I didn't realize I was so far behind. Okay, here we go!
"The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb" by Melanie Benjamin was very sweet. Lavinia Warren Bump (known as Vinnie) is a dwarf not quite three feet high who dreams of leaving her simple country farm home and seeing the world. She signs on with a riverboat of curiosities, but the Civil War sends them back north in a hurry. After a few more years of boredom on the farm, she writes to P. T. Barnum, asking if he'd like her to join his American Museum in New York. He does, and she goes. Barnum has another dwarf he's made a fortune off of, General Tom Thumb, and he hatches a scheme for Vinnie and Tom to marry, which they do. Vinnie has many happy years with Barnum, although theirs is a love/hate relationship. She loves what opportunities he is able to give her, but at the same time she doesn't like going along with his "humbugs", like pretending she gave birth to a little girl. I'd love to read some nonfiction about General Tom Thumb and his bride, I bet their lives were fascinating.
"Back Home Again" by Melody Carlson is a gentle Christian fiction about three women who inherit a large Victorian home after their father passes away and decide, despite their wildly different personalities, to turn it into a bed and breakfast with predictable results. It was sweet and not too taxing on the brain.
"Bright Lights, Big Ass" by Jen Lancaster is her second book and the only one my library doesn't own, so I had to get it from a different one. It hilariously details why living in the big city is not as glamorous as most people think. Jen's snarky humor is so sharp and so brilliant. I can't wait for her next book.
I reread a few Maud Hart Lovelace books, the first two in the Betsy Tacy series: "Betsy Tacy" and "Betsy Tacy and Tib". I tried reading these when I was younger (not a child, but a 20 something) and my library at the time didn't have all of them, so I've read some but not others. They're sweet (guess I'm in the mood for that all of a sudden!), like the "Little House" and "Anne of Green Gables", but without all the drama and bad stuff. Betsy, Tacy, and Tib live idealized lives in Minnesota, getting into typical children messes but never anything awful.
"Wild Thing" by Josh Bezell was a huge disappointment. I loved his first book, "Beat the Reaper", and was looking forward to this one. But it wasn't funny. It was boring and preachy and I know I've said this before: politics is NOT funny. Making fun and calling people who don't believe the same as you stupid is NOT going to make me laugh. It's so hypocritical, too. It really bugs me.
I liked "Lone Wolf" by Jodi Picoult quite a lot, because I didn't feel torn on the issue like I usually do with her books. Luke Warren and his daughter, Cara, are in an accident and Luke is in a coma. The doctors don't expect him to recover. His estranged son, Edward, comes home as soon as he hears about his dad and sister, and because Cara is under 18 Edward must be legally responsible and he decides his adventurous, outdoorsy dad (who lived with a pack of wolves for 2 years) wouldn't want to live as a vegetable on life support and decides to pull the plug. Cara is horrified at the thought that Edward isn't even giving their dad a chance to get better and fights him every step of the way. While I understood Cara's distress and desire to cling to hope that her dad would get better, I agreed with Edward solidly on this one. Let him go.
Nominated for the PEN/Faulkner award for fiction this year, Julie Otsuka's "Buddha in the Attic" is a novella about the Japanese immigrants experience in California in the years before and during WW2. It was beautifully done, she skillfully weaves everyone's story into one in such a way that makes for compelling reading.
And finally (whew!!) "The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes" by Diane Chamberlain made me cry. CeeCee was only 12 when she watched her Mom die of breast cancer. She bounces around the foster system, working hard and graduating from high school at 16. She gets a job waitressing, hoping to earn money for college, when she meets 22 year old Tim. Tim is suave and charming and they start dating. He tells CeeCee his twin sister, Andie, is on death row, railroaded by the system after she murdered the man who raped her. CeeCee is horrified for Tim and when he asks if she'll help him get Andie out, she wavers but eventually gives in. Tim and his brother Marty have a plan: to kidnap Governor Russell's wife Guinevere and hold her as ransom until the Governor frees Andie. They need CeeCee to babysit Guinevere while they negotiate with the Governor. CeeCee is distraught when they bring Guinevere to the remote mountain cabin and sees she is heavily pregnant. Tim and Marty leave them alone and Guinevere goes into labor. CeeCee delivers the baby girl but Guinevere hemorrhages and dies. Panicked, CeeCee flees and with the help of some underground anti-death penalty crusaders, is able to get a fake identity and start a new life with the baby she has named Corrine. Twenty eight years later Guinevere's body is found and Tim is arrested for murder, tried and convicted. Worried that he will go to death row for a crime he didn't commit, CeeCee turns herself in, stunning her entire family, especially her semi-estranged daughter Cory.
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