Synopsis:
A true story of a woman who escaped polygamy with her eight children, despite being the plural wife of one of the most powerful men in the FLDS.
Review:
Carolyn Jessop’s story is fascinating and inspiring. As a mom myself, I was moved by her love for her children and her tenacity at making the system work for her. In Escape,
she takes readers through her harrowing journey from true believing sister wife to crusader for justice.
Synopsis:
An examination of the challenges facing parents and educators of girls, from endocrine disruptors in our plastics to texting and the internet.
Review:
Just as he did in Why Gender Matters, Dr. Leonard Sax brings science and biology to bear on the unique challenges facing girls. His is not an approach that patly accepts culturally constructed notions of gender. Rather, in Girls on the Edge, he shows how the biological differences between girls and boys affect their participation in sports and the classroom, as well as how their psychological differences influence the ways in which they interact socially, both positively and negatively. A must read for moms of girls.
Synopsis:
Short Stories from the New Asia-Pacific.
Review:
Another Kind of Paradise is a collection of stories from Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Burma, Thailand, Viet Nam, Cambodia, and more. My favorite was “Their Son” by Hong Ying from China, which takes expectations about parents and children and totally upends them. It was sad, sweet, funny, and provocative. “Third Meeting” by Mi-na Choi from Korea had a narrator that really grabbed me, even though the story was heartbreaking beyond words.
Synopsis:
A history of the origins and controversies in the debate over vaccine safety.
Review:
The Panic Virus is well-researched and provocative, and lays out a convincing case that the furor over vaccines was fueled by fear, charlatanism, ignorance, and bad science. However, I don’t think it will convince anyone who is totally opposed to vaccines. But for me, as someone who was persuaded by many of the anti-vaccine arguments even as I believed in the public health good of vaccines, I came away feeling confident in my decision to vaccinate and fearful of the return of vaccine preventable diseases.
Being a parent is hard and I often question whether I am making the right decisions. I am angered at the so-called experts and fraudulent doctors who exploited that natural uncertainty for their own benefit at the expense of children who have either died from diseases, or who have autism that medicine still does not understand because doctors and researchers have been sidetracked by the vaccine debate.
Synopsis:
18-year-old Grace is on her own, having left her native Trinidad for a new life in the US, but nannying for a wealthy family might not be the source of rescue she needs it to be.
Review:
Minding Ben‘s strength is in its depiction of the after-work lives of the Carribean women who take care of so many babies and toddlers in New York City. It’s weakness comes by hewing too closely to the Nanny Diaries dynamic of adorable kid with evil parents. I really hated how cartoonishly awful Miriam and Sol were–not only did they disregard Grace’s boundaries, they were racist as well. I see a lot of Carribean nannies here in Queens, hired by moms who are not wealthy and who don’t abuse them. I’d be just as interested in Grace’s story if the family she worked for were more recognizably human.
Synopsis:
A guide for parents to teach their children how to write, from scribbles to stories.
Review:
I plan on homeschooling the Superfast girls so I’m always keen to read these kinds of books. I found The Write Start to be engaging, informative, and useful. I have started using some of her techniques, like “boss hand” and “helper hand” with Superfast Preschooler, and she’s responded really well. Hallissy makes teaching writing sound fun and achievable by ordinary parents.
Synopsis:
An EMT falls in love with a reckless patient, who then abandons him and their daughter, and he struggles with whether he should let her back in.
Review:
I blazed through Rescue, which doesn’t have the strongest of plots but offers an emotionally compelling story nonetheless. Though it takes a turn for the melodramatic near the end, I stayed with the characters because I found them to be so real. It didn’t offer any grand revelations, nor did it make my toes tingle, but it was a pleasant enough read.
Synopsis:
When her autistic son is accused of murder, a lawyer takes the law into her own hands, convinced of his innocence despite the rampant evidence against him.
Review:
I really don’t think that many parents of autistic children are going to be pleased with Saving Max, which preys on the common fear that autistic children are unmanageable and unable to love. Combine that with parental anxiety over watching your vulnerable little boy grow into a strong man, and you have the roots of the tension that fuels Saving Max, one that plants the seeds of wondering whether those innocent-looking stimming behaviors could turn violent.
That said, I did find the book to be a real page-turner in terms of plotting, even though I guessed the murderer and their motive about halfway through. That’s way early for me, because I’m usually in the dark until the last pages, so it must be really obvious. But even so I enjoyed seeing how all the story events played out and felt satisfied with the ending. What more can you ask for from a thriller, really?
Many thanks to Mira for the review copy.
Synopsis:
After her husband leaves her for another man, a model with three teenage boys moves back home to Texas where she runs across the champion bullrider she loved as a teen.
Review:
I’ve previously enjoyed Jane Porter’s books as being a cut above the usual chick lit/romance genre entrants, but She’s Gone Country didn’t rise to the occasion. While Porter gave Shey a juicy family situation–dead schizophrenic brother, depressed son, gay ex-husband–she never really came to life on the page for me. I think it was because she was a model. That made her feel like a clichéd chick lit character, and I had trouble taking her seriously. Also, her love interest being a bullrider just made me giggle more than swoon. Oh well. I’d still try another book of hers, based on the other two I liked, but one more like this one and I’ll write her off as not being for me.
Many thanks to 5 Spot for the review copy.
Synopsis:
MILFs in Brooklyn!
Review:
Amy Sohn is a writer who’s been on my radar since I first moved to New York City in 1995, and it’s like she’s lived the public, more successful version of my life. Her single girl escapades got published in the New York Press; I was an escapading single girl who read the Press every week. She wrote a novel loosely based on her own life that got turned into a movie; I do movie adaptations of books whose writers get all the attention. And now, she’s a freelance writer and mom living in tony Park Slope, Brooklyn, the #1 most livable neighborhood in New York City. I am a freelance writer and mom living in Long Island City, Queens, which ranks an embarrassing #16 (though I do grocery shop and playground hop in Sunnyside, which was the dark horse #3).
Now, having read Prospect Park West, I can finally liberate myself from at least one-half of the Amy Sohn-envy that has tinged my professional life. Success I want, sure–but at least now I have definitive evidence that momming in Queens trumps momming in Brooklyn any day.
My mom friends in Park Slope have confirmed that a lot of Sohn’s scathing mommy wars satire hits it right on the mark. We don’t get near the amount of drama and hilarity on Sunnymoms as they do on Park Slope Parents. We don’t have a sanctimonious food coop (though on is in the planning stages). With only 3 playgrounds, one dominated by weightlifters and drunks, and a smaller total area, it’s a lot easier to make friends in my neighborhood than it is in theirs. Bonus–no celebrities!
The book does go over-the-top. Like any good roman à clef, it’s got enough real life to make it authentic, and then goes completely nuts with sex and booze and drama galore. I loved it!
