{a thought for Thursday} Decisions

"Ever morning, until you dead in the ground, you gone have to make this decision. You gone have to ask yourself, "Am I gone believe what them fools say about me today?" — Kathryn Stockett (The Help)

{wordless wednesday} sailboats

{read: bestseller} Room by Emma Donoghue

This story is told by Jack, a five-year-old boy who's spent his entire life in one room because his mother was kidnapped. Two years into her captivity, she gives birth to Jack, and when he's five years old, she figures out a way for them to escape. But the outside world, for Jack, is a scary place. While Room was a prison cell for his Ma, it was Jack's only home. Life on the outside turns out to be more difficult than Ma had imagined, and Jack sometimes wishes they could return to Room. He misses their daily routines and different objects from their home, all of which have names.

Jack is an interesting character: He knows big words and can do more math than you'd expect a five year old to be able to do, but his social skills are understandably stunted since he's only ever interacted with his Ma. I think that choosing him to tell the story gave it a unique twist. I also liked watching Jack's growth, especially when he stayed with his grandma. She seemed to push him toward "normal" behavior more than his mother did. Of course, Ma had her own issues to deal with as a young 20-something mother who’d spent so many years locked up. Although Jack sees her as his all-powerful mother, in reality she is a fragile young woman who did the best she could under difficult circumstances. Her fragility becomes most evident after the escape, when she has a difficult time dealing with all the stresses of life and takes some drastic action.

Just out in paperback, this is a great read with a unique narrator. My book club has chosen it as an upcoming selection, and I’m looking forward to our discussion.

Room by Emma Donoghue (Little, Brown and Company, 2010)
My rating: 4 stars

{kid craft} car paintings

This past weekend, my 17 month old and I had some painting fun. We covered his picnic table with paper. We gathered a large casserole dish, paints, and a couple of small toy cars. We squirted some blobs of washable finger paint into the casserole dish. Then I showed Aaron how to drive the toy cars through the paint and then onto the paper. The cars made neat tracks on the paper. He added to it with regular paint brushes, and then created some nice scratch marks with his bubble wands. I wish I had more pictures of the process, but with only two hands, it was all I could do to keep him from painting the entire deck. We both had a wonderful time. Here is his colorful car painting:

{a thought for Thursday} How old are you?

"When you are five, you know your age down to the month. Even in your twenties, you know how old you are. I'm twenty-three you say, or maybe twenty-seven. But then in your thirties, something strange starts to happen. It is a mere hiccup at first, an instant of hesitation. How old are you? Oh, I'm--you start confidently, but then you stop. You were going to say thirty-three, but you are not. You're thirty-five. And then you're bothered, because you wonder if this is the beginning of the end. It is, of course, but it's decades before you admit it."
— Sara Gruen (Water for Elephants)

{wordless wednesday} take me to the beach

Happy Wordless Wednesday!

{read: memoir? fiction?} Say Her Name by Francisco Goldman

This is written as fiction but it felt more like a memoir to me. After the tragic accidental death of his wife, Aura, Francisco Goldman writes this nonfiction novel about her life and their relationship. If you’re like me, the term “nonfiction novel” seems like a contradiction. Either it’s true (nonfiction) or not true (fiction). Perhaps I got too caught up with trying to label this book. I was struggling with trying to remember that it was fiction and trying to figure out HOW it was fiction -- what was true? what was made up? -- but then I just decided to go with the flow.

Overall, this book left me feeling depressed. Perhaps that shouldn't have been a surprise, given the subject matter, but I was hoping for more. I wanted to like Aura but came away with the impression that she was dominated by her mother and her mother’s ideas of how she should live and what she should be and do. Aura also came across as immature, but maybe it’s just because she was in her early 20s and she was still figuring out who she was. I wanted to like Francisco, but in some ways he also seemed immature, even though he was several years older than Aura.

If you have questions about this book, don’t miss the chance to see Francisco in person. Tour information is here, and he will be at Next Chapter Bookshop in Mequon, Wis., tomorrow (Wednesday, June 8).

Say Her Name by Francisco Goldman (Grove/Atlantic, Inc., 2011)
My rating: 3 stars