33. Macy McMillan and the Rainbow Goddess by Shari Green

read the actual book - from Bosler Library
2017, Pajama Press
239 pgs.
Mid Grades CRF in verse
Finished 4/9/18
Goodreads rating:  4.37 - 254 ratings
My rating: 4.5
Setting: Contemporary anywhere, USA

First line/s: 
"Our house on Pemberton Street
with the red front door
wildflower garden out back
window seat just right for reading
has a For Sale sign jammed
in the front lawn.
It's the ugliest thing
I've ever seen."

My comments:  Wow. As an adult, this book really spoke to me. Powerfully. It actually has many themes, but the strongest for me was the relationship that formed between the 11-year-old girl, Macy,  and her elderly neighbor, Iris, – who ended up being the rainbow goddess of the title. It’s all about the value of our stories, our memories, our “family.”  Since it’s written in verse, it didn’t take very long to read - and it was lovely. I’m going to want to read this one again.

Goodreads synopsis: Sixth grade is coming to an end, and so is life as Macy McMillan knows it. Already a For Sale sign mars the front lawn of her beloved house. Soon her mother will upend their little family, adding an unwelcome stepfather and pesky six-year-old twin stepsisters. To add insult to injury, what is Macy s final sixth grade assignment? A genealogy project. Well, she'll put it off―just like those wedding centerpieces she's supposed to be making. 
          Just when Macy's mother ought to be sympathetic, she sends her next door to help eighty-six-year-old Iris Gillan, who is also getting ready to move―in her case, into an assisted living facility. Iris can't move a single box on her own and, worse, she doesn't know sign language. How is Macy supposed to understand her? But Iris has stories to tell, and she isn't going to let Macy's deafness stop her. Soon, through notes and books and cookies, a friendship grows. And this friendship, odd and unexpected, may be just what Macy needs to face the changes in her life. 
          Shari Green, author of Root Beer Candy and Other Miracles, writes free verse with the lightest touch, spinning Macy out of her old story and into a new one full of warmth and promise for the future.

PICTURE BOOK - Aunt Olga's Christmas Postcards by Kevin Major

Illustrated by Bruce Roberts

2005, A Groundwood Book, House of Anansi Press, Toronto & Berkeley

Out-of-print

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating: 3.91 - 22 ratings

My rating: 4.5

Endpapers: Red striped background with collage of antique Christmas postcards

Illustrations:  Facsimiles of oodles and oodles of vintage postcards.  Drawings of Aunt Olga and the little girl look like pen and ink and watercolors.

1^st line/s:  "Great-great Aunt Olga is ninety-five.  She calls herself a nonagenarian!  We all think the world of her."

My comments:  This is a wonderfully special book for me.  It's about Christmas and poetry and aging and familial grandparent-type/child relationship.  Its about memories and art and poems that both rhyme and don't rhyme.  There's quite a bit of text, but not so much that snuggling with a child older than a toddler and a gingerbread cookie wouldn't remedy!

Goodreads:  Anna’s great-aunt Olga has collected Christmas postcards all her life. She’s ninety-five, and many of the cards are very old. The holidays are the perfect time for Aunt Olga to share her postcards and her memories with her favorite niece. Decked out in red, Aunt Olga is ready for fun as she teaches Anna how to write her very own Christmas rhymes. Written with warmth and humor, this lovely story is a perfect starting point for discussions of the “olden days”, as well as a charming introduction to the joys of collecting.

2. Moo by Sharon Creech

Library Book
2016 Harper Collins
288 pgs.
Middle Grade CRF in mostly verse
Finished 1-8-16
Goodreads rating: 3.92 - 1507 ratings
My rating: 4.5
Setting: Contemporary Maine, with the best of two worlds, an oceanside town that has farms

First line/s:  "The truth is, she was ornery and stubborn, wouldn't listen to a n y b o d y, and selfish beyond selfish, and filthy, caked with mud and dust, and moody: you'd better watch it our she'd knock you flat."

My comments:  Because this was short, mostly written in verse form (with a little prose that's almost like verse) there was not quite as much character development as I'd like for a 288-page book, but it was certainly a wow-ing book.  It's a lot to do with farm animals, and I'm not an animal lover in any way, shape, or form....and I STILL liked it a lot.  Yes, very predictable, but who cares?  I'll certainly recommend this book to reluctant readers of either gender, especially if he/she is an animal lover.  AND it takes place in MAINE!

Goodreads synopsis:  Fans of Newbery Medal winner Sharon Creech’s Love That Dog and Hate That Cat will love her newest tween novel, Moo. This uplifting tale reminds us that if we’re open to new experiences, life is full of surprises. Following one family’s momentous move from the city to rural Maine, an unexpected bond develops between twelve-year-old Reena and one very ornery cow.
          When Reena, her little brother, Luke, and their parents first move to Maine, Reena doesn’t know what to expect. She’s ready for beaches, blueberries, and all the lobster she can eat. Instead, her parents “volunteer” Reena and Luke to work for an eccentric neighbor named Mrs. Falala, who has a pig named Paulie, a cat named China, a snake named Edna—and that stubborn cow, Zora.
          This heartwarming story, told in a blend of poetry and prose, reveals the bonds that emerge when we let others into our lives.

MOVIE - I'll See You In My Dreams

PG-13 (1:35)

Limited release 5-15-15

Viewed 8-18-15 At Century Gateway with Sheila

RT Critic:  94  Audience:   71

Cag:  2.5 - It was okay, I liked some of it

Directed by Brett Haley

Bleecker Street

Blythe Danner, Sam Elliott, Rhea Perlman, Mary Kay Place, June Squibb, 

My comments:  Okay, big time depressing.  Good movie though, especially the scenes with Carol (Blythe Danner) and her three best friends, all living in little cottages in a retirement community in southern California - Rhea Perlman, June Squibb, and Mary Kay Place.  But looking at Carol's life, thinking about some of the things people in the movie say about death, seeing how suddenly a life can end....as well as watching the poor young man who's hopelessly stuck cleaning pools when he wants to be writing poetry (I know, I know, at the end there might be a teeny, tiny turning of events, but who knows....)  Too much leftover thinking for me.  The kind of stuff I don't want to think about. Hmmm.....

RT Summary:  In this vibrant, funny, and heartfelt film, a widow and former songstress discovers that life can begin anew at any age. With the support of three loyal girlfriends (June Squibb, Rhea Perlman, and Mary Kay Place), Carol (Blythe Danner) decides to embrace the world, embarking on an unlikely friendship with her pool maintenance man (Martin Starr), pursuing a new love interest (Sam Elliott), and reconnecting with her daughter (Malin Akerman).

37. Orphan Train - Christina Baker Kline

read on my iPhone/Kindle

2013, William Morrow Paperbacks

304 pgs.

YA/Adult CRF/HistFict

Finished 6/15/14

Goodreads Rating:  4.08

My Rating: 4.5/Super story

Setting: 2011 MDI, Maine and 1929 (+) Minnesota

1^st sentence/s:  "I believe in ghosts.  They're the ones who haunt us, the ones who have left us behind."

My comments:  4.5  I love books that flip back and forth in time, as this one does.  One orphan in 1929 Minnesota and another in 2011 Mount Desert Island, Maine.  (What a hoot reading about Somesville OneStop, Bar Harbor, MDI High School, and even the Island Explorer bus).  Which town is Spruce Harbor - Southwest Harbor I'm guessing.  I couldn't put this down - such trials and heartbreak each of these protagonists have endured.

Goodreads Summary:  The author of Bird in Hand and The Way Life Should Be delivers her most ambitious and powerful novel to date: a captivating story of two very different women who build an unexpected friendship: a 91-year-old woman with a hidden past as an orphan-train rider and the teenage girl whose own troubled adolescence leads her to seek answers to questions no one has ever thought to ask.

     Nearly eighteen, Molly Ayer knows she has one last chance. Just months from "aging out" of the child welfare system, and close to being kicked out of her foster home, a community service position helping an elderly woman clean out her home is the only thing keeping her out of juvie and worse.
     Vivian Daly has lived a quiet life on the coast of Maine. But in her attic, hidden in trunks, are vestiges of a turbulent past. As she helps Vivian sort through her possessions and memories, Molly discovers that she and Vivian aren't as different as they seem to be. A young Irish immigrant orphaned in New York City, Vivian was put on a train to the Midwest with hundreds of other children whose destinies would be determined by luck and chance.
     The closer Molly grows to Vivian, the more she discovers parallels to her own life. A Penobscot Indian, she, too, is an outsider being raised by strangers, and she, too, has unanswered questions about the past. As her emotional barriers begin to crumble, Molly discovers that she has the power to help Vivian find answers to mysteries that have haunted her for her entire life - answers that will ultimately free them both.
     Rich in detail and epic in scope, Orphan Train is a powerful novel of upheaval and resilience, of second chances, of unexpected friendship, and of the secrets we carry that keep us from finding out who we are

MOVIE - Nebraska

R (1:50)

Limited release 11-15-2013

Viewed Friday, 1-10-14 at ElCon

RT Critic:  92  Audience: 88

Cag: Hard to say right now, but I think this one will stay with me for a long time.  At first I watched it as a drama and I was just depressed (although marveled at Bruce Dern's acting), but then, about halfway through, I started considering it a comedy (a dramatic one, to be sure) and wished I watched it from the beginning thinking about it as a comedy.  Perhaps it just turned into one along the way?  But then I loved it!  And that's how I'm going to rate it - I loved it! The second half was awesome!

Directed by Alexander Payne

Paramount Pictures

Black & White

Actors:  Bruce Dern, Will Forte, June Squibb, Stacey Keach

Reviews:  Director Alexander Payne (Sideways, The Descendants) takes the helm for this black and white road trip drama starring Bruce Dern as a tempestuous Montana father who's convinced he's won a million dollar magazine sweepstakes, and Will Forte as the son who grudgingly agrees to drive him to Nebraska to claim his winnings.

My comments:  I've already mentioned my feelings about this as a drama.  Since I'm dealing with the aging process myself right now, I found Bruce Dern's condition, life, AND surroundings incredibly depressing.  I guess the black and whiteness of the film added to that feeling - which, I imaagine, it was meant to.  I was enthralled by Will Forte's character right from the beginning.  He was mesmerizing to me - I think he is incredibly good looking and I wanted to know more about his life.  One review I read says that his character is estranged from the father...I did not get that at all.  He was certainly empathetic.  And then when the mother, played so incredibly brilliantly by June Squibb arrived in Henderson, I sat back and just started to enjoy the film.  I found myself laughing over and over, more and more.  Those brothers!  Those cousins!  Those residents of Henderson!  Bruce Dern was amazing and almost a little too believable, Will Forte was glorious, but June Squibb was the cherry on top!

40. The Time Between - Karen White

Audio read by the three voices (though Eleanor's is the primary voice) Jennifer Ikeda, Barbara Rosenblat, and Angela Goethals

13 unabridged cds/15.5 hours) - think I might have enjoyed an abridged version....

2013 Recorded Books

352 pgs.

Written for adults

Finished 9/15/2013

CRF with flashbacks to WWII Hungary

GoodreadsRating: 4.14

My Rating: 2/It was okay

TPPL

Setting: Contemporary Charleston, SC and nearby Edisto Island

My comments: This one dragged....and I felt like slapping the protagonist and yelling, "get over it!" The foray into history - world war two and the Holocaust - was interesting, but also incredibly dragged out and predictable.  Oh well, I finished an afghan while listening to it, and it wasn't horrible....there were some beautifully written descriptive passages.

from Goodreads:  Thirty-four-year-old Eleanor Murray is consumed with guilt for causing the accident that paralyzed her sister—and for falling in love with her sister’s husband. But when her boss offers her a part-time job caring for his elderly aunt, Helena, Eleanor accepts, hoping this good deed will help atone for her mistakes.

On the barrier island of Edisto, Eleanor bonds with Helena over their mutual love of music. Drawing the older woman out of her depression, Eleanor learns of her life in Hungary, with her sister, before and during World War II. She hears tales of passion and heartache, defiance and dangerous deception. And when the truth of Helena and her sister’s actions comes to light, Eleanor may finally allow herself to move past guilt and to embrace the song that lies deep in her heart

The Boys - Jeff Newman

Simon & Schuster Bks for Young Readers, 2010
$15.99
40 pages
"ages 4-8"
Endpapers: red

A wordless picture book that says a lot. A young boy brings his bat, ball, and glove to the playground in his city, but only watches the other kids play. He sits on a bench with four elderly men. The next day he returns, minus his baseball gear. Day by day he joins the men, becoming more and more like them, until, one day.....the old guys aren't too old to have fun and play....they play in the playground, ride bikes, and play ball with the boy. And finally the day comes when the boy is brave enough to join the others of his own age playing ball. His friends, the four elderly gents, stick around to watch.

The five protagonists, though very simply...almost crudely...drawn, have their own wonderful personalities. I could create stories for each of these old guys. They're great!

Clever, clever, fun book.