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.

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
Anne Fadiman

ISBN# 0-374-52564-1

When I picked this book off a popular book club list I thought it was fiction, which I gravitate too most often, but in actuality it was a true story. It is about a little girl, Lia Lee who was born to Hmong immigrants in California. At the age of three months she showed signs of what the Hmong call quag dab peg (the spirit catches you and you fall down) or what we in the west call epilepsy. The story is an amazing study into a profound clash of cultures. The Hmong family clearly needed help and intervention with their daughter's condition, however never new he road before them would result in both Lia being removed from them by the state and unfortunately in the end Lia's brain death. The believed the western medicine was her ultimate demise. They believed a dab or evil spirit had stolen Lia's spirit as their own.

I found this story to be profoundly sad. The chapter detailing Lia's final seizure which killed her brain actually caused me to sweat profusely, become dizzy and finally put the book down for a break. The history of the Hmong searching for a place to belong was bittersweet as they had found a place to settle in peace but were far from at peace with a governmental system who views them as parasites to the "system" instead of the hard working, insightful people they were. Also a glimpse into a shameful health care system made my heart ache for the disadvantaged, which in some case seems to be anyone without a medical doctorate. There were a lot of tragic occurrences in this book and the author did a wonderful job exposing you to so much in an unbiased way. She played both sides of the fence brilliantly.

The book challenged me on two levels. First cross cultural understanding, one of my favorite studies on earth. This book just gave me more information about the basis of comprehending not only the Hmong but any culture which is different than my own. Secondly health care. I am stunned at the level of discord between doctor and patient. I am challenged to challenge any doctor who God should have come in contact with me to value my soul as well as my body!

This was an excellent book. It was a little slow in the beginning as I got use to how Anne Fadiman was presenting the story, but ultimately I found myself totally engrossed. A highly recommended read!