Tag Archives: reading

books

Loving Frank – A Book Review

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I finally finished Loving Frank by Nancy Horan – so excited! It definitely moved a bit slowly in the middle (well, maybe I just didn’t have time to devour it as quickly) but the end was a giant, quick surprise.

A little recap on the book: Mamah Borthwick (wife, mother, and early feminist) writes first person about her love affair with Frank Lloyd Wright, at the height of his architecture career. Both are married when the affair begins, and we follow them (and their families) through years (and countries) of loving each other during scandal and respite.

Just to prove that I read this book in print, and not on my Kindle!
Just to prove that I read this book in print, and not on my Kindle!

I loved the way Horan took Mamah’s feelings, described them well, justified them a little with the “free love” writings of Ellen Key, and brought her full-circle into a more realistic and whole view of the man she still loved. I was actually surprised to do some Googling, and see how close to actual history Horan stayed when writing about the affair, Wright’s travels and work, and even Mamah’s relationship with Ellen Key. She must’ve done extensive research and followed it with careful planning to construct such a well-written love story and true-to-life account of the facts.

Like I said, the middle was a bit slow, possibly just because that was a less exciting time in the main characters’ lives, or perhaps because I didn’t know Ellen Key or her writings in advance, but I truly loved the book as a whole, and would definitely recommend it!

Now I’m into Yes Please by Amy Poehler, to satisfy the “memoir” category on my reading challenge. I’ve read Tina Fey’s Bossypants and loved it, so I was nervous for Amy to keep me as interested… and she did it! So I’ll let ya know how that one is when I finish it!

books, mommyhood, random thoughts

Ponderings on “What Alice Forgot”

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Once I finished Where’d You Go, Bernadette? I read the next suggestion from my friend Ginna…

Here’s a short book review of What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty:

what alice forgot

It’s good. Great, actually. It is thought-provoking, to imagine losing the memories from ten years of your life. Alice falls off a spin bike at the gym, and when she wakes up, she thinks she is ten years younger and pregnant with her first child. She doesn’t remember her three children, crumbling marriage, or anything else from the past ten years. The greatest thing about the book is her journey to find herself, combining the woman she is at 40, and the woman she was at 30. There is heartache and pain, but also grace and redemption. I flew through it, just needing to know what the next page said.

Now that you’ve got the synopsis… I’ll tell you this: I’m not quite yet 30, but it made me brutally aware of how much can happen in ten years. Obviously, the last ten years of my life (aka my twenties) were vastly different than my thirties are going to be. My twenties consisted of college, partying, traveling, job searching, falling in love, getting married, and birthing two kids. My thirties will be full of raising toddlers (read: potty training), choosing schools (and running the chauffeur service to get various kids to various places), doing laundry, hosting holiday get-togethers and getting to know my kids in every stage of their lives. I can’t imagine waking up halfway through my thirties, and not remembering anything about it.

But on the other hand, what would I want to be the same? Which things would I want to wake up ten years later and know would be consistent? My marriage. My relationship with my kids (no matter how old they were). My friendships. My place at my church. Those would be my priorities, if I had to choose something to be consistent throughout my life. Just thinking about what I’ll be doing ten years from now makes me want to focus on those things more than ever, so that ten years from now, I’ll know where I stand.

What would you think if you woke up, and didn’t remember the last ten years? Would you have wanted something to change? Would you like where you stand?

books

Book Review: Where’d You Go, Bernadette?

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It is a great love of mine to find time to read for pleasure. So often, I’m reading blogs and essays on parenting and potty training and toddler tantrums and the like that I am ecstatic to lay in the bed, if only for five minutes before I fall asleep with the Kindle in my hand, and read something delicious, for my own pleasure. Hubby and I sometimes slip into phases where we watch TV instead of read, but I love the times that reading takes the place of a TV binge.

Recently, I read a post from my friend Ginna (her blog is here!) about a book she was reading. Okay, confession: it was not recent. It was over the summer. Details, right? I’m a procrastinator. Anyway, I just finished the book she had recommended, Where’d You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple.

bernadette

The title character, Bernadette, is a seemingly washed-up but brilliant architect, loved by her quirky daughter and Microsoft-guru husband, revered by architecture nerds all around, and hated by her fellow private school mothers who think she is a social disaster. We read the saga from the daughter Bee’s point of view, and follow the mother-daughter relationship closely. As you may assume from the title, Bernadette disappears, and we go literally to the ends of the earth (Antarctica) trying to find her. The twist at the end is a total kicker, solidifying our warm feelings toward the family of three that we had at the beginning of the book.

It’s written very interestingly (I thought at first oddly, haha), including emails and notes to and from different characters, mixed in with Bee’s narrative. The reason for it is cleared up at the end, with the twist, so hold out through the odd writing… you will be rewarded!

Has anyone else read the book? What did you think? Have you read anything interesting recently that I should read? I’m always looking for suggestions!