photo credit: © Salim Photography/ www.salimphoto.com
This Life Is In Your Hands
Release date: 2012 (paperback) / 321 pages
Synopsis(from Amazon): In the fall of 1968, Melissa Coleman’s parents pack their VW truck and set out to forge a new existence on a rugged coastal homestead. Inspired by Helen and Scott Nearing, authors of the homesteading bible Living the Good Life, Eliot and Sue build their own home by hand, live off the crops they grow, and establish a happy family with Melissa and her two sisters. They also attract national media and become icons of the back-to-the-land farming movement, but the pursuit of a purer, simpler life comes at a price…
Review: There is so much to love about this memoir. The best memoirs are able to communicate a greater meaning beyond the writer’s experiences and express a universal significance that transforms one individual’s life into a slice of humanity that resonates with every reader.
The Colemans desired a simpler life, closer to nature, and this memoir vividly portrays just how difficult — and rewarding — living off the land can be. Melissa Coleman recreates her childhood as well as a time and place — and philosophy — that was ahead of its time in many ways, but also impossible to maintain.
As Melissa tells the tale of her parents’ desire to live completely “off-the-grid,” before that concept even had meaning, by trying to hack out a completely self-sufficient life in the often inhospitable climate of Northern Maine, she transports her readers to the wilds of Maine in a fast-paced and engrossing tale of good intentions, human weakness, and luminous prose.
Childhood memories:
I can feel in my bones the chirp-cluck-brooding sounds of the chickens busying in the dust nearby, the smells of scythe-cut grass, freshly tilled earth, wet Normie-dog, and wood smoke from the cookstove as I lay on my back and babbled to the sky, grabbing my bare feet with my hands.
Understanding loss:
The chickens had been part of our family, and the egg in my throat was the feeling of something missing. It was hard and smooth and heavy, but also so fragile it might break and make me cry. It was the feeling of growing out of a favorite shirt, milk spilled on the floor, the last bit of honey in the jar, falling apple blossoms. It was the lump in the throat behind everything beautiful in life.
Religion:
God was something I did not understand the way kids who went to church did… When I thought of God, I imagined only mist over the pond, a sliver of moon in a dark sky, scatterings of stars, birdsong.
Summer:
We were full of the light of the endless June days, fields swaying with the purple-blue temples of lupine. The light, too, was full of itself, sun rising before we woke and setting after we went to bed. It bubbled up from some endless underground spring, tumbling over itself to be free. Even after the orange of sunset faded from the horizon, the light burst through the darkness in the blink-blink-blink of fireflies and the flash of phosphorescence in the black water of the ocean, mirroring the sparks of stars above. The moon was like a hole in the fabric of night, allowing the constant light to show through from behind.
This memoir would be an excellent choice for book clubs — so much to discuss!! If you are interested in winning a copy, please leave me a comment below…
Wednesday, April 11th: Jenn’s Bookshelves
Thursday, April 12th: Tina’s Book Reviews
Monday, April 16th: EmSun
Tuesday, April 17th: sidewalk shoes
Wednesday, April 18th: The House of the Seven Tails
Thursday, April 19th: A Bookish Way of Life
Friday, April 20th: Amused By Books
Monday, April 23rd: Literature and a Lens
Tuesday, April 24th: she reads and reads
Wednesday, April 25th: Book Club Classics!
Thursday, April 26th: Veronica MD
Friday, April 27th: BookNAround
TBD: A Musing Reviews
The Iguana Tree
Release date: 2012 (paperback) / 224 pages
Synopsis(from Amazon): Set amid the perils of illegal border crossings, The Iguana Tree is the suspenseful saga of Lilia and Hector, who separately make their way from Mexico into the United States, seeking work in the Carolinas and a home for their infant daughter.
Review: When I lived in Minnesota, the concept of “immigration” was abstract. Of course I had opinions about this topic, but living in a northern state that only borders Canada (whose residents do not seem desperate to enter the U.S.), I really did not give much thought to this. However, living in Colorado fleshes out the “idea” of immigration — the state’s diversity is composed of Hispanic individuals and I now know about “sanctuary cities” since I live only a few miles from three. My book club has recently chosen Just Like Us — a nonfiction work about four high school girls whose parents are all undocumented, but two of the girls were born in the U.S. while the other two were not.
So, I am currently fascinated by this topic and the arrival of The Iguana Tree was serendipitous in many ways. This story focuses on a Mexican couple who decide to start a new life in the U.S. The couple are forced to cross the border separately and Stone masterfully alternates between their perspectives and experiences each chapter. Each journey is expectedly harrowing and the losses are immeasurable.
The Iguana Tree would be an excellent choice for book clubs. At just over 200 pages, it is a very fast read — especially since the suspense makes this novel nearly impossible to put down. In addition, the voices of each character are authentic and well-crafted — learning about immigration through the voices of actual, albeit fictional, immigrants encourages compassion toward a topic that can so often become dehumanizing and polarizing. I guarantee that the discussion sparked by this novel will require no discussion questions.
Interested in winning a free copy and seeing for yourself? Drop me a comment and I’ll choose a winner soon!
Monday, April 2nd: Luxury Reading
EntreLeadership
Release date: 2011 / pages
Review: EntreLeadership is a nice mix of radio host Dave Ramsey’s personal experience, wisdom from other successful business people and common sense. The tone is both motivational and instructional as Ramsey addresses each stage of an entrepreneur’s journey – from finding an idea to be passionate about to knowing when to quit the day job to hiring the first “team member.”
Ramsey’s moral compass is dictated by Christianity and this is apparent by the Biblical verses and parables referenced throughout. However, Ramsey believes that anyone with a dream can create goals and become a success, especially if those goals are measurable and shared by the team. To help budding CEOs, Ramsey explains the principles of effective time management, how to make good decisions, how to empower team members to take responsibility and how to maintain momentum with any burgeoning business. Once a business is on the path to success, he then provides tips for how to effectively manage people by hiring and keeping the right individuals – he emphasizes hiring people you like and who share your passion.
The only false note is Ramsey’s occasional use of “ladies,” which seems out-of-step with his otherwise progressive ideas. Most women would assume they were naturally included in Ramsey’s audience, so referencing “ladies” seemed unnecessarily exclusionary and even condescending at times.
However, overall this is a useful guide to business that many would enjoy. EntreLeadership is meant to be both motivational and practical and succeeds at both. Thank you to Shelf Awareness for asking me to read and review this!
If you are interested in winning a copy, please leave me a comment!
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
The Latehomecomer by Kao Kalia Yang
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry
Netherland by Joseph O'Neill
Many more choices... Go to Buy Guides!
Book Bites -- Sign Up Today!
Enjoy your favorite books today!
