Three Weeks with My Brother - Nicholas Sparks & Micah Sparks

I've actually never read any of Nicholas Sparks's fiction - though I have a few of his novels sitting on my shelves, and keep meaning to rent the movie based on his book "The Notebook." But, I came across this one while indulging my latest obsession with travel literature. Leaving his wife and five children back in North Carolina to embark on an adventure with his only brother, this is billed as an account of Sparks' three week trip around the world - visiting locations such as Easter Island, Macchu Picchu, the Taj Mahal, and Ankgor Wat. It is also, however, a memoir of Sparks's entire live to date, a look at his interesting family dynamic - the lasting impact of his mother's words, and his incredible bond with his siblings. The travel aspect takes a back seat - especially since the Sparks's choose to take their trip as part of a travel group of over 80 people that focuses on churches and museums, rather than taking in the everyday life and culture of the incredible cities they visit. Often times, Sparks's observations of a given country are glib and bordering on insensitive, albeit admittedly humorous - and as someone who tires of museums and churches very quickly, I could definitely relate. But, ultimately, this is not a book about travel around the world. Sparks's stories about growing up are endearing - and the pain he suffers in losing people he loves and coping with his own developmentally delayed child - brought tears to my eyes. Sparks is also painfully honest about possible mental illness in his family, and his own struggles with excessive stress and guilt. While I enjoyed the travel aspect, it was simply a vehicle for Sparks to tell the real story - one about survival, love, and the importance of family.

When a Crocodile Eats the Sun - Peter Godwin

I haven't finished many books lately - mostly because I'm on another string of bad books - and I spent a reading-free 4-days with the mock trial team that I coach - definitely a strange experience for me. I checked this book out based on a recommendation from my friend Hillary who does a lot of healthcare work in Africa. It is the memoir of a white man who grew up in Zimbabwe, but currently lives in Manhattan. His parents, deeply rooted in their African community, refuse to leave even after the father has a heart-attack and it becomes obvious that the country does not have the resources or the desire to provide him with adequate medical care. Godwin returns to Zimbabwe to assist his family and to confront his ever-changing and unstable homeland. I thought Godwin did a good job balancing his telling of the political history of Zimbabwe, along with the more personal telling of his family's story. About a third of the way through the book, Godwin discovers that his father is Jewish. This revelation appears to cause somewhat of an identity crisis for Godwin, though I found his reaction overly-dramatic and inexplicable, particularly from a white person growing up in Africa who has probably confronted issues of identity continually throughout his life. I found Godwin's accounts of his interactions, growing up and in the present, with non-white Africans insightful - and at times painful. But, for some reason, I did not find him to be a particularly likeable narrator, and unfortunately, this interfered with my ability to completely absorb his telling of Zimbabwe's powerful history and shocking decline.

Twilight - Stephenie Meyer

A week ago, I'd never heard of this book. But, then my friend Raz told me it was all the rage - and suddenly I started seeing mentions of it everywhere. Jake's 15-year old cousin Emily confirmed that it was a good read, so I went and checked it out from the library. I did know going in that this was from the Young Adult section, and that it featured vampires. The main character is 17-year old Bella who has recently moved to dreary Forks, WA to live with her father. She finds herself inexplicably very popular with the boys at her new school - and in particular with an eccentric and beautiful boy named Edward. She falls immediately under his spell, and it isn't long before she discovers that he is a vampire. Not much else happens in this 570 page book. Bella and Edward have inane conversation after inane conversation about their love for each other, constantly frustrate each other, get mad and apologize - basically the typical high school relationship. There is a little action at the end involving another vampire coven, and a few interesting tidbits about the lives of Edward and his vampire family. This is by no means brilliant prose, but it's a fun story - and something I can see teenage girls falling absolutely in love with - after all, what 17-year old wouldn't want to imagine herself in a romantic relationship with a gorgeous vampire? There are two more books in the series, and a movie featuring the kid who played Cedric Diggory in the Harry Potter films on the way. Definitely a fun diversion - I'm already in the queue at the library for the second book in the series.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith

This book has been on my to-read list for awhile, but then I found out that my friend Linda was the model for the book cover back when she was 8 and growing up in Brooklyn (that's her on the left!) - and it made me even more excited to find out what this book was all about. This is the coming of age story of Francie Nolan - an impoverished Irish-American in Brooklyn pre-WWI. Her father, though doting, is an insufferable alcoholic and her mother is a hardworking janitor who just wants a better life for her children. Coming right off of Angela's Ashes, many of the topics were a bit too similar and I kept getting the characters confused. But, mostly I enjoyed learning about the world Francie creates for herself: how she takes care of her younger brother Neely, how she struggles to get noticed by the world, and how she figures out how to make something of herself. There are some colorful characters in this book - including Francie's father and her brash and scandalous Aunt Sissy. The years pass a little too quickly at the end, but overall this is a marvelous story about growing up - from the very realistic perspective of a young girl.

Angela's Ashes - Frank McCourt

My husband is generally very accomodating of my reading/book buying and borrowing obsessions. He always asks for recommendations and only once in awhile will he politely request that I try to keep all my books confined to the bookshelves instead of scattered all over the bedroom, bathroom, office, and living room. But, I have never seen him so excited about something I was reading than when he noticed I had picked up Angela's Ashes. I believe his exact words were, "You're just reading that NOW? EVEN I read that 10 years ago!!!" He then smiled gleefully and went about his business. I think I put off reading this book for so long because I'd heard it was really depressing - which probably doesn't explain why I read all the other depressing books that I read, but this time I can't pretend that I wasn't warned. This is McCourt's memoir about growing up povery-stricken in Ireland with his alcoholic father, multiple siblings, and depressed yet enduring mother. Now that the memoir genre has taken over the bestseller lists, I did feel like reading Angela's Ashes 10 years after its publication was kind of like watching "Star Wars" in 2008, after so many advances have been made in special effects. Yet, McCourt's story is brilliantly written - I particularly appreciated that he told the stories from the perspective of a child, and didn't feel the need to inject too much of an adult's explanations into his perceptions. But, it didn't hold together in a few places, and I would have liked to better understand by the end how exactly he and his brothers ended up so well educated and successful -- despite the fact that they truly came from nothing with parents who were not able properly to supervise and nurture them. The parts that really stuck with me were McCourt's enduring love and admiration for his father - no matter how many times his dad spent his wages on liquor. And, how he hoarded the small pennies he earned to spend on candy - rather than on necessities for his family. These seem to be the qualities of children that no amount of repeated disappointment or scoldings can change. Overall this is a stark window into the lives of families enduring poverty - and a picture of Irish life during a very difficult time.

East Toward Dawn - Nan Watkins

For the past couple weeks, I've been getting the travel itch again. I've spent a lot of time on-line researching all my faux vacations to Nicaragua, Belize, and Spain. So, I decided that reading travel literature might be a good way to cure my wanderlust. East Toward Dawn chronicles Watkins's 60-day journey around the world to celebrate her 60th birthday. She decides to travel alone, though she has friends and family in many of the locations she visits. Along the way, Watkins struggles to find meaning in her life as a musician, a wife, and most importantly a mother. She is now divorced (though in a new relationship) and still figuring out how to deal with the loss of her young son many years earlier. In general, I love travel literature. Reading a little always makes me want to read more. Watkins was a good reminder that I have many more places to read about and that I do enjoy learning about the world through the eyes of different types of people. Overall, however, Watkins story-telling was a bit disappointing. She seemed to try too hard to view everything through the perspective of her own personal experiences, rather than appreciating the differences in the cultures she was visiting. But, she did inspire me to pick up three more travel memoirs at the bookstore this weekend - one by Nicholas Sparks about his travels around the world with his brother, one by Paul Theroux in the South Pacific, and the last about a Thai-American who travels to Thailand to become a monk. We'll see where those stories take me in the upcoming months.

The History of Love - Nicole Krauss

I was a bit hesitant to read this book after finding out that its author is married to Jonathan Safran Foer, author of Everything is Illuminated, a book that I just couldn't get through. Not that spouses would necessarily have a similar writing style, but you can never be too sure. I'm glad I took a chance - this book revolves around two main characters - Leo Gursky, an aging Polish immigrant who once wrote a novel, but is now afraid he will vanish from the earth without anyone ever remembering him. And, Alma, a precocious young girl trying to hold together her widowed mother and eccentric brother. Alma's mother is mysteriously asked to translate a book called The History of Love. Alma discovers that she is named after the main character in the book, and becomes convinced that the character is based upon a real person. She sets out in New York to find this woman and eventually her path leads her to Leo Gursky. The plot line can get a little confusing at times, with character's memories of events often at odds with reality, but all in all this is a wonderful mystery. I particularly enjoyed the chapters that focused on Alma - the Scout Finch of her generation.