The Postmistress by Sarah Blake

Talk about a remarkable book! This one ranks close (but not quite) up there on my list with Kathryn Stockett’s The Help for my favorite reads of 2010! The Postmistress was given to me for my 28th birthday and it was the first time I received an “adult” book as a present! Knowing this book was a gift from a like-minded reader to myself as well as from one of my closest friends in the world, Laura, I was eager to jump right in headfirst!

Sarah Blake’s novel follows the intertwined stories of three women…

Frankie Bard is the voice on the radio that comes into the U.S. homes during World War II from the heart of London and France during the bombings known as “The Blitz” as well as the exodus of the Jews across Europe. Uncommon for a female to be an on-the-scene reporter, Frankie comes into many U.S. homes nightly giving them only a brief piece of the action across the ocean. Frankie often faces a difficult realization that she is simply there to “tell the story” and not to “create a story”. She struggles with the treatment of those fleeing Europe by train and then boat as well as those that have held been captive in what would become known as the Concentration Camps. She comes in close contact with several different characters; they are people that you too will grow close to quickly and wonder, what will become of them and their families. As a reader you will connect instantly to Frankie and her desire to let the Americans back in the States (who seem to be leading normal lives going about their normal routines) realize what is happening in Europe in hopes that they would come together to fight for a change. She will question her own values and aspirations as she struggles to be an unbiased American reporter during a very difficult time in Europe.

Iris James is the Postmaster in the town of Franklin, Massachusetts, located on the furthest tip of Cape Cod. James takes her ‘federal’ employment as serious as one could and places a high value on her importance to the residents of the town. While the summer vacationers come and go, James has the responsibility of making sure that mail is delivered to year round inhabitants in the small town. Her role will intertwine with Frankie as she listens to her accounts of war activity on the radio daily and connects with the stories of the people that are told. Iris goes against her beliefs when she holds onto an important letter longer than she should that comes into her possession early on in the story.

Lastly we have our third woman, Emma Trask, wife of the town doctor, Will Fitch. After period of time when Fitch questions his talents as a doctor as the result of a lost pregnant woman he decides to go off to England to see where he can serve the U.S. in the medical profession. Emma struggles with his decision while he hopes to feel as though he has made amends for his error in judgment with the failed delivery. She goes as far as to have her house painted bright white in hopes that Will can see it from across the ocean and know exactly where to come home. Emma spends much time listening to Frankie on the radio and connects with her stories as she begins to question the purpose of the war, the purpose of Hitler and his actions as well as secretly hoping to hear something about her husband and his heroics overseas.

This book gets a 4.5 out of 5 on my rating scale… any day! The next task on my list is finding a book that keeps me engaged after coming off of this fantastic read. A definite must read!

Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult

I am here to make an announcement! As a lover of great books and a frequent reader, this was my FIRST Jodi Picoult book!

Many of my friends have said, “You have to read Jodi Picoult books!” or “You mean to tell me YOU, have never read a Picoult book?” and in truth, I hadn’t explored this latest craze in the world of popular authors! So there I was in December in Belleville, Michigan at the Scholastic Warehouse buying books for my classroom when I wandered into the “Adult books” section (no, not Adult Entertainment, it’s a book fair for kids) and found this story. As I have said many times before, I prefer to read books that I will remember long after I put the book down and in this case, Change of Heart is one I will probably never forget.

Picoult tells the story through the help of many of the novel’s characters. We follow June Nealon, a mother who has lost her daughter and second husband to homicide. Their killer you ask? Well, he is another one of the Picoult’s narrators, Shay Bourne. As Shay spends his eleven years on execution row we hear from other prison inmates like Lucerne, an AIDS victim who Bourne appears to help medically from his prison cell. We hear from Maggie Bloom, Bourne’s attorney from the ACLU and we hear from Father Michael, a priest assigned to help Bourne prepare for his execution.

Picoult has an amazing way of telling a dark story with a complicated web in a way that makes a reader want to keep reading. You want to hear Shay Bourne plead his case in court, not for survival, but to donate his organs. You want to hear June Nealon tell about her daughter Claire’s worsening health condition as her heart begins to fail. You want to know if Maggie Bloom will be the lawyer that will convince a judge to grant Shay a hanging instead of lethal injection so that he may attempt to fix a wrong in having killed one Nealon daughter years back, now fighting so hard to have his heart transplanted into Claire, to save the other Nealon daughter. You want to know if Bourne’s organs will instead be lost as it appears he will be executed through lethal injection. After following Shay as our narrator you will long to hear him tell his side of the story, of the night a young girl and her stepfather cop were killed. You want to know how this story ends.

Your daughter needs a heart transplant to live, would you take the heart of a convicted killer? Would you take the heart of a man who killed your husband and eldest daughter?

Your eyes will pop when the story ends and you may even shake your head in disbelief…

What a book! What a storyline! This was intense to read and kept my mind racing at night. I will read more Picoult books, but if they are all this intense, I may need to spread them out with other books in between. Picoult truly has a talent.

Have a little faith by Mitch Albom

In the midst of a busy month for work and fun, I found time to read Albom’s latest book and read it in under a week. Have a little faith tells two stories, in two different worlds about two different religions that come together in the end as our author writes about his own struggle with his faith.

One is the story of Albom and his beloved 82-year old Rabbi, Albert Lewis (a rarity to have one Rabbi in your congregation for your whole life), who asks of him to deliver his eulogy. Such a request is astounding to Albom as he has looked up to his “Reb” his whole life and cannot imagine such an enormous task of eulogizing someone so highly regarded in his hometown community.

To be able to give the Reb the eulogy Albom felt he deserved, Albom spent many hours with him in his office and home. Keep in mind that the Reb was living in Albom’s hometown in New Jersey while he currently lives in Detroit. In one discussion when the Reb’s health has begun to decline he states, “ ‘Getting old, we can deal with. Being old is the problem.” (p.125) When talking with the Reb another time about war and its’ existence because of religious beliefs, the Reb responds, “ ‘That is not faith, that is hate.” He sighed. “And if you ask me, God sits up there and cries when that happens.” (p.161) Many similar conversations are help between the pair as Albom continually inquires more about Rabbi Lewis as his health begins to fail.

The second story is that of a man Albom meets in his hometown, a man who was once a convicted drug dealer that is now the preacher of a struggling local church known as Henry. The preacher’s church has a decaying roof that eventually becomes a large hole in the roof and ceiling of the chapel. For a time being as well, the heat is shut off in the church.

Albom learns of Henry’s faith bringing him back to reality after several drug related altercations that began to impact the safety of his family, his wife and child. Despite disparaging conditions at the church and the members’ inability to help financially, Henry never loses hope or faith that his church will not survive. Instead, Henry continues to take in many homeless people to provide them shelter and food that they need to survive. Henry strives to offer them a place of safety, one he could have used himself earlier in life.

As a reader this book will take you on an incredible journey – one that links two different religions, two different ethnicities and two different men to one common belief, their faith.

What are people reading?

In order to keep the Blog active while school life keeps me busy and out of my pleasure reads (sure, I am enjoying Double Fudge with my 2nd graders) I am striving to find new ways to post about books in between my book log entries!

So here we go....


What are you reading? What books are waiting on your bookshelves? Comment and lets get a good list of book picks going! There are MANY waiting in my bookcase, on my Amazon.com Book Fanatic Wish List and even more on a list generating and growing by the hour on my Facebook page!

Dear John by Nicholas Sparks

“You’re reading a Nicholas Sparks book?” asks my sister Rachel curiously looking up from her book Slummy Mummy (Fiona Neill, July 2008).

I picked up this book from a crowded bookshelf in my grandparents basement. Their basement has two bookcases that I am amazed have not fallen over from the weight of so many books! The receipt from Borders Book Store in Troy remained inside the book jacket, purchased October 31, 2006. Realizing that this was the same book that was now showing as a major motion picture in theaters, I thought it might be a good read for my upcoming trip to Florida. Upon arriving in Florida I saw the exact same book on the blue couch in our family room, my Mom was reading it too! Not familiar with Nicholas Sparks’ books, I pressed on.

The story begins in North Carolina prior to 9/11. John Tyree, 23, is a young man searching for his identity when he gives up on the lifestyle he has chosen (nights of binge drinking) and enlists in the U.S. Army. Upon returning home from Germany for a scheduled leave, John struggles to relate to his socially different father (he has Asperger’s syndrome and is the only remaining family that John has) and decides to walk the beach one day after surfing instead of returning home. He comes across his “damsel in distress”, Savannah Lynn Curtis. Savannah’s purse has fallen off of a dock and into the ocean. John jumps over the ledge in order to rescue the purse and charm this new lady.

The story unfolds of a long-distance romantic relationship separated by the Atlantic Ocean as John continues to fight for his country and Savannah works on educational degrees at the University of North Carolina. Just when it looks like John’s time in the army is nearing an end, 9/11 happens and John feels the inner desire and passion to re-enlist in the Army. At this point, he receives a letter from Savannah beginning, “Dear John…” (symbolic in many ways) and the rest can be found within the book!

Dear John is an easy but enjoyable read. I’m curious to see the movie now and wonder if the ending will change at all as it was not the ending I would have hoped for from Nicholas Sparks.

Will I read more of his books? Yes, probably… Grandma wouldn’t let me leave with only one!

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

“We are just two people. Not that much separate us. Not nearly as much as I’d thought.” (p. 451)

There’s nothing better than finding a book with characters so real that you feel as though you may know them. At times these characters feel as real as the person sitting next to you. While Kathryn Stockett says, “The Help is fiction, by and large” one is left wondering if many of the stories told and retold in this book shed some light on the good and the bad times in the 1960s in Jackson, Mississippi.

The story is set in Jackson during a time of segregation in the South and Martin Luther King Jr. marching at the capital in D.C. Stockett being from Jackson has knowledge about the town, the high society and the history behind African American workers in the south. In particular, Stockett has background knowledge about the African women who worked tirelessly for the white women and their families. One of the leading characters, Aibileen, explains as the book opens:

Mae Mobley was born on a early Sunday morning in August, 1960. A church baby we like to call it. Taking care a white babies, that’s what I do, along with the cooking and the cleaning. I done raised seventeen kids in my lifetime. I know how to get them babies to sleep, stop crying, and go in the toilet bowl before they mamas even get out a bed in the morning. (page 1)

The storyline is told through the perspectives of two different African American women, Minnie and Aibileen, and from a white woman, Miss Skeeter. Skeeter works underground to make life better for the African Americans as she comes to realize all that has happened within her own community between the black and white relations (in the workplace, in homes and in their own community). Skeeter compiles the stories of the working “help” all to pay tribute to the lady that “raised” her, her black Mammy, Constantine.

I came across this book at Costco but had heard some about it at a recent book club meeting (we did not pick this one, but now I think I may need to suggest it). I took this heavy yellow book with me to Florida for Mid-Winter Break and noticed something throughout my time in Orlando and West Palm Beach. The Help was everywhere. It was on the bookshelves of several stores I passed in the airports, the mall, the airplane and even resting on the lounge chairs around me at the pool! I made new friends along the way as many a person told me, “I just finished that book!” or “Don’t you just love The Help? Stockett tells the story so well!” Most often I was responding that I was either in the midst of the book and was enjoying it, and at the end I was agreeing with others, that “Yes, this was a really good book and it left me wanting more!”

This is a book that will consume you and you will not want to put it down! This being said, it’s also a book that will leave you wondering about the future of the characters when it ends… and it leaves you hoping for more!

On a side note, I had a personal connection to this book that made me stop many times and think about along the reading journey. When I was growing up there were two African American ladies that worked for my Nana and Grandpa as well as my parents. Tommie came a few days week and did our laundry, folding and ironing. Many times she would stay at night to watch my sister and I while my parents were out. We loved finding ways to entertain her and make her laugh. She loved my sister and I and showered us with smiles, hugs, winks and laughs. The second lady, Elizabeth, might as well have been another Grandma to me. I can to this day remember telling my friends at recess that I did have three Grandmas and I always included Elizabeth. Elizabeth was around when my Mom was a child and took care of my Mom while her parents were away as well as running the kitchen in my grandparents’ home. Elizabeth could make a mean chocolate soufflé or recite a recipe off the top of her head. I have often thought about Elizabeth (she passed away many years ago) and the love, support and influence she has had on my life. Elizabeth was special… she made you feel good, she took you fun places, she babysat when my parents were gone at night or for a long period of time. I always thought Elizabeth would be around when I was little, always. I can only hope that all I knew about Elizabeth and Tommie as a child and young adult was true… they were well taken care of when they came to work, they were shown much appreciation and gratitude for all that they did and they received financial support they were unable to work. I can only hope that we gave them as much love as they gave us.

It's been awhile!

I realize it has been a while since I have posted info on new books... Truth be told, I've been abandoning books left and right! We teach our second graders in the beginning of the year that it's "okay" to abandon books along the way if they are not "just-right" or are not interesting to us as a reader. Rather than give a bad review to the books I have put down, I'll just say there have been three!

I'm finally hooked on Kathryn Stockett's "The Help" and am hoping to have this book completed in the next few days. Stay tuned for a post - and thanks for being patient!