The Handmaid's Tale

The Handmaid's Tale
by Margaret Atwood

Paperback, 309 pages

Published March 16th 1998 by Anchor  

(first published 1985) 

 

ISBN 038549081X (ISBN13: 9780385490818)

Finished Book:  January 1, 2011

My Rating: 3 Stars

About the Book
(Goodreads)

It is the world of the near future, and Offred is a Handmaid in the home of the Commander and his wife. She is allowed out once a day to the food market, she is not permitted to read, and she is hoping the Commander makes her pregnant, because she is only valued if her ovaries are viable. Offred can remember the years before, when she was an independent woman, had a job of her own, a husband and child. But all of that is gone now...everything has changed.

My Thoughts on This Book

I found this book to be an odd one at first.  It was a book club selection and was a college classic at best.  I'd heard of it, but never really knew anything about the storyline.  Imagine going to work one day to find the government has taken over EVERYTHING.  They take your credit cards and cash, leaving you an allotted amount of money on a government issued money card.  The government now owns you and determines what class of people you are to be put into for your own protection.  If you really sit and think about it, it isn't that far fetched.  Think about our government for a minute.  If they really wanted to, they could trace everything about you...where you shop, where you work, what you spend your money on, where you vacation.  I can only imagine how this book was perceived when it first was written.  I'm sure it was a little far fetched.  What about now?  Not so much in my opinion.

The Girls from Ames

The Girls from Ames: A Story of Women and Friendship by Jeffrey Zaslow

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

About the Book:
Meet the Ames Girls: eleven childhood friends who formed a special bond growing up in Ames, Iowa.  As young women, they moved to eight different states yet managed to maintain an enduring friendship that would carry them trhough college and careers, marrage, and motherhood, dating and divorce, a child's illness, and the mysterious death of one member of the group.  Capturing their remarkable story, The Girls from Ames  is a testament to the deep bonds of women as they experience life's joys and challenges - and the power of friendship to triumph over heartbreak and unexpected tragedy.

The girls, now in their forties, have a lfetime of memories in common, some evocavative of their generation and some that will resonate with any woman who has ever had a friend.  Photograph by photograph, recollection by recollection, occasionally with tears and often with great laughter, their sweeping and moving story is shared by Jeffey Zaslow, Wall Street Journal columnist, as he attempts to define the matchless bonds of female friendship.  It demonstrates how close female relationships can shape every aspect of women's lives - their sense of themselves, their choice of men, their need for validation, their relationships with their mothers, their dreams for their daughters - and reveals how much friendships thrive, rewarding those who have committed to them.

My Review:
This is the story of Karla, Kelly, Marilyn, Jane, Jenny, Karen, Cathy, Angela, Sally, Diana, and Sheila.  I was so moved by this book.  I haven't read a book in a long time that just consumed me like this one did.  It made me sit and ponder past friendships and relationships that molded who I am.  To some extent, aren't we who we are because of those childhood friendships?  As I read, I kept recalling old stories from my own childhood.  Ones I hadn't thought of in years... 

For the most part, I liked how the book what broken up.  However, there were entire chapters devoted to four of the girls, then the rest were stories and highlights of all the girls.  I would have liked to have seen individual chapters on all the girls.  Yes, I'm nosy.  What about the dirt on the others?  Their stories made me laugh and cry, envy that their relationships are still strong today.

Look Again

Look Again by Lisa Scottoline

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

About the Book:
When Ellen Gleeson gets a "Have You Seen This Child?" flyer in the mail, she almost throws it away.  But something about it makes her look again, and her heart stops.  The child in the photo looks exactly like her adopted son, Will.

Everything inside her tells her to deny the similarity between her son and the boy in the photo, because she knows her adoption was lawful.  But she's a journalist and won't be able to stop thinking about the photo until she gets to the truth.  And she can't shake the question: If Will rightfully belongs to someone else, should she keep him or give him up?  Ellen makes the wrenching decision to investigate, uncovering clues no one was meant to uncover.  And when she digs too deep, she risks losing her life-and that of the son she loves.

My Review:
What would you do?  That's what the author is asking the reader through the entire book.  I'm glad the storyline (a) is about a boy and (b) about an adopted child.  To be honest, I had a hard time even imagining that I would ask myself, "What would I do?"  I can't imagine have a feeling that my child isn't really mine.  I liked the premise of the storyline.  It kept me interested and I really liked Ellen, the main character.  Then about 3/4 of the way through, the storyline got a little "out there" and all of a sudden, the book became a murder mystery.  HUH?  Up until that point, I was really enjoying the emotionally charged book I was reading.  The ending was far fetched and predictable for me.  Don't get me wrong, I liked it, but not as much as I would have with a completely different ending!

The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder

The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder
by Rebecca Wells

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

About the Book:
The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder is the sweet, sexy, funny journey of Calla Lily's life set in Wells' expanding fictional Louisiana landscape.  In the small river town of La Luna,  Calla bursts into being, a force of nature as luminous as the flower she is named for.  Under the loving light of the Moon Lady, the feminine force that will guide and protect her throughout her life, Calla enjoys a blissful childhood-until it is cut short.  Her mother, M'Dear, a woman of rapture and love, teaches Calla compassion, and passes on to her the art of healing through the humble womanly art of "fixing hair."  At her mother's side, Calla further learns that this same touch of hands on the human body can quiet her own soul.  It is also on the banks of the La Luna River that Calla encournters sweet, succulent first love, with a boy named Tuck.

But when Tuck leaves Calla with a broken heart, she transorms hurt into inspiration and heads for the wild and colorful cit of New Orleans to study at L'Academie de Beaute de Crescent.  In that extravagant big river city, she finds her destiny-and comes to understand fully the power of her "healing hands," to change lies and soothe pain, including her own.  When Tuck reappears years later, he presents her with an offer that is colored by the memories of lost love.  But who know how Calla Lily, a "daughter of the Moon Lady," will repond?

A tale of family and friendship, tragedy and triumph, loss and love. 

My Review:
I liked it.  I liked the characters and the setting.  I was a bit thrown of by the Moon Lady exerpts (could have done without that).  Experiencing a young girl as a teenager in loved made me relate back to my own childhood and first love.  Once Calla moves away to experience life, I loved her new gay friends in New Orleans.  Really, they made the book for me.  Being someone obsessed about my own hair, the book made me want to be a hairdresser too.  There was one unexpected twist in the book, but otherwise, it was a tad bit predictable for me.  It is hard for me to imagine having my childhood friends in my day to day life, but maybe that's how a small town in the south would be.  I would have like to have seen the book end differently, but I enjoyed it.  It kept me reading and I loved the character development throughout.

God's Dream

God's Dream by Desmond Tutu

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

My Review:
I picked this book out at the local library.  The title intrigued me.  The first time I read it to my daughters, I experienced a feeling of ahhh.  Someone gets it.  This book is what being a believer is all about.  If only adults would pick this book up and read it.  And yes, it is mostly the adults.  Everytime I read this book, my daugter gives me a hug and kiss, because even at 5, she GETS IT.  Have you ever thought about what God dreams about for you?  What kind of person does he want you to be?  For me and my children, we ponder this daily...

As easy as sharing, loving, caring.

As easy as holding, playing, laughing.

Torn Thread

Torn Thread by Anne Isaacs

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

About the Book: 
It is June 1943, and for four years the Nazi armies have occupied the Polish town of Bedzin.  Twelve-year old Eva, along with her father and her sister, have been forced to leave their comfortable home and move into a tiny attic in the Jewish ghetto.

But for Eva's life takes an even more terrifying turn when she and her sister are torn from their father and imprisoned in a Nazi work camp.  There, Eva is forced to spin thread to make blankets and uniforms for the German army.  As she struggles amid ever-worsening dangers to save her life and that of her sick sister, Eva's world tears apart like the weak threads on her spinning machine...

My Review:
As usual, I am a sucker for anything about the Holocaust and WWII.  I have been intrigued by this time period since I was in high school and college.  I am mostly of German descent, so it intrigues me.  It seems like I was always studying this time period every chance I got.  I was always asking the same question over and over.  WHY?  To be honest, no one ever quite knew or was bold enough to just put it out there.  The following excerpt from the Afterword of the book really hit home for me:

"Under Nazi rule, Germany conquered most of the nations of Eastern Europe, and proceeded to institute a reign of terror and mass extermination of the Jewish people in each country.  The Nazis also imprisoned or murdered members of other ethnic or political groups, including anyone they deemed undersirable to their plan for a "racially pure" Europe."  

So how does one justify in their mind that a race of people considered to be "God's chosen people" could be racially unpure?  I just don't get it and will never get it.  The book captures Eva's journey through the prison camp, trying to care for herself and her sister.  What popped out at me through this short book was the hunger.  They were so hungry and had to work so hard just to survive.  It is a story of love and devotion to family and faith. 

The Purpose Driven Life

The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth am I Here for? by Rick Warren

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is my third time reading this book.  I read it the first time back in 2004.  We had been trying to conceive and it just wasn't happening.  I was frustrated and confused.  This book helped me to put my life in focus.  Shortly thereafter, I was pregnant.  Coincidence?  It's hard to say.

My husband and I read the book together this time around.  We were facing a "life decision" and needed some clarity.  One of the reasons I enjoy this book so much is because depending on where you are in your life, you can take what you are in need of from the book.  Some of my favorite snipets this time around were:

**If you can't get it all done, it means you're trying to do more than God intended for you to do.
**Worship is a lifestyle of enjoying God, loving him, and giving ourselves to be used for his purposes.
**Anytime you reject any part of yourself, you are rejecting God's wisdom and sovereignty in creating you.
**Surrendered hearts show up best in relationships.
**You are as close to God as you choose to be.
**Humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less.  Humility is thinking more of others.  Humble people are so focused on serving others, they don't think of themselves. 
**Life is supposed to be difficult!  It's what enables us to grow.
**We become whatever we are committed to.
**The way you think determines the way you feel, and the way you feel influences the way you act.
**Spiritual growth is the process of replacing lies with truth.
**God is never in a hurry, but he is always on time.
**When you don't have a heart for what you're doing, you are easily discouraged.
**Small tasks often show a big heart.
**Become friends with God.

Even as I read through this list, it gives me hope.  This book lifted me up and gave me a sense of peace in my busy mom life.  This book is encouraging and uplifting.  Even if you don't generally read this type of book, it is easy to read and understand.  If you find that you are missing something in your life and can't quite put your finger on it, give this book a try.  It has certainly given me direction.