I Didn't Start Off as a Book Blogger

I was perusing my archives tonight, particularly those from the early days of my blog (maybe it's that Throwback Thursday thing).  While at this point I'd definitely identify myself as a book blogger, it is not what I set out to do when I started this blog.  I did not used to write as often as I do now, but I wrote more about my family, especially about struggles we were having with my son.  Those were the years during which a lot of my hopes and dreams for him were re-oriented.  His differences from other kids were becoming more and more obvious and more and more problematic and writing about them here helped.

While I review a lot of Catholic books and host Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival, I don't really write that much about spirituality except in the context of book reviews--but I used to.  I lost a lot of weight in 2007 and blogged my way through it, including the spiritual aspects.

Reading those old post has made me consider writing more like them again.  I have started trying to add a personal touch to my Sunday Snippets posts, and I have always tried to make my book reviews unique by using them (to the extent possible) as springboards to discuss things other than just the book.  However, I've been reading a lot of light nonsense lately so those posts have been few and far between.

I titled my blog "This That and the Other Thing" because when I started it I had no real focus.  I enjoy going back and reading reviews of books I read years ago, but the posts I really enjoy reading are those about my family, my faith, my take on current events--in other words, my original writing.  I'm going to try to get back to doing more of that.

Blog Tour and Review: The Vicar's Wife

The Vicar's Wife

About the Book:

Jane Hatton and her British husband Andrew relocate from New York City to a small village on the Cumbrian coast. Jane has been city-based and career-driven but when her fourteen year old daughter Natalie falls in with the wrong crowd at school in Manhattan, she and Andrew decide to try country living. However Jane has trouble getting used to the silence and solitude of a remote village. Natalie hates her new school, and eleven-year-old Ben struggles academically. Only eight-year-old Merrie enjoys country life. Has Jane made a horrible mistake? The Hattons have bought the old vicarage in the village. When Jane finds a scrap of shopping list, she grows curious about Alice, the vicar’s wife who lived there years before. As we follow the twin narratives of Jane, in the present, and Alice in the 1930s we discover that both are on a journey to discover their true selves, and to address their deepest fears.

My Comments:

I had mixed feelings about this book. It was a good read, but I didn't find it very realistic.  Jane and Andrew are the stereotypical NewYork City career couple, each of whom worked long hours at high-powered jobs.  They ordered take-out more than they cooked, sent their kids to expensive private schools and then, one day, they realized that all was not well with the kids.  In response, they return to Andrew's home country of England to live in a small remote town.  While Andrew has a good job not so different from the one he left, Jane becomes a stay at home mom.  She drops off and picks up at school, helps with homework and actually cooks dinner.  

They are living in an old vicarage that needs a lot of cosmetic work, work that falls to Jane.  While cleaning, she comes across an old shopping list and begins to wonder about the woman who wrote it.  That woman was Alice, the vicar's wife who lived in the house just prior to WWII.  Alice's story is told in chapters headed with her name and the dates of the happenings.  We see that these women who lived 70 years apart and whose lives seemed very different from each others were really very much alike--but in one sense, aren't we all a lot like each other?

What bothered me about this book is that while the lives Andrew and Jane were living in New York were clearly not good for their family; Jane was the one who had to make all the changes.  Andrew kept his career and seemed to continue to work long hours.  Returning to England put him closer to family.  Jane left her extended family, her friends and a job that was an important part of her identity.  Yes, her life was dis-ordered in New York, she spent way to much time at work and not enough with her kids--but so did her husband.  All's well that ends well, and this book does end well, probably a little too well.

I'd like to thank the publisher for making a review copy available. Grade:  B.  

Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival

Hello, and welcome to Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival. We are a group of Catholic bloggers who gather weekly to share our best posts with each other. To participate, go to your blog and create a post titled Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival. In it, discuss and link to your posts for the week--whether they deal with theology, Catholic living or cute Catholic kids. I'm mostly a book blogger so my posts are generally book reviews, some Catholic, some not. Make sure that post links back here. Once you publish it, come back here and leave a link below.

We also have a yahoogroup; signing up for it will get you one weekly reminder to post. Click here to sign up.

Question of the week:  Yes, we are back to questions of the week.  If you check the tab on top you'll see that I have drafted questions for the rest of the year and given credit to those who inspired them.  This week's question:

What was the biggest change in your life recently? (adapted from Rochelle)

My answer:  I guess the biggest change lately was sending my daughter off to college.  I'm so proud of her, so glad she has been able to go to the college of her choice on a generous scholarship, so proud she is making good grades....but I miss her smile and seeing her on the couch with her electronic toys when I head to bed.

I reviewed three romance novels this week but nothing the could be considered the least bit Catholic.  

Review: Up at Butternut Lake

Up at Butternut Lake: A Novel (The Butternut Lake Trilogy)

About the Book:

It's been ten years since Allie Beckett crossed the threshold of her family cabin at Butternut Lake, Minnesota. Now, newly widowed after the death of her husband in Afghanistan, she's returned with her five-year-old son.

There, she reconnects with the friends she had in childhood-best girlfriend Jax, now married with three kids and one on the way, and Caroline, owner of the local coffee shop. What Allie doesn't count on is a newcomer to Butternut Lake, Walker Ford. 

Up at Butternut Lake follows these four unforgettable characters across a single summer as they struggle with love, loss, and what it means to take risks, confront fears, and embrace life, in all of its excitement and unpredictability.

Allie Beckett could never have imagined, when she ran away from her old life, that she was running into a whole new life, up at the lake….

My Comments:

My mom is from an area not far from the one in which this book was set so I recognized many of the place names in this book.  I'm also familiar with the topography of the "Land of 10,000 Lakes" which I'm sure added to my enjoyment of the story.  

Allie wasn't moving on from the death of her husband and being in the places she shared with him kept bringing pain.  She returned to a favorite childhood spot, which happened to be a place she never took her husband.  In this small town she begins to heal but as she  moves into a new relationship she has to decide what type of relationship she needs to maintain with her late husband.

I liked the way Walker moved in slowly.  I  liked the way Allie didn't want temporary men in her son's life.  I didn't like the fact that they got intimate very quickly--it seems that once Allie decided she wanted to be more than friends they headed to bed, and yes, we got to watch.  

Usually the secondary characters in romance novels are forgettable.  In this case, I think my favorite character in the book was Jax, a secondary character.  She's weak and flawed and she makes mistakes, but she loves her family tremendously.  Jax's husband Jeremy is my second favorite  He has to forgive and he does, over and over again, even though it is hard.

I'd like to thank the publisher for making a review copy available via Edelweiss.  Grade:  B+