January Book Reviews

The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown: I really enjoyed this book about three daughters of a Shakespeare professor dad and a mom suffering from cancer.  I found it smart and well paced.  It also feel clearly into the category of books that weave a predictable plot through love and tie everything up perfectly, which can be maddening sometimes, but this time it mostly worked. (Okay, I hated the fact that it had an epilogue to complete the big red bow tied around the plot, but it was a smart enough to book to be forgiven that.)

Every Last One by Anna Quindlen: I don't really know how to talk about this book.  It was so tragic and yet it didn't really feel sad.  I think that was to goal - to write about hope and perspective amid grief and she did that well.  "Ruby loved to tell me things I didn't know, and that afternoon, as we sipped lemonade and scuffed our bare feet through the shaggy grass, she had told me about the butterfly effct, how the beating of their wings in Mexico could cause a breeze in our backyard. 'That's kind of terrifying,' I replied.  But even as I spoke I realized that that was what we had all believed from the moment we had children.  The breast-fed baby became the confident adult.  The toddler who listened to a bedtime story went on to a doctorate.  We flapped our wings in our kitchens, and a wind blew through their futures."

The Skinny Rules by Bob Harper:  Well, it is mostly working, so I say yay for this book.

Photographs (Self Portraits) by Heidi Lender "“Stand on a bench. Make sure it’s Monday. Wear something pretty.” http://heidilender.com/category/once-upon