Books I Read in September

Saving CeeCee Honeycut by Beth Hoffman***

I reread this book because my book club read it.  I didn't love it the first time I read it, I think I liked it more the second time around.  There are some great messages in it and a lot of hope and kindness.  My complaint about it is that some of the characters don't seem real.  They seem like caricatures of every movie you've seen and book you've read about the South.  Also, some of them were so sticky sweet you just wanted them to do something rotten so they'd seem alive.

Alexandra, Gone by Anna McPartlin**

The polar opposite of the previous book, this book was raw and distressingly real.  It involved a person disappearing, illness--mental and otherwise, grief, addiction, you name it.  It also included a lot of hope and kindness.  If you could get past the cringeworthy language and actions of some of the characters, it was a compelling story with some very likable characters.  (And some characters I didn't like at all.)

The Geometry of Sisters by Louanne Rice***

This book was sort of a dramatic tangled mess.  It had it all:  tragedy, lies, secrets, kleptomania, paralysis, teen pregnancy, a runaway, a ghost, unrequited love...

Phew.

What I loved about it though were the sisters.  There were several sets of them and they all loved each other and needed each other in the same way I love and need my sisters.
 

 

The Irresistible Henry House by Lisa Grunwald***

This was a fascinating book.  It was set in the 40s-60s with some interesting looks at culture then.  (Yikes to the 60s drug and free love scenes portrayed.  Yikes.)  The book is about a baby that is a "practice baby" at a college in the home economics class.  It explores how messed up a person can be when they don't have proper attachment as an infant...no constant mother figure but a parade of practice mothers.  The answer is pretty messed up.  I liked a lot of the characters in this book and the end broke my heart and gave me hope as well.


Cramming in what I cleaned in September because The 31 Days of Gratitude is upon me.  I cleaned my family room.  It's a pretty easy room to clean because there isn't near the clutter of say...one of my children's rooms.  I got rid of every VHS tape (except the one Adam uses to record the Superbowl each year so he and Braeden can watch it later).  Also, I/we did move some furniture.  Braeden wondered where we were going to put the Christmas tree with the new arrangement.  I just smiled at him.  He groaned.  "We'll be moving furniture again, won't we?"


I didn't have big strong kids for nothing, did I?