I LOVE my LOLAs!

As I've discussed before, LOLAs is my book club. We've been a book club for over seven years of which only missed the first few months. I've laughed, learned and cried with these ladies. And I am going to miss them terribly.

We had our monthly meeting last night. The book discussed was The Lace Reader. I was a bit late (basketball game for my girl) so missed most of the book discussion. Sounds like the reviews were mixed. I'll let them comment here if they want to clarify.

What I want to share is how GOOD they were to me last night. As I said, I was running late - ended up being about an hour and a half late! But as I knew they'd still be chatting and eating, I went anyway. Especially because I wanted to give them all hugs and say good-bye. We'll be in Ohio by the next meeting.

They gave me an awesome going-away present! It's an ink drawing of our library. And it's beautiful!

For those who don't know, Columbus, IN is known around the world for the architecture here. I, personally, don't know diddly squat about architecture, but I know that tons of people have heard of our little city because of it. And it is fun to look at. I just don't understand it. But I digress.

Here's our library:

Isn't it cool? I am already trying to decide where to put it in the new house. Near the wall bookshelves in the family room? Above the couch in the living room? Very fun to figure out!

I neglected to take my camera into LOLAs but our hostess for the evening took a picture of all of us. We were only missing one, but I'll pencil her in the picture later. :-) When I get the picture, I'll add it in here.

Thanks so much ladies for being such wonderful friends over the years. I have enjoyed talking about books, kids, jobs, food, husbands and many other things with you. I will definitely miss you. I will look for a book club at my new house but it will be hard to match up to LOLAs.

Review: Midwives by Chris Bohjalian

The November book for LOLAs is Midwives by Chris Bohjalian. I read the entire book on my Oprah-given Kindle - my first book on the Kindle. I will review the Kindle later this week.

Midwives was just okay for me. It took me a long time to get into the book. I don't know if part of that was learning the new way to read via the Kindle or just the book. Here's the summary:

The time is 1981, and Sibyl Danforth has been a dedicated midwife in the rural community of Reddington, Vermont, for fifteen years. But one treacherous winter night, in a house isolated by icy roads and failed telephone lines, Sibyl takes desperate measures to save a baby's life. She performs an emergency Cesarean section on its mother, who appears to have died in labor. But what if--as Sibyl's assistant later charges--the patient wasn't already dead, and it was Sibyl who inadvertently killed her?

As recounted by Sibyl's precocious fourteen-year-old daughter, Connie, the ensuing trial bears the earmarks of a witch hunt except for the fact that all its participants are acting from the highest motives--and the defendant increasingly appears to be guilty. As Sibyl Danforth faces the antagonism of the law, the hostility of traditional doctors, and the accusations of her own conscience, Midwives engages, moves, and transfixes us as only the very best novels ever do.

The story is narrated by Connie, the fourteen-year old daughter of the midwife Sybil Danforth. Connie's voice is a high point for me in the novel. I did get to know Connie and felt what she described. But I don't feel like her character was shared enough. In the telling of her mother's story, we get small glimpses of the girl but not the anguish, worries, scared feelings that I would imagine she would be feeling.

Nor do we really get that from her mother's voice. At the beginning of each chapter, we get a glimpse of Sybil through an excerpt of her personal notebooks.

Maybe it's because I love to read courtroom dramas that this book didn't grab me. Because the courtroom pieces are not all that suspenseful. And since the characters were not that deep either, I don't feel like I connected well with them.

It was a good book, one I am not sorry I read. It just wasn't great. It will be fun to see what the other LOLAs have to say about it. We will be meeting the second week of November. Maybe I missed something that our discussion will bring to light and change my view of the book? It's been known to happen.

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

LOLAs

The book club I have been in for years is LOLAs - Ladies on Literary Adventures! I wrote a guest post on LOLAs for Lisa at Books on the Brain. Lisa has a regular feature "In Praise of Book Clubs" and I knew that LOLAs needed to be a part of it. So go over to Books on the Brain and read my lovely, very interesting words! And if you don't, I will know!!! So go on, get, go read! And be sure to leave a comment for Lisa and me!

Review: Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs

Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs is October's LOLAs book club book. As I was way down on the request list at the library, I ended up getting an audio version and listened to the majority of it when I traveled to Ohio by myself two weekends ago. I finished it in bits chauffeuring the kids around town. I am writing this review before my book club meeting so I don't get clouded by other's thoughts. We are meeting tonight - hopefully I'll remember to write down other thoughts and insights to add to this review.

My initial thoughts on this memoir are: "Did this really happen?"; "Wow, what a horrific childhood!"; "Every other word was a swear word!".

"Did this really happen?"
The summary of the book from the author's website: RUNNING WITH SCISSORS is the true story of a boy whose mother (a poet with delusions of Anne Sexton) gave him away to be raised by her psychiatrist, a dead-ringer for Santa and a lunatic in the bargain. Suddenly, at age twelve, Augusten Burroughs found himself living in a dilapidated Victorian in perfect squalor. The doctor's bizarre family, a few patients, and a pedophile living in the backyard shed completed the tableau. Here, there were no rules, there was no school. The Christmas tree stayed up until summer, and Valium was eaten like Pez. And when things got dull, there was always the vintage electroshock therapy machine under the stairs...

RUNNING WITH SCISSORS is at turns foul and harrowing, compelling and maniacally funny. But above all, it chronicles an ordinary boy's survival under the most extraordinary circumstances.

Since there hasn't been any news about this not being true, I am sure it is. But it's a definite story that no one would ever want for themselves. The summary is a good one and I don't know that I can add more without giving away a bunch of the book. It is definitely an intriguing memoir and draws you in even as you are wanting to distance yourself from the reality of it.

"Wow, what a horrific childhood!"
Many folks, including myself, have had childhoods that were not as nice as we are hoping we are giving our kids. I would venture to guess more folks have had dysfunctional childhoods than not - abuse, divorce, moving, mean neighborhood kids, gangs, etc. But I cannot even but any of those on the same level as what happens to Augusten. He goes from one very dysfunctional, not safe environment into an even worse one, growing up in the house of his mother's shrink. I still cannot imagine the depths of the sadness and the, what I can only think to call horror, of growing up in that situation.

To gather more information for this review I was exploring the author's website. Mr. Burroughs has quite a lengthy and very interesting biography written on his website. It was well worth the time to read that after reading about his childhood.

"Every other word was a swear word!"
I don't know if it would have been as noticeable when reading but in the audio version, it felt like there were more swear words than other words. I realize in the messed-up, truly dysfunctional lifestyle that the author is describing that swear words are just words to use. But, for me, it took a conscious decision to ignore them and not base my reaction to the book and the life story being told on the use of the foul words. I will be interested to know if it was as noticeable to those in my book club that read the book.

Overall, I can see why this book was on the best seller list for so long (four years!). It is definitely a memoir that draws you in and won't let you go. I'm excited to go tonight to have some chili, puppy chow and a great discussion!

Rating: 3/5 stars