Mennonite in a Little Black Dress

Imagine the most embarrassing thing your parents ever made you wear or do.  Now multiply that by 10 and you may have some idea of Rhoda Janzen's childhood.  In her memoir, Mennonite in a Little Black Dress, Janzen tells the story of growing up in the Mennonite community in California, and going back to that community at 40 in the wake of a divorce and major health crisis.

Janzen's father was a leader in the Mennonite community, traveling the world and converting non-believers.  Her mother was the backbone of their family.  She was the one that made their lard sandwiches for their school lunches (yes, I said lard), and sewed mismatched strips of fabric at the bottom of their pants when they got too short (you begin to see where the embarrassment comes in).  Rhoda and her sister are very close, and both of them left the community for college.  Their three brothers married nice Mennonite girls and settled down to raise nice Mennonite children. 

Janzen describes her family and her life as an adult with humor, which is good, considering how challenging some of it was.  She was married for 16 years to a man with bi-polar disorder, and like many people in her situation she rationalized away much of his behavior, telling herself that he really loved her underneath all of the cruelty and obsessive behavior.  What she couldn't rationalize away was Bob, the man that her husband met on Gay.com.  Despite having become a non-believer herself, when she goes home to heal after her divorce and a major car accident, she finds herself comforted by how little has changed.

Janzen is an English professor, and you can tell.  Her vocabulary is impressive, though it can be disconcerting to read a story about some rather mundane aspect of life and have to look up a word to understand her point.  Despite my rather frequent trips to websters.com, it was an easy, enjoyable read.

Teaser Tuesdays

TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page.
• You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
• Please avoid spoilers!

The only thing that might save her life was the fact that she couldn't describe what he looked like.

But if Cheyenne couldn't see, how could she escape?

(Pg 15, Girl, Stolen by April Henry)

Not That Kind Of Girl by Siobhan Vivian

ISBN-13: 9780545169158
Publisher: Scholastic, Inc.
Published: September 2010
336 pgs
Source: Personal Library

I have to admit that this book didn't really catch my attention at the beginning; I think it has got something to do with the cover or probably the title but nevertheless I picked it up after reading a few reviews from other bookbloggers and you know what, I am glad that I did that! I really, really enjoyed reading this book!

Natalie Sterling takes her studies seriously. She is the kind of girl whom I think every teacher would like in a student. In short, she is sensible, responsible and she knows what she wants for herself. She has dreams, and at this point she badly wants to be Student Council President and she would perform her best to get this position. After all, she is sitting for her SAT and she wants to get into the best college. However, the competition isn't easy when you have a handsome football player who knows how to play dirty and one who has many supporters behind him.

But Natalie is not going to give up. With the help of her best friend, Autumn, they try every means to get all the votes they want. The friendship between Natalie and Autumn has come a long way, ever since Natalie has backed Autumn up after an embarrassing moment with a boy she hooked up with awhile back. That incident has changed Autumn's life forever, and due to this Natalie has further make it a point not to get involved with boys and love.

However, Natalie's life gets complicated after that a freshman girl whom she used to babysit goes to the same school as her, and Natalie is most mortified by Spencer's outspoken and outrageous behaviour that sometimes get herself into trouble. Well you see, Spencer believes that sexiness empowers girls and she feels that they should make full good use of it to get what they want. Natalie, on the other hand, feels that they could be liberated feminists through other methods that are not involving sex and sexiness. But then some things happened when you least expected it and soon Natalie finds herself caring for Connor Hughes, another football player and a friend of her rival more than she knows. Has she beginning to lose respect for herself, or is she just simply following her heart?

Not That Kind Of Girl is a compelling read about friendship, love, choices and well, girl power. I just loved the themes of this story; it is so honest and the characters felt so real to me. Natalie may come across as a girl who knows it all from the beginning, but that's what make her stand out in this story. I liked her postitive attitude, and she has that girl power attribute in her which will make any girl agree with her resolutions.

As you can guess from the plot, Natalie definitely has some tough decisions to make towards the end. And what makes this book such a worthwhile read is reading about Natalie's experience and what or how she deals with it in the end. In my opinion this is not just a YA romance but is also a book that makes you think about your choices in life and be ready to face the world no matter what choices you have made.

I'd be sure to check out the other books by this author.

Old Town Holiday Cookies Recipe by Mary Burton

Have you read anything by Mary Burton? She writes romantic suspense and I am glad to hear from her publicist that her upcoming releases, Senseless and Merciless will be released in January and February 2011 respectively.

And that's not all, Mary Burton is happy to share her annual holiday recipe, "Old Town Holiday Cookies" with her readers. Her recipe is inspired by her two upcoming releases, both set in and around Alexandria, VA, including the city's famous Old Town section.

Old Town Holiday Cookies

2 sticks of butter
1 cup brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1-1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1-1/2 cups of All Purpose flour
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon salt
4 cups corn flakes
1 cup chocolate chips
White Chocolate

- Heat oven to 350 degrees.

- Cream softened butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar.

- Mix in eggs and vanilla. In a separate bowl mix flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Slowly blend dry ingredients into the butter/sugar mixture.

- Fold in corn flakes and chocolate chips. Drop rounded tablespoons onto baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. When cooled, drizzle with melted white chocolate.

Happy Holidays!

Literary Blog Hop-My Literary Pet Peeve

Welcome Literary Blog Hoppers!  The Literary Blog Hop is hosted each week by the fine folks at The Blue Bookcase.  This week's question is...

What is one of your literary pet peeves?  Is there something that writers do that really sets your teeth on edge?  Be specific, and give examples if you can.

This was an easy question for me, because there is only one thing that writers do that really makes me crazy-that is, other than bad writing.  But assuming for the moment that we are only talking about authors with the actual capacity to write well, I hate hate triple hate stream-of-consciousness narrative.  Not because it is difficult to understand (though sometimes it is)-I enjoy the mental gymnastics.  But because most of the time it comes off as vainglorious, narcissistic craziness!

Well, let me soften that a bit.  There are novels that use stream-of-consciousness as ONE of the techniques in the narrative structure, such as One Flew Over the Cuckoo's  Nest and Wide Sargasso Sea.  What really frosts my buns is being subjected to the rambling thoughts of character's (read: author's) inner monologue, as though every single thought that enters their head is a pearl to be thrown before the swine.

The most famous example of this is, of course, my old friend James Joyce.  I have heard all the arguments for why he is in the cannon, and I don't understand or buy any of them.  I have never read Ulysses, but I read Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man in high school, and remember wondering at the time why our teacher wanted us to read something that sounded like it had been written by a person at the end of an all-day bender.  Blech!

I also gave the old college try to Fight Club.  Apparently stream-of-consciousness makes an excellent movie and a crappy book.  (Yes, I know, Fight Club is beloved by many.  Yes, I know it makes a profound statement about what it means to be a man in a post-feminist world.  Before you write me a nasty-gram about the genius of that book, please remember I said I LIKED the movie version.  I just don't want to read it!)

My experience with Joyce is why I will never read Gravity's Rainbow, On the Road, or Naked Lunch.  I'm sure that I will miss out on some wonderfully wise commentary on the human condition-and I'm equally sure I don't care!

Rapunzel: A Tangled Tale

The first time I'd seen the trailer of Rapunzel: A Tangled Tale, I knew I wanted to watch it. Plus, my daughter and I are big fans of Walt Disney animations so of course we wouldn't miss want to miss it. So we went to watch this movie last evening after shopping around for almost the whole day. Well I am currently clearing my annual leave so I took this opportunity to spend some time with my daughter.

So, Rapunzel tells the story of a girl with her 70 feet of magical, golden hair and her wish to see and experience the outside world while she is being locked away in a tall tower by her "mother". Rapunzel is originally a princess but she was stolen by an elderly woman named Gothel when she was a baby as she knew Rapunzel's golden hair could keep her looking young. There is a little story behind how Rapunzel got her magical hair and that leaves us the audience entranced in the beginning of the movie.

The adventure begins when bandit Flynn Rider flees from the pursuit of his twin thugs as well as the King's guards after they have stolen a diamond tiara of the missing princess from the castle. During the escape, Flynn finds Rapunzel's tower and hide himself in there. But his relief comes short as he soon finds himself being held captive by Rapunzel's long hair. Rapunzel has always longed for some freedom and she strike a bargain with Flynn, telling him that she would return the tiara if he brings her out to see the world as well as the annual floating lights which she always see on the day of her birthday. This escapade gives them the chance to get to know each other better, but danger is around the corner and at what price do they have to pay to get the freedom they wanted so much? Would they be able to escape from their pursuer's grasp?

Well I absolutely loved everything about this animation! I loved the premise, the characterisations, and most of all I am captivated by the songs sang by Mandy Moore, who also lends her voice for Rapunzel's role. Secondary characters like Pascal (Rapunzel's pet chameleon) and Maximus (the lead guard's horse, who at times behaves like a guard dog) add some humour and lively moments to the story and I liked these characters as much as I liked Rapunzel and Flynn. Aside from the fun and excitement, there are also some touching moments towards the end of the movie and it made me a little teary-eyed. I gave this animation a 5-star rating because I enjoyed it so very much! (Needless to say, my daughter loved it too.) I know I will be buying the soundtrack (I couldn't find it when I went to search for it immediately after watching the movie) and the DVD when it releases. You know, I wouldn't mind watching this in the cinema again.

Wordless Wednesday

Christmas decorations at Takashimaya Shopping Centre, Singapore