Something Like Happy by Eva Woods

 

Book Title: Something Like Happy
Author:  Eva Woods
My Rating: 4/5 stars
Content Rating: R (mostly for a significant strong language in the second half of the book)

What would you do if your were given 100 days to live?

Polly Leonard has recently received such a dire prognosis, and she's decided to do one thing every day for the next 100 days that makes her happy. And she's determined to take Annie Hebden, her new friend (after all, day 1 is make a new friend) along for the ride, whether Annie wants to or not. 

Because Annie isn't currently living her best life. She's at rock bottom, and it doesn't appear that anything will ever get better. Despairing and jaded, Annie tries to refuse the attempts of her new "friend" Polly. But Polly doesn't give up easily, and maybe, for both of them, that's a wonderful and happy blessing indeed. 

This book was just something I needed. It gave me a lot of things to think about. It's so easy to just get in a rut with the day-in and day-out of daily life, and I know I often miss the beautiful moments. And I haven't been the best at creating those moments either.  So at the beginning of this year, our family started the tradition of sharing one happy thing that happened to each of us that day. I know there are so many beautiful blessings in every day I don't even recognize, but I want to! This book just kind of reminded me that I can choose to do and look for those little happy things. 

Content Warning: There are heavy topics in this book, such as death, dementia/alzheimers, infant loss, death of a child, marital infidelity, depression. Also the second half of the book has a lot of strong language. That list sounds depressing, but the book honestly doesn't feel depressing!

Charlotte's Web by E. B. White

 

Book: Charlotte's Web
Author: E. B. White
Reading Level: Middle-grade
My Rating: 4/5 Stars
Content Rating: G

My daughter's 3rd-grade class started reading this, and I realized I've never actually read it! I've seen the cartoon movie (was it made in the 1980s? That's when I watched it!), so I knew the story. But I'd never read the book! So I set about to remedy that.

That cartoon movie follows the book so well that I almost feel as though I HAD read the book. And while reading the book, I couldn't help but hear the movie's songs in my head:

I open up and talk! Talk talk talk talk, I can talk!

The fair is a veritable smorgasbord...

I guess what struck me most with reading this book as an adult was how it deals with the topic of death (quite a bit) for a young audience in a way they can relate to. Death is a hard and heavy subject for most people, but especially for children. I think it's handled well here.

There are other, happier themes in the book too, though. Friendship, of course, and love. I think those themes help balance the heavier topics.

If You Ask Me (And Of Course You Won't) -- Betty White

 

Book: If You Ask Me (And Of Course You Won't)
Author: Betty White
Audiobook performer: Betty White
My Rating: 3.25/5 Stars
Content Rating: PG
Tidbit: Ever optimistic, Betty White, at age 89, shares her thoughts on a variety of topics.

This was a fun, easy read/listen. Betty White shares her thoughts on a variety of topics from animals to death. But she does it with such optimism and humor! Betty White was a classy lady, and listening to this book made me want to read some of her earlier books to learn more about her life, since this one focused mostly on her later years to that point (she wrote this when she was 89). I loved that she seemed full of integrity and believed in hard work as well as treating everyone with respect and not getting a big head over her fame. While there was nothing earth-shattering or terribly new, I just enjoyed the light-hearted listen in the middle of some heavier reading I've been doing.

The Accidental Beauty Queen by Teri Wilson

 

Title: The Accidental Beauty Queen
Author: Teri Wilson
My Rating: 3.75/5 stars
Content Rating: PG
Tidbit: Identical twins pull a swap during a beauty pageant when one of them has an allergic reaction that alters her features in this romantic comedy.

I recently felt I needed something light and fluffy, and The Accidental Beauty Queen definitely delivered! This was a book club pick for my in-person book club, and it was a fun read for February!

Charlotte's identical twin Ginny has been in beauty pageants for a long as they both can remember. This is Ginny's last shot to win the crown for Miss American Treasure before she ages out of the pageant. So when she wakes up early one morning with her face severely swollen from an allergic reaction, her only solution is to have Charlotte, her identical, yet not-so-glamorous twin, compete in her place for the preliminaries. Will Charlotte be able to pull off the switch AND deal with the sparks flying between her and the hottie she met while walking her sister's dog?

It was a fun and easy read. Rather predictable, but it was a rom-com, so I expected that. Charlotte's character is a school librarian with a passion for books, so I enjoyed the bookish references throughout the story. In terms of steaminess, it's definitely clean and has a small bit of mild language. If you enjoyed the movie Miss Congeniality, you'll enjoy this book too.

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On the Banks of Plum Creek -- Laura Ingalls Wilder

After leaving "Indian Territory," the Ingalls family arrives in Minnesota and trades their waggon and team for the dugout home and ox team of a man wanting to head West. Pa has big dreams of the wheat crop they are sure to garner and how wealthy they will be as a result. It is a beautiful beginning for the family as the girls enjoy playing in nearby Plum Creek while Pa begins creating a field for planting wheat and then builds a beautiful home for the family on credit -- which he plans to pay back once he harvests his wheat. The girls even start to school for the first time in their lives.

But soon the family learns what the locals meant when they said the mild Winter was grasshopper weather. Because the week before the wheat is ready to harvest, a plague of grasshoppers fall from the sky and eat every living plant in sight -- including Pa's beautiful wheat. Forced to find work to pay his debts, Pa leaves the family and walks East. Ma and the girls hold down the home-front while Pa is away -- not once, but twice -- and learn how harsh a Minnesota blizzard can be. And they all learn the most important lesson of all: what matters most is family.


***Another great book in the Little House on the Prairie series. I love reading about life from Laura's viewpoint in the 1800s.

The Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times

The East End of London in Post-World War II years was a rough place to be. So Jennifer Worth found out when she went to work at Nonnatus house as a midwife. Respected for her profession, she was never in fear of her surroundings; but she recognized the challenges and hardships around her. The East Enders were a tough lot, because their lives were hard. And as she served them and worked among them, she grew to love many of them. She witnessed miracles as she helped bring new life into the world. She witnessed heartache and sacrifice, forgiveness and joy.


***I LOVED the book. But that didn't surprise me, since I'd already loved the TV show. Some of the stories were/are heart-breaking, particularly for anyone who has ever been a mother (in any way). And some of the stories just warm the heart as well. A lovely memoir well-written and even laugh-out-loud funny at times, this was well worth the read.

Dear Enemy -- Jean Webster

In this sequel to Daddy-Long-Legs, Sallie McBride, college friend of Jerusha (Judy) Abbot, has been requested to become the new superintendent of the John Grier House, the orphanage in which Judy was raised. Though Sallie initially balks at the idea, she eventually decides to try out the position when her beau laughingly tells her she couldn't handle the position. Sallie is nothing if not up to a challenge!

And so Sallie McBride finds herself the superintendent of the orphanage, with charge over 113 children who range in age from babies to 16 years old. With the assistance of money provided by Judy and her husband Jervis (Daddy-Long-Legs), Sallie undertakes to make many improvements at the orphanage, using the stories Judy once shared as a basis for ways to make the home a happier and healthier place for the children who reside there. Also there to assist is Dr. Robin MacRae, the Scotch doctor who rubs her the wrong way from day one -- but whom Judy and Jervis feel sure she would take an instant liking to.

Sallie's intentions are for the position to be temporary. For she is a young woman with a politician beau in Washington, D.C. who is used to the finer things in life and a life of ease. But little by little she finds purpose in her position and the little children wiggle their ways into her heart, making it hard for her to consider leaving. And then there's the doctor...


***Another witty, cute book by Jean Webster. Loved this! Moments of chuckling, just as in Daddy-Long-Legs. Definitely worth the read and look forward to sharing it with my children in the years ahead!

Farmer Boy -- Laura Ingalls Wilder

Almanzo Wilder will one day grow up and marry Laura Ingalls. But for now, he is a farmer's son in New York -- and he loves it! At almost nine years old when the book begins, Almanzo isn't crazy about attending school and would rather be home working on the farm with his father. Throughout the year, he shares the stories of farm life in the 1800s, from hauling wood to growing a milk pumpkin, to planting and harvesting crops to help the family survive through winter. He even shares some of the mischief he gets into when his father is away.


***I enjoyed this book. For me, it was as much informational as a happy little story. It is amazing to me the way life was during this time in history. There is something amazing about the ability to literally live off the land. And while I enjoy my modern conveniences of indoor plumbing and grocery stores with packaged meat (rather than having to cook whole pigs, etc), I always feel inspired by those who went before me and feel they had amazing skills and talents. I also love this book just for the simplicity of the story. I'm looking forward to reading it to my kiddos out loud in the years to come.

Night -- Elie Wiesel

It is 1944 before the lives of the Jews living in Sighet, Transylvania feel the effect of Hitler's plan.  Until then, they'd lived their lives as though nothing was different; as though nothing ever would be.  They believed the war would end before they were impacted.

But they were wrong.

What begins as a sort of lock-down in their own community eventually becomes the horror of evacuation, separation, starvation, desperation, and for some, cremation.  Fifteen year-old Eliezer and his family are among them.  He loses touch with his mother and three sisters shortly after they arrive at Auschwitz, a concentration camp where he Elie witnesses horrors beyond imagination.  His one goal is to not lose his father.  So together they are herded from one camp to another.  They are beaten, abused, forced to watch others murdered, starved, worked to the brink of death and delusion.  Some lose their faith, others hold to it for dear life.  And in the end, none is spared the atrocities of knowing horrors no human should ever need to face.


** Though incredibly hard to read, considering the subject matter, this is a good book.  I felt horrified by some of what is shared.  Though I have long known of some of the torture and abuse which occurred at the concentration camps, there were some things in this book that shocked me; for I had never even considered the possibility of some of the atrocities that actually happened.  Call me naive, I guess.  I just cannot understand what kind of a mind could think to perform some of the hideous acts described.  It was eye-opening on so many levels.  And though there are images I will probably never be able to forget (conjured by my own mind as I read), I am glad I had the opportunity to see things from the perspective Mr. Wiesel.

The Book Thief -- Markus Zusak

It's 1939 and Leisel Meminger is a young girl living in Nazi Germany. She and her brother are traveling with their mother to be left in the care of foster parents Rosa and Hans Hubermann. But Leisel's brother doesn't make it -- he dies on the train and is buried in a town along the way.

And that's when Leisel steals her first book, an act which sets in motion her destiny.

Though at first reluctant to accept her new living arrangements and the loss of all her family, Leisel eventually acclimates and finds her place among the Hubermanns and the other residents of Himmel Street. She finds her best friend in a boy named Rudy who lives next door. And, with the help of her new Papa, she learns to read during midnight reading sessions. Soon Leisel's hunger for words grows, and when, at a book burning to celebrate the Fuhrer's birthday, she spots a book that escaped destruction, she steals it. An act she will perform every time she needs a new book flong or reading.

But life is dangerous in Nazi Germany. Especially if you're a Jew. And, unbeknownst to Leisel, her life is soon to be intertwined with one such Jew. And nothing will ever be the same.


**This was an amazing read. I didn't want to put it down. A beautiful story of love and humanity -- both the goodness within us as well as the cruelty of which we are capable -- this novel had me thinking a lot about events which happened long before I was born, but which changed the world I would come into forever. And this book has certainly changed me as well.         

Voyage on the Great Titanic: the Diary of Margaret Ann Brady, R.M.S. Titanic, 1912 -- Ellen Emerson White

Margaret Ann Brody is a 13 year old orphan in England. She waits patiently for her brother, who has traveled to America, to make enough money to send for her so that she might join him there.

Quite unexpectedly, an opportunity presents itself for Margaret to accompany the wealthy Mrs. Carstairs to America on the brand new R.M.S. Titanic. In return for the fare to travel, Margaret will be responsible to assist Mrs. Carstairs in all her affairs, including dressing and walking her dog Florence.

As Margaret begins this journey, she describes in her journal everything she sees and experiences as she has the chance of a lifetime to travel first class -- a position that winds up being a blessing as she witnesses the tragic sinking of the majestic ocean liner.

Pretties -- Scott Westerfeld

Having returned to New Pretty Town to become pretty and test the cure the New Smokies have found for being pretty-minded, Tally finds all her former dreams coming true by being turned pretty. She lives a life of constant parties and constant fun, and her biggest concern is whether or not she will be admitted into the "coolest" pretty clique known as the Crims.

But then she sees an ugly face from the past -- one of the Smokies -- and her memories from her time in the Smoke return unbidden and unwelcomed. With the help of Zane, the leader of the Crims, she finds the cure left hidden for her by the Smokie, and together she and Zane ingest half of the cure, determined to face a return to non-pretty minds together if the cure works; or to die together if it doesn't.

But as Tally now remembers, the Specials don't look favorably on the non-pretty-minded who do not conform to the standards of the city. And now she and Zane must pretend to be what they no longer are in order to buy enough time to escape New Pretty Town for good.

Uglies -- Scott Westerfeld

Everyone wants to be pretty. And in Tally's society, everyone gets to be. At age 16, everyone in Uglyville undergoes a surgery to turn them pretty -- a term defined over years and by determining the "ideal" look -- and they move into New Pretty Town where life is one big party. Nobody in New Pretty Town is jealous of anyone else, because everyone is pretty and nobody is ugly. And Tally can't wait to be turned pretty and make her move into New Pretty Town where she can join her best friend Peris who turned 16 a few months before she did. But then Tally meets Shay -- another Ugly who shares her same birthday. And Shay doesn't want to be pretty. Shay wants to be herself. And Shay wants to escape to the place called The Smoke, the place of legend where Uglies have run to in order to avoid the surgery to become pretty and where no one is "ugly" because no one is "pretty". When Shay leaves and invites Tally to join her, Tally is confused and frustrated that her new best friend wouldn't want to become pretty, and Tally turns her down. As Tally counts down the few remaining days toward becoming pretty, she misses Shay and their adventures, but she eagerly awaits her reunion with the now-Pretty Peris.

Tally's 16th birthday, which should have brought the coveted surgery, instead brings a thing of dread. Tally is transported to Special Circumstances and given her worst fate: a lifetime of ugly if she doesn't travel to The Smoke and betray Shay. With her life-long dream on the line, Tally determines to bring Shay back to Uglyville so that she can be turned pretty, but when she reaches The Smoke, she learns that her whole life back in the city has been full of half-truths and deceit. And she learns horrible truths about what all the surgery entails, and what all is changed on the people who become pretty. And she no longer knows if she wants to become pretty, because with the help of her new friend David, she realizes that, maybe, she already is.