The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

from goodreads

5 stars

I am going through a bit of a reading frustration this week. I read one book that totally hit me at just the right time. I read it in a day, staying up to the wee hours of the morning to finish it. I usually don't do that as I have kids to look after in the morning but I could not put it down. It was a light enjoyable read. Now I have descended from that reading high and finding it hard to settle down into my next literary conquest.

Does that ever happen to you? You read a book that has fit into your life so well and then when you try to move on every other book is kind of a let down? Hopefully this phase will be over soon and I will find a book that I can fall right into. Until then I will just have to keep persevering.

Synopsis

Eddie is an old lonely man who feels he has had a wasted life. When he dies in an accident Eddie arrives in Heaven where he encounters five different people who help him see his life in a new light.

My Thoughts

I really enjoyed this book.

While Albom's version of heaven isn't exactly how I picture it, it does make you think about what it will be like. Perhaps this isn't too far off.

I like the idea of being able to get a chance to see how our lives have affected others, hopefully positively. Sometimes I think we all feel that our lives have been wasted or we have failed in someway. But, when we actually stop to think of friends, teachers and family that surround us we realize that our sphere of influence is greater than we think. A simple or boring life does not mean that life has been a failure.

I like how Albom shows he interconnectedness of us all. It was interesting to see how certain parts or problems of Eddie's life all seemed to be connected somehow. Coincidence? I don't know.

I think the take away from this is that sometimes the everyday mundane things we do have the most impact on others. We are greater than what we think. No life is a wasted life. We are all of value.

If you haven't read this book before I urge you too. If you are looking for a great pick me up this is the book for you.

Girl Runner by Carrie Snyder

from goodreads

3 stars

I have a girl runner. My little two year old, Miss P, runs and runs and runs. I always wait for her to trip and fall and come to her rescue but some how her little feet and legs move in such an awkward precision that she manages to keep upright. (Thank goodness). She rarely walks. She usually only walks if we are late for school! She runs to pick flowers. She runs to the dinner table she runs to get into the car. She runs to get away from mommy. (I must say that I am getting pretty good at sprinting because of her, but, I would prefer she not like running away from me so much.) For such a little thing, she is like in the 3rd percentile for weight, she sure can move with a locomotive type intensity. I wonder where this running will take her. Will she be an olympic champion or the next Forrest Gump? Who knows?! It will be fun to see.

Synopsis

This is a story about Aganetha Smart a former olympian now a centurian. Her story is told through a series of flashbacks as she is taken to her family's farm one last time. We see her as a farm girl in rural Ontario, a working girl in the Toronto of the '20s and as an Olympic gold medalist from the 1928 games.

My Thoughts

Despite what any of my other thoughts may be on this book, the history that made up this story was interesting. There are not many books about women athletes from this period and it was interesting to see how women's sport was back then and how these women helped evolve the idea of women as athletes. It was this history and the "want" to like it that made me keep reading.

That being said, I found the book to be rather predictable and, in a way, rather Canadian. While there are many great Canadian authors writing very dynamic things, this book seemed quintessentially Canadian. The main character was a farm girl whose mother was a midwife who knew how to deal with unwanted pregnancies, there was the aloof father and the rather creepy step-brother. It almost seemed a marriage of The Cure for Death by Lightning and The Birth House with some running thrown in. (I read The Birth House years ago and really enjoyed it.) I know not all Canadian literature is set in rural communities, but so many are.

The characters weren't the most likable. I felt that with some we were only getting mere shadows of who they were. We got glimpses but were left to our own devices to really understand who they were and what was going on with them. I was left with the feeling of wasted lives. Aganetha and some of the other characters just didn't live and that is sad.

This was one of those stories that will not going to stick with me. It will not shape me or define me or cause me to reflect on anything. Perhaps if I was a runner or more of an athlete I would have appreciated it a bit more. But I'm not. So, there you go.

Selina and the Bear Paw Quilt by Barbara Smucker Illustrated by Janet Wilson

from goodreads

4 stars

 

I woke up today, not knowing what it would hold. Little did I know that I would be a winner! "What did you win?" you might ask. Well, I'll tell you. Waterloo Public Library had a contest yesterday (it was a holiday hear in Ontario) and you had to email this person a book tittle with the word Walk or Walking in it. So I emailed the title The Walk by Richard Paul Evans. This morning when I was checking my email there was a message from the library saying I won. I won a pedometer!!! Pretty swanky, I'll say. I'm am super excited to pick it up. I have been thinking for while that I should wear one, and now I can. My only question is... was I the only entrant, or was the competition fierce. I think I will go with the fierce description as it makes the winning all that more awesome! Yes I know I am a geek for being this excited about winning a pedometer. I gotta take my excitement where I can get it.

 

Synopsis

 

Selina lives on a farm in Pennsylvania. She loves looking at the bits of material her grandmother has in her stash. Each piece is a memory of their life. She especially loves the Bear Paw quilt top her grandmother has made. Selina's family has to move from their farm because the camps on each side of the civil war are leery over the Mennonite community for not taking a side in the war. Selina's family has to move to be safe from harm. This is a beautiful tale of family, sacrifice and memories.

 

My Thoughts

 

I wasn't sure what to think about this book when it was brought home. Miss G., my 5 year old, brought this from her school library and was so excited to have it read to her. I was like "really?!?"  as this is not her usual book (thank goodness!) So, we read it. I think my daughter liked it because around each picture is a quilted boarder with beautiful material. And as we read the story she was got even more excited because the place where Selina and her family move to is where we live. I got to tell her how we had been to the train station that Selina got off the train at, and that maybe she even walked where our street is now. (Back in those days our street was probably someone's field.) After reading it Miss G. asked, "Did this story happen in real life?" I told her, "While this story and Selina were probably made up, this happened to people and so in that way, yes, it did happen." She was super excited.

 

So this book was a hit. I even enjoyed it too. It is a bit wordy for really young children. The story flows beautifully. I love how the story shows so much fun and warmth within the family. Yes, living on the farm was hard work, but it was still fun and the family truly loved each other. I loved how special Selina's character felt when her grandmother showed her the scraps of material. It allowed me to catch a glimpse into the lives of these people and it was beautiful. I also liked how the story told a bit of history that might not be known too much. I knew that some of the Mennonite families around Waterloo came from Pennsylvania but I didn't really know the reason why. I just figured they wanted some more nice farm land. It is great when a kids book can tell history without it seeming dull and boring.

 

The illustrations were beautiful. As mentioned before I loved the quilt boarders that are around each illustration. It adds so much character. 

 

It was very cool to learn that the author lived, for many years, close to where we do. I read her book Underground to Canada growing up and loved it. I visited Waterloo a lot as a child (I am not originally from here), I wonder if I ever passed her at the market or at the University? It is very cool when there are those connections.

 

The only thing about this book that is a negative is now I am itching to get out my sewing machine and start quilting. (I don't have the time for that right now). Miss G. has already demanded a bear paw quilt for her bed. I guess I will have to add it to my to do list.

Ithaca by Susan Fish

from goodreads

4 stars

There are times, during nap time mostly, when I stop and think, what next? By that I mean. When my kids are all old enough to be in school during the day, or when they are grown up and have left the house, what next? What does that next chapter in my life look like. Do I want a career outside the one in my home? Do I want to harness the ultimate power in my domestic engineering life? What next?

I haven't come up with any definitive answers. All I know is that whatever "what next" is I want to be an amazing person, and an amazing and supportive wife and mother. If I can check those boxes, I think "what next" is going to be okay.

Synopsis

Daisy Jane finds herself in a bit of a transitional place. Her husband of nearly forty years has died suddenly and her only child lives half way around the world in Singapore. She is now trying to navigate in a world where she has never been alone. When she sees a sign about fracking and decides to take a night course to learn more about it her eyes are opened to what she herself can contribute, even if it is just soup on Wednesdays.

My Thoughts

I picked this book up mainly because it was written by a local author. It is kind of neat to know that in this small city we have authors. Usually, I think of authors being aloof or in a metropolis or in a secluded farm house. Really, they come in all sort of shapes and locales.

I was very pleasantly, not really surprised, but content, satisfied, I don't know the word but what ever it was I was that, pleasantly.

The location of Ithaca was superb. I have never been there but next time I am in that general area I think I will go. It sounds beautiful. I forgot that Cornell University is there and the Moosewood Cafe. I definitely need to check it out.

The character of Daisy Jane was super interesting. I think it is because she is going through what I feel I might go through at some point. She was a homemaker now thrust into making lots of decisions. She no longer had her family to focus her energy on. She had to take stock of herself and decide what she wanted to do for herself. That kind of personal inventory is not the easiest to do.

I love the idea of a community soup night where you open your home to whomever. And the soups sounded delish! I know that in downtown Kitchener there is a family that has a potluck every week. What a great way to build community.

The comparison between losing a spouse due to dying and then losing a spouse due to a chronic disease was interesting. Disease does change people. In the terms of the one characters wife, she had MS. She was unable to do the things she used to do. Her personality changed, the dynamic of their relationship changed. Is that harder or just different than if the spouse had just died. While grieving is still part of the process, is any of it easy? It gave some interesting food for thought.

Then there was the story line about the fracking and environmental aspects of it. Fish did a great job with this, describing the issue without it feeling like we were in a lecture hall. She wasn't preachy and really left it up to ourselves what we thought about it.

For a book that really wasn't that long there were many seeds of ideas that were planted. It was an enjoyable read and I highly recommend it.

Flee, Fly, Flown by Janet Hepburn

from goodreads

4 stars

After a beautiful long weekend it is now a very gray and wet week. I was awoken today by crazy hard rain and wind blowing. My only thoughts were, of course it is raining and probably will stay raining when I take the kids to school. It always rains at either drop of time of pick up time. What's up with that.

By the time it was time to go to school the rain had lightened to a light drizzle and no wind. Much more preferable.

Now, I love rain. I know it is important and I love that it gives us puddles to splash in. I just don't love it when I have to be standing outside waiting for kids. I want to enjoy it on my own terms. Usually that means curled up with a caf-lib and and blanket on my couch with my latest read. That's the kind of rain I am talking about.

Synopsis

Lillian and Audrey live at Tranquil Meadows. While other residence seem to enjoy their time there Lillian and Audrey are plotting their escape. When they finally make it out their trip is almost doomed, until they meet a young man named Raine who agrees to drive for them.

My Thoughts

This was  a beautiful story. It is told from the vantage point of an octogenarian who has dementia, the beginnings of Alzheimer's. This sometimes makes the story seem a bit confusing as it shows that she herself is confused. But, it was also great to have her view point and understand how people suffering with that condition feel and think and how frightening and frustrating it must be for them.

As I have travelled the same route as the characters it was kind of fun to picture it as I went along. I could actually visualize where they were and how desolate Northern Ontario can be. It has lots of rocks, trees, and lakes, and to me the trees are all scraggily. Not the nice, thick lush trees of the south. But, some people may prefer the scraggily trees, and that's fine too.

I love the character of Raine and wished that he could have been fleshed out a bit more. He seemed like a decent guy, yet, you are still not quite sure, so I wished that could have been explained a bit more.

While I was reading this, the story really hit home. My parents are quite a bit older. My dad is 80 and my mom will be turning 74 in November. My father is suffering from dementia and I know what a toll it takes on not only him, but my mother, and then slowly trickles down to us, but not as much as what my mom gets. And things are starting to slip for her too. This book helped put a voice to what my parents are going through, that I don't always get to see, or what they are not telling me. (I live quite a distance away and don't get up to see them as often as might be helpful.)

I love how the book shows these elderly people as people who still have hopes and dreams. They have the desire to be loved, appreciated and respected. I think to often we see people's limitations and think that is all there is. Usually there is a lot more going on under the surface than we realize. We don't need to patronize them as if they are completely helpless. It can be a hard line to walk.

The ending was sort of open ended. I hope that the old girls made it to the coast. That would make me super happy.

Despite some feelings of repetition, some awkward plot moments and the need for some meatier character construction this was a great read. I highly recommend it.