#22 look me in the eye

This is something I've never really done before.  I read the beginning of this book & then the end.  But I'm counting it as #22 ~ look me in the eye, my life with asperger's by John Elder Robison.  Very interesting story of a life with Asperger's.  John Elder is a fifty year old man recalling his life as a child and young man with undiagnosed Asperger's.  He had a honorific childhood with an abusive alcoholic father and a mentally unstable mother.  I quit reading when, as a teenager, he set up a cult-like scene of a hanging (mannequin) and hid in the woods to watch the response.  I skipped through the book to see his rise of a career and marriage and birth of a son.  Then I read the epilogue where he recorded the death of his dad and the way they were able to fashion a good relationship out of the mess of their past.

Word (from the Author's Notes) ~  neurotypical {the opposite of Aspergian}

fl: "Look me in the eye, young man.!" ll: It will take a few more years (I hope!), but I'm looking forward to the day when I can watch Cubby take his own son to the train yard to watch the locomotives.

#19 The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

#19 is The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley.  It's a story of  11 year old Flavia de Luce ~ the youngest of three children & the only one who has no recollection of their mother who disappeared on a hiking adventure.  In this first book she has to solve the mystery of the dead stranger in their garden.  The story involved her father's childhood & poor choices he made...and she has to decide if she thinks her father is capable of murder.
Since I am able to read about a page and a half before I fall sound asleep & then read a few more pages when I wake up around 2:00 am and can't fall back asleep...I have great difficulty following story lines & catching the little details that make a good story.
My reading habits are not as enjoyable to me as they usually are...which is a hard lump for me to swallow as I have a whole ginormous list of books I want to read...
And it's hard for me to know if I liked a book or not.
Flavia is not always a very likable character.  She and her sisters fight viciously & that really bothers me.  However, she is quite clever & resourceful & I like that about her character.

Quotes;
p27 ~ "I found a dead body in the cucumber patch," I told them.  "How very like you," Ophelia said.

p73 ~ You never know what you're getting into when you stick your nose in other people's rubbish.

p219 ~ There always was a whiff of sulphur about the lad.


Words:
p35 ~ decrepitude

#15 Big Little Lies

Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty is #15 for the year.  Finally a book I had trouble putting down.  I think I read all 462 pages in three or four days ~ staying up until 1:00 last night {this morning} to finish.
Liane Moriarty can weave a compelling story ~ full of characters that seem real to life ~ with flaws and strengths I can relate to.  This story is about mothers who meet when their children start kindergarten & is fraught with fictional school politics ~ that are far fetched ~ but also true to how people behave.  You know from the start that there is a murder...and the questions of who dies & who did it kept me turning the pages.
SPOILER ALERT ~ what I like most about the two Liane Moriarty  books is that they end the way they should.  Maybe not how they would in real life, but they way they SHOULD.  The right people get what they deserve & happily ever after is a real possibility.

fl: "That doesn't sound like a school trivia night," said Mrs. Patty Ponder to Marie Antoinette. "That sounds like a riot." ll: "This can happen to anyone."

Good Word:
p 50 ~tetchy ~ bad-tempered and irritable

Quotes:
p5 ~ Ask any man--not some new-age, artsy-fartsy, I-wear-moisturizer type, I mean a real man--

p58~ ...the most ridiculously tizzy pink crystal champagne stopper.

p384~ So many calamitous catastrophes!

Throughout the book, when something bad happened, the line was, "Oh, calamity"  Love it

#8 Promises to Keep

SPOILER ALERT: #8 Promises to Keep by Jane Green is a good story with great characters and fun romances.  And Cancer and Death.  As soon as I realized that Callie's life was too good to be true {I know, it's a fiction story...} that she would die.  And I was right.  Ugh.  It was a book worth reading, but it wasn't happy.  Well, some of it was happy.  Some of it was very happy.  But death by cancer is not happy.

There were recipes at the end of each chapter and there are a few I want to try:
p64 ~ Whipped Honey Ricotta
p239 ~ Tuna with Cilantro Lime Sauce and Avocado
p263 ~ Guacamole
p319 ~ Merry Meringue Christmas Cookies

Quote:
p222 ~ You don't talk down to people if you have class.

Word:
p311 ~ Mercurial ~ of a person subject to sudden or unpredictable changes of mood or mind.

fl: Steffi elbows her hair out of her eyes before grabbing a frying pan, splashing olive oil liberally into it and scraping the finely chopped onion into the oil.  ll: Steffi rests her chin on one palm and smiles, and as she does so a tiny white feather drifts down and lands, as softly as a breath, on her other hand.

#16 & #17

Two books...how I love two 3 hour plane rides!  {and now you don't have to turn the kindle off during take off & landing}
#16 ~ W is for Wasted by Sue Grafton is another good Kinsey story.  I have such an affinity for her character.  I'd forgotten where I got my love of hard boiled egg sandwiches {with mayo on white bread} ~ it made me giggle to read about her eating one & then it made me hungry for one.
This is a story of family dysfunction, hurt, betrayal, anger, fear, hatred and the longing for love and belonging.  All the same emotions that are always part of Kinsey.  I love how Grafton has created this incredibly strong and independent woman who is so needy.  I think that we all have a lot of those same traits.  At the core of our being, we all want love and acceptance.  Kinsey is pulled into the center of a death & discovers a murderer. A well woven tale.  And now I've caught up, and have to wait until she writes X...Y...Z.  Can't believe it's so close to done.  I remembering reading Kinsey adventures when I was pregnant with Patrick!
Quotes & Words:
p44 ~  disputatious
     fond of having heated arguments

p49 ~ obstreperous  
     noisy and difficult to control

p59 ~ There's something inherent in human nature that has us constructing narratives to explain a world that is otherwise chaotic and opaque.

p107~ I'm curious why he'd keep his valuable in a bank when that's exactly where a bank robber's going to hit first.{spoken by Pearl, a homeless woman}

p283 ~ I could tell she was processing the idea of keeping her mouth shut, which is generally a smart move though I've never mastered it myself.

p288 ~ That ploy won't work here because I always look exactly like myself.  This can be discouraging.

p359 ~ Pull a gun on a fellow, you better be prepared to shoot.

p435 ~ I wondered if I'd ever be nice enough to volunteer for anything.  I was hoping not.

fl: Two dead men changed the course of my life that fall.  ll: We took the ashes home with us, and in a private ceremony of our own, we folded them into the rich earth in Henry's flower beds, where they'll nourish the roses when spring comes again.

#17 is another Maisie Dobbs. number 8 of 10...so I'm almost caught up there too.  A Lesson in Secrets by Jacqueline Winspear was written in 2011, so there may be hope that she will be writing more than 10.  This one is very interesting because we see more of the quite progressive Maisie with her new love, James Compton {I just LOVE this development because it just drives home how much the culture has changed ~ but I see problems arising as James moves into Edbury Place, where Maisie was in service as a girl}  Maisie becomes a professor to keep watch on political developments that may be detrimental to the Crown.  Interesting time in Europe's history, this waiting time between WWI and WWII.  Also interesting in how much of a following outside of Gemany Hitler was able to gather.  Frighting that he wasn't seen as the threat he was.  {a lesson for today?}


Quotes & Words:

p326~ One always has riches when one has a book to read.
p364~ chivvy 

     tell someone repeatedly to do something

fl: Maisie Dobbs has been aware of the motor car following her for some time.  ll: She smiled at the irony--the junior lecturer in philosopy struggling with a child's fairy-talk ending.  Yes, time would give up her secrets.  She just had to wait.

#15 ~ V is for Vengeance

Imagine my surprise when I check to see if Sue Grafton has a new Kinsey Millhone novel, that I've missed one.  So before I can read W, I have to read V! {rather exciting to get to read two in close succession...haven't done that since I caught up to her around n or so.  #15 is V for Vengeance by Sue Grafton.
Kinsey doesn't disappoint & I really liked the story line in this one.  Nora & Dante were likable ~ even with their faults.  Rather Breaking Bad-ish...but likable {I really don't like any of the characters in Breaking Bad...just can't stop watching it}
Kinsey stumbles upon a shoplifting ring...and ends up with a broken nose ~ which the novel starts & ends with.  Enjoyable story.

fl:Phillip Lanahan drove to Vegas in his 1985 Porsche 911 Carrera Cabriolet, a snappy little red car his parents had given him two months before, when he graduated from Princeton. ll: It's the other way around.  Buy me a decent glass of Chardonnay and I'll do something for you.

Good Word:
p220 ~ brouhaha

That's a fun one to say.

#13 ~ The Fault in our Stars

All winter & spring I've seen this book in the hands or on the desk of many middle school girls.  "Oh, Mrs. Barton, it's so good."  "you'll cry so hard"  And it was that last sentiment, meant as a positive...which kept me from reading it.  But Helen, the librarian talked me into it & handed me the book.  #13, which I'm glad I read, is The Fault in our Stars by John Green.  The funny and smart story of a Hazel Grace, a teenage cancer victim.  What really strikes me is how well written this book it.  The Hunger Games were great stories, but so poorly written.  This is a great story with rich vocabulary and witty humor.  I'm glad my Kindle version came in when I was still reading the book, because there were many words I was glad to have the dictionary feature for.  Hazel Grace is depressed & her mother wants her to be social & meet people and have a life while she's alive.  This story is about that life ~ a life that has to deal with death, because, in the end, that what we all have to deal with.  

I can't decide if I can take the movie.  I've heard good reports...but I don't like to cry.  

Words & a quote

p 145 ~   ghettoized

      put in or restrict to an isolated or segregated place, group, or situation  {the sentence is: I'm just saying:  Maybe scrambled eggs are ghettoized, but they're also special.  They have a place and a time, like church does.}

p 215 ~  hamartia

     a fatal flaw leading to the downfall of a tragic hero or heroine

p260 ~ Some infinities are bigger than other infinities.  {I've come back to this thought many times in the past few days.  I've been lucky to have long infinities, even when they are finite.}

fl: Late in the winter of my seventeenth year, my mother decided I was depressed, presumably because I rarely left the house, spent quite a lot of time in bed, read the same book over and over, ate infrequently, and devoted quite a bit of my abundant free time to thinking about death.  ll: You don't get to choose if you get hurt in this world, old man, but you do have some say in who hurts you.  I like my choices.  I hope she likes hers.  I do, Augustus.  I do.

#8 The Goldfinch

Can you call it a good book when your thought upon finishing is, "Thank God that's over."?  I didn't hate the story.  It just went on and on and on.  775 pages of on.  Had to 'stand in line' twice to check it out twice {on my Kindle} to get it read.
A fellow teacher said it was the best book she'd read since The Help.  Yeah, no.  Not in my opinion.  #8 The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt is a sad depressing tale of life gone bad.  It made me think about my beliefs ~ and my choices ~ and I was reminded of my more Pollyanna outlook...not as Gloom&Doom like this author.
It's the story of a stolen painting & the lives it intertwined.  Theo's life is destroyed & this painting holds him and keeps him...and almost destroys him again.  It just goes on and on.

Quotes:
p132 ~ pyjamas {love the spelling}

p755 ~ The interesting thing, in the photograph, was how the fragile little knock-kneed boy--smiling sweetly, pristine in his sailor suit--was also the old man who'd clasped my hand while he was dying: two separate frames, superimposed upon each other, of the same soul.

Which is really a great theme of the book ~ What is real?  What makes us us?  What is the purpose of life?  A thinking story...I just was so happy when it was over.

fl: While I was still in Amsterdam, I dreamed about my mother for the first time in years.  ll: And I add my own lover to the history of people who have loved beautiful things, and looked out for them, and pulled them from the fire, and sought them when they were lost, and tried to preserve them and save them while passing them along literally from hand to hand, singing out brilliantly from the wreck of time to the next generation of lovers, and the next.

#7 This is Where I Leave You

One of the books in my "it's going to be a movie, you better read the book" pile.  #7 is Jonathan Tropper's This is Where I Leave You.  It is a sorry tale about dysfunctional people from a dysfunctional family attempting to live together while they sit Shiva for their dead father.  The characters are likable even with their all-too-human flaws.  The unfaithful wives, the druggie brother, the angry older brother, the overbearing mother...and then SPOILER ALERT there's the ending that is NOT an ending.  I hate it when books don't wrap it up.  I was told that this is the first of a yet-to-be-written sequel...so that makes it a little better ~ but the ending was dissapointing.

Quotes & Words

p82 ~ cataclysmically

    relating to or denoting a violent nateral event

p182 ~ there's always a last time.  If you could remember every last time, you'd never stop grieving.

p 265 ~ nomenclature

   the devising or choosing of names for things

p286 ~ That's the thing about life; everythign feels so permanent, but you can disappear in an instant.

p328 ~ Life is huge, but it can turn on a dime.

fl: "Dad is dead," Wendy says offhandedly, like it's happened before, like it happens everyday.  ll: Tomorrow is anybody's guess.  I've got a baby girl on the way, a borrowed Porsche, and fourteen grand in a shopping bag.  Anything can happen.

#4

#4 was a Combination Real Book & Kindle Digital Book ~ because that's how I roll.  A sweet lady at church recommended Rocket Boys to me by Homer Hickman Jr.  I had it on my wish list on my Kindle ~ and she handed me her copy of the book, which had been reprinted and renamed October Sky, after the movie that had been made from the original Rocket Boys novel.  So, not only did I read this book in two different formats, I read it as two different titles.  I am livin' on the EDGE here, people.
I love a memoir that reads like a novel.  Homer Hickman, on top of being a self-taught rocket scientist, is quite a story teller.  This is the story of a young boy growing up in a dying coal mining town.  It really gave life to that time, that struggle, and the culture of a company town.  It a story of a dreamer, who becomes driven to learn.  He also becomes the hero of this small town, as someone who can do them proud & show the world the greatness that can come of hard work.

Quotes:
p135 ~ "What's the hardest thing you ever learned, Dad?" I asked abruptly.  He leaned on the rail of the stoop.  "Entropy," he said finally.  I didn't understand the word and he knew it.  "Entropy is the tendency of everything to move toward confusion and disorder as time passes," he explained.  "It's part of the first law of thermodynamics."  I must have looked bland.  "No matter how perfect the thing," he continued patiently, "the moment it's created it begins to be destroyed."

Good Word:
p150 ~  besmirched

   damage the reputation of someone or something in the opinion of others

p185 ~ I knew better than to thank Dad for any of it.  Some dogs you're better off to just let lie in the sun.

p295 ~ "In the queer mass of human destiny, the determining factor has always been luck"

p301 ~ "The Lord preserves the simple" was Mom's response when I mentioned this to her.

fl: Until I began to build and launch rockets, I didn't know my hometown was at war with itself over its children and that my parents were locked in a kind of bloodless combat over how my brother and I would live our lives.  ll: Even now, Coalwood endures, and no one, not careless industry or overzealous government, can ever completely destroy it --not while we who once lived there may recall our life among its places, or especially remember rockets that once leapt into the ir, propelled not by physics but by the vibrant love of an honorable people, and the instruction of a dear teacher, and the dreams of boys.