Wednesday, July 22, 2009

The Double Bind - by Chris Bohjalian



This is an interesting book that looks at both homelessness and mental illness from a unique angle while combining some American Literature in such a way that you feel it's all true.

The story centers on Laurel, a young woman who has recently graduated college and moved into the real world. However, while she was in college she collided head first with the real world when she was attacked by two men on a dirt road while bicycling. The book opens with this attack, as well as a bit of back-story about Laurel and the area where she grew up. She grew up in Long Island in the area where the book "The Great Gatsby" was set. She has grown up believing the story to be true, or at least based on truth.

Despite her attack, when she finished college she went to work for a homeless shelter where she met "Bobby Crocker" and helped him find a home. Upon his death, her boss discovers a box of pictures that it appears Bobby had taken during his lifetime, among them is a picture that appears to be Laurel on that same dirt road where she was attacked, possibly even on the same day.

An amateur photographer herself, Laurel is taken by the photos and takes on the job of cataloging his images. As she pours over there she discovers many things that connect Bobby to hear past and to the area where she grew up, and possible to the "Great" Jay Gatsby. She gets so wrapped up in her "work" with these photos that she begins to let the rest of her world slide by, worrying those who care for her the most and making them fear that she is quickly becoming unhinged. While her family and friends are trying to take the photos away from her, you are rooting for her to find the answer and solve the mystery. But, maybe the mystery was all in her head. You'll be left wondering just who really is mentally ill in this story as it weaves through many twists and turns.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

The Power of Positive Thinking - Norman Vincent Peale



It's interesting that a book written over 50 years ago could still have so much impact in today's world, but the insights that Dr Peale shares are not marked by time. Dr Peale uses Biblical ideas in non-traditional ways even by today's standards. To think that this was written in 1952 makes you marvel at just how far ahead of his time this man was... or perhaps we've just moved backwards. It makes you wonder if perhaps in today's world of technology, if we haven't just lost sight of some of the common sense that we once had.

While Dr Peale uses Biblical ideas and verses to enhance and back up his ideas, the concepts are strong even if you don't believe the Biblical side of things. It is easy to read this book and understand that somewhere in what he has written was the root of the idea for "The Secret". It's not that far-fetched that one you reap you sow, the thoughts you put out into the world are what you will get back. If you focus on the negative, you will get negative. BUT, if you focus on the positive you will get that as well. The ideas that we can be physically healed by thinking positive thoughts has been proven too many times. And the knowledge that we can make ourselves physically ill through our mental states is widely known as well, much more widely known now than when Dr Peale wrote about it over 50 years ago.

I picked this book up because I felt I had been allowing myself to get bogged down in too much negativity; from people around me, but mostly my own negativity. It's easy to do when you don't physically feel well; but that is the time when it is most important to focus on the positive in an effort to feel better. While there were parts that I skimmed and other parts that felt repetitive, there was much to be gained in this book, and much that I felt I could easily apply to myself. I can honestly say that in doing so I do feel that I have been able to express a more positive outlook and attitude in recent weeks.

Living Dead in Dallas - by Charlaine Harris



The second book in the Sookie Stackhouse (Southern Vampires) series, Living Dead in Dallas is just as engaging as the first. This book picks up where the first left off and soon enough we find someone else dead in Bon Ton. But, before Sookie can even start to think about finding that killer, she is called away to Dallas by the Vampires.

After helping them previously she committed that she would continue to use her gift to help them whenever they needed it, so long as they allowed any humans involved to go free. Escorted by her boyfriend, Vampire Bill, she heads off to Dallas to meet a new set of Vampires and find out why one of their friends has suddenly gone missing.

Her investigation leads her to a local anti-vampire religious group that has plans to use their friend to display God's wrath, and before long Sookie has become part of their plan as well. Getting some help from some unlikely sources, Sookie manages to escape and let her new Vampire friends know what is going on before heading back to Bon Ton again.

Once back in Bon Ton, Sookie is wrapped up in trying to clear the name of a local cop in the murder that occurred before she left for Dallas. This investigation takes her to some interesting places locally; places and events she had no idea even existed in her little town.

A Child Called "It" - by Dave Pelzer




Billed as "the extraordinary inspirational story", I can't say I found it very inspirational. I was almost finished with the book before I even realized that the author was actually the child involved in this story - one of the worst cases of child abuse in the history of the state of California.

The book was almost too easy to read for the subject matter; I finished it in about 2 hours. I actually felt really detached from the child and never really felt connected to him as the story was told, which made me feel as if some other third party was relaying the story and telling it as if it was from the perspective of the child. Even the author's notes, when I look back at them, refer to himself as "the child" or "the boy", as if he were referring to someone other than himself. Despite the feeling of detachment, the story was compelling, making you want to keep reading to find out what was going to happen to the boy, even though you already knew.

Perhaps he truly has managed to move past all that happened to him as a child, but those types of comments lead me to believe that there is large part of him that still does not really connect all that happened to him as a child and looking back sees it as having happened to someone else, or a story that he was told. Perhaps that is really all that has kept him from repeating the errors of his own mother and allowed him to turn into a productive citizen and good father.

The book covers the childhood (from age 4 to 12) of a boy from what seemed like a normal home, and in the beginning it was normal. But, something happened along the way and his mother turned to alcohol and began to take out all of her anger on him. Despite having 4 siblings, David took all of the abuse. While it was his Mother who did the abusing, his Father simply stood by and allowed it to happen, often watching it. He let his son know that he wasn't happy about it, but he never did anything to stop it. His Father finally left the home and left David in it to continue to receive the wrath of his Mother, a wrath that only grew worse when his Father was not there. From withholding food, to forcing David to sleep on a cot in the cold basement garage, to leaving him locked in a small bathroom with a bucket of ammonia mixed with bleach, she thrived in finding new ways to "punish" David for her imagined infractions. For years she managed to convince anyone who questioned his bruises or strange actions that there was just something wrong with him, but eventually someone finally gained enough of David's trust for him to admit what had been going on so that they could rescue him from it.

The book leaves a lot of questions unanswered, and I can only guess that perhaps they are answered in his later books, as he says this is the first of a trilogy about his life. I can only hope that his Mother was finally punished once the truth came out. Perhaps the next book explains what happened to him when he was removed from the home (a fact that actually opens this book). The biggest question is one that probably won't be answered and that is how a parent (his Father) could watch another commit such heinous acts and not stop them, not remove the child from the home, when he himself left.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

The Shack - by William P Young



This was not an easy book to read, nor is it an easy book to really think about reviewing. It's one of those books that I really feel like I'm going to have to read again to really absorb it fully (if even one more reading would be enough). I've talked to many people about this book both before reading it and since and I find it interesting just how polarizing this book is, not just in theme but in the actual writing.

I did not find the book to extremely well written and I've heard from many people that they found the first 4 chapters the hardest to read. Those were the chapters where I felt the writing lacked the most. That part of the book read the most like any other book you might read with a little bit of a family story and mystery to it. The book opens with a foreword, that along with the after words, left many confused as to whether this was a true story. It is not, it is a work of fiction that tries to use a story many can relate to to express some ideas about God that are controversial to many.

The story begins by telling us about Mack and his family and the loss that they have recently endured. While not well-written the story does pull you in and you feel the heartbreak they have felt. You can also understand how due to not only this circumstance but to many others in his life, Mack has lost his faith; not just his faith in God, but his faith in life and in people, and even in himself. He blames himself for a tragedy that he could not control and in turn he also blames God.

One day, while getting the mail, Mack finds a note in his mailbox. The note is either a sick joke or it is a note from God himself. Mack decides to find out which and the note leads him to the place of his greatest misery, the shack where his daughter was most likely murdered. As he heads there, he does not know who he will meet, if it will be the murderer or God himself, or no one at all. When he discovers who is occupying the shack, Mack is quite surprised, to say the least. God is waiting at the shack, along with Jesus and the Holy Ghost.

When Mack first meets God the book begins to feel very preachy, much like a sermon as God attempts to explain the holy Trinity to Mack. An explanation that I'm not quite sure was successful.

I have to say that after the feeling of that chapter, I wanted to put the book down. It was DEEP, very DEEP and like I said, preachy. I didn't want to read a sermon. But, I'd committed to reading this book, both to those who had suggested it to me, and for a book club. So after taking a break and reading another book or two, I did go back to it and finish it. In going back to the book I found it to be not nearly as preachy as it had initially seemed. Perhaps it was just the attempted explanation of the Trinity, that turned me off.

As the book continues, Mack has many discussions with God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit which are all rather interesting and take the time to attempt to explain many things about God. I found that some of the themes paralleled those found in Eat, Pray, Love: which I read recently; mainly the idea that God is not a Christian. Go figure. If the word "Christian" means "Christ Like", how can God be a Christian when he is actually Christ. But it's not just about the terms, it's the idea that God is not committed to any one religion and that he (or she) has children in all religions. This is just one of the many controversial ideas presented in this book. Another is the idea that God does not want us to be his sub-ordinates, but rather his friends. He wants the same relationship with us that we give our friends. The same eagerness that we have to spend time with our friends is what he wants us to have towards him. There are many other big ideas presented in this book, including the attempt to explain why God allows bad things to happen.

One of the most polarizing things in this book is probably the way that God presents to Mack. To many it makes perfect sense, to others it is blasphemy on many levels. It made sense to me. Not only did it make sense but I could immediately picture the person who would (or at least in my mind should) play God in the movie version of this book. This book isn't going to change my life or anything, but it did make some sense of a few things and I liked the ideas that were presented.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Big Stone Gap - by Adriana Trigiani



Many of the books I've been reading lately are book club picks for the various book clubs that go on at the local libraries. I usually pick them up and read a bit and if I'm enjoying the book I'll finish it. If I find I can't get into the book, I put it down and move on to the next. This is how I found this book. It showed up on the list for book club books for this month and it looked like it might be interesting so I picked it up. Interesting, it definitely was.

Big Stong Gap is the story of Ave Maria (like the prayer), an Italian girl born and raised in the mountain mining town of Big Stone Gap, VA. Her mother was Italian married to the local pharmacist. After her father's death, Ave Maria took over the local pharmacy and took care of her mother. After her mother's passing life continued. Ave Maria is 35 and single. She tells herself she's single because she's not wanted, but the truth is she's never wanted to get married; she's always had too many other things to do.

In her effort to understand why she never connected to her father she once read a book on Chinese Face Reading and through that has come to believe that something monumental will happen to her in her 35th year. It is in that year that we discover Ave Maria, still single and now orphaned after her mother's death.

Many exciting things do happen to Ave Maria that year, she discovers that her father was not actually her father, a huge celebrity visits town and Ave Maria finds herself being proposed to by two different men. As she goes through all of this she discovers that many things she always thought she wanted, were not what she wanted after-all. It is only after she finally allows herself to see who she is that she can decide what she wants and go after it, but it may be too late.

This is a book about finding yourself, and understanding what people and place mean to you. But, mostly it's a book about learning that it's not the place where you are that makes you, but rather you make yourself.

This is one of those rare books that gets better as it goes along and when it ends you want more. It's a good thing there are sequels.

Next: The Shack - by William P Young