Eat Pray Love and The Willoughbys

Look, I read an actual adult book! Alright, it's a bestseller and the author's been on Oprah, and it could've been a letdown, but I have to say that I loved reading Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. I expected to be interested in the travel and spiritual aspects of the book, but I wasn't expecting Ms. Gilbert to be so funny and likeable. I frequently laughed out loud when reading. It also made me think about my life and things that I could do to get more out of it. I made a little list in my journal after I finished the book. I've been to Italy, and don't dream of Indonesia, but India has appeal. If I can't get to India immediately for spiritual retreat, then that's okay, because I'm planning to go to a weekend meditation retreat right here in Minnesota. So, I finished my reading inspired.

Here's what Gilbert has to say about her reader's adulation (my word, not hers) of her travels:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9B9zFo4RFw

On a completely different note, another book I recently enjoyed is The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry. I listened to the complete but brief audio version read by Artie Johnson of Laugh-In fame (can you remember this show? I can). It was fun! It is what I hoped the Lemony Snicket books would be like, but weren't, at least for me.

If you have read or will read a great number of gentle "old-fashioned" children's books, then you will be tickled by this affectionate parody of the type. Like my co-librarian Carol (see

http://carolhashernoseinabook.blogspot.com/2008/08/happy-memories-of-books-past.html ),

I grew up reading favorites like Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfield, Edward Eager's books, E. Nesbit's books and the ones Lowry herself mentions in The Willoughbys: James and the Giant Peach, Anne of Green Gables, The Secret Garden, etc.

With this vicarious background filled with tragic accidents, plucky orphans, villainous relatives and more (See how Snicket/Handler took a page from this book to write his series?), I couldn't help but love Lowry's would-be orphans: bossy but golden-hearted Tim, the Barnabys, aka twins A & B, and the youngest, winsome confidence-free Jane. Lowry whips up a plot that ends happily, as an old-fashioned story should, and is peppered with melancholy tycoons, foreign postmasters, nanny super cooks and giggling abandoned babies on the way.

I hope it gives you a kick too, and as yet another Barnaby in the story says in his flawless :) German: "Schlee you later, alligatorplatz!"

Before I Die by Jenny Downham

I recently finished listening to Before I Die and I think that it was excellently written and performed. Sixteen year old Tessa is dying of Leukemia, and so in order to get the most out of what time she's got left, she makes a list of things that she wants to do, beginning with experiencing sex. Some of these things get her in trouble, but they help her cope. Tessa deals with not only her own fears and feelings, but also those of her friends and family. Her best friend Zoe is by turns angry at her and bored with her, her dad is protective and her mom has kept herself almost completely unaware of the particulars of Tessa's condition.

British (?) reader Charlotte Parry believably voices the characters and differentiates them well.

The story is emotional and touching, but not maudlin. I tend to avoid books in which the main character is dying, but I had heard such positive buzz about this that I was willing to try it and I liked Tessa very much. See if you do, too.

The Alice series

I just finished the newest book in Phyllis Renolds Naylor's often banned Alice series and once again enjoyed spending time with Alice and her friends. I love the way Naylor matter-of-factly handles all the ups and downs of teen life. Throughout the series, she has calmly addressed bullies, death, a seriously ill classmate, unwanted pregnancy, abuse in a teen love relationship, a gay-straight student alliance, a variety of questions about love and sex and more. Our heroine Alice deals with them all, frequently awkwardly, but always genuinely. One reason to love Alice is that she is not the girl who always knows what to do, but she muddles through good-heartedly, like so many of us try to do. Go Alice!