Magic Indeed!

My Man, the children, and I traveled for about 8 hours on the day after Christmas. I had been secretly looking forward to the long drive because of a book I'd been sent to read for review for BlogHer Book Club. I had stolen moments throughout the month of December between baking cookies and wrapping packages to dive eagerly into this book which is entitled The Magic Room. I was eager to have uninterrupted car time in which to finish this well written book.

The book, in the words of its author Jeffrey Zaslow is, "not exactly about weddings, and not exactly about a bridal shop, and not exactly about bridal gowns, its a book about the love we all share with our daughters."

The Magic Room tells the true story of Becker's Bridal Shop, located in the very small town of Fowler, Michigan. Becker's has been owned by three generations of Becker women each operating the store in her own fashion and in her own strengths.

The bridal shop's owners are not the entire story however, as Mr. Zaslow expertly weaves the stories of six brides-to-be as they journey toward the altar with the story of the bridal shop and it's cast of relatable characters. He says that he started each bride's story as she entered the Magic Room and then worked backwards out into her life to tell her story.

Zaslow lays out his purpose for writing this book early in the pages of the introduction saying,

...I came here not just to write about wedding gowns and what they represent. I also wanted to understand the women wearing them, their fears and yearnings. 

I resolved to pay less attention to the brides I met whose motives seemed somewhat frivolous, the one more focused on their dresses than their upcoming marriages. Instead, I wanted to find brides and their families whose paths were not necessarily easy, but who have given great thought to the love that guides and connects them.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and may or may not have been a teensy bit tearful at the end. The book is not at all a sad one, but one of hope and of love. It was also full of interesting statistics about the state of marriage in the world at one point relating that "The annual number of weddings in America, which peaked in 1984 at 2.48 million, has declined every year since then." Also, "For women, the average age of first marriage has risen to twenty-six years old from twenty-one in 1970. For men, it has risen to twenty-eight from twenty-three."

I also loved, loved, loved the way the author handled each bride's story with a special dose of respect and tenderness toward the bride and her family, which he gained perhaps from his own experiences as the father of three daughters. Especially touching was the way Zaslow treated the story Shelley, the current owner of Becker's and her family.

I feel as if I could travel to Fowler, Michigan, enter Becker's Bridal and its Magic Room (the room where brides-to-be are invited to enter when they feel they've found THE DRESS and gaze at themselves in the flattering lighting in a vast array of mirrors) and feel like I knew well, its inhabitants.

The Magic Room is one of those books that will entertain, inform, and enlighten while at the same time leave a mark on your heart. It caused me to care about the brides, their families, and about the Becker's Bridal family in a way that I'd not expected as I opened the pages to begin my journey into The Magic Room. If you'd like to see a few pictures of this beautiful bridal shop, click here to go to Becker's Bridal website.

You may be familiar with author, Jeffrey Zaslow's name as the coauthor of the world wide #1 best selling book, The Last Lecture written with Randy Pausch. He is also the author of The Girls From Ames: A Story of Women and a Forty-Year Friendship, which I plan to read soon!

In the interest of full disclosure, I received this book in partial exchange for review for BlogHer. My opinions, however, are entirely my own...as usual!

Join me later this week at BlogHer for more discussions about this fabulous book!

Lake of Dreams...Potential Unmet

When I participated in Christmas and Easter plays as a child, I remember the director  continually stressing the importance of the beginning song and the finale. She would say, "We've got to get those two parts down really well because the audience always remembers the first thing they see and the last thing they see." She was right. 

The author of The Lake of Dreams must have had similar training. The prologue and the ending of the book were good. I was captured by the cliffhanger at the end of the prologue as well as the could-be-theme revolving around the appearance Haley's Comet. Similarly, the ending was so neat and tidy that I finished the book almost forgetting how tedious the 300 pages between the “opening act” and the "finale" had been.

The book opens in 1911 on the night Haley's comet is to appear in the town of Lake of Dreams. The narrative discusses the fear of the general populace that the comet would poison the air outside. Rose, the central character of the novel is introduced as she, unafraid of the comet’s potential danger, sneaks out of her house to accompany her brother as he sets off on evening adventure that would ultimately change the course of her life. 

Chapter one brings the reader to present day Japan as the central figure in the modern story is introduced. Lucy Jarrett, the great, great-niece of Rose, is a woman discontented with her life and maybe with her long term love interest. She wavers into and out of a decision to return to her hometown Lake of Dreams to look in on her mother who has broken her arm in a car accident. Lucy eventually decides to return home where she happens to pick a lock in her bedroom and find papers written by her ancestor Rose.

The entire balance of the novel is the story of Lucy’s obsession with her search for information about Rose and about the stained glass windows that become involved in the mystery. While the simplicity of the plot would seem to provide an excellent framework for a tightly woven tale paralleling the lives of two women each on their search for their life’s meaning, such was not the case.

The story is peppered with unnecessary conversations between characters, unnecessary side-trails that lead nowhere, and characters that are given much space to develop in the story and are then left dangling in the midst of nowhere until the end of the tale where they are grafted back in for a grand finish.

I really wanted to like this book, unfortunately, after the prologue, I had to read nearly 300 pages before the story had any appeal to me at all. The storyline had such interesting potential as did the possibility of the development of the many available themes in the book but it simply did not live up to my expectations.

There were a few positive elements in The Lake of Dreams--I learned bits and pieces of the history of the Women's Suffrage Movement in the US, and I enjoyed the description of the stained glass windows throughout which depicted pivotal moments in the lives women in the Bible. I appreciated the tightly wrapped, if sentimental, ending as well, however, on the whole it is not a book I can recommend as one that readers should invest the time it takes to read the 400 pages.


If you'd like to learn a bit more about this book and its author, click here to go to the BlogHer Bookclub page where The Lake of Dreams is featured.

{This was a paid book review for BlogHer Book Club, my opinions, however, are entirely my own!}

What I Did on My Summer Vacation

Two weeks of vacation from his work usually means that my Man can be found packing the family van and setting off into the sunset of a beach amidst the boisterous clamor of his family. This year, like another three years earlier, found the Wrights embarking on a "stay-cation".

A "stay-cation" is time away from one's daily existence without time away from one's dwelling place. Tricky. Three years ago our "stay-cation" was necessitated by the impending arrival of Molly into our family. This year our "stay-cation" was a result of a home in need of some major TLC and a football season that would not wait on our family's return from a distant locale.

The first week of our time off together involved jetting around the area shopping a bit here and there, swimming a bit here and there, driving a bit here and there, and eating out every evening here and there! I was Queen of the Passenger's Seat and my subjects were all lovely little travelers (most of the time). As my Man drove hither and yon, I read. As my Man played with children in pools across the land, I read some more. When my Man drifted off to sleep exhausted from all of that driving and swimming, I turned on a night light and continued to read.

The second week of "stay-cation" involved work--housework, and lots of it. As my Man made four thousand trips to Lowe's, operated a power washer, and shoveled in shrubbery beds and build landscaping edges...

I baked a little, 

...did laundry a lot, and read still more.

Were I to imagine this blog post as the annual back to school assignment, my essay would be a simple one.

"This year on my summer vacation I read five books."

Two of the books, I'd had a bit of a head start on while the other three were "begun & done" in two weeks! It usually takes me that long to read the directions on a child's board game, but I used every possible second available to stick my nose into a book or into my Nook.

Here's what I read...

Crunch Time by Diane Mott Davidson

(Click on Title or Author for link)

This is the 16th installment of the Goldy Bear culinary mystery series. I have read them all. This one may not be the strongest of the series, but it was a fun read all the same especially with the added feature of recipes in the back of the book! My favorite way to consume these books is by audio. They are narrated by the very most talented voice in the audiobook world, Barbara Rosenblat who brings the book to life. 

(Ms. Rosenblat also narrates another of my favorite series featuring Amelia Peabody a Victorian-era archaeologist in Egypt click here for Amazon link to the first book. The series, by Elizabeth Peters should be read in order if possible.) My local library is loaded with audio books and I take full advantage of their convenience.   I often listen to them while cooking or folding laundry to make the job more fun and I did just that with this one. I'd listen for a bit, then I'd open the book and read for a while when things got quiet. 

Loving the Little Years: Motherhood in the Trenches

 by Rachel Jankovic

(Mother of five kiddos under six!)

Remember this spaghetti face book I talked about a while ago - here? I loved every single page of it. It is as good as a parenting book can get. I can't say enough about this book. The only thing that gave me pause was that the author's picture on the back only served to emphasize how much younger she is than I.

How'd she get so wise so fast? Page after page brought forth blessing and lesson alike. On a few pages I laughed aloud even as my toes were bruising. It really is THAT good. Tell every young (and less young) mommy you know about this book!

The Coffins of Little Hope by Timothy Schaffert

I read this quirky book on my Nook on the recommendation of one of my favorite readers Nancy Pearl, who is probably the most famous librarian you don't know about.  She even has her own action figure! No kidding. 

Author of many "books about books" Mrs. Pearl is my go to gal when I'm in need of an interesting read. The Coffins of Little Hope has, as it's storyteller, 83 year-old Essie Myles who is the obituary writer for her family's hometown newspaper. Essie opens the book like this...

I still use a manual typewriter (a 1953 Underwood portable, in a robin’s egg blue) because the soft pip-pip-pip of the typing of keys on a computer keyboard doesn’t quite fit with my sense of what writing sounds like. I need the hard metal clack, and I need those keys to sometimes catch so I can reach in and untangle them, turning my fingertips inky. Without slapping the return or turning the cylinder to release the paper with a sharp whip, without all that minor havoc, I feel I’ve paid no respect to the dead. What good is an obituary if it can be written so peaceably, so undisturbingly, in the dark of night?

To read Nancy Pearl's explanation of this quirky book which touts one of the most original plots I've read lately, click here...

Next up...

Don't you love to "meet" a new author through an excellent book? While reading Bel Canto I experienced that very happiness. Ann Patchett is the author of many books, all very different themes and plots, characters and settings, and all very highly reviewed. None of her books is more highly lauded than this one, winner of the Orange Prize for fiction and the PEN/Faulkner award for fiction. 

This was another of the books that I simultaneously read on my Nook and listened to via audiobook from the library. I'm not sure which I was more taken with, the listening or the reading. Both were grand experiences with this wonderful, wonderful story. Here's what it's about.

In an unnamed South American country, a world-renowned soprano sings at a birthday party in honor of a visiting Japanese industrial titan. His hosts hope that Mr. Hosokawa can be persuaded to build a factory in their Third World backwater. Alas, in the opening sequence, just as the accompanist kisses the soprano, a ragtag band of 18 terrorists enters the vice-presidential mansion through the air conditioning ducts. Their quarry is the president, who has unfortunately stayed home to watch a favorite soap opera. And thus, from the beginning, things go awry.

This story explores the lives of the captors and captives throughout the long period of captivity which would last for over four months. By the end of the novel, I'd fallen in love with many of the captives and more than one of the captors all of whose lives are explored deeply and thoughtfully by the skilled Patchett.

Finally, I read...

    ...well, I can't exactly tell you yet what the fifth book was yet, but the review will be posted soon on a blog site called BlogHer.com where I was invited to read and review the title in question.  I'll let you know when my review goes "live." Until then...I think there's plenty of material above to work with!!

"A good book should leave you... slightly exhausted at the end.  You live several lives while reading it."  ~William Styron, interview, Writers at Work, 1958

More vacation adventures & recipes to come...stay tuned! 

Summer Reading...Doing Any?

What is it about reading in the summer that makes it so much richer and more meaningful? Summer reading lists abound and I can’t seem to get enough books piled around me. My library list is loaded and my nightstand is weighed down with BOOKS! 

One would think that I’d been on a “Book Fast” all winter and spring the way I’ve been devouring books this summer--that’s not the case, however. I've been a very productive reader this winter and spring and I hope I can keep up the pace this summer! 

Below are a few of the books that have made a difference to/in me this year and one that I read years ago that I include in every book list I'm asked to provide...

My favorite book of this year so far is One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp, a mother of 6 children living with her “Farmer Husband” on a large farm in Canada. I previously posted my reservations about reading this book here. 

I overcame my reservations and inhaled this book and was so enriched by its message and its focus.  One Thousand Gifts is one of those small but powerful books that will change your perspective entirely--for the better. The writing is beautiful and will surly point the reader to the very heart of our God.

I've already mentioned the very thought provoking book by Tsh Oxenreider (Not misspelled, there really is no vowel in her first name) entitled, Organized Simplicity. The subtitle of the book is, “The Clutter-Free Approach to Intentional Living.” The words intentional living are beginning to leave an imprint on our summer and on our home and its “stuff.”

For fiction fans, my all-time favorite book is called Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers. Honestly, any book by this talented author is worth your time and energy, but Redeeming Love is especially so. It is the retelling of the book of Hosea in the Bible, but the setting has been changed to the American “Wild West”. 

This book kept me up until the wee hours of the morning for many nights in a row (this was before children of course!). The theme of the story is God’s overwhelming, unconditional, redeeming love for His wayward children.

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese is 688 pages long and was my huge book for last summer. It was the sort of book that after you've finished, you find yourself missing the characters. The story is set in Ethiopia and America and centers on a set of twin boys born to a devout nun in a mission hospital who dies giving birth to them. The story follows the lives of the boys into adulthood as well as the lives of their adoptive parents, both doctors at the mission hospital. Portions of the novel deal graphically with poor decisions made by the boys and deal glowingly with their triumphs. 

An epic novel, Cutting for Stone involves personal drama, political drama, love, loss, failure, and success. It is the first book I've read that involves the geography so realistically in the story. I found myself having cravings for the Ethiopian food described in the Cutting for Stone that, of course, I've never even tasted. To read more about the book, click here or on the title.

Radical by David Platt is subtitled, "Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream" and is in a word, powerful. Don't read this if you don't want your toes stepped on a little completely flattened by a steam roller. 

David Platt, without even a hint of condescension, challenged me to be a better steward of the vast, vast stores of blessings that I enjoy daily and take for granted hourly. An easy read as writing style goes, but a challenging and stirring read for the heart.   It made me aspire to so much more!

I’m very excited about the books in my reading queue for the remainder of the summer which include:

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon is the "big book" of fiction I'm diving into for the summer. I picked up a used paperback copy of this book on our last date night and it's 600+ pages of smallish print should keep me busy until at least the end of summer, and quite possibly I'll still be turning pages as the snow begins to fall. 

The book won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2001 and has won many many other awards as well. The Washington Post said of it, "Absolutely gosh-wow, super-colossal--smart, funny, and a continual pleasure to read." I'm three chapters in and I'm quite enamored with the writer's style and charm. 

I'm not clear on the story yet, but from reviews I've read, the story begins in 1930s Europe and moves to New York City and comic books are involved. I'm no comic book fan, but I really am enjoying the characters I've met so far.

The Fitting Room by Kelly Minter which is about putting on the character of Christ. I wish I’d begun this one earlier in my husband’s Colossians sermon series, but who knew he’d finish his series in under a year?? Kelly Minter has written another super book called No Other Gods which is excellent as well.

Give Them Grace: Dazzling Your Kids with the Love of Jesus by Elise Fitzpatrick & her grown daughter Jessica Thompson is a book that I’m very curious about. For the last 12 years I’ve found myself squarely in the parenting camp of, “I said it, so do it,” and frankly, I know of no other way to go about it. I’ve an idea that this book with the word GRACE on the cover is about to stretch my parenting muscles a bit. 

I’m reading Give Them Grace because of the stellar reviews it received from many, many sources, one especially that says, “It’s the best parenting book I’ve ever read, because it takes the radical, untamable, outrageous nature of the gospel seriously and applies it to parenting. It’s nothing short of revolutionary...”. 

Writer Anna Quindlen, in the New York Times article "Enough Bookshelves," says, "I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who thing decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves." 

I'd be the first to tell you that there are a few other things I'd like instilled into my kids that are more important, but I really agree with the spirit of Ms. Quindlen's quote! The entire article can be read here, and I recommend it. I just printed it out with real live ink for my Man to read. It is a charming and smile-inducing piece of work.

NOW...may I ask, what are you kind folks out there reading this summer? I'd LOVE to know! Drop me an email or leave a comment below, I'd be ever so grateful!