The Age of Miracles

The Age of Miracles by Karen Thomson Walker was a book that scared me a little to read. It is about the slowing of the earth which makes days and nights longer with no scientific explanation. Birds die, whales beach themselves by the thousands and yet for 11 year old Julia, life as a burgeoning teenager continues on in all it's painful reality.

Friends disappear as their families flee the cities, some people choose not to join the mandated clock time and become outsiders. Julia loses her best friend, watches as her parents marriage unravels and her mother suffers from the "syndrome" and tracks her crush, Seth Moreno, from afar.

The book is well written and while anxiety-provoking, it is also thought-provoking and touching as a story about ordinary life in in-ordinary times.

Behind the Beautiful Forevers

When I started reading Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo, I kept wondering - is this fiction or non-fiction. Apparently it is categorized as "narrative non-fiction" which for me meant a true story that was entirely readable.

Boo takes us inside the world of the Annawadi slum in Mumbai. In the shadow of capitalism represented by the airport and adjoining hotels, Annawadi is a world all of its own - with rules and expectations and stories to fill a book (or more). And while the world around them deals with what seem to be bigger problems, the residents of the slum do their best to survive day to day while looking for opportunity. But sometimes those opportunities run counter to a neighbor's plans and when they intersect the results can be desperate and deadly.

Boo does a magnificent job of opening up this world to us outsiders while being empathetic and kind to the people who inhabit Annawadi.

Sleepy Hollow Family Almanac

The overview of The Sleepy Hollow Family Almanac by Kris D'Agostino sounded promising. Comparing it to the work of Nick Hornby and Tom Perrota, it was called funny and about a "loopy but loving family" and the main character, Calvin Moretti, an oddball antihero.

All I found was a dysfunctional guy who doesn't want to grow up, wants to smoke pot and hang out with his loser friends and doesn't really care about anyone else.

At one point, I thought "I just want to finish this book so I can stop this guy's whining." Enough said!

I only finished it because it is for a book club in Philadelphia.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs is a wonderful story of wanting to belongand the power of connection.

Jacob Copeland's grandfather always told fantastical stories and Jacob as a child always believed them. As he grew older, however, his belief in these stories diminished and eventually he hardly believed them at all, chalking them up to stories his grandfather told to gloss over the harsh realities of his childhood.

When his grandfather dies Jacob, at 16, is brokenhearted and lost. Terrible dreams and his grandfather's last words haunt him. His parents send him to a therapist, but nothing seems to help. Eventually he convinces his parents to let him visit the island where his grandfather was sent to escape the Nazis.

Once there Jacob enters the fantastical world of Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children and his life will never be the same.

The ending of the book clearly opens the door for the next chapter, which according to Amazon will be out in 2013. I will be eager to see what happens to Jacob and his peculiar friends from Miss Peregrine's.

A Land More Kind Than Home

A Land More Kind Than Home is the July selection for my (former) Charlotte book club. I am still trying to read what they read because they have really good selections and after starting (and stopping) a few bad books recently, I was thrilled when I started A Land More Kind Than Home.

From the opening chapter, Wiley Cash had me hooked. Set in a small town in North Carolina (which I could easily imagine from my days running through the hills of Western NC during relays), A Land More Kind Than Home tells the story of Jess Hall who witnesses something bad happen to his mute brother, Stump, inside the makeshift church his mother attends.

Jess is older and wiser than his 10 years, but his story is still supplemented by two other narrators, Adelaide Lyle, the town midwife who used to attend the church but years ago starting keeping the children during church services, and Clem Barefield, the local sheriff. Like all small towns there is a deep history and connection between the residents which impacts how everyone reacts to the incident with Stump.

Carson Chambliss the Pentecostal preacher is a scary soul, so the story carries with it some fear of what he will do next to his parishoners or those who cross him.

A Land More Kind Than Home is a eloquent, exciting first novel.

The Cat's Table

Michael Ondaatje has always been a writer I have admired and enjoyed, so I was eager to read The Cat's Table when it was published. After I finished, my admiration of Ondaatje was reconfirmed.

A story of adventure as a young boy travels to England from Colombo on a ship in the 1950s, it is told with wonder. Along with two older boys, Cassius and Ramahdin the boys meet amazing characters and learn more about the world on this ship than ever before.

The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog

I was a little put off by the title of this book, The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog: And Other Tales from a Child Psychiatrist's Notebook - What Traumatized Children Can Teach Us About Loss, Love and Healing, and what I assumed would be a depressing recounting of horrific experiences of children by the psychiatrist who worked with them. I was happily surprised by what was a mostly positive take on these children and their ability to heal.

Perry recounts stories of the children he has worked with in his long career and how much he has learned about children and the impact trauma and neglect have on their development. Woven between those stories, Perry neatly explains brain development, mental health diagnoses and impacts of trauma on the brain which I had learned in my first year of Graduate School.

In the end, I was touched by how hard Perry and his team worked with each of these children and the patience and understanding they exhibited. Most of the stories have a happy, positive ending which helped make the overall book feel positive and in the conclusion, Perry makes some recommendations about the changes we need to make as a society to help minimize the impacts of trauma on our children.

I Thought It Was Just Me (But it isn't)

My friend Brie introduced me to Brene Brown and her research on shame and vulnerability through her two TED talks. After watching both of them numerous times, I decided that she was my new personal hero. What Brene had to say was so smart, so well-researched and she was so open about her own vulnerability and shame, how could you not be inspired?

I ordered her book I Thought It Was Just Me but saved it for summer break before starting it and then I savored it. Not because the language is beautiful or the topic is so wonderful, but because itmakes so much sense. It needs to be read slowly (and probably more than once) to really be absorbed.

The idea that shame makes us feel disconnected and isolated and how we can become aware and hopefully stop that shame, felt like genius as I read it. I thought of dozens of friends and acquaintances that should read it, but afterwards, I decided that every woman should read it. It might give us pause the next time we start to feel shame or if we see someone else struggling or someone pulling us into gossip, we can change direction.

Brene's work feels tangible and actionable and I hope someday that I will be able to use some of the techniques in my own practice.