lizzie.
I love it when our group does the little extras and Angie (By Book Or By Crook) had taken the time to find and print out for us the use of the popular songs of slaves. Follow The Drinking Gourd – the video above, is one of those songs. It was interesting to hear the words, that were not written down as the songs contained codes of where they would meet when they escaped – and were used by Harriet Tubman when she helped slaves escape
.
The resort, Tawawa House, mentioned in the book, does exist and on Dolen Perkins-Valdez’ website you can read about the history of this resort. As the masters who took their slaves to the resorts and left their wives at home, this was truly a case of what happens in Tawawa House – stays in Tawawa House.
And of course, when the Bookies meet – we do like to go all foodie on the theme and the girls out did themselves with the delightful treats we had for this review. Grits, corn bread, stuffed potatoes, a stew, rice and beans with Louisiana hot sauce, sour dough bread, strawberry shortcake, chocolate cake, cinnamon applesauce, a Feta and Craisin spinach salad with poppy seed dressing…. Oh man….
Olive is a big woman… she is big boned, big faced… and a big presence in the lives that surrounds hers. A retired math teacher in Crosby Maine… Olive bowls people over like a bowling ball heading for a strike. She is abrupt, judgmental, and not the person you stop in announced for a chat or a cup of coffee.
Yet in this series of short stories by Elizabeth Strout, Olive plays a part in every one… sometimes large, and sometimes she is merely acknowledged by another character or by a hand wave…. and as the stories unfold around Olive’s home town…. we get a glimpse of who Olive may really be.
♦ ♦ ♦
Hmmmm…. I still find myself trying to sort out my thoughts about this book. I am not a fan of short stories. I prefer really digging in and getting to know characters and plot lines and the short snippets have never really done it for me. Yet, as part of a reading project with my book club, I hand-picked this title out of a list of book options.
Why?
I believe I chose it because something about the synopsis, and yes even a series of stories around one character intrigued me. It was like a puzzle I wanted to solve and envisioned that was what author Elizabeth Strout was going to do – create a series of story pieces that in the end were a whole. I have always been a fan of unique tales, original writing styles… I prefer the breaking of the molds….
As I read this book I found myself at first confused. The stories seemed choppy… little glimpses – but of what. A bit of Olive here…. a bit of Olive there…. many characters were introduced and in times it was their story that held the chapter, their tale of – well, tragic life mostly…. and yet, somewhere there was still Olive.
It took me more than a few chapters to get the flow of the book and even then…. I am not sure if I truly did or I just became used to the way this book was put together. What I felt we were seeing was not the whole story – and for that I give Elizabeth Strout much credit. I dislike a book that spells it out for me, preferring to have something to figure out while I read. I believe this was Elizabeth’s goal – to give the reader a glimpse – but left much to the imagination. Who was Olive – really? This complicated woman, this woman who for most of book I did not even really like…. but I did want to figure her out.
There are moments when Olive (with help from our author) speaks so beautifully – so deeply that I am left with words that I want to post somewhere as reminders…. one such phrase came out of the short story ‘Starving”:
When Olive is confronted with an anorexic girl, Nina, this conversation takes place:
Olive finished the donut, wiped the sugar from her fingers, sat back and said, “You’re starving.”
The girl didn’t move, only said, “Uh… duh.”
“I’m starving too,” Olive said. “Why do you think I eat everything in sight?”
“You’re not starving,” Nina says with disgust.
“Sure I am. We all are.”
“Wow,” Nina said, Heavy.”
Moments like that in the book caused me to see a bit behind their thin veil that covered the real Olive.
In the end… I can’t say I felt I really knew Olive Kitterling, but I think I had an idea. Elizabeth Strout does write a compelling story and I give her a ton of credit as while at times I found this book difficult to read and follow, I can imagine that writing such a multi layered book, folding one chapter into another had to be pretty complicated in itself and Elizabeth Strout does a fine job doing so in a writing style that gave me pause – in a good, thought-provoking way.
*If you read this book – do make time to read the interview in the back of the book with Elizabeth Strout and Olive Kitteridge. It is hilarious and I think it will give you some additional insight to Olive.
Amazon Rating
Bookies Review:
As I mentioned before – this was a bonus review for my book club and it was to be centered around the food that makes up this book. Let me just say – if you are going to do a potluck around the food in a book – this one would be an excellent choice… the book is literally filled with food… my group came up with: Beef stew, hot bread, olive cheeseballs, funeral meatballs, seafood stuffed mushrooms (the ones Olive gets sick on in the book), homemade butterscotch sauce (where Olive winds up getting all over her towards the end of the book), carrot soup and a lovely red wine)
Our thoughts on the book were that Olive was a hard woman who seemed to keep a wall of protection around herself as some people tend to do when they don’t want people to see them too closely. This led to a good discussion of people like that in our own lives and how we handle them. We all felt that author Elizabeth Strout did a good job of giving us clues to Olive without spelling it out for us… we were left to come up with our own opinion of who this woman was.
Overall we came up with a slightly below average rating for the book. We found this book to be more work than entertaining to read. While we appreciated the good writing, we really never found a true connection to Olive.
For those that wish… I am posting a few of our recipes from last night that were wonderful compliments to the book:
Olive-Cheese Balls
Olive Cheese balls
– 2 cups (@ 8 oz) shredded sharp cheddar cheese – 1 1/4 cups flour – 1/2 cup margarine, melted – 36-48 small pimento-stuffed green olives
Mix cheese and flour, add in margarine. Work dough with hands, if necessary. Mold @ 1 tsp dough around each olive, shape into ball. Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Heat oven to 400 degrees F. Bake until set – 15-20 minutes. Best served warm.
Carrot Soup
Carrot Soup
– 1 large sweet onion, cleaned and chopped – 1/4 cup margarine – @ 1 1/2 lbs carrots, cleaned and chopped – 1 large white (russet) potato, cleaned and sliced – 1 large sweet potato, cleaned and sliced – 32 oz chicken broth – ginger – rosemary – savory – marjoram – pepper – chili powder – garlic – Emeril’s original Essence – 12 oz V-8 juice – 4 oz cream cheese, cubed – 1 handful shredded sharp cheddar cheese
In Dutch oven on cook top, melt margarine, add onion. Cook til tender (5 minutes or so). Add carrots, potatoes, chicken broth, and spices. (Use whatever spices appeal to you.) Heat to boil, cook til vegetables are all tender (20 minutes or so). Remove from heat. Use immersion blender (or let cool some and use regular blender) to puree vegetables to desired consistency. Return to heat, add V-8 juice and cheeses, stirring til well-blended. Could serve now. I had to juggle errands, so I put the soup in my crock pot and left it on low for a couple of hours. This may have caused the flavors to blend more.
The couch comes into view again. Kerry Monroe is drinking a tumbler of brown stuff- the whiskey she was offering earlier, Olive suspects- and while Kerry’s lipstick remains bright, her cheekbones and jawline still impressively proportioned, it’s as though inside her black clothes her joints have become loosened. Her crossed leg swings, a foot bobs, some inner wobbliness is there. “Nice service, Marlene,” Kerry says, leaning forward to pick up a meatball with a toothpick. “Really nice service; you’ve done him proud.” And Olive nods, because she would like Marlene to be comforted by this.
Marlene’s Funeral Meatballs
Funeral Meatballs
2 pounds ground beef
1 c. evaporated milk
2 c. bread crumbs
onion, minced to taste
1 tsp. seasoned salt
sauce:
1 can cream of mushroom soup
2 Tbsp. catsup
2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Mix hamburger, evaporated milk, bread crumbs, onion & seasoned salt. Shape into meatballs. Bake for 15 minutes or until browned. Reduce heat to 325 degrees. In a saucepan, combine sauce ingredients; bring to a boil. Pour over meatballs. Cover and bake for 25-30 minutes more.
Downstairs she went, into the white basement. Stepping into the little closet of a bathroom, she flicked on the light, and saw in the mirror that across her blue cotton blouse was a long and prominent strip of sticky dark butterscotch sauce. A small feeling of distress took hold. They had seen this and not told her. She had become the old lady her Aunt Ora had been, when years ago she and Henry would take the old lady out for a drive, stopping some nights to get an ice cream, and Olive had watched as Aunt Ora had spilled melted ice cream down her front; she had felt repulsion at the sight of it. In fact, she was glad when Ora died, and Olive didn’t have to continue to witness the pathetic sight.
Butterscotch Sauce
Butterscotch Sauce
1 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. half & half
1 Tbsp. corn syrup
3 Tbsp. butter
Combine all ingredients together in a saucepan. Stir over medium heat until boiling. Simmer 3-4 minutes. Let cool then serve over ice cream.
Seventeen year old Mia has many things to be thankful for. She has an adoring and sweet boyfriend, a pretty exciting career in music and a possible scholarship to Julliard. She was a loving family – one that she actually likes to spend time with… and a snow day, where everyone is at home and a road trip is in the making – well that’s just icing on the cake.
And then in an instant…
it is all gone.
A tragic accident leaves Mia in a state of in between…. as she sees the devastation before her and an unsure future, Mia has really, only one decision to make….
should she stay?
If I Stay is out Bookies book club read for February. I was fascinated by the synopsis I detail above, and had a twinge of that Before I Fall feeling, which was so so so so sooooooo good. Can book lightning strike twice?
If I stay is a book about relationships. It’s about who we are and who we hope to be… and in some cases, it is about who we were.
As Mia contemplates the life she had, filled with memories of growing up, making pancakes with her mom, school work her dad, watching her baby brother come into this world, and falling in love with the boy she knows she was meant to be with…..all while laying in a coma on a hospital bed hovering between life… and death.
She has to now see if she is strong enough to movie into a future that is so different from what she has known. Mostly Mia has to ask herself if she is strong enough to move forward, when it seems so much easier just to let it all slip away.
It is hard to review this book without slipping into spoiler after spoiler, so if my thoughts here seem…. cryptic, it is intentional. I found this book to be a fast read that really did not fully impact me until after I was finished… now I sit here and the question lies on my lips…
what would I have done if I had to choose?
This book is real. This book is powerful and fans of YA will enjoy the highly emotional roller coaster of Mia’s life – before, during…. and after.
BOOKIES THOUGHTS:
This was our February book pick for the bookies book club. We brought food over to Kaydi’s house and potlucked over our discussion. We try to theme the food to the book, but in this case as the entire book is centered around Mia and Mia in mainly in the hospital unconscious… there was not a lot of food opportunity. However… never fear – as Amy was wise enough to bring jello…. a hospital staple. 😛
The book brought up many conversations on music ( a beautiful piece about this book is that it is surrounded with music – the whole family is associated to it and Mia and Adam both play instruments… we even listened to one of the songs from the book called Girl friend in a Coma by the Smiths. (seriously that’s the name of the song).
We closed up our meeting with the final question that really is what sums up the book…. what would you have done? If your entire family is killed in a car accident and you are the only survivor… do you fight to live… or do you just … let go. This part of the discussion turned deep as mixed opinions – all highly understandable were brought to the surface as well as personal memories that brought the entire Bookies to tears. It amazes me how all of us seen to carry something – no matter how many years it has been, that brings these emotions to the surface in a blink of an eye… a trigger word or phrase.
Here is something I love LOVE about book club. We can take an average read such as this one – a likable read yes, but not over the top… and we can review to the point that I feel we leave the book club feeling like we bonded a little more and we all know each other in a deeper way that makes me feel thrilled about the power of a book.
Over all bookies rating (1 – 5) A 3 3/4 rating and a box of Kleenex.
I posted over the weekend that I was scraping in at the last second on our HUGE book club read that was due for review on Tuesday. Did I make the deadline?
Uhhh…. no
Pretty much an epic fail.
I did however hold my head up high and showed up as the moderator that I am for our book club and confessed that I was not done… I had procrastinated on starting it and I was not finished.
And how did this great group of women respond?
With love and kindness as we have all been there. I love that about my book club. Read it, we hope you can, but we also get that life happens… and that’s ok too. Above all else we hope you show up – book read or not.
Our review was awesome and as I have now completed the book I am ready to post my review later today as well as share their thoughts on this incredible read. Stay tuned….
I went into book club on Tuesday evening feeling S T R E T C H E D…. tired out, over booked (no pun intended but there it is anyway), and really had nothing else to give.
And you know what? When it was all said and done in that two hours I was there, this is what I left my book club thinking:
Oh yeah… also… our newest Bookie (born in December):
*waves arms madly back and forth while hopping up and down*
“I do!!!!”
Last night was our December Bookies book club meeting, closing the door on our ninth year of bookish reviews, tons of laughter and even a few tears through the 112 meetings we have had together.
We always have a Christmas potluck and a gift exchange along with our book review in December. If possible we theme the food around the book, and had great success with this two years ago when we read and reviewed A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. I actually made Smoking Bishop and another girl in the group made Figgy Pudding. Unfortunately, the last two Christmas reads we have reviewed have not had much food mentioned in them….
Oh well…. we still had a wonderful mix of good eats!
After our eats and then our review of The Christmas Sweater (review up later today), we play a game where we each pick a gift out of the pile in the center of the room. (We each bring a gift valued around $10). This is a lot of fun as you can take from someone else and when we are all done, each person has a gift.
This year I received a box of chocolate santa’s (say good-bye to my yummy friends!) and a darling Bookies tree ornament. I LOVE ornaments that have meaning behind them so this is totally SSSQQQQUUUEEEEE worthy.
Next months book club read will be The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton. YES! One that is sitting on the TBR!
I am so proud of my book club. If you have been reading this blog for any amount of time you probably know that. Most of us have been together in this group for the past 7 or 8 years. A few of us, have been there the entire time – it will be 10 years of Bookies in August. That’s 120 book club meetings. That’s 120 book club book choices and 120 book club books read.
The Royal "Throne"
Every July we have a free read month. July is so busy in Minnesota, the weather is finally pretty reliable, people have weddings, and family gatherings, weekends at the lake, camping, fishing. grilling…. anyway, we do not have a mandatory read in July. Just read what you want and share at the event. And so, that being said, here is what The Bookies read and recommend :
We ate and laughed and talked books. What to read, what to skip…. We talked movies and summer plans. And we sat ina beautiful yard just enjoying the company.
Another great year and event – we crowned our new Queen Lori (see that picture in my morning post -it’s awesome!).
It starts with a package from UPS that arrives at Katherine Givens door. The timing is impeccable, Katherine’s favorite bra has finally after much use, developed a hole that is unrepairable. That’s just great. What else could go wrong? And why does a bra seem to bug Katherine so much???
Katherine opens the box and sees the unmistakable, always recognizable, red high tops of her friend Annie.
Annie.
Annie, Katherine’s oldest and dearest friend who touched the lives of so many. But Annie had died, and inside the shoes are Annie’s ashes and a note – that’s about to change everything – because in typical Annie style, Annie has one final request….
and she needs her best friends to be the “pallbearers.”
♥
I was drawn to this book as I always am to books on strong friendships. And a book on a friendship so strong that it even breaks down the barriers of death? Count me in on that read.
Katherine’s task (beyond purchasing a new bra), is to call the women that Annie has requested to gather in her name and take her ashes to the places she has mapped out for them. Everything is paid for, all the flights, hotels, food…. all they have to do is show up.
I loved the idea of this book. What a fun way to celebrate a life, and Annie did have a life as these women, who have never met before embark on this journey. It is a book about friendships – new and old, it is a book about healing, and a book about remembering. As the women travel to the places Annie has mapped out, not only do they learn a little bit more about who Annie was, but also about themselves.
The book…. had great potential. I imagined it would take me on a journey of friendships, the joyful parts, and the bitter-sweet. In parts, it did just that, but in other ways it missed the mark. Parts of the book were just too over the top for me. At times I just had to stop and think that the author had went too far and made some of the trip to unbelievable. I found this unfortunate because the idea behind the book is wonderful.
BOOKIES Review:
This book was also our book club read for June. For the most part, the girls agreed with what I mentioned above. For different reasons, most of us found something in the book that just went a bit too far.
There is a character in the book that is introduced mid way through the book and many of us felt that was an odd choice for the author, but on the other hand, maybe what was trying to be represented was an openness and grace that Annie would herself had extended had she been there.
On a scale of 1 – 5 (5 being the greatest), the Bookies as a whole rated this book a 2.5.
This book has been added to my Book Journey map (later today)
Amazon rating (coming soon)
Cover Story: The cover is truly eye-catching and draws you in wanting to know more.
Cover Story: It fits, although one of the girls in my book club pointed out that our main character Melody never used a suitcase…
♦ ♦ ♦
After 20 years in the Federal Witness Protection Program (WITSEC) and eight aliases, Melody Grace McCartney hardly knows who she is. On the run since she and her parents stumbled on a gruesome murder by mobster Tony Bovaro when she was six years old, Grace saw WITSEC’s promised protection fail her mother and father when they were killed 12 years later. Now she feigns personal danger to be relocated just because she’s bored and wants a change. But before her new case officer can move her from suburban Maryland to rural Wisconsin, Tony’s son, Jonathan, tracks her down to present an alternative: protection from his family and a life of more safety and freedom than she has ever known. While federal officials pressure her to stay in WITSEC and show her Jonathan’s violent side, her attraction to him grows, and she must decide a course for the rest of her life.
As this book opens, Melody is bored with her current life as Sandra Clarke. Having spent 20 years being tossed through the Witness protection program from place to place and name to name. Melody has made no connections in her current surroundings and calls the agent in charge of her case with a claim that someone has identified her and she needs to be moved again.
Turns out – Melody really does have someone from the mafia following her and this is where this fast paced book gets interesting. Between Sean the good-looking Witness Protection Agent and the mysteriously handsome Johnathan who is the son of the mafia family who wants her dead, Melody learns how to grow up fast.
The book is a fun light read. I personally never really warmed up to Melody. Time and again she causes others to be put in dangerous situations including the role she even plays in the death of her parents. (My book club was easier on her character than I was).
Overall I enjoyed this book.
BOOKIES REVIEW
This was our book club read for May. The Bookies for the most part enjoyed the book. We had a potluck at my house around the foods that were in the book which made for a delicious variety of Italian treats. We discussed the witness protection program and how far it has come.
The group had more sympathy for Melody than I did. I found her actions to be annoying and childish. While many in the group found her to be a victim of circumstance. By the end of the book we all agreed that Melody was on her way to being a better and more secure adult.
In a suitcase I had everyone drop in their new witness protection name and where they would be located. Then we drew them out and guessed who was who. There were some great ideas in there. Amy in our group had found a website that generated mafia names and that was interesting too.
I received my copy of this book from Hachette Book Group
While on an ill-advised holiday to Nigeria to repair their failing marriage, Andrew Rourke, a journalist, and his wife, Sarah, editor of a fashion magazine, meet Little Bee, a 16-year-old girl, and her older sister, Kindness. The girls are running for their lives from the men who have ransacked their village for oil. Even after suffering an act of unimaginable violence that day, the participants can hardly imagine how their lives will intertwine—and be irrevocably changed. As Andrew spins out of control and Sarah struggles to raise the couple’s child, the appearance of Little Bee, now a refugee who has come to London in search of the Rourkes, her last best hope, forces both women to make difficult choices.
I didn’t know what I was getting into when I read this book. It was chosen as our April book club read, and the first time I heard of the book was at our March meeting when it was nominated. This is what I knew about the book that evening in March:
We don’t want to tell you too much about this book!It is a truly special story and we don’t want to spoil it.Nevertheless, you need to know something, so we will just say this:
It is extremely funny, but the African beach scene is horrific.
The story starts there, but the book doesn’t.
And it’s what happens afterward that is most important.
Who wouldn’t want to read that?
Then when I came home from book club and read the synopsis on-line… I was a little skeptical. The book wasn’t what I had through it would be about from what was described during book club. I have to admit, I went into this book with an attitude that I was not going to like it.
The Other Hand is another title this book has been published under
As little Bee opens,we find little Bee in immigration detention, a place where we has been for two years. She has learned to protect herself by dressing in loose clothing and wearing heavy boots that are donated to the detention center to avoid the attention of men. She has also spent this time reading everything she can get her hands on which has given her two years of learning the English language. As Little Bee is released (sort of) from the center, she has hung all her hope on a name and an address for the O’Rourkes who she had met under horrifying circumstances years earlier in her own country. These circumstances, are what this book centers around.
Sarah O’Rourke is not my favorite person. She lacks qualities that I value. She puts more into her job than into her family…. and she seeks for what she is missing in the arms of another married man. Her life is spiraling out of control and she acts as if, or perhaps she really doesn’t, know.
Little Bee is a fighter and a survivor and somehow through out this book and the circumstances that drew Bee and Sarah together I felt strongly that this was a book that needed to be read. While at times is can be described accurately as visually gory, the setting of this book in Nigeria, was an accurate portrayal for me and reminded me of some of the circumstances I have seen and heard about from my time in Honduras.
As I completed this book I had a new respect for what Chris Cleaves had put together. The first part of the book took me a while to wrap around where I was reading from and I was somewhat lost as to what was happening until I made my way tot he background story of how all these characters come together. From that point on, I flew through the book, fully engrossed in the storyline. While it was not the book I thought I was going to be reading, it was the book I was meant to read.
Bookies Thoughts:
This was our book club read for April and for our group the book over all rated low. Some of our members found it too horrifying and the language flow of the book to be choppy.
Even in a low rated book, we always seem to find interesting discussion and the line about Scars was one that led us into such discussion:
“I ask you right here please to agree with me that a scar is never ugly. That is what the scar makers want us to think. But you and I, we must make an agreement to defy them. We must see all scars as beauty. Okay? This will be our secret. Because take it from me, a scar does not form on the dying. A scar means, I survived.”
In the book we found that Little Bees scars are what saved her.
We also found not only humor – but sadness as Little Bee had an escape plan, or more so, a way to kill herself wherever she was. Little Bee was truly a survivor and she had made up her mind that no one would ever take her like her sister was taken. She would rather die by her own hand.
Book Club Ideas:
We had a potluck and centered our food choices around the Little Bee book. For those of you who have read the book, you know there is not a lot of food discussion. I hound in the grocery store graham crackers by Nabisco in the shape of, you got it, little bees. I made a cream cheese dip to go with it.
Angie in our group made plantains and a Nigeria type cookie made with corn meal. Kaydi brought a rice dish with beans.
Little Bee and her sister renamed themselves. While our book club did not do this, I did find on-line that a suggested book club activity for this book would be to rename each of us by characteristics we are known for.
If you would like to know more about Nigeria and some of the issues discussed in this book link here.
Book Journey 