The More You Read

I was excited to see that there was a new book out by Tawni O’Dell and was happy to find that it was enjoyable.  While this was not quite as hard of a story as Coal Run or Back Roads it still had some of the same bite, dealt with some tough issues, and even took place in the same setting with some of the same people (the great Ivan Z) as her previous books.

This was the story of Shae-Lynn Penrose, a 40 something year old living in Jolly Mount, PA.  Her son, Clay, is a police officer in Jolly Mount following after Shae-Lynn’s footsteps as she had been a cop for many years.  She is a taxi driver running her own one person company and has a way of helping many people in her community as well as putting pieces of a mystery in her past together.

Shae-Lynn lived in a home with an abusive father and moved out as soon as she could leaving her younger sister, Shannon, behind.  She had not seen Shannon again and had some thoughts that her dad may have killed her sister.  To her surprise several strangers show up looking for Shannon, and Shannon herself drops back into Shae-Lynn’s life almost as if she had never been gone.

Shae-Lynn pieces together the stories from the people she has met who are looking for Shannon and learns that her sister has been having babies and adopting them out at a high price…a very high price.  And as she is looking to get out of the baby business she has promised the baby that she is pregnant with to two different people, trying to draw in enough to “retire.”

This story is filled with the same colorful characters as past books and even with the subject matter I felt it was a little lighter then her previous novels.  I only hope that she keeps writing.

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Fiction, Tawni O'Dell

I finally broke down and started reading the Twilight series.  I hadn’t been planning to but after hearing so many people rave about them and after noticing that Stephanie Meyer had three (or was it four?) of the top five selling books in 2009 I decided it was time.

New Moon continues on where Twilight left off with Bella and Edward happily in love and together.  This quickly changes after an accident at the Cullen household where Bella gets a paper cut and starts to bleed…leading to a potentially dangerous situation as she is in a house full of vampires.  Edward breaks up with Bella and the family moves away, but only after Edward makes Bella promise to be careful.

After she goes through a period of depression she decides the only way to bring Edward back to her is to start living dangerously.  She befriends an old family friend, Jacob, who begins to repair a motorcycle for her and who also develops a crush on her.  They become very good friends until Jacob goes through a change.  Bella later finds out that he is a werewolf, with the goal of hunting vampires.  She also learns that a vampire is in the area to get her as revenge to the Cullens.

Bella continues to take risks, including a cliff jump that Edward’s sister sees and interprets as a suicide attempt.  Edward, thinking that Bella is dead, goes to the leading vampire family in the world to ask for death.  Bella is able to barely stop him but because they learn that she knows about them they need to promise to turn Bella into a vampire. 

As I read through this summary, I have to think that my initial reaction to this book still holds true (to me).  It was an interesting story line but not the typical genre that I like to read.  I like books that I can believe in, stories that ring true.  I was entertained by this book but I did not feel that it was something that really touched me in ways that many other books have.

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Fiction, Stephanie Meyer

This book ties in several main themes.  It is a story about the immigration of Greta and Johanna Cahill, and their friend Michael Ward, from Ireland to America.  Johanna and Greta grew up in an isolated region of Ireland.  Johanna was always the leader and Greta was more of an awkward dreamer.  Michael is a “tinker” a part of a family who travels around Ireland with no real routes.  His mother dies in a field near the Cahill’s home and when Michael decides to put down roots he is drawn back to the place where his mother was buried.

Johanna wants to explore and convinces Michael to go to America with her.  Johanna’s mother decides that Greta will go with them.  They take a boat to New York and soon are living a new life.  Greta is unexpectedly thriving in a new place.  Johanna gets pregnant with Michael’s baby and soon after having the baby decides to leave, leaving her baby in care of Greta.  Greta and Michael become partners, a team, raising the baby as there own and falling in love themselves.  They have more children and weather through many years together, both good and bad. 

Johanna comes back into contact with them and it is a dividing decision that Greta has made to never tell her daughter that Johanna was her birth mother.  This keeps the sisters and the family apart for many years, eating at a relationship that was once very strong.  This book has a nice resolution in the end and I felt like it was a good easy read.  The characters were well developed and the relationships were strong.

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Fiction, Mary Beth Keane

As a past runner, this book was fascinating.  If you are not interested in athletics, specifically running, it may not be the best book for you.  However, if you are, I found it hard to put down.  I had heard about Born To Run before Christmas and when I went home one of my family members had just finished reading it.  In the week that I was home it bounced between many of my siblings so that we all got a taste of it but I never got my hands on it to finish it.  Thankfully, I was reunited with this book and could read it through to the end.

This is a book written by an injured runner looking for an answer to the continuing problems he has just trying to run several miles a day a few times a week.  After seeing doctors, specialists, and many others the general conclusion seems to be that human bodies just aren’t built to run.  The jarring impact of each step results in more injuries then almost any sport.  The author did not give up and continued to seek out runners, sports writers and coaches who might have answers.

In this pursuit he discovered the Tarahumara Indians in Mexico who are able to run miles and miles and miles across very difficult terrain.  And they do it with joy and good spirit.  In tracing this group down to learn their secrets he discovers another American who has come to live among the Tarahumara mainly for the joy of running the trails in the area and he peace and joy that it brings him.  He speaks with Christopher McDougall about what he has learned and tries to set up a race between the Tarahumara and other ultramarathon elite in the Tarahumara’s own land.  Racers are gathered for this difficult 50 mile race to determine whether the legend of the Tarahumara can match up with the best in the world.

Throughout this narrative the author weaves information about diet and sportswear and the impact these things have on running.  He talks with many people who argue that the more expensive and high tech a running shoe is, the more dangerous it is to a runner.  The arguments are centered around the fact that running barefoot (or close to it) strengthens your feet and helps your body to naturally adjust your stride in order to cope with changes in terrain and the pounding that it takes.  Running barefoot leads people to take shorter strides and land more on the ball of their feet distributing the weight and cushioning the impact.  Running in highly padded running shoes leads people to land on their heels and not make the adjustments that are needed to avoid injury.  He offers a lot of evidence that running related injuries have increased in the last 40 years since the invention of high tech running shoes.

In the end a great race is held that brings people from different cultures and backgrounds together to run over 50 miles.  The first stays to cheer for the last and as an ex-runner, it reminded me very much of the comraderie that goes on between runners.  It reminded me of the joy that can be felt in challenging your body to it’s limits…although I’m not sure if it convinced me to start training for an ultramarathon.  It was a great mix of information and history built around the moving story of a race.  I would highly recommend this book.

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Christopher McDougall, Non Fiction, Running

I had been wanting to read Fast Food Nation for a very long time, and I’m happy that I finally did it.  This book covers many different aspects of fast food.  It starts with examining how the fast food trend started and grew in the United States as automobiles became the primary mode of transportation.  It also looks at how Americans have grown more sedentary and have been eating more unhealthy foods which has had a huge impact on our overall health and our health care industry.

This book also looks at the different components of fast food such as the meat industry, farming (potatoes/french fries).  I am not a vegetarian but after reading about the slaughter house industry I have to admit I’m looking at my meat a little differently…and thinking more about the people who need to work in those jobs.  One interesting thing I did learn (for those vegetarians out there) is that McDonald’s french fries were cooked in vegetable oil with beef tallow until just recently.  Even though they were described as being vegetarian.

This book made me think a lot more about the food that we choose to put into our bodies and the price that cheap, affordable fast food comes at.  I do have to admit that through a lot of the chapters I was craving french fries, but that also shows how strong those associations are that I only need to read the word McDonalds and think about french fries.  I’m glad that I read this book and I hope in a little while I will be able to say that it has effected my food choices in more of a long term way.

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Eric Schlosser, Non Fiction

This is a story about a family that is centered around Robin Snow, a marathon runner training for the Olympics.  This story is written from her sister Molly’s perspective, and Molly has felt ever since she was young that she was in her sister’s shadow, always doing for Robin and very rarely getting things back in return.

Robin has a heart attack while she is doing a training run that Molly was supposed to be helping with.  The family meets at the hospital and spends the next period of time while Robin is in a coma both talking about and unraveling family relationships and secrets that had been hidden for many years as well as trying to make end of life decisions for a loved family member.

I felt that this book had some interesting points, one of them being that Molly became very much of an advocate for clues that she found into what would be her sisters wishes (such as organ donation).  Yet on many other levels I felt that the story struggled along.  Many things were predictable and felt a little too contrived.  It is not one that I will read again.

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Barbara Delinsky, Fiction

The Lovely Bones is one of my favorite books of all times….and it’s about to be released as a movie which I generally feel is not a good thing for the books I love.  This book is very well written and as horrible and tragic as some moments are, the story as a whole is not that way.

This is the story of Susie Salmon, a fourteen-year-old, who is raped and murdered on her way home from school by a neighbor man.  The beginning of this book is gripping, and I’m sorry if I’ve ruined it by telling you that she doesn’t make it.  This is something you learn very quickly.  The book continues to follow her family members and friends: her parents, her younger sister and brother.  It also follows Susie who is in a heaven that is made up of her favorite things from life.  Susie is able to watch her family from above and in some small ways communicate with them to help guide them as they work in different ways to deal with her murder and find out who is responsible.

There is a lot of grief and mourning in this story.  Susie mourns the life that she had such as the lost relationship with a boy she had kissed just before her death.  Her parents mourn her in very different and separate ways that drive them apart.  Throughout it all they try to find out who had done this and Susie leaves clues and tries to show herself as she is able.

I liked how Susie was still involved in telling her story.  I liked the idea that Susie was in heaven watching over those she loved.  It truly is a beautiful book that I would recommend to everyone and anyone.

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Alice Sebold, Fiction

This book is the continuation of A Million Little Pieces.  Even though there was a lot of controversy around A Million Little Pieces, I enjoyed both of these books thoroughly.  This is the story of James trying to rebuild his life after his time in rehab and jail.  He deals with the struggles of an addict trying to work his way back into his old life in Chicago.  Leonard, his friend from rehab, is his constant support and is there throughout this time.

Leonard is a man whose business is of unsavory origins.  James works for him for a little bit delivering briefcases to different locations, but decides that he wants a completely clean life and stops to work on becoming a writer.  Leonard continues to show up in James life at times of sorrow and joy.

James lives life hard and it is very evident in his books.  Like his other novels, his punctuation and capitalization is far from what we all learn in school, but it somehow works instead of bothering me in this book.  I read this while visiting family over Christmas, and still managed to finish it in two days as I would read at night before falling asleep.  I just wanted to know what was going to happen.

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James Frey

This is the story of the people from Coal Run, PA and how they handled life after an explosion of the coal mine killed many of their husbands, fathers, and brothers as well as starting a fire underneath the ground that took away many of their homes.  The prologue to the book describes the day the mine blew from the point of view of Ivan Zoschenko, when he was a little boy.  The horror of the moment when the women of the town heard the explosion and sirens and realized what happened is described wonderfully.  It breaks your heart.  I hear stories on the news of men trapped and mines and I can not imagine what that is like for the families.

The book then moves forward about thirty years and little Ivan Zoschenko has turned into The Great Ivan Z.  He had been a football hero going to play for the Bears before he had an accident that hurt his knee so he could no longer play.  Ivan went to Florida where he lived for years ignoring his family and home town and is now back in Coal Run working for the police there.  It is clear early on that he has come back because one of this football teammates, Reese, is about to be released from prison.  Reese had been in prison for beating his wife until she was brain dead.

This book is about how life with the mines has changed every person in the town.  Later on, there are many unemployed men as new technology for energy is developed.  Ivan, and others, deal with their problems through alcohol and other escapes.  Ivan is trying to patch up relationships with his family and also trying to resolve some kinds of issue with Reese.  In doing so he confronts many of his own problems from the past and things that he has been running away from for so many years.

I enjoyed this book by Tawni O’Dell even more than her first.  It is very believable, the characters make you feel for them, and there are moments to make you smile and cry.

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