Blue Like Jazz - Donald Miller

There really is no way to summarize this book, Blue Like Jazz, other than to say it is a collection of non-religious thoughts on religion, as the author, Donald Miller, points out. I'm not sure what I was expecting when I picked up this book at Barnes and Noble a couple years back. I guess I was interested in the cover and the praise my friends gave it. Turns out none of my friends have even read it though, so I'm not entirely sure what was going through my mind when I picked it up. Must have been the cover alone. It really is a pretty cover.

I liked that this book was honest. From the start, Miller tells his story, regardless of the disgust it has brought from the staunch, traditional Christian community. He talks about girls (and the lack of girls) and of pipes (and the lack of pipes) and God (and the lack of God). He discusses the people he's met and how their views on Christianity and life helped him realize his path. He talks about friendships and growing.

The novel, if I can call it that without the literary community coming after me with pitchforks, was scattered. Sequence was foregone for conversation, and even though events occurred in a different order than they were relayed, I never really noticed as a reader. Instead, I found myself pondering on my own beliefs and recognizing people in my life who reflected the characters in his. I teared up a time or two as Miller discussed life and death and I laughed at some of the situations he found himself in. It was as if Donald Miller was sitting across from me just spilling his heart out on the table over a nice cup of Earl Grey.

I heard someone is developing a movie based on Blue Like Jazz. I can't figure out how to make a movie from this book, but I guess that's why it's not my job to do so. Overall, this is a good, thought-provoking read and gives a glimpse of the heart of the emerging church in America. It's worth the read, even if you're only interested in his stories of living in the woods or how he failed at being cool.

The Postmistress - Sarah Blake

I have a degree in history, so as you might imagine, I love a good war story. The Postmistress, however, is not a good war story. It's not really even a good story on its own.

The novel is supposed to be based on the life of the postmistress in a small town on Cape Cod. The thrilling thesis: what if the postmistress never delivered a letter? Gasp! ...not really.

Instead of being about that, it flitters back and forth between the stories of two women in two countries. World War II is in full swing and these women are enduring it. The novel has small town banter and points out the plight of the Jewish people living in Europe, but nothing new for fictional World War II novels.

I think the problem is less about the fact that this is a tired story line, and more about the fact that there is no action. There's no thrill. The author dully drolls on about woman one in the most bland way possible, then carries on another 20 pages about woman two, in an equally boring and stale storyline. There is no climax or resolution because there is no action. Even though she threw in a couple fairly pointless sex scenes, the overall feeling of the story didn't change. It's just a story. It never builds, then slowly peters off in the end.

Now, I will give Blake one compliment: her verbiage is fantastic. She writes so romantically and seemingly effortlessly. It was the one element of this novel that kept me reading. The content, however, also seemed effortless, which I think was her downfall. If you're going to write in romantic prose, at least give us a feisty leading lady or true romance, a la Austen, or keep it short like Dickinson.

I'm actually wondering how much Kathryn Stockett was paid to review the novel, because her comment on the cover about how "beautifully written" and "thought-provoking" it is was the grain that encouraged me to read The Postmistress in the first place. I'm a little worried that if this is the caliber of material Stockett is endorsing, maybe the beauty of The Help was a fluke? I would like to think Stockett will put out more amazing works, but I have to wonder. It's not like I picked up this book and the cover reviewer was Cosmopolitan. At least when I pick up those books, I know what I'm in for.

I was hoping for another Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Didn't get it. If you're really bored and this happens to be the only book on your shelf you haven't read, go ahead and read it. Otherwise, I wouldn't recommend it.

The Bean Trees - Barbara Kingsolver

When I was teaching, I was often forced to read swill then pass it along to my students without letting them know that I thought the book was a waste of time. Yet another mandatory read, The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver is a flop. Because Kingsolver is such an acclaimed author I can only assume her other works are phenomenal, however, if they are all written like this one, I fear there is no hope for the literary public. Had I picked up this novel of my own accord, I would have seen that the media commentary printed boldly across the top of the cover was from Glamour magazine; not exactly the choice I would have made had there been better comments to choose from. But alas, this is another book I was asked to teach to my junior class, and by golly, I was going to get through it if it killed me!

I think my biggest frustration with the novel isn’t the fact that the story is boring and lacks a clear direction; my biggest complaint is that the protagonist, Taylor Greer, is a completely inconsistent character. She changes her persona to conform to the situations at hand. If I were asked a simple question ranking higher on the Blooms scale such as, “How do you think Taylor would react to [blank] situation,” I would be completely unable to answer intelligently because the author has given no clear indication of WHO Taylor is at the root of her being. What is the point in trying to TEACH with a book so poorly written? How am I supposed to lead students’ understanding of character development if there is no development to be had? I understand this was Kingsolver’s first novel and I also have been told by many people how great some of her later works are (Poisonwood Bible being one of them). Why the textbook adoption committee at any school district would choose this novel as a mandatory read when there are clearly better books to be read is beyond my ability to fathom. Being forced to read poorly written and/or boring books is the reason many teenagers despise reading.

There will be no summary left for this one mostly because I don’t care to revisit the story to provide one. I would like to make one thing clear: my anger is not toward the author. This was her first book. With experience comes the ability to string a great novel. My anger has been caused by the fact that this novel found its way to a mandatory reading list at the high school where, at the end of the semester, I had too many students admit books like this one were the reason they didn’t read.

Something New at Mommy For Reals: Stardust - Neil Gaiman

Most of you don't know this, but once upon a time I was an educator. I'm a stay-at-home momma now, but even though my life has turned from SATs and essays to binkies and diapers, I still love a good book.

Before creating Mommy For Reals, I had another blog, a book blog I created in collaboration with a friend of mine. When she had her son, she decided blogging wasn't really for her anymore and I was left to tend to our little piece of the internet alone. After much consideration, I have decided to combine all my interests into one blog. I know it is a risk. I know I may lose followers. My goal has always been to portray myself to my online friends as I am in person and it would be unfair to hide my uber-nerdy, book-always-in-tow side from you all! If you don't want to read my book reviews, feel free to skip them, just please don't leave me for good!

So, here we go.



Stardust is one of my favorite movies of all time and every time I’m asked why, I never seem to have a very good answer. “Because I like it” is usually my retort of choice. I know it isn’t a reasonable answer and I realize the vagueness defeats the purpose of the inquirer’s intent, but I really cannot seem to put into words why I enjoy the movie so much. It’s fantasy. It’s adventure. It’s Robert DeNiro in a petticoat. So, when I discovered that my favorite movie was actually based on a novel by Neil Gaiman, I rushed to my local book dealer (who am I kidding? Barnes and Noble stores are EVERYWHERE) and picked up a copy that wouldn’t fit on my already overflowing bookshelves. Jumping to the top of my “To Read” list, I poured through the pages eagerly only to find that in this case, the movie was better.

This is a story about a young man named Tristan who adventures into the land of Faerie (Stormhold, in the movie) to find a star that has fallen from the heavens to bring back to the undeserving brat he has found himself in love with. As it turns out, fallen stars are quite desirable and Tristan finds himself matched in a race with a brutal prince of the land and a trio of dangerous witches. I don’t want to give away too much of the plot because it is such a fantastic story and I wouldn’t want to ruin the fun of putting the pieces together for anyone.

The reason I like the film more than the book is just a matter of personal preference. The movie has more instances of comedic relief than the novel and leaves out some of the more provocative scenes, whose detail was really quite unnecessary to the storyline, but to be expected from a title nestled on a shelf labeled “Fantasy”. I haven’t read any of Neil Gaiman’s other novels but I have seen many snippits of him floating around the Internet which make me quite intrigued by his nature. It seems the contributors of one of my favorite websites, www.neatorama.com, are equally as intrigued as Gaiman has been the topic of many of their posts. I would definitely give another one of his books a shot but I would probably scour the library for them rather than invest in owning a copy of my own.

Overall, Gaiman’s story is worth the effort. I recommend the movie over the novel, but if you are just one of those people who MUST read the novel first, go for it. Just note: I would not hand THE BOOK to anyone who is troubled by the details of a little sexual exploit.