A Map of the World by Jane Hamilton

Once in a while when I'm browsing the library I check out the book that the book club is reading for the month and this is one of them.  They are usually very well written and are usually bestsellers.  This particular book is also a member of Oprah's Book Club.

Alice Goodwin has a good life in Prairie Center, a small town in Wisconsin.  A handsome husband, two beautiful little girls, 400 acres of farm land with a springfed pond, a great old house, and a barn complete with milk cows.  She works as school nurse at the town's elementary school.  Her neighbor, Theresa, is her best friend and the two often swap babysitting duties. One day while Alice is babysitting her friends two girls, she decides to take the girls for a swim in the pond. She goes upstairs to change into her swimsuit, during which time Theresa's little 2 year old, Lizzie,  rushes out to the pond and drowns.  The community mourns, Alice is in shambles, the relationship between the two friends obviously dwindles. 

Meanwhile, another child, a six year old boy at the school with severe emotional problems, who Alice sees often as nurse, and has given her quite a hard time has told his mother as well as authorities that Alice has sexually molested him.  She is arrested and taken to jail where she spends three months.  Her bail is set at about $100,000.00 and her husband eventually sells the farm to get her out.  The family moves to the city to await trial.

The trial date arrives and still grieving over the drowned girl, hurt from a fight in jail, struggling with her relationship with her husband and her best friend, Alice must testify. 

An awesome page turner.  Powerful, unforgettable, daring, compelling, gripping, and exquisite.  When I first began reading the book, I didn't have a clue what it was going to be about because there wasn't a summary on the back or on the inside jacket cover.  Since it was a book club book I decided to give a try anyway and I'm glad that I did.  The first few pages are a little slow describing the family and the farm life and I thought it was going to be boring, but believe me, it definitely picked up very soon.  Bravo, Jane Hamilton!

Kids Section: Great Books for Kids

Dirt Boy by Erik Jon Slangerup.  A boy named Fister Farnello is always getting dirty.  To avoid having to take a bath he runs away and makes friends with Dirt Man, a very dirty giant.  Fister gets so dirty that he has mice and birds living in his hair, mushrooms growing between his toes, and moss growing in his bellybutton.  After days of frolicking in the dirt with Dirt Man, and even the birds and mice are complaining of the smell coming off of Fister, he decides he'd better go home.  At first his mother doesn't recognize him, and thinking him a monster, sprays him with the hose.  Thats when she realizes the monster is her long lost son and takes him straight to the bathtub. "It took twenty-three bars of soap, sixteen bottles of shampoo, one hundred and seventy-nine gallons of bathwater, forty-four million bubbles, and eleven tubes of toothpaste to finally get Fister Farnello clean."  And so the moral of the story is that it is ok to be clean.  This book is primarily written for children in grades k-3.  Heck, who'm I kidding?  I loved it! 

Other Books my kids have loved:

Where the Wild Things Are, A little boy in a wolf suit causes some mischief and is sent to his room without supper and he imagines that his room grows vines and turns into a forest where he meets some Wild Things.

Miss Spiders Tea Party, A lonely spider who eats only flowers makes friends with bugs.

Mama Do You Love Me, A little Inuit girl conjures up all kinds of reasons why her mother might not love her, but of course her mother still loves her even when shes angry or upset. 

 

Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone? THE CARTER FAMILY

Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone? THE CARTER FAMILY & Their Legacy in American Music by Mark Zwonitzer with Charles Hirshberg

After reading CASH, The Autobiography(See December 2003 Journal Entry)and learning about the Carters through him, I had to have more.  Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone is the first major biography of the Carter Family and their legacy as musical pioneers.  Their musical style became the basis for what is country, folk, and bluegrass music today.  A.P. Carter was a poor, eccentric mountain farmer from Poor Valley, Maces Springs, Virginia in the foothills of Clinch Mountain.  He married Sara Dougherty, who was the cousin to the late famous Mother Maybelle Carter.  Maybelle was the wife of A.P.'s cousin Eck Carter.  A.P., Sara, and Maybelle started out playing for friends and neighbors in the early 1920's.  Soon A.P. would travel about the mountain area collecting songs and writing songs of his own.  In 1927, the three went to Tennessee to audition for a New York recording executive who was paying fifty dollars for any song recorded.  Two of country music's first stars were produced from those sessions:  Jimmie Rodgers and The Carter Family.

By the 30s, the Carter Family was selling more than a million records and was appearing regularly on XERA, a high-powered radio station broadcasting from coast to coast.  People all over the country would gather around their radios listening to this music that told their life stories. 

Here is the story of the Carter family as they were.  Their trials and tribulations.  Their down home lives, their sadnesses, the great scandal and divorce of Sara and A.P.  The story of how A.P. died a lonely man on a mountain with a lot of land but very little recognition of what he had accomplished.  The story of Sara's true love Coy Bays and how she ran off to live with him in California and left her children behind with A.P. in Virginia.  The story of Maybelle, the sweet, talented, mother who eventually made her daughters, June, Helen, and Anita famous and traveled with the Johnny Cash show.  Maybelle was idolized by many, many musicians and her guitar picking style is still copied today. 

Now, I have been listening to the old Carter Music.  My husband can't stand it, he comes in a asks if we can listen to something else.  I, on the other hand, get the chills from listening to Maybelle on guitar or autoharp, Sara's country voice, the songs from our past, or A.P.'s deep bass voice chiming in from time to time.  Even if you don't like country music, you should read this book.  It has a lot of history, American history and I learned a lot.  Thanks Mark and Charles.  You have researched, recorded and written an awesome story of a family that will live on in America's heart forever. 

To hear samples of the music please visit:  http://www.un-broken.net/music/

Mirror, Mirror by Gregory Maguire

Mirror, Mirror by Gregory Maguire.  It is 1502 and Bianca De Nevada is seven years old.  She and her father, Vicente De Nevada live in Tuscany in the hills on a farm with Primavera Vecchia, the cook and Fra Ludovico, the priest.  One day the son and daughter of the Pope, Lucrezia and Cesare Borgia, come to visit and order Vicente off on a quest to find a branch of the Tree of Knowledge, which is protected in an ancient monastery on the Holy Mountain in Thessaly.  He leaves Bianca in the care of Lucrezia who sends her off into the woods with the hunter to be killed.  The hunter takes her out and leaves her there to find her own fate.  She stumbles upon the dwarves cottage where she is taken care of until Lucrezia learns from the mirror that she is still alive.  Years pass and Vicente returns to the farm with the famous relic to learn that his daughter "ran away and has died". 

Mirror, Mirror, is the adult "so to speak" version of the classic Snow White.  I enjoyed the new spin on the tale and have read others by Gregory Maguire, such as "Confessions of an Ugly stepsister" and "Wicked", which is the wicked witch's version of The Wizard of Oz.  I have just finished reading "Lost" also by the author, which was supposed to be a new tale of Ebenezer Scrooge, but I just got lost reading it.  It was more about some chic who is infatuated with her cousin. Ugghh.

      

Been Here and Gone: A Memoir of the Blues by David Dalton

Been Here and Gone: A Memoir of the Blues by David Dalton. 

"Can I tell you about the blues? Baby, I was born with the blues...."

This is a fiction about an old time bluesman, Coley Williams.  Coley was a backup musician for some of the most famous blues artists of the 20th century.  At the age of 102 Coley agrees to tell his life story for the first time. He was born into a farming family on the Mississippi Plantations where he soon discovered his talent for playing the blues.  He travels the Mississippi Delta, hopping freighters and crossing crossroads, to play in juke joints and little shanties leaving his family behind.  During this 100 year span he encounters the Great Flood of 1927 , the Great Depression, the race riots of the 1960s and the Civil Rights Movement.  Here are mini-biographies of some great blues legends whose paths he crosses: Charley Patton, Tommy Johnson, Bessie Smith, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Ma Rainey, T-Bone Walker, Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Robert Johnson, Elvis, Jimi Hendrix, among many many others.   David Dalton, formerly of the Rolling Stone magazine, has written a true history of the blues.  Traditionally he has written biographies of great musicians such as the Beatles, Janis Joplin, The Rolling Stones, James Dean, Jim Morrison, and the Grateful Dead. 

I enjoyed the southern voice and feel of this book as well as the history and the music.  The music is sad, electrifying, artful, and can never be repeated.  Thanks to David Dalton for giving us the blues!

Every Tongue Got To Confess-by Zora Neale Hurston

Every Tongue Got To Confess-Negro Folk Tales from the Gulf States by Zora Neale Hurston. This book is chock full of African-American folk tales collected by Ms. Hurston in the rural South at the turn of the twentieth-century.  From God tales, Preacher tales and Devil tales, to Heaven tales, White-folk tales, and mistaken identity tales they reveal attitudes about slavery, faith, race relations, family and romance that have been passed down for generations. 

Example:    A man who was down on his knees praying for God to forgive him for stealing hogs said: "You might as well forgive me for that ole turkey gobbler dat roosts in de chinaberry tree, too, Lord."  - Edward Morris

Ms. Hurston records the voices of ordinary people with great self-awareness, humor, and amazing wordplay.  Her power of storytelling is fascinating.  I was first introduced to her writings by a book club reading at my local library and will read all her books that I can get my hands on.  The power of the library is immense.

   

You Got Nothing Coming-Notes From A Prison Fish by Jimmy Lerner

You Got Nothing Coming-Notes From A Prison Fish, by Jimmy Lerner.  Jimmy Lerner was a professional "suit"  living in a nice suburban town out in California with a drinking problem.  The drinking led him to a divorce and AA meetings.  While in an AA meeting he meets this crazy guy who torments him night and day.  He ends up killing the guy in self defense and lands in prison.  The book is a true account of the murder and Jimmy's time in prison.  Meet "Kansas", a large skinhead with a Swastika tattooed to the back of his head who becomes Jimmy's cellmate.  Lots of interesting characters and prison stories are here.  Jimmy served 6 years in prison where he wrote the book, and was subsequently pardoned.  Hats off to Mr. Lerner for sharing such a tragic part of his life with us.  The book is funny, educational, and bizzare and I enjoyed it greatly.