Books I read in December 2012

Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink ***

This was a book I read aloud to Mark for school.  It's a good one.  It's set in the Wisconsin frontier during the Civil War (though the Civil War plays very little part in the story).  Caddie Woodlawn in a tomboy and gets into all sorts of adventures.  I loved that the story is based on stories the real Caddie told her granddaughter, the author.

Olivia told me that our mom read us this book when we were growing up and I have no memory of that.  I think either I have a bad memory or Olivia does.  (Probably Olivia.)
 

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese ***

I liked this book.  It was long and involved and fascinating.  It was set in Ethiopia and it turns out I know very little about Ethiopia so that was interesting to me.  There were painful parts of the book...primarily the hormonal teenage boy stuff.  Bleck.  If you can soldier through that (skim--it's what I do) then it is a really great read.

Heaven is Here by Stephanie Nielsen ****

LOVED this book.  It was fabulous.  I highly recommend it.  I've read her blog for awhile and felt like I knew the story of her plane crash but I did not.  It was heartbreaking and incredibly inspiring.  I felt new found appreciation for my roles as wife and mother and felt very blessed to have a healthy body.

The Truth about Style by Stacy London ***

This is one of those books I picked up on a whim.  Usually I don't finish them because they're silly but I liked this one.  It's partly about style but mostly a memoir.  I am not always a huge memoir fan but I enjoyed this.  I usually wear jeans and t-shirts and sweaters and occasionally, hoodies (repeat, repeat, repeat). Maybe I'll get some style someday.  (No promises.)

The Rent Collector by Camron Wright ***

This book was set at a municipal dump in Cambodia.  It's about a family that lived there, gathering trash to support themselves.  Through a series of events, the young wife and mother learned to read.  It was an interesting story, compelling and sweet and filled with hope.

It also bugged me.  At the end of the book, there are pictures, photographs.  Also, it says the book is fiction.  The pictures are from a documentary about the dump.  So are those the real people?  Are there really people with those names?  Is the story true at all?  If it weren't for the pictures at the end, I would have just thought it was a good story.

We read this book for book club so I'll be interested to see if the pictures mattered to anyone else.

(I showed Adam and he didn't think the pictures were problematic.  They confused me though.)