The Time Keeper

     Time has always been my enemy.
     As a child time seemed to take forever...holidays to come back around...being old enough to do everything I ever wanted...
     As an adult, there never seems to be enough time to accomplish everything that remains undone each day.  Now the years speed by and I can't believe how quickly time slips by.  As the people I love leave for the last unknown, I cry for one more moment with them.  When they were here, the time was lost running on ice, trying to finish everything that needed to be done.  
     This book changed me.
   

The Sense of an Ending

     The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes frustrated me.  It is a metaphysical book that deals with human emotions of guilt, loss, and rejection.  However, it holds itself above the world of banal emotions and never allows the reader to truly feel anything.
     The plot is slow to develop, although it covers a lifetime in 163 pages.  With a slow plot, distant characters, and philosophical wanderings, it is a difficult book to read.
     The ending was disturbing and reinforced my opinion of the entire book.  Although I learned to dislike Veronica through Tony's eyes, I wondered why she chose to pay for the sins of the people she loved.  Did she feel the guilt of the stupid mistakes we all make when our whole life is ahead of us without the wisdom to tread lightly?
     

Miles to Go

     I picked up Miles to Go by Richard Paul Evans on purpose.  I'm not a fan of his writing, but I wanted an uplifting book for the holidays.  Reading it reminded me of why I'm not a fan of his writing.  It should have been an uplifting book.  It had all the parts of the formula: sad story, characters overcoming hard times, a happy ending.  The problem was it had all the parts of the formula.  All of his books follow the same formula and when I read them, I get bored.  There are no surprises, no suspense, no mysteries.  I can't even cheer for the characters because they lack personalities.  They are cookie cutter gingerbread people without any unique decorations.
     His writing is also bland.  He likes to tell the story, rather than show us.  This subtle change makes a huge difference to the reader.  When I hear about the characters and what they feel, rather than experience it with them, they are removed from me.  I am just the reader, rather than a part of their world.  When I am part of their world, I care deeply about them and want to know what happens to them.  Writers do this by showing us what they are going through, rather than just saying things like, "She was depressed."
     There were great things about this book.  I loved some of the quotes the characters said.  They sounded like inspirational posters.  The trouble was without an interesting character to connect the quotes in my mind, the quotes were easily forgotten.  I also enjoyed the story on the Good Samaritan experiment.  I was so intrigued by this story, I Googled the experiment to find out more.
     Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to make me like the book.  I didn't even feel like talking about the book when I was done, and you know how much I love talking about books I am reading.
     It was an okay book, but like the characters, it will be easily forgotten.  If you are looking for an inspirational read for the holidays, pick up a Mitch Albom book.  His books will be ones you will not forget.  

The Nanny Diaries

     It took me a while to get into The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus, but once I did, I couldn't put it down.  The authors were both nannies for over thirty families.  They use their experience to write a fictionalized account of being a nanny in New York.
     I haven't seen the movie, so I don't know how the two compare, but I enjoyed the book.  The characters were very believable and I fell in love with four-year-old Grayer (AKA Grover.)  Some people might feel parents couldn't be that self-absorbed and selfish, but I have seen the same things as a teacher.  It is heartbreaking to see the results of families that have no time for their children - intentionally or not.
     My favorite parts of the book were Nanny and Grover.  Grover made me laugh out loud several times.  He also made me cry several times as he tried to deal with his family.  I related to nanny.  She kept finding herself in difficult situations with her employees, but was unable to stand up for herself until the end of the book.  Everyone in her life kept telling her to do so, but she would think of how it would impact her relationship with Grover and decide to let things slide.  When the book ended, I cheered for Nanny and cried for Grover.  Although Nanny spends the last minutes trying to convince the family to change, I don't think they will.
     A note if you want to read this book - there is a lot of swearing and some sexual innuendos because the dad is having an affair with a woman he works with.  It isn't explicit, but it may be offensive to some readers.

Winter Garden

     Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah is an amazing book.  It truly changed me as a woman and mother. 

     By living through the Siege of Leningrad as a young wife and mother, Vera is forced to make decisions that no woman should ever have to make.  She faces devastating losses and manages to keep living because that is what the women in her life have taught her to do.  Guilt and heartbreak close her heart to a relationship with her daughters.  Her husband's dying wish is for her to tell their daughters a fairy tale that she began and never finished.  Like all fairytales, this is the only hope for love and redemption.

     Kristin Hannah is an incredible writer.  Her writing is lyrical and poignant, while staying realistic and believable.  Reading her words made me feel like I was in the fairytale world of Peter's Window to the West.  Like the girls, I waited breathlessly to hear more of the fairytale that could only be told in the dark of night.  Kristin also put the two stories together seamlessly.  Although the ending was a bit hard to believe, I was very thankful she chose the ending she did because I loved the characters as if they were myself and Vera deserved her ending. 

     I often read books for young adults, but this book is written for adults - both content and the depth of life you need to understand the characters.  This book is my new favorite book.  It is a powerful book - especially for women.

The Help

     A friend of mine recommended this book to me.  It took me a while to read it because I had so many other books and projects going on at the same time.  I think that was a good thing because the slow pace seemed to fit the south where the book takes place.
     I learned a lot about the Civil Rights Movement that I didn't know before.  I knew that there were different public bathrooms, but I didn't know that black maids were not allowed to use the same bathrooms in the houses they cleaned.  The scene with Mae Mobley being toilet trained and her mother's reaction shocked me.
   I enjoyed seeing the different points-of-view of the women in the book, but it also made the book less personal for me.  Just as I got attached to one character, we switched to a new character.  It made me feel like an observer, rather than one of the characters. 
     I read the miscarriage scene when I was very sick and unable to leave the bathroom myself.  I felt as if the scene was happening around me.  This scene horrified me and I will never forget it. 
     One of the things I didn't like about the book was that we hear about how dangerous life is during this time.  We hear of people being blinded, beaten, and even killed.  However, we hear about it second hand, so it loses its emotional impact on the reader.  The women in the novel are taking a huge risk and nothing bad happens to them, only to other people.  This seemed contrived to me.  It also seemed to take away from their bravery because it made it seem like it wasn't that big of a risk, when they were truly risking their lives. 
      I was horrified by the prejudice in the book.  Unfortunately, I don't think we have come very far still today.  This book made me think about racism and the ways we treat people.