41. The Language Inside - Holly Thompson

2013, Delacorte Press

522 pgs. (but it's in verse, so it's a quick read)

YA CRF with a multicultural twist

Finished 6/26/2014

Goodreads Rating: 3.80

My Rating: 4/Very, very good

Amelia Given Library, Mt. Holly Springs

Setting: a contemporary Lowell, Massachusetts suburb

1^st sentence/s:
       third time it happens
       I'm crossing the bridge
       that slides through town
       on my way to a long-term care center
       to start volunteering

My comments:  This book certainly had many layers, and many, many themes.  One of those books that keeps you thinking.  Imagine having a stroke in your 30s that only allows you to move your eyeballs?  Imagine living in America, being an American, and having half of your thoughts and dreams in another country? And then on top of that, having your mom very ill, prognosis uncertain.  Tsunami devastation in Japan, the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, Japanese and Cambodian dance, volunteering in a rehabilitation center, living in a new culture and missing the old one as well as living with immobilizing migraines...well that's a lot for one book.  But it works.  Beautifully.
          The book was written in verse and included a lot of references to poetry, which was wonderful.  But some of the verses in the book did not flow well, for me, as I read them (of course, some did). Line breaks and page breaks seemed to come in weird places.  Was it the way it was edited or the way it was written?  No matter, the story was extremely well done.

Goodreads Summary:
          Emma Karas was raised in Japan; it's the country she calls home. But when her mother is diagnosed with breast cancer, Emma's family moves to a town outside Lowell, Massachusetts, to stay with Emma's grandmother while her mom undergoes treatment.
          Emma feels out of place in the United States.She begins to have migraines, and longs to be back in Japan. At her grandmother's urging, she volunteers in a long-term care center to help Zena, a patient with locked-in syndrome, write down her poems. There, Emma meets Samnang, another volunteer, who assists elderly Cambodian refugees. Weekly visits to the care center, Zena's poems, dance, and noodle soup bring Emma and Samnang closer, until Emma must make a painful choice: stay in Massachusetts, or return home early to Japan.

16. A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty - Joshilyn Jackson

Audio read by the author (another slam dunk!)

10 unabridged discs

2012, Grand Central Publishing

322 pgs.

Finished 3/12/2014

Adult CRF/Southern Fiction

Goodreads Rating: 3.93

My Rating: 5/Just wonderful - stayed up late to listen

TPPL

Setting:  Small town, rural Mississippi

My comments:  For me, everything that makes a really good read came together in this book.  An exceptionally woven plot.  Characters with personalities that are deeply drawn, real, and believable.  A strong voice - in this case three strong voices.  Three points-of-view that tell this story perfectly.  And to top it off, a reader that hits the absolute bulls-eye.  Joshilyn Jackson once again reads her own book and she's just perfect, including her own wonderful southern lilt.  I'm not a particular fan of southern fiction, but I'd follow Jackson anywhere - this is the third book of hers that I've read/listened to and I consider her an exceptional writer and storyteller. (I love the cover, too - maybe it's the color?)

Goodreads Review:  A GROWN-UP KIND OF PRETTY is a powerful saga of three generations of women, plagued by hardships and torn by a devastating secret, yet inextricably joined by the bonds of family. Fifteen-year-old Mosey Slocumb-spirited, sassy, and on the cusp of womanhood-is shaken when a small grave is unearthed in the backyard, and determined to figure out why it's there. Liza, her stroke-ravaged mother, is haunted by choices she made as a teenager. But it is Jenny, Mosey's strong and big-hearted grandmother, whose maternal love braids together the strands of the women's shared past--and who will stop at nothing to defend their future.

MOVIE - Run and Jump

Unrated (an Irish film) (1:45)
Limited release 1/24/14
Viewed at the Loft 2/10/14
RT: 81 audience: 61
cag;  5- I Loved it
Steph Green
IFC Films

Will Forte, Maxine Peake

My comments:  Filmed in Counties Wicklow and Kerry in Ireland, I considered this a wonderful movie.  I was afraid the Irish brogue might be too thick to understand, but it wasn't at all.  I have discovered that it's the storytelling that means the most to me in a movie or a book, and this was one heck of a story.  The actors portraying the characters did an incredible job.  The female lead was PERFECT and I've decided I'll follow Will Forte anywhere.  Some people might consider this a sad movie (there was a lot of "sad," I guess) but the spirit in which the story is told does not dwell on the sadness.  There's a great sense of positivity, of optimism, of life going on and we deal.  It was really, really good and I highly recommend it.

Rotten Tomatoes "Movie Info":  A headstrong Irish housewife finds her life transforming in ways she never thought possible after her husband suffers a life-altering stroke, and an American doctor arrives to chronicle the family's recovery process in this intimate drama from director Steph Green (whose short film New Boy was nominated for an Oscar in 2007). In the wake of her husband's stroke, loving wife and mother Vanetia (Maxine Peake) gradually comes to realize that her household will never be the same again. Much to Vanetia's relief, a research grant from American doctor Ted Fielding (Will Forte) provides the funds needed to remain financially afloat. Ted wants to study how the family copes with such a severe trauma, and though at first his presence in the home strikes a chord of resentment in the overburdened Vanetia, he exhibits an air of tranquility that soon becomes a source of deep comfort to her. Likewise, Vanetia's unwavering strong will awakens a newfound sense of vitality in the reserved Dr. Fielding, resulting in growth and healing for all involved.