ReadingGrrls Paper Safari

The Murderer's Daughters by Randy Susan Meyers is a haunting tale by a first time author.  After convincing Lulu to let him in the house, Lulu and Merry's father murders their mother, stabs Merry and tries to kill himself the day before Lulu's 11th birthday.  Lulu had run to get help and had escaped the attacks but blames herself for everything that happened.  Merry and her father survive but the repercussions of this horrific act haunt the girls throughout their lives.  Known as the murderers daughters, no one in the family wants to take care of them so they are shuffled from an orphanage to a foster home.  Lulu tries to escape her past burying herself in school and work while still trying to take care of her sister. Merry believes her father needs family and finds herself as his only link to the outside trapped between his neediness and her sisters denial that he exists.   This book is powerful.  I finished it in two days.  I couldn...

Okay so this is technically something that is supposed to happen on Friday but since I just stumbled across it today (Saturday) I guess this will have to do. This weeks question is: Do you use a rating system for your reviews and if so what is it and why? Well I just started this blog, but I've been logging my books for years the old fashioned way in a notebook.  In the beginning I tried to use a rating system but I just couldn't keep it up.  I hate rating things 1-5 or whatever, if I like it I'll say that, if I hated it, you'll know, if I thought it was okay, it won't get a rave review.  Some books I read are more fun than fantastic so I would never know how to rate them so instead of the stress and pressure to rate my books and reviews I just say how I felt about it and let others decide what rating they think I give it or better yet read it themselves and give it one themselves.  This way the pressure is off me!

Water Witches by Chris Bohjalian - I love this author.  I read Midwives several years ago and then rediscovered him when I picked up a copy of Before You Know Kindness which I loved.  So what does any good book junkie do when they read two books by the same author and love them?  They go out and find all of this authors books to collect dust on our book shelves until we get around to reading them of course! Water Witches is about a family of dowser's (people who attempt to locate ground water, buried metals or ores, gemstones, oil, gravesites and many other objects and materials, as well as so-called currents of earth radiation, without the use of scientific apparatus.) in a small Vermont town.  The local ski lodge is planning  an expansion and wants to use the local lake to help make snow in case of another winter without much snow fall.  The problem is a drought has hit the area that has seriously affected the water table creating a proble...

Hello, I love you by Ted Kluck - Ted is an all around jock, sports writer and coach, but when it comes to adopting his sons from Ukraine Ted is a fish out of water.  One of the few adoption books written from a fathers perspective (although this does seem to be a new trend) this book is witty and real. Ted covers up some of his frustration with humor but you have to have humor when you are told something different every day, are stopped on the street by elderly women who tell you what you aren't doing right, and have your door broken down by the police and a gun pointed at your head because you forgot how to work the alarm system in your apartment. International adoption is not for the faint of heart which this book shows in glowing detail.  One minute you believe you are adopting a daughter and the next you wind up with a son.  You think you only need to make one trip to be told that you will now need to make three.  You travel with thousands of dollars strapped ...

Homo Domesticus - Notes from a Same-Sex Marriage by David Valdes Greenwood - before marriage was legal in Massachusetts David and Jason got married and this is the tale of their life. Recounting how his in-laws embraced the wedding while his family did not, instead opting to pray that he would change.  This isn't all roses and sunshine just like any marriage it is filled with ups and downs, and plenty of learning.  When gay marriage becomes legal in their state David and Jason don't jump at making their union a legal one, instead they sit back and decide whether or not they need or want a state sanctioned union.  In the end they decide that since one of their goals is parenthood that it would be in their best interest to tie the knot legally.  After that detail is out of the way they venture into the world of adoption and family.  I thought this book would be light and fluffy but I found that it had an underlying rawness that made it very real.  I...

I've always loved to read. My mother and my grandmother used to read to me when I was little and I always saw my grandmother reading something.  As I got older I would often find myself calling her to share a book title that I thought she would like.  Now that she is gone that is one of the main things I miss the most.  I often find myself finishing a book I know she would like (something about history is what she loved best) and wishing I could pick up the phone and call her.  Since I can't do that I thought I would share my books with whoever stumbles across this blog. I'm a bit of a book hoarder.  I can't seem to stop myself from buying books or accepting them from people who think I might like something.  My house is filled with books, books on the stairs, book shelves lining the walls, books in drawers, there is never a lack of something to read in this house.  We also have two kindles which I bought for when I travel and also because some books...