December 2016 Reviews

Eat Pray Love Made Me Do It by Elizabeth Gilbert (ed.)

I really liked Eat Pray Love when I first read it, but it didn't inspire me to quit my life and travel the world. This book is a collection of people who's lives were changed when they read the book by Elizabeth Gilbert. Gilbert talks about the idea coming from people who would tell her their stories at book signings or events. Some of the stories were interesting, but some didn't really seem "life-altering" enough to merit a book about it. Also, the stories were mostly like a page or two (a few were longer), but I would have rather had fewer, longer stories that were more dramatically transforming. I thought this book was OK, but I wouldn't really recommend it.

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah (Books & Banter and Evening Edition book clubs)

The Nightingale follows sisters Vianne and Isabelle as they try to survive in occupied France during World War II. Vianne's husband is sent off to fight and she is alone with their young daughter Sophie, so Isabelle comes to stay with them. Isabelle can sense early on that the Nazi occupation will only get much worse and decides to find ways to help the resistance movement. Vianne struggles to provide for her daughter as the war worsens. Both women will do things they never imagined both to survive and to resist the Nazis.

The beginning of this book was VERY slow and Isabelle's character was ridiculously irritating and immature. The story gets better and is told alternately by Isabelle and Vianne. Both women find out what they are really made of by the horrors of war. The ending is definitely a tear-jerker, but there are quite a few threads that are wrapped up a little too neatly. This is like the Hallmark movie version of a WWII book - it does show the horrors of war, but without giving anything away there were a few things that just worked out too well to be real. This doesn't even compare to All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr!

Captured: A True Story of Abduction by Indians on the Texas Frontier by Scott Zesch

After I read News of the World by Paulette Jiles she referenced this book if anyone wanted to read more about the lives of Indian captives during the late 1800's, so I decided to check it out because I LOVED News of the World. The author decides to research this topic because his great-great uncle Adolph Korn had been captured by Indians as a child and lived with them for 3 years before his rescue. Zesch had always heard family stories that Uncle Adolph never really recovered from his capture and ended up living in remote caves at the end of his life. Zesch decided to do more research into children captured and briefly raised by Native Indian tribes to try to learn more about his uncle's experiences. There were a few children who had been captured and returned to their families who wrote memoirs about their experiences, but much of the first person information has been lost. But, as Zesch finds, almost all captives even when held for less than a year had a lot of trouble re-adjusting to "white" life and most didn't want to leave their Native families. 

While there was a lot of interesting information and stories, I wish that Zesch had told more of his uncle's story. I also wish there had been a little more information about why the captives bonded so easily with their Native captors in such a short amount of time. Overall, it was an interesting book, but in my opinion it could have been a little better/more clearly written.

The Colour of Lightning by Paulette Jiles

After I read News of the World I realized that Jiles had written this previous book about Britt Johnson and his family being captured by raiding Indians and his drive to get them back. This story is based on the real life experiences of Britt Johnson. The book is great, but I'm not going to lie the chapters of the raid on Johnson's family were rough and hard to read. But, his determination to get his family back and how he does it is incredible. My absolute favorite scene is when Elizabeth Fitzgerald (the other adult captured with Britt's wife Mary) beats the SHIT out of one of her Indian captors - the BEST. SCENE. IN. THE. WHOLE. BOOK.

Jiles does a great job of capturing the issues between Native Indians and Texans in this book and almost all the characters are based on real people and is pretty true to their real stories. Definitely worth reading and you'll be thinking about it long after you're done reading.

Rescuing Jesus: How People of Color, Women, and Queer Christians Are Reclaiming Evangelicalism by Deborah Jian Lee

I was hesitant to pick up this book because I thought it might be a super left-wing, trying to "reinterpret" the truth of the Bible kind of book. But, I was very pleasantly surprised. Lee started researching this book after her own conversion and later departure from evangelicalism. She focuses on three areas - race, women, and LGBTQ and how the Church has traditionally dealt with these issues (not always very well) and how the tide is starting to turn today in these areas. Each area features one main person who's story is told throughout the book - all people who grew up in traditional evangelical churches, but started to see flaws in some of the theology they were being taught. All three ended up doing phenomenal work that really is changing evangelicalism for the better. While I didn't personally agree with every sentiment expressed in the book, I do feel like all too often the Church is associated with right-wing Republican politics instead of the radical love that Jesus modeled - cultural Christianity instead of Biblical Christianity. Definitely an eye-opening and interesting book that will make you think about how the Church can be most effective today.

Braving It: a Father, a Daughter, and an Unforgettable Journey Into the Alaskan Wild by James Campbell

I didn't know what to expect with this book, but once I got it in my hands I realized the author's cousin is Heimo Korth who is featured on the TV show The Last Alaskans. Campbell has traveled all over the world and spent a lot of time in Alaska, especially when he was researching the book he wrote about Heimo and his wife Edna's Alaskan wilderness life. When Campbell's oldest daughter turns 15 she wants to go on an Alaskan adventure with her dad. They start planning a canoe trip, but then Heimo calls and asks Campbell to come help him build a new cabin. Campbell goes and brings his daughter Aiden with him. The book is divided into 3 sections which detail 3 separate Alaskan trips he and Aiden take together. The first is helping Heimo build a new cabin the summer, the second they go back to help Heimo and Edna run their trap lines in the winter (avg. temp is -50), and the last trip is the canoe trip they were originally planning. During every trip Campbell gets to see his daughter grow and be changed by Alaska and the physicality of their trips and they develop a unique father/daughter bond as well.

Campbell is a great writer - the book flows really well and you just want to sit down and read it all in one sitting. He does a great job of describing the beauty and ruggedness of Alaska, but also the reality of the physical hardship of these trips and the work they do. I am looking forward to reading The Last Frontiersman, his book about Heimo and Edna. Overall, a great book that you won't want to put down!

A Celebration of Beatrix Potter by Beatrix Potter

Beatrix Potter was an amazing woman and she changed children's books forever with her Peter Rabbit series. In this book current children's book authors and illustrators share what Beatrix Potter's books meant to them and how she inspired them, then they illustrate a character or scene from one of her books in their style. I LOVE the Beatrix Potter books and I've read a few books about her life and she was really ahead of her time in many ways. My favorite illustrations in this book are Chris Haughton (p.29), Jen Corace (p. 59), Chuck Groenink (p. 83), and Matthew Forsythe (p.93). This is really a beautiful book and any fan of Beatrix Potter needs to see this one!

Troublemaker by Leah Remini

I heard about Leah Remini's split from Scientology when the news broke, but I honestly didn't think much of it. I knew Scientology was a cult, but I had no idea just how crazy and abusive it was until I started watching her A&E TV show. After watching one episode I was totally hooked and decided to read her book. There are a lot of obvious red flags, but what you don't know from the outside is how controlled EVERYONE is - including celebrities. There are a LOT worse things revealed in the TV show, but there is plenty revealed in this book. Remini obviously had some doubts all along about Scientology because she continued to have friends and employees who were not Scientologists (which is strongly discouraged), so when she left she did still have support. Not to say she didn't lose a lot - she did, but she had a career and family and friends outside of Scientology, which many people don't have. I have to give her a lot of credit for not only getting out of something so crazy, but for trying to make a difference by exposing the abuses of this so-called "church." Good for her! The world needs more Troublemakers!