Just What I Needed

We are in the middle of kitchen renovation. It is a complete tear down reno... which means I am currently living without a kitchen. the rest of my house is covered in dust.  It is not fun. I am sure if you have been there-done that I have your sympathies.  I like Jodi Picoult.  I like that she is predictable.  I like that her books are filled with adult angst.   House Rules is her typical book. I am not as far into the book as I would have liked by this point. I am usually a cover to cover in 24 hours kind of reader for these types of books, but with all that is going on I am reluctantly having to put the book down all to often.

I love books written in the first person.  I love hearing a character voice. This book is in the first person, but each chapter in from another characters point of view. It is a great style. It gives me the first person I like but also the opportunity to get inside all the characters heads.  House Rules has a lot of themes running through it.

Emma, Jacob and Theo are a family. The dad took off long ago. Jacob is a child with Asperger's  Syndrome. Theo is his younger brother made to be the keeper, protector and also made to have the ability to become invisible whenever that is needed.  I get Theo.


Emma is the mom who is always sewing up the seams just in time for another seam to open.  That is the life of a mother.  I do not know a mother who thinks to herself at the end of the each day, "Wow I am awesome". No most of us end each day with the hopes that we can do better tomorrow. Part of that is that yes we screw up each day-but mostly we are to hard on ourselves.   Emma is hard on herself. She is also not living the life she expected.   most of us aren't but Emma is a mom you can get behind. You a cheering her on, even in her moments of "failing" she is likable.  


Jacob has Asperger's . I do not have a child with Asperger's  but I do know a few children and adults with it and I think that Ms. Picoult has done her research.  She approached this subject with dignity.   I find Jacob to be  a fascinating and likable character.


I am not sure how much of this book I am going to share, I do not want to tell you the whole story-yet I want to share it.  Have you read this book? If you have please share your thoughts on it.  

One to Book Number 1B

I quit.. I am not reading a book that I do not enjoy at all.  I really need a good read to help soothe me after taking down the Christmas tree. I love being in my family room with the tree lit up and some candles going.  It is such a great place to sit and read. I need to find a new happy place now. I am thinking that maybe this book will be the one.

I love Jodi Picoult. She has not let me down yet.  The premise of this book is:

HOUSE RULES is about Jacob Hunt, a teenage boy with Asperger’s Syndrome. He’s hopeless at reading social cues or expressing himself well to others, and like many kids with AS, Jacob has a special focus on one subject – in his case, forensic analysis. He’s always showing up at crime scenes, thanks to the police scanner he keeps in his room, and telling the cops what they need to do…and he’s usually right. But then one day his tutor is found dead, and the police come to question him. All of the hallmark behaviors of Asperger’s – not looking someone in the eye, stimulatory tics and twitches, inappropriate affect – can look a heck of a lot like guilt to law enforcement personnel -- and suddenly, Jacob finds himself accused of murder. HOUSE RULES looks at what it means to be different in our society, how autism affects a family, and how our legal system works well for people who communicate a certain way – but lousy for those who don’t.

I am so excited to start this book. I have to get my kids to bed early!!! 

I Have Stopped Enjoying this Book

This book is not for me. I am 1/2 way through and I am finding it a chore to read. I usually do not finish books that I do not like.  I hated doing that in high school.  I remember reading Tess of the d'Urbervilles in high school and hating it. I had to finish it though for the course.  It turned me off...a lot.  I would like to stop reading it. I just know then I am quiting my first book. What does that say about me? 


I am an ENFP. I start lots of things and do not finish.  I do not want this blog to be added to that list.  I have this idea that unless something is *perfect* then it is better to quit.  I know, dumb right?  I will therefore try to keep reading hoping that Lamb will redeem himself to me in the next chapter.  We will see.  If not I am going to close the book and get onto my next book.  

Book One: The first Hour I Believed

The first book that I am going to read is a 752 page book.  I have read Wally Lamb before and have enjoyed his writing.  I am not sure I am going to like this book though.  I picked it up in a LASS box. This is a free book exchange box.  I have had it for a few weeks and thought I better get on it.  The synopsis is:

In his new novel, The Hour I First Believed, Lamb travels well beyond his earlier work and embodies in his fiction myth, psychology, family history stretching back many generations, and the questions of faith that lie at the heart of everyday life. The result is an extraordinary tour de force, at once a meditation on the human condition and an unflinching yet compassionate evocation of character.

When forty-seven-year-old high school teacher Caelum Quirk and his younger wife, Maureen, a school nurse, move to Littleton, Colorado, they both get jobs at Columbine High School. In April 1999, Caelum returns home to Three Rivers, Connecticut, to be with his aunt who has just had a stroke. But Maureen finds herself in the school library at Columbine, cowering in a cabinet and expecting to be killed, as two vengeful students go on a carefully premeditated, murderous rampage. Miraculously she survives, but at a cost: she is unable to recover from the trauma. Caelum and Maureen flee Colorado and return to an illusion of safety at the Quirk family farm in Three Rivers. But the effects of chaos are not so easily put right, and further tragedy ensues.

While Maureen fights to regain her sanity, Caelum discovers a cache of old diaries, letters, and newspaper clippings in an upstairs bedroom of his family's house. The colorful and intriguing story they recount spans five generations of Quirk family ancestors, from the Civil War era to Caelum's own troubled childhood. Piece by piece, Caelum reconstructs the lives of the women and men whose legacy he bears. Unimaginable secrets emerge; long-buried fear, anger, guilt, and grief rise to the surface.

As Caelum grapples with unexpected and confounding revelations from the past, he also struggles to fashion a future out of the ashes of tragedy. His personal quest for meaning and faith becomes a mythic journey that is at the same time quintessentially contemporary—and American.

The Hour I First Believed is a profound and heart-rending work of fiction. Wally Lamb proves himself a virtuoso storyteller, assembling a variety of voices and an ensemble of characters rich enough to evoke all of humanity.

I am going to try to get a chunk out of it tonight, although I am going to be switching books on Sundays..this is a long book and I think I need a head start.