Two Books I've Read

Thursday Thirteen

Yesterday I finished the second of two books I'd read since I last blogged and thought I'd do my Thursday Thirteen about them.

Beyond Blue: Surviving Depression & Anixiety and Making the Most of Bad Genes

1. This is a non-fiction book written by Therese J. Borchard.

2. It's partly a memoir, which I found especially helpful. Ms. Borchard suffers from depression, anxiety and a mood disorder--just like me. I really connected with this book because of similar experiences.

3. It's also a self-help guide, educating the reader better about what these illnesses are, how to treat them, and how to live with them.

4. The book gave me a lot of hope. I do feel better and so I'm glad I've got a "cocktail" that works. At the same time, there's a lot of helpful information so that I can stay on top of my own illnesses and work to remain stable!

Those Who Save Us

5. This is a work of fiction, written by Jenna Blum. I believe it's the first book she's published.

6. I had trouble sticking with the book because I found the two main characters, Anna and Trudy, both so unlikeable.

7. The book is set in two different places and times: Weimar, Germany during the Nazi regime of World War II and mid-1990s Minnesota.

8. Anna, the elder character, was a single mother. Only she and a friend knew the identity of her baby, Trudy's, father. In order to protect her child and to survive, Anna finds herself forced to do things she never wanted to do.

9. She never talked about her past, remaining coldly silent all Trudy's growing and maturing years. Even as adults, she and Trudy don't communicate.

10. Trudy's a professor and her "special class" is a seminar on German women during Nazi Germany. She has an undue fascination with the period and the topic, probably because she knows so little about her mother's relationship with an SS officer in a picture kept hidden for decades.

11. Trudy is cold and undemonstrative toward her mother too, choosing to put her in a nursing home after the death of her stepfather Jack.

12. After a crisis at the nursing home, Anna has to move in with Trudy. Anna learns about Trudy's seminar and about a special project she's doing, interviewing German (non Jewish) citizens about their memories of World War II.

13. Trudy eventually will learn her mother's secrets but ... there was no satisfactory conclusion. Not for me, anyway.

Beyond Blue fits into these reading challenges:







Those Who Save Us fits into these reading challenges:











Now I've finished the New Authors' Challenge. I read fifteen books by authors I'd never read before. Another challenge down, four to go!

Tempest Rising by Diane McKinney-Whetstone

Thursday Thirteen

I thought I'd focus on Tempest Rising, a book I just finished, and wait a week on my favorite music from my teenage years.

Thirteen Things I Learned From Tempest Rising

1. It's written by an author I hadn't read before, Diane McKinney-Whetstone

2. The main setting is west Philadelphia, 1965.

3. The first part of the book deals with the beautiful and fragile, Clarise, who is orphaned and raised by four loving and very eccentric aunts and uncles

4. Clarise elopes with a young man, Finch, and the two start a catering business together.

5. The business does extremely well! They have three daughters: Shern, Victoria and Bliss, and they buy a large home in a well-to-do neighborhood

6. Instead of helping them, repeal of the Jim Crow laws hurts them. Their previously loyal customers flock to larger mass caterers. Finch becomes nearly bankrupt.

7. Finch loses his life in the first "tempest rising", trying desperately to save his business. His widow, Clarice, breaks down emotionally and has to be hospitalized.

8. Because of an old vendetta and an old criminal charge, the daughters are placed in a real horror of a foster home.

9. The next part of the book focuses mostly on Ramona, the seemingly mean and cold hearted daughter of the very dysfunctional foster mother, Mae.

10. The three daughters suffer abuses and neglect while staying in that foster home.

11. During the second "tempest rising", the girls run away from the foster home in a dangerous snow storm.

12. I liked the book a lot but felt it was a bit overly dramatic.

13. Reading Tempest Rising fit these book challenges:

Rhett Butler's People by Donald McCaig

I hemmed and hawed about reading this one. It wasn't on any of my challenge lists originally although I'm going to switch things around so that it is and fits. I haven't been thrilled with the idea of Gone With The Wind sequels and wasn't sure I'd like this one. My daughter was clearing out her room and Rhett Butler's People was in her give-away box so I plucked it out, checked Amazon.com for reviews and decided to give it a try.

I could have passed. It wasn't a terrible book. It just wasn't my cup of tea.

First, I couldn't figure out who the book was supposed to be about. I thought Rhett Butler and, very early on, it was. I totally enjoyed the beginning, learning about Rhett's roots and why he became the person he did. It wasn't long, though, before Rhett disappeared and the focus went from him to the points of view of other characters and I went huh?. I kept reading, though, because the title was Rhett Butler's People so I supposed that meant all these extraneous people. Still, I thought the author could have kept to Rhett's point of view.

The book began to break down for me when Rhett met Scarlett again in Alanta. Either a scene was repeated, glossed over or left out. I wanted to know more about what was going on in Rhett's mind and heart at this time but I just don't feel I got that. Reconstruction and Rhett's marriage to Scarlett was especially shallow I thought. Through it, the point of view kept shifting around and I didn't like that either.

I think the end could have been exciting but by then, to be honest, I didn't care anymore and just wanted to get through it so I could say I'd read the darn thing ... and I did.

The book fits these challenges: