A Spot Of Bother

Mark Haddon wrote A Spot Of Bother. He also wrote The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-time which I really loved. This book is good but not as good as the other one. The story revolves around a family living in London. George Hall is the father and a bit of a hypochondriac. The story is told from his view. He gets a bit of eczema on his thigh and totally freaks out. His wife is busy planning a wedding for her daughter, Katie, who is set to marry Ray. She is a single mother and really has no filter. She is quick to judge and quick to anger. George and his wife also have a son who is gay and just lost his best relationship through his own fault. George's anxiety builds up before the wedding. His panic attacks are coming fast and furious. By the morning of the wedding George has decided that giving a father of the bride speech is more than he can handle so he takes off walking. If this book were turned into a movie it would be slap stick comedy. 

 

 

A Family Matter

Claire Lynch is the author of the fiction book called A Family Matter. This book is about a broken family. This heart breaking story explores the social differences between the world of today and the world of 1980. A young mother has a daughter with her husband. When the girl is four the stay at home mother falls for another woman. The mother follows her heart. The husband has the law on his side. He raises the girl telling her her mother didn't want her anymore. This wasn't true. She asked for custody but the judge gave it to the father. The girl grew up to have children of her own. Only when his father was on his deathbed did he confess that he was the one who kept her from seeing her mother. The book was written beautifully.  

 

 

The Price Of Honey

Meg Waite Clayton is the author of the fiction book The Price Of Honey. Five young mothers start meeting at the park while their toddlers play at the playground. Frankie, Linda, Kath, Brett and Allie becomes friends and mentors to each other. The year is 1967 and the park is in Palo Alto, California.  They all share a love of literature. One is athletic, one is shy and secretive, one wears white gloves every day, one is brusk. Both moving and comedic, this story about female loyalty was a pleasure to read. 

 

 

The Lotus Shoes

The Lotus Shoes was written by Jane Vang. She writes about two girls. One of the girls is a servant and one is a member of a wealthy family. Although she is a servant Little Flower's mother decides to bind her feet to improve her status. Li Jing, the girl Little Flower is sold to be her maid does not have bound feet. Her father decides against bound feet because he does business with foreigners who do not approve of bound feet. Li Jing forces Little Flower to unbind her feet because she is jealous. When the fortune of Li Jing's family burns and crashes Li Jing and Little Flower must fend for themselves. At times the two girls are rivals and tentative friends. Little Flower grows up to be less of a push over. Li Jing grows up to be less cruel.

 

  

How To Be A Good Creature

I listened to How To Be A Good Creature: A Memoir Of Thirteen Animals by Sy Montgomery. The author talks about some of her many pets. She is also a scientific traveler to many countries for research work. She once had a pig named Christopher Hogwood. Two teenage girls would come to her house to give her pig their own special spa treatment. The pig enjoyed the warm baths and attention. She gets quite emotional when her pets die. She even mentioned suicidal thoughts after the death of a favorite dog. The author is definitely an animal lover. 

 

 

 

 

Best To Laugh

 I saw Best To Laugh on the shelf at the library and I thought to myself, "Here is a Lorna Landvik book you haven't read yet. This book is about a girl growing up with her Grandmother in Minneapolis. Her Korean born mother died at a young age. Her father was depressed by her death and he died when she was in high school so Candy Pekkala relies on her Grandmother. As a child Candy and her Grandmother watched the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. During commercials Candy would imitate Carson and the guests to her Grandmother's delight. Candy is a little lost after finishing college. When her cousin calls and asks her to sublet her Hollywood apartment while she works as an entertainer on a cruise line Candy agrees to go. She moves into the apartment building and decides to make friends by asking to borrow a cup of sugar. Candy loves to bake and her neighbors appreciate her yellow cake with fudge frosting. She gets a job at a record production agency as a temp. Her biggest ambition in life is to do stand-up comedy. When she finally faces her fears she finds out that eventually she is quite good at it. Her special talent is handling hecklers. If she has a heckler, she is bound to do well on stage. She takes the stage name Candy Ohi (yes, like the county in western Minnesota). The book is a hoot and I did laugh at this description or Lorna's years living in Hollywood.

 

 

Sugar, Salt, Fat

I just finished reading a non-fiction book called Sugar, Salt, Fat: How The Food Giants Hooked Us. The author is Michael Moss. His book was a best seller in 2013 so it is a bit outdated but the topic is still relevant. He writes about Coke and Pepsi, Kraft, Nestle, Capri Sun, Frito-Lay, and Cargill among others. These companies had techniques to find out bliss points. They know the exact amount of sugar, salt, and fat it takes to keep you coming back for more. These processed foods lead us to be a nation beset with obesity and heart problems. As I read along I was proud of myself for never buying a Lunchable for my children. Those meals are terrible for kids. The book is long at almost 1900 pages but the last 300 pages are references. Some of the CEO's of heavily processed food or drinks feel remorse about their work and they refrain from the products they produced for their own health reasons. The book was certainly an eye opener for me.