The Kitchen House
by Kathleen Grissom

ISBN# 978-1-4391-5366-6

This is the story of the life of a six year old indentured servant from Ireland who is orphaned and comes to live in tobacco plantation set in the late 1700's and early 1800's. She is put into the "kitchen house" which is the out parcel kitchen of the "big house". The story is told in her voice as well as the other kitchen house occupant, Belle, a slave who is also the big house's master's illegitimate daughter.

This story was amazing, even as I am thinking through what to write by way of review I see so many layers of this story and don't exactly know where to slice into. It was very complex yet in many ways simple. I love all the characters and was endeared to mostly all of them at different points in the story. Thought it was told through two character's voices I still wish others had told their stories as well because I was truly intrigued with the character development.

I read this story in record time, thinking with just about every page turn that "I just had to see what happened". I was amazed at some of the twist and turns, some with crept up on me with suprise and others which I dreaded once in the midst of it. I have to admit at some points I was disgusted not so much with the author but with the way things were and her accurate portrayal of them. I was also disappointed with naivety of one of the two main characters, yet at the same time I saw in her what I see in myself so many times, the ability to wishful think to get you where you think you'd like to be...only to be devastated.

I almost wish there were a sequel to this book. I was a bit disappointed at the frenzied and frantic end. And I would love to know how some of the beloved other characters fared.

"Albina," she said, "this I know. What the color is, who the daddy be, who the mamma is don't mean nothin'. We a family, carin' for each other. Family make us strong in times of trouble. We all stick together, help each other out. That the real meanin' of family. When you grow up, you take that family feelin' with you." Pg. 160

With that quote which encapsulates the jist of the story, I feel like "Albina" betrayed her "family". I was disappointed and disgusted with some of the choices she made. Yet the author had so endeared her to me, I also felt her pain and understood why she did some of the things she did. On pg. 300 she said "I was as enslaved as all the others." For some reason this was like a mental trick. You knew this white endentured servant was treated far differently than the others but yet again, she was enslaved to the old ways which kept her in her place. This led to one of the other major themes in the story of loneliness and loss. If you look at so many of the characters in this story you see their deep sense of loneliness. The master's wife who was so alone after loosing her children she became addicted to opium. The other main character's loss of her father and womanhood which led her to a married man whom she loved and loved her through out the story. Even his wife who in her loneliness turned to the mistress for a sense of sisterhood and common love. Layers upon layers.

I did love this story. I wish things had turned out differently. I can think of several places the author could have turned the story and made it more endearing to me, but alas....I only write a review.......

The Red Thread by Ann Hood

The Red Thread
by Ann Hood

ISBN#978-0-393-07020-0

I spent nearly ninenty percent of this book not really liking it. Just reading because it was so easy to read. One page led to another. I like books like that so I guess I liked it. I didn't necessarily like some of the stories intertwined throughout the book. This book is not one story, it is many and some of the stories repelled me rather than drew me it.

"Ordinary" families adopting little girls from China. Each of their stories, from their history to their fears and joys of adopting. Everyone who knows me knows my dream in life is to adopt. I feel like I am an "ordinary" family and the struggles I'd face were no where near some of the ones portrayed in this book such as adultery, loveless marriages, uninterested husbands, cold business like women. Not my cup of tea. I suppose the author could have choose the most extreme families to make the statement that everyone who is without a child and who wants one is able to have one. However some of the unsavory characters made me feel sorry for the children who were paired with them!

With that being said. I hit a point in the story where I just cried. It became tenderhearted and lovely.

"The sun shimmered outside the plane, sending bright light through the windows. In that light Maya saw it, that red thread, tangled and curved, connecting each baby to their mother. She blinked. The red thread glimmered then slowly disappeared. No matter how notted or entangled it became, at the end of it was the child you were meant to have." pg.302

So based on the Chinese tradition of the red thread, regardless of what I thought of the families depicted in this book, the premise was that it is meant to be that these children went to these families. I should add also entwined into the myriad of stories were the stories of the actual birth mother's which actually delighted and enthralled me. I also loved the story of the main character whose weary struggle with life was endearing.

I guess I would suggest this book. As much as I disliked it, I liked it. It is a very easy read, and surprisingly touching at times.

Look Again

Look Again
by: Lisa Scottoline

ISBN#978-0-312-38073-1

The classic question, What would you do? Every single chapter has you asking, What would I do? Another good classic story, I thoroughly enjoyed. It also confronts the age old question of nature vs. nurture? I guess I have profound opinions of nature vs. nurture being raised in a family of adoption so I know what adoption can do. This is the adoption horror story!

Loved this quote....."I use to think that kids were like glass or something, that they'd break if you poured too much love into them. But they're like the ocean. You can fill them up with love and just when you think you've reached the brim, you can keep on pouring." pg. 338

Ultimately this story is about a mother's deep love for her child and an unimaginable situation. The whole story spanned a period that couldn't have been longer than two weeks. As you flipped the pages the days wore on one by one and I was completely sucked in! Very good book, highly recommended!!!!!!!!!!

The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes
by Diane Chamberlain

ISBN # 978-0778325314

An unsolved murder. A missing child. A lifetime of deception.......

Regret is one of my biggest fears in life. You can't go back and undo what has already been done. It haunts me and this book confronts regret with breathtaking boldness. I loved this book. It held my interest and only gained fury as I turned each page!

I also think this book had a lot to do with mother and daughter relationships and family secrets that blow you out of the water. I'll never forget a family secret that I stumbled upon a few years ago. I was going through an old chest of my grandmothers when I found an old tea stained bag filled with little wooden baby blocks. I rummaged more and found a birth and death certificate for a baby boy belonging to my grandmother, but not to my grandfather. My eyes were bulging out of my head! I could barely believe it. My grandmother had been married before my grandfather and had a little boy who died of SIDS. Its crazy when you open up a secret world to your past. This book's opening to the past was like a fault line opening up on the earth and swallowing everything you thought was real up whole, especially the relationship between a mother and a daughter!

I really loved this book. Just a good story. It had definite moral lessons criss-crossing all over it but they were not so deep or too hard won that you got lost in that. You got lost in the story which is a tell tale sign of a brilliant writer! Loved the book and highly recommend it!

A Thousand Splendid Suns
Khaled Hosseini

ISBN # 978-1-59448-950-1

"Learn this now and learn it well, my daughter: Like a compass needle that points north, a man's accusing finger always finds a woman. Always. You remember that, Mariam." pg. 7

And so begins the painstaking haunting story of Mariam. I am totally drawn in from the get-go by Khaled Hosseini's story telling. I love how there is just the right balance of description and story line and you are never lost in either one, it just flows from one sentance to the next, one chapter the the next. It is simple and clear. I loved this story.

I did have to ask myself about half way through why I loved it. I was beginning to beg for relief in my heart wondering when the characters would ever have a break, or when ever the good would arrive on the scene. I had to remind myself that this story is the story of countless nameless and often faceless women in many oppressive Islamic societies today and I compelled myself to read on.

The story is really two main stories woven together in a brilliant way. It chronicles 30 years of recent political history in Afghanistan starting during the Soviet occupation through the over throw of the Taliban. It is amazing insight into what the Afghan people faced yet again with just enough Political and Religious information as to keep you interested but not loose you. You are able to fall in love with the country and loath in injustices all at the same time. I tell you this author is brilliant. I have to say for those disturbed by the story line of The Kite Runner, that this story is equally disturbing however deals more with domestic abuse rather than sexual abuse.

"this little girl will be a woman who will never let on that she too has had sorrows, disappointments, dreams that have been ridiculed. A woman who will be like a rock in a riverbed, enduring without complaint, her grace not sullied but shaped by the turbulence that washes over her......"Pg 355

This is "her" story.

Those Who Save Us

Jenna Blum

ISBN# 978-0156031660

I really liked this story. It was nothing like what I thought this story would be about. I was interested from the get go thinking it would be about Germans hiding Jews during the war. I was a far cry from this story line. However it intrigued me. As I read the story I thought often of the question, 'What would I do?' I think this question is what really hooked me into the story every flip of the page I heard the question ringing in my ears. I think it is easier said than done to look back at history and say 'I would have never....' This story challenged my thinking on the the Germans during the war. It gave me a personal look into the depths of their guilt and shame. I was frustrated most of the story that the mother in modern times refused to talk about the past saying again and again in the story, "The past is dead, and better it remain so." One time reminding me that wounds heal better when not picked at but left alone. I was very frustrated with that because I had an ache inside me to know the truth. Knowing the truth helped me to understand why some of the Germans did what they did, and I am not so much talking about what they did to the Jews directly but more so how a whole nation stood by and watched it happen. Evan as I say that I think there is no excuse, ever, but read the story....I was totally intrigued. I still am, I feel like even as I write this my mind is tumbling over a ton of questions and thoughts. Bravo Jenna Blum, you've captivated me, put me under Hitler's spell for a moment and really I don't feel quite the same as when I first picked up this book. I highly reccomend this book. It isn't as heavy as it sounds. At the core of the book its about a mother and a daughter's deep love for each other played out as each one confronts the past. I think putting war torn Germany and all that entails aside the story about a mother's past and moving forward raising her daughter is an every day story. How often do mother's pass on their past hurts and regrets to their daughters? How often does a mother not truly show the depth of her love to her daughter because the depth of her pain often feels far more real. There are parallels to mother's and daughter's everywhere. I guess that is why I really loved this story because at the heart of it all were real live human emotions captured for us by this author in tiny black and white print. Brilliant, intriguing and captivating.

The Associate
John Grisham

ISBN # 9870385517836

Grisham sucked me in again. I never feel disappointed with a Grisham novel. However, with that said, this was not my favorite of his. I was thrilled with where the book was going initially but felt in the long run it really went nowhere fast. I was disappointed in the end and even went back once or twice to see if I had missed something. I felt unfulfilled and left wondering, "What now?". My rule of thumb is when I feel a little overloaded that I read a Grisham novel because it is usually easy page flipping and outright story telling. There is usually no deep down moral lesson to grasp, although Grisham does aim at achieving a point or two. In this novel the main character Kyle is presented with a deep moral dilemma which gets compounded by yet another. Watching him get out of both was where the story found its footing. Grisham is always a recommended read, but again not my favorite of bunch.