The Way Home by George Pelecanos Book Review

The Way Home by George Pelecanos

Thomas Flynn has a carpeting service, a loving wife and a young, healthy son.  His life seems monetarily and emotionally fulfilled until his son Chris strays into the world of drugs, making him erratic, rebellious and unambitious.  Since Thomas himself experimented with drugs when he was younger, he assumes that his son will travel down the same path of fleeting interest.

Not only does Thomas’s son’s life differ radically from his own, but at a crucial point Chris decides that he doesn’t have to do whatever anyone (including his mother and father) tell him to do.  On the heels of this discovery comes a minor car accident that turns into a tragedy which results in Chris’s incarceration.

George Pelecano’s The Way Home (published by the Hachette Book Group on May 12th) is startlingly in-depth in regards to detail, down to the eclectic phraseology that prisoners use and an interesting rendition of their mind-sets.  In a detention center (because of his age) Chris sees the way in which the underprivileged have been led into lives of crime, and there he also learns what extreme violence can occur from flippant and uncaring actions.

After serving his time Chris returns to work at his father’s carpeting business, and through the years he brings in some of his past prison mates, whom his father hires.  But then Chris’s past flies up to haunt him just at the point when he wants to marry his girlfriend and study to become a history teacher.  Because of his previous prison connections he comes into conflict with real psychopaths and murderers (over money, of course) and he must choose whether to honor past bonds or give over his life of crime to other, more damaged souls.

Whether or not you’ve experienced similar life situations, George Pelecanos makes you feel as if you’re in the same room with his characters, vicariously experiencing their fears and joys.  Middle-class homes and the dreams of those who inhabit them come alive, as do prison cells and jailhouse camaraderies.  In this story of familial love and forgiveness and a son’s return to his father, Pecanos creates dramatic mood changes as he draws you through intense and intricate plot lines.  This ability makes him a superior writer that you not only admire but with whom you identify, since he has opened his heart to all.

Grade: A

Themes:  Family, fathers, sons, loss, incarceration

Hachette Book Group

REVIEWED BY:

Christina Zawadiwsky is Ukrainian-American, born in New York City, has a degree in Fine Arts, and is a poet, artist, journalist and TV producer. She has received a National Endowment for the Arts Award, two Wisconsin Arts Boards Awards, a Co-Ordinating Council of Literary Magazines Writer’s Award, and an Art Futures Award, among other honors. She was the originator and producer of “Where The Waters Meet”, a local TV series created to facilitate the voices of artists of all genres in the media, for which she won two national and twenty local awards, including a Commitment to Community Television Award. She is also a contributing editor to the annual Pushcart Prize Anthology, the recipient of an Outstanding Achievement Award from the Wisconsin Library Association, and has published four books of poetry.

The Nine Lessons by Kevin Alan Milne Book Review

 The Nine Lessons by Kevin Alan Milne

 

 “What I didn’t realize back then is that fate, like the golf clubs of my youth, is a pendulum: the further we try to push it away, the harder it swings back to hit us in the head.  It didn’t happen overnight, but eventually, through a series of fateful swings of the club, I would be forced to acknowledge that my father was right all along:  Golf is life, and life is golf, and we are all just players trying to finish the round.”

 The Nine Lessons is purportedly about golf (nine lessons a son who’s come to hate his father’s golf-filled life promises to take with him when he learns that his wife is pregnant).  But what this book is actually about is how a son comes to know a father that he thought he disdained and how he also stops fearing himself as a potential father.  He amazingly also comes to know his mother (a mysterious figure who died when he was an infant and about whom he has only one memory) through a series of extra scorecards that his father used as an unusual diary every time he played golf.

 As often happens (for those of us old enough to know) perhaps August’s father London (nicknamed so by August’s mother, for the city from whence he came) didn’t have his son’s worst interests at heart.  He himself loved golf, and wanted to make his son into a golfer (at which August failed miserably, and then felt that he had failed at life, athough he became a veterinarian and married the woman he loved).  His father wouldn’t even allow him to use a red sled his grandparents sent him because he couldn’t “slice” properly, expounding that his mother had wanted him to learn to play golf and that he could only use the sled after his slice had been cured – but his slice never got cured.

 The Nine Lessons reads easily, and many of us can identify with our parents’ complex plans for us, of which we may not want any part!  But August learns that just as his father London forged a new life for himself, he’d wanted the same for his son, and that none of us come into the world fully equipped with parenting skills.  From the new revelations about his mother and his father, August comes to believe that he might finally be able to forgive his father.

 But when August’s wife Erin and his unborn child are in danger during the birthing process (the placenta was peeled away), London insists on taking August out for his last golf lesson, and the only place that they can find in the hospital to swing a golf club is in the chapel!  August thinks, “Why do we bother toiling and struggling for some tiny shred of happiness that can be taken away at any moment?”

 To find out what August learns that day in the hospital, you’ll have to read The Nine Lessons!  You’ll certainly be glad that you did!

 Grade: B

Themes: Fathers, Sons, Golf, Loss, Faith

The Nine Lessons by Kevin Alan Milne

Published by The Hachette Group, May 2009

Reviewed By:

Christina Zawadiwsky is Ukrainian-American, born in New York City, has a degree in Fine Arts, and is a poet, artist, journalist and TV producer. She has received a National Endowment for the Arts Award, two Wisconsin Arts Boards Awards, a Co-Ordinating Council of Literary Magazines Writer’s Award, and an Art Futures Award, among other honors. She was the originator and producer of “Where The Waters Meet”, a local TV series created to facilitate the voices of artists of all genres in the media, for which she won two national and twenty local awards, including a Commitment to Community Television Award. She is also a contributing editor to the annual Pushcart Prize Anthology, the recipient of an Outstanding Achievement Award from the Wisconsin Library Association, and has published four books of poetry.

Like Mother,Like Daughter Book Review

Chicken Soup for the Soul: Like Mother, Like Daughter

There’s no denying that I love the Chicken Soup for the Soul books! All are enriching because of their diversity, and Like Mother, Like Daughter is especially poignant, filled with stories of absolute and unconditional love in that special bond between mother and daughter.

This particular compilation is even more special, bringing together stories (edited by Amy Newmark) from the 32 volumes of Chicken Soup for the Soul that were produced over a time span of 15 years, a goal that Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen never thought they’d attain. In it we find tales like that of a daughter’s story about how her mother loved to dance but became paralyzed with a spine tumor yet chose to advance intellectually and spiritually in order to be a good role model in My Mother’s Greatest Gift by Marie Ragghianti; a mother who finally realizes that her five-year-old daughter misses her grandfather, and gives her one of his blue sweaters to wear “as a hug” in The Sweater by Pamela Albee; a mother’s persistent care throughout her daughter’s early stages of leukemia even though the stress makes her break out in hives at the hospital (which she hides from her daughter) in The Power Of My Mother’s Love by Shana Helmholdt; a daughter who deteriorated through drug addiction at the very same time the mother was left by her husband, but the daughter returns to save Christmas in She Came Bearing Gifts by Luann Warner; and a mother who bicycled from New York City to San Francisco just to see the Pacific Ocean whose stories inspired her daughter to do the same, many years later, in The Bike Trip by Peggy Newbrand.

There is humor and anger and patience and trust and fear and silliness and, most of all, love in these stories, as women learn to understand their daughters and daughters finally come to see that what they thought was craziness on the part of their mothers was often wisdom. And all of the stories are true!

Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen always have ten chapters and 101 stories in each of their Chicken Soup for the Soul books, and in Like Mother, Like Daughter you won’t want to miss even one! There are so many topics that you can’t even start to count them all (e.g. that of a mother and daughter who each get different cactus plants that eventually lean towards each other and fall in love! in A Couple Of Cacti by Kelly L. Reno). You won’t want to put this book down, but if for any reason you have to do so, you can always come back to enjoy yet another uplifting story!

Grade: A

Themes: Mothers, Daughters, Love, Loss, Humor

Chicken Soup for the Soul: Like Mother, Like Daughter, 2008, by Amy Newmark, Jack Canfield and

Mark Victor Hansen

Chicken Soup for the Soul Publishing, LLC

Reviewed By:

Christina Zawadiwsky is Ukrainian-American, born in New York City, has a degree in Fine Arts, and is a poet, artist, journalist and TV producer. She has received a National Endowment for the Arts Award, two Wisconsin Arts Boards Awards, a Co-Ordinating Council of Literary Magazines Writer’s Award, and an Art Futures Award, among other honors. She was the originator and producer of “Where The Waters Meet”, a local TV series created to facilitate the voices of artists of all genres in the media, for which she won two national and twenty local awards, including a Commitment to Community Television Award. She is also a contributing editor to the annual Pushcart Prize Anthology, the recipient of an Outstanding Achievement Award from the Wisconsin Library Association, and has published four books of poetry.

 

Electrolux Virtual Lemonade Stand

 

Just in time for the warm weather, Electrolux and Kelly Ripa are kicking off their Virtual Lemonade Stand campaign to drive awareness and raise funds for the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund. Starting this month, you can visit electroluxappliances.com <http://www.electroluxappliances.com> to design and open your own virtual lemonade stand and even pick the flavors of lemonade you want to feature at your stand, like  Sparkling Ginger or Rosemary Watermelon.
 
For every stand opened, Electrolux will donate $1 to the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund (OCRF). In addition, you can help the cause even more by buying and sending virtual glasses of lemonade to your friends and family, with 100% of the proceeds benefiting OCRF. This is a great way to celebrate the beginning of summer, let friends know you’re thinking of them, and support a great cause.
 
Even better, just for opening your stand, and then again every day that you log in and visit your stand, you will be entered to win a new French Door Refrigerator from Electrolux – perfect for storing your own pitchers of lemonade. When others donate to your stand, they will also have a chance to win.
 
The new French Door Refrigerator by Electrolux has some cool new features that make it a great refrigerator for entertaining.  There is the Perfect Temp Drawer™, which provides storage for any number of items that you want to keep at the ideal temperature. It’s also a large enough refrigerator to store everything from party platters to juice boxes. The French Door Refrigerator also offers double the ice so there is always enough ice on hand to fill your pitchers of lemonade.

Thanks to mom.central for the information.

Wendy’s Frosty Father’s Day

Confessions of a Shopaholic DVD Giveaway

On June 23rd, Touchstone Home Entertainment releases CONFESSIONS OF A SHOPAHOLIC on Blu-ray and DVD! Rebecca Bloomwood (Isla Fisher) takes a job for the less-than-glamorous Successful Saving in order to support her out-of-control spending habit. Hilarity ensues and romance blossoms with an amazing supporting cast including Hugh Dancy, Joan Cusack, Kristin Scott Thomas, John Lithgow, Krysten Ritter, and John Goodman! Bonus material includes bloopers, deleted scenes, a music video, and much much more!

To learn more about the movie, visit our Blu-ray Reviews partner and read the Confessions of a Shopaholic Blu-ray Review!

We are excited to offer one lucky winner a DVD copy of the romantic comedy movie.  Simply follow the guidelines below for entry!

TO ENTER: POST A COMMENT AND TELL ME YOUR FAVORITE ROMANTIC COMEDY MOVIE OF ALL TIME

FOR SECOND ENTRY: STUMBLE, TWITTER (FOLLOW ME AND TWEET THIS) OR SUBSCRIBE AND LEAVE THE LINK IN A SEPARATE COMMENT.

THIS CONTEST WILL END JUNE 27TH AT MIDNIGHT. RANDOM.ORG WILL CHOOSE THE WINNER AND I WILL E-MAIL YOU. PLEASE RESPOND WITHIN 48 HOURS OR I WILL HAVE TO RE-DRAW. U.S. AND CANADA ONLY. GOOD LUCK AND KEEP CHECKING BACK, I HAVE SOME AMAZING GIVEAWAYS COMING UP

Learning Resources: Toys for Summer

Learning Resources isn’t just a great resource for teachers. They have some great educational toys to entertain and teach your children for reasonable prices. Now that summer is here, here are some fun pretend and play sets Bookroom Reviews recommends to keep your kids busy with their imagination. We had tons of fun playing with these sets. I am impressed with the quality and amount that comes in the sets for the price. If you go to their website www.learningresources.com, you will find a great clearance sale, a contest to win a $50.00 gift card, free downloadable activity ideas, and a lot more.

Pretend and Play Fishing Set

Ages 3-6

Reel in the big one!

• Encourages little anglers to bait the line and role play hooking the catch of the day, just like the family’s grown-up fishermen

• Adds a realistic costume element with adjustable fishing vest

• Stores all pieces in sturdy tackle box that travels easily for outdoor vacations and more

• Invites kids to play a matching game with worms and fish in different colors and sizes

• Features write & wipe activity booklet with 6 pages of fishing-themed activities for use with crayons, not included

• Set of 11 plastic pieces includes fishing pole with magnetic hook, 3 magnetic fish, 3 worms, net and vest (plastic, nylon and canvas)

• All magnets are embedded for safety

• Tackle box measures 13″L x 7″W x 6″H

• Ages 3+

Pretend & Play Birthday Set

Ages 3-6

Party time! Throw a pretend birthday bash any day of the year.

• Inspires imaginative play with everything kids need for a fun-filled celebration

• Encourages creativity as children write and draw invitations and cards, and decorate the 5-piece cake

• Features candles numbered 1–5 for counting and cake with pieces that connect by hook-and-loop fasteners—don’t forget to make a wish!

• Includes plates, crown, nesting presents, pretend camera, write & wipe crayons and static clings

• Plastic pieces wipe clean with damp cloth

• Cake measures 6″ in diameter x 2.75″H; crown adjusts up to 22″

• Ages 3+

Kernal Seasons Popcorn Basket Giveaway

 

One of the biggest challenges to healthy eating is between-meal snacking. Popcorn, a whole grain food that’s low in calories, is a great snack food that’s economical and also fun to eat. We are HUGE popcorn eaters in my family. One of my fondest memories of childhood was looking forward to Friday nights, because my mom would cook (on the stove) a big pot of popcorn and then we would settle in to watch a movie. KERNALSEASONS has a line of yummy Popcorn Seasonings to add some kick to your Popcorn. They have everything from Butter, Kettle Korn, Nacho Chedder, Ranch and much more! We were so tickled to try some of their flavors and my favorite is Sour Cream. My husband is a Ranch fanatic and the kids love the White Cheddar and Butter. Tip: You can use the seasonings for other food too, we love it on potatoes.

One cup of popped popcorn, eaten plain, contains:
24 calories
1 gram of protein
6 grams carbohydrates
1 gram fiber

Keeping healthy snacks on hand is important for the whole family, especially with childhood obesity on the rise. “Popcorn is one of the best snack foods around. It’s low in calories and high in fiber which makes it a healthy, nutritious choice for between-meal snacking for kids and adults,” says Elizabeth M. Ward, registered dietitian and author of The Pocket Idiot’s Guide to the New Food Pyramids. Sprinkling popcorn with herbs or other seasonings is a fun way to add flavor without adding extra fat and calories. Children love to mix and match a variety of flavors to create their own healthy popcorn creations.

Ideas include: Spray popcorn with low-fat cooking oil such as Kernel Season’s Popcorn Spritzer, sprinkle with Kernel Season’s toppings such as flavors as White Cheddar, Nacho Cheddar, Butter, Ranch and Kettle Corn. Add raisins and dried fruits for variation on trail mix. Sprinkle popcorn with Kernel Season’s Chocolate Marshmallow flavor to enjoy with a cup of hot chocolate. Consider popcorn as a healthy alternative to more fattening desserts by adding Kernel Season’s Apple Cinnamon, Caramel or Kettle Corn flavors. Because popcorn is a good source of fiber it provides many health benefits and is often recommended by health and medical associations including The National Cancer Institute, The American Dietetic Association and The American Dental Association. Popcorn is healthy for the wallet, too. One cup of plain popcorn costs only pennies. (For example, Kernel Season’s popcorn costs between 12-14 cents per cup). Kick off the New Year with healthy eating habits that are easy and fun. Adding wholesome snacks like popcorn to the family diet is one resolution that everyone can keep.

KERNAL SEASON’S, headquartered in Elk Grove Village, IL, is the number one popcorn seasoning in the country. The flavors are all natural blends made with real cheese and are offered at more than 20,000 movie theater screens nationwide as a free shake-on topping. They may be purchased for home use at more than 18,000 grocery stores across America including Wal-Mart, Target, K Mart, Blockbuster Video, Safeway and Food Lion. Kernel Season’s products and popcorn accessories can be purchased at www.NoMoreNakedPopcorn.com. You can buy four and get one seasoning free for only $15.96 on their website. The website also has other web offers, recipes, and a Kernals Club.

KERNALSEASONS has generously offered to send one Bookroom Reviews Reader this AWESOME basket of goodies!!  It includes:

A butter spritzer

A bag of stove popcorn

bags of microwave popcorn

Six different seasoning flavors

TO ENTER: VISIT KERNALSEASONS WEBSITE AND COME BACK AND COMMENT WHAT OTHER FLAVORS OR PRODUCT YOU WOULD LOVE TO TRY.

FOR SECOND ENTRY: STUMBLE, TWITTER (FOLLOW ME AND TWEET THIS) OR SUBSCRIBE AND LEAVE THE LINK IN A SEPARATE COMMENT.

THIS CONTEST WILL END JUNE 14TH AT MIDNIGHT. RANDOM.ORG WILL CHOOSE THE WINNER AND I WILL E-MAIL YOU. PLEASE RESPOND WITHIN 48 HOURS OR I WILL HAVE TO RE-DRAW. U.S. AND CANADA ONLY. GOOD LUCK AND KEEP CHECKING BACK, I HAVE SOME AMAZING GIVEAWAYS COMING UP

Chicken Soup For the Soul: Power Moms Book Review

   

THEMES

REVIEW
 

I had read other Chicken Soup for the Soul books in years past and felt particularly inspired by them, so I was eager to read Power Moms – and I wasn’t disappointed! However, the nature of my joy was other than I expected – part of me feared that I’d have to read about Super Moms who could do everything and more, unlike us mere mortals, but instead what I found were vignettes, intellectually bite-sized stories and poems of as many different types as there are moms (and all of them more than human!) that one could read between dealing with one child and another!

There are just so many divergent themes, including:  a mother seeing her daughter through a tempestuous and rebellious teenhood until she drives her back from camp and they encouter wild deer and the girl tells her mother she loves her (A Trip To Healing, by Jennifer Mallin); a young boy who sees his mother struggling to do the laundry and the ironing as her cheeks redden in the heat who puts a box on the washing machine encouraging other members of the family to tip her (Mom’s Tip Money, by Diane Dean White); and a treatise on intuition by the mother of Britney Spears (A Mother’s Intuition, by Lynne Spears).

In this book there are no medals awarded, or consciences totally resolved, about whether a mom should not work and stay at home, or work full-time using day care or a nanny for the children, or work from home while also raising her children. Each woman makes her own choice, what’s right for her and only her, and some even find their choices difficult, but then:

A lot of selfish reasons to just up and disappear;

But I can’t imagine all the love I’d miss if I were

Anywhere but here;

Anywhere but here.

Anywhere But Here, poem by Karen Fisher

One stay-at-home mother slacks off from her computer work to watch her two-year-old daughter sprinkling fairy dust around the room and expounds: “I just want to take her and hug her and drown her in kisses.

But while she is full of magic, I am cursed with a headset and laptop that keep my fingers typing” when she has to respond to the special bell that indicates someone is sending her a work-related IM message (Mama Esta Trabajando, by Cristina T. Lopez). Another mom realizes that her son is truly separate from her when he’s body-slammed by a playmate and doesn’t cry or get angry (as she would) but just laughs instead! (He May Be My Boy, But He’s His Own Person, by Patti Woods). Yet another mother offers some sage advice: “Staying at home is about creativity and cleverness because there is less income for things like decorating, landscaping and chic ensembles.” (Hearth Smart, by Janeen Lewis).

Chicken Soup for the Soul: Power Moms is tremendously successful because it is such a large compendium of varied stories: 101, to be exact! None is longer than a few pages so you don’t have to worry about losing your place or remembering what’s happened in case you have to run off to a sudden spill, an important pet chore or an emotional child emergency! The book is also helpfully divided into ten chapters on subects like The Daily Grind, Pink Slips, Dividends and Working From Home.

I remember magical summer nights when I was a child when the sky was so filled with large stars that you felt as if you could almost reach up and touch them, and all the mom writers in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Power Moms are just like those stars, shining brightly and hugely, each with her own special story to tell.

 

 

REVIEWED BY:

 Reviewed by Christina Zawadiwsky

Christina Zawadiwsky is Ukrainian-American, born in New York City, has a degree in Fine Arts, and is a poet, artist, journalist and TV producer. She has received a National Endowment for the Arts Award, two Wisconsin Arts Boards Awards, a Co-Ordinating Council of Literary Magazines Writer’s Award, and an Art Futures Award, among other honors. She was the originator and producer of “Where The Waters Meet”, a local TV series created to facilitate the voices of artists of all genres in the media, for which she won two national and twenty local awards, including a Commitment to Community Television Award. She is also a contributing editor to the annual Pushcart Prize Anthology, the recipient of an Outstanding Achievement Award from the Wisconsin Library Association, and has published four books of poetry.