This is my symphony

The Wild Truth (review)

Laurie Larson

December 28, 2015

The Wild Truth
Carine McCandless
HarperOne

Like so many readers around the world, I was spellbound by Jon Krakauer’s book Into the Wild which told the story of Chris McCandless’s journey of self-discovery and untimely death in the Alaskan wilderness; Sean Penn’s film by the same name was a powerful cinematic version of Chris’s story. Each year several of my students choose to read the book for an end-of-the-year book talk and they struggle, as I did, with the question–was Chris’s experience worth the price he paid?

Today pilgrims travel to bus 142 in Alaska to pay homage to a young man whose life has, perhaps, grown to mythical proporations. There are websites dedicated to Chris’s memory and others debunking the mystery of his death. Krakauer himself has returned to the story of McCandless for both Outside Magazine and The New Yorker, as well as appearing on Oprah.

A year ago I read that Chris’s sister Carine had written a book and my interest in his story was piqued again. Carine’s book The Wild Truth is a brutally honest telling of the family life he endured growing up. I almost put the book down after the first chapter as Carine revisited the house where she and Chris grew up and experienced what could only be called flashbacks of those days. For those who have experienced domestic violence or abuse, this might be a story that re-opens old wounds.

On the surface, life was picture perfect in the McCandless household. They had it all: a beautifully decorated home, a successful engineering business, nice cars, better clothes. The family’s photo graced the membership wall of the Methodist church they attended each Sunday. But in reality, Walt McCandless was a brutal authoritarian who abused his wife and children. Billie was by turns his greatest defender or his archenemy. They both drank too much. Walt was, for all intents and purposes, a bigamist who for a period of several years kept a house with his first wife Marcia and their six children, and only a few miles away, another house for his life with Billie, Chris, and Carine. The children from both relationships often visited and stayed over at the other home. Both Walt and Billie lied, manipulated the truth, and did everything in their power to invalidate their children’s understanding of their dysfunctional family life–even into adulthood.

What might make a younger child fearful and anxious often makes an adolescent or young adult rebel against or sever toxic relationships–which is exactly, Carine tells us, what Chris’s journey was meant to do. Although her heart was broken at the loss of her brother, Carine takes comfort in knowing Chris died happy and at peace–something that eluded him in life.

Much of the book is less about Chris than it is about Carine McCandless, who is herself a fascinating woman. While she relates her experience growing up with Chris, the book is largely focused on her own coming to terms with her parents’ behavior. It’s not a pretty story and there’s no fairy tale ending, at least in the traditional sense.

But Carine McCandless is a woman of indomitable spirit whose example gives hope to others that, in the end, a life of integrity and honesty will win out over deceit–and that maybe love really can conquer all.

The Man In the Window (review)

Laurie Larson

no comments

December 25, 2015

The Man In the Window
Jon Cohen
Amazon Encore

Our first glimpse of Louis Malone is him sitting at the top of the stairs listening as his mother Gracie insists to the funeral director that her recently deceased husband Atlas be buried in his flannel workshirt, courduroys, and Hushpuppies. (The final score was Gracie: 1, Rose Funeral Home: 0, by the way.) And upstairs still, Louis watches the procession of casseroles and baked goods droppped off at the front door by friends and neighbors sympathizing with the newly widowed Gracie and even (maybe, just maybe) hoping to get a glimpse of Louis as well.

Now thirty-two, Louis has not been seen in Waverly in the sixteen years since the accident that left him horribly disfigured. He has watched the seasons melt into years from the upstairs windows of his parents home, only sometimes creeping out in the dark of night to touch a spot in the yard he had only seen from two stories up.

And now, face muffled in his trademark purple scarf with Pirate’s ball cap pulled low, Louis rides in the limo to the funeral home, waits until the service ends, and then watches the graveside service from the safety of the back seat. As the service wraps up, a woman taps on the window. She tells Louis there are “worse things than death”–and she’s not the least bit nonplussed to be talking to a man covered head-to-toe save for his eyes. She’s a nurse, she tells Louis, on her way to the hospital and thought the funeral might have been one of her patients.

That nurse, Iris Shula, was horrible in her own way: overweight, abnormally short, and (even Iris herself would admit) just plain ugly. Iris works in critical care and not much surprises her. Not a blood splatter shaped like a perfect Valentine heart. Not even the dying Tube Man who every so often speaks one impossible word at a time: The. Man. In. The. Window. Is. Loose.

And then the worlds of these two misfits begin to collide. Iris’s elderly widowed father Arnie crosses paths with Atlas’s funeral procession; Louis falls from a window and meets Iris in the emergency room; Arnie, lost and confused, enters Louis’s home one night and is befriended by Gracie.

And then Iris, drawn to Louis who inexplicably touches her heart, reaches out to him–the unloved to the unlovable–and he reaches back.

This is a world beautifully conceived by writer Jon Cohen–where a hardware store can fix all of life’s ills, where the comatose offer up talismans, where falling two stories is really an ascent.

I read the last paragraph at least five times. You should too.

Little Pretty Things (review)

Laurie Larson

no comments

December 17, 2015

Little Pretty Things
Lori Rader-Day
Seventh Street Books

I don’t read mysteries. Never liked ’em. Except when I like them as here or here or even here. And of course there’s my beloved Flavia. So maybe I’d better rethink this mystery thing, right?!

Lori Rader-Day’s Pretty Little Things is a pretty straightforward murder mystery from about page 40. Juliet Townsend works a dead end job in a dead end life: she still lives at home with her mother, barely makes enough to make ends meet as a motel housekeeper, and hasn’t had a boyfriend in years. Once a promising high school track star, Juliet found herself running in place at age thirty. She had hoped to go to college on an athletic scholarship–but that was before her best friend and teammate Madeleine Bell’s crisis kept them from competing in the state finals. Then, only a few weeks later, Maddy is off to college early right after graduation, leaving Juliet in the dust. Bitter, Juliet remains mired in the emotional muck of that spring even ten years later.

And then one night Maddy walks into the Mid-Night Inn where Juliet works and rents a room. Over a quick beer, they talk, and still resentful of her losses, Juliet rebuffs Maddy’s attempts to reconnect. Juliet finds that Maddy is everything she is not. A chic big-city gal. Confident. Put together.

Until she’s found dead. And then Juliet has to figure out whether or not Maddy was who she appeared to be.

Because of their tense meeting that night and their rivalry in high school, Juliet is immediately a suspect. And like so many good mysteries, the suspect turns detective to clear her name. In the process of finding that truth, Juliet also discovers that her understanding of her world as a sixteen-year-old was far from clear–she had to relearn her friend’s story as well as her own.

I do love writers who set their stories in the Midwest and that may have been part of my love for Little Pretty Things. The novel takes place in the fictional Midway, just outside of Indianapolis and the characters are true to their Midwestern roots. (Juliet’s mom makes her macaroni and cheese when she gets home from work; porch lights flicker on at dusk; nearly everyone lives in the shadow of their highschool self.) But the Midwest is not all church potlucks and homecoming parades–Rader-Day brings the dark, unseemly side of small town life and high school athletics to light.

When I do read that occasional mystery, I find myself guessing nearly every other chapter–he’s the murderer. Or maybe it’s her. Or him. And my measure of a good whodunit? When my guesses are nearly always wrong … but juuuuust close enough for me to hear the author whisper gotcha! as I turn to that last chapter.

As the shopper rushed home with her treasures: Bailey & James Boutique

Laurie Larson

1 comment

December 14, 2015

51 1/2 Bridge Street, Rockford

This time of year I daydream about an idyllic Christmas shopping experience that is a far-stretch from mall shopping: pretty store fronts, quaint little shops, lighted trees, carols in floating on the breeze. Throw in a few fluffy snowflakes and I’ve got a perfect evening, something a little Norman Rockwell with a dash of Chicago boutique. Yesterday that daydream came alive for a couple hours–minus the snowflakes (we’re having a rec0rd-breaking “heat” wave in Michigan this December!).

Shop owner Amber Kneibel opened Bailey & James Boutique several months ago hoping to “create a space that is fun, warm, and welcoming” and where customers would feel like family. Nestled in downtown Rockford, the cozy shop combines a homey atmosphere with some very classy gift items (most created by local Michigan artisans) and vintage decor pieces. Amber says, “Our vintage pieces are heavily sourced from the 50 and 60’s. We embrace color, the farm chic movement, and we adore those that make handmade goodies right here in the mitten!” I had no problem leaving the store with a few unique gifts for some special people on my list: a guitar string bracelet, a hand-stamped wine bottle charm for gift giving (maybe!), and a cute little something-something for a Special Gal who (rumor has it!) just might get a sparkly ring for her left hand this holiday season. Nothing makes me a more satisfied shopper than to leave a store with gifts my loved ones won’t see in every other store in the mall.

Bailey & James Boutique

I attended a private event Amber held for local bloggers–something I think other small shop owners would be smart to do. The quiet afternoon hours gave Amber time to talk to each blogger, answer questions, and share her love of All Things Pretty. Small businesses often take root and grow when friends and fans share the love. Smart business woman, this Amber!

And Bailey. Don’t get me started. A dog rescued from a dog fighting ring, this sweet girl gives each customer a gentle (and very polite) welcome. I was so wrapped up in hearing Amber tell Bailey’s story (and also a little teary) that I didn’t even get a photo of the shop’s namesake.

But you can be sure I’ll be back–and probably fairly soon. (Like this week?!) I didn’t get a print that would look perfect in my kitchen …

*this post is not sponsored by Bailey & James Boutique, nor was my opinion solicited. All opinions are entirely my own.

The Beauty of What Remains (review)

Laurie Larson

3 comments

December 7, 2015

The Beauty of What Remains (NetGalley)
Susan Johnson Hadler
She Writes Press

Writer Susan Johnson Hadler’s father died in WWII when she was only three months old. Because he was killed in a mine explosion, there were no remains to inter and his wife was sent only his personal effects: socks, glasses, a sewing kit, a few snapshots, a bible, and $38.67. Hadler’s mother remarried a few years later, and the three-year-old was folded into a new family that had, it seemed, no room for her father’s memory. But Hadler always wondered about him, in part because the welcome letter he had written when she was born was taped inside her baby book. Full of his love for her mother and hopes for her future, the letter was something at least–but not enough.

In her twenties, Hadler dared approach the subject of her dad. “What was he like?” she asked her mother. Put the past behind you, her mother implied–“You have everything you’ve ever needed.” The past is the past. Except for Hadler, it wasn’t.

And so when she’s nearly fifty, Hadler begins to unravel her father’s story. She gets a copy of her father’s war records, contacts some of the men he served with, attends a reunion of the 782nd tank battalion, and finally travels to Mechernich, Germany with her husband to put all the pieces together. They stand in the woods where he died and take in the countryside he saw in his last days and weeks.

David Johnson was a “fine gentleman, good officer.” He was “firm” with the men under his command. David Johnson was “lighthearted, carefree. Nothing bothered him.” Her father was “a quiet man. Kind. Respected.” A good man.

Even Hadley’s mother begins to open up a bit about their brief life together. How the couple was the first of their friends to marry, how their friends gathered at their apartment before leaving for the war, how angry she was at his death. But Hadley also heard love in her voice, the love that became her.

Hadley petitioned and received a memorial marker for her father in Arlington Cemetary, where the family gathered for a brief ceremony, and she wrote about her experiences in an article titled “Finding My Father” in the Washingtonian Magazine. And with that, the family wagons circled around Hadley’s mother who felt as though her privacy had been violated.

Shuffling through all those family photos also led Hadley to finding her mother’s estranged sisters: Dorothy, a lively octogenarian who lived in Brooklyn, New York; and Elinor, sent away in her twenties to a mental hospital, and … well, you’ll just have to get a copy of The Beauty of What Remains to turn that page in Hadley’s family album.

I think what appealed to me most about this memoir was the author’s navigation of all things family. Navigating the waters of family secrets and wading through repressed memories, Hadley speaks her truth–painfully, cautiously, but always honestly.

The Beauty of What Remains is a beautiful story, compellingly told.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Laurie Larson

no comments

December 3, 2015

Call me crazy, but I wait until December to start my Christmas shopping. Who can even think about Christmas gifts in September when we haven’t yet had a flake of snow, or (even worse!) in July when thoughts should be turned to sun and sand? To really feel the spirit, I need the air brisk, lamp poles decorated with greens, and holiday muzak blaring. A little hustle and bustle never hurt anyone, she said blithely.

My favorite: Jane Eyre

But what to buy the booklovers on your list when even bookstores seem to offer only to-be-expected booklights, book totes, and bookmarks with maybe a reading journal thrown in for good measure? I found two companies whose products sent me over the moon–and I can’t imagine the bibliophiles in your life wouldn’t be just as pleased as I was.

The first (and probably the easiest to order from for this holiday season since they’re based in the U.S.) is *Litographs. What’s unique about this company is that the graphics on their posters, totes, and T-shirts are created out of the actual text of the work. And it’s those T-shirts that caught my eye–as their website says, it may be “the best shirt I’ve ever worn”. How fun to have passages of my favorite Jane Eyre perched right on my shoulders and wrapped around my heart. Nothing more romantic than that! The simple graphics reflect the titles which include famous works of British and American literature, as well as plays, poetry, mysteries–just

Yes, please, Louisa May Alcott!

about every genre is represented. The process of making the T-shirts and prints is amazing; you can watch a video here. There’s even a pretty extensive line of temporary tatoos. Go figure! To make your shopping even more of a no-brainer, Litographs is a socially responsible company that partners with the International Book Bank, donating one book to a community in need for every shirt, tote, or print sold.

The other company I’ve loved browsing is *Bookishly. Because they’re located in England, shipping might take up to four weeks. (The website is very clear that “next day shipping” applies only to buyers in the U.K.) But be sure to remember this site for the next gift-giving holiday or a birthday or anniversary or retirement or … okay, for me just about any event would be a good time to receive one of Bookishly’s goodies. This site features a wider range of products, including prints, jewelry, greeting cards, and journals. I’m not much for jewelry, and I don’t send much snail mail, but the prints really caught my eye. The quotations are printed on the pages of vintage books, usually titles that somehow compliment the quote. For instance, the quote by poet Sarah WIlliams “I have loved the stars too fondly” is printed on a page of Carl Sagan’s Cosmos. Jane Austen’s “You must be the best judge of your own happiness” from Emma is stamped on a page from the novel. Be still my beating heart! Each print comes framed, but “glass-free so you can really feel the old page.” (And get a whiff of that old book smell, too!)

While I’d usually say the best gift for the reader in your life is one of the books on their wishlist that they so kindly printed out for you, a gift from Litographs or Bookishly would be a close second–and a much more of a surprise under the tree.

*this post is not sponsored by either company, nor was my opinion solicited. I came across the products much like you do–surfing the net on a Saturday morning with coffee in hand. I share the links only because the products are unique and would make great gifts.

Squeaky clean: The Brontë Plot (review)

Laurie Larson

2 comments

November 30, 2015

The Brontë Plot (NetGalley)
Katherine Reay
Thomas Nelson

Lucy Alling is Sid McKenna’s Girl Friday at Sid McKenna Antiques and Design–most days she straightens, dusts, rearranges, and parcel-posts for one of Chicago’s premier interior designers. But Wednesday was Book Day, a day Lucy could lose herself in the rare and sometimes just plain quirky books she searched for the world over–like the Jane Eyre first inscribed “To my darling Betty, 1898” and underneath this additional dedication, “Now to you, dear Laura, 1939.” Stories with a story are Lucy’s specialty and, sometime in the not-so-distant future, she hoped to make every day Book Day with a rare book business of her own.

Add a little love interest to go along with a story about an antique bookseller and I’m in–especially if I’m wanting a little light weekend reading. Enter one James Carmichael: single, good-looking, nice-as-nice-can-be lawyer. Bronte Plot

James confides in Lucy about his struggles making partner at the law firm and Lucy opens up about the shattered family of her childhood, including her ex-con dad whose sole contact with her over the years has been a book sent every birthday. Sparks fly and it begins to look like the love story is a wrap barely a quarter way through the novel.

With Lucy, though, it’s here a story, there a story, everywhere a story, and we begin to learn she has a habit she’d like to keep secret. Seems Lucy plays a little fast and loose with the truth sometimes. But only (of course!) when the end justifies the means. A dinner reservation, a few Brontë books, a vase or two, some fabric … and wouldn’t you know it would be James’s patrician grandmother who finds her out.

Surprisingly (or maybe not), that same grande dame immediately hires Lucy to accompany her on a buying trip to London?! Helen Carmichael needs a consultant to find silver services for each of her granddaughters, and she has a antique gold watch she needs to “return” to a family in London. It seems Helen has a few secrets of her own to resolve.

I have to say I chose this title from NetGalley when I read it involved a trip to England, the Brontës, old books, and Chicago–all among my favorite things in the world! But when the reader’s copy showed up in my Kindle queue, I saw the publisher: Thomas Nelson. Dun, dun, DUN and a bit of an inner groan.

Now Christian I might be, but a contemporary Christian novel is just about as appealing to me as contemporary Christian music. Go ahead and shoot me on either of those two accounts, but Christian fiction isn’t my cup of tea. (Granted, this probably has something to do with the fact that when I was recovering from a tonsillectomy at age sixteen, a family friend from out of state sent me a box, mind you, of books. And they were all from a religious publisher and featured teen girls who decided not to date and instead chose mission work or nursing because God had called them … I was bored to tears by the novels, but had nothing else to read, so read them I did. Probably in the same way a starving man would choose to eat lutefisk over starvation. So never again, unless it is a more reliable kind of “Christian” novel like Chronicles of Narnia or Swiftly Tilting Planet.)

But there was that trip to England and those Brontë sisters, after all–so on I read.

And happily so. To be sure the novel was squeaky clean and writer Katherine Reay made sure that her fallen characters had a moral reckoning and made amends, but in the end, I had a fun time.

Do you reread?

Laurie Larson

1 comment

November 16, 2015

My son has read Stephen King’s Dark Tower series multiple times. And I mean multiple multiple times. It’s like comfort-food reading for him. Familiar and warm. (Kind of odd to put King in the ‘comfort’ category, isn’t it?!)

Me, not so much. I have never been one to turn back to a novel after I’ve enjoyed it on the first read-through, not even my favorites. Maybe that’s because the last book I read is usually my “favorite”–until I open the next. (I seem to have pretty good radar for books–or I’m incredibly indiscriminent–so for a moment my read-of-the-week is the best book ever.)

Our shelves house hundreds upon hundreds of books because I ~~like~~ need to own my books and once they’re mine I can’t bear to part with them. It’s something akin to a mother’s love, I think–they become my offspring. Now it would save me a bundle of money if I did reread and I have this wild and crazy plan that when I retire, I’ll start at the top left hand shelf of the first bookcase and go right through to the end, rereading every last one of those lil’ darlings.

We’ll see how that goes.

I will confess, though, that there are two books I’ve read more than once–maybe three times or four? One is my favorite classic of all times, Jane Eyre. I read her first time around in high school when I was hungry for gothic romance. And what sixteen-year-old isn’t? Truthfully I think I have a little bit of Jane in me, so reading her comes as naturally as living–except that, no, my husband doesn’t have a crazy woman hidden in the attic. I don’t think. (I always skip the part where she lives at Marsh End, though–too much wholesome living and not enough romance for my tastes.) But Jane Eyre, classic that she is, seems like pretty standard rereading material.

My other reread is a lot more obscure: May Sarton’s Miss Pickthorn and Mr. Hare. A family friend gifted me the novel when I was in high school. It’s a rather odd choice for a teenage girl, I think, but I loved it then as I love it forty years later. Miss Pickthorn, retired Latin teacher, lives a solitary life in her tidy little cottage with its neat little woodpile and warm stove and letter writing in the afternoon. Mr. Trumbull Hare is a hobo who has taken up residence in the henhouse across the road–a ne’er-do-well who needs to be taken in hand. And so begins a sweet fable of friendship found and lost.

So I guess I do reread after all … I think it helps me remember who I was when.

Still a bully: This Is Your Life Harriet Chance (review)

Laurie Larson

1 comment

November 11, 2015

This Is Your Life Harriet Chance (NetGalley)
by Jonathan Evison
Algonquin Books

Harriet Chance sits in Father Mullinix’s study. Her husband Bernard, dead for two years, has been showing up unannounced: leaving his slippers next to hers, setting out a can of WD-40 so she could silence a hinge, showing up unannounced at the grocery store complaining.

What’s a widow to do when her dead husband still isn’t silent, even from the grave? What kind of a husband does this, anyway? A bully, that’s who. Bernard was–apparently still is–a bully.

And for his part, Bernard Chance is soundly taken to task by heaven’s chief transitional officer for intruding in her affairs. Apparently, it was made very clear during orientation (and it’s repeated in the manual in Section One) that Candidates are not to return under any circumstances. Or else. Bernard’s motives seem to be pure–he’s just out to spare Harriet from learning things that will hurt her.

Father is concerned. Her son Skip (a successful businessman–or is he?) is concerned. Even daughter Caroline, an alcoholic who has given her parents a pretty wide berth since her recovery, is concerned.

And then there’s the matter of the cruise. Harriet recieved a call from the Nitterhouse Foundation. Seems that Bernard had bid and won a gift basket at a silent auction, but never picked it up. His cruise to Alaska would expire in a matter of months–would Mrs. Chance please come redeem her gift soon?

Quick as you can settle into a game of shuffleboard on the atrium deck, Harriet is off to Alaska. By herself because best friend Mildred Honeycutt has ditched her. And sent that AA daughter of Harriet’s (Surprise, Mom!) instead.

The book’s blurb sounded madcap. What’s not to like about a visiting ghost-husband who’s still a grumpy gus? How can I not be charmed by an unexpected (and quite lavish) mother-daughter getaway? Harriet mu st be a sweet old lady finally getting hers.

Except that life isn’t really all sweetness and light, now, is it?

Author Jonathon Evison peels off the layers of Harriet’s solidly built world slowly and painfully. There’s that first “incident” with Charlie Fitzsimmons on the boat when she was nine. Caroline’s palpable struggle to stay sober. Harriet’s own drinking. The devasting story of Bernard’s last days. His ~~abuse~~ bullying. And the awful truth about the betrayal of her very best friend.

For some reason I was pleasantly surprised that the novel I chose for a bit of light reading turned out to be far heavier than I sometimes wanted. This Is Your Life Harriet Chance was by turns raw and tender, whimsical and nostalgic.

Reading challenge redux

Laurie Larson

1 comment

November 3, 2015

Pop Sugar

When I wrote about Pop Sugar’s 2015 Reading Challenge here in December, I was excited for the inspiration the list gave me. But after the novelty wore off a bit, I set the printed list aside and just kept whittling away at my To Be Read pile–or Kindle queue, as the case may be! So I was surprised when I sat down with that list again in August to see just how many of the titles I’d read fit the list, and I’ve added a few more since then. Here’s my recap for 2015 as of the first November.

A book published this year: Any number of them—I choose Whiskey and Charlie

A book written by someone under 30: How’s 32? Jay Asher wrote 13 Reasons Why when he was 32. Actually, that’s when it was published, so maybe he did write it at 30!

A book with nonhuman characters: Lawyer for the Dog (a cute schnauzer) & Leaving Time (elephants)

A book with a number in the title: Second Sister

A funny book: Mrs. Queen Takes the Train

A book by a female author: Seriously?! Too many to count, but I’ll choose The Truth According to Us

A book set in a different country: The Miniaturist

A nonfiction book: A Million Miles in a Thousand Years

A book your mom loves: My mom loves Jan Karon’s Mitford series, so even though she hasn’t read the new one, I’ll choose Come Rain or Come Shine

A book based entirely on its cover: Book of Speculation

A memoir: Cider With Rosie

A book you can finish in a day: The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt

A book set somewhere you’ve always wanted to visit: Take Me With You

A book with a love triangle: Etta and Otto and Russell and James

A book set in the future: The Heart Goes Last

A book set in high school: Eleanor and Park

A book with a color in the title: A Spool of Blue Thread

A book that made you cry: Before I Go

A book with magic: The Lemoncholy Life of Annie Aster

A book by an author you’ve never read before: About forty bazillion of the books I read this year

A book that takes place in your home town: I fudged on this one—how about my home state? You Don’t Have To Live Like This was set in Detroit

A book that was originally written in another language: Little Paris Bookshop

A book set during Christmas: The Christmas Train by David Balducci (review to be posted)

So wowzers, right? There’s a number of other categories I probably just won’t get to because I’d rather read new books right now—so “A book more than 100 years old” will have to wait. There are a couple categories that intrigue me, though: A book that came out the year you were born (1958) and a book written by an author with your same initials (LL). Those sound like fun, but I’ll have to do some sleuthing for those two.

We’re only eight weeks away from the end of 2015–How did you do on your reading challenge this year?