BOOK REVIEWS

I'M CURRENTLY READING......."The Five People You Meet In Heaven" By Mitch Albom, author of "Tuesday's With Morrie"

These are the books that are stacked on my bedside table; Portrait Of A Killer, Jack The Ripper Case Closed by Patricia Cornwell, Everything's Eventual by Stephen King, Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand, Grave Secrets by Kathy Reichs. I've started reading Portrait Of A Killer and found that's its a good book, although a bit intense to read. I've also started reading Grave Secrets, which is really interesting. I've always liked forensic science. I've thumbed through Atlas Shrugged and Everything's Eventual, but haven't started reading either of them. Seems I'm either too tired and fall asleep after the 1st page, or I don't have enough light to see due to these old eyes! One way or another I will get around to reading these.

Homesick by Sela Ward read 2/16/03

I loved Sela Ward in "Once And Again" a great show on ABC. Alas it is no longer, so I was intrigued to read her new book, "a story of one woman’s journey to reconnect with the landscape of her childhood". Sela Ward considers herself first and foremost a small town girl. The oldest of four children, she was raised by her father, who helped her believe in herself, and by her mother who taught her a sense of the importance of virtues, like self respect, grace, and sacrifice. In her hometown of Meridian, Mississippi, within a tightly knit community of neighbors and kin, Sela learned ways that would remain with her throughout life-humble virtues that were "forged in the hearth of a loving home". Sela Ward left home after graduating from the University of Alabama. She left for the excitement of cities like New York and Los Angeles, to find her passion, which ended up being an actress. But as she started her own family, she found herself pinning for the comforts of her small town childhood, and wishing she could give that to her children. She and her husband built a second home on a farm near Meridian, where she and her family can getaway several times a year. Sela also became involved in several projects designed to restore the vitality of the hometown she remembers from her childhood. Reading this book made me realize what is important in life, and that is; family, traditions, and the sense of belonging. It took me back to when I was young, and all the fun times we use to have, and made me want to create that in my family. I think that is what Sela Ward is trying to share with us, the value of family and the memories we can create by taking the time to be with one another. A really good read that makes you want to share with your family.

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold read 11/02

I haven’t been as moved by a book in a long time. Alice Sebold is a gifted storyteller, and leads us down an irresistible and haunting path with this book. "The Lovely Bones" is a haunting tale about Susie Salmon, a 14-year-old girl who is murdered. Susie Salmon narrates her story from heaven, a heaven that she creates. School with a never-ending recess, textbooks that are Seventeen, and Vogue magazines; whatever she desires. From heaven Susie can see her family, friends and even the person who killed her. She watches as events unfold following her death; you feel the pangs of adolescence, sisterly bonds, a marriage going through troubled times; the accused and cleared innocent victims struggles. She watches her father try to discover her killer’s identity, and her boyfriend move on. All this is told with a 14 year old’s innocence, and at times it can be very difficult to read. But Susie beckons you on, immerses you in her story, and moves you like no other book can. At the end I cried, and wanted more. I think some people will be put off by the subject of the book, after all it sounds disturbing to want to read a murdered child tell her story. Maybe it was the loss of my son that made me a little more willing to subject myself to such a hard read. I know I felt some parallels while I was reading this story. While my son wasn’t murdered, I certainly felt he would be happy in this kind of heaven; one where he could walk, talk and in general have his life be so much more than it ever was here on earth. I always felt he had a story to tell me too. Alice Sebold has created a story that will touch many people in many different ways. A unique, sad, and wonderful story, that I dare you to read.

Lucky by Alice Sebold read 12/02

Right on the heels of reading "The Lovely Bones" I jumped into "Lucky". This book is a memoir of Alice Sebold’s rape at the age of 18. "Lucky" is a much harder read (for obvious reasons) than "The Lovely Bones". I read on-line it was while she was writing "The Lovely Bones" that she realized this book needed to be written first. After an intense 1-week read of "Lucky" I question whether I would be as good at surviving such a crime as she did. At a very young age, Alice Sebold possessed a strong, intelligent spirit, and while she dipped low later in her life because of what happened, I felt she loves life and wanted to survive. How she did that is amazing reading. Her childhood and much of her adolescence was spent with a well meaning, but purely dysfunctional family. In excruciatingly explicit detail, the book starts out with her account of the rape, at once scaring the reader, and then enticing them to be so bold as to read on. There was a lot of "back track reading" (if you will) for me, as I could not believe what she had written, or that certain events happened in just "that" way. People and life can be so cruel. "Lucky" makes you angry not only that Alice Sebold was raped, but also that the justice system and people in general could be so cold. What amazed me most about "Lucky" was that from the beginning Alice Sebold promised herself that she would write a book about her experience. With amazing resilience, she remembered the little details; gave a formal affidavit on her rape case; was subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury; viewed the line up, testified with strength and candor, and eventually was told that Gregory Madison, her rapist, was sentenced for 8 and 1/3, to 25 years, the maximum for rape and sodomy. She wrote an article for The New York Times; Oprah read it, and many people saw her on there. It was after, that she fell, drinking and using heroin, to try and escape the hell that had enveloped her. An opportunity came for her to spend 2 months in CA at a rural artist’s colony, and she took it. She left, only to go back there again, and eventually move on. I was touched by how strong Alice Sebold was during the trial and through her life after. Her advocacy of speaking out about rape and her desire to better herself spoke to me deeply.

An interesting note on Alice Sebold; she grew up in Pennsylvania. She graduated from Syracuse University in 1984. After a brief period at graduate school in Huston, Texas, Sebold moved to the Lower Eas Side of Manhattan. she completed her MFA degree in fiction at the University of California, Irvine, in 1998. She was written up in the Orange County Register a few months back, talking about how she had participated in a new creative writing workshop program there. At UCI she worked with another author Aimee Bender, "An Invisible Sign of My Own", or "The Girl In The Flammable Skirt: Stories. Apparently they clicked because as Alice Sebold puts it "they were strange in a good sort of way"!