Language of Flowers

This book was passed along to me this summer by my mom, who thought I would like it.  I had a lot of reading to do at the time, and set it aside until this December when I picked it up over the break to read.  I am sorry that it took me so long!  Vanessa Diffenbaugh has written a wonderful debut novel.  The story opens with Victoria turning 18, and "graduating" out of the foster care system.  Her childhood has been filled with failed foster homes, and she is left to live on the streets.  However, she did have one positive foster care experience that left her with a deep knowledge of the Victorian meaning behind each type of flower.  She is given a chance by a local florist, and a second chance at making a life for herself.  Diffenbaugh does a great job of treading the waters between heartbreak and hope, and it leaves you rooting for Victoria.  Enjoy!

From the publisher:

A mesmerizing, moving, and elegantly written debut novel,The Language of Flowers beautifully weaves past and present, creating a vivid portrait of an unforgettable woman whose gift for flowers helps her change the lives of others even as she struggles to overcome her own troubled past.

The Victorian language of flowers was used to convey romantic expressions: honeysuckle for devotion, asters for patience, and red roses for love. But for Victoria Jones, it’s been more useful in communicating grief, mistrust, and solitude. After a childhood spent in the foster-care system, she is unable to get close to anybody, and her only connection to the world is through flowers and their meanings.

Now eighteen and emancipated from the system, Victoria has nowhere to go and sleeps in a public park, where she plants a small garden of her own. Soon a local florist discovers her talents, and Victoria realizes she has a gift for helping others through the flowers she chooses for them. But a mysterious vendor at the flower market has her questioning what’s been missing in her life, and when she’s forced to confront a painful secret from her past, she must decide whether it’s worth risking everything for a second chance at happiness.

Ocean at the End of the Lane and Frozen in Time

November and December seemed to fly by, and I realized that I did not post my book reviews for those months!  I have decided to copy and paste them into this post, and I will continue with a new review in February.  Enjoy!

The Ocean at the End of the Lane
I should say up front that I LOVE Neil Gaiman.  To me he is a master storyteller.  There are not many authors that can write for children (Chu's Day a picture book, and he is a Newberry award winner for The Graveyard Book), and adults (Anansi Boys).  The Ocean at the End of the Lane continues his legacy of great writing.  It is part fairy tale, part fantasy, part mystery, and all entertaining.  Neil Gaiman's work always contains an element of "creepy" and there are several places where you will find your skin crawl a little, but the storytelling is nothing short of amazing.  Enjoy this wonderful little novel.
From the Publisher:
A major new work from "a writer to make readers rejoice" (Minneapolis Star Tribune)—a moving story of memory, magic, and survival
Sussex, England. A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother. He hasn't thought of Lettie in decades, and yet as he sits by the pond (a pond that she'd claimed was an ocean) behind the ramshackle old farmhouse, the unremembered past comes flooding back. And it is a past too strange, too frightening, too dangerous to have happened to anyone, let alone a small boy.
Forty years earlier, a man committed suicide in a stolen car at this farm at the end of the road. Like a fuse on a firework, his death lit a touchpaper and resonated in unimaginable ways. The darkness was unleashed, something scary and thoroughly incomprehensible to a little boy. And Lettie—magical, comforting, wise beyond her years—promised to protect him, no matter what.
A groundbreaking work from a master, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is told with a rare understanding of all that makes us human, and shows the power of stories to reveal and shelter us from the darkness inside and out. It is a stirring, terrifying, and elegiac fable as delicate as a butterfly's wing and as menacing as a knife in the dark.

Frozen in time: an epic story of survival and a modern quest for lost heroes of World War II
I read a lot of nonfiction.  I find it interesting, but not often as "gripping" as fiction work.  This is an exception to that.  This book I would consider to be a masterful work of narrative nonfiction.  If you are a history buff, and love a great adventure story, this is the book for you.  I had never heard of these plane crashes until I read this book, and I had a great time looking up more information about it as I went along.  Mitchell Zuckoff also wrote Lost in Shangra-La and I am hoping we will hear more World War II stories from him soon!

From the Publisher:
On November 5, 1942, a U.S. cargo plane on a routine flight slammed into the Greenland ice cap. Four days later, a B-17 on the search-and-rescue mission became lost in a blinding storm and also crashed. Miraculously, all nine men on the B-17 survived. The U.S. military launched a second daring rescue operation, but the Grumman Duck amphibious plane sent to find the men flew into a severe storm and vanished.
In this thrilling adventure, Mitchell Zuckoff offers a spellbinding account of these harrowing disasters and the fate of the survivors and their would-be saviors. Frozen in Time places us at the center of a group of valiant airmen fighting to stay alive through 148 days of a brutal Arctic winter by sheltering from subzero temperatures and vicious blizzards in the tail section of the broken B-17 until an expedition headed by famed Arctic explorer Bernt Balchen attempts to bring them to safety.
But that is only part of the story that unfolds in Frozen in Time. In present-day Greenland, Zuckoff joins the U.S. Coast Guard and North South Polar—a company led by the indefatigable dreamer Lou Sapienza, who worked for years to solve the mystery of the Duck's last flight—on a dangerous expedition to recover the remains of the lost plane's crew.
Drawing on intensive research and Zuckoff 's firsthand account of the dramatic 2012 expedition, Frozen in Time is a breathtaking blend of mystery, adventure, heroism, and survival. It is also a poignant reminder of the sacrifices of our military personnel and their families—and a tribute to the important, perilous, and often-overlooked work of the U.S. Coast Guard.

Reading Resources for Parents

As promised, each month in addition to a review of any new and great adult books I have read, I am also going to highlight some great online reading resources for parents.  Most of us struggle with how to get our children to read more, or are looking for additional books for our children to read.  I often get the question "What should my child be reading?" My most honest answer is "What ever they enjoy!"  Don't worry if your children are choosing to read books that don't seem like great works of literature.  Foster the love of reading first and they will come around to reading the classics before you know it.  Let your children see you read.  We all know we should model good behavior for our children, and this includes reading.  If you set aside time to read everyday, your children will see this, and come to develop the reading habit too!

So with this in mind, it seems best to start with Scholastic for Parents.  Scholastic is one of the top publishers for children's books in the United States, with a long history of providing great educational and recreational reading materials for kids.  Their website has extensive resources for parents on reading, as well as activities and printables.  One of the best features of this site is the "age-by-age quick finder."  Enter  your child's age, and the type of book you are looking for, and a list of suggested reading material is provided for you!  This is a well organized site, and it is very easy to use.  Take a few minutes to explore it, and let me know what you think!

http://www.scholastic.com/parents/

I was so excited to read the first book from Khaled Hosseini in six years.  After his huge success with two of my favorite books The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, this book was eagerly awaited.  Oh how I wanted to love it, but I didn't even like it very much.  I think my problem was with the time shifting for each character.  Often that particular devise can be used effectively to tell a story that spans decades and multiple characters, but I felt like we were lurching from one story to the next, rather then making smooth transitions.  Hosseini is a genus at bringing the world of the Afghan diaspora to life, but this work is not quite as good as the others.  Read it for yourself however, and let me know what you think.  See a complete plot summary below!

Library Journal (April 1, 2013)

This bittersweet family saga spans six decades and transports readers from Afghanistan to France, Greece, and the United States. Hosseini (The Kite Runner; A Thousand Splendid Suns) weaves a gorgeous tapestry of disparate characters joined by threads of blood and fate. Siblings Pari and Abdullah are cruelly separated at childhood. A disfigured young woman, Thalia is abandoned by her mother and learns to love herself under the tutelage of a surrogate. Markos, a doctor who travels the world healing strangers, avoids his sick mother back home. A feminist poet, Nila Wahdatire, reinvents herself through an artful magazine interview, and Nabi, who is burdened by a past deed, leaves a letter of explanation. Each character tells his or her version of the same story of selfishness and selflessness, acceptance and forgiveness, but most important, of love in all its complex iterations.

Welcome Back and Big Changes to Come!

I hope that all of you had a wonderful, fun filled, and relaxing summer.  School is in full swing, and we have had a great start to the school year.  I wanted to let you know that this page is "somewhat" under construction this month.  I am going to expand this site to include information on parenting books, guided reading lists for children, sites on helping your children to become better readers, links and information on using our library resources, etc.  I am going to continue to offer my book reviews of adult fiction (see the first four choices on the right column), but expand to better meet the needs of our parents!  Some exciting changes are coming, and I look forward to hearing your thoughts.  Check back in October!

Inferno and Summer Reading

Dan Brown has brought us another Robert Langdon novel, that was on the best seller lists before it was even published (thanks to advanced ordering)!  I read my copy in just a few days, as it is another page turner.  I don't want to give too much of the plot away, as the suspense it what makes the Langdon novels so much fun to read.  I will say this, I was not crazy about the amnesia plot line, as it seemed a little contrived.  The Da Vinci Code is still my favorite in the Langdon series, but I liked Inferno better then Angels and Demons and The Lost Symbol.  See the complete plot summary below.

From the Publisher: In his international blockbusters The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons, and The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown masterfully fused history, art, codes, and symbols. In this riveting new thriller, Brown returns to his element and has crafted his highest-stakes novel to date.

In the heart of Italy, Harvard professor of symbology Robert Langdon is drawn into a harrowing world centered on one of history’s most enduring and mysterious literary masterpieces . . . Dante’s Inferno.

Against this backdrop, Langdon battles a chilling adversary and grapples with an ingenious riddle that pulls him into a landscape of classic art, secret passageways, and futuristic science. Drawing from Dante’s dark epic poem, Langdon races to find answers and decide whom to trust . . . before the world is irrevocably altered.

On the right hand side of this page you will see all of my suggested summer reading lists.  They can also be found on the Peck website with the summer projects.  I will post the books I plan to review on this blog next school year in August, but in the mean time enjoy my suggested summer reading material.   I hope you all have a safe and restful summer, and I will see you back here in the fall!

Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies

It is hard to believe that summer is nearly here.   You will be able to access all of the summer reading suggestions for Grades K-12 and the adult list on the Peck website in June. 

Now, to the books of the month!  I am including information on two books this month, as they are part of a series.  I kept hearing wonderful things about Bring up the Bodies and it recently won the 2012 Man Booker Prize.  However, I knew is was the second in the series, so I decided to read Wolf Hall first.  If you love historical fiction, these are the books for you.  These books focus on the lives of the members of Henry VIII court, and the tension and tragedies that surround this particular reign.  Hilary Mantel does a wonderful job of bringing all of the historical figures to life (very similar to Philippa Gregory The Other Boleyn Girl), but perhaps with a more gritty edge.  These books would make a wonderful start to your summer reading list!  See complete summaries below, and happy reading.

Wolf Hall
From the Publisher:
WINNER OF THE 2009 MAN BOOKER PRIZE
WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR FICTION
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years and marry Anne Boleyn. The pope and most of Europe opposes him. Into this impasse steps Thomas Cromwell: a wholly original man, a charmer and a bully, both idealist and opportunist, astute in reading people, and implacable in his ambition. But Henry is volatile: one day tender, one day murderous. Cromwell helps him break the opposition, but what will be the price of his triumph?

Bring Up the Bodies
From the Publisher:
Winner of the 2012 Man Booker Prize
Winner of the 2012 Costa Book of the Year Award
The sequel to Hilary Mantel's 2009 Man Booker Prize winner and New York Times bestseller, Wolf Hall delves into the heart of Tudor history with the downfall of Anne Boleyn
Though he battled for seven years to marry her, Henry is disenchanted with Anne Boleyn. She has failed to give him a son and her sharp intelligence and audacious will alienate his old friends and the noble families of England. When the discarded Katherine dies in exile from the court, Anne stands starkly exposed, the focus of gossip and malice.
At a word from Henry, Thomas Cromwell is ready to bring her down. Over three terrifying weeks, Anne is ensnared in a web of conspiracy, while the demure Jane Seymour stands waiting her turn for the poisoned wedding ring. But Anne and her powerful family will not yield without a ferocious struggle. Hilary Mantel's Bring Up the Bodies follows the dramatic trial of the queen and her suitors for adultery and treason. To defeat the Boleyns, Cromwell must ally with his natural enemies, the papist aristocracy. What price will he pay for Anne's head?
Bring Up the Bodies is one of The New York Times' 10 Best Books of 2012, one of Publishers Weekly's Top 10 Best Books of 2012 and one of The Washington Post's 10 Best Books of 2012