Book Review: Between Sister's

Between Sister’s by Kristin Hannah

Thoughts: My first Kristin Hannah book was a book that I very much enjoyed – so I decided to go back and try out one that is a few years older. I found this one to be very much in the same style or vein. It delves into relationships between two sisters. They had a hard past that wasn’t either of their faults. But when you are forced to be both a mother and a sister things happen. You make hard choices that can affect both of you for the rest of your lives.

And you can either live with that pain – or let it go and let yourselves be part of each other’s lives. And in this case a wedding brings the two sisters together – and just in time. I think this is a great example of don’t let communication come between a relationship that you really cherish. Whether it is a sister/sister, friend/friend, husband/wife, daughter/father etc. They are all relationships that if they really are worth it should be fought for. And if you don’t fight for it now there may not be time to do it later.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes reading about relationships. It shows that everyone can get past the feelings that made them hurt – if they let themselves and that is something that can help them have a more fulfilling life.

What genre would you consider this?
Family Dynamics

Overall:

Book Review: Summer House

Summer House by Nancy Thayer

Thoughts: Stories about family dynamics can be something that you associate with or identify with – or they can be so out there that you just don’t see how that can happen. This book to me isn’t something that I personally identify with but I see this in the families of so many others. Everyone has something that they are ashamed of and want to make themselves better for. In this case you have Charlotte.

You have the family dynamic where the children are each trying to get along but everyone feels like they are entitled to from the parents. The thing is that you don’t have that entitlement. What your parents have is not yours just because they are your children.

Lastly you have the child who finds themselves reverting back to their “role” in the family. But the thing is they aren’t that person anymore but they can’t help but fall back in to the troublemaker role.

I found this book to be entertaining and something that I have seen in families all over the place. Definitely a good summer read.

What genre would you consider this?
Family Dynamics


Overall:

Book Review: Home Safe

Home Safe by Elizabeth Berg

Thoughts: I couldn’t imagine living with a man for years and when he dies suddenly finding out that there is something about him that you don’t know about him. Something significant. It would take you to another level of despair when you are already trying to deal with things.

Add to that the way the mother/daughter relationship works for the two of them. It is fine to rely on people but to be that close – and unable to function on your own just seems odd to me.

I wouldn’t say this is a feel good book (I mean it starts out with a death) but it is a book about the progression of a person to being someone new. And the movement of someone into or out of your life will do that to you.

What genre would you consider this?
Family Dynamics

Overall:

Book Review: Summer Kitchen

The Summer Kitchen by Karen Weinreb

Description: Nora Banks had it all. A great house, a loving husband, children, and she wasn’t afraid to spend whatever she had to continue to keep everything going smoothly. But for her it wasn’t all about the money. Then one day she finds out that everything is gone. Her husband is going to jail and she and the children have nothing. What can she do? She no longer fits into the community that she has been making herself a part of. She has no marketable skills any more. That is where her summer kitchen comes in. She had built it as a historical piece that gave her the space to do what she loved to do – cook.

The summer kitchen and all that has happened to her, allows Nora to discover what it is that she wants. What the difference is between living and living to make yourself happy. It may be a lot of work but there is a certain amount of satisfaction involved as well.

Thoughts: This was a nice summer read. It has a lot to do with how women interact, how we feel we fulfill ourselves and how sometimes our children, families and possessions make us feel like all is well when really we are forgetting the most important thing – ourselves.

I think it ends appropriately where you don’t know if Nora belongs with someone or on her own – but that is a decision for herself to make. But either way she has finally found what makes her most happy.

What genre would you consider this?
Family Dynamics

Overall:

Book Review: The Girl Who Stopped Swimming

The Girl Who Stopped Swimming by Joshilyn Jackson

Description:Laurel Grey Hawthorn has everything she wanted out of life. She has a husband who loves her (I mean who cares that he spends most of his time closeted away in the basement working) and a daughter who is happy and healthy. Laurel has done a lot to move past her own growing up experiences and is finally at a happy place.

Laurel hasn't told her husband everything. She sees dead people. When she is woken up from a deep sleep only to find a dead teen leading her to her body in the Laurel's pool. Laurel is forced to ask her sister for help. Laurel believes that she her sister is stronger than her in so many ways. Thalia is different then her but she has her own ideas on what is right and wrong. Can they face their past and their fears before anything else bad happens in their lives?

Thoughts:Isn't it amazing how the things that you experienced cloud your judgment or make you believe that something is a certain way when it isn't? How we can live in our own little isolated world thinking that we are interacting and seeing how things truly are - but then someone enters that world and throws things for a loop. You realize that some of the things you believed are not even close to being true.

How you can be someone who wants to open someones eyes to what is going on around them - but what really you are doing is projecting your own thoughts and feelings on the situation into their lives.

For me this book was a bit of an eye opener in terms of how we all do things like that. We believe the worst in people based on our own experiences. We believe the best in people for the same reasons. We try to protect those around us from the evils that we think might be out to get them. Only they can really know what is going on in their lives and how it affects them and makes them feel.

The other theme for me in this book is embracing your past - where you come from. Good or bad it shapes who we are. Returning and confronting that past can only help you.

I definitely enjoyed this book and thought it was a great summer read.

What genre would you consider this?
Family Dynamics

Overall:

Book Review: The Step-Mother

The Step-Mother by Carrie Adams
Description: Bea divorces Jimmy because he just isn't there for her. And you know what - even after the divorce things look like they haven't changed. But they have worked past many of their issues and are best friends again. They live for their children and Bea starts to wonder if they should be together again.

But Jimmy has met Tessa King and moved on. He has found a new woman to love. For Tessa walking into a ready made family complete with a mom/best friend is a lot to live up to. Jimmy talks about Bea as if she is perfection and maybe she is. Can a step-mother ever live up to that reputation? What does Jimmy and Bea's relationship mean for his relationship with Tessa?

If everyone is truthful can a wonderful couple and many friendships be made?

Thoughts: What a thought provoking book. You are married with children. You decide that you and your husband don't belong together (maybe because of communication problems and secrets) so you move on. Your ex-husband becomes your friend - but still has all the same issues that he had when you were together. But you realize how special he is too you and your life.

So you decide that you should be back together. But what you don't realize is part of the reason he is being so wonderful is because he has a new woman in his life - and it isn't you or your daughters. How do you deal with it?

What is it like to be the "other" woman? You want to make your new boyfriend happy - but you also want to make his children happy. Add a teen to that dynamic and things only get more complicated. Your husband still loves his ex (even if only as a friend and the mother of his children) so does that mean they belong together? Can you ever live up to his expectations or those of his children or family? How do you live with a paragon?

Add to that the fact that nothing is as they seem. The reason the couple broke up is not what you think it is. The life at home with the so-called perfect mother - isn't perfect at all. Can you be friends with your ex's new wife? What about your ex? How does that impact everything?

What genre would you consider this?
Family Dynamics

Overall:

Fifty is Not a Four-Letter Word

Fifty is Not a Four-Letter Word by Linda Kelsey

Description:
Holly is a woman who has it all. A loving husband, a teenage son who loves her, a great job, wonderful friends. But just as she is starting to approach fifty years old things start falling apart. This 50 year old birthday thing symbolizes something to her and she just isn't sure it is a good thing. She looses her job, her husband begins to distance himself, and her son moves on with his life.

So Holly begins to have a crisis. Her relationships - whether they are with her mother, her father, her best-friend, her husband, or her son have all changed. Have they changed because she is so depressed about what being fifty means?

But Holly will learn that fifty is just a number and that there is so much more to her life then she ever imagined. She just needs to get there.


Thoughts:
I love these sort of women telling stories through their eyes about their lives books. I am not close to 50 but I can't tell you how many of my friends had problems with their 30th birthdays. I personally didn't let it bother me but many had major issues with getting older in that fashion. For me this book shows that life is not over at any age. The character is strong and caring and a good person - but this mid-life crisis and her behavior during it shows that even a good person can falter. And sometimes it seems like everything bad that is happening is the fault of this one thing - when really it is something that has been building up for a long time. Who knows - maybe what seems like the most devastating of things can actually be something that is the best for you and those around you.

Usually when a book ends a bit on a cliffhanger I don't like it. But in this experience (I won't tell you what the cliffhanger is) I actually think it made it a better book. You can pick how you think it should be ended. You pick where you think the main character should end up.

As a side note - the mother/daughter relationship in this book is quite interesting. Hope feels like she was never a good enough daughter and that her mother never loved her. Where as her mother always felt a bit of jealousy in regards to hope. I actually know several people who have that sort of relationship with their parent - and I don't know if their parent would ever admit it (except maybe under the possibilities of death). That behavior is one of those ones that scar a child for life and seeing it out in the open may bring some sort of freeness for those that experienced it themselves. They are not the only one.

What genre would you consider this?
Family Dynamics

Overall:

Knit Two

Knit Two by Kate Jacobs
Description:Another part of the A Friday Night Knitting Club story. We revisit our old favorite characters five years after the death of friend Georgia Walker. Each person has progressed with their lives and things are not always going their way.

Darwin has finally gotten the children she has always wanted. But it is overwhelming being a mother. She feels closer then ever to the other knitters but can they be what she needs when she is so desperate for help?

Lucie is a single mother who wants it all. But life is never that easy. Her daughter seems out of control and her mother is getting older and more dependent on her then ever.

Anita and Marty have had their relationship progress but now that their wedding is upcoming Anita realizes what is missing in her life. She decides to find it - no matter how much pain and heartbreak it brings.

Catherine just wants love. She misses Georgia terribly and has been unable to move on. She wants a family and children - but love is what she needs most of all. Catherine has been unable to open herself up that way though - can she let her heart go if someone is deserving.

Peri has kept Walker and Daughter open - but at the expense of some of her own dreams. Can she find the guts to walk away? Is that what she really wants to do?

Finally we have Georgia's daughter Dakota. Dakota is in college and trying to find her own way in the world. She still loves her mother's friends but between her mother's legacy and her fathers goals - can she find the place she belongs.

Thoughts:
The first book in this series touched me and this one continued that feeling. You can't help but see how death has changed each of the characters in this book - some in good ways and others in bad. They each want to hold on to a memory. Their idea of what Georgia was is inspiring - they only remember the good.

Seeing a child move on and deal with her mother's death is interesting. She has all sorts of mother figures that are willing to step in and be different sorts of mother's to her when she needs them. But the thing is she doesn't' really want them. She wants what she can't have.

These books are touching and an interesting perspective on a variety of women's lives and how they interact together.

What genre would you consider this?
Family Dynamics/Women

Overall:

Everyone is Beautiful

Everyone is Beautiful by Katherine Center


Lanie and her husband have picked up everything and moved – for him. But life isn’t simple for Lanie – she is in a new location and has three very active boys to raise and her husband is concerned with his career so she has no help. Add to that a lot of stress about money (there is none) and Lanie is in a rut.

Lanie realizes she wants more out of life – but she doesn’t know yet what that more is. She is going to find out who she is beyond just being a mother. What are her hopes and dreams? With life’s complications going on around her – is this going to even be possible?
Things that I think stuck out to me in this book:
I love that Lanie's life isn't perfect. But she loves her kids and her husband.

I can only imagine how it would feel to have someone ask you when you were due when you weren't pregnant. She handled the situation like a real woman.

Lanie's discovery into what makes her happy is great. I love that it isn't easy. I love that it affects her relationships with other people - because that is what happens. Something has to go when you focus on yourself and for her it meant a change in her relationship with her kids, her husband, and also a change in relationships with those around her - making friends.

What genre would you consider this?
Family Dynamics

Overall:

Sweethearts

Sweethearts by Sara Zarr

What was this book about?

Jennifer Harris and Cameron Quick were the best of friends in grade school . Maybe that was because they were both outcasts. One day Cameron doesn’t show up at school and Jennifer believes he is dead.

When the opportunity comes up for Jennifer to move and start a new school – she decides to change herself - becoming Jenna. She now has everything. She is cute and popular, has boyfriends and friends, people look up to her. Then one day Cameron returns.

Jenna is forced to reevaluate her past and how she got to where she was. And Cameron was part of that. Why did he leave? What does their friendship mean to either of them?

What did you think about the book?

This book is one of those books that made me think. Especially in your teen years (and general school years) you try to be whoever it is that makes you fit in. And yet most of the time no one fits in. Is it denying yourself to become something that you aren’t for people to like you? Do you become that person?

What about the people from your past? Can they see you as anything but what you were?

At least for me growing up I did my best to fit in. I remember a girl that I was “friends” with repeatedly giving me lists of what I needed to do to improve myself – so that I could be friends with her (and everyone else). It took me a while but it was something that now as a self-assured adult – I wonder why I ever gave in to her bullying. I guess it was this need to fit in. For me that is less important now, but I think it is important to realize that the need is there – and what you have sometimes done in order to fulfill it.

What genre would you consider this?
Family Dynamics/Teen

Overall:

Question for You!
Have you ever tried to change yourself in a new environment? How did that work for you?