Charles Sheehan-Miles-Just Remember to Breathe

This is another book I got through librarything.com.  It was put on by the author and I checked that I would be interested in reading it.  It was an e-book and I read it on my iPhone  on the subway of course.  I read the book from start to finish in one day and spent much of that time in tears.  Although it was not necessarily the tightest writing-I'm not sure if I read a pre-edited version or the story behind the publication, this is a book that really touched a nerve with me and I'm glad I read it.

The story is about a couple who is no longer together when we first meet them.  Alex is a student at Columbia University, originally from San Francisco.  Dylan is an army vet who was just released, after an injury from a road bomb, originally from the south.  They met during high school when they were both chosen to participate in a tour of Israel.  It's not a huge part of the story, but it was fun to read about their experiences as high schoolers touring in Israel.  It was also interesting because it wasn't a religious group which is usually what is talked about with groups in Israel.

The story is somewhat cliche in that they run into each other when they're both assigned work-study with the same professor at the last minute.  They hadn't seen or spoken to each other in several months, after Dylan thinks he sees something while they are Skyping.  He reacts by cutting off all online communication.  She is devastated and makes some bad decisions, as we are apt to do in college.  Alex is unaware that Dylan has been injured, both physically and mentally.

There were some inconsistencies that I know were for literary reasons but I kept thinking, if Dylan is so upset about his relationship with Alex, why would he choose to attend Columbia, knowing that she was a student there.  Clearly, this had to happen for the story to occur the way it did.

The story alternates from Dylan's view to Alex's view which helps us to see both perspectives differently.  Being that much of the book was set around the Columbia University campus on the Upper West Side, and I lived there for my first year in New York, it was fun to read about sites and places I've been.

This book overwhelmed me from start to finish.  As someone who has been injured in a terrorist attack, I completely identified with Dylan, a war vet.  On the other hand, having cared for someone who also has had struggles, I also identify with Alex.

Priscille Sibley-The Promise of Stardust

I received this book from Librarything.com's early reviewers.  Over the years, I've actually received some very good books through this.  The only thing you have to do after receiving the book is to post a review on their site and anywhere else you may write reviews.  They require that the reviews be a certain length but don't look at content necessarily.

The Promise of Stardust by Priscille Sibley is a phenomenal novel, and echoing many of the other reviewers, amazing that this is Ms. Sibley's first novel.  The novel tells the story of a couple who has known each other their entire lives--families are completely intertwined--who are desperate to have a child. Sadly, Elle, the wife, has an accident and is declared brain dead.  Her husband, a surgeon, then discovers that she is pregnant.  The novel then tells the struggle Matt goes through, against his own mother, Elle's former boyfriend, and society to keep Elle alive long enough to deliver the baby.

One of things that was interesting to me in this novel was the choice of professions that characters in the novel had and how that played in the choices that they made.  Elle was an astronaut and had created a living will when she went into space (which is where the interplay of her ex-boyfriend comes in-he was the one she had given her living will to), Matt is a neurosurgeon who is unable to save his wife from her brain injury.  Matt's mother is a neo-natal nurse who is pushing for Elle to be taken off machines because of Elle's own mother's struggle with, and ultimate death, from cancer.  His mother was also given a copy of a living will from when Elle's mother died.

This book was extremely well written, full of twists and multiple times I had to put the book down as I was on the subway and didn't want to cry!

Leon Uris-Exodus

This is an oldie but a goodie.  I have to give the back story on this book before I go into my review of the book.  I was given this book the summer I turned thirteen, right before my Bat Mitzvah.  My family had made the decision to make Aliyah (move to Israel and obtain citizenship) and this was to be our last summer in the States.  I arrived at camp that summer and my parents gave me the book to read while I was there.  Having been an avid reader from childhood, it was not shocking that my parents would hand me a 600 page book to read at camp.  But because of my anger at being 13 and being forced to move to the other side of the world, I threw the book into the bottom of my trunk and there it stayed until I got home from camp.

It must have gotten packed with my books going to Israel because there it was when I unpacked three months later in Jerusalem.  I threw it on the shelf and ignored it as I settled into life in a new country.  At some point that year or the next year, I picked up the book and rifled through it.  I immediately was drawn into the exciting story.  I think what made it more real for me was that I was travelling to the same sites that were being discussed in the book.  Massada?  I've been there!  Huleh Valley? Check!  The King David Hotel?  We sat in their lobby yesterday!  YMCA?  I went swimming there!  And thus began my love affair with the book Exodus.  Now I must put it out there, I will NEVER watch that movie again.  In fact I forced my parents to turn it off when we watched it when I was fourteen.  Quite simply, Hollywood cannot do justice to such an amazing piece of historical literature and I used to dream of recreating the film using all the real places in Israel and actors that had been unheard of before but were TRUE Israelis and Brits and Americans (none of that crappy accent stuff!)

So since I read that book over fifteen years ago now, I have read and reread it and every single time I have gleaned something new.  The story is a magnificent story beginning with a boatload of Holocaust surviving children trying against all odds to get into Israel.  These children have seen the worst that humanity can do and all they want is to live in Israel, the Promised Land, where they can control their own destinies.  But, as historically happened, the British, who ruled the region at the time, did not want to piss off the Arabs living in the community.  This isn't the first boatload of Jews trying to illegally enter Palestine and it most certainly wasn't the last.  But it is a powerful image to have 300 children who grew up in concentration camps stage hunger strikes and take a stand that they ARE in control of their destiny.

Exodus starts on the island of Cyprus but spans Europe, America, England, and of course, Palestine-soon to be known as Israel.  It is a true tale of love, heroism, life, death and longing.

It had been several years since I'd read Exodus and I was feeling somewhat nostalgic so I picked up my nice, new hardback version of the book.  But something wasn't right, the book was bulky and the pages shiny and slippery.  So I found my original copy:


At this point, dog-eared and duct-taped, covered with stains and a slight musty smell.  I've been rereading it for about a week now and I really should know better than to read in public places, especially this book but I have cried more times in the subway this week than probably in the entire two and a half years I've lived here.

If you've been to Israel, if you may ever go to Israel, if you are a history buff, read this book!!!!

Judith Ryan Hendricks-The Baker's Apprentice

This book was a completely random pickup. I was at Powell's with some friends and we each had given ourselves $30 and 45 minutes to find books. While waiting for them to come back I was checking out the sales books and one caught my eye. The Baker's Apprentice was not at all what I was expecting it to be.

I also did not realize until the very end that this was a sequel to another book so now I feel that I need to go and get the first book! The book centers around Wyn Morrison, a baker of bread and the relationships with people around her, such as Mac, her lover that disappears. Another character, Tyler, is a young woman who looks up to Wyn as a mother figure.

The book has yet again inspired me to want to start baking and cooking more. But on a positive note, the book has given me hope that there is more yet to come!

Elin Hilderbrand--The Blue Bistro

This book started out with a menu. A menu that sounded absolutely delightful. The book ended with me in tears. Not an uncommon occurrence when I'm reading. It's also a book that I started and finished in the same afternoon.

The book centers around Adrienne Dealey, a 28 year old woman who has just left a bad relationship in Aspen (a really bad relationship where she turned in her boyfriend for theft) and ended up on a boat to Nantucket. There she ends up with a job at a restaurant, as the assistant manager-with no restaurant experience. She has spent the last several years working in resort hotels, in Florida, in Thailand, in New England and Aspen but has no experience in restaurants. But, Thatcher Smith, the Proprietor, for some unknown reason, gives her a job as his assistant manager.

Reading this book made me want to work in this kind of environment-and I have even less experience in restaurants than Adrienne-unless you count nine months working in the service deli of a grocery store, not my proudest moments and a job that, although I got high marks on customer service, never really broke into the service deli world!

As in every novel, there are catches. The first one is Fiona Kemp, the Executive Chef of the restaurant and best friend of Thatcher from childhood in South Bend, Indiana. Is there something more with Thatcher and Fiona? It's unclear at the beginning but it is clear that there is something desperately wrong with Fiona. She lets nearly no one into her kitchen and there are many other signs that all is not right in Nantucket. Another catch is Adrienne herself, she is so unsure of herself, so afraid of the mistakes that she's made in the past that she's almost afraid to let herself go again.

Thatcher and Adrienne end up in a relationship, albeit not the normal one since clearly Thatcher has placed Fiona at the top of his priority list. I both hated and pitied Fiona throughout the book and was really ready to throttle her at the end. I loved Adrienne and all her flaws and Thatcher drove me nuts but reminded me of those I've loved in the past and may still care about today. In fact, throughout reading this book, I was constantly reminded of someone that I'd not thought of in so long as a result of the Thatcher character. It's not that Thatcher is like this person, in many ways they are complete opposites, but there was something that made this person come to my mind over and over again while reading The Blue Bistro.

This is definitely a book that will stay with me and when I think of this book, I will think of that person that should be, and very much is-most of the time-in my past.

Melissa Ford--Life From Scratch

So it's been nearly a year since I last blogged. This was not my intention. For those who may or may not know me, I made a huge life change in August. I left my job of four years in Oregon and moved to New York City. Why New York City? Why not New York City! I have always dreamed of living here my entire life and knew that, as the great sage, Hillel says, "If not now, when?" So here I am, five months later, living in the tiniest studio I have ever lived in my life and loving it! So it is fitting that my first book back is a review of a book set in NYC!

I loved this book! I received Life from Scratch as an Early Review book and could not put it down. It's a relatively slim book (although in actuality is 208 pages) about a woman who is recently divorced in New York. She talks about her teeny tiny kitchen in her teeny tiny studio and how she was always from a family that ordered in. After her divorce, she decided to start cooking and took all her cooking supplies that she got as wedding presents and started cooking as well as dating again.

I think this book was especially poignant to me for a few reasons: the first is now having lived in NYC for nearly 5 months, I recognized so many of the places that she was referencing and could actually say that I was familiar with them, or at least their subway stops! Secondly, the title character was a nice Jewish girl named Rachel, which, wait, so am I! Finally, the struggle of cooking in a tiny studio apartment. While I actually think my studio is smaller than her as she had room for a bed AND a couch and I only have room for a futon as both, it is a struggle to cook in such a limited amount of space and to not be able to invite people to enjoy it. My hope is that my next apartment in NYC will be slightly larger, even just bigger enough to put some screens up to separate my eating from sleeping areas!

All in all, I highly recommend this book!

Therese Borchard-Beyond Blue

As someone who has experienced depression, albeit not to nearly the extreme that Borchard has, and for very different circumstances, this was still an amazing read. Borchard has done a wonderful job of pinpointing exactly the progression of her depression and the waves and fits in which it came. I would recommend this book for anyone who has a loved one experiencing bouts of depression or for someone who has experienced depression themselves. The book reiterates that depression is not the type of ailment where you pop some pills and then it's over. This is a life-long condition that one lives with, going through the highs and lows on an ongoing basis.